--
"Taking the army from I he Nabob is an infringement of the rights of an independent prince, leaving
only the name and title of it without the power.
"Taking the army from I he Nabob is an infringement of the rights of an independent prince, leaving
only the name and title of it without the power.
Edmund Burke
Middleton is coming here, let
the Nabob appoint him for settling all these affairs.
that whatever he shall order those gentlemen they
will do. From this everything will be settled, and
the particulars of this quarter will be made known to
the Nabob. I have written this, which you will deliver to the Governor, that everything may be settled; and when he has understood it, whatever is his inclination, he will favor me with it. The Nabob is master in this country, and is my friend; there is no
distinction. "
Cfopy of another Letter, entered upon the Consultation
of the 4th of June, 1781.
" I have received your letter, requesting leave for
a battalion to be raised by Captain Clark on the
same footing as Major Osborne's was, agreeable to the
requests and complaints of Ishmael Beg, the aumil
of Allahabad, &c. , and in compliance with the directions of the Council. You are well acquainted with the particulars and negotiation of Ishmael Beg, and
the nature of Mr. Osborne's battalion. , At the beginning of the year 1186 (1779) the affairs of Allahabad were given on a lease of three years to Ishmael Beg,
together with the purgunnahs Arreel and Parra;
and I gave orders for troops to be stationed and
raised, conformable to his request. Ishmael Beg
accordingly collected twelve hundred peons, which
were not allowed to the aumil of that place in the
? ? ? ? :SPEECH, IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 433
year 1185. The reason why I gave permission for
the additional expense of twelve hundred peons was,
that he might be enabled to manage the country
with ease, and pay the money to government regularly. I besides sent Mr. Osborne there to command in
the mahals belonging to Allahabad, which were in the
possession of Rajah Ajeet Sing; and he accordingly
took charge. Afterwards, in obedience to the orders of the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, Jelladut Jung, he was recalled, and the mahals placed, as before, under Rajah Ajeet Sing. I never sent
Mr. Osborne to settle the concerns of Allahabad, for
there was no occasion for him; but Mr. Osborne, of
himself, committed depredations and rapines within
Ishmael Beg's jurisdiction. Last year; the battalion,
which, by permission of General Sir Eyre Coote, was
sent, received orders to secure and defend Ishmael
Beg against the encroachments of Mr. Osborne; for
the complaints of Ishmael Beg against the violences
of Mr. Osborne had reached the General and Mr.
Purling; and the Governor and gentlemen of Council, at my request, recalled Mr. Osborne. This year,
as before, the collections of Arreel and Parra remain
under Ishmael Beg. In those places, some of the
talookdars and zemindars, who had been oppressed
and ill-treated by Mr. Osborne, had conceived ideas
of rebellion. "
Here, my Lords, you have an account of the condition of Darunghur, Futtyghur, Furruckabad, and
of the whole line of our military stations in the Nabob's dominions. You see the whole was one universal scene of plunder and rapine. You see all this was known to Mr. Hastings, who never inflicted
VOL. XI. 28
? ? ? ? 434 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any punishments for all this horrible outrage. You
see the utmost he has done is merely to recall one
man, Major Osborne, who was by no means the only
person deeply involved in these charges. He nominated all these people; he has never called any of them to an account. Shall I not, thlen, call him their
captain-general? Shall not your Lordships call him
so? And shall any man in the kingdom call him
by any other name? We see all the executive, all
the civil and criminal justice of the country seized
on by him. We see the trade and all the duties
seized upon by his creatures. We see them destroying established markets, and creating others at their pleasure. We see them, in the country of an ally
and in a time of peace, producing all the consequences of rapine and of war. We see the country
ruined and depopulated by men who attempt to exculpate themselves by charging their unhappy victims with rebellion.
And now, my Lords, who is it that has brought
to light all these outrages and complaints, the existence of which has never been denied, and for
which no redress was ever obtained, and no punishment ever inflicted? Why, Mr. Hastings himself has brought them before you; they are found in papers
which he has transmitted. God, who inflicts blindness upon great criminals, in order that they should meet with the punishment they deserve, has made him
the means of bringing forward this scene, which we
are maliciously said to have falsely and maliciously
devised. If any one of the ravages [charges? ] contained in that long catalogue of grievances is false, Warren Hastings is the person who must answer for
that individual falsehood. If they are generally false,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 4356
he is to answer for the false and calumniating accusation; and if they are true, my Lords, he only is
answerable, for he appointed those ministers of outrage, and never called them to account for their misconduct.
Let me now show your Lordships the character
that Mr. Hastings gives of all the. British officers.
It is to be found in an extract from the Appendix
to that part of his Benares Narrative in which he
comments upon the treaty of Chunar. Mark, my
Lords, what the man himself says of the whole mili --
tary service.
"Notwithstanding the great benefit which the Company would have derived from such an augmentation of their military force as these troops constituted, ready to act on any emergency, prepared and disciplined without any charge on the Company, as the
institution professed, until their actual services should
be required, I have observed some evils growing out
of the system, which, in my opinion, more than counterbalanced those advantages, had they been realized
in their fullest effect. The remote stations of these
troops, placing the commanding officers beyond the
notice and control of the board, afforded too much opportunity and temptation for unwarrantable emoluments, and excited the contagion of peculation and rapacity throughout the whole army. A most re-.
markable and incontrovertible proof of the prevalence
of this spirit has been seen in the court-martial upon
Captain Erskine, where the court, composed of officers of rank and respectable characters, unanimously
and honorably, most holnorably, acquitted him upon
an acknowledged fact which in times of stricter discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishment. "
? ? ? ? 436 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I will now call your Lordships' attention to another
extract from the same comment of Mr. Hastings, with
respect to the removal of the Company's servants,
civil and military, from the court and service of the
Vizier.
"I was actuated solely by motives of justice to him
and a regard to the honor of our national character.
In removing those gentlemen I diminish my own influence, as well as that of my colleagues, by narrowing
the line of patronage; and I expose myself to obloquy
and resentment from those who are immediately affected by the arrangement, and the long train of
their friends and pdwerful patrons. But their numbers, their influence, and the enormous amount of
their salaries, pensions, and emoluments, were an intolerable burden on the revenues and authority of the
Vizier, and exposed us to the envy and resentment
of the whole country, by excluding the native servants and adherents of the Vizier from the rewards
of their services and attachment. "
My Lords, you liave here Mr. Hastings's opinion
of the whole military service. You have here the
authority and documents by which he supports his
opinion. He states that the contagion of peculation had tainted all the frontier stations, which contain much the largest part of the Company's army. He states that this contagion had tainted the whole
army, everywhere: so that, according to him, there
was, throughout the Indian army, an universal taint
of peculation. My Lords, peculation is not a military vice. Insubordination, want of attention to duty, want of order, want of obedience and regularity, are military vices; but who ever before heard of peculation being a military vice? In the case before you,
? ? ? ? 'SPEECH IN REPLY. ' FOURTH DAY. 437
it became so by employing military men as farmers
of revenue, as masters of markets and of gunges.
This departure from the military -character and from
military duties introduced that peculation which
tainted the army, and desolated the dominions of
the Nabob Vizier.
I declare, when I first read the passage which has
been just read to your Lordships, in the infancy of
this inquiry, it struck me with astonishment that
peculation should at all exist as a military vice; but
I was still more astonished at finding Warren:Iastings charging the whole British army with being corrupted by this base and depraved spirit, to a degree
which tainted even their judicial character. This, my
Lords, is a most serious matter. The judicial functions of military men are of vast importance in themselves; and, generally speaking, there is not any tribunal whose members are more honorable in their conduct and more just in their decisions than those
of a court-martial. Perhaps there is not a tribunal
in this country whose reputation is really more untainted' than that of a court-martial. It stands as,
fair, in the opinion both of the army. and of the.
public, as any tribunal, in a country where all tribunals stand fair. But in India, this unnatural vice
of peculation, which has no more to do with the
vices of a military character than with its virtues,
this venomous spirit, has pervaded the members of
military tribunals to such an extent, that they acquit,
honorably acquit, most honorably acquit a man, " upon an acknowledged fact which in times of stricter
discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishmlent. "
Who says all this, my Lords? -Do I say it. ? No:
? ? ? ? 438 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
it is Warren Hastings who says it. He records it.
He gives you his vouchers and his evidence, and he
draws the conclusion. He is the criminal accuser
of the British, army. He who sits in that box accuses
the whole British army in. India. He has declared
them to be so tainted with peculation, from head
to foot, as to have been induced to commit the most
wicked perjuries, for the purpose of bearing one another out in their abominable peculations. In this unnatural state of things, and whilst there is not
one military man on these stations of whom Mr.
Hastings does not give this abominably flagitious
character, yet every one of them have joined to give
him the benefit of their testimony for his honorable
intentions and conduct.
In this tremendous scene, which he himself exposes, are there no signs of this captain-generalship which I have alluded to? Are there no signs of
this man's being a captain-general of iniquity, under
whom all the spoilers of India were paid, disciplined,
and supported? I not only charge him with being
guilty of a thousand crimes, but I assert that there
is not a soldier or a civil servant in India whose
culpable acts are not owing to this man's example, connivance, and protection. Everything which goes to criminate them goes directly against the prisoner. He puts them in a condition to plunder; he suffered no native authority or government to restrain
them; and he never called a man to an account for
these flagitious acts which he has thought proper to
bring before his country in the most solemn manner
and upon the most solemn occasion.
I verily believe, in my conscience, his accusation
is not true, in the excess, in the generality and ex
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 439
travagance in which he charges it. That it is true
in a great measure we cannot deny; and in that
measure we, in our turn, charge him with being
the author of all the crimes which he denounces;
and if there is anything in the charge beyond the
truth, it is he who is to answer for the falsehood.
I will now refer your Lordships to his opinion
of the civil service, as it is declared and recorded
in his remarks upon the removal of the Company's
civil servants by him from the service of the Vizier.
-" I was," says he, " actuated solely by motives of
justice to him [the Nabob of Oude], and a regard to
the honor of our national character. " - Here, you
see, he declares his opinion that in Oude the civil
servants of the Company had destroyed the national
character, and that therefore they ought to be recalled. -- " By removing these people," he adds, "I diminish my patronage. "' But I ask, How came
they there? Why, through this patronage. He
sent them there to suck the blood which the military had spared. He sent these civil servants to
do tell times more mischief than the military ravagers could do, because they were invested with
greater authority. -" If," says he, "I recall them
from thence, I lessen my patronage. " - But who,
my Lords, authorized him to become a patron?
What laws of his country justified him in forcing
upon the Vizier the civil servants of the Company?
What treaty authorized him to do it? What system
of policy, except his own wicked, arbitrary system,
authorized him to act thus?
He proceeds to say, "I expose myself to obloquy
and resentment from those who are immediately affected by the arrangement, and the long train of their
? ? ? ? 440 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
friends and powerful patrons. " My Lords, it is: the
constant burden of his song, that he cannot do his
duty, that he is fettered in everything, that he fears
a thousand mischiefs to happen to him, -- not from
his acting with carefulness, economy, frugality, and
in obedience to the laws of his country, but from the
very reverse of all this. Says he, "I am afraid I
shall forfeit the favor of the powerful patrons of those
servants in England, namely, the Lords and Commons of England, if I do justice to. the suffering people of this country. "
In the House of Commons there are undoubtedly
powerful people who may be supposed to be influenced by patronage; but the higher and more powerful part of the country is more directly represented by your Lordships than by us, although we have of
the first blood of England in the House of Commons.
We do, indeed, represent, by the knights of the
shires, the landed interest; by our city and borough
members we represent the trading interest; we
represent the whole people of England collectively,
But neither blood nor power is represented so fully in the House of Commons as that order which
composes the great body of the people, -- the protection of which is our peculiar duty, and to which it is
our glory to adhere. But the dignities of the country, the great and powerful, are represented eminent
ly by your Lordships. As we, therefore, would keep
the lowest of the people from the contagion and dis.
honor of peculation and corruption, and above all
from exercising that vice which, among commoners,
is unnatural as well as abominable, the vice of tyranny and oppression, so we trust that your Lordships
will clear yourselves and the higher and more power
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. '- FOURTH- DAY. 441
ful ranks from giving the smallest countenance to the
system which we have done our duty in denouncing
and bringing before you.
My Lords, you have heard the account of the civil service. Think of their numbers, think of their influence, and the enormous amount of their salaries, pensions, and emoluments! They were, you
have heard, an intolerable burden on the revenues
and authority of the Vizier; and they exposed us. to
the envy and resentment of the whole country, by
excluding the native servants and adherents of the
prince from the just reward of their services and
attachments. Here, my Lords, is the whole civil service brought before you. They usurp the country, they destroy the revenues, they overload the prince,
and they exclude all the nobility and eminent persons
of the country from the just reward of their service.
Did Mr. Francis, whom I saw here a little while
ago, send these people into that country? . Did
General Clavering, or Colonel Monson, whom he
charges with this system, send them there? No,
they were sent by himself; and if one was sent by
anybody else for a time, he was soon recalled: so
that he is himself answerable for all the peculation
which he attributes to the civil service. You see the
character given of that service; you there see their
accuser, you there see their defender, who, after having defamed both services, military and civil, never punished the guilty in either, and now receives the
prodigal praises of both.
I defy the ingenuity of man to show -that Mr. Hastings is not the defamer of the service. I defy the ingenuity of man to show that the honor of Great
Britain has not been tarnished under his patronage.
? ? ? ? 442 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
He engaged to remove all these bloodsuckers by the
treaty of Chunar; but he never executed that treaty.
He proposed to take away the temporary brigade;
but he again established it. He redressed no grievance; he formed no improvements in the government; he never attempted to provide a remedy without increasing the evil tenfold. He was the
primary and sole cause of all the grievances, civil
and military, to which the unhappy natives of that
country were exposed; and he was the accuser of
all the immediate authors of those grievances, without having punished any one of them. He is the
accuser of them all. But -he only person whom he
attempted to punish was that man who dared to
assert the authority of the Court of Directors, and
to claim an office assigned to him by them.
I will now read to your Lordships the protest of
General Clavering against the military brigade.
--
"Taking the army from I he Nabob is an infringement of the rights of an independent prince, leaving
only the name and title of it without the power. It
is taking his subjects from him, against every law of
Nature and of nations. "
I will next read to your Lordships a minute of Mr.
Francis's. -" By the foregoing letter from Mr. Middleton it appears that he has taken the government
of the Nabob's dominions directly upon himself. I
was not a party to the resolutions which preceded
that measure, and will not be answerable for the
consequences of it. "
The next paper I will read is one introduced by the
Managers, to prove that a representation was made by
the Nabob respecting the expenses of the gentlemen
resident at his court, and written after the removal
before mentioned.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FOURTH DAY. 443
Extract of a Letter from the Vizier to Mr. Macpherson,
received the 21st April, 1785. '"With respect to the expenses of the gentlemen
who are here, I have before written in a covered manner; I now write plainly, that I have no ability to
give money to the gentlemen, because I am indebted
many lacs of rupees to the bankers for the payment
of the Company's debt. At the time of Mr. Hastings's departure, I represented to him that I had no
resources for the expenses of the gentlemen. Mr.
Hastings, having ascertained my distressed situation,
told me that after his arrival in Calcutta he would
consult with the Council, and remove from hence the
expenses of the gentlemen, and recall every person
except the gentlemen in office here. At this time
that all the concerns are dependent upon you, and
you have in every point given ease to my mind,
according to Mr. Hastings's agreement, I hope that
the expenses of the gentlemen may be removed from
me, and that you may recall every person residing
here beyond the gentlemen in office. Although Major Palmer does not at this time demand anything
for the gentlemen, and I have no ability to give them
anything, yet the custom of the English gentlemen is,
when they remain here, they will in the end ask for
something. This is best, that they should be recalled. "
I think so, too; and your Lordships will think so
with me-; but Mr. Hastings, who says that he himself
thought thus in September; 1781, and engaged to recall these gentlemen, was so afraid of their powerful friends and patrons here, that he left India, and
? ? ? ? 444 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
left all that load of obloquy upon his successors. He
left a Major Palmer there, in the place of a Resident:
a Resident of his own, as your Lordships must see;
for Major Palmer was no Resident of the Company's. This man received a salary of about 23,0001.
a year, which he declared to be less than his expenses;
by which we may easily judge of the enormous salaries of those who make their fortunes there. He was
left by Mr. Hastings as his representative of peculation, his representative of tyranny. He was the
second agent appointed to control all power ostensible and unostensible, and to head these gentlemen
whose "custom," the Nabob says, "was in the end
to ask for money. " Money they must have; and
there, my Lords, is the whole secret.
I have this day shown your Lordships the entire
dependence of Oude on the British empire. I have
shown you how Mr. Hastings usurped all power, reduced the prince to a cipher, and made of his minister a mere creature of his own, how he made the
servants of the Company dependent on his own arbitrary will, and considered independence a proof of
corruption. It has been likewise proved to your
Lordships that he suffered the army to become an
instrument of robbery and. oppression, and one of its
officers to be metamorphosed into a farmer-general to
waste the country and embezzle its revenues. You
have seen a clandestine and fraudulent system, occasioning violence and rapine; and you have seen
the prisoner at the bar acknowledging and denouncing an abandoned spirit of rapacity without bringing its ministers to justice, and pleading as his excuse the fear of offending your Lordships and the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. FOURTH DAY. 445
House of Commons. We have shown you the government, revenue, commerce, and agriculture of
Oude ruined and destroyed by Mr. Hastings and his
creatures. And to wind up all, we have shown you
an army so corrupted as to pervert the fundamental
principles of justice, which are the elements and
basis of military discipline. All this, I say, we have
shown you; and I cannot believe that your Lordships will consider that we have trifled with your
time, or strained our comments one jot beyond the
strict measure of the text. We have shown you a
horrible scene, arising from an astonishing combination of horrible circumstances. The order in which
you will consider these circumstances must be left
to your Lordships.
At present I am not able to proceed further. My
next attempt will be to bring before you the manner
in which Mr. Hastings treated movable and immovable property in Oude, and by which he has left nothing undestroyed in that devoted country. END OF VOL. XI.
? ? ? The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/miun. aba1206. 0012. 001
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? ? ? THE
WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. XII.
BO STON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. XII.
SPEECHES IN THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. (CONTINUED. ) SPEECH IN GENERAL REPLY.
FIFTH DAY: SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1794. . 3
SIXTH DAY: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11. . SEVENTH DAY: THURSDAY, JUNE 12 EIGHTH DAY: SATURDAY, JUNE 14. . NINTH DAY: MONDAY, JUNE 16. . . 335 GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. INDEX. . . . . . . . . 407
75
143
235
401
? ? ? ? SPEE CHE S
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN GENERAL REPLY. (CONTINUED. )
JUNE, I794.
VOL XII. I
? ? ? ? SPEECH
IN
GENERAL REPLY.
FIFTH DAY: SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1794.
M Y LORDS,- We will now resume the consideration of the remaining part of our charge, and
of the prisoner's attempts to defend himself against it.
Mr. Hastings, well knowing (what your Lordships
must also by this time be perfectly satisfied was the
case) that this unfortunate Nabob had no will of his
own, draws down his poor victim to Chunar by an
order to attend the Governor-General. If the Nabob
ever wrote to Mr. Hastings, expressing a request or
desire for this meeting, his letter was unquestionably dictated to him by the prisoner. We have laid
a ground of direct proof before you, that the Nabob's
being at Chunar, that his proceedings there, and that
all his acts were so dictated, and consequently must
be so construed.
I shall now proceed to lay before your Lordships
the acts of oppression committed by Mr. Hastings
through his two miserable instruments: the one, his
passive instrument, the Nabob; the other, Mr. Middleton, his active instrument, in his subsequent plans for the entire destruction of that country. In page
513 of the printed Minutes you have Mr. Middleton's
declaration of his promptitude to represent everything agreeably to Mr. Hastings's wishes.
? ? ? ? 4 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
"MY DEAR SIR, -I have this day answered your
public letter in the form you seemed to expect. I
hope there is nothing in it that may to you appear too
pointed. If you wish the matter to be otherwise understood than I have taken up and stated it, I need not say I shall be ready to conform to whatever you
may prescribe, and to take upon myself any share of
the blame of the hitherto non-performance of the stipulations made on behalf of the Nabob; though I do assure you I myself represented to his Excellency and
the ministers, conceiving it to be your desire, that the
apparent assumption of the reins of his government,
(for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at
the first view,) as specified in the agreement executed by him, was not meant to be fully and literally enforced, but that it was necessary you should have
something to show on your side, as the Company
were deprived of a benefit without a requital; and
upon the faith of this assurance alone, I believe I
may safely affirm, his Excellency's objections to signing the treaty were given up. If I have understood the matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am
truly sorry for it. However, it is not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to undertake, and,
God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on
the receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final
resolve.
" If you determine, at all events, that the measures
of reducing the Nabob's army, &c. , shall be immediately undertaken, I shall take it as a particular favor, if you will indulge me with a line at Fyzabad, that I
may make the necessary previous arrangements with
respect to the disposal of my family, which I would
not wish to retain here, in the event either of a rup
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 5
ture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing
our forces on the reduction of his aumils and troops.
This done, I can begin the work in three days after
my return from Fyzabad. "
Besides this letter, which I think is sufficiently
clear upon the subject, there is also another much
more clear upon your Lordships' minutes, much
more distinct and much more pointed, expressive of
his being resolved to make such representations of
every matter as the Governor-General may wish.
Now a man who is master of the manner in which
facts are represented, and whose subsequent conduct
is to be justified by such representations, is not simply accountable for his conduct; he is accountable
for culpably attempting to form, on false premises,
the judgment of others upon that conduct. This
species of delinquency must therefore be added to
the rest; and I wish your Lordships to carry generally in your minds, that there is not one single syllable of representation made by any of those parties, except where truth may happen to break out in spite
of all the means of concealment, which is not to be
considered as the representation of Mr. Hastings himself in justification of his own conduct.
The letter which I have just now read was written
preparatory to the transaction which I am now going
to state, called the treaty of Chunar. Having brought
his miserable victim thither, he forced him to sign a
paper called a treaty: but such was the fraud in
every part of this treaty, that Mr. Middleton himself, who was the instrument and the chief agent in
it, acknowledges that the Nabob was persuaded to
sign it by the assurance given to him that it never
? ? ? ? 6 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
was to be executed. Here, then, your Lordships
have a prince first compelled to enter into a negotiation, and then induced to accede to a treaty by false
assurances that it should not be executed, which
he declares nothing but force should otherwise have
compelled him to accede to.
The first circumstance in this transaction that I
shall lay before your Lordships is that the treaty is
declared to have for its objects two modes of relieving the Nabob from his distresses, -- from distresses which we have stated, and which Mr. Hastings has not only fully admitted, but has himself proved
in the clearest manner to your Lordships. The
first was by taking away that wicked rabble, the British troops, represented by Mr. Hastings as totally
ruinous to the Nabob's affairs, and particularly by
removing. that part of them which was called the
new brigade. ~ Another remedial part of the treaty
regarded the British pensioners. It is in proof before
your Lordships that Mr. Hastings agreed to recall
from Oude that body of pensioners, whose conduct
there is described in such strong terms as being
ruinous to the Vizier and to all his- affairs. These
pensioners Mr. Hastings engaged to recall; but he
never did recall them. We refer your Lordships to
the evidence before you, in proof that these odious
pensioners, so distressing to the Nabob, so ruinous
to his affairs, and so disgraceful to our government,
were not only not recalled by Mr. Hastings, but that,
both afterwards, and upon the very day of signing
the treaty, (as Mr. Middleton himself tells you,) upon that very day, I say, he recommended to the Nabob that these pensioners might remain upon that very establishment which, by a solemn treaty of his
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 7
own making and his own dictating, he had agreed
to relieve from this intolerable burden.
Mr. Hastings, your Lordships will remember, had
departed from Benares, frustrated in his designs
of extorting 500,0001. from the Rajah for the Company's use. He had ravaged the country, without
obtaining any benefit for his masters: the British
soldiers having divided the only spoil, and nothing
remaining for the share of his employers but disgrace. He was therefore afraid to return without
having something of a lucrative pecuniary nature
to exhibit to the Company. Having this object in
view, Oude appears to have first presented itself to
his notice, as a country from which some advantage of a pecuniary kind might be derived; and accordingly he turned in his head a vast variety of stratagems for effecting his purpose.
The first article that occurs in the treaty of Chunar is a power given to the Nabob to resume all
the jaghires not guarantied by the Company, and to
give pensions to all those persons who should be
removed from their jaghires.
the Nabob appoint him for settling all these affairs.
that whatever he shall order those gentlemen they
will do. From this everything will be settled, and
the particulars of this quarter will be made known to
the Nabob. I have written this, which you will deliver to the Governor, that everything may be settled; and when he has understood it, whatever is his inclination, he will favor me with it. The Nabob is master in this country, and is my friend; there is no
distinction. "
Cfopy of another Letter, entered upon the Consultation
of the 4th of June, 1781.
" I have received your letter, requesting leave for
a battalion to be raised by Captain Clark on the
same footing as Major Osborne's was, agreeable to the
requests and complaints of Ishmael Beg, the aumil
of Allahabad, &c. , and in compliance with the directions of the Council. You are well acquainted with the particulars and negotiation of Ishmael Beg, and
the nature of Mr. Osborne's battalion. , At the beginning of the year 1186 (1779) the affairs of Allahabad were given on a lease of three years to Ishmael Beg,
together with the purgunnahs Arreel and Parra;
and I gave orders for troops to be stationed and
raised, conformable to his request. Ishmael Beg
accordingly collected twelve hundred peons, which
were not allowed to the aumil of that place in the
? ? ? ? :SPEECH, IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 433
year 1185. The reason why I gave permission for
the additional expense of twelve hundred peons was,
that he might be enabled to manage the country
with ease, and pay the money to government regularly. I besides sent Mr. Osborne there to command in
the mahals belonging to Allahabad, which were in the
possession of Rajah Ajeet Sing; and he accordingly
took charge. Afterwards, in obedience to the orders of the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, Jelladut Jung, he was recalled, and the mahals placed, as before, under Rajah Ajeet Sing. I never sent
Mr. Osborne to settle the concerns of Allahabad, for
there was no occasion for him; but Mr. Osborne, of
himself, committed depredations and rapines within
Ishmael Beg's jurisdiction. Last year; the battalion,
which, by permission of General Sir Eyre Coote, was
sent, received orders to secure and defend Ishmael
Beg against the encroachments of Mr. Osborne; for
the complaints of Ishmael Beg against the violences
of Mr. Osborne had reached the General and Mr.
Purling; and the Governor and gentlemen of Council, at my request, recalled Mr. Osborne. This year,
as before, the collections of Arreel and Parra remain
under Ishmael Beg. In those places, some of the
talookdars and zemindars, who had been oppressed
and ill-treated by Mr. Osborne, had conceived ideas
of rebellion. "
Here, my Lords, you have an account of the condition of Darunghur, Futtyghur, Furruckabad, and
of the whole line of our military stations in the Nabob's dominions. You see the whole was one universal scene of plunder and rapine. You see all this was known to Mr. Hastings, who never inflicted
VOL. XI. 28
? ? ? ? 434 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any punishments for all this horrible outrage. You
see the utmost he has done is merely to recall one
man, Major Osborne, who was by no means the only
person deeply involved in these charges. He nominated all these people; he has never called any of them to an account. Shall I not, thlen, call him their
captain-general? Shall not your Lordships call him
so? And shall any man in the kingdom call him
by any other name? We see all the executive, all
the civil and criminal justice of the country seized
on by him. We see the trade and all the duties
seized upon by his creatures. We see them destroying established markets, and creating others at their pleasure. We see them, in the country of an ally
and in a time of peace, producing all the consequences of rapine and of war. We see the country
ruined and depopulated by men who attempt to exculpate themselves by charging their unhappy victims with rebellion.
And now, my Lords, who is it that has brought
to light all these outrages and complaints, the existence of which has never been denied, and for
which no redress was ever obtained, and no punishment ever inflicted? Why, Mr. Hastings himself has brought them before you; they are found in papers
which he has transmitted. God, who inflicts blindness upon great criminals, in order that they should meet with the punishment they deserve, has made him
the means of bringing forward this scene, which we
are maliciously said to have falsely and maliciously
devised. If any one of the ravages [charges? ] contained in that long catalogue of grievances is false, Warren Hastings is the person who must answer for
that individual falsehood. If they are generally false,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 4356
he is to answer for the false and calumniating accusation; and if they are true, my Lords, he only is
answerable, for he appointed those ministers of outrage, and never called them to account for their misconduct.
Let me now show your Lordships the character
that Mr. Hastings gives of all the. British officers.
It is to be found in an extract from the Appendix
to that part of his Benares Narrative in which he
comments upon the treaty of Chunar. Mark, my
Lords, what the man himself says of the whole mili --
tary service.
"Notwithstanding the great benefit which the Company would have derived from such an augmentation of their military force as these troops constituted, ready to act on any emergency, prepared and disciplined without any charge on the Company, as the
institution professed, until their actual services should
be required, I have observed some evils growing out
of the system, which, in my opinion, more than counterbalanced those advantages, had they been realized
in their fullest effect. The remote stations of these
troops, placing the commanding officers beyond the
notice and control of the board, afforded too much opportunity and temptation for unwarrantable emoluments, and excited the contagion of peculation and rapacity throughout the whole army. A most re-.
markable and incontrovertible proof of the prevalence
of this spirit has been seen in the court-martial upon
Captain Erskine, where the court, composed of officers of rank and respectable characters, unanimously
and honorably, most holnorably, acquitted him upon
an acknowledged fact which in times of stricter discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishment. "
? ? ? ? 436 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I will now call your Lordships' attention to another
extract from the same comment of Mr. Hastings, with
respect to the removal of the Company's servants,
civil and military, from the court and service of the
Vizier.
"I was actuated solely by motives of justice to him
and a regard to the honor of our national character.
In removing those gentlemen I diminish my own influence, as well as that of my colleagues, by narrowing
the line of patronage; and I expose myself to obloquy
and resentment from those who are immediately affected by the arrangement, and the long train of
their friends and pdwerful patrons. But their numbers, their influence, and the enormous amount of
their salaries, pensions, and emoluments, were an intolerable burden on the revenues and authority of the
Vizier, and exposed us to the envy and resentment
of the whole country, by excluding the native servants and adherents of the Vizier from the rewards
of their services and attachment. "
My Lords, you liave here Mr. Hastings's opinion
of the whole military service. You have here the
authority and documents by which he supports his
opinion. He states that the contagion of peculation had tainted all the frontier stations, which contain much the largest part of the Company's army. He states that this contagion had tainted the whole
army, everywhere: so that, according to him, there
was, throughout the Indian army, an universal taint
of peculation. My Lords, peculation is not a military vice. Insubordination, want of attention to duty, want of order, want of obedience and regularity, are military vices; but who ever before heard of peculation being a military vice? In the case before you,
? ? ? ? 'SPEECH IN REPLY. ' FOURTH DAY. 437
it became so by employing military men as farmers
of revenue, as masters of markets and of gunges.
This departure from the military -character and from
military duties introduced that peculation which
tainted the army, and desolated the dominions of
the Nabob Vizier.
I declare, when I first read the passage which has
been just read to your Lordships, in the infancy of
this inquiry, it struck me with astonishment that
peculation should at all exist as a military vice; but
I was still more astonished at finding Warren:Iastings charging the whole British army with being corrupted by this base and depraved spirit, to a degree
which tainted even their judicial character. This, my
Lords, is a most serious matter. The judicial functions of military men are of vast importance in themselves; and, generally speaking, there is not any tribunal whose members are more honorable in their conduct and more just in their decisions than those
of a court-martial. Perhaps there is not a tribunal
in this country whose reputation is really more untainted' than that of a court-martial. It stands as,
fair, in the opinion both of the army. and of the.
public, as any tribunal, in a country where all tribunals stand fair. But in India, this unnatural vice
of peculation, which has no more to do with the
vices of a military character than with its virtues,
this venomous spirit, has pervaded the members of
military tribunals to such an extent, that they acquit,
honorably acquit, most honorably acquit a man, " upon an acknowledged fact which in times of stricter
discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishmlent. "
Who says all this, my Lords? -Do I say it. ? No:
? ? ? ? 438 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
it is Warren Hastings who says it. He records it.
He gives you his vouchers and his evidence, and he
draws the conclusion. He is the criminal accuser
of the British, army. He who sits in that box accuses
the whole British army in. India. He has declared
them to be so tainted with peculation, from head
to foot, as to have been induced to commit the most
wicked perjuries, for the purpose of bearing one another out in their abominable peculations. In this unnatural state of things, and whilst there is not
one military man on these stations of whom Mr.
Hastings does not give this abominably flagitious
character, yet every one of them have joined to give
him the benefit of their testimony for his honorable
intentions and conduct.
In this tremendous scene, which he himself exposes, are there no signs of this captain-generalship which I have alluded to? Are there no signs of
this man's being a captain-general of iniquity, under
whom all the spoilers of India were paid, disciplined,
and supported? I not only charge him with being
guilty of a thousand crimes, but I assert that there
is not a soldier or a civil servant in India whose
culpable acts are not owing to this man's example, connivance, and protection. Everything which goes to criminate them goes directly against the prisoner. He puts them in a condition to plunder; he suffered no native authority or government to restrain
them; and he never called a man to an account for
these flagitious acts which he has thought proper to
bring before his country in the most solemn manner
and upon the most solemn occasion.
I verily believe, in my conscience, his accusation
is not true, in the excess, in the generality and ex
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 439
travagance in which he charges it. That it is true
in a great measure we cannot deny; and in that
measure we, in our turn, charge him with being
the author of all the crimes which he denounces;
and if there is anything in the charge beyond the
truth, it is he who is to answer for the falsehood.
I will now refer your Lordships to his opinion
of the civil service, as it is declared and recorded
in his remarks upon the removal of the Company's
civil servants by him from the service of the Vizier.
-" I was," says he, " actuated solely by motives of
justice to him [the Nabob of Oude], and a regard to
the honor of our national character. " - Here, you
see, he declares his opinion that in Oude the civil
servants of the Company had destroyed the national
character, and that therefore they ought to be recalled. -- " By removing these people," he adds, "I diminish my patronage. "' But I ask, How came
they there? Why, through this patronage. He
sent them there to suck the blood which the military had spared. He sent these civil servants to
do tell times more mischief than the military ravagers could do, because they were invested with
greater authority. -" If," says he, "I recall them
from thence, I lessen my patronage. " - But who,
my Lords, authorized him to become a patron?
What laws of his country justified him in forcing
upon the Vizier the civil servants of the Company?
What treaty authorized him to do it? What system
of policy, except his own wicked, arbitrary system,
authorized him to act thus?
He proceeds to say, "I expose myself to obloquy
and resentment from those who are immediately affected by the arrangement, and the long train of their
? ? ? ? 440 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
friends and powerful patrons. " My Lords, it is: the
constant burden of his song, that he cannot do his
duty, that he is fettered in everything, that he fears
a thousand mischiefs to happen to him, -- not from
his acting with carefulness, economy, frugality, and
in obedience to the laws of his country, but from the
very reverse of all this. Says he, "I am afraid I
shall forfeit the favor of the powerful patrons of those
servants in England, namely, the Lords and Commons of England, if I do justice to. the suffering people of this country. "
In the House of Commons there are undoubtedly
powerful people who may be supposed to be influenced by patronage; but the higher and more powerful part of the country is more directly represented by your Lordships than by us, although we have of
the first blood of England in the House of Commons.
We do, indeed, represent, by the knights of the
shires, the landed interest; by our city and borough
members we represent the trading interest; we
represent the whole people of England collectively,
But neither blood nor power is represented so fully in the House of Commons as that order which
composes the great body of the people, -- the protection of which is our peculiar duty, and to which it is
our glory to adhere. But the dignities of the country, the great and powerful, are represented eminent
ly by your Lordships. As we, therefore, would keep
the lowest of the people from the contagion and dis.
honor of peculation and corruption, and above all
from exercising that vice which, among commoners,
is unnatural as well as abominable, the vice of tyranny and oppression, so we trust that your Lordships
will clear yourselves and the higher and more power
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. '- FOURTH- DAY. 441
ful ranks from giving the smallest countenance to the
system which we have done our duty in denouncing
and bringing before you.
My Lords, you have heard the account of the civil service. Think of their numbers, think of their influence, and the enormous amount of their salaries, pensions, and emoluments! They were, you
have heard, an intolerable burden on the revenues
and authority of the Vizier; and they exposed us. to
the envy and resentment of the whole country, by
excluding the native servants and adherents of the
prince from the just reward of their services and
attachments. Here, my Lords, is the whole civil service brought before you. They usurp the country, they destroy the revenues, they overload the prince,
and they exclude all the nobility and eminent persons
of the country from the just reward of their service.
Did Mr. Francis, whom I saw here a little while
ago, send these people into that country? . Did
General Clavering, or Colonel Monson, whom he
charges with this system, send them there? No,
they were sent by himself; and if one was sent by
anybody else for a time, he was soon recalled: so
that he is himself answerable for all the peculation
which he attributes to the civil service. You see the
character given of that service; you there see their
accuser, you there see their defender, who, after having defamed both services, military and civil, never punished the guilty in either, and now receives the
prodigal praises of both.
I defy the ingenuity of man to show -that Mr. Hastings is not the defamer of the service. I defy the ingenuity of man to show that the honor of Great
Britain has not been tarnished under his patronage.
? ? ? ? 442 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
He engaged to remove all these bloodsuckers by the
treaty of Chunar; but he never executed that treaty.
He proposed to take away the temporary brigade;
but he again established it. He redressed no grievance; he formed no improvements in the government; he never attempted to provide a remedy without increasing the evil tenfold. He was the
primary and sole cause of all the grievances, civil
and military, to which the unhappy natives of that
country were exposed; and he was the accuser of
all the immediate authors of those grievances, without having punished any one of them. He is the
accuser of them all. But -he only person whom he
attempted to punish was that man who dared to
assert the authority of the Court of Directors, and
to claim an office assigned to him by them.
I will now read to your Lordships the protest of
General Clavering against the military brigade.
--
"Taking the army from I he Nabob is an infringement of the rights of an independent prince, leaving
only the name and title of it without the power. It
is taking his subjects from him, against every law of
Nature and of nations. "
I will next read to your Lordships a minute of Mr.
Francis's. -" By the foregoing letter from Mr. Middleton it appears that he has taken the government
of the Nabob's dominions directly upon himself. I
was not a party to the resolutions which preceded
that measure, and will not be answerable for the
consequences of it. "
The next paper I will read is one introduced by the
Managers, to prove that a representation was made by
the Nabob respecting the expenses of the gentlemen
resident at his court, and written after the removal
before mentioned.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FOURTH DAY. 443
Extract of a Letter from the Vizier to Mr. Macpherson,
received the 21st April, 1785. '"With respect to the expenses of the gentlemen
who are here, I have before written in a covered manner; I now write plainly, that I have no ability to
give money to the gentlemen, because I am indebted
many lacs of rupees to the bankers for the payment
of the Company's debt. At the time of Mr. Hastings's departure, I represented to him that I had no
resources for the expenses of the gentlemen. Mr.
Hastings, having ascertained my distressed situation,
told me that after his arrival in Calcutta he would
consult with the Council, and remove from hence the
expenses of the gentlemen, and recall every person
except the gentlemen in office here. At this time
that all the concerns are dependent upon you, and
you have in every point given ease to my mind,
according to Mr. Hastings's agreement, I hope that
the expenses of the gentlemen may be removed from
me, and that you may recall every person residing
here beyond the gentlemen in office. Although Major Palmer does not at this time demand anything
for the gentlemen, and I have no ability to give them
anything, yet the custom of the English gentlemen is,
when they remain here, they will in the end ask for
something. This is best, that they should be recalled. "
I think so, too; and your Lordships will think so
with me-; but Mr. Hastings, who says that he himself
thought thus in September; 1781, and engaged to recall these gentlemen, was so afraid of their powerful friends and patrons here, that he left India, and
? ? ? ? 444 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
left all that load of obloquy upon his successors. He
left a Major Palmer there, in the place of a Resident:
a Resident of his own, as your Lordships must see;
for Major Palmer was no Resident of the Company's. This man received a salary of about 23,0001.
a year, which he declared to be less than his expenses;
by which we may easily judge of the enormous salaries of those who make their fortunes there. He was
left by Mr. Hastings as his representative of peculation, his representative of tyranny. He was the
second agent appointed to control all power ostensible and unostensible, and to head these gentlemen
whose "custom," the Nabob says, "was in the end
to ask for money. " Money they must have; and
there, my Lords, is the whole secret.
I have this day shown your Lordships the entire
dependence of Oude on the British empire. I have
shown you how Mr. Hastings usurped all power, reduced the prince to a cipher, and made of his minister a mere creature of his own, how he made the
servants of the Company dependent on his own arbitrary will, and considered independence a proof of
corruption. It has been likewise proved to your
Lordships that he suffered the army to become an
instrument of robbery and. oppression, and one of its
officers to be metamorphosed into a farmer-general to
waste the country and embezzle its revenues. You
have seen a clandestine and fraudulent system, occasioning violence and rapine; and you have seen
the prisoner at the bar acknowledging and denouncing an abandoned spirit of rapacity without bringing its ministers to justice, and pleading as his excuse the fear of offending your Lordships and the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. FOURTH DAY. 445
House of Commons. We have shown you the government, revenue, commerce, and agriculture of
Oude ruined and destroyed by Mr. Hastings and his
creatures. And to wind up all, we have shown you
an army so corrupted as to pervert the fundamental
principles of justice, which are the elements and
basis of military discipline. All this, I say, we have
shown you; and I cannot believe that your Lordships will consider that we have trifled with your
time, or strained our comments one jot beyond the
strict measure of the text. We have shown you a
horrible scene, arising from an astonishing combination of horrible circumstances. The order in which
you will consider these circumstances must be left
to your Lordships.
At present I am not able to proceed further. My
next attempt will be to bring before you the manner
in which Mr. Hastings treated movable and immovable property in Oude, and by which he has left nothing undestroyed in that devoted country. END OF VOL. XI.
? ? ? The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/miun. aba1206. 0012. 001
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? ? ? THE
WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. XII.
BO STON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. XII.
SPEECHES IN THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. (CONTINUED. ) SPEECH IN GENERAL REPLY.
FIFTH DAY: SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1794. . 3
SIXTH DAY: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11. . SEVENTH DAY: THURSDAY, JUNE 12 EIGHTH DAY: SATURDAY, JUNE 14. . NINTH DAY: MONDAY, JUNE 16. . . 335 GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. INDEX. . . . . . . . . 407
75
143
235
401
? ? ? ? SPEE CHE S
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN GENERAL REPLY. (CONTINUED. )
JUNE, I794.
VOL XII. I
? ? ? ? SPEECH
IN
GENERAL REPLY.
FIFTH DAY: SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1794.
M Y LORDS,- We will now resume the consideration of the remaining part of our charge, and
of the prisoner's attempts to defend himself against it.
Mr. Hastings, well knowing (what your Lordships
must also by this time be perfectly satisfied was the
case) that this unfortunate Nabob had no will of his
own, draws down his poor victim to Chunar by an
order to attend the Governor-General. If the Nabob
ever wrote to Mr. Hastings, expressing a request or
desire for this meeting, his letter was unquestionably dictated to him by the prisoner. We have laid
a ground of direct proof before you, that the Nabob's
being at Chunar, that his proceedings there, and that
all his acts were so dictated, and consequently must
be so construed.
I shall now proceed to lay before your Lordships
the acts of oppression committed by Mr. Hastings
through his two miserable instruments: the one, his
passive instrument, the Nabob; the other, Mr. Middleton, his active instrument, in his subsequent plans for the entire destruction of that country. In page
513 of the printed Minutes you have Mr. Middleton's
declaration of his promptitude to represent everything agreeably to Mr. Hastings's wishes.
? ? ? ? 4 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
"MY DEAR SIR, -I have this day answered your
public letter in the form you seemed to expect. I
hope there is nothing in it that may to you appear too
pointed. If you wish the matter to be otherwise understood than I have taken up and stated it, I need not say I shall be ready to conform to whatever you
may prescribe, and to take upon myself any share of
the blame of the hitherto non-performance of the stipulations made on behalf of the Nabob; though I do assure you I myself represented to his Excellency and
the ministers, conceiving it to be your desire, that the
apparent assumption of the reins of his government,
(for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at
the first view,) as specified in the agreement executed by him, was not meant to be fully and literally enforced, but that it was necessary you should have
something to show on your side, as the Company
were deprived of a benefit without a requital; and
upon the faith of this assurance alone, I believe I
may safely affirm, his Excellency's objections to signing the treaty were given up. If I have understood the matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am
truly sorry for it. However, it is not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to undertake, and,
God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on
the receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final
resolve.
" If you determine, at all events, that the measures
of reducing the Nabob's army, &c. , shall be immediately undertaken, I shall take it as a particular favor, if you will indulge me with a line at Fyzabad, that I
may make the necessary previous arrangements with
respect to the disposal of my family, which I would
not wish to retain here, in the event either of a rup
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 5
ture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing
our forces on the reduction of his aumils and troops.
This done, I can begin the work in three days after
my return from Fyzabad. "
Besides this letter, which I think is sufficiently
clear upon the subject, there is also another much
more clear upon your Lordships' minutes, much
more distinct and much more pointed, expressive of
his being resolved to make such representations of
every matter as the Governor-General may wish.
Now a man who is master of the manner in which
facts are represented, and whose subsequent conduct
is to be justified by such representations, is not simply accountable for his conduct; he is accountable
for culpably attempting to form, on false premises,
the judgment of others upon that conduct. This
species of delinquency must therefore be added to
the rest; and I wish your Lordships to carry generally in your minds, that there is not one single syllable of representation made by any of those parties, except where truth may happen to break out in spite
of all the means of concealment, which is not to be
considered as the representation of Mr. Hastings himself in justification of his own conduct.
The letter which I have just now read was written
preparatory to the transaction which I am now going
to state, called the treaty of Chunar. Having brought
his miserable victim thither, he forced him to sign a
paper called a treaty: but such was the fraud in
every part of this treaty, that Mr. Middleton himself, who was the instrument and the chief agent in
it, acknowledges that the Nabob was persuaded to
sign it by the assurance given to him that it never
? ? ? ? 6 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
was to be executed. Here, then, your Lordships
have a prince first compelled to enter into a negotiation, and then induced to accede to a treaty by false
assurances that it should not be executed, which
he declares nothing but force should otherwise have
compelled him to accede to.
The first circumstance in this transaction that I
shall lay before your Lordships is that the treaty is
declared to have for its objects two modes of relieving the Nabob from his distresses, -- from distresses which we have stated, and which Mr. Hastings has not only fully admitted, but has himself proved
in the clearest manner to your Lordships. The
first was by taking away that wicked rabble, the British troops, represented by Mr. Hastings as totally
ruinous to the Nabob's affairs, and particularly by
removing. that part of them which was called the
new brigade. ~ Another remedial part of the treaty
regarded the British pensioners. It is in proof before
your Lordships that Mr. Hastings agreed to recall
from Oude that body of pensioners, whose conduct
there is described in such strong terms as being
ruinous to the Vizier and to all his- affairs. These
pensioners Mr. Hastings engaged to recall; but he
never did recall them. We refer your Lordships to
the evidence before you, in proof that these odious
pensioners, so distressing to the Nabob, so ruinous
to his affairs, and so disgraceful to our government,
were not only not recalled by Mr. Hastings, but that,
both afterwards, and upon the very day of signing
the treaty, (as Mr. Middleton himself tells you,) upon that very day, I say, he recommended to the Nabob that these pensioners might remain upon that very establishment which, by a solemn treaty of his
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 7
own making and his own dictating, he had agreed
to relieve from this intolerable burden.
Mr. Hastings, your Lordships will remember, had
departed from Benares, frustrated in his designs
of extorting 500,0001. from the Rajah for the Company's use. He had ravaged the country, without
obtaining any benefit for his masters: the British
soldiers having divided the only spoil, and nothing
remaining for the share of his employers but disgrace. He was therefore afraid to return without
having something of a lucrative pecuniary nature
to exhibit to the Company. Having this object in
view, Oude appears to have first presented itself to
his notice, as a country from which some advantage of a pecuniary kind might be derived; and accordingly he turned in his head a vast variety of stratagems for effecting his purpose.
The first article that occurs in the treaty of Chunar is a power given to the Nabob to resume all
the jaghires not guarantied by the Company, and to
give pensions to all those persons who should be
removed from their jaghires.
