No More Learning

I have here spoken only of the beginning of a great,'notorious system of corruption, which branched out
so many ways and into such a variety of abuses, and
has afflicted that kingdom with such horrible evils
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 21
from that day to this, that I will venture to say it
will make one of the greatest, weightiest, and most
material parts of the charge that is now before you;
as I believe I need not tell your Lordships that an
attempt to set up the whole landed interest of a,
kingdom to auction must be attended, not only in,
that act, but every consequential act, with most grievous and terrible consequences.
My Lords, I will now come to a scene of peculation
of another kind: namely, a peculation by the direct
sale of offices of justice, - by the direct sale of the
successions of families, -by the sale of guardianships,
and trusts, held most sacred among the people of India: by the sale of them, not, as before, to farmers, not,
as you might imagine, to near relations of the families,
but a sale of them to the unfaithful servants of those,
families, their own perfidious servants, who had ruined their estates, who, if any balances had accrued
to the government, had been the cause of those debts.
Those very servants were put in power over their estates, their persons, and their families, by Mr. Hastings, for a shameful price. It will be proved to your Lordships, in the course of this business, that Mr.
Hastings has done this in another sacred trust, the
most sacred trust a man can have, -- that is, in the
case of those vakeels, (as they call them,) agents,
or attorneys, who had been sent to assert and support
the rights of their miserable masters before the Council-General. It will be proved that these vakeels
were by Mr. Hastings, for a price to be paid for it,
put in possession of the very power, situation, and
estates of those masters who sent them to Calcutta to
defend them from wrong and violence. The selling
offices of justice, the sale of succession in families, of
? ? ? ? 22 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
guardianships and other sacred trusts, the selling
masters to their servants, and principals to the attorneys they employed to defend themselves, were all
parts of the same system; and these were the horrid
ways in which he received bribes beyond any corn
mon rate.
Wlhen Mr. Hastings was appointed in the year
1773 to be Governor-General of Bengal, together with
Mr. Barwell, General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and
Mr. Franicis, the Company, knowing the former corrupt state of their service, (but the whole corrupt
system of Mr. Hastings at that time not being known
or even suspected at home,) did order them, in discharge of the spirit of the act of Parliament, to make
an inquiry into all manner of corruptions and malversations in office, without the exception of any persons wllateverl. Your Lordships are to know that the act did expressly authorize the Court of Directors to
frame a body of instructions, and to give orders to
their new servants appointed under the act of Parliamenlt, lest it should be supposed that they, by their
appointment under the act, could supersede the authority of the Directors. The Directors, sensible of
the power left in them over their servants by the act
of Parliament, though their nomination was taken
from them, did, agreeably to the spirit and power of
that act, give this order.
The Council consisted of two parties: Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, who were chosen and kept
there upon the idea of their local knowledge; and
the other three, who were appointed on account of
their great parts and known integrity. And I will
venture to say that those three gentlemen did so execute their duty in India, in all the substantial parts
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 23
of it, that they will serve as a shield to cover the
honor of England, whenever this country is upbraided in India.
They found a rumor running through the country of great peculations and oppressions. Soon after,
when it was known what their instructions were, and
that the Council was ready, as is the first duty of all
governors, even when there is no express order, to
receive complaints against the oppressions and corruptions of government in any part of it, they found such a body (and that body shall be produced to your
Lordships) of corruption and peculation in every
walk, in every department, in every situation of life,
in' the sale of the most sacred trusts, and in the destruction of the most ancient families of the country,
as I believe in so short a time never was unveiled
since the world began.
Your Lordships would imagine that Mr. Hastings
would at least ostensibly have taken some part in endeavoring to bring these corruptions before the public, or that he would at least have acted with some little
management in his opposition. But, alas! it was not
in his power; there was not one, I think, but I am
sure very few, of these general articles of corruption,
in which the most eminent figure in the crowd, the
principal figure as it were in the piece, was not Mr.
Hastings himself. There were a great many others
involved; for all departments were corrupted and
vitiated. But you could not open a page in which
you did not see Mr. Hastings, or in which you did
not see Cantoo Baboo. Either the black or white
side of Mr. Hastings constantly was visible to the
world in every part of these transactions.
With the other gentlemen, who were visible too,
? ? ? ? 24 IMIPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I have at present no dealing. Mr. Hastings, instead
of using any management on that occasion, instantly
set up his power and authority, directly against the
majority of the Council, directly against his colleagues,
directly against the authority of the East India Company and the authority of the act of Parliament, to put a dead stop to all these inquiries. He broke up
the Council, the moment they attempted to perform
this part of their duty. As the evidence multiplied
upon him, the daring exertions of his power in stopping all inquiries increased continually. But he gave
a credit and authority to the evidence by these attempts to suppress it.
Your Lordships have heard that among the body
of the accusers of this corruption there was a principal man in the country, a man of the first rank and authority in it, called Nundcomar, who had the management of revenues amounting to 150,0001. a year, and who had, if really inclined to play the small game
with which he has been charged by his accusers,
abundant means to gratify himself in playing great
ones; but Mr. Hastings has himself given him, upon
the records of the Company, a character which would
at least justify the Council in making some inquiry
into charges made by him.
First, he was perfectly competent to make them,
because he was in the management of those affairs
from which Mr. Hastings is supposed to have received
corrupt emolument. He and his son were the chief
managers in those transactions. He was therefore
pe rfectly competent to it. - Mr. Hastings has cleared
his character; for though it is true, in the contradictions in which Mr. Hastings has entangled himself, he has abused and insulted him, and particularly after
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 25
his appearance as an accuser, yet before this he has
given this testimony of him, that the hatred that had
been drawn upon him, and the general obloquy of the
English nation, was on account of his attachment to
his own prince and the liberties of his country. Be
he what he might, I am not disposed, nor have I the
least occasion, to defend either his conduct or his
memory.
It is to no purpose for Mr. Hastings to spend time
in idle objections to the character of Nundcomar. Let
him be as bad as Mr. Hastings represents him. I suppose he was a caballing, bribing, intriguing politician,
like others in that country,. both black and white.
We know associates in dark and evil actions are not
generally the best of men; but be that as it will, it
generally happens that they are the best of all discoverers. If Mr. Hastings were the accuser of Nundcomar, I should think the presumptions equally strong against Nundcomar, if he had acted as Mr. Hastings
has acted. - He was not only competent, but the most
competent of all men to be Mr. Hastings's accuser.
But Mr. Hastings has himself established both his
character and his competency by employing him
against Mahomed Reza Khan. He shall not blow
hot and cold. In what respect was Mr. Hastings
better than Mahomed Reza Khan, that the whole
rule, principle, and system of accusation and inquiry
should be totally reversed in general, nay, reversed in
the particular instance, the moment he became accuser
against Mr. Hastings? - Such was the accuser. He
was the man that gave the bribes, and, in addition to
his own evidence, offers proof by other witnesses.
What was the accusation? Was the accusation
improbable, either on account of the subject-matter
? ? ? ? 26 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or the actor in it? Does such an appointment as
that of Munny Begum, in the most barefaced evasion
of his orders, appear to your Lordships a matter that
contains no. just presumptions of guilt, so that, when
a charge of bribery comes upon it, you are prepared
to reject it, as if the action were so clear and proper
that no man could attribute it to an improper motive?
And as to the man, -- is Mr. Hastings a mall against
whom a charge of bribery is improbable? Why, he
owns it. He is a professor of it. He reduces it into
scheme and system. He glories in it. He turns it
to merit, and declares it is the best way of supplying the exigencies of the Company. Why, therefore, should it be held improbable? - But I cannot mention this proceeding without shame and horror.
My Lords, when this man appeared as an accuser
of Mr. Hastings, if he was a man of bad character,
it was a great advantage to Mr. Hastings to be accused by a man of that description. There was no likelihood of any great credit being given to him.
This person, who, in one of those sales of which I
have already given you some account in the history
of the last period of the revolutions of Bengal, had
been, or thought he had been, cheated of his money,
had made some discoveries, and been guilty of that
great irremissible sin in India, the disclosure of
peculation. He afterwards came with a second disclosure, and was likely to have odium enough upon the occasion. He directly charged Mr. Hastings with
the receipt of bribes, amounting together to about
40,0001. . sterling, given by himself, on his own account
and that of Munny Begum. The charge was accompanied with every particular which could facilitate proof or detection, - time, place, persons, species, to
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 27
whom paid, by whom received. Here was a fair
opportunity for Mr. Hastings at once to defeat the
malice of his enemies and to clear his character to
the world. His course was different. He railed
much at the accuser, but did not attempt to refute
the accusation. He refuses to permit the inquiry to
go on, attempts to dissolve the Council, commands his
banian not to attend. The Council, however, goes
on, examines to the bottom, and resolves that the
charge was proved, and that the money ought to go
to the Company. Mr. Hastings then broke up the
Council, I will not say whether legally or illegally.
The Company's law counsel thought he might legally
do it; but he corruptly did it, and left mankind no
room to judge but that it was done for the screening
of his own guilt: for a man may use a legal power
corruptly, and for the most shameful and detestable
purposes. And thus matters continued, till he commenced a criminal prosecution against this man, -- this man whom he dared not meet as a defendant.
Mr. Hastings, instead of answering the charge, attacks the accuser. Instead of meeting the man in
front, he endeavored to go round, to come upon his
flanks and rear, but never to meet him in the face,
upon the ground of his accusation, as he was bound
by the express authority of law and the express injunctions of the Directors to do. If the bribery is not admitted on the evidence of Nundcomar, yet his suppressing it is a crime, a violation of the orders of the Court of Directors. He disobeyed those instructions;
and if it be only for disobedience, for rebellion against
his masters, (putting the corrupt motive out of the
question,) I charge him for this disobedience, and especially on account of the principles upon which he proceeded in it.
? ? ? ? 28 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Then he took another step: he accused Nundcomar of a conspiracy,- which was a way he then and
ever since has used, whenever means were taken to
detect any of his own iniquities.
Aiid here it becomes necessary to mention another circumstance of history: that the legislature, not trusting entirely to the Governor-General and Council, had sent out a court of justice to be a counter security against these corruptions, and to detect and
punish any such misdemeanors as might appear.
And this court I take for granted has done great
services.
Mr. Hastings flew to this court, which was meant
to protect in their situations informers against bribery and corruption, rather than to protect the accused from any of the preliminary methods which must indispensably be used for the purpose of detecting their guilt, --he flew to this court, charging this Nundcomar and others with being conspirators.
A man might be convicted as a conspirator, and
yet afterwards live; lie might put the matter into
other hands, and go on with his information; nothing less than stone-dead would do the business. And here happened an odd concurrence of circumstances.
Long before Nundcomar preferred his charge, he
knew that Mr. Hastings was plotting his ruin, and
that for this purpose he had used a man whom he,
Nundcomar, had turned out of doors, called Mohun
Persaud. Mr. Hastings had seen papers put upon
the board, charging him with this previous plot for
the destruction of Nundcomar; and this identical persoin, lIohun Persaud, whom Nundcomar had charged as Mr. Hastings's associate in plotting his ruin, was
now again brought forward as the principal evidence
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 29
against him. I will not enter (God forbid I should! )
into the particulars of the subsequent trial of Nundcomar; but you will find the marks and characters
of it to be these. You will find a close connection
between Mr. Hastings and the chief-justice, which we
shall prove. We shall prove that one of the witnesses
who appeared there was a person who had been before, or has since been, concerned with Mr. Hastings
in his most iniquitous transactions. You will find,
what is very odd, that in this trial for forgery with
which this man stood charged, forgery in a private
transaction, all the persons who were witnesses or
parties to it had been, before or since, the particular
friends of Mr. Hastings, - in short, persons from that
rabble with whom Mr. Hastings was concerned, both
before and since, in various transactions and negotiations of the most criminal kind. But the law took its
course. I have nothing more to say than that the
man is gone, --hanged justly, if you please; and that
it did so happen, - luckily for Mr. Hastings, - it so
happened, that the relief of Mr. Hastings, and the justice of the court, and the resolution never to relax its
rigor, did all concur just at a happy nick of time and
moment; and Mr. Hastings, accordingly, had the full
benefit of them all.
His accuser was supposed to be what men may be,
and yet very competent for accusers, namely, one of
his accomplices in guilty actions, - one of those persons who may have a great deal to say of bribes. All
that I contend for is, that he was in the closest intimacy with Mr. Hastings, was in a situation for giving bribes, - and that Mr. Hastings was proved afterwards to have received a sum of money from him, which may be well referred to bribes.
? ? ? ? 30 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
This example had its use in the way in which it
was intended to operate, and in which alone it could
operate. It did not discourage forgeries: they went
on at their usual rate, neither more nor less: but it
put an end to all accusations against all persons in
power for any corrupt practice. Mr. Hastings observes, that no man in India complains of him. It is
generally true. The voice of all India is stopped.
All complaint was strangled with the same cord
that strangled Nundcomar.
This murdered not only
that accuser, but all future accusation; and not only
defeated, but totally vitiated and reversed all the ends
for which this country, to its eternal and indelible
dishonor, had sent out a pompous embassy of justice
to the remotest parts of the globe.
But though Nundcomar was put out of the way by
the means by which he was removed, a part of the
charge was Inot strangled with him. Whilst the process against Nundcomar was carrying on before Sir
Elijah Impey, the process was continuing against Mr.
H[astings in other modes; the receipt of a part of
those bribes from Munny Begum, to the amount of
15,0001. , was proved against him, and that a sum to
the same amount was to be paid to his associate, Mr.
Middleton. As it was proved at Calcutta, so it will
be proved at your Lordships' bar to your entire satisfaction, by records and living testimony now in England. It was, indeed, obliquely admitted by Mr. Hastings himself. The excuse for this bribe, fabricated by Mr. Hastings, and taught to Munny Begum, when he found
that she was obliged to prove it against him, was,
that it was given to him for his entertainment,
according to some pretended custom, at the rate of
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 31
2001. sterling a day, whilst he remained at Moorshedabad. My Lords, this leads me to a few reflections
on the apology or defence of this bribe. We shall
certainly, I hope, render it clear to your Lordships
that it was not paid in this manner as a daily allowance, but given in a gross sum. But take it in his
own way, it was no less illegal, and no less contrary
to his covenant; but if true under the circumstances,
it was an horrible aggravation of his crime. The first
thing that strikes is, that visits from Mr. Hastings are
pretty severe things, and hospitality at Moorshedabad
is an expensive virtue, though for provision it is one
of the cheapest countries in the universe. No wonder that Mr. Hastings lengthened his visit, and made
it extend near three months. Such hosts and such
guests cannot be soon parted. Two hundred pounds
a day for a visit! It is at the rate of 73,0001. a year
for himself; and as I find his companion was put on
the same allowance, it will be 146,0001. a year for
hospitality to two English gentlemen. I believe that
there is not a prince in Europe who goes to such
expensive hospitality of splendor.
But that you may judge of the true nature of this
hospitality of corruption, I must bring before you the
business of the visitor and the condition of the host,
as stated by Mr. Hastings himself, who best knows
what he was doing. He was, then, at the old capital
of Bengal at the time of this expensive entertainment,
on a business of retrenchment, and for the establishment of a most harsh, rigorous, and oppressive economy. He wishes the task were assigned to spirits of a less gentle kind. By Mr. Hastings's account, he was
giving daily and hourly wounds to his humanity in
depriving of their sustenance hundreds of persons of
? ? ? ? 32 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the ancient nobility of a great fallen kingdom. Yet
it was in the midst of this galling duty, it was at that
very moment of his tender sensibility, that, from the
collected morsels plucked from the famished mouths
of hundreds of decayed, indigent, and starving nobility, he gorged his ravenous maw with 2001. a day for
his entertainment. In the course of all this proceeding your Lordships will not fail to observe he is never
corrupt, but lie is cruel; he never dines with comfort,
but where he is sure to create a famine. He never
robs from the loose superfluity of standing greatness;
he devours the fallen, the indigent, the necessitous.
His extortion is not like the generous rapacity of the
princely eagle, who snatches away the living, struggling prey; he is a vulture, who feeds upon the prostrate, the dying, and the dead. As his cruelty is more shocking than his corruption, so his hypocrisy has
something more frightful than his cruelty; for whilst
his bloody and rapacious hand signs proscriptions,
and now sweeps away the food of the widow and the
orphan, his eyes overflow with tears, and he converts
the healing balm that bleeds from wounded humanity into a rancorous and deadly poison to the race ol
man.
Well, there was an end to this tragic entertainment,
this feast of Tantalus. The few left on the pensionlist, the poor remnants that had escaped, were they
paid by his administratrix and deputy, Munny Begum!
Not a shilling. No fewer than forty-nine petitions,
mostly from the widows of the greatest and most
splendid houses of Bengal, came before the Council,
praying in the most deplorable manner for some sort
of relief out of the pittance assigned them. His col
leagues, General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mi
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 33
Francis, men who, when England is reproached for the
government of India, will, I repeat it, as a shield be
held up between this nation and infamy, did, in conformity to the strict orders of the Directors, appoint
Mahomed Reza Khan to his old offices, that is, to the
general superintendency of the household and the administration of justice, a person who by his authority might keep some order in the ruling family and in the state. The Court of Directors authorized them
to assure those offices to him, with a salary reduced
indeed to 30,0001. a year, during his good behavior.
But Mr. Hastings, as soon as he obtained a majority
by the death of the two best men ever sent to India,
notwithstanding the orders of the Court of Directors,
in spite of the public faith solemnly pledged to Mahomed Reza Khan, without a shadow of complaint,.
had the audacity to dispossess him of all his offices,
and appoint his bribing patroness, the old dancing-girl,.
Muniny Begum, once more to the viceroyalty and all
its attendant honors and functions.
The pretence was more insolent and shameless
than the act. Modesty does not long survive innocence. He brings forward the miserable pageant of
the Nabob, as he called him, to be the instrument
of his own disgrace, and the scandal of his family and government. He makes him to. pass by his
mother, and to petition us to appoint Munny Begum
once more to the administration of the viceroyalty.
He distributed Mahomed Reza Khan's salary as a
spoil.
When the orders of the Court to restore Mahomed
Reza Khan, with their opinion on the corrupt cause
of his removal, and a second time to pledge to him
the public faith for his continuance, were received,
VOL. X. 3
? ? ? ? 34 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Mr. Hastings, who had been just before a pattern of
obedience, when the despoiling, oppressing, imprisoning, and persecuting this man was the object, yet,
when the order was of a beneficial nature, and pleasant to a well-formed mind, he at once loses all his
old principles, he grows stubborn and refractory, and
refiuses obedience. And in this sullen, uncomplying
mood he continues, until, to gratify Mr. Francis, in
anl agreement on some of their differences, he consented to his proposition of obedience to the appointment of the Court of Directors. He grants to his arrangement of convenience what he had refused to
his duty, and replaces that magistrate. But mark
the double character of the man, never true to anything but fraud and duplicity. At the same time
that he publicly replaces this magistrate, pretending
compliance with his colleague and obedience to his
masters, he did, in defiance of his own and the public
faith, privately send an assurance to the Nabob, that
is, to Munny Begum, - informs her that he was com-'pelled by necessity to the present arrangement in
favor of Mahomed Reza Kha'n, but that on the first
opportunity he would certainly displace him again.
And he kept faith with his corruption; and to show
how vainly any one sought protection in the lawful
authority of this kingdom, he displaced Mahomed
Reza Khan from the lieutenancy and controllership,
leaving him only the judicial department miserably
curtailed.
But does he adhere to his old pretence of freedom
to the Nabob? No such thing. He appoints an absolute master to him under the name of Resident,
a creature of his personal favor, Sir John D'Oyly,
from whom there is not one syllable of correspondence
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 35
and not one item of account. How grievous this
yoke was to that miserable captive appears by a paper of Mr. Hastings, in which he acknowledges that the Nabob had offered, out of the 160,0001. payable to
him yearly, to give up to the Company no less than
40,0001. a year, in order to have the free disposal of
the rest. On this all comment is superfluous. Your
Lordships are furnished with a standard by which
you may estimate his real receipt from the revenue
assigned to him, the nature of the pretended Residency, and its predatory effects. It will give full credit to what was generally rumored and believed, that substantially and beneficially the Nabob never received fifty out of the one hundred and sixty thousand
pounds; which will account for his known poverty
and wretchedness, and that of all about him.
Thus by his corrupt traffic of bribes with one scandalous woman he disgraced and enfeebled the native Mahomedan government, captived the person of the
sovereign, and ruined and subverted the justice of
the country. What is worse, the steps taken for the
murder of Nundcomar, his accuser, have confirmed
and given sanction not only to the corruptions then
practised by the Governor-General, but to all of which
lie has since been guilty. This will furnish your
Lordships with some general idea which will enable
you to judge of the bribe for which he sold the
country government.
Ullder this head you will have produced to you ftllI
proof of his sale of a judicial office to a person called
Khlln Jehan Khan, and the modes he took to frustrate all inquiry on that subject, upon a wicked and
false pretence, that, according to his religious scruples, he could not be sworn.
? ? ? ? 86 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
The great end and object I have in view is to show
the criminal tendency, the mischievous nature of these
crimes, and the means taken to elude their discovery.
I am now giving your Lordships that general view
which may serve to characterize Mr. Hastings's administration in all the other parts of it.
It was not true in fact, as Mr. Hastings gives out,
that there was nothing now against him, and that,
when he had got rid of Nundcomar and his charge,
he got rid of the whole. No such thing. An immense load of charges of bribery remained. They
were coming afterwards from every part of the province; and there was no office in the execution of
justice which he was not accused of having sold in
the most flagitious manner.
After all this thundering the sky grew calmn and
clear, and Mr. Hastings sat with recorded peculation,
with peculation proved upon oath on the minutes of
that very Council,- he sat at the head of that Council and that board where his peculations were proved
against him. These were afterwards transmitted and
recorded in the registers of his masters, as an eternal monument of his corruption, and of his high disobedience, and flagitious attempts to prevent a discovery of the various peculations of which he had been guilty, to the disgrace and ruin of the country
committed to his care.
Mr. IIastings, after the execution of Nundcomar, if
he had intended to make even a decent and commonly sensible use of it, would naturally have said," This
man is justly taken away who has accused me of these
crimes; but as there are other witnesses, as there are
other means of a further inquiry, as the man is gone
of whose perjuries I might have reason to be afraid,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 37
let us now go into the inquiry. " I think he did very
ill not to go into the inquiry when the mall was alive;
but be it so, that lie was afraid of him, and waited till
he was removed, why not afterwards go into such an
inquiry? Why not go into an inquiry of all the other
peculations and charges upon him, which were innumerable, one of which I have just mentioned in particular, the charge of Mulnny Begum, of having received
fiom her, or her adopted son, a bribe of 40,0001. ?
Is it fit for a governor to say, will Mr. Hastings say
before this august assembly, " I may be accused in a
court of justice, -I am upon my defence, - let all
charges remain against me, - I will not give you an
account"? Is it fit that a governor should sit with
recorded bribery upon him at the head of a public
board and the government of a great kingdom, when
it is in his power by inquiry to do it away? No:
the chastity of character of a man in that situation
ought to be as dear to him as his innocence. Nay,
more depended upon it. His innocence regarded himself; his character regarded the public justice, regarded his authority, and the respect due to the English in that country. I charge it upon him, that not only did he suppress the inquiry to the best of his
power, (and it shall be proved,) but lie did not in any
one instance endeavor to clear off that imputation and
reproach from the English government. IIe went
further; he never denied hardly any of those charges
at the time. They are so numerous that I cannot
be positive; some of them he might meet with some
sort of denial, but the most part lie did not.
The first thing a man under such an accusation
owes to tile world is to deny the charge; next, to put
it to the proof; and lastly, to let inquiry freely go on.
? ? ? ? 38 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
He did not permit this, but stopped it all in his power.
I am to mention some exceptions, perhaps, hereafter,
which will tend to fortify the principle tenfold.
He promised, indeed, the Court of Directors (to
whom he never denied the facts) a full and liberal
explanation of these transactions; which full and liberal explanation he never gave. Many years passed;
even Parliament took notice of it; and he never
gave them a liberal explanation, or any explanation
at all of them. A mall may say, " I am threatened
with a suit in a court, and it may be very disadvantageous to me, if I disclose my defence. " That
is a proper answer for a man in common life, who
has no particular character to sustain; but is that
a proper answer for a governor accused of bribery,
that accusation transmitted to his masters, and his
masters giving credit to it? Good God! is that a
state in which a man is to say, " I am upon the defensive - I am on my guard, - I will give you no satisfaction, --I have promised it, but I have already deferred it for seven or eight years"? Is not this
tantamount to a denial?
Mr. Hastings, with this great body of bribery
against him, was providentially freed from Nundcomar, one of his accusers, and, as good events do not
come alone, (I think there is some such proverb,) it
did so happen that all the rest, or a great many of
them, ran away. But, however, the recorded evidence
of the former charges continued; no new evidence
came inll; and Mr. Hastings enjoyed that happy repose
which branded peculation, fixed and eternized upon
the records of the Company, must leave upon a mind
conscious of its own integrity.
My Lords, I will venture to say, there is no man
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 39
but owes something to his character. It is the grace,
undoubtedly, of a virtuous, firm mind often to despise
common, vulgar calumny; but if ever there is an
occasion in which it does become such a mind to disprove it, it is the case of being charged in high office with pecuniary malversation, pecuniary corruption.
There is no case in which it becomes an honest man,
much less a great man, to leave upon record specific
charges against him of corruption in his government,
without taking any one step whatever to refute them.
Though Mr. Hastings took no step to refute the
charges, he took many steps to punish the authors of
them; and those miserable people who had the folly
to make complaints against Mr. Hastings, to make
them under the authority of an act of Parliament,
under every sanction of public faith, yet, in consequenlce of those charges, every person concerned in them has been, as your Lordships will see, since his
restoration to power, absolutely undone, brought from
the highest situation to the lowest misery, so that
they may have good reason to repent they ever trusted an Enlglish Council, that they ever trusted a Court of Directors, that they ever trusted an English act
of Parliament, that they ever dared to make their
complaints.
And here I charge upon Mr. Hastings, that, by
never taking a single step to defeat or detect the
falsehood of any of those charges against him, and
by punishing the authors of them, he has been guilty
of such a subversion of all the principles of British
government as will deserve, and will I dare say meet,
your Lordships' most severe animadversion.
In the course of this inquiry we find a sort of
pause in his peculations, a sort of gap in the history,
? ? ? ? 40 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
as if pages were torn out. No longer we meet with
the same activity in taking money that was before
found; not even a trace of complimentary presents
is to be found in the records during the time whilst
General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis
formed the majority of the Council. There seems
to have been a kind of truce with that sort of conduct for a while, and Mr. Hastings rested upon his
arms. However, the very moment Mr. Hastings returned to power, peculation began again just at the
same instant; the moment we find him free from the
compulsion and terror of a majority of persons otherwise disposed than himself, we find him at his peculation again.
My Lords, at this time very serious inquiries had
begun in the House of Commons concerning peculation. They did not go directly to Bengal, but they
began upon the coast of Coromandel, and with the
principal governors there. There was, however, an
universal opinion (and justly founded) that these inquiries would go to far greater lengths. Mr. Hastings was resolved, then, to change the whole course and order of his proceeding. Nothing could persuade: him, upon any account, to lay aside his system of bribery: that he was resolved to persevere in. The point was now to reconcile it with his safety.
The first thing he did was to attempt to conceal it;
and accordingly we find him depositing very great
sums of money in the public treasury through the
means of the two persons I have already mentioned,
namely, the deputy-treasurer and the accountant, -
paying them in and taking bonds for them as money
of his own, and bearing legal interest. This was his
mnetllod of endeavoring to conceal some at least of his
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY.