These may all be reduced to one short word,
- arbitrary power.
- arbitrary power.
Edmund Burke
486 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
uninstructed, who have learned our catechisms or
the first elements of Christianity, who do not know
that such conduct is not to be justified, and least of
all by examples.
There is another topic he takes up more seriously,
and as a general rebutter to the charge. Says he,
" After a great many of these practices with which I
am charged, Parliament appointed me to my trust,
and consequently has acquitted me. " -Has it, my
Lords? I am bold to say that the Commons are
wholly guiltless of this charge. I will admit, if Parliament, on a full state of his offences before them, and
full examination of those offences, had appointed him
to the government, that then the people of India and
England would have just reason to exclaim against
so flagitious a proceeding. A sense of propriety and
decorum might have restrained us from prosecuting.
They might have been restrained by some sort of decorum from pursuing him criminally. But the Commons stand before your Lordships without shame. First, in their name we solemnly assure your Lordships that we had not in our Parliamentary capacity
(and most of us, myself I can say surely, heard very
little, and that in confused rumors) the slightest
knowledge of any one of the acts charged upon this
criminal at either of the times of his being appointed
to office, and that we were not guilty of the nefarious
act of collusion and flagitious breach of trust with
which he presumes obliquely to charge us; but from
the moment we knew them, we never ceased to condemn them by reports, by votes, by resolutions, and
that we admonished and declared it to be the duty of
the Court of Directors to take measures for his recall,
and when frustrated in the way known to that court
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 487
we then proceeded to an inquiry. Your Lordships
know whether you were better informed. We are,
therefore, neither guilty of the precedent crime of
colluding with the criminal, nor the subsequent indecorum of prosecuting what we had virtually and practically approved. Secondly, several of his worst crimes have been
committed since the last Parliamentary renewal of
his trust, as appears by the dates in the charge.
But I believe, my Lords, the judges --judges to
others, grave and weighty counsellors and assistants
to your Lordships- will not, on reference, assert to
your Lordships, (which God forbid, *and we cannot
conceive, or hardly state in argument, if but for argument,) that, if one of the judges had received
bribes before his appointment to an higher judiciary
office, he would not still be open to prosecution.
So far from admitting it as a plea in bar, we
charge, and we hope your Lordships will find it an
extreme aggravation of his offences, that no favors
heaped upon him could make him grateful, no renewed and repeated trusts could make him faithful
and honest.
We have now gone through most of the general
topics.
But he is not responsible, as being thanked by the
Court of Dir'ectors. He has had the thanks and approbatiol of the India Company for his services. - We
know too well here, I trust the world knows, and you
will always assert, that a pardon from the crown is
not pleadable here, that it cannot bar the impeachment of the Commons, -- much less a pardon of the
East India Company, though it may involve them in
guilt which might induce us to punish them for such
? ? ? ? 488 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a pardon. If any corporation by collusion with criminals refuse to do their duty in coercing. them, the
magistrates are answerable.
It is the use, virtue, and efficacy of Parliamentary
judicial procedure, that it puts an end to this dominion of faction, intrigue, cabal, and clandestine intelligences. The acts of men are put to their proper test, and the works of darkness tried in the face of
day, - not the corrupted opinions of others on them,
but their own intrinsic merits. We charge it as his
crime, that he bribed the Court of Directors to thank
him for what they had condemned as breaches of, his
duty.
The East India Company, it is true,, have thanked
him. They ought not to have done it; and it is a
reflection upon their character that they did it. But
the Directors praise him in the gross, after having
condemned each act in detail. His actions are all,
every one, censured one by one as they arise. I do
not recollect any one transaction, few there are, I am
sure, in the whole body of that succession of crimes
now brought before you for your judgment, in which
the India Company have not censured him. Nay, in
one instance. he pleads- their censure in bar of this
trial;* for he says, " In that censure I have already
received my punishment. " If, for any other reasons,
they come and say, "We thank you, Sir, for all,,your
services," to that I answer, Yes; and Iwould thank
him for his services,:too, if I knew them. But I do
not; -perhaps they do. Let them thank him for
those services. I am ordered to prosecute him for
these crimes. Here, therefore, we are on a balance
with'the India Company; and your Lordships may
* See Mr. Hastings's answer to the first charge.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 489
perhaps:think it some addition to his crimes, that
he has found means to obtain the thanks of the India
Company for the whole of his conduct, at the same
time that their records are full of constant, uniform,
particular censure and reprobation of every one of
those acts for which he now stands accused.
He says, there is the testimony of Indian princes
in his favor. But do we not know how seals are obtained in that country? Do we not know how those princes are imposed upon? Do we not know the sub-jection and thraldoin in which they are held, and that they are obliged to return thanks for the sufferings which they have felt? I believe your Lordships will think that there is not, with regard to some of
these princes, a more dreadful thing that can be said
of them than that he has obtained their thanks.
I understand he has obtained the thanks of the
miserable Princesses of Oude, whom he has cruelly
imprisoned, whose treasure he has seized, and whose
eunuchs he has tortured. * They thank him for going
away; they thank him for leaving them the smallest
trifle of their subsistence; and I venture to say, if
he wanted a hundred more panegyrics, provided he
never came again among them, he might have them.
I understand that Mahdajee Sindia has made his
panegyric, too. Mahdajee Sindia has not made his
panegyric for nothing; for, if your Lordships will
suffer him to enter into such a justification, we shall
prove that. he has sacrificed the dignity of this country and the interests of all its allies to that prince. We appear here neither with panegyric nor with
satire; it is for substantial crimes we bring him be --
* A Latin sentence, which was quoted here, is omitted in the MSg
of the short-hand writer. -ED.
? ? ? ? 490 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fore you, and amongst others for cruelly using per
sons of the highest rank and consideration in India;
and when we prove he has cruelly injured them, you
will think the panegyrics either gross forgeries or
most miserable aggravations of his offences, since
they show the abject and dreadful state into which he
has driven those people. For let it be proved that I
have cruelly. robbed and maltreated any persons, if I
produce a certificate from them of my good behavior,
would it not be a corroborative proof of the terror
into which those persons are thrown by my misconduct?
My Lords, these are, I believe, the general grounds
of our charge. I have now closed completely, and I
hope to your Lordships' satisfaction, the whole body
of history of which I wished to put your Lordships in
possession. I do not mean that many of your Lordships may not have known it more perfectly by your own previous inquiries; but, bringing to your remembrance the state of the circumstances of the persons with whom he acted, the persons and power he has
abused, I have gone to the principles he maintains,
the precedents he quotes, the laws and authorities
which he refuses to abide by, and those on which he
relies; and at last I have refuted all those pleas in
bar on which he depends, and for the effect of which
he presumes on the indulgence and patience of this
country, or on the corruption of some persons in it.
And here I close what I had to say upon this subject,
- wishing and hoping, that, when I open before your
Lordships the case more particularly, so as to state
rather a plan of the proceeding than the direct proof
of the crimes, your Lordships will hear me with the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. SECOND. DAY. 491
same goodness and indulgence I have hitherto experienced, -that you will consider, if I have detained
you long, it was not with a view of exhausting my
own strength, or putting your patience to too severe a
trial, but from the sense I feel that it is the most difficult and the most complicated cause that was ever
brought before any human tribunal. Therefore I was
resolved to bring the whole substantially before you.
And now, if your Lordships will permit me, I will
state the method of my future proceeding, and the
future proceeding of the gentlemen assisting me.
I mean first to bring before you the crimes as they
are classed, and are of the same species and genus,
and how they mutually arose from one another. I
shall first show that Mr. Hastings's crimes had root
in that which is the root of all evil, I mean avarice;
that avarice and rapacity were the groundwork and
foundation of all his other vicious system; that he
showed it in setting to sale the native government
of the country, in setting to sale the whole landed
interest of the country, in setting to sale the British
government and his own fellow-servants, to the basest
and wickedest of mankind.
I shall then show your Lordships, that, when, in
consequence of such a body of corruption and peculation, he justly dreaded the indignation of his country
and the vengeance of its laws, in order to raise himself a faction embodied by the same guilt and rewarded in the same manner, he has, with a most abandoned profusion, thrown away the revenues of the country
to form such a faction here.
I shall next show your Lordships, that, having exhausted the resources of the Company, and brought
it to extreme difficulties within, he has looked to his
? ? ? ? 492 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
external resources, as he calls them; he has gone up
into the country. I will show that he has plundered,
or attempted to plunder, every person dependent upon,
connected, or allied with this country.
We shall afterwards show what infinite mischief has
followed in the case of Benares, upon which he first
laid his hands; next, in the case of the Begums of
Oude.
We shall then lay before you the profligate system
by which he endeavored to oppress that country: first
by Residents; next by spies under the name of British
Agents; and lastly, that, pursuing his way up to the
mountains, he has found out one miserable chief,
whose crimes were the prosperity of his country, -
that him he endeavored to torture and destroy, -I do
not mean in his body, but by exhausting the treasures
which he kept for the benefit of his people.
Iri short, having shown your Lordships that no
man who is in his power is safe from his arbitrary
will, --that no man, within or without, friend, ally,
rival, has been safe from him, - having brought it to
this point, if I am not able in my own person immediately to go up into the country and show the ramifications of the system, (I hope and trust I shall be spared to take my part in pursuing him through both,)
if I am not, I shall go at least to the root of it, and
some other gentleman, with a thousand times moife
ability thanl I possess, will take up each separate part
~in its proper order. And I believe it is proposed by
the managers that one of them shall as soon as possible begin with the affair of Benares.
The point I now mean first to bring before your
Lordships is the corruption of Mr. Hastings, his system of peculation and bribery, and to show your Lord
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 493
ships the horrible consequences which resulted from it: for, at first sight, bribery and peculation do not seem to be so horrid a matter; they may seem to be only the transferring a little money out of one pocket into another; but I shall show that by such a system of bribery the country is undone.
I shall inform your Lordships in the best manner I can, and afterwards submit the whole, as I do with a cheerful heart and with an easy and assured security, to that justice which is the security for all the other justice in the kingdom.
? ? ? The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/miun. aba1206. 0010. 001
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? ? ? THE
WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. X.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. X.
PAGE
SPEECHES IN THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
THIRD DAY: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1788. 3
FOURTH DAY: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19. . 99
SPEECH ON THE SIXTHI ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
FIRST DAY: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1789. 149
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, APRIL 25. 240
THIRD DAY, TUESDAY, MAY 5. . . . 306
FOURTH DAY: THURSDAY, MAY 7. 396
? ? ? ? SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING.
(CONTINUED. )
FEBRUARY, 1788.
VOL. X.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
OPENINGT THE IMPEACHMENT.
THIRD DAY: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1788.
MY LORDS, - The gentlemen who are appointed
by the Commons to manage this prosecution,
have directed me to inform your Lordships, that they
have very carefully and attentively weighed the magnitude of the subject which they bring before you
with the time which the nature and circumstances of
affairs allow for their conducting it.
My Lords, on that comparison, they are very apprehensive, that, if I should go very largely into a preliminary explanation of the several matters in charge, it might be to the prejudice of an early trial of the
substantial merits of each article. We have weighed
and considered this maturely. We have compared
exactly the time with the matter, and we have found
that we are obliged to do as all men must do who
would manage their affairs practicably, to make our
opinion of what might be most advantageous to the
business conform to the time that is left to perform
it in. We must, as all men must, submit affairs to
time, and not think of making time conform to our
wishes; and therefore, my Lords, I very willingly
fall in with the inclinations of the gentlemen with
whom I have the honor to act, to come as soon as
possible to close fighting, and to grapple immediately
? ? ? ? 4 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and directly with the corruptions of India, - to bring
before your Lordships the direct articles, to apply the
evidence to the articles, and to bring the matter forward for your Lordships' decision in that manner
which the confidence we have in the justice of our
cause demands from the Commons of Great Britain.
My Lords, these are the opinions of those with
whom I have the honor to act, and in their opinions
I readily acquiesce. For I am far from wishing to
waste any of your Lordships' time upon any matter
merely through any opinion I have of the nature of
the business, when at the same time I find that in
the opinion of others it might militate against the
production of its full, proper, and (if I may so say)
its immediate effect.
It was my design to class the crimes of the late
Governor of Bengal, --to show their mutual bearings, -- how they were mutually aided and grew and
were formed out of each other. I proposed first of
all to show your Lordships that they have their root
in that which is the origin of all evil, avarice and rapacity,- to show how that led to prodigality of the
public money, - and how prodigality of the public
money, by wasting the treasures of the East India
Company, furnished an excuse to the Governor-General to break its faith, to violate all its most solemn
engagements, and to fall with a hand of stern, ferocious, and unrelenting rapacity upon all the allies and
dependencies of the Company. But I shall be obliged
in some measure to abridge this plan; and as your
Lordships already possess, from what I had the honor to state on Saturday, a general view of this matter, you will be in a condition to pursue it when the several articles are presented.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 5
My Lords, I have to state to-day the root of all
these misdemeanors, - namely, the pecuniary corruption and avarice which gave rise and primary motion to all the rest of the delinquencies charged
to be committed by the Governor-General.
My Lords, pecuniary corruption forms not only,
as your Lordships will observe in the charges before
you, an article of charge by itself, but likewise so
intermixes with the whole, that it is necessary to
give, in the best manner I am able, a history of that
corrupt system which brought on all the subsequent
acts of corruption. I will venture to say there is no
one act, in which tyranny, malice, cruelty, and oppression can be charged, that does not at the same time carry evident marks of pecuniary corruption.
I stated to your Lordships on Saturday last the
principles upon which Mr. Hastings governed his
conduct in India, and upon which he grounds his defence.
These may all be reduced to one short word,
- arbitrary power. My Lords, if Mr. Hastings had
contended, as other men have often done, that the
system of government which he patronizes, and on
which lie acted, was a system tending on the whole
to the blessing and benefit of mankind, possibly something might be said for him for setting up so wild, absurd, irrational, and wicked a system, - something
might be said to qualify'the act from the intention;
but it is singular in this man, that, at the time he
tells you he acted on the principles of arbitrary power, he takes care to inform you that he was not blind to the consequences. Mr. Hastings foresaw that the
consequences of this system was corruption. An arbitrary system, indeed, must always be a corrupt one. My Lords, there never was a man who thought he
? ? ? ? 6 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
had no law but his own will, who did not soon find
that he had no end but his own profit. Corruption
and arbitrary power are of natural unequivocal generation, necessarily producing one another. M1r. Hastings foresees the abusive and corrupt consequences, and then he justifies his conduct upon the necessities of that system. These are things which are
new in the world; for there never was a man, I believe, who contended for arbitrary power, (and there
have been persons wicked and foolish enough to con
tend for it,) that did not pretend, either that the system was good in itself, or that by their conduct they
had mitigated or had purified it, and that the poison,
by passing through their constitution, had acquired
salutary properties. But if you look at his defence
before the House of Commons, you will see that that
very system upon which he governed, and under
which he now justifies his actions, did appear to himself a system pregnant with a thousand evils and a
thousand mischiefs.
The next thing that is remarkable and singular in
the principles upon which the Governor-General acted
is, that, when he is engaged in a vicious system which
clearly leads to evil consequences, he thinks himself
bound to realize all the evil consequences involved in
that system. All other men have taken a directly
contrary course: they have'said, "I have been engaged in an evil system, that led, indeed, to mischievous consequences, but I have taken care, by
my own virtues, to prevent the evils of the system
under which I acted. "
We say, then, not only that he governed arbitrarily,
but corruptly, -- that is to say, that he was a giver
and receiver of bribes, and formed a system for the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 7
purpose of giving and receiving them. We wish your
Lordships distinctly to consider that he did not only
give and receive bribes accidentally, as it happened,
without any system and design, merely as the opportunity or momentary temptation of profit urged him to it, but that he has formed plans and systems of
government for the very purpose of accumulating
bribes and presents to himself. This system of Mr.
Hastings's government is such a one, I believe, as the
British nation in particular will disown; for I will
venture to say, that, if there is any one thing which
distinguishes this nation eminently above another, it
is, that in its offices at home, both judicial and in the
state, there is less suspicion of pecuniary corruption
attaching to them than to any similar offices in any
part of the globe, or that have existed at any time:
so that he who would set up a system of corruption,
and attempt to justify it upon the principle of utility,
that man is staining not only the nature and character of office, but that which is the peculiar glory of the official and judicial character of this country; and
therefore, in this House, which is eminently the guardian of the purity of all the offices of this kingdom, he ought to be called eminently and peculiarly to
account. There are many things, undoubtedly, in'
crimes, which make them frightful and odious; but
bribery, filthy hands, a chief governor of a great empire receiving bribes from poor, miserable, indigent people, this is what makes government itself base,
contemptible, and odious in the eyes of mankind.
My Lords, it is certain that even tyranny itself may
find some specious color, and appear as a more severe
and rigid execution of justice. Religious persecution
may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and
? ? ? ? 38 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
over-zealous piety. Conquest may cover its baldness
with its own laurels, and the ambition of the conqueror
may be hid in the secrets of his own heart under a veil
of benevolence, and make him imagine he is bringing
temporary desolation upon a country only to promote
its ultimate advantage and his own glory. But in the
principles of that governor who makes nothing but
money his object there can be nothing of this. There
are here none of those specious delusions that look
like virtues, to veil either the governed or the governor. If you look at Mr. Hastings's merits, as lie calls them, what are they? Did he improve the internal state of the government by great reforms? No
such thing. Or by a wise and incorrupt administration of justice? No. Has he enlarged the boundary
of our government? No: there are but too strong
proofs of his lessening it. But his pretensions to
merit are, that he squeezed more money out of the
inhabitants of the country than other persons could
have done, - money got by oppression, violence, extortion from the poor, or the heavy hand of power upon the rich and great.
These are his merits. What we charge as his demerits are all of the same nature; for, though there
is undoubtedly oppression, breach of faith, cruelty,
perfidy, charged upon him, yet the great ruling principle of the whole, and that from which you can never have an act free, is money, -- it is the vice of base
avarice, which never is, nor ever appears even to the
prejudices of mankind to be, anything like a virtue.
Our desire of acquiring sovereignty in India undoubtedly originated first in ideas of safety and necessity; its next step was a step of ambition. That ambition,
as generally happens in conquest, was followed by
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 9
gains of money; but afterwards there was no mixture
at all; it was, during Mr. Hastings's time, altogether
a business of money. If he has extirpated a nation,
I will not say whether properly or improperly, it is
because (says he) you have all the benefit of conquest
without expense; you have got a large sum of money
from the people, and you may leave them to be governed by whom and as they will. This is directly contrary to the principles of conquerors. If he has
at any time taken any money from the dependencies
of the Company, he does not pretend that it was obtained from their zeal and affection to our cause, or that it made their submission more complete: very far
from it. He says they ought to be independent, and
all that you have to do is to squeeze money from,
them. In short, money is the beginning, the middle,
and the end of every kind of act done by Mr. Hastings: pretendedly for the Company, but really for himself.
Having said so much about the origin, the first
principle, both of that which he makes his merit and
which we charge as his demerit, the next step is, that
I should lay open to your Lordships, as clearly as I
can, what the sense of his employers, the East India
Company, and what the sense of the legislature itself,
has been upon those merits and demerits of money.
My Lords, the Company, knowing that these money
transactions were likely to subvert that empire which
was first established upon them, did, in the year 1765,
send out a body of the strongest and most solemn
covenants to their servants, that they should take no
presents from the country powers, under any name
or description, except those things which were publicly and openly taken for the use of the Company, -
? ? ? ? 10 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
namely, territories or sums of money which might be
obtained by treaty. They distinguished such presents as were taken from any persons privately, and
unknown to them, and without their authority, from
subsidies: and that this is the true nature and construction of their order I shall contend and explain
afterwards to your Lordships. They have said, nothillg shall be taken for their private use; for though
in that and in every state there may be subsidiary
treaties by which sums of money may be received,
yet they forbid their servants, their governors, whatever application they might pretend to make of them,
to receive, under any other name or pretence, more
than a certain, marked, simple sum of money, and this
not without the consent and permission of the Presidency to which they belong. This is the substance,
the principle, and the spirit of the covenants, and will
show your Lordships how radicated an evil this of
bribery and presents was judged to be.
When these covenants arrived inl India, the servants
refused at first to execute them, - and suspended the
execution of them, till they had enriched themselves
with presents. Eleven months elapsed, and it was not
till Lord Clive reached the place of his destination
that the covenants were executed: and they were not
executed then without some degree of force. Soon
afterwards the treaty was made with the country
powers by which Sujah ul Dowlah was reestablished
in the province of Oude, and paid a sum of 500,0001.
to the Company for it. It was a public payment, and
there was not a suspicion that a single shilling of private emolument attended it. But whether Mr. Hastings had the example of others or not, their example,could not justify his briberies. He was sent there to
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 11
put all end to all those examples. The Company did
expressly vest him with that power. They declared
at that time, that the whole of their service was totally corrupted by bribes and presents, and by extravagance and luxury, which partly gave rise to them, and these, in their turn, enabled them to pursue those
excesses. They not only reposed trust in the integrity of Mr. Hastings, but reposed trust in his remarkable frugality and order in his affairs, which they considered as things that distinguished his character.
But in his defence we have him quite in another character, --no longer the frugal, attentive servant, bred
to business, bred to book-keeping, as all the Company's servants are; he now. knows nothing of his own
affairs, knows not whether he is rich or poor, knows
not what lie has in the world. Nay, people are
brought forward to say that they know better than
lie does what his affairs are. He is not like a careful
man bred in a counting-house, and by the Directors
put into an office of the highest trust on account of
the regularity of his affairs; lie is like one buried in
the contemplation of the stars, and knows nothing of
the things in this world. It was, then, on account of
an idea of his great integrity that the Company put
him into this situation. Since that lie has thought
proper to justify himself, not by clearing himself of
receiving bribes, but by saying that no bad consequences resulted from it, and that, if any such evil
consequences did arise from it, they arose rather from
his inattention to money than from his desire of acquiring it.
I have stated to your Lordships the nature of the
covenants which the East India Company sent out.
Afterwards, when they found their servants had re
? ? ? ? 12 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fused to execute these covenants, they not only very
severely reprehended even a moment's delay in their
execution, and threatened the exacting the most strict
and rigorous performance of them, but they sent a
commission to enforce the observance of them more
strongly; and that commission had it specially in
charge never to receive presents. They never sent
out a person to India without recognizing the grievalice, and without ordering that presents should not
be received, as the main fundamental part of their duty, and upon which all the rest depended, as it certainly must: for persons at the head of government should not encourage that by example which they
ought by precept, authority, and force to restrain in
all below them. That commission failing, another
commission was preparing to be sent out with the
same instructions, when an act of Parliament took it
up; and that act, which gave Mr. Hastings power,
did mould in the very first stamina of his power this
principle, in words the most clear and forcible that
an act of Parliament could possibly devise upon the
subject. And that act was made not only upon a
general knowledge of the grievance, but your Lordships will see in the reports of that time that Parliament had directly in view before themn the whole of that monstrous head of corruption under the name
of presents, and all the monstrous consequences that
followed it.
Now, my Lords, every office of trust, in its very
nature, forbids the receipt of bribes. But Mr. Hastings was forbidden it, first, by his official situation,next, by covenant, -- and lastly, by act of Parliament: that is to say, by all the things that bind mankind, or
that can bind them, - first, moral obligation inherent
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 13
i1i the duty of their office,- next, the positive injunctions of the legislature of the country, -and lastly,
a man's own private, particular, voluntary act and
covenant. These three, the great and only obligations
that bind mankind, all united in the focus of this sir. ngle point, - that they should take no presents.
I am to mark to your Lordships, that this law and
this covenant did consider indirect ways of taking
presents -- taking them by others, and such like --
directly in the very same light as they considered
taking them by themselves. It is perhaps a much
more dangerous way; because it adds to the crime a
false, prevaricating mode of concealing it, and makes
it much more mischievous by admitting others into
the participation of it. Mr. Hastings has said, (and
it is one of the general complaints of Mr. IHastings,)
that he is made answerable for the acts of other men.
It is a thing inherent in the nature of his situation.
All those who enjoy a great superintending trust,
which is to regulate the whole affairs of an empire,
are responsible for the acts and conduct of other men,
so far as they had anything to do with appointing
them, or holding them in their places, or having any
sort of inspection into their conduct. But when a
Governor presumes to remove from their situations
those persons whom the public authority and sanction
of the Company have appointed, and obtrudes upon
them by violence other persons, superseding the orders of his masters, lie becomes doubly responsible for their conduct. If the persons he names should be
of notorious evil character and evil principles, and
if this should be perfectly known to himself, and of
public notoriety to the rest of the world, then another
strong responsibility attaches on him for the acts of
those persons.
? ? ? ? 14 IMPEACHMENT OF W ARREN HASTINGS.
Governors, we know very well, cannot with their
own hands be continually receiving bribes, - for then
they must have as many hands as one of the idols in.
all Indian temple, in order to receive all the bribes
which a Governor-General may receive, --but they
have them vicariously. As there are many offices, so
he has had various officers for receiving and distributing his bribes; he has a great many, some white and some black agents. The white men are loose
and licentious; they are apt to have resentments,
and to be bold in revenging them. The black men
are very secret and mysterious; they are not apt to
have very quick resentments, they have not the same
liberty and boldness of language which characterize
Europeans; and they have fears, too, for themselves,
which makes it more likely that they will conceal
anything committed to them by Europeans. Therefore Mr. Hastings had his black agents, not one, two, three, but many, disseminated through the country:
no two of them, hardly, appear to be in the secret of
any one bribe. He has had likewise his white agents,
- they were necessary, - a Mr. Larkins and a Mr.
Croftes. Mr. Croftes was sub-treasurer, and Mr.
Larkins accountant-general. These were the last
persons of all others that should have had anything
to do with bribes; yet these were some of his agents
in bribery. There are few instances, in comparison
of the whole number of bribes, but there are some,
where two men are in the secret of the same bribe.
Nay, it appears that there was one bribe divided
into different payments at different times,- that one
part was committed to one black secretary, another
part to another black secretary. So that it is almost
impossible to make up a complete body of all his bri
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 15
bery: you may find the scattered limbs, some here and
others there; and while you are employed in picking
them up, he may escape entirely in a prosecution for
the whole.
The first act of his government in Bengal was the
most bold and extraordinary that I believe ever entered into the head of ally man,- I will say, of
any tyrant. It was no more or less than a general,
almost exceptless confiscation, in time of profound
peace, of all the landed property in Bengal, upon
most extraordinary pretences. Strange as this may
appear, he did so confiscate it; he put it up to a
pretended public, in reality to a private corrupt auction; and such favored landholders as came to it were obliged to consider themselves as not any longerl
proprietors of the estates, but to recognize themselves
as farmers under government: and even those few
that were permitted to remain on their estates had
their payments raised at his arbitrary discretion; and.
the rest of the lands were given to farmers-general,
appointed by him and his committee, at a price fixed
by the same arbitrary discretion.
It is necessary to inform your Lordships that the
revenues of Bengal are, for the most part, territorial revenues, great quit-rents issuing out of lands. I shall say nothing either of the nature of this property,
of the rights of the people to it, or of the mode of exacting the rents, till that great question of revenues, one of the greatest which we shall have to lay before
you, shall be brought before your Lordships particularly and specially as an article of charge. I only mention it now as all exemplification of the great
principle of corruption which guided Mr. Hastings's
conduct.
? ? ? ? 16 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
When the ancient nobility, the great princes, (for
such I may call them,) a nobility, perhaps, as ancient
as that of your Lordships, (and a more truly noble
body never existed in that character,) - my Lords,
when all the nobility, some of whom have borne the
rank and port of princes, all the gentry, all the freeholders of the country, had their estates in that mallner confiscated,-that is, either given to themselves to hold on the footing of farmers, or totally confiscated,
- when such an act of tyranny was done, no doubt
some good was pretended. This confiscation was
made by Mr. Hastings, and the lands let to these
farmers for five years, upon an idea which always
accompanies his acts of oppression, the idea of moneyed merit. He adopted this mode of confiscating the
estates, and letting them to farmers, for the avowed
purpose of seeing how much it was possible to take
out of them. Accordingly, he set them up to this
wild and wicked auction, as it would have been, if it
had been a real one, - corrupt and treacherous, as it
was, -he set these lands up for the purpose of making that discovery, and pretended that the discovery
would yield a most amazing increase of rent. And
for some time it appeared so to do, till it came to the
touchstone of experience; and then it was found that
there was a defalcation from these monstrous raised
revenues which were to cancel iln the minds of the
Directors the wickedness of so atrocious, flagitious,
and horrid an act of treachery. At the end of five
years what do you think was the failure? No less
than 2,050,0001. Then a new source of corruption
was opened,-that is, how to deal with the balances:
for every man who had engaged in these transactions
was a debtor to goverlullnlt, and the remission of that
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. t7
debt depended upon the discretion of the GovernorGeneral. Then the persons who were to settle the composition of that immense debt, who were to see
how much was recoverable and how much not, were
able to favor, or to exact to the last shilling; and
there never existed a doubt but that not only upon
the original cruel exaction, but upon the remission
afterwards, immense gains were derived. This will
account for the manner in which those stupendous
fortunes which astonish the world have been made.
They have been made, first by a tyrannous exaction
from the people who were suffered to remain'in
possession of their own land as farmers, - then by
selling the rest to farmers at rents and under hopes
which could never be realized, and then getting money for the relaxation of their debts. But whatever excuse, and however wicked, there might have been
for this wicked act, namely, that it carried upon the
face of it some sort of appearance of public good, -
that is to say, that sort of public good which Mr. Hastings so often professed, of ruining the country for the benefit of the Company, - yet, in fact, this business
of balances is that nidus in which have been nustled
and bred and born all the corruptions of India, first
by making extravagant demands, and afterwards by
making corrupt relaxations of them.
Besides this monstrous failure, in consequence of
a miserable exaction by which more was attempted
to be forced from the country than it was capable of
yielding, and this by way of experiment, when your
Lordships come to inquire who the farmers-general of
the revenue were, you would naturally expect to find
them to be the men in the several countries who had
the most interest, the greatest wealth, the best knowlVOL. X. 2
? ? ? ? 18 IMPEACHMIENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
edge of the revenue and resources of the country in
which they lived. 'Thllese would be thought the natural, proper farmers-general of each district.
uninstructed, who have learned our catechisms or
the first elements of Christianity, who do not know
that such conduct is not to be justified, and least of
all by examples.
There is another topic he takes up more seriously,
and as a general rebutter to the charge. Says he,
" After a great many of these practices with which I
am charged, Parliament appointed me to my trust,
and consequently has acquitted me. " -Has it, my
Lords? I am bold to say that the Commons are
wholly guiltless of this charge. I will admit, if Parliament, on a full state of his offences before them, and
full examination of those offences, had appointed him
to the government, that then the people of India and
England would have just reason to exclaim against
so flagitious a proceeding. A sense of propriety and
decorum might have restrained us from prosecuting.
They might have been restrained by some sort of decorum from pursuing him criminally. But the Commons stand before your Lordships without shame. First, in their name we solemnly assure your Lordships that we had not in our Parliamentary capacity
(and most of us, myself I can say surely, heard very
little, and that in confused rumors) the slightest
knowledge of any one of the acts charged upon this
criminal at either of the times of his being appointed
to office, and that we were not guilty of the nefarious
act of collusion and flagitious breach of trust with
which he presumes obliquely to charge us; but from
the moment we knew them, we never ceased to condemn them by reports, by votes, by resolutions, and
that we admonished and declared it to be the duty of
the Court of Directors to take measures for his recall,
and when frustrated in the way known to that court
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 487
we then proceeded to an inquiry. Your Lordships
know whether you were better informed. We are,
therefore, neither guilty of the precedent crime of
colluding with the criminal, nor the subsequent indecorum of prosecuting what we had virtually and practically approved. Secondly, several of his worst crimes have been
committed since the last Parliamentary renewal of
his trust, as appears by the dates in the charge.
But I believe, my Lords, the judges --judges to
others, grave and weighty counsellors and assistants
to your Lordships- will not, on reference, assert to
your Lordships, (which God forbid, *and we cannot
conceive, or hardly state in argument, if but for argument,) that, if one of the judges had received
bribes before his appointment to an higher judiciary
office, he would not still be open to prosecution.
So far from admitting it as a plea in bar, we
charge, and we hope your Lordships will find it an
extreme aggravation of his offences, that no favors
heaped upon him could make him grateful, no renewed and repeated trusts could make him faithful
and honest.
We have now gone through most of the general
topics.
But he is not responsible, as being thanked by the
Court of Dir'ectors. He has had the thanks and approbatiol of the India Company for his services. - We
know too well here, I trust the world knows, and you
will always assert, that a pardon from the crown is
not pleadable here, that it cannot bar the impeachment of the Commons, -- much less a pardon of the
East India Company, though it may involve them in
guilt which might induce us to punish them for such
? ? ? ? 488 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a pardon. If any corporation by collusion with criminals refuse to do their duty in coercing. them, the
magistrates are answerable.
It is the use, virtue, and efficacy of Parliamentary
judicial procedure, that it puts an end to this dominion of faction, intrigue, cabal, and clandestine intelligences. The acts of men are put to their proper test, and the works of darkness tried in the face of
day, - not the corrupted opinions of others on them,
but their own intrinsic merits. We charge it as his
crime, that he bribed the Court of Directors to thank
him for what they had condemned as breaches of, his
duty.
The East India Company, it is true,, have thanked
him. They ought not to have done it; and it is a
reflection upon their character that they did it. But
the Directors praise him in the gross, after having
condemned each act in detail. His actions are all,
every one, censured one by one as they arise. I do
not recollect any one transaction, few there are, I am
sure, in the whole body of that succession of crimes
now brought before you for your judgment, in which
the India Company have not censured him. Nay, in
one instance. he pleads- their censure in bar of this
trial;* for he says, " In that censure I have already
received my punishment. " If, for any other reasons,
they come and say, "We thank you, Sir, for all,,your
services," to that I answer, Yes; and Iwould thank
him for his services,:too, if I knew them. But I do
not; -perhaps they do. Let them thank him for
those services. I am ordered to prosecute him for
these crimes. Here, therefore, we are on a balance
with'the India Company; and your Lordships may
* See Mr. Hastings's answer to the first charge.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 489
perhaps:think it some addition to his crimes, that
he has found means to obtain the thanks of the India
Company for the whole of his conduct, at the same
time that their records are full of constant, uniform,
particular censure and reprobation of every one of
those acts for which he now stands accused.
He says, there is the testimony of Indian princes
in his favor. But do we not know how seals are obtained in that country? Do we not know how those princes are imposed upon? Do we not know the sub-jection and thraldoin in which they are held, and that they are obliged to return thanks for the sufferings which they have felt? I believe your Lordships will think that there is not, with regard to some of
these princes, a more dreadful thing that can be said
of them than that he has obtained their thanks.
I understand he has obtained the thanks of the
miserable Princesses of Oude, whom he has cruelly
imprisoned, whose treasure he has seized, and whose
eunuchs he has tortured. * They thank him for going
away; they thank him for leaving them the smallest
trifle of their subsistence; and I venture to say, if
he wanted a hundred more panegyrics, provided he
never came again among them, he might have them.
I understand that Mahdajee Sindia has made his
panegyric, too. Mahdajee Sindia has not made his
panegyric for nothing; for, if your Lordships will
suffer him to enter into such a justification, we shall
prove that. he has sacrificed the dignity of this country and the interests of all its allies to that prince. We appear here neither with panegyric nor with
satire; it is for substantial crimes we bring him be --
* A Latin sentence, which was quoted here, is omitted in the MSg
of the short-hand writer. -ED.
? ? ? ? 490 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fore you, and amongst others for cruelly using per
sons of the highest rank and consideration in India;
and when we prove he has cruelly injured them, you
will think the panegyrics either gross forgeries or
most miserable aggravations of his offences, since
they show the abject and dreadful state into which he
has driven those people. For let it be proved that I
have cruelly. robbed and maltreated any persons, if I
produce a certificate from them of my good behavior,
would it not be a corroborative proof of the terror
into which those persons are thrown by my misconduct?
My Lords, these are, I believe, the general grounds
of our charge. I have now closed completely, and I
hope to your Lordships' satisfaction, the whole body
of history of which I wished to put your Lordships in
possession. I do not mean that many of your Lordships may not have known it more perfectly by your own previous inquiries; but, bringing to your remembrance the state of the circumstances of the persons with whom he acted, the persons and power he has
abused, I have gone to the principles he maintains,
the precedents he quotes, the laws and authorities
which he refuses to abide by, and those on which he
relies; and at last I have refuted all those pleas in
bar on which he depends, and for the effect of which
he presumes on the indulgence and patience of this
country, or on the corruption of some persons in it.
And here I close what I had to say upon this subject,
- wishing and hoping, that, when I open before your
Lordships the case more particularly, so as to state
rather a plan of the proceeding than the direct proof
of the crimes, your Lordships will hear me with the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. SECOND. DAY. 491
same goodness and indulgence I have hitherto experienced, -that you will consider, if I have detained
you long, it was not with a view of exhausting my
own strength, or putting your patience to too severe a
trial, but from the sense I feel that it is the most difficult and the most complicated cause that was ever
brought before any human tribunal. Therefore I was
resolved to bring the whole substantially before you.
And now, if your Lordships will permit me, I will
state the method of my future proceeding, and the
future proceeding of the gentlemen assisting me.
I mean first to bring before you the crimes as they
are classed, and are of the same species and genus,
and how they mutually arose from one another. I
shall first show that Mr. Hastings's crimes had root
in that which is the root of all evil, I mean avarice;
that avarice and rapacity were the groundwork and
foundation of all his other vicious system; that he
showed it in setting to sale the native government
of the country, in setting to sale the whole landed
interest of the country, in setting to sale the British
government and his own fellow-servants, to the basest
and wickedest of mankind.
I shall then show your Lordships, that, when, in
consequence of such a body of corruption and peculation, he justly dreaded the indignation of his country
and the vengeance of its laws, in order to raise himself a faction embodied by the same guilt and rewarded in the same manner, he has, with a most abandoned profusion, thrown away the revenues of the country
to form such a faction here.
I shall next show your Lordships, that, having exhausted the resources of the Company, and brought
it to extreme difficulties within, he has looked to his
? ? ? ? 492 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
external resources, as he calls them; he has gone up
into the country. I will show that he has plundered,
or attempted to plunder, every person dependent upon,
connected, or allied with this country.
We shall afterwards show what infinite mischief has
followed in the case of Benares, upon which he first
laid his hands; next, in the case of the Begums of
Oude.
We shall then lay before you the profligate system
by which he endeavored to oppress that country: first
by Residents; next by spies under the name of British
Agents; and lastly, that, pursuing his way up to the
mountains, he has found out one miserable chief,
whose crimes were the prosperity of his country, -
that him he endeavored to torture and destroy, -I do
not mean in his body, but by exhausting the treasures
which he kept for the benefit of his people.
Iri short, having shown your Lordships that no
man who is in his power is safe from his arbitrary
will, --that no man, within or without, friend, ally,
rival, has been safe from him, - having brought it to
this point, if I am not able in my own person immediately to go up into the country and show the ramifications of the system, (I hope and trust I shall be spared to take my part in pursuing him through both,)
if I am not, I shall go at least to the root of it, and
some other gentleman, with a thousand times moife
ability thanl I possess, will take up each separate part
~in its proper order. And I believe it is proposed by
the managers that one of them shall as soon as possible begin with the affair of Benares.
The point I now mean first to bring before your
Lordships is the corruption of Mr. Hastings, his system of peculation and bribery, and to show your Lord
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 493
ships the horrible consequences which resulted from it: for, at first sight, bribery and peculation do not seem to be so horrid a matter; they may seem to be only the transferring a little money out of one pocket into another; but I shall show that by such a system of bribery the country is undone.
I shall inform your Lordships in the best manner I can, and afterwards submit the whole, as I do with a cheerful heart and with an easy and assured security, to that justice which is the security for all the other justice in the kingdom.
? ? ? The works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke.
Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Boston : Little, Brown, and company, 1869.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/miun. aba1206. 0010. 001
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? ? ? THE
WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDMUND BURKE.
THIRD EDITION.
VOL. X.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. I869.
? ? ? ? CONTENTS OF VOL. X.
PAGE
SPEECHES IN THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
THIRD DAY: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1788. 3
FOURTH DAY: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19. . 99
SPEECH ON THE SIXTHI ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
FIRST DAY: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1789. 149
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, APRIL 25. 240
THIRD DAY, TUESDAY, MAY 5. . . . 306
FOURTH DAY: THURSDAY, MAY 7. 396
? ? ? ? SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING.
(CONTINUED. )
FEBRUARY, 1788.
VOL. X.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
OPENINGT THE IMPEACHMENT.
THIRD DAY: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1788.
MY LORDS, - The gentlemen who are appointed
by the Commons to manage this prosecution,
have directed me to inform your Lordships, that they
have very carefully and attentively weighed the magnitude of the subject which they bring before you
with the time which the nature and circumstances of
affairs allow for their conducting it.
My Lords, on that comparison, they are very apprehensive, that, if I should go very largely into a preliminary explanation of the several matters in charge, it might be to the prejudice of an early trial of the
substantial merits of each article. We have weighed
and considered this maturely. We have compared
exactly the time with the matter, and we have found
that we are obliged to do as all men must do who
would manage their affairs practicably, to make our
opinion of what might be most advantageous to the
business conform to the time that is left to perform
it in. We must, as all men must, submit affairs to
time, and not think of making time conform to our
wishes; and therefore, my Lords, I very willingly
fall in with the inclinations of the gentlemen with
whom I have the honor to act, to come as soon as
possible to close fighting, and to grapple immediately
? ? ? ? 4 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and directly with the corruptions of India, - to bring
before your Lordships the direct articles, to apply the
evidence to the articles, and to bring the matter forward for your Lordships' decision in that manner
which the confidence we have in the justice of our
cause demands from the Commons of Great Britain.
My Lords, these are the opinions of those with
whom I have the honor to act, and in their opinions
I readily acquiesce. For I am far from wishing to
waste any of your Lordships' time upon any matter
merely through any opinion I have of the nature of
the business, when at the same time I find that in
the opinion of others it might militate against the
production of its full, proper, and (if I may so say)
its immediate effect.
It was my design to class the crimes of the late
Governor of Bengal, --to show their mutual bearings, -- how they were mutually aided and grew and
were formed out of each other. I proposed first of
all to show your Lordships that they have their root
in that which is the origin of all evil, avarice and rapacity,- to show how that led to prodigality of the
public money, - and how prodigality of the public
money, by wasting the treasures of the East India
Company, furnished an excuse to the Governor-General to break its faith, to violate all its most solemn
engagements, and to fall with a hand of stern, ferocious, and unrelenting rapacity upon all the allies and
dependencies of the Company. But I shall be obliged
in some measure to abridge this plan; and as your
Lordships already possess, from what I had the honor to state on Saturday, a general view of this matter, you will be in a condition to pursue it when the several articles are presented.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 5
My Lords, I have to state to-day the root of all
these misdemeanors, - namely, the pecuniary corruption and avarice which gave rise and primary motion to all the rest of the delinquencies charged
to be committed by the Governor-General.
My Lords, pecuniary corruption forms not only,
as your Lordships will observe in the charges before
you, an article of charge by itself, but likewise so
intermixes with the whole, that it is necessary to
give, in the best manner I am able, a history of that
corrupt system which brought on all the subsequent
acts of corruption. I will venture to say there is no
one act, in which tyranny, malice, cruelty, and oppression can be charged, that does not at the same time carry evident marks of pecuniary corruption.
I stated to your Lordships on Saturday last the
principles upon which Mr. Hastings governed his
conduct in India, and upon which he grounds his defence.
These may all be reduced to one short word,
- arbitrary power. My Lords, if Mr. Hastings had
contended, as other men have often done, that the
system of government which he patronizes, and on
which lie acted, was a system tending on the whole
to the blessing and benefit of mankind, possibly something might be said for him for setting up so wild, absurd, irrational, and wicked a system, - something
might be said to qualify'the act from the intention;
but it is singular in this man, that, at the time he
tells you he acted on the principles of arbitrary power, he takes care to inform you that he was not blind to the consequences. Mr. Hastings foresaw that the
consequences of this system was corruption. An arbitrary system, indeed, must always be a corrupt one. My Lords, there never was a man who thought he
? ? ? ? 6 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
had no law but his own will, who did not soon find
that he had no end but his own profit. Corruption
and arbitrary power are of natural unequivocal generation, necessarily producing one another. M1r. Hastings foresees the abusive and corrupt consequences, and then he justifies his conduct upon the necessities of that system. These are things which are
new in the world; for there never was a man, I believe, who contended for arbitrary power, (and there
have been persons wicked and foolish enough to con
tend for it,) that did not pretend, either that the system was good in itself, or that by their conduct they
had mitigated or had purified it, and that the poison,
by passing through their constitution, had acquired
salutary properties. But if you look at his defence
before the House of Commons, you will see that that
very system upon which he governed, and under
which he now justifies his actions, did appear to himself a system pregnant with a thousand evils and a
thousand mischiefs.
The next thing that is remarkable and singular in
the principles upon which the Governor-General acted
is, that, when he is engaged in a vicious system which
clearly leads to evil consequences, he thinks himself
bound to realize all the evil consequences involved in
that system. All other men have taken a directly
contrary course: they have'said, "I have been engaged in an evil system, that led, indeed, to mischievous consequences, but I have taken care, by
my own virtues, to prevent the evils of the system
under which I acted. "
We say, then, not only that he governed arbitrarily,
but corruptly, -- that is to say, that he was a giver
and receiver of bribes, and formed a system for the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 7
purpose of giving and receiving them. We wish your
Lordships distinctly to consider that he did not only
give and receive bribes accidentally, as it happened,
without any system and design, merely as the opportunity or momentary temptation of profit urged him to it, but that he has formed plans and systems of
government for the very purpose of accumulating
bribes and presents to himself. This system of Mr.
Hastings's government is such a one, I believe, as the
British nation in particular will disown; for I will
venture to say, that, if there is any one thing which
distinguishes this nation eminently above another, it
is, that in its offices at home, both judicial and in the
state, there is less suspicion of pecuniary corruption
attaching to them than to any similar offices in any
part of the globe, or that have existed at any time:
so that he who would set up a system of corruption,
and attempt to justify it upon the principle of utility,
that man is staining not only the nature and character of office, but that which is the peculiar glory of the official and judicial character of this country; and
therefore, in this House, which is eminently the guardian of the purity of all the offices of this kingdom, he ought to be called eminently and peculiarly to
account. There are many things, undoubtedly, in'
crimes, which make them frightful and odious; but
bribery, filthy hands, a chief governor of a great empire receiving bribes from poor, miserable, indigent people, this is what makes government itself base,
contemptible, and odious in the eyes of mankind.
My Lords, it is certain that even tyranny itself may
find some specious color, and appear as a more severe
and rigid execution of justice. Religious persecution
may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and
? ? ? ? 38 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
over-zealous piety. Conquest may cover its baldness
with its own laurels, and the ambition of the conqueror
may be hid in the secrets of his own heart under a veil
of benevolence, and make him imagine he is bringing
temporary desolation upon a country only to promote
its ultimate advantage and his own glory. But in the
principles of that governor who makes nothing but
money his object there can be nothing of this. There
are here none of those specious delusions that look
like virtues, to veil either the governed or the governor. If you look at Mr. Hastings's merits, as lie calls them, what are they? Did he improve the internal state of the government by great reforms? No
such thing. Or by a wise and incorrupt administration of justice? No. Has he enlarged the boundary
of our government? No: there are but too strong
proofs of his lessening it. But his pretensions to
merit are, that he squeezed more money out of the
inhabitants of the country than other persons could
have done, - money got by oppression, violence, extortion from the poor, or the heavy hand of power upon the rich and great.
These are his merits. What we charge as his demerits are all of the same nature; for, though there
is undoubtedly oppression, breach of faith, cruelty,
perfidy, charged upon him, yet the great ruling principle of the whole, and that from which you can never have an act free, is money, -- it is the vice of base
avarice, which never is, nor ever appears even to the
prejudices of mankind to be, anything like a virtue.
Our desire of acquiring sovereignty in India undoubtedly originated first in ideas of safety and necessity; its next step was a step of ambition. That ambition,
as generally happens in conquest, was followed by
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 9
gains of money; but afterwards there was no mixture
at all; it was, during Mr. Hastings's time, altogether
a business of money. If he has extirpated a nation,
I will not say whether properly or improperly, it is
because (says he) you have all the benefit of conquest
without expense; you have got a large sum of money
from the people, and you may leave them to be governed by whom and as they will. This is directly contrary to the principles of conquerors. If he has
at any time taken any money from the dependencies
of the Company, he does not pretend that it was obtained from their zeal and affection to our cause, or that it made their submission more complete: very far
from it. He says they ought to be independent, and
all that you have to do is to squeeze money from,
them. In short, money is the beginning, the middle,
and the end of every kind of act done by Mr. Hastings: pretendedly for the Company, but really for himself.
Having said so much about the origin, the first
principle, both of that which he makes his merit and
which we charge as his demerit, the next step is, that
I should lay open to your Lordships, as clearly as I
can, what the sense of his employers, the East India
Company, and what the sense of the legislature itself,
has been upon those merits and demerits of money.
My Lords, the Company, knowing that these money
transactions were likely to subvert that empire which
was first established upon them, did, in the year 1765,
send out a body of the strongest and most solemn
covenants to their servants, that they should take no
presents from the country powers, under any name
or description, except those things which were publicly and openly taken for the use of the Company, -
? ? ? ? 10 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
namely, territories or sums of money which might be
obtained by treaty. They distinguished such presents as were taken from any persons privately, and
unknown to them, and without their authority, from
subsidies: and that this is the true nature and construction of their order I shall contend and explain
afterwards to your Lordships. They have said, nothillg shall be taken for their private use; for though
in that and in every state there may be subsidiary
treaties by which sums of money may be received,
yet they forbid their servants, their governors, whatever application they might pretend to make of them,
to receive, under any other name or pretence, more
than a certain, marked, simple sum of money, and this
not without the consent and permission of the Presidency to which they belong. This is the substance,
the principle, and the spirit of the covenants, and will
show your Lordships how radicated an evil this of
bribery and presents was judged to be.
When these covenants arrived inl India, the servants
refused at first to execute them, - and suspended the
execution of them, till they had enriched themselves
with presents. Eleven months elapsed, and it was not
till Lord Clive reached the place of his destination
that the covenants were executed: and they were not
executed then without some degree of force. Soon
afterwards the treaty was made with the country
powers by which Sujah ul Dowlah was reestablished
in the province of Oude, and paid a sum of 500,0001.
to the Company for it. It was a public payment, and
there was not a suspicion that a single shilling of private emolument attended it. But whether Mr. Hastings had the example of others or not, their example,could not justify his briberies. He was sent there to
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 11
put all end to all those examples. The Company did
expressly vest him with that power. They declared
at that time, that the whole of their service was totally corrupted by bribes and presents, and by extravagance and luxury, which partly gave rise to them, and these, in their turn, enabled them to pursue those
excesses. They not only reposed trust in the integrity of Mr. Hastings, but reposed trust in his remarkable frugality and order in his affairs, which they considered as things that distinguished his character.
But in his defence we have him quite in another character, --no longer the frugal, attentive servant, bred
to business, bred to book-keeping, as all the Company's servants are; he now. knows nothing of his own
affairs, knows not whether he is rich or poor, knows
not what lie has in the world. Nay, people are
brought forward to say that they know better than
lie does what his affairs are. He is not like a careful
man bred in a counting-house, and by the Directors
put into an office of the highest trust on account of
the regularity of his affairs; lie is like one buried in
the contemplation of the stars, and knows nothing of
the things in this world. It was, then, on account of
an idea of his great integrity that the Company put
him into this situation. Since that lie has thought
proper to justify himself, not by clearing himself of
receiving bribes, but by saying that no bad consequences resulted from it, and that, if any such evil
consequences did arise from it, they arose rather from
his inattention to money than from his desire of acquiring it.
I have stated to your Lordships the nature of the
covenants which the East India Company sent out.
Afterwards, when they found their servants had re
? ? ? ? 12 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
fused to execute these covenants, they not only very
severely reprehended even a moment's delay in their
execution, and threatened the exacting the most strict
and rigorous performance of them, but they sent a
commission to enforce the observance of them more
strongly; and that commission had it specially in
charge never to receive presents. They never sent
out a person to India without recognizing the grievalice, and without ordering that presents should not
be received, as the main fundamental part of their duty, and upon which all the rest depended, as it certainly must: for persons at the head of government should not encourage that by example which they
ought by precept, authority, and force to restrain in
all below them. That commission failing, another
commission was preparing to be sent out with the
same instructions, when an act of Parliament took it
up; and that act, which gave Mr. Hastings power,
did mould in the very first stamina of his power this
principle, in words the most clear and forcible that
an act of Parliament could possibly devise upon the
subject. And that act was made not only upon a
general knowledge of the grievance, but your Lordships will see in the reports of that time that Parliament had directly in view before themn the whole of that monstrous head of corruption under the name
of presents, and all the monstrous consequences that
followed it.
Now, my Lords, every office of trust, in its very
nature, forbids the receipt of bribes. But Mr. Hastings was forbidden it, first, by his official situation,next, by covenant, -- and lastly, by act of Parliament: that is to say, by all the things that bind mankind, or
that can bind them, - first, moral obligation inherent
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 13
i1i the duty of their office,- next, the positive injunctions of the legislature of the country, -and lastly,
a man's own private, particular, voluntary act and
covenant. These three, the great and only obligations
that bind mankind, all united in the focus of this sir. ngle point, - that they should take no presents.
I am to mark to your Lordships, that this law and
this covenant did consider indirect ways of taking
presents -- taking them by others, and such like --
directly in the very same light as they considered
taking them by themselves. It is perhaps a much
more dangerous way; because it adds to the crime a
false, prevaricating mode of concealing it, and makes
it much more mischievous by admitting others into
the participation of it. Mr. Hastings has said, (and
it is one of the general complaints of Mr. IHastings,)
that he is made answerable for the acts of other men.
It is a thing inherent in the nature of his situation.
All those who enjoy a great superintending trust,
which is to regulate the whole affairs of an empire,
are responsible for the acts and conduct of other men,
so far as they had anything to do with appointing
them, or holding them in their places, or having any
sort of inspection into their conduct. But when a
Governor presumes to remove from their situations
those persons whom the public authority and sanction
of the Company have appointed, and obtrudes upon
them by violence other persons, superseding the orders of his masters, lie becomes doubly responsible for their conduct. If the persons he names should be
of notorious evil character and evil principles, and
if this should be perfectly known to himself, and of
public notoriety to the rest of the world, then another
strong responsibility attaches on him for the acts of
those persons.
? ? ? ? 14 IMPEACHMENT OF W ARREN HASTINGS.
Governors, we know very well, cannot with their
own hands be continually receiving bribes, - for then
they must have as many hands as one of the idols in.
all Indian temple, in order to receive all the bribes
which a Governor-General may receive, --but they
have them vicariously. As there are many offices, so
he has had various officers for receiving and distributing his bribes; he has a great many, some white and some black agents. The white men are loose
and licentious; they are apt to have resentments,
and to be bold in revenging them. The black men
are very secret and mysterious; they are not apt to
have very quick resentments, they have not the same
liberty and boldness of language which characterize
Europeans; and they have fears, too, for themselves,
which makes it more likely that they will conceal
anything committed to them by Europeans. Therefore Mr. Hastings had his black agents, not one, two, three, but many, disseminated through the country:
no two of them, hardly, appear to be in the secret of
any one bribe. He has had likewise his white agents,
- they were necessary, - a Mr. Larkins and a Mr.
Croftes. Mr. Croftes was sub-treasurer, and Mr.
Larkins accountant-general. These were the last
persons of all others that should have had anything
to do with bribes; yet these were some of his agents
in bribery. There are few instances, in comparison
of the whole number of bribes, but there are some,
where two men are in the secret of the same bribe.
Nay, it appears that there was one bribe divided
into different payments at different times,- that one
part was committed to one black secretary, another
part to another black secretary. So that it is almost
impossible to make up a complete body of all his bri
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 15
bery: you may find the scattered limbs, some here and
others there; and while you are employed in picking
them up, he may escape entirely in a prosecution for
the whole.
The first act of his government in Bengal was the
most bold and extraordinary that I believe ever entered into the head of ally man,- I will say, of
any tyrant. It was no more or less than a general,
almost exceptless confiscation, in time of profound
peace, of all the landed property in Bengal, upon
most extraordinary pretences. Strange as this may
appear, he did so confiscate it; he put it up to a
pretended public, in reality to a private corrupt auction; and such favored landholders as came to it were obliged to consider themselves as not any longerl
proprietors of the estates, but to recognize themselves
as farmers under government: and even those few
that were permitted to remain on their estates had
their payments raised at his arbitrary discretion; and.
the rest of the lands were given to farmers-general,
appointed by him and his committee, at a price fixed
by the same arbitrary discretion.
It is necessary to inform your Lordships that the
revenues of Bengal are, for the most part, territorial revenues, great quit-rents issuing out of lands. I shall say nothing either of the nature of this property,
of the rights of the people to it, or of the mode of exacting the rents, till that great question of revenues, one of the greatest which we shall have to lay before
you, shall be brought before your Lordships particularly and specially as an article of charge. I only mention it now as all exemplification of the great
principle of corruption which guided Mr. Hastings's
conduct.
? ? ? ? 16 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
When the ancient nobility, the great princes, (for
such I may call them,) a nobility, perhaps, as ancient
as that of your Lordships, (and a more truly noble
body never existed in that character,) - my Lords,
when all the nobility, some of whom have borne the
rank and port of princes, all the gentry, all the freeholders of the country, had their estates in that mallner confiscated,-that is, either given to themselves to hold on the footing of farmers, or totally confiscated,
- when such an act of tyranny was done, no doubt
some good was pretended. This confiscation was
made by Mr. Hastings, and the lands let to these
farmers for five years, upon an idea which always
accompanies his acts of oppression, the idea of moneyed merit. He adopted this mode of confiscating the
estates, and letting them to farmers, for the avowed
purpose of seeing how much it was possible to take
out of them. Accordingly, he set them up to this
wild and wicked auction, as it would have been, if it
had been a real one, - corrupt and treacherous, as it
was, -he set these lands up for the purpose of making that discovery, and pretended that the discovery
would yield a most amazing increase of rent. And
for some time it appeared so to do, till it came to the
touchstone of experience; and then it was found that
there was a defalcation from these monstrous raised
revenues which were to cancel iln the minds of the
Directors the wickedness of so atrocious, flagitious,
and horrid an act of treachery. At the end of five
years what do you think was the failure? No less
than 2,050,0001. Then a new source of corruption
was opened,-that is, how to deal with the balances:
for every man who had engaged in these transactions
was a debtor to goverlullnlt, and the remission of that
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. t7
debt depended upon the discretion of the GovernorGeneral. Then the persons who were to settle the composition of that immense debt, who were to see
how much was recoverable and how much not, were
able to favor, or to exact to the last shilling; and
there never existed a doubt but that not only upon
the original cruel exaction, but upon the remission
afterwards, immense gains were derived. This will
account for the manner in which those stupendous
fortunes which astonish the world have been made.
They have been made, first by a tyrannous exaction
from the people who were suffered to remain'in
possession of their own land as farmers, - then by
selling the rest to farmers at rents and under hopes
which could never be realized, and then getting money for the relaxation of their debts. But whatever excuse, and however wicked, there might have been
for this wicked act, namely, that it carried upon the
face of it some sort of appearance of public good, -
that is to say, that sort of public good which Mr. Hastings so often professed, of ruining the country for the benefit of the Company, - yet, in fact, this business
of balances is that nidus in which have been nustled
and bred and born all the corruptions of India, first
by making extravagant demands, and afterwards by
making corrupt relaxations of them.
Besides this monstrous failure, in consequence of
a miserable exaction by which more was attempted
to be forced from the country than it was capable of
yielding, and this by way of experiment, when your
Lordships come to inquire who the farmers-general of
the revenue were, you would naturally expect to find
them to be the men in the several countries who had
the most interest, the greatest wealth, the best knowlVOL. X. 2
? ? ? ? 18 IMPEACHMIENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
edge of the revenue and resources of the country in
which they lived. 'Thllese would be thought the natural, proper farmers-general of each district.
