The works of the Right
Honorable
Edmund Burke.
Edmund Burke
are the Kanongoes, who
hold their places for life, to be the conservators of the
canons, customs, and good usages of the country: all
these, as::well as the Cadi and. the Mufti, hold their
places and situations, not during the wanton pleasure
of the prince, but on permanent and fixed terms for
life. All. ;these powers of magistracy, revenue, and
law are all different, consequently not delegated in
the whole to any one person.
This is the provincial constitution, and these the,
laws of iBengal; which proves, if there were no other
proof, by the division of the functions and authorities,
that the isupreme\ power of the state in the Mogul
empire did by no means delegate to any of its officers the supreme power in its fulness. Whether or
no we have delegated to Mr. 'Hastings the supreme
power of King and Parliament, that he should act
with the plenitude of authority of the British legislature, you are to judge. : Mr. Hastings has no- refuge here. Let him run from: law to. law; let him fly from the common law
and the sacred institutions of the country in which
he was born;let him fly from acts of Parliament,
from which. his power originated; let him plead his
ignorance' of them, or fly in the face of them, Will
he fly to; the Mahomedan law? That condemns him. .
Will he fly to the high magistracy of Asia to defend~
taking of presents? Padishah and the Sultan wouldi
condemn himn to a cruel death. Will he fly to the:
VOL. IX. 31
? ? ? ? 482 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Sophis, to the laws of Persia, or to the practice of
those monarchs? I cannot utter the pains, the tortures, that would be inflicted on him, if he were to
govern there as he has done in a British province.
Let him fly where he will, from law to law; law, I
thank God, meets him everywhere, and enforced, too,
by the practice of the most impious tyrants, which he
quotes as if it would justify his conduct. I would as
willingly have him tried by the law of the Koran, or
the Institutes of Tamerlane, as on the common law
or statute law of this kingdom.
The next question is, whether the Gentoo laws
justify arbitrary power: and if he finds any sanctuary there, let him take it, with the cow in the pagoda.
The Gent6os have a law which positively proscribes
in magistrates any idea of will, - a law with which,
or. rather with extracts of it, that gentleman himself
has furnished us. These people in many points are
governed by their own ancient written law, called the
Shaster. Its interpreters and judges are the Pundits.
This law is comprehensive, extending to all the coneerns of life, affording principles and maxims and legal theories applicable to all cases, drawn from the sources of natural equity, modified by their institutions, full of refinement and subtilty of distinction
equal to that of any other law, and has the grand test
of all law, that, wherever it has prevailed, the country
has been populous, flourishing, and happy.
Upon the whole, then, follow him where you will,
let him have Eastern or Western law, you find everywhere arbitrary power and peculation of governors
proscribed and horribly punished,-'more so than I
should ever wish to punish any, the most guilty,
human creature. And if this be the case, as I hope
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 483
and trust it has been proved to your Lordships, that.
there is law in these countries, that there is no delegation of power which exempts a governor from the law,
then I say at any rate a British governor is to answer
for his conduct, and cannot be justified by wicked
examples and profligate practices.
But another thing which he says is, that he was left
to himself, to govern himself by his own practice:
that is to say, when he had taken one bribe, he might
take another; when he had robbed one mall of his
property, he might rob another; when he had imprisoned one man arbitrarily, and extorted money from
him, he might do so by another. He resorts at first
to the practice of barbarians and usurpers; at last he
comes to his own. Now, if your Lordships will try
him by such maxims and principles, he is certainly
clear: for there is no manner of doubt that there is
nothing he has practised once which he has not practised again; and then the repetition of crimes becomes the means of his indemnity.
The next pleas he urges are not so much in bar of
the impeachment as in extenuation. The first are to
be laid by as claims to be made on motion for arrest
of judgment, the others as an extenuation or mitigation of his fine. He says, and with a kind of triumph,
" The ministry of this country have great legal assistance,-commercial lights of the greatest commercial city in the world, -- the greatest generals and officers to guide and direct them in military affairs:
whereas I, poor man, was sent almost a school-boy
from England, or at least little better, - sent to find
my way in that new world as well as I could. I had
no men of the law, no legal assistance, to supply my
deficiencies. " At Sphingem habebas do. mi. Had he
? ? ? ? 484 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
not the chief-justice, the tamed and domesticated
chief-justice, who waited on him like a familiar spirit,
whom he takes from province to province, his aman.
uensis at home, his postilion and riding express
abroad?
Such a declaration would in some measure suit
persons who had acted much otherwise than Mr.
Hastings. When a man pleads ignorance in justification of his conduct, it ought to be an humble, modest, unpresuming ignorance, an ignorance which may have made him lax and timid in the exercise of his
duty; but an assuming, rash, presumptuous, confident, daring, desperate, and disobedient ignorance
heightens every crime that it accompanies. Mr.
Hastings, if through ignorance he left some of the
Company's orders unexecuted, because he did not
understand them, might well say, " I was an ignorant
man, and these things were above my capacity. " But
when he understands them, and when he declares he
will not obey them, positively and dogmatically, --
when he -says,' as he has said, and we shall prove it,
that he never succeeds better than when he acts in an utter defiance of those orders, and sets at nought the laws
of his country, -I believe this will not be thought the
language of an ignorant man. But I beg your Lordships' pardon: it is the language of an ignorant man;
for no man who. Was not full of a bold, determined,
profligate ignorance could ever think of such a system
of defence. He quitted Westminster School almost
a boy. ' We have reason to regret that he did not finish his education in that noble seminary, which has
giren so'many luminaries to the Church and ornaments to the State. Greatly it is to be lamented that
lhe did not go;to those Universities where arbitrary
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -- SECOND DAY. 485
power will I hope never be heard of, but the true
principles of religion, of liberty, and law will ever be
inculcated, instead of studying in the school of Cossim Ali Khan.
If he had lived with us, he would have quoted
the example of Cicero in his government, he would
have quoted several of the sacred and holy prophets,
and made them his example. His want of learning,
profane as well as sacred, reduces him to the necessity of appealing to every name and authority of barbarism, tyranny, and usurpation that are to be found; and from these he says, "From the practice of one
part of Asia or other I have taken my rule. " But
your Lordships will show him that in Asia as well as
in Europe the same law of nations prevails, the same
principles are continually resorted to, and the same
maxims sacredly held and strenuously maintained,
and, however disobeyed, no man suffers from the
breach of them who does not know how and where to
complain of that breach, - that Asia is enlightened
in that respect as well as Europe; but if it were totally blinded, that England would send out governors to
teach them better, and that he must justify himself to
the piety, the truth, the faith of England, and not by
having recourse to the crimes and criminals of other
countries, to the barbarous tyranny of Asia, or any
other part of the world.
I will go further with Mr. Hastings, and admit,
that, if there be a boy in the fourth form of Westminster School, or any school in England, who does not
know, when these articles are read to him, that he
has been guilty of gross and enormous crimes, he
may have the shelter of his present plea, as far as it
will serve him. There are none of us, thank God, so
? ? ? ? 486 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
uninstructed, who have learned our catechisms or
the first elements of Christianity, who do not know
that such conduct is not to be justified, and least of
all by examples.
There is another topic he takes up more seriously,
and as a general rebutter to the charge. Says he,
" After a great many of these practices with which I
am charged, Parliament appointed me to my trust,
and consequently has acquitted me. " -Has it, my
Lords? I am bold to say that the Commons are
wholly guiltless of this charge. I will admit, if Parliament, on a full state of his offences before them, and
full examination of those offences, had appointed him
to the government, that then the people of India and
England would have just reason to exclaim against
so flagitious a proceeding. A sense of propriety and
decorum might have restrained us from prosecuting.
They might have been restrained by some sort of decorum from pursuing him criminally. But the Commons stand before your Lordships without shame. First, in their name we solemnly assure your Lordships that we had not in our Parliamentary capacity
(and most of us, myself I can say surely, heard very
little, and that in confused rumors) the slightest
knowledge of any one of the acts charged upon this
criminal at either of the times of his being appointed
to office, and that we were not guilty of the nefarious
act of collusion and flagitious breach of trust with
which he presumes obliquely to charge us; but from
the moment we knew them, we never ceased to condemn them by reports, by votes, by resolutions, and
that we admonished and declared it to be the duty of
the Court of Directors to take measures for his recall,
and when frustrated in the way known to that court
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 487
we then proceeded to an inquiry. Your Lordships
know whether you were better informed. We are,
therefore, neither guilty of the precedent crime of
colluding with the criminal, nor the subsequent indecorum of prosecuting what we had virtually and practically approved. Secondly, several of his worst crimes have been
committed since the last Parliamentary renewal of
his trust, as appears by the dates in the charge.
But I believe, my Lords, the judges --judges to
others, grave and weighty counsellors and assistants
to your Lordships- will not, on reference, assert to
your Lordships, (which God forbid, *and we cannot
conceive, or hardly state in argument, if but for argument,) that, if one of the judges had received
bribes before his appointment to an higher judiciary
office, he would not still be open to prosecution.
So far from admitting it as a plea in bar, we
charge, and we hope your Lordships will find it an
extreme aggravation of his offences, that no favors
heaped upon him could make him grateful, no renewed and repeated trusts could make him faithful
and honest.
We have now gone through most of the general
topics.
But he is not responsible, as being thanked by the
Court of Dir'ectors. He has had the thanks and approbatiol of the India Company for his services. - We
know too well here, I trust the world knows, and you
will always assert, that a pardon from the crown is
not pleadable here, that it cannot bar the impeachment of the Commons, -- much less a pardon of the
East India Company, though it may involve them in
guilt which might induce us to punish them for such
? ? ? ? 488 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a pardon. If any corporation by collusion with criminals refuse to do their duty in coercing. them, the
magistrates are answerable.
It is the use, virtue, and efficacy of Parliamentary
judicial procedure, that it puts an end to this dominion of faction, intrigue, cabal, and clandestine intelligences. The acts of men are put to their proper test, and the works of darkness tried in the face of
day, - not the corrupted opinions of others on them,
but their own intrinsic merits. We charge it as his
crime, that he bribed the Court of Directors to thank
him for what they had condemned as breaches of, his
duty.
The East India Company, it is true,, have thanked
him. They ought not to have done it; and it is a
reflection upon their character that they did it. But
the Directors praise him in the gross, after having
condemned each act in detail. His actions are all,
every one, censured one by one as they arise. I do
not recollect any one transaction, few there are, I am
sure, in the whole body of that succession of crimes
now brought before you for your judgment, in which
the India Company have not censured him. Nay, in
one instance. he pleads- their censure in bar of this
trial;* for he says, " In that censure I have already
received my punishment. " If, for any other reasons,
they come and say, "We thank you, Sir, for all,,your
services," to that I answer, Yes; and Iwould thank
him for his services,:too, if I knew them. But I do
not; -perhaps they do. Let them thank him for
those services. I am ordered to prosecute him for
these crimes. Here, therefore, we are on a balance
with'the India Company; and your Lordships may
* See Mr. Hastings's answer to the first charge.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 489
perhaps:think it some addition to his crimes, that
he has found means to obtain the thanks of the India
Company for the whole of his conduct, at the same
time that their records are full of constant, uniform,
particular censure and reprobation of every one of
those acts for which he now stands accused.
He says, there is the testimony of Indian princes
in his favor. But do we not know how seals are obtained in that country? Do we not know how those princes are imposed upon? Do we not know the sub-jection and thraldoin in which they are held, and that they are obliged to return thanks for the sufferings which they have felt? I believe your Lordships will think that there is not, with regard to some of
these princes, a more dreadful thing that can be said
of them than that he has obtained their thanks.
I understand he has obtained the thanks of the
miserable Princesses of Oude, whom he has cruelly
imprisoned, whose treasure he has seized, and whose
eunuchs he has tortured. * They thank him for going
away; they thank him for leaving them the smallest
trifle of their subsistence; and I venture to say, if
he wanted a hundred more panegyrics, provided he
never came again among them, he might have them.
I understand that Mahdajee Sindia has made his
panegyric, too. Mahdajee Sindia has not made his
panegyric for nothing; for, if your Lordships will
suffer him to enter into such a justification, we shall
prove that. he has sacrificed the dignity of this country and the interests of all its allies to that prince. We appear here neither with panegyric nor with
satire; it is for substantial crimes we bring him be --
* A Latin sentence, which was quoted here, is omitted in the MSg
of the short-hand writer. -ED.
? ? ? ? 490 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fore you, and amongst others for cruelly using per
sons of the highest rank and consideration in India;
and when we prove he has cruelly injured them, you
will think the panegyrics either gross forgeries or
most miserable aggravations of his offences, since
they show the abject and dreadful state into which he
has driven those people. For let it be proved that I
have cruelly. robbed and maltreated any persons, if I
produce a certificate from them of my good behavior,
would it not be a corroborative proof of the terror
into which those persons are thrown by my misconduct?
My Lords, these are, I believe, the general grounds
of our charge. I have now closed completely, and I
hope to your Lordships' satisfaction, the whole body
of history of which I wished to put your Lordships in
possession. I do not mean that many of your Lordships may not have known it more perfectly by your own previous inquiries; but, bringing to your remembrance the state of the circumstances of the persons with whom he acted, the persons and power he has
abused, I have gone to the principles he maintains,
the precedents he quotes, the laws and authorities
which he refuses to abide by, and those on which he
relies; and at last I have refuted all those pleas in
bar on which he depends, and for the effect of which
he presumes on the indulgence and patience of this
country, or on the corruption of some persons in it.
And here I close what I had to say upon this subject,
- wishing and hoping, that, when I open before your
Lordships the case more particularly, so as to state
rather a plan of the proceeding than the direct proof
of the crimes, your Lordships will hear me with the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. SECOND. DAY. 491
same goodness and indulgence I have hitherto experienced, -that you will consider, if I have detained
you long, it was not with a view of exhausting my
own strength, or putting your patience to too severe a
trial, but from the sense I feel that it is the most difficult and the most complicated cause that was ever
brought before any human tribunal. Therefore I was
resolved to bring the whole substantially before you.
And now, if your Lordships will permit me, I will
state the method of my future proceeding, and the
future proceeding of the gentlemen assisting me.
I mean first to bring before you the crimes as they
are classed, and are of the same species and genus,
and how they mutually arose from one another. I
shall first show that Mr. Hastings's crimes had root
in that which is the root of all evil, I mean avarice;
that avarice and rapacity were the groundwork and
foundation of all his other vicious system; that he
showed it in setting to sale the native government
of the country, in setting to sale the whole landed
interest of the country, in setting to sale the British
government and his own fellow-servants, to the basest
and wickedest of mankind.
I shall then show your Lordships, that, when, in
consequence of such a body of corruption and peculation, he justly dreaded the indignation of his country
and the vengeance of its laws, in order to raise himself a faction embodied by the same guilt and rewarded in the same manner, he has, with a most abandoned profusion, thrown away the revenues of the country
to form such a faction here.
I shall next show your Lordships, that, having exhausted the resources of the Company, and brought
it to extreme difficulties within, he has looked to his
? ? ? ? 492 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
external resources, as he calls them; he has gone up
into the country. I will show that he has plundered,
or attempted to plunder, every person dependent upon,
connected, or allied with this country.
We shall afterwards show what infinite mischief has
followed in the case of Benares, upon which he first
laid his hands; next, in the case of the Begums of
Oude.
We shall then lay before you the profligate system
by which he endeavored to oppress that country: first
by Residents; next by spies under the name of British
Agents; and lastly, that, pursuing his way up to the
mountains, he has found out one miserable chief,
whose crimes were the prosperity of his country, -
that him he endeavored to torture and destroy, -I do
not mean in his body, but by exhausting the treasures
which he kept for the benefit of his people.
Iri short, having shown your Lordships that no
man who is in his power is safe from his arbitrary
will, --that no man, within or without, friend, ally,
rival, has been safe from him, - having brought it to
this point, if I am not able in my own person immediately to go up into the country and show the ramifications of the system, (I hope and trust I shall be spared to take my part in pursuing him through both,)
if I am not, I shall go at least to the root of it, and
some other gentleman, with a thousand times moife
ability thanl I possess, will take up each separate part
~in its proper order. And I believe it is proposed by
the managers that one of them shall as soon as possible begin with the affair of Benares.
The point I now mean first to bring before your
Lordships is the corruption of Mr. Hastings, his system of peculation and bribery, and to show your Lord
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 493
ships the horrible consequences which resulted from it: for, at first sight, bribery and peculation do not seem to be so horrid a matter; they may seem to be only the transferring a little money out of one pocket into another; but I shall show that by such a system of bribery the country is undone.
I shall inform your Lordships in the best manner I can, and afterwards submit the whole, as I do with a cheerful heart and with an easy and assured security, to that justice which is the security for all the other justice in the kingdom.
? ? ?
The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/miun. aba1206. 0010. 001
Public Domain
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd
We have determined this work to be in the public domain, meaning that it is not subject to copyright. Users are free to copy, use, and redistribute the work in part or in whole. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address.
? ? ? THE
WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. X.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. X.
PAGE
SPEECHES IN THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
THIRD DAY: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1788. 3
FOURTH DAY: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19. . 99
SPEECH ON THE SIXTHI ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
FIRST DAY: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1789. 149
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, APRIL 25. 240
THIRD DAY, TUESDAY, MAY 5. . . . 306
FOURTH DAY: THURSDAY, MAY 7. 396
? ? ? ? SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING.
(CONTINUED. )
FEBRUARY, 1788.
VOL. X.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
OPENINGT THE IMPEACHMENT.
THIRD DAY: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1788.
MY LORDS, - The gentlemen who are appointed
by the Commons to manage this prosecution,
have directed me to inform your Lordships, that they
have very carefully and attentively weighed the magnitude of the subject which they bring before you
with the time which the nature and circumstances of
affairs allow for their conducting it.
My Lords, on that comparison, they are very apprehensive, that, if I should go very largely into a preliminary explanation of the several matters in charge, it might be to the prejudice of an early trial of the
substantial merits of each article. We have weighed
and considered this maturely. We have compared
exactly the time with the matter, and we have found
that we are obliged to do as all men must do who
would manage their affairs practicably, to make our
opinion of what might be most advantageous to the
business conform to the time that is left to perform
it in. We must, as all men must, submit affairs to
time, and not think of making time conform to our
wishes; and therefore, my Lords, I very willingly
fall in with the inclinations of the gentlemen with
whom I have the honor to act, to come as soon as
possible to close fighting, and to grapple immediately
? ? ? ? 4 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and directly with the corruptions of India, - to bring
before your Lordships the direct articles, to apply the
evidence to the articles, and to bring the matter forward for your Lordships' decision in that manner
which the confidence we have in the justice of our
cause demands from the Commons of Great Britain.
My Lords, these are the opinions of those with
whom I have the honor to act, and in their opinions
I readily acquiesce. For I am far from wishing to
waste any of your Lordships' time upon any matter
merely through any opinion I have of the nature of
the business, when at the same time I find that in
the opinion of others it might militate against the
production of its full, proper, and (if I may so say)
its immediate effect.
It was my design to class the crimes of the late
Governor of Bengal, --to show their mutual bearings, -- how they were mutually aided and grew and
were formed out of each other. I proposed first of
all to show your Lordships that they have their root
in that which is the origin of all evil, avarice and rapacity,- to show how that led to prodigality of the
public money, - and how prodigality of the public
money, by wasting the treasures of the East India
Company, furnished an excuse to the Governor-General to break its faith, to violate all its most solemn
engagements, and to fall with a hand of stern, ferocious, and unrelenting rapacity upon all the allies and
dependencies of the Company. But I shall be obliged
in some measure to abridge this plan; and as your
Lordships already possess, from what I had the honor to state on Saturday, a general view of this matter, you will be in a condition to pursue it when the several articles are presented.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 5
My Lords, I have to state to-day the root of all
these misdemeanors, - namely, the pecuniary corruption and avarice which gave rise and primary motion to all the rest of the delinquencies charged
to be committed by the Governor-General.
My Lords, pecuniary corruption forms not only,
as your Lordships will observe in the charges before
you, an article of charge by itself, but likewise so
intermixes with the whole, that it is necessary to
give, in the best manner I am able, a history of that
corrupt system which brought on all the subsequent
acts of corruption. I will venture to say there is no
one act, in which tyranny, malice, cruelty, and oppression can be charged, that does not at the same time carry evident marks of pecuniary corruption.
I stated to your Lordships on Saturday last the
principles upon which Mr. Hastings governed his
conduct in India, and upon which he grounds his defence. These may all be reduced to one short word,
- arbitrary power. My Lords, if Mr. Hastings had
contended, as other men have often done, that the
system of government which he patronizes, and on
which lie acted, was a system tending on the whole
to the blessing and benefit of mankind, possibly something might be said for him for setting up so wild, absurd, irrational, and wicked a system, - something
might be said to qualify'the act from the intention;
but it is singular in this man, that, at the time he
tells you he acted on the principles of arbitrary power, he takes care to inform you that he was not blind to the consequences. Mr. Hastings foresaw that the
consequences of this system was corruption. An arbitrary system, indeed, must always be a corrupt one. My Lords, there never was a man who thought he
? ? ? ? 6 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
had no law but his own will, who did not soon find
that he had no end but his own profit. Corruption
and arbitrary power are of natural unequivocal generation, necessarily producing one another. M1r. Hastings foresees the abusive and corrupt consequences, and then he justifies his conduct upon the necessities of that system. These are things which are
new in the world; for there never was a man, I believe, who contended for arbitrary power, (and there
have been persons wicked and foolish enough to con
tend for it,) that did not pretend, either that the system was good in itself, or that by their conduct they
had mitigated or had purified it, and that the poison,
by passing through their constitution, had acquired
salutary properties. But if you look at his defence
before the House of Commons, you will see that that
very system upon which he governed, and under
which he now justifies his actions, did appear to himself a system pregnant with a thousand evils and a
thousand mischiefs.
The next thing that is remarkable and singular in
the principles upon which the Governor-General acted
is, that, when he is engaged in a vicious system which
clearly leads to evil consequences, he thinks himself
bound to realize all the evil consequences involved in
that system. All other men have taken a directly
contrary course: they have'said, "I have been engaged in an evil system, that led, indeed, to mischievous consequences, but I have taken care, by
my own virtues, to prevent the evils of the system
under which I acted. "
We say, then, not only that he governed arbitrarily,
but corruptly, -- that is to say, that he was a giver
and receiver of bribes, and formed a system for the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 7
purpose of giving and receiving them. We wish your
Lordships distinctly to consider that he did not only
give and receive bribes accidentally, as it happened,
without any system and design, merely as the opportunity or momentary temptation of profit urged him to it, but that he has formed plans and systems of
government for the very purpose of accumulating
bribes and presents to himself. This system of Mr.
Hastings's government is such a one, I believe, as the
British nation in particular will disown; for I will
venture to say, that, if there is any one thing which
distinguishes this nation eminently above another, it
is, that in its offices at home, both judicial and in the
state, there is less suspicion of pecuniary corruption
attaching to them than to any similar offices in any
part of the globe, or that have existed at any time:
so that he who would set up a system of corruption,
and attempt to justify it upon the principle of utility,
that man is staining not only the nature and character of office, but that which is the peculiar glory of the official and judicial character of this country; and
therefore, in this House, which is eminently the guardian of the purity of all the offices of this kingdom, he ought to be called eminently and peculiarly to
account. There are many things, undoubtedly, in'
crimes, which make them frightful and odious; but
bribery, filthy hands, a chief governor of a great empire receiving bribes from poor, miserable, indigent people, this is what makes government itself base,
contemptible, and odious in the eyes of mankind.
My Lords, it is certain that even tyranny itself may
find some specious color, and appear as a more severe
and rigid execution of justice. Religious persecution
may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and
? ? ? ? 38 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
over-zealous piety. Conquest may cover its baldness
with its own laurels, and the ambition of the conqueror
may be hid in the secrets of his own heart under a veil
of benevolence, and make him imagine he is bringing
temporary desolation upon a country only to promote
its ultimate advantage and his own glory. But in the
principles of that governor who makes nothing but
money his object there can be nothing of this. There
are here none of those specious delusions that look
like virtues, to veil either the governed or the governor. If you look at Mr. Hastings's merits, as lie calls them, what are they? Did he improve the internal state of the government by great reforms? No
such thing. Or by a wise and incorrupt administration of justice? No. Has he enlarged the boundary
of our government? No: there are but too strong
proofs of his lessening it. But his pretensions to
merit are, that he squeezed more money out of the
inhabitants of the country than other persons could
have done, - money got by oppression, violence, extortion from the poor, or the heavy hand of power upon the rich and great.
These are his merits. What we charge as his demerits are all of the same nature; for, though there
is undoubtedly oppression, breach of faith, cruelty,
perfidy, charged upon him, yet the great ruling principle of the whole, and that from which you can never have an act free, is money, -- it is the vice of base
avarice, which never is, nor ever appears even to the
prejudices of mankind to be, anything like a virtue.
Our desire of acquiring sovereignty in India undoubtedly originated first in ideas of safety and necessity; its next step was a step of ambition. That ambition,
as generally happens in conquest, was followed by
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 9
gains of money; but afterwards there was no mixture
at all; it was, during Mr. Hastings's time, altogether
a business of money. If he has extirpated a nation,
I will not say whether properly or improperly, it is
because (says he) you have all the benefit of conquest
without expense; you have got a large sum of money
from the people, and you may leave them to be governed by whom and as they will. This is directly contrary to the principles of conquerors. If he has
at any time taken any money from the dependencies
of the Company, he does not pretend that it was obtained from their zeal and affection to our cause, or that it made their submission more complete: very far
from it. He says they ought to be independent, and
all that you have to do is to squeeze money from,
them. In short, money is the beginning, the middle,
and the end of every kind of act done by Mr. Hastings: pretendedly for the Company, but really for himself.
Having said so much about the origin, the first
principle, both of that which he makes his merit and
which we charge as his demerit, the next step is, that
I should lay open to your Lordships, as clearly as I
can, what the sense of his employers, the East India
Company, and what the sense of the legislature itself,
has been upon those merits and demerits of money.
My Lords, the Company, knowing that these money
transactions were likely to subvert that empire which
was first established upon them, did, in the year 1765,
send out a body of the strongest and most solemn
covenants to their servants, that they should take no
presents from the country powers, under any name
or description, except those things which were publicly and openly taken for the use of the Company, -
? ? ? ? 10 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
namely, territories or sums of money which might be
obtained by treaty. They distinguished such presents as were taken from any persons privately, and
unknown to them, and without their authority, from
subsidies: and that this is the true nature and construction of their order I shall contend and explain
afterwards to your Lordships. They have said, nothillg shall be taken for their private use; for though
in that and in every state there may be subsidiary
treaties by which sums of money may be received,
yet they forbid their servants, their governors, whatever application they might pretend to make of them,
to receive, under any other name or pretence, more
than a certain, marked, simple sum of money, and this
not without the consent and permission of the Presidency to which they belong. This is the substance,
the principle, and the spirit of the covenants, and will
show your Lordships how radicated an evil this of
bribery and presents was judged to be.
When these covenants arrived inl India, the servants
refused at first to execute them, - and suspended the
execution of them, till they had enriched themselves
with presents. Eleven months elapsed, and it was not
till Lord Clive reached the place of his destination
that the covenants were executed: and they were not
executed then without some degree of force. Soon
afterwards the treaty was made with the country
powers by which Sujah ul Dowlah was reestablished
in the province of Oude, and paid a sum of 500,0001.
to the Company for it. It was a public payment, and
there was not a suspicion that a single shilling of private emolument attended it. But whether Mr. Hastings had the example of others or not, their example,could not justify his briberies. He was sent there to
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 11
put all end to all those examples. The Company did
expressly vest him with that power. They declared
at that time, that the whole of their service was totally corrupted by bribes and presents, and by extravagance and luxury, which partly gave rise to them, and these, in their turn, enabled them to pursue those
excesses. They not only reposed trust in the integrity of Mr. Hastings, but reposed trust in his remarkable frugality and order in his affairs, which they considered as things that distinguished his character.
But in his defence we have him quite in another character, --no longer the frugal, attentive servant, bred
to business, bred to book-keeping, as all the Company's servants are; he now. knows nothing of his own
affairs, knows not whether he is rich or poor, knows
not what lie has in the world. Nay, people are
brought forward to say that they know better than
lie does what his affairs are. He is not like a careful
man bred in a counting-house, and by the Directors
put into an office of the highest trust on account of
the regularity of his affairs; lie is like one buried in
the contemplation of the stars, and knows nothing of
the things in this world. It was, then, on account of
an idea of his great integrity that the Company put
him into this situation. Since that lie has thought
proper to justify himself, not by clearing himself of
receiving bribes, but by saying that no bad consequences resulted from it, and that, if any such evil
consequences did arise from it, they arose rather from
his inattention to money than from his desire of acquiring it.
I have stated to your Lordships the nature of the
covenants which the East India Company sent out.
Afterwards, when they found their servants had re
? ? ? ? 12 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fused to execute these covenants, they not only very
severely reprehended even a moment's delay in their
execution, and threatened the exacting the most strict
and rigorous performance of them, but they sent a
commission to enforce the observance of them more
strongly; and that commission had it specially in
charge never to receive presents. They never sent
out a person to India without recognizing the grievalice, and without ordering that presents should not
be received, as the main fundamental part of their duty, and upon which all the rest depended, as it certainly must: for persons at the head of government should not encourage that by example which they
ought by precept, authority, and force to restrain in
all below them. That commission failing, another
commission was preparing to be sent out with the
same instructions, when an act of Parliament took it
up; and that act, which gave Mr. Hastings power,
did mould in the very first stamina of his power this
principle, in words the most clear and forcible that
an act of Parliament could possibly devise upon the
subject. And that act was made not only upon a
general knowledge of the grievance, but your Lordships will see in the reports of that time that Parliament had directly in view before themn the whole of that monstrous head of corruption under the name
of presents, and all the monstrous consequences that
followed it.
Now, my Lords, every office of trust, in its very
nature, forbids the receipt of bribes. But Mr. Hastings was forbidden it, first, by his official situation,next, by covenant, -- and lastly, by act of Parliament: that is to say, by all the things that bind mankind, or
that can bind them, - first, moral obligation inherent
? ? ? ?
hold their places for life, to be the conservators of the
canons, customs, and good usages of the country: all
these, as::well as the Cadi and. the Mufti, hold their
places and situations, not during the wanton pleasure
of the prince, but on permanent and fixed terms for
life. All. ;these powers of magistracy, revenue, and
law are all different, consequently not delegated in
the whole to any one person.
This is the provincial constitution, and these the,
laws of iBengal; which proves, if there were no other
proof, by the division of the functions and authorities,
that the isupreme\ power of the state in the Mogul
empire did by no means delegate to any of its officers the supreme power in its fulness. Whether or
no we have delegated to Mr. 'Hastings the supreme
power of King and Parliament, that he should act
with the plenitude of authority of the British legislature, you are to judge. : Mr. Hastings has no- refuge here. Let him run from: law to. law; let him fly from the common law
and the sacred institutions of the country in which
he was born;let him fly from acts of Parliament,
from which. his power originated; let him plead his
ignorance' of them, or fly in the face of them, Will
he fly to; the Mahomedan law? That condemns him. .
Will he fly to the high magistracy of Asia to defend~
taking of presents? Padishah and the Sultan wouldi
condemn himn to a cruel death. Will he fly to the:
VOL. IX. 31
? ? ? ? 482 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Sophis, to the laws of Persia, or to the practice of
those monarchs? I cannot utter the pains, the tortures, that would be inflicted on him, if he were to
govern there as he has done in a British province.
Let him fly where he will, from law to law; law, I
thank God, meets him everywhere, and enforced, too,
by the practice of the most impious tyrants, which he
quotes as if it would justify his conduct. I would as
willingly have him tried by the law of the Koran, or
the Institutes of Tamerlane, as on the common law
or statute law of this kingdom.
The next question is, whether the Gentoo laws
justify arbitrary power: and if he finds any sanctuary there, let him take it, with the cow in the pagoda.
The Gent6os have a law which positively proscribes
in magistrates any idea of will, - a law with which,
or. rather with extracts of it, that gentleman himself
has furnished us. These people in many points are
governed by their own ancient written law, called the
Shaster. Its interpreters and judges are the Pundits.
This law is comprehensive, extending to all the coneerns of life, affording principles and maxims and legal theories applicable to all cases, drawn from the sources of natural equity, modified by their institutions, full of refinement and subtilty of distinction
equal to that of any other law, and has the grand test
of all law, that, wherever it has prevailed, the country
has been populous, flourishing, and happy.
Upon the whole, then, follow him where you will,
let him have Eastern or Western law, you find everywhere arbitrary power and peculation of governors
proscribed and horribly punished,-'more so than I
should ever wish to punish any, the most guilty,
human creature. And if this be the case, as I hope
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 483
and trust it has been proved to your Lordships, that.
there is law in these countries, that there is no delegation of power which exempts a governor from the law,
then I say at any rate a British governor is to answer
for his conduct, and cannot be justified by wicked
examples and profligate practices.
But another thing which he says is, that he was left
to himself, to govern himself by his own practice:
that is to say, when he had taken one bribe, he might
take another; when he had robbed one mall of his
property, he might rob another; when he had imprisoned one man arbitrarily, and extorted money from
him, he might do so by another. He resorts at first
to the practice of barbarians and usurpers; at last he
comes to his own. Now, if your Lordships will try
him by such maxims and principles, he is certainly
clear: for there is no manner of doubt that there is
nothing he has practised once which he has not practised again; and then the repetition of crimes becomes the means of his indemnity.
The next pleas he urges are not so much in bar of
the impeachment as in extenuation. The first are to
be laid by as claims to be made on motion for arrest
of judgment, the others as an extenuation or mitigation of his fine. He says, and with a kind of triumph,
" The ministry of this country have great legal assistance,-commercial lights of the greatest commercial city in the world, -- the greatest generals and officers to guide and direct them in military affairs:
whereas I, poor man, was sent almost a school-boy
from England, or at least little better, - sent to find
my way in that new world as well as I could. I had
no men of the law, no legal assistance, to supply my
deficiencies. " At Sphingem habebas do. mi. Had he
? ? ? ? 484 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
not the chief-justice, the tamed and domesticated
chief-justice, who waited on him like a familiar spirit,
whom he takes from province to province, his aman.
uensis at home, his postilion and riding express
abroad?
Such a declaration would in some measure suit
persons who had acted much otherwise than Mr.
Hastings. When a man pleads ignorance in justification of his conduct, it ought to be an humble, modest, unpresuming ignorance, an ignorance which may have made him lax and timid in the exercise of his
duty; but an assuming, rash, presumptuous, confident, daring, desperate, and disobedient ignorance
heightens every crime that it accompanies. Mr.
Hastings, if through ignorance he left some of the
Company's orders unexecuted, because he did not
understand them, might well say, " I was an ignorant
man, and these things were above my capacity. " But
when he understands them, and when he declares he
will not obey them, positively and dogmatically, --
when he -says,' as he has said, and we shall prove it,
that he never succeeds better than when he acts in an utter defiance of those orders, and sets at nought the laws
of his country, -I believe this will not be thought the
language of an ignorant man. But I beg your Lordships' pardon: it is the language of an ignorant man;
for no man who. Was not full of a bold, determined,
profligate ignorance could ever think of such a system
of defence. He quitted Westminster School almost
a boy. ' We have reason to regret that he did not finish his education in that noble seminary, which has
giren so'many luminaries to the Church and ornaments to the State. Greatly it is to be lamented that
lhe did not go;to those Universities where arbitrary
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -- SECOND DAY. 485
power will I hope never be heard of, but the true
principles of religion, of liberty, and law will ever be
inculcated, instead of studying in the school of Cossim Ali Khan.
If he had lived with us, he would have quoted
the example of Cicero in his government, he would
have quoted several of the sacred and holy prophets,
and made them his example. His want of learning,
profane as well as sacred, reduces him to the necessity of appealing to every name and authority of barbarism, tyranny, and usurpation that are to be found; and from these he says, "From the practice of one
part of Asia or other I have taken my rule. " But
your Lordships will show him that in Asia as well as
in Europe the same law of nations prevails, the same
principles are continually resorted to, and the same
maxims sacredly held and strenuously maintained,
and, however disobeyed, no man suffers from the
breach of them who does not know how and where to
complain of that breach, - that Asia is enlightened
in that respect as well as Europe; but if it were totally blinded, that England would send out governors to
teach them better, and that he must justify himself to
the piety, the truth, the faith of England, and not by
having recourse to the crimes and criminals of other
countries, to the barbarous tyranny of Asia, or any
other part of the world.
I will go further with Mr. Hastings, and admit,
that, if there be a boy in the fourth form of Westminster School, or any school in England, who does not
know, when these articles are read to him, that he
has been guilty of gross and enormous crimes, he
may have the shelter of his present plea, as far as it
will serve him. There are none of us, thank God, so
? ? ? ? 486 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
uninstructed, who have learned our catechisms or
the first elements of Christianity, who do not know
that such conduct is not to be justified, and least of
all by examples.
There is another topic he takes up more seriously,
and as a general rebutter to the charge. Says he,
" After a great many of these practices with which I
am charged, Parliament appointed me to my trust,
and consequently has acquitted me. " -Has it, my
Lords? I am bold to say that the Commons are
wholly guiltless of this charge. I will admit, if Parliament, on a full state of his offences before them, and
full examination of those offences, had appointed him
to the government, that then the people of India and
England would have just reason to exclaim against
so flagitious a proceeding. A sense of propriety and
decorum might have restrained us from prosecuting.
They might have been restrained by some sort of decorum from pursuing him criminally. But the Commons stand before your Lordships without shame. First, in their name we solemnly assure your Lordships that we had not in our Parliamentary capacity
(and most of us, myself I can say surely, heard very
little, and that in confused rumors) the slightest
knowledge of any one of the acts charged upon this
criminal at either of the times of his being appointed
to office, and that we were not guilty of the nefarious
act of collusion and flagitious breach of trust with
which he presumes obliquely to charge us; but from
the moment we knew them, we never ceased to condemn them by reports, by votes, by resolutions, and
that we admonished and declared it to be the duty of
the Court of Directors to take measures for his recall,
and when frustrated in the way known to that court
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 487
we then proceeded to an inquiry. Your Lordships
know whether you were better informed. We are,
therefore, neither guilty of the precedent crime of
colluding with the criminal, nor the subsequent indecorum of prosecuting what we had virtually and practically approved. Secondly, several of his worst crimes have been
committed since the last Parliamentary renewal of
his trust, as appears by the dates in the charge.
But I believe, my Lords, the judges --judges to
others, grave and weighty counsellors and assistants
to your Lordships- will not, on reference, assert to
your Lordships, (which God forbid, *and we cannot
conceive, or hardly state in argument, if but for argument,) that, if one of the judges had received
bribes before his appointment to an higher judiciary
office, he would not still be open to prosecution.
So far from admitting it as a plea in bar, we
charge, and we hope your Lordships will find it an
extreme aggravation of his offences, that no favors
heaped upon him could make him grateful, no renewed and repeated trusts could make him faithful
and honest.
We have now gone through most of the general
topics.
But he is not responsible, as being thanked by the
Court of Dir'ectors. He has had the thanks and approbatiol of the India Company for his services. - We
know too well here, I trust the world knows, and you
will always assert, that a pardon from the crown is
not pleadable here, that it cannot bar the impeachment of the Commons, -- much less a pardon of the
East India Company, though it may involve them in
guilt which might induce us to punish them for such
? ? ? ? 488 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a pardon. If any corporation by collusion with criminals refuse to do their duty in coercing. them, the
magistrates are answerable.
It is the use, virtue, and efficacy of Parliamentary
judicial procedure, that it puts an end to this dominion of faction, intrigue, cabal, and clandestine intelligences. The acts of men are put to their proper test, and the works of darkness tried in the face of
day, - not the corrupted opinions of others on them,
but their own intrinsic merits. We charge it as his
crime, that he bribed the Court of Directors to thank
him for what they had condemned as breaches of, his
duty.
The East India Company, it is true,, have thanked
him. They ought not to have done it; and it is a
reflection upon their character that they did it. But
the Directors praise him in the gross, after having
condemned each act in detail. His actions are all,
every one, censured one by one as they arise. I do
not recollect any one transaction, few there are, I am
sure, in the whole body of that succession of crimes
now brought before you for your judgment, in which
the India Company have not censured him. Nay, in
one instance. he pleads- their censure in bar of this
trial;* for he says, " In that censure I have already
received my punishment. " If, for any other reasons,
they come and say, "We thank you, Sir, for all,,your
services," to that I answer, Yes; and Iwould thank
him for his services,:too, if I knew them. But I do
not; -perhaps they do. Let them thank him for
those services. I am ordered to prosecute him for
these crimes. Here, therefore, we are on a balance
with'the India Company; and your Lordships may
* See Mr. Hastings's answer to the first charge.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 489
perhaps:think it some addition to his crimes, that
he has found means to obtain the thanks of the India
Company for the whole of his conduct, at the same
time that their records are full of constant, uniform,
particular censure and reprobation of every one of
those acts for which he now stands accused.
He says, there is the testimony of Indian princes
in his favor. But do we not know how seals are obtained in that country? Do we not know how those princes are imposed upon? Do we not know the sub-jection and thraldoin in which they are held, and that they are obliged to return thanks for the sufferings which they have felt? I believe your Lordships will think that there is not, with regard to some of
these princes, a more dreadful thing that can be said
of them than that he has obtained their thanks.
I understand he has obtained the thanks of the
miserable Princesses of Oude, whom he has cruelly
imprisoned, whose treasure he has seized, and whose
eunuchs he has tortured. * They thank him for going
away; they thank him for leaving them the smallest
trifle of their subsistence; and I venture to say, if
he wanted a hundred more panegyrics, provided he
never came again among them, he might have them.
I understand that Mahdajee Sindia has made his
panegyric, too. Mahdajee Sindia has not made his
panegyric for nothing; for, if your Lordships will
suffer him to enter into such a justification, we shall
prove that. he has sacrificed the dignity of this country and the interests of all its allies to that prince. We appear here neither with panegyric nor with
satire; it is for substantial crimes we bring him be --
* A Latin sentence, which was quoted here, is omitted in the MSg
of the short-hand writer. -ED.
? ? ? ? 490 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fore you, and amongst others for cruelly using per
sons of the highest rank and consideration in India;
and when we prove he has cruelly injured them, you
will think the panegyrics either gross forgeries or
most miserable aggravations of his offences, since
they show the abject and dreadful state into which he
has driven those people. For let it be proved that I
have cruelly. robbed and maltreated any persons, if I
produce a certificate from them of my good behavior,
would it not be a corroborative proof of the terror
into which those persons are thrown by my misconduct?
My Lords, these are, I believe, the general grounds
of our charge. I have now closed completely, and I
hope to your Lordships' satisfaction, the whole body
of history of which I wished to put your Lordships in
possession. I do not mean that many of your Lordships may not have known it more perfectly by your own previous inquiries; but, bringing to your remembrance the state of the circumstances of the persons with whom he acted, the persons and power he has
abused, I have gone to the principles he maintains,
the precedents he quotes, the laws and authorities
which he refuses to abide by, and those on which he
relies; and at last I have refuted all those pleas in
bar on which he depends, and for the effect of which
he presumes on the indulgence and patience of this
country, or on the corruption of some persons in it.
And here I close what I had to say upon this subject,
- wishing and hoping, that, when I open before your
Lordships the case more particularly, so as to state
rather a plan of the proceeding than the direct proof
of the crimes, your Lordships will hear me with the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. SECOND. DAY. 491
same goodness and indulgence I have hitherto experienced, -that you will consider, if I have detained
you long, it was not with a view of exhausting my
own strength, or putting your patience to too severe a
trial, but from the sense I feel that it is the most difficult and the most complicated cause that was ever
brought before any human tribunal. Therefore I was
resolved to bring the whole substantially before you.
And now, if your Lordships will permit me, I will
state the method of my future proceeding, and the
future proceeding of the gentlemen assisting me.
I mean first to bring before you the crimes as they
are classed, and are of the same species and genus,
and how they mutually arose from one another. I
shall first show that Mr. Hastings's crimes had root
in that which is the root of all evil, I mean avarice;
that avarice and rapacity were the groundwork and
foundation of all his other vicious system; that he
showed it in setting to sale the native government
of the country, in setting to sale the whole landed
interest of the country, in setting to sale the British
government and his own fellow-servants, to the basest
and wickedest of mankind.
I shall then show your Lordships, that, when, in
consequence of such a body of corruption and peculation, he justly dreaded the indignation of his country
and the vengeance of its laws, in order to raise himself a faction embodied by the same guilt and rewarded in the same manner, he has, with a most abandoned profusion, thrown away the revenues of the country
to form such a faction here.
I shall next show your Lordships, that, having exhausted the resources of the Company, and brought
it to extreme difficulties within, he has looked to his
? ? ? ? 492 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
external resources, as he calls them; he has gone up
into the country. I will show that he has plundered,
or attempted to plunder, every person dependent upon,
connected, or allied with this country.
We shall afterwards show what infinite mischief has
followed in the case of Benares, upon which he first
laid his hands; next, in the case of the Begums of
Oude.
We shall then lay before you the profligate system
by which he endeavored to oppress that country: first
by Residents; next by spies under the name of British
Agents; and lastly, that, pursuing his way up to the
mountains, he has found out one miserable chief,
whose crimes were the prosperity of his country, -
that him he endeavored to torture and destroy, -I do
not mean in his body, but by exhausting the treasures
which he kept for the benefit of his people.
Iri short, having shown your Lordships that no
man who is in his power is safe from his arbitrary
will, --that no man, within or without, friend, ally,
rival, has been safe from him, - having brought it to
this point, if I am not able in my own person immediately to go up into the country and show the ramifications of the system, (I hope and trust I shall be spared to take my part in pursuing him through both,)
if I am not, I shall go at least to the root of it, and
some other gentleman, with a thousand times moife
ability thanl I possess, will take up each separate part
~in its proper order. And I believe it is proposed by
the managers that one of them shall as soon as possible begin with the affair of Benares.
The point I now mean first to bring before your
Lordships is the corruption of Mr. Hastings, his system of peculation and bribery, and to show your Lord
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 493
ships the horrible consequences which resulted from it: for, at first sight, bribery and peculation do not seem to be so horrid a matter; they may seem to be only the transferring a little money out of one pocket into another; but I shall show that by such a system of bribery the country is undone.
I shall inform your Lordships in the best manner I can, and afterwards submit the whole, as I do with a cheerful heart and with an easy and assured security, to that justice which is the security for all the other justice in the kingdom.
? ? ?
The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/miun. aba1206. 0010. 001
Public Domain
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd
We have determined this work to be in the public domain, meaning that it is not subject to copyright. Users are free to copy, use, and redistribute the work in part or in whole. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address.
? ? ? THE
WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. X.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. X.
PAGE
SPEECHES IN THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
THIRD DAY: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1788. 3
FOURTH DAY: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19. . 99
SPEECH ON THE SIXTHI ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
FIRST DAY: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1789. 149
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, APRIL 25. 240
THIRD DAY, TUESDAY, MAY 5. . . . 306
FOURTH DAY: THURSDAY, MAY 7. 396
? ? ? ? SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING.
(CONTINUED. )
FEBRUARY, 1788.
VOL. X.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
OPENINGT THE IMPEACHMENT.
THIRD DAY: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1788.
MY LORDS, - The gentlemen who are appointed
by the Commons to manage this prosecution,
have directed me to inform your Lordships, that they
have very carefully and attentively weighed the magnitude of the subject which they bring before you
with the time which the nature and circumstances of
affairs allow for their conducting it.
My Lords, on that comparison, they are very apprehensive, that, if I should go very largely into a preliminary explanation of the several matters in charge, it might be to the prejudice of an early trial of the
substantial merits of each article. We have weighed
and considered this maturely. We have compared
exactly the time with the matter, and we have found
that we are obliged to do as all men must do who
would manage their affairs practicably, to make our
opinion of what might be most advantageous to the
business conform to the time that is left to perform
it in. We must, as all men must, submit affairs to
time, and not think of making time conform to our
wishes; and therefore, my Lords, I very willingly
fall in with the inclinations of the gentlemen with
whom I have the honor to act, to come as soon as
possible to close fighting, and to grapple immediately
? ? ? ? 4 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and directly with the corruptions of India, - to bring
before your Lordships the direct articles, to apply the
evidence to the articles, and to bring the matter forward for your Lordships' decision in that manner
which the confidence we have in the justice of our
cause demands from the Commons of Great Britain.
My Lords, these are the opinions of those with
whom I have the honor to act, and in their opinions
I readily acquiesce. For I am far from wishing to
waste any of your Lordships' time upon any matter
merely through any opinion I have of the nature of
the business, when at the same time I find that in
the opinion of others it might militate against the
production of its full, proper, and (if I may so say)
its immediate effect.
It was my design to class the crimes of the late
Governor of Bengal, --to show their mutual bearings, -- how they were mutually aided and grew and
were formed out of each other. I proposed first of
all to show your Lordships that they have their root
in that which is the origin of all evil, avarice and rapacity,- to show how that led to prodigality of the
public money, - and how prodigality of the public
money, by wasting the treasures of the East India
Company, furnished an excuse to the Governor-General to break its faith, to violate all its most solemn
engagements, and to fall with a hand of stern, ferocious, and unrelenting rapacity upon all the allies and
dependencies of the Company. But I shall be obliged
in some measure to abridge this plan; and as your
Lordships already possess, from what I had the honor to state on Saturday, a general view of this matter, you will be in a condition to pursue it when the several articles are presented.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 5
My Lords, I have to state to-day the root of all
these misdemeanors, - namely, the pecuniary corruption and avarice which gave rise and primary motion to all the rest of the delinquencies charged
to be committed by the Governor-General.
My Lords, pecuniary corruption forms not only,
as your Lordships will observe in the charges before
you, an article of charge by itself, but likewise so
intermixes with the whole, that it is necessary to
give, in the best manner I am able, a history of that
corrupt system which brought on all the subsequent
acts of corruption. I will venture to say there is no
one act, in which tyranny, malice, cruelty, and oppression can be charged, that does not at the same time carry evident marks of pecuniary corruption.
I stated to your Lordships on Saturday last the
principles upon which Mr. Hastings governed his
conduct in India, and upon which he grounds his defence. These may all be reduced to one short word,
- arbitrary power. My Lords, if Mr. Hastings had
contended, as other men have often done, that the
system of government which he patronizes, and on
which lie acted, was a system tending on the whole
to the blessing and benefit of mankind, possibly something might be said for him for setting up so wild, absurd, irrational, and wicked a system, - something
might be said to qualify'the act from the intention;
but it is singular in this man, that, at the time he
tells you he acted on the principles of arbitrary power, he takes care to inform you that he was not blind to the consequences. Mr. Hastings foresaw that the
consequences of this system was corruption. An arbitrary system, indeed, must always be a corrupt one. My Lords, there never was a man who thought he
? ? ? ? 6 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
had no law but his own will, who did not soon find
that he had no end but his own profit. Corruption
and arbitrary power are of natural unequivocal generation, necessarily producing one another. M1r. Hastings foresees the abusive and corrupt consequences, and then he justifies his conduct upon the necessities of that system. These are things which are
new in the world; for there never was a man, I believe, who contended for arbitrary power, (and there
have been persons wicked and foolish enough to con
tend for it,) that did not pretend, either that the system was good in itself, or that by their conduct they
had mitigated or had purified it, and that the poison,
by passing through their constitution, had acquired
salutary properties. But if you look at his defence
before the House of Commons, you will see that that
very system upon which he governed, and under
which he now justifies his actions, did appear to himself a system pregnant with a thousand evils and a
thousand mischiefs.
The next thing that is remarkable and singular in
the principles upon which the Governor-General acted
is, that, when he is engaged in a vicious system which
clearly leads to evil consequences, he thinks himself
bound to realize all the evil consequences involved in
that system. All other men have taken a directly
contrary course: they have'said, "I have been engaged in an evil system, that led, indeed, to mischievous consequences, but I have taken care, by
my own virtues, to prevent the evils of the system
under which I acted. "
We say, then, not only that he governed arbitrarily,
but corruptly, -- that is to say, that he was a giver
and receiver of bribes, and formed a system for the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 7
purpose of giving and receiving them. We wish your
Lordships distinctly to consider that he did not only
give and receive bribes accidentally, as it happened,
without any system and design, merely as the opportunity or momentary temptation of profit urged him to it, but that he has formed plans and systems of
government for the very purpose of accumulating
bribes and presents to himself. This system of Mr.
Hastings's government is such a one, I believe, as the
British nation in particular will disown; for I will
venture to say, that, if there is any one thing which
distinguishes this nation eminently above another, it
is, that in its offices at home, both judicial and in the
state, there is less suspicion of pecuniary corruption
attaching to them than to any similar offices in any
part of the globe, or that have existed at any time:
so that he who would set up a system of corruption,
and attempt to justify it upon the principle of utility,
that man is staining not only the nature and character of office, but that which is the peculiar glory of the official and judicial character of this country; and
therefore, in this House, which is eminently the guardian of the purity of all the offices of this kingdom, he ought to be called eminently and peculiarly to
account. There are many things, undoubtedly, in'
crimes, which make them frightful and odious; but
bribery, filthy hands, a chief governor of a great empire receiving bribes from poor, miserable, indigent people, this is what makes government itself base,
contemptible, and odious in the eyes of mankind.
My Lords, it is certain that even tyranny itself may
find some specious color, and appear as a more severe
and rigid execution of justice. Religious persecution
may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and
? ? ? ? 38 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
over-zealous piety. Conquest may cover its baldness
with its own laurels, and the ambition of the conqueror
may be hid in the secrets of his own heart under a veil
of benevolence, and make him imagine he is bringing
temporary desolation upon a country only to promote
its ultimate advantage and his own glory. But in the
principles of that governor who makes nothing but
money his object there can be nothing of this. There
are here none of those specious delusions that look
like virtues, to veil either the governed or the governor. If you look at Mr. Hastings's merits, as lie calls them, what are they? Did he improve the internal state of the government by great reforms? No
such thing. Or by a wise and incorrupt administration of justice? No. Has he enlarged the boundary
of our government? No: there are but too strong
proofs of his lessening it. But his pretensions to
merit are, that he squeezed more money out of the
inhabitants of the country than other persons could
have done, - money got by oppression, violence, extortion from the poor, or the heavy hand of power upon the rich and great.
These are his merits. What we charge as his demerits are all of the same nature; for, though there
is undoubtedly oppression, breach of faith, cruelty,
perfidy, charged upon him, yet the great ruling principle of the whole, and that from which you can never have an act free, is money, -- it is the vice of base
avarice, which never is, nor ever appears even to the
prejudices of mankind to be, anything like a virtue.
Our desire of acquiring sovereignty in India undoubtedly originated first in ideas of safety and necessity; its next step was a step of ambition. That ambition,
as generally happens in conquest, was followed by
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 9
gains of money; but afterwards there was no mixture
at all; it was, during Mr. Hastings's time, altogether
a business of money. If he has extirpated a nation,
I will not say whether properly or improperly, it is
because (says he) you have all the benefit of conquest
without expense; you have got a large sum of money
from the people, and you may leave them to be governed by whom and as they will. This is directly contrary to the principles of conquerors. If he has
at any time taken any money from the dependencies
of the Company, he does not pretend that it was obtained from their zeal and affection to our cause, or that it made their submission more complete: very far
from it. He says they ought to be independent, and
all that you have to do is to squeeze money from,
them. In short, money is the beginning, the middle,
and the end of every kind of act done by Mr. Hastings: pretendedly for the Company, but really for himself.
Having said so much about the origin, the first
principle, both of that which he makes his merit and
which we charge as his demerit, the next step is, that
I should lay open to your Lordships, as clearly as I
can, what the sense of his employers, the East India
Company, and what the sense of the legislature itself,
has been upon those merits and demerits of money.
My Lords, the Company, knowing that these money
transactions were likely to subvert that empire which
was first established upon them, did, in the year 1765,
send out a body of the strongest and most solemn
covenants to their servants, that they should take no
presents from the country powers, under any name
or description, except those things which were publicly and openly taken for the use of the Company, -
? ? ? ? 10 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
namely, territories or sums of money which might be
obtained by treaty. They distinguished such presents as were taken from any persons privately, and
unknown to them, and without their authority, from
subsidies: and that this is the true nature and construction of their order I shall contend and explain
afterwards to your Lordships. They have said, nothillg shall be taken for their private use; for though
in that and in every state there may be subsidiary
treaties by which sums of money may be received,
yet they forbid their servants, their governors, whatever application they might pretend to make of them,
to receive, under any other name or pretence, more
than a certain, marked, simple sum of money, and this
not without the consent and permission of the Presidency to which they belong. This is the substance,
the principle, and the spirit of the covenants, and will
show your Lordships how radicated an evil this of
bribery and presents was judged to be.
When these covenants arrived inl India, the servants
refused at first to execute them, - and suspended the
execution of them, till they had enriched themselves
with presents. Eleven months elapsed, and it was not
till Lord Clive reached the place of his destination
that the covenants were executed: and they were not
executed then without some degree of force. Soon
afterwards the treaty was made with the country
powers by which Sujah ul Dowlah was reestablished
in the province of Oude, and paid a sum of 500,0001.
to the Company for it. It was a public payment, and
there was not a suspicion that a single shilling of private emolument attended it. But whether Mr. Hastings had the example of others or not, their example,could not justify his briberies. He was sent there to
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 11
put all end to all those examples. The Company did
expressly vest him with that power. They declared
at that time, that the whole of their service was totally corrupted by bribes and presents, and by extravagance and luxury, which partly gave rise to them, and these, in their turn, enabled them to pursue those
excesses. They not only reposed trust in the integrity of Mr. Hastings, but reposed trust in his remarkable frugality and order in his affairs, which they considered as things that distinguished his character.
But in his defence we have him quite in another character, --no longer the frugal, attentive servant, bred
to business, bred to book-keeping, as all the Company's servants are; he now. knows nothing of his own
affairs, knows not whether he is rich or poor, knows
not what lie has in the world. Nay, people are
brought forward to say that they know better than
lie does what his affairs are. He is not like a careful
man bred in a counting-house, and by the Directors
put into an office of the highest trust on account of
the regularity of his affairs; lie is like one buried in
the contemplation of the stars, and knows nothing of
the things in this world. It was, then, on account of
an idea of his great integrity that the Company put
him into this situation. Since that lie has thought
proper to justify himself, not by clearing himself of
receiving bribes, but by saying that no bad consequences resulted from it, and that, if any such evil
consequences did arise from it, they arose rather from
his inattention to money than from his desire of acquiring it.
I have stated to your Lordships the nature of the
covenants which the East India Company sent out.
Afterwards, when they found their servants had re
? ? ? ? 12 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fused to execute these covenants, they not only very
severely reprehended even a moment's delay in their
execution, and threatened the exacting the most strict
and rigorous performance of them, but they sent a
commission to enforce the observance of them more
strongly; and that commission had it specially in
charge never to receive presents. They never sent
out a person to India without recognizing the grievalice, and without ordering that presents should not
be received, as the main fundamental part of their duty, and upon which all the rest depended, as it certainly must: for persons at the head of government should not encourage that by example which they
ought by precept, authority, and force to restrain in
all below them. That commission failing, another
commission was preparing to be sent out with the
same instructions, when an act of Parliament took it
up; and that act, which gave Mr. Hastings power,
did mould in the very first stamina of his power this
principle, in words the most clear and forcible that
an act of Parliament could possibly devise upon the
subject. And that act was made not only upon a
general knowledge of the grievance, but your Lordships will see in the reports of that time that Parliament had directly in view before themn the whole of that monstrous head of corruption under the name
of presents, and all the monstrous consequences that
followed it.
Now, my Lords, every office of trust, in its very
nature, forbids the receipt of bribes. But Mr. Hastings was forbidden it, first, by his official situation,next, by covenant, -- and lastly, by act of Parliament: that is to say, by all the things that bind mankind, or
that can bind them, - first, moral obligation inherent
? ? ? ?
