Having stated the general outline of the manners
of the original people of Hindostan, having stated
the general principles of their policy, which either
prohibit connection, or oblige us to a connection very
different from what we have hitherto used towards
them, I shall leave it to your Lordships' judgment
whether you will suffer such fair monuments of wisdom and benevolence to be defaced by the rapacity of your governors.
of the original people of Hindostan, having stated
the general principles of their policy, which either
prohibit connection, or oblige us to a connection very
different from what we have hitherto used towards
them, I shall leave it to your Lordships' judgment
whether you will suffer such fair monuments of wisdom and benevolence to be defaced by the rapacity of your governors.
Edmund Burke
There
remains nothing for the Directors but the shell and
husk of a dry, formal, official correspondence, which
neither means anything nor was intended to mean
anything.
These are some of the methods by which he has
defeated the purposes of the excellent institution of
a recorded administration. But there are cases to be
brought before this court in which he has laid the axe
at once to the root, -- which was, by delegating out
of his own hands a great department of the powers of
the Company, which he was himself bound to execute, to a board which was not bound to record their deliberations with the same strictness as he himself
was bound. He appointed of his own usurped authority a board for the administration of the revenue, the members of which were expressly dispensed from
recording their dissents, until they chose it; and in
that office, as in a great gulf, a most important part
of the Company's transactions has been buried.
Notwithstanding his unwearied pains in the work
of spoliation, some precious fragments are left, which
we ought infinitely to value, --by which we may
learn, -and lament, the loss of what he has destroyed.
If it were not for those inestimable fragments and
w ecks of the recorded government which have been
? ? ? ? 374 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
saved from the destruction which Mr. Hastings in
tended for them all, the most shameful enormities
that have ever disgraced a government or harassed
a people would only be known in this country by secret whispers and unauthenticated anecdotes; the disgracers of government, the vexers and afflicters of
mankind, instead of being brought before an awful
public tribunal, might have been honored with the
highest distinctions and rewards their country has
to bestow; and sordid bribery, base peculation, ironhanded extortion, fierce, unrelenting tyranny, might
themselves have been invested with those sacred robes
of justice before which this day they have cause to
tremble.
Mr. Hastings, sensible of what he suffers from this
register of acts and opinions, has endeavored to discredit and ruin what remains of it. He refuses, in
his defence to the House of Commons, in letters
to the Court of Directors, in various writings and
declarations, he refuses to be tried by his own recorded declarations; he refuses to be bound by his
own opinions, delivered under his own hand. He
knows that he and the record cannot exist together.
He knows that what remains of the written constitution which he has not destroyed is enough to destroy
him. He claims a privilege of systematic inconstancy, a privilege of prevarication, a privilege of contradiction, -a privilege of not only changing his conduct, but the principles of his conduct, whenever it suits his occasions. But I hope your Lordships will
show the destroyers of that wise constitution, and
the destroyers of those records which are to be the
securities against malversation in office, the discoverers and avengers of it, that whoever'destroys the dis
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 375
coverer establishes the iniquity; that, therefore, your
Lordships will bind him to his own declarations, given on record under his own hand; that you will say to this unfaithful servant of the Company, what was
said to another unfaithful person upon a far less occasion by a far greater authority, " Out of thy own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. "
Having gone through what I have been instructed
might be necessary to state to your Lordships concerning the Company's constitution, (I mean the real' inside, and not the shell of its constitution,) - having
stated the abuses that existed in it,- having stated
how Mr. Hastings endeavored to perpetuate and to
increase and to profit of the abuse, and how he has
systematically endeavored to destroy, and has in some
instances in fact destroyed, many things truly excellent in that constitution, -if I have not wasted your time inll explanation of matters that you are already
well acquainted with, I shall next beg leave to state
to you the abuse in some particulars of the other
part of the public authority which the Company acquired over the natives of India, in virtue of the royal charter of the present Mogul emperor, in the year
~1766 [ 1765? ].
My Lords, that you may the better judge of the
abuse Mr. Hastings has made of the powers vested in
him, it will be expedient to consider a little who the
people are to whose prejudice he has abused these
powers. I shall explain this point with as much brevity as is consistent with the distinctness with which I mean to bring the whole before your Lordships; and
I beg to observe to you that this previous discourse,
rather explanatory than accusatorial, (if I may use
? ? ? ? 376 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the expression,) is meant rather to elucidate the nature of the matter to come before you in regular charges than as proof of the charges themselves.
I know that a good deal of latitude is allowed to
advocates, when opening a cause in a private court,
to indulge themselves in their narratives leading to
the charges they intend to bring. They are not always called to the strictest account for such prefatory matter, because the court, when it comes to judge,
sifts and' distinguishes it from the points to be strictly
proved, and on whose merits the cause relies. But
I wish your Lordships to know, that, with the high
opinion I have of your gravity, (and it is impossible
for a man to conceive a higher,) and sensible of the
weight of those I represent at this place, namely,
the Commons of Great Britain, I should be sorry
that any one substantial fact, even in this explanatory opening, or even the color of the fact, should be alleged, which, when called upon, I should not be
ready to make good to you by proof, -I meanl, by
proof adapted to its nature: public opinion, by evidence of public opinion; by record, that to which record is applicable; by oral testimony, things to
which oral testimony alone can be produced; and,
last of all, that which is matter of historic proof, by
historic evidence. This I hope to do with the usual
allowance to errors and mistakes, which is the claim
of human infirmity.
Then, my Lords, two distinct people inhabit India.
Two sorts of people inhabit the same country, as totally distinct from each other, in characters, lives, opinions, prejudices, and manners, as the inhabitants
of countries most remote from each other. For both
of these descriptions Mr. Hastings was bound to pro
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 377
vide equally, agreeable to the terms of the charter
which the Company received from the lawful governing power of that country: a charter received at its
own solicitation; a charter not forced upon us by a
superior power, but given at the immediate solicitation of the principal servants belonging to the Company; a charter solemnly accepted by the Company, and by them, I am very sorry to say, little regarded,
- or, at least, little regarded by their principal servants.
My Lords, the first description of people who are
subjected virtually to the British empire through
those mediums which I have described to you are
the original inhabitants of Hindostan, who have in
all time, and beyond all the eras which we use, (I
mean always the two grand eras excepted,) been the
aboriginal inhabitants and proprietors of that country, - with manners, religion, customs, and usages
appropriated to themselves, and little resembling
those of the rest of mankind. This description' of
men is commonly called Gentoos. ' The system and
prificiple of that government is locality. Their laws,
their manners, their religion are all local.
Their legislator, whoever he was, (for who he was
is a matter lost in the mists of a most obscure antiquity,) had it as a great leading principle of his
policy to connect the people with their soil. Accordingly, by one of those anomalies which a larger
acquaintance with our species daily discovers, and
which perhaps an attentive reflection might explain
in the nature of man, this aboriginal people of India,
- who are the softest in their manners of any of our
race, approaching almost to feminine tenderness,who are formed constitutionally benevolent, and, in
? ? ? ? 378 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
many particulars, made to fill a larger circle of benevolence than our morals take in, --who extefid their
good-will to the whole animal creation, - these people
are, of all nations, the most unalliable to any other
part of mankind. They cannot, the highest orders of
them, at least, cannot, come into contact with any other. That bond which is one of the chief instruments
of society, and which, supporting the individual, connects the species, can have no existence with them: I
mean the convivial bond. That race can be held to no
other by that great link of life. No iEindoo can mix
at meals even with those on whom he depends for the
meat he eats. This circumstance renders it difficult
for us to enter with due sympathy into their concerns,
or for them to enter into ours, even when we meet
on the same ground. But there are other circumstances which render our intercourse, in our mutual
relation, very full of difficulty. The sea is between
us. The mass of that element, which, by appearing
to disconnect, unites mankind, is to them a forbidden
road. It is a great gulf fixed between you and them,
- not so much that elementary gulf, but that gulf
which manners, opinions, and laws have radicated in
the very nature of the people. None of their high
castes, without great danger to his situation, religion,
rank, and estimation, can ever pass the sea; and this
forbids, forever, all direct communication between that
country and this. That material and affecting circumstance, my Lords, makes it ten times more necessary, since they cannot come to us, to keep a strict eye upon all persons who go to them. It imposes upon us a stricter duty to guard with a firm and powerful vigilance those whose principles of conscience weaken their principles of self-defence. If we. un
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -- FIRST DAY. 379
dertake to govern the inhabitants of such a country, we must govern them upon their own principles
and maxims, and not upon ours. We must not think
to force them into the narrow circle of our ideas; we
must extend ours to take in their system of opinions and rites, and the necessities which result from
both: all change on their part is absolutely impracticable. We have more versatility of character and
manners, and it is we who must conform. We know
what the empire of opinion is in human nature. I
had almost said that the law of opinion was human
nature itself. It is, however, the strongest principle
in the composition of the frame of the human mind;
and more of the happiness and unhappiness of mankind resides in that inward principle than in all external circumstances put together. But if such is the empire of opinion even amongst us, it has a pure,
unrestrained, complete, and despotic power amongst
them. The variety of balanced opinions in our minds
weakens the force of each: for in Europe, sometimes,
the laws of religion differ from the laws of the land;
sometimes the laws of the land differ from our laws
of honor; our laws of honor are full of caprice, differing from those other laws, and sometimes differing from themselves: but there the laws of religion, the laws of the land, and the laws of honor are all
united and consolidated in one invariable system, and
bind men by eternal and indissoluble bonds to the
rules of what, amongst them, is called his caste.
It may be necessary just to state to your Lordships
what a caste is. The Gentoo people, from the oldest
time, have been distributed into various orders, all
of them hereditary: these family orders are called
castes; these castes are the fundamental part of tlhe
? ? ? ? 380 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
constitution of the Gentoo commonwealth, both in
their church and in their state.
Your Lordships are born to hereditary honors in
the chief of your houses; the rest mix with the people. With the Gentoos, they who are born noble can never fall into any second rank. They are divided
into four orders, --the Brahmins, the Chittery, the
Bice, and the Soodur, with many subdivisions in each.
An eternal barrier is placed between them. The
higher cannot pass into the lower; the lower cannot
rise into the higher. They have all their appropriated rank, place, and situation, and their appropriated religion too, which is essentially different in its rites
and ceremnonies, sometimes in its object, in each of
those castes. A manll who is born in the highest caste,
which at once unites what would be tantamount in
this country to the dignity of the peerage and the
ennobled sanctity of the episcopal character, -the
Brahmin, who sustains these characters, if he loses
his caste, does not fall into an inferior order, the
Chittery, the Bice, or the Soodur, but he is thrown at
once out of all ranks of society. He is precipitated
from the proudest elevation of respect and honor to a
bottomless abyss of contempt, - from glory to infamy,
- from purity to pollution,- from sanctity to profanation. No honest occupation is open to him; his children are no longer his children; their parent loses
that name; the conjugal bond is dissolved. Few survive this most terrible of all calamities. To speak to an Indian of his caste is to speak to him of his all.
But the rule of caste has, with them, given one
power more to fortune than the manners of any other
nation were ever known to do. For it is singular,
the caste may be lost, not only by certain voluntary
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 381
crimes, but by certain involuntary sufferings, disgraces, and pollutions, that are utterly out of their
power to prevent. Those who have patiently submitted to imprisonment, - those who have not flinched
from the scourge, - those who have been as unmoved
as marble under torture, -- those who have laughed
at the menaces of death itself, - have instantly given
way, when it has been attempted to subject them to
ally of those pollutions by which they lose caste. To
this caste they are bound by all laws of all descriptions,
human and divine; and inveterate usage has radicated it in them to a depth and with all adhesion with
which no other known prejudice has been known to
exist. Tyranny is therefore armed against them with
a greater variety of weapons than are found in its
ordinary stores.
This, amongst a thousand other considerations,
speaks to us in very authoritative language with what
care and circumspection we ought to handle people
so delicate. In the course of this trial your Lordships will see with horror the use which Mr. Hastings made, through several of his wicked and abominable instruments, chosen from the natives themselves, of these superadded means of oppression. I shall prove, in the course of this trial, that he has
put his own menial domestic servant, -a wretch totally dependent, - a wretch grossly ignorant, -the
common instrument of his bribery and peculation, -
he has enthroned him, I say, on the first seat of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which was to decide upon
the castes of all those people, including their rank,
their family, their honor, and their happiness here,
and, in their judgment, their salvation hereafter.
Under the awe of this power, no man dared to breathe
? ? ? ? 382 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a murmur against his tyranny. Fortified in this security, he says, "W Mho complains of me? " -" No, none of us dare complain of you," says the trembling Gentoo. " No! your menial servant has my caste in his power. " -- I shall not trouble your Lordships with
mentioning others; it was enough that Cantoo Baboo,
and Giiiga Govind Sing, names to which your Lordships are to be familiarized hereafter,- it is. enough
that those persons had the caste and character of all
the people of Bengal in their hands. Through them
he has taken effectual security against all complaint.
Your Lordships will hence discern how very necessary
it is become that some other personage should intervene, should take upon him their representation, and by his freedom and his power should supply the defects arising from their servitude and their impotence. The Commons of Great Britain charge themselves with
this character.
My Lords, these Gentoo people are the original
people of Hindostan. They are still, beyond comparison, the most numerous. Faults this nation may
have; but God forbid we should pass judgment upon
people who framed their laws and institutions prior
to our insect origin of yesterday! With all the
faults of their nature and errors of their institutions,
their institutions, which act so powerfully on their
natures, have two material characteristics which entitle them to respect: first, great force and stability; and next, excellent moral and civil effects.
Their stability has been proved by their holding on
an uniform tenor for a duration commensurate to all
the empires with which history has made us acquainted; and they still exist in a green old age, with all the reverence of antiquity, and with all the passion
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 383
that people have to novelty and change. They have
stood firm on their ancient base; they have cast
their roots deep in their native soil, -- perhaps because they have never spread them anywhere else
than in their native soil. Their blood, their opinions, and the soil of their country make one consistent piece, admitting no mixture, no adulteration, no improvement: accordingly, their religion has made
no converts, their dominion has made no conquests;
but in proportion as their laws and opinions were
~concentred within themselves, and hindered from
spreading abroad, they have doubled their force at
home. They have existed in spite of Mahomedan
and Portuguese bigotry, -- in spite of Tartarian and
Arabian tyranny, in spite of all the fury of successive foreign conquest, - in spite of a more formidable
foe, the avarice of the English dominion.
I have spoken now, my Lords, of what their principles are, their laws and religious institutions, in point
of force and stability; I have given instances of their
force in the very circumstance in which all the institutions of mankind in other respects show their weaknless. They have existed, when the country has been otherwise subdued. ' This alone furnishes full proof
that there must be some powerful influence resulting
from them beyond all our little fashionable theories
upon such subjects.
The second consideration in the Gentoo institutions
is their beneficial effects, moral and civil. The policy,
civil or religidus, or, as theirs is, composed of both,
that makes a people happy and a state flourishing,
(putting further and higher considerations out of the
way, w. hich are not now before us,) must undoubtedly, so far as human considerations prevail, be a pol
? ? ? ? 384 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
icy wisely conceived in any scheme of government.
It is confirmed by all observation, that, where the
Hindoo religion has been established, that country
has been flourishing. We have seen some patterns
remaining to this day. The very country which is
to be the subject of your Lordships' judicial inquiry
is an instance, by an entire change of government,
of the different effects resulting from the rapacity of
a foreign hand, and the paternal, lenient, protecting
arm of a native government, formed on the long con:
nection of prejudice and power. I shall give you its
state under the Hindoo government from a book
written by a very old servant of the Company, whose
authority is of the greater weight, as. the very destruction of all this scheme of government is the great object of the author. The author, Mr. Holwell, divides the country of
Bengal into its different provinces. He supposes
what they then paid to the supreme government;
he supposes what the country is capable of yielding;
and his project is, to change entirely the application
df the revenues of the country, and to secure the
whole into the hands of government. In enumerating these provinces, at last he comes to the province of Burdwan.
" In truth," (says this author,) " it would be almost cruelty to molest this happy people; for in this
district are the only vestiges of the beauty, purity,
piety, regularity, equity, and strictness of the ancient
Hindostan government. Here the property as well
as the liberty of the people are inviolate. Here no
robberies are heard of, either public or private. The
traveller, either with or without merchandise, becomes the immediate care of the government, which
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN' OPENING. -- FI4ST DAY. 385
allots him guards, without ally expense, to conduct
him from stage to stage; and these are accountable
for the safety and accommodation of his person and
effects. At the end of the first stage he is delivered over, with certain benevolent formalities, to the
guards of the next,. who, after interrogating the traveller as to the usage he had received in his journey,
dismiss the first guard with a written certificate,of their behavior, and a receipt for the traveller
and his effects; which certificate and receipt are returnable to the commanding officer of the first stage,
who registers the same, and regularly reports it to
the rajah.
"In this form the traveller is passed through the;
country; and if he only passes, he is not. suffered to:
be at any expense for food, accommodation, or carriage for his merchandise or baggage: but it is other --
wise, if he is permitted to make any residence in one
place above three days, unless occasioned by sickness,
or any unavoidable accident. If anything is lost in
this district, -- for instance, a bag of money or other
valuables, - the person who finds it hangs it upon the
next tree, and. gives notice to the nearest chowkey,
or place of guard, the officer of which orders immediate publication of the same by beat of tomtom,, or
drum. "
These, my Lords, are the effects universally produced by the Hindoo polity throughout that vast region, before it was distorted and put out of frame by the barbarism of foreign conquests. Some choice,
reserved spots continued to flourish under it to the
year 1756. Some remained till Mr. Hastings obtained;
the means of utterly defacing them. Such was the,
prospect of Benares under the happy government of'
VOL. IX. 25
? ? ? ? 386 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Bulwant Sing. Such was the happy state of the
same Benares in the happy days of Cheyt Sing, until,
in the year 1781, Mr. Hastings introduced his reform
into that country.
Having stated the general outline of the manners
of the original people of Hindostan, having stated
the general principles of their policy, which either
prohibit connection, or oblige us to a connection very
different from what we have hitherto used towards
them, I shall leave it to your Lordships' judgment
whether you will suffer such fair monuments of wisdom and benevolence to be defaced by the rapacity of your governors. I hope I have not gone out of
my way to bring before you any circumstance relative to the Gentoo religion and manners, further than as they relate to the spirit of our government over
them; for though there never was such food for the
curiosity of the human mind as is found in the manners of this people, I pass it totally over.
I wish to divide this preliminary view into six
periods; and your Lordships'will consider that of
the Hindoos,' which I have now. mentioned, as the
first era.
The second era is an era of great misfortune to
that country, and to the world in general: I mean,
thle time of the prophet Mahomed. The enthusiasm
which animated his first followers, the despotic power
which religion obtained through that enthusiasm, and
the advantages derived from both over the enervated
great empires, and broken, disunited, lesser governments of the world, extended the influence of that proud and domineering sect from the banks of the
Ganges to the banks of the Loire.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 387
This second period is the era of the Arabs. These
people made a great and lasting impression on India.
They established, very early, Mahomedan sovereigns
in all parts of it, particularly in the kingdom of Bengal, which is the principal object of our present inquiry. They held that kingdom for a long series of years, under a dynasty of thirty-three kings, - having begun their conquest and founded their dominion in Bengal not very long after the time of their prophet.
These people, when they first settled in India, attempted, with the ferocious arm of their prophetic
sword, to change the religion and manners of that
country; but at length perceiving that their cruelty
wearied out itself, and never could touch the constancy of the sufferers, they permitted the native
people of the country to remain in quiet, and left
the Mahomedan religion to operate upon them as it
could, by appealing to the ambition or avarice of the
great, or by taking the lower people, who had lost
their castes, into this new sect, and thus, from the
refuse of the Gentoo, increasing the bounds of the
Mahomedan religion. They left many. of the ancient
rajahs of the country possessed of an inferior sovereignty; and where the strength of the country, or
other circumstances, would not permit this subordination, they suffered them to continue in a separate
state, approaching to independence, if not wholly independent.
The Mahomedans, during the period of the Arabs,
never expelled or destroyed the native Gentoo nobil-'ity, zemindars, or landholders of the country. They
all, or almost all, remained fixed in their places,
properties, and dignities; and the shadows of several
of them remain under our jurisdiction.
? ? ? ? 888 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
The next, which is the third era, is an era the
more necessary to observe upon, because Mr. Hastings has made many applications to it in his defence
before the Commons: namely, the invasion of the Tartars, or the era of Tamerlane. These Tartars did not
establish themselves on the ruins of the Hindoos.
Their conquests were over the other Mahomedans:
for Tamerlane invaded Hindostan, as he invaded other countries, in the character of the great reformer
of the Mahomedan religion. He came as a sort of
successor to the rights of the Prophet, upon a divine title. He struck at all the Mahomedan princes
who reigned at that time. He considered them as
apostates, or at least as degenerated from the faith,
and as tyrants abusing their power. To facilitate his
conquests over these, he was often obliged to come
to a sort of a composition with the people of the
country he invaded. Tamerlane had' neither time
nor means nor inclination to dispossess the ancient
rajahs of the country.
Your Lordships will observe that I propose nothing more than to give you an idea of the principles of policy which prevailed in these several revolutions, and not an history of the furious military achievements of a barbarous invader. Historians,
indeed, are generally very liberal of their information concerning everything but what we ought to
be very anxious to know. They tell us that India
was conquered by Tamerlane, and conquered in such
a year. The year will be found to coincide somewhere, I believe, with the end of the fourteenth
century. Thinking the mere fact as of little moment, and its chronology as nothing, but thinking
the policy very material, which, indeed, is to be
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 389
collected only here and there, in various books
written with various views, I shall beg leave to lay
before you a very remarkable circumstance relative
to that policy, and taken from the same book to
which I formerly referred, Mr. Holwell's.
"When the Hindoo rajahs, or princes of Hindostan, submitted to Tamerlane, it was on these capital stipulations: that the emperor should marry a daughter of Rajah Cheyt Sing's house; that the
head of this house should be in perpetuity governors of the citadel of Agra, and anoint the king at
his coronation; and that the emperors should never
impose the jessera (or poll-tax) upon the Hindoos. "
Here was a conqueror, as he is called, coming in
upon terms; mixing his blood with that of the native nobility of the country he conquered, and, in
consequence of this mixture, placing them in succession upon the throne of the country he subdued;
making one of them even hereditary constable of
the capital of his kingdom; and thereby. putting his
posterity as a pledge into their hands. What is full
as remarkable, he freed the HIindoos forever from
that tax which the Mahomedans have laid upon
every country over which the sword of Mahomet
prevailed, --namely, a capitation tax upon all who
do not profess the religion of. the Mahomedans.
But the Hindoos,' by express charter, were exempted from that mark of servitude, and thereby declared
not to be a conquered people. The native princes,
in all their transactions with the Mogul government,
carried the evident marks of this free condition in
a noble independency of spirit. Within their own
districts the authority of many of them seemed entire. We are often led into mistakes concerning
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the government of Hindostan, by comparing it with
those governments where the prince is armed with
a full, speculative, entire authority, and where the
great people have, with great titles, no privileges at
all, or, having privileges, have those privileges only
as subjects. But in Hiindostan the modes, the degrees, the circumstances of subjection varied infinitely. In some places hardly a trace at all of subjection was to be discerned; in some the rajahs were almost assessors of the throne, as in this case of
the Rajah Cheyt Sing. These circumstances mark,
that Tamerlane, however he may be indicated by
the odious names of Tartar and Conqueror, was no
barbarian; that the people who submitted to him
did not submit with the abject submission of slaves
to the sword of a conqueror, but admitted a great
supreme emperor, who was just, prudent, and politic,
instead of the ferocious, oppressive, lesser Mahomedan sovereigns, who had before forced their way by
the sword into the country.
That country resembled more a republic of princes with a great chief at their head than a territory
in absolute, uniform, systematic subjection from one
end to the other, -in which light Mr. Hastings and
others of late have thought proper, to consider it. According to them, if a subordinate prince, like Cheyt
Sing, was not ready to pay any exorbitant sum on
instant demand, or submit to any extent of fine which
should be inflicted upon him by the mere will of the
person who called robbery a fine, and who took the
measure of that fine without either considering the
means of paying or the degree of delinquency that
justified it, their properties, liberties, and lives were
instantly forfeited. The rajahs of that country were
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 391
armed; they had fortresses for their security; they
had troops. In tlie receipt of both their own and the
imperial revenue, their securities for justice were in
their own hands: but the policy of the Mogul princes
very rarely led them to push that people to such extremity as it is supposed that on every slight occasion we have a right to push those who are the subjects
of our pretended conquest.
Mr. Holwell throws much light on this policy,
which became the standing law of the empire.
In the unfortunate wars which followed the death
of Mauz-o-Din, " Sevajee Cheyt Sing," (the great' rajah we have just mentioned,) " with a select body of Rajpoots, by a well-conducted retreat recovered. Agra,
and was soon after reconciled to the king [the Mogul]
and admitted to his favor, - conformable to the steady
policy of this government, in keeping a good understanding with the principal rajahs, and more especially with the head of this house, who is ever capable of
raising and fomenting a very formidable party upon
any intended revolution in this despotic and precarious monarchy. "
You see that it was the monarchy that was precarious, not the rights of the subordinate chiefs. Your Lordships see, that, notwithstanding our ideas of Orielltal despotism, under the successors. of Tamerlane, these principal rajahs, instead of being called wretches, and treated as such, as Mr. Hastings has thought it Uocoming to call and treat them, when they were
in arms against their sovereign, were regarded with
respect, and were admitted to easy reconciliations;
because, in reality, in their occasional hostilities,
they~ were not properly rebellious subjects, but princes often asserting their natural rights and the just constitution of the country.
? ? ? ? :92 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
This view of the policy which prevailed during the
dynasty of Tamerlane naturally conducts me to the
next, which is the fourth era in this history: I mean
the era of the Emperor Akbar. He was the first of
the successors of Tamerlane who obtained possession
of Bengal. It is easy to show of what nature his
conquest was. It was over the last Mahomedan
dynasty. He, too, like his predecessor, Tamerlane,
conquered the prince, not the country. It is a certain mark that it was not a conquered country in
the sense in which we commonly call a country
conquered, that the natives, great men and landholders, continued in every part in the possession
of their estates, and of the jurisdictions annexed to
them. It is true, that, in the several wars for the
succession to the Mogul empire, and in other of their
internal wars, severe revenges were taken, which bore
resemblance'to those taken in the wars of the Roses
in this country, where it was the common course, in
the heat of blood, -" Off with his head - so much
for Buckingham! " Yet, where the country again recovered its form and settlement, it recovered the spirit of a mild government. Whatever rigor was used with
regard to the Mallomedan adventurers from Persia,
Turkey, and other parts, who filled the places of servile grandeur in the Mogul court, the Hindoos were
a favored, protected, gently treated people.
The next, which is the fifth era, is a troubled and
vexatious period, -the era of the independent Subahs of Bengal. Five of these subahs, or viceroys, governed from about the year 1717, or thereabouts.
They grew into independence partly by the calamities and concussions of that empire, which happened during the disputes for the succession of Tamerlane.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 393
and partly, and indeed principally, by the great shock
which the empire received when Thamas Kouli Khan
broke into that country, carried off its revenues, overturned the throne, and massacred not only many of
the chief nobility, but almost all the inhabitants of the
capital city. This rude shock, which that empire was
never able to recover, enabled the viceroys to become
independent; but their independence led to their ruin.
Those who had usurped upon their masters had servants who usurped upon them. Aliverdy Khan murdered his master, and opened a way into Bengal for a body of foreign invaders, the Mahrattas, who cruelly
harassed the country for several years. Their retreat
was at length purchased, and by a sum which is supposed to amount to five millions sterling. By this
purchase he secured the exhausted remains of an exhausted kingdom, and left it to his grandson, Surajah'Dowlah, in peace and poverty. On the fall of Surajah Dowlah, in 1756, commenced the last, which is the
sixth, - the era of the British empire.
On the fifth dynasty I have only to remark to your
Lordships, that at its close the Ilindoo chiefs were
almost everywhere found in possession of the country; that, although Aliverdy Khan was a cruel tyrant,
though he was an untitled usurper, though he racked
and tormented the people under his government,
urged, however, by an apparent necessity from an
invading army of one hundred thousand horse in his
dominions, -yet, under him, the rajahs still preserved
their rank, their dignity, their castles, their houses,
their seigniories, all the insignia of their situation,
and always the right, sometimes also the means, of
protecting their subordinate people, till the last and
unfortunate era of 1756.
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Through the whole of this sketch of history I wish
to impress but one great and important truth upon
your minds: namely, that, through all these revolutions in government and changes in power, an Hindoo polity, and the spirit of an Hindoo government, did
more or less exist in that province with which he was
concerned, until it was finally to be destroyed by Mr.
Hastings.
My Lords, I have gone through all the eras precedent to those of the British power in India, and am
come to the first of those eras. Mr. Hastings existed
in India, and was a servant of the Company before
that era, and had his education between both. He is
an antediluvian with regard to the British dominion
in Bengal. He was coexistent with all the acts and
monuments of that revolution, and had no small share.
in all the abuses of that abusive period which preceded
his actual government. But as it was during, that
transit from Eastern to Western power that most of
the abuses had their origin, it will not be perfectly
easy for your Lordships thoroughly to enter into the
nature and circumstances of them without an explanation of the principal events that happened from the year 1756 until the commencement of Mr. Hastings's
government, - during a good part of which time we
do not often lose sight of him. If I find it agreeable
to your Lordships, if I find that you wish to know
these annals of Indian suffering and British delinquency, if you desire that I should unfold the series of the transactions from 1756 to the period of Mr. Hastings's
government in 1771, that you may know how far he
promoted what was good, how far he rectified what
was evil, how far he abstained from innovation in
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. FIRST DAY. 395
tyranny, and contented himself with the old stock
of abuse, your Lordships will have the goodness to
consult the strength which from late indisposition
begins almost to fail me. And if you think the explanation is not time lost in this new world and in this new business, I shall venture to sketch out, as
briefly and with as much perspicuity as I can give
them, the leading events of that obscure and perplexed
period which intervened between the British settlement in 1757 and Mr. Hastings's government. If I should be so happy as to succeed in that attempt, your
Lordships' minds will be prepared for hearing this
cause. Then your Lordships will have a clear view
of the origin and nature of the abuses which prevailed
in that government before Mr. Hastings obtained his
greatest power, and since that time; and then we
shall be able to enter fully and explicitly into the
hature of the cause: and I should hope that it will
pave the way and make everything easy for your
subsequent justice.
I therefore wish to stop at this period, in which Mr.
Hastings became active in the service, pretty near the
time when he began his political career: and here,
my Lords, I pause, wishing your indulgence at such
time as will suit your convenience for pursuing the
rest of this eventful history.
? ? ? ? SPEEC H
IN
OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1788.
M Y LORDS, - In what I had the honor of laying
before your Lordships yesterday, and in what I
may further trouble you with to-day, I wish to observe
a distinction, which if I did not lay down so perfectly
as I ought, I hope I shall now be able to mark it out
with sufficient exactness and perspicuity.
First, I beg leave to observe that what I shall think
necessary to state, as matter of preliminary explanation, in order to give your Lordships a true idea of the scene of action, of the instruments which Mr.
Hastings employed, and the effects which they produced,-all this I wish to be distinguished from matter brought to criminate. Even the matter, as
stated by me, which may be hereafter brought to
criminate, so far as it falls to my share at present, is
only to be considered, in this stage of the business,
as merely illustrative. Your Lordships are to expect,
as undoubtedly you will require, substantial matter
of crimination to be laid open. for that purpose at the
moment when the evidence to each charge is ready to
be produced to you. . Thus your Lordships will easily
separate historical illustration from criminal opening.
For instanlce, if I stated yesterday to your Lordships,
as I did, tle tyranny and cruelty of one of the usurp
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 397
ing viceroys, whose usurpation and whose vices led
the way to the destruction of his country and the
introduction of a foreign power, I do not mean to
charge Mr. Hastings with any part of that guilt:
what bears upon Mr. Hastings is his having avowedly
looked to such a tyrant and such a usurper as his
model, and followed that pernicious example with a
servile fidelity. *When I have endeavored to lay open
to your Lordships anythingz abusive, or leading to
abuse, from defects or errors in the constitution of
the Company's service, I did not mean to criminate
Mr. Hastings on any part of those defects and errors:
I state them to show that he took advantage of the
imperfections of the institution to let in his abuse of
the power. with which he was intrusted. If, for a
further instance, I have stated that in general the service of the India Company was insufficient in legal pay or emolument and abundant in the means of
illegal profit, I do not state that defect as owing to
Mr. Hastings; but I state it as a fact, to show in what
manner and on what pretences he did, fraudulently,
corruptly, and for the purposes of his own ambition,
take advantage of that defect, and, under color of
reformation, make an illegal, partial, corrupt rise of
emoluments to certain favored persons without regard
to the interests of the service at large, --increasing
rather than lessening the means of illicit emolument,
as well as loading the Company with many heavy and
ruinous expenses in avowed salaries and allowances.
Having requested your Lordships to keep in mind,
which I trust you would do even without my taking
the liberty of suggesting it to you, these necessary
distinctions, I shall revert to the period at which I
closed yesterday, that great and memorable period
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which has remotely given occasion to the trial of this
day.
My Lords, to obtain empire is common; to govern
it well has been rare indeed. To chastise the guilt
of those who have been instruments of imperial sway
over other nations by the high superintending justice
of the sovereign state has not many striking examples
among any people. Hitherto we have not furnished
our contingent to the records of honor. We have
been confounded with the herd of conquerors. Our
dominion has been a vulgar thing. But we begin to
emerge; and I hope that a severe inspection of ourselves, a purification of our own offences, a lustration
of the exorbitances of our own power, is a glory reserved to this time, to this nation, and to this august triburnal.
The year 1756 is a memorable era in the history
of the world: it introduced a new nation from the
remotest verge of the Western world, with new manners, new customs, new institutions, new opinions, new laws, into the heart of Asia.
My Lords, if, in that part of Asia whose native
regular government was then broken up, -if, at the
moment when it had fallen into darkness and confusion from having become the prey and almost the sport of the ambition of its home-born grandees, - if, in that
gloomy season, a star had risen from the West, that
would prognosticate a better generation, and would
shed down the sweet influences of order, peace, science, and security to the natives of that vexed and harassed country, we should have been covered with
genuine honor. It would have been a beautiful and
noble spectacle to mankind.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 399
Indeed, something might have been expected of
the kind, when a new dominion emanated from a
learned and enlightened part of the world in the
most enlightened period of its existence. Still more
might it have been expected, when that dominion was
found to issue from the bosom of a free country, that
it would have carried with it the full benefit of the
vital principle of the British liberty and Constitution,
though its municipal forms were not communicable,
or at least the advantage of the liberty and spirit
of the British Constitution. Had this been the case,
(alas! it was not,) you would have been saved the
trouble of this day. It might have been expected, too,
that, in that enlightened state of the world, influenced
by the best religion, and from an improved description of that best religion, (I mean the Christian reformed religion,) that we should have done honor to Europe, to letters, to laws, to religion, - done honor
to all the circumstances of which in this island we
boast ourselves, at the great and critical moment of
that revolution.
My Lords, it has happened otherwise. It is now
left for us to repair our former errors. Resuming
the history where I broke off yesterday by your indulgence to my weakness, - Surajah Dowlah was the
adopted grandson of Aliverdy Khan, a cruel and ferocious; tyrant, the manner of whose acquisition of
power I have already stated.
remains nothing for the Directors but the shell and
husk of a dry, formal, official correspondence, which
neither means anything nor was intended to mean
anything.
These are some of the methods by which he has
defeated the purposes of the excellent institution of
a recorded administration. But there are cases to be
brought before this court in which he has laid the axe
at once to the root, -- which was, by delegating out
of his own hands a great department of the powers of
the Company, which he was himself bound to execute, to a board which was not bound to record their deliberations with the same strictness as he himself
was bound. He appointed of his own usurped authority a board for the administration of the revenue, the members of which were expressly dispensed from
recording their dissents, until they chose it; and in
that office, as in a great gulf, a most important part
of the Company's transactions has been buried.
Notwithstanding his unwearied pains in the work
of spoliation, some precious fragments are left, which
we ought infinitely to value, --by which we may
learn, -and lament, the loss of what he has destroyed.
If it were not for those inestimable fragments and
w ecks of the recorded government which have been
? ? ? ? 374 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
saved from the destruction which Mr. Hastings in
tended for them all, the most shameful enormities
that have ever disgraced a government or harassed
a people would only be known in this country by secret whispers and unauthenticated anecdotes; the disgracers of government, the vexers and afflicters of
mankind, instead of being brought before an awful
public tribunal, might have been honored with the
highest distinctions and rewards their country has
to bestow; and sordid bribery, base peculation, ironhanded extortion, fierce, unrelenting tyranny, might
themselves have been invested with those sacred robes
of justice before which this day they have cause to
tremble.
Mr. Hastings, sensible of what he suffers from this
register of acts and opinions, has endeavored to discredit and ruin what remains of it. He refuses, in
his defence to the House of Commons, in letters
to the Court of Directors, in various writings and
declarations, he refuses to be tried by his own recorded declarations; he refuses to be bound by his
own opinions, delivered under his own hand. He
knows that he and the record cannot exist together.
He knows that what remains of the written constitution which he has not destroyed is enough to destroy
him. He claims a privilege of systematic inconstancy, a privilege of prevarication, a privilege of contradiction, -a privilege of not only changing his conduct, but the principles of his conduct, whenever it suits his occasions. But I hope your Lordships will
show the destroyers of that wise constitution, and
the destroyers of those records which are to be the
securities against malversation in office, the discoverers and avengers of it, that whoever'destroys the dis
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 375
coverer establishes the iniquity; that, therefore, your
Lordships will bind him to his own declarations, given on record under his own hand; that you will say to this unfaithful servant of the Company, what was
said to another unfaithful person upon a far less occasion by a far greater authority, " Out of thy own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. "
Having gone through what I have been instructed
might be necessary to state to your Lordships concerning the Company's constitution, (I mean the real' inside, and not the shell of its constitution,) - having
stated the abuses that existed in it,- having stated
how Mr. Hastings endeavored to perpetuate and to
increase and to profit of the abuse, and how he has
systematically endeavored to destroy, and has in some
instances in fact destroyed, many things truly excellent in that constitution, -if I have not wasted your time inll explanation of matters that you are already
well acquainted with, I shall next beg leave to state
to you the abuse in some particulars of the other
part of the public authority which the Company acquired over the natives of India, in virtue of the royal charter of the present Mogul emperor, in the year
~1766 [ 1765? ].
My Lords, that you may the better judge of the
abuse Mr. Hastings has made of the powers vested in
him, it will be expedient to consider a little who the
people are to whose prejudice he has abused these
powers. I shall explain this point with as much brevity as is consistent with the distinctness with which I mean to bring the whole before your Lordships; and
I beg to observe to you that this previous discourse,
rather explanatory than accusatorial, (if I may use
? ? ? ? 376 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the expression,) is meant rather to elucidate the nature of the matter to come before you in regular charges than as proof of the charges themselves.
I know that a good deal of latitude is allowed to
advocates, when opening a cause in a private court,
to indulge themselves in their narratives leading to
the charges they intend to bring. They are not always called to the strictest account for such prefatory matter, because the court, when it comes to judge,
sifts and' distinguishes it from the points to be strictly
proved, and on whose merits the cause relies. But
I wish your Lordships to know, that, with the high
opinion I have of your gravity, (and it is impossible
for a man to conceive a higher,) and sensible of the
weight of those I represent at this place, namely,
the Commons of Great Britain, I should be sorry
that any one substantial fact, even in this explanatory opening, or even the color of the fact, should be alleged, which, when called upon, I should not be
ready to make good to you by proof, -I meanl, by
proof adapted to its nature: public opinion, by evidence of public opinion; by record, that to which record is applicable; by oral testimony, things to
which oral testimony alone can be produced; and,
last of all, that which is matter of historic proof, by
historic evidence. This I hope to do with the usual
allowance to errors and mistakes, which is the claim
of human infirmity.
Then, my Lords, two distinct people inhabit India.
Two sorts of people inhabit the same country, as totally distinct from each other, in characters, lives, opinions, prejudices, and manners, as the inhabitants
of countries most remote from each other. For both
of these descriptions Mr. Hastings was bound to pro
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 377
vide equally, agreeable to the terms of the charter
which the Company received from the lawful governing power of that country: a charter received at its
own solicitation; a charter not forced upon us by a
superior power, but given at the immediate solicitation of the principal servants belonging to the Company; a charter solemnly accepted by the Company, and by them, I am very sorry to say, little regarded,
- or, at least, little regarded by their principal servants.
My Lords, the first description of people who are
subjected virtually to the British empire through
those mediums which I have described to you are
the original inhabitants of Hindostan, who have in
all time, and beyond all the eras which we use, (I
mean always the two grand eras excepted,) been the
aboriginal inhabitants and proprietors of that country, - with manners, religion, customs, and usages
appropriated to themselves, and little resembling
those of the rest of mankind. This description' of
men is commonly called Gentoos. ' The system and
prificiple of that government is locality. Their laws,
their manners, their religion are all local.
Their legislator, whoever he was, (for who he was
is a matter lost in the mists of a most obscure antiquity,) had it as a great leading principle of his
policy to connect the people with their soil. Accordingly, by one of those anomalies which a larger
acquaintance with our species daily discovers, and
which perhaps an attentive reflection might explain
in the nature of man, this aboriginal people of India,
- who are the softest in their manners of any of our
race, approaching almost to feminine tenderness,who are formed constitutionally benevolent, and, in
? ? ? ? 378 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
many particulars, made to fill a larger circle of benevolence than our morals take in, --who extefid their
good-will to the whole animal creation, - these people
are, of all nations, the most unalliable to any other
part of mankind. They cannot, the highest orders of
them, at least, cannot, come into contact with any other. That bond which is one of the chief instruments
of society, and which, supporting the individual, connects the species, can have no existence with them: I
mean the convivial bond. That race can be held to no
other by that great link of life. No iEindoo can mix
at meals even with those on whom he depends for the
meat he eats. This circumstance renders it difficult
for us to enter with due sympathy into their concerns,
or for them to enter into ours, even when we meet
on the same ground. But there are other circumstances which render our intercourse, in our mutual
relation, very full of difficulty. The sea is between
us. The mass of that element, which, by appearing
to disconnect, unites mankind, is to them a forbidden
road. It is a great gulf fixed between you and them,
- not so much that elementary gulf, but that gulf
which manners, opinions, and laws have radicated in
the very nature of the people. None of their high
castes, without great danger to his situation, religion,
rank, and estimation, can ever pass the sea; and this
forbids, forever, all direct communication between that
country and this. That material and affecting circumstance, my Lords, makes it ten times more necessary, since they cannot come to us, to keep a strict eye upon all persons who go to them. It imposes upon us a stricter duty to guard with a firm and powerful vigilance those whose principles of conscience weaken their principles of self-defence. If we. un
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -- FIRST DAY. 379
dertake to govern the inhabitants of such a country, we must govern them upon their own principles
and maxims, and not upon ours. We must not think
to force them into the narrow circle of our ideas; we
must extend ours to take in their system of opinions and rites, and the necessities which result from
both: all change on their part is absolutely impracticable. We have more versatility of character and
manners, and it is we who must conform. We know
what the empire of opinion is in human nature. I
had almost said that the law of opinion was human
nature itself. It is, however, the strongest principle
in the composition of the frame of the human mind;
and more of the happiness and unhappiness of mankind resides in that inward principle than in all external circumstances put together. But if such is the empire of opinion even amongst us, it has a pure,
unrestrained, complete, and despotic power amongst
them. The variety of balanced opinions in our minds
weakens the force of each: for in Europe, sometimes,
the laws of religion differ from the laws of the land;
sometimes the laws of the land differ from our laws
of honor; our laws of honor are full of caprice, differing from those other laws, and sometimes differing from themselves: but there the laws of religion, the laws of the land, and the laws of honor are all
united and consolidated in one invariable system, and
bind men by eternal and indissoluble bonds to the
rules of what, amongst them, is called his caste.
It may be necessary just to state to your Lordships
what a caste is. The Gentoo people, from the oldest
time, have been distributed into various orders, all
of them hereditary: these family orders are called
castes; these castes are the fundamental part of tlhe
? ? ? ? 380 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
constitution of the Gentoo commonwealth, both in
their church and in their state.
Your Lordships are born to hereditary honors in
the chief of your houses; the rest mix with the people. With the Gentoos, they who are born noble can never fall into any second rank. They are divided
into four orders, --the Brahmins, the Chittery, the
Bice, and the Soodur, with many subdivisions in each.
An eternal barrier is placed between them. The
higher cannot pass into the lower; the lower cannot
rise into the higher. They have all their appropriated rank, place, and situation, and their appropriated religion too, which is essentially different in its rites
and ceremnonies, sometimes in its object, in each of
those castes. A manll who is born in the highest caste,
which at once unites what would be tantamount in
this country to the dignity of the peerage and the
ennobled sanctity of the episcopal character, -the
Brahmin, who sustains these characters, if he loses
his caste, does not fall into an inferior order, the
Chittery, the Bice, or the Soodur, but he is thrown at
once out of all ranks of society. He is precipitated
from the proudest elevation of respect and honor to a
bottomless abyss of contempt, - from glory to infamy,
- from purity to pollution,- from sanctity to profanation. No honest occupation is open to him; his children are no longer his children; their parent loses
that name; the conjugal bond is dissolved. Few survive this most terrible of all calamities. To speak to an Indian of his caste is to speak to him of his all.
But the rule of caste has, with them, given one
power more to fortune than the manners of any other
nation were ever known to do. For it is singular,
the caste may be lost, not only by certain voluntary
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 381
crimes, but by certain involuntary sufferings, disgraces, and pollutions, that are utterly out of their
power to prevent. Those who have patiently submitted to imprisonment, - those who have not flinched
from the scourge, - those who have been as unmoved
as marble under torture, -- those who have laughed
at the menaces of death itself, - have instantly given
way, when it has been attempted to subject them to
ally of those pollutions by which they lose caste. To
this caste they are bound by all laws of all descriptions,
human and divine; and inveterate usage has radicated it in them to a depth and with all adhesion with
which no other known prejudice has been known to
exist. Tyranny is therefore armed against them with
a greater variety of weapons than are found in its
ordinary stores.
This, amongst a thousand other considerations,
speaks to us in very authoritative language with what
care and circumspection we ought to handle people
so delicate. In the course of this trial your Lordships will see with horror the use which Mr. Hastings made, through several of his wicked and abominable instruments, chosen from the natives themselves, of these superadded means of oppression. I shall prove, in the course of this trial, that he has
put his own menial domestic servant, -a wretch totally dependent, - a wretch grossly ignorant, -the
common instrument of his bribery and peculation, -
he has enthroned him, I say, on the first seat of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which was to decide upon
the castes of all those people, including their rank,
their family, their honor, and their happiness here,
and, in their judgment, their salvation hereafter.
Under the awe of this power, no man dared to breathe
? ? ? ? 382 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a murmur against his tyranny. Fortified in this security, he says, "W Mho complains of me? " -" No, none of us dare complain of you," says the trembling Gentoo. " No! your menial servant has my caste in his power. " -- I shall not trouble your Lordships with
mentioning others; it was enough that Cantoo Baboo,
and Giiiga Govind Sing, names to which your Lordships are to be familiarized hereafter,- it is. enough
that those persons had the caste and character of all
the people of Bengal in their hands. Through them
he has taken effectual security against all complaint.
Your Lordships will hence discern how very necessary
it is become that some other personage should intervene, should take upon him their representation, and by his freedom and his power should supply the defects arising from their servitude and their impotence. The Commons of Great Britain charge themselves with
this character.
My Lords, these Gentoo people are the original
people of Hindostan. They are still, beyond comparison, the most numerous. Faults this nation may
have; but God forbid we should pass judgment upon
people who framed their laws and institutions prior
to our insect origin of yesterday! With all the
faults of their nature and errors of their institutions,
their institutions, which act so powerfully on their
natures, have two material characteristics which entitle them to respect: first, great force and stability; and next, excellent moral and civil effects.
Their stability has been proved by their holding on
an uniform tenor for a duration commensurate to all
the empires with which history has made us acquainted; and they still exist in a green old age, with all the reverence of antiquity, and with all the passion
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -FIRST DAY. 383
that people have to novelty and change. They have
stood firm on their ancient base; they have cast
their roots deep in their native soil, -- perhaps because they have never spread them anywhere else
than in their native soil. Their blood, their opinions, and the soil of their country make one consistent piece, admitting no mixture, no adulteration, no improvement: accordingly, their religion has made
no converts, their dominion has made no conquests;
but in proportion as their laws and opinions were
~concentred within themselves, and hindered from
spreading abroad, they have doubled their force at
home. They have existed in spite of Mahomedan
and Portuguese bigotry, -- in spite of Tartarian and
Arabian tyranny, in spite of all the fury of successive foreign conquest, - in spite of a more formidable
foe, the avarice of the English dominion.
I have spoken now, my Lords, of what their principles are, their laws and religious institutions, in point
of force and stability; I have given instances of their
force in the very circumstance in which all the institutions of mankind in other respects show their weaknless. They have existed, when the country has been otherwise subdued. ' This alone furnishes full proof
that there must be some powerful influence resulting
from them beyond all our little fashionable theories
upon such subjects.
The second consideration in the Gentoo institutions
is their beneficial effects, moral and civil. The policy,
civil or religidus, or, as theirs is, composed of both,
that makes a people happy and a state flourishing,
(putting further and higher considerations out of the
way, w. hich are not now before us,) must undoubtedly, so far as human considerations prevail, be a pol
? ? ? ? 384 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
icy wisely conceived in any scheme of government.
It is confirmed by all observation, that, where the
Hindoo religion has been established, that country
has been flourishing. We have seen some patterns
remaining to this day. The very country which is
to be the subject of your Lordships' judicial inquiry
is an instance, by an entire change of government,
of the different effects resulting from the rapacity of
a foreign hand, and the paternal, lenient, protecting
arm of a native government, formed on the long con:
nection of prejudice and power. I shall give you its
state under the Hindoo government from a book
written by a very old servant of the Company, whose
authority is of the greater weight, as. the very destruction of all this scheme of government is the great object of the author. The author, Mr. Holwell, divides the country of
Bengal into its different provinces. He supposes
what they then paid to the supreme government;
he supposes what the country is capable of yielding;
and his project is, to change entirely the application
df the revenues of the country, and to secure the
whole into the hands of government. In enumerating these provinces, at last he comes to the province of Burdwan.
" In truth," (says this author,) " it would be almost cruelty to molest this happy people; for in this
district are the only vestiges of the beauty, purity,
piety, regularity, equity, and strictness of the ancient
Hindostan government. Here the property as well
as the liberty of the people are inviolate. Here no
robberies are heard of, either public or private. The
traveller, either with or without merchandise, becomes the immediate care of the government, which
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN' OPENING. -- FI4ST DAY. 385
allots him guards, without ally expense, to conduct
him from stage to stage; and these are accountable
for the safety and accommodation of his person and
effects. At the end of the first stage he is delivered over, with certain benevolent formalities, to the
guards of the next,. who, after interrogating the traveller as to the usage he had received in his journey,
dismiss the first guard with a written certificate,of their behavior, and a receipt for the traveller
and his effects; which certificate and receipt are returnable to the commanding officer of the first stage,
who registers the same, and regularly reports it to
the rajah.
"In this form the traveller is passed through the;
country; and if he only passes, he is not. suffered to:
be at any expense for food, accommodation, or carriage for his merchandise or baggage: but it is other --
wise, if he is permitted to make any residence in one
place above three days, unless occasioned by sickness,
or any unavoidable accident. If anything is lost in
this district, -- for instance, a bag of money or other
valuables, - the person who finds it hangs it upon the
next tree, and. gives notice to the nearest chowkey,
or place of guard, the officer of which orders immediate publication of the same by beat of tomtom,, or
drum. "
These, my Lords, are the effects universally produced by the Hindoo polity throughout that vast region, before it was distorted and put out of frame by the barbarism of foreign conquests. Some choice,
reserved spots continued to flourish under it to the
year 1756. Some remained till Mr. Hastings obtained;
the means of utterly defacing them. Such was the,
prospect of Benares under the happy government of'
VOL. IX. 25
? ? ? ? 386 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Bulwant Sing. Such was the happy state of the
same Benares in the happy days of Cheyt Sing, until,
in the year 1781, Mr. Hastings introduced his reform
into that country.
Having stated the general outline of the manners
of the original people of Hindostan, having stated
the general principles of their policy, which either
prohibit connection, or oblige us to a connection very
different from what we have hitherto used towards
them, I shall leave it to your Lordships' judgment
whether you will suffer such fair monuments of wisdom and benevolence to be defaced by the rapacity of your governors. I hope I have not gone out of
my way to bring before you any circumstance relative to the Gentoo religion and manners, further than as they relate to the spirit of our government over
them; for though there never was such food for the
curiosity of the human mind as is found in the manners of this people, I pass it totally over.
I wish to divide this preliminary view into six
periods; and your Lordships'will consider that of
the Hindoos,' which I have now. mentioned, as the
first era.
The second era is an era of great misfortune to
that country, and to the world in general: I mean,
thle time of the prophet Mahomed. The enthusiasm
which animated his first followers, the despotic power
which religion obtained through that enthusiasm, and
the advantages derived from both over the enervated
great empires, and broken, disunited, lesser governments of the world, extended the influence of that proud and domineering sect from the banks of the
Ganges to the banks of the Loire.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 387
This second period is the era of the Arabs. These
people made a great and lasting impression on India.
They established, very early, Mahomedan sovereigns
in all parts of it, particularly in the kingdom of Bengal, which is the principal object of our present inquiry. They held that kingdom for a long series of years, under a dynasty of thirty-three kings, - having begun their conquest and founded their dominion in Bengal not very long after the time of their prophet.
These people, when they first settled in India, attempted, with the ferocious arm of their prophetic
sword, to change the religion and manners of that
country; but at length perceiving that their cruelty
wearied out itself, and never could touch the constancy of the sufferers, they permitted the native
people of the country to remain in quiet, and left
the Mahomedan religion to operate upon them as it
could, by appealing to the ambition or avarice of the
great, or by taking the lower people, who had lost
their castes, into this new sect, and thus, from the
refuse of the Gentoo, increasing the bounds of the
Mahomedan religion. They left many. of the ancient
rajahs of the country possessed of an inferior sovereignty; and where the strength of the country, or
other circumstances, would not permit this subordination, they suffered them to continue in a separate
state, approaching to independence, if not wholly independent.
The Mahomedans, during the period of the Arabs,
never expelled or destroyed the native Gentoo nobil-'ity, zemindars, or landholders of the country. They
all, or almost all, remained fixed in their places,
properties, and dignities; and the shadows of several
of them remain under our jurisdiction.
? ? ? ? 888 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
The next, which is the third era, is an era the
more necessary to observe upon, because Mr. Hastings has made many applications to it in his defence
before the Commons: namely, the invasion of the Tartars, or the era of Tamerlane. These Tartars did not
establish themselves on the ruins of the Hindoos.
Their conquests were over the other Mahomedans:
for Tamerlane invaded Hindostan, as he invaded other countries, in the character of the great reformer
of the Mahomedan religion. He came as a sort of
successor to the rights of the Prophet, upon a divine title. He struck at all the Mahomedan princes
who reigned at that time. He considered them as
apostates, or at least as degenerated from the faith,
and as tyrants abusing their power. To facilitate his
conquests over these, he was often obliged to come
to a sort of a composition with the people of the
country he invaded. Tamerlane had' neither time
nor means nor inclination to dispossess the ancient
rajahs of the country.
Your Lordships will observe that I propose nothing more than to give you an idea of the principles of policy which prevailed in these several revolutions, and not an history of the furious military achievements of a barbarous invader. Historians,
indeed, are generally very liberal of their information concerning everything but what we ought to
be very anxious to know. They tell us that India
was conquered by Tamerlane, and conquered in such
a year. The year will be found to coincide somewhere, I believe, with the end of the fourteenth
century. Thinking the mere fact as of little moment, and its chronology as nothing, but thinking
the policy very material, which, indeed, is to be
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 389
collected only here and there, in various books
written with various views, I shall beg leave to lay
before you a very remarkable circumstance relative
to that policy, and taken from the same book to
which I formerly referred, Mr. Holwell's.
"When the Hindoo rajahs, or princes of Hindostan, submitted to Tamerlane, it was on these capital stipulations: that the emperor should marry a daughter of Rajah Cheyt Sing's house; that the
head of this house should be in perpetuity governors of the citadel of Agra, and anoint the king at
his coronation; and that the emperors should never
impose the jessera (or poll-tax) upon the Hindoos. "
Here was a conqueror, as he is called, coming in
upon terms; mixing his blood with that of the native nobility of the country he conquered, and, in
consequence of this mixture, placing them in succession upon the throne of the country he subdued;
making one of them even hereditary constable of
the capital of his kingdom; and thereby. putting his
posterity as a pledge into their hands. What is full
as remarkable, he freed the HIindoos forever from
that tax which the Mahomedans have laid upon
every country over which the sword of Mahomet
prevailed, --namely, a capitation tax upon all who
do not profess the religion of. the Mahomedans.
But the Hindoos,' by express charter, were exempted from that mark of servitude, and thereby declared
not to be a conquered people. The native princes,
in all their transactions with the Mogul government,
carried the evident marks of this free condition in
a noble independency of spirit. Within their own
districts the authority of many of them seemed entire. We are often led into mistakes concerning
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the government of Hindostan, by comparing it with
those governments where the prince is armed with
a full, speculative, entire authority, and where the
great people have, with great titles, no privileges at
all, or, having privileges, have those privileges only
as subjects. But in Hiindostan the modes, the degrees, the circumstances of subjection varied infinitely. In some places hardly a trace at all of subjection was to be discerned; in some the rajahs were almost assessors of the throne, as in this case of
the Rajah Cheyt Sing. These circumstances mark,
that Tamerlane, however he may be indicated by
the odious names of Tartar and Conqueror, was no
barbarian; that the people who submitted to him
did not submit with the abject submission of slaves
to the sword of a conqueror, but admitted a great
supreme emperor, who was just, prudent, and politic,
instead of the ferocious, oppressive, lesser Mahomedan sovereigns, who had before forced their way by
the sword into the country.
That country resembled more a republic of princes with a great chief at their head than a territory
in absolute, uniform, systematic subjection from one
end to the other, -in which light Mr. Hastings and
others of late have thought proper, to consider it. According to them, if a subordinate prince, like Cheyt
Sing, was not ready to pay any exorbitant sum on
instant demand, or submit to any extent of fine which
should be inflicted upon him by the mere will of the
person who called robbery a fine, and who took the
measure of that fine without either considering the
means of paying or the degree of delinquency that
justified it, their properties, liberties, and lives were
instantly forfeited. The rajahs of that country were
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 391
armed; they had fortresses for their security; they
had troops. In tlie receipt of both their own and the
imperial revenue, their securities for justice were in
their own hands: but the policy of the Mogul princes
very rarely led them to push that people to such extremity as it is supposed that on every slight occasion we have a right to push those who are the subjects
of our pretended conquest.
Mr. Holwell throws much light on this policy,
which became the standing law of the empire.
In the unfortunate wars which followed the death
of Mauz-o-Din, " Sevajee Cheyt Sing," (the great' rajah we have just mentioned,) " with a select body of Rajpoots, by a well-conducted retreat recovered. Agra,
and was soon after reconciled to the king [the Mogul]
and admitted to his favor, - conformable to the steady
policy of this government, in keeping a good understanding with the principal rajahs, and more especially with the head of this house, who is ever capable of
raising and fomenting a very formidable party upon
any intended revolution in this despotic and precarious monarchy. "
You see that it was the monarchy that was precarious, not the rights of the subordinate chiefs. Your Lordships see, that, notwithstanding our ideas of Orielltal despotism, under the successors. of Tamerlane, these principal rajahs, instead of being called wretches, and treated as such, as Mr. Hastings has thought it Uocoming to call and treat them, when they were
in arms against their sovereign, were regarded with
respect, and were admitted to easy reconciliations;
because, in reality, in their occasional hostilities,
they~ were not properly rebellious subjects, but princes often asserting their natural rights and the just constitution of the country.
? ? ? ? :92 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
This view of the policy which prevailed during the
dynasty of Tamerlane naturally conducts me to the
next, which is the fourth era in this history: I mean
the era of the Emperor Akbar. He was the first of
the successors of Tamerlane who obtained possession
of Bengal. It is easy to show of what nature his
conquest was. It was over the last Mahomedan
dynasty. He, too, like his predecessor, Tamerlane,
conquered the prince, not the country. It is a certain mark that it was not a conquered country in
the sense in which we commonly call a country
conquered, that the natives, great men and landholders, continued in every part in the possession
of their estates, and of the jurisdictions annexed to
them. It is true, that, in the several wars for the
succession to the Mogul empire, and in other of their
internal wars, severe revenges were taken, which bore
resemblance'to those taken in the wars of the Roses
in this country, where it was the common course, in
the heat of blood, -" Off with his head - so much
for Buckingham! " Yet, where the country again recovered its form and settlement, it recovered the spirit of a mild government. Whatever rigor was used with
regard to the Mallomedan adventurers from Persia,
Turkey, and other parts, who filled the places of servile grandeur in the Mogul court, the Hindoos were
a favored, protected, gently treated people.
The next, which is the fifth era, is a troubled and
vexatious period, -the era of the independent Subahs of Bengal. Five of these subahs, or viceroys, governed from about the year 1717, or thereabouts.
They grew into independence partly by the calamities and concussions of that empire, which happened during the disputes for the succession of Tamerlane.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. - FIRST DAY. 393
and partly, and indeed principally, by the great shock
which the empire received when Thamas Kouli Khan
broke into that country, carried off its revenues, overturned the throne, and massacred not only many of
the chief nobility, but almost all the inhabitants of the
capital city. This rude shock, which that empire was
never able to recover, enabled the viceroys to become
independent; but their independence led to their ruin.
Those who had usurped upon their masters had servants who usurped upon them. Aliverdy Khan murdered his master, and opened a way into Bengal for a body of foreign invaders, the Mahrattas, who cruelly
harassed the country for several years. Their retreat
was at length purchased, and by a sum which is supposed to amount to five millions sterling. By this
purchase he secured the exhausted remains of an exhausted kingdom, and left it to his grandson, Surajah'Dowlah, in peace and poverty. On the fall of Surajah Dowlah, in 1756, commenced the last, which is the
sixth, - the era of the British empire.
On the fifth dynasty I have only to remark to your
Lordships, that at its close the Ilindoo chiefs were
almost everywhere found in possession of the country; that, although Aliverdy Khan was a cruel tyrant,
though he was an untitled usurper, though he racked
and tormented the people under his government,
urged, however, by an apparent necessity from an
invading army of one hundred thousand horse in his
dominions, -yet, under him, the rajahs still preserved
their rank, their dignity, their castles, their houses,
their seigniories, all the insignia of their situation,
and always the right, sometimes also the means, of
protecting their subordinate people, till the last and
unfortunate era of 1756.
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Through the whole of this sketch of history I wish
to impress but one great and important truth upon
your minds: namely, that, through all these revolutions in government and changes in power, an Hindoo polity, and the spirit of an Hindoo government, did
more or less exist in that province with which he was
concerned, until it was finally to be destroyed by Mr.
Hastings.
My Lords, I have gone through all the eras precedent to those of the British power in India, and am
come to the first of those eras. Mr. Hastings existed
in India, and was a servant of the Company before
that era, and had his education between both. He is
an antediluvian with regard to the British dominion
in Bengal. He was coexistent with all the acts and
monuments of that revolution, and had no small share.
in all the abuses of that abusive period which preceded
his actual government. But as it was during, that
transit from Eastern to Western power that most of
the abuses had their origin, it will not be perfectly
easy for your Lordships thoroughly to enter into the
nature and circumstances of them without an explanation of the principal events that happened from the year 1756 until the commencement of Mr. Hastings's
government, - during a good part of which time we
do not often lose sight of him. If I find it agreeable
to your Lordships, if I find that you wish to know
these annals of Indian suffering and British delinquency, if you desire that I should unfold the series of the transactions from 1756 to the period of Mr. Hastings's
government in 1771, that you may know how far he
promoted what was good, how far he rectified what
was evil, how far he abstained from innovation in
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. FIRST DAY. 395
tyranny, and contented himself with the old stock
of abuse, your Lordships will have the goodness to
consult the strength which from late indisposition
begins almost to fail me. And if you think the explanation is not time lost in this new world and in this new business, I shall venture to sketch out, as
briefly and with as much perspicuity as I can give
them, the leading events of that obscure and perplexed
period which intervened between the British settlement in 1757 and Mr. Hastings's government. If I should be so happy as to succeed in that attempt, your
Lordships' minds will be prepared for hearing this
cause. Then your Lordships will have a clear view
of the origin and nature of the abuses which prevailed
in that government before Mr. Hastings obtained his
greatest power, and since that time; and then we
shall be able to enter fully and explicitly into the
hature of the cause: and I should hope that it will
pave the way and make everything easy for your
subsequent justice.
I therefore wish to stop at this period, in which Mr.
Hastings became active in the service, pretty near the
time when he began his political career: and here,
my Lords, I pause, wishing your indulgence at such
time as will suit your convenience for pursuing the
rest of this eventful history.
? ? ? ? SPEEC H
IN
OPENING THE IMPEACHMENT.
SECOND DAY: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1788.
M Y LORDS, - In what I had the honor of laying
before your Lordships yesterday, and in what I
may further trouble you with to-day, I wish to observe
a distinction, which if I did not lay down so perfectly
as I ought, I hope I shall now be able to mark it out
with sufficient exactness and perspicuity.
First, I beg leave to observe that what I shall think
necessary to state, as matter of preliminary explanation, in order to give your Lordships a true idea of the scene of action, of the instruments which Mr.
Hastings employed, and the effects which they produced,-all this I wish to be distinguished from matter brought to criminate. Even the matter, as
stated by me, which may be hereafter brought to
criminate, so far as it falls to my share at present, is
only to be considered, in this stage of the business,
as merely illustrative. Your Lordships are to expect,
as undoubtedly you will require, substantial matter
of crimination to be laid open. for that purpose at the
moment when the evidence to each charge is ready to
be produced to you. . Thus your Lordships will easily
separate historical illustration from criminal opening.
For instanlce, if I stated yesterday to your Lordships,
as I did, tle tyranny and cruelty of one of the usurp
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 397
ing viceroys, whose usurpation and whose vices led
the way to the destruction of his country and the
introduction of a foreign power, I do not mean to
charge Mr. Hastings with any part of that guilt:
what bears upon Mr. Hastings is his having avowedly
looked to such a tyrant and such a usurper as his
model, and followed that pernicious example with a
servile fidelity. *When I have endeavored to lay open
to your Lordships anythingz abusive, or leading to
abuse, from defects or errors in the constitution of
the Company's service, I did not mean to criminate
Mr. Hastings on any part of those defects and errors:
I state them to show that he took advantage of the
imperfections of the institution to let in his abuse of
the power. with which he was intrusted. If, for a
further instance, I have stated that in general the service of the India Company was insufficient in legal pay or emolument and abundant in the means of
illegal profit, I do not state that defect as owing to
Mr. Hastings; but I state it as a fact, to show in what
manner and on what pretences he did, fraudulently,
corruptly, and for the purposes of his own ambition,
take advantage of that defect, and, under color of
reformation, make an illegal, partial, corrupt rise of
emoluments to certain favored persons without regard
to the interests of the service at large, --increasing
rather than lessening the means of illicit emolument,
as well as loading the Company with many heavy and
ruinous expenses in avowed salaries and allowances.
Having requested your Lordships to keep in mind,
which I trust you would do even without my taking
the liberty of suggesting it to you, these necessary
distinctions, I shall revert to the period at which I
closed yesterday, that great and memorable period
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
which has remotely given occasion to the trial of this
day.
My Lords, to obtain empire is common; to govern
it well has been rare indeed. To chastise the guilt
of those who have been instruments of imperial sway
over other nations by the high superintending justice
of the sovereign state has not many striking examples
among any people. Hitherto we have not furnished
our contingent to the records of honor. We have
been confounded with the herd of conquerors. Our
dominion has been a vulgar thing. But we begin to
emerge; and I hope that a severe inspection of ourselves, a purification of our own offences, a lustration
of the exorbitances of our own power, is a glory reserved to this time, to this nation, and to this august triburnal.
The year 1756 is a memorable era in the history
of the world: it introduced a new nation from the
remotest verge of the Western world, with new manners, new customs, new institutions, new opinions, new laws, into the heart of Asia.
My Lords, if, in that part of Asia whose native
regular government was then broken up, -if, at the
moment when it had fallen into darkness and confusion from having become the prey and almost the sport of the ambition of its home-born grandees, - if, in that
gloomy season, a star had risen from the West, that
would prognosticate a better generation, and would
shed down the sweet influences of order, peace, science, and security to the natives of that vexed and harassed country, we should have been covered with
genuine honor. It would have been a beautiful and
noble spectacle to mankind.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN OPENING. -SECOND DAY. 399
Indeed, something might have been expected of
the kind, when a new dominion emanated from a
learned and enlightened part of the world in the
most enlightened period of its existence. Still more
might it have been expected, when that dominion was
found to issue from the bosom of a free country, that
it would have carried with it the full benefit of the
vital principle of the British liberty and Constitution,
though its municipal forms were not communicable,
or at least the advantage of the liberty and spirit
of the British Constitution. Had this been the case,
(alas! it was not,) you would have been saved the
trouble of this day. It might have been expected, too,
that, in that enlightened state of the world, influenced
by the best religion, and from an improved description of that best religion, (I mean the Christian reformed religion,) that we should have done honor to Europe, to letters, to laws, to religion, - done honor
to all the circumstances of which in this island we
boast ourselves, at the great and critical moment of
that revolution.
My Lords, it has happened otherwise. It is now
left for us to repair our former errors. Resuming
the history where I broke off yesterday by your indulgence to my weakness, - Surajah Dowlah was the
adopted grandson of Aliverdy Khan, a cruel and ferocious; tyrant, the manner of whose acquisition of
power I have already stated.
