The two
principal
eunuchs of the
Begums were Jewar and Behar Ali Khan, persons
of as high rank and estimation as any people in the
country.
Begums were Jewar and Behar Ali Khan, persons
of as high rank and estimation as any people in the
country.
Edmund Burke
?
SPEECH IN REPLY.
- FIFTH DAY.
39
Kha'n, nor any other person, high or low, in India,
ever suggested this defence, and that it was never
thought of till lately found by the learned counsel in
the English translation of the Hedaya. " God bless
me! " now says Mr. Hastings, " what ignorance have
I been in all this time! I thought I was seizing this
unjustly, and that the pretence of rebellion was necessary; but my counsel have found out a book, since published, and from it they produce the law upon
that subject, and show that the Nabob had a right
to seize upon the treasures of his mother. " But are
your Lordships so ignorant- (your Lordships are not
ignorant of anything) - are any men so ignorant
as not to know that in every country the common
law of distribution of the estate of an intestate
amongst private individuals is no rule with regard
to the family arrangements of great princes? Is
any one ignorant, that, from the days of the first origin of the Persian monarchy, the laws of which have become rules ever since for almost all the monarchs
of the East, the wives of great men have had, independent of the common distribution of their goods, great sums of money and great estates in land, one
for their girdle, one for their veil, and so on, going
through the rest of their ornaments and attire, --
and that they held great estates and other effects
over which the reigning monarch or his successor
had no control whatever? Indeed, my Lords, a more
curious and extraordinary species of trial than this
of a question of right never was heard of since the
world began. Mr. Hastings begins with seizing the
goods of the Begums at Fyzabad, nine thousand
miles from you, and fourteen years after tries the
title in an English court, without having one person
? ? ? ? 40 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
to appear for these miserable ladies. I trust you
will not suffer this mockery; I hope this last and
ultimate shame will be spared us: for I declare to
God, that the defence, and the principles of it, appear to me ten thousand times worse than the act
itself.
Now, my Lords, this criminal, through his counsel, chooses, with their usual flippancy, to say that
the Commons have been cautious in stating this part
of the charge, knowing that they were on tender
ground, and therefore did not venture to say entitled,
but possessed of only. A notable discovery indeed!
We are as far from being taken in by such miserable distinctions as we are incapable of making them.
We certainly have not said that the Begums were
entitled to, but only that they were possessed of,
certain property. And we have so said because
we were not competent to decide upon their title,
because your Lordships are not competent to decide
upon their title, because no part of this tribunal is
competent to decide upon their title. You have
not the parties before you; you have not the cause
before you, - but are getting it by oblique, improper,
and indecent means. You are not a court of justice to try that question. The parties are at a distance from you; they are neither present themselves, nor represented by any counsel, advocate, or attorney: and I hope no House of Lords will ever judge
and decide upon the title of any human being, much
less upon the title, of the first women in Asia, sequestered, shut up from you, at nine thousand miles'
distance.
I believe, my Lords, that the Emperor of Hindostan little thought, while Delhi stood, that an Eng
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 41
lish subject of Mr. Hastings's description should
domineer over the Vizier of his empire, aild give the
law to the first persons in his dominions. He as
little dreamed of it as any of your Lordships noW
dream that you shall have your property seized by
a delegate from Lucknow, and have it tried by what
tenure a peer or peeress of Great Britain hold, the
one his estate, and the other her jointure, dower,
or her share of goods, her paraphernalia, in any
court of Adawlut in Hindostan. If any such thing
should happen, (for we know not what may happen;
we live in an age of strange revolutions, and I doubt
whether any more strange than this,) the Commons
of Great Britain would shed their best blood sooner
than suffer that a tribunal at Lucknow should decide
upon any of your titles, for the purpbse of justifying
a robber that has taken your property. We should
do the best we could, if such a strange circumstance
occurred.
The House of Commons, who are virtually the
representatives of Lucknow, and who lately took
500,0001. of their money, will not suffer the natives
first to be robbed of their property, and then the
titles, which by the laws of their own country they
have to the goods they possess, to be tried by any
tribunal in Great Britain. Why was it not tried in
India before Mr. Hastings? One would suppose that
an English governor, if called to decide upon such a
claim of the Nabob's, would doubtless be attended
by judges, muftis, lawyers, and all the apparatus of
legal justice. No such thing. This man marches
into the country, not with mloulavies, not with muftis, not with the solemn apparatus of Oriental justice,- no: he goes with colonels, and captains, and
? ? ? ? 42 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
majors, -these are his lawyers: and when he gets
there, he demands from the parties, not their title, -
no: "Give me your money! " is his cry. It is a
shame (and I will venture to say, that these gentlemen, upon recollection, will feel ashamed) to see the
bar justify what the sword is ashamed of. In reading this correspondence, I have found these great
muftis and lawyers, these great chief-justices, attorneys-general, and solicitors-general, called colonels
and captains, ashamed of these proceedings, and endeavoring to mitigate their cruelty; yet we see British lawyers in a British tribunal supporting and justifying these acts, on the plea of defective titles. The learned counsel asks, with an air of triumph,
whether these ladies possessed these treasures by jointure, dower, will; or settlement. What was the title?
Was it a deed of gift? - was it a devise? --was it
donatio causa mortis. - was it dower? - was it jointure? -what was it? To all which senseless and
absurd questions we answer, You asked none of
these questions of the parties, when you guarantied
to them, by a solemn treaty, the possession of their
goods. Then was the time to have asked these questions: but you asked none of them. You supposed
their right, and you guarantied it, though you might
then have asked what was their right. But besides
the force and virtue of the guaranty, these unhappy
princesses had ransomed themselves from any claim
upon their property. They paid a sum of money,
applied to your use, for that guaranty. They had
a treble title, - by possession, by guaranty, by purchase.
Again, did you ask these questions, when you went
to rob them of their landed estates, their money,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 43
their ornaments, and even their wearing-apparel?
When you sent those great lawyers, Major -_,
Major, and the other majors, and colonels,
and captains, did you call on them to exhibit their
title-deeds? No: with a pistol at their breast, you
demanded their money. Instead of forging a charge
of rebellion against these unhappy persons, why did
you not then call on them for their vouchers?
No rebellion was necessary to give validity to a civil
claim. What you could get by an ordinary judgment did not want confiscation called to its aid. When you had their eunuchs, their ministers, their
treasurers, their agents and attorneys in irons, did
you then ask any of these questions? No. "Discover the money you have in trust, or you go to corporal punishment, -you go to the castle of Chunar, -here is another pair of irons! " this was
the only language used.
When the Court of Directors, alarmed at the proceedings against these ancient ladies, ordered their Indian government to make an inquiry into their
conduct, the prisoner had then an opportunity and a
duty imposed upon him of entering into a complete
justification of his conduct: he might have justified
it by every civil, and by every criminal mode of process. Did he do this? No. Your Lordships have
in evidence the manner, equally despotic, rebellious,
insolent, fraudulent, tricking, and evasive, by which
he positively refused all inquiry into the matter.
How stands it now, more than twelve years after
the seizure of their goods, at ten thousand miles'
distance? You ask of these women, buried in the
depths of Asia, secluded from human commerce,
what is their title to their estate. Have you the
? ? ? ? 44 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
parties before you? Have you summoned them?
Where is their attorney? Where is their agent?
Where is their counsel? Is this law? Is this a legal process? Is this a tribunal, - the highest tribunal of all, - that which is to furnish the example for, and to be a control on all the rest? But what is
worse, you do not come directly to the trial of this
right to property. You are desired to surround and
circumvent it; you are desired obliquely to steal an
iniquitous judgment, which you dare not boldly ravish. At this judgment you can only arrive by a side wind. You have before you a: criminal process
against an offender. One of the charges against him is, that he has robbed matrons of high and reverend place. His defence is, that they had not the apt deeds to entitle them in law to this property. In
this cause, with only the delinquent party before you,
you are called upon to try their title on his allegations of its invalidity, and by acquitting him to divest
them not only of their goods, but of their honor,to call them disseizors, wrong-doers, cheats, defrauders of their own son. No hearing for them, -- no pleading, -- all appeal cut off. Was ever a man indicted for a robbery, that is, for the forcible taking of
the goods possessed by another, suffered to desire the
prosecutor to show the deeds or other instruments
by which he acquired those goods? The idea is contemptible and ridiculous. Do these men dream?
Do they conceive, in their confused imaginations,
that you can be here trying such a question, and
venturing to decide upon it? Your Lordships will
never do that, which if you did do, you would be
unfit to subsist as a tribunal for a single hour; and
if we, on our part, did not bring before you this at
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 45
tempt, as the heaviest aggravation of the prisoner's
crimes, we should betray our. trust as representatives
of the Commons of Great Britain. Having made
this protest in favor of law, of justice, and good policy, permit me to take a single step more.
I will now show your Lordships that it is very
possible, nay, very probable, and almost certain, that
a great part of what these ladies possessed was a
saving of their own, and independent of any grant.
It appears in the papers before you, that these unfortunate ladies had about 70,0001. a year, landed property. Mr. Bristow states in evidence before your Lordships, that their annual expenses did not exceed
a lac and a half, and that their income was about
seven lacs; that they had possessed this for twenty
years before the death of Sujah Dowlah, and from
the death of that prince to the day of the robbery.
Now, if your Lordships will calculate what the savings from an income of 70,0001. a year will amount
to, when the party spends about 15,0001. a year, you
will see that by a regular and strict economy these
people may have saved considerable property of their
own, independent of their titles to any other property: and this is a rational way of accounting for their
being extremely rich. It may be supposed, likewise,
that they had all those advantages which ladies of
high rank usually have in that country, - gifts at
marriage, &c. We know that there are deeds of
gift by husbands to their wives during their lifetime,
and many other legal means, by which women in
Asia become possessed of very great property. But
Mr. Hastings has taught them the danger of much
wealth, and the danger of economy. He has shown
them that they are saving, not for their families, for
? ? ? ? 46 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
those who may possibly stand in the utmost need of
it. but for tyrants, robbers, and oppressors.
My Lords, I am really ashamed to have said so
much upon the subject of their titles. And yet there
is one observation more to be made, and then I shall
have done with this part of the prisoner's defence.
It is, that the Nabob himself never has made a claim
on this ground; even Mr. Hastings, his despotic
master, could never get him regularly and systematically to make such a claim; the very reverse of this is the truth. When urged on to the commission of
these acts of violence by Mr. Middleton, you have
seen with what horror and how reluctantly he lends
his name; and when he does so, he is dragged like a
victim to the stake. At the beginning of this affair,
where do we find that he entered this claim, as the
foundation of it? Upon one occasion only, when
dragged to join in this wicked act, something dropped
from his lips which seemed rather to have been
forced into his mouth, and which he was obliged to
spit out again, about the possibility that he might
have had some right to the effects of the Begums.
We next come to consider the manner in which
these acts of violence were executed. They forced
the Nabob himself to accompany their troops, and
their Resident, Mr. Middleton, to attack the city and
to storm the fort in which these ladies lived, and
consequently to outrage their persons, to insult their
character, and to degrade their dignity, as well as to
rob them of all they had.
That your Lordships may learn something of one
of these ladies, called the Munny Begum, I will refer you to Major Browne's evidence, - a man who
was at Delhi, the fountain-head of all the nobility
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 47
of India, and must have known who this lady was
that has been treated with such indignity by the
prisoner at your bar. Major Browne was asked,
" What was the opinion at Delhi respecting the rank,
quality, and character of the Princesses of Oude, or
of either of them? " -- "The elder, or Munny Begum, was," says lie, "a woman of high rank: she
was, I believe, the daughter of Saadut Ali Khan, a
person of high rank in the time of Mahommed Shah. "
" Do you know whether any woman in all Hindostan was considered of superior rank or birth? " --
He answers, " I believe not, except those of the royal
family. She was a near relation to Mirza Shaffee
Khal, who was a noble of nobles, the first person at
that day in the empire. " In answer to another question put by a noble Lord, in the same examination, respecting the conversation which he had with Mirza
Shaffee Khaln, and of which he had given an account,
he says, "He [Mirza Shaffee Khan] spoke of the
attempt to seize the treasures of the Begums, which
was then suspected, in terms of resentment, and as
a disgrace in which he participated, as being related
by blood to the house of Sufdar Jung, who was the
husband of the old Begum. " Ile says afterwards,
in the same examination, that he, the Beguin's husband, was the second man, and that her father was the first man, in the Mogul empire. Now the Mogul
empire, when this woman came into the world, was
an empire of that dignity that kings were its subjects; and this very Mirza Shaffee Khan, that we
speak of, her near relation, was then a prince with a
million a year revenue, and a man of the first rank,
after the Great Mogul, in the whole empire.
My Lords, these were people that ought to have
? ? ? ? 48 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
been treated with a little decorum. When we coisider the high rank of their husbands, their fathers,
and their children, a rank so high that we have nothing in Great Britain to compare with theirs, we cannot be surprised that they were left in possession of great revenues, great landed estates, and great moneyed property. All the female parts of these families, whose alliance was, doubtless, much courted, could not be proffered in marriage, and endowed in
a maniner agreeably to the dignity of such persons,
but with great sums of money; and your Lordships
must also consider the multitude of children of which
these families frequently consisted. The consequences of this robbery were such as might naturally be
expected. It is said that not one of the females of
this family has since been given in marriage.
But all this has nothing to do with the rebellion.
If they had, indeed, rebelled to cut their own son's
throat, there is an end of the business. But what
evidence have you of this fact? and if none can be
produced, does not the prisoner's defence aggravate
infinitely his crime and that of his agents? Did
they ever once state to these unfortunate women that
any such rebellion existed? Did they ever charge
them with it? Did they ever set the charge down in
writing, or make it verbally, that they had conspired
to destroy their son, a son whom Mr. Hastings had
brought there to rob them? No, this was what neither Mr. Hastings nor his agent ever did: for as they
never made a civil demand upon them, so they never
made a criminal charge against them, or against any
person belonging to them.
I save your Lordships the trouble of listening to
the manner in which they seized upon these people,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 49
and dispersed their guard. Mr. Middleton states,
that they found great difficulties in getting at their
treasures, - that they stormed their forts successively, but found great reluctance in the sepoys to make
their way into the inner inclosures of the women's
apartments. Being at a loss what to do, their only
resource, he says, was to threaten that they would
seize their eunuchs. These are generally persons
who have been bought slaves, and who, not having
any connections in the country where they are settled,
are supposed to guard both the honor of the women,
and their treasures, with more fidelity than other persons would do. We know that in Constantinople,
and in many other places, these persons enjoy offices
of the highest trust, and are of great rank and dignity; and this dignity and rank they possess for the
purpose of enabling them to fulfil their great trusts
more effectually.
The two principal eunuchs of the
Begums were Jewar and Behar Ali Khan, persons
of as high rank and estimation as any people in the
country. These persons, however, were seized, not,
says Mr. Hastings, for the purpose of extorting money, as assumed in the charge, but as agents and principal instruments of exciting the insurrection before alluded to, &c. Mr. Hastings declares that they were
not seized for the purpose of extorting money, but
that they were seized in order to be punished for
their crimes, and, eo nomine, for this crime of rebellionl. Now this crime could not have been committed immediately by [the? ] women themselves; for no woman can come forward and head her own troops.
We have not heard that any woman has done so
since the time of Zenobia, in another part of the
East; and we know that in Persia no person can beVOL. XII. 4
? ? ? ? 50 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
hold the face of a woman of rank, or speak to females
of condition, but through a curtain: therefore they
could not go out themselves, and be active in a rebellion. But, I own, it would be some sort of presumption against them, if Jewar Ali Khan and Behar Ali Khan had headed troops, and been concerned in
acts of rebellion; and the prisoner's counsel have
taken abundance of pains to show that such persons
do sometimes head armies and command legions in
the East. This we acknowledge that they sometimes
do. If these eunuchs had behaved in this way, if
they had headed armies and commanded legions for
the purposes of rebellion, it would have been a fair
presumption that their mistresses were concerned in it.
But instead of any proof of such facts, Mr. Hastings
simply says, " We do not arrest theni for the purpose
of extorting money, but as a punishment for their
crimes. " By Mr. Middleton's account you will see
the utter falsity of this assertion. God knows what
he has said that is true. It would, indeed, be singular not to detect him in a falsity, but in a truth. I
will now show your Lordships the utter falsity of this
wicked allegation.
There is a letter from Mr. Middleton to Sir Elijah
Impey, dated Fyzabad, the 25th of January, 1782, to
which I will call your Lordships' attention.
"DEAR SIR ELIJAH, -- I have the satisfaction to
inform you that we have at length so far obtained
the great object of our expedition to this place as to
commence on the receipt of money, of which, in the
course of this day, we have got about six lacs. I
know not yet what amount we shall actually realize,
but I think I may safely venture to pronounce it will
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 51
be equal to the liquidation of the Company's balance.
It has been at once. the most important and the most
difficult point of duty which has ever occurred in my
office; and the anxiety, the hopes and fears, which
have alternately agitated my mind, cannot be described or conceived but by those who have been witness to what has passed in the course of this long contest. The [Nabob's] ministers have supported
me nobly, and deserve much commendation. Without the shrewd discernment and knowledge of the
finesse and tricks of the country which Hyder Beg
Khan possesses, I believe we should have succeeded
but indifferently; for I soon found that no real advantage was to be obtained by proceeding at once to
violent extremities with the Begum, and that she was
only to be attacked through the medium of her confidential servants, who it required considerable address
to get hold of. However, we at last effected it; and
by using some few severities with them, we at length
came at the secret hoards of this old lady. I will
write you more particulars hereafter.
" I am sorry to inform you my little boy still continues in a very precarious way, though somewhat
better than when I had last the honor to address you.
MIy respects to Lady Impey. And believe me, with
great regard, my dear Sir Elijah, your faithful,
obliged, and most affectionate humble servant,
" NATHANIEL MIDDLETON. "
My Lords, we produce this letter to your Lordships,
because it is a letter which begins with "D)ear Sir
Elijah," and alludes to some family matters, and is
therefore more likely to discover the real truth, the
true genius of a proceeding, than all the formal and
? ? ? ? 52 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Official stuff that ever was produced. You see the
tenderness and affection in which they proceed. You
see it is his dear Sir Eli'ah. You see that he does
not tell the dear Sir Elijah, the Chief-Justice of India,
the pillar of the law, the great conservator of personal
liberty and private property, -- he does not tell him
that he has been dble to convict these eunuchs of any
crime; he does not tell him he has the pleasure of
informing him what matter he has got upon which a
decision at law may be grounded; he does not tell
him that he has got the least proof of the want of title
in those ladies: not a word of the kind. You cannot
help observing the soft language used in this tender
billet-doux between Mr. Middleton and Sir Elijah
Impey. You would imagine that they were making love, and that you heard the voice of the turtle
in the land. You hear the soft cooing, the gentle
addresses, -" Oh, my hopes! " to-day, " My fears! "
to-morrow, - all the language of friendship, almost
heightened into love; and it comes at last to " I have
got at the secret hoards of these ladies. -- Let us rejoice, my dear Sir Elijah; this is a day of rejoicing, a day of triumph; and this triumph we have obtained
by seizing upon the old lady's eunuchs, -- in doing
which, however, we found a great deal of difficulty. "
You would imagine, from this last expression, that it
was not two eunuchs, with a few miserable women
clinging about them, that they had to seize, but that
they had to break through all the guards which we
see lovers sometimes breaking through, when they
want to get *at their ladies. Hardly ever did the
beauty of a young lady excite such rapture; I defy
all the charms this country can furnish to produce
a more wonderful effect than was produced by the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 53
hoards of these two old women, in the bosoms of Sir
Elijah Impey and Mr. Middleton. "We have got,"
he exultingly says,"' we have got to the secret hoards
of this old lady! " And I verily believe there never
was a passion less dissembled; there Nature spoke;
there was truth triumphant, honest truth. Others
may feign a passion; but nobody can doubt the raptures of Mr. Hastings, Sir Elijah Impey, and Mr. Middleton.
My Lords, one would have expected to have found
here something of their crimes, something of their
rebellion, for he talks of a few " necessary severities. "
But no: you find the real criminal, the real object,
was the secret hoards of the old ladies. It. is true,
a few severities were necessary to obtain that object:
however, they did obtain it. How then did they
proceed? First, they themselves took and received,
in weight and tale, all the money that was in the
place. I say all; for whether there was any more
they never have discovered, with all their search,
from that day to this. Therefore we fairly presume
that they had discovered all that there was to discover
with regard to money. They next took from these
unfortunate people an engagement for the amount of
treasure at a definite sum, without knowing whether
they had it or not, whether they could procure it or
not. The Bhow Begum has told us, as your Lordships have it in evidence, that they demanded from her a million of money; that she, of course, denied
having any such sums; but Mr. Middleton forced her
unfortunate eunuchs or treasurers, by somefew severities, to give their bond for 600,0001.
You would imagine, that, when these eunuchs had
given up all that was in their power, when they had
? ? ? ? 54 3IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
given a bond for what they had not, (for they were
only the treasurers of other people,) that the bond
would not have been rigidly exacted. But what do
Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton, as soon as they get
their plunder? They went to their own assay-table,
by which they measured the rate of exchange between
the coins in currency at Oude and those at Calcutta,
and add the difference to the sum for which the bond
was given. Thus they seize the secret hoards, they
examine it as if they were receiving a debt, and they
determine what this money would and ought to
produce at Calcutta: not considering it as coming
from people who gave all they had to give, but as
what it. would produce at the mint at Calcutta,
according to a custom made for the profit of the
Residents; even though Mr. Hastings, upon another
occasion, charged upon Mr. Bristow as a crime that
he had made that profit. This money, my Lords,
was taken to that assay-table, which they had invented for their own profit, and they made their victims pay a rupee and a half batta, or exchange of money,
upon each gold mohur; by which and other charges
they brought them 60,0001. more in debt, and forced
them to give a bond for that 60,0001.
Your Lordships have seen in what manner these
debts were contracted, - and that they were contracted by persons engaging, not for themselves, for they had nothing; all their property was apparently their
mistresses'. You will now see in what manner the
payment of them was exacted; and we shall beg
leave to read to you their own accounts of their own
proceedings. Your Lordships will then judge whether they were proceeding against rebels as rebels,
or against wealthy people as wealthy people, punish
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 55
ing them, under pretence of crimes, for their own
profit.
In a letter from Mr. Middleton to Mr. Hastings,
after two other paragraphs, he goes on thus.
"It remained only to get possession of her wealth;
and to effect this, it was then and is still my firm and
unalterable opinion that it was indispensably neces;
sary to employ temporizing expedients, and to work
upon the hopes and fears of the Begum herself, and
more especially upon those of her principal agents,
through whose means alone there appeared any probable chance of our getting access to the hidden treasures of the late Vizier; and when I acquaint you that by far the greatest part of the treasure which has been
delivered to the Nabob was taken from the most secret
recesses in the houses of the two eunuchs, whence, of
course, it could not have been extracted without the
adoption of those means which could induce the discovery, I shall hope for your approbation of what I did.
I must also observe, that no further rigor than that
which I exerted could have been used against females
in this country, to whom there can be no access. The
Nabob and Salar Jung were the only two that could
enter the zenanah: the first was a son, who was to
address a parent, and, of course, could use no language or action but that of earnest and reiterated
solicitation; and the other was, in all appearance, a
traitor to our cause. Where force could be employed, it was not spared: the troops of the Begum
were driven away and dispersed; their guns taken;
her fort, and the outward walls of her house seized
and occupied by our troops, at the Nabob's requisition; and her chief agents imprisoned and put in
irons. No further step was left. And in this situa.
? ? ? ? 56 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
tion they still remain, and are to continue (excepting
only a remission of the irons) until the final liquida
tion of the payment; and if then you deem it proper,
no possible means of offence being left in her hands
or those of her agents, all her lands and property
having been taken, I mean, with your sanction, to restore her house and servants to her, and hope to be favored with your early reply, as I expect that a few
days will complete the final surrender of all that is
further expected from the Begum. "
There are some things in this letter which I shall
beg your Lordships to remark. There is mention
made of a few preliminary severities used by Mr.
Middleton, in order to get at their money. Well,
he did get at the money, and he got a bond for the
payment of an additional sum, which they thought
proper to fix at about six hundred thousand pounds,
to which was added another usurious bond for sixty
thousand; and in order to extort these forced bonds,
and to make up their aggravated crimes of usury,
violence, and oppression, they put these eunuchs into prison, without food and water, and loaded their limbs with fetters. This was their second imprisonment; and what followed these few severities your Lordships will remark, - still more severities. They
continued to persecute, to oppress, to work upon
these men by torture and by the fear of torture, till
at last, having found that all their proceedings were
totally ineffectual, they desire the women to surrender their house; though it is in evidence before you, that to remove a woman from her own house to another house without her consent is an outrage of the greatest atrocity, on account of which many women
have not only threatened, but have actually put them
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 57
selves to death. Mr. Hastings himself, in the case of
Munny Begum, had considered such a proposition as
the last degree of outrage that could be offered. These
women offered to go from house to house while their
residence was searched; but "No," say their tormentors, " the treasure may be bricked up, in so large
a house, in such a manner that we cannot find it. "
But to proceed with the treatment of these unfortunate men. I will read to your Lordships a letter of
Mr. Middleton to Captain Leonard Jaques, commanding at Fyzabad, 18th March, 1782.
SIR, -I have received your letter of the 13th
instant. The two prisoners, Behar and Jewar Ali
Khan, having violated their written solemn engagement with me for the payment of the balance due to
the Honorable Company on the Nabob's assignments
accepted by them, and declining giving me any satisfactory assurances on that head, I am under the disagreeable necessity of recurring to severities to enforce the said payment. This is, therefore, to desire that you immediately cause them to be put in irons,
and kept so until I shall arrive at Fyzabad, to take
further measures, as may be necessary. "
Here is the answer of Captain Jaques to Mr. Middleton.
"April 23d, 1782.
" SIR,-Allow me the honor of informing you that
the place the prisoners Behar Ali Khan and Jewar
Ali Khlln are confined in is become so very unhealthy, by the number obliged to be on duty in so
confined a place at this hot season of the year, and
so situated, that no reduction can with propriety be
? ? ? ? 1h8 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
made from their guard, it being at such a distance
from the battalion. "
You see, my Lords, what a condition these unfortunate persons were in at that period; you see they were put in irons, in a place highly unhealthy; and
from this you will judge of the treatment which
followed the few severities. The first yielded a bond
for 600,0001. ; the second, a bond for 60,0001. ; the
third was intended to extort the payment of these
bonds, and completed their series.
I will now read a letter from Captain Jaques to Mr.
Middleton, from the printed Minutes, dated Palace,
Fyzabad, May 18th, 1782, consequently written nearly a month after the former.
" SIR, -- The prisoners Behar and Jewar Ali Khan,
who seem to be very sickly, have requested their
irons might be taken off for a few days, that they
might take medicine, and walk about the garden of
the place where they are confined, to assist the medicine in its operation. Now, as I am sure they would be equally as secure without their irons as
with them, I think it my duty to inform you of this
request, and desire to know your pleasure concerning it.
(Signed) "LEONARD JAQUES. "
On the 22d May, 1782, Captain Jaques's humane
proposal is thus replied to by Mr. Middleton.
"I am sorry it is not in my power to comply with
your proposal of easing the prisoners for a few days
of their fetters. Much as my humanity may be
touched by their sufferings, I should think it inex
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 59
pedient to afford them any alleviation while they persist in a breach of their contract with me; and, indeed, no indulgence could be shown them without the authority of the Nabob, who, instead of consenting to moderate the rigors of their situation, would
be most willing to multiply them.
(Signed) "NATTHANIEL MIDDLETON. "
I will now call your Lordships' attention to other
letters connected with this transaction.
Letter from Major Gilpin to Mr. Middleton, June 5th,
1782.
" SIR, - Agreeably to your instructions, I went to
the prisoners, Behar and Jewar Ali Khan, accompanied by Hoolas Roy, who read the papers respecting
the balance now due, &c. , &c.
" In general terms they expressed concern at not
being able to discharge the same without the assistance of the Begum, and requested indulgence to send
a message to her on that subject, and in the evening
they would give an answer.
" I went at the time appointed for the answer, but
did not receive a satisfactory one; in consequence of
which I desired them to be ready, at the shortest notice, to proceed to Lucknow, and explained to them
every particular contained in your letter of the 1st
instant respecting them.
"Yesterday morning I sent for Letafit Ali Khan,
and desired him to go to the Bhow Begum, and deliver the substance of my instructions to her, which
he did, and returned with the inclosed letter from
her. From some circumstances which I have heard
to-day, I am hopeful the prisoners will soon think
? ? ? ? 60 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
seriously of their removal, and pay the balance rather than submit themselves to an inconvenient journey to Lucknow. "
To Major Gilpin, commanding at Fyzabad, from Mr.
Middleton.
"SIR,- -I have been favored with your letter of
the 5th instant, informing me of the steps you had
taken in consequence of my instructions of the 1st,
and covering a letter from the Bhow Begum, which
is so unsatisfactory that I cannot think of returning
an answer to it. Indeed, as all correspondence between the Begum and me has long been stopped, I request you will be pleased to inform her that I by
no means wish to resume it, or maintain any friendly
intercourse with her, until she has made good my
claim upon her for the balance due.
"I have now, in conformity to my former instructions, to desire that the two prisoners, Behar
and Jewar Ali Khan, may be immediately sent,
under a sufficient guard, to Lucknow, unless, upon
your imparting to them this intimation, either they
or the Begum should actually pay the balance, or
give you such assurances or security for the assets to
be immediately forthcoming as you think can be relied upon; in which case you will of course suspend
the execution of this order. "
Mr. Richard Johnson to Major Gilpin. Luclcnow,
24th June, 1782.
"SIR, - I have received the honor of your letter of
the 20th. The prisoners arrived here this morning.
Lieutenant Crow has delivered them over to Captain
Waugh, and returns to you in a day or two.
?
Kha'n, nor any other person, high or low, in India,
ever suggested this defence, and that it was never
thought of till lately found by the learned counsel in
the English translation of the Hedaya. " God bless
me! " now says Mr. Hastings, " what ignorance have
I been in all this time! I thought I was seizing this
unjustly, and that the pretence of rebellion was necessary; but my counsel have found out a book, since published, and from it they produce the law upon
that subject, and show that the Nabob had a right
to seize upon the treasures of his mother. " But are
your Lordships so ignorant- (your Lordships are not
ignorant of anything) - are any men so ignorant
as not to know that in every country the common
law of distribution of the estate of an intestate
amongst private individuals is no rule with regard
to the family arrangements of great princes? Is
any one ignorant, that, from the days of the first origin of the Persian monarchy, the laws of which have become rules ever since for almost all the monarchs
of the East, the wives of great men have had, independent of the common distribution of their goods, great sums of money and great estates in land, one
for their girdle, one for their veil, and so on, going
through the rest of their ornaments and attire, --
and that they held great estates and other effects
over which the reigning monarch or his successor
had no control whatever? Indeed, my Lords, a more
curious and extraordinary species of trial than this
of a question of right never was heard of since the
world began. Mr. Hastings begins with seizing the
goods of the Begums at Fyzabad, nine thousand
miles from you, and fourteen years after tries the
title in an English court, without having one person
? ? ? ? 40 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
to appear for these miserable ladies. I trust you
will not suffer this mockery; I hope this last and
ultimate shame will be spared us: for I declare to
God, that the defence, and the principles of it, appear to me ten thousand times worse than the act
itself.
Now, my Lords, this criminal, through his counsel, chooses, with their usual flippancy, to say that
the Commons have been cautious in stating this part
of the charge, knowing that they were on tender
ground, and therefore did not venture to say entitled,
but possessed of only. A notable discovery indeed!
We are as far from being taken in by such miserable distinctions as we are incapable of making them.
We certainly have not said that the Begums were
entitled to, but only that they were possessed of,
certain property. And we have so said because
we were not competent to decide upon their title,
because your Lordships are not competent to decide
upon their title, because no part of this tribunal is
competent to decide upon their title. You have
not the parties before you; you have not the cause
before you, - but are getting it by oblique, improper,
and indecent means. You are not a court of justice to try that question. The parties are at a distance from you; they are neither present themselves, nor represented by any counsel, advocate, or attorney: and I hope no House of Lords will ever judge
and decide upon the title of any human being, much
less upon the title, of the first women in Asia, sequestered, shut up from you, at nine thousand miles'
distance.
I believe, my Lords, that the Emperor of Hindostan little thought, while Delhi stood, that an Eng
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 41
lish subject of Mr. Hastings's description should
domineer over the Vizier of his empire, aild give the
law to the first persons in his dominions. He as
little dreamed of it as any of your Lordships noW
dream that you shall have your property seized by
a delegate from Lucknow, and have it tried by what
tenure a peer or peeress of Great Britain hold, the
one his estate, and the other her jointure, dower,
or her share of goods, her paraphernalia, in any
court of Adawlut in Hindostan. If any such thing
should happen, (for we know not what may happen;
we live in an age of strange revolutions, and I doubt
whether any more strange than this,) the Commons
of Great Britain would shed their best blood sooner
than suffer that a tribunal at Lucknow should decide
upon any of your titles, for the purpbse of justifying
a robber that has taken your property. We should
do the best we could, if such a strange circumstance
occurred.
The House of Commons, who are virtually the
representatives of Lucknow, and who lately took
500,0001. of their money, will not suffer the natives
first to be robbed of their property, and then the
titles, which by the laws of their own country they
have to the goods they possess, to be tried by any
tribunal in Great Britain. Why was it not tried in
India before Mr. Hastings? One would suppose that
an English governor, if called to decide upon such a
claim of the Nabob's, would doubtless be attended
by judges, muftis, lawyers, and all the apparatus of
legal justice. No such thing. This man marches
into the country, not with mloulavies, not with muftis, not with the solemn apparatus of Oriental justice,- no: he goes with colonels, and captains, and
? ? ? ? 42 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
majors, -these are his lawyers: and when he gets
there, he demands from the parties, not their title, -
no: "Give me your money! " is his cry. It is a
shame (and I will venture to say, that these gentlemen, upon recollection, will feel ashamed) to see the
bar justify what the sword is ashamed of. In reading this correspondence, I have found these great
muftis and lawyers, these great chief-justices, attorneys-general, and solicitors-general, called colonels
and captains, ashamed of these proceedings, and endeavoring to mitigate their cruelty; yet we see British lawyers in a British tribunal supporting and justifying these acts, on the plea of defective titles. The learned counsel asks, with an air of triumph,
whether these ladies possessed these treasures by jointure, dower, will; or settlement. What was the title?
Was it a deed of gift? - was it a devise? --was it
donatio causa mortis. - was it dower? - was it jointure? -what was it? To all which senseless and
absurd questions we answer, You asked none of
these questions of the parties, when you guarantied
to them, by a solemn treaty, the possession of their
goods. Then was the time to have asked these questions: but you asked none of them. You supposed
their right, and you guarantied it, though you might
then have asked what was their right. But besides
the force and virtue of the guaranty, these unhappy
princesses had ransomed themselves from any claim
upon their property. They paid a sum of money,
applied to your use, for that guaranty. They had
a treble title, - by possession, by guaranty, by purchase.
Again, did you ask these questions, when you went
to rob them of their landed estates, their money,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 43
their ornaments, and even their wearing-apparel?
When you sent those great lawyers, Major -_,
Major, and the other majors, and colonels,
and captains, did you call on them to exhibit their
title-deeds? No: with a pistol at their breast, you
demanded their money. Instead of forging a charge
of rebellion against these unhappy persons, why did
you not then call on them for their vouchers?
No rebellion was necessary to give validity to a civil
claim. What you could get by an ordinary judgment did not want confiscation called to its aid. When you had their eunuchs, their ministers, their
treasurers, their agents and attorneys in irons, did
you then ask any of these questions? No. "Discover the money you have in trust, or you go to corporal punishment, -you go to the castle of Chunar, -here is another pair of irons! " this was
the only language used.
When the Court of Directors, alarmed at the proceedings against these ancient ladies, ordered their Indian government to make an inquiry into their
conduct, the prisoner had then an opportunity and a
duty imposed upon him of entering into a complete
justification of his conduct: he might have justified
it by every civil, and by every criminal mode of process. Did he do this? No. Your Lordships have
in evidence the manner, equally despotic, rebellious,
insolent, fraudulent, tricking, and evasive, by which
he positively refused all inquiry into the matter.
How stands it now, more than twelve years after
the seizure of their goods, at ten thousand miles'
distance? You ask of these women, buried in the
depths of Asia, secluded from human commerce,
what is their title to their estate. Have you the
? ? ? ? 44 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
parties before you? Have you summoned them?
Where is their attorney? Where is their agent?
Where is their counsel? Is this law? Is this a legal process? Is this a tribunal, - the highest tribunal of all, - that which is to furnish the example for, and to be a control on all the rest? But what is
worse, you do not come directly to the trial of this
right to property. You are desired to surround and
circumvent it; you are desired obliquely to steal an
iniquitous judgment, which you dare not boldly ravish. At this judgment you can only arrive by a side wind. You have before you a: criminal process
against an offender. One of the charges against him is, that he has robbed matrons of high and reverend place. His defence is, that they had not the apt deeds to entitle them in law to this property. In
this cause, with only the delinquent party before you,
you are called upon to try their title on his allegations of its invalidity, and by acquitting him to divest
them not only of their goods, but of their honor,to call them disseizors, wrong-doers, cheats, defrauders of their own son. No hearing for them, -- no pleading, -- all appeal cut off. Was ever a man indicted for a robbery, that is, for the forcible taking of
the goods possessed by another, suffered to desire the
prosecutor to show the deeds or other instruments
by which he acquired those goods? The idea is contemptible and ridiculous. Do these men dream?
Do they conceive, in their confused imaginations,
that you can be here trying such a question, and
venturing to decide upon it? Your Lordships will
never do that, which if you did do, you would be
unfit to subsist as a tribunal for a single hour; and
if we, on our part, did not bring before you this at
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 45
tempt, as the heaviest aggravation of the prisoner's
crimes, we should betray our. trust as representatives
of the Commons of Great Britain. Having made
this protest in favor of law, of justice, and good policy, permit me to take a single step more.
I will now show your Lordships that it is very
possible, nay, very probable, and almost certain, that
a great part of what these ladies possessed was a
saving of their own, and independent of any grant.
It appears in the papers before you, that these unfortunate ladies had about 70,0001. a year, landed property. Mr. Bristow states in evidence before your Lordships, that their annual expenses did not exceed
a lac and a half, and that their income was about
seven lacs; that they had possessed this for twenty
years before the death of Sujah Dowlah, and from
the death of that prince to the day of the robbery.
Now, if your Lordships will calculate what the savings from an income of 70,0001. a year will amount
to, when the party spends about 15,0001. a year, you
will see that by a regular and strict economy these
people may have saved considerable property of their
own, independent of their titles to any other property: and this is a rational way of accounting for their
being extremely rich. It may be supposed, likewise,
that they had all those advantages which ladies of
high rank usually have in that country, - gifts at
marriage, &c. We know that there are deeds of
gift by husbands to their wives during their lifetime,
and many other legal means, by which women in
Asia become possessed of very great property. But
Mr. Hastings has taught them the danger of much
wealth, and the danger of economy. He has shown
them that they are saving, not for their families, for
? ? ? ? 46 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
those who may possibly stand in the utmost need of
it. but for tyrants, robbers, and oppressors.
My Lords, I am really ashamed to have said so
much upon the subject of their titles. And yet there
is one observation more to be made, and then I shall
have done with this part of the prisoner's defence.
It is, that the Nabob himself never has made a claim
on this ground; even Mr. Hastings, his despotic
master, could never get him regularly and systematically to make such a claim; the very reverse of this is the truth. When urged on to the commission of
these acts of violence by Mr. Middleton, you have
seen with what horror and how reluctantly he lends
his name; and when he does so, he is dragged like a
victim to the stake. At the beginning of this affair,
where do we find that he entered this claim, as the
foundation of it? Upon one occasion only, when
dragged to join in this wicked act, something dropped
from his lips which seemed rather to have been
forced into his mouth, and which he was obliged to
spit out again, about the possibility that he might
have had some right to the effects of the Begums.
We next come to consider the manner in which
these acts of violence were executed. They forced
the Nabob himself to accompany their troops, and
their Resident, Mr. Middleton, to attack the city and
to storm the fort in which these ladies lived, and
consequently to outrage their persons, to insult their
character, and to degrade their dignity, as well as to
rob them of all they had.
That your Lordships may learn something of one
of these ladies, called the Munny Begum, I will refer you to Major Browne's evidence, - a man who
was at Delhi, the fountain-head of all the nobility
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 47
of India, and must have known who this lady was
that has been treated with such indignity by the
prisoner at your bar. Major Browne was asked,
" What was the opinion at Delhi respecting the rank,
quality, and character of the Princesses of Oude, or
of either of them? " -- "The elder, or Munny Begum, was," says lie, "a woman of high rank: she
was, I believe, the daughter of Saadut Ali Khan, a
person of high rank in the time of Mahommed Shah. "
" Do you know whether any woman in all Hindostan was considered of superior rank or birth? " --
He answers, " I believe not, except those of the royal
family. She was a near relation to Mirza Shaffee
Khal, who was a noble of nobles, the first person at
that day in the empire. " In answer to another question put by a noble Lord, in the same examination, respecting the conversation which he had with Mirza
Shaffee Khaln, and of which he had given an account,
he says, "He [Mirza Shaffee Khan] spoke of the
attempt to seize the treasures of the Begums, which
was then suspected, in terms of resentment, and as
a disgrace in which he participated, as being related
by blood to the house of Sufdar Jung, who was the
husband of the old Begum. " Ile says afterwards,
in the same examination, that he, the Beguin's husband, was the second man, and that her father was the first man, in the Mogul empire. Now the Mogul
empire, when this woman came into the world, was
an empire of that dignity that kings were its subjects; and this very Mirza Shaffee Khan, that we
speak of, her near relation, was then a prince with a
million a year revenue, and a man of the first rank,
after the Great Mogul, in the whole empire.
My Lords, these were people that ought to have
? ? ? ? 48 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
been treated with a little decorum. When we coisider the high rank of their husbands, their fathers,
and their children, a rank so high that we have nothing in Great Britain to compare with theirs, we cannot be surprised that they were left in possession of great revenues, great landed estates, and great moneyed property. All the female parts of these families, whose alliance was, doubtless, much courted, could not be proffered in marriage, and endowed in
a maniner agreeably to the dignity of such persons,
but with great sums of money; and your Lordships
must also consider the multitude of children of which
these families frequently consisted. The consequences of this robbery were such as might naturally be
expected. It is said that not one of the females of
this family has since been given in marriage.
But all this has nothing to do with the rebellion.
If they had, indeed, rebelled to cut their own son's
throat, there is an end of the business. But what
evidence have you of this fact? and if none can be
produced, does not the prisoner's defence aggravate
infinitely his crime and that of his agents? Did
they ever once state to these unfortunate women that
any such rebellion existed? Did they ever charge
them with it? Did they ever set the charge down in
writing, or make it verbally, that they had conspired
to destroy their son, a son whom Mr. Hastings had
brought there to rob them? No, this was what neither Mr. Hastings nor his agent ever did: for as they
never made a civil demand upon them, so they never
made a criminal charge against them, or against any
person belonging to them.
I save your Lordships the trouble of listening to
the manner in which they seized upon these people,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 49
and dispersed their guard. Mr. Middleton states,
that they found great difficulties in getting at their
treasures, - that they stormed their forts successively, but found great reluctance in the sepoys to make
their way into the inner inclosures of the women's
apartments. Being at a loss what to do, their only
resource, he says, was to threaten that they would
seize their eunuchs. These are generally persons
who have been bought slaves, and who, not having
any connections in the country where they are settled,
are supposed to guard both the honor of the women,
and their treasures, with more fidelity than other persons would do. We know that in Constantinople,
and in many other places, these persons enjoy offices
of the highest trust, and are of great rank and dignity; and this dignity and rank they possess for the
purpose of enabling them to fulfil their great trusts
more effectually.
The two principal eunuchs of the
Begums were Jewar and Behar Ali Khan, persons
of as high rank and estimation as any people in the
country. These persons, however, were seized, not,
says Mr. Hastings, for the purpose of extorting money, as assumed in the charge, but as agents and principal instruments of exciting the insurrection before alluded to, &c. Mr. Hastings declares that they were
not seized for the purpose of extorting money, but
that they were seized in order to be punished for
their crimes, and, eo nomine, for this crime of rebellionl. Now this crime could not have been committed immediately by [the? ] women themselves; for no woman can come forward and head her own troops.
We have not heard that any woman has done so
since the time of Zenobia, in another part of the
East; and we know that in Persia no person can beVOL. XII. 4
? ? ? ? 50 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
hold the face of a woman of rank, or speak to females
of condition, but through a curtain: therefore they
could not go out themselves, and be active in a rebellion. But, I own, it would be some sort of presumption against them, if Jewar Ali Khan and Behar Ali Khan had headed troops, and been concerned in
acts of rebellion; and the prisoner's counsel have
taken abundance of pains to show that such persons
do sometimes head armies and command legions in
the East. This we acknowledge that they sometimes
do. If these eunuchs had behaved in this way, if
they had headed armies and commanded legions for
the purposes of rebellion, it would have been a fair
presumption that their mistresses were concerned in it.
But instead of any proof of such facts, Mr. Hastings
simply says, " We do not arrest theni for the purpose
of extorting money, but as a punishment for their
crimes. " By Mr. Middleton's account you will see
the utter falsity of this assertion. God knows what
he has said that is true. It would, indeed, be singular not to detect him in a falsity, but in a truth. I
will now show your Lordships the utter falsity of this
wicked allegation.
There is a letter from Mr. Middleton to Sir Elijah
Impey, dated Fyzabad, the 25th of January, 1782, to
which I will call your Lordships' attention.
"DEAR SIR ELIJAH, -- I have the satisfaction to
inform you that we have at length so far obtained
the great object of our expedition to this place as to
commence on the receipt of money, of which, in the
course of this day, we have got about six lacs. I
know not yet what amount we shall actually realize,
but I think I may safely venture to pronounce it will
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 51
be equal to the liquidation of the Company's balance.
It has been at once. the most important and the most
difficult point of duty which has ever occurred in my
office; and the anxiety, the hopes and fears, which
have alternately agitated my mind, cannot be described or conceived but by those who have been witness to what has passed in the course of this long contest. The [Nabob's] ministers have supported
me nobly, and deserve much commendation. Without the shrewd discernment and knowledge of the
finesse and tricks of the country which Hyder Beg
Khan possesses, I believe we should have succeeded
but indifferently; for I soon found that no real advantage was to be obtained by proceeding at once to
violent extremities with the Begum, and that she was
only to be attacked through the medium of her confidential servants, who it required considerable address
to get hold of. However, we at last effected it; and
by using some few severities with them, we at length
came at the secret hoards of this old lady. I will
write you more particulars hereafter.
" I am sorry to inform you my little boy still continues in a very precarious way, though somewhat
better than when I had last the honor to address you.
MIy respects to Lady Impey. And believe me, with
great regard, my dear Sir Elijah, your faithful,
obliged, and most affectionate humble servant,
" NATHANIEL MIDDLETON. "
My Lords, we produce this letter to your Lordships,
because it is a letter which begins with "D)ear Sir
Elijah," and alludes to some family matters, and is
therefore more likely to discover the real truth, the
true genius of a proceeding, than all the formal and
? ? ? ? 52 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Official stuff that ever was produced. You see the
tenderness and affection in which they proceed. You
see it is his dear Sir Eli'ah. You see that he does
not tell the dear Sir Elijah, the Chief-Justice of India,
the pillar of the law, the great conservator of personal
liberty and private property, -- he does not tell him
that he has been dble to convict these eunuchs of any
crime; he does not tell him he has the pleasure of
informing him what matter he has got upon which a
decision at law may be grounded; he does not tell
him that he has got the least proof of the want of title
in those ladies: not a word of the kind. You cannot
help observing the soft language used in this tender
billet-doux between Mr. Middleton and Sir Elijah
Impey. You would imagine that they were making love, and that you heard the voice of the turtle
in the land. You hear the soft cooing, the gentle
addresses, -" Oh, my hopes! " to-day, " My fears! "
to-morrow, - all the language of friendship, almost
heightened into love; and it comes at last to " I have
got at the secret hoards of these ladies. -- Let us rejoice, my dear Sir Elijah; this is a day of rejoicing, a day of triumph; and this triumph we have obtained
by seizing upon the old lady's eunuchs, -- in doing
which, however, we found a great deal of difficulty. "
You would imagine, from this last expression, that it
was not two eunuchs, with a few miserable women
clinging about them, that they had to seize, but that
they had to break through all the guards which we
see lovers sometimes breaking through, when they
want to get *at their ladies. Hardly ever did the
beauty of a young lady excite such rapture; I defy
all the charms this country can furnish to produce
a more wonderful effect than was produced by the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FIFTH DAY. 53
hoards of these two old women, in the bosoms of Sir
Elijah Impey and Mr. Middleton. "We have got,"
he exultingly says,"' we have got to the secret hoards
of this old lady! " And I verily believe there never
was a passion less dissembled; there Nature spoke;
there was truth triumphant, honest truth. Others
may feign a passion; but nobody can doubt the raptures of Mr. Hastings, Sir Elijah Impey, and Mr. Middleton.
My Lords, one would have expected to have found
here something of their crimes, something of their
rebellion, for he talks of a few " necessary severities. "
But no: you find the real criminal, the real object,
was the secret hoards of the old ladies. It. is true,
a few severities were necessary to obtain that object:
however, they did obtain it. How then did they
proceed? First, they themselves took and received,
in weight and tale, all the money that was in the
place. I say all; for whether there was any more
they never have discovered, with all their search,
from that day to this. Therefore we fairly presume
that they had discovered all that there was to discover
with regard to money. They next took from these
unfortunate people an engagement for the amount of
treasure at a definite sum, without knowing whether
they had it or not, whether they could procure it or
not. The Bhow Begum has told us, as your Lordships have it in evidence, that they demanded from her a million of money; that she, of course, denied
having any such sums; but Mr. Middleton forced her
unfortunate eunuchs or treasurers, by somefew severities, to give their bond for 600,0001.
You would imagine, that, when these eunuchs had
given up all that was in their power, when they had
? ? ? ? 54 3IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
given a bond for what they had not, (for they were
only the treasurers of other people,) that the bond
would not have been rigidly exacted. But what do
Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton, as soon as they get
their plunder? They went to their own assay-table,
by which they measured the rate of exchange between
the coins in currency at Oude and those at Calcutta,
and add the difference to the sum for which the bond
was given. Thus they seize the secret hoards, they
examine it as if they were receiving a debt, and they
determine what this money would and ought to
produce at Calcutta: not considering it as coming
from people who gave all they had to give, but as
what it. would produce at the mint at Calcutta,
according to a custom made for the profit of the
Residents; even though Mr. Hastings, upon another
occasion, charged upon Mr. Bristow as a crime that
he had made that profit. This money, my Lords,
was taken to that assay-table, which they had invented for their own profit, and they made their victims pay a rupee and a half batta, or exchange of money,
upon each gold mohur; by which and other charges
they brought them 60,0001. more in debt, and forced
them to give a bond for that 60,0001.
Your Lordships have seen in what manner these
debts were contracted, - and that they were contracted by persons engaging, not for themselves, for they had nothing; all their property was apparently their
mistresses'. You will now see in what manner the
payment of them was exacted; and we shall beg
leave to read to you their own accounts of their own
proceedings. Your Lordships will then judge whether they were proceeding against rebels as rebels,
or against wealthy people as wealthy people, punish
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 55
ing them, under pretence of crimes, for their own
profit.
In a letter from Mr. Middleton to Mr. Hastings,
after two other paragraphs, he goes on thus.
"It remained only to get possession of her wealth;
and to effect this, it was then and is still my firm and
unalterable opinion that it was indispensably neces;
sary to employ temporizing expedients, and to work
upon the hopes and fears of the Begum herself, and
more especially upon those of her principal agents,
through whose means alone there appeared any probable chance of our getting access to the hidden treasures of the late Vizier; and when I acquaint you that by far the greatest part of the treasure which has been
delivered to the Nabob was taken from the most secret
recesses in the houses of the two eunuchs, whence, of
course, it could not have been extracted without the
adoption of those means which could induce the discovery, I shall hope for your approbation of what I did.
I must also observe, that no further rigor than that
which I exerted could have been used against females
in this country, to whom there can be no access. The
Nabob and Salar Jung were the only two that could
enter the zenanah: the first was a son, who was to
address a parent, and, of course, could use no language or action but that of earnest and reiterated
solicitation; and the other was, in all appearance, a
traitor to our cause. Where force could be employed, it was not spared: the troops of the Begum
were driven away and dispersed; their guns taken;
her fort, and the outward walls of her house seized
and occupied by our troops, at the Nabob's requisition; and her chief agents imprisoned and put in
irons. No further step was left. And in this situa.
? ? ? ? 56 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
tion they still remain, and are to continue (excepting
only a remission of the irons) until the final liquida
tion of the payment; and if then you deem it proper,
no possible means of offence being left in her hands
or those of her agents, all her lands and property
having been taken, I mean, with your sanction, to restore her house and servants to her, and hope to be favored with your early reply, as I expect that a few
days will complete the final surrender of all that is
further expected from the Begum. "
There are some things in this letter which I shall
beg your Lordships to remark. There is mention
made of a few preliminary severities used by Mr.
Middleton, in order to get at their money. Well,
he did get at the money, and he got a bond for the
payment of an additional sum, which they thought
proper to fix at about six hundred thousand pounds,
to which was added another usurious bond for sixty
thousand; and in order to extort these forced bonds,
and to make up their aggravated crimes of usury,
violence, and oppression, they put these eunuchs into prison, without food and water, and loaded their limbs with fetters. This was their second imprisonment; and what followed these few severities your Lordships will remark, - still more severities. They
continued to persecute, to oppress, to work upon
these men by torture and by the fear of torture, till
at last, having found that all their proceedings were
totally ineffectual, they desire the women to surrender their house; though it is in evidence before you, that to remove a woman from her own house to another house without her consent is an outrage of the greatest atrocity, on account of which many women
have not only threatened, but have actually put them
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 57
selves to death. Mr. Hastings himself, in the case of
Munny Begum, had considered such a proposition as
the last degree of outrage that could be offered. These
women offered to go from house to house while their
residence was searched; but "No," say their tormentors, " the treasure may be bricked up, in so large
a house, in such a manner that we cannot find it. "
But to proceed with the treatment of these unfortunate men. I will read to your Lordships a letter of
Mr. Middleton to Captain Leonard Jaques, commanding at Fyzabad, 18th March, 1782.
SIR, -I have received your letter of the 13th
instant. The two prisoners, Behar and Jewar Ali
Khan, having violated their written solemn engagement with me for the payment of the balance due to
the Honorable Company on the Nabob's assignments
accepted by them, and declining giving me any satisfactory assurances on that head, I am under the disagreeable necessity of recurring to severities to enforce the said payment. This is, therefore, to desire that you immediately cause them to be put in irons,
and kept so until I shall arrive at Fyzabad, to take
further measures, as may be necessary. "
Here is the answer of Captain Jaques to Mr. Middleton.
"April 23d, 1782.
" SIR,-Allow me the honor of informing you that
the place the prisoners Behar Ali Khan and Jewar
Ali Khlln are confined in is become so very unhealthy, by the number obliged to be on duty in so
confined a place at this hot season of the year, and
so situated, that no reduction can with propriety be
? ? ? ? 1h8 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
made from their guard, it being at such a distance
from the battalion. "
You see, my Lords, what a condition these unfortunate persons were in at that period; you see they were put in irons, in a place highly unhealthy; and
from this you will judge of the treatment which
followed the few severities. The first yielded a bond
for 600,0001. ; the second, a bond for 60,0001. ; the
third was intended to extort the payment of these
bonds, and completed their series.
I will now read a letter from Captain Jaques to Mr.
Middleton, from the printed Minutes, dated Palace,
Fyzabad, May 18th, 1782, consequently written nearly a month after the former.
" SIR, -- The prisoners Behar and Jewar Ali Khan,
who seem to be very sickly, have requested their
irons might be taken off for a few days, that they
might take medicine, and walk about the garden of
the place where they are confined, to assist the medicine in its operation. Now, as I am sure they would be equally as secure without their irons as
with them, I think it my duty to inform you of this
request, and desire to know your pleasure concerning it.
(Signed) "LEONARD JAQUES. "
On the 22d May, 1782, Captain Jaques's humane
proposal is thus replied to by Mr. Middleton.
"I am sorry it is not in my power to comply with
your proposal of easing the prisoners for a few days
of their fetters. Much as my humanity may be
touched by their sufferings, I should think it inex
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FIFTH DAY. 59
pedient to afford them any alleviation while they persist in a breach of their contract with me; and, indeed, no indulgence could be shown them without the authority of the Nabob, who, instead of consenting to moderate the rigors of their situation, would
be most willing to multiply them.
(Signed) "NATTHANIEL MIDDLETON. "
I will now call your Lordships' attention to other
letters connected with this transaction.
Letter from Major Gilpin to Mr. Middleton, June 5th,
1782.
" SIR, - Agreeably to your instructions, I went to
the prisoners, Behar and Jewar Ali Khan, accompanied by Hoolas Roy, who read the papers respecting
the balance now due, &c. , &c.
" In general terms they expressed concern at not
being able to discharge the same without the assistance of the Begum, and requested indulgence to send
a message to her on that subject, and in the evening
they would give an answer.
" I went at the time appointed for the answer, but
did not receive a satisfactory one; in consequence of
which I desired them to be ready, at the shortest notice, to proceed to Lucknow, and explained to them
every particular contained in your letter of the 1st
instant respecting them.
"Yesterday morning I sent for Letafit Ali Khan,
and desired him to go to the Bhow Begum, and deliver the substance of my instructions to her, which
he did, and returned with the inclosed letter from
her. From some circumstances which I have heard
to-day, I am hopeful the prisoners will soon think
? ? ? ? 60 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
seriously of their removal, and pay the balance rather than submit themselves to an inconvenient journey to Lucknow. "
To Major Gilpin, commanding at Fyzabad, from Mr.
Middleton.
"SIR,- -I have been favored with your letter of
the 5th instant, informing me of the steps you had
taken in consequence of my instructions of the 1st,
and covering a letter from the Bhow Begum, which
is so unsatisfactory that I cannot think of returning
an answer to it. Indeed, as all correspondence between the Begum and me has long been stopped, I request you will be pleased to inform her that I by
no means wish to resume it, or maintain any friendly
intercourse with her, until she has made good my
claim upon her for the balance due.
"I have now, in conformity to my former instructions, to desire that the two prisoners, Behar
and Jewar Ali Khan, may be immediately sent,
under a sufficient guard, to Lucknow, unless, upon
your imparting to them this intimation, either they
or the Begum should actually pay the balance, or
give you such assurances or security for the assets to
be immediately forthcoming as you think can be relied upon; in which case you will of course suspend
the execution of this order. "
Mr. Richard Johnson to Major Gilpin. Luclcnow,
24th June, 1782.
"SIR, - I have received the honor of your letter of
the 20th. The prisoners arrived here this morning.
Lieutenant Crow has delivered them over to Captain
Waugh, and returns to you in a day or two.
?
