A new treaty and arrangement,
according
to the pleasure of Mr.
Edmund Burke
The Mahrattas were fearful lest the persons delivered to them by that treaty should attempt to escape into the British territories, and thus might elude the punishment intended for them, and, by reclaiming the treaty, might stir up new disturbances.
To
prevent this, they desired an article to be inserted in
the supplemental treaty, to which they had the ready
consent of Mr. Hastings, and the rest of the Company's representatives in Bengal. It was this: "' That
the English and Mahratta governments mutually agree
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 459
not to afford refuge to any chiefs, merchants, or other
persons, flying for protection to the territories of the
other. " This was readily assented to, and assented
to without any exception whatever in favor of our
surrendered allies. On their part a reciprocity was
stipulated which was not unnatural for a government
like the Company's to ask, - a government conscious
that many subjects had been, and would in future
be, driven to fly from its jurisdiction.
To complete the system of pacific intention and
public faith which predominate in these treaties, Mr.
Hastings fairly resolved to put all peace, except on
the terms of absolute conquest, wholly out of his
own power. For, by an article in this second treaty
with Scindia, he binds the Company not to make any
peace with Tippoo Sahib without the consent of the
Peishwa of the Mahrattas, and binds Scindia to him
by a reciprocal engagement. The treaty between
France and England obliges us mutually to withdraw our forces, if our allies in India do not accede
to the peace within four months; Mr. Hastings's
treaty obliges us to continue the war as long as the
Peishwa thinks fit. We are now in that happy situation, that the breach of the treaty with France, or
the violation of that with the Mahrattas, is inevitable;
and we have only to take our choice.
My third assertion, relative to the abuse made of
the right of war and peace, is, that there are none'who
have ever confided in us who have not been utterly
ruined. The examples I have given of Ragonaut
Row, of Guickwar, of the Rana of Gohud, are recent.
There is proof rtore than enough in the condition of. the Mogul, -in the slavery and indigence of the Nabob of Oude, -the exile of the Rajah of Benares, -
? ? ? ? 4'30 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S'XEAST INDIA. . BILL.
the beggary of the Nabob of Bengal,- the undone and
captive condition of the Rajah and kingdom of Tanjore, - the destruction of the Polygars, - and, lastly,. in the destruction of the Nabob of Arcot himself, who, when his dominions were invaded, was found entirely
destitute of troops, provisions, stores, and (as he asserts). of money, being a million in debt to the Company, and four millions to others: the many millions which he had extorted from so many extirpated princes
and their desolated countries having (as he -has frequently hinted) been expended for the ground-rent
of his mansion-house. in an alley in the suburbs of
Madras. Compare the condition of all these princes
with the power -and authority. of all the Mahratta
states, with the independence and dignity of the
Sllbah of the Deccan, and the mighty strength, the
resources, and the. manly struggle of Hyder Ali, --
and then the House will discover the effects, on every
power in India, of an easy confidence or of a rooted
distrust in the faith of. the Company.
These are some of my reasons, grounded on the
abuse of the external political trust of that body,. for
thinking myself not only justified, but bound, to declare against those chartered rights which produce
so many wrongs. I should deem myself the wickedest of men, if any vote of mine could contribute-. to
the continuance of so great an evil.
Now, Sir, according to. the plan I proposed,. I shall
take notice of the Company's internal government, as
it is exercised first on the dependent provinces, and
thenas it affects those under the direct and immediate authority of that body. . And lere, Sir, before I
enter into the spirit of -their interior government,
permit me to observe to you upon a few of the many
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIAI,BILL. 161
lines of difference which are to be found between the
vices of the Company's government and those of the
conquerors who preceded us in India, that we may
be enabled a little the better; to see our way in an
attempt to the necessary reformation.
~ The several irruptions of Arabs, Tartars, and -Persians into India were, for the greater part, ferocious,
bloody, aid wasteful in the extreme: our entrance
into the dominion of that country was, as generally,
with small comparative effusion of blood, - being introduced by various frauds and delusions,. and by taking advantage of -the incurable, blind, and senseless animosity which the several country powers bear towards each other,-rather than by open force. But
the difference in favor of the first conquerors is this.
The Asiatic conquerors very soon abated of their ferocity, because they made the conquered country their
own. They rose or fell with the rise or fall of the
territory they lived in. Fathers there deposited the
hopes of their posterity;. and children there beheld
the monuments of their fathers. Here their -lot was
finally cast; and it is the natural wish of all that
their lot should not be cast in a bad land. Poverty,
sterility, and desolation are not a recreating prospect
to. the eye of man; and there are very few who can
bear to grow old among the curses of a whole people.
If their passion or their avarice drove the Tartar lords
to acts. of rapacity or tyranny, there was time enough,
even in the short life of man, to bring round the ill
effects of an abuse of power upon the power itself.
If. hoards were made by violence and tyranny, they
-were still domestic hoards; and domestic profusion,
or the rapine of a more powerful and prodigal hand,
restored them to the people. With many disorders,
? ? ? ? 462 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
and with few political checks upon power, Nature had
still fair play; the sources of acquisition were not
dried up; and therefore the trade, the manufactures,
and the commerce of the country flourished. Even
avarice and usury itself operated both for the preservation and the employment of national wealth. The husbandman and manufacturer paid heavy interest,
but then they augmented the fund from whence they
were again to borrow. . Their resources were dearly
bought, but they were sure; and the general stock of
the community grew by the general effort.
But under the English government all this order
is reversed. The Tartar invasion was mischievous;
but it is our protection that destroys India. It was
their enmity; but it is our friendship. Our conquest
there, after twenty years, is as crude as it was the
first day. The natives scarcely know what it is -to see
the gray head of an Englishman. Young men (boys
almost) govern there, without society and without
sympathy with the natives. They have no more social
habits with the people than if, they still resided in
England, -- nor, indeed, any species of intercourse,
but that which is necessary to making a sudden fortune, with a view to a remote settlement. Animated with all the avarice of age and all the impetuosity of
youth, they roll in one after another, wave after wave;
and'there is nothing before the eyes of the natives but
an endless, hopeless prospect of new flights of birds of
prey and passage, with appetites continually renewing
for a food that is continually wasting. Every rupee
of profit made by an Englishman is lost forever to
India. With us are no retributory superstitions, by
which a foundation of charity compensates, through
ages, to the poor, for the rapine and injustice of a
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 463
day. With us no pride erects stately monuments
which repair the mischiefs which pride had produced,
and which adorn a country out of its own spoils.
England has erected no churches, no hospitals,* no
palaces, no schools; Ellgland has built no bridges,
made no high-roads, cut no navigations, dug out no
reservoirs. Every other conqueror of every other description has left some monument, either of state or
beneficence, behind him. Were we to be driven out,of India this day, nothing would remain to tell that
it had been possessed, during the inglorious period
of our dominion, by anything better than the orang
outang or the tiger.
There is nothing in the boys we send to India
worse than in the boys whom we are. whipping at
school, or that we see trailing a pike or bending over
a desk at home. But as English youth in India drink
the intoxicating draught of authority and dominion
before their heads are able to bear it, and as they are
full grown in fortune long before they are ripe in principle, neither Nature nor reason have any opportunity to exert themselves for remedy of the excesses of their pr6mature power. The consequences of
their conduct, which in good minds (and many of
theirs are probably such) might produce penitence or
amendment, are unable to pursue the rapidity of
their flight. Their prey is lodged in England; and
the cries of India are given to seas and winds, to be
blown about, in every breaking up of the monsoon,
over a remote and unhearing ocean. In India all the
vices operate by which sudden fortune is acquired:
in England are often displayed, by the same persons,
* The paltry foundation at Calcutta is scarcely worth naming as
an exception.
? ? ? ? 464 SPEECII ON MIR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
the virtues which dispense hereditary wealth. Arrived in England, the destroyers of the nobility and
gentry of a whole kingdom will find the best company
in this nation at a board of elegance and hospitality.
Here the manufacturer and husbandman will bless
the just and punctual hand that in India has torn the
cloth from the loom, or wrested the scanty portion of
rice and salt from the peasant of Bengal, or wrung
from him the very opium in which he forgot his oppressions and his oppressor. They marry into your. families; they enter into your senate; they ease your estates by loans; they raise their value by demand;
they cherish and protect your relations which lie heavy
on your patronage; and there is scarcely an house in
the kingdom that does not feel some concern and
interest that. makes all reform of our Eastern government appear officious and disgusting, and, on the
whole, a most discouraging attempt. In such an attempt you hurt those who are able to return kindness
or to resent injury. If you succeed, you save those
who cannot so much as give you thanks. All these
things show the difficulty of the work we have on
hand: but they show its necessity, too. Our Indian
government is in its best state a grievance. It is necessary that the correctives should be uncommonly
vigorous, and the work of men sanguine, warm, and
even impassioned in the cause. But it is an arduous
thing to plead against abuses of a power which originates from your own country, and affects those whom
we are used to consider as strangers.
I shall certainly endeavor to modulate myself to
this temper; though I am sensible that a cold style'
of describing actions, which appear to me in a very
affecting light, is equally contrary to the justice due
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA -BILL. 465
to the people and to all genuine human feelings
about them. I ask pardon of truth and Nature for
this compliance. But I shall be very sparing of epithets either to persons or things. It has been said, (and, with regard to one of them, with truth,) that
Tacitus and Machiavel, by their cold way of relating enormous crimes, have in some sort appeared not to disapprove them; that they seem a sort of professors of the art of tyranny; and that they corrupt the minds of their readers by not expressing the detestation and horror that naturally belong to horrible and detestable proceedings. But we are in general, Sir, so little acquainted with Indian details, the instruments of oppression under which the people
suffer are so hard to be understood, and even the
very names of the sufferers are so uncouth and
strange to our ears, that it is very difficult for our
sympathy to fix upon these objects. I am sure that
some of us have come down stairs from the committee-room with impressions on our minds which to us were the inevitable results of our discoveries, yet, if
we should venture to express ourselves in the proper
language of our sentiments to other gentlemen not
at all prepared to enter into the cause of them, nothing could appear more harsh and dissonant, more violent and unaccountable, than our language and
behavior. All these circumstances are not, I confess,
very favorable to'the idea of our attempting to govern India at all. But there we are; there we are placed by the Sovereign Disposer; and we must do
the best we can in our situation. The situation of
man is the preceptor of his duty.
Upon the plan which I laid down, and to which I
beg leave to return, I was considering the conduct of
VOL. II. 30
? ? ? ? 466 SPEECH ON, MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
the Company to those nations which are indirectly
subject to their authority. The most considerable
of the dependent princes is the Nabob of Oude. My
right honorable friend,* to whom we owe the remedial bills on your table, has already pointed out to
you, in one of the reports, the condition of that
prince, and as it stood in the time he alluded to. I
shall only add a few circumstances that may tend to
awaken some sense of the manner in which the condition of the people is affected by that of the prince,
and involved in it, - and to show you, that, when we
talk of the sufferings of princes, we do not lament the
oppression of individuals, i- and that in these cases the
high and the low suffer together.
In the year 1779, the Nabob of Oude represented,
thlough the British resident at his court, that the
number of Company's troops stationed in his dominions was a main cause of his distress, - and that all
those which he was not bound by treaty to maintain
should be withdrawn, as they had greatly diminished
his revenue and impoverished his country. I will
read you, if you please, a few extracts from these
representations.
He states, "that the country and cultivation are
abandoned, and this year in particular, from the
excessive drought of the season, deductions of many
lacs having been allowed to the farmers, who are
still left unsatisfied "; and then he proceeds with a
long detail of his own distress, and that of his family
and all his dependants; and adds, " that the newraised brigade is not only quite useless to my government, but is, moreover, the cause of much loss both in revenues and customs. The detached body of troops
* Mr. Fox.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 467
under European officers bring nothing but confusion
to the affairs of my government, and are entirely their
own masters. " Mr. Middleton, Mr. Hastings's confidential resident, vouches for the truth of this representation in its fullest extent. "I am concerned to confess that there is too good ground for this plea.
The misfortune has been general throughout the whole
of the vizier's [the Nabob of Oude] dominions, obvious to everybody; and so fatal have been its consequences, that no person of either credit or character would enter. into engagements with government for
farming the country. " He then proceeds to give
strong instances of the general calamity, and its
effects.
It was now to be seen what steps the Governor-General and Council took for the relief of this distressed
country, long laboring under the vexations of men,
and now stricken by the hand of God. The case of
a general famine is known to relax the severity even
of the most rigorous government. - Mr. Hastings
does not deny or show the least doubt of the fact.
The representation is humble, and almost abject. On
this representation from a great prince of the distress
of his subjects, Mr. Hastings falls into a violent passion,- such as (it seeims) would be unjustifiable in
any one who speaks of any part-of his conduct. He
declares "that the demands, the tone in which they
were asserted, and the season in which they were
made, are all equally alarming, and appear to him to
require an adequate degree of firmness in this board
in opposition to them. " He proceeds to deal out very
unreserved language on the person and character of
the Nabob and his ministers. He declares, that, in a
division between him and the Nabob, " the strongest
? ? ? ? 468 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
must decide. " With regard to the urgent and instant
necessity from the failure of the crops, he says, "that
perhaps expedients may be found for affording a grad-.
ual relief from the burden of which he so heavily
complains, and it shall be my endeavor to seek them
out": and lest he should be suspected of too much
haste to alleviate sufferings and to remove violence,
he says, "that these must be gradually applied, and
their complete effect may be distant; and this, I conceive, is all he can claim of right. "
This complete effect of his lenity is distant indeed.
Rejecting this demand, (as he calls the Nabob's abject
supplication,) he attributes it, as he usually does all
things of the kind, to the division in their government,
and says, " This is a powerful motive with me (however inclined I might be, upon any other occasion, to
yield to somepart of his demand) to give them an absolute and unconditional refusal upon the present, -- and even to bring to punishment, if my influence can produce
that effect, those incendiaries who have endeavored to
make themselves the instruments of division between us. "
Here, Sir, is much heat and passion, - but no more
consideration of the distress of the country, from a
failure of the means of subsistence, and (if possible)
the worse evil of an useless'and, licentious soldiery,
than if they were the most contemptible of all trifles.
A letter is written, in consequence, in such a style of
lofty despotism as I believe has hitherto been unexampled and unheard of in the records of the East.
The troops were continued. The' gradual. relief, whose
effect was to be so distant,' has never been substantially
and beneficially applied, - and the country is ruined.
Mr. Hastings, two years after, when it was too late,
Paw the absolute necessity of a removal of the intoler
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 469
able grievance of this licentious soldiery, which, under
pretence of defending it, held the country under military execution.
A new treaty and arrangement, according to the pleasure of Mr. Hastings, took place; and this new treaty was broken in the old manner,
in every essential article. The soldiery were again
sent, and again set loose. The effect of all his manceuvres, from which it seems he was sanguine
enough to entertain hopes, upon the state of the
country, he himself informs us, -" The event has
proved the reverse of these hopes, and accumulation
of distress, debasement, and dissatisfaction to the Nabob, and disappointment and disgrace to me. -Every
measure [which he had himself proposed] has been
so conducted as to give him cause of displeasure.
There are no officers established by which his affairs
could be regularly conducted: mean, incapable, and
indigent men have been appointed. A number of the
districts without authority, and without the means
of personal protection; some of them have been murdered by the zemindars, and those zemindars, instead
of punishment, have been permitted to retain their
zemindaries, with independent authority; all the other zemindars suffered to rise up in rebellion, and to
insult the authority of the sircar, without any attempt made to suppress them; and the Company's
debt, instead of being discharged by the assignments
and extraordinary sources of money provided for that
purpose, is likely to exceed even the amount at which it
stood at the time in which the arrangement with his Excellency was concluded. " The House will smile at the
resource on which the Directors take credit as such a
certainty in their curious account.
This is Mr. Hastings's own narrative of the effects
? ? ? ? 470 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
of his own settlement. This is the state of the coulntry which we have been told is in perfect peace and
order; and, what is curious, he informs us, that every
part of this was foretold to him'in the order and manner
in which it happened, at the very time he made his arrangement of men and measures.
The invariable course of the Company's policy is
this: either they set up some prince too odious to
maintain himself without the necessity of their assistance, or they soon render him odious by making
him the instrument of their government. In that
case troops are bountifully sent to him to maintain
his authority. That he should have no want of assistance, a civil gentleman, called a Resident, is kept at
his court, who, under pretence of providing duly for
the pay of these troops, gets assignments on the revenue into his hands. Under his provident management, debts soon accumulate; new assignments are made for these debts; until, step by step, the whole
revenue, and with it the whole power of the country,
is delivered into his hands. The military do not behold without a virtuous emulation the moderate gains
of the civil department. They feel that in a country
driven to habitual rebellion by the civil government
the military is necessary; and they will not permit
their services to go unrewarded. Tracts of country
are delivered over to their discretion. Then it is
found proper to convert their commanding officers
into farmers of revenue. Thus, between the well-paid
civil and well-rewarded military establishment, the
situation of the natives may be easily conjectured.
The authority of the regular and lawful government
is everywhere and in every point extinguished. Disorders and violences arise; they are repressed by
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 471
other disorders and other violences. Wherever the
collectors of the revenue and the farming colonels
and majors move, ruin is about them, rebellion before
and behind them. The people in crowds fly out of
the country; and the frontier is guarded by lines of
troops, not to exclude an enemy, but to prevent the
escape of the inhabitants.
By these means, in the course of not more than
four or five years, this once opulent and flourishing
country, which, by the accounts given in the Bengal
consultations, yielded more than three crore of sicca
rupees, that is, above three millions sterling, annually,
is reduced, as far as I can discover, in a matter purposely involved in the utmost perplexity, to less than one million three hundred thousand pounds, and that
exacted by every mode of rigor that can be devised.
To complete the business, most of the wretched remnants of this revenue are mortgaged, and delivered into the hands of the usurers at Benares (for there
alone are to be found some lingering remains of the
ancient wealth of these regions) at an interest of near
thirty per cent per annum.
The revenues in this manner failing, they seized
upon the estates of every person of eminence in the
country, and, under the name of resumption, confiscated their property. I wish, Sir, to be understood universally and literally, when I assert that there is
not left one man of property and substance for his
rank in the whole of these provinces, in provinces
which are nearly the extent of England and Wales
taken together: not one landholder, not one banker,
not one merchant, not one even of those who usually
perish last, the ultimum moriens in a ruined state, not
one farmer of revenue.
? ? ? ? 472 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
One country for a while remained, which stood as
an island in the midst of the grand waste of the
Company's domiaion. My right honorable friend, in
his admirable speech on moving the bill, just touched
the situation, the offences, and the punishment of a
native prince, called Fizulla Khan. This man, by
policy and force, had protected himself from the general extirpation of the Rohilla chiefs. He was secured (if that were any security) by a treaty. It was stated
to you, as it was stated by the enemies of that unfortunate man, "that the whole of his country is what thle whole country of the Rohillas was, cultivated like
a garden, without one neglected spot in it. " Another
accuser says, -" Fyzoolah Khan, though a bad soldier, [that is the true source of his misfortune,] has approved himself a good aumil, --, having, it is supposed, in the course of a few years, at least doubled the population and revenue of his country. " In another part of the correspondence he is charged with making his country an asylum for the oppressed
peasants who fly from the territories of Oude. The
improvement of his revenue, arising from this single
crime, (which Mr. Hastings considers as tantamount
to treason,) is stated at an hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year.
Dr. Swift somewhere says, that he who could make
two blades of grass grow where but one grew before
was a greater benefactor to the human race than all
the politicians that ever existed. This prince, who
would have been deified -by antiquity, who would
have been ranked with Osiris, and Bacchus, and
Ceres, and the divinities most propitious to men,
was, for those very merits, by name attacked by the
Company's government, as a cheat, a robber, a traitor.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 473
In the same breath in which he was accused as a
rebel, he was ordered at once to furnish five thousand horse. On delay, or (according to the technical
phrase, when any remonstrance is made to them) ~' on
evasion," -he was declared a violator of treaties, and
everything he had was to be taken from him. Not
one word, however, of horse in this treaty.
The territory of this Fizulla'Khn, Mr. Speaker,
is less than the County of Norfolk. It -is an inland
country, full seven hundred miles from any seaport,
and not distinguished for any one considerable branch
of manufacture whatsoever. From this territory several very considerable sums had at several times been
paid to the British resident. The demand of cavalry,
without a shadow or decent pretext of right, amounted to three hundred thousand a year more, at the lowest computation; and it is stated, by the last person sent to negotiate, as a demand of little use, if it could
be complied with,- but that the compliance was impossible, as it amounted to more than his territories
could supply, if there had been no other demand
upon him. Three hundred thousand pounds a year
from an inland country not so large as Norfolk!
The thing most extraordinary was to hear the
culprit defend himself from the imputation of his
virtues, as if they had been the blackest offences.
He extenuated the superior cultivation of his couintry. He denied its population. He endeavored to
prove that he had often sent' back the poor peasant
that sought shelter with him. - I can make no observation on this.
After a variety of extortions and vexations, too fatiguing to you, too disgusting to me, to go through
with, they found "that they ought to be in a bet.
? ? ? ? 474 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
ter state to warrant forcible means"; they therefore
contented themselves with a gross sum of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds for their present
demand. They offered him, indeed, an indemnity
from their exactions in future for three hundred
thousand pounds more. But he refused to buy their
securities, - pleading (probably with truth) his poverty; but if the plea were not founded, in my opinion very wisely: not choosing to deal anly more in that dangerous commodity of the Company's faith;
and thinking it better to oppose distress and unarmed
obstinacy to uncolored exaction than to subject himself to be considered as a cheat, if he should make a
treaty in the least beneficial to himself.
Thus they executed an exemplary punishment on
Fizulla Khan for the culture of his country. But,
conscious that the prevention of evils is the great object of all good regulation, they deprived him of the
means of increasing that criminal cultivation in future,
by exhausting his coffers; and that the population of
his country should no more be a standing reproach
and libel on the Company's government, they bound
him by a positive engagement not to afford any shelter whatsoever to the farmers and laborers who should
seek refuge in his territories from the exactions of the
British residents in Oude. When they had done all
this effectually, they gave him a full and complete
acquittance from all charges of rebellion, or of any
intention to rebel, or of his having originally had any
interest in, or any means of, rebellion.
These intended rebellions are one of the Company's
standing resources. When money has been thought
to be heaped up anywhere, its owners are universally
accused of rebellion, until they are acquitted of their
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 475
money and their treasons at once. The money once
taken, all accusation, trial, and punishment ends. It
is so settled a resource, that I rather wonder how it
comes to be omitted in the Directors' account; but I
take it for granted this omission will be supplied in
their next edition.
The Company stretched this resource to the full
extent, when they accused two'old women, in the remotest corner of India, (who could have no possible view or motive to raise disturbances,) of being engaged in rebellion, with an intent to drive out the English nation, in whose protection, purchased by
money and secured by treaty, rested the sole hope of
their existence. But the Company wanted money,
and the old women must be guilty of a plot. They
were accused of rebellion, and they were convicted
of wealth. Twice had great sums been extorted from
them, and as often had the British faith guarantied
the remainder. A body of British troops, with one
of the military farmers-general at their head, was sent
to seize upon the castle in which these helpless women
resided. Their chief eunuchs, who were their agents,
their guardians, protectors, persons of high rank according to the Eastern manners, and of great trust, were thrown into dungeons, to make them discover
their hidden treasures; and there they lie at present.
The lands assigned for the maintenance of the women
were seized and confiscated. Their jewels and effects
were taken, and set up to a pretended auction in an
obscure place, and bought'at such a price as the gentlemen thought proper to give. No account has ever been transmitted of the articles or produce of this sale.
What money was obtained is unknown, or what terms
were stipulated for the maintenance of these despoiled
? ? ? ? 476 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
and forlorn creatures: for by some particulars it appears as if an engagement of the kind was made.
Let me here remark, once for all, that though the
act of 1773 requires that an account of all proceedings should be diligently transmitted, that this, like
all the other injunctions of the law, is totally despised,
and that half at least of the most important papers
are intentionally withheld.
I wish you, Sir, to advert particularly, in this transaction, to the quality and the numbers of the persons
spoiled, and the instrument by whom that spoil was
made. These ancient matrons, called the Begums,
or Princesses, were of the first birth and quality in
India: the one mother, the other wife, of the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah Dowlah, a prince possessed of extensive and flourishing dominions, and the second man in the Mogul Empire. This prince (suspicious,
and not unjustly suspicious, of his son and successor)
at his death committed his treasures and his family
to the British faith. That family and household consisted of two thousand women, to which were added
two other seraglios of near kindred, and said to be extremely numerous, and (as I am well informed) of
about fourscore of the Nabob's children, with all the
eunuchs, the ancient servants, and a multitude of the
dependants of his splendid court. These were all to
be provided, for present maintenance and future establishment, from the lands assigned as dower, and
from the treasures which he left to these matrons, in
trust for the whole family.
So far as to the objects of the spoil. The instrument
chosen by Mr. Hastings to despoil the relict of Sujah
Dowlah was her own son, the reigning Nabob of Oude.
It was the pious hand of a son that was selected to
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 477
tear from his mother and grandmother the provision
of their age, the maintenance of his brethren, and of
all the ancient household of his father. [Here a
laugh from some young members. ] The laugh is seasonable, and the occasion decent and proper.
By the last advices, something of the sum extorted remained unpaid. The women, in despair, refuse
to deliver more, unless their lands are restored, and
their ministers released from prison; but Mr. Hastings and his council, steady to their point, and consistent to the last in their conduct, write to the
resident to stimulate the son to accomplish the filial
acts he had brought so near to their perfection. " We
desire," say they in their letter to the resident,
(written so late as March last,) "' that you will inform us if any, and what means, have been taken for
recovering the balance due from the Begum [Princess] at Fyzabad; and that, if necessary, you recommend it to the vizier to enforce the most effectual means for that purpose. "
What their effectual means of enforcing demands
on women of high rank and. condition are I shall show
you, Sir, in a few minutes, when I represent to you
another of these plots and rebellions, which always in
India, though so rarely anywhere else, are the offspring of at easy condition and hoarded riches.
Benares is the capital city of the Indian religion.
It is regarded as holy by a particular and distinguished sanctity; and the Gentoos in general think
themselves as much obliged to visit it once in their
lives as the Mahometans to perform their pilgrimage.
to Mecca. By this means that city grew great in
commerce and opulence; and so effectually was it
secured by the pious veneration of that people, that:
? ? ? ? 478 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
in all wars and in all violences of power there was
so sure an asylum both for poverty and wealth, (as it
were under a divine protection,) that the wisest laws
and best assured free constitution could not better
provide for the relief of the one or the safety of the
other; and this tranquillity influenced to the greatest degree the prosperity, of all the country, and the
territory of which it was the capital. The interest of
money there was not more than half the usual rate in
which it stood in all other places. The reports have
fully informed you of the means and of the terms in
which this city and the territory called Ghazipoor, of
which it was the head, came under the sovereignty
of the East India Company.
If ever there was a subordinate dominion pleasantly circumstanced to the superior power, it was
this. A large rent or tribute, to the amount of two
hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year, was paid
in monthly instalments with the punctuality of a dividend at the Bank. If ever there was a prince who
could not have an interest in disturbances, it was-its
sovereign, the Rajah Cheit Sing. He was in possession of the capital of his religion, and a willing revenue was paid by the devout people who resorted to him from all parts. His sovereignty and his independence, except his tribute, was secured by every
tie. His territory was not much less than half of
Ireland, and displayed in all parts a degree of cultivation, ease, and plenty, under his frugal and paternal
management, which left him nothing to desire, either
~for honor or satisfaction.
This was the light in which this country appeared
to almost every eye. But Mr. Hastings beheld it
askance. Mr. Hastings tells us that it was reported of
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 479
this Cheit Sing, that his father left him a million sterling, and that he made annual accessions to the hoard.
Nothing could be so obnoxious to indigent power. So
much wealth could not be innocent. The House is
fully acquainted with the unfounded and unjust requisitions which were made upon this prince. The
question has been most ably and conclusively cleared
up in one of the reports of the select committee, and
in an answer of the Court of Directors to an extraordinary publication against them by their servant, Mr.
Hastings. But I mean to pass by these exactions as
if they were perfectly just and regular; and having
admitted them, I take what I shall now trouble you
with only as it serves to show the spirit of the Company's government, the mode in which it is carried
on, and the maxims on which it proceeds.
Mr. Hastings, from whom I take the doctrine, endeavors to prove that Cheit Sing was no sovereign
prince, but a mere zemindar, or common subject,
holding land by rent. If this be granted to him, it
is next to be seen under what terms he is of opinion
such a landholder, that is a British subject, holds his
life and property under the Company's government.
It is proper to understand well the doctrines of the
person whose administration has lately received such
distinguished approbation from the Company. His
doctrine is, -" That the Company, or the person delegated by it, holds an absolute authority over such zemindars;-that he [such a subject] owes an implicit and unreserved obedience to its authority, at the forfeiture even of his life and property, at the DISCRETION
of those who held or fully represented the sovereign
authority;- and that these rights are fully delegated'
to him, Mr. Hastings. "
? ? ? ? 480 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
Such is a British governor's idea of the condition
of a great zemindar holding. under a British authority; and this kind of authority he supposes fully delegated to him, -though no such delegation appears in any commission, instruction, or act of Parliament.
At his discretion he may demand of the substance of
any zemindar, over and above his rent or tribute, even
what he pleases, with a sovereign authority; and if he
does not yield an implicit, unreserved obedience to all
his commands, he forfeits his lands, his life, and his
property, at Mr. HIastingss discretion. But, extravagant, and even frantic, as these positions appear, they
are less so than what I shall now read to you; for he
asserts, that, if any one should urge an exemption
from more than a stated payments or should consider
the deeds which passed between him and the Board
" as bearing the quality and force of a treaty between
equal states," he says, " that such an opinion is itself
criminal to the state of which he is a subject; and
that he was himself amenable to its justice, if he gave
countenance to such a belief. " Here is a new species
of crime invented, that of countenancing a belief,but a belief of what? A belief of that which the
Court of Directors, Hastings's masters, and a committee of this House, have decided as this prince's indisputable right.
But supposing the Rajah of Benares to be a mere
subject, and that subject a criminal of the highest
form;_let us see what course was taken by an upright English magistrate. Did he cite this culprit before his tribunal? Did he make a charge? Did he produce witnesses? These are not forms; they are
parts of substantial and eternal justice. No, not a
word of all this.
prevent this, they desired an article to be inserted in
the supplemental treaty, to which they had the ready
consent of Mr. Hastings, and the rest of the Company's representatives in Bengal. It was this: "' That
the English and Mahratta governments mutually agree
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 459
not to afford refuge to any chiefs, merchants, or other
persons, flying for protection to the territories of the
other. " This was readily assented to, and assented
to without any exception whatever in favor of our
surrendered allies. On their part a reciprocity was
stipulated which was not unnatural for a government
like the Company's to ask, - a government conscious
that many subjects had been, and would in future
be, driven to fly from its jurisdiction.
To complete the system of pacific intention and
public faith which predominate in these treaties, Mr.
Hastings fairly resolved to put all peace, except on
the terms of absolute conquest, wholly out of his
own power. For, by an article in this second treaty
with Scindia, he binds the Company not to make any
peace with Tippoo Sahib without the consent of the
Peishwa of the Mahrattas, and binds Scindia to him
by a reciprocal engagement. The treaty between
France and England obliges us mutually to withdraw our forces, if our allies in India do not accede
to the peace within four months; Mr. Hastings's
treaty obliges us to continue the war as long as the
Peishwa thinks fit. We are now in that happy situation, that the breach of the treaty with France, or
the violation of that with the Mahrattas, is inevitable;
and we have only to take our choice.
My third assertion, relative to the abuse made of
the right of war and peace, is, that there are none'who
have ever confided in us who have not been utterly
ruined. The examples I have given of Ragonaut
Row, of Guickwar, of the Rana of Gohud, are recent.
There is proof rtore than enough in the condition of. the Mogul, -in the slavery and indigence of the Nabob of Oude, -the exile of the Rajah of Benares, -
? ? ? ? 4'30 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S'XEAST INDIA. . BILL.
the beggary of the Nabob of Bengal,- the undone and
captive condition of the Rajah and kingdom of Tanjore, - the destruction of the Polygars, - and, lastly,. in the destruction of the Nabob of Arcot himself, who, when his dominions were invaded, was found entirely
destitute of troops, provisions, stores, and (as he asserts). of money, being a million in debt to the Company, and four millions to others: the many millions which he had extorted from so many extirpated princes
and their desolated countries having (as he -has frequently hinted) been expended for the ground-rent
of his mansion-house. in an alley in the suburbs of
Madras. Compare the condition of all these princes
with the power -and authority. of all the Mahratta
states, with the independence and dignity of the
Sllbah of the Deccan, and the mighty strength, the
resources, and the. manly struggle of Hyder Ali, --
and then the House will discover the effects, on every
power in India, of an easy confidence or of a rooted
distrust in the faith of. the Company.
These are some of my reasons, grounded on the
abuse of the external political trust of that body,. for
thinking myself not only justified, but bound, to declare against those chartered rights which produce
so many wrongs. I should deem myself the wickedest of men, if any vote of mine could contribute-. to
the continuance of so great an evil.
Now, Sir, according to. the plan I proposed,. I shall
take notice of the Company's internal government, as
it is exercised first on the dependent provinces, and
thenas it affects those under the direct and immediate authority of that body. . And lere, Sir, before I
enter into the spirit of -their interior government,
permit me to observe to you upon a few of the many
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIAI,BILL. 161
lines of difference which are to be found between the
vices of the Company's government and those of the
conquerors who preceded us in India, that we may
be enabled a little the better; to see our way in an
attempt to the necessary reformation.
~ The several irruptions of Arabs, Tartars, and -Persians into India were, for the greater part, ferocious,
bloody, aid wasteful in the extreme: our entrance
into the dominion of that country was, as generally,
with small comparative effusion of blood, - being introduced by various frauds and delusions,. and by taking advantage of -the incurable, blind, and senseless animosity which the several country powers bear towards each other,-rather than by open force. But
the difference in favor of the first conquerors is this.
The Asiatic conquerors very soon abated of their ferocity, because they made the conquered country their
own. They rose or fell with the rise or fall of the
territory they lived in. Fathers there deposited the
hopes of their posterity;. and children there beheld
the monuments of their fathers. Here their -lot was
finally cast; and it is the natural wish of all that
their lot should not be cast in a bad land. Poverty,
sterility, and desolation are not a recreating prospect
to. the eye of man; and there are very few who can
bear to grow old among the curses of a whole people.
If their passion or their avarice drove the Tartar lords
to acts. of rapacity or tyranny, there was time enough,
even in the short life of man, to bring round the ill
effects of an abuse of power upon the power itself.
If. hoards were made by violence and tyranny, they
-were still domestic hoards; and domestic profusion,
or the rapine of a more powerful and prodigal hand,
restored them to the people. With many disorders,
? ? ? ? 462 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
and with few political checks upon power, Nature had
still fair play; the sources of acquisition were not
dried up; and therefore the trade, the manufactures,
and the commerce of the country flourished. Even
avarice and usury itself operated both for the preservation and the employment of national wealth. The husbandman and manufacturer paid heavy interest,
but then they augmented the fund from whence they
were again to borrow. . Their resources were dearly
bought, but they were sure; and the general stock of
the community grew by the general effort.
But under the English government all this order
is reversed. The Tartar invasion was mischievous;
but it is our protection that destroys India. It was
their enmity; but it is our friendship. Our conquest
there, after twenty years, is as crude as it was the
first day. The natives scarcely know what it is -to see
the gray head of an Englishman. Young men (boys
almost) govern there, without society and without
sympathy with the natives. They have no more social
habits with the people than if, they still resided in
England, -- nor, indeed, any species of intercourse,
but that which is necessary to making a sudden fortune, with a view to a remote settlement. Animated with all the avarice of age and all the impetuosity of
youth, they roll in one after another, wave after wave;
and'there is nothing before the eyes of the natives but
an endless, hopeless prospect of new flights of birds of
prey and passage, with appetites continually renewing
for a food that is continually wasting. Every rupee
of profit made by an Englishman is lost forever to
India. With us are no retributory superstitions, by
which a foundation of charity compensates, through
ages, to the poor, for the rapine and injustice of a
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 463
day. With us no pride erects stately monuments
which repair the mischiefs which pride had produced,
and which adorn a country out of its own spoils.
England has erected no churches, no hospitals,* no
palaces, no schools; Ellgland has built no bridges,
made no high-roads, cut no navigations, dug out no
reservoirs. Every other conqueror of every other description has left some monument, either of state or
beneficence, behind him. Were we to be driven out,of India this day, nothing would remain to tell that
it had been possessed, during the inglorious period
of our dominion, by anything better than the orang
outang or the tiger.
There is nothing in the boys we send to India
worse than in the boys whom we are. whipping at
school, or that we see trailing a pike or bending over
a desk at home. But as English youth in India drink
the intoxicating draught of authority and dominion
before their heads are able to bear it, and as they are
full grown in fortune long before they are ripe in principle, neither Nature nor reason have any opportunity to exert themselves for remedy of the excesses of their pr6mature power. The consequences of
their conduct, which in good minds (and many of
theirs are probably such) might produce penitence or
amendment, are unable to pursue the rapidity of
their flight. Their prey is lodged in England; and
the cries of India are given to seas and winds, to be
blown about, in every breaking up of the monsoon,
over a remote and unhearing ocean. In India all the
vices operate by which sudden fortune is acquired:
in England are often displayed, by the same persons,
* The paltry foundation at Calcutta is scarcely worth naming as
an exception.
? ? ? ? 464 SPEECII ON MIR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
the virtues which dispense hereditary wealth. Arrived in England, the destroyers of the nobility and
gentry of a whole kingdom will find the best company
in this nation at a board of elegance and hospitality.
Here the manufacturer and husbandman will bless
the just and punctual hand that in India has torn the
cloth from the loom, or wrested the scanty portion of
rice and salt from the peasant of Bengal, or wrung
from him the very opium in which he forgot his oppressions and his oppressor. They marry into your. families; they enter into your senate; they ease your estates by loans; they raise their value by demand;
they cherish and protect your relations which lie heavy
on your patronage; and there is scarcely an house in
the kingdom that does not feel some concern and
interest that. makes all reform of our Eastern government appear officious and disgusting, and, on the
whole, a most discouraging attempt. In such an attempt you hurt those who are able to return kindness
or to resent injury. If you succeed, you save those
who cannot so much as give you thanks. All these
things show the difficulty of the work we have on
hand: but they show its necessity, too. Our Indian
government is in its best state a grievance. It is necessary that the correctives should be uncommonly
vigorous, and the work of men sanguine, warm, and
even impassioned in the cause. But it is an arduous
thing to plead against abuses of a power which originates from your own country, and affects those whom
we are used to consider as strangers.
I shall certainly endeavor to modulate myself to
this temper; though I am sensible that a cold style'
of describing actions, which appear to me in a very
affecting light, is equally contrary to the justice due
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA -BILL. 465
to the people and to all genuine human feelings
about them. I ask pardon of truth and Nature for
this compliance. But I shall be very sparing of epithets either to persons or things. It has been said, (and, with regard to one of them, with truth,) that
Tacitus and Machiavel, by their cold way of relating enormous crimes, have in some sort appeared not to disapprove them; that they seem a sort of professors of the art of tyranny; and that they corrupt the minds of their readers by not expressing the detestation and horror that naturally belong to horrible and detestable proceedings. But we are in general, Sir, so little acquainted with Indian details, the instruments of oppression under which the people
suffer are so hard to be understood, and even the
very names of the sufferers are so uncouth and
strange to our ears, that it is very difficult for our
sympathy to fix upon these objects. I am sure that
some of us have come down stairs from the committee-room with impressions on our minds which to us were the inevitable results of our discoveries, yet, if
we should venture to express ourselves in the proper
language of our sentiments to other gentlemen not
at all prepared to enter into the cause of them, nothing could appear more harsh and dissonant, more violent and unaccountable, than our language and
behavior. All these circumstances are not, I confess,
very favorable to'the idea of our attempting to govern India at all. But there we are; there we are placed by the Sovereign Disposer; and we must do
the best we can in our situation. The situation of
man is the preceptor of his duty.
Upon the plan which I laid down, and to which I
beg leave to return, I was considering the conduct of
VOL. II. 30
? ? ? ? 466 SPEECH ON, MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
the Company to those nations which are indirectly
subject to their authority. The most considerable
of the dependent princes is the Nabob of Oude. My
right honorable friend,* to whom we owe the remedial bills on your table, has already pointed out to
you, in one of the reports, the condition of that
prince, and as it stood in the time he alluded to. I
shall only add a few circumstances that may tend to
awaken some sense of the manner in which the condition of the people is affected by that of the prince,
and involved in it, - and to show you, that, when we
talk of the sufferings of princes, we do not lament the
oppression of individuals, i- and that in these cases the
high and the low suffer together.
In the year 1779, the Nabob of Oude represented,
thlough the British resident at his court, that the
number of Company's troops stationed in his dominions was a main cause of his distress, - and that all
those which he was not bound by treaty to maintain
should be withdrawn, as they had greatly diminished
his revenue and impoverished his country. I will
read you, if you please, a few extracts from these
representations.
He states, "that the country and cultivation are
abandoned, and this year in particular, from the
excessive drought of the season, deductions of many
lacs having been allowed to the farmers, who are
still left unsatisfied "; and then he proceeds with a
long detail of his own distress, and that of his family
and all his dependants; and adds, " that the newraised brigade is not only quite useless to my government, but is, moreover, the cause of much loss both in revenues and customs. The detached body of troops
* Mr. Fox.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 467
under European officers bring nothing but confusion
to the affairs of my government, and are entirely their
own masters. " Mr. Middleton, Mr. Hastings's confidential resident, vouches for the truth of this representation in its fullest extent. "I am concerned to confess that there is too good ground for this plea.
The misfortune has been general throughout the whole
of the vizier's [the Nabob of Oude] dominions, obvious to everybody; and so fatal have been its consequences, that no person of either credit or character would enter. into engagements with government for
farming the country. " He then proceeds to give
strong instances of the general calamity, and its
effects.
It was now to be seen what steps the Governor-General and Council took for the relief of this distressed
country, long laboring under the vexations of men,
and now stricken by the hand of God. The case of
a general famine is known to relax the severity even
of the most rigorous government. - Mr. Hastings
does not deny or show the least doubt of the fact.
The representation is humble, and almost abject. On
this representation from a great prince of the distress
of his subjects, Mr. Hastings falls into a violent passion,- such as (it seeims) would be unjustifiable in
any one who speaks of any part-of his conduct. He
declares "that the demands, the tone in which they
were asserted, and the season in which they were
made, are all equally alarming, and appear to him to
require an adequate degree of firmness in this board
in opposition to them. " He proceeds to deal out very
unreserved language on the person and character of
the Nabob and his ministers. He declares, that, in a
division between him and the Nabob, " the strongest
? ? ? ? 468 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
must decide. " With regard to the urgent and instant
necessity from the failure of the crops, he says, "that
perhaps expedients may be found for affording a grad-.
ual relief from the burden of which he so heavily
complains, and it shall be my endeavor to seek them
out": and lest he should be suspected of too much
haste to alleviate sufferings and to remove violence,
he says, "that these must be gradually applied, and
their complete effect may be distant; and this, I conceive, is all he can claim of right. "
This complete effect of his lenity is distant indeed.
Rejecting this demand, (as he calls the Nabob's abject
supplication,) he attributes it, as he usually does all
things of the kind, to the division in their government,
and says, " This is a powerful motive with me (however inclined I might be, upon any other occasion, to
yield to somepart of his demand) to give them an absolute and unconditional refusal upon the present, -- and even to bring to punishment, if my influence can produce
that effect, those incendiaries who have endeavored to
make themselves the instruments of division between us. "
Here, Sir, is much heat and passion, - but no more
consideration of the distress of the country, from a
failure of the means of subsistence, and (if possible)
the worse evil of an useless'and, licentious soldiery,
than if they were the most contemptible of all trifles.
A letter is written, in consequence, in such a style of
lofty despotism as I believe has hitherto been unexampled and unheard of in the records of the East.
The troops were continued. The' gradual. relief, whose
effect was to be so distant,' has never been substantially
and beneficially applied, - and the country is ruined.
Mr. Hastings, two years after, when it was too late,
Paw the absolute necessity of a removal of the intoler
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 469
able grievance of this licentious soldiery, which, under
pretence of defending it, held the country under military execution.
A new treaty and arrangement, according to the pleasure of Mr. Hastings, took place; and this new treaty was broken in the old manner,
in every essential article. The soldiery were again
sent, and again set loose. The effect of all his manceuvres, from which it seems he was sanguine
enough to entertain hopes, upon the state of the
country, he himself informs us, -" The event has
proved the reverse of these hopes, and accumulation
of distress, debasement, and dissatisfaction to the Nabob, and disappointment and disgrace to me. -Every
measure [which he had himself proposed] has been
so conducted as to give him cause of displeasure.
There are no officers established by which his affairs
could be regularly conducted: mean, incapable, and
indigent men have been appointed. A number of the
districts without authority, and without the means
of personal protection; some of them have been murdered by the zemindars, and those zemindars, instead
of punishment, have been permitted to retain their
zemindaries, with independent authority; all the other zemindars suffered to rise up in rebellion, and to
insult the authority of the sircar, without any attempt made to suppress them; and the Company's
debt, instead of being discharged by the assignments
and extraordinary sources of money provided for that
purpose, is likely to exceed even the amount at which it
stood at the time in which the arrangement with his Excellency was concluded. " The House will smile at the
resource on which the Directors take credit as such a
certainty in their curious account.
This is Mr. Hastings's own narrative of the effects
? ? ? ? 470 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
of his own settlement. This is the state of the coulntry which we have been told is in perfect peace and
order; and, what is curious, he informs us, that every
part of this was foretold to him'in the order and manner
in which it happened, at the very time he made his arrangement of men and measures.
The invariable course of the Company's policy is
this: either they set up some prince too odious to
maintain himself without the necessity of their assistance, or they soon render him odious by making
him the instrument of their government. In that
case troops are bountifully sent to him to maintain
his authority. That he should have no want of assistance, a civil gentleman, called a Resident, is kept at
his court, who, under pretence of providing duly for
the pay of these troops, gets assignments on the revenue into his hands. Under his provident management, debts soon accumulate; new assignments are made for these debts; until, step by step, the whole
revenue, and with it the whole power of the country,
is delivered into his hands. The military do not behold without a virtuous emulation the moderate gains
of the civil department. They feel that in a country
driven to habitual rebellion by the civil government
the military is necessary; and they will not permit
their services to go unrewarded. Tracts of country
are delivered over to their discretion. Then it is
found proper to convert their commanding officers
into farmers of revenue. Thus, between the well-paid
civil and well-rewarded military establishment, the
situation of the natives may be easily conjectured.
The authority of the regular and lawful government
is everywhere and in every point extinguished. Disorders and violences arise; they are repressed by
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 471
other disorders and other violences. Wherever the
collectors of the revenue and the farming colonels
and majors move, ruin is about them, rebellion before
and behind them. The people in crowds fly out of
the country; and the frontier is guarded by lines of
troops, not to exclude an enemy, but to prevent the
escape of the inhabitants.
By these means, in the course of not more than
four or five years, this once opulent and flourishing
country, which, by the accounts given in the Bengal
consultations, yielded more than three crore of sicca
rupees, that is, above three millions sterling, annually,
is reduced, as far as I can discover, in a matter purposely involved in the utmost perplexity, to less than one million three hundred thousand pounds, and that
exacted by every mode of rigor that can be devised.
To complete the business, most of the wretched remnants of this revenue are mortgaged, and delivered into the hands of the usurers at Benares (for there
alone are to be found some lingering remains of the
ancient wealth of these regions) at an interest of near
thirty per cent per annum.
The revenues in this manner failing, they seized
upon the estates of every person of eminence in the
country, and, under the name of resumption, confiscated their property. I wish, Sir, to be understood universally and literally, when I assert that there is
not left one man of property and substance for his
rank in the whole of these provinces, in provinces
which are nearly the extent of England and Wales
taken together: not one landholder, not one banker,
not one merchant, not one even of those who usually
perish last, the ultimum moriens in a ruined state, not
one farmer of revenue.
? ? ? ? 472 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
One country for a while remained, which stood as
an island in the midst of the grand waste of the
Company's domiaion. My right honorable friend, in
his admirable speech on moving the bill, just touched
the situation, the offences, and the punishment of a
native prince, called Fizulla Khan. This man, by
policy and force, had protected himself from the general extirpation of the Rohilla chiefs. He was secured (if that were any security) by a treaty. It was stated
to you, as it was stated by the enemies of that unfortunate man, "that the whole of his country is what thle whole country of the Rohillas was, cultivated like
a garden, without one neglected spot in it. " Another
accuser says, -" Fyzoolah Khan, though a bad soldier, [that is the true source of his misfortune,] has approved himself a good aumil, --, having, it is supposed, in the course of a few years, at least doubled the population and revenue of his country. " In another part of the correspondence he is charged with making his country an asylum for the oppressed
peasants who fly from the territories of Oude. The
improvement of his revenue, arising from this single
crime, (which Mr. Hastings considers as tantamount
to treason,) is stated at an hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year.
Dr. Swift somewhere says, that he who could make
two blades of grass grow where but one grew before
was a greater benefactor to the human race than all
the politicians that ever existed. This prince, who
would have been deified -by antiquity, who would
have been ranked with Osiris, and Bacchus, and
Ceres, and the divinities most propitious to men,
was, for those very merits, by name attacked by the
Company's government, as a cheat, a robber, a traitor.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 473
In the same breath in which he was accused as a
rebel, he was ordered at once to furnish five thousand horse. On delay, or (according to the technical
phrase, when any remonstrance is made to them) ~' on
evasion," -he was declared a violator of treaties, and
everything he had was to be taken from him. Not
one word, however, of horse in this treaty.
The territory of this Fizulla'Khn, Mr. Speaker,
is less than the County of Norfolk. It -is an inland
country, full seven hundred miles from any seaport,
and not distinguished for any one considerable branch
of manufacture whatsoever. From this territory several very considerable sums had at several times been
paid to the British resident. The demand of cavalry,
without a shadow or decent pretext of right, amounted to three hundred thousand a year more, at the lowest computation; and it is stated, by the last person sent to negotiate, as a demand of little use, if it could
be complied with,- but that the compliance was impossible, as it amounted to more than his territories
could supply, if there had been no other demand
upon him. Three hundred thousand pounds a year
from an inland country not so large as Norfolk!
The thing most extraordinary was to hear the
culprit defend himself from the imputation of his
virtues, as if they had been the blackest offences.
He extenuated the superior cultivation of his couintry. He denied its population. He endeavored to
prove that he had often sent' back the poor peasant
that sought shelter with him. - I can make no observation on this.
After a variety of extortions and vexations, too fatiguing to you, too disgusting to me, to go through
with, they found "that they ought to be in a bet.
? ? ? ? 474 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
ter state to warrant forcible means"; they therefore
contented themselves with a gross sum of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds for their present
demand. They offered him, indeed, an indemnity
from their exactions in future for three hundred
thousand pounds more. But he refused to buy their
securities, - pleading (probably with truth) his poverty; but if the plea were not founded, in my opinion very wisely: not choosing to deal anly more in that dangerous commodity of the Company's faith;
and thinking it better to oppose distress and unarmed
obstinacy to uncolored exaction than to subject himself to be considered as a cheat, if he should make a
treaty in the least beneficial to himself.
Thus they executed an exemplary punishment on
Fizulla Khan for the culture of his country. But,
conscious that the prevention of evils is the great object of all good regulation, they deprived him of the
means of increasing that criminal cultivation in future,
by exhausting his coffers; and that the population of
his country should no more be a standing reproach
and libel on the Company's government, they bound
him by a positive engagement not to afford any shelter whatsoever to the farmers and laborers who should
seek refuge in his territories from the exactions of the
British residents in Oude. When they had done all
this effectually, they gave him a full and complete
acquittance from all charges of rebellion, or of any
intention to rebel, or of his having originally had any
interest in, or any means of, rebellion.
These intended rebellions are one of the Company's
standing resources. When money has been thought
to be heaped up anywhere, its owners are universally
accused of rebellion, until they are acquitted of their
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 475
money and their treasons at once. The money once
taken, all accusation, trial, and punishment ends. It
is so settled a resource, that I rather wonder how it
comes to be omitted in the Directors' account; but I
take it for granted this omission will be supplied in
their next edition.
The Company stretched this resource to the full
extent, when they accused two'old women, in the remotest corner of India, (who could have no possible view or motive to raise disturbances,) of being engaged in rebellion, with an intent to drive out the English nation, in whose protection, purchased by
money and secured by treaty, rested the sole hope of
their existence. But the Company wanted money,
and the old women must be guilty of a plot. They
were accused of rebellion, and they were convicted
of wealth. Twice had great sums been extorted from
them, and as often had the British faith guarantied
the remainder. A body of British troops, with one
of the military farmers-general at their head, was sent
to seize upon the castle in which these helpless women
resided. Their chief eunuchs, who were their agents,
their guardians, protectors, persons of high rank according to the Eastern manners, and of great trust, were thrown into dungeons, to make them discover
their hidden treasures; and there they lie at present.
The lands assigned for the maintenance of the women
were seized and confiscated. Their jewels and effects
were taken, and set up to a pretended auction in an
obscure place, and bought'at such a price as the gentlemen thought proper to give. No account has ever been transmitted of the articles or produce of this sale.
What money was obtained is unknown, or what terms
were stipulated for the maintenance of these despoiled
? ? ? ? 476 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
and forlorn creatures: for by some particulars it appears as if an engagement of the kind was made.
Let me here remark, once for all, that though the
act of 1773 requires that an account of all proceedings should be diligently transmitted, that this, like
all the other injunctions of the law, is totally despised,
and that half at least of the most important papers
are intentionally withheld.
I wish you, Sir, to advert particularly, in this transaction, to the quality and the numbers of the persons
spoiled, and the instrument by whom that spoil was
made. These ancient matrons, called the Begums,
or Princesses, were of the first birth and quality in
India: the one mother, the other wife, of the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah Dowlah, a prince possessed of extensive and flourishing dominions, and the second man in the Mogul Empire. This prince (suspicious,
and not unjustly suspicious, of his son and successor)
at his death committed his treasures and his family
to the British faith. That family and household consisted of two thousand women, to which were added
two other seraglios of near kindred, and said to be extremely numerous, and (as I am well informed) of
about fourscore of the Nabob's children, with all the
eunuchs, the ancient servants, and a multitude of the
dependants of his splendid court. These were all to
be provided, for present maintenance and future establishment, from the lands assigned as dower, and
from the treasures which he left to these matrons, in
trust for the whole family.
So far as to the objects of the spoil. The instrument
chosen by Mr. Hastings to despoil the relict of Sujah
Dowlah was her own son, the reigning Nabob of Oude.
It was the pious hand of a son that was selected to
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 477
tear from his mother and grandmother the provision
of their age, the maintenance of his brethren, and of
all the ancient household of his father. [Here a
laugh from some young members. ] The laugh is seasonable, and the occasion decent and proper.
By the last advices, something of the sum extorted remained unpaid. The women, in despair, refuse
to deliver more, unless their lands are restored, and
their ministers released from prison; but Mr. Hastings and his council, steady to their point, and consistent to the last in their conduct, write to the
resident to stimulate the son to accomplish the filial
acts he had brought so near to their perfection. " We
desire," say they in their letter to the resident,
(written so late as March last,) "' that you will inform us if any, and what means, have been taken for
recovering the balance due from the Begum [Princess] at Fyzabad; and that, if necessary, you recommend it to the vizier to enforce the most effectual means for that purpose. "
What their effectual means of enforcing demands
on women of high rank and. condition are I shall show
you, Sir, in a few minutes, when I represent to you
another of these plots and rebellions, which always in
India, though so rarely anywhere else, are the offspring of at easy condition and hoarded riches.
Benares is the capital city of the Indian religion.
It is regarded as holy by a particular and distinguished sanctity; and the Gentoos in general think
themselves as much obliged to visit it once in their
lives as the Mahometans to perform their pilgrimage.
to Mecca. By this means that city grew great in
commerce and opulence; and so effectually was it
secured by the pious veneration of that people, that:
? ? ? ? 478 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
in all wars and in all violences of power there was
so sure an asylum both for poverty and wealth, (as it
were under a divine protection,) that the wisest laws
and best assured free constitution could not better
provide for the relief of the one or the safety of the
other; and this tranquillity influenced to the greatest degree the prosperity, of all the country, and the
territory of which it was the capital. The interest of
money there was not more than half the usual rate in
which it stood in all other places. The reports have
fully informed you of the means and of the terms in
which this city and the territory called Ghazipoor, of
which it was the head, came under the sovereignty
of the East India Company.
If ever there was a subordinate dominion pleasantly circumstanced to the superior power, it was
this. A large rent or tribute, to the amount of two
hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year, was paid
in monthly instalments with the punctuality of a dividend at the Bank. If ever there was a prince who
could not have an interest in disturbances, it was-its
sovereign, the Rajah Cheit Sing. He was in possession of the capital of his religion, and a willing revenue was paid by the devout people who resorted to him from all parts. His sovereignty and his independence, except his tribute, was secured by every
tie. His territory was not much less than half of
Ireland, and displayed in all parts a degree of cultivation, ease, and plenty, under his frugal and paternal
management, which left him nothing to desire, either
~for honor or satisfaction.
This was the light in which this country appeared
to almost every eye. But Mr. Hastings beheld it
askance. Mr. Hastings tells us that it was reported of
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 479
this Cheit Sing, that his father left him a million sterling, and that he made annual accessions to the hoard.
Nothing could be so obnoxious to indigent power. So
much wealth could not be innocent. The House is
fully acquainted with the unfounded and unjust requisitions which were made upon this prince. The
question has been most ably and conclusively cleared
up in one of the reports of the select committee, and
in an answer of the Court of Directors to an extraordinary publication against them by their servant, Mr.
Hastings. But I mean to pass by these exactions as
if they were perfectly just and regular; and having
admitted them, I take what I shall now trouble you
with only as it serves to show the spirit of the Company's government, the mode in which it is carried
on, and the maxims on which it proceeds.
Mr. Hastings, from whom I take the doctrine, endeavors to prove that Cheit Sing was no sovereign
prince, but a mere zemindar, or common subject,
holding land by rent. If this be granted to him, it
is next to be seen under what terms he is of opinion
such a landholder, that is a British subject, holds his
life and property under the Company's government.
It is proper to understand well the doctrines of the
person whose administration has lately received such
distinguished approbation from the Company. His
doctrine is, -" That the Company, or the person delegated by it, holds an absolute authority over such zemindars;-that he [such a subject] owes an implicit and unreserved obedience to its authority, at the forfeiture even of his life and property, at the DISCRETION
of those who held or fully represented the sovereign
authority;- and that these rights are fully delegated'
to him, Mr. Hastings. "
? ? ? ? 480 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
Such is a British governor's idea of the condition
of a great zemindar holding. under a British authority; and this kind of authority he supposes fully delegated to him, -though no such delegation appears in any commission, instruction, or act of Parliament.
At his discretion he may demand of the substance of
any zemindar, over and above his rent or tribute, even
what he pleases, with a sovereign authority; and if he
does not yield an implicit, unreserved obedience to all
his commands, he forfeits his lands, his life, and his
property, at Mr. HIastingss discretion. But, extravagant, and even frantic, as these positions appear, they
are less so than what I shall now read to you; for he
asserts, that, if any one should urge an exemption
from more than a stated payments or should consider
the deeds which passed between him and the Board
" as bearing the quality and force of a treaty between
equal states," he says, " that such an opinion is itself
criminal to the state of which he is a subject; and
that he was himself amenable to its justice, if he gave
countenance to such a belief. " Here is a new species
of crime invented, that of countenancing a belief,but a belief of what? A belief of that which the
Court of Directors, Hastings's masters, and a committee of this House, have decided as this prince's indisputable right.
But supposing the Rajah of Benares to be a mere
subject, and that subject a criminal of the highest
form;_let us see what course was taken by an upright English magistrate. Did he cite this culprit before his tribunal? Did he make a charge? Did he produce witnesses? These are not forms; they are
parts of substantial and eternal justice. No, not a
word of all this.
