from the history of Asia, and from the very nature
of mankind, the subjects of a despotic empire are always vigilant for the moment to rebel, and the sovereign is ever jealous of rebellious intentions.
of mankind, the subjects of a despotic empire are always vigilant for the moment to rebel, and the sovereign is ever jealous of rebellious intentions.
Edmund Burke
.
The rents that ought to be paid to the
Vizier of the Empire he gave to the Vizierate. Thus
our alliances were cemented, our enemies were reconciled, all Asia was conciliated by our settlement
with the king. To that unhappy fugitive king, driven from place to place, the sport of fortune, now an
emperor and now a prisoner, prayed for in every
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 441
mosque in which his authority was conspired against,
one day opposed by the coin struck in his name and
the other day sold for it, - to this descendant of Tamerlane he allotted, with a decent share of royal dignity, an honorable fixed residence, where he might be useful and could not be dangerous.
As to the Bengal provinces, he did not take for the
Company the viceroyalty, as Mr. Holwell would have
persuaded, almost forced, the Company to do; but,
to satisfy the prejudices of the Malihmedans, the
country was left in the hands nominally of the Subah, or viceroy, who was to administer the criminal
justice and the exterior forms of royalty. He obtained from the sovereign the dewanny. This is the
great act of the constitutional entrance of the Company into the body politic of India. It gave to the
settlement of'Bengal a fixed constitutional form,
with a legal title, acknowledged and recognized now
for the first time by all the natural powers of the
country, because it arose from the charter of the
undoubted sovereign. The dewanny, or high-stewardship, gave to the Company the collection and
management of the revenue; and in this modest
and civil character they appeared, not the oppressors,
but the protectors of the people. This scheme had.
all the real power, without any invidious appearance
of it; it gave them the revenue, without the parade
of sovereignty. On this double foundation the government was happily settled. The minds of the natives were quieted. The Company's territories and
views were circumscribed. The arm of force was
put out of sight. The imperial name covered everything. The power of the purse was in the hand of
the Company. The power of the sword was in effect
? ? ? ? 442 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
so, as they contracted for the maintenance of the
army. The Company had a revenue of a million and
a half. The Nabob had, indeed, fallen from any real
and effective power, yet the dignity of the court was
maintained. The prejudices and interests of the Mahomedans, and particularly of their nobility, who
had suffered more by this great revolution even
than the old inhabitants of the country, were consulted; for by this plan a revenue of 500,0001. was settled on the viceroyalty, which was thus enabled
to provide in some measure for those great families.
The Company likewise, by this plan, in order to enjoy
their revenues securely, and to avoid envy and murmur, put them into the hands of Mahomed Reza Khan, whom Lord Clive found in the management of affairs,
and did not displace; and he was now made deputysteward to the Company, as he had been before lieutenant-viceroy to the Nabob. A British Resident
at Moorshedabad was established as a control. The
Company exercised their power over the revenue in
the first instance through the natives, but the British
Resident was in reality the great mover.
If ever this nation stood in a situation of glory
throughout Asia, it was in that moment. But, as I
have said, some material errors and mistakes were
committed. After the formation of this plan, Lord
Clive unfortunately did not stay long enough ini the
country to give consistency to the measures of reformation he had undertaken, but rapidly returned to Englan'd; and after his departure, the government
that continued had not vigor or authority to support
the settlement then made, and considerable abuses
began to prevail in every quarter. Another capital
period in our history here commences. Those who
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. SECOND DAY. 443
succeeded (though I believe one of them was one of
the honestest men that ever served the Company, I
mean Governor Verelst) had not weight enough to
poise the system of the service, and consequently many abuses and grievances again prevailed. Supervisors were appointed to every district, as a check on the native collectors, and to report every abuse as it
should arise. But they who were appointed to redress
grievances were themselves accused of being guilty
of them. However, the disorders were not of that
violent kind which preceded Mr. Hastings's departure, nor such as followed his return: no mercenary
wars, no mercenary revolutions, no extirpation of
nations, no violent convulsions in the revenue, no
subversion of ancient houses, no general sales of anlly
descriptions of men, -- none of these, but certainly
such grievances as made it necessary for the Company
to send out another commission in 1769, with instructions pointing out the chief abuses. It was composed
of Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Scrafton. The
unfortunate end of that commission is known to all
the world; but I men. tion it in order to state that the
receipt of presents was considered as one of the
grievances which then prevailed in India, and that
the supervisors under that commission were ordered
upon no account whatever to take presents. Upon
the unfortunate catastrophe which happened, the
Company was preparing to send out another for the
rectification of these grievances, when Parliament
thought it necessary to supersede that commission, to
take the matter into their own hands, and to appoint
another commission in a Parliamentary way (of which
Mr. Hastings was one) for the better government of
that country. Mr. Hastin s, as I must mention to
? ? ? ? 414 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
your Lordships, soon after the deposition and restoration' of Jaffier Ali Khan, and before Lord Clive arrived, quitted for a while the scene. in which he
~had been so mischievously employed, and returned to
England to strengthen himself by those cabals which
again sent him out with new authority to pursue the
courses which were the natural sequel to his former
proceedings. He returned to India with great power, indeed, --first to a seat in Council at Fort St. George, and from thence to succeed to the Presidency
of Fort William. On him the Company placed their
chief reliance. Happy had it been for them, happy
for India and for England, if his conduct had been
such as to spare your Lordships and the Commons
the exhibition of this day!
When this government, with Mr. Hastings at the
head of it, was settled, Moorshedabad did still continie the seat of the native government, and of all the collections. Here the Company was not satisfied with
placing a Resident at the durbar, which was the first
step to our assuming the government in that country.
These steps must be traced by your Lordships; for I
should never have given you this trouble, if it was not
necessary to possess you clearly of the several progressive steps by which the Company's government came to be established and to supersede the native.
The next step was the appointment of supervisors in
every province, to oversee the native collector. The
third was to establish a general Council of Revenue
at ~Moorshedabad, to superintend the great steward,
Mahomed Reza Khan. In 1772 that Council by Mr.
Hastings was overturned, and the whole management
of the revenue brought to Calcutta. Mahomed Reza
Khan, by orders of the Company, was turned out of
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 445
all his offices, and turned out for reasons and principles which your Lordships will hereafter see; and at last the dewanny was entirely taken out of the native
hands, and settled in the Supreme Council and Presidency itself in Calcutta; and so it remained until the year 1781, when Mr. Hastings made another revolution, took it out of the hands of the Supreme Council, in which the orders of the Company, an act of Parliament, and their own act had vested it, and put it into a subordinate council: that is, it was entirely vested
in himself.
Now your Lordships see the whole of the revolutions. I have stated them, I trust, with perspicuity,
- stated the grounds and principles upon which they
were made, - stated the abuses that grew upon them,
- and that every revolution produced its abuse. You
saw the native government vanish by degrees, until
it was reduced to a situation fit for nothing but to
become a private perquisite, as it has been, to Mr.
Hastings, and to be granted to whom he pleased.
The English government succeeded, at the head of
which Mr. Hastings was placed by an act of Parliament, having before held the office of President of the Council, --the express object of both these appointments being to redress grievances; and within these two periods of his power, as President and GovernorGeneral, were those crimes committed of which he now stands accused. All this history is merely by
way of illustration: his crimination begins from his
nomination to the Presidency; and we are to consider how he comported himself in that station, and in his office of Governor-General.
The first thing, in considering the merits or demer
? ? ? ? 446 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
its of any governor, is to have some test by which they
are to be tried. And here, my Lords, we conceive,
that, when a British governor is sent abroad, he is
sent to pursue the good of the people as much as possible in the spirit of the laws of this country, which
in all respects intend their conservation, their happiness, and their prosperity. This is the principle upon which Mr. Hastings was bound to govern, and upon which he is to account for his conduct here. His rule was, what a British governor, intrusted with the
power of this country, was bound to do or to forbear.
If he has performed and if he has abstained as he
ought, dismiss him honorably acquitted from your
bar; otherwise condemn him. He may resort tc
other principles and to other maxims; but this country will force him to be tried by its laws. The'law
of this country recognizes that well-known crime
called misconduct in office; it is a head of the law
of England, and, so far as inferior courts are competent to try it, may be tried in them. Here your
Lordships' competence is plenary: you are fully competent both to inquire into and to punish the offence.
And, first, I am to state to your Lordships, by
the direction of those whom I am bound to obey, the
principles on which Mr. Hastings declares he has conducted his government, - principles which he has
avowed, first in several letters written to the East
India Company, next in a paper of defence delivered
to the House of Commons explicitly, and more explii,tly in his defence before your Lordships. Nothing
in Mr. Hastings's proceedings is so curious as his
several defences; and nothing in the defences is so
singular as the principles upon which he proceeds.
Your Lordships will have to decide not only upon a
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 447
large, connected, systematic train of misdemeanors,
but an equally connected system of principles and
maxims of government, invented to justify those misdemeanors. He has brought them forward and
avowed them in the face of day. ' He has boldly and
insultingly thrown them in the face of the representatives of a free people, and we cannot pass them by
without adopting them. I am directed to protest
against those grounds and principles upon which he
frames his. defence; for, if those grounds are good
and valid, they carry off a great deal at least, if not
entirely, the foundation of our charge.
My Lords, we contend that Mr. Hastings, as a
British governor, ought to govern on British principles, not by British forms, - God forbid! - for if ever
there was a case in which the letter kills and the spirit gives life, it would be an attempt to introduce British forms and the substance of despotic principles together into any country. No! We call for that spirit of equity, that spirit of justice, that spirit of protection, that spirit of lenity, which ought to characterize
every British subject in power; and on these, and
these principles only, he will be tried.
But he has told your Lordships, in his defence,
that actions in Asia do not bear the same moral qualities which the same actions would bear in Europe.
My Lords, we positively deny that principle. I am
authorized and called upon to deny it. And having
stated at large what he means by saying that the
same actions have not the same qualities in Asia and
in Europe, we are to let your Lordships know that
these gentlemen have formed a plan of geographical
morality, by which the duties of men, in public and
in private situations, are not to be governed by their
? ? ? ? 448 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
relation to the great Governor of the Universe, or by
their relation to mankind, but by climates, degrees
of longitude, parallels, not of life, but of latitudes:
as if, when you have crossed the equinoctial, all the
virtues die, as they say some insects die when they
cross the line; as if there were a kind of baptism,
like that practised by seamen, by which they unbaptize themselves of all that they learned in Europe, and after which a new order and system of things commenced.
This geographical morality we do protest against;
Mr. Hastings shall not screen himself under it; and
on this point I hope and trust many words will not be
necessary to satisfy your Lordships. But we think it
necessary, in justification of ourselves, to declare that
the laws of morality are the same everywhere, and
that there is no action which would pass for an act
of extortion, of peculation, of bribery, and of oppression in England, that is not anl act of extortion, of peculation, of bribery, and oppression in Europe,
Asia, Africa, and all the world over. This I contend
for not in the technical forms of it, but I contend for
it in the substance.
Mr. Hastings comes before your Lordships not as a
British governor answering to a British tribunal, but
as a subahdar, as a bashaw of three tails. He says,
"I had an arbitrary power to exercise: I exercised it.
Slaves I found the people: slaves they are, -they
are so by their constitution; and if they are, I did
not make it for them. I was unfortunately bound to
exercise this arbitrary power, and accordingly I did
exercise it. It was disagreeable to me, but I did
exercise it; and no other power can be exercised in
that country. " This, if it be true, is a plea in bar.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 449
But I trust and hope your Lordships will not judge
by laws and institutions which you do not know,
against those laws and institutions which you do
know, and under whose power and authority Mr.
Hastings went out to India. Can your Lordships
patiently hear what we have heard with indignation
enough, and what, if there were nothing else, would
call these principles, as well as the actions which are
justified on such principles, to your Lordships' bar,
that it may be known whether the peers of England
do not sympathize with the Commons in their detestation of such doctrine? Think of an English governor tried before you as a British subject, and yet declaring that, he governed on the principles of arbitrary power! His plea is, that he did govern there
on arbitrary and despotic, and, as he supposes, Oriental
principles. And as this plea is boldly avowed and
maintained, and as, no doubt, all his conduct was
perfectly correspondent to these principles, the principles and the conduct must be tried together.
If your Lordships will now permit me, I will state
one of the many places in which he has avowed these
principles as the basis and foundation of all his
conduct. " The sovereignty which they assumed, it.
fell to my lot, very unexpectedly, to exert; and.
whether or not such power, or powers of that nature,
were delegated to me by any provisions of any act of
Parliament, I confess myself too little of a lawyer to,
pronounce. I only know that the acceptance of the:
sovereignty of Benares, &c. , is not acknowledged or
admitted by any act of Parliament; and yet, by the
particular interference of the majority of the Coun --
cil, the Company is clearly and indisputably seized of
that sovereignty. " So that this gentleman, because;
VOL. IX. 29
? ? ? ? 450 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
he is not a lawyer, nor clothed with those robes which
distinguish, and well distinguish, the learning of this
country, is not to know anything of his duty; and
whether he was bound by any, or what act of Parliament, is a thing he is not lawyer enough to know!
Now, if your Lordships will suffer the laws to be
broken by those who are not of the long robe, I am
afraid those of the long robe will have none to punish but those of their own profession. He therefore
goes to a law he is better acquainted with,- that is,
the law of arbitrary power and force, if it deserves
to be challed by the name of law. "If, therefore,"
says he, " the sovereignty of Benares, as ceded to us
by the Vizier, have any rights whatever annexed to
it, and be not a mere empty word without meaning,
those rights must be such as are held, countenanced,
and established by the law, custom, and usage of the
Mogul empire, and not by the provisions of any British act of Parliament hitherto enacted. Those rights,
and none other, I have been the involuntary instrument of enforcing. And if any future act of Parliamenlt shall positively or by implication tend to annihilate those very rights, or their exertion as I have exerted them, I much fear that the boasted sovereignty of Benares, which was held up as an acquisition,
almost obtruded on the Company against my consent
and opinion, (for I acknowledge that even then I
foresaw many difficulties and inconveniences in its
future exercise,) - I fear, I say, that this sovereignty
will be found a burden instead of a benefit, a heavy
clog rather than a precious gem to its present possessors: I mean, unless the whole of our territory in that
quarter shall be rounllded and made an uniform compact body by one gralid and systematic arrangement.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - ECOND DAY. 451
-such an arrangement as shall do away all the
mischiefs, doubts, and inconveniences (both to the
governors and the governed) arising from the variety
of tenures, rights, and claims in all cases of landed
property and feudal jurisdiction in India, from the
informality, invalidity, and instability of all engagements in so divided and unsettled a state of society,
and from the unavoidable anarchy and confusion of
different laws, religions, and prejudices, moral, civil,
and political, all jumbled together in one unnatural
and discordant mass.
" Every part of Hiindostan has been constantly exposed to these and similar disadvantages ever since
the Mahomedan conquests. The Hindoos, who never
incorporated with their conquerors, were kept in order only by the strong hand of power. The constant necessity of similar exertions would increase at once their energy and extent; so that rebellion itself
is the parent and promoter of despotism. Sovereignty in India implies nothing else. For I know
not how we can form an estimate of its powers, but
from its visible effects; and those are everywhere
the same, from Cabool to Assam. The whole history
of Asia is nothing more than precedents to prove the
invariable exercise of arbitrary power. To all this I
strongly alluded in the minutes I delivered in Council, when the treaty with the new Vizier was on foot
in 1775; and I wished to make Cheyt Sing independent, because in India dependence included a
thousand evils, many of which I enumerated at that
time, and they are entered in the ninth clause of the
first section of this charge. I knew the powers with
which an Indian sovereignty is armed, and the dangers to which tributaries are exposed. I knew, that,
? ? ? ? 452 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
from the history of Asia, and from the very nature
of mankind, the subjects of a despotic empire are always vigilant for the moment to rebel, and the sovereign is ever jealous of rebellious intentions. A zemindar is an Indian subject, and as such exposed
to the common lot of his fellows. The mean and depraved state of a mere zemindar is therefore this very
dependence above mentioned on a despotic government, this very proneness to shake off his allegiance,
and this very exposure to continual danger from his
sovereign's jealousy, which are consequent on the
political state of Hindostanic governments. Bulwant
Sing, if he had been, and Cheyt Sing, as long as
he was a zemindar, stood exactly in this mean and
depraved state by the constitution of his country. I
did not make it for him, but would have secured
him from it. Those who made him a zemindar entailed upon him the consequences of so mean and
depraved a tenure. Aliverdy Khan and Cossim Ali
fined all their zemindars on the necessities of war,
and on every pretence either of court necessity or
court extravagance. "
My Lords, you have now heard the principles on
which Mr. Hastings governs the part of Asia subjected to the British empire. You have heard his opinion of the mean and depraved state of those who are subject to it. You have heard his lecture upoi' arbitrary power, which he states to be the constitution of
Asia. You hear the application he makes of it; and
you hear the practices which he employs to justify i. t
and who the persons were on whose authority he relies, and whose example lie professes to follow. In
the first place, your Lordships will be astonished at
the audacity with which lie speaks of his own admin
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 453
istration, as if he was reading a speculative lecture
on the evils attendant upon some vicious system of
foreign government in which lie had no sort of coilcern whatsoever. And then, when in this speculative
way lie has established, or thinks he has, the vices of
the government, he conceives he has found a sufficient apology for his own crimes. And if he violates
the most solemn engagements, if he oppresses, extorts,
and robs, if he imprisons, confiscates, banishes at his
sole will and pleasure, when we accuse him for his
ill-treatment of the people committed to him as a
sacred trust, his defence is, -- " To be robbed, violated, oppressed, is their privilege. Let the constitution of their country answer for it. I did not make
it for them. Slaves I found them, and as slaves I
have treated them. I was a despotic prince. Despotic governments are jealous, and the subjects prone
to rebellion. ' This very proneness of the subject to
shake off his allegiance exposes him to continual danger from his sovereign's jealousy, and this is consequent on the political state of Hindostanic governments. " He lays it down as a rule, that despotism is the genuine constitution of India, that 9 disposition
to rebellion in the subject or dependent prince is thenecessary effect of this despotism, and that jealousy
and its consequences naturally arise on the part of
the sovereign, -- that the government is everything,
and the subject nothing, - that the great landed men
are in a, mean and depraved state, and subject to many evils.
Such a state of things, if true, would warrant conclusions directly opposite to those which Mr. Hastings
means to draw from them, both argumllentatively and
practically, first to influence his conduct, and then to
bottom his defence of it.
? ? ? ? 454 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN BASTINGS.
Perhaps you will imagine that the man who avows
these principles of arbitrary government, and pleads
them as the justification of acts which nothing else can
justify, is of opinion that they are on the whole good
for the people over whom they are exercised. The
very reverse. He mentions them as horrible things,
tending to inflict on the people a thousand evils,
and to bring on the ruler a continual train of dangers. Yet he states, that your acquisitions in India
will be a detriment instead of an advantage, if you
destroy arbitrary power, unless you can reduce all
the religious establishments, all the civil institution',
and tenures of land, into one uniform mass,- that
is, unless by acts of arbitrary power you extinguish
all the laws, rights, and religious principles of the
people, and force them to an uniformity, and on
that uniformity build a system of-arbitrary power.
But nothing is more false than that despotism is
the constitution of any country in Asia that we are
acquainted with. It is certainly not true of any
Mahomedan constitution. But if it were, do your
Lordships really think that the nation would bear,
that any Hluman creature would bear, to hear an. English governor defend himself on such principles?
or, if he can defend himself on such principles, is it
possible to deny the conclusion, that no man in India
has a security for anything, but by being totally independent of the British government? Here he has
declared his opinion, that he is a despotic prince,
that he is to use arbitrary power; and of course all
his acts are covered with that shield. "I know,"
says he, " the constitution of Asia only front its practice. " Will your Lordships submit to hear the corrupt practices of mankind made the principles of
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. '455
government? No! it will be your pride and glory
to teach men intrusted with power, that, in their use
of it, they'are to conform to principles, and not to
draw their principles from the corrupt practice of
any man whatever. Was there ever heard, or could
it be conceived, that a governor would dare to heap
up all the evil practices, all the cruelties, oppressions,
extortions, corruptions, briberies, of all the ferocious
usurpers, desperate robbers, thieves, cheats, and jugglers, that ever had office, from one end of Asia to another, and, consolidating all' this mass of the crimes and absurdities of barbarous domination into one
code, establish it as the whole duty of an English
governor? I believe that till this time so audacious
a thing was never attempted by man.
He have arbitrary power! My Lords, the East
India Company have not arbitrary power to give
him; the king has no arbitrary power to give him;
your Lordships have not; nor the Commons, nor
the whole legislature. We have no arbitrary power
to give, because arbitrary power is a thing which
neither any man can hold nor any man can give.
No man call lawfully govern himself according to
his own will; much less call one person be governed
by the will of another. We are all born in subjection, - all born equally, high and low, governors and
governed, in subjection to one great, immutable, preexistent law, prior to all our devices and prior to
all our contrivances, paramount to all our ideas and
all our sensations, antecedent to our very existence,
by which we are knit and connected in the eternal
frame of the universe, out of which we cannot stir.
This great law does not arise from our conventions or compacts; on the contrary, it gives to our
? ? ? ? 456 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
conventions and compacts all the force and sanction
they can have. . It does not arise from our vain institutions. Every good gift is of God; all power
is of God; and He who has given the power, and
from whom alone it originates, will never suffer the
exercise of it to be practised upon any less solid
foundation than the power itself. If, then, all dominion of man over man is the effect of the Divine
disposition, it is bound by the eternal laws of Him
that gave it, with which no human authority can
dispense, - neither he that exercises it, nor even
those who are subject to it; and if they were mad
enough to make an express compact that should release their magistrate from his duty, and should declare their lives, liberties, and properties dependent upon, not rules and laws, but his mere capricious
will, that covenant would be void. The acceptor of
it has not his authority increased, but he has his
crime doubled. Therefore can it be imagined, if
this be true, that He will suffer this great gift of
government, the greatest, the best, that was ever
given by God to mankind, to be the plaything and
the sport of the feeble will of a, man, who, by a
blasphemous, absurd, and petulant usurpation, would
place his own feeble, contemptible, ridiculous will in
the place of the Divine wisdom and justice?
The title of conquest makes no difference at',all.
No conquest can give such a right; for conquest,
that is, force, cannot convert its own injustice into
a just title, by which it may rule others at its pleasure. . By conquest, which is a more immediate designation of the hand of God, the conqueror succeeds to all the painful duties and subordination to the
power of God which belonged to the sovereign whom
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. . -SECOND DAY. 457
he has displaced, just as if he had come in by the
positive law of some descent or some election. To
this at least he is strictly bound: he ought to govern them as he governs his own subjects. But
every wise conqueror has gone much further than
he was bou nd to go. It has been his ambition and
his policy to reconcile the vanquished to his fortune,
to show that they had gained by the change, to convert their momentary suffering into a long benefit, and to draw from the humiliation of his enemies an
accession to his own glory. This has been so constant a practice, that it is to repeat the histories
of all politic conquerors in all nations and in all
times; and I will not so much distrust your Lordships' enlightened and discriminating studies and correct memories as to allude to one of them. I
~will only show you that the Court of Directors,
under whom he served, has adopted that idea, --
that they constantly inculcated it to him, and to
all the servants, --that they run a parallel between
their own and the native government, and, supposing
it to be very evil, did not hold it up as an example
to be followed, but as an abuse to be corrected,that they never made it a question, whether India
is to be improved by English law and liberty, or
English law and liberty vitiated by Indian corruption.
No, my Lords, this arbitrary power is not to be
had by conquest. Nor can any sovereign have it
by succession; for no man can succeed to fraud,
rapine, and violence. Neither by compact, covenant,
or submission,- for men cannot covenant themselves
out of their rights and their duties, - nor by any
other means, can arbitrary power be conveyed to
? ? ? ? 458 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any man. Those who give to others such rights
perform acts that are void as they are given, -good
indeed and valid only as tending to subject themselves, and those who act with them, to the Divine
displeasure; because morally there can be no such
power. Those who give and those who receive arbitrary power are alike criminal; and there is no
man but is bound to resist it to the best of his
power, wherever it shall show its face to the world.
It is a crime to bear it, when it can be rationally
shaken off. Nothing but absolute impotence can
justify men in not resisting it to the utmost of their
ability.
Law and arbitrary power are in eternal enmity.
Name me a magistrate, and I will name property;
name me power, and I will' name protection. It
is a contradiction in terms, it is blasphemy in religion, it is wickedness in politics, to say that any
man can have arbitrary power. In every patent
of office the duty is included. For what else does
a magistrate exist? To suppose for power is an
absurdity in idea. Judges are guided and governed by the eternal laws of justice, to which we
are all subject. We may bite our chains, if we
will, but we shall be made to know ourselves, and
be taught that man is born to be governed by law;
and he that will substitute will in the place -of it
is an enemy to GOD.
Despotism does not in the smallest degree abrogate, alter, or lessen any one duty of any one relation of life, or weaken the force or obligation of any one engagement or contract whatsoever. Despotism, if it means anything that is at all defensi.
ble, means a mode of government bound by no
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. -459
written rules, and coerced by no controlling muagistracies or well-settled oraers in the state. But if
it has no written law, it neither does nor can cancel
the primeval, indefeasible, unalterable law of Nature
and of nations; and if no magistracies control its
exertions, those exertions must derive their limitation and direction either from the equity and moderation of the ruler, or from downright revolt on the part of the subject by rebellion, divested of all its
criminal qualities. The moment a sovereign removes
the idea of security and protection from his subjects,
and declares that he is everything and they nothing,
when he declares -that no contract he makes with
them can or ought to bind him, he then declares
war upon them: he is no longer sovereign; they
are no longer subjects.
No man, therefore, has a right to arbitrary power. But the thought which is suggested by the depravity of him who brings it forward is supported
by a gross confusion of ideas and principles, which
your Lordships well know how to discern and separate. It is manifest, that, in the Eastern governments, and the Western, and in all governments, the supreme power in the state cannot, whilst that state
subsists, be rendered criminally responsible for its actions: otherwise it would not be the supreme power.
It is certainly true: but the actions do not change
their nature by losiilg their responsibility. The arbitrary acts which are unpunished are not the less
vicious, though none but God, the conscience, and
the opinions of mankind take cognizance of them.
It is not merely so in this or that government,
but in all countries. The king in this country is
undoubtedly unaccountable for his actions. The
? ? ? ? 460 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
House of Lords, if it should ever exercise, (God forbid I should suspect it would ever do what it has never done! ) - but if it should ever abuse its judicial power, and give such a judgment as it ought not to give, whether from fear of popular clamor on the
one hand, or predilection to the prisoner on the other,
-if they abuse their judgments, there is no calling
them to an account for it. And so, if the Commons
should abuse their power, nay, if they should have
been so greatly delinquent as not to have prosecuted this offender, they could not be accountable for it; there is no punishing them for their acts, because
we exercise a part of the supreme power. But are
they less criminal, less rebellious against the Divine
Majesty? are they less hateful to mall, whose opinions they ought to cultivate as far as they are just? No: till society fall into a state of dissolution, they
cannot be accountable for their acts. But it is from
confounding the unaccountable character inherent in
the supreme power with arbitrary power, that all this
confusion of ideas has arisen.
Even upon a supposition that arbitrary power can
exist anywhere, which we deny totally, and which
your Lordships will be the first and proudest to
deny, still, absolute supreme dominion was never
conferred or delegated by you, - much less, arbitrary power, which never did in any case, nor ever will in any case, time, or counti'y, produce any one
of the ends of just government.
It is true that the supreme power in every constitution of government must be absolute, and this may be corrupted into the arbitrary. But all' good constitutions have established certain fixed rules for the exercise of their fuinctions, which they rarely or ever
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 461
depart from, and which rules form the security against
that worst of evils, the government of will and force
instead of wisdom and justice.
But though the supreme power is in a situation resembling arbitrary, yet never was there heard of in the history of the world, that is, in that mixed chaos
of human wisdom and folly, such a thing as an intermediate arbitrary power, - that is, of an officer of government who is to exert authority over the people
without any law at all, and who is to have the benefit
of all laws, and all forms of law, when he is called to
an account. For that is to let a wild beast (for'such
is a man without law) loose upon the people to prey
on them at his pleasurd, whilst all the laws which
ought to secure the people against the abuse of power
are employed to screen that abuse against the cries of
the people.
This is defacto the state of our Indian government.
But to establish it so in iright as well as in fact is a
thing left for us to begin with, the first of mankind.
For a subordinate arbitrary or even despotic power
never was heard of in right, claim, or authorized
practice; least of all has it been heard of in the
Eastern governments, where all the instances of severity and cruelty fall upon governors and persons intrusted with power. This would be a gross contradiction. Before Mr. Hastings, none ever came before his superiors to clai'm it; because, if any such thing
could exist, he claims the very power of that sovereign
who calls him to account.
But suppose a man to come before us, denying all
the benefits of law to the people under him, --and
yet, when he is called to account, to claim all the
benefits of that law which was made to screen man
? ? ? ? 462 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
kind from the excesses of power: such a claim, I will
venture to say, is a monster that never existed, except
in the wild imagination of some theorist. It cannot
be admitted, because it is a perversion of the fundamental principle, that,every power given for the protection of the people below should be responsible to the power above. It is to suppose that the people
shall have no laws with regard to him, yet, when he
comes to be tried, he shall claim the protection of
those laws which were made to secure the people from
his violence, -- that lie shall claim a fair trial, an
equitable hearing, every advantage of counsel, (God
forbid he should not have them! ) yet that the people under him shall have none of those advantages.
The reverse is the principle of every just and rational
procedure. For the people, who have nothing to use
but their natural faculties, ought to be gently dealt
with; but those who are intrusted with an artificial
and instituted authority have in their hands a great
deal of the force of other people; and as their temptations to injustice are greater, so their means are
infinitely more effectual for mischief by turning the
powers given for the preservation of society to its
destruction: so that, if an arbitrary procedure be
justifiable, (a strong one I am sure is,) it is when
used. against those who pretend to use it against
others.
My Lords, I will venture to say of the governments
of Asia, that none of them ever had an arbitrary
power; and if any governments had an arbitrary
power, they cannot delegate it to any persons under
-them: that is, they cannot so delegate it to others
as not to leave them accountable on the principles
upon which it was given. As this is a contradiction
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY, 463
in terms, a gross absurdity, as well as a monstrous
wickedness, let me say, for the honor of human nature,
that, although undoubtedly we may speak it with the
pride of England that we have better institutions for
the preservation of the rights of men than any other
country in the world, yet I will venture to say that
no country has wholly meant, or ever meant, to give
this power.
As it cannot exist in right on any rational and solid
principles of government, so neither does it exist in
the constitution of Oriental governments, - and I do
insist upon it, that Oriental governments know nothing
of arbitrary power. I have taken as much pains as I
could to examine into the constitutions of them. I
have been endeavoring to inform myself at all times
on this subject; of late my duty has led me to a
more minute inspection of them; and I do challenge
the whole race of mall to show me any of the Oriental governors claiming to themselves a right to act by arbitrary will.
The greatest part of Asia is under Mahomedan governments. To name a Mahomedan government is
to name a government by law. It is a law enforced
by stronger sanctions than any law that can bind a
Christian sovereign. Their law is believed to be given
by God; and it has the double sanction of law and of
religion, with which the prince is no more authorized
to dispense than any one else. And if any man will
produde the Koran to me, and will but show me one
text in it that authorizes in any degree an arbitrary
power in the government, I will confess that I have
read that book, and been conversant in the affairs of
Asia, in vain. There is not such a syllable in it; but,
on the contrary, against oppressors by name every
? ? ? ? 464 IMPEACHM. ENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
letter of that law is fulminated. There are interpreters established throughout all Asia to explain that law, an order of priesthood, whom they call mzen of
the law. These men are conservators of the law; and
to enable them to preserve it in its perfection, they
are secured from the resentment of thre sovereign:
for he cannot touch them. Even their kings are not
always vested with a real supreme power, but the.
government is in some degree republican.
To bring this point a little nearer home, - since
we are challenged thus, since we are led into Asia,
since we are called upon to make good our charge
on the principles of the governments there, rather
than on those of our own country, (which I trust
your Lordships will oblige him finally to be governed by, puffed up as he is with the insolence of Asia,) -the nearest to us of the governments he
appeals to is that. of the Grand Seignior, the Emperor of the Turks. - He an arbitrary power! Why,
he has not the supreme power of his own country.
Every one knows that the Grand Seignior is exalted high in titles, as our prerogative lawyers exalt an abstract sovereign, - and he cannot be exalted
higher in our books.
Vizier of the Empire he gave to the Vizierate. Thus
our alliances were cemented, our enemies were reconciled, all Asia was conciliated by our settlement
with the king. To that unhappy fugitive king, driven from place to place, the sport of fortune, now an
emperor and now a prisoner, prayed for in every
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 441
mosque in which his authority was conspired against,
one day opposed by the coin struck in his name and
the other day sold for it, - to this descendant of Tamerlane he allotted, with a decent share of royal dignity, an honorable fixed residence, where he might be useful and could not be dangerous.
As to the Bengal provinces, he did not take for the
Company the viceroyalty, as Mr. Holwell would have
persuaded, almost forced, the Company to do; but,
to satisfy the prejudices of the Malihmedans, the
country was left in the hands nominally of the Subah, or viceroy, who was to administer the criminal
justice and the exterior forms of royalty. He obtained from the sovereign the dewanny. This is the
great act of the constitutional entrance of the Company into the body politic of India. It gave to the
settlement of'Bengal a fixed constitutional form,
with a legal title, acknowledged and recognized now
for the first time by all the natural powers of the
country, because it arose from the charter of the
undoubted sovereign. The dewanny, or high-stewardship, gave to the Company the collection and
management of the revenue; and in this modest
and civil character they appeared, not the oppressors,
but the protectors of the people. This scheme had.
all the real power, without any invidious appearance
of it; it gave them the revenue, without the parade
of sovereignty. On this double foundation the government was happily settled. The minds of the natives were quieted. The Company's territories and
views were circumscribed. The arm of force was
put out of sight. The imperial name covered everything. The power of the purse was in the hand of
the Company. The power of the sword was in effect
? ? ? ? 442 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
so, as they contracted for the maintenance of the
army. The Company had a revenue of a million and
a half. The Nabob had, indeed, fallen from any real
and effective power, yet the dignity of the court was
maintained. The prejudices and interests of the Mahomedans, and particularly of their nobility, who
had suffered more by this great revolution even
than the old inhabitants of the country, were consulted; for by this plan a revenue of 500,0001. was settled on the viceroyalty, which was thus enabled
to provide in some measure for those great families.
The Company likewise, by this plan, in order to enjoy
their revenues securely, and to avoid envy and murmur, put them into the hands of Mahomed Reza Khan, whom Lord Clive found in the management of affairs,
and did not displace; and he was now made deputysteward to the Company, as he had been before lieutenant-viceroy to the Nabob. A British Resident
at Moorshedabad was established as a control. The
Company exercised their power over the revenue in
the first instance through the natives, but the British
Resident was in reality the great mover.
If ever this nation stood in a situation of glory
throughout Asia, it was in that moment. But, as I
have said, some material errors and mistakes were
committed. After the formation of this plan, Lord
Clive unfortunately did not stay long enough ini the
country to give consistency to the measures of reformation he had undertaken, but rapidly returned to Englan'd; and after his departure, the government
that continued had not vigor or authority to support
the settlement then made, and considerable abuses
began to prevail in every quarter. Another capital
period in our history here commences. Those who
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. SECOND DAY. 443
succeeded (though I believe one of them was one of
the honestest men that ever served the Company, I
mean Governor Verelst) had not weight enough to
poise the system of the service, and consequently many abuses and grievances again prevailed. Supervisors were appointed to every district, as a check on the native collectors, and to report every abuse as it
should arise. But they who were appointed to redress
grievances were themselves accused of being guilty
of them. However, the disorders were not of that
violent kind which preceded Mr. Hastings's departure, nor such as followed his return: no mercenary
wars, no mercenary revolutions, no extirpation of
nations, no violent convulsions in the revenue, no
subversion of ancient houses, no general sales of anlly
descriptions of men, -- none of these, but certainly
such grievances as made it necessary for the Company
to send out another commission in 1769, with instructions pointing out the chief abuses. It was composed
of Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Scrafton. The
unfortunate end of that commission is known to all
the world; but I men. tion it in order to state that the
receipt of presents was considered as one of the
grievances which then prevailed in India, and that
the supervisors under that commission were ordered
upon no account whatever to take presents. Upon
the unfortunate catastrophe which happened, the
Company was preparing to send out another for the
rectification of these grievances, when Parliament
thought it necessary to supersede that commission, to
take the matter into their own hands, and to appoint
another commission in a Parliamentary way (of which
Mr. Hastings was one) for the better government of
that country. Mr. Hastin s, as I must mention to
? ? ? ? 414 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
your Lordships, soon after the deposition and restoration' of Jaffier Ali Khan, and before Lord Clive arrived, quitted for a while the scene. in which he
~had been so mischievously employed, and returned to
England to strengthen himself by those cabals which
again sent him out with new authority to pursue the
courses which were the natural sequel to his former
proceedings. He returned to India with great power, indeed, --first to a seat in Council at Fort St. George, and from thence to succeed to the Presidency
of Fort William. On him the Company placed their
chief reliance. Happy had it been for them, happy
for India and for England, if his conduct had been
such as to spare your Lordships and the Commons
the exhibition of this day!
When this government, with Mr. Hastings at the
head of it, was settled, Moorshedabad did still continie the seat of the native government, and of all the collections. Here the Company was not satisfied with
placing a Resident at the durbar, which was the first
step to our assuming the government in that country.
These steps must be traced by your Lordships; for I
should never have given you this trouble, if it was not
necessary to possess you clearly of the several progressive steps by which the Company's government came to be established and to supersede the native.
The next step was the appointment of supervisors in
every province, to oversee the native collector. The
third was to establish a general Council of Revenue
at ~Moorshedabad, to superintend the great steward,
Mahomed Reza Khan. In 1772 that Council by Mr.
Hastings was overturned, and the whole management
of the revenue brought to Calcutta. Mahomed Reza
Khan, by orders of the Company, was turned out of
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 445
all his offices, and turned out for reasons and principles which your Lordships will hereafter see; and at last the dewanny was entirely taken out of the native
hands, and settled in the Supreme Council and Presidency itself in Calcutta; and so it remained until the year 1781, when Mr. Hastings made another revolution, took it out of the hands of the Supreme Council, in which the orders of the Company, an act of Parliament, and their own act had vested it, and put it into a subordinate council: that is, it was entirely vested
in himself.
Now your Lordships see the whole of the revolutions. I have stated them, I trust, with perspicuity,
- stated the grounds and principles upon which they
were made, - stated the abuses that grew upon them,
- and that every revolution produced its abuse. You
saw the native government vanish by degrees, until
it was reduced to a situation fit for nothing but to
become a private perquisite, as it has been, to Mr.
Hastings, and to be granted to whom he pleased.
The English government succeeded, at the head of
which Mr. Hastings was placed by an act of Parliament, having before held the office of President of the Council, --the express object of both these appointments being to redress grievances; and within these two periods of his power, as President and GovernorGeneral, were those crimes committed of which he now stands accused. All this history is merely by
way of illustration: his crimination begins from his
nomination to the Presidency; and we are to consider how he comported himself in that station, and in his office of Governor-General.
The first thing, in considering the merits or demer
? ? ? ? 446 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
its of any governor, is to have some test by which they
are to be tried. And here, my Lords, we conceive,
that, when a British governor is sent abroad, he is
sent to pursue the good of the people as much as possible in the spirit of the laws of this country, which
in all respects intend their conservation, their happiness, and their prosperity. This is the principle upon which Mr. Hastings was bound to govern, and upon which he is to account for his conduct here. His rule was, what a British governor, intrusted with the
power of this country, was bound to do or to forbear.
If he has performed and if he has abstained as he
ought, dismiss him honorably acquitted from your
bar; otherwise condemn him. He may resort tc
other principles and to other maxims; but this country will force him to be tried by its laws. The'law
of this country recognizes that well-known crime
called misconduct in office; it is a head of the law
of England, and, so far as inferior courts are competent to try it, may be tried in them. Here your
Lordships' competence is plenary: you are fully competent both to inquire into and to punish the offence.
And, first, I am to state to your Lordships, by
the direction of those whom I am bound to obey, the
principles on which Mr. Hastings declares he has conducted his government, - principles which he has
avowed, first in several letters written to the East
India Company, next in a paper of defence delivered
to the House of Commons explicitly, and more explii,tly in his defence before your Lordships. Nothing
in Mr. Hastings's proceedings is so curious as his
several defences; and nothing in the defences is so
singular as the principles upon which he proceeds.
Your Lordships will have to decide not only upon a
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 447
large, connected, systematic train of misdemeanors,
but an equally connected system of principles and
maxims of government, invented to justify those misdemeanors. He has brought them forward and
avowed them in the face of day. ' He has boldly and
insultingly thrown them in the face of the representatives of a free people, and we cannot pass them by
without adopting them. I am directed to protest
against those grounds and principles upon which he
frames his. defence; for, if those grounds are good
and valid, they carry off a great deal at least, if not
entirely, the foundation of our charge.
My Lords, we contend that Mr. Hastings, as a
British governor, ought to govern on British principles, not by British forms, - God forbid! - for if ever
there was a case in which the letter kills and the spirit gives life, it would be an attempt to introduce British forms and the substance of despotic principles together into any country. No! We call for that spirit of equity, that spirit of justice, that spirit of protection, that spirit of lenity, which ought to characterize
every British subject in power; and on these, and
these principles only, he will be tried.
But he has told your Lordships, in his defence,
that actions in Asia do not bear the same moral qualities which the same actions would bear in Europe.
My Lords, we positively deny that principle. I am
authorized and called upon to deny it. And having
stated at large what he means by saying that the
same actions have not the same qualities in Asia and
in Europe, we are to let your Lordships know that
these gentlemen have formed a plan of geographical
morality, by which the duties of men, in public and
in private situations, are not to be governed by their
? ? ? ? 448 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
relation to the great Governor of the Universe, or by
their relation to mankind, but by climates, degrees
of longitude, parallels, not of life, but of latitudes:
as if, when you have crossed the equinoctial, all the
virtues die, as they say some insects die when they
cross the line; as if there were a kind of baptism,
like that practised by seamen, by which they unbaptize themselves of all that they learned in Europe, and after which a new order and system of things commenced.
This geographical morality we do protest against;
Mr. Hastings shall not screen himself under it; and
on this point I hope and trust many words will not be
necessary to satisfy your Lordships. But we think it
necessary, in justification of ourselves, to declare that
the laws of morality are the same everywhere, and
that there is no action which would pass for an act
of extortion, of peculation, of bribery, and of oppression in England, that is not anl act of extortion, of peculation, of bribery, and oppression in Europe,
Asia, Africa, and all the world over. This I contend
for not in the technical forms of it, but I contend for
it in the substance.
Mr. Hastings comes before your Lordships not as a
British governor answering to a British tribunal, but
as a subahdar, as a bashaw of three tails. He says,
"I had an arbitrary power to exercise: I exercised it.
Slaves I found the people: slaves they are, -they
are so by their constitution; and if they are, I did
not make it for them. I was unfortunately bound to
exercise this arbitrary power, and accordingly I did
exercise it. It was disagreeable to me, but I did
exercise it; and no other power can be exercised in
that country. " This, if it be true, is a plea in bar.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 449
But I trust and hope your Lordships will not judge
by laws and institutions which you do not know,
against those laws and institutions which you do
know, and under whose power and authority Mr.
Hastings went out to India. Can your Lordships
patiently hear what we have heard with indignation
enough, and what, if there were nothing else, would
call these principles, as well as the actions which are
justified on such principles, to your Lordships' bar,
that it may be known whether the peers of England
do not sympathize with the Commons in their detestation of such doctrine? Think of an English governor tried before you as a British subject, and yet declaring that, he governed on the principles of arbitrary power! His plea is, that he did govern there
on arbitrary and despotic, and, as he supposes, Oriental
principles. And as this plea is boldly avowed and
maintained, and as, no doubt, all his conduct was
perfectly correspondent to these principles, the principles and the conduct must be tried together.
If your Lordships will now permit me, I will state
one of the many places in which he has avowed these
principles as the basis and foundation of all his
conduct. " The sovereignty which they assumed, it.
fell to my lot, very unexpectedly, to exert; and.
whether or not such power, or powers of that nature,
were delegated to me by any provisions of any act of
Parliament, I confess myself too little of a lawyer to,
pronounce. I only know that the acceptance of the:
sovereignty of Benares, &c. , is not acknowledged or
admitted by any act of Parliament; and yet, by the
particular interference of the majority of the Coun --
cil, the Company is clearly and indisputably seized of
that sovereignty. " So that this gentleman, because;
VOL. IX. 29
? ? ? ? 450 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
he is not a lawyer, nor clothed with those robes which
distinguish, and well distinguish, the learning of this
country, is not to know anything of his duty; and
whether he was bound by any, or what act of Parliament, is a thing he is not lawyer enough to know!
Now, if your Lordships will suffer the laws to be
broken by those who are not of the long robe, I am
afraid those of the long robe will have none to punish but those of their own profession. He therefore
goes to a law he is better acquainted with,- that is,
the law of arbitrary power and force, if it deserves
to be challed by the name of law. "If, therefore,"
says he, " the sovereignty of Benares, as ceded to us
by the Vizier, have any rights whatever annexed to
it, and be not a mere empty word without meaning,
those rights must be such as are held, countenanced,
and established by the law, custom, and usage of the
Mogul empire, and not by the provisions of any British act of Parliament hitherto enacted. Those rights,
and none other, I have been the involuntary instrument of enforcing. And if any future act of Parliamenlt shall positively or by implication tend to annihilate those very rights, or their exertion as I have exerted them, I much fear that the boasted sovereignty of Benares, which was held up as an acquisition,
almost obtruded on the Company against my consent
and opinion, (for I acknowledge that even then I
foresaw many difficulties and inconveniences in its
future exercise,) - I fear, I say, that this sovereignty
will be found a burden instead of a benefit, a heavy
clog rather than a precious gem to its present possessors: I mean, unless the whole of our territory in that
quarter shall be rounllded and made an uniform compact body by one gralid and systematic arrangement.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - ECOND DAY. 451
-such an arrangement as shall do away all the
mischiefs, doubts, and inconveniences (both to the
governors and the governed) arising from the variety
of tenures, rights, and claims in all cases of landed
property and feudal jurisdiction in India, from the
informality, invalidity, and instability of all engagements in so divided and unsettled a state of society,
and from the unavoidable anarchy and confusion of
different laws, religions, and prejudices, moral, civil,
and political, all jumbled together in one unnatural
and discordant mass.
" Every part of Hiindostan has been constantly exposed to these and similar disadvantages ever since
the Mahomedan conquests. The Hindoos, who never
incorporated with their conquerors, were kept in order only by the strong hand of power. The constant necessity of similar exertions would increase at once their energy and extent; so that rebellion itself
is the parent and promoter of despotism. Sovereignty in India implies nothing else. For I know
not how we can form an estimate of its powers, but
from its visible effects; and those are everywhere
the same, from Cabool to Assam. The whole history
of Asia is nothing more than precedents to prove the
invariable exercise of arbitrary power. To all this I
strongly alluded in the minutes I delivered in Council, when the treaty with the new Vizier was on foot
in 1775; and I wished to make Cheyt Sing independent, because in India dependence included a
thousand evils, many of which I enumerated at that
time, and they are entered in the ninth clause of the
first section of this charge. I knew the powers with
which an Indian sovereignty is armed, and the dangers to which tributaries are exposed. I knew, that,
? ? ? ? 452 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
from the history of Asia, and from the very nature
of mankind, the subjects of a despotic empire are always vigilant for the moment to rebel, and the sovereign is ever jealous of rebellious intentions. A zemindar is an Indian subject, and as such exposed
to the common lot of his fellows. The mean and depraved state of a mere zemindar is therefore this very
dependence above mentioned on a despotic government, this very proneness to shake off his allegiance,
and this very exposure to continual danger from his
sovereign's jealousy, which are consequent on the
political state of Hindostanic governments. Bulwant
Sing, if he had been, and Cheyt Sing, as long as
he was a zemindar, stood exactly in this mean and
depraved state by the constitution of his country. I
did not make it for him, but would have secured
him from it. Those who made him a zemindar entailed upon him the consequences of so mean and
depraved a tenure. Aliverdy Khan and Cossim Ali
fined all their zemindars on the necessities of war,
and on every pretence either of court necessity or
court extravagance. "
My Lords, you have now heard the principles on
which Mr. Hastings governs the part of Asia subjected to the British empire. You have heard his opinion of the mean and depraved state of those who are subject to it. You have heard his lecture upoi' arbitrary power, which he states to be the constitution of
Asia. You hear the application he makes of it; and
you hear the practices which he employs to justify i. t
and who the persons were on whose authority he relies, and whose example lie professes to follow. In
the first place, your Lordships will be astonished at
the audacity with which lie speaks of his own admin
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 453
istration, as if he was reading a speculative lecture
on the evils attendant upon some vicious system of
foreign government in which lie had no sort of coilcern whatsoever. And then, when in this speculative
way lie has established, or thinks he has, the vices of
the government, he conceives he has found a sufficient apology for his own crimes. And if he violates
the most solemn engagements, if he oppresses, extorts,
and robs, if he imprisons, confiscates, banishes at his
sole will and pleasure, when we accuse him for his
ill-treatment of the people committed to him as a
sacred trust, his defence is, -- " To be robbed, violated, oppressed, is their privilege. Let the constitution of their country answer for it. I did not make
it for them. Slaves I found them, and as slaves I
have treated them. I was a despotic prince. Despotic governments are jealous, and the subjects prone
to rebellion. ' This very proneness of the subject to
shake off his allegiance exposes him to continual danger from his sovereign's jealousy, and this is consequent on the political state of Hindostanic governments. " He lays it down as a rule, that despotism is the genuine constitution of India, that 9 disposition
to rebellion in the subject or dependent prince is thenecessary effect of this despotism, and that jealousy
and its consequences naturally arise on the part of
the sovereign, -- that the government is everything,
and the subject nothing, - that the great landed men
are in a, mean and depraved state, and subject to many evils.
Such a state of things, if true, would warrant conclusions directly opposite to those which Mr. Hastings
means to draw from them, both argumllentatively and
practically, first to influence his conduct, and then to
bottom his defence of it.
? ? ? ? 454 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN BASTINGS.
Perhaps you will imagine that the man who avows
these principles of arbitrary government, and pleads
them as the justification of acts which nothing else can
justify, is of opinion that they are on the whole good
for the people over whom they are exercised. The
very reverse. He mentions them as horrible things,
tending to inflict on the people a thousand evils,
and to bring on the ruler a continual train of dangers. Yet he states, that your acquisitions in India
will be a detriment instead of an advantage, if you
destroy arbitrary power, unless you can reduce all
the religious establishments, all the civil institution',
and tenures of land, into one uniform mass,- that
is, unless by acts of arbitrary power you extinguish
all the laws, rights, and religious principles of the
people, and force them to an uniformity, and on
that uniformity build a system of-arbitrary power.
But nothing is more false than that despotism is
the constitution of any country in Asia that we are
acquainted with. It is certainly not true of any
Mahomedan constitution. But if it were, do your
Lordships really think that the nation would bear,
that any Hluman creature would bear, to hear an. English governor defend himself on such principles?
or, if he can defend himself on such principles, is it
possible to deny the conclusion, that no man in India
has a security for anything, but by being totally independent of the British government? Here he has
declared his opinion, that he is a despotic prince,
that he is to use arbitrary power; and of course all
his acts are covered with that shield. "I know,"
says he, " the constitution of Asia only front its practice. " Will your Lordships submit to hear the corrupt practices of mankind made the principles of
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. '455
government? No! it will be your pride and glory
to teach men intrusted with power, that, in their use
of it, they'are to conform to principles, and not to
draw their principles from the corrupt practice of
any man whatever. Was there ever heard, or could
it be conceived, that a governor would dare to heap
up all the evil practices, all the cruelties, oppressions,
extortions, corruptions, briberies, of all the ferocious
usurpers, desperate robbers, thieves, cheats, and jugglers, that ever had office, from one end of Asia to another, and, consolidating all' this mass of the crimes and absurdities of barbarous domination into one
code, establish it as the whole duty of an English
governor? I believe that till this time so audacious
a thing was never attempted by man.
He have arbitrary power! My Lords, the East
India Company have not arbitrary power to give
him; the king has no arbitrary power to give him;
your Lordships have not; nor the Commons, nor
the whole legislature. We have no arbitrary power
to give, because arbitrary power is a thing which
neither any man can hold nor any man can give.
No man call lawfully govern himself according to
his own will; much less call one person be governed
by the will of another. We are all born in subjection, - all born equally, high and low, governors and
governed, in subjection to one great, immutable, preexistent law, prior to all our devices and prior to
all our contrivances, paramount to all our ideas and
all our sensations, antecedent to our very existence,
by which we are knit and connected in the eternal
frame of the universe, out of which we cannot stir.
This great law does not arise from our conventions or compacts; on the contrary, it gives to our
? ? ? ? 456 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
conventions and compacts all the force and sanction
they can have. . It does not arise from our vain institutions. Every good gift is of God; all power
is of God; and He who has given the power, and
from whom alone it originates, will never suffer the
exercise of it to be practised upon any less solid
foundation than the power itself. If, then, all dominion of man over man is the effect of the Divine
disposition, it is bound by the eternal laws of Him
that gave it, with which no human authority can
dispense, - neither he that exercises it, nor even
those who are subject to it; and if they were mad
enough to make an express compact that should release their magistrate from his duty, and should declare their lives, liberties, and properties dependent upon, not rules and laws, but his mere capricious
will, that covenant would be void. The acceptor of
it has not his authority increased, but he has his
crime doubled. Therefore can it be imagined, if
this be true, that He will suffer this great gift of
government, the greatest, the best, that was ever
given by God to mankind, to be the plaything and
the sport of the feeble will of a, man, who, by a
blasphemous, absurd, and petulant usurpation, would
place his own feeble, contemptible, ridiculous will in
the place of the Divine wisdom and justice?
The title of conquest makes no difference at',all.
No conquest can give such a right; for conquest,
that is, force, cannot convert its own injustice into
a just title, by which it may rule others at its pleasure. . By conquest, which is a more immediate designation of the hand of God, the conqueror succeeds to all the painful duties and subordination to the
power of God which belonged to the sovereign whom
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. . -SECOND DAY. 457
he has displaced, just as if he had come in by the
positive law of some descent or some election. To
this at least he is strictly bound: he ought to govern them as he governs his own subjects. But
every wise conqueror has gone much further than
he was bou nd to go. It has been his ambition and
his policy to reconcile the vanquished to his fortune,
to show that they had gained by the change, to convert their momentary suffering into a long benefit, and to draw from the humiliation of his enemies an
accession to his own glory. This has been so constant a practice, that it is to repeat the histories
of all politic conquerors in all nations and in all
times; and I will not so much distrust your Lordships' enlightened and discriminating studies and correct memories as to allude to one of them. I
~will only show you that the Court of Directors,
under whom he served, has adopted that idea, --
that they constantly inculcated it to him, and to
all the servants, --that they run a parallel between
their own and the native government, and, supposing
it to be very evil, did not hold it up as an example
to be followed, but as an abuse to be corrected,that they never made it a question, whether India
is to be improved by English law and liberty, or
English law and liberty vitiated by Indian corruption.
No, my Lords, this arbitrary power is not to be
had by conquest. Nor can any sovereign have it
by succession; for no man can succeed to fraud,
rapine, and violence. Neither by compact, covenant,
or submission,- for men cannot covenant themselves
out of their rights and their duties, - nor by any
other means, can arbitrary power be conveyed to
? ? ? ? 458 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any man. Those who give to others such rights
perform acts that are void as they are given, -good
indeed and valid only as tending to subject themselves, and those who act with them, to the Divine
displeasure; because morally there can be no such
power. Those who give and those who receive arbitrary power are alike criminal; and there is no
man but is bound to resist it to the best of his
power, wherever it shall show its face to the world.
It is a crime to bear it, when it can be rationally
shaken off. Nothing but absolute impotence can
justify men in not resisting it to the utmost of their
ability.
Law and arbitrary power are in eternal enmity.
Name me a magistrate, and I will name property;
name me power, and I will' name protection. It
is a contradiction in terms, it is blasphemy in religion, it is wickedness in politics, to say that any
man can have arbitrary power. In every patent
of office the duty is included. For what else does
a magistrate exist? To suppose for power is an
absurdity in idea. Judges are guided and governed by the eternal laws of justice, to which we
are all subject. We may bite our chains, if we
will, but we shall be made to know ourselves, and
be taught that man is born to be governed by law;
and he that will substitute will in the place -of it
is an enemy to GOD.
Despotism does not in the smallest degree abrogate, alter, or lessen any one duty of any one relation of life, or weaken the force or obligation of any one engagement or contract whatsoever. Despotism, if it means anything that is at all defensi.
ble, means a mode of government bound by no
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. -459
written rules, and coerced by no controlling muagistracies or well-settled oraers in the state. But if
it has no written law, it neither does nor can cancel
the primeval, indefeasible, unalterable law of Nature
and of nations; and if no magistracies control its
exertions, those exertions must derive their limitation and direction either from the equity and moderation of the ruler, or from downright revolt on the part of the subject by rebellion, divested of all its
criminal qualities. The moment a sovereign removes
the idea of security and protection from his subjects,
and declares that he is everything and they nothing,
when he declares -that no contract he makes with
them can or ought to bind him, he then declares
war upon them: he is no longer sovereign; they
are no longer subjects.
No man, therefore, has a right to arbitrary power. But the thought which is suggested by the depravity of him who brings it forward is supported
by a gross confusion of ideas and principles, which
your Lordships well know how to discern and separate. It is manifest, that, in the Eastern governments, and the Western, and in all governments, the supreme power in the state cannot, whilst that state
subsists, be rendered criminally responsible for its actions: otherwise it would not be the supreme power.
It is certainly true: but the actions do not change
their nature by losiilg their responsibility. The arbitrary acts which are unpunished are not the less
vicious, though none but God, the conscience, and
the opinions of mankind take cognizance of them.
It is not merely so in this or that government,
but in all countries. The king in this country is
undoubtedly unaccountable for his actions. The
? ? ? ? 460 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
House of Lords, if it should ever exercise, (God forbid I should suspect it would ever do what it has never done! ) - but if it should ever abuse its judicial power, and give such a judgment as it ought not to give, whether from fear of popular clamor on the
one hand, or predilection to the prisoner on the other,
-if they abuse their judgments, there is no calling
them to an account for it. And so, if the Commons
should abuse their power, nay, if they should have
been so greatly delinquent as not to have prosecuted this offender, they could not be accountable for it; there is no punishing them for their acts, because
we exercise a part of the supreme power. But are
they less criminal, less rebellious against the Divine
Majesty? are they less hateful to mall, whose opinions they ought to cultivate as far as they are just? No: till society fall into a state of dissolution, they
cannot be accountable for their acts. But it is from
confounding the unaccountable character inherent in
the supreme power with arbitrary power, that all this
confusion of ideas has arisen.
Even upon a supposition that arbitrary power can
exist anywhere, which we deny totally, and which
your Lordships will be the first and proudest to
deny, still, absolute supreme dominion was never
conferred or delegated by you, - much less, arbitrary power, which never did in any case, nor ever will in any case, time, or counti'y, produce any one
of the ends of just government.
It is true that the supreme power in every constitution of government must be absolute, and this may be corrupted into the arbitrary. But all' good constitutions have established certain fixed rules for the exercise of their fuinctions, which they rarely or ever
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 461
depart from, and which rules form the security against
that worst of evils, the government of will and force
instead of wisdom and justice.
But though the supreme power is in a situation resembling arbitrary, yet never was there heard of in the history of the world, that is, in that mixed chaos
of human wisdom and folly, such a thing as an intermediate arbitrary power, - that is, of an officer of government who is to exert authority over the people
without any law at all, and who is to have the benefit
of all laws, and all forms of law, when he is called to
an account. For that is to let a wild beast (for'such
is a man without law) loose upon the people to prey
on them at his pleasurd, whilst all the laws which
ought to secure the people against the abuse of power
are employed to screen that abuse against the cries of
the people.
This is defacto the state of our Indian government.
But to establish it so in iright as well as in fact is a
thing left for us to begin with, the first of mankind.
For a subordinate arbitrary or even despotic power
never was heard of in right, claim, or authorized
practice; least of all has it been heard of in the
Eastern governments, where all the instances of severity and cruelty fall upon governors and persons intrusted with power. This would be a gross contradiction. Before Mr. Hastings, none ever came before his superiors to clai'm it; because, if any such thing
could exist, he claims the very power of that sovereign
who calls him to account.
But suppose a man to come before us, denying all
the benefits of law to the people under him, --and
yet, when he is called to account, to claim all the
benefits of that law which was made to screen man
? ? ? ? 462 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
kind from the excesses of power: such a claim, I will
venture to say, is a monster that never existed, except
in the wild imagination of some theorist. It cannot
be admitted, because it is a perversion of the fundamental principle, that,every power given for the protection of the people below should be responsible to the power above. It is to suppose that the people
shall have no laws with regard to him, yet, when he
comes to be tried, he shall claim the protection of
those laws which were made to secure the people from
his violence, -- that lie shall claim a fair trial, an
equitable hearing, every advantage of counsel, (God
forbid he should not have them! ) yet that the people under him shall have none of those advantages.
The reverse is the principle of every just and rational
procedure. For the people, who have nothing to use
but their natural faculties, ought to be gently dealt
with; but those who are intrusted with an artificial
and instituted authority have in their hands a great
deal of the force of other people; and as their temptations to injustice are greater, so their means are
infinitely more effectual for mischief by turning the
powers given for the preservation of society to its
destruction: so that, if an arbitrary procedure be
justifiable, (a strong one I am sure is,) it is when
used. against those who pretend to use it against
others.
My Lords, I will venture to say of the governments
of Asia, that none of them ever had an arbitrary
power; and if any governments had an arbitrary
power, they cannot delegate it to any persons under
-them: that is, they cannot so delegate it to others
as not to leave them accountable on the principles
upon which it was given. As this is a contradiction
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY, 463
in terms, a gross absurdity, as well as a monstrous
wickedness, let me say, for the honor of human nature,
that, although undoubtedly we may speak it with the
pride of England that we have better institutions for
the preservation of the rights of men than any other
country in the world, yet I will venture to say that
no country has wholly meant, or ever meant, to give
this power.
As it cannot exist in right on any rational and solid
principles of government, so neither does it exist in
the constitution of Oriental governments, - and I do
insist upon it, that Oriental governments know nothing
of arbitrary power. I have taken as much pains as I
could to examine into the constitutions of them. I
have been endeavoring to inform myself at all times
on this subject; of late my duty has led me to a
more minute inspection of them; and I do challenge
the whole race of mall to show me any of the Oriental governors claiming to themselves a right to act by arbitrary will.
The greatest part of Asia is under Mahomedan governments. To name a Mahomedan government is
to name a government by law. It is a law enforced
by stronger sanctions than any law that can bind a
Christian sovereign. Their law is believed to be given
by God; and it has the double sanction of law and of
religion, with which the prince is no more authorized
to dispense than any one else. And if any man will
produde the Koran to me, and will but show me one
text in it that authorizes in any degree an arbitrary
power in the government, I will confess that I have
read that book, and been conversant in the affairs of
Asia, in vain. There is not such a syllable in it; but,
on the contrary, against oppressors by name every
? ? ? ? 464 IMPEACHM. ENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
letter of that law is fulminated. There are interpreters established throughout all Asia to explain that law, an order of priesthood, whom they call mzen of
the law. These men are conservators of the law; and
to enable them to preserve it in its perfection, they
are secured from the resentment of thre sovereign:
for he cannot touch them. Even their kings are not
always vested with a real supreme power, but the.
government is in some degree republican.
To bring this point a little nearer home, - since
we are challenged thus, since we are led into Asia,
since we are called upon to make good our charge
on the principles of the governments there, rather
than on those of our own country, (which I trust
your Lordships will oblige him finally to be governed by, puffed up as he is with the insolence of Asia,) -the nearest to us of the governments he
appeals to is that. of the Grand Seignior, the Emperor of the Turks. - He an arbitrary power! Why,
he has not the supreme power of his own country.
Every one knows that the Grand Seignior is exalted high in titles, as our prerogative lawyers exalt an abstract sovereign, - and he cannot be exalted
higher in our books.
