But I am next to show your Lordships the means
which the Company took for removing this grievance; and that Mr.
which the Company took for removing this grievance; and that Mr.
Edmund Burke
We thought we
had got the matter sure, that everything was settled,
that he could not escape us, after he had himself confessed the bribes he had taken from the specific provinces. But in what condition are we now? We have from those specific provinces the strongest' attestations that there is not any credit to be paid to
his own acknowledgments. In short, we have the
complaints, concerning these crimes of Mr. Hastings,
of the injured persons themselves; we have his own
confessions; we shall produce both to your Lordships.
But these persons now declare, that not only their own
complaints are totally unfounded, but that Mr. Hastings's confessions are not true, and not to be credited.
These are circumstances which your Lordships will
consider in the view you take of this wonderful body
of attestation.
It is a pleasant thing to see in these addresses the
different character and modes of eloquefice of different
countries. In those that will be brought before your
Lordships you will see the beauty of chaste European
panegyric improved by degrees into high, Oriental,
exaggerated, and inflated metaphor. You will see
how the language is first written in English, then
translated into Persian, and then retranslated into
? ? ? ? 158 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
English. There may be something amusing to your
Lordships in this, and the beauty of these styles may,
in. this heavy investigation, tend to give a little gayety
and pleasure. We shall bring before you the European and Asiatic incense. You will have the perfume-shops of the two countries.
One of the accusations which we mean to bring
against Mr. Hastings is upon the part of the Zemindar Radanaut, of the country of Dinagepore. Now
hear what the Zemindar says himself. " As it has
been learned by me, the mutsuddies, and the respectable officers of my zemindary, that the ministers
of England are displeased with the late Governor,
Warren Hastings, Esquire, upon the suspicion that
he oppressed us, took money from us by deceit and
force, and ruined the country, therefore we, upon the
strength of our religion, which we think it incumbent
on and necessary for us to abide by, following the
rules laid down in giving evidence, declare the particulars of the acts and deeds of Warren Hastings,
Esquire, full of circumspection and caution, civility and justice, superior to the conduct of the most
learned, and, by representing what is fact, wipe away
the doubts that have possessed the minds of the ministers of England; that Mr. Hastings is possessed of
fidelity and confidence, and yielding protection to us;
that he is clear of the contamination of mistrust and
wrong, and his mind is free of covetousness or avarice. During the time of his administration no one
saw other conduct than that of protection to the husbandman, and justice. No inhabitant ever experienced afflictions, no one ever felt oppression from him; our reputations have always been guarded from attaclks by his prudence, and our families have always
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 159
been protected by his justice. He never omitted the
smallest instance of kindness towards us, but healed
the wounds of despair with the salve of consolation
by means of his benevolent and kind behavior, never
permitting one of us to sink in the pit of despondence.
He supported every one by his goodness, overset the
designs of evil-minded men by his authority, tied the
hand of oppression with the strong bandage ofjustice,
and by these means expanded the pleasing appearance of happiness and joy over us. He reestablished justice and impartiality. We were during his government in the enjoyment of perfect happiness and ease, and many of us are thankful and satisfied. As
Mr. Hastings was well acquainted with our manners
and customs, he was always desirous, in every respect,
of doing whatever would preserve our religious rites,
and guard them against every kind of accident and injury, and at all times protected us. Whatever we have
experienced from him, and whatever happened from
him, we have written without deceit or exaggeration. "
My Lords, here is a panegyric; and, directly contrary to the usual mode of other accusers, we begin
by producing the panegyrics made upon the person
whom we accuse. We shall produce along with the
charge, and give as evidence, the panegyric and certificate of the persons whom we suppose to have suffered these wrongs. We suffer ourselves even to abandon, what might be our last resource, his owll
confession, by showing that one of the princes from
whom he confesses that he took bribes has given a
certificate of the direct contrary.
All these things will have their weight upon your
Lordships' minds; and when we have put ourselves
under this disadvantage, (what disadvantage it is your
? ? ? ? 160 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Lordships will judge,) at least we shall stand acquitted
of unfairness in charging him with crimes directly
contrary to the panegyrics in this paper contained.
Indeed, I will say this for him, that general charge
and loose accusation may be answered by loose and
general panegyric, and that, if ours were of that
nature, this panegyric would be sufficient to overset
our accusation. But we come before your Lordships
in a different manner and upon different grounds.
I am ordered by the Commons of Great Britain to
support the charge that they have made, and persevere in making, against Warren Hastings, Esquire,
late Governor-General of Bengal, and now a culprit
at your bar: First, for having taken corruptly several bribes, and extorted by force, or under the power
and color of his office, several sums of money from
the unhappy natives of Bengal. The next article
which we shall bring before you is, that he is not only
personally corrupted, but that he has personally corrupted all the other servants of the Company, - those under him, whose corruptions he ought to have controlled, and those above him, whose business it was to control his corruptions.
We purpose to make good to your Lordships the
first of these, by submitting to you, that part of those
sums which are specified in the charge were taken by
Ihim with his own hand and in his own person, but
that much the greater part have been taken from the
natives by the instrumentality of his black agents,
banians, and other dependants, -whose confidential
connection with him, and whose agency on his part
in corrupt transactions, if his counsel should be bold
enough to challenge us to the proof, we shall fully
prove before you. The next part, and the second
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON'THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 161
branch of his corruption, namely, what is commonly
called his active corruption, distinguishing the per-.
sonal under the name of passive, will appear from his
having given, under color of contracts, a number of
corrupt and lucrative advantages from a number of
unauthorized and unreasonable grants, pensions, and
allowances, by which he corrupted actively the whole
service of the Company. And, lastly, we shall show.
that, by establishing a universal connivance from onle
end of the service to the other, lie has not only corrupted and contaminated it in all its parts, but bound it in a common league of iniquity to support mutually
each other against the inquiry that should detect and
the justice that should punish their offences. These
two charges, namely, of his active and passive corruption, we shall bring one after the other, as strongly and clearly illustrating and as powerfully confirming
each other.
The first which we shall bring before you is his own
passive corruption, - so we commonly call it. Bribes
are so little known in this country that we can hardly
get clear and specific technical names to distinguish
them; but in future, I am afraid, the conduct of Mr.
Hastings will improve our law vocabulary. The first,
then, of these offences with which Mr. Hastings stands
charged here is receiving bribes himself, or through
his banians. Every one of these are overt acts of the
general charge of bribery, and they are every one
of them, separately taken, substantive crimes. But
whatever the criminal nature of these acts was, (and
the nature was very criminal, and the consequences
to the country very dreadful,) yet we mean to prove
to your Lordships that they were not single acts, that
they were not acts committed as opportunity offered,.
VOL. X. 11
? ? ? ? 162 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or as necessity tempted or urged upon the occasion,
but that they are parts of a general systematic plan
of corruption, for advancing his fortune at the expense
of his integrity; that lie has, for that purpose, not
only taken the opportunity of his own power, but
made whole establishments, altered and perverted
others, and created complete revolutions in the country's government, for the purpose of makiing the power which ouglit to be subservient to legal government subserviellt to corruptionl; that, when he could no
loinger cover these fraudulent proceedings by artifice,
he endeavored to justify them by principle. These
artifices we mean to detect; these principles we mean
to attack, and, with your Lordships' aid, to demolish,
destroy,,and subvert forever.
My Lords, I must say, that in this business, which
is a matter of collusion, concealment, and deceit, your
Lordships will, perhaps, not feel the same degree of
interest as in the others. Hitherto you have had before you crimes of dignllity: you have had before you
the ruin and expulsion of great and illustrious families, the breach of solemnl public treaties, the merciless pillage and total subversion of the first houses in Asia. But the crimes which are the most striking to
~the imagination are not always the most pernicious
in their effects: in these high, eminent acts of domineering tyranlny, their very magnritude proves a sort
of corrective to their virulence. The occasions on
which they can be exercised are rare; the persons
upon whom they canl be exercised few; the persons
who can exercise them, in the nature of things, are
not many. These higlh tragic acts of superior, overbearing tyranny are privileged crimes; they are the. unhappy, dreadful prerogative, they are the distin
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 163
guished and incommunicable attributes, of superior
wickedness in eminent station.
But, my Lords, when the vices of low, sordid, and
illiberal minds infect that high situation,-when theft,
bribery, and peculation, attended with fraud, prevarication, falsehood, misrepresentation, and forgery -- when all these follow in one train, -- when these
vices, which gender and spawn in dirt, and are
nursed in dunghills, come and pollute with their
slime that throne which ought to be a seat of dignity
and purity, the evil is much greater; it may operate
daily and hourly; it is not only imitable, but improvable, and it will be imitated, and will be improved, from the highest to the lowest, through all the gradations of a corrupt government. They are
reptile vices. There are situations in which the acts
of the individual are of some moment, the example
comparatively of little importance. In the other, the
mischief of the example is infinite.
My Lords, when once a Governor-General receives
bribes, he gives a signal to universal pillage to all the
inferior parts of the service. The bridles upon hardmouthed passion are removed; they are taken away;
they are broken. Fear and shame, the great guards
to virtue next to conscience, are gone. Shame! how
can it exist? -- it will soon blush away its awkward
sensibility. Shame, my Lords, cannot exist long,
when it is seen that crimes which naturally bring
disgrace are attended with all the outward symbols,
characteristics, and rewards of honor and of virtue,
- when it is seen that high station, great rank, general applause, vast wealth follow the commission of
peculation and bribery. Is it to be believed that men
can long be ashamed of that which they see to be the
? ? ? ? 164 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
road to honor? As to fear, let a Governor-General
once take bribes, there is an end of all fear in the service. What have they to fear? Is it the man whose
example they follow that is to bring them before a
tribunal for their punishment? Can he open any inquiry? He cannot: he that opens a channel of inquiry under these circumstances opens a high-road to his own detection. Can he make any laws to prevent it? None: for he can make no laws to restrain
that practice without the breach of his own laws immediately in his own conduct. If we once can admit,
for a single instant, in a Governor-General, a principle, however defended, upon any pretence whatever,
to receive bribes in consequence of his office, there is
an end of all virtue, an end of the laws, and no hope
left in the supreme justice of the country. . We are
sensible of all these difficulties; we have felt them;
and perhaps it has required no small degree of exertion for us to get the better of these difficulties
which are thrown in our way by a Governor-General
accepting bribes, and thereby screening and protecting the whole service in such iniquitous proceedings.
With regard to this matter, we are to state to your
Lordships, ill order to bring it fully and distinctly before you, what the nature of this distemper of bribery is in the Indian government. We are to state what the laws and rules are which have been opposed
to prevent it, and the utter insufficiency of all that
have been proposed: to state the grievance, the instructions of the Company and government, the acts
of Parliament, the constructions upon the acts of
Parliament. We are to state to your Lordships the
particular situation of Mr. Hastings; we are to
state the trust the Company had in him for the pre
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 165
vention of all those evils; and then we are to prove
that every evil, that all those grievances which the law
intended to prevent, which there were covenants to
restrain, and with respect to which there were encouragements to smooth and make easy the path of duty, Mr. Hastings was invested with a special, direct, and
immediate trust to prevent. We are to prove to your
Lordships that he is the man who, in his own person
collectively, has done more mischief than all those
persons whose evil practices have produced all those
laws, those regulations, and even his own appointment.
The first thing that we shall do is to state, and which
we shall prove in evidence, that this vice of bribery
was the ancient, radical, endemical, and ruinous distemper of the Company's affairs in India, from the
time of their first establishment there. Very often
there are no words nor any description which can
adequately convey the state of a thing like the direct
evidence of the thing itself: because the former might
be suspected of exaggeration; you might think that
which was really fact to be nothing but the coloring
of the person that explained it; and therefore I think
that it will be much better to give to your Lordships
here a direct state of the Presidency at the time when
the Company enacted those covenants which Mr. Hastings entered into, and when they took those measures to prevent the very evils from persons placed in those
very stations and in those very circumstances in which
we charge Mr. Hastings with having committed the
offences we now bring before you.
I wish your Lordships to know that we are going to
read a consultation of Lord Clive's, who was sent out
for the express purpose of reforming the state of the
? ? ? ? 166 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS
Company, in order to show the magnitude of the pecuniary corruptions that prevailed in it. ' It is from a due sense of the regard we owe and
profess to. your interests and to our own honor, that
we think it indispensably necessary to lay open to your
view a series of transactions too notoriously known
to be suppressed, and too affecting to your interest,
to the national character, and to the existence of the
Company in Bengal, to escape unnoticed and uncensured, - transactions which seem to demonstrate that
every spring of this government was smeared with
corruption, that principles of rapacity and oppression
universally prevailed, and that every spark of sentiment and public spirit was lost and extinguished in
the unbounded lust of unmerited wealth.
"' To illustrate these positions, we must exhibit to
your view a most unpleasing variety of complaints,
inquiries, accusations, and vindications, the particulars of which are entered in our Proceedings and the
Appendix, - assuring you that we undertake this task
with peculiar reluctance, from the personal regard we
entertain for some of the gentlemen whose characters will appear to be deeply affected.
"' At Fort St. George we received the first advices
of the demise of Mir Jaffier and of Sujah Dowlah's
defeat. It was there firmly imagined that no definite
measures would be taken, either in respect to a peace
or filling the vacancy in the nizamut, before our arrival, - as the' Lapwing' arrived in the month of January with your general letter, and the appointment of a committee with express powers to that purpose,
for the successful exertion of which the happiest occasion now offered. However, a contrary resolution
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 167
prevailed in the Council. The opportunity of acquiring immense fortunes was too inviting to be neglected, and the temptation too powerful to be resisted. A treaty was hastily drawnl up by the board, or rather transcribed, with few unimportant additions, from
that concluded with Mir Jaffier, - and a deputation,
consisting of Messrs. Johnistone, senior, Middletoll, and
Leycester, appointed to raise the natural son of the deceased Nabob to the subahdarry, in prejudice of the
claim of the grandson; and for this measure sucll
reasons are assigned as ought to have dictated a diametrically opposite resolution. Meeran's son was a
minor, which circumstance alone would have naturally brought the whole administration into our hands,
at a juncture when it became indispensably necessary we should realize that shadow of power and influence which, having no solid foundation, was exposed to the danger of being annihilated by the first stroke
of adverse fortune. But this inconsistence was not
regarded; nor was it material to the views for precipitating the treaty, which was pressed on the young
Nabob at the first interview, in so earnest and indelicate a manner as highly disgusted him and chagrined
his ministers; while not a single rupee was stipulated
for the Company, whose interests were sacrificed, that
their servants might revel in the spoils of a treasury
before impoverished, but now totally exhausted.
"This scene of corruption was first disclosed, at
a visit the Nabob was paid, to Lord Clive and the
gentlemen of the Committee, a few days after our
arrival. He there delivered to his Lordship a letter
filled with bitter complaints of the insults and indignities he had been exposed to, and the embezzlement
of near twenty lacs of rupees, issued from his treas
? ? ? ? 168 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ury for purposes unknownl, during the late negotiations. So public a complaint could not be disregarded, and it soon produced an inquiry. We referred the letter to the board, in expectation of obtaining a satisfactory account of the application of this money, and were answered only by a warm remonstrance entered by Mr. Leycester against that
very Nabob in whose elevation he boasts of having
been a principal agent.
"' Mahomed Reza Khan, the Naib Subah, was then
called upon to account for this large disbursement
from the treasury; and he soon delivered to the
Committee the very extraordinary narrative entered
in our Proceedings the 6th of June, wherein he specifies the several names and sums, by whom paid, and
to whom, whether in cash, bills, or obligations. So
precise, so accurate an account as this of money for
secret and venal services was never, we believe, before
this period, exhibited to the Honorable Court of Directors, -at least, never vouched by such undeniable
testimony and authentic documents: by Juggut Seet,
who himself was obliged to contribute largely to the
sums demanded; by Muley Ram, who was employed
by Mr. Johnstone in all those pecuniary transactions;
by the Nabob and Mahomed Reza Khan, who were
the heaviest sufferers; and, lastly, by the confession
of the gentlemen themselves whose names are specified ill the distribution list.
"Juggut Seet expressly declared in his narrative,
that the sum which he agreed to pay the deputation,
amounting to 125,000 rupees, was extorted by menaces; and since the close of our inquiry, and the
opinions we delivered in the Proceedings of the 21st
June, it fully appears that the presents from the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 169
Nabob and Mahomed Reza Khan, exceeding the immense sum of seventeen lacs, were not the voluntary
offerings of gratitude, but contributions levied on the
weakness of the government, and violently exacted
from the dependent state and timid disposition of the
minister. The charge, indeed, is denied on the one
hand, as well as affirmed on the other. Your honorable board Mnust therefore determine how far the circumstance of extortion may aggravate the crime of disobedience to your positive orders, the exposing the
government in a manner to sale, and receiving the
infamous wages of corruption from opposite parties
and contending interests. We speak with boldness,
because we speak from conviction founded upon indubitable facts, that, besides the above sums specified
in the distribution account to the amount of 228,125
pounds sterling, there was likewise to the value of
several lacs of rupees procured from Nundcomar and
Roydullub, each of whom aspired at and obtained a
promise of that very employment it was predetermined to bestow on Mahomed Reza Khan.
(Signed at the end)
C CLIVE.
WM B. SUMNER.
JOHN CARNAC.
H. VERELST.
FRA8 SYKES. "
This paper cannot be denied to be a paper of
weight and authenticity, because it is signed by a
gentleman now in this House, who sits oil one side
of the gentleman at your bar, as his bail. This
grievance, therefore, so authenticated, so great, and
described in so many circumstances, I think it might
? ? ? ? 170 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
be sufficient for me, in this part of the business, to
show was, when Mr. Hastings was sent to India, a
prevalent evil.
But, my Lords, it is necessary that I should show
to you something more, because, prigna fronte, this
is some exculpation of Mr. Hastings: for, if he was
only a partaker in a general misconduct, it was
rather vitium loci et vitium, temporis than vitium
hominis. This might be said in his exculpation.
But I am next to show your Lordships the means
which the Company took for removing this grievance; and that Mr. Hastings's peculiar trust, the
great specific ground of his appointment, was a confidence that he would eradicate this very evil, of
which we are going to prove that he has been one
of the principal promoters. I wish your Lordships
to advert to one particular circumstance, - namely,
that the two persons who were bidders at this time,
and at this auction of government, for the favor and
countenance of the Presidency at Calcutta, were
Mahomed Reza Khan and Rajah Nundcomar. I
wish your Lordships to recollect this by-and-by, when
we shall bring before you the very same two persons,
who, in the same sort of transaction, and in circumstances exactly similar, or very nearly so, were candidates for the favor of Mr. Hastings. My Lords, our next step will be to show you that
the Company in 1768 had made a covenant expressly
forbidding the taking of presents of above 4001. value
in each present by the Governor-General. I take it
for granted, this will not be much litigated. They renewed and enforced that with other covenants and
other instructions; and at last came an act of Parliament, in the clearest, the most definite, the most spe
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 171
cific words that all the wisdom of the legislature, intent upon the eradication of this evil, could use, to prevent the receiving of presents.
My Lords, I think it is necessary to state, that
there has been some little difficulty concerning this
word, presents. Bribery and extortion have been
covered by the name of presents, and the authority
and practice of the East has been adduced as a palliation of the crime. My Lords, no authority of the East will be a palliation of the breach of laws enacted
in the West: and to those laws of the West, and not
the vicious customs of the East, we insist upon making Mr. Hastings liable. But do not your Lordships see that this is an entire mistake? that there never
was any custom of the East for it? I do not mean
vicious practices and customs, which it is the business
of good laws and good customs to eradicate. There
are three species of presents known in the East, - two
of them payments of money known to be legal, and
the other perfectly illegal, and which has a name exactly expressing it in the manner our language does. It is necessary that your Lordships should see that
Mr. Hastings has made use of a perversion of the
names of authorized gifts to cover the most abominable
and prostituted bribery. The first of these presents is
known in the country by the name of pesheush: this
peshcush is a fine paid, upon the grant of lands, to
the sovereign, or whoever grants them. The second
is the nuzzer, or nuzzerana, which is a tribute of acknowledgment from an inferior to a superior. The
last is called reshwat, in the Persian language,- that
is to say, a bribe, or sum of money clandestinely
and corruptly taken, - and is as much distinguished
from the others as, in the English language, a fine or
? ? ? ? 172 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
acknowledgment is distinguished from a bribe. To
show your Lordships this, we shall give in evidence,
that, whenever a peshcush or fine is paid, it is a sum
of money publicly paid, and paid in proportion to the
grant, - and that the sum is entered upon the very
grant itself. We shall prove the nuzzer is in the
same manner entered, and that all legal fees are indorsed upon the body of the grant for which they are
taken: and that they are no more in the East than
in the West any kind of color or pretence for corrupt
acts, which are known by the circumstance of their
being clandestinely taken, and which are acknowledged and confessed to be illegal and corrupt. Having stated that Mr. Hastings, in some of the evidence that we shall produce, endeavors to confound these
three things, I am only to remark that the nuzzer is
generally a very small sum of money, that it sometimes amounts to one gold mohur, that sometimes it
is less, and that, in all the records of the Company, I
have never known it exceed one gold mohur, or about
thirty-five shillings, -- passing by the fifty gold mohurs which were given to Mr. Hastings by Cheyt Sing,
and a hundred gold mohurs which were given to the
Mogul, as a nuzzer, by Mahomed Ali, Nabob of Arcot.
The Company, seeing that this nuzzer, though
small in each sum, might amount at last to a large
tax upon the country, (and it did so in fact,) thought
proper to prohibit any sum of money to be taken upon any pretext whatever; and the Company in the
year 1775 did expressly explode the whole doctrine
of peshcush, nuzzer, and every other private lucrative
emolument, under whatever name, to be taken by
the Governor-General, and did expressly send out an
order that that was the construction of the act, and
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 173
that he was not even to take a nuzzer. Thus we
shall show that that act had totally cut up the whole
system of bribery and corruption, and that Mr. Hastings had no sort of color whatever for taking the money which we shall prove he has taken.
I know that positive prohibitions, that acts of Parliament, that covenants, are things of very little validity indeed, as long as all the means of corruption are left in power, and all the temptations to corrupt
-profit are left in poverty. I should really think that
the Company deserved to be ill served, if they had
not annexed such appointments to great trusts as
might secure the persons intrusted from the temptations of unlawful emolument, and, what in all cases
is the greatest security, given a lawful gratification
to the natural passions of men. Matrimony is to be
used as a true remedy against a vicious course of
profligate manners; fair and lawful emoluments, and
the just profits of office, are opposed to the unlawful
means which might be made use of to supply them.
For, in truth, I am ready to agree, that for any man
to expect a series of sacrifices without a return in
blessings, to expect labor without a prospect of reward, and fatigue without any means of securing
rest, is an unreasonable demand in any human creature from another. Those who trust that they shall find in men uncommon and heroic virtues are themselves endeavoring to have nothing paid them but the common returns of the worst parts of human infirmity. And therefore I shall show your Lordships that
the Company did provide large, ample, abundant
means for supporting the Governor-General, - that
Lord Clive, in the year 1765, and the Council with
him, of which Mr. Sumner, I am glad and proud to
? ? ? ? 174 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
say, was one, did fix such an allowance as they
thought a sufficient security to the Governor-General
against the temptations attendant upon his situation;
and therefore, after they had fixed this sum, they
say, " that, although by this means the Governor will
not be able to amass a million or half a million in
the space of two or three years, yet he will acquire
a very handsome independency, and be in that very
situation which a man of honor and true zeal for
the service would wish to possess. Thus situated, he
may defy all opposition in Council; he will have
nothing to ask, nothing to propose, but what he wishes for the advantage of his employers; he may defy
the law, because there can be no foundation for a bill
of discovery; and he may defy the obloquy of the
world, because there can be nothing censurable in
his conduct. In short, if stability can be insured to
such a government as this, where riches have been
acquired in abundance in a small space of time, by
all ways and means, and by men with or without capacities, it must be effected by a Governor thus restricted," -that is, a Governor restricted from every emolument but that of his salary. I must remark,
that this salary and these emoluments were not settled upon the vague speculations of men taking the
measure of their necessities for India from the manners of England; but it was fixed by the Council
themselves,- fixed in India, - fixed by those who
knew and were in the situation of the Governor-General, and who knew what was necessary to support
his dignity and to preserve him from the temptation
of corruption: and they have laid open to you such a
body of advantages arising from it as would lead any
man, who had a regard to his honor or conscience, to
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. --- FIRST DAY. 175 think himself happy in having such a provision made for him, and at the same time every temptation to act corruptly removed far from him.
The emoluments of the office, though reduced from the original plan which Lord Clive had proposed, may be computed at near 30,0001. a year, when Mr. Hastings was President: 22,0001. in certain money, and the rest in other advantages. Whatever it was,
I have shown that it was thought sufficient by those
who were the best judges, and who, in carving for
others, were carving for themselves their own allowance at the time. But, my Lords, I am to give a
better opinion of the sufficiency of that provision to
guard against the temptation, out of Mr. Hastings's
own mouth. He says, in his letter to the Court of
Directors, " Although I disclaim the consideration of
my own interest in these speculations, and flatter myself that I proceed upon more liberal grounds, yet I
am proud to avow the feelings of an honest ambition
that stimulates me to aspire at the possession of my
present station for years to come. Those who know
my natural turn of mind will not ascribe this to sordid views. A very few years' possession of the government would undoubtedly enable me to retire with
a fortune amply fitted to the measure of my desires,
were I to consult only my ease: but in my present
situation I feel my mind expand to something greater; I have catched the desire of applause in public
life. "
Here Mr. Hastings confesses that the emoluments
affixed to office were not only sufficient for the purposes and ends which the nature of his office demanded, and the support of present dignity, but that they were sufficient to secure him, in a very few years, a
? ? ? ? 176 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
comfortable retreat; but his object in wishing to hold
his office long was to catch applause in public life.
What an unfortunate mall is he, who has so often
told us, in so many places, and through so many
mouths, that, after fourteen years' possession of an
office which was to mrake him a comfortable fortune
in a few years, he is at length bankrupt in fortune,
and for his applause in public life is now at your
Lordships' bar, and his accuser is his country! This,
my Lords, is to be unfortunate: but there are some
misfortunes that never do or ever can arrive. but
through crimes. He was a deserter from the path
of honor. At the turning of the two ways he made a
glorious choice, -- he caught at the applause of ambition: which though I am ready to consent is not virtue, yet surely a generous ambition for applause for public services in life is one of the best counterfeits
of virtue, and supplies its place in some degree; and
it adds a lustre to real virtue, where it exists as the
substratum of it. Human nature, while it is made
as it is, never can wholly repudiate it for its imperfection, because there is something yet more perfect.
But what shall we say to the deserter of that cause,
who, having glory and honor before him, has chosen
to plunge himself into the downward road to sordid
riches?
My Lords, I have shown the grievances that existed. I have shown the means that existed to put Mr.
Hastings beyond a temptation to those practices of
which we accuse him, even in his own opinion, -- if
he will not follow his example in the House of Commons, and disavow this letter, as lie has done his defence before them, and say he never wrote it. That situation which was to afford him a comfortable for
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 177
tune in a few years he has held for many years, and
therefore he has not one excuse to make for himself;
but I shall show your Lordships much greater and
stronger proofs, that will lean heavy upon him in the
day of your sentence. The first, the peculiar, trust
that was put in him, was to redress all those grievances.
My Lords, I have stated to you the condition of
India in 1765. You may suppose that the means
that were taken, the regulations that were made by
the Company at that period of time, had operated
their effect, and that by the beginning of the year
1772, when Mr. Hastings came first to his government, these evils did not then require, perhaps, so!
vigorous an example, or so much diligence in putting
an end to them; but, my Lords, I have to show you
a very melancholy truth, that, notwithstanding all
these means, the Company Was of opinion that all
these disorders had increased, and accordingly they
say, without entering into all the grievous circumstances of this letter, which was wrote on the 10th
of April, 1773, " We wish we could refute the observation, that almost every attempt made by us and
our administration at your Presidency for reforming
abuses has rather increased them, and added to the
misery of a country we are so anxious to protect and
cherish. " They say, that, " when oppression pervades the whole country, when youths have been suffered with impunity to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over the natives, and to acquire rapid fortunes by monopolizing of commerce, it cannot be a wonder to um
or yourselves that Dadney merchants do not come
forward to contract with the Company, that the man.
ufactures find their way through foreign channels, or
VOL. x. 12
? ? ? ? 178 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that our investments are at once enormously dear
and of a debased quality. It is evident, then, that
the evils which have been so destructive to us lie too
deep for any partial plans to reach or correct; it is
therefore our resolution to aim at the root of those
evils, and we are happy in having reason to believe
that in every just and necessary regulation we shall
imeet with the approbation and support of the legislature, who consider the public as materially interested in the Company's prosperity. "
This is to show your Lordships that Mr. Hastings
was armed with great powers to correct great abuses,
and that there was reposed in him a special trust for
that purpose. And now I shall show, by the twentyfifth paragraph of the same letter, that they intrusted Mr. Hastings with this very great power from some
particular hope they had, not only of his abstaining
himself, whic;l is a thing takenf for granted, but of his
restraining abuses through every part of the service;
and therefore they say,' that, in order to effectuate
this great end, the first step must be to restore perfect
obedience and due subordination to your administration. Our Governor and Council must reassume and exercise their delegated powers upon every just occasion,-punish delinquents, cherish the meritorious, discountenance that luxury and dissipation which, to
the reproach of government, prevailed in Bengal.
Our President, Mr. Hastings, we trust, will set the
example of temperance, economy, and application;
and upon this, we are sensible, much will depend.
And here we take occasion to indulge the pleasure
we have in acknowledging Mr. Hastings's services
upon the coast of Coromandel, in constructing with
equal labor and ability the plan which has so much
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 179
improved our investments there; and as we are persuaded he will persevere in the same laudable pursuit through every branch of our affairs inl Bengal, he, in return, may depend on the steady support and
favor of his employers. " IIere are not only laws to
restrain abuse, here are not only salaries to prevent
the temptation to it, but here are praises to animate
and encourage him, here is what very few men, even
bad in other respects, have resisted, - here is a great
trust put in him, to call upon him with particular
vigor and exertion to prevent all abuses through the
settlement, and particularly these abuses of corruption. Much trust is put in his frugality, his order, his
management of his private affairs; and from thence
they hope that he would not ruin his own fortune, but
improve it by honorable means, and teach the Company's servants the same order and management, in
order to free them from temptation to rapacity in
their own particular situations. There have been
known to be men, otherwise corrupt and vicious, who,
when great trust was put in them, have called forth
principles of honor latent in their minds; and men
who were nursed, in a manner, in corruption have
been not only great reformers by institution, but
greater reformers by the example of their own conduct. Then I am to show, that, soon after his coming to that government, there were means given him instantly of realizing those hopes and expectations, by
putting into his hands several arduous and several
difficult commissions.
My Lords, in the year 1772 the Company had received alarming advices of many disorders throughout the country: there were likewise, at the same time, circumstances in the state of the government
? ? ? ? 180 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
upon which they thought it necessary to make new
regulations. The famine which prevailed in and
devastated Bengal, and the ill use that was made of
that calamity to aggravate the distress for the advan
tage of individuals, produced a great many complaints,
some true, some exaggerated, but universally spread,
as I believe is in the memory of those who are not very
young among us. This obliged the Company to a
very serious consideration of an affair which dishonored and disgraced their government, not only at home, but through all the countries in Europe, much
more than perhaps even more grievous and real oppressions that were exercised under them. It had alarmed their feelings, it had been marked, and had
called the attention of the public upon them in an
eminent manner.
Your Lordships remember the death of Jaffier Ali
Khan, the first of those subahs who introduced the
English power into Bengal. He died about four or
five years before this period. He was succeeded by
two of his sons, who succeeded to one another in a
very rapid succession. The first was the person of
whom we have read an account to you. He was the
natural son of the Nabob by a person called Munny
Begum, who, for the corrupt gifts the circumstances
of which we have'recited, had, in prejudice of the lawful issue of the Nabob, been raised to the musnud; but as bastard slips, it is said in King Richard, (all
abuse of a Scripture phrase,) do not take deep root,
this bastard slip, Nujim ul Dowlah, shortly died, and
the legitimate son, Syef ul Dowlah, succeeded him.
After him another legitimate son, Mobarek ul Dowlah,
succeeded in a minority. When I say succeeded, 1
wish your Lordships to understand that there is no
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 181
regular succession in the office of subah or viceroy
of the kingdom; but, in general, succession has been
considered, and persons have been put in that place
upon some principles resembling a regular succession.
That regular succession had been broken in favor of
a natural son, and the mother of that natural son did
obtain the superiority in the female part of the famlily
for a time.
In consequence of these two circumstances, namely, the famine, and the abuses that were supposed to arise from it, and from the circumstance of the minority of Mobarek ul Dowlah, who now reigns or appears to reign,- in consequence of these two circumstances, the Company gave two sets of orders. The first order related to Mahomed Reza Khan,
who was (as your Lordships remember I took, in the
beginning of this affair, means of explaining) lorddeputy of the province under the native government, the English holding the dewanny, - and deputy de
wan, or high-steward, under the name of the English, and had the command of the whole revenue;
and who was accused before the Company (the chan
nel of which accusation we now learn) of having
aggravated that famine by a monopoly for his own
benefit. The Company, upon these loose and general charges, ordered that he should be divested of his office, that he should be brought down to Calcutta,
and there be obliged to render an account of his conduct.
The next regulation they made was concerning the
effective government of the country, which was become
vacant by the removal of Mahomed Reza Khan. The
offices which he held were in effect these: he was
guardian to the Nabob by the appointment of the
? ? ? ? 182 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Company; he had the care and management of his
family; he had the care of the public justice; and he
represented that shadow of government to foreign
nations which it was the policy of the Company, at
that time, to keep up. This was the person whom
Mr. Hastings was ordered to remove; in consequence
of which removal all these offices were to be supplied,
-of guardian of the Nabob's person and manager of
his family, of chief magistrate, and of representative
of the fallen dignity of the native government to the
foreign nations which traded to Bengal.
To these orders was added an instruction of a very
remarkable nature, which was a third trust that was
given to Mr. Hastings: that during tho Nabob's minority he should reduce the annual allowance, which
was thirty-two lacs, to sixteen; and that to prevent
the abuse of this restricted sum, and to prevent its
being directed by the minister's authority to other
purposes than that for which the Company allowed
it, (that is to say, allowed him out of what was his
own,) of these sixteen lacs an account was to be
regularly kept, as a check upon the person so appointed, which account was ordered to be transmitted to Calcutta, and to be sent to England.
Now we are to show your Lordships what Mr. Hastings's conduct was upon all these occasions; and for
this we mean to produce testimony recorded in the
Company's books, and authentic documents taken
from the public offices of that country. At the same
time I do admit that there never was a positive testimony that did not stand something in need of the support of presumption: for, as we know that witnesses may be perjured, and as we know that documents
can be forged, we have recourse to a known principle
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 183
in the laws of all countries, that circumstances cannot
lie; and therefore, if the testimony that is given was
ever so clear and positive, yet, if it is' contrary to the
circumstances of the country, if it is contrary to the
circumstances of the facts to which it alludes, if the
deposition is totally adverse and alien to the characters of the persons, then I will say, that, though the
testimonies should be many, though they should be
consistent, and though they should be clear, yet they
will still leave some degree of hesitation and doubt
upon every mind timorous in the execution of justice,
as every mind ought to be. If, for instance, ten witnesses were to swear that the Chief-Justice of England, that the Lord High-Chancellor, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, was seen, in the robes of his function, at noonday, robbing upon the highway, it
is not the clearness, the weight, the authority of testimonies, that could make me believe it; I should
attribute it to any cause, either corruption, mistake,
error, or madness, rather than believe that fact.
Why? Because it is totally alien to the character of
the persons, the situation, the circumstances, and to
all the rules of probability. But if, on the contrary,
the crime charged has a perfect relation with the person, with his known conduct, with his known habits,
with the situation and circumstances of the place that
he is in, and with the very corrupt inherent nature of
the act that he does, then much less proof than we
are able to produce will serve; and according to the
nature and strength of the presumptions arising from
the inherent nature of a vicious -principle and vicious
motives in the act, will be strengthened the weakest
evidence, or, if it comes to a sufficient height, the
whole burden of proof will be turned upon the party
? ? ? ? 184 IDIPEACHAMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
accused. And thus we shall think ourselves bound
to show your Lordships, in every step of this proceeding, that there is an inherent presumption of corruption in every act. We shall show the presumptions which preceded, we shall show the presumptions which
accompanied the proof; and these, with the subsequent presumptions, will make it impossible to disbelieve them. Such a body of proof was never given upon any such occasion: and it is such proof as will
prevail against the whole voice of corruption, that
amazing, active, diligent, spreading voice, which has
been made, by buzzing in every part of this country,
sometimes to sound like the public voice; it will put
it to silence, by showing that your Lordships have
proceeded upon the strongest evidence, active and
passive.
First, Mr. Hastings received a positive order to
seize upon Mahomed Reza Khan. That order lihe
executed with a military promptitude of obedience,
which will show your Lordships what are the services
which are congenial to his own mind, and which find
in him always a ready acquiescence, a faithful agent,
and a spirited instrument in the execution. The very
day after lie received the order, he sent up, privately,
without communicating with the Council, from whom
he was not ordered to keep this proceeding a secret, -
he sent up, and found that great and respectable man
and respectable magistrate, who was in all those high
offices which I have stated: and if I was to compare
them to circumstances and situations in this country,
I should say lie had united in himself the character
of First Lord of the Treasury, the character of ChiefJustice, the character of Lord High-Chancellor, and
the character of Archbishop of Canterbury: a man
? ? ? ?
had got the matter sure, that everything was settled,
that he could not escape us, after he had himself confessed the bribes he had taken from the specific provinces. But in what condition are we now? We have from those specific provinces the strongest' attestations that there is not any credit to be paid to
his own acknowledgments. In short, we have the
complaints, concerning these crimes of Mr. Hastings,
of the injured persons themselves; we have his own
confessions; we shall produce both to your Lordships.
But these persons now declare, that not only their own
complaints are totally unfounded, but that Mr. Hastings's confessions are not true, and not to be credited.
These are circumstances which your Lordships will
consider in the view you take of this wonderful body
of attestation.
It is a pleasant thing to see in these addresses the
different character and modes of eloquefice of different
countries. In those that will be brought before your
Lordships you will see the beauty of chaste European
panegyric improved by degrees into high, Oriental,
exaggerated, and inflated metaphor. You will see
how the language is first written in English, then
translated into Persian, and then retranslated into
? ? ? ? 158 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
English. There may be something amusing to your
Lordships in this, and the beauty of these styles may,
in. this heavy investigation, tend to give a little gayety
and pleasure. We shall bring before you the European and Asiatic incense. You will have the perfume-shops of the two countries.
One of the accusations which we mean to bring
against Mr. Hastings is upon the part of the Zemindar Radanaut, of the country of Dinagepore. Now
hear what the Zemindar says himself. " As it has
been learned by me, the mutsuddies, and the respectable officers of my zemindary, that the ministers
of England are displeased with the late Governor,
Warren Hastings, Esquire, upon the suspicion that
he oppressed us, took money from us by deceit and
force, and ruined the country, therefore we, upon the
strength of our religion, which we think it incumbent
on and necessary for us to abide by, following the
rules laid down in giving evidence, declare the particulars of the acts and deeds of Warren Hastings,
Esquire, full of circumspection and caution, civility and justice, superior to the conduct of the most
learned, and, by representing what is fact, wipe away
the doubts that have possessed the minds of the ministers of England; that Mr. Hastings is possessed of
fidelity and confidence, and yielding protection to us;
that he is clear of the contamination of mistrust and
wrong, and his mind is free of covetousness or avarice. During the time of his administration no one
saw other conduct than that of protection to the husbandman, and justice. No inhabitant ever experienced afflictions, no one ever felt oppression from him; our reputations have always been guarded from attaclks by his prudence, and our families have always
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 159
been protected by his justice. He never omitted the
smallest instance of kindness towards us, but healed
the wounds of despair with the salve of consolation
by means of his benevolent and kind behavior, never
permitting one of us to sink in the pit of despondence.
He supported every one by his goodness, overset the
designs of evil-minded men by his authority, tied the
hand of oppression with the strong bandage ofjustice,
and by these means expanded the pleasing appearance of happiness and joy over us. He reestablished justice and impartiality. We were during his government in the enjoyment of perfect happiness and ease, and many of us are thankful and satisfied. As
Mr. Hastings was well acquainted with our manners
and customs, he was always desirous, in every respect,
of doing whatever would preserve our religious rites,
and guard them against every kind of accident and injury, and at all times protected us. Whatever we have
experienced from him, and whatever happened from
him, we have written without deceit or exaggeration. "
My Lords, here is a panegyric; and, directly contrary to the usual mode of other accusers, we begin
by producing the panegyrics made upon the person
whom we accuse. We shall produce along with the
charge, and give as evidence, the panegyric and certificate of the persons whom we suppose to have suffered these wrongs. We suffer ourselves even to abandon, what might be our last resource, his owll
confession, by showing that one of the princes from
whom he confesses that he took bribes has given a
certificate of the direct contrary.
All these things will have their weight upon your
Lordships' minds; and when we have put ourselves
under this disadvantage, (what disadvantage it is your
? ? ? ? 160 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Lordships will judge,) at least we shall stand acquitted
of unfairness in charging him with crimes directly
contrary to the panegyrics in this paper contained.
Indeed, I will say this for him, that general charge
and loose accusation may be answered by loose and
general panegyric, and that, if ours were of that
nature, this panegyric would be sufficient to overset
our accusation. But we come before your Lordships
in a different manner and upon different grounds.
I am ordered by the Commons of Great Britain to
support the charge that they have made, and persevere in making, against Warren Hastings, Esquire,
late Governor-General of Bengal, and now a culprit
at your bar: First, for having taken corruptly several bribes, and extorted by force, or under the power
and color of his office, several sums of money from
the unhappy natives of Bengal. The next article
which we shall bring before you is, that he is not only
personally corrupted, but that he has personally corrupted all the other servants of the Company, - those under him, whose corruptions he ought to have controlled, and those above him, whose business it was to control his corruptions.
We purpose to make good to your Lordships the
first of these, by submitting to you, that part of those
sums which are specified in the charge were taken by
Ihim with his own hand and in his own person, but
that much the greater part have been taken from the
natives by the instrumentality of his black agents,
banians, and other dependants, -whose confidential
connection with him, and whose agency on his part
in corrupt transactions, if his counsel should be bold
enough to challenge us to the proof, we shall fully
prove before you. The next part, and the second
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON'THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 161
branch of his corruption, namely, what is commonly
called his active corruption, distinguishing the per-.
sonal under the name of passive, will appear from his
having given, under color of contracts, a number of
corrupt and lucrative advantages from a number of
unauthorized and unreasonable grants, pensions, and
allowances, by which he corrupted actively the whole
service of the Company. And, lastly, we shall show.
that, by establishing a universal connivance from onle
end of the service to the other, lie has not only corrupted and contaminated it in all its parts, but bound it in a common league of iniquity to support mutually
each other against the inquiry that should detect and
the justice that should punish their offences. These
two charges, namely, of his active and passive corruption, we shall bring one after the other, as strongly and clearly illustrating and as powerfully confirming
each other.
The first which we shall bring before you is his own
passive corruption, - so we commonly call it. Bribes
are so little known in this country that we can hardly
get clear and specific technical names to distinguish
them; but in future, I am afraid, the conduct of Mr.
Hastings will improve our law vocabulary. The first,
then, of these offences with which Mr. Hastings stands
charged here is receiving bribes himself, or through
his banians. Every one of these are overt acts of the
general charge of bribery, and they are every one
of them, separately taken, substantive crimes. But
whatever the criminal nature of these acts was, (and
the nature was very criminal, and the consequences
to the country very dreadful,) yet we mean to prove
to your Lordships that they were not single acts, that
they were not acts committed as opportunity offered,.
VOL. X. 11
? ? ? ? 162 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or as necessity tempted or urged upon the occasion,
but that they are parts of a general systematic plan
of corruption, for advancing his fortune at the expense
of his integrity; that lie has, for that purpose, not
only taken the opportunity of his own power, but
made whole establishments, altered and perverted
others, and created complete revolutions in the country's government, for the purpose of makiing the power which ouglit to be subservient to legal government subserviellt to corruptionl; that, when he could no
loinger cover these fraudulent proceedings by artifice,
he endeavored to justify them by principle. These
artifices we mean to detect; these principles we mean
to attack, and, with your Lordships' aid, to demolish,
destroy,,and subvert forever.
My Lords, I must say, that in this business, which
is a matter of collusion, concealment, and deceit, your
Lordships will, perhaps, not feel the same degree of
interest as in the others. Hitherto you have had before you crimes of dignllity: you have had before you
the ruin and expulsion of great and illustrious families, the breach of solemnl public treaties, the merciless pillage and total subversion of the first houses in Asia. But the crimes which are the most striking to
~the imagination are not always the most pernicious
in their effects: in these high, eminent acts of domineering tyranlny, their very magnritude proves a sort
of corrective to their virulence. The occasions on
which they can be exercised are rare; the persons
upon whom they canl be exercised few; the persons
who can exercise them, in the nature of things, are
not many. These higlh tragic acts of superior, overbearing tyranny are privileged crimes; they are the. unhappy, dreadful prerogative, they are the distin
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 163
guished and incommunicable attributes, of superior
wickedness in eminent station.
But, my Lords, when the vices of low, sordid, and
illiberal minds infect that high situation,-when theft,
bribery, and peculation, attended with fraud, prevarication, falsehood, misrepresentation, and forgery -- when all these follow in one train, -- when these
vices, which gender and spawn in dirt, and are
nursed in dunghills, come and pollute with their
slime that throne which ought to be a seat of dignity
and purity, the evil is much greater; it may operate
daily and hourly; it is not only imitable, but improvable, and it will be imitated, and will be improved, from the highest to the lowest, through all the gradations of a corrupt government. They are
reptile vices. There are situations in which the acts
of the individual are of some moment, the example
comparatively of little importance. In the other, the
mischief of the example is infinite.
My Lords, when once a Governor-General receives
bribes, he gives a signal to universal pillage to all the
inferior parts of the service. The bridles upon hardmouthed passion are removed; they are taken away;
they are broken. Fear and shame, the great guards
to virtue next to conscience, are gone. Shame! how
can it exist? -- it will soon blush away its awkward
sensibility. Shame, my Lords, cannot exist long,
when it is seen that crimes which naturally bring
disgrace are attended with all the outward symbols,
characteristics, and rewards of honor and of virtue,
- when it is seen that high station, great rank, general applause, vast wealth follow the commission of
peculation and bribery. Is it to be believed that men
can long be ashamed of that which they see to be the
? ? ? ? 164 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
road to honor? As to fear, let a Governor-General
once take bribes, there is an end of all fear in the service. What have they to fear? Is it the man whose
example they follow that is to bring them before a
tribunal for their punishment? Can he open any inquiry? He cannot: he that opens a channel of inquiry under these circumstances opens a high-road to his own detection. Can he make any laws to prevent it? None: for he can make no laws to restrain
that practice without the breach of his own laws immediately in his own conduct. If we once can admit,
for a single instant, in a Governor-General, a principle, however defended, upon any pretence whatever,
to receive bribes in consequence of his office, there is
an end of all virtue, an end of the laws, and no hope
left in the supreme justice of the country. . We are
sensible of all these difficulties; we have felt them;
and perhaps it has required no small degree of exertion for us to get the better of these difficulties
which are thrown in our way by a Governor-General
accepting bribes, and thereby screening and protecting the whole service in such iniquitous proceedings.
With regard to this matter, we are to state to your
Lordships, ill order to bring it fully and distinctly before you, what the nature of this distemper of bribery is in the Indian government. We are to state what the laws and rules are which have been opposed
to prevent it, and the utter insufficiency of all that
have been proposed: to state the grievance, the instructions of the Company and government, the acts
of Parliament, the constructions upon the acts of
Parliament. We are to state to your Lordships the
particular situation of Mr. Hastings; we are to
state the trust the Company had in him for the pre
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 165
vention of all those evils; and then we are to prove
that every evil, that all those grievances which the law
intended to prevent, which there were covenants to
restrain, and with respect to which there were encouragements to smooth and make easy the path of duty, Mr. Hastings was invested with a special, direct, and
immediate trust to prevent. We are to prove to your
Lordships that he is the man who, in his own person
collectively, has done more mischief than all those
persons whose evil practices have produced all those
laws, those regulations, and even his own appointment.
The first thing that we shall do is to state, and which
we shall prove in evidence, that this vice of bribery
was the ancient, radical, endemical, and ruinous distemper of the Company's affairs in India, from the
time of their first establishment there. Very often
there are no words nor any description which can
adequately convey the state of a thing like the direct
evidence of the thing itself: because the former might
be suspected of exaggeration; you might think that
which was really fact to be nothing but the coloring
of the person that explained it; and therefore I think
that it will be much better to give to your Lordships
here a direct state of the Presidency at the time when
the Company enacted those covenants which Mr. Hastings entered into, and when they took those measures to prevent the very evils from persons placed in those
very stations and in those very circumstances in which
we charge Mr. Hastings with having committed the
offences we now bring before you.
I wish your Lordships to know that we are going to
read a consultation of Lord Clive's, who was sent out
for the express purpose of reforming the state of the
? ? ? ? 166 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS
Company, in order to show the magnitude of the pecuniary corruptions that prevailed in it. ' It is from a due sense of the regard we owe and
profess to. your interests and to our own honor, that
we think it indispensably necessary to lay open to your
view a series of transactions too notoriously known
to be suppressed, and too affecting to your interest,
to the national character, and to the existence of the
Company in Bengal, to escape unnoticed and uncensured, - transactions which seem to demonstrate that
every spring of this government was smeared with
corruption, that principles of rapacity and oppression
universally prevailed, and that every spark of sentiment and public spirit was lost and extinguished in
the unbounded lust of unmerited wealth.
"' To illustrate these positions, we must exhibit to
your view a most unpleasing variety of complaints,
inquiries, accusations, and vindications, the particulars of which are entered in our Proceedings and the
Appendix, - assuring you that we undertake this task
with peculiar reluctance, from the personal regard we
entertain for some of the gentlemen whose characters will appear to be deeply affected.
"' At Fort St. George we received the first advices
of the demise of Mir Jaffier and of Sujah Dowlah's
defeat. It was there firmly imagined that no definite
measures would be taken, either in respect to a peace
or filling the vacancy in the nizamut, before our arrival, - as the' Lapwing' arrived in the month of January with your general letter, and the appointment of a committee with express powers to that purpose,
for the successful exertion of which the happiest occasion now offered. However, a contrary resolution
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 167
prevailed in the Council. The opportunity of acquiring immense fortunes was too inviting to be neglected, and the temptation too powerful to be resisted. A treaty was hastily drawnl up by the board, or rather transcribed, with few unimportant additions, from
that concluded with Mir Jaffier, - and a deputation,
consisting of Messrs. Johnistone, senior, Middletoll, and
Leycester, appointed to raise the natural son of the deceased Nabob to the subahdarry, in prejudice of the
claim of the grandson; and for this measure sucll
reasons are assigned as ought to have dictated a diametrically opposite resolution. Meeran's son was a
minor, which circumstance alone would have naturally brought the whole administration into our hands,
at a juncture when it became indispensably necessary we should realize that shadow of power and influence which, having no solid foundation, was exposed to the danger of being annihilated by the first stroke
of adverse fortune. But this inconsistence was not
regarded; nor was it material to the views for precipitating the treaty, which was pressed on the young
Nabob at the first interview, in so earnest and indelicate a manner as highly disgusted him and chagrined
his ministers; while not a single rupee was stipulated
for the Company, whose interests were sacrificed, that
their servants might revel in the spoils of a treasury
before impoverished, but now totally exhausted.
"This scene of corruption was first disclosed, at
a visit the Nabob was paid, to Lord Clive and the
gentlemen of the Committee, a few days after our
arrival. He there delivered to his Lordship a letter
filled with bitter complaints of the insults and indignities he had been exposed to, and the embezzlement
of near twenty lacs of rupees, issued from his treas
? ? ? ? 168 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ury for purposes unknownl, during the late negotiations. So public a complaint could not be disregarded, and it soon produced an inquiry. We referred the letter to the board, in expectation of obtaining a satisfactory account of the application of this money, and were answered only by a warm remonstrance entered by Mr. Leycester against that
very Nabob in whose elevation he boasts of having
been a principal agent.
"' Mahomed Reza Khan, the Naib Subah, was then
called upon to account for this large disbursement
from the treasury; and he soon delivered to the
Committee the very extraordinary narrative entered
in our Proceedings the 6th of June, wherein he specifies the several names and sums, by whom paid, and
to whom, whether in cash, bills, or obligations. So
precise, so accurate an account as this of money for
secret and venal services was never, we believe, before
this period, exhibited to the Honorable Court of Directors, -at least, never vouched by such undeniable
testimony and authentic documents: by Juggut Seet,
who himself was obliged to contribute largely to the
sums demanded; by Muley Ram, who was employed
by Mr. Johnstone in all those pecuniary transactions;
by the Nabob and Mahomed Reza Khan, who were
the heaviest sufferers; and, lastly, by the confession
of the gentlemen themselves whose names are specified ill the distribution list.
"Juggut Seet expressly declared in his narrative,
that the sum which he agreed to pay the deputation,
amounting to 125,000 rupees, was extorted by menaces; and since the close of our inquiry, and the
opinions we delivered in the Proceedings of the 21st
June, it fully appears that the presents from the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 169
Nabob and Mahomed Reza Khan, exceeding the immense sum of seventeen lacs, were not the voluntary
offerings of gratitude, but contributions levied on the
weakness of the government, and violently exacted
from the dependent state and timid disposition of the
minister. The charge, indeed, is denied on the one
hand, as well as affirmed on the other. Your honorable board Mnust therefore determine how far the circumstance of extortion may aggravate the crime of disobedience to your positive orders, the exposing the
government in a manner to sale, and receiving the
infamous wages of corruption from opposite parties
and contending interests. We speak with boldness,
because we speak from conviction founded upon indubitable facts, that, besides the above sums specified
in the distribution account to the amount of 228,125
pounds sterling, there was likewise to the value of
several lacs of rupees procured from Nundcomar and
Roydullub, each of whom aspired at and obtained a
promise of that very employment it was predetermined to bestow on Mahomed Reza Khan.
(Signed at the end)
C CLIVE.
WM B. SUMNER.
JOHN CARNAC.
H. VERELST.
FRA8 SYKES. "
This paper cannot be denied to be a paper of
weight and authenticity, because it is signed by a
gentleman now in this House, who sits oil one side
of the gentleman at your bar, as his bail. This
grievance, therefore, so authenticated, so great, and
described in so many circumstances, I think it might
? ? ? ? 170 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
be sufficient for me, in this part of the business, to
show was, when Mr. Hastings was sent to India, a
prevalent evil.
But, my Lords, it is necessary that I should show
to you something more, because, prigna fronte, this
is some exculpation of Mr. Hastings: for, if he was
only a partaker in a general misconduct, it was
rather vitium loci et vitium, temporis than vitium
hominis. This might be said in his exculpation.
But I am next to show your Lordships the means
which the Company took for removing this grievance; and that Mr. Hastings's peculiar trust, the
great specific ground of his appointment, was a confidence that he would eradicate this very evil, of
which we are going to prove that he has been one
of the principal promoters. I wish your Lordships
to advert to one particular circumstance, - namely,
that the two persons who were bidders at this time,
and at this auction of government, for the favor and
countenance of the Presidency at Calcutta, were
Mahomed Reza Khan and Rajah Nundcomar. I
wish your Lordships to recollect this by-and-by, when
we shall bring before you the very same two persons,
who, in the same sort of transaction, and in circumstances exactly similar, or very nearly so, were candidates for the favor of Mr. Hastings. My Lords, our next step will be to show you that
the Company in 1768 had made a covenant expressly
forbidding the taking of presents of above 4001. value
in each present by the Governor-General. I take it
for granted, this will not be much litigated. They renewed and enforced that with other covenants and
other instructions; and at last came an act of Parliament, in the clearest, the most definite, the most spe
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 171
cific words that all the wisdom of the legislature, intent upon the eradication of this evil, could use, to prevent the receiving of presents.
My Lords, I think it is necessary to state, that
there has been some little difficulty concerning this
word, presents. Bribery and extortion have been
covered by the name of presents, and the authority
and practice of the East has been adduced as a palliation of the crime. My Lords, no authority of the East will be a palliation of the breach of laws enacted
in the West: and to those laws of the West, and not
the vicious customs of the East, we insist upon making Mr. Hastings liable. But do not your Lordships see that this is an entire mistake? that there never
was any custom of the East for it? I do not mean
vicious practices and customs, which it is the business
of good laws and good customs to eradicate. There
are three species of presents known in the East, - two
of them payments of money known to be legal, and
the other perfectly illegal, and which has a name exactly expressing it in the manner our language does. It is necessary that your Lordships should see that
Mr. Hastings has made use of a perversion of the
names of authorized gifts to cover the most abominable
and prostituted bribery. The first of these presents is
known in the country by the name of pesheush: this
peshcush is a fine paid, upon the grant of lands, to
the sovereign, or whoever grants them. The second
is the nuzzer, or nuzzerana, which is a tribute of acknowledgment from an inferior to a superior. The
last is called reshwat, in the Persian language,- that
is to say, a bribe, or sum of money clandestinely
and corruptly taken, - and is as much distinguished
from the others as, in the English language, a fine or
? ? ? ? 172 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
acknowledgment is distinguished from a bribe. To
show your Lordships this, we shall give in evidence,
that, whenever a peshcush or fine is paid, it is a sum
of money publicly paid, and paid in proportion to the
grant, - and that the sum is entered upon the very
grant itself. We shall prove the nuzzer is in the
same manner entered, and that all legal fees are indorsed upon the body of the grant for which they are
taken: and that they are no more in the East than
in the West any kind of color or pretence for corrupt
acts, which are known by the circumstance of their
being clandestinely taken, and which are acknowledged and confessed to be illegal and corrupt. Having stated that Mr. Hastings, in some of the evidence that we shall produce, endeavors to confound these
three things, I am only to remark that the nuzzer is
generally a very small sum of money, that it sometimes amounts to one gold mohur, that sometimes it
is less, and that, in all the records of the Company, I
have never known it exceed one gold mohur, or about
thirty-five shillings, -- passing by the fifty gold mohurs which were given to Mr. Hastings by Cheyt Sing,
and a hundred gold mohurs which were given to the
Mogul, as a nuzzer, by Mahomed Ali, Nabob of Arcot.
The Company, seeing that this nuzzer, though
small in each sum, might amount at last to a large
tax upon the country, (and it did so in fact,) thought
proper to prohibit any sum of money to be taken upon any pretext whatever; and the Company in the
year 1775 did expressly explode the whole doctrine
of peshcush, nuzzer, and every other private lucrative
emolument, under whatever name, to be taken by
the Governor-General, and did expressly send out an
order that that was the construction of the act, and
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 173
that he was not even to take a nuzzer. Thus we
shall show that that act had totally cut up the whole
system of bribery and corruption, and that Mr. Hastings had no sort of color whatever for taking the money which we shall prove he has taken.
I know that positive prohibitions, that acts of Parliament, that covenants, are things of very little validity indeed, as long as all the means of corruption are left in power, and all the temptations to corrupt
-profit are left in poverty. I should really think that
the Company deserved to be ill served, if they had
not annexed such appointments to great trusts as
might secure the persons intrusted from the temptations of unlawful emolument, and, what in all cases
is the greatest security, given a lawful gratification
to the natural passions of men. Matrimony is to be
used as a true remedy against a vicious course of
profligate manners; fair and lawful emoluments, and
the just profits of office, are opposed to the unlawful
means which might be made use of to supply them.
For, in truth, I am ready to agree, that for any man
to expect a series of sacrifices without a return in
blessings, to expect labor without a prospect of reward, and fatigue without any means of securing
rest, is an unreasonable demand in any human creature from another. Those who trust that they shall find in men uncommon and heroic virtues are themselves endeavoring to have nothing paid them but the common returns of the worst parts of human infirmity. And therefore I shall show your Lordships that
the Company did provide large, ample, abundant
means for supporting the Governor-General, - that
Lord Clive, in the year 1765, and the Council with
him, of which Mr. Sumner, I am glad and proud to
? ? ? ? 174 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
say, was one, did fix such an allowance as they
thought a sufficient security to the Governor-General
against the temptations attendant upon his situation;
and therefore, after they had fixed this sum, they
say, " that, although by this means the Governor will
not be able to amass a million or half a million in
the space of two or three years, yet he will acquire
a very handsome independency, and be in that very
situation which a man of honor and true zeal for
the service would wish to possess. Thus situated, he
may defy all opposition in Council; he will have
nothing to ask, nothing to propose, but what he wishes for the advantage of his employers; he may defy
the law, because there can be no foundation for a bill
of discovery; and he may defy the obloquy of the
world, because there can be nothing censurable in
his conduct. In short, if stability can be insured to
such a government as this, where riches have been
acquired in abundance in a small space of time, by
all ways and means, and by men with or without capacities, it must be effected by a Governor thus restricted," -that is, a Governor restricted from every emolument but that of his salary. I must remark,
that this salary and these emoluments were not settled upon the vague speculations of men taking the
measure of their necessities for India from the manners of England; but it was fixed by the Council
themselves,- fixed in India, - fixed by those who
knew and were in the situation of the Governor-General, and who knew what was necessary to support
his dignity and to preserve him from the temptation
of corruption: and they have laid open to you such a
body of advantages arising from it as would lead any
man, who had a regard to his honor or conscience, to
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. --- FIRST DAY. 175 think himself happy in having such a provision made for him, and at the same time every temptation to act corruptly removed far from him.
The emoluments of the office, though reduced from the original plan which Lord Clive had proposed, may be computed at near 30,0001. a year, when Mr. Hastings was President: 22,0001. in certain money, and the rest in other advantages. Whatever it was,
I have shown that it was thought sufficient by those
who were the best judges, and who, in carving for
others, were carving for themselves their own allowance at the time. But, my Lords, I am to give a
better opinion of the sufficiency of that provision to
guard against the temptation, out of Mr. Hastings's
own mouth. He says, in his letter to the Court of
Directors, " Although I disclaim the consideration of
my own interest in these speculations, and flatter myself that I proceed upon more liberal grounds, yet I
am proud to avow the feelings of an honest ambition
that stimulates me to aspire at the possession of my
present station for years to come. Those who know
my natural turn of mind will not ascribe this to sordid views. A very few years' possession of the government would undoubtedly enable me to retire with
a fortune amply fitted to the measure of my desires,
were I to consult only my ease: but in my present
situation I feel my mind expand to something greater; I have catched the desire of applause in public
life. "
Here Mr. Hastings confesses that the emoluments
affixed to office were not only sufficient for the purposes and ends which the nature of his office demanded, and the support of present dignity, but that they were sufficient to secure him, in a very few years, a
? ? ? ? 176 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
comfortable retreat; but his object in wishing to hold
his office long was to catch applause in public life.
What an unfortunate mall is he, who has so often
told us, in so many places, and through so many
mouths, that, after fourteen years' possession of an
office which was to mrake him a comfortable fortune
in a few years, he is at length bankrupt in fortune,
and for his applause in public life is now at your
Lordships' bar, and his accuser is his country! This,
my Lords, is to be unfortunate: but there are some
misfortunes that never do or ever can arrive. but
through crimes. He was a deserter from the path
of honor. At the turning of the two ways he made a
glorious choice, -- he caught at the applause of ambition: which though I am ready to consent is not virtue, yet surely a generous ambition for applause for public services in life is one of the best counterfeits
of virtue, and supplies its place in some degree; and
it adds a lustre to real virtue, where it exists as the
substratum of it. Human nature, while it is made
as it is, never can wholly repudiate it for its imperfection, because there is something yet more perfect.
But what shall we say to the deserter of that cause,
who, having glory and honor before him, has chosen
to plunge himself into the downward road to sordid
riches?
My Lords, I have shown the grievances that existed. I have shown the means that existed to put Mr.
Hastings beyond a temptation to those practices of
which we accuse him, even in his own opinion, -- if
he will not follow his example in the House of Commons, and disavow this letter, as lie has done his defence before them, and say he never wrote it. That situation which was to afford him a comfortable for
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 177
tune in a few years he has held for many years, and
therefore he has not one excuse to make for himself;
but I shall show your Lordships much greater and
stronger proofs, that will lean heavy upon him in the
day of your sentence. The first, the peculiar, trust
that was put in him, was to redress all those grievances.
My Lords, I have stated to you the condition of
India in 1765. You may suppose that the means
that were taken, the regulations that were made by
the Company at that period of time, had operated
their effect, and that by the beginning of the year
1772, when Mr. Hastings came first to his government, these evils did not then require, perhaps, so!
vigorous an example, or so much diligence in putting
an end to them; but, my Lords, I have to show you
a very melancholy truth, that, notwithstanding all
these means, the Company Was of opinion that all
these disorders had increased, and accordingly they
say, without entering into all the grievous circumstances of this letter, which was wrote on the 10th
of April, 1773, " We wish we could refute the observation, that almost every attempt made by us and
our administration at your Presidency for reforming
abuses has rather increased them, and added to the
misery of a country we are so anxious to protect and
cherish. " They say, that, " when oppression pervades the whole country, when youths have been suffered with impunity to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over the natives, and to acquire rapid fortunes by monopolizing of commerce, it cannot be a wonder to um
or yourselves that Dadney merchants do not come
forward to contract with the Company, that the man.
ufactures find their way through foreign channels, or
VOL. x. 12
? ? ? ? 178 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that our investments are at once enormously dear
and of a debased quality. It is evident, then, that
the evils which have been so destructive to us lie too
deep for any partial plans to reach or correct; it is
therefore our resolution to aim at the root of those
evils, and we are happy in having reason to believe
that in every just and necessary regulation we shall
imeet with the approbation and support of the legislature, who consider the public as materially interested in the Company's prosperity. "
This is to show your Lordships that Mr. Hastings
was armed with great powers to correct great abuses,
and that there was reposed in him a special trust for
that purpose. And now I shall show, by the twentyfifth paragraph of the same letter, that they intrusted Mr. Hastings with this very great power from some
particular hope they had, not only of his abstaining
himself, whic;l is a thing takenf for granted, but of his
restraining abuses through every part of the service;
and therefore they say,' that, in order to effectuate
this great end, the first step must be to restore perfect
obedience and due subordination to your administration. Our Governor and Council must reassume and exercise their delegated powers upon every just occasion,-punish delinquents, cherish the meritorious, discountenance that luxury and dissipation which, to
the reproach of government, prevailed in Bengal.
Our President, Mr. Hastings, we trust, will set the
example of temperance, economy, and application;
and upon this, we are sensible, much will depend.
And here we take occasion to indulge the pleasure
we have in acknowledging Mr. Hastings's services
upon the coast of Coromandel, in constructing with
equal labor and ability the plan which has so much
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 179
improved our investments there; and as we are persuaded he will persevere in the same laudable pursuit through every branch of our affairs inl Bengal, he, in return, may depend on the steady support and
favor of his employers. " IIere are not only laws to
restrain abuse, here are not only salaries to prevent
the temptation to it, but here are praises to animate
and encourage him, here is what very few men, even
bad in other respects, have resisted, - here is a great
trust put in him, to call upon him with particular
vigor and exertion to prevent all abuses through the
settlement, and particularly these abuses of corruption. Much trust is put in his frugality, his order, his
management of his private affairs; and from thence
they hope that he would not ruin his own fortune, but
improve it by honorable means, and teach the Company's servants the same order and management, in
order to free them from temptation to rapacity in
their own particular situations. There have been
known to be men, otherwise corrupt and vicious, who,
when great trust was put in them, have called forth
principles of honor latent in their minds; and men
who were nursed, in a manner, in corruption have
been not only great reformers by institution, but
greater reformers by the example of their own conduct. Then I am to show, that, soon after his coming to that government, there were means given him instantly of realizing those hopes and expectations, by
putting into his hands several arduous and several
difficult commissions.
My Lords, in the year 1772 the Company had received alarming advices of many disorders throughout the country: there were likewise, at the same time, circumstances in the state of the government
? ? ? ? 180 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
upon which they thought it necessary to make new
regulations. The famine which prevailed in and
devastated Bengal, and the ill use that was made of
that calamity to aggravate the distress for the advan
tage of individuals, produced a great many complaints,
some true, some exaggerated, but universally spread,
as I believe is in the memory of those who are not very
young among us. This obliged the Company to a
very serious consideration of an affair which dishonored and disgraced their government, not only at home, but through all the countries in Europe, much
more than perhaps even more grievous and real oppressions that were exercised under them. It had alarmed their feelings, it had been marked, and had
called the attention of the public upon them in an
eminent manner.
Your Lordships remember the death of Jaffier Ali
Khan, the first of those subahs who introduced the
English power into Bengal. He died about four or
five years before this period. He was succeeded by
two of his sons, who succeeded to one another in a
very rapid succession. The first was the person of
whom we have read an account to you. He was the
natural son of the Nabob by a person called Munny
Begum, who, for the corrupt gifts the circumstances
of which we have'recited, had, in prejudice of the lawful issue of the Nabob, been raised to the musnud; but as bastard slips, it is said in King Richard, (all
abuse of a Scripture phrase,) do not take deep root,
this bastard slip, Nujim ul Dowlah, shortly died, and
the legitimate son, Syef ul Dowlah, succeeded him.
After him another legitimate son, Mobarek ul Dowlah,
succeeded in a minority. When I say succeeded, 1
wish your Lordships to understand that there is no
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 181
regular succession in the office of subah or viceroy
of the kingdom; but, in general, succession has been
considered, and persons have been put in that place
upon some principles resembling a regular succession.
That regular succession had been broken in favor of
a natural son, and the mother of that natural son did
obtain the superiority in the female part of the famlily
for a time.
In consequence of these two circumstances, namely, the famine, and the abuses that were supposed to arise from it, and from the circumstance of the minority of Mobarek ul Dowlah, who now reigns or appears to reign,- in consequence of these two circumstances, the Company gave two sets of orders. The first order related to Mahomed Reza Khan,
who was (as your Lordships remember I took, in the
beginning of this affair, means of explaining) lorddeputy of the province under the native government, the English holding the dewanny, - and deputy de
wan, or high-steward, under the name of the English, and had the command of the whole revenue;
and who was accused before the Company (the chan
nel of which accusation we now learn) of having
aggravated that famine by a monopoly for his own
benefit. The Company, upon these loose and general charges, ordered that he should be divested of his office, that he should be brought down to Calcutta,
and there be obliged to render an account of his conduct.
The next regulation they made was concerning the
effective government of the country, which was become
vacant by the removal of Mahomed Reza Khan. The
offices which he held were in effect these: he was
guardian to the Nabob by the appointment of the
? ? ? ? 182 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Company; he had the care and management of his
family; he had the care of the public justice; and he
represented that shadow of government to foreign
nations which it was the policy of the Company, at
that time, to keep up. This was the person whom
Mr. Hastings was ordered to remove; in consequence
of which removal all these offices were to be supplied,
-of guardian of the Nabob's person and manager of
his family, of chief magistrate, and of representative
of the fallen dignity of the native government to the
foreign nations which traded to Bengal.
To these orders was added an instruction of a very
remarkable nature, which was a third trust that was
given to Mr. Hastings: that during tho Nabob's minority he should reduce the annual allowance, which
was thirty-two lacs, to sixteen; and that to prevent
the abuse of this restricted sum, and to prevent its
being directed by the minister's authority to other
purposes than that for which the Company allowed
it, (that is to say, allowed him out of what was his
own,) of these sixteen lacs an account was to be
regularly kept, as a check upon the person so appointed, which account was ordered to be transmitted to Calcutta, and to be sent to England.
Now we are to show your Lordships what Mr. Hastings's conduct was upon all these occasions; and for
this we mean to produce testimony recorded in the
Company's books, and authentic documents taken
from the public offices of that country. At the same
time I do admit that there never was a positive testimony that did not stand something in need of the support of presumption: for, as we know that witnesses may be perjured, and as we know that documents
can be forged, we have recourse to a known principle
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 183
in the laws of all countries, that circumstances cannot
lie; and therefore, if the testimony that is given was
ever so clear and positive, yet, if it is' contrary to the
circumstances of the country, if it is contrary to the
circumstances of the facts to which it alludes, if the
deposition is totally adverse and alien to the characters of the persons, then I will say, that, though the
testimonies should be many, though they should be
consistent, and though they should be clear, yet they
will still leave some degree of hesitation and doubt
upon every mind timorous in the execution of justice,
as every mind ought to be. If, for instance, ten witnesses were to swear that the Chief-Justice of England, that the Lord High-Chancellor, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, was seen, in the robes of his function, at noonday, robbing upon the highway, it
is not the clearness, the weight, the authority of testimonies, that could make me believe it; I should
attribute it to any cause, either corruption, mistake,
error, or madness, rather than believe that fact.
Why? Because it is totally alien to the character of
the persons, the situation, the circumstances, and to
all the rules of probability. But if, on the contrary,
the crime charged has a perfect relation with the person, with his known conduct, with his known habits,
with the situation and circumstances of the place that
he is in, and with the very corrupt inherent nature of
the act that he does, then much less proof than we
are able to produce will serve; and according to the
nature and strength of the presumptions arising from
the inherent nature of a vicious -principle and vicious
motives in the act, will be strengthened the weakest
evidence, or, if it comes to a sufficient height, the
whole burden of proof will be turned upon the party
? ? ? ? 184 IDIPEACHAMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
accused. And thus we shall think ourselves bound
to show your Lordships, in every step of this proceeding, that there is an inherent presumption of corruption in every act. We shall show the presumptions which preceded, we shall show the presumptions which
accompanied the proof; and these, with the subsequent presumptions, will make it impossible to disbelieve them. Such a body of proof was never given upon any such occasion: and it is such proof as will
prevail against the whole voice of corruption, that
amazing, active, diligent, spreading voice, which has
been made, by buzzing in every part of this country,
sometimes to sound like the public voice; it will put
it to silence, by showing that your Lordships have
proceeded upon the strongest evidence, active and
passive.
First, Mr. Hastings received a positive order to
seize upon Mahomed Reza Khan. That order lihe
executed with a military promptitude of obedience,
which will show your Lordships what are the services
which are congenial to his own mind, and which find
in him always a ready acquiescence, a faithful agent,
and a spirited instrument in the execution. The very
day after lie received the order, he sent up, privately,
without communicating with the Council, from whom
he was not ordered to keep this proceeding a secret, -
he sent up, and found that great and respectable man
and respectable magistrate, who was in all those high
offices which I have stated: and if I was to compare
them to circumstances and situations in this country,
I should say lie had united in himself the character
of First Lord of the Treasury, the character of ChiefJustice, the character of Lord High-Chancellor, and
the character of Archbishop of Canterbury: a man
? ? ? ?
