Wheler was
taken off,- despair perhaps rendering the man, who
had been in opposition futilely before, compliable.
taken off,- despair perhaps rendering the man, who
had been in opposition futilely before, compliable.
Edmund Burke
Nothing could persuade: him, upon any account, to lay aside his system of bribery: that he was resolved to persevere in.
The point was now to reconcile it with his safety.
The first thing he did was to attempt to conceal it;
and accordingly we find him depositing very great
sums of money in the public treasury through the
means of the two persons I have already mentioned,
namely, the deputy-treasurer and the accountant, -
paying them in and taking bonds for them as money
of his own, and bearing legal interest. This was his
mnetllod of endeavoring to conceal some at least of his
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 41
bribes: for I would not suggest, nor have your Lordships to think, that I believe that these were his only
bribes, -- for there is reason to think there was an
infinite number besides; but it did so happen that
they were those bribes which he thought might be
discovered, some of which he knew were discovered,
and all of which he knew might become the subject
of a Parliamentary inquiry.
Mr. Hastings said he might have concealed them
forever. Every one knows the facility of concealing
corrupt transactions everywhere, in India particularly. But this is by himself proved not to be universally true, at least not to be true in his own opinion;
for he tells you, in his letter from Cheltenham, that
he would have concealed the Nabob's 100,0001. , but
that the magnitude rendered it easy of discovery.
He, therefore, avows an intention of concealment.
But it happens here, very singularly, that this sum,
which his fears of discovery by others obliged him to
discover himself, happens to be one of those of which
no trace whatsoever appears, except merely from the
operation of his own apprehensions. There is no
collateral testimony: Middleton knew nothing of it;
Anderson knew nothing of it; it was not directly
communicated to the faithful Larkins or the trusty
Croftes; - which proves, indeed, the facility of concealment. The fact is, you find the application always upon the discovery. But concealment or discovery is a thing of accident. The bribes which I have hitherto brought before
your Lordships belong to the first period of his bribery, before he thought of the doctrine on which he
has since defended it. There are many other bribes
which we charge him with having received during
? ? ? ? 42 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
this first period, before an improving conversation
and close virtuous connection with great lawyers had
taught him how to practise bribes in such a manner
as to defy detection, and instead of punishment to
plead merit. I am not bound to find order and consistency in guilt: it is the reign of disorder. The
order of the proceeding, as far as I am able to trace
such a scene of prevarication, direct fraud, falsehood,
and falsification of the public accounts, was this.
From bribes he knew he could never abstain; and
his then precarious situation made him the more rapacious. He knew that a few of his former bribes
had been discovered, declared, recorded, -- that for
the moment, indeed, he was secure, because all informers had been punished and all concealers rewarded. He expected hourly a total change in the Council, and that men like Clavering and Monson
might be again joined to Francis, that some great
avenger should arise from their ashes, -" Exoriare,
aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor," - and that a more severe investigation and an infinitely more full display
would be made of his robbery than hitherto had been
done. He therefore began, in the agony of his' guilt,
to cast about for some device by which he might continue his offence, if possible, with impunity,- and
possibly make a merit of it. He therefore first carefully perused the act of Parliament forbidding bribery, and his old covenant engaging him not to receive presents. And here he was more successful than upon former occasions. If ever an act was studiously
and carefully framed to prevent bribery, it is that
law of the 13th of the King, which lie well observes
admits no latitudes of construction, no subterfuge,
no escape, no evasion. Yet has he found a defence
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 43
of his crimes even in the very provisions which were
made for their prevention and their punishment.
Besides the penalty which belongs to every informer,
the East India Company was invested with a fiction
of property inll all such bribes, in order to drag them
with more facility out of the corrupt hands which
held them. The covenant, with an exception of
one lundred pounds, and the act of Parliament, without any exception, declared that the Governor-General and Council should receive no presents for their
own use. He therefore concluded that the system
of bribery and extortion might be clandestinely and
safely carried on, provided the party taking the bribes
had all inward intention and mental reservation that
they should be privately applied to the Company's
service in any way the briber should think fit, and
that on many occasions this would prove the best
method of supply for the exigencies of their service.
He accordingly formed, or pretended to form, a private bribe exchequer, collateral with and independent
of the Company's public exchequer, though in some
cases administered by those whom for his purposes
he had placed in the regular official department.
It is no wonder that he has taken to himself an extraordinary degree of merit. For surely such an invention of finance, I believe, never was heard of,an exchequer wherein extortion was the assessor, fraud the cashier, confusion the accountant, concealmelit the reporter, and oblivion the remembrancer:
in short, such as I believe no man, but one driven by
guilt into frenzy, could ever have dreamed of.
He treats the official and regular Directors with
just contempt, as a parcel of mean, mechanical bookkeepers. He is an eccentric book-keeper, a Pindaric
? ? ? ? 44 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
accountant. I have heard of "the poet's eye in a
fine frenzy rolling. " Here was a revenue exacted
from whom he pleased, at what times he pleased, in
what proportions he pleased, through what persons he
pleased, by what means he pleased, to be accounted
for or not, at his discretion, and to be applied to what
service he thought proper. I do believe your Lordships stand astonished at this scheme; and indeed I should be very loath to venture to state such a scheme
at all, however I might have credited it myself, to any
sober cars, if, in his defence before the House of Commons, and before the Lords, he had not directly admitted the fact of taking the bribes or forbidden presents, and had not in those defences, and much more fully
in his correspondence with the Directors, admitted
the fact, and justified it upon these very principles.
As this is a thing so unheard-of and unexampled
in the world, I shall first endeavor to account as well
as I can for his motives to it, which your Lordships
will receive or reject, just as you shall find them tally
with the evidence before you: I say, his motives to
it; because I contend that public valid reasons for it
he could have none; and the idea of making the corruption of the Governor-General a resource to the
Company never did or could for a moment enter into his thoughts. I shall then take notice of the juridical constructions upon which he justifies his acting
in this extraordinary manner; and lastly, show you
the concealments, prevarications, and falsehoods with
which he endeavors to cover it. Because wherever
you find a concealment you make a discovery. Accounts of money received and paid ought to be regular and official.
He wrote over to the Court of Directors, that there
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 45
were certain sums of money he had received and
which were not his own, but that he had received
them for their use. By this time his intercourse with
gentlemen of the law became more considerable than
it had been before. When first attacked for presents,
he never denied the receipt of them, or pretended to
say they were for public purposes; but upon looking
more into the covenants, and probably with better
legal advice, he found that no money could be legally
received for his own use; but as these bribes were
directly given and received as for his own use, yet
(says he) " there was an inward destination of them
in my own mind to your benefit, and to your benefit
have I applied them. "
Now here is a new system of bribery, contrary to
law, very ingenious in the contrivance, but, I believe,
as unlikely to produce its intended effect upon the
mind of man as any pretence that was ever used.
Here Mr. Hastings changes his ground. Before, he
was accused as a peculator; he did not deny the fact;
he did not refund the money; he fought it off; he
stood upon the defensive, and used all the means ill his
power to prevent the inquiry. That was the first era
of his corruption, -- a bold, ferocious, plain, downright use of power. In the second, he is grown a little more careful and guarded,-the effect of subtilty. He appears no longer as a defendant; he holds himself up with a firm, dignified, and erect countenance,
and says, " I am not here any longer as a delinquent,
a receiver of bribes, to be punished for what I have
done wrong, or at least to suffer in my character for
it. No: I am a great inventive genius, who have gone
out of all the ordinary roads of finance, have made
great discoveries in the unknown regions of that sci
? ? ? ? 46 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ence, and have for the first time established thle corruption of the supreme magistrate as a principle of
resource for government. "
There are crimes, undoubtedly, of great magnitude, naturally fitted to create hlorror, and that
loudly call for punishment, that have yet no idea of
turpitude annexed to them; but unclean hands, bribery, venality, and peculation are offences of turpitude, such as, in a governor, at once debase the person and degrade the government itself, making it not only horrible, but vile and contemptible in thle eyes of
all mankind. In this humiliation and abjectness of
guilt, he comes here not as a criminal on his defence,
but as a vast fertile genius who has made astonishing
discoveries in the art of government, -" Dicam insigne, recens, alio indictum ore," - who, by his flaming
zeal and the prolific ardor and energy of his mind, has
boldly dashed out of the common path, and served
his country by new and untrodden ways; and now
he generously communicates, for the benefit of all
future governors and all future governments, the
grand arcanum of his long and toilsome researches. He is the first, but, if we do not take good
care, he will not be the last, that has established
the corruption of the supreme magistrate among the
settled resources of the state; and he leaves this
principle as a bountiful donation, as the richest deposit that ever was made in the treasury of Bengal.
He claims glory and renown from that by which
every other person silce the beginning of time has
been dishonored and disgraced. It has been said of
ani ambassador, that he is a person employed to tell
lies for the advantage of the court that sends him.
His is patriotic bribery, and public-spirited corrup
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -- THIRD DAY. 47
tion. He is a peculator for the good of his country.
It has been said that private vices are public benefits.
He goes the full length of that position, and turns his
private peculation into a public good. This is what
you are to thank him for. You are to consider him
as a great inventor upon this occasion. Mr. Hastings improves on this principle. Hie is a robber in
gross, and a thief in detail, - he steals, he filches, he
plunders, he oppresses, he extorts, - all for the good
of the dear East India Company, - all for the advantage of his honored masters, the Proprietors, -- all in gratitude to the dear perfidious Court of Directors,
who have been in a practice to heap " insults on his
person, slanders on his character, and indignities on
his station, -- who never had the confidence in him
that they had in the meanest of his predecessors. "
If you sanction this practice, if, after all you have
exacted from the people by your taxes and public
imposts, you are to let loose your servants upon them,
to extort by bribery and peculation what they can
from them, for the purpose of applying it to the public service only whenever they please, this shocking consequence will follow from it. If your Governor
is discovered in taking a bribe, he will say, " What
is that to you? mind your business; I intend it
for the public service. " The man who dares to accuse him loses the favor of the Governor-General
and the India Company. They will say, " The Governor has beeni doing a meritorious action, extorting bribes for our benefit, and you have the impudence
to think of prosecuting him. " So that the moment
the bribe is detected, it is instantly turned into a
merit: and we shall prove that this is the case with
Mr. Hastings, whenever a bribe has been discovered.
? ? ? ? 48 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I am llow to inform your Lordships, that, when he
made these great discoveries to the Court of Directors,
he never tells them who gave him the money, upon
what occasion he received it, by what hands, or to
what purposes he applied it.
When he can himself give no account of his motives, and even declares that he cannot assign any
cause, I am authorized and required to find motives
for hil, - corrupt motives for a corrupt act. There
is no one capital act of his administration that did not
strongly imply corruption. When a man is known
to be free from all imputation of taking money, and
it becomes an established part of his character, the
errors or even crimes of his administration ought to
be, and are in general, traced to other sources. You
know it is a maxim. But once convict a man of
bribery in any instance, and once by direct evidence,
and you are furnished with a rule of irresistible presumption that every other irregular act by which unlawfiul gain may arise is done upon the same corrupt motive. Semel malus prcesumitur semper malus. As for good acts candor, charity, justice oblige me
not to assign evil motives, unless they serve some
scandalous purpose or terminate in some manifest
evil end, so justice, reason, and common sense compel
me to suppose that wicked acts have been done upon
motives correspondent to their nature: otherwise I
reverse all the principles of judgment which can guide
the human mind, and accept even the symptoms, the
marks and criteria of guilt, as presumptions of innocence. One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to the good.
Eis conduct upon these occasions may be thought
irrational. But, thank God, guilt was never a rational
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 49
thing: it distorts all the faculties of the mind; it perverts them; it leaves a man no longer in' the free
use of his reason; it puts him into confusion. 'He
has recourse to such miserable and absurd expedients
for covering his guilt as all those who are used to sit
in the seat of judgment know have been the cause of
detection of half the villanies in the world. To argue
that these could not be his reasons, because they were
not wise, sound, and substantial, would be to suppose,
what is not true, that bad men were always discreet
and able. But I can very well from the circumstances discover motives which may affect a giddy, superficial, shattered, guilty, anxious, restless mind, full of the weak resources of fraud, craft, and intriguer
that might induce him to make these discoveries, and
to make them in the manner he has done. Not rational, and well-fitted for their purposes, I am very
ready to admit. For God forbid that guilt should
ever leave a man the free, undisturbed use of his
faculties! For as guilt never rose from a true use of
our rational faculties, so it is very frequently subversive of them. God forbid that prudence, the first of
all the virtues, as well as the supreme director of them
all, should ever be employed in the service of any of
the vices! No: it takes the lead, and is never found
where justice does not accompany it; and if ever it
is attempted to bring it into the service of the vices, it
immediately subverts their cause. It tends to their
discovery, and, I hope and trust, finally to their utter
ruin and destruction.
In the first place, I am to remark to your Lordships,
that the accounts lie has given of one of these sums
of money are totally false and contradictory. Now
there is not a stronger presumption, nor can olne
VOL. X. 4
? ? ? ? 50 IMPEACHMIENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
want more reason to judge a transaction fraudulent,
than that the accounts given of it are contradictory;
and he has given three accounts utterly irreconcilable
with eacli other. He is asked, " How came you to
take bonds for this money, if it was not your own?
How came you to vitiate and corrupt the state of the
Company's records, and to state yourself a lender to
the Company, when in reality you were their debtor? "
His answer was, " I really cannot tell; I have forgot
my reasons; the distance of time is so great," (namely, a time of about two years, or not so long,) "I cannot give an account of the matter; perhaps I had
this motive, perhaps I had another," (but what is the
most curious,) " perhaps I had none at all which I
can now recollect. " You shall hear the account
which Mr. Hastings himself gives, his own fraudulent
representation, of these corrupt transactions. "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 hIonorable the Court of Directors of the 22d of
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 affirmia
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 51
tion of the facts implied in that report of them, and
such inferences as necessarily, or with a strong probability, follow them. "
My Lords, you see, as to any direct explanation,
that lie fadirly gives it up: he has used artifice and
stratagell, which he knows will not do; and at last
attempts to cover the treachery of his conduct by
the treachery of his memory. Frequent applications
were made to Mr. Hastings upon this article from the
Company, - gentle hints, gemnitus colunbce, - rather,
little amorous complaints that he was not more open
and communicative; but all these gentle insinuations
were never able to draw from him any further account
till lie came to England. When he came here, he
left not only his memory, but all his notes and references, behind in India. When in India the Company could get no account of them, because lie himself was not in England; and when lie was in England,
they could' get no account, because his papers were
in India. He then sends over to Mr. Larkins to give
that account of his affairs which he was not able to
give himself. Observe, here is a man taking money
privately, corruptly, and which was to be sanctified
by the future application of it, taking false securities
to cover it, and who, when called upon to tell whom
he got the money from, for what ends, and on what
occasion, neither will tell in India nor can tell in
England, but sends for such an account as he has
thought proper to furnish.
I am now to bring before you an account of what I
think much the most serious part of the effects of
his system of bribery, corruption, and peculation.
IMy Lords, I am to state to you the astonisllinlg and
almost incredible means he made use of to lay all the
? ? ? ? 52 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
country under contribution, to bring the whole into
such dejection as should put his bribes out of the
way of discovery. Such another example of boldness
and contrivance I believe the world cannot furnish.
I have already shown, amongst the mass of his
corruptions, that he let the whole of the lands to farm
to the banians; next, that he sold the whole Mahomedan government of that country to a woman. ' This
was bold enough, one should think; but without entering into the circumstances of the revenue change in
1772, I am to tell your Lordships that he had appointed six Provincial Councils, each consisting of many
members, who had the ordinary administration of civil
justice in that country, and the whole business of the
collection of the revenues.
These Provincial Councils accounted to the Governor-General and Council, who in the revenue department had the whole management, control, and regulation of the revenue. Mr. Hastings did in several papers to the Court of Directors declare, that the
establishment of these Provincial Councils, which at
first he stated only as experimental, had proved useful in the experiment, - and on that use, and upon
that experiment, lie had sent even the plan of an act
of Parliament, to have it confirmed with the last and
most sacred authority of this country. The Court of
Directors desired, that, if lie thought any other method more proper, he would send it to them for their
approbation.
Thus the whole face of the British government, the
whole of its order and constitution, remained from
1772 to 1781. He had got rid, some time before
this period, by death, of General Clavering, by death,
of Colonel Monson, and by vexation and persecution,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 53
and his consequent dereliction of authority, lie had
shaken off Mr. Francis. The whole Council consisting only of himself and Mr. Wheler, he, having
the casting vote, was in effect the whole Council;
and if ever there was a time when principle, decency,
and decorum rendered it improper for him to do ally
extraordinary acts without the sanction of the Court
of Directors, that was the time. Mr.
Wheler was
taken off,- despair perhaps rendering the man, who
had been in opposition futilely before, compliable.
The man is dead. He certainly did not oppose him;
if he had, it would have been in vaini. But those
very circumstances which rendered it atrocious in
Mr. Hastings to make any change induced him to
make this. He thought that a moment's time was
not to be lost,- that other colleagues might come,
where lie might be overpowered by a majority again,
and not able to pursue his corrupt plans. Therefore
he was resolved, --your Lordsliips will remark the
whole of this most daring and systematic plan of bribery and peculation, -- he resolved to put it out of the power of his Council in future to check or control
him in any of his evil practices.
The first thing he did was to form an ostensible
council at Calcutta for the management of the revenues, which was not effectually bound, except it thought fit, to make any reference to the Supreme
Council. He delegated to them- that is, to four
covenanted servants --those functions which by act
of Parliament and the Company's orders were to be
exercised by the Council-General; he delegated to
four gentlemen, creatures of his own, his own powers,
but he laid them out to good interest. It appears odd
that one of the first acts to a Governor-General, so
? ? ? ? 54 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
jealous of his power as he is known to be, as soon as
he had all the power in his own hands, should be to
put all thle revenues out of his own control. This
upon the first view is an extraordinary proceeding.
His next step was, without apprising the Court of
Directors of his intention, or without having given
an idea of any such intention to his colleagues while
alive, either those who died in India, or those who
afterwards returned to Europe, in one day, in a moment, to annihilate the whole authority of the Provincial Councils, and delegate the whole power to these four gentlemen.
Tlhese four gentlemen had for their secretary an
agent given them by Mr. Hastings: a name that you
will often hear of; a lname at the sound of which all
India turns pale; the most wicked, the most atrocious, the boldest, the most dexterous villain that ever
the rank servitude of tlhat country has produced. My
Lords, I am speaking with the most assured fireedom,
because there never wa. s a friend of Mr. Hastillgs,
there never was a foe of Mr. Hastings, there never was
any human person, that ever differed on this occasion,
or expressed any other idea of Gunga Govind Sing, tlle
friend of Mr. Hastings, whom lie initrusted with this
important post. But you shall hear, from the account given by themselves, what the Council thought
of their functions, of their efficiency for the charge,
and in whose hands that efficiency really was. I beg,
hope, and trust, that your Lo. rdships will learn from
the persons themselves who were appointed to execute the office their opinion of the real execution of
it, in order that you may judge of the plan for which
he destroyed the whole English administration in
India.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 55
"The Committee must have a dewan, or executive
officer, call him by what name you please. This
man, in fact, has all the revenue paid at the Presidency at his disposal, and can, if he has any abilities, bring all the renters under contribution. It is little
advantage to restrain the Committee themselves from
bribery or corruption, when their executive officer
has the power of practising both undetected. To
display the arts employed by a native on such occasions would fill a volume. He discovers the secret resources of the zemindars and renters, their enemies
and competitors; and by the engines of hope and fear,
raised upon these foundations, he can work them to
his purpose. The Committee, with the best intentions, best abilities, and steadiest application, must
after all be a tool in the hands of their dewan. "
Your Lordships see what the opinion of the Council was of their own constitution. You see for what
it was made. You see for what purposes the great
revenue trust was taken from the Council-General,
from the supreme government. You see for what
purposes the executive power was destroyed. You
have it from one of the gentlemen of this commission,
at first four in number, and afterwards five, who was
the most active, efficient member of it. You see it was
made for the purpose of being a tool in the hands of
Gunga Govind Sing; that integrity, ability, and vigilance could avail nothing; that the whole country
might be laid under contribution by this man, and that
he could thus practise bribery with impunity. Thus
your Lordships see the delegation of all the authority
of the country, above and below, is given by Mr. Hastings to this Gunga Govind Sing. The screen, the veil, spread before this transaction, is torn open by the very
? ? ? ? 56 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
people themselves who are the tools in it. They confess they can do nothing; they know they are instruments in the hands of Gunga Govind Sing; and Mr. Hastings uses his name and authority to make them
such in the hands of the basest, the wickedest, the
corruptest, the most audacious and atrocious villain
ever heard of. It is to him all the English authority
is sacrificed, and four gentlemen are appointed to be
his tools and instruments. Tools and instruments
for what? They themselves state, that, if he has the
inclination, he has the power and ability to lay the
whole country under contribution, that he enters into
the most minute secrets of every individual in it, gets
into the bottom of their family affairs, and has a power totally to subvert and destroy them; and we shall
show upon that head, that he well fulfilled the purposes for which he was appointed. Did Mr. Hastings
pretenld to say that he destroyed the Provincial Councils for their corruptness or insufficiency, when he
dissolved them? No: he says he has no objection to
their competency, no charge to make against their
conduct, but that he has destroyed them for his new
arrangement. And what is his new arrangement?
Gunga Govind Sing. Forty English gentlemen were
removed from their offices by that change. Mr. Hastings did it, however, very economically; for all these
gentlemen were instantly put upon pensions, and
consequently burdened the establishment with a new
charge. Well, but the new Council was formed and
constituted upon a very economical principle also.
These five gentlemen, you will have it in proof, with
the necessary expenses of their office, were a charge
of 62,0001. a year upon the establishment. But for
great,. eminent, capital services, 62,0001. , thougll a
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 57
much larger sum than what was thought fit to be allowed for the members of the Supreme Council itself,
may be admitted. I will pass it. It shall be granted
to Mr. Hastings, that these pensions, though they created a new burden on the establishment, were all
well disposed, provided the Council did their duty.
But you have heard what they say themselves: they
are not there put to do any duty; they can do no duty; their abilities, their integrity, avail them nothing;
they are tools in the hands of Gunga Govind Sing.
Mr. Hastings, then, has loaded the revenue with
62,0001. a year to make Gunga Govind Sing master of the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa.
What must the thing to be moved be, when the machinery, when the necessary tools, for Gunga Govind
Sing have cost 62,0001. a year to the Company?
There it is; it is not my representation, not the representation of observant strangers, of good and decent people, that understand the nature of that service, but the opinion of the tools themselves. Now did Mr. Hastings employ Gunga Govind Sing
without a knowledge of his character? His character
was known to Mr. Hastings: it was recorded long
before, when he was turned out of another office.
" During my long residence," says he, " in this country, this is the first time I heard of the character of
Gunga Govind Sing being infamous. No information
I have received, though I have heard many people
speak ill of him, ever pointed to any particular act of
infamy committed by Gunga Govind Sing. I have no
intimate knowledge of Gunga Govind Sing. What I
understand of his character has been from Europeans
as well as natives. " After, -- " He had many enemies at the time he was proposed to be employed in
? ? ? ? 58 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the Company's service, and not one advocate among
the natives who had immediate access to myself. I
think, therefore, if his character had been such as has
been described, the knowvledge of it could hardly have
failed to have been ascertained to me by the specific
facts. I have heard him loaded, as I have many
others, with general reproaches, but have never heard
any one express a doubt of his abilities. " Now, if anything, in the world should induce you to put the
whole trust of the revenues of Bengal, both above and
below, into the hands of a single man, and to delegate to him the whole jurisdiction of the country, it
must be that lie cither was, or at least was reputed
to be, a man of integrity. Mr. Hastings does not pretend that he is reputed to be a man of integrity.
He knew that lie was not able to contradict the
charge brought against him, and that he had been
turned out of office by his colleagues, for reasons
assigned upon record, and approved by the Directors,
for malversation in office. He had, indeed, crept
again into the Calcutta Committee; and they were
upon the point of turning himn out for malversation,
when Mr. Hastings saved them the trouble by turning out the whole Committee, consisting of a president
and five members. So that in all times, in all characters, in all places, lie stood as a man of a bad character and evil repute, though supposed to be a man of great abilities.
My Lords, permit me for one moment to drop my
representative character here, and to speak to your
Lordships only as a man of some experience in the
world, and conversant with the affairs of men and
with the characters of men.
I do, then, declare my conviction, and wish it may
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 59
stand recorded to posterity, that there never was a
bad mnan that had ability for good service. It is not in
the nature of such men; their minds are so distorted
to selfish purposes, to knavish, artificial, and crafty
means of accomplishing those selfish ends, that, if
put to alny good service, they are poor, dull, helpless.
Their natural faculties never have that direction. ;
they are paralytic on that side; the muscles, if I may
use tile expression, that ought to move it, are all dead.
They know nothing, but how to pursue selfish ends
by wicked and indirect means. No man ever knowingly employed a bad man on account of his abilities, but for evil ends. Mr. Hastings knew this man to be
bad; all the world knew him to be bad; and how did
he employ him? In such a manner as that he might
be controlled by others? A great deal might be said
for hlim, if this had been the case. There mighlt be
circumstances in which such a man mighllt be used
in a subordinate capacity. But who ever thought
of putting such a man virtually in possession of the
whole authority both of the Committee and the
Council-General, and of the revenues of the whole
country?
As soon as we find Gunga Govind Sing here, we
find him employed in the way in which he was meant
to be employed: tllat is to say, we find him employed
in taking corrupt bribes and corrupt presents for Mr.
Hastings. Thoughll the Committee were tools in his
hands, he was a tool in the hands of Mr. Hastings;
for lie had, as we shall prove, constant, uniform, and
close communications with Mr. hIastings. And, indeed, we may be saved a good deal of the trouble of proof; for Mr. Hastings hlimself, by acknowledging him
to be lhis bribe-broker, has pretty well autheinticated a
? ? ? ? 60 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
secret correspondence between them. For the next
great bribe as yet discovered to be taken by Mr. Hastings, about the time of his great operation of 1781,
was the bribe of 40,0001. , which we charge to have
been privately taken from one of two persons, but from
which is not yet ascertained, but paid to him through
this flagitious black agent of his iniquities, Gunga Govind Sing. The discovery is made by another agent
of his, called Mr. Larkins, one of his white bribe-confidants, and by him made Accountant-General to the Supreme Presidency. For this sum, so clandestinely
and corruptly taken, he received a bond to himself, on
his own account, as for money lent to the Company.
For, upon the frequent, pressing, tender solicitations
of the Court of Directors, always insinuated to him in
a very delicate manner, Mr. Hastings had written to
Mr. Larkins to find out, if he could, some of his own
bribes; and accordingly Mr. Larkins sent over an
account of various bribes, - an account which, even
before it comes directly in evidence before you, it will
be pleasant to your Lordships to read. In this account, under the head, "Dinagepore, No. 1," I find
" Duplicate copy of the particulars of debts, in which
the component parts of sundry sums received on the account of the Honorable Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies were received by Mr. Hastings and
paid to the Sub-Treasurer. " We find here, "Dinagepore pesheush, four lacs of rupees, cabooleat"' that is,
an agreement to pay four lacs of rupees, of which
three were received and one remained in balance at
the time this account was made out. All that we can
learn from this account, after all our researches, after
all the Court of Directors could do to squeeze it out
of him, is, that he received firom Dinagepore, at twelve
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 61
monthly payments, a sum of about three lacs of rupees, upon an engagement to pay him four; that is, he
received about 30,0001. out of 40,0001. which was to
be paid him: and we are told that he received this
sum through the hands of Gullga Govind Sing; and
that he was exceedingly angry with Gunga Govind
Sing for having kept back or defrauded him of the
sum of 10,0001. out of the 40,0001. To keep back
from him the fourth part of the whole bribe was very
reprehensible behavior in Gunga Govild Sing, certainly very unworthy of the great and high trust
which Mr. Hastings reposed in his integrity. My
Lords, this letter tells us Mr. Hastings was much irritated at Gunga Govind Sing. You will hereafter see
how Mr. Hastings behaves to persons against whom
he is irritated for their frauds upon him in their
joint concerns. In the mean time Gunga Govind
Sing rests with you as a person with whom Mr. Hastings is displeased on account of infidelity in the honorable trust of bribe undertaker and manager. My Lords, you are not very much enlightened,
I believe, by seeing these words, Dinagepore peshcush.
We find a province, we find a sum of money, we find
an agent, and we find a receiver. Tile province is
Dinagepore, the agent is Gunga Govind Sing, the sum
agreed on is 40,0001. , and the receiver of a part of
that is Mr. Hastings. This is all that can be seen.
Who it was that gave this sum of money to Mr. Hastings in this manner does no way appear; it is murder
by persons unknown: and this is the way in which
Mr. Hastings, after all the reiterated solicitations of
Parliament, of the Company, and the public, has left
the account of this bribe.
Let us, however, now see what was the state of
? ? ? ? 62 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
transactions at Dinagepore at that period. For, if
Mr. Hastings in the transactions at that period did
anything for that country, it must be presumed this
money was given for those acts; for Mr. Hastings confesses it was a sum of money corruptly received, but
honestly applied. It does not signify much, at first
view, from whom he received it; it is cnouglh to fix
upon him that he did receive it. But because the
consequences of his bribes make the main part of what
I intend to bring before your Lordships, I shall beg
to state to you, with your indulgence, what I have
been able to discover by a very close investigation
of th'e records respecting this business of Dinagepore.
Dinagepore, Rungpore, and Edrackpore make a
country, I believe, pretty nearly as large as all the
northern counties of Englland, Yorkshire included.
It is no mean country, and it has a prince of great,
ancient, illustrious descent at the head of it, called
the Rajah of Dinagepore.
I find, that, about the month of July, 1780, the Rajah of Dinagepore, after a long and lingering illness,
died, leaving an half-brother and an adopted son.
A litigation respecting the succession instantly arose
in the family; and this litigatigation was of course referred to, and was finally to be decided by, the Governor-General in Council, -- being the ultimate authority to which the decision of all these questions was to be referred. This cause came before Mr. Hastilgs,
and I find that he decided the question in favor of the
adopted son of the Rajah against his half-brother. I
find that upon that decision a rent was settled, and
a peshcush, or fine, paid.
The first thing he did was to attempt to conceal it;
and accordingly we find him depositing very great
sums of money in the public treasury through the
means of the two persons I have already mentioned,
namely, the deputy-treasurer and the accountant, -
paying them in and taking bonds for them as money
of his own, and bearing legal interest. This was his
mnetllod of endeavoring to conceal some at least of his
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 41
bribes: for I would not suggest, nor have your Lordships to think, that I believe that these were his only
bribes, -- for there is reason to think there was an
infinite number besides; but it did so happen that
they were those bribes which he thought might be
discovered, some of which he knew were discovered,
and all of which he knew might become the subject
of a Parliamentary inquiry.
Mr. Hastings said he might have concealed them
forever. Every one knows the facility of concealing
corrupt transactions everywhere, in India particularly. But this is by himself proved not to be universally true, at least not to be true in his own opinion;
for he tells you, in his letter from Cheltenham, that
he would have concealed the Nabob's 100,0001. , but
that the magnitude rendered it easy of discovery.
He, therefore, avows an intention of concealment.
But it happens here, very singularly, that this sum,
which his fears of discovery by others obliged him to
discover himself, happens to be one of those of which
no trace whatsoever appears, except merely from the
operation of his own apprehensions. There is no
collateral testimony: Middleton knew nothing of it;
Anderson knew nothing of it; it was not directly
communicated to the faithful Larkins or the trusty
Croftes; - which proves, indeed, the facility of concealment. The fact is, you find the application always upon the discovery. But concealment or discovery is a thing of accident. The bribes which I have hitherto brought before
your Lordships belong to the first period of his bribery, before he thought of the doctrine on which he
has since defended it. There are many other bribes
which we charge him with having received during
? ? ? ? 42 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
this first period, before an improving conversation
and close virtuous connection with great lawyers had
taught him how to practise bribes in such a manner
as to defy detection, and instead of punishment to
plead merit. I am not bound to find order and consistency in guilt: it is the reign of disorder. The
order of the proceeding, as far as I am able to trace
such a scene of prevarication, direct fraud, falsehood,
and falsification of the public accounts, was this.
From bribes he knew he could never abstain; and
his then precarious situation made him the more rapacious. He knew that a few of his former bribes
had been discovered, declared, recorded, -- that for
the moment, indeed, he was secure, because all informers had been punished and all concealers rewarded. He expected hourly a total change in the Council, and that men like Clavering and Monson
might be again joined to Francis, that some great
avenger should arise from their ashes, -" Exoriare,
aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor," - and that a more severe investigation and an infinitely more full display
would be made of his robbery than hitherto had been
done. He therefore began, in the agony of his' guilt,
to cast about for some device by which he might continue his offence, if possible, with impunity,- and
possibly make a merit of it. He therefore first carefully perused the act of Parliament forbidding bribery, and his old covenant engaging him not to receive presents. And here he was more successful than upon former occasions. If ever an act was studiously
and carefully framed to prevent bribery, it is that
law of the 13th of the King, which lie well observes
admits no latitudes of construction, no subterfuge,
no escape, no evasion. Yet has he found a defence
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 43
of his crimes even in the very provisions which were
made for their prevention and their punishment.
Besides the penalty which belongs to every informer,
the East India Company was invested with a fiction
of property inll all such bribes, in order to drag them
with more facility out of the corrupt hands which
held them. The covenant, with an exception of
one lundred pounds, and the act of Parliament, without any exception, declared that the Governor-General and Council should receive no presents for their
own use. He therefore concluded that the system
of bribery and extortion might be clandestinely and
safely carried on, provided the party taking the bribes
had all inward intention and mental reservation that
they should be privately applied to the Company's
service in any way the briber should think fit, and
that on many occasions this would prove the best
method of supply for the exigencies of their service.
He accordingly formed, or pretended to form, a private bribe exchequer, collateral with and independent
of the Company's public exchequer, though in some
cases administered by those whom for his purposes
he had placed in the regular official department.
It is no wonder that he has taken to himself an extraordinary degree of merit. For surely such an invention of finance, I believe, never was heard of,an exchequer wherein extortion was the assessor, fraud the cashier, confusion the accountant, concealmelit the reporter, and oblivion the remembrancer:
in short, such as I believe no man, but one driven by
guilt into frenzy, could ever have dreamed of.
He treats the official and regular Directors with
just contempt, as a parcel of mean, mechanical bookkeepers. He is an eccentric book-keeper, a Pindaric
? ? ? ? 44 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
accountant. I have heard of "the poet's eye in a
fine frenzy rolling. " Here was a revenue exacted
from whom he pleased, at what times he pleased, in
what proportions he pleased, through what persons he
pleased, by what means he pleased, to be accounted
for or not, at his discretion, and to be applied to what
service he thought proper. I do believe your Lordships stand astonished at this scheme; and indeed I should be very loath to venture to state such a scheme
at all, however I might have credited it myself, to any
sober cars, if, in his defence before the House of Commons, and before the Lords, he had not directly admitted the fact of taking the bribes or forbidden presents, and had not in those defences, and much more fully
in his correspondence with the Directors, admitted
the fact, and justified it upon these very principles.
As this is a thing so unheard-of and unexampled
in the world, I shall first endeavor to account as well
as I can for his motives to it, which your Lordships
will receive or reject, just as you shall find them tally
with the evidence before you: I say, his motives to
it; because I contend that public valid reasons for it
he could have none; and the idea of making the corruption of the Governor-General a resource to the
Company never did or could for a moment enter into his thoughts. I shall then take notice of the juridical constructions upon which he justifies his acting
in this extraordinary manner; and lastly, show you
the concealments, prevarications, and falsehoods with
which he endeavors to cover it. Because wherever
you find a concealment you make a discovery. Accounts of money received and paid ought to be regular and official.
He wrote over to the Court of Directors, that there
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 45
were certain sums of money he had received and
which were not his own, but that he had received
them for their use. By this time his intercourse with
gentlemen of the law became more considerable than
it had been before. When first attacked for presents,
he never denied the receipt of them, or pretended to
say they were for public purposes; but upon looking
more into the covenants, and probably with better
legal advice, he found that no money could be legally
received for his own use; but as these bribes were
directly given and received as for his own use, yet
(says he) " there was an inward destination of them
in my own mind to your benefit, and to your benefit
have I applied them. "
Now here is a new system of bribery, contrary to
law, very ingenious in the contrivance, but, I believe,
as unlikely to produce its intended effect upon the
mind of man as any pretence that was ever used.
Here Mr. Hastings changes his ground. Before, he
was accused as a peculator; he did not deny the fact;
he did not refund the money; he fought it off; he
stood upon the defensive, and used all the means ill his
power to prevent the inquiry. That was the first era
of his corruption, -- a bold, ferocious, plain, downright use of power. In the second, he is grown a little more careful and guarded,-the effect of subtilty. He appears no longer as a defendant; he holds himself up with a firm, dignified, and erect countenance,
and says, " I am not here any longer as a delinquent,
a receiver of bribes, to be punished for what I have
done wrong, or at least to suffer in my character for
it. No: I am a great inventive genius, who have gone
out of all the ordinary roads of finance, have made
great discoveries in the unknown regions of that sci
? ? ? ? 46 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ence, and have for the first time established thle corruption of the supreme magistrate as a principle of
resource for government. "
There are crimes, undoubtedly, of great magnitude, naturally fitted to create hlorror, and that
loudly call for punishment, that have yet no idea of
turpitude annexed to them; but unclean hands, bribery, venality, and peculation are offences of turpitude, such as, in a governor, at once debase the person and degrade the government itself, making it not only horrible, but vile and contemptible in thle eyes of
all mankind. In this humiliation and abjectness of
guilt, he comes here not as a criminal on his defence,
but as a vast fertile genius who has made astonishing
discoveries in the art of government, -" Dicam insigne, recens, alio indictum ore," - who, by his flaming
zeal and the prolific ardor and energy of his mind, has
boldly dashed out of the common path, and served
his country by new and untrodden ways; and now
he generously communicates, for the benefit of all
future governors and all future governments, the
grand arcanum of his long and toilsome researches. He is the first, but, if we do not take good
care, he will not be the last, that has established
the corruption of the supreme magistrate among the
settled resources of the state; and he leaves this
principle as a bountiful donation, as the richest deposit that ever was made in the treasury of Bengal.
He claims glory and renown from that by which
every other person silce the beginning of time has
been dishonored and disgraced. It has been said of
ani ambassador, that he is a person employed to tell
lies for the advantage of the court that sends him.
His is patriotic bribery, and public-spirited corrup
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -- THIRD DAY. 47
tion. He is a peculator for the good of his country.
It has been said that private vices are public benefits.
He goes the full length of that position, and turns his
private peculation into a public good. This is what
you are to thank him for. You are to consider him
as a great inventor upon this occasion. Mr. Hastings improves on this principle. Hie is a robber in
gross, and a thief in detail, - he steals, he filches, he
plunders, he oppresses, he extorts, - all for the good
of the dear East India Company, - all for the advantage of his honored masters, the Proprietors, -- all in gratitude to the dear perfidious Court of Directors,
who have been in a practice to heap " insults on his
person, slanders on his character, and indignities on
his station, -- who never had the confidence in him
that they had in the meanest of his predecessors. "
If you sanction this practice, if, after all you have
exacted from the people by your taxes and public
imposts, you are to let loose your servants upon them,
to extort by bribery and peculation what they can
from them, for the purpose of applying it to the public service only whenever they please, this shocking consequence will follow from it. If your Governor
is discovered in taking a bribe, he will say, " What
is that to you? mind your business; I intend it
for the public service. " The man who dares to accuse him loses the favor of the Governor-General
and the India Company. They will say, " The Governor has beeni doing a meritorious action, extorting bribes for our benefit, and you have the impudence
to think of prosecuting him. " So that the moment
the bribe is detected, it is instantly turned into a
merit: and we shall prove that this is the case with
Mr. Hastings, whenever a bribe has been discovered.
? ? ? ? 48 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I am llow to inform your Lordships, that, when he
made these great discoveries to the Court of Directors,
he never tells them who gave him the money, upon
what occasion he received it, by what hands, or to
what purposes he applied it.
When he can himself give no account of his motives, and even declares that he cannot assign any
cause, I am authorized and required to find motives
for hil, - corrupt motives for a corrupt act. There
is no one capital act of his administration that did not
strongly imply corruption. When a man is known
to be free from all imputation of taking money, and
it becomes an established part of his character, the
errors or even crimes of his administration ought to
be, and are in general, traced to other sources. You
know it is a maxim. But once convict a man of
bribery in any instance, and once by direct evidence,
and you are furnished with a rule of irresistible presumption that every other irregular act by which unlawfiul gain may arise is done upon the same corrupt motive. Semel malus prcesumitur semper malus. As for good acts candor, charity, justice oblige me
not to assign evil motives, unless they serve some
scandalous purpose or terminate in some manifest
evil end, so justice, reason, and common sense compel
me to suppose that wicked acts have been done upon
motives correspondent to their nature: otherwise I
reverse all the principles of judgment which can guide
the human mind, and accept even the symptoms, the
marks and criteria of guilt, as presumptions of innocence. One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to the good.
Eis conduct upon these occasions may be thought
irrational. But, thank God, guilt was never a rational
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 49
thing: it distorts all the faculties of the mind; it perverts them; it leaves a man no longer in' the free
use of his reason; it puts him into confusion. 'He
has recourse to such miserable and absurd expedients
for covering his guilt as all those who are used to sit
in the seat of judgment know have been the cause of
detection of half the villanies in the world. To argue
that these could not be his reasons, because they were
not wise, sound, and substantial, would be to suppose,
what is not true, that bad men were always discreet
and able. But I can very well from the circumstances discover motives which may affect a giddy, superficial, shattered, guilty, anxious, restless mind, full of the weak resources of fraud, craft, and intriguer
that might induce him to make these discoveries, and
to make them in the manner he has done. Not rational, and well-fitted for their purposes, I am very
ready to admit. For God forbid that guilt should
ever leave a man the free, undisturbed use of his
faculties! For as guilt never rose from a true use of
our rational faculties, so it is very frequently subversive of them. God forbid that prudence, the first of
all the virtues, as well as the supreme director of them
all, should ever be employed in the service of any of
the vices! No: it takes the lead, and is never found
where justice does not accompany it; and if ever it
is attempted to bring it into the service of the vices, it
immediately subverts their cause. It tends to their
discovery, and, I hope and trust, finally to their utter
ruin and destruction.
In the first place, I am to remark to your Lordships,
that the accounts lie has given of one of these sums
of money are totally false and contradictory. Now
there is not a stronger presumption, nor can olne
VOL. X. 4
? ? ? ? 50 IMPEACHMIENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
want more reason to judge a transaction fraudulent,
than that the accounts given of it are contradictory;
and he has given three accounts utterly irreconcilable
with eacli other. He is asked, " How came you to
take bonds for this money, if it was not your own?
How came you to vitiate and corrupt the state of the
Company's records, and to state yourself a lender to
the Company, when in reality you were their debtor? "
His answer was, " I really cannot tell; I have forgot
my reasons; the distance of time is so great," (namely, a time of about two years, or not so long,) "I cannot give an account of the matter; perhaps I had
this motive, perhaps I had another," (but what is the
most curious,) " perhaps I had none at all which I
can now recollect. " You shall hear the account
which Mr. Hastings himself gives, his own fraudulent
representation, of these corrupt transactions. "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 hIonorable the Court of Directors of the 22d of
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 affirmia
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 51
tion of the facts implied in that report of them, and
such inferences as necessarily, or with a strong probability, follow them. "
My Lords, you see, as to any direct explanation,
that lie fadirly gives it up: he has used artifice and
stratagell, which he knows will not do; and at last
attempts to cover the treachery of his conduct by
the treachery of his memory. Frequent applications
were made to Mr. Hastings upon this article from the
Company, - gentle hints, gemnitus colunbce, - rather,
little amorous complaints that he was not more open
and communicative; but all these gentle insinuations
were never able to draw from him any further account
till lie came to England. When he came here, he
left not only his memory, but all his notes and references, behind in India. When in India the Company could get no account of them, because lie himself was not in England; and when lie was in England,
they could' get no account, because his papers were
in India. He then sends over to Mr. Larkins to give
that account of his affairs which he was not able to
give himself. Observe, here is a man taking money
privately, corruptly, and which was to be sanctified
by the future application of it, taking false securities
to cover it, and who, when called upon to tell whom
he got the money from, for what ends, and on what
occasion, neither will tell in India nor can tell in
England, but sends for such an account as he has
thought proper to furnish.
I am now to bring before you an account of what I
think much the most serious part of the effects of
his system of bribery, corruption, and peculation.
IMy Lords, I am to state to you the astonisllinlg and
almost incredible means he made use of to lay all the
? ? ? ? 52 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
country under contribution, to bring the whole into
such dejection as should put his bribes out of the
way of discovery. Such another example of boldness
and contrivance I believe the world cannot furnish.
I have already shown, amongst the mass of his
corruptions, that he let the whole of the lands to farm
to the banians; next, that he sold the whole Mahomedan government of that country to a woman. ' This
was bold enough, one should think; but without entering into the circumstances of the revenue change in
1772, I am to tell your Lordships that he had appointed six Provincial Councils, each consisting of many
members, who had the ordinary administration of civil
justice in that country, and the whole business of the
collection of the revenues.
These Provincial Councils accounted to the Governor-General and Council, who in the revenue department had the whole management, control, and regulation of the revenue. Mr. Hastings did in several papers to the Court of Directors declare, that the
establishment of these Provincial Councils, which at
first he stated only as experimental, had proved useful in the experiment, - and on that use, and upon
that experiment, lie had sent even the plan of an act
of Parliament, to have it confirmed with the last and
most sacred authority of this country. The Court of
Directors desired, that, if lie thought any other method more proper, he would send it to them for their
approbation.
Thus the whole face of the British government, the
whole of its order and constitution, remained from
1772 to 1781. He had got rid, some time before
this period, by death, of General Clavering, by death,
of Colonel Monson, and by vexation and persecution,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 53
and his consequent dereliction of authority, lie had
shaken off Mr. Francis. The whole Council consisting only of himself and Mr. Wheler, he, having
the casting vote, was in effect the whole Council;
and if ever there was a time when principle, decency,
and decorum rendered it improper for him to do ally
extraordinary acts without the sanction of the Court
of Directors, that was the time. Mr.
Wheler was
taken off,- despair perhaps rendering the man, who
had been in opposition futilely before, compliable.
The man is dead. He certainly did not oppose him;
if he had, it would have been in vaini. But those
very circumstances which rendered it atrocious in
Mr. Hastings to make any change induced him to
make this. He thought that a moment's time was
not to be lost,- that other colleagues might come,
where lie might be overpowered by a majority again,
and not able to pursue his corrupt plans. Therefore
he was resolved, --your Lordsliips will remark the
whole of this most daring and systematic plan of bribery and peculation, -- he resolved to put it out of the power of his Council in future to check or control
him in any of his evil practices.
The first thing he did was to form an ostensible
council at Calcutta for the management of the revenues, which was not effectually bound, except it thought fit, to make any reference to the Supreme
Council. He delegated to them- that is, to four
covenanted servants --those functions which by act
of Parliament and the Company's orders were to be
exercised by the Council-General; he delegated to
four gentlemen, creatures of his own, his own powers,
but he laid them out to good interest. It appears odd
that one of the first acts to a Governor-General, so
? ? ? ? 54 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
jealous of his power as he is known to be, as soon as
he had all the power in his own hands, should be to
put all thle revenues out of his own control. This
upon the first view is an extraordinary proceeding.
His next step was, without apprising the Court of
Directors of his intention, or without having given
an idea of any such intention to his colleagues while
alive, either those who died in India, or those who
afterwards returned to Europe, in one day, in a moment, to annihilate the whole authority of the Provincial Councils, and delegate the whole power to these four gentlemen.
Tlhese four gentlemen had for their secretary an
agent given them by Mr. Hastings: a name that you
will often hear of; a lname at the sound of which all
India turns pale; the most wicked, the most atrocious, the boldest, the most dexterous villain that ever
the rank servitude of tlhat country has produced. My
Lords, I am speaking with the most assured fireedom,
because there never wa. s a friend of Mr. Hastillgs,
there never was a foe of Mr. Hastings, there never was
any human person, that ever differed on this occasion,
or expressed any other idea of Gunga Govind Sing, tlle
friend of Mr. Hastings, whom lie initrusted with this
important post. But you shall hear, from the account given by themselves, what the Council thought
of their functions, of their efficiency for the charge,
and in whose hands that efficiency really was. I beg,
hope, and trust, that your Lo. rdships will learn from
the persons themselves who were appointed to execute the office their opinion of the real execution of
it, in order that you may judge of the plan for which
he destroyed the whole English administration in
India.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 55
"The Committee must have a dewan, or executive
officer, call him by what name you please. This
man, in fact, has all the revenue paid at the Presidency at his disposal, and can, if he has any abilities, bring all the renters under contribution. It is little
advantage to restrain the Committee themselves from
bribery or corruption, when their executive officer
has the power of practising both undetected. To
display the arts employed by a native on such occasions would fill a volume. He discovers the secret resources of the zemindars and renters, their enemies
and competitors; and by the engines of hope and fear,
raised upon these foundations, he can work them to
his purpose. The Committee, with the best intentions, best abilities, and steadiest application, must
after all be a tool in the hands of their dewan. "
Your Lordships see what the opinion of the Council was of their own constitution. You see for what
it was made. You see for what purposes the great
revenue trust was taken from the Council-General,
from the supreme government. You see for what
purposes the executive power was destroyed. You
have it from one of the gentlemen of this commission,
at first four in number, and afterwards five, who was
the most active, efficient member of it. You see it was
made for the purpose of being a tool in the hands of
Gunga Govind Sing; that integrity, ability, and vigilance could avail nothing; that the whole country
might be laid under contribution by this man, and that
he could thus practise bribery with impunity. Thus
your Lordships see the delegation of all the authority
of the country, above and below, is given by Mr. Hastings to this Gunga Govind Sing. The screen, the veil, spread before this transaction, is torn open by the very
? ? ? ? 56 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
people themselves who are the tools in it. They confess they can do nothing; they know they are instruments in the hands of Gunga Govind Sing; and Mr. Hastings uses his name and authority to make them
such in the hands of the basest, the wickedest, the
corruptest, the most audacious and atrocious villain
ever heard of. It is to him all the English authority
is sacrificed, and four gentlemen are appointed to be
his tools and instruments. Tools and instruments
for what? They themselves state, that, if he has the
inclination, he has the power and ability to lay the
whole country under contribution, that he enters into
the most minute secrets of every individual in it, gets
into the bottom of their family affairs, and has a power totally to subvert and destroy them; and we shall
show upon that head, that he well fulfilled the purposes for which he was appointed. Did Mr. Hastings
pretenld to say that he destroyed the Provincial Councils for their corruptness or insufficiency, when he
dissolved them? No: he says he has no objection to
their competency, no charge to make against their
conduct, but that he has destroyed them for his new
arrangement. And what is his new arrangement?
Gunga Govind Sing. Forty English gentlemen were
removed from their offices by that change. Mr. Hastings did it, however, very economically; for all these
gentlemen were instantly put upon pensions, and
consequently burdened the establishment with a new
charge. Well, but the new Council was formed and
constituted upon a very economical principle also.
These five gentlemen, you will have it in proof, with
the necessary expenses of their office, were a charge
of 62,0001. a year upon the establishment. But for
great,. eminent, capital services, 62,0001. , thougll a
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - THIRD DAY. 57
much larger sum than what was thought fit to be allowed for the members of the Supreme Council itself,
may be admitted. I will pass it. It shall be granted
to Mr. Hastings, that these pensions, though they created a new burden on the establishment, were all
well disposed, provided the Council did their duty.
But you have heard what they say themselves: they
are not there put to do any duty; they can do no duty; their abilities, their integrity, avail them nothing;
they are tools in the hands of Gunga Govind Sing.
Mr. Hastings, then, has loaded the revenue with
62,0001. a year to make Gunga Govind Sing master of the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa.
What must the thing to be moved be, when the machinery, when the necessary tools, for Gunga Govind
Sing have cost 62,0001. a year to the Company?
There it is; it is not my representation, not the representation of observant strangers, of good and decent people, that understand the nature of that service, but the opinion of the tools themselves. Now did Mr. Hastings employ Gunga Govind Sing
without a knowledge of his character? His character
was known to Mr. Hastings: it was recorded long
before, when he was turned out of another office.
" During my long residence," says he, " in this country, this is the first time I heard of the character of
Gunga Govind Sing being infamous. No information
I have received, though I have heard many people
speak ill of him, ever pointed to any particular act of
infamy committed by Gunga Govind Sing. I have no
intimate knowledge of Gunga Govind Sing. What I
understand of his character has been from Europeans
as well as natives. " After, -- " He had many enemies at the time he was proposed to be employed in
? ? ? ? 58 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the Company's service, and not one advocate among
the natives who had immediate access to myself. I
think, therefore, if his character had been such as has
been described, the knowvledge of it could hardly have
failed to have been ascertained to me by the specific
facts. I have heard him loaded, as I have many
others, with general reproaches, but have never heard
any one express a doubt of his abilities. " Now, if anything, in the world should induce you to put the
whole trust of the revenues of Bengal, both above and
below, into the hands of a single man, and to delegate to him the whole jurisdiction of the country, it
must be that lie cither was, or at least was reputed
to be, a man of integrity. Mr. Hastings does not pretend that he is reputed to be a man of integrity.
He knew that lie was not able to contradict the
charge brought against him, and that he had been
turned out of office by his colleagues, for reasons
assigned upon record, and approved by the Directors,
for malversation in office. He had, indeed, crept
again into the Calcutta Committee; and they were
upon the point of turning himn out for malversation,
when Mr. Hastings saved them the trouble by turning out the whole Committee, consisting of a president
and five members. So that in all times, in all characters, in all places, lie stood as a man of a bad character and evil repute, though supposed to be a man of great abilities.
My Lords, permit me for one moment to drop my
representative character here, and to speak to your
Lordships only as a man of some experience in the
world, and conversant with the affairs of men and
with the characters of men.
I do, then, declare my conviction, and wish it may
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 59
stand recorded to posterity, that there never was a
bad mnan that had ability for good service. It is not in
the nature of such men; their minds are so distorted
to selfish purposes, to knavish, artificial, and crafty
means of accomplishing those selfish ends, that, if
put to alny good service, they are poor, dull, helpless.
Their natural faculties never have that direction. ;
they are paralytic on that side; the muscles, if I may
use tile expression, that ought to move it, are all dead.
They know nothing, but how to pursue selfish ends
by wicked and indirect means. No man ever knowingly employed a bad man on account of his abilities, but for evil ends. Mr. Hastings knew this man to be
bad; all the world knew him to be bad; and how did
he employ him? In such a manner as that he might
be controlled by others? A great deal might be said
for hlim, if this had been the case. There mighlt be
circumstances in which such a man mighllt be used
in a subordinate capacity. But who ever thought
of putting such a man virtually in possession of the
whole authority both of the Committee and the
Council-General, and of the revenues of the whole
country?
As soon as we find Gunga Govind Sing here, we
find him employed in the way in which he was meant
to be employed: tllat is to say, we find him employed
in taking corrupt bribes and corrupt presents for Mr.
Hastings. Thoughll the Committee were tools in his
hands, he was a tool in the hands of Mr. Hastings;
for lie had, as we shall prove, constant, uniform, and
close communications with Mr. hIastings. And, indeed, we may be saved a good deal of the trouble of proof; for Mr. Hastings hlimself, by acknowledging him
to be lhis bribe-broker, has pretty well autheinticated a
? ? ? ? 60 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
secret correspondence between them. For the next
great bribe as yet discovered to be taken by Mr. Hastings, about the time of his great operation of 1781,
was the bribe of 40,0001. , which we charge to have
been privately taken from one of two persons, but from
which is not yet ascertained, but paid to him through
this flagitious black agent of his iniquities, Gunga Govind Sing. The discovery is made by another agent
of his, called Mr. Larkins, one of his white bribe-confidants, and by him made Accountant-General to the Supreme Presidency. For this sum, so clandestinely
and corruptly taken, he received a bond to himself, on
his own account, as for money lent to the Company.
For, upon the frequent, pressing, tender solicitations
of the Court of Directors, always insinuated to him in
a very delicate manner, Mr. Hastings had written to
Mr. Larkins to find out, if he could, some of his own
bribes; and accordingly Mr. Larkins sent over an
account of various bribes, - an account which, even
before it comes directly in evidence before you, it will
be pleasant to your Lordships to read. In this account, under the head, "Dinagepore, No. 1," I find
" Duplicate copy of the particulars of debts, in which
the component parts of sundry sums received on the account of the Honorable Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies were received by Mr. Hastings and
paid to the Sub-Treasurer. " We find here, "Dinagepore pesheush, four lacs of rupees, cabooleat"' that is,
an agreement to pay four lacs of rupees, of which
three were received and one remained in balance at
the time this account was made out. All that we can
learn from this account, after all our researches, after
all the Court of Directors could do to squeeze it out
of him, is, that he received firom Dinagepore, at twelve
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -THIRD DAY. 61
monthly payments, a sum of about three lacs of rupees, upon an engagement to pay him four; that is, he
received about 30,0001. out of 40,0001. which was to
be paid him: and we are told that he received this
sum through the hands of Gullga Govind Sing; and
that he was exceedingly angry with Gunga Govind
Sing for having kept back or defrauded him of the
sum of 10,0001. out of the 40,0001. To keep back
from him the fourth part of the whole bribe was very
reprehensible behavior in Gunga Govild Sing, certainly very unworthy of the great and high trust
which Mr. Hastings reposed in his integrity. My
Lords, this letter tells us Mr. Hastings was much irritated at Gunga Govind Sing. You will hereafter see
how Mr. Hastings behaves to persons against whom
he is irritated for their frauds upon him in their
joint concerns. In the mean time Gunga Govind
Sing rests with you as a person with whom Mr. Hastings is displeased on account of infidelity in the honorable trust of bribe undertaker and manager. My Lords, you are not very much enlightened,
I believe, by seeing these words, Dinagepore peshcush.
We find a province, we find a sum of money, we find
an agent, and we find a receiver. Tile province is
Dinagepore, the agent is Gunga Govind Sing, the sum
agreed on is 40,0001. , and the receiver of a part of
that is Mr. Hastings. This is all that can be seen.
Who it was that gave this sum of money to Mr. Hastings in this manner does no way appear; it is murder
by persons unknown: and this is the way in which
Mr. Hastings, after all the reiterated solicitations of
Parliament, of the Company, and the public, has left
the account of this bribe.
Let us, however, now see what was the state of
? ? ? ? 62 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
transactions at Dinagepore at that period. For, if
Mr. Hastings in the transactions at that period did
anything for that country, it must be presumed this
money was given for those acts; for Mr. Hastings confesses it was a sum of money corruptly received, but
honestly applied. It does not signify much, at first
view, from whom he received it; it is cnouglh to fix
upon him that he did receive it. But because the
consequences of his bribes make the main part of what
I intend to bring before your Lordships, I shall beg
to state to you, with your indulgence, what I have
been able to discover by a very close investigation
of th'e records respecting this business of Dinagepore.
Dinagepore, Rungpore, and Edrackpore make a
country, I believe, pretty nearly as large as all the
northern counties of Englland, Yorkshire included.
It is no mean country, and it has a prince of great,
ancient, illustrious descent at the head of it, called
the Rajah of Dinagepore.
I find, that, about the month of July, 1780, the Rajah of Dinagepore, after a long and lingering illness,
died, leaving an half-brother and an adopted son.
A litigation respecting the succession instantly arose
in the family; and this litigatigation was of course referred to, and was finally to be decided by, the Governor-General in Council, -- being the ultimate authority to which the decision of all these questions was to be referred. This cause came before Mr. Hastilgs,
and I find that he decided the question in favor of the
adopted son of the Rajah against his half-brother. I
find that upon that decision a rent was settled, and
a peshcush, or fine, paid.
