t They acted more
properly
in refusing to confirm this grant to Mr.
Edmund Burke
t Ibid.
, No.
9.
? ? ? ? 238 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEb
letter of the 29th of November, 1780. * It is written
between the time of the expenditure of the money
for the Company's use and the taking of the bonds.
Here, for the first time, a very material difference appears; and the difference is the more striking, because Mr. Hastings claimed the whole money as his own, and took bonds for it as such, after this representation. The letter to the Company discovers that
part of the money (the whole of which he had declared on record to be his own, and for which he had taken bonds) was not his, but the property of his masters, from whom he had taken the security. It is no less remarkable that the letter which represents the
money as belonging to the Company was written
about six weeks before the Minute of Council in
which he claims that money as his own. It is this
letter on which your Committee is to remark.
Mr. Hastings, after giving his reasons for the application of the three lacs of rupees, and for his having for some time. concealed the fact, says, " Two thirds of that sum I have raised by my own credit, and
shall charge it in my official account; the other third
I have supplied from the cash in my hands belonging
to the Honorable Compamiy. " t
The House will observe, that in November he tells
the Directors that he shall charge only two thirds in
his official accounts; in the following January he
charges the whole. f For the other third, although he
admitted that to belong to the Company, we have
seen that he takes a bond to himself.
It is material that he tells the Company in his letter that these two lacs of rupees were raised on his credit. His letter to the Council says that they were
* Appendix B. No. 1. t Ibid. t Ibid. , No. 8.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 239
advanced from his private cash. What he raises on
his credit may, on a fair construction, be considered
as his own: but in this, too, he fails; for it is certain
he has never transferred these bonds to any creditor;
nor has he stated any sum he has paid, or for which
he stands indebted, on that account, to any specific
person. Indeed, it was out of his power; for the first
two thirds of the money, which he formerly stated as
raised upon his credit, he now confesses to have been
from the beginning the Company's property, and
therefore could not have been raised on his private
credit, or borrowed from any person whatsoever.
To these two accounts, thus essentially varying, he
has added a third,* varying at least as essentially
from both. In his last or third account, which is a
statement of all the sums he has received in an extraordinary manner, and confessed to be the Company's property, he reverses the items of his first account, and, instead of allowing the Company but one third and claiming two thirds for himself, he enters
two of the bonds, each for a lac of rupees, as belonging to the Company: of the third bond, which appears
so distinctly in the Consultations and in the Treasury
accounts, not one word is said; ten thousand pounds
is absorbed, sinks, and disappears at once, and no
explanation whatsoever concerning it is given; Mr.
Hastings seems not yet to have decided to whose account it ought to be placed. In this manner his debt
to the Company, or the Company's to him, is just
what he thinks fit. In a single article he has varied
three times. In one account lie states the whole to
* Appendix B. -No. 4: The Governor-General's Account of Moneys received, dated 22d May, 1782. Also, Appendix B. No. 9:
The Auditor's Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General.
? ? ? ? 240 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
be his own; in another he claims two thirds; in the
last he gives up the claim of the two thirds, and says
nothing to the remaining portion.
To make amends, however, for the suppression of
this third bond, given with the two others in January,
1781, and antedated to the beginning of October,
Mr. Hastillgs, in the above-mentioned general account subjoined to his letter of the 22d May, 1782,
has brought to the Company's credit a new bond. *
This bond is for 17,0001. It was taken from the
Company (and so it appears on their Treasury accounts) on the 23d of November, 1780. He took no notice of this, when, in January following, lie called
upon his own Council for the three others. What is
more extraordinary, he was equally silent with regard
to it, when, only six days after its date, he wrote concerning the subject of the three other bonds to the Court of Directors; yet now it comes out, that that
bond also was taken by Mr. Hastings from the Company for money which he declares he had received on the Company's account, and that he entered himself
as creditor when he ought to have made himself
debtor.
Your Committee examined Major Scott concerning
this money, which Mr. Hastings must have obtained
in some clandestine and irregular mode; but they
could obtain no information of the persons from
whom it was taken, nor of the occasion or pretence
of taking this lhrge sum; nor does any Minute of
Council appear for its application to any service. The
whole of the transaction, whatever it was, relative
to this bond, is covered with the thickest obscurity.
Mr. Hastings, to palliate the blame df his conduct,
* Vide Appendix B. No. 4.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 241
declares that lie has not received any interest on these
bonds, - and that he has indorsed them as not belonging to himself, but to the Company. * As to the
first part of this allegation, whether he received the
interest or let it remain in arrear is a matter of indifference, as he entitled himself to it; and so far as
the legal security he has taken goes, he may, whelever he pleases, dispose both of principal and interest.
What he has indorsed on the bonds, or when he made
the indorsemlent, or whether in fact he has made it at
all, are matters known only to himself; for the bonds
must be in his possession, and are nowhere by him
stated to be given up or cancelled, - which is a thing:
very remarkable, when he confesses that he had no,
right to receive them.
These bonds make but a part of the account of private receipts of money by Mr. Hastings, formerly paid
into the Treasury as his own property, and now allowed not to be so. This account brings into view
other very remarkable matters of a similar nature
and description. t
In the public records, a sum of not less than
23,8711. is set to his credit as a deposit for his private account, paid in by him into the Treasury in
gold, and coined at the Company's mint. $ This appears in the account furnished to the Directors, unlder the date of May, 1782, not to be lawfully his money, and he therefore transfers it to the Company's credit: it still remains as a deposit. ~
That the House may be apprised of the nature of
* Vide Mr. Hastings's Account, in Appendix B. No. 4.
t Vide Hastings's Account, dated 22d May, 1782, in Appendix.
B. No. 4.
t Vide above Appendix, and B. No. 2. ~ Vide above Ajl11:c'',x.
V )L. VIII. 16
? ? ? ? 242 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
this article of deposit, it may not be improper to state
that the Company receive into their treasury the cash
of private personls, placed there as in a bank. On
this no interest is paid, and the party depositing has
a right to receive it upon demand. Under this head
of accoult no public money is ever entered. Mr.
Hastings, neither at making the deposit as his own,
nor at the time of his disclosure of the real proprietor, (which he makes to be the Company,) has given any information of the persons from whom this money had been received. Mr. Scott was applied to by your Committee, but could not give any more satisfaction in this particular than in those relative to the bonds.
The title of the account of the 22d of May purports not only that those sums were paid into the Company's treasury by Mr. Hastings's order, but that
they were applied to the Company's service. No
service is specified, directly or by any reference, to
which this great sulm of money has been applied.
Two extraordinary articles follow this, in the May
account, amounting to about 29,0001. * These articles are called Receipts for Durbar Charges. The general head of Durbar Charges, made by persons in
office, when analyzed into the particulars, contains
various expenses, including bounties and presents
made by government, chiefly in the foreign department. But in the last account he confesses that this sum also is not his, but the Company's property; but
as in all the rest, so in this, lie carefully conceals the
means by which he acquired the money, the time of
his taking it, and the persons from whom it was
taken. This is the more extraordinary, because, in
* Vide Appendix B. No. 4.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 243
looking over the journals and ledgers of the Treasury,
the presents received and carried to the account of
the Company (which were generally small and complimental) were precisely entered, with the name of the giver.
Your Committee, on turning to the account of
Durbar charges in the ledger of that month, find the
sum, as stated in the account of May 22d, to be indeed paid in; but there is no specific application whatsoever entered.
The account of the whole money thus clandestinely
received, as stated on the 22d of May, 1782, (and
for a great part of which Mr. Hastings to that time
took credit for, and for the rest has accounted in an
extraordinary manner as his own,) amounts in the
whole to upwards of ninety-three thousand pounds
sterling: a vast sum to be so obtained, and so loosely
accounted for! If the money taken from the Rajah
of Benares be added, (as it ought,) it will raise the
sum to upwards of 116,0001. ; if the 11,6001. bond in
October be added, it will be upwards of 128,0001. received in a secret manner by Mr. Hastings in about one year and five months. To all these he adds another sum of one hundred thousand pounds, received as a present from the Subah of Oude. Total, upwards of 228,0001.
Your Committee find that this last is the only sum
the giver of which Mr. HIastings has thought proper
to declare. It is to be observed, that he did not receive this 100,0001. in money, but in bills on a great native money-dealer resident at Benares, and who has
also an house at Calcutta: he is called Gopal Das.
The negotiation of these bills tended to make a discovery not so difficult as it would have been in other cases.
? ? ? ? 244 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
With regard to the application of this last sum of
money, which is said to be carried to the Durbar
charges of April, 1782, your Committee are not enabled to make any observations on it, as the account of that period has not yet arrived.
Your Committee have, in another Report, remarked fully upon most of the circumstances of this extraordinary transaction. Here they only bring so
much of these circumstances again into view as may
serve to throw light upon the true nature of the sums
of money taken by British subjects in power, under
the name of presents, and to show how far they are
entitled to that description in any sense which can
fairly imply in the pretended donors either willingness or ability to give. The condition of the bountiful parties who are not yet discovered may be conjectured from the state of those who have been made known: as far as that state anywhere appears, their
generosity is found in proportion, not to the opulence
they possess or to the favors they receive, but to the
indigence they feel and the insults they are exposed
to. The House will particularly attend to the situation of the principal giver, the Subah of Oude. "When the knife," says he, "had penetrated to
the bone, and I was surrounded with such heavy distresses that I could no longer live in expectations, I wrote you an account of my difficulties.
" The answer which I have received to it is such
that it has given me inexpressible grief and affliction.
I never had the least idea or expectation from you and the Council that you would ever have given your orders in so afflicting a manner, ill which you never before wrote, and which I could not have imagined.
As I am resolved to obey your orders, and directions
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 245
of the Council, without any delay, as long as I live, I
have, agreeably to those orders, delivered up all my
private papers to him [the Resident], that, when he
shall have examined my receipts and expenses, he may
take whatever remains. As I know it to be my duty
to satisfy you, the Company, and Council, I have not
failed to obey in any instance, but requested of him
that it might be done so as not to distress me in my
necessary expenses: there being no other funds but
those for the expenses of my mutseddies, household
expenses, and servants, &c. He demanded these in
such a manner, that, being remediless, I was obliged
to comply with what he required. He has accordingly stopped the pensions of my old servants for thirty years, whether sepoys, mutseddies, or household servants,
and the expenses of my family and kitchen, together with
the jaghires of my grandmother, mother, and aunts,, and
of my brothers and defendants, which were for their support. I had raised thirteen hundred horse and three battalions of sepoys to attend upon me; but as I have
no resources to support them, I have been obliged to
remove the people stationed in the mahals [districts]
and to send his people [the Resident's people] into
the mahals, so that I have not now one single servant about me. Should I mention to what further difficulties I have been reduced, it would lay me open
to contempt. "
In other parts of this long remonstrance, as well as
in other remonstrances no less serious, he says, " that
it is difficult for him to save himself alive; that in all
his affairs Mr. Iastings had given full powers to the
gentlemen here," (meaning the English Resident and
Assistants,) " who have done whatever they chose, and
still continue to do it. I never expected that you would
? ? ? ? 246 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
have brought me into such apprehension, and into so
weak a state, without writing to me onz any one of those
subjects; since I have not the smallest connection with
anybody except yourself. I am in such distress, both
day and night, that I see not the smallest prospect
of deliverance from it, since you are so displeased
with me as not to honor me with a single letter. "
In another remonstrance he thus expresses himself. "The affairs of this world are unstable, and
soon pass away: it would therefore be incumbent
on the English gentlemen to show some friendship
for me in my necessities, -- I, who have always exerted my very life in thle service of the English, assigned over to them all the resources left in my country, stopped my very household expenses, together with
the jaghires of my servants and dependants, to the
amount of 98,98,375 rupees. Besides this, as to the
jaghires of my grandmother, mother, and uncle, which
were granted to them for their support, agreeable to
engagements, you are the masters, --if the Council
have sent orders for the stopping their jaghires also,
stop them. I have no resources left in my country,
and have no friends by me, being even distressed in
my daily subsistence. I have some elephants, horses,
and the houses which I inhabit: if they can be of any
service to my friends, they are ready. Whenever you
can discover any resources, seize upon them: I shall
not interfere to prevent you. In my present distress
for my daily expenses, I was in hopes that they would
have excused some part of my debt. Of what use is
it for me to relate my situation, which is known to
the whole world? This much is sufficient. "
The truth of all these representations is nowhere
contested by Mr. Hastings. It is, indeed, admitted in
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 247
something stronger than words; for, upon account
of the Nabob's condition, and the no less distressed
condition of his dominions, he thought it fit to withdraw from him and them a large body of the Company's troops, together with all the English of a civil description, who were found no less burdensome than
the military. This was done on the declared inability of the country any longer to support them, -- a
country not much inferior to England in extent and
fertility, and, till lately at least, its equal in population
and culture.
It was to a prince, in a state so far remote from
freedom, authority, and opulence, so penetrated with
the treatment he had received, and the behavior lihe
had met with from Mr. Hastings, that Mr. Hastings
has chosen to attribute a disposition so very generous
and munificent as, of his own free grace and mere
motion, to make him a present, at one donation, of
upwards of one hundred thousand pounds sterling.
This vast private donation was given at the moment
of vast instant demands severely exacted on account
of the Company, and accumulated on immense debts
to the same body, --and all taken from a ruined
prince and almost desolated territory.
Mr. Hastings has had the firmness, with all possible
ease and apparent unconcern, to request permission
from the Directors to legalize this forbidden present
for his own use. This he has had the courage to do
at a time when he had abundant reason to look for
what he has since received, - their censure for many
material parts of his conduct towards the people from
whose wasted substance this pretended free gift was
drawn. He does not pretend that he has reason to
expect the smallest degree of partiality, in this or any
? ? ? ? 248 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
other point, from the Court of Directors. For, besides
his complaint, first stated, of' having never possessed
their confidence, in a late letter * (in which, notwithstanding the censures of Parliament, he magnifies his own conduct) he says, that, in all the long period
of his service, "he has almost unremittedly wanted
the support which all his predecessors had enjoyed
from their constituents. From mine," says he, "I
have received nothing but reproach, hard epithets, and
indignities, instead of rewards and encouragement. "
It must therefore have been from some other source
of protection than that which the law had placed over
him that he looked for countenance and reward in
violating an act of Parliament which forbid him
from taking gifts or presents on any account whatsoever,- much less a gift of this magnitude, which,
from the distress of the giver, must be supposed the
effect of the most cruel extortion.
The Directors did wrong in their orders to appropriate money, which they must know could not
have been acquired by the consent of the pretended
donor, to their own use.
t They acted more properly in refusing to confirm this grant to Mr. Hastings,
and in choosing rather to refer him to the law which
he had violated than to his own sense of what he
thought he was entitled to take from the natives:
putting him in mind that the Regulating Act had expressly declared " that no Governor-General, or any
of the Council, shall, directly or indirectly, accept, receive, or take, of or from any person or persons, or on any account whatsoever, any present, gift, donation,
gratuity, or reward, pecuniary or otherwise, or any
promise or engagement for any of the aforesaid. "
* Vide Appendix B. No. 6. t Ibid. , No. 7.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 249
Here is no reserve for the case of a disclosure to the
Directors, and for the legalizing the breach of an act
of Parliament by their subsequent consent. The illegality attached to the action at its very commencement, and it could never be afterwards legalized: the Directors had no such power reserved to them.
Words cannot be devised of a stronger import or
studied with more care. To these words of the act
are opposed the declaration and conduct of Mr. Hastings, who, in his letter of January, 1782, thinks fit to
declare, that " an offer of a very considerable sum of
money was made to him, both on the part of the Nabob and his ministers, as a present, which he accepted
without hesitation. " The plea of his pretended necessity is of no avail. The present was not in ready
money, nor, as your Committee conceive, applicable
to his immediate necessities. Even his credit was
not bettered by bills at long periods; he does not pretend that he raised any money upon them; nor is it
conceivable that a banker at Benares would be more
willing to honor the drafts of so miserable, undone,
and dependent a person as the Nabob of Oude than
those of the Governor-General of Bengal, which
might be paid either on the receipt of the Benares
revenue, or at the seat of his power, and of the Company's exchequer. Besides, it is not explicable, upon
any grounds that can be avowed, why the Nabob,
who could afford to give these bills as a present to
Mr. Hastings, could not have equally given them in
discharge of the debt which he owed to the Company.
It is, indeed, very much to be feared that the people
of India find it sometimes turn more to their account
to give presents to the English in authority than to
pay their debts to the public; and this is a matter of
a very serious consideration.
? ? ? ? 250 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
No small merit is made by Mr. Hastings, and that,
too, in a high and upbraiding style, of his having
come to a voluntary discovery of this and other unlawful practices of the same kind. " That honorable court," says Mr. Hastings, addressing himself to his
masters, in his letter of December, 1782, "ought to
know whether I possess the integrity and honor
which are the first requisites of such a station. If
I wanted these, they have afforded me too powerful
incentives to suppress the information which I now
convey to them through you, and to appropriate to
my own use the sums which I have already passed
to their credit, by their unworthy, and pardon me if I
add dangerous reflections, which they have passed upon
me for the first communication of this kind "; and
he immediately adds, what is singular and striking,
and savors of a recriminatory insinuation, " and your
own experience will suggest to you that there are
persons who would profit by such a warning. " * To
what Directors in particular this imputation of experience is applied, and what other persons they are in whom experience has shown a disposition to profit of
such a warning, is a matter highly proper to be inquired into. What Mr. Hastings says further on this subject is no less worthy of attention: - that he
could have concealed these transactions, if he had a
wrong motive, fromn theirs and the public eye forever. " t
It is undoubtedly true, that, whether the observation
be applicable to the particular case or not, practices
of this corrupt nature are extremely difficult of detection anywhere, but especially in India; but all restraint upon that grand fundamental abuse of presents is gone forever, if the servants of the Company * Vide Appendix B. No. 6. t Ibid.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 251
can derive safety from a defiance of the law, when
they can no longer hope to screen themselves by an
evasion of it. All hope of reformation is at an end,
if, confiding in the force of a faction among Directors
or proprietors to bear them out, and possibly to vote
them the fruit of their crimes as a reward of their discovery, they find that their bold avowal of their offences is not only to produce indemnity, but to be rated for merit. If once a presumption is admitted,
that, wherever something is divulged, nothing is hid,
the discovering of one offence may become the certain means of concealing a multitude of others. The
contrivance is easy and trivial, and lies open to the
meanest proficient in this kind of art; it will not
only become an effectual cover to such practices, but
will tend infinitely to increase them. In that case,
sums of money will be taken for the purpose of discovery and making merit with the Company, and
other sums will be taken for the private advantage of
the receiver.
It must certainly be impossible for the natives to
know what presents are for one purpose, or what for
the other. It is not for a Gentoo or a Mahometan
landholder at the foot of the remotest mountains in
India, who has no access to our records and knows
nothing of our language, to distinguish what lacs of
rupees, which he has given eo nomine as a present
to a Company's servant, are to be authorized by his
masters in Leadenhall Street as proper and legal, or
carried to their public account at their pleasure, and
what are laid up for his own emolument.
The legislature, in declaring all presents to be the
property of the Company, could not consider corruption, extortion, and fraud as any part of their re
? ? ? ? 252 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
sources. The property in such presents was declared
to be theirs, not as a fund for their benefit, but in
order to found a legal title to a civil suit. It was
declared theirs, to facilitate the recovery out of corrupt and oppressive hands of money illegally taken; but this legal fiction of property could irot nor ought
by the legislature to be considered in any other light
than as a trust held by them for those who suffered
the injury. Upon any other construction, the Company would have a right, first, to extract money from the subjects or dependants of this kingdom committed to their care, by means of particular conventions, or by taxes, by rents, and by monopolies; and when
they had exhausted every contrivance of public imposition, then they were to be at liberty to let loose upon the people all their servants, from the highest
rank to the lowest, to prey upon them at pleasure,
and to draw, by personal and official authority, by
influence, venality, and terror, whatever was left to
them, -and that all this was justified, provided the
product was paid into the Company's exchequer.
This prohibition and permission of presents, with
this declaration of property in the Company, would
leave no property to any man in India. If, however,
it should be thought that this clause in the act *
should be capable, by construction and retrospect, of
so legalizing and thus appropriating these presents,
(which your Committee conceive impossible,) it is
absolutely necessary that it should be very fully explained.
The provision in the act was made in favor of the
natives. If such construction prevails, the provision
made as their screen from oppression will become
* Act 13 Geo. III. cap 63.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 253
the means of increasing and aggravating it without
bounds and beyond remedy. If presents, which when
they are given were unlawful, can afterwards be legalized by an application of them to the Company's
service, no sufferer can even resort to a remedial
process at law for his own relief. The moment he
attempts to sue, the money may be paid into the
Company's treasury; it is then lawfully taken, and
the party is non-suited.
The Company itself must suffer extremely in the
whole order and regularity of their public accounts,
if the idea upon which Mr. Hastings justifies the
taking of these presents receives the smallest countenance. On his principles, the same sum may become private property or public, at the pleasure of the receiver; it is in his power, Mr. Hastings says,
to conceal it forever. * He certainly has it in his
power not only to keep it back and bring it forward
at his own times, but even to shift and reverse the
relations in the accounts (as Mr. Hastings has done)
in what manner and proportion seems good to him,
and to make himself alternately debtor or creditor
for the same sums.
Of this irregularity Mr. Hastings himself appears
in some degree sensible. He conceives it possible
that his transactions of this nature may to the Court
of Directors seem unsatisfactory. He, however, puts
it hypothetically: " If to you," says he, " who are accustomed to view business in an official and regular
light, they should appear unprecedented, if not improper. " f He just conceives it possible that in an
* Vide Mr. Hastings's Letter of 16 December, 1782, in Appendix
B. No. 6.
t Vide Appendix B. No. 6.
? ? ? ? 254 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
official money transaction the Directors may expect
a proceeding official and regular. In what other
lights than those which are official and regular matters of public account ought to be regarded by those
who have the charge of them, either in Bengal or
in England, does not appear to your Committee.
Any other is certainly "unprecedented and improper," and can only serve to cover fraud both in the
receipt and in the expenditure. The acquisition of
58,000 rupees, or near 60001. , which appears in the
sort of unofficial and irregular account that he furnishes of his presents, in his letter of May, 1782,*
must appear extraordinary indeed to those who expect from men in office something official and something regular. " This sum," says he, "I received
while I was on my journey to Benares. " t He tells
it with the same careless indifference as if things of
this kind were found by accident on the high-road.
Mr. Hastings did not, indeed he could not, doubt
that this unprecedented and improper account would
produce much discussion. He says, " Why these
sums were taken by me, why they were (except the
second) quietly transferred to the Company's account, why bonds were taken for the first and not
for the rest, might, were this matter to be exposed
to the view of the public, furnish a variety of conjectures. " t
This matter has appeared, and has furnished, as
it ougiht to do, something more serious than conjectures. It would in any other case be supposed
that Mr. Hastings, expecting such inquiries, and considering that the questions are (even as they are imperfectly stated by himself) far from frivolous, would * Vide Appendix B. No. 3. t Ibid. t Ibid.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 255
condescend to give some information upon them; but
the conclusion of a sentence so importantly begun,
and which leads to such expectations, is, "that to
these conjectures it would be of little use to reply. "
This is all he says to public conjecture.
To the Court of Directors he is very little more
complaisant, and not at all more satisfactory; he
states merely as a. supposition their inquiry concerning matters of which he positively knew that they
had called for an explanation. He knew it, because
he presumed to censure them for doing so. To the
hypothesis of a further inquiry he gives a conjectural
answer of such a kind as probably, in an account of
a doubtful transaction, and to a superior, was never
done before.
" Were your Honorable Court to question me upon these points, I would answer, that the sums were
taken for the Company's benefit, at times in which
the Company very much stood in need of them; 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
could at this distance of time verify. " *
He here professes not to be certain of the motives
by which he was himself actuated in so extraordinary a concealment, and in the use of such extraordinary means to effect it; and as if the acts in question were those of an absolute stranger, and not his own, he gives various loose conjectures concerning
the motive to them. He even supposes, in taking
presents contrary to law, and in taking bonds for
them as his own, contrary to what lie admits to
be truth and fact, that he might have acted without
* Vide Appendix B. No. 3.
? ? ? ? 256 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
any distinct motive at all, or at least such as his
memory could reach at that distance of time. That
immense distance, in the faintness of which his recollection is so completely lost as to set him guessing at his motives for his own conduct, was from the
15th of January, 1781, when the bonds at his own request were given, to the date of this letter, which is the 22d of May, 1782, -that is to say, about one year and four months.
As to the other sums, for which no bond was
taken, the ground for the difference in his explanation is still more extraordinary: he says, "I did not
think it worth my care to observe the same means
with the rest. "* The rest of these sums, which
were not worth his care, are stated in his account
to be greater than those he was so solicitous (for
some reason which he cannot guess) to cover under
bonds: these sums amount to near 53,0001. ; whereas
the others did not much exceed 40,0001. For these
actions, attended with these explanations, he ventures to appeal to their (the Directors') breasts for
a candid interpretation, and "' he assumes the freedom to add, that he thinks himself, on such a subject, and on sutch an occasion, entitled to it"; t and then, as if he had performed some laudable exploit,
in the accompanying letter lie glories in the integrity of his conduct; and anticipating his triumph
over injustice, and the applauses which at a future
time he seems confident he shall receive, says he,
"The applause of my own breast is my surest reward: your applause and that of my country is my
next wish in life. " t He declares in that very letter that he had not at any time possessed the confi* Vide Appendix B. No. 3.
? t Ibid. t Ibid. , No. 6.
? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 257
dence with them which they never withheld from the
meanest of his predecessors. With wishes so near
his heart perpetually disappointed, and, instead of
applauses, (as he tells us,) receiving nothing but
reproaches and disgraceful epithets, his steady continuance for so many years in their service, in a
place obnoxious in the highest degree to suspicion
and censure, is a thing altogether singular.
It appears very necessary to your Committee to
observe upon the great leading principles which Mr.
Hastings assumes, to justify the irregular taking of
these vast sums of money, and all the irregular
means he had employed to cover the greater part of
it. These principles are the more necessary to be
inquired into, because, if admitted, they will serve
to justify every species of improper conduct. His
words are, " that the sources from which these reliefs to the public service have come would never
have yielded them to the Companypublicly; and that
the exigencies of their service (exigencies created
by the exposition of their affairs, and faction in their
divided councils) required those supplies. " *
As to the first of these extraordinary positions,
your Committee cannot conceive what motive could
actuate any native of India dependent on the Company, in assisting them privately, and in refusing to assist them publicly. If the transaction was fair and honest, every native must have been desirous of making merit with the great governing power. If he
gave his money as a free gift, he might value himself
upon very honorable and very acceptable service; if
he lent it on the Company's bonds, it would still have
been of service, and he might also receive eight per.
* Vide Appendix B. No. 6.
VOL. VIII. 17
? ? ? ? 258 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
cent for his money. No native could, without some
interested view, give to the Governor-General what
he would refuse to the Company as a grant, or even
as a loan. It is plain that the powers of government
must, in some way or other, be understood by the
natives to be at sale. The Governor-General says
that he took the money with an original destination
to the purposes to which he asserts he has since ap
plied it. But this original destination was in his own
mind only, - not declared, nor by him pretended to
be declared, to the party who gave the presents, and
who could perceive nothing in it but money paid
to the supreme magistrate for his private emolument. All that the natives could possibly perceive
in such a transaction must be highly dishonorable to
the Company's government; for they must conceive,
when they gave money to Mr. Hastings, that. they
bought from Mr. Hastings either what was their own
right or something that was not so, or that they redeemed themselves from some acts of rigor inflicted,
threatened, or apprehended. If, in the first case, Mr.
Hastings gave them the object for which they bargained, his act, however proper, was corrupt, - if he
did not, it was both corrupt and fraudulent; if the
money was extorted by force or threats, it was oppressive and tyrannical. The very nature of such transactions has a tendency to teach the natives to pay a corrupt court to the servants of the Company; and they must thereby be rendered less willing, or less able, or
perhaps both, to fulafil their engagements to the state.
Mr. Scott's evidence asserts that they would rather
give to Mr. Hastings than lend to the Company. It
is very probable; but it is a demonstration of their
opinion of hlis power and corruption, and of the weak
and precarious state of the Company's authority.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 259
The second principle assumed by Mr. Hastings for
his justification, namely, that factious opposition and
a divided government might create exigencies requiring such supplies, is full as dangerous as the first;
for, if, in the divisions which must arise in all councils, one member of government, when he thinks
others factiously disposed, shall be entitled to take
money privately from the subject for the purposes of
his politics, and thereby to dispense with an act of
Parliament, pretences for that end cannot be wanting. A dispute may always be raised in council in
order to cover oppression and peculation elsewhere.
But these principles of Mr. Hastings tend entirely to
destroy the character and functions of a council, and
to vest them in one of the dissentient members. The
law has placed the sense of the whole in the majority; and it is not a thing to be suffered, that any of
the members should privately raise money for the
avowed purpose of defeating that sense, or for promoting designs that are contrary to it: a more alarming assumption of power in an individual member of any deliberative or executive body cannot be imagined. Mr. Hastings had no right, in order to clear
himself of peculation, to criminate the majority with
faction. No member of any body, outvoted on a question, has, or can have, a right to direct any part of his
public conduct by that principle. The members of
the Council had a common superior, to whom they
might appeal in their mutual charges of faction:
they did so frequently; and the imputation of faction
has almost always been laid on Mr. Hastings himself.
But there were periods, very distinguished periods
too, in the records of the Company, in which the
clandestine taking of money could not be supported
?
? ? ? ? 238 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEb
letter of the 29th of November, 1780. * It is written
between the time of the expenditure of the money
for the Company's use and the taking of the bonds.
Here, for the first time, a very material difference appears; and the difference is the more striking, because Mr. Hastings claimed the whole money as his own, and took bonds for it as such, after this representation. The letter to the Company discovers that
part of the money (the whole of which he had declared on record to be his own, and for which he had taken bonds) was not his, but the property of his masters, from whom he had taken the security. It is no less remarkable that the letter which represents the
money as belonging to the Company was written
about six weeks before the Minute of Council in
which he claims that money as his own. It is this
letter on which your Committee is to remark.
Mr. Hastings, after giving his reasons for the application of the three lacs of rupees, and for his having for some time. concealed the fact, says, " Two thirds of that sum I have raised by my own credit, and
shall charge it in my official account; the other third
I have supplied from the cash in my hands belonging
to the Honorable Compamiy. " t
The House will observe, that in November he tells
the Directors that he shall charge only two thirds in
his official accounts; in the following January he
charges the whole. f For the other third, although he
admitted that to belong to the Company, we have
seen that he takes a bond to himself.
It is material that he tells the Company in his letter that these two lacs of rupees were raised on his credit. His letter to the Council says that they were
* Appendix B. No. 1. t Ibid. t Ibid. , No. 8.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 239
advanced from his private cash. What he raises on
his credit may, on a fair construction, be considered
as his own: but in this, too, he fails; for it is certain
he has never transferred these bonds to any creditor;
nor has he stated any sum he has paid, or for which
he stands indebted, on that account, to any specific
person. Indeed, it was out of his power; for the first
two thirds of the money, which he formerly stated as
raised upon his credit, he now confesses to have been
from the beginning the Company's property, and
therefore could not have been raised on his private
credit, or borrowed from any person whatsoever.
To these two accounts, thus essentially varying, he
has added a third,* varying at least as essentially
from both. In his last or third account, which is a
statement of all the sums he has received in an extraordinary manner, and confessed to be the Company's property, he reverses the items of his first account, and, instead of allowing the Company but one third and claiming two thirds for himself, he enters
two of the bonds, each for a lac of rupees, as belonging to the Company: of the third bond, which appears
so distinctly in the Consultations and in the Treasury
accounts, not one word is said; ten thousand pounds
is absorbed, sinks, and disappears at once, and no
explanation whatsoever concerning it is given; Mr.
Hastings seems not yet to have decided to whose account it ought to be placed. In this manner his debt
to the Company, or the Company's to him, is just
what he thinks fit. In a single article he has varied
three times. In one account lie states the whole to
* Appendix B. -No. 4: The Governor-General's Account of Moneys received, dated 22d May, 1782. Also, Appendix B. No. 9:
The Auditor's Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General.
? ? ? ? 240 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
be his own; in another he claims two thirds; in the
last he gives up the claim of the two thirds, and says
nothing to the remaining portion.
To make amends, however, for the suppression of
this third bond, given with the two others in January,
1781, and antedated to the beginning of October,
Mr. Hastillgs, in the above-mentioned general account subjoined to his letter of the 22d May, 1782,
has brought to the Company's credit a new bond. *
This bond is for 17,0001. It was taken from the
Company (and so it appears on their Treasury accounts) on the 23d of November, 1780. He took no notice of this, when, in January following, lie called
upon his own Council for the three others. What is
more extraordinary, he was equally silent with regard
to it, when, only six days after its date, he wrote concerning the subject of the three other bonds to the Court of Directors; yet now it comes out, that that
bond also was taken by Mr. Hastings from the Company for money which he declares he had received on the Company's account, and that he entered himself
as creditor when he ought to have made himself
debtor.
Your Committee examined Major Scott concerning
this money, which Mr. Hastings must have obtained
in some clandestine and irregular mode; but they
could obtain no information of the persons from
whom it was taken, nor of the occasion or pretence
of taking this lhrge sum; nor does any Minute of
Council appear for its application to any service. The
whole of the transaction, whatever it was, relative
to this bond, is covered with the thickest obscurity.
Mr. Hastings, to palliate the blame df his conduct,
* Vide Appendix B. No. 4.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 241
declares that lie has not received any interest on these
bonds, - and that he has indorsed them as not belonging to himself, but to the Company. * As to the
first part of this allegation, whether he received the
interest or let it remain in arrear is a matter of indifference, as he entitled himself to it; and so far as
the legal security he has taken goes, he may, whelever he pleases, dispose both of principal and interest.
What he has indorsed on the bonds, or when he made
the indorsemlent, or whether in fact he has made it at
all, are matters known only to himself; for the bonds
must be in his possession, and are nowhere by him
stated to be given up or cancelled, - which is a thing:
very remarkable, when he confesses that he had no,
right to receive them.
These bonds make but a part of the account of private receipts of money by Mr. Hastings, formerly paid
into the Treasury as his own property, and now allowed not to be so. This account brings into view
other very remarkable matters of a similar nature
and description. t
In the public records, a sum of not less than
23,8711. is set to his credit as a deposit for his private account, paid in by him into the Treasury in
gold, and coined at the Company's mint. $ This appears in the account furnished to the Directors, unlder the date of May, 1782, not to be lawfully his money, and he therefore transfers it to the Company's credit: it still remains as a deposit. ~
That the House may be apprised of the nature of
* Vide Mr. Hastings's Account, in Appendix B. No. 4.
t Vide Hastings's Account, dated 22d May, 1782, in Appendix.
B. No. 4.
t Vide above Appendix, and B. No. 2. ~ Vide above Ajl11:c'',x.
V )L. VIII. 16
? ? ? ? 242 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
this article of deposit, it may not be improper to state
that the Company receive into their treasury the cash
of private personls, placed there as in a bank. On
this no interest is paid, and the party depositing has
a right to receive it upon demand. Under this head
of accoult no public money is ever entered. Mr.
Hastings, neither at making the deposit as his own,
nor at the time of his disclosure of the real proprietor, (which he makes to be the Company,) has given any information of the persons from whom this money had been received. Mr. Scott was applied to by your Committee, but could not give any more satisfaction in this particular than in those relative to the bonds.
The title of the account of the 22d of May purports not only that those sums were paid into the Company's treasury by Mr. Hastings's order, but that
they were applied to the Company's service. No
service is specified, directly or by any reference, to
which this great sulm of money has been applied.
Two extraordinary articles follow this, in the May
account, amounting to about 29,0001. * These articles are called Receipts for Durbar Charges. The general head of Durbar Charges, made by persons in
office, when analyzed into the particulars, contains
various expenses, including bounties and presents
made by government, chiefly in the foreign department. But in the last account he confesses that this sum also is not his, but the Company's property; but
as in all the rest, so in this, lie carefully conceals the
means by which he acquired the money, the time of
his taking it, and the persons from whom it was
taken. This is the more extraordinary, because, in
* Vide Appendix B. No. 4.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 243
looking over the journals and ledgers of the Treasury,
the presents received and carried to the account of
the Company (which were generally small and complimental) were precisely entered, with the name of the giver.
Your Committee, on turning to the account of
Durbar charges in the ledger of that month, find the
sum, as stated in the account of May 22d, to be indeed paid in; but there is no specific application whatsoever entered.
The account of the whole money thus clandestinely
received, as stated on the 22d of May, 1782, (and
for a great part of which Mr. Hastings to that time
took credit for, and for the rest has accounted in an
extraordinary manner as his own,) amounts in the
whole to upwards of ninety-three thousand pounds
sterling: a vast sum to be so obtained, and so loosely
accounted for! If the money taken from the Rajah
of Benares be added, (as it ought,) it will raise the
sum to upwards of 116,0001. ; if the 11,6001. bond in
October be added, it will be upwards of 128,0001. received in a secret manner by Mr. Hastings in about one year and five months. To all these he adds another sum of one hundred thousand pounds, received as a present from the Subah of Oude. Total, upwards of 228,0001.
Your Committee find that this last is the only sum
the giver of which Mr. HIastings has thought proper
to declare. It is to be observed, that he did not receive this 100,0001. in money, but in bills on a great native money-dealer resident at Benares, and who has
also an house at Calcutta: he is called Gopal Das.
The negotiation of these bills tended to make a discovery not so difficult as it would have been in other cases.
? ? ? ? 244 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
With regard to the application of this last sum of
money, which is said to be carried to the Durbar
charges of April, 1782, your Committee are not enabled to make any observations on it, as the account of that period has not yet arrived.
Your Committee have, in another Report, remarked fully upon most of the circumstances of this extraordinary transaction. Here they only bring so
much of these circumstances again into view as may
serve to throw light upon the true nature of the sums
of money taken by British subjects in power, under
the name of presents, and to show how far they are
entitled to that description in any sense which can
fairly imply in the pretended donors either willingness or ability to give. The condition of the bountiful parties who are not yet discovered may be conjectured from the state of those who have been made known: as far as that state anywhere appears, their
generosity is found in proportion, not to the opulence
they possess or to the favors they receive, but to the
indigence they feel and the insults they are exposed
to. The House will particularly attend to the situation of the principal giver, the Subah of Oude. "When the knife," says he, "had penetrated to
the bone, and I was surrounded with such heavy distresses that I could no longer live in expectations, I wrote you an account of my difficulties.
" The answer which I have received to it is such
that it has given me inexpressible grief and affliction.
I never had the least idea or expectation from you and the Council that you would ever have given your orders in so afflicting a manner, ill which you never before wrote, and which I could not have imagined.
As I am resolved to obey your orders, and directions
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 245
of the Council, without any delay, as long as I live, I
have, agreeably to those orders, delivered up all my
private papers to him [the Resident], that, when he
shall have examined my receipts and expenses, he may
take whatever remains. As I know it to be my duty
to satisfy you, the Company, and Council, I have not
failed to obey in any instance, but requested of him
that it might be done so as not to distress me in my
necessary expenses: there being no other funds but
those for the expenses of my mutseddies, household
expenses, and servants, &c. He demanded these in
such a manner, that, being remediless, I was obliged
to comply with what he required. He has accordingly stopped the pensions of my old servants for thirty years, whether sepoys, mutseddies, or household servants,
and the expenses of my family and kitchen, together with
the jaghires of my grandmother, mother, and aunts,, and
of my brothers and defendants, which were for their support. I had raised thirteen hundred horse and three battalions of sepoys to attend upon me; but as I have
no resources to support them, I have been obliged to
remove the people stationed in the mahals [districts]
and to send his people [the Resident's people] into
the mahals, so that I have not now one single servant about me. Should I mention to what further difficulties I have been reduced, it would lay me open
to contempt. "
In other parts of this long remonstrance, as well as
in other remonstrances no less serious, he says, " that
it is difficult for him to save himself alive; that in all
his affairs Mr. Iastings had given full powers to the
gentlemen here," (meaning the English Resident and
Assistants,) " who have done whatever they chose, and
still continue to do it. I never expected that you would
? ? ? ? 246 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
have brought me into such apprehension, and into so
weak a state, without writing to me onz any one of those
subjects; since I have not the smallest connection with
anybody except yourself. I am in such distress, both
day and night, that I see not the smallest prospect
of deliverance from it, since you are so displeased
with me as not to honor me with a single letter. "
In another remonstrance he thus expresses himself. "The affairs of this world are unstable, and
soon pass away: it would therefore be incumbent
on the English gentlemen to show some friendship
for me in my necessities, -- I, who have always exerted my very life in thle service of the English, assigned over to them all the resources left in my country, stopped my very household expenses, together with
the jaghires of my servants and dependants, to the
amount of 98,98,375 rupees. Besides this, as to the
jaghires of my grandmother, mother, and uncle, which
were granted to them for their support, agreeable to
engagements, you are the masters, --if the Council
have sent orders for the stopping their jaghires also,
stop them. I have no resources left in my country,
and have no friends by me, being even distressed in
my daily subsistence. I have some elephants, horses,
and the houses which I inhabit: if they can be of any
service to my friends, they are ready. Whenever you
can discover any resources, seize upon them: I shall
not interfere to prevent you. In my present distress
for my daily expenses, I was in hopes that they would
have excused some part of my debt. Of what use is
it for me to relate my situation, which is known to
the whole world? This much is sufficient. "
The truth of all these representations is nowhere
contested by Mr. Hastings. It is, indeed, admitted in
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 247
something stronger than words; for, upon account
of the Nabob's condition, and the no less distressed
condition of his dominions, he thought it fit to withdraw from him and them a large body of the Company's troops, together with all the English of a civil description, who were found no less burdensome than
the military. This was done on the declared inability of the country any longer to support them, -- a
country not much inferior to England in extent and
fertility, and, till lately at least, its equal in population
and culture.
It was to a prince, in a state so far remote from
freedom, authority, and opulence, so penetrated with
the treatment he had received, and the behavior lihe
had met with from Mr. Hastings, that Mr. Hastings
has chosen to attribute a disposition so very generous
and munificent as, of his own free grace and mere
motion, to make him a present, at one donation, of
upwards of one hundred thousand pounds sterling.
This vast private donation was given at the moment
of vast instant demands severely exacted on account
of the Company, and accumulated on immense debts
to the same body, --and all taken from a ruined
prince and almost desolated territory.
Mr. Hastings has had the firmness, with all possible
ease and apparent unconcern, to request permission
from the Directors to legalize this forbidden present
for his own use. This he has had the courage to do
at a time when he had abundant reason to look for
what he has since received, - their censure for many
material parts of his conduct towards the people from
whose wasted substance this pretended free gift was
drawn. He does not pretend that he has reason to
expect the smallest degree of partiality, in this or any
? ? ? ? 248 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
other point, from the Court of Directors. For, besides
his complaint, first stated, of' having never possessed
their confidence, in a late letter * (in which, notwithstanding the censures of Parliament, he magnifies his own conduct) he says, that, in all the long period
of his service, "he has almost unremittedly wanted
the support which all his predecessors had enjoyed
from their constituents. From mine," says he, "I
have received nothing but reproach, hard epithets, and
indignities, instead of rewards and encouragement. "
It must therefore have been from some other source
of protection than that which the law had placed over
him that he looked for countenance and reward in
violating an act of Parliament which forbid him
from taking gifts or presents on any account whatsoever,- much less a gift of this magnitude, which,
from the distress of the giver, must be supposed the
effect of the most cruel extortion.
The Directors did wrong in their orders to appropriate money, which they must know could not
have been acquired by the consent of the pretended
donor, to their own use.
t They acted more properly in refusing to confirm this grant to Mr. Hastings,
and in choosing rather to refer him to the law which
he had violated than to his own sense of what he
thought he was entitled to take from the natives:
putting him in mind that the Regulating Act had expressly declared " that no Governor-General, or any
of the Council, shall, directly or indirectly, accept, receive, or take, of or from any person or persons, or on any account whatsoever, any present, gift, donation,
gratuity, or reward, pecuniary or otherwise, or any
promise or engagement for any of the aforesaid. "
* Vide Appendix B. No. 6. t Ibid. , No. 7.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 249
Here is no reserve for the case of a disclosure to the
Directors, and for the legalizing the breach of an act
of Parliament by their subsequent consent. The illegality attached to the action at its very commencement, and it could never be afterwards legalized: the Directors had no such power reserved to them.
Words cannot be devised of a stronger import or
studied with more care. To these words of the act
are opposed the declaration and conduct of Mr. Hastings, who, in his letter of January, 1782, thinks fit to
declare, that " an offer of a very considerable sum of
money was made to him, both on the part of the Nabob and his ministers, as a present, which he accepted
without hesitation. " The plea of his pretended necessity is of no avail. The present was not in ready
money, nor, as your Committee conceive, applicable
to his immediate necessities. Even his credit was
not bettered by bills at long periods; he does not pretend that he raised any money upon them; nor is it
conceivable that a banker at Benares would be more
willing to honor the drafts of so miserable, undone,
and dependent a person as the Nabob of Oude than
those of the Governor-General of Bengal, which
might be paid either on the receipt of the Benares
revenue, or at the seat of his power, and of the Company's exchequer. Besides, it is not explicable, upon
any grounds that can be avowed, why the Nabob,
who could afford to give these bills as a present to
Mr. Hastings, could not have equally given them in
discharge of the debt which he owed to the Company.
It is, indeed, very much to be feared that the people
of India find it sometimes turn more to their account
to give presents to the English in authority than to
pay their debts to the public; and this is a matter of
a very serious consideration.
? ? ? ? 250 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
No small merit is made by Mr. Hastings, and that,
too, in a high and upbraiding style, of his having
come to a voluntary discovery of this and other unlawful practices of the same kind. " That honorable court," says Mr. Hastings, addressing himself to his
masters, in his letter of December, 1782, "ought to
know whether I possess the integrity and honor
which are the first requisites of such a station. If
I wanted these, they have afforded me too powerful
incentives to suppress the information which I now
convey to them through you, and to appropriate to
my own use the sums which I have already passed
to their credit, by their unworthy, and pardon me if I
add dangerous reflections, which they have passed upon
me for the first communication of this kind "; and
he immediately adds, what is singular and striking,
and savors of a recriminatory insinuation, " and your
own experience will suggest to you that there are
persons who would profit by such a warning. " * To
what Directors in particular this imputation of experience is applied, and what other persons they are in whom experience has shown a disposition to profit of
such a warning, is a matter highly proper to be inquired into. What Mr. Hastings says further on this subject is no less worthy of attention: - that he
could have concealed these transactions, if he had a
wrong motive, fromn theirs and the public eye forever. " t
It is undoubtedly true, that, whether the observation
be applicable to the particular case or not, practices
of this corrupt nature are extremely difficult of detection anywhere, but especially in India; but all restraint upon that grand fundamental abuse of presents is gone forever, if the servants of the Company * Vide Appendix B. No. 6. t Ibid.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 251
can derive safety from a defiance of the law, when
they can no longer hope to screen themselves by an
evasion of it. All hope of reformation is at an end,
if, confiding in the force of a faction among Directors
or proprietors to bear them out, and possibly to vote
them the fruit of their crimes as a reward of their discovery, they find that their bold avowal of their offences is not only to produce indemnity, but to be rated for merit. If once a presumption is admitted,
that, wherever something is divulged, nothing is hid,
the discovering of one offence may become the certain means of concealing a multitude of others. The
contrivance is easy and trivial, and lies open to the
meanest proficient in this kind of art; it will not
only become an effectual cover to such practices, but
will tend infinitely to increase them. In that case,
sums of money will be taken for the purpose of discovery and making merit with the Company, and
other sums will be taken for the private advantage of
the receiver.
It must certainly be impossible for the natives to
know what presents are for one purpose, or what for
the other. It is not for a Gentoo or a Mahometan
landholder at the foot of the remotest mountains in
India, who has no access to our records and knows
nothing of our language, to distinguish what lacs of
rupees, which he has given eo nomine as a present
to a Company's servant, are to be authorized by his
masters in Leadenhall Street as proper and legal, or
carried to their public account at their pleasure, and
what are laid up for his own emolument.
The legislature, in declaring all presents to be the
property of the Company, could not consider corruption, extortion, and fraud as any part of their re
? ? ? ? 252 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
sources. The property in such presents was declared
to be theirs, not as a fund for their benefit, but in
order to found a legal title to a civil suit. It was
declared theirs, to facilitate the recovery out of corrupt and oppressive hands of money illegally taken; but this legal fiction of property could irot nor ought
by the legislature to be considered in any other light
than as a trust held by them for those who suffered
the injury. Upon any other construction, the Company would have a right, first, to extract money from the subjects or dependants of this kingdom committed to their care, by means of particular conventions, or by taxes, by rents, and by monopolies; and when
they had exhausted every contrivance of public imposition, then they were to be at liberty to let loose upon the people all their servants, from the highest
rank to the lowest, to prey upon them at pleasure,
and to draw, by personal and official authority, by
influence, venality, and terror, whatever was left to
them, -and that all this was justified, provided the
product was paid into the Company's exchequer.
This prohibition and permission of presents, with
this declaration of property in the Company, would
leave no property to any man in India. If, however,
it should be thought that this clause in the act *
should be capable, by construction and retrospect, of
so legalizing and thus appropriating these presents,
(which your Committee conceive impossible,) it is
absolutely necessary that it should be very fully explained.
The provision in the act was made in favor of the
natives. If such construction prevails, the provision
made as their screen from oppression will become
* Act 13 Geo. III. cap 63.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 253
the means of increasing and aggravating it without
bounds and beyond remedy. If presents, which when
they are given were unlawful, can afterwards be legalized by an application of them to the Company's
service, no sufferer can even resort to a remedial
process at law for his own relief. The moment he
attempts to sue, the money may be paid into the
Company's treasury; it is then lawfully taken, and
the party is non-suited.
The Company itself must suffer extremely in the
whole order and regularity of their public accounts,
if the idea upon which Mr. Hastings justifies the
taking of these presents receives the smallest countenance. On his principles, the same sum may become private property or public, at the pleasure of the receiver; it is in his power, Mr. Hastings says,
to conceal it forever. * He certainly has it in his
power not only to keep it back and bring it forward
at his own times, but even to shift and reverse the
relations in the accounts (as Mr. Hastings has done)
in what manner and proportion seems good to him,
and to make himself alternately debtor or creditor
for the same sums.
Of this irregularity Mr. Hastings himself appears
in some degree sensible. He conceives it possible
that his transactions of this nature may to the Court
of Directors seem unsatisfactory. He, however, puts
it hypothetically: " If to you," says he, " who are accustomed to view business in an official and regular
light, they should appear unprecedented, if not improper. " f He just conceives it possible that in an
* Vide Mr. Hastings's Letter of 16 December, 1782, in Appendix
B. No. 6.
t Vide Appendix B. No. 6.
? ? ? ? 254 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
official money transaction the Directors may expect
a proceeding official and regular. In what other
lights than those which are official and regular matters of public account ought to be regarded by those
who have the charge of them, either in Bengal or
in England, does not appear to your Committee.
Any other is certainly "unprecedented and improper," and can only serve to cover fraud both in the
receipt and in the expenditure. The acquisition of
58,000 rupees, or near 60001. , which appears in the
sort of unofficial and irregular account that he furnishes of his presents, in his letter of May, 1782,*
must appear extraordinary indeed to those who expect from men in office something official and something regular. " This sum," says he, "I received
while I was on my journey to Benares. " t He tells
it with the same careless indifference as if things of
this kind were found by accident on the high-road.
Mr. Hastings did not, indeed he could not, doubt
that this unprecedented and improper account would
produce much discussion. He says, " Why these
sums were taken by me, why they were (except the
second) quietly transferred to the Company's account, why bonds were taken for the first and not
for the rest, might, were this matter to be exposed
to the view of the public, furnish a variety of conjectures. " t
This matter has appeared, and has furnished, as
it ougiht to do, something more serious than conjectures. It would in any other case be supposed
that Mr. Hastings, expecting such inquiries, and considering that the questions are (even as they are imperfectly stated by himself) far from frivolous, would * Vide Appendix B. No. 3. t Ibid. t Ibid.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 255
condescend to give some information upon them; but
the conclusion of a sentence so importantly begun,
and which leads to such expectations, is, "that to
these conjectures it would be of little use to reply. "
This is all he says to public conjecture.
To the Court of Directors he is very little more
complaisant, and not at all more satisfactory; he
states merely as a. supposition their inquiry concerning matters of which he positively knew that they
had called for an explanation. He knew it, because
he presumed to censure them for doing so. To the
hypothesis of a further inquiry he gives a conjectural
answer of such a kind as probably, in an account of
a doubtful transaction, and to a superior, was never
done before.
" Were your Honorable Court to question me upon these points, I would answer, that the sums were
taken for the Company's benefit, at times in which
the Company very much stood in need of them; 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
could at this distance of time verify. " *
He here professes not to be certain of the motives
by which he was himself actuated in so extraordinary a concealment, and in the use of such extraordinary means to effect it; and as if the acts in question were those of an absolute stranger, and not his own, he gives various loose conjectures concerning
the motive to them. He even supposes, in taking
presents contrary to law, and in taking bonds for
them as his own, contrary to what lie admits to
be truth and fact, that he might have acted without
* Vide Appendix B. No. 3.
? ? ? ? 256 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
any distinct motive at all, or at least such as his
memory could reach at that distance of time. That
immense distance, in the faintness of which his recollection is so completely lost as to set him guessing at his motives for his own conduct, was from the
15th of January, 1781, when the bonds at his own request were given, to the date of this letter, which is the 22d of May, 1782, -that is to say, about one year and four months.
As to the other sums, for which no bond was
taken, the ground for the difference in his explanation is still more extraordinary: he says, "I did not
think it worth my care to observe the same means
with the rest. "* The rest of these sums, which
were not worth his care, are stated in his account
to be greater than those he was so solicitous (for
some reason which he cannot guess) to cover under
bonds: these sums amount to near 53,0001. ; whereas
the others did not much exceed 40,0001. For these
actions, attended with these explanations, he ventures to appeal to their (the Directors') breasts for
a candid interpretation, and "' he assumes the freedom to add, that he thinks himself, on such a subject, and on sutch an occasion, entitled to it"; t and then, as if he had performed some laudable exploit,
in the accompanying letter lie glories in the integrity of his conduct; and anticipating his triumph
over injustice, and the applauses which at a future
time he seems confident he shall receive, says he,
"The applause of my own breast is my surest reward: your applause and that of my country is my
next wish in life. " t He declares in that very letter that he had not at any time possessed the confi* Vide Appendix B. No. 3.
? t Ibid. t Ibid. , No. 6.
? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 257
dence with them which they never withheld from the
meanest of his predecessors. With wishes so near
his heart perpetually disappointed, and, instead of
applauses, (as he tells us,) receiving nothing but
reproaches and disgraceful epithets, his steady continuance for so many years in their service, in a
place obnoxious in the highest degree to suspicion
and censure, is a thing altogether singular.
It appears very necessary to your Committee to
observe upon the great leading principles which Mr.
Hastings assumes, to justify the irregular taking of
these vast sums of money, and all the irregular
means he had employed to cover the greater part of
it. These principles are the more necessary to be
inquired into, because, if admitted, they will serve
to justify every species of improper conduct. His
words are, " that the sources from which these reliefs to the public service have come would never
have yielded them to the Companypublicly; and that
the exigencies of their service (exigencies created
by the exposition of their affairs, and faction in their
divided councils) required those supplies. " *
As to the first of these extraordinary positions,
your Committee cannot conceive what motive could
actuate any native of India dependent on the Company, in assisting them privately, and in refusing to assist them publicly. If the transaction was fair and honest, every native must have been desirous of making merit with the great governing power. If he
gave his money as a free gift, he might value himself
upon very honorable and very acceptable service; if
he lent it on the Company's bonds, it would still have
been of service, and he might also receive eight per.
* Vide Appendix B. No. 6.
VOL. VIII. 17
? ? ? ? 258 ELEVENTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
cent for his money. No native could, without some
interested view, give to the Governor-General what
he would refuse to the Company as a grant, or even
as a loan. It is plain that the powers of government
must, in some way or other, be understood by the
natives to be at sale. The Governor-General says
that he took the money with an original destination
to the purposes to which he asserts he has since ap
plied it. But this original destination was in his own
mind only, - not declared, nor by him pretended to
be declared, to the party who gave the presents, and
who could perceive nothing in it but money paid
to the supreme magistrate for his private emolument. All that the natives could possibly perceive
in such a transaction must be highly dishonorable to
the Company's government; for they must conceive,
when they gave money to Mr. Hastings, that. they
bought from Mr. Hastings either what was their own
right or something that was not so, or that they redeemed themselves from some acts of rigor inflicted,
threatened, or apprehended. If, in the first case, Mr.
Hastings gave them the object for which they bargained, his act, however proper, was corrupt, - if he
did not, it was both corrupt and fraudulent; if the
money was extorted by force or threats, it was oppressive and tyrannical. The very nature of such transactions has a tendency to teach the natives to pay a corrupt court to the servants of the Company; and they must thereby be rendered less willing, or less able, or
perhaps both, to fulafil their engagements to the state.
Mr. Scott's evidence asserts that they would rather
give to Mr. Hastings than lend to the Company. It
is very probable; but it is a demonstration of their
opinion of hlis power and corruption, and of the weak
and precarious state of the Company's authority.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 259
The second principle assumed by Mr. Hastings for
his justification, namely, that factious opposition and
a divided government might create exigencies requiring such supplies, is full as dangerous as the first;
for, if, in the divisions which must arise in all councils, one member of government, when he thinks
others factiously disposed, shall be entitled to take
money privately from the subject for the purposes of
his politics, and thereby to dispense with an act of
Parliament, pretences for that end cannot be wanting. A dispute may always be raised in council in
order to cover oppression and peculation elsewhere.
But these principles of Mr. Hastings tend entirely to
destroy the character and functions of a council, and
to vest them in one of the dissentient members. The
law has placed the sense of the whole in the majority; and it is not a thing to be suffered, that any of
the members should privately raise money for the
avowed purpose of defeating that sense, or for promoting designs that are contrary to it: a more alarming assumption of power in an individual member of any deliberative or executive body cannot be imagined. Mr. Hastings had no right, in order to clear
himself of peculation, to criminate the majority with
faction. No member of any body, outvoted on a question, has, or can have, a right to direct any part of his
public conduct by that principle. The members of
the Council had a common superior, to whom they
might appeal in their mutual charges of faction:
they did so frequently; and the imputation of faction
has almost always been laid on Mr. Hastings himself.
But there were periods, very distinguished periods
too, in the records of the Company, in which the
clandestine taking of money could not be supported
?
