Whilst the
projected
revolution stood suspended,whilst Mr.
Edmund Burke
And if you think the explanation is not time lost in this new world and in this new business, I shall venture to sketch out, as
briefly and with as much perspicuity as I can give
them, the leading events of that obscure and perplexed
period which intervened between the British settlement in 1757 and Mr. Hastings's government. If I should be so happy as to succeed in that attempt, your
Lordships' minds will be prepared for hearing this
cause. Then your Lordships will have a clear view
of the origin and nature of the abuses which prevailed
in that government before Mr. Hastings obtained his
greatest power, and since that time; and then we
shall be able to enter fully and explicitly into the
hature of the cause: and I should hope that it will
pave the way and make everything easy for your
subsequent justice.
I therefore wish to stop at this period, in which Mr.
Hastings became active in the service, pretty near the
time when he began his political career: and here,
my Lords, I pause, wishing your indulgence at such
time as will suit your convenience for pursuing the
rest of this eventful history.
? ? ? ? SPEEC H
IN
OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1788.
M Y LORDS, - In what I had the honor of laying
before your Lordships yesterday, and in what I
may further trouble you with to-day, I wish to observe
a distinction, which if I did not lay down so perfectly
as I ought, I hope I shall now be able to mark it out
with sufficient exactness and perspicuity.
First, I beg leave to observe that what I shall think
necessary to state, as matter of preliminary explanation, in order to give your Lordships a true idea of the scene of action, of the instruments which Mr.
Hastings employed, and the effects which they produced,-all this I wish to be distinguished from matter brought to criminate. Even the matter, as
stated by me, which may be hereafter brought to
criminate, so far as it falls to my share at present, is
only to be considered, in this stage of the business,
as merely illustrative. Your Lordships are to expect,
as undoubtedly you will require, substantial matter
of crimination to be laid open. for that purpose at the
moment when the evidence to each charge is ready to
be produced to you. . Thus your Lordships will easily
separate historical illustration from criminal opening.
For instanlce, if I stated yesterday to your Lordships,
as I did, tle tyranny and cruelty of one of the usurp
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 397
ing viceroys, whose usurpation and whose vices led
the way to the destruction of his country and the
introduction of a foreign power, I do not mean to
charge Mr. Hastings with any part of that guilt:
what bears upon Mr. Hastings is his having avowedly
looked to such a tyrant and such a usurper as his
model, and followed that pernicious example with a
servile fidelity. *When I have endeavored to lay open
to your Lordships anythingz abusive, or leading to
abuse, from defects or errors in the constitution of
the Company's service, I did not mean to criminate
Mr. Hastings on any part of those defects and errors:
I state them to show that he took advantage of the
imperfections of the institution to let in his abuse of
the power. with which he was intrusted. If, for a
further instance, I have stated that in general the service of the India Company was insufficient in legal pay or emolument and abundant in the means of
illegal profit, I do not state that defect as owing to
Mr. Hastings; but I state it as a fact, to show in what
manner and on what pretences he did, fraudulently,
corruptly, and for the purposes of his own ambition,
take advantage of that defect, and, under color of
reformation, make an illegal, partial, corrupt rise of
emoluments to certain favored persons without regard
to the interests of the service at large, --increasing
rather than lessening the means of illicit emolument,
as well as loading the Company with many heavy and
ruinous expenses in avowed salaries and allowances.
Having requested your Lordships to keep in mind,
which I trust you would do even without my taking
the liberty of suggesting it to you, these necessary
distinctions, I shall revert to the period at which I
closed yesterday, that great and memorable period
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which has remotely given occasion to the trial of this
day.
My Lords, to obtain empire is common; to govern
it well has been rare indeed. To chastise the guilt
of those who have been instruments of imperial sway
over other nations by the high superintending justice
of the sovereign state has not many striking examples
among any people. Hitherto we have not furnished
our contingent to the records of honor. We have
been confounded with the herd of conquerors. Our
dominion has been a vulgar thing. But we begin to
emerge; and I hope that a severe inspection of ourselves, a purification of our own offences, a lustration
of the exorbitances of our own power, is a glory reserved to this time, to this nation, and to this august triburnal.
The year 1756 is a memorable era in the history
of the world: it introduced a new nation from the
remotest verge of the Western world, with new manners, new customs, new institutions, new opinions, new laws, into the heart of Asia.
My Lords, if, in that part of Asia whose native
regular government was then broken up, -if, at the
moment when it had fallen into darkness and confusion from having become the prey and almost the sport of the ambition of its home-born grandees, - if, in that
gloomy season, a star had risen from the West, that
would prognosticate a better generation, and would
shed down the sweet influences of order, peace, science, and security to the natives of that vexed and harassed country, we should have been covered with
genuine honor. It would have been a beautiful and
noble spectacle to mankind.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 399
Indeed, something might have been expected of
the kind, when a new dominion emanated from a
learned and enlightened part of the world in the
most enlightened period of its existence. Still more
might it have been expected, when that dominion was
found to issue from the bosom of a free country, that
it would have carried with it the full benefit of the
vital principle of the British liberty and Constitution,
though its municipal forms were not communicable,
or at least the advantage of the liberty and spirit
of the British Constitution. Had this been the case,
(alas! it was not,) you would have been saved the
trouble of this day. It might have been expected, too,
that, in that enlightened state of the world, influenced
by the best religion, and from an improved description of that best religion, (I mean the Christian reformed religion,) that we should have done honor to Europe, to letters, to laws, to religion, - done honor
to all the circumstances of which in this island we
boast ourselves, at the great and critical moment of
that revolution.
My Lords, it has happened otherwise. It is now
left for us to repair our former errors. Resuming
the history where I broke off yesterday by your indulgence to my weakness, - Surajah Dowlah was the
adopted grandson of Aliverdy Khan, a cruel and ferocious; tyrant, the manner of whose acquisition of
power I have already stated. He came too young
and unexperienced to that throne of usurpation. It
was a usurpation yet green in the country, and the
country felt uneasy under it. It had not the advantage of that prescriptive usage, that inveterate habit,
that traditionary opinion, which a long continuance
of any system of government secures to it. The only
? ? ? ? 400 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
real secilrity which Surajah Dowlah's government
could possess was the security of an army. But the
great aim of this prince and his predecessor was to supply the weakness of his government by the strength of his purse; he therefore amassed treasures by all
ways and on all hands. But as the Indian princes,
in general, are as unwisely tenacious of their treasure
as they are rapacious in getting it, the more money
he amassed, the more he felt the effects of poverty.
The consequence was, that their armies were unpaid,
and, being unpaid or irregularly paid, were undisciplined, disorderly, unfaithful. In this situation, a
young prince, confiding more in the appearances
than examining into the reality of things, undertook
(from motives which the House of Commons, with
all their industry to discover the circumstances, have
found it difficult to make out) to attack a little miserable trading fort that we had erected at Calcutta.
He succeeded in that attempt only because success
in that attempt was easy. A close imprisonment of
the whole settlement followed, -- not owing, I believe, to the direct will of the prince, but, what will
always happen when the will of the prince is but too
much the law, to a gross abuse of his power by his
lowest servants, - by which one hlundred and twenty
or more of our countrymen perished miserably in a
dungeon, by a fate too tragical for me to be desirous
to relate, and too well known to stand in need of it.
At the time that this event happened, there was at
the same time a concurrence of other events, which,
from this partial and momentary wealkness, displayed
the strength of Great Britain in Asia. For some
years before, the French and English troops began,
on the coast of Coromandel, to exhibit the power,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 401
force, and efficacy of European discipline. As we
daily looked for a war with France, our settlements
on that coast were in some degree armed. Lord
Pigot, then Governor of Madras,- Lord Pigot, the
preserver and the victim of the British dominion in
Asia, -- detached such of the Company's force as
could be collected and spared, and such of his Majesty's ships as were on that station, to the assistance of Calcutta. And -- to hasten this history to its
conclusion -- the daring and commanding genius of
Clive, the patient and firm ability of Watson, the
treachery of Mir Jaffier, and the battle of Plassey
gave us at once the patronage of a kingdom and the
command of all its treasures. We negotiated with
Mir Jaffier for the viceroyal throne of his master.
On that throne we seated him. And we obtained, on
our part, immense sums of money. We obtained a
million sterling for the Company, upwards of a million for individuals, in the whole a sum of about two millions two hundred and thirty thousand pounds for
various purposes, from the prince whom we had set
up. We obtained, too, the town of Calcutta more
completely than we had before possessed it, and the
twenty-four districts adjoining. This was the first
small seminal principle of the immense territorial
acquisitions we have since made in India.
Many circumstances of this acquisition I pass by.
There is a sacred veil to be drawn over the beginnings of all governments. Ours in India had an
origin like those which time has sanctified by obscurity. Time, in the origin of most governments, has thrown this mysterious veil over them; prudence
and discretion make it necessary to throw something
of the same drapery over more recent foundations, in
VOL. IX. 26
? ? ? ? 402 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which otherwise the fortune, the genius, the talents,
and military virtue of this nation never shone more
conspicuously. But whatever necessity might hide
or excuse or palliate, in the acquisition of power, a
wise nation, when it has once made a revolution upon its own principles and for its own ends, rests there.
The first step to empire is revolution, by which power
is conferred; the next is good laws, good order, good
institutions, to give that power stability. I am sorry
to say that the reverse of this policy was the principle on which the gentlemen in India acted. It was
such as tended to make the new government as unstable as the old. By the vast sums of money acquired by individuals upon this occasion, by the immense sudden prodigies of fortune, it was discovered that a revolution in Bengal was a mine much more
easily worked and infinitely more productive than
the mines of Potosi and Mexico. It was found that
the work was not only very lucrative, but not at all
difficult. Where Clive forded a deep water upon an
unknown bottom, he left a bridge for his successors,
over which the lame could hobble and the blind
might grope their way. There was not at that time
a knot of clerks in a counting-house, there was not
a captain of a band of ragged topasses, that looked
for anything less than the deposition of subahs and
the sale of kingdoms. Accordingly, this revolution,
which ought to have precluded other revolutions, unlfortunately became fruitful of them; and when Lord
Clive returned to Europe, to enjoy his fame and fortune in his own country, there arose another description of men, who thought that a revolution might bf
made upon his revolution, and as lucrative to them
as his was to the first projectors. Scarcely was Mir
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND. DAY. 403
Jaffier, Lord Clive's nabob, seated on his musnud,
than they immediately, or in a short time, projected
another revolution, a revolution which was to unsettle all the former had settled, a revolution to make
way for new disturbances and new wars, and which
led to that long chain of peculation which ever since
has afflicted and oppressed Bengal.
If ever there was a time when Bengal should have
had respite from internal revolutions, it was this.
The governor forced upon the natives was now upon the throne. All the great lords of the country,
both Gentoos and Mahomedans, were uneasy, discontented, and disobedient, and some absolutely in arms,
and refusing to recognize the prince we had set up.
An imminent invasion of the Mahrattas, an actual
invasion headed by the son of the Mogul, the revenues on account of the late shock very ill collected
even where the country was in some apparent quiet,
an hungry treasury at Calcutta, an empty treasury at
Moorshedabad, - everything demanded tranquillity,
and with it order and economy. In this situation
it was resolved to make a new and entirely mercenary revolution, and to set up to sale the government, secured to its present possessor by every tie of public faith and every sacred obligation which
could bind or influence mankind. This second
revolution forms that period in the Bengal history
which had the most direct influence upon all the
subsequent transactions. It introduces some of the
persons who were most active in the succeeding
scenes, and from that time to this has given its
tone and character to the British affairs and government. It marks and specifies the origin and
true principle of all the abuses -which Mr. Has:t
? ? ? ? 404 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ings was afterwards appointed to correct, and which
the Commons charge that he continued and aggravated: namely, the venal depositions and venal exaltations of the country powers; the taking of bribes and corrupt presents from all parties in those
changes; the vitiating and maiming the Company's
records; the suppression of public correspondence;
corrupt combinations and conspiracies; perfidy in
negotiation established into principle; acts of the
most. atrocious wickedness justified upon purity of
intention; mock-trials and collusive acquittals among
the parties in common guilt; and in the end, the
Court of Directors supporting the scandalous breach
of their own orders. I shall state the particulars
of this second revolution more at large.
Soon after the revolution which had seated Mir
Jaffier on the viceroyal throne, the spirit of the
Mogul empire began, as it were, to make one faint
struggle before it finally expired. The then heir
to that throne, escaping from the hands of those
who had held his father prisoner, had put himself
at the head of several chiefs collected under the
standard of his house, and appeared in force on the
frontiers of the provinces of Bengal and Bahar, upon
both which he made some impression. This alarmed the new powers, the Nabob Mir Jaffier, and the
Presidency of Calcutta; and as in a common cause,
and by the terms of their mutual alliance, they took
the field against him. The Nabob's eldest son and
heir-apparent commanded in chief. Major Calliaud
commanded the English forces under the government of Calcutta. Mr. Holwell was in the temporary possession of the Presidency. Mr. Vansittart
was hourly expected to supersede him. Mr. Warren
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 405
Hastings, a young gentleman about twenty-seven
years of age, was Resident for the Company at the
durbar, or court,' of Mir Jaffier, our new-created
Nabob of Bengal, allied to this country by the most
solemn treaties that can bind men; for which treaties he had paid, and was then paying, immense
sums of money. Mr. Warren Hastings was the
pledge in his hands for the honor of the British nation, and their fidelity to their engagements.
In this situation, Mr: Holwell, whom the terrible
example of the Black Hole at Calcutta had not
cured of ambition, thought an hour was not to be
lost in accomplishing a revolution and selling the
reigning Nabob.
My Lords, there was in the house of Mir Jaffier,
ill his court, and in his family, a man of an intriguing,. crafty, subtle, and at the same time bold, daring, desperate, bloody, and ferocious character, called Cossim Ali Kbhan. He' was the son-in-law of Mir
Jaffier; and he made no other use of this affinity
than to find some means to dethrone and to murder
him. This was the person in whose school of politics
Mr. Hastings made his first studies, and whose conduct he quotes as his example, and for whose friends,
agents, and favorites he has always shown a marked
predilection. This dangerous man was not long
without finding persons who observed his talents with
admiration, and who thought fit to employ him.
The Council at Calcutta was divided into two departments: one, the Council in general; the other a
Select Committee, which they had arranged for the
better carrying on their political affairs. But the Select Committee had no power of acting wholly without the Council at large, -- at least, finally and con
? ? ? ? 406 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
elusively. The Select Committee thought otherwise.
Between these litigant parties for power I shall not
determine on the merits, - thinking of nothing but
the use that was made of the power, to whomsoever
it belonged. This Secret Committee, then, without
communicating with the rest of the Council, formed
the plan for a second revolution. But the concurrence of Major Calliaud, who commanded the British
troops, was essential to the purpose, as it could not
be accomplished without force. Mr. Hastings's assistance was necessary, as it could not be accomplished without treachery.
These are the parties concerned in the intended
revolution. Mr. Holwell, who considered himself in
possession only of temporary power, was urged to precipitate the business; for if Mr. Vansittart should arrive before his plot could be finally put into executioni, he would have all the leading advantages of it, and Mr. Holwell would be considered only as a secondary instrument. But whilst Mr. Holwell, who
originally conceived this plot, urged forward the execution of it, in order that the chief share of the profits might fall to him, the Major, and possibly the
Resident, held back, till they might receive the sanction of the permanent governor, who was hourly expected, with whom one of them was connected, and
who was to carry with him the whole weight of the
authority of this kingdom. This difference produced
discussions. Holwell endeavored by his correspondence to stimulate Calliaud to this enterprise, which
without him could not be undertaken at all. But
Maj. or Calliaud had different views. He concurred
inwardly, as he tells us himself, in all the principles
of this intended revolution, in the propriety and ne
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 407
cessity of it. He only wished delay. But he gave
such powerful, solid, and satisfactory reasons, not
against the delay, but the very merits of the design
itself, exposing the injustice and the danger of it,
and the impossibility of mending by it their condition
in any respect, as must have damned it in the minds
of all rational men: at least it ought to have damned
it forever in his own. But you will see that IHolwell persevered in his plan, and that Major Calliaud
thought two things necessary: first, not wholly to
destroy the scheme, which he tells us he always approved, but to postpone the execution, -- and in the
mean time to delude the Nabob by the most strong,
direct, and sanguine assurances of friendship and
protection that it was possible to give to man.
Whilst the projected revolution stood suspended,whilst Mr. Holwell urged it forward, and Mr. Vansittart was expected every day to give it effect, - whilst Major Calliaud, with this design of ruining the. Nabob
lodged in his breast, suspended in execution, and
condemned in principle, kept the fairest face and the
most confidential interviews with that unfortunate
prince and his son, - as the operations of the campaign relaxed, the army drew near to Moorshedabad,
the capital, when a truly extraordinary scene happened, such I am sure the English annals before that
time had furnished no example of, nor will, I trust,
in ful-ure. I shall state it as one piece from beginning to end, reserving the events which intervened;
because, as I do not produce any part of this. series
for the gratification of historical curiosity, the contexture is necessary to demonstrate to your Lordships
the spirit of our Bengal politics, and the necessity of
some other sort of judicial inquiries than those which
? ? ? ? 408 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that government institute for themselves. The transaction so manifestly marks the character of the whole proceeding that I hope I shall not be blamed for
suspending for a moment the narrative of the steps
taken towards the revolution, that you may see the
whole of this episode together, -that by it you may
judge of the causes which led progressively to the
state in which the Company's affairs stood, when Mr.
Hastings was' sent for the express purpose of reforming it.
The business I am going to enter into is commonly
known by the name of the Story of the Three Seals.
It is to be found in the Appendix, No. 10, to the
First Report of the state and condition of the East
India Company, made in 1773. The word Report,
my Lords, is sometimes a little equivocal, and may
signify sometimes, not what is made known, but what
remains in obscurity: the detail and evidence of many
facts referred to in the Report being usually thrown
into the Appendix. Many people, and I among the
rest, (I take shame to myself for it,) may not have
ftully examined that Appendix. I was not a member
of either of the India committees of 1773. It is not,
indeed, till within this year that I have been thoroughly acquainted with that memorable history of the Three Seals.
The history is this. In the year 1760 the allies
were in the course of operations against the son
of the Mogul, now the present Mogul, who, as I
have already stated, had made an irruption into
the kingdom of Bahar, in order to reduce the lower
provinces to his obedience. The parties opposing
him were the Nabob of Bengal and the Company's
troops under Major Calliaud. It was whilst they
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 409
faced the common enemy as one body, this negotiation for the destruction of the Nabob of Bengal by
his faithful allies of the Company was going on
with diligence. At that time the Nabob's son, Meeran, a youth in the flower of his age, bold, vigorous,
active, full of the politics in which those who are
versed in usurpation are never wanting, commanded the army under his father, but was in reality the
efficient person in all things.
About the 15th of April, 1760, as I have it from Major Calliaud's letter of that date, the Nabob came into
his tent, and, with looks of the utmost embarrassment,
big with some design which swelled his bosom, something that was too large and burdensome to conceal,
and yet too critical to be told, appeared to be in a
state of great distraction. The Major, seeing him
ill this condition, kindly, gently, like a fast and sure
friend, employed (to use his own expression) some of
those assurances that tend to make men fully open their
hearts; and accordingly, fortified by his assurances,
and willing to disburden himself of the secret that
oppressed him, he opens his heart to the commanding officer of his new friends, allies, and protectors.
The Nabob, thus assured, did open himself, and informed Major Calliaud that he had just received a
message from the Prince, or his principal minister,
informing him that the Prince Royal, now the Mogul,
had an intention (as, indeed, he rationally miglht,
supposing that we were as well disposed to him as
we showed ourselves afterwards) to surrender him-l
self into the hands of him, the Nabob, but at the
same time wished, as a guaranty, that the commanderin-chief of the English forces should give him security for his life and his honor, when he should in
? ? ? ? 410 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that manner surrender himself to the Nabob. I do
not mean, my Lords, by surrendering, that it was
supposed he intended to surrender himself prisoner
of war, but as a sovereign dubious of the fidelity of
those about him would put himself into the hands
of his faithful subjects, of those who claimed to derive all their power, as both we and the Nabob did, under his authority. The Nabob stated to the English general, that without this English security the Prince would not deliver himself into his hands.
Here he confessed he found a difficulty. For the
giving this faith, if it were kept, would defeat his
ultimate view; which was, when the Prince had delivered himself into his hands, in plain terms to murder him. This grand act could not be accomplished without the English general. In the first
place, the Prince, without the English security, would
not deliver himself into the Nabob's hands; and afterwards, without the English concurrence, he could not be murdered. These were difficulties that pressed
upon the mind of the Nabob.
Tlhe English commander heard this astonishing
proposition without any apparent emotion. Being
a man habituated to great affairs, versed in revolutions, and with a. mind fortified against extraordinary events, he heard it and answered it without showing
any signs of abhorrence or detestation, - at the same
time with a protestation that he would indeed serve
him, the Nabob, but it should be upon such terms
as honor and justice could support: informing him,
that an assurance for the Prince's safety could not
be given by him, until he had consulted Mr. Holwell,
who was Governor, and his superior.
This conversation passed in the morning. On that
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 411
very morning, and whilst the transaction was hot,
Major Calliaud writes to Mr. Holwell an. account of
it. In his letter he informs him that he made an
inquiry, without stating from whom, but that he did
inquire the probability of the Nabob's getting possession of the Prince from some persons, who assured
him that there was no probability of the Prince's intention to deliver himself to the Nabob on any terms.
Be that as it may, it is impossible not to remark that
the whole transaction of the morning of the 15th of
April was not very discouraging to the Nabob, -not
such as would induce him to consider this most detestable of all projects as a thing utterly unfeasible,
and as such to abandon it. The evening came on
without anything to alter his opinion. Major Calliaud that evening came to the Nabob's tent to arrange some matters relative to the approaching camlpaign. The business soon ended with regard to the campaign; but the proposal of the morning to Major
Calliaud, as might be expected to happen, was in
effect renewed. Indeed, the form was a little different; but the substantial part remained the same.
Your Lordships will see what these-alterations were.
In the evening scene the persons were more numerous. On the part of the Company, Major Calliaud, Mr. Lushington, Mr. Knox, and the ambassador
at the Nabob's court, Mr. Warren Hastings. On the
part of the Moorish government, the Nabob himself,
his son Meeran, a Persian secretary, and the Nabob's
head spy, an officer well known in that part of the
world, and of some rank. These were the persons
of the drama'in the evening scene. The Nabob and
his son did not wait for the Prince's committing himself to their faith, which, it seems, Major Calliaud
? ? ? ? 412 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
did not think likely to happen; so that one act of
treachery is saved: but another opened of as extraordinary a nature. Intent and eager on the execution, and the more certain, of their design, they accepted the plan of a wicked wretch, principal servant of the then prime-minister to the Mogul, or themselves suggested it to him. A person called Conery,
dewan or principal steward to Camgar Khan, a great
chief in the service of the Shalhzada, or Prince,
(now the Great Mogul, the sovereign under whom
the Company holds their charter,) had, it seems,
made a proposal to. the Nabob, that, if a considerable territory then held by his master was assured
to him, and a reward of a lac of rupees (ten or
twelve thousand pounds) secured to him, he would
for that consideration deliver the Prince, the eldest
son of the Mogul, alive into the hands of the Nabob;
or if that could not be effected, he engaged to murder him for the same reward. But as the assassin
could not rely on the Nabob. and his son for his reward for this meritorious action, and thought better
of English honor and fidelity in such delicate cases,
he required that Major Calliaud should set his seal
to the agreement. This proposition was made to an
English commander: what discourse happened upon it is uncertain. Mr. Hastings is stated by some
evidence to have acted as interpreter in this memorable congress. But Major Calliaud agreed to it
without any difficulty. Accordingly, an instrument
was drawn, an indenture tripartite prepared by the
Persian secretary, securing to the party the reward
of this infamous, perfidious, murderous act. First,
the Nabob put his own seal to the murder. The
Nabob's son, Meeran, affixed his seal. A third seal,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 413
the most important of all, was yet wanting. A pause
ensued: Major Calliaud's seal was not at hand;
but Mr. Lushington was sent near half a mile to
bring it. It was brought at length; and the instrument of blood and treachery was completely executed. Three seals were set to it.
This business of the three seals, by some means not
quite fully explained, but (as suspected by the parties)
by means of the information of Mr. Holwell, who soon
after came home, was conveyed to the ears of the
Court of Directors. The Court of Directors wrote
out, under date of the 7th of October, 1761, within a
little more than a year after this extraordinary transaction, to this effect: -- that, in conjunction with the
Nabob, Major Calliaud had signed a paper offering a
reward of a lac of rupees, or some such sum, to several black persons, for the assassination of the Shahzada, or Prince heir-apparent, - which paper was offered to the then Chief of Patna to sign, but which he refused on account of the infamy of the'measure.
As it appeared in the same light to them, the Directors, they ordered a strict inquiry into it. The India
Company, who here did their duty with apparent manliness and vigor, were resolved, however, to do it with
gentleness, and to proceed in a manner that could not
produce any serious mischief to the parties charged;
for they directed the commission of inquiry to the
very clan and set of people who, from a participation
in their common offences, stood in awe of one another, - in effect, to the parties in the transaction.
Without a prosecutor, without an impartial director
of the inquiry, they left it substantially to those persons to try one another for their common acts. .
Here I come upon the principle which I wish most
? ? ? ? 414 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
strongly to mark to your Lordships: I mean collusive trials and collusive acquittals. When this matter came to be examined, according to the orders of the
Court, which was on the 4th lof October, 1762, the
Council consisted of Peter Maguire, Warren Hastings,
and Hugh Watts. Mr. Hastings had by this time accomplished the business of Resident with the Nabob, and had taken the seat to which his seniority entitled
hiln in Council. Here a difficulty arose in limine.
Mr. Hastings was represented to have acted as interpreter in this business; he was therefore himself an object of the inquisition; he was doubtful as evidence;
lie was disqualified as a judge. It likewise appeared
that there might be some objection to others whose
evidence was wanting, but who were themselves concerned in the guilt. ' Mr. Lushington's evidence would be useful, but there were two circumstances
rather unlucky. First, he had put the seal to the instrument of murder; and, secondly, and what was most material, he had made an affidavit at Patna,
whilst the affair was green and recent, that he had
done so; and in the same affidavit had deposed that
Warren Hastings was interpreter in that transaction.
Here were difficulties both on him and Mr. Hastings.
The question was, how to get Mr. Hastings, the interpreter, out of his interpretation, and to put him upon the seat of judgment. It was effected, however, and
the manner in which it was effected was something
curious. Mr. Lushington, who by this time was got
completely over, himself tells you that in conferences
with Major Calliaud, and by arguments and reasons
by him delivered, he was persuaded to unsay his
swearing, and to declare that he believed that the
affidavit which he made at Patna, and while the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 415
transaction was recent or nearly recent, must be a
mistake: that he believed (what is amazing indeed for
any belief) that not Mr. Hastings, but he himself,
interpreted. Mr. Lushington completely loses his own
memory, and he accepts an offered, a given memory,
a memory supplied to him by a party in the transaction. By this operation all difficulties are removed: Mr. Hastings is at once put into the capacity of a
judge. He is declared by Mr. Lushington not to have
been an interpreter in the transaction. After this,
Mr. Hastings is himself examined. Your Lordships
will look at the transaction at your leisure, and I
think you will consider it as a pattern for inquiries
of this kind. Mr. Hastings is examined: he does not
recollect. His memory also fails on a business in
which it is not easy to suppose a man could be doubtful, - whether he was present or not: he thinks he was not there, -for that, if he had been there, and
acted as interpreter, he could not have forgot it.
I think it is pretty nearly as I state it: if I have
fallen into any error or inaccuracy, it is easily rectified; for here is the state of the transaction given by the parties themselves. On this inaccurate memory
of Mr. Hastings, not venturing, however, to say positively that he was not the interpreter, or that he was not present, he is discharged from being an accomplice, - he is removed from the bar, and leaps upon the'seat of justice. The court thus. completed, Major
Calliaud comes manfully forward to make his defence.
Mr. Lushington is taken off his back in the manner
we have seen, and no one person remains but Captain Knox. Now, if Captain Knox was there and assenting, he is an accomplice too. Captain Knox
asserts, that, at the consultation about the murder, he
? ? ? ? 416 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
said it was a pity to cut off so fine a young fellow
in such a manner,- meaning that fine young fellow
the Prince, the descendant of Tamerlane, the present
reigning Mogul, from whom the Company derive their
present charter. The purpose to be served by this
declaratio. n, if it had ally purpose, was, that Captainl
Knox did not assent to the murder, and that therefore his evidence might be valid.
The defence set up by Major Calliaud was to this
effect. He was apprehensive, he said, that the Nabob
was alarmed at the violent designs that were formed
against him by Mr. Holwell, and that therefore, to
quiet his mind, (to quiet it by a proposition compounded of murder and treason, - an odd kind of mind he had that was to be quieted by such means! )
- but to quiet his mind, and to show that the English were willing to go all lengths with him, to sell body and soul to him, he did put his seal to this
extraordinary agreement, he put his seal to this wonderful paper. He likewise stated, that he was of opinion at the time that nothing at all sinister could
happen from it, that no such murder was likely to
take place, whatever might be the intention of the
parties. In fact, he had very luckily said in a letter
of his, written a day after the setting the seal, "I
think nothing will come of this matter, but it is
no harm to try. " This experimental treache. ry, and
these essays of conditional murder, appeared to him
good enough to make a trial of; but at the same time
he was afraid nothing would come of it. In general,
the whole gest of his defence comes to one point, in
which he persists, - that, whatever the act might
be, his mind is clear: " My hands are guilty, but my
heart is free. " He conceived that it would be very
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 417
Improper, undoubtedly, to do such an act, if he suspected anything could happen from it: he, however,
let the thing out of his own hands; he put it into the
haIrds of others; he put the commission into the hands
of a murderer. The fact was not denied; it was fully
before these severe judges. The extenuation was the
purity of his heart, and the bad situation of the Company's affairs, - the perpetual plea, which your Lordships will hear of forever, and which if it will justify evil actions, they will take good: care that the most
nefarious of their deeds shall never want a sufficient
justification. But then he calls upon his life and, his
character to oppose to his seal; and though he has
declared that. Mr. Holwell had intended ill to the Nabob, and that he approved of those measures, and only
postponed them, yet he thought it necessary, he says,
to quiet the fears of the Nabob; and from this motive
he did an act abhorrent to his nature, and which, he
says, he expressed his abhorrence of the morning after he signed it: not that he did so; but if he had, I
believe it would only have made the thing so many
degrees worse. Your Lordships will observe, that, in
this conference, as stated by himself, these reasons
and apologies for it did not appear, nor did they appear in the letter, nor anywhere else, till next year,
when he came upon his. trial. Then it was immediately recollected that Mr. Holwell's designs were so
wicked they certainly must be known to the Nabob,
though he never mentioned them in the conference
of the morning or the evening of the 15th; yet such
was now the weight and prevalence of them upon the
Major's mind, that he calls upon Mr. Hastings to,
know whether the Nabob was not informed of these
designs of Mr. Holwell against him. Mr. Hastings's,
VOL. IX. 27
? ? ?
briefly and with as much perspicuity as I can give
them, the leading events of that obscure and perplexed
period which intervened between the British settlement in 1757 and Mr. Hastings's government. If I should be so happy as to succeed in that attempt, your
Lordships' minds will be prepared for hearing this
cause. Then your Lordships will have a clear view
of the origin and nature of the abuses which prevailed
in that government before Mr. Hastings obtained his
greatest power, and since that time; and then we
shall be able to enter fully and explicitly into the
hature of the cause: and I should hope that it will
pave the way and make everything easy for your
subsequent justice.
I therefore wish to stop at this period, in which Mr.
Hastings became active in the service, pretty near the
time when he began his political career: and here,
my Lords, I pause, wishing your indulgence at such
time as will suit your convenience for pursuing the
rest of this eventful history.
? ? ? ? SPEEC H
IN
OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1788.
M Y LORDS, - In what I had the honor of laying
before your Lordships yesterday, and in what I
may further trouble you with to-day, I wish to observe
a distinction, which if I did not lay down so perfectly
as I ought, I hope I shall now be able to mark it out
with sufficient exactness and perspicuity.
First, I beg leave to observe that what I shall think
necessary to state, as matter of preliminary explanation, in order to give your Lordships a true idea of the scene of action, of the instruments which Mr.
Hastings employed, and the effects which they produced,-all this I wish to be distinguished from matter brought to criminate. Even the matter, as
stated by me, which may be hereafter brought to
criminate, so far as it falls to my share at present, is
only to be considered, in this stage of the business,
as merely illustrative. Your Lordships are to expect,
as undoubtedly you will require, substantial matter
of crimination to be laid open. for that purpose at the
moment when the evidence to each charge is ready to
be produced to you. . Thus your Lordships will easily
separate historical illustration from criminal opening.
For instanlce, if I stated yesterday to your Lordships,
as I did, tle tyranny and cruelty of one of the usurp
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 397
ing viceroys, whose usurpation and whose vices led
the way to the destruction of his country and the
introduction of a foreign power, I do not mean to
charge Mr. Hastings with any part of that guilt:
what bears upon Mr. Hastings is his having avowedly
looked to such a tyrant and such a usurper as his
model, and followed that pernicious example with a
servile fidelity. *When I have endeavored to lay open
to your Lordships anythingz abusive, or leading to
abuse, from defects or errors in the constitution of
the Company's service, I did not mean to criminate
Mr. Hastings on any part of those defects and errors:
I state them to show that he took advantage of the
imperfections of the institution to let in his abuse of
the power. with which he was intrusted. If, for a
further instance, I have stated that in general the service of the India Company was insufficient in legal pay or emolument and abundant in the means of
illegal profit, I do not state that defect as owing to
Mr. Hastings; but I state it as a fact, to show in what
manner and on what pretences he did, fraudulently,
corruptly, and for the purposes of his own ambition,
take advantage of that defect, and, under color of
reformation, make an illegal, partial, corrupt rise of
emoluments to certain favored persons without regard
to the interests of the service at large, --increasing
rather than lessening the means of illicit emolument,
as well as loading the Company with many heavy and
ruinous expenses in avowed salaries and allowances.
Having requested your Lordships to keep in mind,
which I trust you would do even without my taking
the liberty of suggesting it to you, these necessary
distinctions, I shall revert to the period at which I
closed yesterday, that great and memorable period
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which has remotely given occasion to the trial of this
day.
My Lords, to obtain empire is common; to govern
it well has been rare indeed. To chastise the guilt
of those who have been instruments of imperial sway
over other nations by the high superintending justice
of the sovereign state has not many striking examples
among any people. Hitherto we have not furnished
our contingent to the records of honor. We have
been confounded with the herd of conquerors. Our
dominion has been a vulgar thing. But we begin to
emerge; and I hope that a severe inspection of ourselves, a purification of our own offences, a lustration
of the exorbitances of our own power, is a glory reserved to this time, to this nation, and to this august triburnal.
The year 1756 is a memorable era in the history
of the world: it introduced a new nation from the
remotest verge of the Western world, with new manners, new customs, new institutions, new opinions, new laws, into the heart of Asia.
My Lords, if, in that part of Asia whose native
regular government was then broken up, -if, at the
moment when it had fallen into darkness and confusion from having become the prey and almost the sport of the ambition of its home-born grandees, - if, in that
gloomy season, a star had risen from the West, that
would prognosticate a better generation, and would
shed down the sweet influences of order, peace, science, and security to the natives of that vexed and harassed country, we should have been covered with
genuine honor. It would have been a beautiful and
noble spectacle to mankind.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 399
Indeed, something might have been expected of
the kind, when a new dominion emanated from a
learned and enlightened part of the world in the
most enlightened period of its existence. Still more
might it have been expected, when that dominion was
found to issue from the bosom of a free country, that
it would have carried with it the full benefit of the
vital principle of the British liberty and Constitution,
though its municipal forms were not communicable,
or at least the advantage of the liberty and spirit
of the British Constitution. Had this been the case,
(alas! it was not,) you would have been saved the
trouble of this day. It might have been expected, too,
that, in that enlightened state of the world, influenced
by the best religion, and from an improved description of that best religion, (I mean the Christian reformed religion,) that we should have done honor to Europe, to letters, to laws, to religion, - done honor
to all the circumstances of which in this island we
boast ourselves, at the great and critical moment of
that revolution.
My Lords, it has happened otherwise. It is now
left for us to repair our former errors. Resuming
the history where I broke off yesterday by your indulgence to my weakness, - Surajah Dowlah was the
adopted grandson of Aliverdy Khan, a cruel and ferocious; tyrant, the manner of whose acquisition of
power I have already stated. He came too young
and unexperienced to that throne of usurpation. It
was a usurpation yet green in the country, and the
country felt uneasy under it. It had not the advantage of that prescriptive usage, that inveterate habit,
that traditionary opinion, which a long continuance
of any system of government secures to it. The only
? ? ? ? 400 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
real secilrity which Surajah Dowlah's government
could possess was the security of an army. But the
great aim of this prince and his predecessor was to supply the weakness of his government by the strength of his purse; he therefore amassed treasures by all
ways and on all hands. But as the Indian princes,
in general, are as unwisely tenacious of their treasure
as they are rapacious in getting it, the more money
he amassed, the more he felt the effects of poverty.
The consequence was, that their armies were unpaid,
and, being unpaid or irregularly paid, were undisciplined, disorderly, unfaithful. In this situation, a
young prince, confiding more in the appearances
than examining into the reality of things, undertook
(from motives which the House of Commons, with
all their industry to discover the circumstances, have
found it difficult to make out) to attack a little miserable trading fort that we had erected at Calcutta.
He succeeded in that attempt only because success
in that attempt was easy. A close imprisonment of
the whole settlement followed, -- not owing, I believe, to the direct will of the prince, but, what will
always happen when the will of the prince is but too
much the law, to a gross abuse of his power by his
lowest servants, - by which one hlundred and twenty
or more of our countrymen perished miserably in a
dungeon, by a fate too tragical for me to be desirous
to relate, and too well known to stand in need of it.
At the time that this event happened, there was at
the same time a concurrence of other events, which,
from this partial and momentary wealkness, displayed
the strength of Great Britain in Asia. For some
years before, the French and English troops began,
on the coast of Coromandel, to exhibit the power,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 401
force, and efficacy of European discipline. As we
daily looked for a war with France, our settlements
on that coast were in some degree armed. Lord
Pigot, then Governor of Madras,- Lord Pigot, the
preserver and the victim of the British dominion in
Asia, -- detached such of the Company's force as
could be collected and spared, and such of his Majesty's ships as were on that station, to the assistance of Calcutta. And -- to hasten this history to its
conclusion -- the daring and commanding genius of
Clive, the patient and firm ability of Watson, the
treachery of Mir Jaffier, and the battle of Plassey
gave us at once the patronage of a kingdom and the
command of all its treasures. We negotiated with
Mir Jaffier for the viceroyal throne of his master.
On that throne we seated him. And we obtained, on
our part, immense sums of money. We obtained a
million sterling for the Company, upwards of a million for individuals, in the whole a sum of about two millions two hundred and thirty thousand pounds for
various purposes, from the prince whom we had set
up. We obtained, too, the town of Calcutta more
completely than we had before possessed it, and the
twenty-four districts adjoining. This was the first
small seminal principle of the immense territorial
acquisitions we have since made in India.
Many circumstances of this acquisition I pass by.
There is a sacred veil to be drawn over the beginnings of all governments. Ours in India had an
origin like those which time has sanctified by obscurity. Time, in the origin of most governments, has thrown this mysterious veil over them; prudence
and discretion make it necessary to throw something
of the same drapery over more recent foundations, in
VOL. IX. 26
? ? ? ? 402 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which otherwise the fortune, the genius, the talents,
and military virtue of this nation never shone more
conspicuously. But whatever necessity might hide
or excuse or palliate, in the acquisition of power, a
wise nation, when it has once made a revolution upon its own principles and for its own ends, rests there.
The first step to empire is revolution, by which power
is conferred; the next is good laws, good order, good
institutions, to give that power stability. I am sorry
to say that the reverse of this policy was the principle on which the gentlemen in India acted. It was
such as tended to make the new government as unstable as the old. By the vast sums of money acquired by individuals upon this occasion, by the immense sudden prodigies of fortune, it was discovered that a revolution in Bengal was a mine much more
easily worked and infinitely more productive than
the mines of Potosi and Mexico. It was found that
the work was not only very lucrative, but not at all
difficult. Where Clive forded a deep water upon an
unknown bottom, he left a bridge for his successors,
over which the lame could hobble and the blind
might grope their way. There was not at that time
a knot of clerks in a counting-house, there was not
a captain of a band of ragged topasses, that looked
for anything less than the deposition of subahs and
the sale of kingdoms. Accordingly, this revolution,
which ought to have precluded other revolutions, unlfortunately became fruitful of them; and when Lord
Clive returned to Europe, to enjoy his fame and fortune in his own country, there arose another description of men, who thought that a revolution might bf
made upon his revolution, and as lucrative to them
as his was to the first projectors. Scarcely was Mir
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND. DAY. 403
Jaffier, Lord Clive's nabob, seated on his musnud,
than they immediately, or in a short time, projected
another revolution, a revolution which was to unsettle all the former had settled, a revolution to make
way for new disturbances and new wars, and which
led to that long chain of peculation which ever since
has afflicted and oppressed Bengal.
If ever there was a time when Bengal should have
had respite from internal revolutions, it was this.
The governor forced upon the natives was now upon the throne. All the great lords of the country,
both Gentoos and Mahomedans, were uneasy, discontented, and disobedient, and some absolutely in arms,
and refusing to recognize the prince we had set up.
An imminent invasion of the Mahrattas, an actual
invasion headed by the son of the Mogul, the revenues on account of the late shock very ill collected
even where the country was in some apparent quiet,
an hungry treasury at Calcutta, an empty treasury at
Moorshedabad, - everything demanded tranquillity,
and with it order and economy. In this situation
it was resolved to make a new and entirely mercenary revolution, and to set up to sale the government, secured to its present possessor by every tie of public faith and every sacred obligation which
could bind or influence mankind. This second
revolution forms that period in the Bengal history
which had the most direct influence upon all the
subsequent transactions. It introduces some of the
persons who were most active in the succeeding
scenes, and from that time to this has given its
tone and character to the British affairs and government. It marks and specifies the origin and
true principle of all the abuses -which Mr. Has:t
? ? ? ? 404 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ings was afterwards appointed to correct, and which
the Commons charge that he continued and aggravated: namely, the venal depositions and venal exaltations of the country powers; the taking of bribes and corrupt presents from all parties in those
changes; the vitiating and maiming the Company's
records; the suppression of public correspondence;
corrupt combinations and conspiracies; perfidy in
negotiation established into principle; acts of the
most. atrocious wickedness justified upon purity of
intention; mock-trials and collusive acquittals among
the parties in common guilt; and in the end, the
Court of Directors supporting the scandalous breach
of their own orders. I shall state the particulars
of this second revolution more at large.
Soon after the revolution which had seated Mir
Jaffier on the viceroyal throne, the spirit of the
Mogul empire began, as it were, to make one faint
struggle before it finally expired. The then heir
to that throne, escaping from the hands of those
who had held his father prisoner, had put himself
at the head of several chiefs collected under the
standard of his house, and appeared in force on the
frontiers of the provinces of Bengal and Bahar, upon
both which he made some impression. This alarmed the new powers, the Nabob Mir Jaffier, and the
Presidency of Calcutta; and as in a common cause,
and by the terms of their mutual alliance, they took
the field against him. The Nabob's eldest son and
heir-apparent commanded in chief. Major Calliaud
commanded the English forces under the government of Calcutta. Mr. Holwell was in the temporary possession of the Presidency. Mr. Vansittart
was hourly expected to supersede him. Mr. Warren
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 405
Hastings, a young gentleman about twenty-seven
years of age, was Resident for the Company at the
durbar, or court,' of Mir Jaffier, our new-created
Nabob of Bengal, allied to this country by the most
solemn treaties that can bind men; for which treaties he had paid, and was then paying, immense
sums of money. Mr. Warren Hastings was the
pledge in his hands for the honor of the British nation, and their fidelity to their engagements.
In this situation, Mr: Holwell, whom the terrible
example of the Black Hole at Calcutta had not
cured of ambition, thought an hour was not to be
lost in accomplishing a revolution and selling the
reigning Nabob.
My Lords, there was in the house of Mir Jaffier,
ill his court, and in his family, a man of an intriguing,. crafty, subtle, and at the same time bold, daring, desperate, bloody, and ferocious character, called Cossim Ali Kbhan. He' was the son-in-law of Mir
Jaffier; and he made no other use of this affinity
than to find some means to dethrone and to murder
him. This was the person in whose school of politics
Mr. Hastings made his first studies, and whose conduct he quotes as his example, and for whose friends,
agents, and favorites he has always shown a marked
predilection. This dangerous man was not long
without finding persons who observed his talents with
admiration, and who thought fit to employ him.
The Council at Calcutta was divided into two departments: one, the Council in general; the other a
Select Committee, which they had arranged for the
better carrying on their political affairs. But the Select Committee had no power of acting wholly without the Council at large, -- at least, finally and con
? ? ? ? 406 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
elusively. The Select Committee thought otherwise.
Between these litigant parties for power I shall not
determine on the merits, - thinking of nothing but
the use that was made of the power, to whomsoever
it belonged. This Secret Committee, then, without
communicating with the rest of the Council, formed
the plan for a second revolution. But the concurrence of Major Calliaud, who commanded the British
troops, was essential to the purpose, as it could not
be accomplished without force. Mr. Hastings's assistance was necessary, as it could not be accomplished without treachery.
These are the parties concerned in the intended
revolution. Mr. Holwell, who considered himself in
possession only of temporary power, was urged to precipitate the business; for if Mr. Vansittart should arrive before his plot could be finally put into executioni, he would have all the leading advantages of it, and Mr. Holwell would be considered only as a secondary instrument. But whilst Mr. Holwell, who
originally conceived this plot, urged forward the execution of it, in order that the chief share of the profits might fall to him, the Major, and possibly the
Resident, held back, till they might receive the sanction of the permanent governor, who was hourly expected, with whom one of them was connected, and
who was to carry with him the whole weight of the
authority of this kingdom. This difference produced
discussions. Holwell endeavored by his correspondence to stimulate Calliaud to this enterprise, which
without him could not be undertaken at all. But
Maj. or Calliaud had different views. He concurred
inwardly, as he tells us himself, in all the principles
of this intended revolution, in the propriety and ne
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 407
cessity of it. He only wished delay. But he gave
such powerful, solid, and satisfactory reasons, not
against the delay, but the very merits of the design
itself, exposing the injustice and the danger of it,
and the impossibility of mending by it their condition
in any respect, as must have damned it in the minds
of all rational men: at least it ought to have damned
it forever in his own. But you will see that IHolwell persevered in his plan, and that Major Calliaud
thought two things necessary: first, not wholly to
destroy the scheme, which he tells us he always approved, but to postpone the execution, -- and in the
mean time to delude the Nabob by the most strong,
direct, and sanguine assurances of friendship and
protection that it was possible to give to man.
Whilst the projected revolution stood suspended,whilst Mr. Holwell urged it forward, and Mr. Vansittart was expected every day to give it effect, - whilst Major Calliaud, with this design of ruining the. Nabob
lodged in his breast, suspended in execution, and
condemned in principle, kept the fairest face and the
most confidential interviews with that unfortunate
prince and his son, - as the operations of the campaign relaxed, the army drew near to Moorshedabad,
the capital, when a truly extraordinary scene happened, such I am sure the English annals before that
time had furnished no example of, nor will, I trust,
in ful-ure. I shall state it as one piece from beginning to end, reserving the events which intervened;
because, as I do not produce any part of this. series
for the gratification of historical curiosity, the contexture is necessary to demonstrate to your Lordships
the spirit of our Bengal politics, and the necessity of
some other sort of judicial inquiries than those which
? ? ? ? 408 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that government institute for themselves. The transaction so manifestly marks the character of the whole proceeding that I hope I shall not be blamed for
suspending for a moment the narrative of the steps
taken towards the revolution, that you may see the
whole of this episode together, -that by it you may
judge of the causes which led progressively to the
state in which the Company's affairs stood, when Mr.
Hastings was' sent for the express purpose of reforming it.
The business I am going to enter into is commonly
known by the name of the Story of the Three Seals.
It is to be found in the Appendix, No. 10, to the
First Report of the state and condition of the East
India Company, made in 1773. The word Report,
my Lords, is sometimes a little equivocal, and may
signify sometimes, not what is made known, but what
remains in obscurity: the detail and evidence of many
facts referred to in the Report being usually thrown
into the Appendix. Many people, and I among the
rest, (I take shame to myself for it,) may not have
ftully examined that Appendix. I was not a member
of either of the India committees of 1773. It is not,
indeed, till within this year that I have been thoroughly acquainted with that memorable history of the Three Seals.
The history is this. In the year 1760 the allies
were in the course of operations against the son
of the Mogul, now the present Mogul, who, as I
have already stated, had made an irruption into
the kingdom of Bahar, in order to reduce the lower
provinces to his obedience. The parties opposing
him were the Nabob of Bengal and the Company's
troops under Major Calliaud. It was whilst they
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 409
faced the common enemy as one body, this negotiation for the destruction of the Nabob of Bengal by
his faithful allies of the Company was going on
with diligence. At that time the Nabob's son, Meeran, a youth in the flower of his age, bold, vigorous,
active, full of the politics in which those who are
versed in usurpation are never wanting, commanded the army under his father, but was in reality the
efficient person in all things.
About the 15th of April, 1760, as I have it from Major Calliaud's letter of that date, the Nabob came into
his tent, and, with looks of the utmost embarrassment,
big with some design which swelled his bosom, something that was too large and burdensome to conceal,
and yet too critical to be told, appeared to be in a
state of great distraction. The Major, seeing him
ill this condition, kindly, gently, like a fast and sure
friend, employed (to use his own expression) some of
those assurances that tend to make men fully open their
hearts; and accordingly, fortified by his assurances,
and willing to disburden himself of the secret that
oppressed him, he opens his heart to the commanding officer of his new friends, allies, and protectors.
The Nabob, thus assured, did open himself, and informed Major Calliaud that he had just received a
message from the Prince, or his principal minister,
informing him that the Prince Royal, now the Mogul,
had an intention (as, indeed, he rationally miglht,
supposing that we were as well disposed to him as
we showed ourselves afterwards) to surrender him-l
self into the hands of him, the Nabob, but at the
same time wished, as a guaranty, that the commanderin-chief of the English forces should give him security for his life and his honor, when he should in
? ? ? ? 410 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that manner surrender himself to the Nabob. I do
not mean, my Lords, by surrendering, that it was
supposed he intended to surrender himself prisoner
of war, but as a sovereign dubious of the fidelity of
those about him would put himself into the hands
of his faithful subjects, of those who claimed to derive all their power, as both we and the Nabob did, under his authority. The Nabob stated to the English general, that without this English security the Prince would not deliver himself into his hands.
Here he confessed he found a difficulty. For the
giving this faith, if it were kept, would defeat his
ultimate view; which was, when the Prince had delivered himself into his hands, in plain terms to murder him. This grand act could not be accomplished without the English general. In the first
place, the Prince, without the English security, would
not deliver himself into the Nabob's hands; and afterwards, without the English concurrence, he could not be murdered. These were difficulties that pressed
upon the mind of the Nabob.
Tlhe English commander heard this astonishing
proposition without any apparent emotion. Being
a man habituated to great affairs, versed in revolutions, and with a. mind fortified against extraordinary events, he heard it and answered it without showing
any signs of abhorrence or detestation, - at the same
time with a protestation that he would indeed serve
him, the Nabob, but it should be upon such terms
as honor and justice could support: informing him,
that an assurance for the Prince's safety could not
be given by him, until he had consulted Mr. Holwell,
who was Governor, and his superior.
This conversation passed in the morning. On that
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 411
very morning, and whilst the transaction was hot,
Major Calliaud writes to Mr. Holwell an. account of
it. In his letter he informs him that he made an
inquiry, without stating from whom, but that he did
inquire the probability of the Nabob's getting possession of the Prince from some persons, who assured
him that there was no probability of the Prince's intention to deliver himself to the Nabob on any terms.
Be that as it may, it is impossible not to remark that
the whole transaction of the morning of the 15th of
April was not very discouraging to the Nabob, -not
such as would induce him to consider this most detestable of all projects as a thing utterly unfeasible,
and as such to abandon it. The evening came on
without anything to alter his opinion. Major Calliaud that evening came to the Nabob's tent to arrange some matters relative to the approaching camlpaign. The business soon ended with regard to the campaign; but the proposal of the morning to Major
Calliaud, as might be expected to happen, was in
effect renewed. Indeed, the form was a little different; but the substantial part remained the same.
Your Lordships will see what these-alterations were.
In the evening scene the persons were more numerous. On the part of the Company, Major Calliaud, Mr. Lushington, Mr. Knox, and the ambassador
at the Nabob's court, Mr. Warren Hastings. On the
part of the Moorish government, the Nabob himself,
his son Meeran, a Persian secretary, and the Nabob's
head spy, an officer well known in that part of the
world, and of some rank. These were the persons
of the drama'in the evening scene. The Nabob and
his son did not wait for the Prince's committing himself to their faith, which, it seems, Major Calliaud
? ? ? ? 412 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
did not think likely to happen; so that one act of
treachery is saved: but another opened of as extraordinary a nature. Intent and eager on the execution, and the more certain, of their design, they accepted the plan of a wicked wretch, principal servant of the then prime-minister to the Mogul, or themselves suggested it to him. A person called Conery,
dewan or principal steward to Camgar Khan, a great
chief in the service of the Shalhzada, or Prince,
(now the Great Mogul, the sovereign under whom
the Company holds their charter,) had, it seems,
made a proposal to. the Nabob, that, if a considerable territory then held by his master was assured
to him, and a reward of a lac of rupees (ten or
twelve thousand pounds) secured to him, he would
for that consideration deliver the Prince, the eldest
son of the Mogul, alive into the hands of the Nabob;
or if that could not be effected, he engaged to murder him for the same reward. But as the assassin
could not rely on the Nabob. and his son for his reward for this meritorious action, and thought better
of English honor and fidelity in such delicate cases,
he required that Major Calliaud should set his seal
to the agreement. This proposition was made to an
English commander: what discourse happened upon it is uncertain. Mr. Hastings is stated by some
evidence to have acted as interpreter in this memorable congress. But Major Calliaud agreed to it
without any difficulty. Accordingly, an instrument
was drawn, an indenture tripartite prepared by the
Persian secretary, securing to the party the reward
of this infamous, perfidious, murderous act. First,
the Nabob put his own seal to the murder. The
Nabob's son, Meeran, affixed his seal. A third seal,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 413
the most important of all, was yet wanting. A pause
ensued: Major Calliaud's seal was not at hand;
but Mr. Lushington was sent near half a mile to
bring it. It was brought at length; and the instrument of blood and treachery was completely executed. Three seals were set to it.
This business of the three seals, by some means not
quite fully explained, but (as suspected by the parties)
by means of the information of Mr. Holwell, who soon
after came home, was conveyed to the ears of the
Court of Directors. The Court of Directors wrote
out, under date of the 7th of October, 1761, within a
little more than a year after this extraordinary transaction, to this effect: -- that, in conjunction with the
Nabob, Major Calliaud had signed a paper offering a
reward of a lac of rupees, or some such sum, to several black persons, for the assassination of the Shahzada, or Prince heir-apparent, - which paper was offered to the then Chief of Patna to sign, but which he refused on account of the infamy of the'measure.
As it appeared in the same light to them, the Directors, they ordered a strict inquiry into it. The India
Company, who here did their duty with apparent manliness and vigor, were resolved, however, to do it with
gentleness, and to proceed in a manner that could not
produce any serious mischief to the parties charged;
for they directed the commission of inquiry to the
very clan and set of people who, from a participation
in their common offences, stood in awe of one another, - in effect, to the parties in the transaction.
Without a prosecutor, without an impartial director
of the inquiry, they left it substantially to those persons to try one another for their common acts. .
Here I come upon the principle which I wish most
? ? ? ? 414 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
strongly to mark to your Lordships: I mean collusive trials and collusive acquittals. When this matter came to be examined, according to the orders of the
Court, which was on the 4th lof October, 1762, the
Council consisted of Peter Maguire, Warren Hastings,
and Hugh Watts. Mr. Hastings had by this time accomplished the business of Resident with the Nabob, and had taken the seat to which his seniority entitled
hiln in Council. Here a difficulty arose in limine.
Mr. Hastings was represented to have acted as interpreter in this business; he was therefore himself an object of the inquisition; he was doubtful as evidence;
lie was disqualified as a judge. It likewise appeared
that there might be some objection to others whose
evidence was wanting, but who were themselves concerned in the guilt. ' Mr. Lushington's evidence would be useful, but there were two circumstances
rather unlucky. First, he had put the seal to the instrument of murder; and, secondly, and what was most material, he had made an affidavit at Patna,
whilst the affair was green and recent, that he had
done so; and in the same affidavit had deposed that
Warren Hastings was interpreter in that transaction.
Here were difficulties both on him and Mr. Hastings.
The question was, how to get Mr. Hastings, the interpreter, out of his interpretation, and to put him upon the seat of judgment. It was effected, however, and
the manner in which it was effected was something
curious. Mr. Lushington, who by this time was got
completely over, himself tells you that in conferences
with Major Calliaud, and by arguments and reasons
by him delivered, he was persuaded to unsay his
swearing, and to declare that he believed that the
affidavit which he made at Patna, and while the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 415
transaction was recent or nearly recent, must be a
mistake: that he believed (what is amazing indeed for
any belief) that not Mr. Hastings, but he himself,
interpreted. Mr. Lushington completely loses his own
memory, and he accepts an offered, a given memory,
a memory supplied to him by a party in the transaction. By this operation all difficulties are removed: Mr. Hastings is at once put into the capacity of a
judge. He is declared by Mr. Lushington not to have
been an interpreter in the transaction. After this,
Mr. Hastings is himself examined. Your Lordships
will look at the transaction at your leisure, and I
think you will consider it as a pattern for inquiries
of this kind. Mr. Hastings is examined: he does not
recollect. His memory also fails on a business in
which it is not easy to suppose a man could be doubtful, - whether he was present or not: he thinks he was not there, -for that, if he had been there, and
acted as interpreter, he could not have forgot it.
I think it is pretty nearly as I state it: if I have
fallen into any error or inaccuracy, it is easily rectified; for here is the state of the transaction given by the parties themselves. On this inaccurate memory
of Mr. Hastings, not venturing, however, to say positively that he was not the interpreter, or that he was not present, he is discharged from being an accomplice, - he is removed from the bar, and leaps upon the'seat of justice. The court thus. completed, Major
Calliaud comes manfully forward to make his defence.
Mr. Lushington is taken off his back in the manner
we have seen, and no one person remains but Captain Knox. Now, if Captain Knox was there and assenting, he is an accomplice too. Captain Knox
asserts, that, at the consultation about the murder, he
? ? ? ? 416 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
said it was a pity to cut off so fine a young fellow
in such a manner,- meaning that fine young fellow
the Prince, the descendant of Tamerlane, the present
reigning Mogul, from whom the Company derive their
present charter. The purpose to be served by this
declaratio. n, if it had ally purpose, was, that Captainl
Knox did not assent to the murder, and that therefore his evidence might be valid.
The defence set up by Major Calliaud was to this
effect. He was apprehensive, he said, that the Nabob
was alarmed at the violent designs that were formed
against him by Mr. Holwell, and that therefore, to
quiet his mind, (to quiet it by a proposition compounded of murder and treason, - an odd kind of mind he had that was to be quieted by such means! )
- but to quiet his mind, and to show that the English were willing to go all lengths with him, to sell body and soul to him, he did put his seal to this
extraordinary agreement, he put his seal to this wonderful paper. He likewise stated, that he was of opinion at the time that nothing at all sinister could
happen from it, that no such murder was likely to
take place, whatever might be the intention of the
parties. In fact, he had very luckily said in a letter
of his, written a day after the setting the seal, "I
think nothing will come of this matter, but it is
no harm to try. " This experimental treache. ry, and
these essays of conditional murder, appeared to him
good enough to make a trial of; but at the same time
he was afraid nothing would come of it. In general,
the whole gest of his defence comes to one point, in
which he persists, - that, whatever the act might
be, his mind is clear: " My hands are guilty, but my
heart is free. " He conceived that it would be very
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - SECOND DAY. 417
Improper, undoubtedly, to do such an act, if he suspected anything could happen from it: he, however,
let the thing out of his own hands; he put it into the
haIrds of others; he put the commission into the hands
of a murderer. The fact was not denied; it was fully
before these severe judges. The extenuation was the
purity of his heart, and the bad situation of the Company's affairs, - the perpetual plea, which your Lordships will hear of forever, and which if it will justify evil actions, they will take good: care that the most
nefarious of their deeds shall never want a sufficient
justification. But then he calls upon his life and, his
character to oppose to his seal; and though he has
declared that. Mr. Holwell had intended ill to the Nabob, and that he approved of those measures, and only
postponed them, yet he thought it necessary, he says,
to quiet the fears of the Nabob; and from this motive
he did an act abhorrent to his nature, and which, he
says, he expressed his abhorrence of the morning after he signed it: not that he did so; but if he had, I
believe it would only have made the thing so many
degrees worse. Your Lordships will observe, that, in
this conference, as stated by himself, these reasons
and apologies for it did not appear, nor did they appear in the letter, nor anywhere else, till next year,
when he came upon his. trial. Then it was immediately recollected that Mr. Holwell's designs were so
wicked they certainly must be known to the Nabob,
though he never mentioned them in the conference
of the morning or the evening of the 15th; yet such
was now the weight and prevalence of them upon the
Major's mind, that he calls upon Mr. Hastings to,
know whether the Nabob was not informed of these
designs of Mr. Holwell against him. Mr. Hastings's,
VOL. IX. 27
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