Your
Lordships
will also
see in this act what sort of use Mr.
see in this act what sort of use Mr.
Edmund Burke
If, whilst you
remark the use that is made of this man's name, your
Lordships shall find that this use has ever been made
of his name for his benefit, or for the purpose of giving him any useful or substantial authority, or of me-'liorating his condition in any way whatever, forgive
the fraud, forgive the disobedience. But if we have
shown your Lordships that it was for no other purpose
than to disobey thle orders of' thle Company, to trample
upon the laws ofi his country, to introduce back again,
? ? ? ? 234 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and to force into power, those very corrupt and wicked
instruments which had formerly done so much mischief, and for which mischief they were removed,
then we shall not have passed our time in vain, in
endeavoring to prove that this man, in the opinion of
a court of justice, and by public notoriety, and by
Mr. Hastings's own opinion, was held to be fit for
nothing but to be made a tool in his hands.
Having stated to your Lordships. generally the
effects produced upon the Mahometan interest of
Bengal by the misconduct of the prisoner at your bar
with respect to the appointment of the guardian of
the Nabob or Subahdar of that province, and of the
ministers of his government, I shall have the honor
of attending your Lordships another day, and shall
show you the use that has been made of this government and of the authority of the Nabob, who, as your Lordships have seen, was the mere phantom of power;
and I shall show how much a phantom he was for
every good purpose, and how effectual an instrument
lie was made for every bad one.
? ? ? ? SP E E C H
IN
GENERAL REPLY.
EIGHTH DAY: SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1794.
MY LORDS, -- Your Lordships heard, upon the
last day of the meeting of this high court, the
distribution of the several matters which I should
have occasion to lay before you, and by which I
resolved to guide myself in the examination of the
conduct of Mr. Hastings with regard to Bengal. I
stated that I should first show the manner in which
he comported himself with regard to the people who
were found in possession of the government when we
first entered into Bengal. We have shown to your
Lordships the progressive steps by which the native
government was brought into a state of annihilation.
We have stated the manner in which that government was solemnly declared by a court of justice to be depraved, and incompetent to act, and dead in law.
We have shown to your Lordships (and we have
referred you to the document) that its death was
declared upon a certificate of the principal attending
physician of the state, namely, Mr. Warren Hastings
himself. This was declared in an affidavit made by
him, wherein he has gone through all the powers of
government, of which he had regularly despoiled the
Nabob Mobarek ul Dowlah, part by part, exactly according to the ancient formula by which a degraded
? ? ? ? 236 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
knight was despoiled of his knighthood: they took, I
say, fiom him all the powers of government, article
by article, - his helmet, his slhield, his cuirass; at
last they hacked off his spurs, and left him nothing.
Mr. Hastings laid down all the premises, and left the
judges to draw the conclusion.
Your Lordships will remark (for you will find it
on your minutes) that the judges have declared this
affidavit of Mr. Hastings to be a delicate affidavit.
We have heard of affidavits that were true; we have
heard of affidavits that were perjured; but this is the
first instance that has come to our knowledge (and
we receive it as a proof of Indian refinement) of a
delicate affidavit. This affidavit of Mr. Hastings we
shall show to your Lordships is not entitled to the
description of a good affidavit, however it might be
entitled, in the opinion of those judges, to the description of a delicate affidavit, -- a phrase by which they appear to have meant that he had furnished all
the proofs of the Nabob's deposition, but had delicately avoided to declare him expressly deposed.
The judges drew, however, this indelicate conclusion; the conclusion they drew was founded upon the premises; it was very just and logical; for they declared that lie was a mere cipher. They commended Mr. Hastings's delicacy, though they did not imitate
it; but they pronounced sentence of' deposition upon
the said Nabob, and they declared that any letter or
paper that was produced from him could not be considered as an act of government. So effectually was he removed by the judges out of the way, that no
minority, no insanity, no physical circumstances, not
even death itself, could put a man more completely
out of sight. They declare that they would consider
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 237
his letters in no other light than as the letters of
the Company, represented by the Governor-General
and Council. Thus, then, we find the Nabob legally
dead.
We find next, that he was politically dead. Mr.
Hastings, not satisfied with the affidavit he made in
court, has thought proper upon record to inform the,
Company and the world of what he considered him to
be civilly and politically.
Minute entered by the Governor-General.
" The Governor-General. - I object to this motion,"
(a motion relative to the trial above alluded to,)
"because I do not apprehend that the declaration of
the judges respecting the Nabob's sovereignty will
involve this government in any difficulties with the
French or other foreign nations. " (Mark, my Lords,
these political effects. ) " How little the screen of
the Nabob's name has hitherto availed will appear in
the frequent and inconclusive correspondence which
has been maintained with the foreign settlements, the
French especially, since the Company have thought
proper to stand forth in their real character in the
exercise of the dewanny. From that period the government of these provinces has been wholly theirs; nor can all the subtleties and distinctions of political
sophistry conceal the possession of power, where the
exercise of it is openly practised and universally
felt in its operation. In deference to the commands
of the Company, we have generally endeavored, in all
our correspondence with foreigners, to evade the direct avowal of our possessing the actual rule of the country, - employing the unapplied term government, for the power to which we exacted their submis
? ? ? ? 238 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
sion; but I do not remember any instance, and I hope
none will be found, of our having been so disingenuous as to disclaim our own power, or to affirm that the
Nabob was the real sovereign of these provinces. In
effect, I do not hesitate to say that I look uponI this
state of indecision to have been productive of all the
embarrassments which we have experienced with the
foreign settlements. None of them have ever owned
any dominion but that of the British government in
these provinces. Mr. Chevalier has repeatedly declared, that he will not acknowledge any other, but
will look to that only for the support of the privileges
possessed by his nation, and shall protest against that
alone as responsible for any act of power by which
their privileges may be violated or their property disturbed. The Dutch, the Danes, have severally applied to this government, as to the ruling power, for the grant of indulgences and the redress of their
grievances. In our replies to all, we have constantly assumed the prerogatives of that character, but
eluded the direct avowal of it; under the name of
influence we have offered them protection, and we
have granted them the indulgences of government
under elusive expressions, sometimes applied to our
treaties with the Nabobs, sometimes to our own
rights as the dewan; sometimes openly declaring the
virtual rule which we held of these provinces, we
have contended with them for the rights of government, and threatened to repel with force the encroachments on it; we in one or two instances have actually put these threats into' execution, by orders
directly issued to the officers of government and enforced by detachments from our own military forces;
the Nabob was never consulted, nor was the pretence
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 239
ever made that his orders or concurrence were necessary: in a word, we have always allowed ourselves
to be treated as principals, we have treated as principals, but we have contented ourselves with letting
our actions insinuate the character which we effectually possessed, witlhout asserting it.
" For my own part, I have ever considered the reserve which has been enjoined us in this respect as a
consequence of the doubts which have long prevailed,
and whlich are still suffered to subsist, respecting the
rights of thle British government and the Company
to the property and dominion of these provinces, not
as inferring a doubt with respect to any foreign power. It has, however, been productive of great inconveniences; it has prevented our acting with vigor in our disputes with the Dutch and French. The
former refuse to this day thle payment of the bahor
peshcush, although the right is incontestably against
them, and we have threatened to enforce it. Both nations refuse to be bound by our decrees, or to submit
to our regulations; they refuse to submit to the payment of the duties on the foreign commerce but in
their own way, which amounts almost to a total exemption; they refuse to submit to the duty of ten
per cent which is levied upon foreign salt, by whllich,
unless a stop can be put to it by a more decisive
rule, they will draw the whole of that important
trade into their own colonies; and even in the single instance in which they have allowed. us to prescribe to them, namely, the embargo on grain on
the apprehension of a dearth, I am generally persuaded that they acquiesced from the secret design
of taking advantage of the general suspension, by
exporting grain clandestinely under cover of their
? ? ? ? 240 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
colors, which they knew would screen them from
the rigorous examination of our officers. We are
precluded from forming many arrangements of general utility, because of the want of control over
the European settlements; and a great part of the
defects which subsist in the government and conmmercial state of the country are ultimately derived
from this source. I have not the slightest suspicion
that a more open and decided conduct would expose us to worse consequences from the European
nationls; on the contrary, we have the worst of the
argument while we contend with them under false
colors, while they know us under the disguise, and
we have not the confidence to disown it. What we
have done and may do under an assumed character
is full as likely to involve us in a war with France,
a nation not much influenced by logical weapons,
(if such call be supposed to be the likely consequence of our own trifling disagreements with
them,) as if we stood forth their avowed opponents.
To conclude, instead of regretting, with Mr. Francis, the occasion which deprives us of so useless
and hurtful a disguise, I should rather rejoice, were
it really the case, and consider it as a crisis which
freed the constitution of our government fiom one
of its greatest defects. "
Now, my Lords, the delicacy of the affidavit is
no more; the great arcanum of the state is avowed:
it is avowed that the government is ours,- that the
Nabob is nothing. It is avowed to foreign nations;
and the disguise wlhich we have put on, MAr. Hastings states, in his opinion, to be hurtful to the affairs of the Company. Here we perceive the exact
? ? ? ? SPAECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 241
and the perfect agreement between his character as
a delicate affidavit-maker in a court of justice and his
indelicate declarations upon the records of the Company for the information of the whole world concerning the real arcanum of the Bengal government. Now I cannot help praising his consistency upon
this occasion, whether his policy was right or wrong.
Hitherto we find the whole consistent, we find the
affidavit perfectly supported. The inferences which
delicacy at first prevented him from producing better
recollection and more perfect policy made him here
avow. In this state things continued. The Nabob,
your Lordships see, is dead, - dead in law, dead in
politics, dead in a court of justice, dead upon the
records of the Company. Except in mere animal
existence, it is all over with him.
I have now to state to your Lordships, that Mr.
Hastings, who has the power of putting even to death
in this way, possesses likewise the art of restoring to
life. But what is the medicine that revives them?
Your Lordships, I am sure, will be glad to know what
nostrum, not hitherto pretended to by quacks in
physic, by quacks in politics, nor by quacks in law,
will serve to revive this man. to cover his dead bones
with flesh, and to give him life, activity, and vigor.
My Lords, I am about to tell you an instance of a
recipe of such infallible efficacy as was never before
discovered. His cure for all disorders is disobedience
to the commands of his lawful superiors. When the
orders of the CoUrt of Directors are contrary to his
own opinions, he forgets them all. Let the Court of
Directors but declare in favor of his own system and
his own positions, and that very moment, merely for
the purpose of declaring his right of rebellion against
VOL. XII. 16
? ? ? ? 242 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the laws of his country, he counteracts them. Then
these dead bones arise, - or, to use a language more
suitable to the dignity of the thing, Bayes's men are
all revived. '"Are these men dead? " asks Mr.
Bayes's friend. " No," says he, "they shall all get
up and dance immediately. " But in this ludicrous
view of Mr. Hastings's conduct, your Lordships must
not lose sight of its great importance. You cannot
have in an abstract, as it were, any one thing that
better develops the principles of the man, that more
fully develops all the sources of his conduct, and of
all the frauds and iniquities which he has committed,
in order at one and the same time to evade his duty
to the Court of Directors, that is to say, to the laws
of his country, and to oppress, crush, rob, and illtreat the people that are under him.
My Lords, you have had an account of the person
who represented the Nabob's dignity, Mahomed Reza
Khan; you have heard of the rank he bore, the sufferings that he went through, his trial and honorable acquittal, and the Conipany's order that the first opportunity should be taken to appoint him Naib
Subah, or deputy of the Nabob, and more especially
to represent him in the administering of justice.
Your Lordships are also acquainted with what was
done in consequence of those orders by the CouncilGeneral, in the restoration and reestablishment of
the executive power in this person,- not in the poor
Nabob, a poor, helpless, ill-bred, ill-educated boy, but
in the first Mussulman of the country, who had before
exercised the office of Naib Subah, or deputy viceroy,
-in order to give some degree of support to the expiring honor and justice of that country. The majority,
namely, General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 243
Francis, whose names, as I have before said, will, for
obedience to the Company, fidelity to the laws, honor to themselves, and a purity untouched and unimpeached, stand distinguished and honored, in spite of all the corrupt and barking virulence of India against
them, - these men, I say, obeyed the Company:
they had no secret or fraudulent connection with
Mahomed Reza Khan; but they reinstated him in
his office.
The moment that real death had carried away two
of the most virtuous of this community, and that Mr.
Hastings was thereby reestablished in his power, he
returned to his former state of rebellion to the Company, and of fraud and oppression upon the people.
And here we come to the revivificating medicine. I
forgot to tell your Lordships, that this Nabob, whose
letters were declared by a court of law, with his own
approbation, to be in effect letters of the GovernorGeneral and Council, concludes a formal application
transmitted to them, and dated 17th November, 1777,
with a demand of the restoration of his rights. Mr.
Hastings upon this enters the following minute: --
" The Nabob's demands are grounded upon positive rights, which will not admit of a discussion; he
has an incontestable right to the management of his
own household; he has an incontestable right to the
nizamut. "
My Lords, you have heard his affidavit, you have
heard his avowed and recorded opinion. In direct
defiance of both, because he wishes to make doubtful
the orders of the Company and to evade his duty, he
here makes without any delicacy a declaration, which
if it be true, the affidavit is a gross perjury, let it be
? ? ? ? 244 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
managed with what delicacy he pleases. The word
nizamut, which he uses, may be unfamiliar to your
Lordships. In India it signifies the whole executive
government, though the word strictly means viceroyalty: all the princes of that country holding their
dominions as representatives of the Mogul, the great
nominal sovereign of the empire. To convince you
that it does so, take his own explanation of it.
" It is his by inheritance: the adawlut and the foujdarry having been repeatedly declared by the Company and by this government to appertain to the'nizamut. The adawlut, namely, the distribution of civil justice, and the foujdarry, namely, the executive criminal justice of that country, that is to say, the whole
sovereign government of the courts of justice, have
been declared by the Company to appertain to the
nizamut. "
I beg of your Lordships to recollect, when you take
into your consideration the charges of the House of
Commons, that the person they accuse, and persons
suborned by him, have never scrupled to be guilty,
without sense of shame, of the most notorious falsehoods, the most glaring inconsistencies, and even of
perjury itself; and that it is thus they make the power of the Company dead or alive, as best suits their
own wicked, clandestine, and fraudulent purposes,
and the great end of all their actions and all their
politics plunder and peculation.
I must here refer your Lordships to a minute of
Mr. Francis's, which I recommend to your reading
at large, and to your very serious recollection, in
page 1086; because it contains a complete history of
Mr. Hastings's conduct, and of its effects upon this
occasion.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 245
And now to proceed. - The Nabob, in a subsequent
application to the Company's government at Calcutta,
desires that Mlunny Begum may be allowed to take
on herself the whole administration of the affairs of
the nizamut, (not the superiority in the administration of the affairs of the seraglio only, though this would have been a tyrannical usurpation of the power belonging to the legitimate mother of the Nabob,) without the interference of any person whatever;
and he adds, that by this the Governor will give him
complete satisfaction. In all fraudulent correspondence you are sure to find the true secret of it at last.
It has been said by somebody, that the true sense of
a letter is to be learnt from its postscript. But this
matter is so clumsily managed, that, in contempt of
all decency, the first thing the Nabob does is to desire
he may be put into the hands of Munny Begum, and
t1at without the interference of anybody whatever.
The next letter, immediately following on the
heels of the former, was received by the Council on
the 12th of February, 1778. In this letter he desires
that Mahomed Reza Khan may be removed from his
office ill the government; and he expresses his hopes,
that, as he himself is now come to years of maturity,
and by the blessing of God is not so devoid of understanding as to be incapable of conducting his affairs, he says, "' I am therefore hopeful, from your favor
and regard to justice, that you will deliver me from
the authority of the aforesaid Mahomed Reza Khlln,
and give your permission that I take on myself the
management of the adawlut and foujdarry. " There
is no doubt of this latter application, in contradiction
to the former, having arisen from a suspicion that the
appointment of Munny Begum would be too gross,
? ? ? ? 246 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and would shock the Council; and Mr. Hastings
therefore orders the second letter to be written from
the Nabob, in which he claims the powers of government for himself. Then follows a letter from the Governor-General, informing the Nabob that it had been agreed, that, his Excellency being now arrived at
years of maturity, the control of his own household,
and the courts dependent on the nizamut and fonujdarry, should be placed in his hands; and Mahomed
Reza Kha'n was directed at the same time to resign
his authority to the Nabob.
Here your Lordships see Munny Begum in effect
completely invested with, and you will see how she
has used her power: for I suppose your Lordships
are sick of the name of Nabob, as a real actor in the
government. You now see the true parties in the
transaction, - namely, the lover, Warren Hastings,
Esquire, and Munny Begum, the object of his passion
and flame, to which he sacrifices as much as Antony
ever did to Cleopatra. You see the object of his
love and affection placed in the administration of the
viceroyalty; you see placed at her disposal the administration of the civil judicature, and of the executory justice, --together with the salary which was intended for Mahomed Reza Khan.
Your Lordships will be pleased to remember that
this distribution of the Nabob's government was made
in direct defiance of the orders of the Company.
And as a further proof of this defiance, it will not
escape your Lordships, that, before this measure was
carried into execution, Mr. Barwell being one day
absent from the Council, Mr. Hastings fell into a
minority; and it was agreed, upon that occasion,
that the whole affair should be referred home to the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 247
Court of Directors, and that no arrangement should
be made till. the Directors had given their opinion.
Mr. Hastings, the very moment after Mr. Barwell's
return to his seat in the Council, rescinds this resolution, which subjected the orders of the Court of
Directors to their own reconsideration; and he hurries headlong and precipitately into the execution
of his first determination.
Your Lordships will also
see in this act what sort of use Mr. Hastings made
of the Council; and I have therefore insisted upon
all these practices of the prisoner at your bar, because there is not one of them in which some principle of government is not wounded, if not mortally wounded.
My Lords, we have laid before you the consequences of this proceeding. We have shown what passed
within the walls of the seraglio, and what tyranny
was exercised by this woman over the multitude of
women there. I shall now show your Lordsllips in
what manner she made use of her power over the
supreme judicature, to peculate, and to destroy the
country; and I shall adduce, as proofs of this abuse
of her authority, the facts I am about to relate, and
of which there is evidence before your Lordships.
There was an ostensible man, named Sudder ul
EIuk Klh'a', placed there at the head of the administration of justice, with a salary of seven thousand
pounds a year of the Company's money. This mall,
ill a letter to the Governor-General and Council, received the 1st of September, 1778, says,-" His Highness himself [the Nabob] is not deficient in regard for me, but certain bad men have gained an ascendency
over his temper, by whose instigation he acts. " You
will see, my Lords, how this poor man was crippled
? ? ? ? 248 IMPEACHMIENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
in the execution of his duty, and dishonored by the
corruption of this woman and her eunuchls, to whom
Mr. Hastings had given the supreme government, and
with it anl uncontrolled influence over all the dependent parts. After thus complaining of the sligllts
lie receives from the Nabob, lie adds, -" Thus they
cause the Nabob to treat me, sometimes with indigiiity, at others with kindness, just as they think proper to advise him: their view is, that, by compelling me to displeasure at such unworthy treatment, they
may force me either to relinquish my station, or to
join withl them and act with tlheir advice, and appoint
creatures of their recommendation to thle different
offices, from which they might draw profit to themselves. " In a subsequent letter to the Governor, Sudder ul Huk Klhan says,-" The Begum's ministers, before my arrival, with the advice of their counsellors, caused the Nabob to sign a receipt, in consequence of which they received, at two different times, near fifty thousand rupees, in the name of the officers
of the adawlut, foujdarry, &c. , from the Company's
sircar; and having drawn up an account current in
the manner they wished, they got the Nabob to sign
it, and then sent it to me. " In the same letter he
asserts that these people have the Nabob entirely in
their power.
Now I have only to remark to your Lordships, that
the first and immediate operation of Mr. Hastings's
regulation, which put everything into the hands of
this wicked woman for her corrupt purposes, was,
that the office of chief-justice was trampled upon and
depraved, anid made use of to plunder the Company of money, which was appropriated to their own
uses, --and that thle person ostensibly holding this
? ? ? ? 'SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 249
office was forced to become the instrument in the
hands of this wicked woman and her two wicked
eunuchs. This, then, was the representation which
the chief-justice made to Mr. Hastings, as one of the
very first fruits of his new arrangement. I am now to
tell you what his next step was. This same Mr. Hastings, who had made the Nabob master of everything and placed everything at his disposal, who had maintained that the Nabob was not to act a secondary part and to be a mere instrument in the hands of the Company, who had, as you have seen, revived the Nabob, now puts him to death again. He pretends to be
shocked at these proceedings of the Nabob, and, not
being able to prevent their coming before the Council
of the Directors at home, he immediately took Sudder ul Huk Khan under his protection.
Now your Lordships see Mr. Hastings appearing
in his own character again, - exercising the power
he had pretended to abdicate, whilst the Nabob sinks
and subsides under him. He becomes the supporter
of Sudder ul Huk Khan, now that the infamy of the
treatment he received could no longer be concealed
from the Council. On the 1st of September, 1778,
the Governor informs the Nabob, "that it is highly expedient that Sudder ul Huk Khan should have
full control in all matters relative to his office, and
the sole appointment and dismission of the sudder
and mofussil officers; and that his seal and signature
should be authentic to all papers having relation to
the business intrusted to hlim: I therefore intimate
to you, that lie should appoint and dismiss all the
officers under him, and that your Excellency should
not interfere in ally one [way? ]. "
The Nabob, in a letter to the Governor, received the
? ? ? ? 250 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
3d of September, 1778, says, -- " Agreeably to your
pleasure, I have relinquished all concern with the
affairs of the foujdarry and adawlut, leaving the entire management in Sudder ul Huk Kha'n's hands. "
Here you see the Nabob again reduced to his former state of subordination. This chief-justiceship,
which was declared to be his inherent right, he is
obliged to submit to the control of Mr. Hastings,
and to declare that he will not interfere at all ill a
matter which Mr. Hastings had declared to be his incommunicable attribute. I do not say that Mr. Hastings interfered improperly. Certainly it was not fit that the highest court of justice in all Bengal should
be made the instrument of the rapacity of a set of
villains with a prostitute at their head: just as if
a gang of thieves in England, with their prostitutes
at their head, should seize the judge which ought to
punish them, and endeavor to make use of his name
in their iniquitous transactions. But your Lordships
will find that Mr. Hastings is here acting a merely
ostensible part, and that he has always a means of
defeating privately what he declares publicly to be
his intention. Your Lordships will see soon how
this ended. Mr. Hastings gets the Nabob to give up
all his authority over the chief-justice; but he says
not one word of Munny Begum, the person who had
the real authority in her hands, and who was not
forbidden to interfere with him. Mr. Hastings's order is dated the 1st September, 1778. On the 3d of
September, the Nabob is said to have relinquished all
concern with Sudder ul Huk Khan. In a letter received the 30th of September, (that is, about twentyseven days after the date of Mr. Hastings's order,) you will see how this pretended order was managed.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 251
Sudder ul Huk Klhan thus writes, in a letter received the 30th of September.
" Yatibar Ali Khan," (Munny Begum's chief eunuch,) " from the amount of salaries of the officers
of the adawlut and foujdarry, which before my arrival lie had received for two months from the sircar,
made disbursements according to his own pleasure.
Hte had before caused the sum of 7,400 rupees,
on account of the price of mine and my peshcar's
khelauts, to be carried to account, and now continually sends a mall to demand from me 4,300 and odd
rupees, as a balance of the price of khelauts, and constantly presses me to take it from the amount of the
salaries of the officers of the adawlut and foujdarry
and send it to him; and I shall be under the necessity of complying. I mention this for your information. "
My Lords, you see again how Mr. Hastings's pretended orders were obeyed. They were orders addressed to the Nabob, whom he knew to be nothing, and who could neither control or take the least share in the execution of them; but he leaves the
thing loose as to Munny Begum and her eunuchs,
who he knew could alone carry them into effect.
Your Lordships see that the first use made of the
restored authority of the Nabob was, under various
pretences, to leave the salaries of the officers of government unprovided for, to rob the public treasury,
and to give the Company's money to the eunuchs,
who were acting in the manner I have stated to
you.
Information of these proceedings reaches Calcutta;
a regular complaint from a person in the highest
? ? ? ? 252 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
situation in the government is made, and the Governor-General is obliged again to take up the matter;
and I shall now read to your Lordships a letter of the
10th of October, 1778, which contains a representationl so pointed and so very just of the fatal effects
which his interference in the administration of justice had produced as not to stand in need of any
comment from me. It speaks too plainly to require
any.
The Governor-General's Letter to the Nabob.
"At your Excellency's request I sent Sudder ul
Huk Kha11 to take on himl the administration of the
affairs of the adawlut and foujdarry, and hoped by
that means not only to have given satisfaction to
your Excellency, but that, through his abilities and
experience, these affairs would have been conducted
in such manner as to have secured the peace of the
country and the happiness of the people; and it is
with the greatest concern I learn that this measure
is so far from being attended with the expected advantages, that the affairs both of the foujdarry and
adawlut are in the greatest confusion imaginable, and
daily robberies and murders are perpetrated throughout the country. This is evidently owing to the
want of a proper authority in the person appointed
to superintend them. I therefore addressed youl
Excellency on the importance and delicacy of the affairs in question, and of the necessity of lodging full
power in the hands of the person chosen to administer them, in reply to which your Excellency expressed sentiments coincident with mine; notwithstanding which, your dependants and people, actuated by selfish and avaricious views, have by their
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- EIGHTH DAY. 253
interference so impeded the business as to throw the
whole country into a state of confusion, from whlich
nothing can retrieve it but an unlimited power lodged
in the hands of the superintendent. I therefore request that your Excellency will give the strictest injunctions to all your dependants not to interfere
in any manner with any matter relative to the affairs
of the adawlut and foujdarry, and that you will yourself relinquish all ilterference therein, and leave them entirely to the management of Sudder ul Huk
Khan. This is absolutely necessary to restore the
country to a state of tranquillity; and if your Excellency has any plan to propose for the management of the affairs in future, be pleased to communicate it to
me, and every attention shall be paid to give your
Excellency satisfaction. "
My Lords, I think I have read enough to you for
our present purpose, - referring your Lordships for
fuller information to your Minutes, page 1086, which
I beg you to read with the greatest attention.
I must again beg your Lordships to remark, that,
though Mr. Hastings has the impudence still to pretend that he wishes for the restoration of order and justice in the country, yet, instead of writing to Munny Begum upon the business, whom he knew to be the very object complained of, and whose eunuchs are
expressly mentioned in the complaint, he writes to
the Nabob, whom he knew to be a pageant in his
own court and government, and whose name was
not even mentioned in this last complaint. Not one
word is said, even in this letter to the Nabob, of
Munny Begum or of her eunuchs. My Lords, wleii
you consider his tacit support of the authors of thl}
? ? ? ? 254 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
grievance, and his ostensible application for redress
to the man who he knew never authorized and could
not redress the grievance, you must conclude that
he meant to keep the country in the same state for
his own corrupt purposes. In this state the country in fact continued; Munny Begum and her eunuchs continued to administer and squander the Company's money, as well as the Nabob's; robberies
and murders continued to prevail throughout the
country. No appearance was left of order, law, or
justice, from one end of Bengal to the other.
The account of this state of things was received by
the Court of Directors with horror and indignation.
On the 27th of May, 1779, they write, as you will
find in page 1063 of your printed Minutes, a letter to
their government at Calcutta, condemning their proceedings and the removal of Mahomed Reza Khan,
and they order that Munny Begum shall be displaced,
and Mahomed Reza Khan restored again to the seat
of justice.
Mr. Francis, upon the arrival of these reiterated
orders, moved in Council for an obedience to them.
Mr. Hastings, notwithstanding he had before his eyes
all the horrible consequences that attended his new
arrangement, still resists that proposition. By his
casting voice in the Council he counter-orders the
orders of the Court of Directors, and sanctions a direct disobedience to their authority, by a resolution
that Mahomed Reza Khan should not be restored
to his employment, but that this Sudder ul Huk
Kha'n, who still continued in the condition already
described, should remain in the possession of his
office. I say nothing of Sudder ul IHuk Khan; he
seems to be very well disposed to do his duty, if
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 255
Mr. Hastings's arrangements had suffered him to do
it; and indeed, if Mahomed Reza Klian had been
reinstated, and no better supported by Mr. Hastings
than Sudder ul Huk Khan, he could probably have
kept the country in no better order, though, perhaps,
his name, and the authority and weight which still
adhered to him in some degree, might have had some
influence.
My Lords, you have seen his defiance of the Company; you have seen his defiance of all decency;
you see his open protection of prostitutes and robbers of every kind ravaging Bengal; you have seen
this defiance of the authority of the Court of Directors flatly, directly, and peremptorily persisted in
to the last. Order after order was reiterated, but his
disobedience arose with an elastic spring in proportion
to the pressure that was upon it.
My Lords, here there was a pause. The Directors
had been disobeyed; and you might suppose that
he would have been satisfied with this act of disobedience. My Lords, he was resolved to let the native governments of the country know that he despised the orders of the Court of Directors, and that, whenever he pretended to obey them, in reality he
was resolved upon the most actual disobedience. An
event now happened, the particulars of which we
are not to repeat here. Disputes, conducted, on Mr.
Francis's side, upon no other principle, that we can
discover, but a desire to obey the Company's orders,
and to execute his duty with fidelity and disinterestedness, had arisen between him and Mr. Hastings.
Mr. Francis, about the time we have been speaking
of, finding resistance was vain, reconciles himself
to him, --but on the most honorable terms as a
? ? ? ? 256 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
public man, namely, that he should continue to follow and obey the laws, and to respect the authority
of the Court of Directors. Upon this reconciliation,
it was agreed that Mahomed Reza Khall should be
restored to his office. For this purpose Mr. Hastings
enters a minute, and writes to the Nabob an ostensible letter. But your Lordships will here see an instance of what I said respecting a double current in all Mr. Hastings's proceedings. Even when he
obeys or pretends to obey the Company's orders,
there is always a private channel through which he
defeats them all.
Letter from M1r. Hastings to the Nabob Mobarek ul
bowlah, written the 10th of February, 1780.
"The Company, whose orders are peremptory,
have directed that Mahomed Reza Klihn shall be
restored to the offices he held in January, 1778. It
is my duty to represent this to your Excellency, and
to recommend your compliance with their request,
that Mahomed Reza Khtan may be invested with the
offices assigned to him under the nizamut by the
Company. "
Your Lordships see here that Mr. Hastings informs
the Nabob, that, having received peremptory orders
from the Company, he restores and replaces Mahomed
Reza Khan. Mahomed Reza Klhan, then, is in possession, - and ill possession by the best of all titles,
the orders of the Company. But you will also see
the manner in which lie evades his duty, and vilifies in the eyes of these miserable country powers
the authority of the Directors. He is prepared, as
usual, with a defeasance of his own act; and the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. --- EIGHTH DAY. 257
manner in which that defeasance came to our knowledge is this. We knew nothing of this private affair,
till Mr. Hastings, in his answer before the House of
Commons, finding it necessary to destroy the validity
of some of his own acts, brought forward Sir John
D'Oyly. He was brought forward before us, not
as a witness in his own person for the defence of
Mlr. Hastings, but as a narrator who had been employed by Mr. Hastings as a member of that Council which, as you have heard, drew up his defence. My Lords, you have already seen the public agency
of this business, you have heard read the public letter sent to the Nabob: there you see the ostensible
part of the transaction. Now hear the banian, Sir
John D'Oyly, give an account of his part in it, extracted from Mr. Hastings's defence before the House
of Commons.
"I was appointed Resident [at the Court of the
Nabob] on the resignation of Mr. Byam Martin,
in the month of January, 1780, and took charge
about the beginning of February of the same year.
The substance of the instructions I received was, to
endeavor, by every means in my power, to conciliate
the good opinion and regard of the Nabob and his
family, that I might be able to persuade him to
adopt effectual measures for the better regulation
of his expenses, which were understood to have
greatly exceeded his income; that I might prevent
his forming improper connections; or taking any
steps derogatory. to his rank, and by every means
in my power support his credit and dignity in the
eyes of the world; and with respect to the various
branches of his family, I was instructed to endeavor
VOL. XII. 17
? ? ? ? 258 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
to put a stop to the dissensions which had too frequently prevailed amongst them. The Nabob, on
his part, was recommended to pay the same attention to my advice as lie would have done to that
of the Governor-General in person. Some time, I
think, in the month of February of the same year,
I received a letter from Mr. Hastings, purporting
that the critical situation of affairs requiring the
union and utmost exertion of every member of the
government to give vigor to the acts necessary for
its relief; he had agreed to an accommodation with
Mr. Francis; but to effect this point he had been
under the necessity of making some painful sacrifices, and particularly that of the restoration of Mahomed Reza Khlan to the office of Naib Suball,
a measure which lie knew must be highly disagreeable to the Nabob, and which nothing but the
urgent necessity of the case should have led him
to acquiesce in; that he relied on me to state all
these circumstances in the most forcible manner to
the Nabob, and to urge his compliance, assuring him
that it sliould not continue longer than until the
next advices were received from the Court of Directors. "
Here Mr. Hastings himself lets us into the secrets
of his government. He writes an ostensible letter to
the Nabob, declaring that what he does is in conformity to the orders of the Company. He writes a private letter, in which he directs his agent to assure the
Nabob that what he had done was not in compliance
with the orders of the Company, but in consequence
of the arrangement he had made with Mr. Francis,
which arranigement he thought necessary for the sup
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -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.
remark the use that is made of this man's name, your
Lordships shall find that this use has ever been made
of his name for his benefit, or for the purpose of giving him any useful or substantial authority, or of me-'liorating his condition in any way whatever, forgive
the fraud, forgive the disobedience. But if we have
shown your Lordships that it was for no other purpose
than to disobey thle orders of' thle Company, to trample
upon the laws ofi his country, to introduce back again,
? ? ? ? 234 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and to force into power, those very corrupt and wicked
instruments which had formerly done so much mischief, and for which mischief they were removed,
then we shall not have passed our time in vain, in
endeavoring to prove that this man, in the opinion of
a court of justice, and by public notoriety, and by
Mr. Hastings's own opinion, was held to be fit for
nothing but to be made a tool in his hands.
Having stated to your Lordships. generally the
effects produced upon the Mahometan interest of
Bengal by the misconduct of the prisoner at your bar
with respect to the appointment of the guardian of
the Nabob or Subahdar of that province, and of the
ministers of his government, I shall have the honor
of attending your Lordships another day, and shall
show you the use that has been made of this government and of the authority of the Nabob, who, as your Lordships have seen, was the mere phantom of power;
and I shall show how much a phantom he was for
every good purpose, and how effectual an instrument
lie was made for every bad one.
? ? ? ? SP E E C H
IN
GENERAL REPLY.
EIGHTH DAY: SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1794.
MY LORDS, -- Your Lordships heard, upon the
last day of the meeting of this high court, the
distribution of the several matters which I should
have occasion to lay before you, and by which I
resolved to guide myself in the examination of the
conduct of Mr. Hastings with regard to Bengal. I
stated that I should first show the manner in which
he comported himself with regard to the people who
were found in possession of the government when we
first entered into Bengal. We have shown to your
Lordships the progressive steps by which the native
government was brought into a state of annihilation.
We have stated the manner in which that government was solemnly declared by a court of justice to be depraved, and incompetent to act, and dead in law.
We have shown to your Lordships (and we have
referred you to the document) that its death was
declared upon a certificate of the principal attending
physician of the state, namely, Mr. Warren Hastings
himself. This was declared in an affidavit made by
him, wherein he has gone through all the powers of
government, of which he had regularly despoiled the
Nabob Mobarek ul Dowlah, part by part, exactly according to the ancient formula by which a degraded
? ? ? ? 236 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
knight was despoiled of his knighthood: they took, I
say, fiom him all the powers of government, article
by article, - his helmet, his slhield, his cuirass; at
last they hacked off his spurs, and left him nothing.
Mr. Hastings laid down all the premises, and left the
judges to draw the conclusion.
Your Lordships will remark (for you will find it
on your minutes) that the judges have declared this
affidavit of Mr. Hastings to be a delicate affidavit.
We have heard of affidavits that were true; we have
heard of affidavits that were perjured; but this is the
first instance that has come to our knowledge (and
we receive it as a proof of Indian refinement) of a
delicate affidavit. This affidavit of Mr. Hastings we
shall show to your Lordships is not entitled to the
description of a good affidavit, however it might be
entitled, in the opinion of those judges, to the description of a delicate affidavit, -- a phrase by which they appear to have meant that he had furnished all
the proofs of the Nabob's deposition, but had delicately avoided to declare him expressly deposed.
The judges drew, however, this indelicate conclusion; the conclusion they drew was founded upon the premises; it was very just and logical; for they declared that lie was a mere cipher. They commended Mr. Hastings's delicacy, though they did not imitate
it; but they pronounced sentence of' deposition upon
the said Nabob, and they declared that any letter or
paper that was produced from him could not be considered as an act of government. So effectually was he removed by the judges out of the way, that no
minority, no insanity, no physical circumstances, not
even death itself, could put a man more completely
out of sight. They declare that they would consider
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 237
his letters in no other light than as the letters of
the Company, represented by the Governor-General
and Council. Thus, then, we find the Nabob legally
dead.
We find next, that he was politically dead. Mr.
Hastings, not satisfied with the affidavit he made in
court, has thought proper upon record to inform the,
Company and the world of what he considered him to
be civilly and politically.
Minute entered by the Governor-General.
" The Governor-General. - I object to this motion,"
(a motion relative to the trial above alluded to,)
"because I do not apprehend that the declaration of
the judges respecting the Nabob's sovereignty will
involve this government in any difficulties with the
French or other foreign nations. " (Mark, my Lords,
these political effects. ) " How little the screen of
the Nabob's name has hitherto availed will appear in
the frequent and inconclusive correspondence which
has been maintained with the foreign settlements, the
French especially, since the Company have thought
proper to stand forth in their real character in the
exercise of the dewanny. From that period the government of these provinces has been wholly theirs; nor can all the subtleties and distinctions of political
sophistry conceal the possession of power, where the
exercise of it is openly practised and universally
felt in its operation. In deference to the commands
of the Company, we have generally endeavored, in all
our correspondence with foreigners, to evade the direct avowal of our possessing the actual rule of the country, - employing the unapplied term government, for the power to which we exacted their submis
? ? ? ? 238 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
sion; but I do not remember any instance, and I hope
none will be found, of our having been so disingenuous as to disclaim our own power, or to affirm that the
Nabob was the real sovereign of these provinces. In
effect, I do not hesitate to say that I look uponI this
state of indecision to have been productive of all the
embarrassments which we have experienced with the
foreign settlements. None of them have ever owned
any dominion but that of the British government in
these provinces. Mr. Chevalier has repeatedly declared, that he will not acknowledge any other, but
will look to that only for the support of the privileges
possessed by his nation, and shall protest against that
alone as responsible for any act of power by which
their privileges may be violated or their property disturbed. The Dutch, the Danes, have severally applied to this government, as to the ruling power, for the grant of indulgences and the redress of their
grievances. In our replies to all, we have constantly assumed the prerogatives of that character, but
eluded the direct avowal of it; under the name of
influence we have offered them protection, and we
have granted them the indulgences of government
under elusive expressions, sometimes applied to our
treaties with the Nabobs, sometimes to our own
rights as the dewan; sometimes openly declaring the
virtual rule which we held of these provinces, we
have contended with them for the rights of government, and threatened to repel with force the encroachments on it; we in one or two instances have actually put these threats into' execution, by orders
directly issued to the officers of government and enforced by detachments from our own military forces;
the Nabob was never consulted, nor was the pretence
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 239
ever made that his orders or concurrence were necessary: in a word, we have always allowed ourselves
to be treated as principals, we have treated as principals, but we have contented ourselves with letting
our actions insinuate the character which we effectually possessed, witlhout asserting it.
" For my own part, I have ever considered the reserve which has been enjoined us in this respect as a
consequence of the doubts which have long prevailed,
and whlich are still suffered to subsist, respecting the
rights of thle British government and the Company
to the property and dominion of these provinces, not
as inferring a doubt with respect to any foreign power. It has, however, been productive of great inconveniences; it has prevented our acting with vigor in our disputes with the Dutch and French. The
former refuse to this day thle payment of the bahor
peshcush, although the right is incontestably against
them, and we have threatened to enforce it. Both nations refuse to be bound by our decrees, or to submit
to our regulations; they refuse to submit to the payment of the duties on the foreign commerce but in
their own way, which amounts almost to a total exemption; they refuse to submit to the duty of ten
per cent which is levied upon foreign salt, by whllich,
unless a stop can be put to it by a more decisive
rule, they will draw the whole of that important
trade into their own colonies; and even in the single instance in which they have allowed. us to prescribe to them, namely, the embargo on grain on
the apprehension of a dearth, I am generally persuaded that they acquiesced from the secret design
of taking advantage of the general suspension, by
exporting grain clandestinely under cover of their
? ? ? ? 240 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
colors, which they knew would screen them from
the rigorous examination of our officers. We are
precluded from forming many arrangements of general utility, because of the want of control over
the European settlements; and a great part of the
defects which subsist in the government and conmmercial state of the country are ultimately derived
from this source. I have not the slightest suspicion
that a more open and decided conduct would expose us to worse consequences from the European
nationls; on the contrary, we have the worst of the
argument while we contend with them under false
colors, while they know us under the disguise, and
we have not the confidence to disown it. What we
have done and may do under an assumed character
is full as likely to involve us in a war with France,
a nation not much influenced by logical weapons,
(if such call be supposed to be the likely consequence of our own trifling disagreements with
them,) as if we stood forth their avowed opponents.
To conclude, instead of regretting, with Mr. Francis, the occasion which deprives us of so useless
and hurtful a disguise, I should rather rejoice, were
it really the case, and consider it as a crisis which
freed the constitution of our government fiom one
of its greatest defects. "
Now, my Lords, the delicacy of the affidavit is
no more; the great arcanum of the state is avowed:
it is avowed that the government is ours,- that the
Nabob is nothing. It is avowed to foreign nations;
and the disguise wlhich we have put on, MAr. Hastings states, in his opinion, to be hurtful to the affairs of the Company. Here we perceive the exact
? ? ? ? SPAECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 241
and the perfect agreement between his character as
a delicate affidavit-maker in a court of justice and his
indelicate declarations upon the records of the Company for the information of the whole world concerning the real arcanum of the Bengal government. Now I cannot help praising his consistency upon
this occasion, whether his policy was right or wrong.
Hitherto we find the whole consistent, we find the
affidavit perfectly supported. The inferences which
delicacy at first prevented him from producing better
recollection and more perfect policy made him here
avow. In this state things continued. The Nabob,
your Lordships see, is dead, - dead in law, dead in
politics, dead in a court of justice, dead upon the
records of the Company. Except in mere animal
existence, it is all over with him.
I have now to state to your Lordships, that Mr.
Hastings, who has the power of putting even to death
in this way, possesses likewise the art of restoring to
life. But what is the medicine that revives them?
Your Lordships, I am sure, will be glad to know what
nostrum, not hitherto pretended to by quacks in
physic, by quacks in politics, nor by quacks in law,
will serve to revive this man. to cover his dead bones
with flesh, and to give him life, activity, and vigor.
My Lords, I am about to tell you an instance of a
recipe of such infallible efficacy as was never before
discovered. His cure for all disorders is disobedience
to the commands of his lawful superiors. When the
orders of the CoUrt of Directors are contrary to his
own opinions, he forgets them all. Let the Court of
Directors but declare in favor of his own system and
his own positions, and that very moment, merely for
the purpose of declaring his right of rebellion against
VOL. XII. 16
? ? ? ? 242 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
the laws of his country, he counteracts them. Then
these dead bones arise, - or, to use a language more
suitable to the dignity of the thing, Bayes's men are
all revived. '"Are these men dead? " asks Mr.
Bayes's friend. " No," says he, "they shall all get
up and dance immediately. " But in this ludicrous
view of Mr. Hastings's conduct, your Lordships must
not lose sight of its great importance. You cannot
have in an abstract, as it were, any one thing that
better develops the principles of the man, that more
fully develops all the sources of his conduct, and of
all the frauds and iniquities which he has committed,
in order at one and the same time to evade his duty
to the Court of Directors, that is to say, to the laws
of his country, and to oppress, crush, rob, and illtreat the people that are under him.
My Lords, you have had an account of the person
who represented the Nabob's dignity, Mahomed Reza
Khan; you have heard of the rank he bore, the sufferings that he went through, his trial and honorable acquittal, and the Conipany's order that the first opportunity should be taken to appoint him Naib
Subah, or deputy of the Nabob, and more especially
to represent him in the administering of justice.
Your Lordships are also acquainted with what was
done in consequence of those orders by the CouncilGeneral, in the restoration and reestablishment of
the executive power in this person,- not in the poor
Nabob, a poor, helpless, ill-bred, ill-educated boy, but
in the first Mussulman of the country, who had before
exercised the office of Naib Subah, or deputy viceroy,
-in order to give some degree of support to the expiring honor and justice of that country. The majority,
namely, General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 243
Francis, whose names, as I have before said, will, for
obedience to the Company, fidelity to the laws, honor to themselves, and a purity untouched and unimpeached, stand distinguished and honored, in spite of all the corrupt and barking virulence of India against
them, - these men, I say, obeyed the Company:
they had no secret or fraudulent connection with
Mahomed Reza Khan; but they reinstated him in
his office.
The moment that real death had carried away two
of the most virtuous of this community, and that Mr.
Hastings was thereby reestablished in his power, he
returned to his former state of rebellion to the Company, and of fraud and oppression upon the people.
And here we come to the revivificating medicine. I
forgot to tell your Lordships, that this Nabob, whose
letters were declared by a court of law, with his own
approbation, to be in effect letters of the GovernorGeneral and Council, concludes a formal application
transmitted to them, and dated 17th November, 1777,
with a demand of the restoration of his rights. Mr.
Hastings upon this enters the following minute: --
" The Nabob's demands are grounded upon positive rights, which will not admit of a discussion; he
has an incontestable right to the management of his
own household; he has an incontestable right to the
nizamut. "
My Lords, you have heard his affidavit, you have
heard his avowed and recorded opinion. In direct
defiance of both, because he wishes to make doubtful
the orders of the Company and to evade his duty, he
here makes without any delicacy a declaration, which
if it be true, the affidavit is a gross perjury, let it be
? ? ? ? 244 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
managed with what delicacy he pleases. The word
nizamut, which he uses, may be unfamiliar to your
Lordships. In India it signifies the whole executive
government, though the word strictly means viceroyalty: all the princes of that country holding their
dominions as representatives of the Mogul, the great
nominal sovereign of the empire. To convince you
that it does so, take his own explanation of it.
" It is his by inheritance: the adawlut and the foujdarry having been repeatedly declared by the Company and by this government to appertain to the'nizamut. The adawlut, namely, the distribution of civil justice, and the foujdarry, namely, the executive criminal justice of that country, that is to say, the whole
sovereign government of the courts of justice, have
been declared by the Company to appertain to the
nizamut. "
I beg of your Lordships to recollect, when you take
into your consideration the charges of the House of
Commons, that the person they accuse, and persons
suborned by him, have never scrupled to be guilty,
without sense of shame, of the most notorious falsehoods, the most glaring inconsistencies, and even of
perjury itself; and that it is thus they make the power of the Company dead or alive, as best suits their
own wicked, clandestine, and fraudulent purposes,
and the great end of all their actions and all their
politics plunder and peculation.
I must here refer your Lordships to a minute of
Mr. Francis's, which I recommend to your reading
at large, and to your very serious recollection, in
page 1086; because it contains a complete history of
Mr. Hastings's conduct, and of its effects upon this
occasion.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 245
And now to proceed. - The Nabob, in a subsequent
application to the Company's government at Calcutta,
desires that Mlunny Begum may be allowed to take
on herself the whole administration of the affairs of
the nizamut, (not the superiority in the administration of the affairs of the seraglio only, though this would have been a tyrannical usurpation of the power belonging to the legitimate mother of the Nabob,) without the interference of any person whatever;
and he adds, that by this the Governor will give him
complete satisfaction. In all fraudulent correspondence you are sure to find the true secret of it at last.
It has been said by somebody, that the true sense of
a letter is to be learnt from its postscript. But this
matter is so clumsily managed, that, in contempt of
all decency, the first thing the Nabob does is to desire
he may be put into the hands of Munny Begum, and
t1at without the interference of anybody whatever.
The next letter, immediately following on the
heels of the former, was received by the Council on
the 12th of February, 1778. In this letter he desires
that Mahomed Reza Khan may be removed from his
office ill the government; and he expresses his hopes,
that, as he himself is now come to years of maturity,
and by the blessing of God is not so devoid of understanding as to be incapable of conducting his affairs, he says, "' I am therefore hopeful, from your favor
and regard to justice, that you will deliver me from
the authority of the aforesaid Mahomed Reza Khlln,
and give your permission that I take on myself the
management of the adawlut and foujdarry. " There
is no doubt of this latter application, in contradiction
to the former, having arisen from a suspicion that the
appointment of Munny Begum would be too gross,
? ? ? ? 246 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and would shock the Council; and Mr. Hastings
therefore orders the second letter to be written from
the Nabob, in which he claims the powers of government for himself. Then follows a letter from the Governor-General, informing the Nabob that it had been agreed, that, his Excellency being now arrived at
years of maturity, the control of his own household,
and the courts dependent on the nizamut and fonujdarry, should be placed in his hands; and Mahomed
Reza Kha'n was directed at the same time to resign
his authority to the Nabob.
Here your Lordships see Munny Begum in effect
completely invested with, and you will see how she
has used her power: for I suppose your Lordships
are sick of the name of Nabob, as a real actor in the
government. You now see the true parties in the
transaction, - namely, the lover, Warren Hastings,
Esquire, and Munny Begum, the object of his passion
and flame, to which he sacrifices as much as Antony
ever did to Cleopatra. You see the object of his
love and affection placed in the administration of the
viceroyalty; you see placed at her disposal the administration of the civil judicature, and of the executory justice, --together with the salary which was intended for Mahomed Reza Khan.
Your Lordships will be pleased to remember that
this distribution of the Nabob's government was made
in direct defiance of the orders of the Company.
And as a further proof of this defiance, it will not
escape your Lordships, that, before this measure was
carried into execution, Mr. Barwell being one day
absent from the Council, Mr. Hastings fell into a
minority; and it was agreed, upon that occasion,
that the whole affair should be referred home to the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - EIGHTH DAY. 247
Court of Directors, and that no arrangement should
be made till. the Directors had given their opinion.
Mr. Hastings, the very moment after Mr. Barwell's
return to his seat in the Council, rescinds this resolution, which subjected the orders of the Court of
Directors to their own reconsideration; and he hurries headlong and precipitately into the execution
of his first determination.
Your Lordships will also
see in this act what sort of use Mr. Hastings made
of the Council; and I have therefore insisted upon
all these practices of the prisoner at your bar, because there is not one of them in which some principle of government is not wounded, if not mortally wounded.
My Lords, we have laid before you the consequences of this proceeding. We have shown what passed
within the walls of the seraglio, and what tyranny
was exercised by this woman over the multitude of
women there. I shall now show your Lordsllips in
what manner she made use of her power over the
supreme judicature, to peculate, and to destroy the
country; and I shall adduce, as proofs of this abuse
of her authority, the facts I am about to relate, and
of which there is evidence before your Lordships.
There was an ostensible man, named Sudder ul
EIuk Klh'a', placed there at the head of the administration of justice, with a salary of seven thousand
pounds a year of the Company's money. This mall,
ill a letter to the Governor-General and Council, received the 1st of September, 1778, says,-" His Highness himself [the Nabob] is not deficient in regard for me, but certain bad men have gained an ascendency
over his temper, by whose instigation he acts. " You
will see, my Lords, how this poor man was crippled
? ? ? ? 248 IMPEACHMIENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
in the execution of his duty, and dishonored by the
corruption of this woman and her eunuchls, to whom
Mr. Hastings had given the supreme government, and
with it anl uncontrolled influence over all the dependent parts. After thus complaining of the sligllts
lie receives from the Nabob, lie adds, -" Thus they
cause the Nabob to treat me, sometimes with indigiiity, at others with kindness, just as they think proper to advise him: their view is, that, by compelling me to displeasure at such unworthy treatment, they
may force me either to relinquish my station, or to
join withl them and act with tlheir advice, and appoint
creatures of their recommendation to thle different
offices, from which they might draw profit to themselves. " In a subsequent letter to the Governor, Sudder ul Huk Klhan says,-" The Begum's ministers, before my arrival, with the advice of their counsellors, caused the Nabob to sign a receipt, in consequence of which they received, at two different times, near fifty thousand rupees, in the name of the officers
of the adawlut, foujdarry, &c. , from the Company's
sircar; and having drawn up an account current in
the manner they wished, they got the Nabob to sign
it, and then sent it to me. " In the same letter he
asserts that these people have the Nabob entirely in
their power.
Now I have only to remark to your Lordships, that
the first and immediate operation of Mr. Hastings's
regulation, which put everything into the hands of
this wicked woman for her corrupt purposes, was,
that the office of chief-justice was trampled upon and
depraved, anid made use of to plunder the Company of money, which was appropriated to their own
uses, --and that thle person ostensibly holding this
? ? ? ? 'SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 249
office was forced to become the instrument in the
hands of this wicked woman and her two wicked
eunuchs. This, then, was the representation which
the chief-justice made to Mr. Hastings, as one of the
very first fruits of his new arrangement. I am now to
tell you what his next step was. This same Mr. Hastings, who had made the Nabob master of everything and placed everything at his disposal, who had maintained that the Nabob was not to act a secondary part and to be a mere instrument in the hands of the Company, who had, as you have seen, revived the Nabob, now puts him to death again. He pretends to be
shocked at these proceedings of the Nabob, and, not
being able to prevent their coming before the Council
of the Directors at home, he immediately took Sudder ul Huk Khan under his protection.
Now your Lordships see Mr. Hastings appearing
in his own character again, - exercising the power
he had pretended to abdicate, whilst the Nabob sinks
and subsides under him. He becomes the supporter
of Sudder ul Huk Khan, now that the infamy of the
treatment he received could no longer be concealed
from the Council. On the 1st of September, 1778,
the Governor informs the Nabob, "that it is highly expedient that Sudder ul Huk Khan should have
full control in all matters relative to his office, and
the sole appointment and dismission of the sudder
and mofussil officers; and that his seal and signature
should be authentic to all papers having relation to
the business intrusted to hlim: I therefore intimate
to you, that lie should appoint and dismiss all the
officers under him, and that your Excellency should
not interfere in ally one [way? ]. "
The Nabob, in a letter to the Governor, received the
? ? ? ? 250 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
3d of September, 1778, says, -- " Agreeably to your
pleasure, I have relinquished all concern with the
affairs of the foujdarry and adawlut, leaving the entire management in Sudder ul Huk Kha'n's hands. "
Here you see the Nabob again reduced to his former state of subordination. This chief-justiceship,
which was declared to be his inherent right, he is
obliged to submit to the control of Mr. Hastings,
and to declare that he will not interfere at all ill a
matter which Mr. Hastings had declared to be his incommunicable attribute. I do not say that Mr. Hastings interfered improperly. Certainly it was not fit that the highest court of justice in all Bengal should
be made the instrument of the rapacity of a set of
villains with a prostitute at their head: just as if
a gang of thieves in England, with their prostitutes
at their head, should seize the judge which ought to
punish them, and endeavor to make use of his name
in their iniquitous transactions. But your Lordships
will find that Mr. Hastings is here acting a merely
ostensible part, and that he has always a means of
defeating privately what he declares publicly to be
his intention. Your Lordships will see soon how
this ended. Mr. Hastings gets the Nabob to give up
all his authority over the chief-justice; but he says
not one word of Munny Begum, the person who had
the real authority in her hands, and who was not
forbidden to interfere with him. Mr. Hastings's order is dated the 1st September, 1778. On the 3d of
September, the Nabob is said to have relinquished all
concern with Sudder ul Huk Khan. In a letter received the 30th of September, (that is, about twentyseven days after the date of Mr. Hastings's order,) you will see how this pretended order was managed.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 251
Sudder ul Huk Klhan thus writes, in a letter received the 30th of September.
" Yatibar Ali Khan," (Munny Begum's chief eunuch,) " from the amount of salaries of the officers
of the adawlut and foujdarry, which before my arrival lie had received for two months from the sircar,
made disbursements according to his own pleasure.
Hte had before caused the sum of 7,400 rupees,
on account of the price of mine and my peshcar's
khelauts, to be carried to account, and now continually sends a mall to demand from me 4,300 and odd
rupees, as a balance of the price of khelauts, and constantly presses me to take it from the amount of the
salaries of the officers of the adawlut and foujdarry
and send it to him; and I shall be under the necessity of complying. I mention this for your information. "
My Lords, you see again how Mr. Hastings's pretended orders were obeyed. They were orders addressed to the Nabob, whom he knew to be nothing, and who could neither control or take the least share in the execution of them; but he leaves the
thing loose as to Munny Begum and her eunuchs,
who he knew could alone carry them into effect.
Your Lordships see that the first use made of the
restored authority of the Nabob was, under various
pretences, to leave the salaries of the officers of government unprovided for, to rob the public treasury,
and to give the Company's money to the eunuchs,
who were acting in the manner I have stated to
you.
Information of these proceedings reaches Calcutta;
a regular complaint from a person in the highest
? ? ? ? 252 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
situation in the government is made, and the Governor-General is obliged again to take up the matter;
and I shall now read to your Lordships a letter of the
10th of October, 1778, which contains a representationl so pointed and so very just of the fatal effects
which his interference in the administration of justice had produced as not to stand in need of any
comment from me. It speaks too plainly to require
any.
The Governor-General's Letter to the Nabob.
"At your Excellency's request I sent Sudder ul
Huk Kha11 to take on himl the administration of the
affairs of the adawlut and foujdarry, and hoped by
that means not only to have given satisfaction to
your Excellency, but that, through his abilities and
experience, these affairs would have been conducted
in such manner as to have secured the peace of the
country and the happiness of the people; and it is
with the greatest concern I learn that this measure
is so far from being attended with the expected advantages, that the affairs both of the foujdarry and
adawlut are in the greatest confusion imaginable, and
daily robberies and murders are perpetrated throughout the country. This is evidently owing to the
want of a proper authority in the person appointed
to superintend them. I therefore addressed youl
Excellency on the importance and delicacy of the affairs in question, and of the necessity of lodging full
power in the hands of the person chosen to administer them, in reply to which your Excellency expressed sentiments coincident with mine; notwithstanding which, your dependants and people, actuated by selfish and avaricious views, have by their
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- EIGHTH DAY. 253
interference so impeded the business as to throw the
whole country into a state of confusion, from whlich
nothing can retrieve it but an unlimited power lodged
in the hands of the superintendent. I therefore request that your Excellency will give the strictest injunctions to all your dependants not to interfere
in any manner with any matter relative to the affairs
of the adawlut and foujdarry, and that you will yourself relinquish all ilterference therein, and leave them entirely to the management of Sudder ul Huk
Khan. This is absolutely necessary to restore the
country to a state of tranquillity; and if your Excellency has any plan to propose for the management of the affairs in future, be pleased to communicate it to
me, and every attention shall be paid to give your
Excellency satisfaction. "
My Lords, I think I have read enough to you for
our present purpose, - referring your Lordships for
fuller information to your Minutes, page 1086, which
I beg you to read with the greatest attention.
I must again beg your Lordships to remark, that,
though Mr. Hastings has the impudence still to pretend that he wishes for the restoration of order and justice in the country, yet, instead of writing to Munny Begum upon the business, whom he knew to be the very object complained of, and whose eunuchs are
expressly mentioned in the complaint, he writes to
the Nabob, whom he knew to be a pageant in his
own court and government, and whose name was
not even mentioned in this last complaint. Not one
word is said, even in this letter to the Nabob, of
Munny Begum or of her eunuchs. My Lords, wleii
you consider his tacit support of the authors of thl}
? ? ? ? 254 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
grievance, and his ostensible application for redress
to the man who he knew never authorized and could
not redress the grievance, you must conclude that
he meant to keep the country in the same state for
his own corrupt purposes. In this state the country in fact continued; Munny Begum and her eunuchs continued to administer and squander the Company's money, as well as the Nabob's; robberies
and murders continued to prevail throughout the
country. No appearance was left of order, law, or
justice, from one end of Bengal to the other.
The account of this state of things was received by
the Court of Directors with horror and indignation.
On the 27th of May, 1779, they write, as you will
find in page 1063 of your printed Minutes, a letter to
their government at Calcutta, condemning their proceedings and the removal of Mahomed Reza Khan,
and they order that Munny Begum shall be displaced,
and Mahomed Reza Khan restored again to the seat
of justice.
Mr. Francis, upon the arrival of these reiterated
orders, moved in Council for an obedience to them.
Mr. Hastings, notwithstanding he had before his eyes
all the horrible consequences that attended his new
arrangement, still resists that proposition. By his
casting voice in the Council he counter-orders the
orders of the Court of Directors, and sanctions a direct disobedience to their authority, by a resolution
that Mahomed Reza Khan should not be restored
to his employment, but that this Sudder ul Huk
Kha'n, who still continued in the condition already
described, should remain in the possession of his
office. I say nothing of Sudder ul IHuk Khan; he
seems to be very well disposed to do his duty, if
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -EIGHTH DAY. 255
Mr. Hastings's arrangements had suffered him to do
it; and indeed, if Mahomed Reza Klian had been
reinstated, and no better supported by Mr. Hastings
than Sudder ul Huk Khan, he could probably have
kept the country in no better order, though, perhaps,
his name, and the authority and weight which still
adhered to him in some degree, might have had some
influence.
My Lords, you have seen his defiance of the Company; you have seen his defiance of all decency;
you see his open protection of prostitutes and robbers of every kind ravaging Bengal; you have seen
this defiance of the authority of the Court of Directors flatly, directly, and peremptorily persisted in
to the last. Order after order was reiterated, but his
disobedience arose with an elastic spring in proportion
to the pressure that was upon it.
My Lords, here there was a pause. The Directors
had been disobeyed; and you might suppose that
he would have been satisfied with this act of disobedience. My Lords, he was resolved to let the native governments of the country know that he despised the orders of the Court of Directors, and that, whenever he pretended to obey them, in reality he
was resolved upon the most actual disobedience. An
event now happened, the particulars of which we
are not to repeat here. Disputes, conducted, on Mr.
Francis's side, upon no other principle, that we can
discover, but a desire to obey the Company's orders,
and to execute his duty with fidelity and disinterestedness, had arisen between him and Mr. Hastings.
Mr. Francis, about the time we have been speaking
of, finding resistance was vain, reconciles himself
to him, --but on the most honorable terms as a
? ? ? ? 256 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
public man, namely, that he should continue to follow and obey the laws, and to respect the authority
of the Court of Directors. Upon this reconciliation,
it was agreed that Mahomed Reza Khall should be
restored to his office. For this purpose Mr. Hastings
enters a minute, and writes to the Nabob an ostensible letter. But your Lordships will here see an instance of what I said respecting a double current in all Mr. Hastings's proceedings. Even when he
obeys or pretends to obey the Company's orders,
there is always a private channel through which he
defeats them all.
Letter from M1r. Hastings to the Nabob Mobarek ul
bowlah, written the 10th of February, 1780.
"The Company, whose orders are peremptory,
have directed that Mahomed Reza Klihn shall be
restored to the offices he held in January, 1778. It
is my duty to represent this to your Excellency, and
to recommend your compliance with their request,
that Mahomed Reza Khtan may be invested with the
offices assigned to him under the nizamut by the
Company. "
Your Lordships see here that Mr. Hastings informs
the Nabob, that, having received peremptory orders
from the Company, he restores and replaces Mahomed
Reza Khan. Mahomed Reza Klhan, then, is in possession, - and ill possession by the best of all titles,
the orders of the Company. But you will also see
the manner in which lie evades his duty, and vilifies in the eyes of these miserable country powers
the authority of the Directors. He is prepared, as
usual, with a defeasance of his own act; and the
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. --- EIGHTH DAY. 257
manner in which that defeasance came to our knowledge is this. We knew nothing of this private affair,
till Mr. Hastings, in his answer before the House of
Commons, finding it necessary to destroy the validity
of some of his own acts, brought forward Sir John
D'Oyly. He was brought forward before us, not
as a witness in his own person for the defence of
Mlr. Hastings, but as a narrator who had been employed by Mr. Hastings as a member of that Council which, as you have heard, drew up his defence. My Lords, you have already seen the public agency
of this business, you have heard read the public letter sent to the Nabob: there you see the ostensible
part of the transaction. Now hear the banian, Sir
John D'Oyly, give an account of his part in it, extracted from Mr. Hastings's defence before the House
of Commons.
"I was appointed Resident [at the Court of the
Nabob] on the resignation of Mr. Byam Martin,
in the month of January, 1780, and took charge
about the beginning of February of the same year.
The substance of the instructions I received was, to
endeavor, by every means in my power, to conciliate
the good opinion and regard of the Nabob and his
family, that I might be able to persuade him to
adopt effectual measures for the better regulation
of his expenses, which were understood to have
greatly exceeded his income; that I might prevent
his forming improper connections; or taking any
steps derogatory. to his rank, and by every means
in my power support his credit and dignity in the
eyes of the world; and with respect to the various
branches of his family, I was instructed to endeavor
VOL. XII. 17
? ? ? ? 258 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
to put a stop to the dissensions which had too frequently prevailed amongst them. The Nabob, on
his part, was recommended to pay the same attention to my advice as lie would have done to that
of the Governor-General in person. Some time, I
think, in the month of February of the same year,
I received a letter from Mr. Hastings, purporting
that the critical situation of affairs requiring the
union and utmost exertion of every member of the
government to give vigor to the acts necessary for
its relief; he had agreed to an accommodation with
Mr. Francis; but to effect this point he had been
under the necessity of making some painful sacrifices, and particularly that of the restoration of Mahomed Reza Khlan to the office of Naib Suball,
a measure which lie knew must be highly disagreeable to the Nabob, and which nothing but the
urgent necessity of the case should have led him
to acquiesce in; that he relied on me to state all
these circumstances in the most forcible manner to
the Nabob, and to urge his compliance, assuring him
that it sliould not continue longer than until the
next advices were received from the Court of Directors. "
Here Mr. Hastings himself lets us into the secrets
of his government. He writes an ostensible letter to
the Nabob, declaring that what he does is in conformity to the orders of the Company. He writes a private letter, in which he directs his agent to assure the
Nabob that what he had done was not in compliance
with the orders of the Company, but in consequence
of the arrangement he had made with Mr. Francis,
which arranigement he thought necessary for the sup
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -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.
