I have written this, which you will deliver to the Governor, that everything may be settled; and when he has understood it,
whatever
is his inclination, he will favor me with it.
Edmund Burke
?
422 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
questions are never more than yes or no; but when
they are examined by the counsel on the other side,
it flows as freely as if drawn from a perennial spring:
and such a spring we have in Indian corruption.
Wo have, however, proved that in these cages the
renters were confined till they could be lodged in
the dungeons or mud forts. We have proved that
some of them were obliged to sell their children, that
-others fled the country, and that these practices were
carried to such an awful extent that Colonel iHannay
-was under the necessity of issuing orders against
the unnatural sale and flight which his rapacity had
occasioned.
The prisoner's counsel have attempted to prove:that this had been a common practice in that country. And though possibly some person as wicked
as Colonel Hannay might have been there before at:some time or other, no man ever sold his children
but under' the pressure of some cruel exaction. Nature calls out against it. The love that God has implanted in the heart of parents towards their children is: the first germ of that second conjunction which
He has ordered to subsist between them and the rest
of mankind. It is the first formation and first bond
of society. It is stronger than all laws; for it is the
law of Nature, which is the law of God. Never did
a man sell his children who was able to maintain
them. It is, therefore, not only a proof of his exactions, but a decisive proof that these exactions were
intolerable.
Next to the love of parents for their children, the
strongest instinct, both natural and moral, that exists
in man, is the love of his country: an instinct, indeed, which extends even to the brute creation. All
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 423
creatures love their offspring; next to that they love. their homes: they have a fondness for the place
where they have been bred, for the habitations they
have dwelt in, for the stalls in which they have been
fed, the pastures they have bjrowsed in, and the wilds
in which they have roamed. We all know that the
natal soil has a sweetness in it beyond the harmony
of verse. This instinct, I say, that binds all creatures to their country, never becomes inert in us, nor
ever suffers us to want a memory of it. Those,
therefore, who seek to fly their country can only wish
to fly from oppression: and what other proof can you
want of this oppression, when, as a witness has told
you, Colonel iannay was obliged to put bars and
guards to confine the inhabitants within the country?
We have seen, therefore, Nature violated in its
strongest principles. We have seen unlimited and
arbitrary exaction avowed, on no pretence of any law,
rule, or any fixed mode by which these people were
to be dealt with. . All these facts have been proved
before your Lordships by costive and unwilling witnesses. In consequence of these violent and cruel
oppressions, a general rebellion breaks out in the
country, as was naturally to be expected. The inhabitants rise as if by common consent; every farmer, every proprietor of land, every mall who loved his family and his country, and had not fled for refuge, rose in rebellion, as they call it. My Lords,
they did rebel; it was a just rebellion. Insurrection
was there just and legal, inasmuch as Colonel Hannay, in defiance of the laws and rights of the people, exercised a clandestine, illegal authority, against which there call be no rebellion ill its proper sense.
As a rebellion, however, and as a rebellion of the
? ? ? ? :424 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
most unprovoked -kind, it was treated by Colonel. Hannay; and to one instance of the means taken
for suppressing it, as proved by evidence, befor6 your
Lordships, I will just beg leave to call your attention.
One- hundred and fifty of. the inhabitants had been
shut up in one of the mud forts I have mentioned.
The people of the country, in their rage, attacked the
fort, and demanded the prisoners; they called for
*their brothers, their fathers, their husbands, who
were confined there. It was attacked by the joint
assault of men and women. '. The man who conmmanded in the fort immediately cut off the heads of
eighteen of the principal prisoners, and tossed them
over the battlements to the assailants. There happened to be a prisoner in the fort, a mail loved
and respected in his country, and who, whether justly or unjustly, was honored and much esteemed by
all the people. "Give us our Rajah, Mustapha
Khan! " (that was the name of the man confined,)
cried out the assailants. We asked the witness at
your bar what he was confined for. He did not
know; but he said that Colonel Hallnay had confined
him, and added, that he was sentenced to death.
We desired to see the fetwah, or decree, of the judge
who sentenced him. No, - no such thing, nor any
evidence of its having ever existed, could be produced. We desired to know whether he could give
any account of the process, any account of the magistrate, any account of the accuser, any account of
the defence, -- in *short, whether he could give any
account whatever of this man's being condemned to
death. He could give no account of it, but the orders of Colonlel Hannay, who seems to have imprisoiled and condemned him by his own arbitrary will.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FOURTH DAY. 425
Upon the demand of Rajah Mustapha by the insurgents being made known to Colonel Hannay, he
sends an order to the commander of the fort, a man
already stained with the blood of all the people who
were murdered there, that, if he had not executed
Mustapha Khan, he should execute him immediately.
The man is staggered at the order, and refuses to
execute it, as not being directly addressed to him.
Colonel Hannay then sends a Captain Williams, who
has appeared here as an evidence at your bar, and
who, together with Captain Gordon and Major Macdonald, both witnesses also here, were all sub-farmers and actors under Colonel Hannay. This Captain Williams, I say, goes there, and, without asking one
of those questions which I put to the witness at your
bar, and desiring nothing but Colonel Hannay's
word, orders the man to be beheaded; and accordingly he was beheaded, agreeably. to the orders of
Colonel Hannay. Upon this, the rebellion blazed out
with tenfold fury, and the people declared they would
be revenged for the destruction of their zemindar.
Your Lordships have now seen this Mustapha
Khani imprisoned and sentenced to death by Colonel
Hannay, without judge and without accuser, without
any evidence, without thefetwah, or any sentence of
the law. This man is thus put to death by an arbitrary villain, by a more than cruel tyrant, Colonel
Hannay, the substitute of a ten thousand times more
cruel tyrant, Mr. Hastings.
In this situation was the country of Oude, under
Colonel Hannay, when he was removed from it.
The knowledge of his misconduct had before induced
the miserable Nabob to make an effort to get rid of
him; but Mr. Hastings had repressed that effort by
? ? ? ? 426 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a civil reprimand,- telling him, indeed, at the same
time,'" I do not force you to receive him. " (Indeed,
the Nabob's situation had in it force enough. ) The
Nabob, I say, was forced to receive him; and again
he ravages and destroys that devoted country, till the
time of which I have been just speaking, when he
was driven out of it finally by the rebellion, and, its
you may imagine, departed like a leech full of blood.
It is stated in evidence upon your minutes that
this bloated leech went back to Calcutta; that he was
supposed, from a state of debt, (in which he was
known to have been when he left that city,) to have
returned from Oude with the handsome sum of 300,
0001. , of which 80,0001. was in gold mohurs. This
is declared to be the universal opinion in India, and
no man has ever contradicted it. Ten persons have
given evidence to that effect; not one has contradicted it, from that hour to this, that I ever heard of. The man is now no more. Whether his family have
the whole of the plunder or not, --what partnership
there' was in this business, --what shares, what dividends were made, and who got them, -- about all this public opinion varied, and we can with certainty
affirm nothing; but there ended the life and exploits
of Colonel Hannay, farmer-general, civil officer, and
military commander of Baraitch and Goruckpore.
But not so ended Mr. Hastings's proceedings.
Soon after the return of Colonel Hannay to
Calcutta, this miserable Nabob received intelligence,
which concurrent public fame supported, that Mr.
Hastings meant to send him up into the country again,
on a second expedition, probably with some such order as this: - "You have sucked blood enough for yourself, now try what you can do for your neigh
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. FOURTH DAY. 427
bors. " The Nabob was not likely to be misinformed.
His friend and agent, Gobind Ram, was at Calcutta,
and had constant access to all Mr. Hastings's people.
Mr. Hastings himself tells you what instructions
these vakeels always have to search into and discover all his transactions. This Gobind Ram, alarmed with strong apprehensions, and struck with horror at
the very idea of such an event, apprised his master
of his belief that Mr. Hastings meant to send Colonel
Hannay again into the country. Judge now, my
Lords, what Colonel Hannay must have been, from
the declaration which I will now read to you, extorted from that miserable slave, the Nabob, who thus addresses Mr. Hastings.
"My country and house belong to you; there is no:difference. I hope that you desire in your heart the good of my concerns. Colonel Hannay is inclined
to request your permission to be employed in the
affairs of this quarter. If by any means any matter
of this country dependent on me should be intrusted
to the Colonel, I swear by the Holy Prophet, that I
will not remain here, but will go from hence to you.
From your kindness let no concern dependent on
me be intrusted to the Colonel, and oblige me by a
speedy answer which may set my mind at ease. "
We: know very well that the prisoner at your bar
denied his having any intention to send him up.
We cannot prove them, but we' maintain that there
were grounds for the strongest suspicions that he
entertained such intentions. He cannot deny the
reality of this terror which existed in the minds of
the Nabob and his people, under the apprehension
that he was to be sent up, which plainly showed that
they at least considered there was ground enough for
? ? ? ? 428 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
charging him with that intention. What reason was
there to think that he should not be sent a third
time, who had been sent twice before? Certainly,
none; because every circumstance of Mr. Hastings's
proceedings was systematical, and perfectly well
known'at Oude.
But suppose it to have been a false report; it
shows all that the Managers wish to show, the
extremei terror which these creatures and tools of
Mr. Hastings struck into the people of that country.
His denial of any intention of again sending Colonel
Hannay' does not disprove either the justness of their
suspicions or the existence of the terror which his
very name excited.
My Lords, I shall now call your attention to a part
of the evidence which we have produced to prove the
terrible effects of Colonel Hannay's operations. Captain Edwards, an untainted man, who tells you that
he had passed through that country again and again,
describes it as bearing all the marks of savage desolation. Mr. Holt says it has fallen from its formerstate, -- that whole towns and villages were no longer peopled, and that the country carried evident marks
of famine. One would have thought that Colonel
Hannay's cruelty and depredations would have satiated Mr. Hastings. No: he finds another military collector, a Major Osborne, who, having suffered
in his preferment by the sentence of a court-martial,
whether justly or unjustly I neither know nor care,
was appointed to the command of a thousand men in
the provinces of Oude, but really to the administration of the revenues of the country. He administered them much in the sanme manner as Colonel Hannay had done. He, however, transmitted to the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 429
government at Calcutta a partial representation of
the state. of the provinces, the substance of which
was, that the natives were exposed to every kind of
peculation, and that the country was in a horrible
state of confusion and disorder. This is upon the
Company's records; and although not produced inl
evidence, your Lordships may find it, for it has been
printed over and over again. This man went up to
tlie Vizier; in consequence of whose complaint, and
the renewed cries of the people, Mr. Hastings was
soon obliged to recall him.
But, my Lords, let us go from Major Osborne to
the rest of these military purveyors of revenue.
Your Lordships shall hear the Vizier's own account
of what he suffered from British officers, and into
what a state Mr. Hastings brought that country by
the agency of officers who, under the pretence of defending it, were invested with powers which enabled
them to commit most horrible abuses in the administration of the revenue, the collection of customs, and
the monopoly of the markets.
Copy of a Letter from the Nabob Vizier to the Governor- General.
"'All the officers stationed with the brigade at
Cawnpore, Futtyghur, Darunghur, and Furruckabad,
and other places, write purwannahs, and give positive
orders to the aumils of these places, respecting the
grain, &c. ; from which conduct the country will become depopulate. I am hopeful from your friendship that you will write to all these gentlemen not-to issue orders, &c. , to the aumils, and not to
send troops into the mahals of the sircar; and for
whatever quantity of grain, &c. , they may want, they
? ? ? ? 430 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
will inform me and the Resident, and we will write
it to the aumils, who shall cause it to be sent them
every month, and I will deduct the price of them
from the tuncaws: this will be agreeable both to me
and to the ryots. "
A Copy of a subsequent Letter from the Vizier to Rajah
Gobind Ram.
" I some time ago wrote you the particulars of the
conduct of the officers, and now write them again.
The officers and gentlemen- who are at Cawnpore,
and Futtyghur, and Darunghur, and other places, by
different means act very tyrannically and oppressively towards the aumils and ryots and inhabitants; and to whomsoever that requires a dustuck they
give it, with their own seal affixed, and send for the
aumils and punish them. -If they say anything,
the gentlemen make use of but two words: one,That is for the brigade; and the second, - That is
to administer justice. The particulars of it is this,
-- that the byparees will bring their grain from all
quarters, and sell for their livelihood. There is at
present no war to occasion a necessity for sending for
it. If none comes, whatever quantity will be necessary every month I will mention to the aumils, that they may bring it for sale: but there is no deficiency of grain. The gentlemen have established gunges for their own advantage, called Colonel Gunge, at
Darunghur, Futtyghur, &c. The collection of the
customs from all quarters they have stopped, and
collected them at their own gunges. Each gunge.
is rented out at 30,000-40,000 rupees, and their
collections paid to the gentlemen. They have established gunges where there never were any, and
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 431
where they were, those they have abolished; 30,000 or
40,000 rupees is the sum they are rented at; the collections, to the amount of a lac of rupees, are stopped.
Major Briscoe, who is at Darunghur, has established
a gunge which rented out for 45,000 rupees, and has
stopped the ghauts round about the byparees; and
merchants coming from Cashmere, from Shalljehanabad, and bringing shawls and other goods and spices, &c. , from all quarters, he orders to his gunge,
and collects the duty from the aumils, gives them a
chit, and a guard, who conducts them about five
hundred coss: the former duties are not collected.
From the conduct at Cawnpore, Futtyghur, Furruck-.
abad, &c. , the duties from the lilla of Gora and
Thlawa are destroyed, and. occasion a loss of three
lacs of rupees to the duties; and the losses that
are sustained in Furruckabad may be ascertained by
the Nabob Muzuffer Jung, to whom every day complaints are made: exclusive of the aumils and collectors, others lodge complaints. Whatever I do, I desire no benefit from it; I am remediless and silent; from what happens to me, I know that worse will
happen in other places; the second word, I know, is
from their mouths only. . This is the case. In this
country formerly, and even now, whatever is to be
received or paid among the zemindars, ryots, and inhabitants of the cities, and poor people, neither those
who can pay or those who cannot pay ever make any
excuse to the shroffs; but when they could pay, they
did. In old debts of fifty years, whoever complain
to the gentlemen, they agree that they shall pay one
fourth, and send dustucks and sepoys to all the
aumils, the chowdries, and canongoes, and inhabitants of all the towns; they send for everybody, to do
? ? ? ? 432 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
them justice, confine them, and say they will settle
the business. So many and numerous are these
calamities, that I know not how much room it will
take up to mention them. Mr. Briscoe is at Darunghur; and the complaints of the aumils arrive daily.
I am silent. Now Mr. Middleton is coming here, let
the Nabob appoint him for settling all these affairs.
that whatever he shall order those gentlemen they
will do. From this everything will be settled, and
the particulars of this quarter will be made known to
the Nabob.
I have written this, which you will deliver to the Governor, that everything may be settled; and when he has understood it, whatever is his inclination, he will favor me with it. The Nabob is master in this country, and is my friend; there is no
distinction. "
Cfopy of another Letter, entered upon the Consultation
of the 4th of June, 1781.
" I have received your letter, requesting leave for
a battalion to be raised by Captain Clark on the
same footing as Major Osborne's was, agreeable to the
requests and complaints of Ishmael Beg, the aumil
of Allahabad, &c. , and in compliance with the directions of the Council. You are well acquainted with the particulars and negotiation of Ishmael Beg, and
the nature of Mr. Osborne's battalion. , At the beginning of the year 1186 (1779) the affairs of Allahabad were given on a lease of three years to Ishmael Beg,
together with the purgunnahs Arreel and Parra;
and I gave orders for troops to be stationed and
raised, conformable to his request. Ishmael Beg
accordingly collected twelve hundred peons, which
were not allowed to the aumil of that place in the
? ? ? ? :SPEECH, IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 433
year 1185. The reason why I gave permission for
the additional expense of twelve hundred peons was,
that he might be enabled to manage the country
with ease, and pay the money to government regularly. I besides sent Mr. Osborne there to command in
the mahals belonging to Allahabad, which were in the
possession of Rajah Ajeet Sing; and he accordingly
took charge. Afterwards, in obedience to the orders of the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, Jelladut Jung, he was recalled, and the mahals placed, as before, under Rajah Ajeet Sing. I never sent
Mr. Osborne to settle the concerns of Allahabad, for
there was no occasion for him; but Mr. Osborne, of
himself, committed depredations and rapines within
Ishmael Beg's jurisdiction. Last year; the battalion,
which, by permission of General Sir Eyre Coote, was
sent, received orders to secure and defend Ishmael
Beg against the encroachments of Mr. Osborne; for
the complaints of Ishmael Beg against the violences
of Mr. Osborne had reached the General and Mr.
Purling; and the Governor and gentlemen of Council, at my request, recalled Mr. Osborne. This year,
as before, the collections of Arreel and Parra remain
under Ishmael Beg. In those places, some of the
talookdars and zemindars, who had been oppressed
and ill-treated by Mr. Osborne, had conceived ideas
of rebellion. "
Here, my Lords, you have an account of the condition of Darunghur, Futtyghur, Furruckabad, and
of the whole line of our military stations in the Nabob's dominions. You see the whole was one universal scene of plunder and rapine. You see all this was known to Mr. Hastings, who never inflicted
VOL. XI. 28
? ? ? ? 434 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any punishments for all this horrible outrage. You
see the utmost he has done is merely to recall one
man, Major Osborne, who was by no means the only
person deeply involved in these charges. He nominated all these people; he has never called any of them to an account. Shall I not, thlen, call him their
captain-general? Shall not your Lordships call him
so? And shall any man in the kingdom call him
by any other name? We see all the executive, all
the civil and criminal justice of the country seized
on by him. We see the trade and all the duties
seized upon by his creatures. We see them destroying established markets, and creating others at their pleasure. We see them, in the country of an ally
and in a time of peace, producing all the consequences of rapine and of war. We see the country
ruined and depopulated by men who attempt to exculpate themselves by charging their unhappy victims with rebellion.
And now, my Lords, who is it that has brought
to light all these outrages and complaints, the existence of which has never been denied, and for
which no redress was ever obtained, and no punishment ever inflicted? Why, Mr. Hastings himself has brought them before you; they are found in papers
which he has transmitted. God, who inflicts blindness upon great criminals, in order that they should meet with the punishment they deserve, has made him
the means of bringing forward this scene, which we
are maliciously said to have falsely and maliciously
devised. If any one of the ravages [charges? ] contained in that long catalogue of grievances is false, Warren Hastings is the person who must answer for
that individual falsehood. If they are generally false,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 4356
he is to answer for the false and calumniating accusation; and if they are true, my Lords, he only is
answerable, for he appointed those ministers of outrage, and never called them to account for their misconduct.
Let me now show your Lordships the character
that Mr. Hastings gives of all the. British officers.
It is to be found in an extract from the Appendix
to that part of his Benares Narrative in which he
comments upon the treaty of Chunar. Mark, my
Lords, what the man himself says of the whole mili --
tary service.
"Notwithstanding the great benefit which the Company would have derived from such an augmentation of their military force as these troops constituted, ready to act on any emergency, prepared and disciplined without any charge on the Company, as the
institution professed, until their actual services should
be required, I have observed some evils growing out
of the system, which, in my opinion, more than counterbalanced those advantages, had they been realized
in their fullest effect. The remote stations of these
troops, placing the commanding officers beyond the
notice and control of the board, afforded too much opportunity and temptation for unwarrantable emoluments, and excited the contagion of peculation and rapacity throughout the whole army. A most re-.
markable and incontrovertible proof of the prevalence
of this spirit has been seen in the court-martial upon
Captain Erskine, where the court, composed of officers of rank and respectable characters, unanimously
and honorably, most holnorably, acquitted him upon
an acknowledged fact which in times of stricter discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishment. "
? ? ? ? 436 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I will now call your Lordships' attention to another
extract from the same comment of Mr. Hastings, with
respect to the removal of the Company's servants,
civil and military, from the court and service of the
Vizier.
"I was actuated solely by motives of justice to him
and a regard to the honor of our national character.
In removing those gentlemen I diminish my own influence, as well as that of my colleagues, by narrowing
the line of patronage; and I expose myself to obloquy
and resentment from those who are immediately affected by the arrangement, and the long train of
their friends and pdwerful patrons. But their numbers, their influence, and the enormous amount of
their salaries, pensions, and emoluments, were an intolerable burden on the revenues and authority of the
Vizier, and exposed us to the envy and resentment
of the whole country, by excluding the native servants and adherents of the Vizier from the rewards
of their services and attachment. "
My Lords, you liave here Mr. Hastings's opinion
of the whole military service. You have here the
authority and documents by which he supports his
opinion. He states that the contagion of peculation had tainted all the frontier stations, which contain much the largest part of the Company's army. He states that this contagion had tainted the whole
army, everywhere: so that, according to him, there
was, throughout the Indian army, an universal taint
of peculation. My Lords, peculation is not a military vice. Insubordination, want of attention to duty, want of order, want of obedience and regularity, are military vices; but who ever before heard of peculation being a military vice? In the case before you,
? ? ? ? 'SPEECH IN REPLY. ' FOURTH DAY. 437
it became so by employing military men as farmers
of revenue, as masters of markets and of gunges.
This departure from the military -character and from
military duties introduced that peculation which
tainted the army, and desolated the dominions of
the Nabob Vizier.
I declare, when I first read the passage which has
been just read to your Lordships, in the infancy of
this inquiry, it struck me with astonishment that
peculation should at all exist as a military vice; but
I was still more astonished at finding Warren:Iastings charging the whole British army with being corrupted by this base and depraved spirit, to a degree
which tainted even their judicial character. This, my
Lords, is a most serious matter. The judicial functions of military men are of vast importance in themselves; and, generally speaking, there is not any tribunal whose members are more honorable in their conduct and more just in their decisions than those
of a court-martial. Perhaps there is not a tribunal
in this country whose reputation is really more untainted' than that of a court-martial. It stands as,
fair, in the opinion both of the army. and of the.
public, as any tribunal, in a country where all tribunals stand fair. But in India, this unnatural vice
of peculation, which has no more to do with the
vices of a military character than with its virtues,
this venomous spirit, has pervaded the members of
military tribunals to such an extent, that they acquit,
honorably acquit, most honorably acquit a man, " upon an acknowledged fact which in times of stricter
discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishmlent. "
Who says all this, my Lords? -Do I say it. ? No:
? ? ? ? 438 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
it is Warren Hastings who says it. He records it.
He gives you his vouchers and his evidence, and he
draws the conclusion. He is the criminal accuser
of the British, army. He who sits in that box accuses
the whole British army in. India. He has declared
them to be so tainted with peculation, from head
to foot, as to have been induced to commit the most
wicked perjuries, for the purpose of bearing one another out in their abominable peculations. In this unnatural state of things, and whilst there is not
one military man on these stations of whom Mr.
Hastings does not give this abominably flagitious
character, yet every one of them have joined to give
him the benefit of their testimony for his honorable
intentions and conduct.
In this tremendous scene, which he himself exposes, are there no signs of this captain-generalship which I have alluded to? Are there no signs of
this man's being a captain-general of iniquity, under
whom all the spoilers of India were paid, disciplined,
and supported? I not only charge him with being
guilty of a thousand crimes, but I assert that there
is not a soldier or a civil servant in India whose
culpable acts are not owing to this man's example, connivance, and protection. Everything which goes to criminate them goes directly against the prisoner. He puts them in a condition to plunder; he suffered no native authority or government to restrain
them; and he never called a man to an account for
these flagitious acts which he has thought proper to
bring before his country in the most solemn manner
and upon the most solemn occasion.
I verily believe, in my conscience, his accusation
is not true, in the excess, in the generality and ex
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 439
travagance in which he charges it. That it is true
in a great measure we cannot deny; and in that
measure we, in our turn, charge him with being
the author of all the crimes which he denounces;
and if there is anything in the charge beyond the
truth, it is he who is to answer for the falsehood.
I will now refer your Lordships to his opinion
of the civil service, as it is declared and recorded
in his remarks upon the removal of the Company's
civil servants by him from the service of the Vizier.
-" I was," says he, " actuated solely by motives of
justice to him [the Nabob of Oude], and a regard to
the honor of our national character. " - Here, you
see, he declares his opinion that in Oude the civil
servants of the Company had destroyed the national
character, and that therefore they ought to be recalled. -- " By removing these people," he adds, "I diminish my patronage. "' But I ask, How came
they there? Why, through this patronage. He
sent them there to suck the blood which the military had spared. He sent these civil servants to
do tell times more mischief than the military ravagers could do, because they were invested with
greater authority. -" If," says he, "I recall them
from thence, I lessen my patronage. " - But who,
my Lords, authorized him to become a patron?
What laws of his country justified him in forcing
upon the Vizier the civil servants of the Company?
What treaty authorized him to do it? What system
of policy, except his own wicked, arbitrary system,
authorized him to act thus?
He proceeds to say, "I expose myself to obloquy
and resentment from those who are immediately affected by the arrangement, and the long train of their
? ? ? ? 440 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
friends and powerful patrons. " My Lords, it is: the
constant burden of his song, that he cannot do his
duty, that he is fettered in everything, that he fears
a thousand mischiefs to happen to him, -- not from
his acting with carefulness, economy, frugality, and
in obedience to the laws of his country, but from the
very reverse of all this. Says he, "I am afraid I
shall forfeit the favor of the powerful patrons of those
servants in England, namely, the Lords and Commons of England, if I do justice to. the suffering people of this country. "
In the House of Commons there are undoubtedly
powerful people who may be supposed to be influenced by patronage; but the higher and more powerful part of the country is more directly represented by your Lordships than by us, although we have of
the first blood of England in the House of Commons.
We do, indeed, represent, by the knights of the
shires, the landed interest; by our city and borough
members we represent the trading interest; we
represent the whole people of England collectively,
But neither blood nor power is represented so fully in the House of Commons as that order which
composes the great body of the people, -- the protection of which is our peculiar duty, and to which it is
our glory to adhere. But the dignities of the country, the great and powerful, are represented eminent
ly by your Lordships. As we, therefore, would keep
the lowest of the people from the contagion and dis.
honor of peculation and corruption, and above all
from exercising that vice which, among commoners,
is unnatural as well as abominable, the vice of tyranny and oppression, so we trust that your Lordships
will clear yourselves and the higher and more power
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. '- FOURTH- DAY. 441
ful ranks from giving the smallest countenance to the
system which we have done our duty in denouncing
and bringing before you.
My Lords, you have heard the account of the civil service. Think of their numbers, think of their influence, and the enormous amount of their salaries, pensions, and emoluments! They were, you
have heard, an intolerable burden on the revenues
and authority of the Vizier; and they exposed us. to
the envy and resentment of the whole country, by
excluding the native servants and adherents of the
prince from the just reward of their services and
attachments. Here, my Lords, is the whole civil service brought before you. They usurp the country, they destroy the revenues, they overload the prince,
and they exclude all the nobility and eminent persons
of the country from the just reward of their service.
Did Mr. Francis, whom I saw here a little while
ago, send these people into that country? . Did
General Clavering, or Colonel Monson, whom he
charges with this system, send them there? No,
they were sent by himself; and if one was sent by
anybody else for a time, he was soon recalled: so
that he is himself answerable for all the peculation
which he attributes to the civil service. You see the
character given of that service; you there see their
accuser, you there see their defender, who, after having defamed both services, military and civil, never punished the guilty in either, and now receives the
prodigal praises of both.
I defy the ingenuity of man to show -that Mr. Hastings is not the defamer of the service. I defy the ingenuity of man to show that the honor of Great
Britain has not been tarnished under his patronage.
? ? ? ? 442 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
He engaged to remove all these bloodsuckers by the
treaty of Chunar; but he never executed that treaty.
He proposed to take away the temporary brigade;
but he again established it. He redressed no grievance; he formed no improvements in the government; he never attempted to provide a remedy without increasing the evil tenfold. He was the
primary and sole cause of all the grievances, civil
and military, to which the unhappy natives of that
country were exposed; and he was the accuser of
all the immediate authors of those grievances, without having punished any one of them. He is the
accuser of them all. But -he only person whom he
attempted to punish was that man who dared to
assert the authority of the Court of Directors, and
to claim an office assigned to him by them.
I will now read to your Lordships the protest of
General Clavering against the military brigade. --
"Taking the army from I he Nabob is an infringement of the rights of an independent prince, leaving
only the name and title of it without the power. It
is taking his subjects from him, against every law of
Nature and of nations. "
I will next read to your Lordships a minute of Mr.
Francis's.
questions are never more than yes or no; but when
they are examined by the counsel on the other side,
it flows as freely as if drawn from a perennial spring:
and such a spring we have in Indian corruption.
Wo have, however, proved that in these cages the
renters were confined till they could be lodged in
the dungeons or mud forts. We have proved that
some of them were obliged to sell their children, that
-others fled the country, and that these practices were
carried to such an awful extent that Colonel iHannay
-was under the necessity of issuing orders against
the unnatural sale and flight which his rapacity had
occasioned.
The prisoner's counsel have attempted to prove:that this had been a common practice in that country. And though possibly some person as wicked
as Colonel Hannay might have been there before at:some time or other, no man ever sold his children
but under' the pressure of some cruel exaction. Nature calls out against it. The love that God has implanted in the heart of parents towards their children is: the first germ of that second conjunction which
He has ordered to subsist between them and the rest
of mankind. It is the first formation and first bond
of society. It is stronger than all laws; for it is the
law of Nature, which is the law of God. Never did
a man sell his children who was able to maintain
them. It is, therefore, not only a proof of his exactions, but a decisive proof that these exactions were
intolerable.
Next to the love of parents for their children, the
strongest instinct, both natural and moral, that exists
in man, is the love of his country: an instinct, indeed, which extends even to the brute creation. All
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 423
creatures love their offspring; next to that they love. their homes: they have a fondness for the place
where they have been bred, for the habitations they
have dwelt in, for the stalls in which they have been
fed, the pastures they have bjrowsed in, and the wilds
in which they have roamed. We all know that the
natal soil has a sweetness in it beyond the harmony
of verse. This instinct, I say, that binds all creatures to their country, never becomes inert in us, nor
ever suffers us to want a memory of it. Those,
therefore, who seek to fly their country can only wish
to fly from oppression: and what other proof can you
want of this oppression, when, as a witness has told
you, Colonel iannay was obliged to put bars and
guards to confine the inhabitants within the country?
We have seen, therefore, Nature violated in its
strongest principles. We have seen unlimited and
arbitrary exaction avowed, on no pretence of any law,
rule, or any fixed mode by which these people were
to be dealt with. . All these facts have been proved
before your Lordships by costive and unwilling witnesses. In consequence of these violent and cruel
oppressions, a general rebellion breaks out in the
country, as was naturally to be expected. The inhabitants rise as if by common consent; every farmer, every proprietor of land, every mall who loved his family and his country, and had not fled for refuge, rose in rebellion, as they call it. My Lords,
they did rebel; it was a just rebellion. Insurrection
was there just and legal, inasmuch as Colonel Hannay, in defiance of the laws and rights of the people, exercised a clandestine, illegal authority, against which there call be no rebellion ill its proper sense.
As a rebellion, however, and as a rebellion of the
? ? ? ? :424 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
most unprovoked -kind, it was treated by Colonel. Hannay; and to one instance of the means taken
for suppressing it, as proved by evidence, befor6 your
Lordships, I will just beg leave to call your attention.
One- hundred and fifty of. the inhabitants had been
shut up in one of the mud forts I have mentioned.
The people of the country, in their rage, attacked the
fort, and demanded the prisoners; they called for
*their brothers, their fathers, their husbands, who
were confined there. It was attacked by the joint
assault of men and women. '. The man who conmmanded in the fort immediately cut off the heads of
eighteen of the principal prisoners, and tossed them
over the battlements to the assailants. There happened to be a prisoner in the fort, a mail loved
and respected in his country, and who, whether justly or unjustly, was honored and much esteemed by
all the people. "Give us our Rajah, Mustapha
Khan! " (that was the name of the man confined,)
cried out the assailants. We asked the witness at
your bar what he was confined for. He did not
know; but he said that Colonel Hallnay had confined
him, and added, that he was sentenced to death.
We desired to see the fetwah, or decree, of the judge
who sentenced him. No, - no such thing, nor any
evidence of its having ever existed, could be produced. We desired to know whether he could give
any account of the process, any account of the magistrate, any account of the accuser, any account of
the defence, -- in *short, whether he could give any
account whatever of this man's being condemned to
death. He could give no account of it, but the orders of Colonlel Hannay, who seems to have imprisoiled and condemned him by his own arbitrary will.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - FOURTH DAY. 425
Upon the demand of Rajah Mustapha by the insurgents being made known to Colonel Hannay, he
sends an order to the commander of the fort, a man
already stained with the blood of all the people who
were murdered there, that, if he had not executed
Mustapha Khan, he should execute him immediately.
The man is staggered at the order, and refuses to
execute it, as not being directly addressed to him.
Colonel Hannay then sends a Captain Williams, who
has appeared here as an evidence at your bar, and
who, together with Captain Gordon and Major Macdonald, both witnesses also here, were all sub-farmers and actors under Colonel Hannay. This Captain Williams, I say, goes there, and, without asking one
of those questions which I put to the witness at your
bar, and desiring nothing but Colonel Hannay's
word, orders the man to be beheaded; and accordingly he was beheaded, agreeably. to the orders of
Colonel Hannay. Upon this, the rebellion blazed out
with tenfold fury, and the people declared they would
be revenged for the destruction of their zemindar.
Your Lordships have now seen this Mustapha
Khani imprisoned and sentenced to death by Colonel
Hannay, without judge and without accuser, without
any evidence, without thefetwah, or any sentence of
the law. This man is thus put to death by an arbitrary villain, by a more than cruel tyrant, Colonel
Hannay, the substitute of a ten thousand times more
cruel tyrant, Mr. Hastings.
In this situation was the country of Oude, under
Colonel Hannay, when he was removed from it.
The knowledge of his misconduct had before induced
the miserable Nabob to make an effort to get rid of
him; but Mr. Hastings had repressed that effort by
? ? ? ? 426 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
a civil reprimand,- telling him, indeed, at the same
time,'" I do not force you to receive him. " (Indeed,
the Nabob's situation had in it force enough. ) The
Nabob, I say, was forced to receive him; and again
he ravages and destroys that devoted country, till the
time of which I have been just speaking, when he
was driven out of it finally by the rebellion, and, its
you may imagine, departed like a leech full of blood.
It is stated in evidence upon your minutes that
this bloated leech went back to Calcutta; that he was
supposed, from a state of debt, (in which he was
known to have been when he left that city,) to have
returned from Oude with the handsome sum of 300,
0001. , of which 80,0001. was in gold mohurs. This
is declared to be the universal opinion in India, and
no man has ever contradicted it. Ten persons have
given evidence to that effect; not one has contradicted it, from that hour to this, that I ever heard of. The man is now no more. Whether his family have
the whole of the plunder or not, --what partnership
there' was in this business, --what shares, what dividends were made, and who got them, -- about all this public opinion varied, and we can with certainty
affirm nothing; but there ended the life and exploits
of Colonel Hannay, farmer-general, civil officer, and
military commander of Baraitch and Goruckpore.
But not so ended Mr. Hastings's proceedings.
Soon after the return of Colonel Hannay to
Calcutta, this miserable Nabob received intelligence,
which concurrent public fame supported, that Mr.
Hastings meant to send him up into the country again,
on a second expedition, probably with some such order as this: - "You have sucked blood enough for yourself, now try what you can do for your neigh
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. FOURTH DAY. 427
bors. " The Nabob was not likely to be misinformed.
His friend and agent, Gobind Ram, was at Calcutta,
and had constant access to all Mr. Hastings's people.
Mr. Hastings himself tells you what instructions
these vakeels always have to search into and discover all his transactions. This Gobind Ram, alarmed with strong apprehensions, and struck with horror at
the very idea of such an event, apprised his master
of his belief that Mr. Hastings meant to send Colonel
Hannay again into the country. Judge now, my
Lords, what Colonel Hannay must have been, from
the declaration which I will now read to you, extorted from that miserable slave, the Nabob, who thus addresses Mr. Hastings.
"My country and house belong to you; there is no:difference. I hope that you desire in your heart the good of my concerns. Colonel Hannay is inclined
to request your permission to be employed in the
affairs of this quarter. If by any means any matter
of this country dependent on me should be intrusted
to the Colonel, I swear by the Holy Prophet, that I
will not remain here, but will go from hence to you.
From your kindness let no concern dependent on
me be intrusted to the Colonel, and oblige me by a
speedy answer which may set my mind at ease. "
We: know very well that the prisoner at your bar
denied his having any intention to send him up.
We cannot prove them, but we' maintain that there
were grounds for the strongest suspicions that he
entertained such intentions. He cannot deny the
reality of this terror which existed in the minds of
the Nabob and his people, under the apprehension
that he was to be sent up, which plainly showed that
they at least considered there was ground enough for
? ? ? ? 428 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
charging him with that intention. What reason was
there to think that he should not be sent a third
time, who had been sent twice before? Certainly,
none; because every circumstance of Mr. Hastings's
proceedings was systematical, and perfectly well
known'at Oude.
But suppose it to have been a false report; it
shows all that the Managers wish to show, the
extremei terror which these creatures and tools of
Mr. Hastings struck into the people of that country.
His denial of any intention of again sending Colonel
Hannay' does not disprove either the justness of their
suspicions or the existence of the terror which his
very name excited.
My Lords, I shall now call your attention to a part
of the evidence which we have produced to prove the
terrible effects of Colonel Hannay's operations. Captain Edwards, an untainted man, who tells you that
he had passed through that country again and again,
describes it as bearing all the marks of savage desolation. Mr. Holt says it has fallen from its formerstate, -- that whole towns and villages were no longer peopled, and that the country carried evident marks
of famine. One would have thought that Colonel
Hannay's cruelty and depredations would have satiated Mr. Hastings. No: he finds another military collector, a Major Osborne, who, having suffered
in his preferment by the sentence of a court-martial,
whether justly or unjustly I neither know nor care,
was appointed to the command of a thousand men in
the provinces of Oude, but really to the administration of the revenues of the country. He administered them much in the sanme manner as Colonel Hannay had done. He, however, transmitted to the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 429
government at Calcutta a partial representation of
the state. of the provinces, the substance of which
was, that the natives were exposed to every kind of
peculation, and that the country was in a horrible
state of confusion and disorder. This is upon the
Company's records; and although not produced inl
evidence, your Lordships may find it, for it has been
printed over and over again. This man went up to
tlie Vizier; in consequence of whose complaint, and
the renewed cries of the people, Mr. Hastings was
soon obliged to recall him.
But, my Lords, let us go from Major Osborne to
the rest of these military purveyors of revenue.
Your Lordships shall hear the Vizier's own account
of what he suffered from British officers, and into
what a state Mr. Hastings brought that country by
the agency of officers who, under the pretence of defending it, were invested with powers which enabled
them to commit most horrible abuses in the administration of the revenue, the collection of customs, and
the monopoly of the markets.
Copy of a Letter from the Nabob Vizier to the Governor- General.
"'All the officers stationed with the brigade at
Cawnpore, Futtyghur, Darunghur, and Furruckabad,
and other places, write purwannahs, and give positive
orders to the aumils of these places, respecting the
grain, &c. ; from which conduct the country will become depopulate. I am hopeful from your friendship that you will write to all these gentlemen not-to issue orders, &c. , to the aumils, and not to
send troops into the mahals of the sircar; and for
whatever quantity of grain, &c. , they may want, they
? ? ? ? 430 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
will inform me and the Resident, and we will write
it to the aumils, who shall cause it to be sent them
every month, and I will deduct the price of them
from the tuncaws: this will be agreeable both to me
and to the ryots. "
A Copy of a subsequent Letter from the Vizier to Rajah
Gobind Ram.
" I some time ago wrote you the particulars of the
conduct of the officers, and now write them again.
The officers and gentlemen- who are at Cawnpore,
and Futtyghur, and Darunghur, and other places, by
different means act very tyrannically and oppressively towards the aumils and ryots and inhabitants; and to whomsoever that requires a dustuck they
give it, with their own seal affixed, and send for the
aumils and punish them. -If they say anything,
the gentlemen make use of but two words: one,That is for the brigade; and the second, - That is
to administer justice. The particulars of it is this,
-- that the byparees will bring their grain from all
quarters, and sell for their livelihood. There is at
present no war to occasion a necessity for sending for
it. If none comes, whatever quantity will be necessary every month I will mention to the aumils, that they may bring it for sale: but there is no deficiency of grain. The gentlemen have established gunges for their own advantage, called Colonel Gunge, at
Darunghur, Futtyghur, &c. The collection of the
customs from all quarters they have stopped, and
collected them at their own gunges. Each gunge.
is rented out at 30,000-40,000 rupees, and their
collections paid to the gentlemen. They have established gunges where there never were any, and
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 431
where they were, those they have abolished; 30,000 or
40,000 rupees is the sum they are rented at; the collections, to the amount of a lac of rupees, are stopped.
Major Briscoe, who is at Darunghur, has established
a gunge which rented out for 45,000 rupees, and has
stopped the ghauts round about the byparees; and
merchants coming from Cashmere, from Shalljehanabad, and bringing shawls and other goods and spices, &c. , from all quarters, he orders to his gunge,
and collects the duty from the aumils, gives them a
chit, and a guard, who conducts them about five
hundred coss: the former duties are not collected.
From the conduct at Cawnpore, Futtyghur, Furruck-.
abad, &c. , the duties from the lilla of Gora and
Thlawa are destroyed, and. occasion a loss of three
lacs of rupees to the duties; and the losses that
are sustained in Furruckabad may be ascertained by
the Nabob Muzuffer Jung, to whom every day complaints are made: exclusive of the aumils and collectors, others lodge complaints. Whatever I do, I desire no benefit from it; I am remediless and silent; from what happens to me, I know that worse will
happen in other places; the second word, I know, is
from their mouths only. . This is the case. In this
country formerly, and even now, whatever is to be
received or paid among the zemindars, ryots, and inhabitants of the cities, and poor people, neither those
who can pay or those who cannot pay ever make any
excuse to the shroffs; but when they could pay, they
did. In old debts of fifty years, whoever complain
to the gentlemen, they agree that they shall pay one
fourth, and send dustucks and sepoys to all the
aumils, the chowdries, and canongoes, and inhabitants of all the towns; they send for everybody, to do
? ? ? ? 432 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
them justice, confine them, and say they will settle
the business. So many and numerous are these
calamities, that I know not how much room it will
take up to mention them. Mr. Briscoe is at Darunghur; and the complaints of the aumils arrive daily.
I am silent. Now Mr. Middleton is coming here, let
the Nabob appoint him for settling all these affairs.
that whatever he shall order those gentlemen they
will do. From this everything will be settled, and
the particulars of this quarter will be made known to
the Nabob.
I have written this, which you will deliver to the Governor, that everything may be settled; and when he has understood it, whatever is his inclination, he will favor me with it. The Nabob is master in this country, and is my friend; there is no
distinction. "
Cfopy of another Letter, entered upon the Consultation
of the 4th of June, 1781.
" I have received your letter, requesting leave for
a battalion to be raised by Captain Clark on the
same footing as Major Osborne's was, agreeable to the
requests and complaints of Ishmael Beg, the aumil
of Allahabad, &c. , and in compliance with the directions of the Council. You are well acquainted with the particulars and negotiation of Ishmael Beg, and
the nature of Mr. Osborne's battalion. , At the beginning of the year 1186 (1779) the affairs of Allahabad were given on a lease of three years to Ishmael Beg,
together with the purgunnahs Arreel and Parra;
and I gave orders for troops to be stationed and
raised, conformable to his request. Ishmael Beg
accordingly collected twelve hundred peons, which
were not allowed to the aumil of that place in the
? ? ? ? :SPEECH, IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 433
year 1185. The reason why I gave permission for
the additional expense of twelve hundred peons was,
that he might be enabled to manage the country
with ease, and pay the money to government regularly. I besides sent Mr. Osborne there to command in
the mahals belonging to Allahabad, which were in the
possession of Rajah Ajeet Sing; and he accordingly
took charge. Afterwards, in obedience to the orders of the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, Jelladut Jung, he was recalled, and the mahals placed, as before, under Rajah Ajeet Sing. I never sent
Mr. Osborne to settle the concerns of Allahabad, for
there was no occasion for him; but Mr. Osborne, of
himself, committed depredations and rapines within
Ishmael Beg's jurisdiction. Last year; the battalion,
which, by permission of General Sir Eyre Coote, was
sent, received orders to secure and defend Ishmael
Beg against the encroachments of Mr. Osborne; for
the complaints of Ishmael Beg against the violences
of Mr. Osborne had reached the General and Mr.
Purling; and the Governor and gentlemen of Council, at my request, recalled Mr. Osborne. This year,
as before, the collections of Arreel and Parra remain
under Ishmael Beg. In those places, some of the
talookdars and zemindars, who had been oppressed
and ill-treated by Mr. Osborne, had conceived ideas
of rebellion. "
Here, my Lords, you have an account of the condition of Darunghur, Futtyghur, Furruckabad, and
of the whole line of our military stations in the Nabob's dominions. You see the whole was one universal scene of plunder and rapine. You see all this was known to Mr. Hastings, who never inflicted
VOL. XI. 28
? ? ? ? 434 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any punishments for all this horrible outrage. You
see the utmost he has done is merely to recall one
man, Major Osborne, who was by no means the only
person deeply involved in these charges. He nominated all these people; he has never called any of them to an account. Shall I not, thlen, call him their
captain-general? Shall not your Lordships call him
so? And shall any man in the kingdom call him
by any other name? We see all the executive, all
the civil and criminal justice of the country seized
on by him. We see the trade and all the duties
seized upon by his creatures. We see them destroying established markets, and creating others at their pleasure. We see them, in the country of an ally
and in a time of peace, producing all the consequences of rapine and of war. We see the country
ruined and depopulated by men who attempt to exculpate themselves by charging their unhappy victims with rebellion.
And now, my Lords, who is it that has brought
to light all these outrages and complaints, the existence of which has never been denied, and for
which no redress was ever obtained, and no punishment ever inflicted? Why, Mr. Hastings himself has brought them before you; they are found in papers
which he has transmitted. God, who inflicts blindness upon great criminals, in order that they should meet with the punishment they deserve, has made him
the means of bringing forward this scene, which we
are maliciously said to have falsely and maliciously
devised. If any one of the ravages [charges? ] contained in that long catalogue of grievances is false, Warren Hastings is the person who must answer for
that individual falsehood. If they are generally false,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 4356
he is to answer for the false and calumniating accusation; and if they are true, my Lords, he only is
answerable, for he appointed those ministers of outrage, and never called them to account for their misconduct.
Let me now show your Lordships the character
that Mr. Hastings gives of all the. British officers.
It is to be found in an extract from the Appendix
to that part of his Benares Narrative in which he
comments upon the treaty of Chunar. Mark, my
Lords, what the man himself says of the whole mili --
tary service.
"Notwithstanding the great benefit which the Company would have derived from such an augmentation of their military force as these troops constituted, ready to act on any emergency, prepared and disciplined without any charge on the Company, as the
institution professed, until their actual services should
be required, I have observed some evils growing out
of the system, which, in my opinion, more than counterbalanced those advantages, had they been realized
in their fullest effect. The remote stations of these
troops, placing the commanding officers beyond the
notice and control of the board, afforded too much opportunity and temptation for unwarrantable emoluments, and excited the contagion of peculation and rapacity throughout the whole army. A most re-.
markable and incontrovertible proof of the prevalence
of this spirit has been seen in the court-martial upon
Captain Erskine, where the court, composed of officers of rank and respectable characters, unanimously
and honorably, most holnorably, acquitted him upon
an acknowledged fact which in times of stricter discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishment. "
? ? ? ? 436 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I will now call your Lordships' attention to another
extract from the same comment of Mr. Hastings, with
respect to the removal of the Company's servants,
civil and military, from the court and service of the
Vizier.
"I was actuated solely by motives of justice to him
and a regard to the honor of our national character.
In removing those gentlemen I diminish my own influence, as well as that of my colleagues, by narrowing
the line of patronage; and I expose myself to obloquy
and resentment from those who are immediately affected by the arrangement, and the long train of
their friends and pdwerful patrons. But their numbers, their influence, and the enormous amount of
their salaries, pensions, and emoluments, were an intolerable burden on the revenues and authority of the
Vizier, and exposed us to the envy and resentment
of the whole country, by excluding the native servants and adherents of the Vizier from the rewards
of their services and attachment. "
My Lords, you liave here Mr. Hastings's opinion
of the whole military service. You have here the
authority and documents by which he supports his
opinion. He states that the contagion of peculation had tainted all the frontier stations, which contain much the largest part of the Company's army. He states that this contagion had tainted the whole
army, everywhere: so that, according to him, there
was, throughout the Indian army, an universal taint
of peculation. My Lords, peculation is not a military vice. Insubordination, want of attention to duty, want of order, want of obedience and regularity, are military vices; but who ever before heard of peculation being a military vice? In the case before you,
? ? ? ? 'SPEECH IN REPLY. ' FOURTH DAY. 437
it became so by employing military men as farmers
of revenue, as masters of markets and of gunges.
This departure from the military -character and from
military duties introduced that peculation which
tainted the army, and desolated the dominions of
the Nabob Vizier.
I declare, when I first read the passage which has
been just read to your Lordships, in the infancy of
this inquiry, it struck me with astonishment that
peculation should at all exist as a military vice; but
I was still more astonished at finding Warren:Iastings charging the whole British army with being corrupted by this base and depraved spirit, to a degree
which tainted even their judicial character. This, my
Lords, is a most serious matter. The judicial functions of military men are of vast importance in themselves; and, generally speaking, there is not any tribunal whose members are more honorable in their conduct and more just in their decisions than those
of a court-martial. Perhaps there is not a tribunal
in this country whose reputation is really more untainted' than that of a court-martial. It stands as,
fair, in the opinion both of the army. and of the.
public, as any tribunal, in a country where all tribunals stand fair. But in India, this unnatural vice
of peculation, which has no more to do with the
vices of a military character than with its virtues,
this venomous spirit, has pervaded the members of
military tribunals to such an extent, that they acquit,
honorably acquit, most honorably acquit a man, " upon an acknowledged fact which in times of stricter
discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishmlent. "
Who says all this, my Lords? -Do I say it. ? No:
? ? ? ? 438 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
it is Warren Hastings who says it. He records it.
He gives you his vouchers and his evidence, and he
draws the conclusion. He is the criminal accuser
of the British, army. He who sits in that box accuses
the whole British army in. India. He has declared
them to be so tainted with peculation, from head
to foot, as to have been induced to commit the most
wicked perjuries, for the purpose of bearing one another out in their abominable peculations. In this unnatural state of things, and whilst there is not
one military man on these stations of whom Mr.
Hastings does not give this abominably flagitious
character, yet every one of them have joined to give
him the benefit of their testimony for his honorable
intentions and conduct.
In this tremendous scene, which he himself exposes, are there no signs of this captain-generalship which I have alluded to? Are there no signs of
this man's being a captain-general of iniquity, under
whom all the spoilers of India were paid, disciplined,
and supported? I not only charge him with being
guilty of a thousand crimes, but I assert that there
is not a soldier or a civil servant in India whose
culpable acts are not owing to this man's example, connivance, and protection. Everything which goes to criminate them goes directly against the prisoner. He puts them in a condition to plunder; he suffered no native authority or government to restrain
them; and he never called a man to an account for
these flagitious acts which he has thought proper to
bring before his country in the most solemn manner
and upon the most solemn occasion.
I verily believe, in my conscience, his accusation
is not true, in the excess, in the generality and ex
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -FOURTH DAY. 439
travagance in which he charges it. That it is true
in a great measure we cannot deny; and in that
measure we, in our turn, charge him with being
the author of all the crimes which he denounces;
and if there is anything in the charge beyond the
truth, it is he who is to answer for the falsehood.
I will now refer your Lordships to his opinion
of the civil service, as it is declared and recorded
in his remarks upon the removal of the Company's
civil servants by him from the service of the Vizier.
-" I was," says he, " actuated solely by motives of
justice to him [the Nabob of Oude], and a regard to
the honor of our national character. " - Here, you
see, he declares his opinion that in Oude the civil
servants of the Company had destroyed the national
character, and that therefore they ought to be recalled. -- " By removing these people," he adds, "I diminish my patronage. "' But I ask, How came
they there? Why, through this patronage. He
sent them there to suck the blood which the military had spared. He sent these civil servants to
do tell times more mischief than the military ravagers could do, because they were invested with
greater authority. -" If," says he, "I recall them
from thence, I lessen my patronage. " - But who,
my Lords, authorized him to become a patron?
What laws of his country justified him in forcing
upon the Vizier the civil servants of the Company?
What treaty authorized him to do it? What system
of policy, except his own wicked, arbitrary system,
authorized him to act thus?
He proceeds to say, "I expose myself to obloquy
and resentment from those who are immediately affected by the arrangement, and the long train of their
? ? ? ? 440 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
friends and powerful patrons. " My Lords, it is: the
constant burden of his song, that he cannot do his
duty, that he is fettered in everything, that he fears
a thousand mischiefs to happen to him, -- not from
his acting with carefulness, economy, frugality, and
in obedience to the laws of his country, but from the
very reverse of all this. Says he, "I am afraid I
shall forfeit the favor of the powerful patrons of those
servants in England, namely, the Lords and Commons of England, if I do justice to. the suffering people of this country. "
In the House of Commons there are undoubtedly
powerful people who may be supposed to be influenced by patronage; but the higher and more powerful part of the country is more directly represented by your Lordships than by us, although we have of
the first blood of England in the House of Commons.
We do, indeed, represent, by the knights of the
shires, the landed interest; by our city and borough
members we represent the trading interest; we
represent the whole people of England collectively,
But neither blood nor power is represented so fully in the House of Commons as that order which
composes the great body of the people, -- the protection of which is our peculiar duty, and to which it is
our glory to adhere. But the dignities of the country, the great and powerful, are represented eminent
ly by your Lordships. As we, therefore, would keep
the lowest of the people from the contagion and dis.
honor of peculation and corruption, and above all
from exercising that vice which, among commoners,
is unnatural as well as abominable, the vice of tyranny and oppression, so we trust that your Lordships
will clear yourselves and the higher and more power
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. '- FOURTH- DAY. 441
ful ranks from giving the smallest countenance to the
system which we have done our duty in denouncing
and bringing before you.
My Lords, you have heard the account of the civil service. Think of their numbers, think of their influence, and the enormous amount of their salaries, pensions, and emoluments! They were, you
have heard, an intolerable burden on the revenues
and authority of the Vizier; and they exposed us. to
the envy and resentment of the whole country, by
excluding the native servants and adherents of the
prince from the just reward of their services and
attachments. Here, my Lords, is the whole civil service brought before you. They usurp the country, they destroy the revenues, they overload the prince,
and they exclude all the nobility and eminent persons
of the country from the just reward of their service.
Did Mr. Francis, whom I saw here a little while
ago, send these people into that country? . Did
General Clavering, or Colonel Monson, whom he
charges with this system, send them there? No,
they were sent by himself; and if one was sent by
anybody else for a time, he was soon recalled: so
that he is himself answerable for all the peculation
which he attributes to the civil service. You see the
character given of that service; you there see their
accuser, you there see their defender, who, after having defamed both services, military and civil, never punished the guilty in either, and now receives the
prodigal praises of both.
I defy the ingenuity of man to show -that Mr. Hastings is not the defamer of the service. I defy the ingenuity of man to show that the honor of Great
Britain has not been tarnished under his patronage.
? ? ? ? 442 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
He engaged to remove all these bloodsuckers by the
treaty of Chunar; but he never executed that treaty.
He proposed to take away the temporary brigade;
but he again established it. He redressed no grievance; he formed no improvements in the government; he never attempted to provide a remedy without increasing the evil tenfold. He was the
primary and sole cause of all the grievances, civil
and military, to which the unhappy natives of that
country were exposed; and he was the accuser of
all the immediate authors of those grievances, without having punished any one of them. He is the
accuser of them all. But -he only person whom he
attempted to punish was that man who dared to
assert the authority of the Court of Directors, and
to claim an office assigned to him by them.
I will now read to your Lordships the protest of
General Clavering against the military brigade. --
"Taking the army from I he Nabob is an infringement of the rights of an independent prince, leaving
only the name and title of it without the power. It
is taking his subjects from him, against every law of
Nature and of nations. "
I will next read to your Lordships a minute of Mr.
Francis's.
