No More Learning

It appears from them, that, towards
the end of the yealrly account in 1782, a kist or payment of eight lacs (about 80,0001. ), the balance of the annual tribute, was due. In part of this kist,
Durbege Sing paid two lacs (20,0001. ). Of the remaining six lacs (60,0001. ), the outstanding debts in the country due to the revenue, but not collected by
? ? ? ? 342 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the Naib, amounted to four lacs (40,0001. ). Thus
far the account is not controverted by the accusing
party. But Mr. Markham asserts that he shall be able
to prove that the Naib had also actually received the
other two lacs (20,0001. ), and consequently was an
actual defaulter to that amount, and had, upon the
whole, suffered the annual tribute to fall six lacs in
arrear. The Naib denies the receipt of the two lacs
just mentioned, and challenges inquiry; but no inquiries appear to have been made, and to this hour
Mr. Markham has produced no proof of the fact.
With respect to the arrear of. the tribute money which
appeared on the balance of the whole account, the
Naib defended himself by alleging the distresses of the
country, the diminution of his authority, and the want
of support from the supreme government in the collection of the revenues; and he asserts that he has
assets sufficient, if time and power be allowed him for
collecting them, to discharge the whole balance due
to the Company. The immediate payment of the
whole balance was demanded, and Durbege Sing, unable to comply with the demand, was sent to prison. Thus stood the. business, when Mr. Markham, soon after he had sent the Naib to prison, quitted the
Residency. He was succeeded by Mr. Benn, who
acted exactly upon the same principle. He declares
that the six lacs demanded were not demanded upon
the principle of its having been actually collected by
him, but upon the principle of his having agreed to
pay it. " We have," say Mr. Hastings's agents to the
Naib, "we have a Jew's bond. If it is in your bond,
we will have it, or we will have a pound of your flesh:
wlhether you have, received it or not is no business of
ou'rs. " About this time some hopes were entertainted
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -THIRD DAY. 343
by the Resident that the Naib's personal exertions in
collecting the arrears of the tribute might be useful.
These hopes procured him a short liberation from his
confinement. He was let out of prison, and appears to
have made another payment of half a lac of rupees.
Still the terms of the bond were insisted on, although
Mr. Hastings had allowed that these terms were extravagant, and only one lac and a half of the money
which had been actually received remained unpaid.
One would think that common charity, that common
decency, that common regard to the decorum of life
would, under such circumstances, have hindered Mr.
Hastings from imprisoning him again. But, my
Lords, he was imprisoned again; he continued in
prison till Mr. Hastings quitted the country; and
there he soon after died, -- a victim to the enormous
oppression which has been detailed to your Lordships.
It appears that in the mean time the Residents had
been using other means for recovering the balance
due to the Company. The family of the Rajah had
not been paid one shilling of the 60,0001. allowed for
their maintenance. They were obliged to mortgage
their own hereditary estates for their support, while
the Residents confiscated all the property of Durbege
Sing. Of the money thus obtained what account has
been given? None, my Lords, none. It must therefore have been disposed of in some abominably corrupt way or other, while this miserable victim of Mr. Hastings was left to perish in a prison, after he had
been elevated to the highest rank in the country.
But, without doubt, they found abundance of effects
after his death? No, my Lords, they did not find
anything. They ransacked his house; they examined
? ? ? ? 344 IMPEACHMENT, OF WARREN HASTINGS.
all his accounts, every paper that he had, in and out
of prison. They searched and scrutinized everything.
They had every penny of his fortune, and I believe,
though I cannot with certainty know, that the man
died insolvent; and it was not pretended that he had
ever applied to -his own use any part of the Company's
money.
Thus Durbege Sing is gone; this tragedy is finished; a second Rajah of Benares has been destroyed.
I do not speak of that miserable puppet who was said
by Mr. Hastings to be in a state of childhood when
arrived at manhood, but of the person who represented the dignity of the family. He is gone; he is swept away; and in his name, in the name of this
devoted Durbege Sing, in the name of his afflicted
family, in the name of the people of the country
thus oppressed by an usurped authority, in the name
of all these, respecting whom justice has been thus
outraged, we call upon your Lordships for justice.
We are now at the commencement of a new or
der of things. Mr. Markham had been authorized to
appoint whoever he pleased as Naib, with the exception of Ussaun Sing. He accordingly exercises this power, and chooses a person called Jagher Deo Seo.
From the time of the confinement of Durbege Sing to
the time of this man's being put into the government,
in whose hands were the revenues of the country?
Mr. Markham himself has told you, at your bar, that
they were in his hands, - that he was the person who
not only named this man, but that he had the sole
management of the revenues; and he was, of course,
answerable for them all that time. The nominal
title of Zemindar was still left to the miserable pageant who held it; but even the very name soon fell
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -THIRD DAY. 345
entirely out of use. It is in evidence before your
Lordships that his name is not even so much as mentioned in the proceedings of the government; and
that the person who really governed was not the ostensible Jagher Deo Seo, but Mr. Markham. The government, therefore, was taken completely and entirely out of the hands of the person who had a legal right
to administer it, - out of the hands of his guardians,
- out of the hands of his mother, - out of the hands
of his nearest relations, - and, in short, of all those
who, in the common course of things, ought to have
been intrusted with it. From all such persons, I
say, it was taken: and where, my Lords, was it deposited? Why, in the hands of a man of'whom we
know nothing, and of whom we never heard anything, before we heard that Mr. Markham, of his own
usurped authority, authorized by the usurped authority of Mr. Hastings, without the least communication
with the Council, had put him in possession of that
country.
Mr. Markham himself, as I have just said, administered the revenues alone, without the smallest
authority for so doing, without the least knowledge
of the Council, till Jagher Deo Seo was appointed
Naib. Did he then give up his authority? No such
thing. All the measures of Jagher Deo Seo's government were taken with the concurrence and joint
management of Mr. Markham. He conducted the
whole; the settlements were made, the'leases and
agreements with farmers all regulated by him. I
need not tell you, I believe, that Jagher Deo Seo was
not a person of very much authority in the case:
your Lordships would laugh at me, if I said he was.
The revenue arrangements were, I firmly believe,
? ? ? ? 346 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
regulated and made by Mr. Markham. But whether
they were or were not, it comes to the same thing.
If they were improperly made and improperly conducted, Mr. Hastings is responsible for the whole
of the mismanagement; for he gave the entire control to a person who had little experience, who was
young in the world (and this is the excuse I wish
to make for a gentleman of that age). He appointed
him, and gave him at large a discretionary authority
to name whom he pleased to be the ostensible Naib;
but we know that he took the principal part himself
in all his settlements and in all his proceedings.
Soon after the Naib had been thus appointed and'instructed by Mr. Markham, he settled, under his
directions, the administration of the country. Mr.
Markham then desires leave from Mr. Hastings to
go down to Calcutta. I imagine he never returned
to Benares; he comes to Europe; and here end the
acts of this viceroy and delegate.
Let us now begin the reign of Mr. Benn and Mr.
Fowke. These gentlemen had just the same power
delegated to them that Mr. Markham possessed, --
not one jot less, that I know of; and they were therefore responsible, and ought to have been called to
an account by Mr. Hastings for every part of their
proceedings. I will not give you my own account
of the reign of these gentlemen; but I will read to
you what Mr. Hastings has thought proper to represent the state of the people to be under their government. This course will save your Lordships time and trouble; for it will nearly supersede all observations of mine upon the subject. I hold in my hand
Mr. Hastings's representation of the effects produced
lby a government which was conceived by himself, car
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - THIRD DAY. 347
ried into effect by himself, and illegally invested by
him with illegal powers, without any security or
responsibility of any kind. Hear, I say, what an account Mr. Hastings gave, when he afterwards went
up to Benares upon another wicked project, and
think what ought to have been his feelings as he
looked upon the ruin he had occasioned. Think of
the condition in which he saw Benares the first day
he entered it. He then saw it beautiful, ornamented,
rich, - an object that envy would have shed tears over
for its prosperity, that humanity would have beheld
with eyes glistening with joy for the comfort and
happiness which were there enjoyed by man: a country flourishing in cultivation to such a degree that the' soldiers were obliged to march in single files through
the fields of corn, to avoid damaging them; a country in which Mr. Stables has stated that the villages were thick beyond all expression; a country where
the people pressed round their sovereign, as Mr.
Stables also told you, with joy, triumph, and satisfaction. Such was the country; and in such a state
and under such a master was it, when he first saw
it. See what it now is under Warren Hastings; see
what it is under the British government; and then
judge whether the Commons are or are not right
ill pressing the subject upon your Lordships for your
decision, and letting you and all this great auditory
know what sort of a criminal you have before you,
who has had the impudence to represent to your
Lordships at your bar that Benares is in a flourishing
condition, in defiance of the evidence which we have
under his own hands, and who, in all the false papers that have been circulated to debauch the public opinion, has stated that we, the Commons, have given
? ? ? ? 348 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a false representation as to the state of the country
under the English government.
Lucknow, the 2d of April, 1784. Addressed to the
Honorable Edward Wheler, Esq. , ce. Signed
Warren Hastings. It is in page 306 of the printed.
Minutes.
"GENTLEMEN, - Having contrived, by making forced
stages, while the troops of my escort marched at the
ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at Benares,
I was thereby furnished with-the means of acquiring
some knowledge of the state of the province, which I
am anxious to communicate to you: indeed, the inquiry, which was in a great degree obtruded upon
me, affected me with very mortifying reflections on
my own inability to apply it to any useful purpose.
"From the confines of Buxar to Benares I was followed and fatigued by the clamors of the discontented inhabitants. It was what I expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it.
The distresses which were produced by the long continued drought unavoidably tended to heighten the general discontent; yet I have reason to fear that the
cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and oppressive administration. Of a multitude
of petitions which were presented to me, and of which
I took minutes, every one that did not relate to a personal grievance contained the representation of one and the same species of oppression, which is in its
nature of an influence most fatal to the future cultivation. The practice to which I allude is this. It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the
proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - THIRD DAY. 349
kind on their stipulated rent: that is, from those who
hold their pottahs by the tenure of paying one half of
the produce of their crops, either the whole without
a subterfuge, or a large proportion of it by false measurement or other pretexts; and: from those whose engagements are for a fixed rent in money the half
or a greater proportion is taken in kind. This is in
effect a tax upon the industry of the inhabitants;
since there is scarcely a field of grain in the province,
I might say not one, which has not been preserved by
the incessant labor of the cultivator, by digging wells
for their supply, or watering them from the wells of
masonry with which this country abounds, or from
the neighboring tanks, rivers, and nullahs. The people who imposed on themselves this voluntary and extraordinary labor, and not unattended with expense, did it in the expectation of reaping the profits
of it; and it is certain that they would not have done
it, if they had known that their rulers, from whom
they were entitled to an indemnification, would take
from them what they had so hardly earned. If the
same administration continues, and the country shall
again labor under a want of the natural rains, every
field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands perish through the want of subsistence: for who will labor for the sole benefit of others, and to
make himself the subject of vexation? These practices are not to be imputed to the aumils employed
in the districts, but to the Naib himself. The avowed
principle on which he acts, and which he acknowledged to myself, is, that the whole sum fixed for the revenue of the province must be collected, and that
for this purpose the deficiency arising in places where
the crops have failed, or which have been left ulcul
? ? ? ? 350 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
tivated, must be supplied from the resources of others,
where the soil has been better suited to the season, or
the industry of the cultivators more successfully exerted: a piinciple which, however specious and plausible it may at first appear, certainly tends to the most pernicious and destructive consequences. If this
declaration of the Naib had been made only to myself, I might have doubted my construction of it; but
it was repeated by him to Mr. Anderson, who understood it exactly in the same sense. In the management of the customs, the conduct of the Naib, or of
the officers under him, was forced also upon my attention. The exorbitant rates exacted by an arbitrary
valuation of the goods, the practice of exacting duties
twice on the same goods, first from the seller and afterwards from the buyer, and the vexatious disputes
and delays drawn on the merchants by these oppressions, were loudly complained of; and some instances
of this kind were said to exist at the very time when
I was in Benares. Under such circumstances, we are
not to wonder, if the merchants of foreign countries
are discouraged from resorting to Benares, and if the
commerce of that province should annually decay.
"Other evils, or imputed evils, have accidentally
come to my knowledge, which I will not now particularize, as I hope that with the assistance of the Resi. .
dent they may be in part corrected: one, however, I
must mention, because it has been verified by my own
observation, and is of that kind which reflects an unmerited reproach on our general and national character. When I was at Buxar, the Resident at my desire enjoined the Naib to appoint creditable people to every
town through which our route lay, to persuade and
encourage the inhabitants to remain in their houses,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - THIRD DAY. 351
promising to give them guards as I approached, and
they required it for their protection; and that he
might perceive how earnest I was for his observance
of this precaution, (which I am certain was faithfully
delivered,) I repeated it to him in person, and dismissed him, that he might precede me for that purpose: but, to my great disappointment, I found every place through which I passed abandoned; nor had there been a man left in any of them for their protection. I am sorry to add, that, firom Buxar to the
opposite boundary, I have seen nothing but the traces of complete devastation in every village, whether caused by the followers of the troops which have
lately passed, for their natural relief, (and I know
not whether my own may not have had their share,)
or from the apprehension of the inhabitants left to
themselves, and of themselves deserting their houses.
I wish to acquit my own countrymen of the blame of
these unfavorable appearances, and in my own heart
I do acquit them: for at one encampment, near a
large village called Derrara, in the purgunnah of Zemaneea, a crowd of people came to me, complaining
that their former aumil, who was a native of the place,
and had long been established in authority over them,
and whose custom it had been, whenever any troops
passed, to remain in person on the spot for their protection, having been removed, the new aumil, on the
approach of any military detachment, himself first
fled from the place, and the inhabitants, having no
one to whom they could apply for redress, or for. the
representation of their grievances, and being thus remediless, fled also; so that their houses and effects became a prey to any person who chose to plunder them.
The general conclusion appeared to me an inevitable
? ? ? ? 352 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
consequence fiom such a state of facts, - and my own
senses bore testimony to it in this specific instance;
nor do I know how it is possible for any officer commanding a military party, how attentive soever he
may be to the discipline and forbearance of his people, to prevent disorders, when there is neither opposition to hinder nor evidence to detect them. These and many other irregularities I impute solely to the
Naib; and I think it my duty, to recommend his instant removal. I would myself hlave dismissed him,
had the control of this province come within the line
of my powers, and have established such regulations
and checks as would have been most likely, to prevent the like irregularities. I have said checks, because, unless there is some visible influence, and a powerful and able one, impended over the head of
the manager, no system can avail. The next appointed may prove, from some defect, as unfit for the office as the present; for the choice is limited to few, without experience to guide it.
The first was of
my own nomination; his merits and qualifications
stood in equal balance with my knowledge of those
who might have been the candidates for the office;
but he was the father of the Rajah, and the affinity
sunk the scale wholly in his favor: for who could be
so fit to be intrusted with the charge of his son's interest, and the new credit of the rising family? He
deceived my expectations. Another was recommended by the Resident, and at my instance the board
appointed him. This was Jagher Deo Seo, the
present Naib. I knew him not, and the other members of the board as little. While Mr. Markham remained in office, of whom, as his immediate patron,
he may have stood in awe, I am told that he re
? ? ? ? -'SPEECH IN REPLY. -THIRD DA. Y. 353
strained his natural disposition, which lias been described to me as rapacious, unfeeling, haughty, and
to an extreme vindictive.
"I cannot avoid remarking, that, excepting the
city of Benares itself, tile province depending upon it
is in effect without a governlmelt, the Naib exercising only a dependent jurisdiction without a principal.
The Rajah is without authority, and even his name
disused in the official instruments issued or taken
by the manager. The representationl of his situation
shall be the subject of another letter; I have made
this already too long, and shall confine it to the single
subject for the communication of which it was begun.
This permit me to recapitulate. The administration
of the province is misconducted, and the people oppressed; trade discouraged, and the revenue, though
said to be exceeded in the actual collections by
many lacs, (for I have a minute account of it,
which states the net amount, including jaghires, as
something more than fifty-one lacs,) in danger of a
rapid decline, from the violent appropriation of its
means; the Naib or manager is unfit for his office;
a new manager is required, and a system of official
control, -in a word, a constitution: for neither can
the board extend its superintending powers to a district so remote from its observation, nor has it delegated that authority to the Resident, who is merely the representative of government, and the receiver
of its revenue in the last process of it; nor, indeed,
would it be possible to render him wholly so, for
reasons which I may hereafter detail. "
My Lords, you have now heard -- not from the
Managers, not from records of office, not from witVOL. XI. 23
? ? ? ? 854 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
nesses at your bar, but from the prisoner himself -- the
state of the country of Benares, from the time that
Mr. Hastings and his delegated Residents had taken
the management of it. My Lords, it is a proof, beyond all other proof, of the melancholy state of the
country, in which, by attempting to exercise usurped
and arbitrary power, all power and all authority
become extinguished, complete anarchy takes place,
and nothing of government appears but the means of
robbing and ravaging, with an utter indisposition to
take one step for the protection of the people.
Think, my Lords, what a triumphal progress it was
for a British governor, from one extremity of the province to the other, (for so he has stated it,) to be pursued by the cries of an oppressed and ruined people,
where they dared to appear before him, - and when
they did not dare to appear, flying from every place,
even the very magistrates being the first to fly!
Think, my Lords, that, when these unhappy people
saw the appearance of a British soldier, they fled as
from a pestilence; and then think, that these were
the people who labored in the manner which you have
just heard, who dug their own wells, whose country
would not produce anything but from the indefatigable industry of its inhabitants; and that such a meritorious, such an industrious people, should be subjected to such a cursed anarchy uinder pretence of revenue, to such a cursed tyranny under the pretence of government!
" But Jagher Deo Seo was unfit for his office. " --
"How dared you to appoint a man unfit for his
office? " -" Oh, it signified little, without their having a constitution. " -" Why did you destroy the official constitution that existed before? - How dared you
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. --. THIRD DAY. 355
to destroy those establishments which enabled the people to dig wells and to cultivate the country like a
garden, and then to leave the whole in the hands of
your arbitrary and wicked Residents and their instruments, chosen without the least idea of government
and without the least idea of protection? "
God has sometimes converted wickedness into mnadness; and it is to the credit of human reason, that
men who are not in some degree mad are never capable of being in the highest degree wicked. The human faculties and reason are in such cases deranged; and therefore this man has been dragged by the just
vengeance of Providence to make his own madness
the discoverer of his own wicked, perfidious, and
cursed machinations in that devoted country.
Think, my Lords, of what he says respecting the
military. He says there is no restraining them, -
that they pillage the country wherever they go. But
had not Mr. Hastings himself just before encouraged
the military to pillage the country? Did he not make
the people's resistance, when the soldiers attempted
to pillage them, one of the crimes of Cheyt Sing?
And who would dare to obstruct the military in their
abominable ravages, when they knew that one of the
articles of Cheyt Sing's impeachment was his having
suffered the people of the country, when plundered
by these wicked soldiers, to return injury for injury
and blow for blow? When they saw, I say, that these
were the things for which Cheyt Sing was sacrificed,
there was manifestly nothing left for them but flight.
-- What! fly from a Goverllor-General? You would
expect he was bearing to the country, upon his
balmy and healing wings, the cure of all its disorders
and of all its distress. No: they knew him too well;
? ? ? ? 356 IMPEACHMENT -OF WARREN HASTINGS.
they knew him to be the destroyer of the country;
they knew him to be the destroyer of their sovereign,
the destroyer of the persons whom he had appointed
to govern under. him; they knew that neither governor, sub-governor, nor subject could enjoy a moment's security while he possessed supreme power. This was the state of the country; and this the
Commons of England call upon your Lordships to
avenge.
Let us now see what is next done by the prisoner
at your bar. He is satisfied with simply removing
from his office Jagher Deo Seo, who is accused by him
of all these corruptions and oppressions. The other
poor, unfortunate man, who was not even accused of
malversations in such a degree, and against whom
not one of the accusations of oppression was regularly proved, but who had, in Mr. Hastings's eye, the
one unpardonable fault of not having been made
richer by his crimes, was twice imprisoned, and finally perished in prison. But we have never heard one
word of the imprisonment of Jagher Deo Seo, who,
I believe, after some mock inquiry, was acquitted.
Here, my Lords, I must beg you to recollect Mr.
Hastings's proceeding with Gunga Govind Sing, and
to contrast his conduct towards these two peculators
with his proceeding towards Durbege Sing. Such a
comparison will let your Lordships into the secret of
one of the prisoner's motives of conduct upon such
occasions. When you will find a man pillaging and
desolating a country, in the manner Jagher Deo Seo
is described by Mr. Hastings to have done, but who
takes care to secure to himself the spoil, you will
likewise find that such a man is safe, secure, unpunished. Your Lordships will recollect the desolation
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- THIRD DAY. 357
of Dinagepore. You will recollect that the rapacious
Gunga Govind Sing, (the coadjutor of Mr. Hastings
in peculation,) out of 80,0001. which he had received
on the Company's account, retained 40,0001. for his
own use, and that, instead of being turned out of his
employment and trieated with rigor and cruelty, he
was elevated in Mr. Hastings's grace and favor, and
never called upon for the restoration of a penny.
Observe, my Lords, the difference in his treatment
of men who have wealth to purchase impunity, or
who have secrets to reveal, and of another who has
no such, merit, and is poor and insolvent.
We have shown your Lordships the effects of Mr.
Hastings's government upon the country and its inhabitants; and although I have before suggested to you some of its effects upon the army of the Company, I will now call your attention to a few other observations on that subject. Your Lordships will,
in the first place, be pleased to attend to the character which he gives of this army. You have heard what he tells you of the state of the country in which
it was stationed, and of the terror which it struck
into the inhabitants. The appearance of an English
soldier was enough to strike the country people with
affright and dismay: they everywhere, he tells you,
fled before them. And yet they are the officers of
this very army who are brought here as witnesses to
express the general satisfaction of the people of In-' dia. To be sure, a man who never calls Englishmen to an account for any robbery or injury whatever,
who acquits them, upon their good intentions, without any inquiry, will in return for this indemnity have their good words. We are not surprised to find
them coming with emulation to your bar to declare
? ? ? ? 358 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
him possessed of all virtues, and that nobody has or can
have a right to complain of him. But we, my Lords,
protest against these indemnities; we protest against
their good words; we protest against their testimonials; and we insist upon your Lordships trying him,
not upon what this or that officer says of his good
conduct, but upon the proved result of the actions
tried before you. Without ascribing, perhaps, much
guilt to men who must naturally wish to favor the
person who covers their excesses, who suffers their
fortunes to be made, you will know what value to set
upon their testimony. The Commons look on those
testimonies with the greatest slight, and they consider as nothing all evidence given by persons who are
interested in the very cause, -- persons who derive
their fortunes from the ruin of the very people of
the country, and who have divided the spoils with
the man whom we accuse. Undoubtedly these officers will give him their good word. Undoubtedly
the Residents will give him their good word. Mr.
Markham, and Mr. Benn, and Mr. Fowke, if he had
been called, every servant of the Company, except
some few, will give him the same good word, every
one of them; because, my Lords, they have made
their fortunes under him, and their conduct has not
been inquired into.
But to return to the observations we were making
upon the ruinous effects in general of the successive
governments which had been established at Benares
by the prisoner at your bar. These effects, he would
have you believe, arose from the want of a constitution. Why, I again ask, did he destroy the constitution which he found established there, or suffer it to be destroyed? But he had actually authorized Mr.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - THIRD DAY. 359
Markham to make a new, a regular, an official con
stitution. Did Mr. Markham make it? No: though
he professed to do it, it never was done: and so far
from there being any regular, able, efficient constitution, you see there was an absolute and complete anarchy in the country. The native inhabitants, deprived of their ancient government, were so far from looking up to their new masters for protection, that,
the moment they saw the face of a soldier or of a
British person in authority, they fled in dismay, and
thought it more eligible to abandon their houses to
robbery than to remain exposed to the tyranny of a
British governor. Is this what they call British dominion? Will you sanction by your judicial authority transactions done in direct defiance of your legislative authority? Are they so injuriously mad as to suppose your Lordships can be corrupted to betray in
your judicial capacity (the most sacred of the two)
what you have ordained in your legislative character?
My Lords, I am next to remind you what this man
has had the insolence and audacity to state at your
bar. " In fact," says he, " I can adduce very many
gentlemen now in London to confirm my assertions,
that the countries of Benares and Gazipore were never within the memory of Englishmen so well protected, so peaceably governed, or more industriously
cultivated than at the present moment. "
Your Lordships know that this report of Mr. Hastings which has been read was made in the year 1784.
Your Lordships know that no step was taken, while
Mr. Hastings remained in India, for the regulation
and management of the country. If there was, let
it be shown. There was no constitution framed, nor
? ? ? ? 360 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any other means taken for the settlement of the country, except the appointment of Ajeet Sing in the room
of Durbege Sing, to reign like him, and like him to
be turned out. Mr. Hastings left India in February,
1785; he arrived here, as I believe, in June or July
following. Our proceedings against him commenced
in the sessions of 1786; and this defence was given,
I believe, in the year 1787. Yet at that time, when
he could hardly have received any account from India, he was ready, he says, to produce the evidence
(and no doubt might have done so) of many gentlemen whose depositions would have directly contradicted what he had himself deposed of the state in which he, so short a time before, had left the country.
Your Lordships cannot suppose that it could have
recovered its prosperity within that time. We know
you may destroy that in a day which will take up
years to build; we know a tyrant can in a moment
ruin and oppress: but you cannot restore the dead
to life; you cannot in a moment restore fields to cultivation; you cannot, as you please, make the people
in a moment restore old or dig new wells: and yet
Mr. Hastings has dared to say to the Commons that
he would produce persons to refute the account which
we had fresh from himself. We will, however, undertake to show you that the direct contrary was the
fact.
I will first refer you to Mr. Barlow's account of
the state of trade. Your Lordships will there find a
full exposure of the total falsehood of the prisoner's
assertions. You will find that Mr. Hastings himself had been obliged to give orders for the change
of almost every one of the regulations he had made.
Your Lordships may there see the madness and folly
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - THIRD DAY. 361
of tyranny attempting to regulate trade. In the printed Minutes, page 2830, your Lordships will see how
completely Mr. Hastings had ruined the trade of the
country. You will find, that, wherever he pretended
to redress the grievances which he had occasioned,
he did not take care to have any one part of his pretended redress executed. When you consider the anarchy in which he states the country through which he passed to have been, you may easily conceive that
regulations for the protection of trade, without the
means of enforcing them, must be nugatory.
Mr. Barlow was sent, in the years 178'6 and 1787,
to examine into the state of the country. He has
stated the effect of all those regulations, which Mr.
Hastings has had the assurance to represent here as
prodigies of wisdom. At the very time when our
charge was brought to this House, (it is a remarkable
period, and we desire your Lordships to advert to it,)
at that time, I do not know whether it was not on the
very same day that we brought our charge to your
bar, Mr. Duncan was sent by Lord Cornwallis to
examine into the state of that province. Now, my
Lords, you have Mr. Duncan's report before you, and
you will judge whether or not, by any regulation
which Mr. Hastings had made, or whether through
any means used by him, that country had recovered
or was recovering. Your Lordships will there find
other proofs of the audacious falsehood of his representation, that all which he had done had operated on
the minds of the inhabitants very greatly in favor of
British integrity and good government. Mr. Duncan's report will not only enable you to decide upon
what he has said himself, it will likewise enable you
to judge of tle credit which is due to the gentlemen
? ? ? ? 362 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGs.
now in London whom he can produce to confirm his
assertions, that the country of Benares and Gazipore
were never, within the memory of Englishmen, so
well protected and cultivated as at the present moment.
Instead, therefore, of a speech from me, you shall
hear what the country says itself, by the report of the
last commissioner who was sent to examine it by Lord
Cornwallis. The perfect credibility of his testimony
Mr. Hastings has established out of Lord Cornwallis's
mouth, who, being asked the character of Mr. Jonathan Duncan, has declared that there is nothing he can report of the state of the country to which you ought
not to give credit. Your Lordships will now see how
deep the wounds are which tyranny and arbitrary
power must make in a country where their existence
is suffered; and you will be pleased to observe that
this statement was made at a time when Mr. Hastings
was amusing us with his account of Benares.
Extract of the Proceedings of the Resident at Benares,
under date the 16th February, 1788, at the Purgunnah of Gurrah. Dehmah, c. Printed Minutes, page 2610.
" Tie Resident, having arrived in this purgunnah
of Gurrah Dehmah from that of Mohammedabad, is
very sorry to observe that it seems about one third
at least uncultivated, owing to the mismanagement
of the few last years. The Rajah, however, promises
that it shall be by next year in a complete state of
cultivation; and Tobarck Hossaine, his aumeen, aumil, or agent, professes his confidence of the same happy effects, saying, that he has already brought a
great proportion of the land, that lay fallow when he
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -, THIRD DAY. 363
came into the purgunnah in the beginning of the
year, into cultivation, and that, it being equally the
Rajah's directions and his own wish, he does not
doubt of being successful in regard to the remaining part of the waste land. "
Report, dated the 18th of February, at the Purgunnah
of Bulleah.
"The Resident, having come yesterday into this
purgunnah from that of Gurrah Dehmah, finds its
appearance much superior to that purgunnah in point
of cultivation; yet it is on the decline so far that its
collectible jumma will not be so much this year as
it was last, notwithstanding all the efforts of Reazel
Husn, the agent of Khulb Ali Khan, who has farmed
this purgunnah upon a three years' lease, (of which
the present is the last,) during which his, that is, the
head farmer's, management cannot be applauded, as
the funds of the purgunnah are very considerably declined in his hands: indeed, Reazel Husn declares
that this year there was little or no khereef, or first
harvest, in the purgunnah, and that it has been
merely by the greatest exertions that he has prevailed
on the ryots to cultivate the rubby crop, which is now
on the ground and seems plentiful. "
Report, dated the 20th of February, at the Purgunnah
of JKhereed.
" The Resident, having this day come into the purgunnah of Khereed, finds that part of it laying between the frontiers of Bulleah, the present station,
and' Bansdeah, (which is one of the tuppahs, or subdivisions, of Khereed,) exceedingly wasted and uncultivated.