Many subsequent letters have been
transmitted both by them and by me to the Court of
Directors: by mne, in protestation against their collduct; by them, in justification of it.
transmitted both by them and by me to the Court of
Directors: by mne, in protestation against their collduct; by them, in justification of it.
Edmund Burke
Hastings obeyed it.
1" As the disbursement of the sums allotted to the
Nabob for the maintenance of his household and family and the support of his dignity will pass through
? ? ? ? 200 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the hands of the minister who shall be selected by
you, conformable to our preceding orders, we expect
that you will require such minister to deliver annually to your board a regular and exact account of the application of the several sums paid by the Company
to the Nabob. This you will strictly examine; and we
trust that you will not suffer any part of the Nabob's
stipend to be appropriated to the minister's own use,
or wasted among the unnecessary dependants of the
court, but that the whole amount be applied to the
purposes for which it was assigned by us. "
One would have imagined, that, after Mr. Hastings
had made so suspicious all arrangement, (I will not
call it by any worse name,) he would have removed
all suspicion with regard to money, - that he would
have obeyed the Company by constituting the control
which they had ordered to be placed over a man,
even a fit man, and a man worthy of the trust committed to him. But what is his answer, when three years after he is desired to produce this account?
His answer is, - "I can save the board the trouble
of this reference by acquainting them that no such
accounts have ever been transmitted, nor, as I can
affirm with most certain knowledge, any orders given
for that purpose, either to Gourdas, to whose office it
did not properly belong, nor to the Begum, who had
the actual charge and responsibility of those disbursements. "
He has given to this woman the charge of all the
disbursements of the Company; the officer whom
you would imagine would be responsible was not responsible, but to this prostitute and dancing-girl the whole of the revenue was given; when he was ordered to transmit that account, he not only did not
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 201
produce that account, but had given no order that it
should be kept: so that no doubt can be left upon
your Lordships' minds, that the sixteen lac, which
were reserved for the support of the dignity of the
government of that country, were employed for the
purpose of Mr. Hastings's having a constant bank,
from which he should draw every corrupt emolument
he should think fit for himself and his associates.
Thus your Lordships see that he appointed an improper person to the trust without any control, and
that the very accounts which were to be the guardians of his purity, and which were to remove suspicion from him, he never so much as directed or ordered. If any one can doubt that that transaction was in itself corrupt, I can only say that his mind
must be constituted in a manner totally different
from that which prevails in any of the higher or lower branches of judicature in any country in the world.
The suppression of an account is a proof of corruption.
When Mr. Hastings committed these acts of violence against Mahomed Reza Khan, when he proceeded to make arrangements in the Company's affairs of
the same kind with those in which corruption had
been before exercised, he was bound by a particular
responsibility that there should be nothing mysterious
in his own conduct, and that at least all the accounts
should be well kept. He appointed a person nominally for that situation, - namely, the Rajah Gourdas. Who was he? A person acting, he says, under the influence of Rajah Nundcomar, whom he had declared was not fit to be employed or trusted: all
the offices were filled by him. But had Rajah Gourdas, whose character is that of an excellent man,
? ? ? ? 202 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
against whom there could lie no reasonable objection
on account of his personal character, and whose want
of talents was to be supplied by those of Nundcomar,
(and of his parts Mr. Hastings spoke as highly as
possible,) - had he, I say, the management? No:
but Munny Begum. Did she keep any accounts?
No.
Mr. Hastings was ordered, and a very disagreeable
and harsh order it was, to take away one half of the
Nabob's allowance which he had by treaty. I do
not charge Mr. lHastings with this reduction: he had
nothing to do with that. Sixteen lac were cut off,
and sixteen left; these two sums had been distributed, one for the support of the seraglio and the dignity of the state, the other for the court establishment
and the household. The sixteen lac which was left,
therefore, required to be well economized, and well
administered. There was a rigor in the Company's
order relative to it, which was, that it should take
place from an antedated time, that is, a whole year
prior to the communication of their order to the
Nabob. The order was, that the Nabob's stipend
should be reduced to sixteen lac a year from the
month of January. Mr. Hastings makes this reflection upon it, in order to leave no doubt upon your
mind of his integrity in administering that great
trust: he says, -
"Your order for the reduction of the Nabob's stipend was communicated to him in the month of December, 1771. He remonstrated against it, and desired it might be again referred to the Company. The board entirely acquiesced in his remonstrance,
and the subsequent payments of his stipend were paid
as before. I might easily have availed myself of this
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. --FIRST DAY. 203
plea. I might have treated it as all act of the past
government, with which I had no cause to interfere,
and joined in asserting the impossibility of his defraying the vast expense of his court and household without it, which I could have proved by plausible arguments, drawn from the actual amount of' the nizamut and bhela establishments; and both the Nabob and
Begum would have liberally purchased my forbearance. Instead of pursuing this plan, I carried your orders rigidly and literally into execution. I undertook myself the laborious and reproachful task of limiting his charges, from an excess of his former
stipend, to the sum of his reduced allowance. "
He says in another place, -" The stoppage of the
king's tribute was an act of mine, and I have been
often reproached with it. It was certainly in my power to have continued the payment of it, and to have made my terms with the king for any part of it which
I might have chosen to reserve for my own use. He
would have thanked me for the remainder. "
My Lords, I believe it is a singular thing, and what
your Lordships have been very little used to, to see a
man in the situation of Mr. Hastings, or in any situation like it, so ready in knowing all the resources
by which sinister emolument may be made and concealed, and which, under pretences of public good, may be transferred into the pocket of him who uses
those pretences. He is resolved, if he is innocent, that
his innocence shall not proceed from ignorance. He
well knows the ways of falsifying the Company's accounts he well knows the necessities of the natives, and he knows that by paying a part of their dues they
will be ready to give an acquittance of the whole.
These are parts of Mr. Hastings's knowledge of which
? ? ? ? 204 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
your Lordships will see he also well knows how to
avail himself.
But you would expect, when he reduced the allowance to sixteen lac, and took credit to himself as if
he had done the thing which he professed, and had
*argued from his rigor and cruelty his strict and literal obedience to the Company, that he had in reality
done it. The very reverse: for it will be in proof,
that, after he had pretended to reduce the Company's
allowance, he continued it a twelvemonth from the
day in which he said he had entirely executed it, to
the amount of 90,0001. , and entered a false account
of the suppression in the Company's accounts; and
when he has taken a credit as under pretence of reducing that allowance, he paid 90,0001. more than he
ought. Can you, then, have a doubt, after all these
false pretences, after all this fraud, fabrication, and
suppression which he made use of, that that 90,0001. ,
of which he kept no account and transmitted no account, was money given to himself for his own private use and advantage? This is all that I think necessary to state to your
Lordships upon this monstrous part of the arrangement; and therefore, from his rigorous obedience in
cases of cruelty, and, where control was directed,
from his total disobedience, and from his choice of
persons, from his suppression of the accounts that
ought to have been produced, and falsifying the accounts that were kept, there arises a strong inference
of corruption. When your Lordships see all this in
proof, your Lordships will justify me in saying that
there never was (taking every part of the arrangement) such a direct, open violation of any trust. - I
shall say no more with regard to the appointment of
Munny Begum.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 205
My Lords, here ended the first scene, and here ends
that body of presumption arising from the transaction and inherent in it. My Lords, the next scene
that I am to bring before you is the positive proof of
corruption in this transaction, in which I am sure
you already see that corruption must exist. The
charge was brought by a person in the highest trust
and confidence with Mr. Hastings, a person employed
in the management of the whole transaction, a person
to whom the management, subordinate to Munny Begum, of all the pecuniary transactions, and all the arrangements made upon that occasion, was intrusted. On the 11th day of March, 1775, Nundcomar gives
to Mr. Francis, a member of the Council, a charge
against Mr. Hastings, consisting of two parts. The
first of these charges was a vast number of corrupt
dealings, with respect to which he was the informer,
not the witness, but to which he indicated the modes
of inquiry; and they are corrupt dealings, as Mr.
Hastings himself states them, amounting to millions
of rupees, and in transactions every one of which implies in it the strongest degree of corruption. The
next part was of those to which he was not only an
informer, but a witness, in having been the person
who himself transmitted the money to Mr. Hastings
and the agents of Mr. HEastings; and accordingly,
upon this part, which is the only part we charge, his
evidence is clear and full, that he gave the money
to Mr. Hastings, - he and the Begum (for I put
them together). He states, that Mr. Hastings received for the appointment of Munny Begum to the
rajahship two lacs of rupees, or about 22,0001. , and
that he received in another gross sum one lac and
a half of rupees: in all making three lac and a half,
? ? ? ? 206 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or about 36,0001. This charge was signed by the
man, and accompanied with the account.
Mr. Hastings, on that day, made no reflection or
observation whatever upon this charge, except that
he attempted to excite some suspicion that Mr. Fran
cis, who had produced it, was concerned in the
charge, and was the principal mover in it. He asks
Mr. Francis that day this question: -
"iThe Governor-General observes, as Mr. Francis
has been pleased to infoi'm the board that he was unacquainted with the contents of the letter sent in to the board by Nundcomar, that he thinks himself justified in carrying his curiosity further than he should have permitted himself without such a previous intimation, and therefore begs leave to ask Mr. Francis whether he was before this acquainted with Nundcomar's intention of bringing such charges against him before the board.
"lMr. Francis. - As a member of this Council, I
do not deem myself obliged to answer any question
of mere curiosity. I am willing, however, to inform
the Governor-General, that, though I was totally unacquainted with the contents of the paper I have now delivered in to the board till I heard it read, I did
apprehend in general that it contained some charge
against him. It was this apprehension that made
me so particularly cautious in the manner of receiving the Rajah's letter. I was not acquainted with
Rajah Nundcomar's intention of bringing in such
charges as are mentioned in the letter.
" WARREN HASTINGS.
J. CLAVERING.
GEO. MONSON.
P. FRANCIS. "
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 207
Now what the duty of Mr. Hastings and the Coun
cil was, uponl receiving such information, I shall beg
leave to state to your Lordships from the Company's orders; but, before I read them, I must observe,
that, in pursuance of an act of Parliament, which was
supposed to be made upon account of the neglect of
the Company, as well as the neglects of their servants, and for which general neglects responsibility
was fixed upon the Company for the future, while
for the present their authority w[s suspended, and a
Parliamentary commission sent out to regulate their
affairs, the Company did, upon that occasion, send
out a general code and body of instructions to be
observed by their servants, in the 35th paragraph of
which it is said," We direct that you immediately cause the strictest inquiry to be made into all oppressions which may have been committed either against the natives or
Europeans, and into all abuses that may have prevailed in the collection of the revenues, or any part
of the civil government of the Presidency: and that
you communicate to us all information which you
may be able to learn relative thereto, or to any dissipation or embezzlement of the Company's money. "
Your Lordships see here that there is a direct duty
fixed upon them to forward, to promote, to set oil Ioot,
without exception of any persons whatever, an inquiry
into all manner of corruption, peculation, and oppression. Therefore this charge of Nundcomar's was a
case exactly within the Company's orders; such a
charge was not sought out, but was actually laid before them; but if it had not been actually laid before
them, if they had any reason to suspect that such corruptions existed, they were bound by this order to
make an active inquiry into them.
? ? ? ? 208 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Upon that day ( 11th March, 1775) nothing further
passed; and, onl the part of Mr. Hastings, that charge,
as far as we call find, might have stood upon the records forever, without his making the smallest observation upon it, or taking any one step to clear his own character. But Nundcomar was not so inattentive to his duties as an accuser as Mr. Hastings was
to his duties as an inquirer; for, without a moment's
delay, upon the first board-day, two days after, Nundcomar came and delivered the following letter.
" I had the honor to lay before you, in a letter of
the 11th instant, all abstracted, but true account of
the Honorable Governor in the course of his administration. What is there written I mean not the least
to alter: far from it. I have the strongest written
vouchers to produce in support of what I have advanced; and I wish and entreat, for my honor's
sake, that you will suffer me to appear before you,
to establish the fact by an additional, incontestable
evidence. "
My Lords, I will venture to say, if ever there was
an accuser that appeared well and with weight before
any court, it was this man. He does not shrink from
his charge; he offered to meet the person he charged
face to face, and to make good his charge by his own
evidence, and further evidence that he should produce. Your Lordships have also seen the conduct
of Mr. Hastings on the first day; you' have seen his
acquiescence under it; you have seen the suspicion he
endeavored to raise. Now, before I proceed to what
Mr. Hastings thought of it, I must remark upon this
accusation, that it is a specific accusation, coming
from a person knowing the very transaction, and
known to be concerned in it, - that it was an accusa
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 209
tion in writing, that it was an accusation with a signature, that it was an accusation with a person to make it good, that it was made before a competent authority, and made before an authority bound to inquire into such accusation. When he comes to produce his
evidence, he tells you, first, the sums of money given,
the species in which they were given, the very bags
in which they were put, the exchange that was made
by reducing them to the standard money of the country; he names all the persons through whose hands the whole transaction went, eight in number, besides
himself, Munny Begum, and Gourdas, being eleven,
all referred to in this transaction. I do believe that
since the beginning of the world there never was an,
accusation which was more deserving of inquiry, be --
cause there never was an accusation which put a false
accuser in a worse situation, and that put an honest
defendant in a better; for there was every means of
collation, every means of comparison, every means of
cross-examining, every means of control. There was
every way of sifting evidence, in which evidence could
be sifted. Eleven witnesses to the transaction are
referred to; all the particulars of the payment, every
circumstance that could give the person accused the
advantage of showing the falsehood of the accusation,
were specified. General accusations may be treated
as calumnies; but particular accusations, like these,
afford the defendant, if innocent, every possible means
for making his defence: therefore the very making
no defence at all would prove, beyond all doubt, a
consciousness of guilt.
The next thing for your Lordships' consideration
is the conduct of Mr. Hastings upon this occasion.
You would imagine that he would have treated the
VOL. x. 14
? ? ? ? 210 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
accusation with a cold and manly disdain; that he
would have challenged and defied inquiry, and desired to see his accuser face to face. This is what
any man would do in such a situation. I can conceive very well that a man composed, firm, and collected in himself, conscious of not only integrity, but known integrity, conscious of a whole life beyond the
reach of suspicion, - that a man placed in such a
situation might oppose general character to general
accusation, and stand collected in himself, poised on
his own base, and defying all the calumnies in the
world. But as it shows a great and is a proof of a
virtuous mind to despise calumny, it is the proof of
a guilty mind to despise a specific accusation, when
made before a competent authority, and with competent means to prove it. As Mr. Hastings's conduct
was what no man living expected, I will venture to
say that no expression can do it justice but his own.
Upon reading the letter, and a motion being made
that Rajalh Nundcomar be brought before the board
to prove the, charge against the Governor-General,
the Governor-General enters the following minute.
" Before the question is put, I declare that I will
not suffer Nundcomar to appear before the board as
my accuser. I know what belongs to the dignity and
character of the first member of this administration.
I will not sit at this board in the character of a criminal, nor do I acknowledge the members of this board
to be my judges. I am reduced on this occasion to
-make the declaration, that I look upon General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis as my accusers. I cannot prove this in the direct letter of the law, but in my conscience I regard them as such, and
I will give my reasons for it. On their arrival at this
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 211
place, and on the first formation of the Council, they
thought proper to take immediate and decisive measures in contradiction and for the repeal of those which were formed by me in conjunction with the last administration. I appealed to the Court of Directors
from their acts.
Many subsequent letters have been
transmitted both by them and by me to the Court of
Directors: by mne, in protestation against their collduct; by them, in justification of it. Quitting this
ground, they since appear to me to have chosen other
modes of attack, apparently calculated to divert my
attention and to withdraw that of the public from the
subject of our first differences, which regarded only
the measures that were necessary for the good of the
service, to attacks directly and personally levelled at
me for matters which tend to draw a personal and
popular odium upon me: and fit instruments they
have found for their purpose,. - Mr. Joseph Fowke,
Mahrajah Nundcomar, Roopnarain Chowdry, and the
Ranny of Burdwan.
" It appears incontestably upon the records that the
charges preferred by the Ranny against me proceeded
from the office of Mr. Fowke. All the papers transmitted by her came in their original form written in
the English language, - some with Persian papers, of
which they were supposed to be translations, but all
strongly marked with the character and idiom of the
English language. I applied on Saturday last for Persian originals of some of the papers sent by her, and
I was refused: I am justified in declaring my firm
belief that no such originals exist.
"With respect to Nundcomar's accusations, they
were delivered by the hands of Mr. Francis, who has
declared that he was called upon by Rajah Nund
? ? ? ? 212 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
comar, as a duty belonging to his office as a councillor of this state, to lay the packet which contained them before the board, --that he conceived that he
could not, consistent with his duty, refuse such a letter at the instance of a person of the Rajah's rank, and did accordingly receive it, and laid it before the
board, - declaring at the same time that he was unacquainted with the contents of it. I believe that
the Court of Directors, and those to whom these proceedings shall be made known, will think differently of this action of Mr. Francis: that Nundcomar was
guilty of great insolence and disrespect in the demand
which he made of Mr. Francis; and that it was not
a duty belonging to the office of a councillor of this
state to make himself the carrier of a letter, which
would have been much more properly committed to
the hands of a peon or hircarra, or delivered by the
writer of it to the secretary himself.
" Mr. Francis has acknowledged that he apprehended in general that it contained some charge against me. If the charge was false, it was a libel. It might
have been false for anything that Mr. Francis could
know to the contrary, since he was unacquainted
with the contents of it. In this instance, therefore,
he incurred the hazard of presenting a libel to the
board: this was not a duty belonging to his office
as a councillor of this state. I must further inform
the board that I have been long since acquainted
with Nundcomar's intentions of making this attack
upon me. Happily, Nundcomar, among whose talents
for intrigue that of secrecy is not the first, has been
ever too ready to make the first publication of his
own intentions. I was shown a paper containing
Inany accusations against me, which I was told was
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 213 carried by Nundcomar to Colonel Monson, and that he himself was employed for some hours in private with Colonel Monson, explaining the nature of those charges.
"I mention only what I was told; but as the rest
of the report which was made to me corresponds
exactly with what has happened since, I hope I shall
stand acquitted to my superiors and to the world in
having given so much credit to it as to bring the circumstance upon record. I cannot recollect the precise time in which this is said to have happened, but I believe it was either before or at the time of the
dispatch of the' Bute' and'Pacific. ' The charge
has since undergone some alteration; but of the copy
of the paper which was delivered to me, containing the
original charge, I caused a translation to be made;
when, suspecting the renewal of the subject in this
day's consultation, I brought it with me, and I desire
it may be recorded, that, when our superiors, or the
world, if the world is to be made the judge of my
conduct, shall be possessed of these materials, they
may, by comparing the supposed original and amended list of accusations preferred against me by Nundcomar, judge how far I am justified in the credit which I give to the reports above mentioned. I do
not mean to infer from what I have said that it makes
any alteration in the nature of the charges, whether
they were delivered immediately from my ostensible
accusers, or whether they came to the board through
the channel of patronage; but it is sufficient to authorize the conviction which I feel in my owni mind,
that those gentlemen are parties in the accusations of
which they assert the right of being the judges.
"From the first commencement of this administra
? ? ? ? 214 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
tion, every means have been tried both to deprive me
of the legal authority with which I have been trusted,
and to proclaim the annihilation of it to the world;
but no instance has yet appeared of this in so extraordinary a degree as in the question now before the board. The chief of the administration, your superior,
Gentlemen, appointed by the legislature itself, shall I
sit at this board to be arraigned in the presence of a
wretch whom you all know to be one of the basest of
mankind? I believe I need not mention his name;
but it is Nundcomar. Shall I sit here to hear men
collected from the dregs of the people give evidence,
at his dictating, against my character and conduct?
I will not. You may, if you please, form yourselves
into a committee for the investigation of these matters in ally manner which you may think proper; but I will repeat, that I will not meet Nundcomar at the
board, nor suffer Nundcomar to be examined at the
board; nor have you a right to it, nor can it answer
any other purpose than that of vilifying and insulting
me to insist upon it.
" I am sorry to have found it necessary to deliver
my sentiments on a subject of so important a nature
in an unpremeditated minute, drawn from me at the
board, which I should have wished to have had leisure
and retirement to have enabled me to express myself
with that degree of caution and exactness which the
subject requires. I have said nothing but what I
believe and am morally certain I shall stand justified
for in the eyes of my superiors and the eyes of the
world; but I reserve to myself the liberty of adding
my further sentiments in such a manner and form as
I shall hereafter judge necessary. "
My Lords, you see here the picture of Nundcomal
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 215
drawn by Mr. Hastings himself; you see the hurry,
the passion, the precipitation, the confusion, into which
Mr. Hastings is thrown by the perplexity of detected
guilt; you see, my Lords, that, instead of defending
himself, he rails at his accuser in the most indecent
language, calling him a wretch whom they all knew
to be the basest of mankind, -that he rails at the
Council, by attributing their conduct to the worst of
motives, -- that he rails at everybody, and declares
the accusation to be a libel: in short, you see plainly
that the man's head is turned. You see there is not
a word he says upon this occasion which has common
sense in it; you see one great leading principle in it,
- that he does not once attempt to deny the charge.
He attempts to vilify the witness, he attempts to vilify those he supposes to be his accusers, he attempts
to vilify the Council; he lags upon the accusation, he
mixes it with other accusations, which had nothing
to do with it, and out of the whole he collects a resolution -to do what? To meet his adversary and
defy him? No, -- that he will not suffer him to
appear before him: he says, " I will not sit at this
board in the character of a criminal, nor do I acknowledge the board to be my judges. "
He was not called upon to acknowledge them to be
his judges. Both he and they were called upon to inquire into all corruptions without exception. It was
his duty not merely [not? ] to traverse and oppose
them while inquiring into acts of corruption, but he
was bound to take an active part in it,- that if they
had a mind to let such a thing sleep upon their records, it was his duty to have brought forward the inquiry. They were not his judges, they were not his accusers; they were his fellow-laborers in the inquiry
? ? ? ? 216 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ordered by the Court of Directors, their masters, and
by which inquiry he might be purged of that corruption with which he stood charged.
He says, "Nundcomar is a wretch whom you all
know to be the basest of mankind. " I believe they
did not know the man to be a wretch, or the basest of
mankind; but if he was a wretch, and if he was the
basest of mankind, if he was guilty of all the crimes
with which we charge Mr. Hastings, (not one of which
was ever proved against him,) - if any of your Lordships were to have the misfortune to be before this tribunal, before any inquest of the House of Commons, or any other inquest of this nation, would you not say
that it was the greatest possible advantage to you that
the man who accused you was a miscreant, the vilest
and basest of mankind, by the confession of all the
world? Do mankind really, then, think that to be accused by men of honor, of weight, of character, upon
probable charges, is an advantage to them, and that
to be accused by the basest of mankind is a disadvanltage? No: give me, if ever I am to have accusers,
miscreants, as he calls him, - wretches, the basest and
vilest of mankind. " The board," says he, " are my
accusers. " If they were, it was their duty; but they
were not his accusers, but were inquiring into matters which it was equally his duty to inquire into.
He would not suffer Nundcomar to be produced; lihe
would not suffer Nundcomar to be examined; lhe
rather suffered such an accusation to stand against
his name and character than permit it to be inquired
into. Do I want any other presumption of his guilt,
upon such an occasion, than such conduct as this?
This man, whom he calls a wretch, the basest and
vilest of mankind, was undoubtedly, by himself, in the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 217 records of the Company, declared to be one of the first men of that country,'everything that a subject could be, a person illustrious for his birth, sacred with regard to his caste, opulent in fortune, eminent in situation, who had filled the very first offices in that country; and that lie was, added to all this, a man
of most acknowledged talents, and of such a superiority as made the whole people of Bengal appear to be an inferior race of beings compared to him, -- a
man whose outward appearance and demeanor used
to cause reverence and awe, and who at that time was
near seventy years of age, which, without any other title, generally demands respect from mankind. And yet this man he calls the basest of mankind, a name which no man is entitled to call another till he has proved something to justify him in so doing; and notwithstanding his opulence, his high rank, station, and birth, he despises him, and will not suffer him to be heard as an accuser before him. I will venture to say that Mr. Hastings, in so doing, whether elevated by philosophy or inflated by pride, is not like the rest of mankind. We do know, that, in all accusations,
a great part of their weight and authority comes from
the character, the situation, the name, the description,
the office, the dignity of the persons who bring them;
mankind are so made, we cannot resist this prejudice;
and it has weight, and ever will have primnd facie
weight, in all the tribunals in the world. If, therefore, Rajah Nundcomar was a man who (it is not degrading to your Lordships to say) was equal in rank, according to the idea of his country, to any peer in
this House, as sacred as a bishop, of as much gravity and authority as a judge, and who was prime-minister in the country in which he lived, with what face can
? ? ? ? 218 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Mr. Hastings call this man a wretch, and say that he
will not suffer him to be brought before him? If, indeed, joined with such circumstances, the accuser be
a person of bad morals, then, I admit, those bad morals take away from their weight; -but for a proof of that you must have some other grounds than the charges
and the railing of the culprit against him.
I might say that his passion is a proof of his guilt;
and there is an action which is more odious than the
crimes he attempts to cover, -- for he has murdered
this man by the hands of Sir Elijah Impey; and if his
counsel should be unwise enough to endeavor to detract from the credit of this man by the pretended punishment to which he was brought, we will open
that dreadful scene to your Lordships, and you will
see that it does not detract from his credit, but brings
an eternal stain and dishonor upon the justice of
Great Britain: I say nothing further of it. As he
stood there, as he gave that evidence that day, the
evidence was to be received; it stands good, and is
a record against Mr. Hastings, -- with this addition,
that he would not suffer it to be examined. He
railed at his colleagues. He says, if the charge was
false, they were guilty of a libel. No: it might have
been the effect of conspiracy, it might be punished in
another way; but if it was false, it was no libel.
And all this is done to discountenance inquiry, to
bring odium upon his colleagues for doing their duty,
and to prevent that inquiry which could alone clear
his character.
Mr. Hastings had himself forgotten the character
which he had given of Nundcomar; but he says that
his colleagues were perfectly well acquainted with
him, and knew that he was a wretch, the basest of
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 219
mankind. But before I read to you the character
which Mr. Hastings gave of him, when he recommended him to the Presidency, (to succeed Mahomed Reza
Khan,) I am to let your Lordships understand fully
the purpose for which Mr. Hastings gave it. Upon
that occasion, all the Council, whom he stated to lie
under suspicion of being bought by Mahomed Reza
Khan, all those persons with one voice cried out
against Nundcomar; and as Mr. Hastings was known
to be of the faction the most opposite to Nundcomar,
they charged him with direct inconsistency in raising
Nundcomar to that exalted trust, -a charge which
Mr. Hastings could not repel any other way than by
defending Nundcomar. The weight of their objections chiefly lay to Nundcomar's political character;
his moral character was not discussed in that proceeding. Mr. Hastings says,"The President does not take upon him to vindicate the moral character of Nundcomar; his sentiments of this man's former political conduct are not unknown to the Court of Directors, who, he is persuaded, will be more inclined to attribute his present
countenance of him to motives of zeal and fidelity to
the service, in repugnance perhaps to his own inclinations, than to any predilection in his favor. He is
very well acquainted with most of the facts alluded
to in tho minute of the majority, having been a principal instrument in detecting them: nevertheless he
thinks it but justice to make a distinction between
the violation of a trust and an offence commkitted
against our government by a man who owed it no
allegiance, nor was indebted to it for protection, but,
on the contrary, was the minister and actual servant
of a master whose interest naturally suggested that
? ? ? ? 220 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
kind of policy which sought, by foreign aids, and the
diminution of the power of the Company, to raise his
own consequence, and to reestablish his authority.
He has never been charged with any instance of infidelity to the Nabob Mir Jaffier, the constant tenor
of whose politics, from his first accession to the nizamut till his death, corresponded in all points so exactly with the artifices which were detected in his minister that they may be as fairly ascribed to the one as to the other: their immediate object was beyond
question the aggrandizement of the former, though
the latter had ultimately an equal interest in their
success. The opinion which the Nabob himself entertained of the services and of the fidelity of Nundcomar evidently appeared in the distinguished marks
which he continued to show him of his favor and confidence to the latest hour of his life.
" His conduct in the succeeding administration appears not only to have been dictated by the same
principles, but, if we may be allowed to speak favorably of any measures which opposed the views of our
own government and aimed at the support of an adverse interest, surely it was not only not culpable,
but even praiseworthy. He endeavored, as appears
by the abstracts before us, to give consequence to his
master, and to pave the way to his independence, by
obtaining a firman from the king for his appointment to the subahship; and he opposed the promotion of Mahlomed Reza Khan, because he looked upon
it as a supersession of the rights and authority of the
Nabob. He is now an absolute dependant and sul)ject of the Company, on whose favor he must rest all
his hopes of filture advancement. "
The character here given of him is that of an excel
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 221
lent patriot, a character which all your Lordships, in
the several situations which you enjoy or to which you
may be called, will envy, - the character of a servant
who stuck to his master against all foreign encroachments, who stuck to him to the last hour of his life, and
had the dying testimony of his master to his services.
Could Sir John Clavering, could Colonel Monson,
could Mr. Francis know that this man, of whom Mr.
Hastings had given that exalted character upon the
records of the Company, was the basest and vilest, of
mankind? No, they ought to have esteemed him the
contrary: they knew him to be a man of rank, they
knew him to be a man perhaps of the first capacity
in the world, and they knew that Mr. Hastings had
given this honorable testimony of him on the records
of the Company but a very little time before; and
there was no reason why they should think or know,
as he expresses it, that he was the basest and vilest of
mankind. From the account, therefore, of Mr. Hastings himself, he was a person competent to accuse, a
witness fit to be heard; and that is all I contend for.
Mr. Hastings would not hear him, he would not suffer the charge he had produced to be examined into.
It has been shown to your Lordships that Mr.
Hastings employed Nundcomar to inquire into the
conduct and to be the principal manager of a prosecution against Mahomed Reza Khan. Will you suffer this man to qualify and disqualify witnesses and prosecutors agreeably to the purposes which his own
vengeance and corruption may dictate in one case,
and which the defence of those corruptions may dictate in another? Was Nundcomar a person fit to be
employed in the greatest and most sacred trusts in
the country, and yet not fit to be a witness to the
? ? ? ? 222 IMIPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
sums of money which he paid Mr. Hastings for those
trusts? Was Nundcomar a fit witness to be employed
and a fit person to be used in the prosecution of Mahomed Reza Khan, and yet not fit to be employed
against Mr. Hastings, who himself had employed him
in the very prosecution of Mahomed Reza Kh. an?
If Nundcomar was an enemy to Mr. Hastings, he
was an enemy to Mahomed Reza Khan; and Mr.
Hastings employed him, avowedly and professedly on
the records of the Company, on account of the very
qualification of that enmity. Was he a wretch, the
basest of mankind, when opposed to Mr. Hastings?
Was he not as much a wretch, and as much the basest of mankind, when Mr. Hastings employed him in
the prosecution of the first magistrate and Mahometan of the first descent in Asia? Mr. Hastings
shall not qualify and disqualify men at his pleasure;
he must accept them such as they are; and it is a
presumption of his guilt accompanying the charge,
(which I never will separate from it,) that he would
not suffer the man to be produced who made the accusation. And I therefore contend, that, as the accusation was so made, so witnessed, so detailed, so specific, so entered upon record, and so entered upon record in consequence of the inquiries ordered by the
Company, his refusal and rejection of inquiry into it
is a presumption of his guilt.
He is full of his idea of dignity. It is right for
every man to preserve his dignity. There is a dignity of station, which a man has in trust to preserve;
there is a dignity of personal character, which every
man by being made man is bound to preserve. But
you see Mr. Hastings's idea of dignity has no connection with integrity; it has no connection with
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 223
honest fame; it has no connection with the reputation which he is bound to preserve. What, my
Lords, did he owe nothing to the Company that had
appointed him? Did he owe nothing to the legislature, -did he owe nothing to your Lordships, and
to the House of Commons, who had appointed him?
Did he owe nothing to himself? to the country that
bore him? Did he owe nothing to the world, as to
its opinion, to which every public mall owes a reputation? What an example was here held out to the
Company's servants!
Mr. Hastings says,'" This may come into a court
of justice; it will come into a court of justice: I reserve my defence on the occasion till it comes into a
court of justice, and here I make no opposition to it. "
To this I answer, that the Company did not order
him so to reserve himself, but ordered him to be an
inquirer into those things. Is it a lesson to be taught
to the inferior servants of the Company, that, provided they can escape out of a court of justice by the
back-doors and sally-ports of the law, by artifice of
pleading, by those strict and rigorous rules of evidence which have been established for the protection
of innocence, but which by them might be turned to
the protection and support of guilt, that such an escape is enough for them? that an Old Bailey acquittal is enough to establish a fitness for trust? and if a man shall go acquitted out of such a court, because
the judges are bound to acquit him against the conviction of their own opinion, when every man in the
market-place knows that he is guilty, that lie is fit
for a trust? Is it a lesson to be held out to the servants of the Company, that, upon the first inquiry
which is made into corruption, and that in the high
? ? ?
1" As the disbursement of the sums allotted to the
Nabob for the maintenance of his household and family and the support of his dignity will pass through
? ? ? ? 200 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the hands of the minister who shall be selected by
you, conformable to our preceding orders, we expect
that you will require such minister to deliver annually to your board a regular and exact account of the application of the several sums paid by the Company
to the Nabob. This you will strictly examine; and we
trust that you will not suffer any part of the Nabob's
stipend to be appropriated to the minister's own use,
or wasted among the unnecessary dependants of the
court, but that the whole amount be applied to the
purposes for which it was assigned by us. "
One would have imagined, that, after Mr. Hastings
had made so suspicious all arrangement, (I will not
call it by any worse name,) he would have removed
all suspicion with regard to money, - that he would
have obeyed the Company by constituting the control
which they had ordered to be placed over a man,
even a fit man, and a man worthy of the trust committed to him. But what is his answer, when three years after he is desired to produce this account?
His answer is, - "I can save the board the trouble
of this reference by acquainting them that no such
accounts have ever been transmitted, nor, as I can
affirm with most certain knowledge, any orders given
for that purpose, either to Gourdas, to whose office it
did not properly belong, nor to the Begum, who had
the actual charge and responsibility of those disbursements. "
He has given to this woman the charge of all the
disbursements of the Company; the officer whom
you would imagine would be responsible was not responsible, but to this prostitute and dancing-girl the whole of the revenue was given; when he was ordered to transmit that account, he not only did not
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 201
produce that account, but had given no order that it
should be kept: so that no doubt can be left upon
your Lordships' minds, that the sixteen lac, which
were reserved for the support of the dignity of the
government of that country, were employed for the
purpose of Mr. Hastings's having a constant bank,
from which he should draw every corrupt emolument
he should think fit for himself and his associates.
Thus your Lordships see that he appointed an improper person to the trust without any control, and
that the very accounts which were to be the guardians of his purity, and which were to remove suspicion from him, he never so much as directed or ordered. If any one can doubt that that transaction was in itself corrupt, I can only say that his mind
must be constituted in a manner totally different
from that which prevails in any of the higher or lower branches of judicature in any country in the world.
The suppression of an account is a proof of corruption.
When Mr. Hastings committed these acts of violence against Mahomed Reza Khan, when he proceeded to make arrangements in the Company's affairs of
the same kind with those in which corruption had
been before exercised, he was bound by a particular
responsibility that there should be nothing mysterious
in his own conduct, and that at least all the accounts
should be well kept. He appointed a person nominally for that situation, - namely, the Rajah Gourdas. Who was he? A person acting, he says, under the influence of Rajah Nundcomar, whom he had declared was not fit to be employed or trusted: all
the offices were filled by him. But had Rajah Gourdas, whose character is that of an excellent man,
? ? ? ? 202 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
against whom there could lie no reasonable objection
on account of his personal character, and whose want
of talents was to be supplied by those of Nundcomar,
(and of his parts Mr. Hastings spoke as highly as
possible,) - had he, I say, the management? No:
but Munny Begum. Did she keep any accounts?
No.
Mr. Hastings was ordered, and a very disagreeable
and harsh order it was, to take away one half of the
Nabob's allowance which he had by treaty. I do
not charge Mr. lHastings with this reduction: he had
nothing to do with that. Sixteen lac were cut off,
and sixteen left; these two sums had been distributed, one for the support of the seraglio and the dignity of the state, the other for the court establishment
and the household. The sixteen lac which was left,
therefore, required to be well economized, and well
administered. There was a rigor in the Company's
order relative to it, which was, that it should take
place from an antedated time, that is, a whole year
prior to the communication of their order to the
Nabob. The order was, that the Nabob's stipend
should be reduced to sixteen lac a year from the
month of January. Mr. Hastings makes this reflection upon it, in order to leave no doubt upon your
mind of his integrity in administering that great
trust: he says, -
"Your order for the reduction of the Nabob's stipend was communicated to him in the month of December, 1771. He remonstrated against it, and desired it might be again referred to the Company. The board entirely acquiesced in his remonstrance,
and the subsequent payments of his stipend were paid
as before. I might easily have availed myself of this
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. --FIRST DAY. 203
plea. I might have treated it as all act of the past
government, with which I had no cause to interfere,
and joined in asserting the impossibility of his defraying the vast expense of his court and household without it, which I could have proved by plausible arguments, drawn from the actual amount of' the nizamut and bhela establishments; and both the Nabob and
Begum would have liberally purchased my forbearance. Instead of pursuing this plan, I carried your orders rigidly and literally into execution. I undertook myself the laborious and reproachful task of limiting his charges, from an excess of his former
stipend, to the sum of his reduced allowance. "
He says in another place, -" The stoppage of the
king's tribute was an act of mine, and I have been
often reproached with it. It was certainly in my power to have continued the payment of it, and to have made my terms with the king for any part of it which
I might have chosen to reserve for my own use. He
would have thanked me for the remainder. "
My Lords, I believe it is a singular thing, and what
your Lordships have been very little used to, to see a
man in the situation of Mr. Hastings, or in any situation like it, so ready in knowing all the resources
by which sinister emolument may be made and concealed, and which, under pretences of public good, may be transferred into the pocket of him who uses
those pretences. He is resolved, if he is innocent, that
his innocence shall not proceed from ignorance. He
well knows the ways of falsifying the Company's accounts he well knows the necessities of the natives, and he knows that by paying a part of their dues they
will be ready to give an acquittance of the whole.
These are parts of Mr. Hastings's knowledge of which
? ? ? ? 204 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
your Lordships will see he also well knows how to
avail himself.
But you would expect, when he reduced the allowance to sixteen lac, and took credit to himself as if
he had done the thing which he professed, and had
*argued from his rigor and cruelty his strict and literal obedience to the Company, that he had in reality
done it. The very reverse: for it will be in proof,
that, after he had pretended to reduce the Company's
allowance, he continued it a twelvemonth from the
day in which he said he had entirely executed it, to
the amount of 90,0001. , and entered a false account
of the suppression in the Company's accounts; and
when he has taken a credit as under pretence of reducing that allowance, he paid 90,0001. more than he
ought. Can you, then, have a doubt, after all these
false pretences, after all this fraud, fabrication, and
suppression which he made use of, that that 90,0001. ,
of which he kept no account and transmitted no account, was money given to himself for his own private use and advantage? This is all that I think necessary to state to your
Lordships upon this monstrous part of the arrangement; and therefore, from his rigorous obedience in
cases of cruelty, and, where control was directed,
from his total disobedience, and from his choice of
persons, from his suppression of the accounts that
ought to have been produced, and falsifying the accounts that were kept, there arises a strong inference
of corruption. When your Lordships see all this in
proof, your Lordships will justify me in saying that
there never was (taking every part of the arrangement) such a direct, open violation of any trust. - I
shall say no more with regard to the appointment of
Munny Begum.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 205
My Lords, here ended the first scene, and here ends
that body of presumption arising from the transaction and inherent in it. My Lords, the next scene
that I am to bring before you is the positive proof of
corruption in this transaction, in which I am sure
you already see that corruption must exist. The
charge was brought by a person in the highest trust
and confidence with Mr. Hastings, a person employed
in the management of the whole transaction, a person
to whom the management, subordinate to Munny Begum, of all the pecuniary transactions, and all the arrangements made upon that occasion, was intrusted. On the 11th day of March, 1775, Nundcomar gives
to Mr. Francis, a member of the Council, a charge
against Mr. Hastings, consisting of two parts. The
first of these charges was a vast number of corrupt
dealings, with respect to which he was the informer,
not the witness, but to which he indicated the modes
of inquiry; and they are corrupt dealings, as Mr.
Hastings himself states them, amounting to millions
of rupees, and in transactions every one of which implies in it the strongest degree of corruption. The
next part was of those to which he was not only an
informer, but a witness, in having been the person
who himself transmitted the money to Mr. Hastings
and the agents of Mr. HEastings; and accordingly,
upon this part, which is the only part we charge, his
evidence is clear and full, that he gave the money
to Mr. Hastings, - he and the Begum (for I put
them together). He states, that Mr. Hastings received for the appointment of Munny Begum to the
rajahship two lacs of rupees, or about 22,0001. , and
that he received in another gross sum one lac and
a half of rupees: in all making three lac and a half,
? ? ? ? 206 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or about 36,0001. This charge was signed by the
man, and accompanied with the account.
Mr. Hastings, on that day, made no reflection or
observation whatever upon this charge, except that
he attempted to excite some suspicion that Mr. Fran
cis, who had produced it, was concerned in the
charge, and was the principal mover in it. He asks
Mr. Francis that day this question: -
"iThe Governor-General observes, as Mr. Francis
has been pleased to infoi'm the board that he was unacquainted with the contents of the letter sent in to the board by Nundcomar, that he thinks himself justified in carrying his curiosity further than he should have permitted himself without such a previous intimation, and therefore begs leave to ask Mr. Francis whether he was before this acquainted with Nundcomar's intention of bringing such charges against him before the board.
"lMr. Francis. - As a member of this Council, I
do not deem myself obliged to answer any question
of mere curiosity. I am willing, however, to inform
the Governor-General, that, though I was totally unacquainted with the contents of the paper I have now delivered in to the board till I heard it read, I did
apprehend in general that it contained some charge
against him. It was this apprehension that made
me so particularly cautious in the manner of receiving the Rajah's letter. I was not acquainted with
Rajah Nundcomar's intention of bringing in such
charges as are mentioned in the letter.
" WARREN HASTINGS.
J. CLAVERING.
GEO. MONSON.
P. FRANCIS. "
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 207
Now what the duty of Mr. Hastings and the Coun
cil was, uponl receiving such information, I shall beg
leave to state to your Lordships from the Company's orders; but, before I read them, I must observe,
that, in pursuance of an act of Parliament, which was
supposed to be made upon account of the neglect of
the Company, as well as the neglects of their servants, and for which general neglects responsibility
was fixed upon the Company for the future, while
for the present their authority w[s suspended, and a
Parliamentary commission sent out to regulate their
affairs, the Company did, upon that occasion, send
out a general code and body of instructions to be
observed by their servants, in the 35th paragraph of
which it is said," We direct that you immediately cause the strictest inquiry to be made into all oppressions which may have been committed either against the natives or
Europeans, and into all abuses that may have prevailed in the collection of the revenues, or any part
of the civil government of the Presidency: and that
you communicate to us all information which you
may be able to learn relative thereto, or to any dissipation or embezzlement of the Company's money. "
Your Lordships see here that there is a direct duty
fixed upon them to forward, to promote, to set oil Ioot,
without exception of any persons whatever, an inquiry
into all manner of corruption, peculation, and oppression. Therefore this charge of Nundcomar's was a
case exactly within the Company's orders; such a
charge was not sought out, but was actually laid before them; but if it had not been actually laid before
them, if they had any reason to suspect that such corruptions existed, they were bound by this order to
make an active inquiry into them.
? ? ? ? 208 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Upon that day ( 11th March, 1775) nothing further
passed; and, onl the part of Mr. Hastings, that charge,
as far as we call find, might have stood upon the records forever, without his making the smallest observation upon it, or taking any one step to clear his own character. But Nundcomar was not so inattentive to his duties as an accuser as Mr. Hastings was
to his duties as an inquirer; for, without a moment's
delay, upon the first board-day, two days after, Nundcomar came and delivered the following letter.
" I had the honor to lay before you, in a letter of
the 11th instant, all abstracted, but true account of
the Honorable Governor in the course of his administration. What is there written I mean not the least
to alter: far from it. I have the strongest written
vouchers to produce in support of what I have advanced; and I wish and entreat, for my honor's
sake, that you will suffer me to appear before you,
to establish the fact by an additional, incontestable
evidence. "
My Lords, I will venture to say, if ever there was
an accuser that appeared well and with weight before
any court, it was this man. He does not shrink from
his charge; he offered to meet the person he charged
face to face, and to make good his charge by his own
evidence, and further evidence that he should produce. Your Lordships have also seen the conduct
of Mr. Hastings on the first day; you' have seen his
acquiescence under it; you have seen the suspicion he
endeavored to raise. Now, before I proceed to what
Mr. Hastings thought of it, I must remark upon this
accusation, that it is a specific accusation, coming
from a person knowing the very transaction, and
known to be concerned in it, - that it was an accusa
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 209
tion in writing, that it was an accusation with a signature, that it was an accusation with a person to make it good, that it was made before a competent authority, and made before an authority bound to inquire into such accusation. When he comes to produce his
evidence, he tells you, first, the sums of money given,
the species in which they were given, the very bags
in which they were put, the exchange that was made
by reducing them to the standard money of the country; he names all the persons through whose hands the whole transaction went, eight in number, besides
himself, Munny Begum, and Gourdas, being eleven,
all referred to in this transaction. I do believe that
since the beginning of the world there never was an,
accusation which was more deserving of inquiry, be --
cause there never was an accusation which put a false
accuser in a worse situation, and that put an honest
defendant in a better; for there was every means of
collation, every means of comparison, every means of
cross-examining, every means of control. There was
every way of sifting evidence, in which evidence could
be sifted. Eleven witnesses to the transaction are
referred to; all the particulars of the payment, every
circumstance that could give the person accused the
advantage of showing the falsehood of the accusation,
were specified. General accusations may be treated
as calumnies; but particular accusations, like these,
afford the defendant, if innocent, every possible means
for making his defence: therefore the very making
no defence at all would prove, beyond all doubt, a
consciousness of guilt.
The next thing for your Lordships' consideration
is the conduct of Mr. Hastings upon this occasion.
You would imagine that he would have treated the
VOL. x. 14
? ? ? ? 210 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
accusation with a cold and manly disdain; that he
would have challenged and defied inquiry, and desired to see his accuser face to face. This is what
any man would do in such a situation. I can conceive very well that a man composed, firm, and collected in himself, conscious of not only integrity, but known integrity, conscious of a whole life beyond the
reach of suspicion, - that a man placed in such a
situation might oppose general character to general
accusation, and stand collected in himself, poised on
his own base, and defying all the calumnies in the
world. But as it shows a great and is a proof of a
virtuous mind to despise calumny, it is the proof of
a guilty mind to despise a specific accusation, when
made before a competent authority, and with competent means to prove it. As Mr. Hastings's conduct
was what no man living expected, I will venture to
say that no expression can do it justice but his own.
Upon reading the letter, and a motion being made
that Rajalh Nundcomar be brought before the board
to prove the, charge against the Governor-General,
the Governor-General enters the following minute.
" Before the question is put, I declare that I will
not suffer Nundcomar to appear before the board as
my accuser. I know what belongs to the dignity and
character of the first member of this administration.
I will not sit at this board in the character of a criminal, nor do I acknowledge the members of this board
to be my judges. I am reduced on this occasion to
-make the declaration, that I look upon General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis as my accusers. I cannot prove this in the direct letter of the law, but in my conscience I regard them as such, and
I will give my reasons for it. On their arrival at this
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 211
place, and on the first formation of the Council, they
thought proper to take immediate and decisive measures in contradiction and for the repeal of those which were formed by me in conjunction with the last administration. I appealed to the Court of Directors
from their acts.
Many subsequent letters have been
transmitted both by them and by me to the Court of
Directors: by mne, in protestation against their collduct; by them, in justification of it. Quitting this
ground, they since appear to me to have chosen other
modes of attack, apparently calculated to divert my
attention and to withdraw that of the public from the
subject of our first differences, which regarded only
the measures that were necessary for the good of the
service, to attacks directly and personally levelled at
me for matters which tend to draw a personal and
popular odium upon me: and fit instruments they
have found for their purpose,. - Mr. Joseph Fowke,
Mahrajah Nundcomar, Roopnarain Chowdry, and the
Ranny of Burdwan.
" It appears incontestably upon the records that the
charges preferred by the Ranny against me proceeded
from the office of Mr. Fowke. All the papers transmitted by her came in their original form written in
the English language, - some with Persian papers, of
which they were supposed to be translations, but all
strongly marked with the character and idiom of the
English language. I applied on Saturday last for Persian originals of some of the papers sent by her, and
I was refused: I am justified in declaring my firm
belief that no such originals exist.
"With respect to Nundcomar's accusations, they
were delivered by the hands of Mr. Francis, who has
declared that he was called upon by Rajah Nund
? ? ? ? 212 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
comar, as a duty belonging to his office as a councillor of this state, to lay the packet which contained them before the board, --that he conceived that he
could not, consistent with his duty, refuse such a letter at the instance of a person of the Rajah's rank, and did accordingly receive it, and laid it before the
board, - declaring at the same time that he was unacquainted with the contents of it. I believe that
the Court of Directors, and those to whom these proceedings shall be made known, will think differently of this action of Mr. Francis: that Nundcomar was
guilty of great insolence and disrespect in the demand
which he made of Mr. Francis; and that it was not
a duty belonging to the office of a councillor of this
state to make himself the carrier of a letter, which
would have been much more properly committed to
the hands of a peon or hircarra, or delivered by the
writer of it to the secretary himself.
" Mr. Francis has acknowledged that he apprehended in general that it contained some charge against me. If the charge was false, it was a libel. It might
have been false for anything that Mr. Francis could
know to the contrary, since he was unacquainted
with the contents of it. In this instance, therefore,
he incurred the hazard of presenting a libel to the
board: this was not a duty belonging to his office
as a councillor of this state. I must further inform
the board that I have been long since acquainted
with Nundcomar's intentions of making this attack
upon me. Happily, Nundcomar, among whose talents
for intrigue that of secrecy is not the first, has been
ever too ready to make the first publication of his
own intentions. I was shown a paper containing
Inany accusations against me, which I was told was
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 213 carried by Nundcomar to Colonel Monson, and that he himself was employed for some hours in private with Colonel Monson, explaining the nature of those charges.
"I mention only what I was told; but as the rest
of the report which was made to me corresponds
exactly with what has happened since, I hope I shall
stand acquitted to my superiors and to the world in
having given so much credit to it as to bring the circumstance upon record. I cannot recollect the precise time in which this is said to have happened, but I believe it was either before or at the time of the
dispatch of the' Bute' and'Pacific. ' The charge
has since undergone some alteration; but of the copy
of the paper which was delivered to me, containing the
original charge, I caused a translation to be made;
when, suspecting the renewal of the subject in this
day's consultation, I brought it with me, and I desire
it may be recorded, that, when our superiors, or the
world, if the world is to be made the judge of my
conduct, shall be possessed of these materials, they
may, by comparing the supposed original and amended list of accusations preferred against me by Nundcomar, judge how far I am justified in the credit which I give to the reports above mentioned. I do
not mean to infer from what I have said that it makes
any alteration in the nature of the charges, whether
they were delivered immediately from my ostensible
accusers, or whether they came to the board through
the channel of patronage; but it is sufficient to authorize the conviction which I feel in my owni mind,
that those gentlemen are parties in the accusations of
which they assert the right of being the judges.
"From the first commencement of this administra
? ? ? ? 214 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
tion, every means have been tried both to deprive me
of the legal authority with which I have been trusted,
and to proclaim the annihilation of it to the world;
but no instance has yet appeared of this in so extraordinary a degree as in the question now before the board. The chief of the administration, your superior,
Gentlemen, appointed by the legislature itself, shall I
sit at this board to be arraigned in the presence of a
wretch whom you all know to be one of the basest of
mankind? I believe I need not mention his name;
but it is Nundcomar. Shall I sit here to hear men
collected from the dregs of the people give evidence,
at his dictating, against my character and conduct?
I will not. You may, if you please, form yourselves
into a committee for the investigation of these matters in ally manner which you may think proper; but I will repeat, that I will not meet Nundcomar at the
board, nor suffer Nundcomar to be examined at the
board; nor have you a right to it, nor can it answer
any other purpose than that of vilifying and insulting
me to insist upon it.
" I am sorry to have found it necessary to deliver
my sentiments on a subject of so important a nature
in an unpremeditated minute, drawn from me at the
board, which I should have wished to have had leisure
and retirement to have enabled me to express myself
with that degree of caution and exactness which the
subject requires. I have said nothing but what I
believe and am morally certain I shall stand justified
for in the eyes of my superiors and the eyes of the
world; but I reserve to myself the liberty of adding
my further sentiments in such a manner and form as
I shall hereafter judge necessary. "
My Lords, you see here the picture of Nundcomal
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 215
drawn by Mr. Hastings himself; you see the hurry,
the passion, the precipitation, the confusion, into which
Mr. Hastings is thrown by the perplexity of detected
guilt; you see, my Lords, that, instead of defending
himself, he rails at his accuser in the most indecent
language, calling him a wretch whom they all knew
to be the basest of mankind, -that he rails at the
Council, by attributing their conduct to the worst of
motives, -- that he rails at everybody, and declares
the accusation to be a libel: in short, you see plainly
that the man's head is turned. You see there is not
a word he says upon this occasion which has common
sense in it; you see one great leading principle in it,
- that he does not once attempt to deny the charge.
He attempts to vilify the witness, he attempts to vilify those he supposes to be his accusers, he attempts
to vilify the Council; he lags upon the accusation, he
mixes it with other accusations, which had nothing
to do with it, and out of the whole he collects a resolution -to do what? To meet his adversary and
defy him? No, -- that he will not suffer him to
appear before him: he says, " I will not sit at this
board in the character of a criminal, nor do I acknowledge the board to be my judges. "
He was not called upon to acknowledge them to be
his judges. Both he and they were called upon to inquire into all corruptions without exception. It was
his duty not merely [not? ] to traverse and oppose
them while inquiring into acts of corruption, but he
was bound to take an active part in it,- that if they
had a mind to let such a thing sleep upon their records, it was his duty to have brought forward the inquiry. They were not his judges, they were not his accusers; they were his fellow-laborers in the inquiry
? ? ? ? 216 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ordered by the Court of Directors, their masters, and
by which inquiry he might be purged of that corruption with which he stood charged.
He says, "Nundcomar is a wretch whom you all
know to be the basest of mankind. " I believe they
did not know the man to be a wretch, or the basest of
mankind; but if he was a wretch, and if he was the
basest of mankind, if he was guilty of all the crimes
with which we charge Mr. Hastings, (not one of which
was ever proved against him,) - if any of your Lordships were to have the misfortune to be before this tribunal, before any inquest of the House of Commons, or any other inquest of this nation, would you not say
that it was the greatest possible advantage to you that
the man who accused you was a miscreant, the vilest
and basest of mankind, by the confession of all the
world? Do mankind really, then, think that to be accused by men of honor, of weight, of character, upon
probable charges, is an advantage to them, and that
to be accused by the basest of mankind is a disadvanltage? No: give me, if ever I am to have accusers,
miscreants, as he calls him, - wretches, the basest and
vilest of mankind. " The board," says he, " are my
accusers. " If they were, it was their duty; but they
were not his accusers, but were inquiring into matters which it was equally his duty to inquire into.
He would not suffer Nundcomar to be produced; lihe
would not suffer Nundcomar to be examined; lhe
rather suffered such an accusation to stand against
his name and character than permit it to be inquired
into. Do I want any other presumption of his guilt,
upon such an occasion, than such conduct as this?
This man, whom he calls a wretch, the basest and
vilest of mankind, was undoubtedly, by himself, in the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 217 records of the Company, declared to be one of the first men of that country,'everything that a subject could be, a person illustrious for his birth, sacred with regard to his caste, opulent in fortune, eminent in situation, who had filled the very first offices in that country; and that lie was, added to all this, a man
of most acknowledged talents, and of such a superiority as made the whole people of Bengal appear to be an inferior race of beings compared to him, -- a
man whose outward appearance and demeanor used
to cause reverence and awe, and who at that time was
near seventy years of age, which, without any other title, generally demands respect from mankind. And yet this man he calls the basest of mankind, a name which no man is entitled to call another till he has proved something to justify him in so doing; and notwithstanding his opulence, his high rank, station, and birth, he despises him, and will not suffer him to be heard as an accuser before him. I will venture to say that Mr. Hastings, in so doing, whether elevated by philosophy or inflated by pride, is not like the rest of mankind. We do know, that, in all accusations,
a great part of their weight and authority comes from
the character, the situation, the name, the description,
the office, the dignity of the persons who bring them;
mankind are so made, we cannot resist this prejudice;
and it has weight, and ever will have primnd facie
weight, in all the tribunals in the world. If, therefore, Rajah Nundcomar was a man who (it is not degrading to your Lordships to say) was equal in rank, according to the idea of his country, to any peer in
this House, as sacred as a bishop, of as much gravity and authority as a judge, and who was prime-minister in the country in which he lived, with what face can
? ? ? ? 218 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Mr. Hastings call this man a wretch, and say that he
will not suffer him to be brought before him? If, indeed, joined with such circumstances, the accuser be
a person of bad morals, then, I admit, those bad morals take away from their weight; -but for a proof of that you must have some other grounds than the charges
and the railing of the culprit against him.
I might say that his passion is a proof of his guilt;
and there is an action which is more odious than the
crimes he attempts to cover, -- for he has murdered
this man by the hands of Sir Elijah Impey; and if his
counsel should be unwise enough to endeavor to detract from the credit of this man by the pretended punishment to which he was brought, we will open
that dreadful scene to your Lordships, and you will
see that it does not detract from his credit, but brings
an eternal stain and dishonor upon the justice of
Great Britain: I say nothing further of it. As he
stood there, as he gave that evidence that day, the
evidence was to be received; it stands good, and is
a record against Mr. Hastings, -- with this addition,
that he would not suffer it to be examined. He
railed at his colleagues. He says, if the charge was
false, they were guilty of a libel. No: it might have
been the effect of conspiracy, it might be punished in
another way; but if it was false, it was no libel.
And all this is done to discountenance inquiry, to
bring odium upon his colleagues for doing their duty,
and to prevent that inquiry which could alone clear
his character.
Mr. Hastings had himself forgotten the character
which he had given of Nundcomar; but he says that
his colleagues were perfectly well acquainted with
him, and knew that he was a wretch, the basest of
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 219
mankind. But before I read to you the character
which Mr. Hastings gave of him, when he recommended him to the Presidency, (to succeed Mahomed Reza
Khan,) I am to let your Lordships understand fully
the purpose for which Mr. Hastings gave it. Upon
that occasion, all the Council, whom he stated to lie
under suspicion of being bought by Mahomed Reza
Khan, all those persons with one voice cried out
against Nundcomar; and as Mr. Hastings was known
to be of the faction the most opposite to Nundcomar,
they charged him with direct inconsistency in raising
Nundcomar to that exalted trust, -a charge which
Mr. Hastings could not repel any other way than by
defending Nundcomar. The weight of their objections chiefly lay to Nundcomar's political character;
his moral character was not discussed in that proceeding. Mr. Hastings says,"The President does not take upon him to vindicate the moral character of Nundcomar; his sentiments of this man's former political conduct are not unknown to the Court of Directors, who, he is persuaded, will be more inclined to attribute his present
countenance of him to motives of zeal and fidelity to
the service, in repugnance perhaps to his own inclinations, than to any predilection in his favor. He is
very well acquainted with most of the facts alluded
to in tho minute of the majority, having been a principal instrument in detecting them: nevertheless he
thinks it but justice to make a distinction between
the violation of a trust and an offence commkitted
against our government by a man who owed it no
allegiance, nor was indebted to it for protection, but,
on the contrary, was the minister and actual servant
of a master whose interest naturally suggested that
? ? ? ? 220 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
kind of policy which sought, by foreign aids, and the
diminution of the power of the Company, to raise his
own consequence, and to reestablish his authority.
He has never been charged with any instance of infidelity to the Nabob Mir Jaffier, the constant tenor
of whose politics, from his first accession to the nizamut till his death, corresponded in all points so exactly with the artifices which were detected in his minister that they may be as fairly ascribed to the one as to the other: their immediate object was beyond
question the aggrandizement of the former, though
the latter had ultimately an equal interest in their
success. The opinion which the Nabob himself entertained of the services and of the fidelity of Nundcomar evidently appeared in the distinguished marks
which he continued to show him of his favor and confidence to the latest hour of his life.
" His conduct in the succeeding administration appears not only to have been dictated by the same
principles, but, if we may be allowed to speak favorably of any measures which opposed the views of our
own government and aimed at the support of an adverse interest, surely it was not only not culpable,
but even praiseworthy. He endeavored, as appears
by the abstracts before us, to give consequence to his
master, and to pave the way to his independence, by
obtaining a firman from the king for his appointment to the subahship; and he opposed the promotion of Mahlomed Reza Khan, because he looked upon
it as a supersession of the rights and authority of the
Nabob. He is now an absolute dependant and sul)ject of the Company, on whose favor he must rest all
his hopes of filture advancement. "
The character here given of him is that of an excel
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 221
lent patriot, a character which all your Lordships, in
the several situations which you enjoy or to which you
may be called, will envy, - the character of a servant
who stuck to his master against all foreign encroachments, who stuck to him to the last hour of his life, and
had the dying testimony of his master to his services.
Could Sir John Clavering, could Colonel Monson,
could Mr. Francis know that this man, of whom Mr.
Hastings had given that exalted character upon the
records of the Company, was the basest and vilest, of
mankind? No, they ought to have esteemed him the
contrary: they knew him to be a man of rank, they
knew him to be a man perhaps of the first capacity
in the world, and they knew that Mr. Hastings had
given this honorable testimony of him on the records
of the Company but a very little time before; and
there was no reason why they should think or know,
as he expresses it, that he was the basest and vilest of
mankind. From the account, therefore, of Mr. Hastings himself, he was a person competent to accuse, a
witness fit to be heard; and that is all I contend for.
Mr. Hastings would not hear him, he would not suffer the charge he had produced to be examined into.
It has been shown to your Lordships that Mr.
Hastings employed Nundcomar to inquire into the
conduct and to be the principal manager of a prosecution against Mahomed Reza Khan. Will you suffer this man to qualify and disqualify witnesses and prosecutors agreeably to the purposes which his own
vengeance and corruption may dictate in one case,
and which the defence of those corruptions may dictate in another? Was Nundcomar a person fit to be
employed in the greatest and most sacred trusts in
the country, and yet not fit to be a witness to the
? ? ? ? 222 IMIPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
sums of money which he paid Mr. Hastings for those
trusts? Was Nundcomar a fit witness to be employed
and a fit person to be used in the prosecution of Mahomed Reza Khan, and yet not fit to be employed
against Mr. Hastings, who himself had employed him
in the very prosecution of Mahomed Reza Kh. an?
If Nundcomar was an enemy to Mr. Hastings, he
was an enemy to Mahomed Reza Khan; and Mr.
Hastings employed him, avowedly and professedly on
the records of the Company, on account of the very
qualification of that enmity. Was he a wretch, the
basest of mankind, when opposed to Mr. Hastings?
Was he not as much a wretch, and as much the basest of mankind, when Mr. Hastings employed him in
the prosecution of the first magistrate and Mahometan of the first descent in Asia? Mr. Hastings
shall not qualify and disqualify men at his pleasure;
he must accept them such as they are; and it is a
presumption of his guilt accompanying the charge,
(which I never will separate from it,) that he would
not suffer the man to be produced who made the accusation. And I therefore contend, that, as the accusation was so made, so witnessed, so detailed, so specific, so entered upon record, and so entered upon record in consequence of the inquiries ordered by the
Company, his refusal and rejection of inquiry into it
is a presumption of his guilt.
He is full of his idea of dignity. It is right for
every man to preserve his dignity. There is a dignity of station, which a man has in trust to preserve;
there is a dignity of personal character, which every
man by being made man is bound to preserve. But
you see Mr. Hastings's idea of dignity has no connection with integrity; it has no connection with
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 223
honest fame; it has no connection with the reputation which he is bound to preserve. What, my
Lords, did he owe nothing to the Company that had
appointed him? Did he owe nothing to the legislature, -did he owe nothing to your Lordships, and
to the House of Commons, who had appointed him?
Did he owe nothing to himself? to the country that
bore him? Did he owe nothing to the world, as to
its opinion, to which every public mall owes a reputation? What an example was here held out to the
Company's servants!
Mr. Hastings says,'" This may come into a court
of justice; it will come into a court of justice: I reserve my defence on the occasion till it comes into a
court of justice, and here I make no opposition to it. "
To this I answer, that the Company did not order
him so to reserve himself, but ordered him to be an
inquirer into those things. Is it a lesson to be taught
to the inferior servants of the Company, that, provided they can escape out of a court of justice by the
back-doors and sally-ports of the law, by artifice of
pleading, by those strict and rigorous rules of evidence which have been established for the protection
of innocence, but which by them might be turned to
the protection and support of guilt, that such an escape is enough for them? that an Old Bailey acquittal is enough to establish a fitness for trust? and if a man shall go acquitted out of such a court, because
the judges are bound to acquit him against the conviction of their own opinion, when every man in the
market-place knows that he is guilty, that lie is fit
for a trust? Is it a lesson to be held out to the servants of the Company, that, upon the first inquiry
which is made into corruption, and that in the high
? ? ?
