Hastings, is given up forever to
the very persons to whom he had attributed its ruin,
-that is, to' the sezawals or sequestrators of the
Nabob of Oude.
the very persons to whom he had attributed its ruin,
-that is, to' the sezawals or sequestrators of the
Nabob of Oude.
Edmund Burke
"
His determination " to make him pay largely for his
pardon, or to execute a severe vengeance for past delinquency. " That "as his wealth was great, and the Company's exigencies pressing, he thought it a measure of justice and policy to exact from him a large pecuniary mulct for their relief. . " -" The sum " (says
Mr. Wheler, bearing evidence, at his desire, to his
VOL. II. 31
? ? ? ? 482 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
intentions) " to which the Governor declared his resolution to extend his fine was forty or fifty lacs, that
is, four or five hundred thousand pounds; and that, if
he refused, he was to be removed from his zemindary
entirely; or by taking possession of his forts, to obtain,
out of the treasure deposited in them, the above sum for
the Company. "
Crimes so convenient, crimes so politic, crimes so
necessary, crimes so alleviating of distress, can never
be wanting to those who use no process, and who
produce no proofs.
But there is another serious part (what is not so? )
in this affair. Let us suppose that the power for
which Mr. Hastings contends, a power which no sovereign ever did or ever can vest in any of his subjects, namely, his own sovereign authority, to be conveyed by the act of Parliament to any man or
body of men whatsoever; it certainly was never
given. to Mr. Hastings. The powers given by the
act of 1773 were formal and official; they were
given, not to the Governor-General, but to the major
vote of the board, as a board, on discussion amongst
themselves, in their public character and capacity;
and their acts in that character and capacity were to
be ascertained by records and minutes of council.
The despotic acts exercised by Mr. Hastings were
done merely in his private character; and, if they
had been moderate and just, would still be the acts
of an usurped authority, and without any one of.
the legal modes of proceeding which could give him
competence for the most trivial exertion of power.
There was no proposition or deliberation whatsoever
in council, no minute on record, by circulation or
otherwise, to authorize his proceedings; no delega.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA -BILL. 483
tion of power to impose a fine, or to take any step to
deprive the Rajah of Benares of his government, his
property, or his liberty. The minutes of consultation assign to his journey a totally different object,
duty, and destination. Mr. Wheler, at his desire,
tells us long after, that he had a confidential conversation with him on various subjects, of which this
was the principal, in which Mr. Hastings notified to
him his secret intentions; "- and that he bespoke his
support of the measures which he intended to pursue
towards him (the Rajah). " This confidential discourse, and bespeaking of support, could give him no
power, in opposition to an express act of Parliament,
and the whole tenor of the orders. of the Court of
Directors.
In what manner the powers thus usurped were
employed is known to the whole world. All the
House knows that the design on the Rajah proved
as unfruitful as it was violent. The unhappy prince
was expelled, and his more unhappy country was
enslaved and ruined; but not a rupee was acquired.
Instead of treasure to recruit the Company's finances, wasted by their wanton wars and corrupt jobs,
they were plunged into a new war, which shook
their power in India to its foundation, and, to use
the Governor's own happy simile, might have dissolved it like a magic structure, if the talisman had
been broken.
But the success is no part of my consideration,
who should think just the same of this business, if the. spoil of one rajah had been fully acquired, and faithfully applied to the destruction of twenty other rajahs. Not only the. arrest of the Rajah in his palace was
unnecessary and unwarrantable, and calculated to stir
? ? ? ? 484 SPEECH'ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
up any manly blood which remained in his subjects;
but the despotic style and the extreme insolence of
language and demeanor, used to a person of great
condition among the politest people in the world, was
intolerable. Nothing aggravates tyranny so much
as contumely. Quicquid superbia in contumeliis was
charged by a great man of antiquity, as a principal
head of offence against the Governor-General of that
day. The unhappy people were still more insulted.
A relation, but an enemy to the family, a notorious
robber and villain, called Ussaun Sing, kept as a
hawk in a mew, to fly upon this nation, was set up
to govern there, instead of a prince honored and
beloved. But when the business of insult was accomplished, the. revenue was too serious a concern to be intrusted to such hands. Another was set up in his
place, as guardian to an infant.
But here, Sir, mark the effect of all these extraordinary means, of all this policy and justice. The
revenues, which had been hitherto. paid with such
astonishing punctuality, fell into arrear. The new
prince guardian was deposed without ceremony,'and with as little, cast into prison. The government
of that once happy country has been in the utmost confusion ever since such good order was taken about it. But, to complete the contumely offered to this undone
people, and to make them feel their servitude in all
its degradation and all its bitterness, the government
of their sacred city, the government of that Benares
which had been so respected by Persian and Tartar
conquerors, though of the Mussulman persuasion,that, even in the plenitude of their pride, power, and bigotry, no magistrate of that sect entered the place,. was now, delivered over by English hands to a' Ma
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. . 485
hometan; and an Ali Ibrahim Kh-an was introduced,
nnder the Company's authority, with power of life
and death, into the sanctuary of the Gentoo religion.
After this, the taking off a slight payment, cheerfully
made by pilgrims to a chief of their own rites, was
represented as a mighty benefit.
It'remains only to show, through the conduct in
this business, the spirit of the Company's government, and the respect they pay towards other prejudices, not less regarded in the East than those of religion-: I mean the reverence paid to the female sex in general, and particularly to women of high rank
and condition. During the general confusion of the
country of Ghazipoor, Panna, the mother of. Cheit
Sing, was lodged &with her train. in a castle called
Bidg6 Gur,: in which were likewise deposited a large
portion of the treasures of her son, or,more. probably
her own. To whomsoever they belonged was indifferent: for, though: no charge of rebellion was made
on this woman, (which' was rather singular, as it
would have cost nothing,) they were resolved to secure her with her fortune. . The castle was besieged
by Major Popham.
There was no great reason to apprehend that
soldiers ill paid, that soldiers who thought they had
been defrauded of their plunder on former services
of the same kind, would not have been sufficiently
attentive to the spoil they were expressly come for;
but the gallantry and generosity of the profession
was, justly suspected, as being likely to set bounds
to military rapaciousness. The Company's first civil
magistrate discovered the greatest uneasiness lest
the women should have anything preserved to them.
Terms tending to put some restraint on military
? ? ? ? 486 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
violence were granted. He writes a letter to Mr.
Popham, referring to some letter written before to
the same effect, which I do not remember to have
seen'; but it shows his anxiety on this subject. Hear
himself:'-" I think every demand she has made on
you, except that of safety and respect to her person,
is unreasonable. If the reports brought to me are
true, your rejecting her offers, or any negotiation,
would soon obtain you the fort upon your own terms.
I apprehend she will attempt to defraud the captors
of a considerable part of their booty, by being suffered
to retire without examination. But this is your concern, not mine. I should be very sorry that your officers and soldiers lost any part of the reward to
which they are so well entitled; but you must be the best judge of the promised indulgence to the Ranny: what you have engaged for I will certainly ratify;
but as to suffering the Ranny to hold the purgunna of Hurlich, or any other zemindary, without being subject to the authority of the zemindar, orany lands whatsoever, or indeed making any condition with her for a provision, I will never consent. "
Here your Governor stimulates a rapacious and
licentious soldiery to the personal search of women,
lest these unhappy creatures should avail themselves
of the protection of their sex to secure any supply
for their necessities; and he positively orders that
no stipulation should be made for any provision for
them. The widow and mother of a prince, well informed of her miserable situation, and the cause of! it, a woman of this rank became a suppliant to the
domestic servant of Mr. Hastings, (they are his own
words that I read,) "' imploring his intercession that
she may be relieved from the hardships and dangers
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 487
of her present situation, and offering to surrender the
fort, and the treasure and valuable effects contained in
it, provided she can be assured of safety andprotection
to her person and honor, and to that of her family and
attendants. " He is so good as to consent to this,
"provided she surrenders everything of value, with
the reserve only of such articles as you shall think
necessary to her condition, or as you yourself shall be
disposed to indulge her with. - But should she refuse
to execute the promise she has made, or delay it beyond th6 term of twenty-four hours, it is my positive
injunction that you immediately put a stop to any
further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on
no pretext renew it. If she disappoints or trifles with
me, after I have subjected my duan to the disgrace
of returning ineffectually, and of course myself to
discredit, I shall consider it as a wanton affront and
indignity which I can never forgive; nor will I grant
her any conditions whatever, but leave her exposed
to those dangers which she has chosen to risk, rather
than:trust to the clemency and generosity of our government. I think she cannot be ignorant of these
consequences, and will not venture to incur them;
and it is for this reason I place a dependence on her
offers, and have consented to send my duan to her. "
The dreadful secret hinted at by the merciful Gov-,ernor -in the latter part of the letter is well understood in India, where those who suffer, corporeal indignities generally expiate the offences of others with their own blood. However, in spite of all these,
the temper of the military did, some way or other,
operate. They came to terms which have never been
transmitted. It appears that a fifteenth per cent
of the plunder was reserved to the captives, of which
? ? ? ? 488 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S -EAST INDIA BILL.
the unhappy mother of the: Prince of Benares was to
have a share. This ancient matron, born to better
things [A laugh from certain young gentlemen]
I see nlo cause for this mirth. A good author of antiquity reckons among the calamities of his time " nobilissimarum foeminarum exilia et fugas. " I say, Sir, this ancient lady was compelled to quit her house, with
three hundred helpless women and a multitude of children in her train. But the lower sort in the camp,
it seems, could not be restrained. They did not forget the good lessons of the Governor-General. They
were unwilling " to be defrauded of a considerable
part of their booty by suffering them to pass without
examination. "- They examined them, Sir, with a
vengeance; and the sacred protection of that awful
character, Mr. Hasfings's maitre d'hdtel, could not
secure them from insult and plunder. Here is Popham's narrative of the affair. :" The Ranny came out of the fort, with her family
and dependantsj the tenth, at night, owing to which
such attention was not paid to her as I wished; and
I am exceedingly sorry to inform you that the licentiousness of our followers was beyond the bounds of conm
trol; for, notwithstanding all I could' do, her people
were plundered on the road of most of the things which
they brought out of the fort, by which means one of the
articles of surrender has been much infringed. The.
distress I have felt upon this occasion cannot be expressed, and can only be allayed by a firm performance of the other articles of the treaty, which I shall make it my business to enforce. -The suspicions
which the officers had of treachery, and the delay
made to our getting possession, had enraged them, as
well as the troops, so much, that the treaty was at
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX' S EAST INDIA BILL. 489
firstregarded as: void; but this determination was
-soon succeeded by' pity and compassion for the unfortunate besieged. " - After this comes, in his due
order, Mr. Hastings; who is full of sorrow and: indignation, &c. ,, &c. , &c. , according to the best and most authentic precedents established upon fsuch occasions.
The women being thus disposed of, that is, completely. despoiled, and pathetically. lamented,. Mr.
Hastings at length recollected the great object of::his
enterprise, which, during his zeal lest the officers and
soldiers should lose any part of their reward, he seems
to have forgot, -- that is to, say, " to draw from the
Rajahs:guilt: the means of relief to the Company's distresses. " This was to be -the stronghold of his defence. This compassion to, the Company, he knew by experience, would sanctify a great deal of rigor towards the natives. -But the military had distresses of their own,
which they considered first. Neither Mr. Hastings's
authority, nor his supplications, could prevail on them
to assign a. shilling to the claim he made on the. part
of the Company. They divided the booty amongst
themselves. Driven from his claim, he was reduced
to petition for the spoil as a loan. : But the soldiers
were too wise to venture as a loan what the borrower
claimed as a right. In defiance of all authority, they
shared. among themselves about two hundred thou
sand "pounds sterling, besides what had been taken
from the women. .
In all -this there is nothing wonderful. We may rest
assured, that, when the maxims of any government
establish among its resources extraordinary means,
and. those exerted with a'strong hand, that strong
hand will provide those: extraordinary means for itself. . Whether the soldiers had reason or not, (perhaps
? ? ? ? 490 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
much might be said for them,) certain it is, the military discipline of India was ruined from that moment;
and the same rage for plunder, the same contempt o0
subordination, which blasted all the hopes of extraordinary means from your strong hand at Benares, have
very lately lost you an army in Mysore. This is visible enough from the accounts in the last gazette.
There is no doubt but that the country and city of
Benares, now brought into the same order, will very
soon exhibit, if it does not already display, the same
appearance with those countries and cities which are
under better subjection. A great master, Mr. Hastings, has himself been at the pains of drawing a picture of one of these countries: I mean the province and city of Furruckabad. There is no reason to question his knowledge of the facts; and his authority (on
this point at least) is above all exception, as well for
the state of the country as for the cause. In his minute of consultation, Mr. Hastings describes forcibly
the consequences which arise from the degradation
into which we have sunk the native government.
" The total want (says he) of all order, regularity, or
authority, in his (the Nabob of Furruckabad's) government, and to which, among other obvious causes,
it may. no doubt be owing that the country of Furruckabad is become almost an entire waste, without
cultivation or inhabitants, --that the capital, which but
a very short time ago was distinguished as one of the
most populous and opulent commercial cities in Hindostan, at present exhibits nothing but scenes of the
most wretched poverty, desolation, and misery, --and
that the Nabob himself, though in the possession of a
tract of country which, with only common care, is
notoriously capable of yielding an annual revenue of
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOXS EAST INDIA BILL. 491
between thirty and forty lacs, (three or four hundred
thousand pounds,) with no military establishment to
maintain, scarcely commands the means of a bare subsistence. "
This is a true and unexaggerated picture, not only
of Firruckabad, but of at least three fourths of the
country which we possess, or rather lay waste, in India. Now, Sir, the House will be desirous to know
for what purpose this picture was drawn. It was for
a purpose, I will not say laudable, but necessary: that
of taking the unfortunate prince and his country out
of the hands of a sequestrator sent thither by the Nabob of Oude, the mortal enemy of the prince thus ruined, and to protect him by means of a British
resident, who might carry his complaints to the superior -resident ait Oude, or transmit them to Calcutta. But mark how the reformer persisted in his reformation. The effect of the measure was better than was probably expected. The prince began to be at ease;
the country began to recover; and the revenue began
to be collected. These were alarming circumstances.
Mr. Hastings not only recalled the resident, but he
entered into a formal stipulation with the Nabob of
Oude never to send an English subject again to Furruckabad; and thus the country, described. as you have heard by Mr.
Hastings, is given up forever to
the very persons to whom he had attributed its ruin,
-that is, to' the sezawals or sequestrators of the
Nabob of Oude.
Such was the issue of the first attempt to relieve
the distresses of the dependent provinces. I shall
close what I have to say on the condition of the northern dependencies with the effect of the last of these attempts. You will recollect, Sir, the account I have
? ? ? ? 492 SPEECH. ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
not long ago stated to you, as given by Mr. Hastings,
of the ruined condition of the destroyer of others, the
Nabob of Oude, and of the recall, in consequence, of
Hannay, Middleton, and Johnson. When the first
little sudden gust of passion against these gentlemen
was spent, the sentiments of old friendship began to
revive. Some healing conferences were held between
them and the superior government. Mr. Hannay
was permitted to return to Oude; but death prevented the further advantages intended for him, and the future benefits proposed for the country by the
provident care of the Council-General.
One of these gentlemen was accused of the grossest
peculations; two of them by Mr. Hastings himself,:
of what he considered as very gross offences. The
Court of Directors were informed, by the GovernorGeneral: and Council,: that a severe inquiry would be institutedt against. the two survivors. ; and they requested that court to suspend its. judgment, and to wait the event of their proceedings. : A mock inquiry
has been:instituted, by which the parties could not
be said to be either acquitted or condemned. By
means of tlhe bland and conciliatory dispositions of
the charter-governors, and proper private explanations, the public inquiry has in effect died away;'the supposed peculators and destroyers of Oude repose in
all security in:the bosoms of their: accusers; whilst
others succeed to them to be instructed by their example.
It is only to complete the view I proposed of the
conduct of the Company with regard to the dependent provinces, that I shall say any thing at all of the Carnatic, which is the scene, if possible, of greater
disorder than thel northern provinces. Perhaps it
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON: MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 493
were better to say of this centre and metropolis of
abuse, whence all the rest in India and in England diverge, from whence they are fed and methodized, what
was said of Carthage,-" De Carthagine satins est silere quam parum dicere. " This country, in all its denominations, is about 46,000 square miles. It may be affirmed universally, that not one person of substance
or property, landed, commercial, or moneyed, excepting two or three bankers, who are necessary deposits
and distributors of the general spoil, is left in all that
region. In that country, the moisture; the bounty of
Heaven, is given but at a certain season. Before the
era of our influence, the industry of man carefully
husbanded that gift of God. The Gentoos preserved,
with a provident and religious care, the precious deposit of the periodical rain in reservoirs, many of them
works of royal grandeur; and from these, as occasion
demanded, they fructified the whole country. To
maintain these reservoirs, and to keep up an annual
advance to the cultivators for seed and cattle, formed
a principal object of the piety and policy of the priests
and rulers of the Gentoo religion. . This object required a command of money; and
there was no pollam, or castle, which in the happy
days of the Carnatic was without some hoard of treasure, by which the governors were enabled to combat
with the irregularity of the seasons, and to resist or
to buy off the invasion of an enemy. In all the cities
were multitudes of merchants and bankers, for all
occasions of moneyed assistance; and on the other
hand, the native princes were in condition to obtain
credit from them. The manufacturer was paid by
the return of commodities,- or by imported money,
and not, as at present, in the taxes that had been
? ? ? ? 494 SPEECH ON IMR. POX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
originally exacted from his industry. In aid of casual distress, the country was full of choultries, which
were inns and hospitals, where the traveller and the
poor were relieved. All ranks of people had their
place in the public concern, and their share in the
common stock and common prosperity. But the chartered rights of men, and the right which it was thought
proper to set up in the Nabob of Arcot, introduced a
new system. It was their policy to consider hoards
of money as crimes, --to regard moderate rents as
frauds on: the sovereign, - and to view, in the lesser
princes, any claim of exemption from more than settled tribute as an act of rebellion. Accordingly, all
the castles were, one after the other, plundered and
destroyed; the native princes were expelled; the
hospitals fell to ruin; the reservoirs of water went to
decay; the merchants, bankers, and manufacturers
disappeared; and sterility, indigence, and depopulation overspread the face of these once flourishing
provinces.
The Company was very early sensible of these mischiefs, and of their true cause. They gave precise orders, " that the native princes, called polygars, should not be extirpated. " " The rebellion " (so they choose
to call it) "' of the polygars may, they fear, with too
much justice, be attributed to the maladministration
of the Nabob's collectors. " " They observe with concern, that their troops have been put to disagreeable
services. " They might have used a stronger expression without impropriety. But they make amends
in another place. Speaking of the polygars, the Directors say that " it was repugnant to humanity to
force theni to such dreadful extremities as they underwent "; that some examples of severity might be
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 495
necessary, "when they fell into the Nabob's hands,"
and not by the destruction of the country; "that they
fear his government is none of the mildest, and that
there is great oppression in collecting his revenues. "
They state, that the wars in which he has involved
the Carnatic had been a cause of its distresses;
"that these distresses have been certainly great, but
those by the Nabob's oppressions they believe to be
greater than all. " Pray, Sir, attend to the reason
for their opinion that the government of this their
instrument is more calamitous to the country than
the ravages of war:- Because, say they, his oppressions are " without intermission; the others are temporary;-by all which oppressions we believe the Nabob has great wealth in store. " From this store neither
he nor they could derive any advantage whatsoever,
upon the invasion of Hyder Ali, in the hour of their
greatest calamity and dismay.
It is now proper to compare these declarations with
the Company's conduct. The principal reason which
they assigned against the extirpation of the polygars
was, that the weavers were protected in their fortresses. They might have added, that the Company
itself, which stung them to death, had been warmed
in the bosom of these unfortunate princes: for, on the
taking of Madras by the French, it was in their hospitable pollams that most of the inhabitants found
refuge and protection. But notwithstanding all these
orders, reasons, and declarations, they at length gave
an indirect sanction, and permitted the use of a very
direct and irresistible force, to measures which they
had over and over again declared to be false policy,
cruel, inhuman, and oppressive. Having, however,
forgot all attention to the princes and the people,
? ? ? ? 496 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
they remembered that they had some sort of interest
in the trade of the country; and it is matter of curiosity to observe the protection which they afforded to
this their natural object.
Full of anxious cares on this head, they direct,
"that, in reducing the polygars, they [their servants]
were to be cautious not to deprive the weavers and
manufacturers of the protection they often met with
in the strongholds of the polygar countries"; and
they write to their instrument, the Nabob of Arcot,
concerning these poor people in a most pathetic
strain. " We entreat your Excellency," (say they,)
" i particular, to' make the manufacturers the object
of your tenderest care; particularly when you root out
the polygars, you do not deprive the weavers of the
protection they enjoyed under them. " When they root
out the protectors in favor of the oppressor, they show
themselves religiously cautious of the rights of the
protected. When they extirpate thle shepherd and
the shepherd's dog, they piously recommend the helpless flock to the mercy, and even to the tenderest care,
of the wolf. This is the uniform strain of their policy, - strictly forbidding, and at the same time strenuously encouraging and enforcing, every measure that can ruin and desolate the country committed to their
charge. After giving the Company's idea of the government of this their instrument, it may appear singular, but it is perfectly consistent with their system, that, besides wasting for him, at two different times,
the most exquisite spot upon the earth, Tanjore, and
all the adjacent countries, they have even voluntarily
put their own territory, that is, a large and fine country adjacent to Madras, called their jaghire, wholly
out of their protection, - and have continued to farm
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 497
their subjects, and their duties towards these subjects,
to that very Nabob whom they themselves constantly
represent as an habitual oppressor and a relentless
tyrant. This they have done without any pretence
of ignorance of the objects of oppression for which
this prince has thought fit to become their renter: for
he has again and again told them that it is for the
sole purpose of exercising authority he holds the jaghire lands; and he affirms (and I believe with truth) that he pays more for that territory than the revenues
yield. This deficiency he must make up from his
other: territories; and thus, in order to furnish the
means of oppressing one part of the Carnatic, he is
led to oppress all the rest.
The House perceives that the livery of the Company's government is uniform. I have described the condition of the countries indirectly, but most substantially, under the Company's authority. And now
I ask, whether, with this. map. of misgovernment before me, I can suppose myself bound by my vote to continue, upon any principles of pretended public
faith, the management of these countries inr those
hands. If I kept such a faith (which in reality is
no better than a Jides latronum) with what is called
the Company, I must break the faith, the covenant,
the solemn, original, indispensable oath, in which I
am bound, by the eternal frame and constitution of
things, to the whole human race.
As I have dwelt so long on these who are indirectly
under the Company's administration, I will endeavor
to be a little shorter upon the countries immediately
under this charter-government. These are the Bengal provinces. The condition of these provinces is pretty fully detailed in the Sixth and Ninth Reports,
VOL. II. 32
? ? ? ? 498 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
and in their Appendixes. I will select only such principles and instances as are broad and general. To
your own thoughts I shall leave it to furnish the detail of, oppressions involved in them. I shall state
to you, as shortly as I am able, the conduct of the
Company: - 1st, towards the landed interests;- next,
the commercial interests; -- 3rdly, the native government;- and lastly, to their own government.
Bengal, and the provinces that are united to it, are
larger than the kingdom of France, and once contained, as France does contain, a great and independent landed interest, composed of princes, of great lords, of a numerous nobility and gentry, of freeholders, of lower tenants, of religious communities,
and public foundations. So early as 1769, the Company's servants perceived the decay into which these
provinces had fallen under English administration,
and they made a strong representation upon this
decay, and what they apprehended to be the causes
of it. Soon after this representation, Mr. Hastings
became President of Bengal. Instead of administering a remedy to this melancholy disorder, upon the
heels of a dreadful famine, in the year 1772, the succor which the new President and the Council lent to
this afflicted nation was- shall I be believed in relating it? - the landed interest of a whole kingdom, of
a kingdom to be compared to France, was set up to
public auction! They set up (Mr. Hastings set ur)
the whole nobility, gentry, and freeholders to the
highest bidder. No preference was given to the ancient proprietors. They must bid against every usurer, every temporary adventurer, every jobber and schemer, every servant of every European, - or they
were obliged to content themselves, in lieu of their
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BIIL,. 499
extensive domains, with their house, and such a pension as the state auctioneers thought fit to assign.
In this general calamity, several of the first nobility
thought (and in all appearance justly) that they had
better submit to the necessity of this pension, than
continue, under the name of zemindars, the objects
and instruments of a system by which they ruined
their tenants and were ruined themselves. Another
reform has since come upon the back of the first;
and a pension having been assigned to these unhappy persons, in lieu of their hereditary lands, a new
scheme of economy has taken place, and deprived
them of that pension.
The menial servants of Englishmen, persons (to
use the emphatical phrase of a ruined and patient
Eastern chief) "whose fathers' they would not have
set with the dogs of their flock" entered into their
patrimonial lands. Mr. Hastings's banian was, after this auction, found possessed of territories yielding a rent of one hundred and forty thousand pounds
a year.
Such an universal proscription, upon any pretence,
has few examples. Such a proscription, without even
a pretence of delinquency, has none. It stands by itself. It stands as a monument to astonish the imagination, to confound the reason of mankind. I confess to you, when I first came to know this business in its
true nature and extent, my surprise did a little suspend my indignation. I was in a manner stupefied
by the desperate boldness of a few obscure young
men, who, having obtained, by ways which they could
not comprehend, a power of which they saw neither
the purposes nor the limits, tossed about, subverted,
and tore to pieces, as if it were in the gambols of a
? ? ? ? 500 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
boyish unluckiness and malice, the: most established
rights, and the, most ancient and most revered insti.
tutions, of:ages and nations. Sir, I will not now
trouble you with any detail with regard to what they
have since done with these same lands and landholders, only to inform you that nothing has been suffered to settle for two seasons together upon any basis, and that the levity and inconstancy of these
mock legislators were not the least afflicting parts: of
the oppressions suffered under their usurpation; nor
will anything give stability to the property of the
natives, but an' administration in- England at once
protecting and stable. The country sustains, almost
every year, the miseries of a revolution. At present,
all is uncertainty, misery, and confusion. -- Th'ere is
to be found through- these vast regions' no longer one
landed man who is a resource for voluntary aid or
an object for particular rapine. Some of them were
not long since great princes; they possessed treasures; they levied armies. 'There was a zemindar in
Bengal, (I forget his name,) that, on the threat of an
invasion, supplied the subah of these provinces with
the loan of a million sterling. The -family at this
day wants credit for a breakfast at the bazaar.
-I shall now say a word' or two on the'Company's
care of the commercial interest of those kingdoms.
As it appears in the Reports that persons in the highest stations in Bengal have adopted as a fixed plan
of policy, the destruction'of all intermediate Idealers
between the Company and the manufacturer, native
merchants have disappeared of course. The spoil of
the revenues is the sole capital which purchases the
produce and manufactures, and through three or
four foreign companies transmits the official gains of
? ? ? ? SPEECH -ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. . 501
individuals to: Europe. No other commerce has an
existence in. Bengal. The transport of its plunder is
~the only traffic-. of: the country. . I wish to refer you
to the. :Appendix lto the: Ninth: Report for a full account'of:-tlemanner. : inawhich the Company have protected'thlii. e commercial. interests, of their. dominions in the. East. i. ::kAs to -the. native- government and the administration' of justice, it subsisted. in a poor,- tottering manner f::or. 'Some':years. ' In the, year 1781: a total revolution
took place in that. . establishment. In one of the usual
freaks f::f legislation. of the Council of Bengal, the
-:whociriminal. jurisdiction- of these courts, called the
P:hujdary Judicature, exercised till then by the prin
cipal:. Mussulmen. ,- was, in one day, without notice,
without. consultation with. the magistrates or the-. people. :there:, and without communication with the Directors- or Mirnisters herei:totally subverted. A. new
intitution:took,place, by which this jurisdiction was
diide'd between certain English servants of the Com-'paiy. iand: th'Gentoo zemindars of the country, the
at-er:of who;m:- never petitioned for it, nor, for aught
thlt i"appears, -ever desired this boon. But its natural'use was:,,madae;of. it:-. . it was made a pretence for new
extortions of money.
His determination " to make him pay largely for his
pardon, or to execute a severe vengeance for past delinquency. " That "as his wealth was great, and the Company's exigencies pressing, he thought it a measure of justice and policy to exact from him a large pecuniary mulct for their relief. . " -" The sum " (says
Mr. Wheler, bearing evidence, at his desire, to his
VOL. II. 31
? ? ? ? 482 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
intentions) " to which the Governor declared his resolution to extend his fine was forty or fifty lacs, that
is, four or five hundred thousand pounds; and that, if
he refused, he was to be removed from his zemindary
entirely; or by taking possession of his forts, to obtain,
out of the treasure deposited in them, the above sum for
the Company. "
Crimes so convenient, crimes so politic, crimes so
necessary, crimes so alleviating of distress, can never
be wanting to those who use no process, and who
produce no proofs.
But there is another serious part (what is not so? )
in this affair. Let us suppose that the power for
which Mr. Hastings contends, a power which no sovereign ever did or ever can vest in any of his subjects, namely, his own sovereign authority, to be conveyed by the act of Parliament to any man or
body of men whatsoever; it certainly was never
given. to Mr. Hastings. The powers given by the
act of 1773 were formal and official; they were
given, not to the Governor-General, but to the major
vote of the board, as a board, on discussion amongst
themselves, in their public character and capacity;
and their acts in that character and capacity were to
be ascertained by records and minutes of council.
The despotic acts exercised by Mr. Hastings were
done merely in his private character; and, if they
had been moderate and just, would still be the acts
of an usurped authority, and without any one of.
the legal modes of proceeding which could give him
competence for the most trivial exertion of power.
There was no proposition or deliberation whatsoever
in council, no minute on record, by circulation or
otherwise, to authorize his proceedings; no delega.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA -BILL. 483
tion of power to impose a fine, or to take any step to
deprive the Rajah of Benares of his government, his
property, or his liberty. The minutes of consultation assign to his journey a totally different object,
duty, and destination. Mr. Wheler, at his desire,
tells us long after, that he had a confidential conversation with him on various subjects, of which this
was the principal, in which Mr. Hastings notified to
him his secret intentions; "- and that he bespoke his
support of the measures which he intended to pursue
towards him (the Rajah). " This confidential discourse, and bespeaking of support, could give him no
power, in opposition to an express act of Parliament,
and the whole tenor of the orders. of the Court of
Directors.
In what manner the powers thus usurped were
employed is known to the whole world. All the
House knows that the design on the Rajah proved
as unfruitful as it was violent. The unhappy prince
was expelled, and his more unhappy country was
enslaved and ruined; but not a rupee was acquired.
Instead of treasure to recruit the Company's finances, wasted by their wanton wars and corrupt jobs,
they were plunged into a new war, which shook
their power in India to its foundation, and, to use
the Governor's own happy simile, might have dissolved it like a magic structure, if the talisman had
been broken.
But the success is no part of my consideration,
who should think just the same of this business, if the. spoil of one rajah had been fully acquired, and faithfully applied to the destruction of twenty other rajahs. Not only the. arrest of the Rajah in his palace was
unnecessary and unwarrantable, and calculated to stir
? ? ? ? 484 SPEECH'ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
up any manly blood which remained in his subjects;
but the despotic style and the extreme insolence of
language and demeanor, used to a person of great
condition among the politest people in the world, was
intolerable. Nothing aggravates tyranny so much
as contumely. Quicquid superbia in contumeliis was
charged by a great man of antiquity, as a principal
head of offence against the Governor-General of that
day. The unhappy people were still more insulted.
A relation, but an enemy to the family, a notorious
robber and villain, called Ussaun Sing, kept as a
hawk in a mew, to fly upon this nation, was set up
to govern there, instead of a prince honored and
beloved. But when the business of insult was accomplished, the. revenue was too serious a concern to be intrusted to such hands. Another was set up in his
place, as guardian to an infant.
But here, Sir, mark the effect of all these extraordinary means, of all this policy and justice. The
revenues, which had been hitherto. paid with such
astonishing punctuality, fell into arrear. The new
prince guardian was deposed without ceremony,'and with as little, cast into prison. The government
of that once happy country has been in the utmost confusion ever since such good order was taken about it. But, to complete the contumely offered to this undone
people, and to make them feel their servitude in all
its degradation and all its bitterness, the government
of their sacred city, the government of that Benares
which had been so respected by Persian and Tartar
conquerors, though of the Mussulman persuasion,that, even in the plenitude of their pride, power, and bigotry, no magistrate of that sect entered the place,. was now, delivered over by English hands to a' Ma
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. . 485
hometan; and an Ali Ibrahim Kh-an was introduced,
nnder the Company's authority, with power of life
and death, into the sanctuary of the Gentoo religion.
After this, the taking off a slight payment, cheerfully
made by pilgrims to a chief of their own rites, was
represented as a mighty benefit.
It'remains only to show, through the conduct in
this business, the spirit of the Company's government, and the respect they pay towards other prejudices, not less regarded in the East than those of religion-: I mean the reverence paid to the female sex in general, and particularly to women of high rank
and condition. During the general confusion of the
country of Ghazipoor, Panna, the mother of. Cheit
Sing, was lodged &with her train. in a castle called
Bidg6 Gur,: in which were likewise deposited a large
portion of the treasures of her son, or,more. probably
her own. To whomsoever they belonged was indifferent: for, though: no charge of rebellion was made
on this woman, (which' was rather singular, as it
would have cost nothing,) they were resolved to secure her with her fortune. . The castle was besieged
by Major Popham.
There was no great reason to apprehend that
soldiers ill paid, that soldiers who thought they had
been defrauded of their plunder on former services
of the same kind, would not have been sufficiently
attentive to the spoil they were expressly come for;
but the gallantry and generosity of the profession
was, justly suspected, as being likely to set bounds
to military rapaciousness. The Company's first civil
magistrate discovered the greatest uneasiness lest
the women should have anything preserved to them.
Terms tending to put some restraint on military
? ? ? ? 486 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
violence were granted. He writes a letter to Mr.
Popham, referring to some letter written before to
the same effect, which I do not remember to have
seen'; but it shows his anxiety on this subject. Hear
himself:'-" I think every demand she has made on
you, except that of safety and respect to her person,
is unreasonable. If the reports brought to me are
true, your rejecting her offers, or any negotiation,
would soon obtain you the fort upon your own terms.
I apprehend she will attempt to defraud the captors
of a considerable part of their booty, by being suffered
to retire without examination. But this is your concern, not mine. I should be very sorry that your officers and soldiers lost any part of the reward to
which they are so well entitled; but you must be the best judge of the promised indulgence to the Ranny: what you have engaged for I will certainly ratify;
but as to suffering the Ranny to hold the purgunna of Hurlich, or any other zemindary, without being subject to the authority of the zemindar, orany lands whatsoever, or indeed making any condition with her for a provision, I will never consent. "
Here your Governor stimulates a rapacious and
licentious soldiery to the personal search of women,
lest these unhappy creatures should avail themselves
of the protection of their sex to secure any supply
for their necessities; and he positively orders that
no stipulation should be made for any provision for
them. The widow and mother of a prince, well informed of her miserable situation, and the cause of! it, a woman of this rank became a suppliant to the
domestic servant of Mr. Hastings, (they are his own
words that I read,) "' imploring his intercession that
she may be relieved from the hardships and dangers
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 487
of her present situation, and offering to surrender the
fort, and the treasure and valuable effects contained in
it, provided she can be assured of safety andprotection
to her person and honor, and to that of her family and
attendants. " He is so good as to consent to this,
"provided she surrenders everything of value, with
the reserve only of such articles as you shall think
necessary to her condition, or as you yourself shall be
disposed to indulge her with. - But should she refuse
to execute the promise she has made, or delay it beyond th6 term of twenty-four hours, it is my positive
injunction that you immediately put a stop to any
further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on
no pretext renew it. If she disappoints or trifles with
me, after I have subjected my duan to the disgrace
of returning ineffectually, and of course myself to
discredit, I shall consider it as a wanton affront and
indignity which I can never forgive; nor will I grant
her any conditions whatever, but leave her exposed
to those dangers which she has chosen to risk, rather
than:trust to the clemency and generosity of our government. I think she cannot be ignorant of these
consequences, and will not venture to incur them;
and it is for this reason I place a dependence on her
offers, and have consented to send my duan to her. "
The dreadful secret hinted at by the merciful Gov-,ernor -in the latter part of the letter is well understood in India, where those who suffer, corporeal indignities generally expiate the offences of others with their own blood. However, in spite of all these,
the temper of the military did, some way or other,
operate. They came to terms which have never been
transmitted. It appears that a fifteenth per cent
of the plunder was reserved to the captives, of which
? ? ? ? 488 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S -EAST INDIA BILL.
the unhappy mother of the: Prince of Benares was to
have a share. This ancient matron, born to better
things [A laugh from certain young gentlemen]
I see nlo cause for this mirth. A good author of antiquity reckons among the calamities of his time " nobilissimarum foeminarum exilia et fugas. " I say, Sir, this ancient lady was compelled to quit her house, with
three hundred helpless women and a multitude of children in her train. But the lower sort in the camp,
it seems, could not be restrained. They did not forget the good lessons of the Governor-General. They
were unwilling " to be defrauded of a considerable
part of their booty by suffering them to pass without
examination. "- They examined them, Sir, with a
vengeance; and the sacred protection of that awful
character, Mr. Hasfings's maitre d'hdtel, could not
secure them from insult and plunder. Here is Popham's narrative of the affair. :" The Ranny came out of the fort, with her family
and dependantsj the tenth, at night, owing to which
such attention was not paid to her as I wished; and
I am exceedingly sorry to inform you that the licentiousness of our followers was beyond the bounds of conm
trol; for, notwithstanding all I could' do, her people
were plundered on the road of most of the things which
they brought out of the fort, by which means one of the
articles of surrender has been much infringed. The.
distress I have felt upon this occasion cannot be expressed, and can only be allayed by a firm performance of the other articles of the treaty, which I shall make it my business to enforce. -The suspicions
which the officers had of treachery, and the delay
made to our getting possession, had enraged them, as
well as the troops, so much, that the treaty was at
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX' S EAST INDIA BILL. 489
firstregarded as: void; but this determination was
-soon succeeded by' pity and compassion for the unfortunate besieged. " - After this comes, in his due
order, Mr. Hastings; who is full of sorrow and: indignation, &c. ,, &c. , &c. , according to the best and most authentic precedents established upon fsuch occasions.
The women being thus disposed of, that is, completely. despoiled, and pathetically. lamented,. Mr.
Hastings at length recollected the great object of::his
enterprise, which, during his zeal lest the officers and
soldiers should lose any part of their reward, he seems
to have forgot, -- that is to, say, " to draw from the
Rajahs:guilt: the means of relief to the Company's distresses. " This was to be -the stronghold of his defence. This compassion to, the Company, he knew by experience, would sanctify a great deal of rigor towards the natives. -But the military had distresses of their own,
which they considered first. Neither Mr. Hastings's
authority, nor his supplications, could prevail on them
to assign a. shilling to the claim he made on the. part
of the Company. They divided the booty amongst
themselves. Driven from his claim, he was reduced
to petition for the spoil as a loan. : But the soldiers
were too wise to venture as a loan what the borrower
claimed as a right. In defiance of all authority, they
shared. among themselves about two hundred thou
sand "pounds sterling, besides what had been taken
from the women. .
In all -this there is nothing wonderful. We may rest
assured, that, when the maxims of any government
establish among its resources extraordinary means,
and. those exerted with a'strong hand, that strong
hand will provide those: extraordinary means for itself. . Whether the soldiers had reason or not, (perhaps
? ? ? ? 490 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
much might be said for them,) certain it is, the military discipline of India was ruined from that moment;
and the same rage for plunder, the same contempt o0
subordination, which blasted all the hopes of extraordinary means from your strong hand at Benares, have
very lately lost you an army in Mysore. This is visible enough from the accounts in the last gazette.
There is no doubt but that the country and city of
Benares, now brought into the same order, will very
soon exhibit, if it does not already display, the same
appearance with those countries and cities which are
under better subjection. A great master, Mr. Hastings, has himself been at the pains of drawing a picture of one of these countries: I mean the province and city of Furruckabad. There is no reason to question his knowledge of the facts; and his authority (on
this point at least) is above all exception, as well for
the state of the country as for the cause. In his minute of consultation, Mr. Hastings describes forcibly
the consequences which arise from the degradation
into which we have sunk the native government.
" The total want (says he) of all order, regularity, or
authority, in his (the Nabob of Furruckabad's) government, and to which, among other obvious causes,
it may. no doubt be owing that the country of Furruckabad is become almost an entire waste, without
cultivation or inhabitants, --that the capital, which but
a very short time ago was distinguished as one of the
most populous and opulent commercial cities in Hindostan, at present exhibits nothing but scenes of the
most wretched poverty, desolation, and misery, --and
that the Nabob himself, though in the possession of a
tract of country which, with only common care, is
notoriously capable of yielding an annual revenue of
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOXS EAST INDIA BILL. 491
between thirty and forty lacs, (three or four hundred
thousand pounds,) with no military establishment to
maintain, scarcely commands the means of a bare subsistence. "
This is a true and unexaggerated picture, not only
of Firruckabad, but of at least three fourths of the
country which we possess, or rather lay waste, in India. Now, Sir, the House will be desirous to know
for what purpose this picture was drawn. It was for
a purpose, I will not say laudable, but necessary: that
of taking the unfortunate prince and his country out
of the hands of a sequestrator sent thither by the Nabob of Oude, the mortal enemy of the prince thus ruined, and to protect him by means of a British
resident, who might carry his complaints to the superior -resident ait Oude, or transmit them to Calcutta. But mark how the reformer persisted in his reformation. The effect of the measure was better than was probably expected. The prince began to be at ease;
the country began to recover; and the revenue began
to be collected. These were alarming circumstances.
Mr. Hastings not only recalled the resident, but he
entered into a formal stipulation with the Nabob of
Oude never to send an English subject again to Furruckabad; and thus the country, described. as you have heard by Mr.
Hastings, is given up forever to
the very persons to whom he had attributed its ruin,
-that is, to' the sezawals or sequestrators of the
Nabob of Oude.
Such was the issue of the first attempt to relieve
the distresses of the dependent provinces. I shall
close what I have to say on the condition of the northern dependencies with the effect of the last of these attempts. You will recollect, Sir, the account I have
? ? ? ? 492 SPEECH. ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
not long ago stated to you, as given by Mr. Hastings,
of the ruined condition of the destroyer of others, the
Nabob of Oude, and of the recall, in consequence, of
Hannay, Middleton, and Johnson. When the first
little sudden gust of passion against these gentlemen
was spent, the sentiments of old friendship began to
revive. Some healing conferences were held between
them and the superior government. Mr. Hannay
was permitted to return to Oude; but death prevented the further advantages intended for him, and the future benefits proposed for the country by the
provident care of the Council-General.
One of these gentlemen was accused of the grossest
peculations; two of them by Mr. Hastings himself,:
of what he considered as very gross offences. The
Court of Directors were informed, by the GovernorGeneral: and Council,: that a severe inquiry would be institutedt against. the two survivors. ; and they requested that court to suspend its. judgment, and to wait the event of their proceedings. : A mock inquiry
has been:instituted, by which the parties could not
be said to be either acquitted or condemned. By
means of tlhe bland and conciliatory dispositions of
the charter-governors, and proper private explanations, the public inquiry has in effect died away;'the supposed peculators and destroyers of Oude repose in
all security in:the bosoms of their: accusers; whilst
others succeed to them to be instructed by their example.
It is only to complete the view I proposed of the
conduct of the Company with regard to the dependent provinces, that I shall say any thing at all of the Carnatic, which is the scene, if possible, of greater
disorder than thel northern provinces. Perhaps it
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON: MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 493
were better to say of this centre and metropolis of
abuse, whence all the rest in India and in England diverge, from whence they are fed and methodized, what
was said of Carthage,-" De Carthagine satins est silere quam parum dicere. " This country, in all its denominations, is about 46,000 square miles. It may be affirmed universally, that not one person of substance
or property, landed, commercial, or moneyed, excepting two or three bankers, who are necessary deposits
and distributors of the general spoil, is left in all that
region. In that country, the moisture; the bounty of
Heaven, is given but at a certain season. Before the
era of our influence, the industry of man carefully
husbanded that gift of God. The Gentoos preserved,
with a provident and religious care, the precious deposit of the periodical rain in reservoirs, many of them
works of royal grandeur; and from these, as occasion
demanded, they fructified the whole country. To
maintain these reservoirs, and to keep up an annual
advance to the cultivators for seed and cattle, formed
a principal object of the piety and policy of the priests
and rulers of the Gentoo religion. . This object required a command of money; and
there was no pollam, or castle, which in the happy
days of the Carnatic was without some hoard of treasure, by which the governors were enabled to combat
with the irregularity of the seasons, and to resist or
to buy off the invasion of an enemy. In all the cities
were multitudes of merchants and bankers, for all
occasions of moneyed assistance; and on the other
hand, the native princes were in condition to obtain
credit from them. The manufacturer was paid by
the return of commodities,- or by imported money,
and not, as at present, in the taxes that had been
? ? ? ? 494 SPEECH ON IMR. POX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
originally exacted from his industry. In aid of casual distress, the country was full of choultries, which
were inns and hospitals, where the traveller and the
poor were relieved. All ranks of people had their
place in the public concern, and their share in the
common stock and common prosperity. But the chartered rights of men, and the right which it was thought
proper to set up in the Nabob of Arcot, introduced a
new system. It was their policy to consider hoards
of money as crimes, --to regard moderate rents as
frauds on: the sovereign, - and to view, in the lesser
princes, any claim of exemption from more than settled tribute as an act of rebellion. Accordingly, all
the castles were, one after the other, plundered and
destroyed; the native princes were expelled; the
hospitals fell to ruin; the reservoirs of water went to
decay; the merchants, bankers, and manufacturers
disappeared; and sterility, indigence, and depopulation overspread the face of these once flourishing
provinces.
The Company was very early sensible of these mischiefs, and of their true cause. They gave precise orders, " that the native princes, called polygars, should not be extirpated. " " The rebellion " (so they choose
to call it) "' of the polygars may, they fear, with too
much justice, be attributed to the maladministration
of the Nabob's collectors. " " They observe with concern, that their troops have been put to disagreeable
services. " They might have used a stronger expression without impropriety. But they make amends
in another place. Speaking of the polygars, the Directors say that " it was repugnant to humanity to
force theni to such dreadful extremities as they underwent "; that some examples of severity might be
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 495
necessary, "when they fell into the Nabob's hands,"
and not by the destruction of the country; "that they
fear his government is none of the mildest, and that
there is great oppression in collecting his revenues. "
They state, that the wars in which he has involved
the Carnatic had been a cause of its distresses;
"that these distresses have been certainly great, but
those by the Nabob's oppressions they believe to be
greater than all. " Pray, Sir, attend to the reason
for their opinion that the government of this their
instrument is more calamitous to the country than
the ravages of war:- Because, say they, his oppressions are " without intermission; the others are temporary;-by all which oppressions we believe the Nabob has great wealth in store. " From this store neither
he nor they could derive any advantage whatsoever,
upon the invasion of Hyder Ali, in the hour of their
greatest calamity and dismay.
It is now proper to compare these declarations with
the Company's conduct. The principal reason which
they assigned against the extirpation of the polygars
was, that the weavers were protected in their fortresses. They might have added, that the Company
itself, which stung them to death, had been warmed
in the bosom of these unfortunate princes: for, on the
taking of Madras by the French, it was in their hospitable pollams that most of the inhabitants found
refuge and protection. But notwithstanding all these
orders, reasons, and declarations, they at length gave
an indirect sanction, and permitted the use of a very
direct and irresistible force, to measures which they
had over and over again declared to be false policy,
cruel, inhuman, and oppressive. Having, however,
forgot all attention to the princes and the people,
? ? ? ? 496 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
they remembered that they had some sort of interest
in the trade of the country; and it is matter of curiosity to observe the protection which they afforded to
this their natural object.
Full of anxious cares on this head, they direct,
"that, in reducing the polygars, they [their servants]
were to be cautious not to deprive the weavers and
manufacturers of the protection they often met with
in the strongholds of the polygar countries"; and
they write to their instrument, the Nabob of Arcot,
concerning these poor people in a most pathetic
strain. " We entreat your Excellency," (say they,)
" i particular, to' make the manufacturers the object
of your tenderest care; particularly when you root out
the polygars, you do not deprive the weavers of the
protection they enjoyed under them. " When they root
out the protectors in favor of the oppressor, they show
themselves religiously cautious of the rights of the
protected. When they extirpate thle shepherd and
the shepherd's dog, they piously recommend the helpless flock to the mercy, and even to the tenderest care,
of the wolf. This is the uniform strain of their policy, - strictly forbidding, and at the same time strenuously encouraging and enforcing, every measure that can ruin and desolate the country committed to their
charge. After giving the Company's idea of the government of this their instrument, it may appear singular, but it is perfectly consistent with their system, that, besides wasting for him, at two different times,
the most exquisite spot upon the earth, Tanjore, and
all the adjacent countries, they have even voluntarily
put their own territory, that is, a large and fine country adjacent to Madras, called their jaghire, wholly
out of their protection, - and have continued to farm
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. 497
their subjects, and their duties towards these subjects,
to that very Nabob whom they themselves constantly
represent as an habitual oppressor and a relentless
tyrant. This they have done without any pretence
of ignorance of the objects of oppression for which
this prince has thought fit to become their renter: for
he has again and again told them that it is for the
sole purpose of exercising authority he holds the jaghire lands; and he affirms (and I believe with truth) that he pays more for that territory than the revenues
yield. This deficiency he must make up from his
other: territories; and thus, in order to furnish the
means of oppressing one part of the Carnatic, he is
led to oppress all the rest.
The House perceives that the livery of the Company's government is uniform. I have described the condition of the countries indirectly, but most substantially, under the Company's authority. And now
I ask, whether, with this. map. of misgovernment before me, I can suppose myself bound by my vote to continue, upon any principles of pretended public
faith, the management of these countries inr those
hands. If I kept such a faith (which in reality is
no better than a Jides latronum) with what is called
the Company, I must break the faith, the covenant,
the solemn, original, indispensable oath, in which I
am bound, by the eternal frame and constitution of
things, to the whole human race.
As I have dwelt so long on these who are indirectly
under the Company's administration, I will endeavor
to be a little shorter upon the countries immediately
under this charter-government. These are the Bengal provinces. The condition of these provinces is pretty fully detailed in the Sixth and Ninth Reports,
VOL. II. 32
? ? ? ? 498 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
and in their Appendixes. I will select only such principles and instances as are broad and general. To
your own thoughts I shall leave it to furnish the detail of, oppressions involved in them. I shall state
to you, as shortly as I am able, the conduct of the
Company: - 1st, towards the landed interests;- next,
the commercial interests; -- 3rdly, the native government;- and lastly, to their own government.
Bengal, and the provinces that are united to it, are
larger than the kingdom of France, and once contained, as France does contain, a great and independent landed interest, composed of princes, of great lords, of a numerous nobility and gentry, of freeholders, of lower tenants, of religious communities,
and public foundations. So early as 1769, the Company's servants perceived the decay into which these
provinces had fallen under English administration,
and they made a strong representation upon this
decay, and what they apprehended to be the causes
of it. Soon after this representation, Mr. Hastings
became President of Bengal. Instead of administering a remedy to this melancholy disorder, upon the
heels of a dreadful famine, in the year 1772, the succor which the new President and the Council lent to
this afflicted nation was- shall I be believed in relating it? - the landed interest of a whole kingdom, of
a kingdom to be compared to France, was set up to
public auction! They set up (Mr. Hastings set ur)
the whole nobility, gentry, and freeholders to the
highest bidder. No preference was given to the ancient proprietors. They must bid against every usurer, every temporary adventurer, every jobber and schemer, every servant of every European, - or they
were obliged to content themselves, in lieu of their
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BIIL,. 499
extensive domains, with their house, and such a pension as the state auctioneers thought fit to assign.
In this general calamity, several of the first nobility
thought (and in all appearance justly) that they had
better submit to the necessity of this pension, than
continue, under the name of zemindars, the objects
and instruments of a system by which they ruined
their tenants and were ruined themselves. Another
reform has since come upon the back of the first;
and a pension having been assigned to these unhappy persons, in lieu of their hereditary lands, a new
scheme of economy has taken place, and deprived
them of that pension.
The menial servants of Englishmen, persons (to
use the emphatical phrase of a ruined and patient
Eastern chief) "whose fathers' they would not have
set with the dogs of their flock" entered into their
patrimonial lands. Mr. Hastings's banian was, after this auction, found possessed of territories yielding a rent of one hundred and forty thousand pounds
a year.
Such an universal proscription, upon any pretence,
has few examples. Such a proscription, without even
a pretence of delinquency, has none. It stands by itself. It stands as a monument to astonish the imagination, to confound the reason of mankind. I confess to you, when I first came to know this business in its
true nature and extent, my surprise did a little suspend my indignation. I was in a manner stupefied
by the desperate boldness of a few obscure young
men, who, having obtained, by ways which they could
not comprehend, a power of which they saw neither
the purposes nor the limits, tossed about, subverted,
and tore to pieces, as if it were in the gambols of a
? ? ? ? 500 SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.
boyish unluckiness and malice, the: most established
rights, and the, most ancient and most revered insti.
tutions, of:ages and nations. Sir, I will not now
trouble you with any detail with regard to what they
have since done with these same lands and landholders, only to inform you that nothing has been suffered to settle for two seasons together upon any basis, and that the levity and inconstancy of these
mock legislators were not the least afflicting parts: of
the oppressions suffered under their usurpation; nor
will anything give stability to the property of the
natives, but an' administration in- England at once
protecting and stable. The country sustains, almost
every year, the miseries of a revolution. At present,
all is uncertainty, misery, and confusion. -- Th'ere is
to be found through- these vast regions' no longer one
landed man who is a resource for voluntary aid or
an object for particular rapine. Some of them were
not long since great princes; they possessed treasures; they levied armies. 'There was a zemindar in
Bengal, (I forget his name,) that, on the threat of an
invasion, supplied the subah of these provinces with
the loan of a million sterling. The -family at this
day wants credit for a breakfast at the bazaar.
-I shall now say a word' or two on the'Company's
care of the commercial interest of those kingdoms.
As it appears in the Reports that persons in the highest stations in Bengal have adopted as a fixed plan
of policy, the destruction'of all intermediate Idealers
between the Company and the manufacturer, native
merchants have disappeared of course. The spoil of
the revenues is the sole capital which purchases the
produce and manufactures, and through three or
four foreign companies transmits the official gains of
? ? ? ? SPEECH -ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL. . 501
individuals to: Europe. No other commerce has an
existence in. Bengal. The transport of its plunder is
~the only traffic-. of: the country. . I wish to refer you
to the. :Appendix lto the: Ninth: Report for a full account'of:-tlemanner. : inawhich the Company have protected'thlii. e commercial. interests, of their. dominions in the. East. i. ::kAs to -the. native- government and the administration' of justice, it subsisted. in a poor,- tottering manner f::or. 'Some':years. ' In the, year 1781: a total revolution
took place in that. . establishment. In one of the usual
freaks f::f legislation. of the Council of Bengal, the
-:whociriminal. jurisdiction- of these courts, called the
P:hujdary Judicature, exercised till then by the prin
cipal:. Mussulmen. ,- was, in one day, without notice,
without. consultation with. the magistrates or the-. people. :there:, and without communication with the Directors- or Mirnisters herei:totally subverted. A. new
intitution:took,place, by which this jurisdiction was
diide'd between certain English servants of the Com-'paiy. iand: th'Gentoo zemindars of the country, the
at-er:of who;m:- never petitioned for it, nor, for aught
thlt i"appears, -ever desired this boon. But its natural'use was:,,madae;of. it:-. . it was made a pretence for new
extortions of money.
