else that is
valuable
in it.
Edmund Burke
?
?
AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS.
313
XI. That, after much negotiation, the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, " being fully sensible that an engagement
to furnish military aid, however clearly the conditions
might be stated, must be a source of perpetual misunderstanding and inconveniencies," did at length agree with Major Palmer to give fifteen lacs, or 150,0001. and
upwards, by four instalments, that he might be exempted from all future claims of military service;
that the said Palmer represents it to be his belief,
"that no person, not known to possess your [the said
HETastings's] confidence and support in the degree that
lam supposed to do, would have obtained nearly so
good terms"; but from what motive "terms so
good" were granted, and how the confidence and
support of the said Hastings did truly operate on the
mind of Fyzoola KhIn, doth appear to be better explained by another passage in the same letter, where
the said Palmer congratulates himself on the satisfaction which he gave to Pyzoola Khdn in the conduct of
this negotiation, as he spent a month in order to effect " by argument and persuasion what he could have obtained in an hotr by threats and compulsions. "
PART IX.
FULL VINDICATION OF FYZOOLA KHAN BY MAJOR PALMER
AND MR. HASTINGS.
I. THAT, in the course of the said negotiation for
establishing the rights of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan,
Major Palmer aforesaid did communicate to the Resident, Bristow, and through the said Resident to the Council-General of Bengal, the full and direct denial
of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan to all and every of the
charges made or pretended to be made against him,
as follows.
? ? ? ? 314 ARTICLES OF CHARGE
" Fyzoola Khan persists in denying the infringement
on his part of any one article in the treaty, or the
neglect of any obligation which it imposed upon him.
"He does not admit of the improvements reported to
be made in his jaghire, and even asserts that the collections this year will fall short of the original jumma [or estimate] by reason of the long drought.
"He denies having exceeded the limited number
of Rohillas in his service;
"And having refused the required aid of cavalry,
made by Johnson, to act with General Goddard.
"'He observes, respecting the charge of evading the
Vizier's requisition for the cavalry lately stationed at
Daranagur, to be stationed at Lucknow, that he is
not bound by treaty to maintain a stationary force
for the service of the Vizier, but to supply an aid of
two or three thousand troops in time of war.
" Lastly, he asserts, that, so far from encouraging
the ryots [or peasants] of the Vizier to settle in his
jaghire, it has been his constant *practice to deliver
them up to the Aumil of Rohilcund, whenever he
could discover them. "
II. That, in giving his opinions on the aforesaid
denials of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, the said Palmer
did not controvert any one of the constructions of the
treaty advanced by the said Nabob.
That, although the said Palmer, "from general appearances as well as universal report, did not doubt that the jlunma of the jaghire is greatly increased,"
yet he, the said Palmer, did not intimate that it was
increased in any degree near the amount reported, as
it was drawn out in a regular estimate transmitted to
the said Palmer expressly for the purposes of his nego
? ? ? ? AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS. 315
tiation, which was of course by him produced to the
Nabob Fyzoola Khnll, and to which specifically the denial of Fyzoola Kha'n must be understood to apply. That the said Palmer did not hint any doubt of
the deficiency affirmed by Fyzoola Khaln in the collections for the current year: and,
That, if any increase of jumma did truly exist,
whatever it may have been, the said Palmer did acknowledge it "to have been solemnly relinquished (in a private agreement) by the Vizier. "
That, although the said Palmer did suppose the
number of Rohillas (employed "in ordinary occupations) in Rampoor alone to exceed that limited
by the treaty for his [Fyzoola Khan's] service," yet
the said Palmer did by no means imply that the
Nabob Fyzoola Khan maintained in his service a
single man more than was allowed by treaty; and
by a particular and minute account of the troops
of Fyzoola KhAn, transmitted by the Resident, Bristow, to the said Palmer, the number was stated but at 5,840, probably including officers, who were not
understood to be comprehended in the treaty.
That the said Palmer did further admit it "to be
not clearly expressed in the treaty, whether the restriction included Rohillas of all descriptions "; but,
at any rate, he adds, " it does not appear that their
number is formidable, or that he [Fyzoola Khan]
could by any means subsist such numbers as could
cause any serious alarm to the Vizier; neither is there
any appearance of their entertaining any views beyond the quiet possession of the advantages which they at present enjoy. "
And that, in a subsequent letter, in which the
said Palmer thought it prudent " to vindicate him
? ? ? ? 316 ARTICLES OF CHARGE
self from any possible insinuation that he meant to
sacrifice the Vizier's interest," he, the said Palmer,
did positively attest, the new claim on Fyzoola KhAn
for tihe protection of the Vizier's ryots to be wholly
without foundation, as the Nabob Fyzoola Khan
" had proved to him [Palmer], by producing receipts
of various dates and for great numbers of these people surrendered upon requisition from the Vizier's officers. "
III. That, over and above the aforesaid complete
refutation of the different charges and pretexts under
which exactions had been practised, or attempted to
be practised, on the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, the said
Palmer did further condemn altogether the principle
of calculation assumed in such exactions (even if
they had been founded in justice) by the following
explanation of the nature of the tenure by which,
under the treaty of Lall-Dang, the Nabob Fyzoola
Khan held his possessions as a jaghiredar.
"There are no precedents in the ancient usage
of the country for ascertaining the nuzzerana [customary present] or peshcush [regular fine] of grants of this nature: they were bestowed by the prince as
rewards or favors; and the accustomary present in
return was adapted to the dignity of the donor rather than to the value of the gift, - to which it never, I believe, bore any kind of proportion. "
IV. That a sum of money ('"which of course
was to be received by the Company") being now
obtained, and the " interests both of the Company and
the Vizier" being thus much " better promoted" by
" establishing the rights" of Fyzoola Khan than they
? ? ? ? AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS. 317
could have been by " depriving him of his independency," when every undue influence of secret and
criminal purposes was removed from the mind of
the GQovernor-General, Warref Hastings, Esquire, he,
the said Hastings, did also concur with his friend and
agent, Major Palmer, in the vindication of the Nabob
Fyzoola Khan, and in the most ample manner.
That the said Warren Hastings did now clearly
and explicitly understand the clauses of the treaty,
" that Fyzoola Khan should send two or three [and
not five] thousand men, or attend in person, in case
it was requisite. "
That the said Warren Hastings did now confess
that the right of the Vizier under the treaty was
At best' but a precarious and unserviceable right;
and that he thought fifteen lacs, or 150,0001. and
upwards, an ample equivalent," (or, according to
the expression of Major Palmer, an excellent bargain,) as in truth it was, " for expunging an article
of such a tenor and so loosely worded. "
And, finally, that the said Hastings did give the
following description of the general character, disposition, and circumstances of the Nabob Fyzoola
Khan.
"The rumors which had been spread of his hostile designs against the Vizier were totally groundless, and if he had been inclined, he had not the means to make himself formidable; on the contrary, being in the decline of life, and possessing a very
fertile and prosperous jaghire, it is more natural
to suppose that Fyzoola Khan wishes to spend the
remainder of his days in quietness than that he is
preparing to embark in active and offensive scenes
which must end in his own destruction. "
? ? ? ? 818, ARTICLES OF CHARGE.
V. Yet that, notwithstanding this virtual and im
plied crimination of his whole conduct toward the
Nabob Fyzoola Khan, and after all the aforesaid acts
systematically prosecuted in open violation' of a positive treaty against a prince who had an hereditary right to more than he actually possessed, for whose
protection the faith of the Company and the nationi
was repeatedly pledged, and who had deserved and
obtained the public thanks of the British government, - when, iii allusion to certain of the said acts,
the Court of Directors had expressed to the said
Hastings their' wishes " to be considered rather as
the guardians of the honor and property of the native powers than as the instruments of oppression," he, the said Hastings, in reply to the said Directors,
his masters, did conclude his official account of the
final settlement with Fyzoola Khan with the following
indecent, because unjust, exultation: -
" Such are the measures which we shall ever wish
to observe towards our allies or dependants upon our
frontiers. "
? ? ? ? APPENDIX
TO THE
EIGHTH AND SIXTEENTH CHARGES. *
Copy of a Letter from Warren Hastings, Esquire, to William Devaynes, Esquire, Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, dated: Cheltenham, 11th of July, 1785, and printed by order of the House
of Commons.
To William Devaynes, Esquire, Chairman of the Honorable the Court of Directors.
SIR, - The Honorable Court of Directors, in their
general letter to Bengal by the "Surprise," dated the 16th March, 1784, were pleased to express
their desire that I should inform them of the peri
ods when each sum of the presents mentioned in my
address of the 22d May, 1782, was received, what
were my motives for withholding the several receipts
from the knowledge of the Council, or of the Court
of Directors, and what were my reasons for taking
bonds for part of these sums, and for paying other
sums into the treasury as deposits on my own account.
I have been kindly apprised that the information
required as above is yet expected from me. I hope
* As the letter referred to in the Eighth and Sixteenth Articles of
Charge is not contained in any of the Appendixes to the Reports of
the Select Committee, it has been thought necessary to annex it as
an Appendix to these Charges.
? ? ? ? 320 ARTICLES OF CHARGE.
that the circumstances of my past situation, when
considered, will plead my excuse for having thus
long withheld it. The fact is, that I was not at the
Presidency when the " Surprise " arrived; and when
I returned to it, my time and attention were so entirely engrossed, to the day of my final departure from it, by a variety of other more important occupations, of
which, Sir, I may safely appeal to your testimony,
grounded on the large portion contributed by myself
of the volumes, which compose our Consultations of
that period, that the. submission which my respect
would have enjoined me to pay to the command
imposed on me was lost to my recollection, perhaps
from the stronger impression which the first and distant perusal of it had left on my mind that it was rather intended as a reprehension for something
which had given. offence inl my report of the original
transaction than as expressive of any want of a further
elucidation of it.
I will now endeavor to reply to the different questions which have been stated to me in as explicit
a manner as I am able. To such information as I
can give the Honorable Court is fully entitled; and
where that shall prove defective, I will point out the
easy means by which it may be rendered more complete.
First, I believe I can affirm with certainty, that the
several sums mentioned in the account transmitted
with my letter above mentioned Were received'at or
within a very few days of the dates which are prefixed
to them in the account; but as this contains only the
gross sums, and each of these was received in different payments, though at no great distance of time, I cannot therefore assign a greater degree of accuracy
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 321
to the account. Perhaps the Honorable Court will
judge this sufficient for any purpose to which their
inquiry was directed; but if it should not be so, I
will beg leave to refer for a more minute information,
and for the means of making any investigation which
they may think it proper to direct, respecting the
particulars of this transaction, to Mr. Larkins, your
Accountant-General, who was privy to every process
of it, and possesses, as I believe, the original paper,
which contained the only account that I ever kept of
it. In this each receipt was, as I recollect, specifically inserted, with the name of the person by whom it
was made; and I shall write to him to desire that he:
will furnish you with the paper itself, if it is still in
being and in his hands, or with whatever he can distinctly recollect concerning it.
For my motives for withholding the several receipts
from the knowledge of the Council, or of the Court of
Directors, and for taking bonds for part of these sums,
and paying others into the treasury as deposits on
my own account, I have generally accounted in my
letter to the Honorable the Court of Directors of the
22d May, 1782: namely, that " I either chose to conceal the first receipts from public curiosity by receiving bonds for the amount, or possibly acted without any studied design which my memory at that distance of time could verify; and that I did not think
it worth my care to observe the same means with the
rest. " It will not be expected that I should be able
to give a more correct explanation of my intentions
-after a lapse of three years, having declared at the time
that many particulars had escaped my remembrance;
neither shall I attempt to add more than the clearer'
affirmation of the facts implied in that report of.
VOL. IX. 21
? ? ? ? 322 ARTICLES OF CHARGE.
them, and such inferences as necessarily, or with a
strong probability, follow them.
I have said that the three first sums of the account were paid into the Company's treasury without passing through my hands. The second of these
was forced into notice by its destination and application to the expense of a detachment which was
formed and employed against Mahdajee Sindia under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Camac, as
I particularly apprised the Court of Directors in my
letter of the 29th November, 1780. The other two
were certainly not intended, when I received them,
to be made public, though intended for public service, and actually applied to it. The exigencies of
the government were at that time my own, and every
pressure upon it rested with its full weight upon my
mind. Wherever I could find allowable means of
relieving those wants, I eagerly seized them; but
neither could it occur to me as necessary to state on
our Proceedings every little aid which I could thus
procure, nor do I know how I could have stated it,
without appearing to court favor by an ostentation
which I disdain, nor without the chance of exciting
the jealousy of my colleagues by the constructive assertion of a separate and unparticipated merit, derived from the influence of my station, to which they might have laid an equal claim. I should have
deemed it particularly dishonorable to receive for my
own use money tendered by men of a certain class,
frort whom I had interdicted the receipt of presents
to my inferiors, and bound them by oath not to receive them. I was therefore more than ordinarily
cautious to avoid the suspicion of it, which would
scarcely have failed to lighlt upon me, had I suffered
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 323
the money to be brought directly to my own house,
or to that of any person known to be in trust for me:
for these reasons I caused it to be transported immediately to the treasury. There, you well know, Sir,
it could not be received without being passed to some
credit, and this could only be done by entering it as a
loan or as a deposit: the first was the least liable to
reflection, and therefore I had obviously recourse to
it. Why tlie second sum was entered as a deposit
I am utterly ignorant: possibly it was done without
any special direction from me; possibly because it
was the simplest mode of entry, and therefore preferred, as the transaction itself did not require concealment, having been already avowed.
Although I am firmly persuaded that these were my
sentiments on the occasion, yet I will not affirm that
they were. Though I feel their impression as the remains of a series of thoughts retained on my memory,
I am not certain that they may not have been produced by subsequent reflection on the principal fact,
combining with it the probable motives of it. Of this
I am certain, that it was my design originally to
have concealed the receipt of all the sums, except
the second, even from the knowledge of the Court of
Directors. They had answered my purpose of public utility, and I had almost totally dismissed them
from my remembrance. But when fortune threw
a sum in my way of a magnitude which could not
be concealed, and the peculiar delicacy of my situation at the time in which I received it made me
more circumspect of appearances, I chose to apprise my employers of it, which I did hastily and generally: hastily, perhaps to prevent the vigilance and activity of secret calumny;. and generally, because I
? ? ? ? . 324 ARTICLES OF CHARGE.
knew not the exact amount of the sum, of which I
was in the receipt, but not in the full possession.
I promised to acquaint them with the result as soon
as I should be in possession of it, and in the performance of my promise I thought it consistent with it to add to the account all the former appropriations
of the same kind: my good genius then suggesting
to me, with a spirit of caution which might have
spared me the trouble of this apology, had I universally attended to it, that, if I had suppressed
them, and they were afterwards known, I might be
asked what were my motives for withholding part
of these receipts from the knowledge of the Court
of Directors and informing them of the rest.
It being my wish to clear up every doubt upon this
transaction, which either my own mind could suggest
or which may have been suggested by others, I beg
leave to suppose another question, and to state the
terms of it in my reply, by informing you that the
indorsement on the bonds was made about the period
of my leaving the Presidency, in the middle of the
year 1781, in order to guard against their becoming
a claim on the Company, as part of my estate, in the
event of my death occurring in the course of the service on which I was then entering.
This, Sir, is the plain history of the transaction.
I should be ashamed to request that you would communicate it to the Honorable Court of Directors, whose time is too valuable for the intrusion of a subject so uninteresting, but that it is become a point of indispensable duty; I must therefore request the
favor of you to lay it, at a convenient time, before
them. In addressing itto you personally, I yield to
my own feelings of the respect which is due to them
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 325
as a body, and to the assurances which I derive from
your experienced civilities that you will kindly overlook the trouble imposed by it. I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your very humble and most obedient servant,
(Signed) WARREN HASTINGS.
CHELTENHAM, 11 July, 1785.
? ? ? ? SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING.
FEBRUARY, 1788.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
IN
OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
FIRST DAY: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1788.
MY LORDS, --The gentlemen who have it in
command to support the impeachment against
Mr. Hastings have directed me to open the cause with
a general view of the grounds upon which the Commons have proceeded in their charge against him. They have directed me to accompany this with another general view of the extent, the magnitude, the nature, the tendency, and the effect of the crimes
which they allege to have been by him committed.
They have also directed me to give an explanation
(with their aid I may be enabled to give it) of such
circumstances, preceding the crimes charged on Mr.
Hastings, or concomitant with them, as may tend
to elucidate whatever may be found obscure in the
articles as they stand. To these they wished me to
add a few illustrative remarks on the laws, customs,
opinions, and manners of the people concerned, and
who are the objects of the crimes we charge on Mr.
Hastings. The several articles, as they appear before
you, will be opened by other gentlemen with more
particularity, with more distinctness, and, without
doubt, with infinitely more ability, when they come
to apply the evidence which naturally belongs to
each article of this accusation. This, my Lords, is
? ? ? ? 330 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the plan which we mean to pursue on the great
charge which is now to abide your judgment.
My Lords, I must look upon it as an auspicious
circumstance. to this cause, in which the honor of the
kingdom and the fate of many nations are involved,
that, from the first commencement of our Parliamentary process to this the hour of solemn trial, not the smallest difference of opinion has arisen between the
two Houses.
My Lords, there are persons who, looking rather
upon what was to be found in our records andhistories than what was to be expected from the public
justice, had formed hopes consolatory to themselves
and dishonorable to- us. They flattered themselves
that the corruptions of India would escape amidst the
dissensions of Parliament. They are disappointed.
They will be disappointed in all the rest of their expectations which they have formed upon everything, except the merits of their cause. The Commons will
not have the melancholy unsocial glory of having
acted a solitary part in a noble, but imperfect work.
What the greatest inquest of the nation has begun its
highest tribunal will accomplish. At length justice
will be done to India. It is true lthat your Lordships
will have your full share in this great achievement;
but the Commons have always considered that whatever honor is divided with you is doubled on themselves. My Lords, I must confess, that, amidst these encouraging prospects, the Commons do not approach
your bar without awe and anxiety. The magnitude
of the interests which we have in charge will reconcile
some degree of solicitude for the event with the undoubting confidence with which we repose ourselves
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 331
upon your Lordships' justice. For we are men, my
Lords; and men are so made, that it is not only the
greatness of danger, but the value of the adventure,
which measures the degree of our concern in every
undertaking. I solemnly assure your Lordships that
no standard is sufficient to estimate the value which
the Commons set upon the event of the cause they
now bring before you. My Lords, the business of
this day is not the business of this man, it is not solely whether the prisoner at the bar be found innocent
or guilty, but whether millions of mankind shall be
made miserable or happy.
Your Lordships will see, in the progress of this
cause, that there is not only a long, connected, systematic series of misdemeanors, but an equally connected system of maxims and principles invented to justify them. Upon both of these you must judge.
According to the judgment that you shall give upon
the past transactions in India, inseparably connected
as they are with the principles which support them,
the whole character of your future government in
that distant empire is to be unalterably decided. It
will take its perpetual tenor, it will receive its final
impression, from the stamp of this very hour.
It is not only the interest of India, now the most
considerable part of the British empire, which is concerned, but the credit and honor of the British nation
itself will be decided by this decision. We are to
decide by this judgment, whether the crimes of individuals are to be turned into public guilt and national ignominy, or whether this nation will convert the very offences which have thrown a transient shade
upon its government into Something that will reflect
a permanent lustre upon the honor, justice, and humanity of this kingdom.
? ? ? ? 332 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
My Lords, there is another consideration, which
augments the solicitude of the Commons, equal to
those other two great interests I have stated, those
of our empire and our national character, something'that, if possible, comes more home to the hearts and feelings of every Englishman: I mean,
the interests of our Constitution itself, which is
deeply involved in the event of this cause. The
future use and the whole effect, if not the very
existence, of the process of an impeachment of
high crimes and misdemeanors before the peers
of this kingdom upon the charge of the Commons
will very much be decided by your judgment in
this cause. This tribunal will be found (I hope
it will always be found) too great for petty causes:
if it should at the same time be found incompetent
to one of the greatest, --that is, if little offences,
from their minuteness, escape you, and the greatest,
from their magnitude, oppress you, --it is impossible that this form of trial should not in the end vanish out of the Constitution. For we must not
deceive ourselves: whatever does not stand with
credit cannot stand long. And if the Constitution
should be deprived, I do not mean in form, but
virtually, of this resource, it is virtually deprived
of everything.
else that is valuable in it. For
this process is the cement which binds the whole
together; this is the individuating principle that
makes England what England is. In this court it
is that no subject, in no part of the empire, can
fail of competent and proportionable justice; here
it is that we provide for that which is the substantial
excellence of our Constitution, -- I mean, the great
circulation of responsibility, by which (excepting the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 333
supreme power) no man, in no circumstance, can
escape the account which he owes to the laws or
his country. It is by this process that magistracy, which tries and controls all other things, is itself tried. and controlled. Other constitutions are satisfied with making good subjects; this is a security for good governors. It is by this tribunal
that statesmen who abuse their power are accused
by statesmen and tried by statesmen, not upon the
niceties of a narrow jurisprudence, but upon the
enlarged and solid principles of state morality. It
is here that. those who by the abuse of power have
violated the spirit of law can never hope for protection from any of its forms; it is here that those
who have refused to conform themselves to its perfections can never hope to escape through any of
its defects. It ought, therefore, my Lords, to become our common care to guard this your precious
deposit, rare in its use, but powerful in its effect,
with a religious vigilance, and never to suffer it
to be either discredited or antiquated. For this
great end your Lordships are invested with great
and plenary powers: but you do not suspend, you
do not supersede, you do. not annihilate any subordinate jurisdiction; on the contrary, you are auxiliary and supplemental to them all. Whether it is owing to thll felicity of our times, less
fertile in great offences lhaln those which have gone
before us, or whether it is from a sluggish apathy
which has dulled and enervated the public justice,
I am not called upon to determine, -but, whatever
may be the cause, it is now sixty-three years since
any impeachment, grounded upon abuse of authority
and misdemeanor in office, has come before this tri
? ? ? ? 334 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
bunal. The last is that of Lord Macclesfield, which
happened in the year 1725. So that the oldest process known to the- Constitution of this country has,
upon its revival, some appearance of novelty. At
this time, when all Europe is in a state of, perhaps,
contagious fermentation, when antiquity has lost all
its reverence and all its effect on the minds of men,
at the same time that novelty is still attended with
the suspicions that always will be attached to whatever is new, we have been anxiously careful, in a
business which seems to combine the objections both
to what is antiquated and what is novel, so to conduct ourselves that nothing in the revival of this
great Parliamentary process shall afford a pretext
for its future disuse.
My Lords, strongly impressed as they are with
these sentiments, the Commons have conducted themselves with singular care and caution. Without losing the spirit and zeal of a public prosecution, they have comported themselves with such moderation,
temper, and decorum as would not have ill become
the final judgment, if with them rested the final
judgment, of this great cause.
With very few intermissions, the affairs of India
have constantly engaged the attention of the Commons for more than fourteen years. We may safely
affirm we have tried every mode of legislative provision before we had recourse to anything of penal
process. It was in the year 1774 [1773? ] we framed
an act of Parliament for remedy to the then existing
disorders in India, such as the then information before us enabled us to enact. Finding that the act
of Parliament did not answer all the ends that were
expected from it, we had, in the year 1782, recourse
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 335
to a body of monitory resolutions. Neither had we
the expected fruit from them. When, therefore,
we found that our inquiries and our reports, our
laws and our admonitions, were alike despised, that
enormities increased in proportion as they were forbidden, detected, and exposed, -- when we found that guilt stalked with an erect and upright front,
and that legal authority seemed to skulk and hide
its head like outlawed guilt, - when we found that
some of those very persons who were appointed by
Parliament to assert the authority of the laws of
this kingdom were the most forward, the most bold,
and the most active in the conspiracy for their destruction, -then it was time for the justice of the nation to recollect itself. To have forborne longer
would not have been patience, but collusion; it
would have been participation with guilt; it would
have been to make ourselves accomplices with the
criminal.
We found it was impossible to evade painful duty
without betraying a sacred trust. Having, therefore,
resolved upon the last and only resource, a penal
prosecution, it was our next business to act in a manner worthy of our long deliberation. In all points we proceeded with selection. We have chosen (we
trust it will so appear to your Lordships) such a
crime, and such a criminal, and such a body of evidence, and such a mode of process, as would have recommended this course of justice to posterity, even
if it had not been supported by any example in the
practice of our forefathers.
First, to speak of the process: we are to inform
your Lordships, that, besides that long previous deliberation of fourteen years, we examined, as a pro
? ? ? ? 336 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
liminary to this proceeding, every circumstance which
could prove favorable to parties apparently delinquent, before we filnally resolved to prosecute. There was no precedent to be found in the Journals, favorable to persons in Mr. Hastings's circumstances, that was not applied to. Many measures utterly unknown
to former Parliamentary proceedings, and which, indeed, seemed in some degree to enfeeble them, but which were all to the advantage of those that were to
be prosecuted, were adopted, for the first time, upon
this occasion. In an early stage of the proceeding,
the criminal desired to be heard. He was heard;
and he produced before the bar of the House that insolent and unbecoming paper which lies upon our table. It was deliberately given in by his own hand,
and signed with his own name. The Commons, however, passed by everything offensive in that paper with a magnanimity that became them. They considered nothing in it but the facts that the defendant alleged, and the principles he maintained; and after
a deliberation not short of judicial, we proceeded
with confidence to your bar.
So far as to the process; which, though I mentioned last in the line and order in which I stated
the objects of our selection, I thought it best to dispatch first.
As to the crime which we chose, we first considered
well what it was in its nature, under all the circumstances which attended it. We. weighed it with all
its extenuations and with all its aggravations. On
that review, we are warranted to assert that the
crimes with which we charge the prisoner at the bar
are substantial crimes, -- that they are no errors or
mistakes, such as wise and good men might possibly
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 337
fall into, which may even produce very pernicious
effects without being in fact great offences. The
Commons are too liberal not to allow for the difficulties of a great and arduous public situation. They
know too well the domineering necessities which frequently occur in all great affairs. They know the exigency of a pressing occasion, which, in its precipitate career, bears everything down before it, - which does
not give time to the mind to recollect its faculties,
to reinforce its reason, and to have recourse to fixed
principles, but, by compelling an instant and tumultuous: decision, too often obliges men to decide in a
manner that calm judgment would certainly have rejected. We know, as we are to be served by men,
that the persons who serve us must be tried as men,
and with a very large allowance indeed to human infirmity and human error. This, my Lords, we knew
and we weighed before we came before you. But
the crimes which we charge in these articles are
not lapses, defects, errors of common human frailty,
which, as we know and feel, we can allow for. We
charge this offender with no crimes that have not
arisen from passions which it is criminal to harbor, --
with no offences that have not their root in avarice,
rapacity, pride, insolence, ferocity, treachery, cruelty,
malignity of temper, - in short, in [with? ] nothing
that does not argue a total extinction of all moral principle, that does not manifest an inveterate blackness
of heart, dyed in grain with malice, vitiated, corrupted, gangrened to the very core. If we do not plant
his crimes in those vices which the breast of man is
made to abhor, and the spirit of all laws, human
and divine, to interdict, we desire no longer to be
heard upon this occasion. Let everything that can be
VOL. IX. 22
? ? ? ? 338 IMPEACHMENT Of WARREN HASTINGS.
pleaded on the ground of surprise or error, upon
those grounds be pleaded with success: we give up
the whole of those predicaments. We urge no crimes
that were not crimes of forethought. We charge him
with nothing that he did not commit upon deliberation,- that he did not commit against advice, supplication, and remonstrance, -- that he did not commit against the direct command of lawful authority, --
that he did not commit after reproof and reprimand,
the reproof and reprimand of those who were authorized by the laws to reprove and reprimand him. The
crimes of Mr. Hastings are crimes not only in themselves, but aggravated by being crimes of contumacy.
They were crimes, not against forms, but against
those eternal laws of justice which are our rule and
our birthright. His offences are, not in formal, technical language, but in reality, in substance and effect,
high crimes and high misdemeanors.
So far as to the crimes. As to the criminal, we
have chosen him on the same principle on which we
selected the crimes. We have not chosen to bring
before you a poor, puny, trembling delinquent, misled, perhaps, by those who ought to have taught him
better, but who have afterwards oppressed him by
their power, as they had first corrupted him by their
example. Instances there have been many, wherein
the punishment of minor offences, in inferior peirsons,
has been made the means of screening crimes of an
high order, and in men of high description. Our
course is different. We have not brought before you
an obscure offender, who, when his insignificance and
weakness are weighed against the power of the prosecution, gives even to public justice something of the
appearance of oppression: no, my Lords, we have
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 339
brought before you the first man of India,, in rank,
authority, and station. We have brought before you
the chief of the tribe, the head of the whole body
of Eastern offenders, a captain-general of iniquity,
under whom all the fraud, all the peculation, all the
tyranny in India are embodied, disciplined, arrayed,
and paid. This is the person, my Lords, that we
bring before you. We have brought before you such
a person, that, if you strike at him with the firm
and decided arm of justice, you will not have need
of a great many more examples. You strike at the
whole corps, if you strike at the head.
So far as to the crime: so far as to the criminal.
Now, my Lords, I shall say a few words relative to
the evidence which we have brought to support such
a charge, and which ought to be equal in weight to
the charge itself. It is chiefly evidence of record,
officially signed by the criminal himself in many
instances. We have brought before you his own
Jletters, authenticated by his own hand. On these we
chiefly rely. But we shall likewise bring before you
living witnesses, competent to speak to the points to
which they are brought.
When you consider the late enormous power of the
prisoner, -- when you consider his criminal, indefatigable assiduity in the destruction of all recorded evidence, -- when you consider the influence he has
over almost all living testimony, - when you consider
the distance of the scene of action, -I believe your
Lordships, and I believe the world, will be astonished
that so much, so clear, so solid, and so conclusive
evidence of all kinds has been obtained against him.
I have no doubt that in nine instances in ten the
evidence is such as would satisfy the narrow precision
? ? ? ? 340 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
supposed to prevail, and to a degree rightly to prevail, in all subordinate power and delegated jurisdiction.
But your Lordships will maintain, what we assert and claim as the right of the subjects of Great Britain,
that you are not bound by ally rules of evidence, or
any other rules whatever, except those of natural, immutable, and substantial justice.
God forbid the Commons should desire that anything should be received as proof from them which is not
by nature adapted to prove the thing in question!
If they should make such a request, they would aim
at overturning the very principles of that justice to which they resort; they would give the nation an
evil example that would rebound back on themselves, and bring destruction upon their own heads, and on those of all their posterity.
On the other hand, I have too much confidence in
the learning with which you will be advised, and the liberality and nobleness of the sentiments with which you are born, to suspect that you would, by any abuse of the forms, and a technical course of proceeding, deny justice to so great a part of the world that
claims it at your hands. Your Lordships always had
an ample power, and almost unlimited jurisdiction;
you have now a boundless object. It is not from this district or from that parish, not from this city or the other province, that relief is now applied for: exiled
and undone princes, extensive tribes, suffering nations, infinite descriptions of men, different in language, in manners, and in rites, men separated by every barrier of Nature from you, by the Providence of God are blended in one common cause, and are now become suppliants at your bar. For the honor of this nation,
in vindication of this mysterious Providence, let it be
? ? ? ? . SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 341
Known that no rule formed upon municipal maxims
(if any such rule exists) will prevent the course of
that imperial justice which you owe to the people that
call to you from all parts of a great disjointed world.
For, situated as this kingdom is, an object, thank
God, of envy to the rest of the nations, its conduct in
that high and elevated situation will undoubtedly be
scrutinized with a severity as great as its power is
invidious.
It is well known that enormous wealth has poured
into this country from India through a thousand
channels, public and concealed; and it is no particular
derogation from our honor to suppose a possibility of
being corrupted by that by which other empires have
been corrupted, and assemblies almost as respectable
and venerable as your Lordships' have been directly
or indirectly vitiated. Forty millions of money, at
least, have within our memory been brought from
India into England. In this case the most sacred
judicature ought to look to its reputation. Without
offence we may venture to suggest that the best way
to secure reputation is, not by a proud defiance of
public opinion, but by guiding our actions in such a
manner as that public opinion may in the end be
securely defied, by having been previously respected
and dreaded. No direct false judgment is apprehended from the tribunals of this country; but it is feared that partiality may lurk and nestle in the abuse
of our forms of proceeding. It is necessary, therefore,
that'nothing in that proceeding. should appear to mark
the slightest trace, should betray the faintest odor of
chicane. God forbid, that, when you try the most
serious of all causes, that, when you try the cause
of Asia in the presence of Europe, there should be
? ? ? ? 342 IMIPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the least suspicion that a narrow partiality, utterly destructive of justice, should so guide us that a British subject in power should appear in substance to possess
rights which are denied to the humble allies, to the
attached dependants of this kingdom, who by their
distance have a double demand upon your protection,
and who, by an implicit (I hope not a weak and useless) trust in you, have stripped themselves of every other resource under heaven!
I do not say this from any fear, doubt, or hesitation
concerning what your Lordships will finally do,none in the world; but I cannot shut my ears to the
rumors which you all know to be disseminated abroad.
The abusers of power may have a chance to cover
themselves by those fences and intrenchments which
were made to secure the liberties of the people against
men of that very description. But God forbid it
should be bruited from Pekin to Paris, that the laws
of England are for the rich and the powerful, but to
the poor, the miserable, and defenceless they afford
no resource at all! God forbid it should be said, no
nation is equal to the English in substantial violence
and in formal justice, - that in this kingdom we feel
ourselves competent to confer the most extravagant
and inordinate powers upon public ministers, but that
we are deficient, poor, helpless, lame, and impotent
in the means of calling them to account for their use
of them! An opinion has been insidiously circulated
through this kingdom, and through foreign nations
too, that, in order to cover our participation in guilt,
and our common interest in the plunder of the East,
we have invented a set of scholastic distinctions, abhorrent to the common sense and unpropitious to the common necessities of mankind, by which we are to
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 343
deny ourselves the knowledge of what the rest of
the world knows, and what so great a part of the
world both knows and feels. I do not deprecate any
appearance which may give countenance to this aspersion from suspicion that any corrupt motive can influence this court; I deprecate it from knowing
that hitherto we have moved within the narrow circle of municipal justice. I am afraid, that, from the habits acquired by moving within a circumscribed
sphere, we may be induced rather to endeavor at
forcing Nature into that municipal circle than to enlarge the circle of national justice to the necessities of the empire we have obtained.
This is the only thing which does create any doubt
or difficulty in the minds of sober people. But there
are those who will not judge so equitably. Where
two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable,
may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being
preferred. If, from any appearance of chicane in the
court, justice should fail, all men will say, better there
were no tribunals at all. In my humble opinion, it
would be better a thousand times to give all complainants the short answer the Dey of Algiers gave
a British ambassador, representing certain grievances
suffered by the British merchants,-" lMy friend,"
(as the story is related by Dr. Shaw,) "do not you
know that my subjects are a band of robbers, and that
I am their captain? "- better it would be a thousand
times, and a thousand thousand times more manly,
than an hypocritical process, which, under a pretended
reverence to punctilious ceremonies and observances
of law, abandons mankind without help and resource
to all the desolating consequences of arbitrary power.
The conduct and event of this cause will put an end
? ? ? ? 344 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
to such doubts, wherever they may be entertained.
Your Lordships will exercise the great plenary powers
with which you are invested in a manner that will
do honor to the protecting justice of this kingdom,
that will completely avenge the great people who are
subjected to it. You will not suffer your proceedings
to be squared by any rules but by their necessities,
and by that law of a common nature which cements
them to us and us to them. The reports to the contrary have been spread abroad with uncommon industry; but they will be speedily refuted by the humanity, simplicity, dignity, and nobleness of your Lordships'
justice.
Having said all that I am instructed to say concerning the process which the House of Commons has
used, concerning the crimes which they have chosen,
concerning the criminal upon whom they attach the
crimes, and concerning the evidence which they mean
to produce, I am now to proceed to open that part of
the business which falls to my share. It is rather an
explanation of the circumstances than an enforcement
of the crimes.
Your Lordships of course will be apprised that this
cause is not what occurs every day, in the ordinary
round of municipal affairs, - that it has a relation to
many things, that it touches many points in many
places, which are wholly removed from the ordinary
beaten orbit of our English affairs. In other affairs,
every allusion immediately meets its point of reference; nothing can be started that does not immediately awaken your attention to something in your own laws and usages which you meet with every'day in
the ordinary transactions of life. But here you are
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 345
caught, as it were, into another world; you are to
have the way pioneered before you. As the subject
is new, it must be explained; as it is intricate as well
as new, that explanation can be only comparatively
short: and therefore, knowing your Lordships to be
possessed, along with all other judicial virtues, of the
first and foundation of them all, judicial patience, I
hope that you will not grudge a few hours to the explanation of that which has cost the Commons fourteen years' assiduous application to acquire, - that your Lordships will not disdain to grant a few hours
to what has cost the people of India upwards of thirty
years of their innate, inveterate, hereditary patience
to endure.
My Lords, the powers which Mr;. Hastings is charged
with having abused are the powers delegated to him
by the East India Company. The East India Company itself acts under two very dissimilar sorts of
powers, derived from two sources very remote from
each other. The first source of its power is under
charters which the crown of Great Britain was authorized by act of Parliament to grant; the other is
from several charters derived from the Emperor of
the Moguls, the person in whose dominions they were
chiefly conversant, - particularly that great charter
by which, in the year 1765, they acquired the highstewardship of the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and
Orissa. Under those two bodies of charters, the East
India Company, and all their servants, are authorized
to act.
As to those of the first description, it is from the
British charters that they derive the capacity by which
they are considered as a public body, or at all capa
? ? ?
XI. That, after much negotiation, the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, " being fully sensible that an engagement
to furnish military aid, however clearly the conditions
might be stated, must be a source of perpetual misunderstanding and inconveniencies," did at length agree with Major Palmer to give fifteen lacs, or 150,0001. and
upwards, by four instalments, that he might be exempted from all future claims of military service;
that the said Palmer represents it to be his belief,
"that no person, not known to possess your [the said
HETastings's] confidence and support in the degree that
lam supposed to do, would have obtained nearly so
good terms"; but from what motive "terms so
good" were granted, and how the confidence and
support of the said Hastings did truly operate on the
mind of Fyzoola KhIn, doth appear to be better explained by another passage in the same letter, where
the said Palmer congratulates himself on the satisfaction which he gave to Pyzoola Khdn in the conduct of
this negotiation, as he spent a month in order to effect " by argument and persuasion what he could have obtained in an hotr by threats and compulsions. "
PART IX.
FULL VINDICATION OF FYZOOLA KHAN BY MAJOR PALMER
AND MR. HASTINGS.
I. THAT, in the course of the said negotiation for
establishing the rights of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan,
Major Palmer aforesaid did communicate to the Resident, Bristow, and through the said Resident to the Council-General of Bengal, the full and direct denial
of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan to all and every of the
charges made or pretended to be made against him,
as follows.
? ? ? ? 314 ARTICLES OF CHARGE
" Fyzoola Khan persists in denying the infringement
on his part of any one article in the treaty, or the
neglect of any obligation which it imposed upon him.
"He does not admit of the improvements reported to
be made in his jaghire, and even asserts that the collections this year will fall short of the original jumma [or estimate] by reason of the long drought.
"He denies having exceeded the limited number
of Rohillas in his service;
"And having refused the required aid of cavalry,
made by Johnson, to act with General Goddard.
"'He observes, respecting the charge of evading the
Vizier's requisition for the cavalry lately stationed at
Daranagur, to be stationed at Lucknow, that he is
not bound by treaty to maintain a stationary force
for the service of the Vizier, but to supply an aid of
two or three thousand troops in time of war.
" Lastly, he asserts, that, so far from encouraging
the ryots [or peasants] of the Vizier to settle in his
jaghire, it has been his constant *practice to deliver
them up to the Aumil of Rohilcund, whenever he
could discover them. "
II. That, in giving his opinions on the aforesaid
denials of the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, the said Palmer
did not controvert any one of the constructions of the
treaty advanced by the said Nabob.
That, although the said Palmer, "from general appearances as well as universal report, did not doubt that the jlunma of the jaghire is greatly increased,"
yet he, the said Palmer, did not intimate that it was
increased in any degree near the amount reported, as
it was drawn out in a regular estimate transmitted to
the said Palmer expressly for the purposes of his nego
? ? ? ? AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS. 315
tiation, which was of course by him produced to the
Nabob Fyzoola Khnll, and to which specifically the denial of Fyzoola Kha'n must be understood to apply. That the said Palmer did not hint any doubt of
the deficiency affirmed by Fyzoola Khaln in the collections for the current year: and,
That, if any increase of jumma did truly exist,
whatever it may have been, the said Palmer did acknowledge it "to have been solemnly relinquished (in a private agreement) by the Vizier. "
That, although the said Palmer did suppose the
number of Rohillas (employed "in ordinary occupations) in Rampoor alone to exceed that limited
by the treaty for his [Fyzoola Khan's] service," yet
the said Palmer did by no means imply that the
Nabob Fyzoola Khan maintained in his service a
single man more than was allowed by treaty; and
by a particular and minute account of the troops
of Fyzoola KhAn, transmitted by the Resident, Bristow, to the said Palmer, the number was stated but at 5,840, probably including officers, who were not
understood to be comprehended in the treaty.
That the said Palmer did further admit it "to be
not clearly expressed in the treaty, whether the restriction included Rohillas of all descriptions "; but,
at any rate, he adds, " it does not appear that their
number is formidable, or that he [Fyzoola Khan]
could by any means subsist such numbers as could
cause any serious alarm to the Vizier; neither is there
any appearance of their entertaining any views beyond the quiet possession of the advantages which they at present enjoy. "
And that, in a subsequent letter, in which the
said Palmer thought it prudent " to vindicate him
? ? ? ? 316 ARTICLES OF CHARGE
self from any possible insinuation that he meant to
sacrifice the Vizier's interest," he, the said Palmer,
did positively attest, the new claim on Fyzoola KhAn
for tihe protection of the Vizier's ryots to be wholly
without foundation, as the Nabob Fyzoola Khan
" had proved to him [Palmer], by producing receipts
of various dates and for great numbers of these people surrendered upon requisition from the Vizier's officers. "
III. That, over and above the aforesaid complete
refutation of the different charges and pretexts under
which exactions had been practised, or attempted to
be practised, on the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, the said
Palmer did further condemn altogether the principle
of calculation assumed in such exactions (even if
they had been founded in justice) by the following
explanation of the nature of the tenure by which,
under the treaty of Lall-Dang, the Nabob Fyzoola
Khan held his possessions as a jaghiredar.
"There are no precedents in the ancient usage
of the country for ascertaining the nuzzerana [customary present] or peshcush [regular fine] of grants of this nature: they were bestowed by the prince as
rewards or favors; and the accustomary present in
return was adapted to the dignity of the donor rather than to the value of the gift, - to which it never, I believe, bore any kind of proportion. "
IV. That a sum of money ('"which of course
was to be received by the Company") being now
obtained, and the " interests both of the Company and
the Vizier" being thus much " better promoted" by
" establishing the rights" of Fyzoola Khan than they
? ? ? ? AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS. 317
could have been by " depriving him of his independency," when every undue influence of secret and
criminal purposes was removed from the mind of
the GQovernor-General, Warref Hastings, Esquire, he,
the said Hastings, did also concur with his friend and
agent, Major Palmer, in the vindication of the Nabob
Fyzoola Khan, and in the most ample manner.
That the said Warren Hastings did now clearly
and explicitly understand the clauses of the treaty,
" that Fyzoola Khan should send two or three [and
not five] thousand men, or attend in person, in case
it was requisite. "
That the said Warren Hastings did now confess
that the right of the Vizier under the treaty was
At best' but a precarious and unserviceable right;
and that he thought fifteen lacs, or 150,0001. and
upwards, an ample equivalent," (or, according to
the expression of Major Palmer, an excellent bargain,) as in truth it was, " for expunging an article
of such a tenor and so loosely worded. "
And, finally, that the said Hastings did give the
following description of the general character, disposition, and circumstances of the Nabob Fyzoola
Khan.
"The rumors which had been spread of his hostile designs against the Vizier were totally groundless, and if he had been inclined, he had not the means to make himself formidable; on the contrary, being in the decline of life, and possessing a very
fertile and prosperous jaghire, it is more natural
to suppose that Fyzoola Khan wishes to spend the
remainder of his days in quietness than that he is
preparing to embark in active and offensive scenes
which must end in his own destruction. "
? ? ? ? 818, ARTICLES OF CHARGE.
V. Yet that, notwithstanding this virtual and im
plied crimination of his whole conduct toward the
Nabob Fyzoola Khan, and after all the aforesaid acts
systematically prosecuted in open violation' of a positive treaty against a prince who had an hereditary right to more than he actually possessed, for whose
protection the faith of the Company and the nationi
was repeatedly pledged, and who had deserved and
obtained the public thanks of the British government, - when, iii allusion to certain of the said acts,
the Court of Directors had expressed to the said
Hastings their' wishes " to be considered rather as
the guardians of the honor and property of the native powers than as the instruments of oppression," he, the said Hastings, in reply to the said Directors,
his masters, did conclude his official account of the
final settlement with Fyzoola Khan with the following
indecent, because unjust, exultation: -
" Such are the measures which we shall ever wish
to observe towards our allies or dependants upon our
frontiers. "
? ? ? ? APPENDIX
TO THE
EIGHTH AND SIXTEENTH CHARGES. *
Copy of a Letter from Warren Hastings, Esquire, to William Devaynes, Esquire, Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, dated: Cheltenham, 11th of July, 1785, and printed by order of the House
of Commons.
To William Devaynes, Esquire, Chairman of the Honorable the Court of Directors.
SIR, - The Honorable Court of Directors, in their
general letter to Bengal by the "Surprise," dated the 16th March, 1784, were pleased to express
their desire that I should inform them of the peri
ods when each sum of the presents mentioned in my
address of the 22d May, 1782, was received, what
were my motives for withholding the several receipts
from the knowledge of the Council, or of the Court
of Directors, and what were my reasons for taking
bonds for part of these sums, and for paying other
sums into the treasury as deposits on my own account.
I have been kindly apprised that the information
required as above is yet expected from me. I hope
* As the letter referred to in the Eighth and Sixteenth Articles of
Charge is not contained in any of the Appendixes to the Reports of
the Select Committee, it has been thought necessary to annex it as
an Appendix to these Charges.
? ? ? ? 320 ARTICLES OF CHARGE.
that the circumstances of my past situation, when
considered, will plead my excuse for having thus
long withheld it. The fact is, that I was not at the
Presidency when the " Surprise " arrived; and when
I returned to it, my time and attention were so entirely engrossed, to the day of my final departure from it, by a variety of other more important occupations, of
which, Sir, I may safely appeal to your testimony,
grounded on the large portion contributed by myself
of the volumes, which compose our Consultations of
that period, that the. submission which my respect
would have enjoined me to pay to the command
imposed on me was lost to my recollection, perhaps
from the stronger impression which the first and distant perusal of it had left on my mind that it was rather intended as a reprehension for something
which had given. offence inl my report of the original
transaction than as expressive of any want of a further
elucidation of it.
I will now endeavor to reply to the different questions which have been stated to me in as explicit
a manner as I am able. To such information as I
can give the Honorable Court is fully entitled; and
where that shall prove defective, I will point out the
easy means by which it may be rendered more complete.
First, I believe I can affirm with certainty, that the
several sums mentioned in the account transmitted
with my letter above mentioned Were received'at or
within a very few days of the dates which are prefixed
to them in the account; but as this contains only the
gross sums, and each of these was received in different payments, though at no great distance of time, I cannot therefore assign a greater degree of accuracy
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 321
to the account. Perhaps the Honorable Court will
judge this sufficient for any purpose to which their
inquiry was directed; but if it should not be so, I
will beg leave to refer for a more minute information,
and for the means of making any investigation which
they may think it proper to direct, respecting the
particulars of this transaction, to Mr. Larkins, your
Accountant-General, who was privy to every process
of it, and possesses, as I believe, the original paper,
which contained the only account that I ever kept of
it. In this each receipt was, as I recollect, specifically inserted, with the name of the person by whom it
was made; and I shall write to him to desire that he:
will furnish you with the paper itself, if it is still in
being and in his hands, or with whatever he can distinctly recollect concerning it.
For my motives for withholding the several receipts
from the knowledge of the Council, or of the Court of
Directors, and for taking bonds for part of these sums,
and paying others into the treasury as deposits on
my own account, I have generally accounted in my
letter to the Honorable the Court of Directors of the
22d May, 1782: namely, that " I either chose to conceal the first receipts from public curiosity by receiving bonds for the amount, or possibly acted without any studied design which my memory at that distance of time could verify; and that I did not think
it worth my care to observe the same means with the
rest. " It will not be expected that I should be able
to give a more correct explanation of my intentions
-after a lapse of three years, having declared at the time
that many particulars had escaped my remembrance;
neither shall I attempt to add more than the clearer'
affirmation of the facts implied in that report of.
VOL. IX. 21
? ? ? ? 322 ARTICLES OF CHARGE.
them, and such inferences as necessarily, or with a
strong probability, follow them.
I have said that the three first sums of the account were paid into the Company's treasury without passing through my hands. The second of these
was forced into notice by its destination and application to the expense of a detachment which was
formed and employed against Mahdajee Sindia under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Camac, as
I particularly apprised the Court of Directors in my
letter of the 29th November, 1780. The other two
were certainly not intended, when I received them,
to be made public, though intended for public service, and actually applied to it. The exigencies of
the government were at that time my own, and every
pressure upon it rested with its full weight upon my
mind. Wherever I could find allowable means of
relieving those wants, I eagerly seized them; but
neither could it occur to me as necessary to state on
our Proceedings every little aid which I could thus
procure, nor do I know how I could have stated it,
without appearing to court favor by an ostentation
which I disdain, nor without the chance of exciting
the jealousy of my colleagues by the constructive assertion of a separate and unparticipated merit, derived from the influence of my station, to which they might have laid an equal claim. I should have
deemed it particularly dishonorable to receive for my
own use money tendered by men of a certain class,
frort whom I had interdicted the receipt of presents
to my inferiors, and bound them by oath not to receive them. I was therefore more than ordinarily
cautious to avoid the suspicion of it, which would
scarcely have failed to lighlt upon me, had I suffered
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 323
the money to be brought directly to my own house,
or to that of any person known to be in trust for me:
for these reasons I caused it to be transported immediately to the treasury. There, you well know, Sir,
it could not be received without being passed to some
credit, and this could only be done by entering it as a
loan or as a deposit: the first was the least liable to
reflection, and therefore I had obviously recourse to
it. Why tlie second sum was entered as a deposit
I am utterly ignorant: possibly it was done without
any special direction from me; possibly because it
was the simplest mode of entry, and therefore preferred, as the transaction itself did not require concealment, having been already avowed.
Although I am firmly persuaded that these were my
sentiments on the occasion, yet I will not affirm that
they were. Though I feel their impression as the remains of a series of thoughts retained on my memory,
I am not certain that they may not have been produced by subsequent reflection on the principal fact,
combining with it the probable motives of it. Of this
I am certain, that it was my design originally to
have concealed the receipt of all the sums, except
the second, even from the knowledge of the Court of
Directors. They had answered my purpose of public utility, and I had almost totally dismissed them
from my remembrance. But when fortune threw
a sum in my way of a magnitude which could not
be concealed, and the peculiar delicacy of my situation at the time in which I received it made me
more circumspect of appearances, I chose to apprise my employers of it, which I did hastily and generally: hastily, perhaps to prevent the vigilance and activity of secret calumny;. and generally, because I
? ? ? ? . 324 ARTICLES OF CHARGE.
knew not the exact amount of the sum, of which I
was in the receipt, but not in the full possession.
I promised to acquaint them with the result as soon
as I should be in possession of it, and in the performance of my promise I thought it consistent with it to add to the account all the former appropriations
of the same kind: my good genius then suggesting
to me, with a spirit of caution which might have
spared me the trouble of this apology, had I universally attended to it, that, if I had suppressed
them, and they were afterwards known, I might be
asked what were my motives for withholding part
of these receipts from the knowledge of the Court
of Directors and informing them of the rest.
It being my wish to clear up every doubt upon this
transaction, which either my own mind could suggest
or which may have been suggested by others, I beg
leave to suppose another question, and to state the
terms of it in my reply, by informing you that the
indorsement on the bonds was made about the period
of my leaving the Presidency, in the middle of the
year 1781, in order to guard against their becoming
a claim on the Company, as part of my estate, in the
event of my death occurring in the course of the service on which I was then entering.
This, Sir, is the plain history of the transaction.
I should be ashamed to request that you would communicate it to the Honorable Court of Directors, whose time is too valuable for the intrusion of a subject so uninteresting, but that it is become a point of indispensable duty; I must therefore request the
favor of you to lay it, at a convenient time, before
them. In addressing itto you personally, I yield to
my own feelings of the respect which is due to them
? ? ? ? APPENDIX. 325
as a body, and to the assurances which I derive from
your experienced civilities that you will kindly overlook the trouble imposed by it. I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your very humble and most obedient servant,
(Signed) WARREN HASTINGS.
CHELTENHAM, 11 July, 1785.
? ? ? ? SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH IN OPENING.
FEBRUARY, 1788.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
IN
OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
FIRST DAY: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1788.
MY LORDS, --The gentlemen who have it in
command to support the impeachment against
Mr. Hastings have directed me to open the cause with
a general view of the grounds upon which the Commons have proceeded in their charge against him. They have directed me to accompany this with another general view of the extent, the magnitude, the nature, the tendency, and the effect of the crimes
which they allege to have been by him committed.
They have also directed me to give an explanation
(with their aid I may be enabled to give it) of such
circumstances, preceding the crimes charged on Mr.
Hastings, or concomitant with them, as may tend
to elucidate whatever may be found obscure in the
articles as they stand. To these they wished me to
add a few illustrative remarks on the laws, customs,
opinions, and manners of the people concerned, and
who are the objects of the crimes we charge on Mr.
Hastings. The several articles, as they appear before
you, will be opened by other gentlemen with more
particularity, with more distinctness, and, without
doubt, with infinitely more ability, when they come
to apply the evidence which naturally belongs to
each article of this accusation. This, my Lords, is
? ? ? ? 330 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the plan which we mean to pursue on the great
charge which is now to abide your judgment.
My Lords, I must look upon it as an auspicious
circumstance. to this cause, in which the honor of the
kingdom and the fate of many nations are involved,
that, from the first commencement of our Parliamentary process to this the hour of solemn trial, not the smallest difference of opinion has arisen between the
two Houses.
My Lords, there are persons who, looking rather
upon what was to be found in our records andhistories than what was to be expected from the public
justice, had formed hopes consolatory to themselves
and dishonorable to- us. They flattered themselves
that the corruptions of India would escape amidst the
dissensions of Parliament. They are disappointed.
They will be disappointed in all the rest of their expectations which they have formed upon everything, except the merits of their cause. The Commons will
not have the melancholy unsocial glory of having
acted a solitary part in a noble, but imperfect work.
What the greatest inquest of the nation has begun its
highest tribunal will accomplish. At length justice
will be done to India. It is true lthat your Lordships
will have your full share in this great achievement;
but the Commons have always considered that whatever honor is divided with you is doubled on themselves. My Lords, I must confess, that, amidst these encouraging prospects, the Commons do not approach
your bar without awe and anxiety. The magnitude
of the interests which we have in charge will reconcile
some degree of solicitude for the event with the undoubting confidence with which we repose ourselves
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 331
upon your Lordships' justice. For we are men, my
Lords; and men are so made, that it is not only the
greatness of danger, but the value of the adventure,
which measures the degree of our concern in every
undertaking. I solemnly assure your Lordships that
no standard is sufficient to estimate the value which
the Commons set upon the event of the cause they
now bring before you. My Lords, the business of
this day is not the business of this man, it is not solely whether the prisoner at the bar be found innocent
or guilty, but whether millions of mankind shall be
made miserable or happy.
Your Lordships will see, in the progress of this
cause, that there is not only a long, connected, systematic series of misdemeanors, but an equally connected system of maxims and principles invented to justify them. Upon both of these you must judge.
According to the judgment that you shall give upon
the past transactions in India, inseparably connected
as they are with the principles which support them,
the whole character of your future government in
that distant empire is to be unalterably decided. It
will take its perpetual tenor, it will receive its final
impression, from the stamp of this very hour.
It is not only the interest of India, now the most
considerable part of the British empire, which is concerned, but the credit and honor of the British nation
itself will be decided by this decision. We are to
decide by this judgment, whether the crimes of individuals are to be turned into public guilt and national ignominy, or whether this nation will convert the very offences which have thrown a transient shade
upon its government into Something that will reflect
a permanent lustre upon the honor, justice, and humanity of this kingdom.
? ? ? ? 332 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
My Lords, there is another consideration, which
augments the solicitude of the Commons, equal to
those other two great interests I have stated, those
of our empire and our national character, something'that, if possible, comes more home to the hearts and feelings of every Englishman: I mean,
the interests of our Constitution itself, which is
deeply involved in the event of this cause. The
future use and the whole effect, if not the very
existence, of the process of an impeachment of
high crimes and misdemeanors before the peers
of this kingdom upon the charge of the Commons
will very much be decided by your judgment in
this cause. This tribunal will be found (I hope
it will always be found) too great for petty causes:
if it should at the same time be found incompetent
to one of the greatest, --that is, if little offences,
from their minuteness, escape you, and the greatest,
from their magnitude, oppress you, --it is impossible that this form of trial should not in the end vanish out of the Constitution. For we must not
deceive ourselves: whatever does not stand with
credit cannot stand long. And if the Constitution
should be deprived, I do not mean in form, but
virtually, of this resource, it is virtually deprived
of everything.
else that is valuable in it. For
this process is the cement which binds the whole
together; this is the individuating principle that
makes England what England is. In this court it
is that no subject, in no part of the empire, can
fail of competent and proportionable justice; here
it is that we provide for that which is the substantial
excellence of our Constitution, -- I mean, the great
circulation of responsibility, by which (excepting the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 333
supreme power) no man, in no circumstance, can
escape the account which he owes to the laws or
his country. It is by this process that magistracy, which tries and controls all other things, is itself tried. and controlled. Other constitutions are satisfied with making good subjects; this is a security for good governors. It is by this tribunal
that statesmen who abuse their power are accused
by statesmen and tried by statesmen, not upon the
niceties of a narrow jurisprudence, but upon the
enlarged and solid principles of state morality. It
is here that. those who by the abuse of power have
violated the spirit of law can never hope for protection from any of its forms; it is here that those
who have refused to conform themselves to its perfections can never hope to escape through any of
its defects. It ought, therefore, my Lords, to become our common care to guard this your precious
deposit, rare in its use, but powerful in its effect,
with a religious vigilance, and never to suffer it
to be either discredited or antiquated. For this
great end your Lordships are invested with great
and plenary powers: but you do not suspend, you
do not supersede, you do. not annihilate any subordinate jurisdiction; on the contrary, you are auxiliary and supplemental to them all. Whether it is owing to thll felicity of our times, less
fertile in great offences lhaln those which have gone
before us, or whether it is from a sluggish apathy
which has dulled and enervated the public justice,
I am not called upon to determine, -but, whatever
may be the cause, it is now sixty-three years since
any impeachment, grounded upon abuse of authority
and misdemeanor in office, has come before this tri
? ? ? ? 334 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
bunal. The last is that of Lord Macclesfield, which
happened in the year 1725. So that the oldest process known to the- Constitution of this country has,
upon its revival, some appearance of novelty. At
this time, when all Europe is in a state of, perhaps,
contagious fermentation, when antiquity has lost all
its reverence and all its effect on the minds of men,
at the same time that novelty is still attended with
the suspicions that always will be attached to whatever is new, we have been anxiously careful, in a
business which seems to combine the objections both
to what is antiquated and what is novel, so to conduct ourselves that nothing in the revival of this
great Parliamentary process shall afford a pretext
for its future disuse.
My Lords, strongly impressed as they are with
these sentiments, the Commons have conducted themselves with singular care and caution. Without losing the spirit and zeal of a public prosecution, they have comported themselves with such moderation,
temper, and decorum as would not have ill become
the final judgment, if with them rested the final
judgment, of this great cause.
With very few intermissions, the affairs of India
have constantly engaged the attention of the Commons for more than fourteen years. We may safely
affirm we have tried every mode of legislative provision before we had recourse to anything of penal
process. It was in the year 1774 [1773? ] we framed
an act of Parliament for remedy to the then existing
disorders in India, such as the then information before us enabled us to enact. Finding that the act
of Parliament did not answer all the ends that were
expected from it, we had, in the year 1782, recourse
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 335
to a body of monitory resolutions. Neither had we
the expected fruit from them. When, therefore,
we found that our inquiries and our reports, our
laws and our admonitions, were alike despised, that
enormities increased in proportion as they were forbidden, detected, and exposed, -- when we found that guilt stalked with an erect and upright front,
and that legal authority seemed to skulk and hide
its head like outlawed guilt, - when we found that
some of those very persons who were appointed by
Parliament to assert the authority of the laws of
this kingdom were the most forward, the most bold,
and the most active in the conspiracy for their destruction, -then it was time for the justice of the nation to recollect itself. To have forborne longer
would not have been patience, but collusion; it
would have been participation with guilt; it would
have been to make ourselves accomplices with the
criminal.
We found it was impossible to evade painful duty
without betraying a sacred trust. Having, therefore,
resolved upon the last and only resource, a penal
prosecution, it was our next business to act in a manner worthy of our long deliberation. In all points we proceeded with selection. We have chosen (we
trust it will so appear to your Lordships) such a
crime, and such a criminal, and such a body of evidence, and such a mode of process, as would have recommended this course of justice to posterity, even
if it had not been supported by any example in the
practice of our forefathers.
First, to speak of the process: we are to inform
your Lordships, that, besides that long previous deliberation of fourteen years, we examined, as a pro
? ? ? ? 336 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
liminary to this proceeding, every circumstance which
could prove favorable to parties apparently delinquent, before we filnally resolved to prosecute. There was no precedent to be found in the Journals, favorable to persons in Mr. Hastings's circumstances, that was not applied to. Many measures utterly unknown
to former Parliamentary proceedings, and which, indeed, seemed in some degree to enfeeble them, but which were all to the advantage of those that were to
be prosecuted, were adopted, for the first time, upon
this occasion. In an early stage of the proceeding,
the criminal desired to be heard. He was heard;
and he produced before the bar of the House that insolent and unbecoming paper which lies upon our table. It was deliberately given in by his own hand,
and signed with his own name. The Commons, however, passed by everything offensive in that paper with a magnanimity that became them. They considered nothing in it but the facts that the defendant alleged, and the principles he maintained; and after
a deliberation not short of judicial, we proceeded
with confidence to your bar.
So far as to the process; which, though I mentioned last in the line and order in which I stated
the objects of our selection, I thought it best to dispatch first.
As to the crime which we chose, we first considered
well what it was in its nature, under all the circumstances which attended it. We. weighed it with all
its extenuations and with all its aggravations. On
that review, we are warranted to assert that the
crimes with which we charge the prisoner at the bar
are substantial crimes, -- that they are no errors or
mistakes, such as wise and good men might possibly
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 337
fall into, which may even produce very pernicious
effects without being in fact great offences. The
Commons are too liberal not to allow for the difficulties of a great and arduous public situation. They
know too well the domineering necessities which frequently occur in all great affairs. They know the exigency of a pressing occasion, which, in its precipitate career, bears everything down before it, - which does
not give time to the mind to recollect its faculties,
to reinforce its reason, and to have recourse to fixed
principles, but, by compelling an instant and tumultuous: decision, too often obliges men to decide in a
manner that calm judgment would certainly have rejected. We know, as we are to be served by men,
that the persons who serve us must be tried as men,
and with a very large allowance indeed to human infirmity and human error. This, my Lords, we knew
and we weighed before we came before you. But
the crimes which we charge in these articles are
not lapses, defects, errors of common human frailty,
which, as we know and feel, we can allow for. We
charge this offender with no crimes that have not
arisen from passions which it is criminal to harbor, --
with no offences that have not their root in avarice,
rapacity, pride, insolence, ferocity, treachery, cruelty,
malignity of temper, - in short, in [with? ] nothing
that does not argue a total extinction of all moral principle, that does not manifest an inveterate blackness
of heart, dyed in grain with malice, vitiated, corrupted, gangrened to the very core. If we do not plant
his crimes in those vices which the breast of man is
made to abhor, and the spirit of all laws, human
and divine, to interdict, we desire no longer to be
heard upon this occasion. Let everything that can be
VOL. IX. 22
? ? ? ? 338 IMPEACHMENT Of WARREN HASTINGS.
pleaded on the ground of surprise or error, upon
those grounds be pleaded with success: we give up
the whole of those predicaments. We urge no crimes
that were not crimes of forethought. We charge him
with nothing that he did not commit upon deliberation,- that he did not commit against advice, supplication, and remonstrance, -- that he did not commit against the direct command of lawful authority, --
that he did not commit after reproof and reprimand,
the reproof and reprimand of those who were authorized by the laws to reprove and reprimand him. The
crimes of Mr. Hastings are crimes not only in themselves, but aggravated by being crimes of contumacy.
They were crimes, not against forms, but against
those eternal laws of justice which are our rule and
our birthright. His offences are, not in formal, technical language, but in reality, in substance and effect,
high crimes and high misdemeanors.
So far as to the crimes. As to the criminal, we
have chosen him on the same principle on which we
selected the crimes. We have not chosen to bring
before you a poor, puny, trembling delinquent, misled, perhaps, by those who ought to have taught him
better, but who have afterwards oppressed him by
their power, as they had first corrupted him by their
example. Instances there have been many, wherein
the punishment of minor offences, in inferior peirsons,
has been made the means of screening crimes of an
high order, and in men of high description. Our
course is different. We have not brought before you
an obscure offender, who, when his insignificance and
weakness are weighed against the power of the prosecution, gives even to public justice something of the
appearance of oppression: no, my Lords, we have
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 339
brought before you the first man of India,, in rank,
authority, and station. We have brought before you
the chief of the tribe, the head of the whole body
of Eastern offenders, a captain-general of iniquity,
under whom all the fraud, all the peculation, all the
tyranny in India are embodied, disciplined, arrayed,
and paid. This is the person, my Lords, that we
bring before you. We have brought before you such
a person, that, if you strike at him with the firm
and decided arm of justice, you will not have need
of a great many more examples. You strike at the
whole corps, if you strike at the head.
So far as to the crime: so far as to the criminal.
Now, my Lords, I shall say a few words relative to
the evidence which we have brought to support such
a charge, and which ought to be equal in weight to
the charge itself. It is chiefly evidence of record,
officially signed by the criminal himself in many
instances. We have brought before you his own
Jletters, authenticated by his own hand. On these we
chiefly rely. But we shall likewise bring before you
living witnesses, competent to speak to the points to
which they are brought.
When you consider the late enormous power of the
prisoner, -- when you consider his criminal, indefatigable assiduity in the destruction of all recorded evidence, -- when you consider the influence he has
over almost all living testimony, - when you consider
the distance of the scene of action, -I believe your
Lordships, and I believe the world, will be astonished
that so much, so clear, so solid, and so conclusive
evidence of all kinds has been obtained against him.
I have no doubt that in nine instances in ten the
evidence is such as would satisfy the narrow precision
? ? ? ? 340 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
supposed to prevail, and to a degree rightly to prevail, in all subordinate power and delegated jurisdiction.
But your Lordships will maintain, what we assert and claim as the right of the subjects of Great Britain,
that you are not bound by ally rules of evidence, or
any other rules whatever, except those of natural, immutable, and substantial justice.
God forbid the Commons should desire that anything should be received as proof from them which is not
by nature adapted to prove the thing in question!
If they should make such a request, they would aim
at overturning the very principles of that justice to which they resort; they would give the nation an
evil example that would rebound back on themselves, and bring destruction upon their own heads, and on those of all their posterity.
On the other hand, I have too much confidence in
the learning with which you will be advised, and the liberality and nobleness of the sentiments with which you are born, to suspect that you would, by any abuse of the forms, and a technical course of proceeding, deny justice to so great a part of the world that
claims it at your hands. Your Lordships always had
an ample power, and almost unlimited jurisdiction;
you have now a boundless object. It is not from this district or from that parish, not from this city or the other province, that relief is now applied for: exiled
and undone princes, extensive tribes, suffering nations, infinite descriptions of men, different in language, in manners, and in rites, men separated by every barrier of Nature from you, by the Providence of God are blended in one common cause, and are now become suppliants at your bar. For the honor of this nation,
in vindication of this mysterious Providence, let it be
? ? ? ? . SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 341
Known that no rule formed upon municipal maxims
(if any such rule exists) will prevent the course of
that imperial justice which you owe to the people that
call to you from all parts of a great disjointed world.
For, situated as this kingdom is, an object, thank
God, of envy to the rest of the nations, its conduct in
that high and elevated situation will undoubtedly be
scrutinized with a severity as great as its power is
invidious.
It is well known that enormous wealth has poured
into this country from India through a thousand
channels, public and concealed; and it is no particular
derogation from our honor to suppose a possibility of
being corrupted by that by which other empires have
been corrupted, and assemblies almost as respectable
and venerable as your Lordships' have been directly
or indirectly vitiated. Forty millions of money, at
least, have within our memory been brought from
India into England. In this case the most sacred
judicature ought to look to its reputation. Without
offence we may venture to suggest that the best way
to secure reputation is, not by a proud defiance of
public opinion, but by guiding our actions in such a
manner as that public opinion may in the end be
securely defied, by having been previously respected
and dreaded. No direct false judgment is apprehended from the tribunals of this country; but it is feared that partiality may lurk and nestle in the abuse
of our forms of proceeding. It is necessary, therefore,
that'nothing in that proceeding. should appear to mark
the slightest trace, should betray the faintest odor of
chicane. God forbid, that, when you try the most
serious of all causes, that, when you try the cause
of Asia in the presence of Europe, there should be
? ? ? ? 342 IMIPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the least suspicion that a narrow partiality, utterly destructive of justice, should so guide us that a British subject in power should appear in substance to possess
rights which are denied to the humble allies, to the
attached dependants of this kingdom, who by their
distance have a double demand upon your protection,
and who, by an implicit (I hope not a weak and useless) trust in you, have stripped themselves of every other resource under heaven!
I do not say this from any fear, doubt, or hesitation
concerning what your Lordships will finally do,none in the world; but I cannot shut my ears to the
rumors which you all know to be disseminated abroad.
The abusers of power may have a chance to cover
themselves by those fences and intrenchments which
were made to secure the liberties of the people against
men of that very description. But God forbid it
should be bruited from Pekin to Paris, that the laws
of England are for the rich and the powerful, but to
the poor, the miserable, and defenceless they afford
no resource at all! God forbid it should be said, no
nation is equal to the English in substantial violence
and in formal justice, - that in this kingdom we feel
ourselves competent to confer the most extravagant
and inordinate powers upon public ministers, but that
we are deficient, poor, helpless, lame, and impotent
in the means of calling them to account for their use
of them! An opinion has been insidiously circulated
through this kingdom, and through foreign nations
too, that, in order to cover our participation in guilt,
and our common interest in the plunder of the East,
we have invented a set of scholastic distinctions, abhorrent to the common sense and unpropitious to the common necessities of mankind, by which we are to
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 343
deny ourselves the knowledge of what the rest of
the world knows, and what so great a part of the
world both knows and feels. I do not deprecate any
appearance which may give countenance to this aspersion from suspicion that any corrupt motive can influence this court; I deprecate it from knowing
that hitherto we have moved within the narrow circle of municipal justice. I am afraid, that, from the habits acquired by moving within a circumscribed
sphere, we may be induced rather to endeavor at
forcing Nature into that municipal circle than to enlarge the circle of national justice to the necessities of the empire we have obtained.
This is the only thing which does create any doubt
or difficulty in the minds of sober people. But there
are those who will not judge so equitably. Where
two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable,
may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being
preferred. If, from any appearance of chicane in the
court, justice should fail, all men will say, better there
were no tribunals at all. In my humble opinion, it
would be better a thousand times to give all complainants the short answer the Dey of Algiers gave
a British ambassador, representing certain grievances
suffered by the British merchants,-" lMy friend,"
(as the story is related by Dr. Shaw,) "do not you
know that my subjects are a band of robbers, and that
I am their captain? "- better it would be a thousand
times, and a thousand thousand times more manly,
than an hypocritical process, which, under a pretended
reverence to punctilious ceremonies and observances
of law, abandons mankind without help and resource
to all the desolating consequences of arbitrary power.
The conduct and event of this cause will put an end
? ? ? ? 344 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
to such doubts, wherever they may be entertained.
Your Lordships will exercise the great plenary powers
with which you are invested in a manner that will
do honor to the protecting justice of this kingdom,
that will completely avenge the great people who are
subjected to it. You will not suffer your proceedings
to be squared by any rules but by their necessities,
and by that law of a common nature which cements
them to us and us to them. The reports to the contrary have been spread abroad with uncommon industry; but they will be speedily refuted by the humanity, simplicity, dignity, and nobleness of your Lordships'
justice.
Having said all that I am instructed to say concerning the process which the House of Commons has
used, concerning the crimes which they have chosen,
concerning the criminal upon whom they attach the
crimes, and concerning the evidence which they mean
to produce, I am now to proceed to open that part of
the business which falls to my share. It is rather an
explanation of the circumstances than an enforcement
of the crimes.
Your Lordships of course will be apprised that this
cause is not what occurs every day, in the ordinary
round of municipal affairs, - that it has a relation to
many things, that it touches many points in many
places, which are wholly removed from the ordinary
beaten orbit of our English affairs. In other affairs,
every allusion immediately meets its point of reference; nothing can be started that does not immediately awaken your attention to something in your own laws and usages which you meet with every'day in
the ordinary transactions of life. But here you are
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 345
caught, as it were, into another world; you are to
have the way pioneered before you. As the subject
is new, it must be explained; as it is intricate as well
as new, that explanation can be only comparatively
short: and therefore, knowing your Lordships to be
possessed, along with all other judicial virtues, of the
first and foundation of them all, judicial patience, I
hope that you will not grudge a few hours to the explanation of that which has cost the Commons fourteen years' assiduous application to acquire, - that your Lordships will not disdain to grant a few hours
to what has cost the people of India upwards of thirty
years of their innate, inveterate, hereditary patience
to endure.
My Lords, the powers which Mr;. Hastings is charged
with having abused are the powers delegated to him
by the East India Company. The East India Company itself acts under two very dissimilar sorts of
powers, derived from two sources very remote from
each other. The first source of its power is under
charters which the crown of Great Britain was authorized by act of Parliament to grant; the other is
from several charters derived from the Emperor of
the Moguls, the person in whose dominions they were
chiefly conversant, - particularly that great charter
by which, in the year 1765, they acquired the highstewardship of the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and
Orissa. Under those two bodies of charters, the East
India Company, and all their servants, are authorized
to act.
As to those of the first description, it is from the
British charters that they derive the capacity by which
they are considered as a public body, or at all capa
? ? ?
