241 will be brought before your Lordships,
distinctly
and in order, at the end of this opening.
Edmund Burke
Mr.
Hastings endeavors to invalidate the first obliquely, not directly, for he never directly denied it; and he partly admits the second, in hopes that all the proof of payment of the first charge
should be merged and confounded in the second.
And therefore your Lordships will see from the beginning of that business till it came into the hands of
Mr. Smith, his agent, then appearing in the name and
character of agent and solicitor to the Company, that
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 229
this was done to give some appearance and color to it
by a false representation, as your Lordships will see,
of every part of the transaction.
The proof, then, of the two lacs rests upon the evidence of Nundcomar, the letter of Munny Begum,
and the evidence of Rajah Gourdas. The evidence
of the lac and a half, by way of entertainment, was at
first the same; and afterwards begins a series of proofs
to which Mr. Hastings has himself helped us. For, in
the first place, he produces this office paper in support of his attempt to establish the confusion between the payment of the two lacs and of the lac and a half.
He did not himself deny that he received a lac and a
half, because with respect to that lac and a half he had
founded some principle of justification. Accordingly
this office paper asserts and proves this lac and a half
to have been given, in addition to the other proofs.
Then Munny Begum herself is inquired of. There is
a commission appointed to go up to her residence;
and the fact is proved to the satisfaction of Mr. Goring, the commissioner. The Begum had put a paper
of accounts, through her son, into his hands, which
shall be given at your Lordships' bar, in which she
expressly said that she gave Mr. Hastings a lac and a
half for entertainment. But Mr. Hastings objects to
Mr. Goring's evidence upon this occasion. He wanted to supersede Mr. Goring in the inquiry; and he accordingly appoints, with the consent of the Council, two creatures of his own to go and assist in that inquiry. The question which he directs these commissioners to put to Munny Begum is this: -" Was
the sum of money charged by you to be given to Mr.
Hastings given under an idea of entertainment customary, or upon what other ground, or for what other
? ? ? ? 230 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
reason? " He also desires the following questions
may be proposed to the Begum: -" Was any application made to you for the account which you have
delivered of three lacs and a half of rupees said to
have been paid to the Governor and Mr. Middleton?
or did you deliver the account of your own free will,
and unsolicited? " My Lords, you see that with regard to the whole three lacs and a half of rupees the
Begum had given an account which tended to confirm
the payment of them; but Mr. Hastings wanted to invalidate that account by supposing she gave it under
restraint. The second question is, -" In what manner was the application made to you, and by whom? "
But the principal question is this: - "On what account was the one lac and a half given to the Governor-General which you have laid to his account? Was it in consequence of any requisition from him,
or of any previous agreement, or of any established
usage? " When a man asks concerning a sum of
money, charged to be given to him by another person, on what account it was given, he does indirectly
admit that that money actually was paid, and wants
to derive a justification from the mode of the payment of it; and accordingly that inference was drawn
from the question so sent up, and it served as an
instruction to Munny Begum; and her answer was,
that it was given to him, as an ancient usage and
custom, for an entertainment. So that the fact of
the gift of the money is ascertained by the question put by Mr. Hastings to her, and her answer.
And thus at last comes his accomplice in this business, and gives the fullest testimony to the lac and
a half.
I must beg leave, before I go further, to state the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 231
circumstances of the several witnesses examined upon this business. They were of two kinds: voluntary
witnesses, and accomplices forced by inquiry and examination to discover their own guilt. Of the first
kind were Nundcomar and Rajah Gourdas: these
were the only two that can be said to be voluntary
in the business, and who gave their information without much fear, though the last unwillingly, and with
a full sense of the danger of doing it. The other
was the evidence of his accomplice, Munny Begum,
wrung from her by the force of truth, in which she
confessed that she gave the lac and a half, and justifies it upon the ground of its being a customary entertainment. Besides this, there is the evidence of Chittendur, who was one of Mr. Hastings's instruments, and one of the Begum's servants. He, being prepared to confound the two lacs with the one lac and
a half, says, upon his examination, that a lac and a
half was given; but upon examining into the particulars of it, he proves that the sum lie gave was two
lacs, and not a lac and a half: for he says that there
was a dispute about the other half lac; Nundcomar
demanded interest, which the Begum was unwilling
to allow, and consequently that half lac remained
unpaid. Now this half lac can be no part of the lac
and a half, which is admitted on all hands, and proved
by the whole body of concurrent testimony, to have
been given to Mr. Hastings in one lumping sum.
When Chittendur endeavors to confound it with the
lac and a half, he clearly establishes the fact that it
was a parcel of the two lacs, and thus bears evidence,
in attempting to prevaricate in favor of Mr. Hastings,
that one lac and a half was paid, which Mr. Hastings
is willing to allow; but when lie enters into the
? ? ? ? 232 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
particulars of it, he proves by the subdivision of the
payment, and by the non-payment of part of it, that
it accords with the two lacs, and not with the lac and
a half.
There are other circumstances in these accounts
highly auxiliary to this evidence. The lac and a half
was not only attested by Rajah Gourdas, by the Begum, by Chittendur, by the Begum again upon Mr.
Hastings's own question, indirectly admitted by Mr.
Hastings, proved by the orders for it to be written off
to expense, (such a body of proof as perhaps never
existed,) but there is one proof still remaining, namely, a paper, which was produced before the Committee, and which we shall produce to your Lordships. It is an authentic paper, delivered in favor of Mr.
Hastings by Major Scott, who acted at that time as
Mr. Hastings's agent, to a committee of the House
of Commons, and authenticated to come from Munny
Begum herself. All this body of evidence we mean
to produce; and we shall prove, first, that he received
the two lacs, - and, secondly, that he received one lac
and a half under the name of entertainment. With
regard to the lac and a half, Mr. Hastings is so far
from controverting it, even indirectly, that he is
obliged to establish it by testimonies produced by himself, in order to sink in that, if he can, the two lacs,
which he thinks he is not able to justify, but which lihe
fears will be proved against him. The lac and a half,
I do believe, he will not be advised to contest; but
whether he is or no, we shall load him with it, we
shall prove it beyond all doubt. But there are
other circumstances further auxiliary in this business, which, from the very attempts to conceal it,
prove beyond doubt the fraudulent and wicked na
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. FIRST DAY. 233
ture of the transaction. In the account given by the
Begum, a lac, which is for Mr. Hastings's entertainment, is entered in a suspicious neighborhood; for
there is there entered a lac of rupees paid for the
subahdarry sunnuds to the Mogul through the Rajah
Shitab Roy. Upon looking into the account, and comparing it with another paper produced, the first thing we find is, that this woman charges the sum paid to
be a sum due; and then she charges this one lac to
have been paid when the Mogul was in the hands of
the Mahrattas, when all communication with him was
stopped, and when Rajah Shitab Roy, who is supposed
to have paid it, was under confinement in the hands
of Mr. Hastings. Thus she endeavors to conceal the
lac of rupees paid to Mr. Hastings.
In order to make this transaction, which, though
not in itself intricate, is in some degree made so by
Mr. Hastings, clear to your Lordships, we pledge ourselves to give to your Lordships, what must be a great advantage to the culprit himself, a syllabus, the heads
of all this charge, and of the proofs themselves, with
their references, to show how far the proof goes to
the two lacs, and then to the one lac and a half singly. This we shall put in writing, that you may not depend upon the fugitive memory of a thing not so
well, perhaps, or powerfully expressed as it ought to
be, and in order to give every advantage to the defendant, and to give every facility to your Lordships' judgment: and this will, I believe, be thought a clear
and fair way of proceeding. Your Lordships will
then judge whether Mr. Hastings's conduct at the
time, his resisting an inquiry, preventing his servant
appearing as an evidence, discountenancing and discouraging his colleagues, raising every obstruction to
? ? ? ? 234 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the prosecution, dissolving the Council, preventing
evidence and destroying it as far as lay in his power by collateral means, be not also such presump.
tive proofs as give double force to all the positive
proof we produce against him.
The lac and a half, I know, he means to support
upon the custom of entertainment; and your Lordships will judge whether or not a man who was ordered and had covenanted never to take more than 4001. could take 16,0001. under color of an entertainment. That which he intends to produce as a
justification we charge, and your Lordships and the
world will think, to be the heaviest aggravation of his
crime. And after explaining to your Lordships the
circumstances under which this justification is made,
and leaving a just impression of them upon your
minds, I shall beg your Lordships' indulgence to finish this member of the business to-morrow.
It is stated and entered in the account, that an
entertainment was provided for Mr. Hastings at the
rate of 2001. a day. He stayed at Moorshedabad for
near three months; and thus you see that visits from
Mr. Hastings are pretty expensive things: it is at the
rate of 73,0001. a year for his entertainment. We
find that Mr. Middleton, an English gentleman who
was with him, received likewise (whether under the
same pretence I know not, and it does not signify)
another sum equal to it; and if these two gentlemen
had stayed in that country a year, their several allowances would have been 146,0001. out of the Nabob's
allowance of 160,0001. a year: they would have eat
up nearly the whole of it. And do you wonder, my
Lords, that such guests and such hosts are difficult to
be divided? Do you wonder that such visits, when
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 235
so well paid for and well provided for, were naturally
long? There is hardly a prince in Europe who would
give to another prince of Europe from his royal hospitality what was given upon this occasion to Mr. Hastings.
Let us now see what was Mr. Hastings's business
during this long protracted visit. First, he tells you
that he came there to reduce all the state and dignity
of the Nabob. He tells you that he felt no coinpunction in reducing that state; that the elephants, the menagerie, the stables, all went without mercy, and
consequently all the persons concerned in them were
dismissed also. When he came to the abolition of the
pensions, he says, -- " I proceeded with great pain,
from the reflection that I was the instrument in depriving whole families, all at once, of their bread, and reducing them to a state of penury: convinced of the
necessity of the measure, I endeavored to execute it
with great impartiality. " Here he states the work
he was employed in, when he took this two hundred
p)ounds a day for his own pay. " It was necessary to
begin with reforming the useless servants of the court,
and retrenching the idle parade of elephants, menageries, &c. , which loaded the civil list. This cost little regret in performing; but the Resident, who
took upon himself the chief share in this business,
acknowledges that he suffered considerably in his
feelings, when he came to touch on the pension list.
Some hundreds of persons of the ancient nobility of
the country, excluded, under our government, from
almost all employments, civil or military, had, ever
since the revolution, depended on the bounty of the
Nabob; and near ten lacs were bestowed that way.
It is not that the distribution was always made with
? ? ? ? 236 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
judgment or impartial, and much room was left for a
reform; but when the question was to cut off entirely
the greatest part, it could not fail to be accompanied
with circumstances of real distress. The Resident
declares, that, even with some of the highest rank,
he could not avoid discovering, under all the pride
of Eastern manners, the manifest marks of penury
and want. There was, however, no room left for hesitation: to confine the Nabob's expenses within the limited sum, it was necessary that pensions should
be set aside. "
Here, my Lords, is a mail sent to execute one of the
most dreadful offices that was ever executed by man,
- to cut off, as he says himself, with a bleeding heart,
the only remaining allowance made for hundreds of
the decayed nobility and gentry of a great kingdom,
driven by our government from the offices upon which
they existed. In this moment of an:iety and affliction,
when he says he felt pain and was cut to the heart to
do it, - at this very moment, when he was turning
over fourteen hundred of the ancient nobility and
gentry of this country to downright want of bread,
just at that moment, while he was doing this act, and
feeling this act in this manner, from the collected
morsels forced from the mouths of that indigent and
famished nobility he gorged his own ravenous maw
with an allowance of two hundred pounds a day for
his entertainment. As we see him in this business,
this man is unlike any other-: he is also never corrupt
but he is cruel; he never dines without creating a
famine; he does not take from the loose superfluity
of standing greatness, but falls upon the indigent,
the oppressed, and ruined; he takes to himself double
what would maintain them. His is unlike the gen
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 237
erous rapacity of the noble eagle, who preys upon a
living, struggling, reluctant, equal victim; his is like
that of the ravenous vulture, who falls upon the decayed, the sickly, the dying, and the dead, and only anticipates Nature in the destruction of its object.
His cruelty is beyond his corruption: but there is
something in his hypocrisy which is more terrible
than his cruelty; for, at the very time when with
double and unsparing hands he executes a proscription, and sweeps off the food of hundreds of the nobility and gentry of a great country, his eyes overflow with tears, and lie turns the precious balm that bleeds from wounded humanity, and is its best medicine, into fatal, rancorous, mortal poison to the human race.
You have seen, that, when he takes two hundred
pounds a day for his entertainment, he tells you that
in this very act he is starving fourteen hundred of the
ancient nobility and gentry. My Lords, you have the
blood of nobles, --if not, you have the blood of men
in your veins: you feel as nobles, you feel as men.
What would you say to a cruel Mogul exactor, by
whom after having been driven from your estates, driven from the noble offices, civil and military, which
you hold, driven from your bishoprics, driven from
your places at court, driven from your offices as
judges, and, after having been reduced to a miserable flock of pensioners, your very pensions were at
last wrested from your mouths, and who, though at
the very time when those pensions were wrested from
you he declares them to have been the only bread of a
miserable decayed nobility, takes himself two hundred pounds a day for his entertainment, and continues it till it amounts to sixteen thousand pounds? I
? ? ? ? 238 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
do think, that, of all the corruptions which he has not
owned, but has not denied, or of those which he does
in effect own, and of which he brings forward the
evidence himself, the taking and claiming under color
of an entertainment is ten times the most nefarious.
I shall this day only further trouble your Lordships
to observe that he has never directly denied this transaction. I have tumbled over the records, I have
looked at every part, to see whether he denies it.
He did not deny it at the time, he did not deny it
to the Court of Directors: on the contrary, he did
in effect acknowledge it, when, without directly acknowledging it, he promised them a full and liberal
explanation of the whole transaction. He never did
give that explanation. Parliament took up the business; this matter was reported at the end of the
Eleventh Report; but though the House of Commons
had thus reported it, and made that public which before was upon the Company's records, he took no notice of it. Then another occasion arises: he comes before the House of Commons; he knows he is about
to be prosecuted for these very corruptions; he well
knows these charges exist against him; he makes his
defence (if he will allow it to be his defence); but,
though thus driven, he did not there deny it, because
he knew, that, if he had denied it, it could be proved
against him. I desire your Lordships will look at
that paper which we have given in evidence, and see
if you find a word of denial of it: there is much discourse, much folly, much insolence, but not one word
of denial. Then, at last, it came before this tribunal
against him. I desire to refer your Lordships to that
part of his defence to the article in which this bribe is
specifically charged: he does not deny it there; the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON rHE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 239
only thing which looks like a denial is one sweeping clause inserted, (in order to put us upon the proof,) that all the charges are to be conceived as denied; but a specific denial to this specific charge in no stage of the business, from beginning to end, has he once made.
And therefore here I close that part of the charge which relates to the business of Nundcomar. Your Lordships will see such a body of presumptive proof and positive proof as never was given yet of any secret corrupt act of bribery; and there I leave it
with your Lordships' justice. I beg pardon for
having detained you so long; but your Lordships
will be so good as to observe that no business ever was covered with more folds of iniquitous artifice
than this which is now brought before you.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
ON
THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1789.
M Y LORDS, - When I last had the honor of addressing your Lordships, I endeavored to state
with as much perspicuity as the nature of an intricate affair would admit, and as largely as in so intricate anl affair was consistent with the brevity which I endeavored to preserve, the proofs which had been
adduced against Warren Hastings upon an inquiry
instituted by an order of the Court of Directors into the corruption and peculation of persons in authority in India. My Lords, I have endeavored to
show you by anterior presumptive proofs, drawn from
the nature and circumstances of the acts themselves
inferring guilt, that such actions and such conduct
could be referable only to one cause, namely, corruption; I endeavored to show you afterwards, my Lords,
what the specific nature and extent of the corruption
was, as far as it could be fully proved; and lastly,
the great satisfactory presumption which attended
the inquiry with regard, to Mr. Hastings, - namely,
that, contrary to law, contrary to his duty, contrary
to what is owed by innocence to itself, Mr. Hastings
resisted that inquiry, and employed all the power of
his office to prevent the exercise of it, either in himself or in others. These presumptions and these proofs
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY.
241 will be brought before your Lordships, distinctly and in order, at the end of this opening.
The next point on which I thought it necessary to proceed was relative to the presumptions which his subsequent conduct gave with regard to his guilt: because, my Lords, his uniform tenor of conduct, such as must attend guilt, both in the act, at the time of the inquiry, and subsequent to it, will form such a body of satisfactory evidence as I believe the human mind is not made to resist.
My Lords, there is another reason why I choose to
enter into the presumptions drawn from his conduct
and the fact, taking his conduct in two parts, if it
may be so expressed, omission and commission, in order that your Lordships should more fully enter into the consequences of this system of bribery. But before I say anything upon that, I wish your Lordships
to be apprised, that the Commons, in bringing this
bribe of three lac and a half before your Lordships, do
not wish by any means to have it understood that this
it the whole of the bribe that was received by Mr.
Hastings in consequence of delivering up the whole
management of the government of the country to
that improper person whom he nominated for it. My
Lords, from the proofs that will be adduced before
you, there is great probability that he received very
nearly a hundred thousand pounds; there is positive proof of his receiving fifty; and wee have chosen only to charge him with that of which there is such an accumulated body of proof as to leave no1
doubt upon the minds of your Lordships. All this I
say, because we are perfectly apprised of the sentiments of the public upon this point: when they hear
of the enormity of Indian peculation, when they see
VOL. X. 16
? ? ? ? 242 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the acts done, and compare them with the bribes received, the acts seem so enormous and the bribes comparatively so small, that they can hardly be got to attribute them to that motive. What I mean to state
is this: that, from a collective view of the subject,
your Lordships will be able to judge that enormous
offences have been committed, and that the bribe
which we have given in proof is a specimen of the
nature and extent df those enormous bribes which extend to much greater sums than we are able to prove
before you in the manner your Lordships would like
and expect.
I have already remarked to your Lordships, that,
after this charge was brought and recorded before
the Council in spite of the resistance made by Mr.
Hastings, in which he employed all the power and
authority of his station, and the whole body of his partisans and associates in iniquity, dispersed through
every part of these provinces, - after he had taken
all these steps, finding himself pressed by the proof
and pressed by the presumption of his resistance to
the inquiry, he did think it necessary to make something like a defence. Accordingly he has made what
he calls a justification, which did not consist in the
denial of that fact, or any explanation of it. The
mode he took for his defence was abuse of his colleagues, abuse of the witnesses, and of every person
who in the execution of his duty was inquiring into the fact, and charging them with things which, if
true, were by no means sufficient to support him,
either in defending the acts themselves, or in the
criminal means he used to prevent inquiry into them.
His design was to mislead their minds, and to carry
them from the accusation and the proof of it. With
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY. 243
respect to the passion, violence, and intemperate heat
with which he charged them, they were proceeding in
an orderly, regular manner; and if on any occasion
they seem to break out into warmth, it was in consequence of that resistance which he made to them, in what your Lordships, I believe, will agree with them
in thinking was one of the most important parts of
their functions. If they had been intemperate in their
conduct, if they had been violent, passionate, prejudiced against him, it afforded him only a better means of making his defence; because, though in a rational and judicious mind the intemperate conduct of the accuser certainly proves nothing with regard to the
truth or falsehood of his accusation, yet we do know
that the minds of men are so constituted that an improper mode of conducting a right thing does form some degree of prejudice against it. Mr. Hastings,
therefore, unable to defend himself upon principle, has
resorted as much as he possibly could to prejudice.
And at the same time that there is not one word of
denial, or the least attempt at a refutation of the
charge, he has loaded the records with all manner of
minutes, proceedings, and letters relative to everything
but the fact itself. The great aim of his policy, both
then, before, and ever since, has been to divert the
mind of the auditory, or the persons to whom he addressed himself, from the nature of his cause, to some collateral circumstance relative to it, -- a policy to
which he has always had recourse; but that trick,
the last resource of despairing guilt, I trust will now
completely fail him.
Mr. Hastings, however, began to be pretty sensible
that this way of proceeding had a very unpromising
and untoward look; for which reason he next declared
? ? ? ? 244 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that he reserved his defence for fear of a legal prose
cution, and that some time or other he would give a
large and liberal explanation to the Court of Directors,
to whom he was answerable for his conduct, of his
refusing to suffer the inquiry to proceed, of his omitting to give them satisfaction at the time, of his omitting to take any one natural step that an innocent man would have taken upon such an occasion. Under
this promise he has remained from that time to the
time you see him at your bar, and he has neither
denied, exculpated, explained, or apologized for his
conduct in any one single instance.
While he accuses the intemperance of his adversaries, he shows a degree of temperance in himself
which always attends guilt in despair: for struggling
guilt may be warm, but guilt that is desperate has
nothing to do but to submit to the consequences of it,
to bear the infamy annexed to its situation, and to try
to find some consolation in the effects of guilt with regard to private fortune for the scandal it brings them
into in public reputation. After the business had
ended in India, the causes why he should have given
the explanation grew stronger and stronger: for not
only the charges exhibited against him were weighty,
but the manner in which he was called upon to inquire
into them was such as would undoubtedly tend to stir
the mind of a man of character, to rouse him to some
consideration of himself, and to a sense of the necessity of his defence. He was goaded to make this
defence by the words I shall read to your Lordships
from Sir John Clavering.
" In the late proceedings of the Revenue Board it
will appear that there is no species of peculation from
which the Honorable Governor-General has thought
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY. 245 it reasonable to abstain. " He further says, in answer to Mr. Hastings, "The malicious view with which this innuendo " (an innuendo of Mr. Hastings) " is thrown out is only worthy of a man who, having disgraced himself in the eyes of every man of honor both in Asia and in Europe, and having no imputation to
lay to our charge, has dared to attempt in the dark
what malice itself could not find grounds to aim at
openly. "
These are the'charges which were made upon him,
- not loosely, in the heat of conversation, but deliberately, in writing, entered upon record, and sent to his employers, the Court of Directors, those whom the
law had set over him, and to whose judgment and
opinion he was responsible. Do your Lordships believe that it was conscious innocence that made him endure such reproaches, so recorded, from his own
colleague? Was it conscious innocence that made
him abandon his defence, renounce his explanation,
and bear all this calumny, (if it was calumny,) in such
a manner, without making any one attempt to refute
it? Your Lordships will see by this, and by other
minutes with which the books are filled, that Mr.
Hastings is charged quite to the brim with corruptions
of all sorts, and covered with every mode of possible
disgrace. For there is something so base and contemptible in the crimes of peculation and bribery, that, when they come to be urged home and strongly against
a man, as here they are urged, nothing but a consciousness of guilt can possibly make a person so charged support himself under them. Mr. Hastings considered himself, as he has stated, to be under the necessity of bearing them. What is that necessity? Guilt.
Could he say that Sir John Clavering (for I say noth
? ? ? ? 246 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ing now of Colonel Monson and Mr. Francis, who were
joined with him) was a man weak and contemptible?
I believe there are those among your Lordships who
remember that Sir John Clavering was known before
he went abroad, and better known by his conduct
after, to be a man of the most distinguished honor
that ever served his Majesty; he served his Majesty
in a military situation for many years, and afterwards
in that high civil situation in India. It is known
that through every step and gradation of a high military service, until he arrived at the highest of all, there never was the least blot upon him, or doubt or
suspicion of his character; that his temper for the
most part, and his manners, were fully answerable to
his virtues, and a noble ornament to them; that he
was one of the best natured, best bred men, as well as
one of the highest principled men to be found in his
Majesty's service; that he had passed the middle
time of life, and come to an age which makes men
wise in general; so that he could be warmed by
nothing but that noble indignation at guilt which is
the last thing that ever was or will be extinguished
in a virtuous mind. He was a man whose voice was
not to be despised; but if his character had been
personally as contemptible as it was meritorious and
honorable in every respect, yet his situation as a
commissioner named by an act of Parliament for the
express purpose of reforming India gave him a weight
and consequence that could not suffer Mr. Hastings, without a general and strong presumption of his guilt, to acquiesce in such recorded minutes from
him. But if he had been a weak, if he had been an
intemperate man, (in reality he was as cool, steady,
temperate, judicious a man as ever was born,) the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -- SECOND DAY. 247
Court of Directors, to whom Mr. Hastings was responsible by every tie and every principle, and was
made responsible at last by a positive act of Parliament obliging him to yield obedience to their commands as the general rule of his duty,- the Court of Directors, I say, perfectly approved of every part
of General Clavering's, Colonel Monson's, and Mr.
Francis's conduct; they approved of this inquiry
which Mr. Hastings rejected; and they have declared,
" that the powers and instructions vested in and
given to General Clavering and the other gentlemen
were such as fully authorized them in every inquiry
that seems to have been their object
Europeans. " *
Now after the supreme authority, to which they
were to appeal in all their disputes, had passed this
judgment upon this very inquiry, the matter no longer
depended upon Mr. Hastings's opinion; nor could he
be longer justified in attributing that to evil motives
either of malice, or passion in his colleagues. When
the judges who were finally to determine who was
malicious, who was passionate, who was or was not
justified either in setting on foot the inquiry or resisting it, had passed that judgment, then Mr. Hastings
was called upon by all the feelings of a man, and by
his duty in Council, to give satisfaction to his masters, the Directors, who approved of the zeal and diligence shown in that very inquiry, the passion of which he only reprobated, and upon which he grounded his justification.
If anything but conscious guilt could have possibly
influenced him to such more than patience under this
* Document wanting.
? ? ? ? 248 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
accusation, let us see what was his conduct when
the scene was changed. General Clavering, fatigued
and broken down by the miseries of his situation,
soon afterwards lost a very able and affectionate colleague, Colonel Monson, (whom Mr. Hastings states
to be one of the bitterest of his accusers,) a man one
of the most loved and honored of his time, a person
of your Lordships' noble blood, and a person who did
honor to it, and if he had been of the family of a
commoner, well deserved to be raised to your distinction. When that man died,-died of a broken heart,
to say nothing else, --and General Clavering felt
himself in a manner without help, except what he
derived from the firmness, assiduity, and patience of
Mr. Francis, sinking like himself under the exertion
of his own virtues, he was resolved to resign his employment. The Court of Directors were so alarmed
at this attempt of his to resign his employment, that
they wrote thus: " When you conceived the design of
quitting our service, we imagine you could not have
heard of the resignation of Mr. Hastings.
your zeal and ability. " *
My Lords, in this struggle, and before he could
resign finally, another kind of resignation, the resignation of Nature, took place, and Sir John Clavering died. The character that was given Sir John Clavering at that time is a seal to the whole of his
proceedings, and the use that I shall make of it your
Lordships will see presently. " The abilities of General Clavering, the comprehensive knowledge he had
attained of our affairs
to the East India Company. " t
* Document wanting. t Document wanting.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY. 249
And never had it a greater loss. There is the concluding funeral oration made by his masters, upon a
strict, though by no means partial, view of his conduct. My Lords, here is the man who is the great
accuser of Mr. Hastings, as he says. What is he? a
slight man, a man of mean situation, a man of mean
talents, a man of mean character? No: of the highest character. Was he a person whose conduct was
disapproved by their common superiors? No: it was
approved when living, and ratified when dead. This
was the man, a man equal to him in every respect,
upon the supposed evil motives of whom alone was
founded the sole justification of Mr. Hastings.
But be it, then, that Sir John Clavering, Colonel
Monson, and Mr. Francis were all of them the evilminded persons that he describes them to be, and
that from dislike to them, from a kind of manly
resentment, if you please, against such persons, an
hatred against malicious proceedings, and a defiance
of them, he did not think proper, as he states, to
make his defence during that period of time, and
while oppressed by that combination, -- yet, when he
got rid of the two former persons, and when Mr.
Francis was nothing, when the whole majority was
in his hand, and he was in full power, there was a
large, open, full field for inquiry; and he was bound
to re-institute that inquiry, and to clear his character
before his judges and before his masters. Mr. Hastings says, " No: they have threatened me with a prosecution, and I reserve myself for a court of justice. " Mr. Hastings has now at length taken a ground, as
you will see from all his writings, which makes all
explanation of his conduct in this business absolutely
impossible. For, in the first place, he says,' As a
? ? ? ? 250 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
prosecution is meditated against me, I will say nothing in explanation of my conduct, because I might
disclose my defence, and by that means do myself a
prejudice. " On the other hand, when the prosecution is dropped, as we all know it was dropped in this
case, then he has a direct contrary reason, but it
serves him just as well: "Why, as no prosecution
Ts intended, no defence need be made. " So that,
whether a prosecution is intended or a prosecution
dropped, there is always cause why Mr. Hastings
should not give the Court of Directors the least satisfaction concerning his conduct, notwithstanding, as
we shall prove, he has reiteratedly promised, and
promised it in the most ample and liberal manner.
But let us see if there be any presumption in his
favor to rebut the presumption which he knew was
irrosistible, and which, by making no defence for his
conduct, and stopping the inquiry, must necessarily
lie upon him. He reserves his defence, but he promises both defence and explanation.
Your Lordships will remark that there is nowhere
a clear and positive denial of the fact. Promising
a defence, I will admit, does not directly and ex vi
termini suppose that a man may not deny the fact,
because it is just compatible with the defence; but it
does by no means exclude the admission of the fact,
because the admission of the fact may be attended
with a justification: but when a man says that he
will explain his conduct with regard to a fact, then
he admits that fact, because there can be no explanation of a fact which has no existence. Therefore Mr.
Hastings admits the fact by promising an explanation, and he shows he has no explanation nor justification to give by never having given it. Goaded,
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - SECOND DAY. 251
provoked, and called upon for it, in the manner I
have mentioned, he chooses to have a feast of disgrace, (if I may say so,) to have a riot of infamy,
served up to him day by day for a course of years, in
every species of reproach that could be given by his
colleagues, and by the Court of Directors, "from
whom," he says, 1" I received nothing but opprobrious
and disgraceful epithets," and he says " that his predecessors possessed more of their confidence than he
had. " Yet for years he lay down in that sty of disgrace, fattening in it, feeding upon that offal of disgrace and excrement, upon everything that could be disgustful to the human mind, rather than deny the
fact and put himself upon a civil justification. Infamy was never incurred for nothing. We know very
well what was said formerly: -
"' Populus me sibilat; at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca. '
And never did a man submit to infamy for anything
but its true reward, money. Money he received; the
infamy he received along with it: he was glad to
take his wife with all her goods; he took her with
her full portion, with every species of infamy that
belonged to her; and your Lordships cannot resist
the opinion that he would not have suffered himself
to be disgraced with the Court of Directors, disgraced
with his colleagues, disgraced with the world, disgraced upon an eternal record, unless he was absolutely guilty of the fact that was charged upon him. He frequently expresses that he reserves himself
for a court of justice. Does he, my Lords? I am
sorry that Mr. Hastings should show that he always
mistakes his situation; he has totally mistaken it:
? ? ? ? 252 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
he was a servant, bound to give a satisfactory account
of his conduct to his masters, and, instead of that, he
considers himself and the Court of Directors as litigant parties, - them as the accusers, and himself as
the culprit. What would your Lordships, in private
life, conceive of a steward who was accused of embezzling the rents, robbing and oppressing the tenants,
and committing a thousand misdeeds in his stewardship, and who, upon your wishing to make inquiry
into his conduct, and asking an explanation of it,
should answer, " I will give no reply: you may intend to prosecute me and convict me as a cheat, and
therefore I will not give you any satisfaction ": what
would you think of that steward? You could have
no doubt that such a steward was a person not fit to
be a steward, nor fit to live.
Mr. Hastings reserves himself for a court of justice: that single circumstance, my Lords, proves that
he was guilty. It may appear very odd that his
guilt should be inferred from his desire of trial in
a court in which he could be acquitted or condemned. But I shall prove to you from that circumstance that Mr. Hastings, in desiring to be tried in a court of justice, convicts himself of presumptive
guilt.
When Mr. Hastings went to Bengal in the year
1772, he had a direction exactly similar to this which
he has resisted in his own case: it was to inquire
into grievances and abuses. In consequence of this
direction, he proposes a plan for the regulation of the
Company's service, and one part of that plan was just
what you would expect from him,- that is, the power of destroying every Company's servant without the
least possibility of his being heard in his own defence
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY. 253
or taking anlly one step to justify himself, and of dismissing him at his own discretion: and the reason
he gives for it is this. "I shall forbear to comment
upon the above propositions: if just and proper, their
utility will be self-apparent. One clause only in the
last article may require some explanation, namely,
the power proposed for the Governor of recalling any
person from his station without assigning a reason
for it. In the charge of oppression," (now here you
will find the reason why Mr. Hastings wishes to appeal to a court of justice, rather than to give satisfaction to his employers,) " though supported by the cries of the people and the most authentic representations, 4 is yet impossible in most cases to obtain
legal proofs of it; and unless the discretionary power which I have recommended be somewhere lodged,
the assurance of impunity from any formal inquiry
will baffle every order of the board, as, on the other
hand, the fear of the consequence will restrain every
man within the bounds of his duty, if he knows himself liable to suffer by the effects of a single control. "
You see Mr. Hastings himself is of opinion that the
cries of oppression, though extorted from a whole
people by the iron hand of severity,- that these
cries of a whole people, attended even with authentic
documents sufficient to satisfy the mind of any man,
may be totally insufficient to convict the oppressor in
a court; and yet to that court, whose competence he
denies, to that very court, he appeals, in that he puts
his trust, and upon that ground he refuses to perform
the just promise he had given of any explanation to
those who had employed him.
Now I put thif to your Lordships: if a man is of
opinion that no public court can truly and properly
? ? ? ? 254 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
bring him to any account for his conduct, that the
forms observable in courts are. totally adverse to it,
that there is a general incompetency with regard' to
such a court, and yet shuns a tribunal capable and
competent, and applies to that which lie thinks is incapable and incompetent, does not that man plainly show that he has rejected what he thinks will prove his guilt, and that he has chosen what he
thinks will be utterly insufficient to prove it? And
if this be the case, as he asserts it to be, with an
under servant, think what must be the case of the
upper servant of all: for, if an inferior servant is not
to be brought to justice, what must be the situation
of a Governor-General? It is impossible not to see,
that, as he had conceived that a court of justice had
not sufficient means to bring his crimes to light and
detection, nor sufficient to bring him to proper and
adequate punishment, therefore he flew to a court of
justice, not as a place to decide upon him, but as a
sanctuary to secure his guilt. Most of your Lordships have travelled abroad, and have seen in the
unreformed countries of Europe churches filled with
persons who take sanctuary in them. You do not
presume that a man is innocent because he is in a
sanctuary: you know, that, so far from demonstrating his innocence, it demonstrates his guilt. And in
this case, Mr.
should be merged and confounded in the second.
And therefore your Lordships will see from the beginning of that business till it came into the hands of
Mr. Smith, his agent, then appearing in the name and
character of agent and solicitor to the Company, that
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 229
this was done to give some appearance and color to it
by a false representation, as your Lordships will see,
of every part of the transaction.
The proof, then, of the two lacs rests upon the evidence of Nundcomar, the letter of Munny Begum,
and the evidence of Rajah Gourdas. The evidence
of the lac and a half, by way of entertainment, was at
first the same; and afterwards begins a series of proofs
to which Mr. Hastings has himself helped us. For, in
the first place, he produces this office paper in support of his attempt to establish the confusion between the payment of the two lacs and of the lac and a half.
He did not himself deny that he received a lac and a
half, because with respect to that lac and a half he had
founded some principle of justification. Accordingly
this office paper asserts and proves this lac and a half
to have been given, in addition to the other proofs.
Then Munny Begum herself is inquired of. There is
a commission appointed to go up to her residence;
and the fact is proved to the satisfaction of Mr. Goring, the commissioner. The Begum had put a paper
of accounts, through her son, into his hands, which
shall be given at your Lordships' bar, in which she
expressly said that she gave Mr. Hastings a lac and a
half for entertainment. But Mr. Hastings objects to
Mr. Goring's evidence upon this occasion. He wanted to supersede Mr. Goring in the inquiry; and he accordingly appoints, with the consent of the Council, two creatures of his own to go and assist in that inquiry. The question which he directs these commissioners to put to Munny Begum is this: -" Was
the sum of money charged by you to be given to Mr.
Hastings given under an idea of entertainment customary, or upon what other ground, or for what other
? ? ? ? 230 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
reason? " He also desires the following questions
may be proposed to the Begum: -" Was any application made to you for the account which you have
delivered of three lacs and a half of rupees said to
have been paid to the Governor and Mr. Middleton?
or did you deliver the account of your own free will,
and unsolicited? " My Lords, you see that with regard to the whole three lacs and a half of rupees the
Begum had given an account which tended to confirm
the payment of them; but Mr. Hastings wanted to invalidate that account by supposing she gave it under
restraint. The second question is, -" In what manner was the application made to you, and by whom? "
But the principal question is this: - "On what account was the one lac and a half given to the Governor-General which you have laid to his account? Was it in consequence of any requisition from him,
or of any previous agreement, or of any established
usage? " When a man asks concerning a sum of
money, charged to be given to him by another person, on what account it was given, he does indirectly
admit that that money actually was paid, and wants
to derive a justification from the mode of the payment of it; and accordingly that inference was drawn
from the question so sent up, and it served as an
instruction to Munny Begum; and her answer was,
that it was given to him, as an ancient usage and
custom, for an entertainment. So that the fact of
the gift of the money is ascertained by the question put by Mr. Hastings to her, and her answer.
And thus at last comes his accomplice in this business, and gives the fullest testimony to the lac and
a half.
I must beg leave, before I go further, to state the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 231
circumstances of the several witnesses examined upon this business. They were of two kinds: voluntary
witnesses, and accomplices forced by inquiry and examination to discover their own guilt. Of the first
kind were Nundcomar and Rajah Gourdas: these
were the only two that can be said to be voluntary
in the business, and who gave their information without much fear, though the last unwillingly, and with
a full sense of the danger of doing it. The other
was the evidence of his accomplice, Munny Begum,
wrung from her by the force of truth, in which she
confessed that she gave the lac and a half, and justifies it upon the ground of its being a customary entertainment. Besides this, there is the evidence of Chittendur, who was one of Mr. Hastings's instruments, and one of the Begum's servants. He, being prepared to confound the two lacs with the one lac and
a half, says, upon his examination, that a lac and a
half was given; but upon examining into the particulars of it, he proves that the sum lie gave was two
lacs, and not a lac and a half: for he says that there
was a dispute about the other half lac; Nundcomar
demanded interest, which the Begum was unwilling
to allow, and consequently that half lac remained
unpaid. Now this half lac can be no part of the lac
and a half, which is admitted on all hands, and proved
by the whole body of concurrent testimony, to have
been given to Mr. Hastings in one lumping sum.
When Chittendur endeavors to confound it with the
lac and a half, he clearly establishes the fact that it
was a parcel of the two lacs, and thus bears evidence,
in attempting to prevaricate in favor of Mr. Hastings,
that one lac and a half was paid, which Mr. Hastings
is willing to allow; but when lie enters into the
? ? ? ? 232 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
particulars of it, he proves by the subdivision of the
payment, and by the non-payment of part of it, that
it accords with the two lacs, and not with the lac and
a half.
There are other circumstances in these accounts
highly auxiliary to this evidence. The lac and a half
was not only attested by Rajah Gourdas, by the Begum, by Chittendur, by the Begum again upon Mr.
Hastings's own question, indirectly admitted by Mr.
Hastings, proved by the orders for it to be written off
to expense, (such a body of proof as perhaps never
existed,) but there is one proof still remaining, namely, a paper, which was produced before the Committee, and which we shall produce to your Lordships. It is an authentic paper, delivered in favor of Mr.
Hastings by Major Scott, who acted at that time as
Mr. Hastings's agent, to a committee of the House
of Commons, and authenticated to come from Munny
Begum herself. All this body of evidence we mean
to produce; and we shall prove, first, that he received
the two lacs, - and, secondly, that he received one lac
and a half under the name of entertainment. With
regard to the lac and a half, Mr. Hastings is so far
from controverting it, even indirectly, that he is
obliged to establish it by testimonies produced by himself, in order to sink in that, if he can, the two lacs,
which he thinks he is not able to justify, but which lihe
fears will be proved against him. The lac and a half,
I do believe, he will not be advised to contest; but
whether he is or no, we shall load him with it, we
shall prove it beyond all doubt. But there are
other circumstances further auxiliary in this business, which, from the very attempts to conceal it,
prove beyond doubt the fraudulent and wicked na
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. FIRST DAY. 233
ture of the transaction. In the account given by the
Begum, a lac, which is for Mr. Hastings's entertainment, is entered in a suspicious neighborhood; for
there is there entered a lac of rupees paid for the
subahdarry sunnuds to the Mogul through the Rajah
Shitab Roy. Upon looking into the account, and comparing it with another paper produced, the first thing we find is, that this woman charges the sum paid to
be a sum due; and then she charges this one lac to
have been paid when the Mogul was in the hands of
the Mahrattas, when all communication with him was
stopped, and when Rajah Shitab Roy, who is supposed
to have paid it, was under confinement in the hands
of Mr. Hastings. Thus she endeavors to conceal the
lac of rupees paid to Mr. Hastings.
In order to make this transaction, which, though
not in itself intricate, is in some degree made so by
Mr. Hastings, clear to your Lordships, we pledge ourselves to give to your Lordships, what must be a great advantage to the culprit himself, a syllabus, the heads
of all this charge, and of the proofs themselves, with
their references, to show how far the proof goes to
the two lacs, and then to the one lac and a half singly. This we shall put in writing, that you may not depend upon the fugitive memory of a thing not so
well, perhaps, or powerfully expressed as it ought to
be, and in order to give every advantage to the defendant, and to give every facility to your Lordships' judgment: and this will, I believe, be thought a clear
and fair way of proceeding. Your Lordships will
then judge whether Mr. Hastings's conduct at the
time, his resisting an inquiry, preventing his servant
appearing as an evidence, discountenancing and discouraging his colleagues, raising every obstruction to
? ? ? ? 234 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the prosecution, dissolving the Council, preventing
evidence and destroying it as far as lay in his power by collateral means, be not also such presump.
tive proofs as give double force to all the positive
proof we produce against him.
The lac and a half, I know, he means to support
upon the custom of entertainment; and your Lordships will judge whether or not a man who was ordered and had covenanted never to take more than 4001. could take 16,0001. under color of an entertainment. That which he intends to produce as a
justification we charge, and your Lordships and the
world will think, to be the heaviest aggravation of his
crime. And after explaining to your Lordships the
circumstances under which this justification is made,
and leaving a just impression of them upon your
minds, I shall beg your Lordships' indulgence to finish this member of the business to-morrow.
It is stated and entered in the account, that an
entertainment was provided for Mr. Hastings at the
rate of 2001. a day. He stayed at Moorshedabad for
near three months; and thus you see that visits from
Mr. Hastings are pretty expensive things: it is at the
rate of 73,0001. a year for his entertainment. We
find that Mr. Middleton, an English gentleman who
was with him, received likewise (whether under the
same pretence I know not, and it does not signify)
another sum equal to it; and if these two gentlemen
had stayed in that country a year, their several allowances would have been 146,0001. out of the Nabob's
allowance of 160,0001. a year: they would have eat
up nearly the whole of it. And do you wonder, my
Lords, that such guests and such hosts are difficult to
be divided? Do you wonder that such visits, when
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 235
so well paid for and well provided for, were naturally
long? There is hardly a prince in Europe who would
give to another prince of Europe from his royal hospitality what was given upon this occasion to Mr. Hastings.
Let us now see what was Mr. Hastings's business
during this long protracted visit. First, he tells you
that he came there to reduce all the state and dignity
of the Nabob. He tells you that he felt no coinpunction in reducing that state; that the elephants, the menagerie, the stables, all went without mercy, and
consequently all the persons concerned in them were
dismissed also. When he came to the abolition of the
pensions, he says, -- " I proceeded with great pain,
from the reflection that I was the instrument in depriving whole families, all at once, of their bread, and reducing them to a state of penury: convinced of the
necessity of the measure, I endeavored to execute it
with great impartiality. " Here he states the work
he was employed in, when he took this two hundred
p)ounds a day for his own pay. " It was necessary to
begin with reforming the useless servants of the court,
and retrenching the idle parade of elephants, menageries, &c. , which loaded the civil list. This cost little regret in performing; but the Resident, who
took upon himself the chief share in this business,
acknowledges that he suffered considerably in his
feelings, when he came to touch on the pension list.
Some hundreds of persons of the ancient nobility of
the country, excluded, under our government, from
almost all employments, civil or military, had, ever
since the revolution, depended on the bounty of the
Nabob; and near ten lacs were bestowed that way.
It is not that the distribution was always made with
? ? ? ? 236 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
judgment or impartial, and much room was left for a
reform; but when the question was to cut off entirely
the greatest part, it could not fail to be accompanied
with circumstances of real distress. The Resident
declares, that, even with some of the highest rank,
he could not avoid discovering, under all the pride
of Eastern manners, the manifest marks of penury
and want. There was, however, no room left for hesitation: to confine the Nabob's expenses within the limited sum, it was necessary that pensions should
be set aside. "
Here, my Lords, is a mail sent to execute one of the
most dreadful offices that was ever executed by man,
- to cut off, as he says himself, with a bleeding heart,
the only remaining allowance made for hundreds of
the decayed nobility and gentry of a great kingdom,
driven by our government from the offices upon which
they existed. In this moment of an:iety and affliction,
when he says he felt pain and was cut to the heart to
do it, - at this very moment, when he was turning
over fourteen hundred of the ancient nobility and
gentry of this country to downright want of bread,
just at that moment, while he was doing this act, and
feeling this act in this manner, from the collected
morsels forced from the mouths of that indigent and
famished nobility he gorged his own ravenous maw
with an allowance of two hundred pounds a day for
his entertainment. As we see him in this business,
this man is unlike any other-: he is also never corrupt
but he is cruel; he never dines without creating a
famine; he does not take from the loose superfluity
of standing greatness, but falls upon the indigent,
the oppressed, and ruined; he takes to himself double
what would maintain them. His is unlike the gen
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 237
erous rapacity of the noble eagle, who preys upon a
living, struggling, reluctant, equal victim; his is like
that of the ravenous vulture, who falls upon the decayed, the sickly, the dying, and the dead, and only anticipates Nature in the destruction of its object.
His cruelty is beyond his corruption: but there is
something in his hypocrisy which is more terrible
than his cruelty; for, at the very time when with
double and unsparing hands he executes a proscription, and sweeps off the food of hundreds of the nobility and gentry of a great country, his eyes overflow with tears, and lie turns the precious balm that bleeds from wounded humanity, and is its best medicine, into fatal, rancorous, mortal poison to the human race.
You have seen, that, when he takes two hundred
pounds a day for his entertainment, he tells you that
in this very act he is starving fourteen hundred of the
ancient nobility and gentry. My Lords, you have the
blood of nobles, --if not, you have the blood of men
in your veins: you feel as nobles, you feel as men.
What would you say to a cruel Mogul exactor, by
whom after having been driven from your estates, driven from the noble offices, civil and military, which
you hold, driven from your bishoprics, driven from
your places at court, driven from your offices as
judges, and, after having been reduced to a miserable flock of pensioners, your very pensions were at
last wrested from your mouths, and who, though at
the very time when those pensions were wrested from
you he declares them to have been the only bread of a
miserable decayed nobility, takes himself two hundred pounds a day for his entertainment, and continues it till it amounts to sixteen thousand pounds? I
? ? ? ? 238 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
do think, that, of all the corruptions which he has not
owned, but has not denied, or of those which he does
in effect own, and of which he brings forward the
evidence himself, the taking and claiming under color
of an entertainment is ten times the most nefarious.
I shall this day only further trouble your Lordships
to observe that he has never directly denied this transaction. I have tumbled over the records, I have
looked at every part, to see whether he denies it.
He did not deny it at the time, he did not deny it
to the Court of Directors: on the contrary, he did
in effect acknowledge it, when, without directly acknowledging it, he promised them a full and liberal
explanation of the whole transaction. He never did
give that explanation. Parliament took up the business; this matter was reported at the end of the
Eleventh Report; but though the House of Commons
had thus reported it, and made that public which before was upon the Company's records, he took no notice of it. Then another occasion arises: he comes before the House of Commons; he knows he is about
to be prosecuted for these very corruptions; he well
knows these charges exist against him; he makes his
defence (if he will allow it to be his defence); but,
though thus driven, he did not there deny it, because
he knew, that, if he had denied it, it could be proved
against him. I desire your Lordships will look at
that paper which we have given in evidence, and see
if you find a word of denial of it: there is much discourse, much folly, much insolence, but not one word
of denial. Then, at last, it came before this tribunal
against him. I desire to refer your Lordships to that
part of his defence to the article in which this bribe is
specifically charged: he does not deny it there; the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON rHE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 239
only thing which looks like a denial is one sweeping clause inserted, (in order to put us upon the proof,) that all the charges are to be conceived as denied; but a specific denial to this specific charge in no stage of the business, from beginning to end, has he once made.
And therefore here I close that part of the charge which relates to the business of Nundcomar. Your Lordships will see such a body of presumptive proof and positive proof as never was given yet of any secret corrupt act of bribery; and there I leave it
with your Lordships' justice. I beg pardon for
having detained you so long; but your Lordships
will be so good as to observe that no business ever was covered with more folds of iniquitous artifice
than this which is now brought before you.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
ON
THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1789.
M Y LORDS, - When I last had the honor of addressing your Lordships, I endeavored to state
with as much perspicuity as the nature of an intricate affair would admit, and as largely as in so intricate anl affair was consistent with the brevity which I endeavored to preserve, the proofs which had been
adduced against Warren Hastings upon an inquiry
instituted by an order of the Court of Directors into the corruption and peculation of persons in authority in India. My Lords, I have endeavored to
show you by anterior presumptive proofs, drawn from
the nature and circumstances of the acts themselves
inferring guilt, that such actions and such conduct
could be referable only to one cause, namely, corruption; I endeavored to show you afterwards, my Lords,
what the specific nature and extent of the corruption
was, as far as it could be fully proved; and lastly,
the great satisfactory presumption which attended
the inquiry with regard, to Mr. Hastings, - namely,
that, contrary to law, contrary to his duty, contrary
to what is owed by innocence to itself, Mr. Hastings
resisted that inquiry, and employed all the power of
his office to prevent the exercise of it, either in himself or in others. These presumptions and these proofs
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY.
241 will be brought before your Lordships, distinctly and in order, at the end of this opening.
The next point on which I thought it necessary to proceed was relative to the presumptions which his subsequent conduct gave with regard to his guilt: because, my Lords, his uniform tenor of conduct, such as must attend guilt, both in the act, at the time of the inquiry, and subsequent to it, will form such a body of satisfactory evidence as I believe the human mind is not made to resist.
My Lords, there is another reason why I choose to
enter into the presumptions drawn from his conduct
and the fact, taking his conduct in two parts, if it
may be so expressed, omission and commission, in order that your Lordships should more fully enter into the consequences of this system of bribery. But before I say anything upon that, I wish your Lordships
to be apprised, that the Commons, in bringing this
bribe of three lac and a half before your Lordships, do
not wish by any means to have it understood that this
it the whole of the bribe that was received by Mr.
Hastings in consequence of delivering up the whole
management of the government of the country to
that improper person whom he nominated for it. My
Lords, from the proofs that will be adduced before
you, there is great probability that he received very
nearly a hundred thousand pounds; there is positive proof of his receiving fifty; and wee have chosen only to charge him with that of which there is such an accumulated body of proof as to leave no1
doubt upon the minds of your Lordships. All this I
say, because we are perfectly apprised of the sentiments of the public upon this point: when they hear
of the enormity of Indian peculation, when they see
VOL. X. 16
? ? ? ? 242 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the acts done, and compare them with the bribes received, the acts seem so enormous and the bribes comparatively so small, that they can hardly be got to attribute them to that motive. What I mean to state
is this: that, from a collective view of the subject,
your Lordships will be able to judge that enormous
offences have been committed, and that the bribe
which we have given in proof is a specimen of the
nature and extent df those enormous bribes which extend to much greater sums than we are able to prove
before you in the manner your Lordships would like
and expect.
I have already remarked to your Lordships, that,
after this charge was brought and recorded before
the Council in spite of the resistance made by Mr.
Hastings, in which he employed all the power and
authority of his station, and the whole body of his partisans and associates in iniquity, dispersed through
every part of these provinces, - after he had taken
all these steps, finding himself pressed by the proof
and pressed by the presumption of his resistance to
the inquiry, he did think it necessary to make something like a defence. Accordingly he has made what
he calls a justification, which did not consist in the
denial of that fact, or any explanation of it. The
mode he took for his defence was abuse of his colleagues, abuse of the witnesses, and of every person
who in the execution of his duty was inquiring into the fact, and charging them with things which, if
true, were by no means sufficient to support him,
either in defending the acts themselves, or in the
criminal means he used to prevent inquiry into them.
His design was to mislead their minds, and to carry
them from the accusation and the proof of it. With
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY. 243
respect to the passion, violence, and intemperate heat
with which he charged them, they were proceeding in
an orderly, regular manner; and if on any occasion
they seem to break out into warmth, it was in consequence of that resistance which he made to them, in what your Lordships, I believe, will agree with them
in thinking was one of the most important parts of
their functions. If they had been intemperate in their
conduct, if they had been violent, passionate, prejudiced against him, it afforded him only a better means of making his defence; because, though in a rational and judicious mind the intemperate conduct of the accuser certainly proves nothing with regard to the
truth or falsehood of his accusation, yet we do know
that the minds of men are so constituted that an improper mode of conducting a right thing does form some degree of prejudice against it. Mr. Hastings,
therefore, unable to defend himself upon principle, has
resorted as much as he possibly could to prejudice.
And at the same time that there is not one word of
denial, or the least attempt at a refutation of the
charge, he has loaded the records with all manner of
minutes, proceedings, and letters relative to everything
but the fact itself. The great aim of his policy, both
then, before, and ever since, has been to divert the
mind of the auditory, or the persons to whom he addressed himself, from the nature of his cause, to some collateral circumstance relative to it, -- a policy to
which he has always had recourse; but that trick,
the last resource of despairing guilt, I trust will now
completely fail him.
Mr. Hastings, however, began to be pretty sensible
that this way of proceeding had a very unpromising
and untoward look; for which reason he next declared
? ? ? ? 244 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that he reserved his defence for fear of a legal prose
cution, and that some time or other he would give a
large and liberal explanation to the Court of Directors,
to whom he was answerable for his conduct, of his
refusing to suffer the inquiry to proceed, of his omitting to give them satisfaction at the time, of his omitting to take any one natural step that an innocent man would have taken upon such an occasion. Under
this promise he has remained from that time to the
time you see him at your bar, and he has neither
denied, exculpated, explained, or apologized for his
conduct in any one single instance.
While he accuses the intemperance of his adversaries, he shows a degree of temperance in himself
which always attends guilt in despair: for struggling
guilt may be warm, but guilt that is desperate has
nothing to do but to submit to the consequences of it,
to bear the infamy annexed to its situation, and to try
to find some consolation in the effects of guilt with regard to private fortune for the scandal it brings them
into in public reputation. After the business had
ended in India, the causes why he should have given
the explanation grew stronger and stronger: for not
only the charges exhibited against him were weighty,
but the manner in which he was called upon to inquire
into them was such as would undoubtedly tend to stir
the mind of a man of character, to rouse him to some
consideration of himself, and to a sense of the necessity of his defence. He was goaded to make this
defence by the words I shall read to your Lordships
from Sir John Clavering.
" In the late proceedings of the Revenue Board it
will appear that there is no species of peculation from
which the Honorable Governor-General has thought
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY. 245 it reasonable to abstain. " He further says, in answer to Mr. Hastings, "The malicious view with which this innuendo " (an innuendo of Mr. Hastings) " is thrown out is only worthy of a man who, having disgraced himself in the eyes of every man of honor both in Asia and in Europe, and having no imputation to
lay to our charge, has dared to attempt in the dark
what malice itself could not find grounds to aim at
openly. "
These are the'charges which were made upon him,
- not loosely, in the heat of conversation, but deliberately, in writing, entered upon record, and sent to his employers, the Court of Directors, those whom the
law had set over him, and to whose judgment and
opinion he was responsible. Do your Lordships believe that it was conscious innocence that made him endure such reproaches, so recorded, from his own
colleague? Was it conscious innocence that made
him abandon his defence, renounce his explanation,
and bear all this calumny, (if it was calumny,) in such
a manner, without making any one attempt to refute
it? Your Lordships will see by this, and by other
minutes with which the books are filled, that Mr.
Hastings is charged quite to the brim with corruptions
of all sorts, and covered with every mode of possible
disgrace. For there is something so base and contemptible in the crimes of peculation and bribery, that, when they come to be urged home and strongly against
a man, as here they are urged, nothing but a consciousness of guilt can possibly make a person so charged support himself under them. Mr. Hastings considered himself, as he has stated, to be under the necessity of bearing them. What is that necessity? Guilt.
Could he say that Sir John Clavering (for I say noth
? ? ? ? 246 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ing now of Colonel Monson and Mr. Francis, who were
joined with him) was a man weak and contemptible?
I believe there are those among your Lordships who
remember that Sir John Clavering was known before
he went abroad, and better known by his conduct
after, to be a man of the most distinguished honor
that ever served his Majesty; he served his Majesty
in a military situation for many years, and afterwards
in that high civil situation in India. It is known
that through every step and gradation of a high military service, until he arrived at the highest of all, there never was the least blot upon him, or doubt or
suspicion of his character; that his temper for the
most part, and his manners, were fully answerable to
his virtues, and a noble ornament to them; that he
was one of the best natured, best bred men, as well as
one of the highest principled men to be found in his
Majesty's service; that he had passed the middle
time of life, and come to an age which makes men
wise in general; so that he could be warmed by
nothing but that noble indignation at guilt which is
the last thing that ever was or will be extinguished
in a virtuous mind. He was a man whose voice was
not to be despised; but if his character had been
personally as contemptible as it was meritorious and
honorable in every respect, yet his situation as a
commissioner named by an act of Parliament for the
express purpose of reforming India gave him a weight
and consequence that could not suffer Mr. Hastings, without a general and strong presumption of his guilt, to acquiesce in such recorded minutes from
him. But if he had been a weak, if he had been an
intemperate man, (in reality he was as cool, steady,
temperate, judicious a man as ever was born,) the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -- SECOND DAY. 247
Court of Directors, to whom Mr. Hastings was responsible by every tie and every principle, and was
made responsible at last by a positive act of Parliament obliging him to yield obedience to their commands as the general rule of his duty,- the Court of Directors, I say, perfectly approved of every part
of General Clavering's, Colonel Monson's, and Mr.
Francis's conduct; they approved of this inquiry
which Mr. Hastings rejected; and they have declared,
" that the powers and instructions vested in and
given to General Clavering and the other gentlemen
were such as fully authorized them in every inquiry
that seems to have been their object
Europeans. " *
Now after the supreme authority, to which they
were to appeal in all their disputes, had passed this
judgment upon this very inquiry, the matter no longer
depended upon Mr. Hastings's opinion; nor could he
be longer justified in attributing that to evil motives
either of malice, or passion in his colleagues. When
the judges who were finally to determine who was
malicious, who was passionate, who was or was not
justified either in setting on foot the inquiry or resisting it, had passed that judgment, then Mr. Hastings
was called upon by all the feelings of a man, and by
his duty in Council, to give satisfaction to his masters, the Directors, who approved of the zeal and diligence shown in that very inquiry, the passion of which he only reprobated, and upon which he grounded his justification.
If anything but conscious guilt could have possibly
influenced him to such more than patience under this
* Document wanting.
? ? ? ? 248 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
accusation, let us see what was his conduct when
the scene was changed. General Clavering, fatigued
and broken down by the miseries of his situation,
soon afterwards lost a very able and affectionate colleague, Colonel Monson, (whom Mr. Hastings states
to be one of the bitterest of his accusers,) a man one
of the most loved and honored of his time, a person
of your Lordships' noble blood, and a person who did
honor to it, and if he had been of the family of a
commoner, well deserved to be raised to your distinction. When that man died,-died of a broken heart,
to say nothing else, --and General Clavering felt
himself in a manner without help, except what he
derived from the firmness, assiduity, and patience of
Mr. Francis, sinking like himself under the exertion
of his own virtues, he was resolved to resign his employment. The Court of Directors were so alarmed
at this attempt of his to resign his employment, that
they wrote thus: " When you conceived the design of
quitting our service, we imagine you could not have
heard of the resignation of Mr. Hastings.
your zeal and ability. " *
My Lords, in this struggle, and before he could
resign finally, another kind of resignation, the resignation of Nature, took place, and Sir John Clavering died. The character that was given Sir John Clavering at that time is a seal to the whole of his
proceedings, and the use that I shall make of it your
Lordships will see presently. " The abilities of General Clavering, the comprehensive knowledge he had
attained of our affairs
to the East India Company. " t
* Document wanting. t Document wanting.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY. 249
And never had it a greater loss. There is the concluding funeral oration made by his masters, upon a
strict, though by no means partial, view of his conduct. My Lords, here is the man who is the great
accuser of Mr. Hastings, as he says. What is he? a
slight man, a man of mean situation, a man of mean
talents, a man of mean character? No: of the highest character. Was he a person whose conduct was
disapproved by their common superiors? No: it was
approved when living, and ratified when dead. This
was the man, a man equal to him in every respect,
upon the supposed evil motives of whom alone was
founded the sole justification of Mr. Hastings.
But be it, then, that Sir John Clavering, Colonel
Monson, and Mr. Francis were all of them the evilminded persons that he describes them to be, and
that from dislike to them, from a kind of manly
resentment, if you please, against such persons, an
hatred against malicious proceedings, and a defiance
of them, he did not think proper, as he states, to
make his defence during that period of time, and
while oppressed by that combination, -- yet, when he
got rid of the two former persons, and when Mr.
Francis was nothing, when the whole majority was
in his hand, and he was in full power, there was a
large, open, full field for inquiry; and he was bound
to re-institute that inquiry, and to clear his character
before his judges and before his masters. Mr. Hastings says, " No: they have threatened me with a prosecution, and I reserve myself for a court of justice. " Mr. Hastings has now at length taken a ground, as
you will see from all his writings, which makes all
explanation of his conduct in this business absolutely
impossible. For, in the first place, he says,' As a
? ? ? ? 250 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
prosecution is meditated against me, I will say nothing in explanation of my conduct, because I might
disclose my defence, and by that means do myself a
prejudice. " On the other hand, when the prosecution is dropped, as we all know it was dropped in this
case, then he has a direct contrary reason, but it
serves him just as well: "Why, as no prosecution
Ts intended, no defence need be made. " So that,
whether a prosecution is intended or a prosecution
dropped, there is always cause why Mr. Hastings
should not give the Court of Directors the least satisfaction concerning his conduct, notwithstanding, as
we shall prove, he has reiteratedly promised, and
promised it in the most ample and liberal manner.
But let us see if there be any presumption in his
favor to rebut the presumption which he knew was
irrosistible, and which, by making no defence for his
conduct, and stopping the inquiry, must necessarily
lie upon him. He reserves his defence, but he promises both defence and explanation.
Your Lordships will remark that there is nowhere
a clear and positive denial of the fact. Promising
a defence, I will admit, does not directly and ex vi
termini suppose that a man may not deny the fact,
because it is just compatible with the defence; but it
does by no means exclude the admission of the fact,
because the admission of the fact may be attended
with a justification: but when a man says that he
will explain his conduct with regard to a fact, then
he admits that fact, because there can be no explanation of a fact which has no existence. Therefore Mr.
Hastings admits the fact by promising an explanation, and he shows he has no explanation nor justification to give by never having given it. Goaded,
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - SECOND DAY. 251
provoked, and called upon for it, in the manner I
have mentioned, he chooses to have a feast of disgrace, (if I may say so,) to have a riot of infamy,
served up to him day by day for a course of years, in
every species of reproach that could be given by his
colleagues, and by the Court of Directors, "from
whom," he says, 1" I received nothing but opprobrious
and disgraceful epithets," and he says " that his predecessors possessed more of their confidence than he
had. " Yet for years he lay down in that sty of disgrace, fattening in it, feeding upon that offal of disgrace and excrement, upon everything that could be disgustful to the human mind, rather than deny the
fact and put himself upon a civil justification. Infamy was never incurred for nothing. We know very
well what was said formerly: -
"' Populus me sibilat; at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca. '
And never did a man submit to infamy for anything
but its true reward, money. Money he received; the
infamy he received along with it: he was glad to
take his wife with all her goods; he took her with
her full portion, with every species of infamy that
belonged to her; and your Lordships cannot resist
the opinion that he would not have suffered himself
to be disgraced with the Court of Directors, disgraced
with his colleagues, disgraced with the world, disgraced upon an eternal record, unless he was absolutely guilty of the fact that was charged upon him. He frequently expresses that he reserves himself
for a court of justice. Does he, my Lords? I am
sorry that Mr. Hastings should show that he always
mistakes his situation; he has totally mistaken it:
? ? ? ? 252 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
he was a servant, bound to give a satisfactory account
of his conduct to his masters, and, instead of that, he
considers himself and the Court of Directors as litigant parties, - them as the accusers, and himself as
the culprit. What would your Lordships, in private
life, conceive of a steward who was accused of embezzling the rents, robbing and oppressing the tenants,
and committing a thousand misdeeds in his stewardship, and who, upon your wishing to make inquiry
into his conduct, and asking an explanation of it,
should answer, " I will give no reply: you may intend to prosecute me and convict me as a cheat, and
therefore I will not give you any satisfaction ": what
would you think of that steward? You could have
no doubt that such a steward was a person not fit to
be a steward, nor fit to live.
Mr. Hastings reserves himself for a court of justice: that single circumstance, my Lords, proves that
he was guilty. It may appear very odd that his
guilt should be inferred from his desire of trial in
a court in which he could be acquitted or condemned. But I shall prove to you from that circumstance that Mr. Hastings, in desiring to be tried in a court of justice, convicts himself of presumptive
guilt.
When Mr. Hastings went to Bengal in the year
1772, he had a direction exactly similar to this which
he has resisted in his own case: it was to inquire
into grievances and abuses. In consequence of this
direction, he proposes a plan for the regulation of the
Company's service, and one part of that plan was just
what you would expect from him,- that is, the power of destroying every Company's servant without the
least possibility of his being heard in his own defence
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -SECOND DAY. 253
or taking anlly one step to justify himself, and of dismissing him at his own discretion: and the reason
he gives for it is this. "I shall forbear to comment
upon the above propositions: if just and proper, their
utility will be self-apparent. One clause only in the
last article may require some explanation, namely,
the power proposed for the Governor of recalling any
person from his station without assigning a reason
for it. In the charge of oppression," (now here you
will find the reason why Mr. Hastings wishes to appeal to a court of justice, rather than to give satisfaction to his employers,) " though supported by the cries of the people and the most authentic representations, 4 is yet impossible in most cases to obtain
legal proofs of it; and unless the discretionary power which I have recommended be somewhere lodged,
the assurance of impunity from any formal inquiry
will baffle every order of the board, as, on the other
hand, the fear of the consequence will restrain every
man within the bounds of his duty, if he knows himself liable to suffer by the effects of a single control. "
You see Mr. Hastings himself is of opinion that the
cries of oppression, though extorted from a whole
people by the iron hand of severity,- that these
cries of a whole people, attended even with authentic
documents sufficient to satisfy the mind of any man,
may be totally insufficient to convict the oppressor in
a court; and yet to that court, whose competence he
denies, to that very court, he appeals, in that he puts
his trust, and upon that ground he refuses to perform
the just promise he had given of any explanation to
those who had employed him.
Now I put thif to your Lordships: if a man is of
opinion that no public court can truly and properly
? ? ? ? 254 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
bring him to any account for his conduct, that the
forms observable in courts are. totally adverse to it,
that there is a general incompetency with regard' to
such a court, and yet shuns a tribunal capable and
competent, and applies to that which lie thinks is incapable and incompetent, does not that man plainly show that he has rejected what he thinks will prove his guilt, and that he has chosen what he
thinks will be utterly insufficient to prove it? And
if this be the case, as he asserts it to be, with an
under servant, think what must be the case of the
upper servant of all: for, if an inferior servant is not
to be brought to justice, what must be the situation
of a Governor-General? It is impossible not to see,
that, as he had conceived that a court of justice had
not sufficient means to bring his crimes to light and
detection, nor sufficient to bring him to proper and
adequate punishment, therefore he flew to a court of
justice, not as a place to decide upon him, but as a
sanctuary to secure his guilt. Most of your Lordships have travelled abroad, and have seen in the
unreformed countries of Europe churches filled with
persons who take sanctuary in them. You do not
presume that a man is innocent because he is in a
sanctuary: you know, that, so far from demonstrating his innocence, it demonstrates his guilt. And in
this case, Mr.
