To have the
government
in himself is no of
?
?
Edmund Burke
but what says Mr.
Hastings?
" A bad
system was made to my hands; I had nothing to do
in making it. I was altogether an involuntary instrument, and obliged to. execute every evil which
that system contained. " This: is the line of conduct
your Lordships are calledto decide upon. And I
must here again remind you that we. are at an issue
of law. Mr. Hastings has avowed a certain set of
principles upon which le acts; and your Lordships
are therefore to judge whether his acts are justifiable because he found an evil system to act upon, or whether he and all governors upon earth have not a
general good system upon which they ought to act.
The prisoner. tells you, my Lords, that it was in
consequence of this evil system, that the Nabob, from
being a powerful prince, became reduced to a wretched dependant on the Company. ,. and subject to all the.
? ? ? ? ,SPEECH IN- REPLY. - FOURTH DAY. 379
evils of that degraded state, - subject to extortion,
to indignityto o: oppression. All these your Lordships
are called upon to sanction; and because they may
be connected with all existing system, you are to declare them to be an allowable: part of a code for the
government of British India.
In the year 1775, that powerful, magnificent, and
illustrious prince, Sujah Dowlah, died in possession of
the country of Oude. He had long governed a happy
and contented people, and, if we except the portion
of tyranny which we admit he really did exercise towards some few individuals who resisted his power,
he was a wise and beneficent governor. This prince
died in the midst of his power and fortune, leaving
somewhere about fourscore children. Your Lordships know that the princes of the East have a great
number of wives; and we know that these women,
though reputed of a secondary rank, are yet of a
very high degree, and honorably maintained according to the customs of the East. Sujah Dowlah had
but one lawful wife: he had by her but one lawful
child, Asoph ul Dowlah. He had about twenty-one
male children, the eldest of whom was a person
whom you have heard of very often in these proceedings, called Saadut Ali. Asoph ul Dowlah, being the
sole legitimate son, had all the pretensions to succeed
his father, as Subahdar of Oude, which could belong
to any person under the Mogul government.
Your Lordships will distinguish between a Zemindar, who is a perpetual landholder, the hereditary proprietor of an estate, and a Subahdar, who derives from his master's will and pleasure all his employments,
and who, instead of having the jaghiredars subject
to his supposed arbitrary will, is himself a subject,
? ? ? ? '380 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and, must have his sovereign's patent fori his place.
Therefore, strictly and properly speaking, there is no
succession in the office of Subahdar. ' At this time the
Company, who alone could obtain the sunnuds [sunnud? ], or patent, from the Great Mogul, upon account
of the power they possessed in India, thought, and
thought rightly, that with an officer who had no hereditary power there could-be no hereditary engagements, - and that in their treaty with Asoph ul Dowlah, for whom they had procured the sunnud from the Great Mogul, they were at liberty to propose their own
terms, which, if honorable and mutually advantageous
to the new Subahdar and to the Company, they had
a right to insist upon. A treaty was therefore concluded between the Company and Asoph ul Dowlah,
in which the fatter stipulated to pay a fixed subsidy
for the maintenance of a certain number of troops, by
which the' Company's finances were greatly relieved
and their military strength greatly increased.
This treaty did not contain one word which could
justify any interference in the Nabob's government.
That evil system, as Mr. Hastings calls it, is not even
mentioned or alluded to; nor is there, I again say,
one word which authorized Warren Hastings, or any
other person whatever, to interfere in the interior
affairs of his country. He was legally constituted
Viceroy of Oude; his dignity of Vizier of the Empire, with all the power which that office gave him,
derived from and held under the Mogul government,
he legally possessed; and this evil system, which Mr.
Hastings says led him to commit the enormities of
which you shall hear by-and-by, was neither more
nor less than what I have now stated.
But, my Lords, the prisoner thinks, that, when,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. --FOURTH DAY. 381
under any pretence, any sort of means could be furnished of interfering in the government of the country, he has a right to avail himself of them, to use them at his pleasure, and to govern by his own arbitrary will. The Vizier, he says, by this treaty was
reduced to a state of vassalage; and he makes this
curious distinction in proof of it. It was, he says, an
optional vassalage: for, if he chose to get rid of our
troops, he might do so and be free; if he had not a
mind to do that, and found a benefit in it, then lie
was a vassal. But there is nothing less true. Here
is a person who keeps a subsidiary body of your
troops, which he is to pay for you; and in consequence of this Mr. Hastings maintains that he
becomes a vassal. I shall not dispute whether vassalage is optional or by force, or in what way Mr.
Hastings considered this prince as a vassal of the
Company. Let it be as he pleased. I only think it
necessary that your Lordships should truly know the
actual state of that country, and the ground upon
which Mr. Hastings stood. Your Lordships will find
it a fairy land; in which there is a perpetual masquerade, where no one thing appears as it really is,
where the person who seems to have the authority
is a slave, while the person who seems to be the slave
has the authority. In that ambiguous government
everything favors fraud, everything favors peculation,
everything favors violence, everything favors concealment. You will therefore permit me to show to you
what were the principles upon which Mr. Hastings
appears, according to the evidence before you, to have
acted, - what the state of the country was, according
to his conceptions of it; and then you will see how
he applied those principles to that state.
? ? ? ? 382 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
"The means by which our government acquired
this influence," says Mr. Hastings, "and its right
to exercise it, will require a previous explanation. "
He then proceeds,-" With his death [Sujall Dowlah's] a new political system commenced, and Mr. Bristow was constituted the instrument of its formation, and the trustee for the management of it. The Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah was deprived of a large part
of his inheritance, - I mean the province of Benares,
attached by a very feeble and precarious tenure to
our dominions; the army fixed to a permanent station in a remote line of his frontier, with an augmented and perpetual subsidy; a new army, amphlibiously composed of troops in his service and pay, commanded by English officers of our own nomination, for the:defence of his new conquests; and his
own natural troops annihilated, or alienated by the
insufficiency of his revenue for all his disbursements,
and the prior claims of those which our authority
or influence commanded: in a word, he became a
vassal of the government; but he still possessed an
ostensible sovereignty. His titular'rank of Vizier
of the Empire rendered him- a conspicuous object of
view to all the states and chiefs of India; and on the
moderation and justice with which the British government in Bengal exercised its influence over him
many points most essential to its political strength
and to the honor of the British name depended. "
Your Lordships see that the system which is supposed to have reduced him to vassalage did not make,
as he contends, a violent exercise of our power necessary or proper; but possessing, as the Nabob did,
that high nominal dignity, and being in that state of
vassalage, as Mr. Hastings thought proper to term it,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 383
though there is no vassalage mentioned in the treaty, -being, I say, in that situation of honor, credit,
and character, sovereign of a country as large as
England, yieldingan immense revenue, and flourishing in trade, certainly our honor depended upon the
use we made of that influence which our power gave
us over him; and we therefore press it upon your
Lordships, that the conduct of Mr. Hastings was such
as dishonored this nation.
He proceeds, --" This is not a place, nor have I
room in it, to prove, what I shall here content myself
with affirming, that, by a sacred and undeviating observance of every principle of public faith, the British dominion might have by this time acquired the
means of its extension, through a virtual submission
to its authority, to every region of Hindostan and
Deccan. I am not sure that I should advise such a
design, were it practicable, which at this time it certainly is not; and I very much fear that the limited
formation of such equal alliances as might be useful
to our present condition, and conduce to its improvement, is become liable to almost insurmountable difficulties:: every power in India must wish for the support of ours, but they all dread the connection. The subjection of Bengal, and the deprivation of the family of Jaffier Ali Khan, though an effect of inevitable necessity, the present usurpations of the rights
of the Nabob Wallau Jau in the Carnatic, and the licentious violations of the treaty existing between the
Company and the Nabob Nizam ul Dowlah, though
checked by the remedial interposition of this government, stand as terrible precedents against us; the
effects of our connection with the Nabob Asoph ul
Dowlah had a rapid tendency to the -same conse
? ? ? ? 384 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
quences, and it has been my invariable study to prevent it. "
Your Lordships will remember that the counsel at
the bar have said that they undertook the defence of
Warren Hastings, not in order to defend him, but to
rescue the British character from the imputations
which have been laid upon it by the Commons of
Great Britain. They have said that the Commons of
Great Britain have slandered their country, and have
misrepresented its character; while, on the contrary, the'servants of the Company have sustained and
maintained the dignity of the English character, have
kept its public faith inviolate, preserved the people
from oppression, reconciled every government to it in
India, and have made every person under it prosperous and happy.
My Lords, you see what this man says himself,. when endeavoring to prove his own innocence. Instead of proving it by the facts alleged by his counsel, he declares that by preserving good faith you might have conquered India, the most glorious corn-. quest that was ever made in the world; that all
the people want our assistance, but dread our connection. Why? Because our whole conduct has
been one perpetual tissue of perfidy and breach of. faith with every person who has been in alliance
with us, in any mode whatever. Here is the man
himself who says it. Can we bear that this man
should now stand up in this place as the assertor
of the honor of the British nation against us, who
charge this dishonor to have fallen upon us by him,
through him, and during his government?
But all the mischief, he goes on to assert, was
in the previous system, in the formation of which
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 380
he had no share,- the system of 1775, when the
first treaty with the Nabob was made. "That system," says he,'is not mine; it was made by General
Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis. " So
it was, my Lords. It did them' very great honor,
and I believe it ever will do them honor, in the
eyes of the British nation, that they took an opportunity, without the violation of faith, without the
breach of any one treaty, and without injury to any
person, to do great and eminent services to the
Company. But Mr. Hastings disclaims it,'unnecessarily disclaims it, for no one charges him with it.
What we charge him with is the abuse of that
system. To one of these abuses I will now call
your Lordships' attention. Finding, soon after his
appointment to the office of Governor-General, that
the Nabob was likely to get into debt, he turns him
into a vassal, and resolves to treat him as such. You
will observe that this is not the only instance in
which, upon a failure of payment, the defaulter becomes directly a vassal. You remember how Durbege Sing, the moment he fell into an arrear of tribute, became a vassal, and was thrown into prisoni, without any inquiry into the causes which occasioned that arrear. With respect to the Nabob of Oude, we assert, and canl prove, that his revenue
was 3,600,0001. at the day of his father's death;
and if the revenue fell off afterwards, there was
abundant reason to believe that he possessed in
abundance the means of paying the Company every
farthing.
Before I quit this subject, your Lordships will
again permit me to reprobate the malicious insinuations by which Mr. Hastings has thought proper to
VOL. XI. 25
? ? ? ? 386 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
slander the virtuous persons who are the authors
of that system which he complains of. They are
men whose characters this country will ever respect,
honor, and revere, both the living and the dead,the dead for the living, and the living for the dead. They will altogether be revered for a conduct honorable and glorious to Great Britain, whilst their names stand as they now do, unspotted by the least
imputation of oppression, breach of faith, perjury,
bribery, or any other fraud whatever. I know there
was a faction formed against them upon that very
account. Be corrupt, you have friends; stem the
torrent of corruption, you open a thousand'venal
mouths against you. Men resolved to do their duty
must be content to suffer such opprobrium, and I
am content; in the name of the living and of the
dead, and in the name of the Commons, I glory in
our having appointed some good servants at least
to India.
But to proceed. " This system was not," says he,
" of my making. " You would, then, naturally imagine that the persons who made this abominable system had also made some tyrannous use of it. Let
us see what use they made of it during the time
of their majority in the Council. There was an
arrear of subsidy due from the Nabob. How it
came into arrear we shall consider hereafter. The
Nabob prtoposed to pay it by taxing the jaghires
of his family, and taking some money from the
Begum. This was consented to by Mr. Bristow, at
that time Resident for the Company in Oude; and
to this arrangement Asoph ul Dowlah and his advisers lent a willing ear. What did Mr. Hastings then say of this transaction? He called it a violent
? ? ? ? SI EECH IN REPLY. - FOURTH DAY. 387
assumption of power on the part of the Council.
He did not, you see, then allow that a bad system
justified any persons whatever in an abuse of it.
He contended that it was a violent attack upon the
rights and property of the parties from whom the
money was to be taken, that it had no ground or
foundation in justice whatever, and that it was contrary to every principle of right and equity.
Your Lordships will please to bear in mind, that
afterwards, by his own consent, and the consent of
the rest of the Council, this business was compromised between the son, the mother, and their relations. A very great sum of money, which was most useful to the Company at that period, was
raised by a family compact and arrangement among
themselves. This proceeding was sanctioned by the
Company, Mr. Hastings himself consenting; and a
pledge was given to the Begums and family of the
Nabob, that this should be the last demand made upon them, that it should be considered, not as taken
compulsively, but as a friendly and amicable donation. They never admitted, nor did the Nabob ever
contend, that he had any right at all to take this
money from them. At that time it was not Mr.
Hastings's opinion that the badness of the system
would justify any violence as a consequence of it;
and when the advancement of the money was agreed
to between the parties, as a family and amicable
compact, he was as ready as anybody to propose and
sanction a regular treaty between the parties, that
all claims on one side and all kind of uneasiness on
the other should cease forever, under the guardianship of British faith.
Mr. Hastings, as your Lordships remember, has
? ? ? ? 388 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
conceded that British faith is the support of the
British empire; that, if that empire is to be maintained, it is to be maintained by good faith; that, if
it is to be propagated, it is to be propagated by public
faith; and that, if the British empire falls, it will be
through perfidy and violence. These are the principles which he assumes, when he chooses to reproach others. But when he has to defend his own perfidy
and breaches of faith, then, as your Lordships will
find set forth in his defence before the House of
Commons on the Benares charge, he denies, or at
least questions, the validity of any treaty that can
at present be made with India. He declares that he
considers all treaties as being weakened by a considerable degree of doubt respecting their validity and their binding force, in such a state of things as exists
in India.
Whatever was done, during that period of time to
which I have alluded, by the majority of the Council,
Mr. Hastings considered himself as having nothing
to do with, on the plea of his being a dissentient
member: a principle which, like other principles, I
shall take some notice of by-and-by. Colonel Monson
and General Clavering died soon after, and Mr. Hastings obtained a majority in the Council, and was then, as he calls it, restored to his authority; so that
any evil that could be done by evil men under that
evil system could have lasted but for a very short
time indeed. From that moment, Mr. Hastings, in
my opinion, became responsible for every act done in
Council, while he was there, which he did not resist,
and for every engagement which he did not oppose.
For your Lordships will not bear that miserable jargon which you have heard, shameful to office and to
? ? ? ? . 'SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 389
official authority, that a man, when he happens not
to find himself in a majority upon ally measure, may
think himself excusable for the total neglect of his
duty; that in such a situation he is not bound to
propose anything that it might be proper to propose,
or to resist anything that it might be proper to resist.
What would be the inference from such an assumption? That he can never act in a commission; that,
unless a man has the supreme power, he is not responsible for anything he does or neglects to do.
This is another principle which your Lordships will
see constantly asserted and constantly referred to by
Mr. Hastings. Now I do contend, that, notwithstanding his having been in a minority, if there was
anything to be done that could prevent oppressive
consequences, he was bound to do that thing; and
that he was bound to propose every possible remedial
measure. This proud, rebellious proposition against
the law, that any one individual in the Council may
say that he is responsible for nothing, because he is
not the whole Council, calls for your Lordships'
strongest reprobation.
I must now beg leave to observe to you, that the
treaty was made (and I wish your Lordships to advert to dates) in the year 1775; Mr. Hastings acquired the majority in something more than a year
afterwards; and therefore, supposing the acts of the
former majority to have been ever so iniquitous, their
power lasted but a short time. From the year 1776
to 1784 Mr. Hastings had the whole government of
Oude in himself, by having the majority in the Council. My Lords, it is no offence that a Governor-General, or anybody else, has the majority in the Council.
To have the government in himself is no of
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fence. Neither was it any offence, if you please, that
the Nabob was virtually a vassal to the Company, as
he contends he was. For the question is not, what
a Governor-General may do, but what Warren Hastings did do. He who has a majority in Council, and
records his own acts there, may justify these acts
as legal: I mean the mode is legal. But as he executes whatever he proposes as Governor-General, he
is solely responsible for the nature of the acts themselves.
I shall now show your Lordships that MIr. Hastings, finding, as he states; the Nabob to be made by
the treaty in 1775 eventually a vassal to the Company, has thought proper to make him a vassal to himself, for his own private purposes. Your Lordships will see what corrupt and iniquitous purposes they
were. In the first place, in order to annihilate in
effect the Council, and to take wholly from them
their control ill the affairs of Oude, he suppressed
(your Lordships will find the fact proved in your
minutes) the Persian correspondence, which was the
whole correspondence of Oude. This whole correspondence was secreted by him, and kept from the
Council. It was never communicated to the Persian
translator of the Company, Mr. Colebrooke, who had
a salary for executing that office. It was secreted,
and kept in the private cabinet of Mr. Hastings;
from the period of 1781 to 1785 no part of it was
commuunicated to the Council. There is nothing, as
your Lordships have often found in this trial, that
speaks for the man like himself; there is nothing
will speak for his conduct like the records of the
Company.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. FOURTH DAY. 391
"Fort Wi'lliam, 19th February, 1785.
" At a Council: present, the Honorable John Macpherson, Esquire, Governor-General, President, and
John Stables, Esquire.
" The Persian Translator, attending in obedience to
the Board's orders, reports, that, since the end of the
year 1781, there have been no books of correspondence kept in his office, because, from that time until the late Governor-General's departure, he was employed but once by the Governor-General to manage the correspondence, during a short visit which Major
Davy, the military Persian interpreter, paid by the
Governor's order to Lucknow; that, during that
whole period of three years, he remained entirely ignorant of the correspondence, as he was applied to onil no occasion, except for a few papers sometimes
sent to him by the secretaries, which he always returned to them as soon as translated.
"The Persian Translator has received from Mr.
Scott, since the. late Governor-General's departure, a
trunk containing English draughts and translations
and the Persian originals of letters and papers, with
three books in the Persian language containing copies
of letters written between August, 1782, and January,
1785; and if thle Board should please to order the
secretaries of the general department to furnish him
with copies of all translations and draughts recorded
in their Consultations between the 1st of January,
1782, and the 31st of January, 1785, he thinks that
he should be able, with what he has found in Captain
Scott's trunk, to make up the correspondence for that
period.
(Signed) "EDWARD COLEBROOKE,
" Persian Translator. "
? ? ? ? 392 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Hear, then, my Lords, what becomes of the records
of the Company, which were to be the vouchers for
every public act, -which were to show whether, in the
Company's transactions, agreements, and treaties with
the native powers, the public faith was kept or not.
You see them all crammed into Mr. Scott's trunk: a
trunk into which they put what they please, take out
what they please, suppress whatthey please, or thrust
in whatever will answer their purpose. The records
of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal are
kept in Captain Jonathan Scott's trunk; this trunk
is to be considered as the real and true channel of
intelligence between the Company and the country
powers. But even this channel was not open to any
member of the Council, except Mr. Hastings; and
when the Council, for the first time, daring to think
for themselves, call upon the Persian Translator, he
knows nothing about it. We find that it is given
into the hands of a person nominated by Mr. Hastings,-Major Davy. What do the Company know of him? Why, he was Mr. Hastings's private secretary.
In this manner the Council have been annihilated
during all these transactions, and have no other
knowledge of them than just what Mr. Hastings and
his trunk-keeper thought proper to give them. All,
then, that we know of these transactions is from the
miserable, imperfect, garbled correspondence.
But even if these papers contained a full and faithful account of the correspondence, what we charge is its not being delivered to the Council as it occurred
from time to time. Mr. Hastings kept the whole
government of Oude in his own hands; so that the
Council had no power of judging his acts, of check-.
ing, controlling, advising, or remonstrating. It was
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 393
totally annihilated by him; and we charge, as an act
of treason and rebellion against the act of Parliament
by which he held his office, his depriving the Council
of their legitimate authority, by shutting them out
from the knowledge of all affairs, - except, indeed,
when he thought it expedient, for his own justification, to have their nominal concurrence or subsequent acquiescence in any of his more violent measures.
Your Lordships see Mr. Hastings's system, a system
of concealment, a system of turning the vassals of the
Company into his own vassals, to make them contributory, not to the Company, but to himself. He has avowed this system in Benares; he has avowed it in
Oude. It was his constant practice. Your Lordships see in Oude he kept a correspondence with Mr. Markham for years, and did alone all the material
acts which ought to have been done in Council. He
delegated a power to Mr. Markham which he had not
to delegate; and you will see he has done the same
in every part of India.
We first charge him not only with acting without
authority, but with a strong presumption, founded on
his concealment, of intending to act mischievously.
We next charge his concealing and withdrawing correspondence, as being directly contrary to the orders of the Court of Directors, the practice of his office,
and the very nature and existence of the Council in
which he was appointed to preside. We charge this
as a substantive crime, and as the forerunner of the
oppression, desolation, and ruin of that miserable
country.
Mr. Hastings having thus rendered the Council
blind and ignorant, and consequently fit for subserviency, what does he next do? I am speaking, not with
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
regard to the time of his particular acts, but with
regard to the general spirit of the proceedings. He
next flies in the face of the Company upon the same
principle on which he removed Mr. Fowke from Benares. "I removed him on political grounds," says
he, "against the orders of the Court of Directors,
because I thought it necessary that the Resident
should be a man of my own nomination and confidence. " At Oude he proceeds on the same principle. Mr. Bristow had been nominated to the office of Resident by the Court of Directors. Mr. Hastings,
by an act of Parliament, was ordered to obey the
Court of Directors. He positively refuses to receive
Mr. Bristow, for no other reason that we know of but
because he was nominated by the Court of Directors;
he defies the Court, and declares in effect that they
shall not govern that province, but that he will govern it by a Resident of his own.
Your Lordships will mark his progress in the
establishment of that new system, which, he says,
he had been obliged to adopt by the evil system of
his predecessors. First, he annihilates'the Comuncil,
formed by an act of Parliament, and by order of the
Court of Directors. In the second place, he defies the
order of the Court, who had the undoubted nomination of all their own servants, and who ordered him,
under the severest injunction, to appoint Mr. Bristow
to the office of Resident in Oude. He for some time
refused to nominate Mr. Bristow to that office; and
even when he was forced, against his will, to permit
him for a while to be there, he sent Mr. Middleton
and Mr. Johnson, who annihilated Mr. Bristow's authority so completely that no one public act passed
through his hands.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. FOURTH DAY. 395
After he had ended this conflict with the Directors,
and had entirely shook off their authority, he resolved
that the native powers should know that they were
not to look to the Court of Directors, but to look to
his arbitrary will in all things; and therefore, to the
astonishment of the world, and as if it were designedly to expose the nakedness of the Parliament of Great Britain, to expose the nakedness of the laws
of Great Britain, and the nakedness of the authority
of the Court of Directors to the country powers, he
wrote a letter, which your Lordships will find in page
795 of the printed Minutes. In this letter the secret
of his government is discovered to the country powers. They are given to understand, that, whatever exaction, whatever oppression or ruin they may suffer,
they are to look nowhere for relief but to him: not
to the Council, not to the Court of Directors, not to
the sovereign authority of Great Britain, but to him,
and him only.
Before we proceed to this letter, we will first read
to you the Minute of Council by which he dismissed
Mr. Bristow upon a former occasion, (it is in page
507 of the printed Minutes,) that your Lordships may
see his audacious defiance of the laws of the country.
We wish,'I say, before we show you the horrible and
fatal effects of this his defiance, to impress continually upon your Lordships' minds that this man is to be tried by the laws of the country, and that it is not
in his power to annihilate their authority and the
authority of his masters. We insist upon it, that
every man under the authority of this country is
bound to obey its laws. This minute relates to his
first removal of Mr. Bristow: I read it in order to
show that he dared to defy the Court of Directors so
early as the year 1776.
? ? ? ? 396 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
"Resolved, That Mr. John Bristow be recalled to
the Presidency from the court of the Nabob of Oude,
and that Mr. Nathaniel Middleton be restored to the
appointment of Resident at that court, subject to the
orders and authority of the Governor-General and
Council, conformably to the motion of the GovernorGeneral. "
I will next read to your Lordships the orders of the
Directors for his reinstatement, on the 4th of July,
1777.
* "Upon the most careful perusal of your proceedings upon the 2d of December, 1776, relative to the recall of Mr. Bristow from the court of the Nabob of
Oude, and the appointment of Mr. Nathaniel Middleton to that station, we must declare our strongest disapprobation of the whole of that transaction. We
observe that the Governor-General's motion for the
recall of Mr. Bristow includes that for the restoration
of Mr. Nathaniel Middleton; but as neither of those
measures appear to us necessary, or even justifiable,
they cannot receive our approbation. With respect
to Mr. Bristow, we find no shadow of cliarge against
him. It appears that he has executed his trust to
the entire satisfaction even of those members of the
Council who did not concur in his appointment. You
have unanimously recommended him to our notice;
attention to your recommendation has induced us to
afford him marks of our favor, and to reannex the
emoluments affixed by you to his appointment, which
had been discontinued by our order; and as we must
be of opinion that a person of acknowledged abilities,
whose conduct has thus gained him the esteem of his
superiors, ought not to be degraded without just
cause, we do not hesitate to interpose in his behalf,
? ? ? ? SFEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 397
and therefore direct that Mr. Bristow do forthwith
return to his station of Resident at Oude, from which
he has been so improperly removed. "
Upon the receipt of these orders by. the Council,
Mr. Francis, then a member of the Council, moves,
"That, in obedience to the Company's orders, Mr.
Bristow be forthwith appointed and directed to return to his station of Resident at Oude, and that Mr. Purling be ordered to deliver over charge of the
office to Mr. Bristow immediately on his arrival, and
return himself forthwith to the Presidency; also that
the Governor-General be requested to furnish Mr.
Bristow with the usual letter of credence to the Nabob
Vizier. "
Upon this motion being made, Mr. Hastings entered the following minute.
" I will ask, who is Mr. Bristow, that a member of
the administration should at such a time hold him
forth as an instrument for the degradation of the first
executive member of this government? What are the
professed objects of his appointment? What are the
merits and services, or what the qualifications, which
entitle him to such an uncommon distinction? Is it
for his superior integrity, or from his eminent abilities,
that he is to be dignified, at such hazards of every
consideration that ought to influence members of this
administration? Of the former I know no proofs; I
am sure that it is not an evidence of it, that he has
been enabled to make himself the principal in such a
competition; and for the test of his abilities, I appeal
to the letter which he has dared to write to this board,
and which, I am ashamed to say, we have suffered. I
desire that a copy of it may be inserted in this day's
proceedings, that it may stand before the eyes of every
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
member of the board, when he shall give his vote
upon a question for giving their confidence to a man,
their servant, who has publicly insulted them, his
masters, and the members of the government, to
whom he owes his obedience; who, assuming an association with the Court of Directors, and erecting himself into a tribunal, has arraigned them for disobedience of orders, passed judgment upon them, and condemned or acquitted them as their magistrate and
superior. Let the board consider whether a man possessed of so independent a spirit, who has already shown such a contempt of their authority, who has
shown himself so wretched an advocate for his own
cause and negotiator for his own interest, is fit to be
trusted with the guardianship of their honor, the execution of their measures, and as their confidential manager and negotiator with the princes of India. "
- My Lords, you here see an instance of what I have
before stated to your Lordships, and what I shall
take the liberty. of recommending to your constant
consideration. You see that a tyrant and a rebel is
one and the same thing. You see this man, at the
very time that he is a direct rebel to the Company,
arbitrarily and tyrannically displacing Mr. Bristow,
although he had previously joined in the approbation
of his conduct, and in voting him a pecuniary reward. He is ordered by the Court. of Directors to
restore that person, who desires, in a suppliant, decent, proper tone, that the Company's orders should produce their effect, and that the Council would have
the goodness to restore him to his situation.
My Lords, you have seen the audacious, insolence,
the tyrannical pride, with which he dares to treat this
order. You have seen the recorded minute which
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 399
he has dared to send to the Court of Directors; and
in this you see, that, when he cannot directly asperse
a man's conduct, and has nothing to say against it, he
maliciously, I should perhaps rather say enviously,
insinuates that he had unjustly made his fortune.
" You are," says he, "to judge from the independence of his manner and style, whether he could or
no have got that without some unjust means. " God
forbid I should ever be able to invent anything that
can equal the impudence of what this man dares to
write to his superiors, or the insolent style in which
he dares to treat persons who are not his servants!
Who made the servants of the Company the master of the servants of the Company? The Court of. Directors are their fellow-servants; they are all the servants of this kingdom. Still the claim of a fellowservant to hold an office which the Court of Directors
had legally appointed him to is considered by this
audacious tyrant as an insult to him. By this you
may judge how he treats not only the servants of the
Company, but the natives of the country, and by
what means he has brought them into that abject
state of servitude in which they are ready to do anything he wishes and to sign anything he dictates. I
must again beg your Lordships to remark what this'
man has had the folly and impudence to place upon
the records of the Council of which he was President; and I will venture to assert that so extraordinary a performance never before appeared on the records of any court, Eastern or European. Because
Mr. Bristow claims an office which is his right and
his freehold as long as the Company chooses, Mr.
Hastings accuses him of being an accomplice with the
Court of Directors in a conspiracy against him; and
? ? ? ? 400 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
because, after long delays, he had presented an humble petition to have -the Court of Directors' orders in his favor carried into execution, he says " he has
erected himself into a tribunal of justice; that he
has arraigned the Council for disobedience of orders,
passed judgment upon them, and condemned or acquitted them as their magistrate and superior. "
Let us suppose his Majesty to have been pleased to
appoint any one to an office in the gift of the crown,
what should we think of the person whose business
it was to execute the King's commands, if he should
say to the person appointed, when he claimed his
office, "You shall not have it, you assume to be
my superior, and you disgrace and dishonor me"?
Good God! my Lords, where was this language
learned? in what country, and in what barbarous nation of Hottentots was this jargon picked up? For there is no Eastern court that I ever heard of (and I
believe I have been as conversant with the manners
and customs of the East as most persons whose business has not directly led them into that country) where such condwuct would have been tolerated. A
bashaw, if he should be ordered by the Grand Seignior
to invest another with his office, puts the letter upon his head, and obedience immediately follows.
system was made to my hands; I had nothing to do
in making it. I was altogether an involuntary instrument, and obliged to. execute every evil which
that system contained. " This: is the line of conduct
your Lordships are calledto decide upon. And I
must here again remind you that we. are at an issue
of law. Mr. Hastings has avowed a certain set of
principles upon which le acts; and your Lordships
are therefore to judge whether his acts are justifiable because he found an evil system to act upon, or whether he and all governors upon earth have not a
general good system upon which they ought to act.
The prisoner. tells you, my Lords, that it was in
consequence of this evil system, that the Nabob, from
being a powerful prince, became reduced to a wretched dependant on the Company. ,. and subject to all the.
? ? ? ? ,SPEECH IN- REPLY. - FOURTH DAY. 379
evils of that degraded state, - subject to extortion,
to indignityto o: oppression. All these your Lordships
are called upon to sanction; and because they may
be connected with all existing system, you are to declare them to be an allowable: part of a code for the
government of British India.
In the year 1775, that powerful, magnificent, and
illustrious prince, Sujah Dowlah, died in possession of
the country of Oude. He had long governed a happy
and contented people, and, if we except the portion
of tyranny which we admit he really did exercise towards some few individuals who resisted his power,
he was a wise and beneficent governor. This prince
died in the midst of his power and fortune, leaving
somewhere about fourscore children. Your Lordships know that the princes of the East have a great
number of wives; and we know that these women,
though reputed of a secondary rank, are yet of a
very high degree, and honorably maintained according to the customs of the East. Sujah Dowlah had
but one lawful wife: he had by her but one lawful
child, Asoph ul Dowlah. He had about twenty-one
male children, the eldest of whom was a person
whom you have heard of very often in these proceedings, called Saadut Ali. Asoph ul Dowlah, being the
sole legitimate son, had all the pretensions to succeed
his father, as Subahdar of Oude, which could belong
to any person under the Mogul government.
Your Lordships will distinguish between a Zemindar, who is a perpetual landholder, the hereditary proprietor of an estate, and a Subahdar, who derives from his master's will and pleasure all his employments,
and who, instead of having the jaghiredars subject
to his supposed arbitrary will, is himself a subject,
? ? ? ? '380 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and, must have his sovereign's patent fori his place.
Therefore, strictly and properly speaking, there is no
succession in the office of Subahdar. ' At this time the
Company, who alone could obtain the sunnuds [sunnud? ], or patent, from the Great Mogul, upon account
of the power they possessed in India, thought, and
thought rightly, that with an officer who had no hereditary power there could-be no hereditary engagements, - and that in their treaty with Asoph ul Dowlah, for whom they had procured the sunnud from the Great Mogul, they were at liberty to propose their own
terms, which, if honorable and mutually advantageous
to the new Subahdar and to the Company, they had
a right to insist upon. A treaty was therefore concluded between the Company and Asoph ul Dowlah,
in which the fatter stipulated to pay a fixed subsidy
for the maintenance of a certain number of troops, by
which the' Company's finances were greatly relieved
and their military strength greatly increased.
This treaty did not contain one word which could
justify any interference in the Nabob's government.
That evil system, as Mr. Hastings calls it, is not even
mentioned or alluded to; nor is there, I again say,
one word which authorized Warren Hastings, or any
other person whatever, to interfere in the interior
affairs of his country. He was legally constituted
Viceroy of Oude; his dignity of Vizier of the Empire, with all the power which that office gave him,
derived from and held under the Mogul government,
he legally possessed; and this evil system, which Mr.
Hastings says led him to commit the enormities of
which you shall hear by-and-by, was neither more
nor less than what I have now stated.
But, my Lords, the prisoner thinks, that, when,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. --FOURTH DAY. 381
under any pretence, any sort of means could be furnished of interfering in the government of the country, he has a right to avail himself of them, to use them at his pleasure, and to govern by his own arbitrary will. The Vizier, he says, by this treaty was
reduced to a state of vassalage; and he makes this
curious distinction in proof of it. It was, he says, an
optional vassalage: for, if he chose to get rid of our
troops, he might do so and be free; if he had not a
mind to do that, and found a benefit in it, then lie
was a vassal. But there is nothing less true. Here
is a person who keeps a subsidiary body of your
troops, which he is to pay for you; and in consequence of this Mr. Hastings maintains that he
becomes a vassal. I shall not dispute whether vassalage is optional or by force, or in what way Mr.
Hastings considered this prince as a vassal of the
Company. Let it be as he pleased. I only think it
necessary that your Lordships should truly know the
actual state of that country, and the ground upon
which Mr. Hastings stood. Your Lordships will find
it a fairy land; in which there is a perpetual masquerade, where no one thing appears as it really is,
where the person who seems to have the authority
is a slave, while the person who seems to be the slave
has the authority. In that ambiguous government
everything favors fraud, everything favors peculation,
everything favors violence, everything favors concealment. You will therefore permit me to show to you
what were the principles upon which Mr. Hastings
appears, according to the evidence before you, to have
acted, - what the state of the country was, according
to his conceptions of it; and then you will see how
he applied those principles to that state.
? ? ? ? 382 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
"The means by which our government acquired
this influence," says Mr. Hastings, "and its right
to exercise it, will require a previous explanation. "
He then proceeds,-" With his death [Sujall Dowlah's] a new political system commenced, and Mr. Bristow was constituted the instrument of its formation, and the trustee for the management of it. The Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah was deprived of a large part
of his inheritance, - I mean the province of Benares,
attached by a very feeble and precarious tenure to
our dominions; the army fixed to a permanent station in a remote line of his frontier, with an augmented and perpetual subsidy; a new army, amphlibiously composed of troops in his service and pay, commanded by English officers of our own nomination, for the:defence of his new conquests; and his
own natural troops annihilated, or alienated by the
insufficiency of his revenue for all his disbursements,
and the prior claims of those which our authority
or influence commanded: in a word, he became a
vassal of the government; but he still possessed an
ostensible sovereignty. His titular'rank of Vizier
of the Empire rendered him- a conspicuous object of
view to all the states and chiefs of India; and on the
moderation and justice with which the British government in Bengal exercised its influence over him
many points most essential to its political strength
and to the honor of the British name depended. "
Your Lordships see that the system which is supposed to have reduced him to vassalage did not make,
as he contends, a violent exercise of our power necessary or proper; but possessing, as the Nabob did,
that high nominal dignity, and being in that state of
vassalage, as Mr. Hastings thought proper to term it,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 383
though there is no vassalage mentioned in the treaty, -being, I say, in that situation of honor, credit,
and character, sovereign of a country as large as
England, yieldingan immense revenue, and flourishing in trade, certainly our honor depended upon the
use we made of that influence which our power gave
us over him; and we therefore press it upon your
Lordships, that the conduct of Mr. Hastings was such
as dishonored this nation.
He proceeds, --" This is not a place, nor have I
room in it, to prove, what I shall here content myself
with affirming, that, by a sacred and undeviating observance of every principle of public faith, the British dominion might have by this time acquired the
means of its extension, through a virtual submission
to its authority, to every region of Hindostan and
Deccan. I am not sure that I should advise such a
design, were it practicable, which at this time it certainly is not; and I very much fear that the limited
formation of such equal alliances as might be useful
to our present condition, and conduce to its improvement, is become liable to almost insurmountable difficulties:: every power in India must wish for the support of ours, but they all dread the connection. The subjection of Bengal, and the deprivation of the family of Jaffier Ali Khan, though an effect of inevitable necessity, the present usurpations of the rights
of the Nabob Wallau Jau in the Carnatic, and the licentious violations of the treaty existing between the
Company and the Nabob Nizam ul Dowlah, though
checked by the remedial interposition of this government, stand as terrible precedents against us; the
effects of our connection with the Nabob Asoph ul
Dowlah had a rapid tendency to the -same conse
? ? ? ? 384 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
quences, and it has been my invariable study to prevent it. "
Your Lordships will remember that the counsel at
the bar have said that they undertook the defence of
Warren Hastings, not in order to defend him, but to
rescue the British character from the imputations
which have been laid upon it by the Commons of
Great Britain. They have said that the Commons of
Great Britain have slandered their country, and have
misrepresented its character; while, on the contrary, the'servants of the Company have sustained and
maintained the dignity of the English character, have
kept its public faith inviolate, preserved the people
from oppression, reconciled every government to it in
India, and have made every person under it prosperous and happy.
My Lords, you see what this man says himself,. when endeavoring to prove his own innocence. Instead of proving it by the facts alleged by his counsel, he declares that by preserving good faith you might have conquered India, the most glorious corn-. quest that was ever made in the world; that all
the people want our assistance, but dread our connection. Why? Because our whole conduct has
been one perpetual tissue of perfidy and breach of. faith with every person who has been in alliance
with us, in any mode whatever. Here is the man
himself who says it. Can we bear that this man
should now stand up in this place as the assertor
of the honor of the British nation against us, who
charge this dishonor to have fallen upon us by him,
through him, and during his government?
But all the mischief, he goes on to assert, was
in the previous system, in the formation of which
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 380
he had no share,- the system of 1775, when the
first treaty with the Nabob was made. "That system," says he,'is not mine; it was made by General
Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis. " So
it was, my Lords. It did them' very great honor,
and I believe it ever will do them honor, in the
eyes of the British nation, that they took an opportunity, without the violation of faith, without the
breach of any one treaty, and without injury to any
person, to do great and eminent services to the
Company. But Mr. Hastings disclaims it,'unnecessarily disclaims it, for no one charges him with it.
What we charge him with is the abuse of that
system. To one of these abuses I will now call
your Lordships' attention. Finding, soon after his
appointment to the office of Governor-General, that
the Nabob was likely to get into debt, he turns him
into a vassal, and resolves to treat him as such. You
will observe that this is not the only instance in
which, upon a failure of payment, the defaulter becomes directly a vassal. You remember how Durbege Sing, the moment he fell into an arrear of tribute, became a vassal, and was thrown into prisoni, without any inquiry into the causes which occasioned that arrear. With respect to the Nabob of Oude, we assert, and canl prove, that his revenue
was 3,600,0001. at the day of his father's death;
and if the revenue fell off afterwards, there was
abundant reason to believe that he possessed in
abundance the means of paying the Company every
farthing.
Before I quit this subject, your Lordships will
again permit me to reprobate the malicious insinuations by which Mr. Hastings has thought proper to
VOL. XI. 25
? ? ? ? 386 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
slander the virtuous persons who are the authors
of that system which he complains of. They are
men whose characters this country will ever respect,
honor, and revere, both the living and the dead,the dead for the living, and the living for the dead. They will altogether be revered for a conduct honorable and glorious to Great Britain, whilst their names stand as they now do, unspotted by the least
imputation of oppression, breach of faith, perjury,
bribery, or any other fraud whatever. I know there
was a faction formed against them upon that very
account. Be corrupt, you have friends; stem the
torrent of corruption, you open a thousand'venal
mouths against you. Men resolved to do their duty
must be content to suffer such opprobrium, and I
am content; in the name of the living and of the
dead, and in the name of the Commons, I glory in
our having appointed some good servants at least
to India.
But to proceed. " This system was not," says he,
" of my making. " You would, then, naturally imagine that the persons who made this abominable system had also made some tyrannous use of it. Let
us see what use they made of it during the time
of their majority in the Council. There was an
arrear of subsidy due from the Nabob. How it
came into arrear we shall consider hereafter. The
Nabob prtoposed to pay it by taxing the jaghires
of his family, and taking some money from the
Begum. This was consented to by Mr. Bristow, at
that time Resident for the Company in Oude; and
to this arrangement Asoph ul Dowlah and his advisers lent a willing ear. What did Mr. Hastings then say of this transaction? He called it a violent
? ? ? ? SI EECH IN REPLY. - FOURTH DAY. 387
assumption of power on the part of the Council.
He did not, you see, then allow that a bad system
justified any persons whatever in an abuse of it.
He contended that it was a violent attack upon the
rights and property of the parties from whom the
money was to be taken, that it had no ground or
foundation in justice whatever, and that it was contrary to every principle of right and equity.
Your Lordships will please to bear in mind, that
afterwards, by his own consent, and the consent of
the rest of the Council, this business was compromised between the son, the mother, and their relations. A very great sum of money, which was most useful to the Company at that period, was
raised by a family compact and arrangement among
themselves. This proceeding was sanctioned by the
Company, Mr. Hastings himself consenting; and a
pledge was given to the Begums and family of the
Nabob, that this should be the last demand made upon them, that it should be considered, not as taken
compulsively, but as a friendly and amicable donation. They never admitted, nor did the Nabob ever
contend, that he had any right at all to take this
money from them. At that time it was not Mr.
Hastings's opinion that the badness of the system
would justify any violence as a consequence of it;
and when the advancement of the money was agreed
to between the parties, as a family and amicable
compact, he was as ready as anybody to propose and
sanction a regular treaty between the parties, that
all claims on one side and all kind of uneasiness on
the other should cease forever, under the guardianship of British faith.
Mr. Hastings, as your Lordships remember, has
? ? ? ? 388 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
conceded that British faith is the support of the
British empire; that, if that empire is to be maintained, it is to be maintained by good faith; that, if
it is to be propagated, it is to be propagated by public
faith; and that, if the British empire falls, it will be
through perfidy and violence. These are the principles which he assumes, when he chooses to reproach others. But when he has to defend his own perfidy
and breaches of faith, then, as your Lordships will
find set forth in his defence before the House of
Commons on the Benares charge, he denies, or at
least questions, the validity of any treaty that can
at present be made with India. He declares that he
considers all treaties as being weakened by a considerable degree of doubt respecting their validity and their binding force, in such a state of things as exists
in India.
Whatever was done, during that period of time to
which I have alluded, by the majority of the Council,
Mr. Hastings considered himself as having nothing
to do with, on the plea of his being a dissentient
member: a principle which, like other principles, I
shall take some notice of by-and-by. Colonel Monson
and General Clavering died soon after, and Mr. Hastings obtained a majority in the Council, and was then, as he calls it, restored to his authority; so that
any evil that could be done by evil men under that
evil system could have lasted but for a very short
time indeed. From that moment, Mr. Hastings, in
my opinion, became responsible for every act done in
Council, while he was there, which he did not resist,
and for every engagement which he did not oppose.
For your Lordships will not bear that miserable jargon which you have heard, shameful to office and to
? ? ? ? . 'SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 389
official authority, that a man, when he happens not
to find himself in a majority upon ally measure, may
think himself excusable for the total neglect of his
duty; that in such a situation he is not bound to
propose anything that it might be proper to propose,
or to resist anything that it might be proper to resist.
What would be the inference from such an assumption? That he can never act in a commission; that,
unless a man has the supreme power, he is not responsible for anything he does or neglects to do.
This is another principle which your Lordships will
see constantly asserted and constantly referred to by
Mr. Hastings. Now I do contend, that, notwithstanding his having been in a minority, if there was
anything to be done that could prevent oppressive
consequences, he was bound to do that thing; and
that he was bound to propose every possible remedial
measure. This proud, rebellious proposition against
the law, that any one individual in the Council may
say that he is responsible for nothing, because he is
not the whole Council, calls for your Lordships'
strongest reprobation.
I must now beg leave to observe to you, that the
treaty was made (and I wish your Lordships to advert to dates) in the year 1775; Mr. Hastings acquired the majority in something more than a year
afterwards; and therefore, supposing the acts of the
former majority to have been ever so iniquitous, their
power lasted but a short time. From the year 1776
to 1784 Mr. Hastings had the whole government of
Oude in himself, by having the majority in the Council. My Lords, it is no offence that a Governor-General, or anybody else, has the majority in the Council.
To have the government in himself is no of
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fence. Neither was it any offence, if you please, that
the Nabob was virtually a vassal to the Company, as
he contends he was. For the question is not, what
a Governor-General may do, but what Warren Hastings did do. He who has a majority in Council, and
records his own acts there, may justify these acts
as legal: I mean the mode is legal. But as he executes whatever he proposes as Governor-General, he
is solely responsible for the nature of the acts themselves.
I shall now show your Lordships that MIr. Hastings, finding, as he states; the Nabob to be made by
the treaty in 1775 eventually a vassal to the Company, has thought proper to make him a vassal to himself, for his own private purposes. Your Lordships will see what corrupt and iniquitous purposes they
were. In the first place, in order to annihilate in
effect the Council, and to take wholly from them
their control ill the affairs of Oude, he suppressed
(your Lordships will find the fact proved in your
minutes) the Persian correspondence, which was the
whole correspondence of Oude. This whole correspondence was secreted by him, and kept from the
Council. It was never communicated to the Persian
translator of the Company, Mr. Colebrooke, who had
a salary for executing that office. It was secreted,
and kept in the private cabinet of Mr. Hastings;
from the period of 1781 to 1785 no part of it was
commuunicated to the Council. There is nothing, as
your Lordships have often found in this trial, that
speaks for the man like himself; there is nothing
will speak for his conduct like the records of the
Company.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. FOURTH DAY. 391
"Fort Wi'lliam, 19th February, 1785.
" At a Council: present, the Honorable John Macpherson, Esquire, Governor-General, President, and
John Stables, Esquire.
" The Persian Translator, attending in obedience to
the Board's orders, reports, that, since the end of the
year 1781, there have been no books of correspondence kept in his office, because, from that time until the late Governor-General's departure, he was employed but once by the Governor-General to manage the correspondence, during a short visit which Major
Davy, the military Persian interpreter, paid by the
Governor's order to Lucknow; that, during that
whole period of three years, he remained entirely ignorant of the correspondence, as he was applied to onil no occasion, except for a few papers sometimes
sent to him by the secretaries, which he always returned to them as soon as translated.
"The Persian Translator has received from Mr.
Scott, since the. late Governor-General's departure, a
trunk containing English draughts and translations
and the Persian originals of letters and papers, with
three books in the Persian language containing copies
of letters written between August, 1782, and January,
1785; and if thle Board should please to order the
secretaries of the general department to furnish him
with copies of all translations and draughts recorded
in their Consultations between the 1st of January,
1782, and the 31st of January, 1785, he thinks that
he should be able, with what he has found in Captain
Scott's trunk, to make up the correspondence for that
period.
(Signed) "EDWARD COLEBROOKE,
" Persian Translator. "
? ? ? ? 392 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Hear, then, my Lords, what becomes of the records
of the Company, which were to be the vouchers for
every public act, -which were to show whether, in the
Company's transactions, agreements, and treaties with
the native powers, the public faith was kept or not.
You see them all crammed into Mr. Scott's trunk: a
trunk into which they put what they please, take out
what they please, suppress whatthey please, or thrust
in whatever will answer their purpose. The records
of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal are
kept in Captain Jonathan Scott's trunk; this trunk
is to be considered as the real and true channel of
intelligence between the Company and the country
powers. But even this channel was not open to any
member of the Council, except Mr. Hastings; and
when the Council, for the first time, daring to think
for themselves, call upon the Persian Translator, he
knows nothing about it. We find that it is given
into the hands of a person nominated by Mr. Hastings,-Major Davy. What do the Company know of him? Why, he was Mr. Hastings's private secretary.
In this manner the Council have been annihilated
during all these transactions, and have no other
knowledge of them than just what Mr. Hastings and
his trunk-keeper thought proper to give them. All,
then, that we know of these transactions is from the
miserable, imperfect, garbled correspondence.
But even if these papers contained a full and faithful account of the correspondence, what we charge is its not being delivered to the Council as it occurred
from time to time. Mr. Hastings kept the whole
government of Oude in his own hands; so that the
Council had no power of judging his acts, of check-.
ing, controlling, advising, or remonstrating. It was
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 393
totally annihilated by him; and we charge, as an act
of treason and rebellion against the act of Parliament
by which he held his office, his depriving the Council
of their legitimate authority, by shutting them out
from the knowledge of all affairs, - except, indeed,
when he thought it expedient, for his own justification, to have their nominal concurrence or subsequent acquiescence in any of his more violent measures.
Your Lordships see Mr. Hastings's system, a system
of concealment, a system of turning the vassals of the
Company into his own vassals, to make them contributory, not to the Company, but to himself. He has avowed this system in Benares; he has avowed it in
Oude. It was his constant practice. Your Lordships see in Oude he kept a correspondence with Mr. Markham for years, and did alone all the material
acts which ought to have been done in Council. He
delegated a power to Mr. Markham which he had not
to delegate; and you will see he has done the same
in every part of India.
We first charge him not only with acting without
authority, but with a strong presumption, founded on
his concealment, of intending to act mischievously.
We next charge his concealing and withdrawing correspondence, as being directly contrary to the orders of the Court of Directors, the practice of his office,
and the very nature and existence of the Council in
which he was appointed to preside. We charge this
as a substantive crime, and as the forerunner of the
oppression, desolation, and ruin of that miserable
country.
Mr. Hastings having thus rendered the Council
blind and ignorant, and consequently fit for subserviency, what does he next do? I am speaking, not with
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
regard to the time of his particular acts, but with
regard to the general spirit of the proceedings. He
next flies in the face of the Company upon the same
principle on which he removed Mr. Fowke from Benares. "I removed him on political grounds," says
he, "against the orders of the Court of Directors,
because I thought it necessary that the Resident
should be a man of my own nomination and confidence. " At Oude he proceeds on the same principle. Mr. Bristow had been nominated to the office of Resident by the Court of Directors. Mr. Hastings,
by an act of Parliament, was ordered to obey the
Court of Directors. He positively refuses to receive
Mr. Bristow, for no other reason that we know of but
because he was nominated by the Court of Directors;
he defies the Court, and declares in effect that they
shall not govern that province, but that he will govern it by a Resident of his own.
Your Lordships will mark his progress in the
establishment of that new system, which, he says,
he had been obliged to adopt by the evil system of
his predecessors. First, he annihilates'the Comuncil,
formed by an act of Parliament, and by order of the
Court of Directors. In the second place, he defies the
order of the Court, who had the undoubted nomination of all their own servants, and who ordered him,
under the severest injunction, to appoint Mr. Bristow
to the office of Resident in Oude. He for some time
refused to nominate Mr. Bristow to that office; and
even when he was forced, against his will, to permit
him for a while to be there, he sent Mr. Middleton
and Mr. Johnson, who annihilated Mr. Bristow's authority so completely that no one public act passed
through his hands.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. FOURTH DAY. 395
After he had ended this conflict with the Directors,
and had entirely shook off their authority, he resolved
that the native powers should know that they were
not to look to the Court of Directors, but to look to
his arbitrary will in all things; and therefore, to the
astonishment of the world, and as if it were designedly to expose the nakedness of the Parliament of Great Britain, to expose the nakedness of the laws
of Great Britain, and the nakedness of the authority
of the Court of Directors to the country powers, he
wrote a letter, which your Lordships will find in page
795 of the printed Minutes. In this letter the secret
of his government is discovered to the country powers. They are given to understand, that, whatever exaction, whatever oppression or ruin they may suffer,
they are to look nowhere for relief but to him: not
to the Council, not to the Court of Directors, not to
the sovereign authority of Great Britain, but to him,
and him only.
Before we proceed to this letter, we will first read
to you the Minute of Council by which he dismissed
Mr. Bristow upon a former occasion, (it is in page
507 of the printed Minutes,) that your Lordships may
see his audacious defiance of the laws of the country.
We wish,'I say, before we show you the horrible and
fatal effects of this his defiance, to impress continually upon your Lordships' minds that this man is to be tried by the laws of the country, and that it is not
in his power to annihilate their authority and the
authority of his masters. We insist upon it, that
every man under the authority of this country is
bound to obey its laws. This minute relates to his
first removal of Mr. Bristow: I read it in order to
show that he dared to defy the Court of Directors so
early as the year 1776.
? ? ? ? 396 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
"Resolved, That Mr. John Bristow be recalled to
the Presidency from the court of the Nabob of Oude,
and that Mr. Nathaniel Middleton be restored to the
appointment of Resident at that court, subject to the
orders and authority of the Governor-General and
Council, conformably to the motion of the GovernorGeneral. "
I will next read to your Lordships the orders of the
Directors for his reinstatement, on the 4th of July,
1777.
* "Upon the most careful perusal of your proceedings upon the 2d of December, 1776, relative to the recall of Mr. Bristow from the court of the Nabob of
Oude, and the appointment of Mr. Nathaniel Middleton to that station, we must declare our strongest disapprobation of the whole of that transaction. We
observe that the Governor-General's motion for the
recall of Mr. Bristow includes that for the restoration
of Mr. Nathaniel Middleton; but as neither of those
measures appear to us necessary, or even justifiable,
they cannot receive our approbation. With respect
to Mr. Bristow, we find no shadow of cliarge against
him. It appears that he has executed his trust to
the entire satisfaction even of those members of the
Council who did not concur in his appointment. You
have unanimously recommended him to our notice;
attention to your recommendation has induced us to
afford him marks of our favor, and to reannex the
emoluments affixed by you to his appointment, which
had been discontinued by our order; and as we must
be of opinion that a person of acknowledged abilities,
whose conduct has thus gained him the esteem of his
superiors, ought not to be degraded without just
cause, we do not hesitate to interpose in his behalf,
? ? ? ? SFEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 397
and therefore direct that Mr. Bristow do forthwith
return to his station of Resident at Oude, from which
he has been so improperly removed. "
Upon the receipt of these orders by. the Council,
Mr. Francis, then a member of the Council, moves,
"That, in obedience to the Company's orders, Mr.
Bristow be forthwith appointed and directed to return to his station of Resident at Oude, and that Mr. Purling be ordered to deliver over charge of the
office to Mr. Bristow immediately on his arrival, and
return himself forthwith to the Presidency; also that
the Governor-General be requested to furnish Mr.
Bristow with the usual letter of credence to the Nabob
Vizier. "
Upon this motion being made, Mr. Hastings entered the following minute.
" I will ask, who is Mr. Bristow, that a member of
the administration should at such a time hold him
forth as an instrument for the degradation of the first
executive member of this government? What are the
professed objects of his appointment? What are the
merits and services, or what the qualifications, which
entitle him to such an uncommon distinction? Is it
for his superior integrity, or from his eminent abilities,
that he is to be dignified, at such hazards of every
consideration that ought to influence members of this
administration? Of the former I know no proofs; I
am sure that it is not an evidence of it, that he has
been enabled to make himself the principal in such a
competition; and for the test of his abilities, I appeal
to the letter which he has dared to write to this board,
and which, I am ashamed to say, we have suffered. I
desire that a copy of it may be inserted in this day's
proceedings, that it may stand before the eyes of every
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
member of the board, when he shall give his vote
upon a question for giving their confidence to a man,
their servant, who has publicly insulted them, his
masters, and the members of the government, to
whom he owes his obedience; who, assuming an association with the Court of Directors, and erecting himself into a tribunal, has arraigned them for disobedience of orders, passed judgment upon them, and condemned or acquitted them as their magistrate and
superior. Let the board consider whether a man possessed of so independent a spirit, who has already shown such a contempt of their authority, who has
shown himself so wretched an advocate for his own
cause and negotiator for his own interest, is fit to be
trusted with the guardianship of their honor, the execution of their measures, and as their confidential manager and negotiator with the princes of India. "
- My Lords, you here see an instance of what I have
before stated to your Lordships, and what I shall
take the liberty. of recommending to your constant
consideration. You see that a tyrant and a rebel is
one and the same thing. You see this man, at the
very time that he is a direct rebel to the Company,
arbitrarily and tyrannically displacing Mr. Bristow,
although he had previously joined in the approbation
of his conduct, and in voting him a pecuniary reward. He is ordered by the Court. of Directors to
restore that person, who desires, in a suppliant, decent, proper tone, that the Company's orders should produce their effect, and that the Council would have
the goodness to restore him to his situation.
My Lords, you have seen the audacious, insolence,
the tyrannical pride, with which he dares to treat this
order. You have seen the recorded minute which
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 399
he has dared to send to the Court of Directors; and
in this you see, that, when he cannot directly asperse
a man's conduct, and has nothing to say against it, he
maliciously, I should perhaps rather say enviously,
insinuates that he had unjustly made his fortune.
" You are," says he, "to judge from the independence of his manner and style, whether he could or
no have got that without some unjust means. " God
forbid I should ever be able to invent anything that
can equal the impudence of what this man dares to
write to his superiors, or the insolent style in which
he dares to treat persons who are not his servants!
Who made the servants of the Company the master of the servants of the Company? The Court of. Directors are their fellow-servants; they are all the servants of this kingdom. Still the claim of a fellowservant to hold an office which the Court of Directors
had legally appointed him to is considered by this
audacious tyrant as an insult to him. By this you
may judge how he treats not only the servants of the
Company, but the natives of the country, and by
what means he has brought them into that abject
state of servitude in which they are ready to do anything he wishes and to sign anything he dictates. I
must again beg your Lordships to remark what this'
man has had the folly and impudence to place upon
the records of the Council of which he was President; and I will venture to assert that so extraordinary a performance never before appeared on the records of any court, Eastern or European. Because
Mr. Bristow claims an office which is his right and
his freehold as long as the Company chooses, Mr.
Hastings accuses him of being an accomplice with the
Court of Directors in a conspiracy against him; and
? ? ? ? 400 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
because, after long delays, he had presented an humble petition to have -the Court of Directors' orders in his favor carried into execution, he says " he has
erected himself into a tribunal of justice; that he
has arraigned the Council for disobedience of orders,
passed judgment upon them, and condemned or acquitted them as their magistrate and superior. "
Let us suppose his Majesty to have been pleased to
appoint any one to an office in the gift of the crown,
what should we think of the person whose business
it was to execute the King's commands, if he should
say to the person appointed, when he claimed his
office, "You shall not have it, you assume to be
my superior, and you disgrace and dishonor me"?
Good God! my Lords, where was this language
learned? in what country, and in what barbarous nation of Hottentots was this jargon picked up? For there is no Eastern court that I ever heard of (and I
believe I have been as conversant with the manners
and customs of the East as most persons whose business has not directly led them into that country) where such condwuct would have been tolerated. A
bashaw, if he should be ordered by the Grand Seignior
to invest another with his office, puts the letter upon his head, and obedience immediately follows.
