Now a
Mahometan
of distinction never carries on any trade at all, --
?
?
Edmund Burke
-EIGHTH DAY.
259
port of his own personal power. His design, in thus
explaining the transaction to the Nabob, was in order
to prevent the native powers from looking to any
other authority than his, and from having the least
hopes of redress of their complaints from the justice
of this country or from any legal power in it. He
therefore tells hirm that Mahomed Reza Khan was
replaced, not in obedience to the orders of the Company, but to gratify Mr. Francis. If he quarrels
with Mr. Francis, he makes that a reason for disobey[ng the orders of his masters; if he agrees with him, le informs the people concerned in the transaction,
privately, that he acts, not in consequence of the orders that he has received, but from other motives. But that is not all. He promises that he will take
the first opportunity to remove Mahomed Reza Khan
from his office again. Thus the country is to be replunged into the same distracted and ruined state in which it was before. And all this is laid open fully
and distinctly before you. You have it on the authority of Sir John D'Oyly. Sir John D'Oyly is a
person in the secret; and one man who is in the
secret is worth a thousand ostensible persons.
Mahomed Reza Khan, I must now tell you, was
accordingly reinstated in all his offices, and the Nabob was reduced to the situation, as Mr. Hastings upon another occasion describes it, of a mere cipher.
But mark what followed, - mark what this Sir John
D'Oyly is made to tell you, or what Mr. Hastings
tells you for him: for whether Sir John D'Oyly has
written this for Mr. Hastings, or Mr. Hastings for
Sir John D'Oyly, I do not know; because they seem,
as somebody said of two great friends, tbhat they had but
one will, one bed, and one hat between them. These
? ? ? ? 260 JMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
gentlemen who compose Mr. Hastings's Council have
but one style of writing among them; so that it is
impossible for you to determine by which of the masters of this Roman school any paper was written, whether by D'Oyly, by Shore, or by Hastings, or any
other of them. They have a style in common, a
kind of bank upon which they have a general credit;
and you cannot tell to whose account anything is to
be placed.
But to proceed. -Sir John D'Oyly says there, that
the Nabob is reduced again to a cipher. Now hear
what he afterwards says. "About the month of
June, 1781, Mr. Hastings, being then at Moorshedabad, communicated to me his intention of performing his promise to the Nabob, by restoring him to the
management of his own affairs," - that is to say, by
restoring Munny Begum again, and by turning out
Mahomed Reza Khan. Your Lordships see that he
communicated privately his intentions to Sir John
D'Oyly, without communicating one word of them to
his colleagues in the Supreme Council, and without
entering any minute in the records of the Council,
by which it could be known to the Directors.
Lastly, in order to show you in what manner the
Nabob was to be restored to his power, I refer your
Lordships to the order he gave to Sir John D'Oyly for
investigating the Nabob's accounts, and for drawing
up articles of instructions for the Nabob's conduct ill
the management of his affairs. . You will there see
clearly how he was restored: that is to say, that he
was taken ot. t of the hands of the first Mussulman in
that country, the man most capable of administering
justice, and whom the Company had expressly orde-ed to be invested with that authority, and to put
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 261
him into the hands of Sir John D'Oyly. Is Sir John
D'Oyly a Mussulman? Is Sir John D'Oyly fit to be
at the head of such a government? What was there
that any person could see about him, that entitled
him to or made him a fit person to be intrusted
with this power, in defiance of the Company's orders?
And yet Mahomed Reza Khan, who was to have the
management of the Nabob's affairs, was himself put
under the most complete and perfect subjection to
this Sir John D'Oyly. But, in fact, Munny Begum had the real influence in everything. Sir John
D'Oyly himself was only Mr. Hastings's instrument
there to preserve it, and between them they pillaged
the Nabob in the most shocking manner, and must
have done so to the knowledge of Mr. Hastings. A
letter written at this time by Mr. Hastings to the Nabob discovers the secret beyond all power of evasion. Instructions from the Governor-General to the Nabob
Mobarek ul Dowlah, respecting his Conduct in the
Management of his Affairs.
" 9th. These I make the conditions of the compliance which the Governor-General and Council have yielded to your late requisition. It is but just that
you should possess what is your acknowledged right;
but their intention would be defeated, and you would
be in a worse situation, if you were to be left a prey,
without a guide, until you have acquired experience,
(which, to the strength and goodness of your understanding, will be the work but of a short period,) to the rapacity, frauds, and artifices of mankind. You
have offered to give up the sum of four lacs of rupees
to be allowed the free use of the remainder of your
stipend. This we have refused, because it would be
? ? ? ? 262 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
contrary to justice. You should consider this as a
proof of the sincerity of the above arrangements
which have been recommended to you, and of their
expediency to your real interests; and your attention
to them will be a means of reconciling the Company
to the resolution which we have taken, and which will
be reported to them in a light very hurtful both to
you and to us, if an improper effect should attend it.
These I have ordered Sir John D'Oyly to read in your
presence, and to explain them to you, that no part of
them may escape your notice; and he has my positive
orders to remonstrate to you against every departure
from them. Upon all these occasions, I hope and
expect that you will give him a particular and cordial
attention, and regard what he shall say as if said by
myself; for I know him to be a person of the strictest honor and integrity. I have a perfect reliance on him; and you cannot have a more attached or more
disinterested counsellor. Although I desire to receive
your letters frequently, yet, as many matters will occur which cannot so easily be explained by letter as
by conversation, I desire that you will on such occasions give your orders to him respecting such points
as you may desire to have imparted to me; and I,
postponing every other concern, will give you an immediate and the most satisfactory reply concerning
them. "
My Lords, here is a man who is to administer his
own affairs, who has arrived at sufficient age to supersede the counsel and advice of the great Mahomietan doctors and the great nobility of the country, and lie is put under the most absolute guardianship
of Sir Jolin D'Oyly. But Mr. Hastings has given
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- EIGHTH DAY. 263
Sir John D'Oyly a great character. I cannot confirm
it, because I can confirm the character of none of Mr.
Hastings's instruments. They must stand forth here,
and defend their own character before you.
Your Lordships will now be pleased to advert to
another circumstance in this transaction. You see
here 40,0001. a year offered by this man for his
redemption. " I will give you," he says, " 40,0001. a
year to have the management of my own affairs. "
Good heavens! Here is a man, who, accordilng to Mr.
Hastings's assertion, had an indisputable right to the
management of his own affairs, but at the same time
was notoriously so little fit to have the management
of them as to be always under some corrupt tyranny
or other, offers 40,0001. a year out of his own revenues to be left his own master, and to be permitted to have the disposal of the remainder. Judge you of the
bribery, rapine, and peculation wlhich here stare you
in the face. Judge of the inature and character of that
government for the mainagement of which 40,0001. .
out of 160,0001. a year of its revenue, is offered by a
subordinate to the supreme authority of the country.
This offer shows that at this timne the Nabob had it
not himself. Who had it? Sir John D'Oyly; he is
brought forward as the person to whom is given the
management of the whole. Munny Begum had the
management before. But, whether it be an Englishmanl, a Mussulman,l a white man or a black man, a white woman or a black wvoman, it is all Warren
Hastin gs.
With respect to the four lacs of rupees, he gets
Sir John D'Oyly, in the narrative that he makes
before the House of Commons, positively to deny in
the strongest manner, and he says the Nabob would
? ? ? ? 264 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
give oath of it, that the Nabob never gave a commission to any one to make such an offer. That such an offer was made had been long published and long
in print, with the remarks such as I have made upon
it in the Ninth Report of the Select Committee; that
the Committee had so done was well known to Mr.
Hastings and Sir John D'Oyly; not one word on the
part of Mr. Hastings, not one word on the part of Sir
John D'Oyly was said to contradict it, until the appearance of the latter before the House of Commons. But, my Lords, there is something much more serious in this transaction. It is this, -- that the evidence produced by Mr. Hastings is the evidence of witnesses
who are mere phantoms; they are persons who could
not, under Mr. Hastings's government, eat a bit of
bread but upon his own terms, and they are brought
forward to give such evidence as may answer his purposes.
You would naturally have imagined, that, in the
House of Commons, where clouds of witnesses had
been before produced by the friends and agents of Mr.
Hastings, he would then have brought forward Sir
John to contradict this reported offer; but not a word
from Sir John D'Oyly. At last he is examined before
the Committee of Managers. He refuses to answer.
Why? Because his answers might criminate himself.
My Lords, every answer that most of them have been
required to make they are sensible they cannot make
without danger of criminating themselves, being all
involved in the crimes of the prisoner. He has corrupted and ruined the whole service; there is not one of them that dares appear and give a fair and full
answer in any case, as you have seen in Mr. Middleton, and many others at your bar. "I will not
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 265
answer this question," they say, " because it tends to
criminate myself. " How comes it that the Company's
servants are not able to give evidence in the affairs of
Mr. Hastings, without its tending to criminate themselves?
Well, -- Sir John D'Oyly is in England, - why is
he not called now? I have not the honor of being
intimately acquainted with him, but lie is a mall
of a reputable and honorable family. Why is he not
called by Mr. Hastings to verify the assertion, and
why do they suffer this black record to stand before
your Lordships to be urged by us, and to press it
as we do against him? If he knows that Sir John
D'Oyly can acquit him of this part of our accusation,
he would certainly bring him as a witness to yohr
bar; but he knows he cannot. When, therefore, I
see upon your records that Sir John D'Oyly and Mr.
Hastings received such an offer for the redemption
of the Nabob's affairs out of their hands, I conclude,
first, that at the time of this offer the Nabob had not
the disposal of his own affairs, -and, secondly, that
those who had the disposal of them disposed of them
so corruptly and prodigally that he thought they
could hardly be redeemed at too high a price. What
explanation of this matter has been attempted?
There is no explanation given of it at all. It stands
clear, full, bare in all its nakedness before you.
They have not attempted to produce the least evidence against it. Therefore in that state I leave it with you; and I shall only add, that Mr. Hastings
continued to make Munny Begum the first object of
his attention, and that, though he could not entirely
remove Mahomed Reza Kha1n from the seat of justice, lie was made a cipher in it. All his other offices
? ? ? ? 266 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
were taken out of his hands and put into the hands
of Sir John D'Oyly, directly contrary to the orders
of the Company, which certainly implied the restitution of Mahomed Reza Khan to all the offices which
he had before held. He was stripped of everything
but a feeble administration of justice, which, I take
for grailted, could not, under the circumstances,
have been much better in his hands than it had been
in Sudder ul Huk Kha'n's.
Mr. Hastings's protection of this woman continued
to the last; and when he was going away, on the 3d
of November, 1783, he wrote a sentimental letter to
the Court of Directors in her praise. This letter was
transmitted without having been communicated to
the Council. You have heard of delicate affidavits;
here you have a sentimental official despatch: your
Lordships will find it in page 1092 and 1093 of your
printed Minutes. He writes in such a delicate, sentimental strain of this woman, that I will venture to
say you will not find in all the " Arcadia," in all the
novels and romances that ever were published, an instance of a greater, a more constant, and more ardent affection, defying time, ugliness, and old age, did ever
exist, than existed in Mr. Hastings towards this old
woman, Munny Begum. As cases of this kind, cases of gallantry abounding in sentimental expressions,
are rare in the Company's records, I recommend it
as a curiosity to your Lordships' reading, as well as a
proof of what is the great spring and movement of
all the prisoner's actions. On this occasion he thus
speaks of Munny Begum.
" She, too, became the victim of your policy,
and of the resentments which succeeded. Some
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- EIGHTH DAY. 267
thing, too, she owed of the source of her misfortunes
to the belief of the personal gratitude which she
might entertain for the public attention which I had
shown to her. Yet, exposed as she was to a treatment which a ruffian would have shuddered at committing, and which no recollection of past enmities shall compel me to believe, even for a moment, proceeded from any commission of authority, she still
maintained the decorum of her character; nor even
then, nor before, nor since that period, has the malice
of calumny ever dared to breathe on her reputation. "
-Delicate! sentimental! -" Pardon, honorable Sirs,
this freedom of expostulation. I must in honest truth
repeat, that your commands laid the first foundation
of her misfortunes; to your equity she has now recourse through me for their alleviation, that she may
pass the remainder of her life in a state which may
at least efface the remembrance of the years of her
affliction; and to your humanity she and an unseen
multitude of the most helpless of her sex cry for sub.
sistence. "
Moving and pathetic! -- I wish to recommend
every word of this letter to your Lordships' consideration, as a model and pattern of perfection. Observe his pity for a woman who had suffered such treatment from the servants of the Company (a parcel of ruffians! ) -treatment that a ruffian would be
ashamed of! Your Lordships have seen, in the evidence, what this ruffianism was. It was neither
more nor less than what was necessary in order to
get at the accounts, which she concealed, as his own
corrupt transactions. She was told, indeed, that she
must privately remove to another house whilst her
? ? ? ? 268 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
papers were examining. Mr. Hastings can never
forget this. He cannot believe that anybody dare
send such an order; and he calls upon you to consider the helplessness of their sex, and the affronts offered to women. For Heaven's sake, my Lords, recollect the manner
in which Mr. Hastings and his creatures treated the
Begums of Oude, and consider that this woman was
only threatened (for the threat was never attempted
to be executed) that she must, if she did not deliver up the accounts, probably be removed to another house, and leave the accounts behind her. This blot
can never be effaced; and for this he desires the Court of Directors to make her a large allowance to comfort her in her old age. In this situation Mr. Hastings leaves her. He leaves in the situation I have described the justice of the country. The only concern he has at parting is, that this woman may have a large allowance.
But I have yet to tell your Lordships, and it appears upon your printed Minutes, that this woman had a way of comforting herself: - for old ladies of
that description, who have passed their youth in
amusements, in dancing, and in gallantries, in their
old age are apt to take comfort in brandy. This
lady was a smuggler, and had influence enough to
avoid payment of the duty on spirits, in which article she is the largest dealer in the district, - as, indeed, she is in almost every species of trade. Thus your Lordships see that this sentimental lady, whom
Mr. Hastings recommends to the Directors, had ways
of comforting herself. She carried on, notwitstanding her dignity, a trade in spirits.
Now a Mahometan of distinction never carries on any trade at all, --
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- EIGHTH DAY. 269
it is an unknown thing,- very few Mahometans of
any rank carry on any trade at all; but that a Mahometan should carry on a trade in spirits is a prodigy never heard of before; for a woman of quality,
for a woman of sentiment, to become a dealer in
spirits is, my Lords, a thing reserved for the sentimental age of Mr. Hastings; and I will venture to
say that no man or woman could attempt any such a
trade in India, without being dishonored, ruined in
character, and disgraced by it. But she appears not
only to have been a dealer in it, but, through the influence which Mr. Hastings gave her, to have monopolized the trade in brandy, and to have evaded the duties. This, then, is the state in which we leave the
two sentimental lovers, -- the one consoling herself
with brandy, the other wheedling and whining; and,
as Swift describes the progress of an intrigue in some
respects similar, which he calls " The Progress of
Love," whereas this is the Progress of Sentiment,
"They keep at Staines the Old Blue Boar,
Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore. "
Here they set up the sign of the Old Blue Boar.
Munny Begum monopolizes the trade in spirits; and
hence she and Mr. Hastings commence their sentimental correspondence. -And now, having done with
this progress of love, we return to the progress of
justice.
We have seen how Sudder ul Huk Khan, the chiefjustice of Mr. Hastings's own nomination, was treated. Now you shall see how justice was left to shift
for herself under Mahomed Reza Khan. In page
1280 of your Lordships' Minutes you will see the
progress of all these enormities, - of Munny Be
? ? ? ? 270 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
gum's dealing in spirits, of her engrossing the trade,
of her evading duties, - and, lastly, the extinction of
all order in that country, and the funeral of justice
itself. Mr. Shore's evidence respecting this state
of the country will admit of no doubt.
Mr. Shore's Remarks accompanying the Governor-General's Minutes of the 18th Miay, 1785.
" Foujdarry jurisdiction. - Of the foujdarry jurisdiction nothing has yet been said. In this department
criminal justice is administered, and it is the only
office left to the Nabob. I do not see any particular reason for changing the system itself, and perhaps
it would on many accounts be improper; but some
regulations are highly necessary. Mahomed Reza is
at the head of this department, and is the only person I know in the country qualified for it. If he
were left to himself, I have not a doubt but he would
conduct it well; but he is so circumscribed by recommendations of particular persons, and by the protection held out to his officers by Europeans, that to my knowledge he has not been able to punish them,
even when they have been convicted of the greatest
enormities; and he has often on this account been
blamed, where his hands were tied up. "
My Lords, you now see in this minute of Sir John
Shore, now Governor-General of Bengal, one of Mr.
Hastings's own committee for drawing up his defence,
the review which he had just then taken of the ruins
of the government which had been left to him by Mr.
Hastings. You see here not the little paltry things
which might deserve in their causes the animadversion of a rough satirist like Doctor Swift, whom I
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 271
have just quoted, but you see things ten thousand
times more serious, things that deserve the thunderbolt of vindictive justice upon the head of the prisoner at your bar. For you see, that, after lie had ostensibly restored Mallomed Reza Khan, the man
who could and would have executed his office with
fidelity and effect, the man who was fit for and disposed to do his duty, there was still neither law,
order, nor justice in the country. Why? Because
of the interposition of Europeans, and men who must
have been patronized and supported by Europeans.
All this happened before Mr. Hastings's departure:
so that the whole effect of the new arrangement of
government was known to him before he left Calcutta. Tile same pretended remedy was applied. But
in fact he left this woman in the full possession of
her power. His last thoughts were for her; for the
justice of the country, for the peace and security of
the people of Bengal, he took no kind of care; these
great interests were left to the mercy of the woman
and her European associates.
My Lords, I have taken some pains in giving you
this history. I have shown you his open acts and
secret stratagems, in direct rebellion to the Court of
Directors, - his double government, his false pretences of restoring the Nabob's independence, leading
in effect to a most servile dependence, even to the
prohibition of thle approach of any one, native or
European, near him, but through the intervention
of Sir John D'Oyly. I therefore again repeat it,
that Sir John D'Oyly, and the English gentlemen
who were patronized and countenanced by Mr. Hastings, had wrought all that havoc in the country be
fore Mr. Hastings left it.
? ? ? ? 272 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I have particularly dwelt upon the administration
of justice, because I consider it as the source of all
good, and the maladministration of it as the source
of all evil in the country. Your Lordships have
heard how it was totally destroyed by Mr. Hastings
through Sir' John D'Oyly, who was sent there by
him for the purpose of forming a clandestine government of corruption and peculation. This part of our charge speaks for itself, and I shall dismiss it with a
single observation, --that not the least trace of an
account of all these vast sums of money delivered
into the hands of Sir John D'Oyly for the use of
the Nabob appears in any part of the Company's
records. The undeniable inferences to be drawn
from this fact are, first, that, wherever we find concealment of money, and the ceasing of an account, there has been fraud, --and, secondly, that, if we
find this concealment accompanied with the devastation of a country, and the extinction of justice in it, that devastation of the country and that extinction
of justice have been the result of that fraudulent
peculation.
I am sure your Lordships will not think that a
charge of the annihilation of administrative justice,
in which the happiness and prosperity of a great
body of nobility, of numerous ancient and respectable families, and of the inhabitants in general of extensive and populous provinces are concerned, can,
if it stood single and alone, be a matter of trifling
moment. And in favor of whom do all these sacrifices appear to have been made? In favor of an old prostitute, who, if shown to your Lordships here,
like Helen to the counsellors of Troy, would not, I
think, be admitted to have charms that could palliate
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 27
this man's abominable conduct; you would not cry
out with them,
Ou Yv;ELEC, L -.
ToLj,~' aalpo yvvatKcL 7ro)X'v Xpdov oaXyea,raroXev.
For I will fairly say that there are some passions
that have their excuses; but the passion towards
this woman was the passion of avarice and rapacity
only, -- a passion, indeed, which lasted to the end
of his government, and for which he defied the orders of the Court of Directors, rebelled against his
masters, and finally subverted the justice of a great
country.
My Lords, I have done with this business. I come
next to the third division of the natives, those who
form the landed interest of the country. A few
words only will be necessary upon this part of the
subject. The fact is, that Mr. Hastings, at one
stroke, put up the property of all the nobility and
gentry, and of all the freeholders, in short, the whole
landed interest of Bengal, to a public auction, and
let it to the highest bidder. I will make no observations upon the nature of this measure to your Lordships, who represent so large a part of the dignity, together with so large a part of the landed interest
of this kingdom: though I think, that, even under
your Lordships' restrictive order, I am entitled so to
do; because we have examined some witnesses upon
this point, in the revenue charge. Suffice it to say,
that it is in evidence before your Lordships that this
sale was ordered. Mr. Hastings does not deny it.
He says, indeed, he did it not with an ill intention.
My answer is, that it could have been done withl no
other than a bad intention. The owners of the land
VOL. XII. 18
? ? ? ? 274 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
had no way left to save themselves but to become
farmers of their own estates; and from the competition which naturally took place, (and he himself
declared, that the persons, whether owners or strangers, to whom he let the lands, had agreed to rents
which surpassed their abilities to pay,) I need not
tell you what must have been the consequence, when
it got into such rapacious hands, and was taken out
of the hands of its natural proprietors: that the
public revenue had sunk and lost by it, and that the
country was wasted and destroyed. I leave it to
your Lordships' own meditation and reflection; and
I shall not press it one step further than just to
remind you of what has been so well opened and
pressed by my fellow Managers. He, Mr. Hastings,
confesses that he let the lands to his own banians;
he took his own domestic servants and put them in
the houses of the nobility of the country; and this
he did in direct violation of'an express order made
by himself, that no banian of a collector (the spirit
of which order implied ten thousand times more
strongly the exclusion of any banians of a GovernorGeneral) should have any one of those farms. We
also find that he made a regulation that no farmers
should rent more than a lac of rupees; but at the
same time we find his banians holding several farms
to more than that amount. ; In short, we find that
in every instance, where, under some plausible pretence or other, the fixed regulations are violated, it
touches him so closely as to make it absolutely impossible not to suppose that he himself had the advantage of it. For, in the first place, you have proof that he does
take bribes, and that he has corrupt dealings. This
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 275
is what he admits; but he says that he has done it
from public-spirited motives. Now there is a rule,
formed upon a just, solid presumption of law, that,
if you find a man guilty of one offence contrary to
known law, whenever there is a suspicious case
against him of the same nature, the onus probandi
that he is not guilty is turned upon him. Therefore, when I find the regulations broken,- when
I find farms given of more than a lac of rupees, -
when I find them given to the Governor-General's
own banian, contrary to the principle of the regulation, contrary, I say, in the strongest way to it,when I find that he accumulates farms beyond the regulated number,- when I find all these things
done, and besides that the banian has great balances
of account against him, - then, by the presumption
of law, I am bound to believe that all this was done,
hot for the servants, but for the master.
It is possible Mr. Hastings might really be in love
with Munny Begum; be it so, - many great men
have played the fool for prostitutes, from Mark Antony's days downwards; but no man ever fell in love
with his own banian. The persons for whom Mr.
Hastings was guilty of all this rapine and oppression
have neither relations nor kindred whom they own,
nor does any trace of friendship exist among them;
they do not live in habits of intimacy with any one;
they are good fellows and bottle-companions.
I must now proceed to observe upon another
matter which has been stated to your Lordships, --
namely, that, as soon as he obtained the majority
in the Council, (that beginning of all evils, that
opening of Pandora's box,) by the death of General
? ? ? ? 276 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Clavering and Colonel Monson, the first thing he
did was to appoint a commission, called an aumeenty,
to go through the whole country, to enter every
man's house, to examine his title-deeds, and,to demand his papers of accounts of every kind, for the purpose of enabling himself to take advantage of
the hopes and fears of all the parties concerned, and
thus to ravage and destroy all their property.
And whom does he place at the head of this commission, to be the manager of the whole affair? Gunga Govind Sing, another banian of his, and one
of his own domestic servants. This we have discovered lately, and not without some surprise; for though I knew he kept a rogue in his house, yet
I did. not think that it was a common receptacle of
thieves and robbers. I did not know till lately that
this Gunga Govind Sing was his domestic servant;
but Mr. Hastings, in a letter to the Court of Directors, calls him his faithful domestic servant, and
as such calls upon the Company to reward him. To
this banian all the Company's servants are made
subject; tl:ey are bound to obey all his orders, and
those of his committee. I hope I need not tell your
Lordships what sort of stuff this committee was made
of, by which Gunga Govind Sing was enabled to ravage the whole country.
But, say his counsel, Mr. Hastings thought that the
value of the lands was thoroughly known; they had
been investigated three times over, and they were all
let by public auction to the highest bidder. - This may
or may not be a true test of their value; but it is a
test which, as it led to the almost entire confiscation
of the landed interest of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa,
three great kingdoms, by a dash of that man's pen,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 277
into the hands of his banians and creatures, I can
never think of it, or of its author, without horror.
Some people say, you ought to hate the crime and
love the criminal. No, that is the language of false
morality; you ought to hate the crime and the criminal, if the crime is of magnitude. If the crime is a
small one, then you ought to be angry with the crime
and reluctant to punish the criminal; but when there
are great crimes, then you may hate them together.
What! am I to love Nero? to fall in love with Heliogabalus? is Domitian to be the subject of my affection? No, we hate the crime, and we hate the criminal ten times more; and if I use indignant language, if I use the language of scorn and horror with respect
to the criminal, I use the language that becomes me.
But, says one of the counsel, the Company might
possess a knowledge of the country in general, but
they could not know every beya of it, (about the
third part of an acre of land,) without such a commnission. That is to say, you could not squeeze everything out of the people, without ordering such a villain as Gunga Govind Sing, (I call things by their names,) that most atrocious and wicked instrument
of the most atrocious and wicked tyranny, to examine every man's papers, to oblige every man to produce his titles and accounts upon pain of criminal
punishment, to be inflicted at the discretion of this
commissioner, this Gunga Govind Sing. For an account of these acts, and for a description of an aumeeny, I refer your Lordships to the evidence in
your Minutes, from page 1287 to 1301; and I pass
on, expressing only my horror and detestation at it,
and wishing to kindle in your Lordships' minds the
same horror and detestation of it.
? ? ? ? 278 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Thus you see that Mr. Hastings was not satisfied
withl confiscation only. He comes just afterwards
with a blister upon the sore. He lets loose another
set of ravagers and inquisitors upon them, under
Gunga Govind Sing, and these poor people are rav-aged by the whole tribe of Calcutta banians.
Mr. Hastillgs has himself defined an aumeen in
page 1022, where he states that Nundcomar desired
him to make his son an aumeen. "'The promise
which he [Nundcomar] says I made him, that he
should be constituted aumeen, that is, inquisitor-general over the whole country, and that I would delegate to him my whole power and influence, is sometlling more than a negative falsehood. " He justly and naturally reprobates the proposition of appointing an inquisitor-general over the whole country;
and yet we see him afterwards appointing Gunga
Govind Sing such an inquisitor-general over the
whole country, in order that a bega of land should
not escape him.
Let us see how all this ended, and what it is that
leads me directly to the presumption of corruption
against him in this wicked aurneeny scheme. Now I
will admit the whole scheme to have been well intended, I will forgive the letting all the lands of Bengal by public auction, I will forgive all hle has done
with regard to his banians, I shall forgive him even
this commission itself, if he will show your Lordships
that there was the smallest use made of it with regard to the settlement of the revenues of the Company. If there was not, then there is obviously one
use only that could be made of it, namely, to put all
the people of the whole country under obedience to
Gtunga Goviiid Sinlg. Wlat, thlen, was done? Titles
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 279
and accounts were exacted; the estimate was made,
acre by acre; but we have not been able to find one
word on their records of any return that was made
to the Company of this investigation, or of any settlement or assessment of the country founded upon it,
or of any regulation that was established upon it.
Therefore, as an honest man, and as a man who is
standing here for the Commons of Great Britain, I
must not give way to any idle doubts and ridiculous
suppositions. I cannot, I say, entertain ally doubts
that the only purpose it was designed to answer was
to subject the whole landed interest of the country to
the cruel inquisition of Gunga Govind Sing, and to
the cruel purposes of Mr. Hastings. Show me another purpose and I will give up the argument: for
if there are two ways of accounting for the same
act, it is possible it may be attributed to the better
motive; but when we see that a bad thing was done
under pretence of some good, we must attach a bad
mnotive to it, if the pretence be never fulfilled.
I have now done with the landed interest of Bengal. I have omitted much whicll might have been
pressed upon your Lordships, not from any indisposition. to remark upon tile matter more fully, but because it has been done already by abler persons; I only wished to make sonie practical inferences, which,
perhaps, in the hurry of my brother Managers, might
possibly have escaped them; I wished to show you that
onie system of known or justly presumed corruption
pervades the whole of this business, from one end to
the other. Having thus disposed of the native land.
ed interest, and the native zemindars or landholders
of the country, I pass to the English government.
? ? ? ? 280 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
My Lords, when we have shown plainly the utter
extinction of the native Mahometan government,
when we have shown the extinction of the native
landed interest, what hope can there be for that afflicted country but in the servants of the Company?
When we have shown the corrupt state of that service, what hope but from the Court of Directors,
what hope but in the superintending control of British tribunals? I think as well of the body of my
countrymen as any man call do. I do not think that
any man sent out to India is sent with an ill purpose,
or goes out with bad dispositions. No: I think the
young men who go there are fair and faithful representatives of the people of the same age, --uncorrupted, but corruptible from their age, as we all are. They are sent there young. There is but one
thing held out to them, -" You are going to make
your fortune. " The Company's service is to be the
restoration of decayed noble families; it is to be
the renovation of old, and the making of new ones.
Now, when such a set of young men are sent out
with these hopes and views, and with little education,
or a very imperfect one, --when these people, from
whatever rank of life selected, many from the best,
most from the middling, very few from the lowest,
but, high, middling, or low, they are sent out to
make two things coincide which the wit of man was
never able to unite, to make their fortune and form
their education at once. What is the education
of the generality of the world? Reading a parcel of books? No. Restraint of discipline, emulation, examples of virtues and of justice, form the education of the world.
port of his own personal power. His design, in thus
explaining the transaction to the Nabob, was in order
to prevent the native powers from looking to any
other authority than his, and from having the least
hopes of redress of their complaints from the justice
of this country or from any legal power in it. He
therefore tells hirm that Mahomed Reza Khan was
replaced, not in obedience to the orders of the Company, but to gratify Mr. Francis. If he quarrels
with Mr. Francis, he makes that a reason for disobey[ng the orders of his masters; if he agrees with him, le informs the people concerned in the transaction,
privately, that he acts, not in consequence of the orders that he has received, but from other motives. But that is not all. He promises that he will take
the first opportunity to remove Mahomed Reza Khan
from his office again. Thus the country is to be replunged into the same distracted and ruined state in which it was before. And all this is laid open fully
and distinctly before you. You have it on the authority of Sir John D'Oyly. Sir John D'Oyly is a
person in the secret; and one man who is in the
secret is worth a thousand ostensible persons.
Mahomed Reza Khan, I must now tell you, was
accordingly reinstated in all his offices, and the Nabob was reduced to the situation, as Mr. Hastings upon another occasion describes it, of a mere cipher.
But mark what followed, - mark what this Sir John
D'Oyly is made to tell you, or what Mr. Hastings
tells you for him: for whether Sir John D'Oyly has
written this for Mr. Hastings, or Mr. Hastings for
Sir John D'Oyly, I do not know; because they seem,
as somebody said of two great friends, tbhat they had but
one will, one bed, and one hat between them. These
? ? ? ? 260 JMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
gentlemen who compose Mr. Hastings's Council have
but one style of writing among them; so that it is
impossible for you to determine by which of the masters of this Roman school any paper was written, whether by D'Oyly, by Shore, or by Hastings, or any
other of them. They have a style in common, a
kind of bank upon which they have a general credit;
and you cannot tell to whose account anything is to
be placed.
But to proceed. -Sir John D'Oyly says there, that
the Nabob is reduced again to a cipher. Now hear
what he afterwards says. "About the month of
June, 1781, Mr. Hastings, being then at Moorshedabad, communicated to me his intention of performing his promise to the Nabob, by restoring him to the
management of his own affairs," - that is to say, by
restoring Munny Begum again, and by turning out
Mahomed Reza Khan. Your Lordships see that he
communicated privately his intentions to Sir John
D'Oyly, without communicating one word of them to
his colleagues in the Supreme Council, and without
entering any minute in the records of the Council,
by which it could be known to the Directors.
Lastly, in order to show you in what manner the
Nabob was to be restored to his power, I refer your
Lordships to the order he gave to Sir John D'Oyly for
investigating the Nabob's accounts, and for drawing
up articles of instructions for the Nabob's conduct ill
the management of his affairs. . You will there see
clearly how he was restored: that is to say, that he
was taken ot. t of the hands of the first Mussulman in
that country, the man most capable of administering
justice, and whom the Company had expressly orde-ed to be invested with that authority, and to put
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 261
him into the hands of Sir John D'Oyly. Is Sir John
D'Oyly a Mussulman? Is Sir John D'Oyly fit to be
at the head of such a government? What was there
that any person could see about him, that entitled
him to or made him a fit person to be intrusted
with this power, in defiance of the Company's orders?
And yet Mahomed Reza Khan, who was to have the
management of the Nabob's affairs, was himself put
under the most complete and perfect subjection to
this Sir John D'Oyly. But, in fact, Munny Begum had the real influence in everything. Sir John
D'Oyly himself was only Mr. Hastings's instrument
there to preserve it, and between them they pillaged
the Nabob in the most shocking manner, and must
have done so to the knowledge of Mr. Hastings. A
letter written at this time by Mr. Hastings to the Nabob discovers the secret beyond all power of evasion. Instructions from the Governor-General to the Nabob
Mobarek ul Dowlah, respecting his Conduct in the
Management of his Affairs.
" 9th. These I make the conditions of the compliance which the Governor-General and Council have yielded to your late requisition. It is but just that
you should possess what is your acknowledged right;
but their intention would be defeated, and you would
be in a worse situation, if you were to be left a prey,
without a guide, until you have acquired experience,
(which, to the strength and goodness of your understanding, will be the work but of a short period,) to the rapacity, frauds, and artifices of mankind. You
have offered to give up the sum of four lacs of rupees
to be allowed the free use of the remainder of your
stipend. This we have refused, because it would be
? ? ? ? 262 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
contrary to justice. You should consider this as a
proof of the sincerity of the above arrangements
which have been recommended to you, and of their
expediency to your real interests; and your attention
to them will be a means of reconciling the Company
to the resolution which we have taken, and which will
be reported to them in a light very hurtful both to
you and to us, if an improper effect should attend it.
These I have ordered Sir John D'Oyly to read in your
presence, and to explain them to you, that no part of
them may escape your notice; and he has my positive
orders to remonstrate to you against every departure
from them. Upon all these occasions, I hope and
expect that you will give him a particular and cordial
attention, and regard what he shall say as if said by
myself; for I know him to be a person of the strictest honor and integrity. I have a perfect reliance on him; and you cannot have a more attached or more
disinterested counsellor. Although I desire to receive
your letters frequently, yet, as many matters will occur which cannot so easily be explained by letter as
by conversation, I desire that you will on such occasions give your orders to him respecting such points
as you may desire to have imparted to me; and I,
postponing every other concern, will give you an immediate and the most satisfactory reply concerning
them. "
My Lords, here is a man who is to administer his
own affairs, who has arrived at sufficient age to supersede the counsel and advice of the great Mahomietan doctors and the great nobility of the country, and lie is put under the most absolute guardianship
of Sir Jolin D'Oyly. But Mr. Hastings has given
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- EIGHTH DAY. 263
Sir John D'Oyly a great character. I cannot confirm
it, because I can confirm the character of none of Mr.
Hastings's instruments. They must stand forth here,
and defend their own character before you.
Your Lordships will now be pleased to advert to
another circumstance in this transaction. You see
here 40,0001. a year offered by this man for his
redemption. " I will give you," he says, " 40,0001. a
year to have the management of my own affairs. "
Good heavens! Here is a man, who, accordilng to Mr.
Hastings's assertion, had an indisputable right to the
management of his own affairs, but at the same time
was notoriously so little fit to have the management
of them as to be always under some corrupt tyranny
or other, offers 40,0001. a year out of his own revenues to be left his own master, and to be permitted to have the disposal of the remainder. Judge you of the
bribery, rapine, and peculation wlhich here stare you
in the face. Judge of the inature and character of that
government for the mainagement of which 40,0001. .
out of 160,0001. a year of its revenue, is offered by a
subordinate to the supreme authority of the country.
This offer shows that at this timne the Nabob had it
not himself. Who had it? Sir John D'Oyly; he is
brought forward as the person to whom is given the
management of the whole. Munny Begum had the
management before. But, whether it be an Englishmanl, a Mussulman,l a white man or a black man, a white woman or a black wvoman, it is all Warren
Hastin gs.
With respect to the four lacs of rupees, he gets
Sir John D'Oyly, in the narrative that he makes
before the House of Commons, positively to deny in
the strongest manner, and he says the Nabob would
? ? ? ? 264 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
give oath of it, that the Nabob never gave a commission to any one to make such an offer. That such an offer was made had been long published and long
in print, with the remarks such as I have made upon
it in the Ninth Report of the Select Committee; that
the Committee had so done was well known to Mr.
Hastings and Sir John D'Oyly; not one word on the
part of Mr. Hastings, not one word on the part of Sir
John D'Oyly was said to contradict it, until the appearance of the latter before the House of Commons. But, my Lords, there is something much more serious in this transaction. It is this, -- that the evidence produced by Mr. Hastings is the evidence of witnesses
who are mere phantoms; they are persons who could
not, under Mr. Hastings's government, eat a bit of
bread but upon his own terms, and they are brought
forward to give such evidence as may answer his purposes.
You would naturally have imagined, that, in the
House of Commons, where clouds of witnesses had
been before produced by the friends and agents of Mr.
Hastings, he would then have brought forward Sir
John to contradict this reported offer; but not a word
from Sir John D'Oyly. At last he is examined before
the Committee of Managers. He refuses to answer.
Why? Because his answers might criminate himself.
My Lords, every answer that most of them have been
required to make they are sensible they cannot make
without danger of criminating themselves, being all
involved in the crimes of the prisoner. He has corrupted and ruined the whole service; there is not one of them that dares appear and give a fair and full
answer in any case, as you have seen in Mr. Middleton, and many others at your bar. "I will not
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 265
answer this question," they say, " because it tends to
criminate myself. " How comes it that the Company's
servants are not able to give evidence in the affairs of
Mr. Hastings, without its tending to criminate themselves?
Well, -- Sir John D'Oyly is in England, - why is
he not called now? I have not the honor of being
intimately acquainted with him, but lie is a mall
of a reputable and honorable family. Why is he not
called by Mr. Hastings to verify the assertion, and
why do they suffer this black record to stand before
your Lordships to be urged by us, and to press it
as we do against him? If he knows that Sir John
D'Oyly can acquit him of this part of our accusation,
he would certainly bring him as a witness to yohr
bar; but he knows he cannot. When, therefore, I
see upon your records that Sir John D'Oyly and Mr.
Hastings received such an offer for the redemption
of the Nabob's affairs out of their hands, I conclude,
first, that at the time of this offer the Nabob had not
the disposal of his own affairs, -and, secondly, that
those who had the disposal of them disposed of them
so corruptly and prodigally that he thought they
could hardly be redeemed at too high a price. What
explanation of this matter has been attempted?
There is no explanation given of it at all. It stands
clear, full, bare in all its nakedness before you.
They have not attempted to produce the least evidence against it. Therefore in that state I leave it with you; and I shall only add, that Mr. Hastings
continued to make Munny Begum the first object of
his attention, and that, though he could not entirely
remove Mahomed Reza Kha1n from the seat of justice, lie was made a cipher in it. All his other offices
? ? ? ? 266 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
were taken out of his hands and put into the hands
of Sir John D'Oyly, directly contrary to the orders
of the Company, which certainly implied the restitution of Mahomed Reza Khan to all the offices which
he had before held. He was stripped of everything
but a feeble administration of justice, which, I take
for grailted, could not, under the circumstances,
have been much better in his hands than it had been
in Sudder ul Huk Kha'n's.
Mr. Hastings's protection of this woman continued
to the last; and when he was going away, on the 3d
of November, 1783, he wrote a sentimental letter to
the Court of Directors in her praise. This letter was
transmitted without having been communicated to
the Council. You have heard of delicate affidavits;
here you have a sentimental official despatch: your
Lordships will find it in page 1092 and 1093 of your
printed Minutes. He writes in such a delicate, sentimental strain of this woman, that I will venture to
say you will not find in all the " Arcadia," in all the
novels and romances that ever were published, an instance of a greater, a more constant, and more ardent affection, defying time, ugliness, and old age, did ever
exist, than existed in Mr. Hastings towards this old
woman, Munny Begum. As cases of this kind, cases of gallantry abounding in sentimental expressions,
are rare in the Company's records, I recommend it
as a curiosity to your Lordships' reading, as well as a
proof of what is the great spring and movement of
all the prisoner's actions. On this occasion he thus
speaks of Munny Begum.
" She, too, became the victim of your policy,
and of the resentments which succeeded. Some
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- EIGHTH DAY. 267
thing, too, she owed of the source of her misfortunes
to the belief of the personal gratitude which she
might entertain for the public attention which I had
shown to her. Yet, exposed as she was to a treatment which a ruffian would have shuddered at committing, and which no recollection of past enmities shall compel me to believe, even for a moment, proceeded from any commission of authority, she still
maintained the decorum of her character; nor even
then, nor before, nor since that period, has the malice
of calumny ever dared to breathe on her reputation. "
-Delicate! sentimental! -" Pardon, honorable Sirs,
this freedom of expostulation. I must in honest truth
repeat, that your commands laid the first foundation
of her misfortunes; to your equity she has now recourse through me for their alleviation, that she may
pass the remainder of her life in a state which may
at least efface the remembrance of the years of her
affliction; and to your humanity she and an unseen
multitude of the most helpless of her sex cry for sub.
sistence. "
Moving and pathetic! -- I wish to recommend
every word of this letter to your Lordships' consideration, as a model and pattern of perfection. Observe his pity for a woman who had suffered such treatment from the servants of the Company (a parcel of ruffians! ) -treatment that a ruffian would be
ashamed of! Your Lordships have seen, in the evidence, what this ruffianism was. It was neither
more nor less than what was necessary in order to
get at the accounts, which she concealed, as his own
corrupt transactions. She was told, indeed, that she
must privately remove to another house whilst her
? ? ? ? 268 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
papers were examining. Mr. Hastings can never
forget this. He cannot believe that anybody dare
send such an order; and he calls upon you to consider the helplessness of their sex, and the affronts offered to women. For Heaven's sake, my Lords, recollect the manner
in which Mr. Hastings and his creatures treated the
Begums of Oude, and consider that this woman was
only threatened (for the threat was never attempted
to be executed) that she must, if she did not deliver up the accounts, probably be removed to another house, and leave the accounts behind her. This blot
can never be effaced; and for this he desires the Court of Directors to make her a large allowance to comfort her in her old age. In this situation Mr. Hastings leaves her. He leaves in the situation I have described the justice of the country. The only concern he has at parting is, that this woman may have a large allowance.
But I have yet to tell your Lordships, and it appears upon your printed Minutes, that this woman had a way of comforting herself: - for old ladies of
that description, who have passed their youth in
amusements, in dancing, and in gallantries, in their
old age are apt to take comfort in brandy. This
lady was a smuggler, and had influence enough to
avoid payment of the duty on spirits, in which article she is the largest dealer in the district, - as, indeed, she is in almost every species of trade. Thus your Lordships see that this sentimental lady, whom
Mr. Hastings recommends to the Directors, had ways
of comforting herself. She carried on, notwitstanding her dignity, a trade in spirits.
Now a Mahometan of distinction never carries on any trade at all, --
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- EIGHTH DAY. 269
it is an unknown thing,- very few Mahometans of
any rank carry on any trade at all; but that a Mahometan should carry on a trade in spirits is a prodigy never heard of before; for a woman of quality,
for a woman of sentiment, to become a dealer in
spirits is, my Lords, a thing reserved for the sentimental age of Mr. Hastings; and I will venture to
say that no man or woman could attempt any such a
trade in India, without being dishonored, ruined in
character, and disgraced by it. But she appears not
only to have been a dealer in it, but, through the influence which Mr. Hastings gave her, to have monopolized the trade in brandy, and to have evaded the duties. This, then, is the state in which we leave the
two sentimental lovers, -- the one consoling herself
with brandy, the other wheedling and whining; and,
as Swift describes the progress of an intrigue in some
respects similar, which he calls " The Progress of
Love," whereas this is the Progress of Sentiment,
"They keep at Staines the Old Blue Boar,
Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore. "
Here they set up the sign of the Old Blue Boar.
Munny Begum monopolizes the trade in spirits; and
hence she and Mr. Hastings commence their sentimental correspondence. -And now, having done with
this progress of love, we return to the progress of
justice.
We have seen how Sudder ul Huk Khan, the chiefjustice of Mr. Hastings's own nomination, was treated. Now you shall see how justice was left to shift
for herself under Mahomed Reza Khan. In page
1280 of your Lordships' Minutes you will see the
progress of all these enormities, - of Munny Be
? ? ? ? 270 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
gum's dealing in spirits, of her engrossing the trade,
of her evading duties, - and, lastly, the extinction of
all order in that country, and the funeral of justice
itself. Mr. Shore's evidence respecting this state
of the country will admit of no doubt.
Mr. Shore's Remarks accompanying the Governor-General's Minutes of the 18th Miay, 1785.
" Foujdarry jurisdiction. - Of the foujdarry jurisdiction nothing has yet been said. In this department
criminal justice is administered, and it is the only
office left to the Nabob. I do not see any particular reason for changing the system itself, and perhaps
it would on many accounts be improper; but some
regulations are highly necessary. Mahomed Reza is
at the head of this department, and is the only person I know in the country qualified for it. If he
were left to himself, I have not a doubt but he would
conduct it well; but he is so circumscribed by recommendations of particular persons, and by the protection held out to his officers by Europeans, that to my knowledge he has not been able to punish them,
even when they have been convicted of the greatest
enormities; and he has often on this account been
blamed, where his hands were tied up. "
My Lords, you now see in this minute of Sir John
Shore, now Governor-General of Bengal, one of Mr.
Hastings's own committee for drawing up his defence,
the review which he had just then taken of the ruins
of the government which had been left to him by Mr.
Hastings. You see here not the little paltry things
which might deserve in their causes the animadversion of a rough satirist like Doctor Swift, whom I
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 271
have just quoted, but you see things ten thousand
times more serious, things that deserve the thunderbolt of vindictive justice upon the head of the prisoner at your bar. For you see, that, after lie had ostensibly restored Mallomed Reza Khan, the man
who could and would have executed his office with
fidelity and effect, the man who was fit for and disposed to do his duty, there was still neither law,
order, nor justice in the country. Why? Because
of the interposition of Europeans, and men who must
have been patronized and supported by Europeans.
All this happened before Mr. Hastings's departure:
so that the whole effect of the new arrangement of
government was known to him before he left Calcutta. Tile same pretended remedy was applied. But
in fact he left this woman in the full possession of
her power. His last thoughts were for her; for the
justice of the country, for the peace and security of
the people of Bengal, he took no kind of care; these
great interests were left to the mercy of the woman
and her European associates.
My Lords, I have taken some pains in giving you
this history. I have shown you his open acts and
secret stratagems, in direct rebellion to the Court of
Directors, - his double government, his false pretences of restoring the Nabob's independence, leading
in effect to a most servile dependence, even to the
prohibition of thle approach of any one, native or
European, near him, but through the intervention
of Sir John D'Oyly. I therefore again repeat it,
that Sir John D'Oyly, and the English gentlemen
who were patronized and countenanced by Mr. Hastings, had wrought all that havoc in the country be
fore Mr. Hastings left it.
? ? ? ? 272 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I have particularly dwelt upon the administration
of justice, because I consider it as the source of all
good, and the maladministration of it as the source
of all evil in the country. Your Lordships have
heard how it was totally destroyed by Mr. Hastings
through Sir' John D'Oyly, who was sent there by
him for the purpose of forming a clandestine government of corruption and peculation. This part of our charge speaks for itself, and I shall dismiss it with a
single observation, --that not the least trace of an
account of all these vast sums of money delivered
into the hands of Sir John D'Oyly for the use of
the Nabob appears in any part of the Company's
records. The undeniable inferences to be drawn
from this fact are, first, that, wherever we find concealment of money, and the ceasing of an account, there has been fraud, --and, secondly, that, if we
find this concealment accompanied with the devastation of a country, and the extinction of justice in it, that devastation of the country and that extinction
of justice have been the result of that fraudulent
peculation.
I am sure your Lordships will not think that a
charge of the annihilation of administrative justice,
in which the happiness and prosperity of a great
body of nobility, of numerous ancient and respectable families, and of the inhabitants in general of extensive and populous provinces are concerned, can,
if it stood single and alone, be a matter of trifling
moment. And in favor of whom do all these sacrifices appear to have been made? In favor of an old prostitute, who, if shown to your Lordships here,
like Helen to the counsellors of Troy, would not, I
think, be admitted to have charms that could palliate
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 27
this man's abominable conduct; you would not cry
out with them,
Ou Yv;ELEC, L -.
ToLj,~' aalpo yvvatKcL 7ro)X'v Xpdov oaXyea,raroXev.
For I will fairly say that there are some passions
that have their excuses; but the passion towards
this woman was the passion of avarice and rapacity
only, -- a passion, indeed, which lasted to the end
of his government, and for which he defied the orders of the Court of Directors, rebelled against his
masters, and finally subverted the justice of a great
country.
My Lords, I have done with this business. I come
next to the third division of the natives, those who
form the landed interest of the country. A few
words only will be necessary upon this part of the
subject. The fact is, that Mr. Hastings, at one
stroke, put up the property of all the nobility and
gentry, and of all the freeholders, in short, the whole
landed interest of Bengal, to a public auction, and
let it to the highest bidder. I will make no observations upon the nature of this measure to your Lordships, who represent so large a part of the dignity, together with so large a part of the landed interest
of this kingdom: though I think, that, even under
your Lordships' restrictive order, I am entitled so to
do; because we have examined some witnesses upon
this point, in the revenue charge. Suffice it to say,
that it is in evidence before your Lordships that this
sale was ordered. Mr. Hastings does not deny it.
He says, indeed, he did it not with an ill intention.
My answer is, that it could have been done withl no
other than a bad intention. The owners of the land
VOL. XII. 18
? ? ? ? 274 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
had no way left to save themselves but to become
farmers of their own estates; and from the competition which naturally took place, (and he himself
declared, that the persons, whether owners or strangers, to whom he let the lands, had agreed to rents
which surpassed their abilities to pay,) I need not
tell you what must have been the consequence, when
it got into such rapacious hands, and was taken out
of the hands of its natural proprietors: that the
public revenue had sunk and lost by it, and that the
country was wasted and destroyed. I leave it to
your Lordships' own meditation and reflection; and
I shall not press it one step further than just to
remind you of what has been so well opened and
pressed by my fellow Managers. He, Mr. Hastings,
confesses that he let the lands to his own banians;
he took his own domestic servants and put them in
the houses of the nobility of the country; and this
he did in direct violation of'an express order made
by himself, that no banian of a collector (the spirit
of which order implied ten thousand times more
strongly the exclusion of any banians of a GovernorGeneral) should have any one of those farms. We
also find that he made a regulation that no farmers
should rent more than a lac of rupees; but at the
same time we find his banians holding several farms
to more than that amount. ; In short, we find that
in every instance, where, under some plausible pretence or other, the fixed regulations are violated, it
touches him so closely as to make it absolutely impossible not to suppose that he himself had the advantage of it. For, in the first place, you have proof that he does
take bribes, and that he has corrupt dealings. This
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 275
is what he admits; but he says that he has done it
from public-spirited motives. Now there is a rule,
formed upon a just, solid presumption of law, that,
if you find a man guilty of one offence contrary to
known law, whenever there is a suspicious case
against him of the same nature, the onus probandi
that he is not guilty is turned upon him. Therefore, when I find the regulations broken,- when
I find farms given of more than a lac of rupees, -
when I find them given to the Governor-General's
own banian, contrary to the principle of the regulation, contrary, I say, in the strongest way to it,when I find that he accumulates farms beyond the regulated number,- when I find all these things
done, and besides that the banian has great balances
of account against him, - then, by the presumption
of law, I am bound to believe that all this was done,
hot for the servants, but for the master.
It is possible Mr. Hastings might really be in love
with Munny Begum; be it so, - many great men
have played the fool for prostitutes, from Mark Antony's days downwards; but no man ever fell in love
with his own banian. The persons for whom Mr.
Hastings was guilty of all this rapine and oppression
have neither relations nor kindred whom they own,
nor does any trace of friendship exist among them;
they do not live in habits of intimacy with any one;
they are good fellows and bottle-companions.
I must now proceed to observe upon another
matter which has been stated to your Lordships, --
namely, that, as soon as he obtained the majority
in the Council, (that beginning of all evils, that
opening of Pandora's box,) by the death of General
? ? ? ? 276 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Clavering and Colonel Monson, the first thing he
did was to appoint a commission, called an aumeenty,
to go through the whole country, to enter every
man's house, to examine his title-deeds, and,to demand his papers of accounts of every kind, for the purpose of enabling himself to take advantage of
the hopes and fears of all the parties concerned, and
thus to ravage and destroy all their property.
And whom does he place at the head of this commission, to be the manager of the whole affair? Gunga Govind Sing, another banian of his, and one
of his own domestic servants. This we have discovered lately, and not without some surprise; for though I knew he kept a rogue in his house, yet
I did. not think that it was a common receptacle of
thieves and robbers. I did not know till lately that
this Gunga Govind Sing was his domestic servant;
but Mr. Hastings, in a letter to the Court of Directors, calls him his faithful domestic servant, and
as such calls upon the Company to reward him. To
this banian all the Company's servants are made
subject; tl:ey are bound to obey all his orders, and
those of his committee. I hope I need not tell your
Lordships what sort of stuff this committee was made
of, by which Gunga Govind Sing was enabled to ravage the whole country.
But, say his counsel, Mr. Hastings thought that the
value of the lands was thoroughly known; they had
been investigated three times over, and they were all
let by public auction to the highest bidder. - This may
or may not be a true test of their value; but it is a
test which, as it led to the almost entire confiscation
of the landed interest of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa,
three great kingdoms, by a dash of that man's pen,
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 277
into the hands of his banians and creatures, I can
never think of it, or of its author, without horror.
Some people say, you ought to hate the crime and
love the criminal. No, that is the language of false
morality; you ought to hate the crime and the criminal, if the crime is of magnitude. If the crime is a
small one, then you ought to be angry with the crime
and reluctant to punish the criminal; but when there
are great crimes, then you may hate them together.
What! am I to love Nero? to fall in love with Heliogabalus? is Domitian to be the subject of my affection? No, we hate the crime, and we hate the criminal ten times more; and if I use indignant language, if I use the language of scorn and horror with respect
to the criminal, I use the language that becomes me.
But, says one of the counsel, the Company might
possess a knowledge of the country in general, but
they could not know every beya of it, (about the
third part of an acre of land,) without such a commnission. That is to say, you could not squeeze everything out of the people, without ordering such a villain as Gunga Govind Sing, (I call things by their names,) that most atrocious and wicked instrument
of the most atrocious and wicked tyranny, to examine every man's papers, to oblige every man to produce his titles and accounts upon pain of criminal
punishment, to be inflicted at the discretion of this
commissioner, this Gunga Govind Sing. For an account of these acts, and for a description of an aumeeny, I refer your Lordships to the evidence in
your Minutes, from page 1287 to 1301; and I pass
on, expressing only my horror and detestation at it,
and wishing to kindle in your Lordships' minds the
same horror and detestation of it.
? ? ? ? 278 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Thus you see that Mr. Hastings was not satisfied
withl confiscation only. He comes just afterwards
with a blister upon the sore. He lets loose another
set of ravagers and inquisitors upon them, under
Gunga Govind Sing, and these poor people are rav-aged by the whole tribe of Calcutta banians.
Mr. Hastillgs has himself defined an aumeen in
page 1022, where he states that Nundcomar desired
him to make his son an aumeen. "'The promise
which he [Nundcomar] says I made him, that he
should be constituted aumeen, that is, inquisitor-general over the whole country, and that I would delegate to him my whole power and influence, is sometlling more than a negative falsehood. " He justly and naturally reprobates the proposition of appointing an inquisitor-general over the whole country;
and yet we see him afterwards appointing Gunga
Govind Sing such an inquisitor-general over the
whole country, in order that a bega of land should
not escape him.
Let us see how all this ended, and what it is that
leads me directly to the presumption of corruption
against him in this wicked aurneeny scheme. Now I
will admit the whole scheme to have been well intended, I will forgive the letting all the lands of Bengal by public auction, I will forgive all hle has done
with regard to his banians, I shall forgive him even
this commission itself, if he will show your Lordships
that there was the smallest use made of it with regard to the settlement of the revenues of the Company. If there was not, then there is obviously one
use only that could be made of it, namely, to put all
the people of the whole country under obedience to
Gtunga Goviiid Sinlg. Wlat, thlen, was done? Titles
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 279
and accounts were exacted; the estimate was made,
acre by acre; but we have not been able to find one
word on their records of any return that was made
to the Company of this investigation, or of any settlement or assessment of the country founded upon it,
or of any regulation that was established upon it.
Therefore, as an honest man, and as a man who is
standing here for the Commons of Great Britain, I
must not give way to any idle doubts and ridiculous
suppositions. I cannot, I say, entertain ally doubts
that the only purpose it was designed to answer was
to subject the whole landed interest of the country to
the cruel inquisition of Gunga Govind Sing, and to
the cruel purposes of Mr. Hastings. Show me another purpose and I will give up the argument: for
if there are two ways of accounting for the same
act, it is possible it may be attributed to the better
motive; but when we see that a bad thing was done
under pretence of some good, we must attach a bad
mnotive to it, if the pretence be never fulfilled.
I have now done with the landed interest of Bengal. I have omitted much whicll might have been
pressed upon your Lordships, not from any indisposition. to remark upon tile matter more fully, but because it has been done already by abler persons; I only wished to make sonie practical inferences, which,
perhaps, in the hurry of my brother Managers, might
possibly have escaped them; I wished to show you that
onie system of known or justly presumed corruption
pervades the whole of this business, from one end to
the other. Having thus disposed of the native land.
ed interest, and the native zemindars or landholders
of the country, I pass to the English government.
? ? ? ? 280 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
My Lords, when we have shown plainly the utter
extinction of the native Mahometan government,
when we have shown the extinction of the native
landed interest, what hope can there be for that afflicted country but in the servants of the Company?
When we have shown the corrupt state of that service, what hope but from the Court of Directors,
what hope but in the superintending control of British tribunals? I think as well of the body of my
countrymen as any man call do. I do not think that
any man sent out to India is sent with an ill purpose,
or goes out with bad dispositions. No: I think the
young men who go there are fair and faithful representatives of the people of the same age, --uncorrupted, but corruptible from their age, as we all are. They are sent there young. There is but one
thing held out to them, -" You are going to make
your fortune. " The Company's service is to be the
restoration of decayed noble families; it is to be
the renovation of old, and the making of new ones.
Now, when such a set of young men are sent out
with these hopes and views, and with little education,
or a very imperfect one, --when these people, from
whatever rank of life selected, many from the best,
most from the middling, very few from the lowest,
but, high, middling, or low, they are sent out to
make two things coincide which the wit of man was
never able to unite, to make their fortune and form
their education at once. What is the education
of the generality of the world? Reading a parcel of books? No. Restraint of discipline, emulation, examples of virtues and of justice, form the education of the world.
