Hastings obtained his
greatest power, and since that time; and then we
shall be able to enter fully and explicitly into the
hature of the cause: and I should hope that it will
pave the way and make everything easy for your
subsequent justice.
greatest power, and since that time; and then we
shall be able to enter fully and explicitly into the
hature of the cause: and I should hope that it will
pave the way and make everything easy for your
subsequent justice.
Edmund Burke
?
?
?
SPEECH IN OPENING.
-FIRST DAY.
383
that people have to novelty and change. They have
stood firm on their ancient base; they have cast
their roots deep in their native soil, -- perhaps because they have never spread them anywhere else
than in their native soil. Their blood, their opinions, and the soil of their country make one consistent piece, admitting no mixture, no adulteration, no improvement: accordingly, their religion has made
no converts, their dominion has made no conquests;
but in proportion as their laws and opinions were
~concentred within themselves, and hindered from
spreading abroad, they have doubled their force at
home. They have existed in spite of Mahomedan
and Portuguese bigotry, -- in spite of Tartarian and
Arabian tyranny, in spite of all the fury of successive foreign conquest, - in spite of a more formidable
foe, the avarice of the English dominion.
I have spoken now, my Lords, of what their principles are, their laws and religious institutions, in point
of force and stability; I have given instances of their
force in the very circumstance in which all the institutions of mankind in other respects show their weaknless. They have existed, when the country has been otherwise subdued. ' This alone furnishes full proof
that there must be some powerful influence resulting
from them beyond all our little fashionable theories
upon such subjects.
The second consideration in the Gentoo institutions
is their beneficial effects, moral and civil. The policy,
civil or religidus, or, as theirs is, composed of both,
that makes a people happy and a state flourishing,
(putting further and higher considerations out of the
way, w. hich are not now before us,) must undoubtedly, so far as human considerations prevail, be a pol
? ? ? ? 384 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
icy wisely conceived in any scheme of government.
It is confirmed by all observation, that, where the
Hindoo religion has been established, that country
has been flourishing. We have seen some patterns
remaining to this day. The very country which is
to be the subject of your Lordships' judicial inquiry
is an instance, by an entire change of government,
of the different effects resulting from the rapacity of
a foreign hand, and the paternal, lenient, protecting
arm of a native government, formed on the long con:
nection of prejudice and power. I shall give you its
state under the Hindoo government from a book
written by a very old servant of the Company, whose
authority is of the greater weight, as. the very destruction of all this scheme of government is the great object of the author. The author, Mr. Holwell, divides the country of
Bengal into its different provinces. He supposes
what they then paid to the supreme government;
he supposes what the country is capable of yielding;
and his project is, to change entirely the application
df the revenues of the country, and to secure the
whole into the hands of government. In enumerating these provinces, at last he comes to the province of Burdwan.
" In truth," (says this author,) " it would be almost cruelty to molest this happy people; for in this
district are the only vestiges of the beauty, purity,
piety, regularity, equity, and strictness of the ancient
Hindostan government. Here the property as well
as the liberty of the people are inviolate. Here no
robberies are heard of, either public or private. The
traveller, either with or without merchandise, becomes the immediate care of the government, which
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN' OPENING. -- FI4ST DAY. 385
allots him guards, without ally expense, to conduct
him from stage to stage; and these are accountable
for the safety and accommodation of his person and
effects. At the end of the first stage he is delivered over, with certain benevolent formalities, to the
guards of the next,. who, after interrogating the traveller as to the usage he had received in his journey,
dismiss the first guard with a written certificate,of their behavior, and a receipt for the traveller
and his effects; which certificate and receipt are returnable to the commanding officer of the first stage,
who registers the same, and regularly reports it to
the rajah.
"In this form the traveller is passed through the;
country; and if he only passes, he is not. suffered to:
be at any expense for food, accommodation, or carriage for his merchandise or baggage: but it is other --
wise, if he is permitted to make any residence in one
place above three days, unless occasioned by sickness,
or any unavoidable accident. If anything is lost in
this district, -- for instance, a bag of money or other
valuables, - the person who finds it hangs it upon the
next tree, and. gives notice to the nearest chowkey,
or place of guard, the officer of which orders immediate publication of the same by beat of tomtom,, or
drum. "
These, my Lords, are the effects universally produced by the Hindoo polity throughout that vast region, before it was distorted and put out of frame by the barbarism of foreign conquests. Some choice,
reserved spots continued to flourish under it to the
year 1756. Some remained till Mr. Hastings obtained;
the means of utterly defacing them. Such was the,
prospect of Benares under the happy government of'
VOL. IX. 25
? ? ? ? 386 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Bulwant Sing. Such was the happy state of the
same Benares in the happy days of Cheyt Sing, until,
in the year 1781, Mr. Hastings introduced his reform
into that country.
Having stated the general outline of the manners
of the original people of Hindostan, having stated
the general principles of their policy, which either
prohibit connection, or oblige us to a connection very
different from what we have hitherto used towards
them, I shall leave it to your Lordships' judgment
whether you will suffer such fair monuments of wisdom and benevolence to be defaced by the rapacity of your governors. I hope I have not gone out of
my way to bring before you any circumstance relative to the Gentoo religion and manners, further than as they relate to the spirit of our government over
them; for though there never was such food for the
curiosity of the human mind as is found in the manners of this people, I pass it totally over.
I wish to divide this preliminary view into six
periods; and your Lordships'will consider that of
the Hindoos,' which I have now. mentioned, as the
first era.
The second era is an era of great misfortune to
that country, and to the world in general: I mean,
thle time of the prophet Mahomed. The enthusiasm
which animated his first followers, the despotic power
which religion obtained through that enthusiasm, and
the advantages derived from both over the enervated
great empires, and broken, disunited, lesser governments of the world, extended the influence of that proud and domineering sect from the banks of the
Ganges to the banks of the Loire.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 387
This second period is the era of the Arabs. These
people made a great and lasting impression on India.
They established, very early, Mahomedan sovereigns
in all parts of it, particularly in the kingdom of Bengal, which is the principal object of our present inquiry. They held that kingdom for a long series of years, under a dynasty of thirty-three kings, - having begun their conquest and founded their dominion in Bengal not very long after the time of their prophet.
These people, when they first settled in India, attempted, with the ferocious arm of their prophetic
sword, to change the religion and manners of that
country; but at length perceiving that their cruelty
wearied out itself, and never could touch the constancy of the sufferers, they permitted the native
people of the country to remain in quiet, and left
the Mahomedan religion to operate upon them as it
could, by appealing to the ambition or avarice of the
great, or by taking the lower people, who had lost
their castes, into this new sect, and thus, from the
refuse of the Gentoo, increasing the bounds of the
Mahomedan religion. They left many. of the ancient
rajahs of the country possessed of an inferior sovereignty; and where the strength of the country, or
other circumstances, would not permit this subordination, they suffered them to continue in a separate
state, approaching to independence, if not wholly independent.
The Mahomedans, during the period of the Arabs,
never expelled or destroyed the native Gentoo nobil-'ity, zemindars, or landholders of the country. They
all, or almost all, remained fixed in their places,
properties, and dignities; and the shadows of several
of them remain under our jurisdiction.
? ? ? ? 888 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
The next, which is the third era, is an era the
more necessary to observe upon, because Mr. Hastings has made many applications to it in his defence
before the Commons: namely, the invasion of the Tartars, or the era of Tamerlane. These Tartars did not
establish themselves on the ruins of the Hindoos.
Their conquests were over the other Mahomedans:
for Tamerlane invaded Hindostan, as he invaded other countries, in the character of the great reformer
of the Mahomedan religion. He came as a sort of
successor to the rights of the Prophet, upon a divine title. He struck at all the Mahomedan princes
who reigned at that time. He considered them as
apostates, or at least as degenerated from the faith,
and as tyrants abusing their power. To facilitate his
conquests over these, he was often obliged to come
to a sort of a composition with the people of the
country he invaded. Tamerlane had' neither time
nor means nor inclination to dispossess the ancient
rajahs of the country.
Your Lordships will observe that I propose nothing more than to give you an idea of the principles of policy which prevailed in these several revolutions, and not an history of the furious military achievements of a barbarous invader. Historians,
indeed, are generally very liberal of their information concerning everything but what we ought to
be very anxious to know. They tell us that India
was conquered by Tamerlane, and conquered in such
a year. The year will be found to coincide somewhere, I believe, with the end of the fourteenth
century. Thinking the mere fact as of little moment, and its chronology as nothing, but thinking
the policy very material, which, indeed, is to be
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 389
collected only here and there, in various books
written with various views, I shall beg leave to lay
before you a very remarkable circumstance relative
to that policy, and taken from the same book to
which I formerly referred, Mr. Holwell's.
"When the Hindoo rajahs, or princes of Hindostan, submitted to Tamerlane, it was on these capital stipulations: that the emperor should marry a daughter of Rajah Cheyt Sing's house; that the
head of this house should be in perpetuity governors of the citadel of Agra, and anoint the king at
his coronation; and that the emperors should never
impose the jessera (or poll-tax) upon the Hindoos. "
Here was a conqueror, as he is called, coming in
upon terms; mixing his blood with that of the native nobility of the country he conquered, and, in
consequence of this mixture, placing them in succession upon the throne of the country he subdued;
making one of them even hereditary constable of
the capital of his kingdom; and thereby. putting his
posterity as a pledge into their hands. What is full
as remarkable, he freed the HIindoos forever from
that tax which the Mahomedans have laid upon
every country over which the sword of Mahomet
prevailed, --namely, a capitation tax upon all who
do not profess the religion of. the Mahomedans.
But the Hindoos,' by express charter, were exempted from that mark of servitude, and thereby declared
not to be a conquered people. The native princes,
in all their transactions with the Mogul government,
carried the evident marks of this free condition in
a noble independency of spirit. Within their own
districts the authority of many of them seemed entire. We are often led into mistakes concerning
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the government of Hindostan, by comparing it with
those governments where the prince is armed with
a full, speculative, entire authority, and where the
great people have, with great titles, no privileges at
all, or, having privileges, have those privileges only
as subjects. But in Hiindostan the modes, the degrees, the circumstances of subjection varied infinitely. In some places hardly a trace at all of subjection was to be discerned; in some the rajahs were almost assessors of the throne, as in this case of
the Rajah Cheyt Sing. These circumstances mark,
that Tamerlane, however he may be indicated by
the odious names of Tartar and Conqueror, was no
barbarian; that the people who submitted to him
did not submit with the abject submission of slaves
to the sword of a conqueror, but admitted a great
supreme emperor, who was just, prudent, and politic,
instead of the ferocious, oppressive, lesser Mahomedan sovereigns, who had before forced their way by
the sword into the country.
That country resembled more a republic of princes with a great chief at their head than a territory
in absolute, uniform, systematic subjection from one
end to the other, -in which light Mr. Hastings and
others of late have thought proper, to consider it. According to them, if a subordinate prince, like Cheyt
Sing, was not ready to pay any exorbitant sum on
instant demand, or submit to any extent of fine which
should be inflicted upon him by the mere will of the
person who called robbery a fine, and who took the
measure of that fine without either considering the
means of paying or the degree of delinquency that
justified it, their properties, liberties, and lives were
instantly forfeited. The rajahs of that country were
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 391
armed; they had fortresses for their security; they
had troops. In tlie receipt of both their own and the
imperial revenue, their securities for justice were in
their own hands: but the policy of the Mogul princes
very rarely led them to push that people to such extremity as it is supposed that on every slight occasion we have a right to push those who are the subjects
of our pretended conquest.
Mr. Holwell throws much light on this policy,
which became the standing law of the empire.
In the unfortunate wars which followed the death
of Mauz-o-Din, " Sevajee Cheyt Sing," (the great' rajah we have just mentioned,) " with a select body of Rajpoots, by a well-conducted retreat recovered. Agra,
and was soon after reconciled to the king [the Mogul]
and admitted to his favor, - conformable to the steady
policy of this government, in keeping a good understanding with the principal rajahs, and more especially with the head of this house, who is ever capable of
raising and fomenting a very formidable party upon
any intended revolution in this despotic and precarious monarchy. "
You see that it was the monarchy that was precarious, not the rights of the subordinate chiefs. Your Lordships see, that, notwithstanding our ideas of Orielltal despotism, under the successors. of Tamerlane, these principal rajahs, instead of being called wretches, and treated as such, as Mr. Hastings has thought it Uocoming to call and treat them, when they were
in arms against their sovereign, were regarded with
respect, and were admitted to easy reconciliations;
because, in reality, in their occasional hostilities,
they~ were not properly rebellious subjects, but princes often asserting their natural rights and the just constitution of the country.
? ? ? ? :92 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
This view of the policy which prevailed during the
dynasty of Tamerlane naturally conducts me to the
next, which is the fourth era in this history: I mean
the era of the Emperor Akbar. He was the first of
the successors of Tamerlane who obtained possession
of Bengal. It is easy to show of what nature his
conquest was. It was over the last Mahomedan
dynasty. He, too, like his predecessor, Tamerlane,
conquered the prince, not the country. It is a certain mark that it was not a conquered country in
the sense in which we commonly call a country
conquered, that the natives, great men and landholders, continued in every part in the possession
of their estates, and of the jurisdictions annexed to
them. It is true, that, in the several wars for the
succession to the Mogul empire, and in other of their
internal wars, severe revenges were taken, which bore
resemblance'to those taken in the wars of the Roses
in this country, where it was the common course, in
the heat of blood, -" Off with his head - so much
for Buckingham! " Yet, where the country again recovered its form and settlement, it recovered the spirit of a mild government. Whatever rigor was used with
regard to the Mallomedan adventurers from Persia,
Turkey, and other parts, who filled the places of servile grandeur in the Mogul court, the Hindoos were
a favored, protected, gently treated people.
The next, which is the fifth era, is a troubled and
vexatious period, -the era of the independent Subahs of Bengal. Five of these subahs, or viceroys, governed from about the year 1717, or thereabouts.
They grew into independence partly by the calamities and concussions of that empire, which happened during the disputes for the succession of Tamerlane.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 393
and partly, and indeed principally, by the great shock
which the empire received when Thamas Kouli Khan
broke into that country, carried off its revenues, overturned the throne, and massacred not only many of
the chief nobility, but almost all the inhabitants of the
capital city. This rude shock, which that empire was
never able to recover, enabled the viceroys to become
independent; but their independence led to their ruin.
Those who had usurped upon their masters had servants who usurped upon them. Aliverdy Khan murdered his master, and opened a way into Bengal for a body of foreign invaders, the Mahrattas, who cruelly
harassed the country for several years. Their retreat
was at length purchased, and by a sum which is supposed to amount to five millions sterling. By this
purchase he secured the exhausted remains of an exhausted kingdom, and left it to his grandson, Surajah'Dowlah, in peace and poverty. On the fall of Surajah Dowlah, in 1756, commenced the last, which is the
sixth, - the era of the British empire.
On the fifth dynasty I have only to remark to your
Lordships, that at its close the Ilindoo chiefs were
almost everywhere found in possession of the country; that, although Aliverdy Khan was a cruel tyrant,
though he was an untitled usurper, though he racked
and tormented the people under his government,
urged, however, by an apparent necessity from an
invading army of one hundred thousand horse in his
dominions, -yet, under him, the rajahs still preserved
their rank, their dignity, their castles, their houses,
their seigniories, all the insignia of their situation,
and always the right, sometimes also the means, of
protecting their subordinate people, till the last and
unfortunate era of 1756.
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Through the whole of this sketch of history I wish
to impress but one great and important truth upon
your minds: namely, that, through all these revolutions in government and changes in power, an Hindoo polity, and the spirit of an Hindoo government, did
more or less exist in that province with which he was
concerned, until it was finally to be destroyed by Mr.
Hastings.
My Lords, I have gone through all the eras precedent to those of the British power in India, and am
come to the first of those eras. Mr. Hastings existed
in India, and was a servant of the Company before
that era, and had his education between both. He is
an antediluvian with regard to the British dominion
in Bengal. He was coexistent with all the acts and
monuments of that revolution, and had no small share.
in all the abuses of that abusive period which preceded
his actual government. But as it was during, that
transit from Eastern to Western power that most of
the abuses had their origin, it will not be perfectly
easy for your Lordships thoroughly to enter into the
nature and circumstances of them without an explanation of the principal events that happened from the year 1756 until the commencement of Mr. Hastings's
government, - during a good part of which time we
do not often lose sight of him. If I find it agreeable
to your Lordships, if I find that you wish to know
these annals of Indian suffering and British delinquency, if you desire that I should unfold the series of the transactions from 1756 to the period of Mr. Hastings's
government in 1771, that you may know how far he
promoted what was good, how far he rectified what
was evil, how far he abstained from innovation in
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. FIRST DAY. 395
tyranny, and contented himself with the old stock
of abuse, your Lordships will have the goodness to
consult the strength which from late indisposition
begins almost to fail me. And if you think the explanation is not time lost in this new world and in this new business, I shall venture to sketch out, as
briefly and with as much perspicuity as I can give
them, the leading events of that obscure and perplexed
period which intervened between the British settlement in 1757 and Mr. Hastings's government. If I should be so happy as to succeed in that attempt, your
Lordships' minds will be prepared for hearing this
cause. Then your Lordships will have a clear view
of the origin and nature of the abuses which prevailed
in that government before Mr.
Hastings obtained his
greatest power, and since that time; and then we
shall be able to enter fully and explicitly into the
hature of the cause: and I should hope that it will
pave the way and make everything easy for your
subsequent justice.
I therefore wish to stop at this period, in which Mr.
Hastings became active in the service, pretty near the
time when he began his political career: and here,
my Lords, I pause, wishing your indulgence at such
time as will suit your convenience for pursuing the
rest of this eventful history.
? ? ? ? SPEEC H
IN
OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1788.
M Y LORDS, - In what I had the honor of laying
before your Lordships yesterday, and in what I
may further trouble you with to-day, I wish to observe
a distinction, which if I did not lay down so perfectly
as I ought, I hope I shall now be able to mark it out
with sufficient exactness and perspicuity.
First, I beg leave to observe that what I shall think
necessary to state, as matter of preliminary explanation, in order to give your Lordships a true idea of the scene of action, of the instruments which Mr.
Hastings employed, and the effects which they produced,-all this I wish to be distinguished from matter brought to criminate. Even the matter, as
stated by me, which may be hereafter brought to
criminate, so far as it falls to my share at present, is
only to be considered, in this stage of the business,
as merely illustrative. Your Lordships are to expect,
as undoubtedly you will require, substantial matter
of crimination to be laid open. for that purpose at the
moment when the evidence to each charge is ready to
be produced to you. . Thus your Lordships will easily
separate historical illustration from criminal opening.
For instanlce, if I stated yesterday to your Lordships,
as I did, tle tyranny and cruelty of one of the usurp
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 397
ing viceroys, whose usurpation and whose vices led
the way to the destruction of his country and the
introduction of a foreign power, I do not mean to
charge Mr. Hastings with any part of that guilt:
what bears upon Mr. Hastings is his having avowedly
looked to such a tyrant and such a usurper as his
model, and followed that pernicious example with a
servile fidelity. *When I have endeavored to lay open
to your Lordships anythingz abusive, or leading to
abuse, from defects or errors in the constitution of
the Company's service, I did not mean to criminate
Mr. Hastings on any part of those defects and errors:
I state them to show that he took advantage of the
imperfections of the institution to let in his abuse of
the power. with which he was intrusted. If, for a
further instance, I have stated that in general the service of the India Company was insufficient in legal pay or emolument and abundant in the means of
illegal profit, I do not state that defect as owing to
Mr. Hastings; but I state it as a fact, to show in what
manner and on what pretences he did, fraudulently,
corruptly, and for the purposes of his own ambition,
take advantage of that defect, and, under color of
reformation, make an illegal, partial, corrupt rise of
emoluments to certain favored persons without regard
to the interests of the service at large, --increasing
rather than lessening the means of illicit emolument,
as well as loading the Company with many heavy and
ruinous expenses in avowed salaries and allowances.
Having requested your Lordships to keep in mind,
which I trust you would do even without my taking
the liberty of suggesting it to you, these necessary
distinctions, I shall revert to the period at which I
closed yesterday, that great and memorable period
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which has remotely given occasion to the trial of this
day.
My Lords, to obtain empire is common; to govern
it well has been rare indeed. To chastise the guilt
of those who have been instruments of imperial sway
over other nations by the high superintending justice
of the sovereign state has not many striking examples
among any people. Hitherto we have not furnished
our contingent to the records of honor. We have
been confounded with the herd of conquerors. Our
dominion has been a vulgar thing. But we begin to
emerge; and I hope that a severe inspection of ourselves, a purification of our own offences, a lustration
of the exorbitances of our own power, is a glory reserved to this time, to this nation, and to this august triburnal.
The year 1756 is a memorable era in the history
of the world: it introduced a new nation from the
remotest verge of the Western world, with new manners, new customs, new institutions, new opinions, new laws, into the heart of Asia.
My Lords, if, in that part of Asia whose native
regular government was then broken up, -if, at the
moment when it had fallen into darkness and confusion from having become the prey and almost the sport of the ambition of its home-born grandees, - if, in that
gloomy season, a star had risen from the West, that
would prognosticate a better generation, and would
shed down the sweet influences of order, peace, science, and security to the natives of that vexed and harassed country, we should have been covered with
genuine honor. It would have been a beautiful and
noble spectacle to mankind.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 399
Indeed, something might have been expected of
the kind, when a new dominion emanated from a
learned and enlightened part of the world in the
most enlightened period of its existence. Still more
might it have been expected, when that dominion was
found to issue from the bosom of a free country, that
it would have carried with it the full benefit of the
vital principle of the British liberty and Constitution,
though its municipal forms were not communicable,
or at least the advantage of the liberty and spirit
of the British Constitution. Had this been the case,
(alas! it was not,) you would have been saved the
trouble of this day. It might have been expected, too,
that, in that enlightened state of the world, influenced
by the best religion, and from an improved description of that best religion, (I mean the Christian reformed religion,) that we should have done honor to Europe, to letters, to laws, to religion, - done honor
to all the circumstances of which in this island we
boast ourselves, at the great and critical moment of
that revolution.
My Lords, it has happened otherwise. It is now
left for us to repair our former errors. Resuming
the history where I broke off yesterday by your indulgence to my weakness, - Surajah Dowlah was the
adopted grandson of Aliverdy Khan, a cruel and ferocious; tyrant, the manner of whose acquisition of
power I have already stated. He came too young
and unexperienced to that throne of usurpation. It
was a usurpation yet green in the country, and the
country felt uneasy under it. It had not the advantage of that prescriptive usage, that inveterate habit,
that traditionary opinion, which a long continuance
of any system of government secures to it. The only
? ? ? ? 400 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
real secilrity which Surajah Dowlah's government
could possess was the security of an army. But the
great aim of this prince and his predecessor was to supply the weakness of his government by the strength of his purse; he therefore amassed treasures by all
ways and on all hands. But as the Indian princes,
in general, are as unwisely tenacious of their treasure
as they are rapacious in getting it, the more money
he amassed, the more he felt the effects of poverty.
The consequence was, that their armies were unpaid,
and, being unpaid or irregularly paid, were undisciplined, disorderly, unfaithful. In this situation, a
young prince, confiding more in the appearances
than examining into the reality of things, undertook
(from motives which the House of Commons, with
all their industry to discover the circumstances, have
found it difficult to make out) to attack a little miserable trading fort that we had erected at Calcutta.
He succeeded in that attempt only because success
in that attempt was easy. A close imprisonment of
the whole settlement followed, -- not owing, I believe, to the direct will of the prince, but, what will
always happen when the will of the prince is but too
much the law, to a gross abuse of his power by his
lowest servants, - by which one hlundred and twenty
or more of our countrymen perished miserably in a
dungeon, by a fate too tragical for me to be desirous
to relate, and too well known to stand in need of it.
At the time that this event happened, there was at
the same time a concurrence of other events, which,
from this partial and momentary wealkness, displayed
the strength of Great Britain in Asia. For some
years before, the French and English troops began,
on the coast of Coromandel, to exhibit the power,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 401
force, and efficacy of European discipline. As we
daily looked for a war with France, our settlements
on that coast were in some degree armed. Lord
Pigot, then Governor of Madras,- Lord Pigot, the
preserver and the victim of the British dominion in
Asia, -- detached such of the Company's force as
could be collected and spared, and such of his Majesty's ships as were on that station, to the assistance of Calcutta. And -- to hasten this history to its
conclusion -- the daring and commanding genius of
Clive, the patient and firm ability of Watson, the
treachery of Mir Jaffier, and the battle of Plassey
gave us at once the patronage of a kingdom and the
command of all its treasures. We negotiated with
Mir Jaffier for the viceroyal throne of his master.
On that throne we seated him. And we obtained, on
our part, immense sums of money. We obtained a
million sterling for the Company, upwards of a million for individuals, in the whole a sum of about two millions two hundred and thirty thousand pounds for
various purposes, from the prince whom we had set
up. We obtained, too, the town of Calcutta more
completely than we had before possessed it, and the
twenty-four districts adjoining. This was the first
small seminal principle of the immense territorial
acquisitions we have since made in India.
Many circumstances of this acquisition I pass by.
There is a sacred veil to be drawn over the beginnings of all governments. Ours in India had an
origin like those which time has sanctified by obscurity. Time, in the origin of most governments, has thrown this mysterious veil over them; prudence
and discretion make it necessary to throw something
of the same drapery over more recent foundations, in
VOL. IX. 26
? ? ? ? 402 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which otherwise the fortune, the genius, the talents,
and military virtue of this nation never shone more
conspicuously. But whatever necessity might hide
or excuse or palliate, in the acquisition of power, a
wise nation, when it has once made a revolution upon its own principles and for its own ends, rests there.
The first step to empire is revolution, by which power
is conferred; the next is good laws, good order, good
institutions, to give that power stability. I am sorry
to say that the reverse of this policy was the principle on which the gentlemen in India acted. It was
such as tended to make the new government as unstable as the old. By the vast sums of money acquired by individuals upon this occasion, by the immense sudden prodigies of fortune, it was discovered that a revolution in Bengal was a mine much more
easily worked and infinitely more productive than
the mines of Potosi and Mexico. It was found that
the work was not only very lucrative, but not at all
difficult. Where Clive forded a deep water upon an
unknown bottom, he left a bridge for his successors,
over which the lame could hobble and the blind
might grope their way. There was not at that time
a knot of clerks in a counting-house, there was not
a captain of a band of ragged topasses, that looked
for anything less than the deposition of subahs and
the sale of kingdoms. Accordingly, this revolution,
which ought to have precluded other revolutions, unlfortunately became fruitful of them; and when Lord
Clive returned to Europe, to enjoy his fame and fortune in his own country, there arose another description of men, who thought that a revolution might bf
made upon his revolution, and as lucrative to them
as his was to the first projectors. Scarcely was Mir
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND. DAY. 403
Jaffier, Lord Clive's nabob, seated on his musnud,
than they immediately, or in a short time, projected
another revolution, a revolution which was to unsettle all the former had settled, a revolution to make
way for new disturbances and new wars, and which
led to that long chain of peculation which ever since
has afflicted and oppressed Bengal.
If ever there was a time when Bengal should have
had respite from internal revolutions, it was this.
The governor forced upon the natives was now upon the throne. All the great lords of the country,
both Gentoos and Mahomedans, were uneasy, discontented, and disobedient, and some absolutely in arms,
and refusing to recognize the prince we had set up.
An imminent invasion of the Mahrattas, an actual
invasion headed by the son of the Mogul, the revenues on account of the late shock very ill collected
even where the country was in some apparent quiet,
an hungry treasury at Calcutta, an empty treasury at
Moorshedabad, - everything demanded tranquillity,
and with it order and economy. In this situation
it was resolved to make a new and entirely mercenary revolution, and to set up to sale the government, secured to its present possessor by every tie of public faith and every sacred obligation which
could bind or influence mankind. This second
revolution forms that period in the Bengal history
which had the most direct influence upon all the
subsequent transactions. It introduces some of the
persons who were most active in the succeeding
scenes, and from that time to this has given its
tone and character to the British affairs and government. It marks and specifies the origin and
true principle of all the abuses -which Mr. Has:t
? ? ? ? 404 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ings was afterwards appointed to correct, and which
the Commons charge that he continued and aggravated: namely, the venal depositions and venal exaltations of the country powers; the taking of bribes and corrupt presents from all parties in those
changes; the vitiating and maiming the Company's
records; the suppression of public correspondence;
corrupt combinations and conspiracies; perfidy in
negotiation established into principle; acts of the
most. atrocious wickedness justified upon purity of
intention; mock-trials and collusive acquittals among
the parties in common guilt; and in the end, the
Court of Directors supporting the scandalous breach
of their own orders. I shall state the particulars
of this second revolution more at large.
Soon after the revolution which had seated Mir
Jaffier on the viceroyal throne, the spirit of the
Mogul empire began, as it were, to make one faint
struggle before it finally expired. The then heir
to that throne, escaping from the hands of those
who had held his father prisoner, had put himself
at the head of several chiefs collected under the
standard of his house, and appeared in force on the
frontiers of the provinces of Bengal and Bahar, upon
both which he made some impression. This alarmed the new powers, the Nabob Mir Jaffier, and the
Presidency of Calcutta; and as in a common cause,
and by the terms of their mutual alliance, they took
the field against him. The Nabob's eldest son and
heir-apparent commanded in chief. Major Calliaud
commanded the English forces under the government of Calcutta. Mr. Holwell was in the temporary possession of the Presidency. Mr. Vansittart
was hourly expected to supersede him. Mr. Warren
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 405
Hastings, a young gentleman about twenty-seven
years of age, was Resident for the Company at the
durbar, or court,' of Mir Jaffier, our new-created
Nabob of Bengal, allied to this country by the most
solemn treaties that can bind men; for which treaties he had paid, and was then paying, immense
sums of money. Mr. Warren Hastings was the
pledge in his hands for the honor of the British nation, and their fidelity to their engagements.
In this situation, Mr: Holwell, whom the terrible
example of the Black Hole at Calcutta had not
cured of ambition, thought an hour was not to be
lost in accomplishing a revolution and selling the
reigning Nabob.
My Lords, there was in the house of Mir Jaffier,
ill his court, and in his family, a man of an intriguing,. crafty, subtle, and at the same time bold, daring, desperate, bloody, and ferocious character, called Cossim Ali Kbhan. He' was the son-in-law of Mir
Jaffier; and he made no other use of this affinity
than to find some means to dethrone and to murder
him. This was the person in whose school of politics
Mr. Hastings made his first studies, and whose conduct he quotes as his example, and for whose friends,
agents, and favorites he has always shown a marked
predilection. This dangerous man was not long
without finding persons who observed his talents with
admiration, and who thought fit to employ him.
The Council at Calcutta was divided into two departments: one, the Council in general; the other a
Select Committee, which they had arranged for the
better carrying on their political affairs. But the Select Committee had no power of acting wholly without the Council at large, -- at least, finally and con
? ? ? ? 406 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
elusively. The Select Committee thought otherwise.
Between these litigant parties for power I shall not
determine on the merits, - thinking of nothing but
the use that was made of the power, to whomsoever
it belonged. This Secret Committee, then, without
communicating with the rest of the Council, formed
the plan for a second revolution. But the concurrence of Major Calliaud, who commanded the British
troops, was essential to the purpose, as it could not
be accomplished without force. Mr. Hastings's assistance was necessary, as it could not be accomplished without treachery.
These are the parties concerned in the intended
revolution. Mr. Holwell, who considered himself in
possession only of temporary power, was urged to precipitate the business; for if Mr. Vansittart should arrive before his plot could be finally put into executioni, he would have all the leading advantages of it, and Mr. Holwell would be considered only as a secondary instrument. But whilst Mr. Holwell, who
originally conceived this plot, urged forward the execution of it, in order that the chief share of the profits might fall to him, the Major, and possibly the
Resident, held back, till they might receive the sanction of the permanent governor, who was hourly expected, with whom one of them was connected, and
who was to carry with him the whole weight of the
authority of this kingdom. This difference produced
discussions. Holwell endeavored by his correspondence to stimulate Calliaud to this enterprise, which
without him could not be undertaken at all. But
Maj. or Calliaud had different views. He concurred
inwardly, as he tells us himself, in all the principles
of this intended revolution, in the propriety and ne
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 407
cessity of it. He only wished delay. But he gave
such powerful, solid, and satisfactory reasons, not
against the delay, but the very merits of the design
itself, exposing the injustice and the danger of it,
and the impossibility of mending by it their condition
in any respect, as must have damned it in the minds
of all rational men: at least it ought to have damned
it forever in his own. But you will see that IHolwell persevered in his plan, and that Major Calliaud
thought two things necessary: first, not wholly to
destroy the scheme, which he tells us he always approved, but to postpone the execution, -- and in the
mean time to delude the Nabob by the most strong,
direct, and sanguine assurances of friendship and
protection that it was possible to give to man.
Whilst the projected revolution stood suspended,whilst Mr. Holwell urged it forward, and Mr. Vansittart was expected every day to give it effect, - whilst Major Calliaud, with this design of ruining the. Nabob
lodged in his breast, suspended in execution, and
condemned in principle, kept the fairest face and the
most confidential interviews with that unfortunate
prince and his son, - as the operations of the campaign relaxed, the army drew near to Moorshedabad,
the capital, when a truly extraordinary scene happened, such I am sure the English annals before that
time had furnished no example of, nor will, I trust,
in ful-ure. I shall state it as one piece from beginning to end, reserving the events which intervened;
because, as I do not produce any part of this.
that people have to novelty and change. They have
stood firm on their ancient base; they have cast
their roots deep in their native soil, -- perhaps because they have never spread them anywhere else
than in their native soil. Their blood, their opinions, and the soil of their country make one consistent piece, admitting no mixture, no adulteration, no improvement: accordingly, their religion has made
no converts, their dominion has made no conquests;
but in proportion as their laws and opinions were
~concentred within themselves, and hindered from
spreading abroad, they have doubled their force at
home. They have existed in spite of Mahomedan
and Portuguese bigotry, -- in spite of Tartarian and
Arabian tyranny, in spite of all the fury of successive foreign conquest, - in spite of a more formidable
foe, the avarice of the English dominion.
I have spoken now, my Lords, of what their principles are, their laws and religious institutions, in point
of force and stability; I have given instances of their
force in the very circumstance in which all the institutions of mankind in other respects show their weaknless. They have existed, when the country has been otherwise subdued. ' This alone furnishes full proof
that there must be some powerful influence resulting
from them beyond all our little fashionable theories
upon such subjects.
The second consideration in the Gentoo institutions
is their beneficial effects, moral and civil. The policy,
civil or religidus, or, as theirs is, composed of both,
that makes a people happy and a state flourishing,
(putting further and higher considerations out of the
way, w. hich are not now before us,) must undoubtedly, so far as human considerations prevail, be a pol
? ? ? ? 384 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
icy wisely conceived in any scheme of government.
It is confirmed by all observation, that, where the
Hindoo religion has been established, that country
has been flourishing. We have seen some patterns
remaining to this day. The very country which is
to be the subject of your Lordships' judicial inquiry
is an instance, by an entire change of government,
of the different effects resulting from the rapacity of
a foreign hand, and the paternal, lenient, protecting
arm of a native government, formed on the long con:
nection of prejudice and power. I shall give you its
state under the Hindoo government from a book
written by a very old servant of the Company, whose
authority is of the greater weight, as. the very destruction of all this scheme of government is the great object of the author. The author, Mr. Holwell, divides the country of
Bengal into its different provinces. He supposes
what they then paid to the supreme government;
he supposes what the country is capable of yielding;
and his project is, to change entirely the application
df the revenues of the country, and to secure the
whole into the hands of government. In enumerating these provinces, at last he comes to the province of Burdwan.
" In truth," (says this author,) " it would be almost cruelty to molest this happy people; for in this
district are the only vestiges of the beauty, purity,
piety, regularity, equity, and strictness of the ancient
Hindostan government. Here the property as well
as the liberty of the people are inviolate. Here no
robberies are heard of, either public or private. The
traveller, either with or without merchandise, becomes the immediate care of the government, which
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN' OPENING. -- FI4ST DAY. 385
allots him guards, without ally expense, to conduct
him from stage to stage; and these are accountable
for the safety and accommodation of his person and
effects. At the end of the first stage he is delivered over, with certain benevolent formalities, to the
guards of the next,. who, after interrogating the traveller as to the usage he had received in his journey,
dismiss the first guard with a written certificate,of their behavior, and a receipt for the traveller
and his effects; which certificate and receipt are returnable to the commanding officer of the first stage,
who registers the same, and regularly reports it to
the rajah.
"In this form the traveller is passed through the;
country; and if he only passes, he is not. suffered to:
be at any expense for food, accommodation, or carriage for his merchandise or baggage: but it is other --
wise, if he is permitted to make any residence in one
place above three days, unless occasioned by sickness,
or any unavoidable accident. If anything is lost in
this district, -- for instance, a bag of money or other
valuables, - the person who finds it hangs it upon the
next tree, and. gives notice to the nearest chowkey,
or place of guard, the officer of which orders immediate publication of the same by beat of tomtom,, or
drum. "
These, my Lords, are the effects universally produced by the Hindoo polity throughout that vast region, before it was distorted and put out of frame by the barbarism of foreign conquests. Some choice,
reserved spots continued to flourish under it to the
year 1756. Some remained till Mr. Hastings obtained;
the means of utterly defacing them. Such was the,
prospect of Benares under the happy government of'
VOL. IX. 25
? ? ? ? 386 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Bulwant Sing. Such was the happy state of the
same Benares in the happy days of Cheyt Sing, until,
in the year 1781, Mr. Hastings introduced his reform
into that country.
Having stated the general outline of the manners
of the original people of Hindostan, having stated
the general principles of their policy, which either
prohibit connection, or oblige us to a connection very
different from what we have hitherto used towards
them, I shall leave it to your Lordships' judgment
whether you will suffer such fair monuments of wisdom and benevolence to be defaced by the rapacity of your governors. I hope I have not gone out of
my way to bring before you any circumstance relative to the Gentoo religion and manners, further than as they relate to the spirit of our government over
them; for though there never was such food for the
curiosity of the human mind as is found in the manners of this people, I pass it totally over.
I wish to divide this preliminary view into six
periods; and your Lordships'will consider that of
the Hindoos,' which I have now. mentioned, as the
first era.
The second era is an era of great misfortune to
that country, and to the world in general: I mean,
thle time of the prophet Mahomed. The enthusiasm
which animated his first followers, the despotic power
which religion obtained through that enthusiasm, and
the advantages derived from both over the enervated
great empires, and broken, disunited, lesser governments of the world, extended the influence of that proud and domineering sect from the banks of the
Ganges to the banks of the Loire.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 387
This second period is the era of the Arabs. These
people made a great and lasting impression on India.
They established, very early, Mahomedan sovereigns
in all parts of it, particularly in the kingdom of Bengal, which is the principal object of our present inquiry. They held that kingdom for a long series of years, under a dynasty of thirty-three kings, - having begun their conquest and founded their dominion in Bengal not very long after the time of their prophet.
These people, when they first settled in India, attempted, with the ferocious arm of their prophetic
sword, to change the religion and manners of that
country; but at length perceiving that their cruelty
wearied out itself, and never could touch the constancy of the sufferers, they permitted the native
people of the country to remain in quiet, and left
the Mahomedan religion to operate upon them as it
could, by appealing to the ambition or avarice of the
great, or by taking the lower people, who had lost
their castes, into this new sect, and thus, from the
refuse of the Gentoo, increasing the bounds of the
Mahomedan religion. They left many. of the ancient
rajahs of the country possessed of an inferior sovereignty; and where the strength of the country, or
other circumstances, would not permit this subordination, they suffered them to continue in a separate
state, approaching to independence, if not wholly independent.
The Mahomedans, during the period of the Arabs,
never expelled or destroyed the native Gentoo nobil-'ity, zemindars, or landholders of the country. They
all, or almost all, remained fixed in their places,
properties, and dignities; and the shadows of several
of them remain under our jurisdiction.
? ? ? ? 888 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
The next, which is the third era, is an era the
more necessary to observe upon, because Mr. Hastings has made many applications to it in his defence
before the Commons: namely, the invasion of the Tartars, or the era of Tamerlane. These Tartars did not
establish themselves on the ruins of the Hindoos.
Their conquests were over the other Mahomedans:
for Tamerlane invaded Hindostan, as he invaded other countries, in the character of the great reformer
of the Mahomedan religion. He came as a sort of
successor to the rights of the Prophet, upon a divine title. He struck at all the Mahomedan princes
who reigned at that time. He considered them as
apostates, or at least as degenerated from the faith,
and as tyrants abusing their power. To facilitate his
conquests over these, he was often obliged to come
to a sort of a composition with the people of the
country he invaded. Tamerlane had' neither time
nor means nor inclination to dispossess the ancient
rajahs of the country.
Your Lordships will observe that I propose nothing more than to give you an idea of the principles of policy which prevailed in these several revolutions, and not an history of the furious military achievements of a barbarous invader. Historians,
indeed, are generally very liberal of their information concerning everything but what we ought to
be very anxious to know. They tell us that India
was conquered by Tamerlane, and conquered in such
a year. The year will be found to coincide somewhere, I believe, with the end of the fourteenth
century. Thinking the mere fact as of little moment, and its chronology as nothing, but thinking
the policy very material, which, indeed, is to be
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 389
collected only here and there, in various books
written with various views, I shall beg leave to lay
before you a very remarkable circumstance relative
to that policy, and taken from the same book to
which I formerly referred, Mr. Holwell's.
"When the Hindoo rajahs, or princes of Hindostan, submitted to Tamerlane, it was on these capital stipulations: that the emperor should marry a daughter of Rajah Cheyt Sing's house; that the
head of this house should be in perpetuity governors of the citadel of Agra, and anoint the king at
his coronation; and that the emperors should never
impose the jessera (or poll-tax) upon the Hindoos. "
Here was a conqueror, as he is called, coming in
upon terms; mixing his blood with that of the native nobility of the country he conquered, and, in
consequence of this mixture, placing them in succession upon the throne of the country he subdued;
making one of them even hereditary constable of
the capital of his kingdom; and thereby. putting his
posterity as a pledge into their hands. What is full
as remarkable, he freed the HIindoos forever from
that tax which the Mahomedans have laid upon
every country over which the sword of Mahomet
prevailed, --namely, a capitation tax upon all who
do not profess the religion of. the Mahomedans.
But the Hindoos,' by express charter, were exempted from that mark of servitude, and thereby declared
not to be a conquered people. The native princes,
in all their transactions with the Mogul government,
carried the evident marks of this free condition in
a noble independency of spirit. Within their own
districts the authority of many of them seemed entire. We are often led into mistakes concerning
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the government of Hindostan, by comparing it with
those governments where the prince is armed with
a full, speculative, entire authority, and where the
great people have, with great titles, no privileges at
all, or, having privileges, have those privileges only
as subjects. But in Hiindostan the modes, the degrees, the circumstances of subjection varied infinitely. In some places hardly a trace at all of subjection was to be discerned; in some the rajahs were almost assessors of the throne, as in this case of
the Rajah Cheyt Sing. These circumstances mark,
that Tamerlane, however he may be indicated by
the odious names of Tartar and Conqueror, was no
barbarian; that the people who submitted to him
did not submit with the abject submission of slaves
to the sword of a conqueror, but admitted a great
supreme emperor, who was just, prudent, and politic,
instead of the ferocious, oppressive, lesser Mahomedan sovereigns, who had before forced their way by
the sword into the country.
That country resembled more a republic of princes with a great chief at their head than a territory
in absolute, uniform, systematic subjection from one
end to the other, -in which light Mr. Hastings and
others of late have thought proper, to consider it. According to them, if a subordinate prince, like Cheyt
Sing, was not ready to pay any exorbitant sum on
instant demand, or submit to any extent of fine which
should be inflicted upon him by the mere will of the
person who called robbery a fine, and who took the
measure of that fine without either considering the
means of paying or the degree of delinquency that
justified it, their properties, liberties, and lives were
instantly forfeited. The rajahs of that country were
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 391
armed; they had fortresses for their security; they
had troops. In tlie receipt of both their own and the
imperial revenue, their securities for justice were in
their own hands: but the policy of the Mogul princes
very rarely led them to push that people to such extremity as it is supposed that on every slight occasion we have a right to push those who are the subjects
of our pretended conquest.
Mr. Holwell throws much light on this policy,
which became the standing law of the empire.
In the unfortunate wars which followed the death
of Mauz-o-Din, " Sevajee Cheyt Sing," (the great' rajah we have just mentioned,) " with a select body of Rajpoots, by a well-conducted retreat recovered. Agra,
and was soon after reconciled to the king [the Mogul]
and admitted to his favor, - conformable to the steady
policy of this government, in keeping a good understanding with the principal rajahs, and more especially with the head of this house, who is ever capable of
raising and fomenting a very formidable party upon
any intended revolution in this despotic and precarious monarchy. "
You see that it was the monarchy that was precarious, not the rights of the subordinate chiefs. Your Lordships see, that, notwithstanding our ideas of Orielltal despotism, under the successors. of Tamerlane, these principal rajahs, instead of being called wretches, and treated as such, as Mr. Hastings has thought it Uocoming to call and treat them, when they were
in arms against their sovereign, were regarded with
respect, and were admitted to easy reconciliations;
because, in reality, in their occasional hostilities,
they~ were not properly rebellious subjects, but princes often asserting their natural rights and the just constitution of the country.
? ? ? ? :92 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
This view of the policy which prevailed during the
dynasty of Tamerlane naturally conducts me to the
next, which is the fourth era in this history: I mean
the era of the Emperor Akbar. He was the first of
the successors of Tamerlane who obtained possession
of Bengal. It is easy to show of what nature his
conquest was. It was over the last Mahomedan
dynasty. He, too, like his predecessor, Tamerlane,
conquered the prince, not the country. It is a certain mark that it was not a conquered country in
the sense in which we commonly call a country
conquered, that the natives, great men and landholders, continued in every part in the possession
of their estates, and of the jurisdictions annexed to
them. It is true, that, in the several wars for the
succession to the Mogul empire, and in other of their
internal wars, severe revenges were taken, which bore
resemblance'to those taken in the wars of the Roses
in this country, where it was the common course, in
the heat of blood, -" Off with his head - so much
for Buckingham! " Yet, where the country again recovered its form and settlement, it recovered the spirit of a mild government. Whatever rigor was used with
regard to the Mallomedan adventurers from Persia,
Turkey, and other parts, who filled the places of servile grandeur in the Mogul court, the Hindoos were
a favored, protected, gently treated people.
The next, which is the fifth era, is a troubled and
vexatious period, -the era of the independent Subahs of Bengal. Five of these subahs, or viceroys, governed from about the year 1717, or thereabouts.
They grew into independence partly by the calamities and concussions of that empire, which happened during the disputes for the succession of Tamerlane.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 393
and partly, and indeed principally, by the great shock
which the empire received when Thamas Kouli Khan
broke into that country, carried off its revenues, overturned the throne, and massacred not only many of
the chief nobility, but almost all the inhabitants of the
capital city. This rude shock, which that empire was
never able to recover, enabled the viceroys to become
independent; but their independence led to their ruin.
Those who had usurped upon their masters had servants who usurped upon them. Aliverdy Khan murdered his master, and opened a way into Bengal for a body of foreign invaders, the Mahrattas, who cruelly
harassed the country for several years. Their retreat
was at length purchased, and by a sum which is supposed to amount to five millions sterling. By this
purchase he secured the exhausted remains of an exhausted kingdom, and left it to his grandson, Surajah'Dowlah, in peace and poverty. On the fall of Surajah Dowlah, in 1756, commenced the last, which is the
sixth, - the era of the British empire.
On the fifth dynasty I have only to remark to your
Lordships, that at its close the Ilindoo chiefs were
almost everywhere found in possession of the country; that, although Aliverdy Khan was a cruel tyrant,
though he was an untitled usurper, though he racked
and tormented the people under his government,
urged, however, by an apparent necessity from an
invading army of one hundred thousand horse in his
dominions, -yet, under him, the rajahs still preserved
their rank, their dignity, their castles, their houses,
their seigniories, all the insignia of their situation,
and always the right, sometimes also the means, of
protecting their subordinate people, till the last and
unfortunate era of 1756.
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Through the whole of this sketch of history I wish
to impress but one great and important truth upon
your minds: namely, that, through all these revolutions in government and changes in power, an Hindoo polity, and the spirit of an Hindoo government, did
more or less exist in that province with which he was
concerned, until it was finally to be destroyed by Mr.
Hastings.
My Lords, I have gone through all the eras precedent to those of the British power in India, and am
come to the first of those eras. Mr. Hastings existed
in India, and was a servant of the Company before
that era, and had his education between both. He is
an antediluvian with regard to the British dominion
in Bengal. He was coexistent with all the acts and
monuments of that revolution, and had no small share.
in all the abuses of that abusive period which preceded
his actual government. But as it was during, that
transit from Eastern to Western power that most of
the abuses had their origin, it will not be perfectly
easy for your Lordships thoroughly to enter into the
nature and circumstances of them without an explanation of the principal events that happened from the year 1756 until the commencement of Mr. Hastings's
government, - during a good part of which time we
do not often lose sight of him. If I find it agreeable
to your Lordships, if I find that you wish to know
these annals of Indian suffering and British delinquency, if you desire that I should unfold the series of the transactions from 1756 to the period of Mr. Hastings's
government in 1771, that you may know how far he
promoted what was good, how far he rectified what
was evil, how far he abstained from innovation in
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. FIRST DAY. 395
tyranny, and contented himself with the old stock
of abuse, your Lordships will have the goodness to
consult the strength which from late indisposition
begins almost to fail me. And if you think the explanation is not time lost in this new world and in this new business, I shall venture to sketch out, as
briefly and with as much perspicuity as I can give
them, the leading events of that obscure and perplexed
period which intervened between the British settlement in 1757 and Mr. Hastings's government. If I should be so happy as to succeed in that attempt, your
Lordships' minds will be prepared for hearing this
cause. Then your Lordships will have a clear view
of the origin and nature of the abuses which prevailed
in that government before Mr.
Hastings obtained his
greatest power, and since that time; and then we
shall be able to enter fully and explicitly into the
hature of the cause: and I should hope that it will
pave the way and make everything easy for your
subsequent justice.
I therefore wish to stop at this period, in which Mr.
Hastings became active in the service, pretty near the
time when he began his political career: and here,
my Lords, I pause, wishing your indulgence at such
time as will suit your convenience for pursuing the
rest of this eventful history.
? ? ? ? SPEEC H
IN
OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1788.
M Y LORDS, - In what I had the honor of laying
before your Lordships yesterday, and in what I
may further trouble you with to-day, I wish to observe
a distinction, which if I did not lay down so perfectly
as I ought, I hope I shall now be able to mark it out
with sufficient exactness and perspicuity.
First, I beg leave to observe that what I shall think
necessary to state, as matter of preliminary explanation, in order to give your Lordships a true idea of the scene of action, of the instruments which Mr.
Hastings employed, and the effects which they produced,-all this I wish to be distinguished from matter brought to criminate. Even the matter, as
stated by me, which may be hereafter brought to
criminate, so far as it falls to my share at present, is
only to be considered, in this stage of the business,
as merely illustrative. Your Lordships are to expect,
as undoubtedly you will require, substantial matter
of crimination to be laid open. for that purpose at the
moment when the evidence to each charge is ready to
be produced to you. . Thus your Lordships will easily
separate historical illustration from criminal opening.
For instanlce, if I stated yesterday to your Lordships,
as I did, tle tyranny and cruelty of one of the usurp
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 397
ing viceroys, whose usurpation and whose vices led
the way to the destruction of his country and the
introduction of a foreign power, I do not mean to
charge Mr. Hastings with any part of that guilt:
what bears upon Mr. Hastings is his having avowedly
looked to such a tyrant and such a usurper as his
model, and followed that pernicious example with a
servile fidelity. *When I have endeavored to lay open
to your Lordships anythingz abusive, or leading to
abuse, from defects or errors in the constitution of
the Company's service, I did not mean to criminate
Mr. Hastings on any part of those defects and errors:
I state them to show that he took advantage of the
imperfections of the institution to let in his abuse of
the power. with which he was intrusted. If, for a
further instance, I have stated that in general the service of the India Company was insufficient in legal pay or emolument and abundant in the means of
illegal profit, I do not state that defect as owing to
Mr. Hastings; but I state it as a fact, to show in what
manner and on what pretences he did, fraudulently,
corruptly, and for the purposes of his own ambition,
take advantage of that defect, and, under color of
reformation, make an illegal, partial, corrupt rise of
emoluments to certain favored persons without regard
to the interests of the service at large, --increasing
rather than lessening the means of illicit emolument,
as well as loading the Company with many heavy and
ruinous expenses in avowed salaries and allowances.
Having requested your Lordships to keep in mind,
which I trust you would do even without my taking
the liberty of suggesting it to you, these necessary
distinctions, I shall revert to the period at which I
closed yesterday, that great and memorable period
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which has remotely given occasion to the trial of this
day.
My Lords, to obtain empire is common; to govern
it well has been rare indeed. To chastise the guilt
of those who have been instruments of imperial sway
over other nations by the high superintending justice
of the sovereign state has not many striking examples
among any people. Hitherto we have not furnished
our contingent to the records of honor. We have
been confounded with the herd of conquerors. Our
dominion has been a vulgar thing. But we begin to
emerge; and I hope that a severe inspection of ourselves, a purification of our own offences, a lustration
of the exorbitances of our own power, is a glory reserved to this time, to this nation, and to this august triburnal.
The year 1756 is a memorable era in the history
of the world: it introduced a new nation from the
remotest verge of the Western world, with new manners, new customs, new institutions, new opinions, new laws, into the heart of Asia.
My Lords, if, in that part of Asia whose native
regular government was then broken up, -if, at the
moment when it had fallen into darkness and confusion from having become the prey and almost the sport of the ambition of its home-born grandees, - if, in that
gloomy season, a star had risen from the West, that
would prognosticate a better generation, and would
shed down the sweet influences of order, peace, science, and security to the natives of that vexed and harassed country, we should have been covered with
genuine honor. It would have been a beautiful and
noble spectacle to mankind.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 399
Indeed, something might have been expected of
the kind, when a new dominion emanated from a
learned and enlightened part of the world in the
most enlightened period of its existence. Still more
might it have been expected, when that dominion was
found to issue from the bosom of a free country, that
it would have carried with it the full benefit of the
vital principle of the British liberty and Constitution,
though its municipal forms were not communicable,
or at least the advantage of the liberty and spirit
of the British Constitution. Had this been the case,
(alas! it was not,) you would have been saved the
trouble of this day. It might have been expected, too,
that, in that enlightened state of the world, influenced
by the best religion, and from an improved description of that best religion, (I mean the Christian reformed religion,) that we should have done honor to Europe, to letters, to laws, to religion, - done honor
to all the circumstances of which in this island we
boast ourselves, at the great and critical moment of
that revolution.
My Lords, it has happened otherwise. It is now
left for us to repair our former errors. Resuming
the history where I broke off yesterday by your indulgence to my weakness, - Surajah Dowlah was the
adopted grandson of Aliverdy Khan, a cruel and ferocious; tyrant, the manner of whose acquisition of
power I have already stated. He came too young
and unexperienced to that throne of usurpation. It
was a usurpation yet green in the country, and the
country felt uneasy under it. It had not the advantage of that prescriptive usage, that inveterate habit,
that traditionary opinion, which a long continuance
of any system of government secures to it. The only
? ? ? ? 400 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
real secilrity which Surajah Dowlah's government
could possess was the security of an army. But the
great aim of this prince and his predecessor was to supply the weakness of his government by the strength of his purse; he therefore amassed treasures by all
ways and on all hands. But as the Indian princes,
in general, are as unwisely tenacious of their treasure
as they are rapacious in getting it, the more money
he amassed, the more he felt the effects of poverty.
The consequence was, that their armies were unpaid,
and, being unpaid or irregularly paid, were undisciplined, disorderly, unfaithful. In this situation, a
young prince, confiding more in the appearances
than examining into the reality of things, undertook
(from motives which the House of Commons, with
all their industry to discover the circumstances, have
found it difficult to make out) to attack a little miserable trading fort that we had erected at Calcutta.
He succeeded in that attempt only because success
in that attempt was easy. A close imprisonment of
the whole settlement followed, -- not owing, I believe, to the direct will of the prince, but, what will
always happen when the will of the prince is but too
much the law, to a gross abuse of his power by his
lowest servants, - by which one hlundred and twenty
or more of our countrymen perished miserably in a
dungeon, by a fate too tragical for me to be desirous
to relate, and too well known to stand in need of it.
At the time that this event happened, there was at
the same time a concurrence of other events, which,
from this partial and momentary wealkness, displayed
the strength of Great Britain in Asia. For some
years before, the French and English troops began,
on the coast of Coromandel, to exhibit the power,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 401
force, and efficacy of European discipline. As we
daily looked for a war with France, our settlements
on that coast were in some degree armed. Lord
Pigot, then Governor of Madras,- Lord Pigot, the
preserver and the victim of the British dominion in
Asia, -- detached such of the Company's force as
could be collected and spared, and such of his Majesty's ships as were on that station, to the assistance of Calcutta. And -- to hasten this history to its
conclusion -- the daring and commanding genius of
Clive, the patient and firm ability of Watson, the
treachery of Mir Jaffier, and the battle of Plassey
gave us at once the patronage of a kingdom and the
command of all its treasures. We negotiated with
Mir Jaffier for the viceroyal throne of his master.
On that throne we seated him. And we obtained, on
our part, immense sums of money. We obtained a
million sterling for the Company, upwards of a million for individuals, in the whole a sum of about two millions two hundred and thirty thousand pounds for
various purposes, from the prince whom we had set
up. We obtained, too, the town of Calcutta more
completely than we had before possessed it, and the
twenty-four districts adjoining. This was the first
small seminal principle of the immense territorial
acquisitions we have since made in India.
Many circumstances of this acquisition I pass by.
There is a sacred veil to be drawn over the beginnings of all governments. Ours in India had an
origin like those which time has sanctified by obscurity. Time, in the origin of most governments, has thrown this mysterious veil over them; prudence
and discretion make it necessary to throw something
of the same drapery over more recent foundations, in
VOL. IX. 26
? ? ? ? 402 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which otherwise the fortune, the genius, the talents,
and military virtue of this nation never shone more
conspicuously. But whatever necessity might hide
or excuse or palliate, in the acquisition of power, a
wise nation, when it has once made a revolution upon its own principles and for its own ends, rests there.
The first step to empire is revolution, by which power
is conferred; the next is good laws, good order, good
institutions, to give that power stability. I am sorry
to say that the reverse of this policy was the principle on which the gentlemen in India acted. It was
such as tended to make the new government as unstable as the old. By the vast sums of money acquired by individuals upon this occasion, by the immense sudden prodigies of fortune, it was discovered that a revolution in Bengal was a mine much more
easily worked and infinitely more productive than
the mines of Potosi and Mexico. It was found that
the work was not only very lucrative, but not at all
difficult. Where Clive forded a deep water upon an
unknown bottom, he left a bridge for his successors,
over which the lame could hobble and the blind
might grope their way. There was not at that time
a knot of clerks in a counting-house, there was not
a captain of a band of ragged topasses, that looked
for anything less than the deposition of subahs and
the sale of kingdoms. Accordingly, this revolution,
which ought to have precluded other revolutions, unlfortunately became fruitful of them; and when Lord
Clive returned to Europe, to enjoy his fame and fortune in his own country, there arose another description of men, who thought that a revolution might bf
made upon his revolution, and as lucrative to them
as his was to the first projectors. Scarcely was Mir
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND. DAY. 403
Jaffier, Lord Clive's nabob, seated on his musnud,
than they immediately, or in a short time, projected
another revolution, a revolution which was to unsettle all the former had settled, a revolution to make
way for new disturbances and new wars, and which
led to that long chain of peculation which ever since
has afflicted and oppressed Bengal.
If ever there was a time when Bengal should have
had respite from internal revolutions, it was this.
The governor forced upon the natives was now upon the throne. All the great lords of the country,
both Gentoos and Mahomedans, were uneasy, discontented, and disobedient, and some absolutely in arms,
and refusing to recognize the prince we had set up.
An imminent invasion of the Mahrattas, an actual
invasion headed by the son of the Mogul, the revenues on account of the late shock very ill collected
even where the country was in some apparent quiet,
an hungry treasury at Calcutta, an empty treasury at
Moorshedabad, - everything demanded tranquillity,
and with it order and economy. In this situation
it was resolved to make a new and entirely mercenary revolution, and to set up to sale the government, secured to its present possessor by every tie of public faith and every sacred obligation which
could bind or influence mankind. This second
revolution forms that period in the Bengal history
which had the most direct influence upon all the
subsequent transactions. It introduces some of the
persons who were most active in the succeeding
scenes, and from that time to this has given its
tone and character to the British affairs and government. It marks and specifies the origin and
true principle of all the abuses -which Mr. Has:t
? ? ? ? 404 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ings was afterwards appointed to correct, and which
the Commons charge that he continued and aggravated: namely, the venal depositions and venal exaltations of the country powers; the taking of bribes and corrupt presents from all parties in those
changes; the vitiating and maiming the Company's
records; the suppression of public correspondence;
corrupt combinations and conspiracies; perfidy in
negotiation established into principle; acts of the
most. atrocious wickedness justified upon purity of
intention; mock-trials and collusive acquittals among
the parties in common guilt; and in the end, the
Court of Directors supporting the scandalous breach
of their own orders. I shall state the particulars
of this second revolution more at large.
Soon after the revolution which had seated Mir
Jaffier on the viceroyal throne, the spirit of the
Mogul empire began, as it were, to make one faint
struggle before it finally expired. The then heir
to that throne, escaping from the hands of those
who had held his father prisoner, had put himself
at the head of several chiefs collected under the
standard of his house, and appeared in force on the
frontiers of the provinces of Bengal and Bahar, upon
both which he made some impression. This alarmed the new powers, the Nabob Mir Jaffier, and the
Presidency of Calcutta; and as in a common cause,
and by the terms of their mutual alliance, they took
the field against him. The Nabob's eldest son and
heir-apparent commanded in chief. Major Calliaud
commanded the English forces under the government of Calcutta. Mr. Holwell was in the temporary possession of the Presidency. Mr. Vansittart
was hourly expected to supersede him. Mr. Warren
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 405
Hastings, a young gentleman about twenty-seven
years of age, was Resident for the Company at the
durbar, or court,' of Mir Jaffier, our new-created
Nabob of Bengal, allied to this country by the most
solemn treaties that can bind men; for which treaties he had paid, and was then paying, immense
sums of money. Mr. Warren Hastings was the
pledge in his hands for the honor of the British nation, and their fidelity to their engagements.
In this situation, Mr: Holwell, whom the terrible
example of the Black Hole at Calcutta had not
cured of ambition, thought an hour was not to be
lost in accomplishing a revolution and selling the
reigning Nabob.
My Lords, there was in the house of Mir Jaffier,
ill his court, and in his family, a man of an intriguing,. crafty, subtle, and at the same time bold, daring, desperate, bloody, and ferocious character, called Cossim Ali Kbhan. He' was the son-in-law of Mir
Jaffier; and he made no other use of this affinity
than to find some means to dethrone and to murder
him. This was the person in whose school of politics
Mr. Hastings made his first studies, and whose conduct he quotes as his example, and for whose friends,
agents, and favorites he has always shown a marked
predilection. This dangerous man was not long
without finding persons who observed his talents with
admiration, and who thought fit to employ him.
The Council at Calcutta was divided into two departments: one, the Council in general; the other a
Select Committee, which they had arranged for the
better carrying on their political affairs. But the Select Committee had no power of acting wholly without the Council at large, -- at least, finally and con
? ? ? ? 406 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
elusively. The Select Committee thought otherwise.
Between these litigant parties for power I shall not
determine on the merits, - thinking of nothing but
the use that was made of the power, to whomsoever
it belonged. This Secret Committee, then, without
communicating with the rest of the Council, formed
the plan for a second revolution. But the concurrence of Major Calliaud, who commanded the British
troops, was essential to the purpose, as it could not
be accomplished without force. Mr. Hastings's assistance was necessary, as it could not be accomplished without treachery.
These are the parties concerned in the intended
revolution. Mr. Holwell, who considered himself in
possession only of temporary power, was urged to precipitate the business; for if Mr. Vansittart should arrive before his plot could be finally put into executioni, he would have all the leading advantages of it, and Mr. Holwell would be considered only as a secondary instrument. But whilst Mr. Holwell, who
originally conceived this plot, urged forward the execution of it, in order that the chief share of the profits might fall to him, the Major, and possibly the
Resident, held back, till they might receive the sanction of the permanent governor, who was hourly expected, with whom one of them was connected, and
who was to carry with him the whole weight of the
authority of this kingdom. This difference produced
discussions. Holwell endeavored by his correspondence to stimulate Calliaud to this enterprise, which
without him could not be undertaken at all. But
Maj. or Calliaud had different views. He concurred
inwardly, as he tells us himself, in all the principles
of this intended revolution, in the propriety and ne
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 407
cessity of it. He only wished delay. But he gave
such powerful, solid, and satisfactory reasons, not
against the delay, but the very merits of the design
itself, exposing the injustice and the danger of it,
and the impossibility of mending by it their condition
in any respect, as must have damned it in the minds
of all rational men: at least it ought to have damned
it forever in his own. But you will see that IHolwell persevered in his plan, and that Major Calliaud
thought two things necessary: first, not wholly to
destroy the scheme, which he tells us he always approved, but to postpone the execution, -- and in the
mean time to delude the Nabob by the most strong,
direct, and sanguine assurances of friendship and
protection that it was possible to give to man.
Whilst the projected revolution stood suspended,whilst Mr. Holwell urged it forward, and Mr. Vansittart was expected every day to give it effect, - whilst Major Calliaud, with this design of ruining the. Nabob
lodged in his breast, suspended in execution, and
condemned in principle, kept the fairest face and the
most confidential interviews with that unfortunate
prince and his son, - as the operations of the campaign relaxed, the army drew near to Moorshedabad,
the capital, when a truly extraordinary scene happened, such I am sure the English annals before that
time had furnished no example of, nor will, I trust,
in ful-ure. I shall state it as one piece from beginning to end, reserving the events which intervened;
because, as I do not produce any part of this.
