No More Learning

And of what was
this to be a report? Of things which the Directors
declared they did not understand. And then the inferences which are to follow these implied facts are to follow them e But how? With a strong probability. If you have a mind to study this Oriental
figure of rhetoric, the painche, here it is for you in
its most complete perfection. No rhetorician ever
gave an example of any figure of oratory that can
match this.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - THIRD DAY. 383
But let us endeavor to unravel the whole passage. First he states, that, in May, 1782, he had
forgotten his motives for falsifying the Company's
accounts; but he affirms the facts contained in the
report, and afterwards, very rationally, draws such
inferences as necessarily or with a strong probability
follow them. And if I understand it at all, which
God knows I no more pretend to do than Don Quix
ote did those sentences of lovers in romance-writers
of which he said it made him run mad to attempt
to discover the meaning, the inference is, " Why do
you call upon me for accounts now, three years after the time when I could not give you them? I
cannot give them you. And as to the papers relating to them, I do not know whether they exist; and
if they do, perhaps you may learn something from
them, perhaps you may not: I will write to Mr. Larkins for those papers, if you please. " Now, comparing this with his other accounts, you will see what a monstrous scheme he has laid of fraud and concealment to cover his peculation. He tells them, -- " I
have said that the three first sums of the account were
paid into the Company's treasury without passing
through my hands. The second of these was forced
into notice by its destination and application to the
expense of a detachment which was formed and employed against Mahdajee Sindia, under the command
of Lieutenant-Colonel Camac, as I particularly apprised the Court of Directors in my letter of the
29th December [November? ], 1780. " He does not
yet tell the Directors from whom he received it: we
have found it out by other collateral means. - " The
other two were certainly not intended, when I received them, to be made public, though intended for
? ? ? ? 384 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
public service, and actually applied to it. The exigencies of government were at that time my own,
and every pressure upon it rested with its full weight
upon my mind. Wherever I could find allowable
means of relieving those wants, I eagerly seized
them. " -Allowable means of receiving bribes! for
such I shall prove them to be in the particular instances. -" But neither could it occur to me as necessary to state on our Proceedings every little aid that I could thus procure; nor do I know how I could
have stated it without appearing to court favor by
an ostentation which I disdained, nor without the
chance of exciting the jealousy of my colleagues by
the constructive assertion of a separate and unparticipated merit, derived from the influence of my station,
to which they might have had an equal claim. "
Now we see, that, after hammering his brains for
many years, he does find out his motive, which he
could not verify at the time, - namely, that, if he let
his colleagues know that he was receiving bribes, and
gaining the glory of receiving them, they might take
it into their heads likewise to have their share in the
same glory, as they were joined in the same commission, enjoyed the same powers, and were subject to
the same restrictions. It was, indeed, scandalous
in Mr. Hastings, not behaving like a good, fair colleague in office, not to let them know that he was
going on in this career of receiving bribes, and to deprive them of their share in the glory of it: but they
were grovelling creatures, who thought that keeping
clean hands was some virtue. -" Well, but you have
applied some of these bribes to your own benefit:
why did you give no account of those bribes? "" I
did not," he says, " because it might have excited the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -THIRD DAY. 385
envy of my colleagues. " To be sure, if he was receiving bribes for his own benefit, and they not receiving such bribes, and if they had a liking to that kind of traffic, it is a good ground of envy, that a
matter which ought to be in common among them
should be confined to Mr. Hastings, and he therefore
did well to conceal it; and on the other hand, if we
suppose him to have taken them, as he pretends, for
the Company's use, in order not to excite a jealousy
in his colleagues for being left out of this meritorious service, to which they had an equal claim, he did
well to take bonds for what ought to be brought to
the Company's account. These are reasons applicable to his colleagues, who sat with him at the same
board, -Mr. Macpherson, Mr. Stables, Mr. Wheler,
General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis:
he was afraid of exciting their envy or their jealousy.
You will next see another reason, and an extraordinary one it is, which he gives for concealing these
bribes from his inferiors. But I must first tell your
Lordships, what, till the proof is brought before you,
you will take on credit, - indeed, it is on his credit,
-- that, when he formed the Committee of Revenue,
he bound them by a solemn oath, " not, under any
name or pretence whatever, to take from any zemindar, farmer, person concerned in the revenue, or any
other, any gift, gratuity, allowance, or reward whatever, or anything beyond their salary "; and this is
the oath to which he alludes. Now his reason for
concealing his bribes from his inferiors, this Committee, under these false and fraudulent bonds, he
states thus: -- " I should have deemed it particularly
dishonorable to receive for my own use money ten --
dered by men of a certain class, from whom I had
VOL. X. 25
? ? ? ? 386 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
interdicted the receipt of presents to my inferiors,
and bound them by oath not to receive them: I was
therefore more than ordinarily cautious to avoid the
suspicion of it, which would scarcely have failed to
light upon me, had I suffered the money to be
brought to my own house, or that of any person
known to be in trust for me. "
My Lords, here he comes before you, avowing that
he knew the practice of taking money from these people was a thing dishonorable in itself. "I should have deemed it particularly dishonorable to receive
for my own use money tendered by men of a certain
class, from whom I had interdicted the receipt of
presents to my inferiors, and bound them by oath not
to receive them. " He held it particularly dishonorable to receive them; he had bound others by an oath not to receive them: but he received them himself;
and why does he conceal it? "Why, because," says
he, "if the suspicion came upon me, the dishonor
would fall upon my pate. " Why did he, by an oath,
bind his inferiors not to take these bribes? " Why,
because it was base and dishonorable so to do; and
because it would be mischievous and ruinous to the
Company's affairs to suffer them to take bribes. "
Why, then, did he take them himself? It was ten
times more ruinous, that he, who was at the head of
the Company's government, and had bound up others so strictly, should practise the same himself; and "therefore," says he, "I was more than ordinarily
cautious. " What! to avoid it? "No: to carry it
on in so clandestine and private a manner as might
secure me from the suspicion of that which I know
to be detestable, and bound others up from practising. "
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - THIRD DAY. 387
We shall prove that the kind of men from whom
he interdicted his Committee to receive bribes were
the identical men from whom he received them himself. If it was good for him, it was good for them to be permitted these means of extorting; and if it
ought at all to be practised, they ought to be admitted to extort for the good of the Company. Rajah
Nobkissin was one of the men from whom he interdicted them to receive bribes, and from whom lie received a bribe for his own use. But he says he concealed it from them, because he thought great mischief might happen even from their suspicion of it, and lest they should thereby be inclined themselves
to practise it, and to break their oaths.
You take it, then, for granted that he really concealed it from them? No such thing. His principal
confidant in receiving these bribes was Mr. Croftes,
who was a principal person in this Board of Revenue,
and whom he had made to swear not to take bribes:
he is the confidant, and the very receiver, as we shall
prove to your Lordships. What will your Lordships
think of his affirming and averring a direct falsehood, that he did it to conceal it from these men,
when one of them was his principal confidant an;d
agent in the transaction? What will you think of
his being more than ordinarily cautious to avoid the
suspicion of it? He ought to have avoided the
crime, and the suspicion would take care of itself.
"For these reasons," he says, " I caused it to be
transported immediately to the treasury. There I
well knew, Sir, it could not be received, without
being passed to some credit; and this could only be
done by entering it as a loan or as a deposit. The
first was the least liable to reflection, and therefore
? ? ? ? 388 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
I had obviously recourse to it. Why the second
sum was entered as a deposit I am utterly ignorant.
Possibly it was done without any special direction
from me; possibly because it was the simplest mode
of entry, and therefore preferred, as the transaction
itself did not require concealment, having been already avowed. "
My Lords, in fact, every word of this is either false
or groundless: it is completely fallacious in every
part. The first sum, he says, was entered as a loan,
the second as a deposit. Why was this done? Because, when you enter moneys of this kind, you must
enter them under some name, some head of account;
"and I entered them," he says, " under these, because otherwise there was no entering them at all. "
Is this true? Will he stick to this? I shall desire to
know from his learned counsel, some time or other,
whether that is a point he will take issue upon. Your
Lordships will see there were other bribes of his which
he brought under a regular official head, namely,
durbar charges; and there is no reason why he should
not have brought these under the same head. Therefore what he says, that there is no other way of entering them but as loans and deposits, is not true. He next says, that in the second sum there was no
reason for concealment, because it was avowed.
But that false deposit was as much concealment as
the false loan, for he entered that money as his
own; whereas, when he had a mind to carry any
money to the Company's account, he knew how to
do it, for he had been accustomed to enter it under a general name, called durbar charges, - a name
which, in its extent at least, was very much his
own invention, and which, as he gives no account
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -THIRD DAY. 389
of those charges, is as large and sufficient to cover
any fraudulent expenditure in the account as, one
would think, any person could wish. You see him,
then, first guessing one thing, then another, -- first
giving this reason, then another; at last, however,
he seems to be satisfied that he has hit upon the
true reason of his conduct.
Now let us open the next paragraph, and see what
it is. -" Although I am firmly persuaded that these
were my sentiments on the occasion, yet I will not affirm that they were. Though I feel their impression as the remains of a series of thoughts retained on
my memory, I am not certain that they may not
have been produced by subsequent reflection on the
principal fact, combining with it the probable motives of it. Of this I am certain, that it was my
design originally to have concealed the receipt of all
the sums, except the second, even from the knowledge of the Court of Directors. They had answered my purpose of public utility, and I had almost dismissed them from my remembrance. "
My Lords, you will observe in this most astonishing account which he gives here, that several of these sums he meant to conceal forever, even from the
knowledge of the Directors. Look back to his letter of 22d May, 1782, and his letter of the 16th of December, and in them he tells you that he might
have concealed them, but that he was resolved not to
conceal them; that he thought it highly dishonorable so to do; that his conscience would have been wounded, if he had done it; and that he was afraid
it would be thought that this discovery was brought
from him in consequence of the Parliamentary inquiries. Here he says of a discovery which he values
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
himself upon making voluntarily, that he is afraid it
should be attributed to arise from motives of fear.
Now, at last, he tells you, from Cheltenham, at a time
when he had just cause to dread the strict account to
which he is called this day, first, that he cannot tell
whether any one motive which he assigns, either in
this letter or in the former, were his real motive or
not; that he does not know whether he has not invented them since, in consequence of a train of meditation upon what he might have done or might
have said; and, lastly, he says, contrary to all his
former declarations, " that he had never meant nor
could give the Directors the least notice of them at
all, as they had answered his purpose, and he had dismissed them from his remembrance. " " I intended," he says, " always to keep them secret, though I have declared to you solemnly, over and over again,
that I did not. I do not care how you discovered
them; I have forgotten them; I have dismissed them
from my remembrance. " Is this the way in which
money is to be received and accounted for?
He then proceeds thus: -" But when fortune threw
a sum of money in my way of a magnitude which
could not be concealed, and the peculiar delicacy of
my situation at the time I received it made me more
circumspect of appearances, I chose to apprise my
employers of it, which I did hastily and generally:
hastily, perhaps, to prevent the vigilance and activity
of secret calumny; and generally, because I knew
not the exact amount of which I was in the receipt,
but not in the full possession. I promised to acquaint them with the result as soon as I should be
in possession of it; and, in the performance of my
promise, I thought it consistent with it to add to
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - THIRD DAY. 391
the amount all the former appropriations of the same
kind: my good genius then suggesting to me, with
a spirit of caution which might have spared me the
trouble of this apology, had I universally attended
to it, that, if I had suppressed them, and they were
afterwards known, I might be asked what were my
motives for withholding a part of these receipts from
the knowledge of the Court of Directors and informing them of the rest, it being my wish to clear up
every doubt. "
I am almost ashamed to remark upon the tergiversations and prevarications perpetually ringing the
changes in this declaration. He would not have discovered this hundred thousand pounds, if he could
have concealed it: he would have discovered it, lest
malicious persons should be telling tales of it. He
has a system of concealment: he never discovers
anything, but when he thinks it can be forced from
him. He says, indeed, " I could conceal these things
forever, but my conscience would not give me leave ":
but it is guilt, and not honesty of conscience, that
always prompts him. At one time it is the malice
of people and the fear of misrepresentation which induced him to make the disclosure; and. he values
himself on the precaution which this fear had suggested to him. At another time it is the magnitude
of the sum which produced this effect: nothing but
the impossibility of concealing it could possibly have
made him discover it. This hundred thousand pounds
he declares he would have concealed, if he could; and
yet he values himself upon the discovery of it. Oh,
my Lords, I am afraid that sums of much greater magnitude have not been discovered at all! Your Lordships now see some of the artifices of this letter. You
? ? ? ? 392 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
see the variety of styles he adopts, and how he turns
himself into every shape and every form. But, after
all, do you find any clear discovery? do you find any
satisfactory answer to the Directors' letter? does he
once tell you firom whom he received the money? does
he tell you for what he received it, what the circumstances of the persons giving it were, or any explanation whatever of his mode of accounting for it? No: and here, at last, after so many years' litigation,
he is called to account for his prevaricating, false accounts in Calcutta, and cannot give them to you.
His explanation of his conduct relative to the bonds
now only remains for your Lordships' consideration.
Before he left Calcutta, in July, 1784 [1781? ], he
says, when he was going upon a service which he
thought a service of danger, he indorsed the false
bonds which he had taken from the Company, declaring them to be none of his. You will observe
that these bonds had been in his hands from the 9th
or 15th of January (I am not quite sure of the exact
date) to the day when he went upon this service, some
time in the month of July, 1784 [ 1781? ]. This service he had formerly declared he did not apprehend
to be a service of danger; but he found it to be so
after: it was in anticipation of that danger that he
made this attestation and certificate upon the bonds.
But who ever saw them? Mr. Larkins saw them, says
he: " I gave them Mr. Larkins. " We will show you
hereafter that Mr. Larkins deserves no credit in this
business, - that honor binds him not to discover the
secrets of Mr. Hastings. But why did he not deliver them up entirely, when he was going upon that
service? for all pretence of concealment in the business was now at all end, as we shall prove. Wihy
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - THIRD DAY. 393
did he not cancel these bonds? Why keep them at
all? Why not enter truly the state of the account
in the Company's records? " But I indorsed them,"
he says. "Did you deliver them so indorsed into
the treasury? " " No, I delivered them indorsed into the hands of my bribe-broker and agent. " " But
why not destroy them, or give them up to the Company, and say you were paid, which would have been the only truth in this transaction? Why did you
not indorse them before? Why not, during the long
period of so many years, cancel them? " No, he
kept them to the very day when he was going from
Calcutta, and had made a declaration that they were
not his. Never before, upon any account, had they
appeared; and though the Committee of the House
of Commons, in the Eleventh Report, had remarked
upon all these scandalous proceedings and prevarications, yet he was not stimulated, even then, to give up these bonds. He held them in his hands till the
time when he was preparing for his departure from
Calcutta, in spite of the Directors, in spite of the
Parliament, in spite of the cries of his own conscience, in a matter which was now grown public,
and would knock doubly upon his reputation and
conduct. He then declares they are not for his own
use, but for the Company's service. But were they
then cancelled? I do not find a trace of their being cancelled.
In this letter of the 17th of January,
1785, he says with regard to these bonds, "The following sums were paid into the treasury, and bonds granted for the same in the name of the GovernorGeneral, in whose possession the bonds remain, with a declaration upon each, indorsed and signed by him,
that he has no claim on the Company for the amount
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
either of principal or interest, no part of the latter
having been received. "
To the account of the 22d of May, of the indorsement, is added the declaration upon oath. But why any man need to declare upon oath that the money
which he has fraudulently taken and concealed from
another person is not his is the most extraordinary
thing in the world. If he had a mind to have it
placed to his credit as his own, then an oath would
be necessary; but in this case any one would believe
him upon his word. He comes, however, and says,
"This is indorsed upon oath. " Oath! before what
magistrate? In whose possession were the bonds?
Were they given -up? There is no trace of that upon
the record, and it stands for him to prove that they
were ever given up, and in any hands but Mr. Larkins's and his own. So here are the bonds, begun in obscurity and ending in obscurity, ashes to ashes, dust
to dust, corruption to corruption, and fraud to fraud.
This is all we see of these bonds, till Mr. Larkins, to
whom he writes some letter concerning them which
does not appear, is called to read a funeral sermon
over them.
My Lords, I am come now near the period of this
class of Mr. Hastings's bribes. I am a little exhausted. There are many circumstances that might make me wish not to delay this business by taking
up another day at your Lordships' bar, in order to
go through this long, intricate scene of corruption.
But my strength now fails me. I hope within a very
short time, to-morrow or the next court-day, to finish
it, and to go directly into evidence, as I long much to
do, to substantiate the charge; but it was necessary
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. THIRD DAY. 395 that the evidence should be explained. You have heard as much of the drama as I could go through: bear with my weakness a little: Mr. Larkins's letter will be the epilogue to it. I have already incurred
the censure of the prisoner; I mean to increase it, by bringing home to him the proof of his crimes, and to display them in all their force and turpitude. It is
my duty to do it; I feel it an obligation nearest to my heart.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
ON
THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
FOURTH DAY: THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1789.
M Y LORDS, -When I had the honor last to
address you from this place, I endeavored to
press this position upon your minds, and to fortify it
by the example of the proceedings of Mr. Hastings,
-that obscurity and inaccuracies in a matter of
account constituted a just presumption of fraud. I
showed, from his own letters, that his accounts were
confused and inaccurate. I am ready, my Lords, to
admit that there are situations in which a minister
in high office may use concealment: it may be his duty to use concealment from the enemies of his masters; it may be prudent to use concealment from his inferiors in the service. It will always be suspicious
to use concealment from his colleagues and coordinates in office; but when, in a money transaction,
any man uses concealment with regard to them to
whom the money belongs, he is guilty of a fraud.
My Lords, I have shown you that Mr. Hastings kept
no account, by his own confession, of the moneys that
he had privately taken, as he pretends, for the Company's service, and we have but too much reason to
presume for his own. We have shown you, my
Lords, that he has not onily no accounts, but no
memory; we have shown that he does not even un
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FOURTH DAY. 397 derstand his own motives; that, when called upon to recollect them, he begs to guess at them; and that as his memory is to be supplied by his guess, so he has no confidence in his guesses. He at first finds, after
a lapse of about a year and a half, or somewhat less,
that he cannot recollect what his motives were to
certain actions which upon the very face of them appeared fraudulent. He is called to an account some
years after, to explain what they were, and he makes
a just reflection upon it, - namely, that, as his memory did not enable him to find out his own motive at
the former time, it is not to be expected that it would
be clearer a year after. Your Lordships will, however, recollect, that in the Cheltenham letter, which
is made of no perishable stuff, he begins again to
guess; but after he has guessed and guessed again,
and after he has gone through all the motives he can
possibly assign for the action, he tells you he does
not know whether those were his real motives, or
whether he has not invented them since.
In that situation the accounts of the Company were
left with regard to very great sums which passed
through Mr. Hastings's hands, and for which he, instead of giving his masters credit, took credit to himself, and, being their debtor, as he confesses himself to be at that time, took a security for that debt as if
he had been their creditor. This required explanation. Explanation he was called upon for, over and
over again; explanation he did not give, and declared he could not give. He was called upon for
it when in India: he had not leisure to attend to it
there. He was called upon for it when in Europe:
he then says he must send for it to India. With much
prevarication, and much insolence too, he confesses
? ? ? ? 398 - IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
himself guilty of falsifying the Company's accounts
by making himself their creditor when he was their
debtor, and giving false accounts of this false transaction. The Court of Directors was slow to believe
him guilty; Parliament expressed a strong suspicion
of his guilt, and wished for further information. Mr.
Hastings about this time began to imagine his conscience to be a faithful and true monitor, - which it
were well he had attended to upon many occasions, as
it would have saved him his appearance here, - and
it told him that he was in great danger from the Parliamentary inquiries that were going on. It was now
to be expected that he would have been in haste to
fulfil the promise which he had made in the Patna
letter of the 20th of January, 1782; and accordingly
we find that about this time his first agent, Major
Fairfax, was sent over to Europe, which agent entered himself at the India House, and appeared before the Committee of the House of Commons, as an agent expressly sent over to explain whatever might
appear doubtful in his conduct. Major Fairfax, notwithstanding the character in which Mr. Hastings
employed him, appeared to be but a letter-carrier:
he had nothing to say: he gave them no information
in the India House at all: to the Committee (I can
speak with the clearness of a witness) he gave no
satisfaction whatever. However, this agent vanished
in a moment, in order to make way for another, more
substantial, more efficient agent, - all agent perfectly
known in this country, - an agent known by the name
given to him by Mr. Hastings, who, like the princes
of the East, gives titles: he calls him an incomparable agent; and by that name he is very well known
to your Lordships and the world. This agent, Major
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FOURTH DAY. 399 Scott, who I believe was here prior to the time of Major Fairfax's arrival in the character of an agent, and for the very same purposes, was called before the Committee, and examined, point by point, article by article, upon all that obscure enumeration of bribes which the Court of Directors declare they did not understand; but he declared that he could speak nothing with regard to any of these transactions, and that he had got no instructions to explain any part
of them. There was but one circumstance which in
the course of his examination we drew from him, -
namely, that one of these articles, entered in the account of the 22d of May as a deposit, had been received from Mr. Hastings as a bribe from Cheyt Sing. He produced an extract of a letter relative to it, which
your Lordships in the course of this trial may see, and
which will lead us into a further and more minute
inquiry on that head; but when that committee made
their report in 1783, not one single'article had been
explained to Parliament, not one explained to the
Company, except this bribe of Cheyt Sing, which Mr.
Hastings had never thought proper to communicate
to the East India Company, either by himself, nor,
as far as we could find out, by his agent; nor was
it at last otherwise discovered than as it was drawn
out from him by a long examination in the Committee
of the House of Commons. And thus, notwithstanding the letters he had written and the agents he employed, he seemed absolutely and firmly resolved to give his employers no satisfaction at all. What is
curious in this proceeding is, that Mr. Hastings, all
the time he conceals, endeavors to get himself the
credit of a discovery. Your Lordships have seen
what his discovery is; but Mr. Hastings, among his
? ? ? ? 400 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
other very extraordinary acquisitions, has found an
effectual method of concealment through discovery.
I will venture to say, that, whatever suspicions there
might have been of Mr. Hastings's bribes, there was
more effectual concealment in regard to every circumstance respecting them in that discovery than if he
had kept a total silence. Other means of discovery
might have been found, but this, standing in the way,
prevented the employment of those means.
Things continued in this state till the time of the
letter from Cheltenham. The Cheltenham letter declared that Mr. Hastings knew nothing of the mat*ter, -that he had brought with him no accounts to England upon the subject; and though it appears by
this very letter that he had with him at Cheltenham
(if he wrote the letter at Cheltenham) a great deal
of his other correspondence, that he had his letter of
the 22d of May with him, yet any account that could
elucidate that letter he declared that he had not; but
he hinted that a Mr. Larkins, in India, whom your
Lordships will be better acquainted with, was perfectly
apprised of all that transaction. Your Lordships will
observe that Mr. Hastings has all his faculties, some
way or other, in deposit: one person can speak to his
motives; another knows his fortune better than himself; to others he commits the sentimental parts of
his defence; to Mr. Larkins he commits his memory.
We shall see what a trustee of memory Mr. Larkins is,
and how far he answers the purpose which might be
expected, when appealed to by a man who has no memory himself, or who has left it on the other side of the
water, and who leaves it to another to explain for him
accounts which he ought to have kept himself, and
circumstances which ought to be deposited in his own
memory.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FOURTH DAY. 401
This Cheltenham letter, I believe, originally becamne known, as far as I can recollect, to the House
of Commons, upon a motion of Mr. Hastings's own
agent: I do not like to be positive upon that point,
but I think that was the first appearance of it. It
appeared likewise in public: for it was thought so
extraordinary and laborious a performance, by the
writer or his friends, (as indeed it is,) that it might
serve to open a new source of eloquence in the kingdom, and consequently was printed, I believe, at the
desire of the parties themselves. But however it became known, it raised an extreme curiosity in the public to hear, when Mr. Hastings could say nothing, after so many years, of his own concerns and his own affairs, what satisfaction Mr. Larkins at last would
give concerning them. This letter was directed to
Mr. Devaynes, Chairman of the Court of Directors.
It does not appear that the Court of Directors wrote
anything to India in consequence of it, or that they directed this satisfactory account of the business should
be given them; but some private communications
passed between Mr. Hastings, or his agents, and Mr.
Larkins. There was a general expectation upon this
occasion, I believe, in the House of Commons and in
the nation at large, to know what would become of
the portentous inquiry. Mr. Hastings has always contrived to have half the globe between question and
answer: when he was in India, the question went to
him, and then he adjourned his answer till he came
to England; and when he came to England, it was
necessary his answer should arrive from India; so
that there is no manner of doubt that all time was
given for digesting, comparing, collating, and making
up a perfect memory upon the occasion.
VOL. X. 26
? ? ? ? 402 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
But, my Lords, Mr. Larkins, who has in custody
Mr. Hastings's memory, no small part of his conscience, and all his accounts, did, at last, in compliance with Mr. Hastings's desire, think proper to send an account. Then, at last, we may expect light.
Where are we to look for accounts, but from an accountant-general? Where are they to be met with,
unless from him? And accordingly, in that night of
perplexity into which Mr. Hastings's correspondence
had plunged them, men looked up to the dawning of
the day which was to follow that star, the little Lucifer, which with his lamp was to dispel the shades
of night, and give us some sort of light into this
dark, mysterious transaction. At last the little lamp
appeared, and was laid on the table of the House of
Commons, on the motion of Mr. Hastings's friends: for
we did not know of its arrival. It arrives, with all
the intelligence, all the memory, accuracy, and clearness which Mr. Larkins can furnish for Mr. Hastings
upon a business that before was nothing but mystery
and confusion. The account is called," Copy of the particulars of the dates on which the
component parts of sundry sums included in the account of sums received on the account of the Honorable Company by the Governor-General, or paid to their Treasury by his order, and applied to their service, were received for Mr. Hastings, and paid to the
Sub- Treasurer. "
The letter from Mr. Larkins consisted of two parts:
first, what was so much wanted, an account; next,
what was wanted most of all to such an account as
he sent, a comment and explanation. The account
consisted of two members: one gave an account of several detached bribes that Mr. Hastings had received
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FOURTH DAY. 403
withilt the course of about a year and a half; and the
other, of a great bribe which he had received in one
gross sum of one hundred thousand pounds from the
Nabob of Oude. It appeared to us, upon looking into
these accounts, that there was some geography, a little bad chronology, but nothing else in the first: neither the persons who took the money, nor the persons from whom it was taken, nor the ends for which it
was given, nor any other circumstances are mentioned. The first thing we saw was Dinagepore. I believe
you know this piece of geography, - that it is one of
the provinces of the kingdom of Bengal. We then
have a long series of months, with a number of sums
added to them; and in the end it is said, that on
the 18th and 19th of Asin, (meaning part of September and part of October,) were paid to Mr. Croftes two lac of rupees; and then remains one lac, whiph
was taken from a sum of three lac six thousand nine
hundred and seventy-three rupees. After we had
waited for Mr. Hastings's own account, after it had
been pursued through a series of correspondence in
vain, after his agents had come to England to explain
it, this is the explanation that your Lordships have got
of this first article, Dinagepore. Not the person paid
to, not the person paying, are mentioned, nor any
other circurhstance, except the signature, G. G. S. :
this might serve for George Gilbert Sanders, or any
other name you please; and seeing Croftes above
it, you mnight imagine it was an Englishman. And
this, which I call a geographical and a chronological
account, is the only account we have. Mr. Larkins,
upon the mere face of the account, sadly disappoints
us; and I will venture to say that in matters of ac
? ? ? ? 404 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
count Bengal book-keeping is as remote from good
book-keeping as the Bengal painches are remote from
all the rules of good composition. We have, how
ever, got some light: namely, that one G. G. S. has
paid some money to Mr. Croftes for some purpose,
but from whom we know not, nor where; that there
is a place called Dinagepore; and that Mr. Hastings
received some money from somebody in Dinagepore.
The next article is Patna. Your Lordships are
not so ill acquainted with the geography of India as
not to know that there is such a place as Patna, nor
so ill acquainted with the chronology of it as not to
know that there are three months called Baisakh,
Asin, Chait. Here was paid to Mr. Croftes two lac
of rupees, and there was left a balance of about
two more. But though you learn with regard to the
province of Dinagepore that there is a balance to be
discharged by G. G. S. , yet with regard to Patna
we have not even a G. G. S. : we have no sort of
light whatever to know through whose hands the
money passed, nor any glimpse of light whatever respecting it.
You may expect to be made amends in the other
province, called Nuddea, where Mr.