Indeed, I will say this for him, that general charge
and loose accusation may be answered by loose and
general panegyric, and that, if ours were of that
nature, this panegyric would be sufficient to overset
our accusation.
and loose accusation may be answered by loose and
general panegyric, and that, if ours were of that
nature, this panegyric would be sufficient to overset
our accusation.
Edmund Burke
SPEECH IN OPENING.
- FOURTH DAY.
145
I impeach him in the name of the people of India,
whose laws, rights, and liberties he has subverted,
whose properties he has destroyed, whose country he
has laid waste and desolate.
I impeach him in the name and by virtue of those
eternal laws of justice which he has violated.
I impeach him in the name of human nature itself,
which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed,
in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life. VOL. X. 10
? ? ? ? SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE. APRIL AND MAY, I789.
? ? ? ? NOTE.
AFTER Mr. Burke had concluded the opening speeches, the
first article of the impeachment was brought forward, on the 22d
of February, 1788, by Mr. Fox, and supported by Mr. Grey on
the 25th. After the evidence upon this article had been adduced,
it was summed up and enforced by Mr. Anstruther, on the 11th
day of April following.
The next article with which the Commons proceeded was
brought forward on the 15th of April, 1788, by Mr. Adam, and
supported by Mr. Pelham; and the evidence, in part upon the
second article of charge, was summed up and enforced, on the 3d
of June, by Mr. Sheridan.
On the 21st of April, 1789, Mr. Burke opened the sixth charge,
bribery and corruption, in the following speech, which was continued on the 25th of April, and on the 5th and 7th May, in the same session.
? ? ? ? SP E E C H
ON
THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
FIRST DAY: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1789.
MY LORDS, -- An event which had spread for a
considerable time an universal grief and consternation through this kingdom, and which in its issue diffused as universal and transcendent a joy, has in the circumstances both of our depression and of our
exaltation produced a considerable delay, if not a total suspension, of the most important functions of
government.
My Lords, we now resume our office, --and we
resume it with new and redoubled alacrity, and, we
trust, under not less propitious omens than when we
left it, in this House, at the end of the preceding session. We come to this duty with a greater degree
of earnestness and zeal, because we are urged to it by
many and very peculiar circumstances. This day we
come from an House where the last steps Were taken
(and I suppose something has happened similar in
this) to prepare our way to attend with the utmost
solemnity, in another place, a great national thanksgiving for having restored the sovereign to his Parliament and the Parliament to its sovereign. But, my Lords, it is not only in the house of prayer
that we offer to the First Cause the acceptable homage
of our rational nature, - my Lords, in this House, at
? ? ? ? 150 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
this bar, in this place, in every place where His conmmands are obeyed, His worship is performed. And,
my Lords, I must boldly say, (and I think I shall
hardly be contradicted by your Lordships, or by any
persons versed in the law which guides us all,) that
the highest act of religion, and the highest homage
which we can and ought to pay, is an imitation of
the Divine perfections, as far as such a nature can
imitate such perfections, and that by this means alone
we can make our homage acceptable to Him.
My Lords, in His temple we shall not forget that
His most distinguished attribute is justice, and that
the first link in the chain by which we are held to the
Supreme Judge of All is justice; and that it is in this
solemn temple of representative justice we may best
give Him praise, because we can here best imitate His
divine attributes. If ever there was a cause in which
justice and mercy are not only combined and reconciled, but incorporated, it is in this cause of suffering
nations, which we now bring before your Lordships
this second session of Parliament, unwearied and unfatigued in our persevering pursuit; and we feel it
to be a necessary preliminary, a necessary fact, a necessary attendant and concomitant of every public
thanksgiving, that we should express our gratitude
by our virtues, and not merely with our mouths, and
that, when we are giving thanks for acts of mercy,
we should render ourselves worthy of them by doing
acts of mercy ourselves. My Lords, these considerations, independent of those which were our first movers in this business, strongly urge us at present to pursue with all zeal and perseverance the great cause
we have now in hand. And we feel this to be the
more necessary, because we cannot but be sensible that
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. FIRST DAY. 151
light, unstable, variable, capricious, inconstant, fastidious minds soon tire in any pursuit that requires strength, steadiness, and perseverance. Such persons,
who we trust are but few, and who certainly do not
resemble your Lordships nor us, begin already to say,
How long is this business to continue? Our answer
is, It is to continue till its ends are obtained.
We know, that, by a mysterious dispensation of
Providence, injury is quick and rapid, and justice
slow; and we may say that those who have not patience and vigor of mind to attend the tardy pace of justice counteract the order of Providence, and are
resolved not to be just at all. We, therefore, instead
of bending the order of Nature to the laxity of our
characters and tempers, must rather confirm ourselves
by a manly fortitude and virtuous perseverance to
continue within those forms, and to wrestle with injustice, until we have shown that those virtues which sometimes wickedness debauches into its cause, such
as vigor, energy, activity, fortitude of spirit, are called
back and brought to their true and natural service, --
and that in the pursuit of wickedness, in the following it through all the winding recesses and mazes of
its artifices, we shall show as much vigor, as much
constancy, as much diligence, energy, and perseverance, as any others can do in endeavoring to elude the laws and triumph over the justice of their country.
My Lords, we have thought it the more necessary to
say this, because it has been given out that we might
faint in this business. No: we follow, and trust we
shall always follow, that great emblem of antiquity, in
which the person who held out to the end of a long
line of labors found the reward of all the eleven in the
twelfth. Our labor, therefore, will be our reward;
? ? ? ? 152 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and we' will go on, we will pursue with vigor and
diligence, in a manner suitable to the Commons of
Great Britain, every mode of corruption, till we have
thoroughly eradicated it.
I think it necessary to say a word, too, upon another circumstance, of which there is some complaint, as if some injustice had arisen from voluntary delay
on our part.
I have already alluded to, first, the melancholy,
then the joyful occasion of this delay; and I shall
now make one remark on another part of the complaint, which I understand was formally made to your Lordships soon after we had announced our
resolution to proceed in this great cause of suffering
nations before you. It has been alleged, that the
length of the pursuit had already very much distressed
the person who is the object of it,- that it leaned
upon a fortune unequal to support it, --and that
30,0001. had been already spent in the preliminary
preparations for the defence.
My Lords, I do admit that all true, genuine, and
unadulterated justice considers with a certain degree
of tenderness the person whom it is called to punish,
and never oppresses those by the process who ought
not to be oppressed but by the sentence of the court
before which they are brought. The Commons have
heard, indeed, with some degree of astonishment, that
30,0001. hath been laid out by Mr. Hastings in this
business. We, who have some experience in the
conduct of affairs of this nature, we, who profess to
proceed with regard not to the economy so much as
to the rigor of this prosecution, (and we are justified
by our country in so doing,) upon a collation and
comparison of the public expenses with those which
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. . 153
the defendant is supposed to have incurred, are much
surprised to hear it. We suppose that his solicitors
can give a good account to him of those expenses, -.
that the thing is true, -- and that he has actually,
through them, incurred this expense. We have nothing to do with this: but we shall remove ally degree of uneasiness from your Lordships' minds, and from
our own, when we show you in the charge which we
shall bring before you this day, that one bribe only
received by Mr. Hastings, the smallest of his bribes,
or nearly the smallest, the bribe received from Rajah
Nobkissin, is alone more than equal to have paid all
the charges Mr. Hastings is stated to have incurred;
and if this be the case, your Lordships will not be
made very uneasy in a case of bribery by finding that
you press upon the sources of peculation.
It has also been said that we weary out the public
patience in this cause. The House of Commons do
not call upon your Lordships to do anything of which
they do not set the example. They have very lately
sat in the Colchester Committee as many, within one
or two, days successively as have been spent in this
trial interruptedly in the course of two years. Every
cause deserves that it should be tried according to
its nature and circumstances; and in the case of the
Colchester Committee, in the trial of paltry briberies
of odd pounds, shillings, and pence, in the corruption
of a returning officer, who is but a miller, they spent
nearly the same number of days that we have been
inquiring into the ruin of kingdoms by the peculation
and bribery of the chief governor of the provinces of
Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Therefore God forbid
that we should faint at thrice thirty days, if the proceedings should be drawn into such a length, whel.
? ? ? ? 154 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
for a small crime as much time has been spent as has
yet been spent in this great cause!
Having now cleared the way with regard to the
local and temporary circumstances of this case, --
having shown your Lordships that too much time has
not been spent in it, - having no reason to think,
from the time which has hitherto been spent, that
time will be unnecessarily spent in future, --I trust
your Lordships will think that time ought neither to
be spared nor squandered in this business: we will
therefore proceed, article by article, as far as the discretion of the House of Commons shall think fit, for the justice of the case, to limit the inquiry, or to
extend it.
We are now going to bring before your Lordships
the sixth article. It is all article of charge of bribery and corruption against Mr. Hastings; but yet
we must confess that we feel some little difficulty in
limine. We here appear in the name and character
not only of representatives of the Commons of Great
Britain, but representatives of the inhabitants of Bengal: and yet we have had lately come into our hands such ample certificates, such full testimonials, from
every person in whose cause we complain, that we
shall appear to be in the strangest situation in the
world, --the situation of persons complaining, who
are disavowed by the persons in whose name and
character they complain. This would have been a
very great difficulty in the beginning, especially as it
is come before us in a flood-tide of panegyric. No
encomium can be more exalted or more beautifully
expressed. No language can more strongly paint
the perfect satisfaction, the entire acquiescence, of
all the nations of Bellgal, and their wonderful ad
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 155
miration of the character of the person whom we
have brought as a criminal to your bar upon their
part. I do admit that it is a very awkward circumstance; but yet, at the same time, the same candor which has induced the House of Commons to bring
before you the bosom friends and confidants of Mr.
Hastings as their evidence will not suffer them to
suppress or withhold for a moment from your Lordships this universal voice of Bengal, as an attestation
in Mr. Hastings's favor, and we shall produce it as a
part of our evidence. Oh, my Lords, consider the
situation of a people who are forced to mix their
praises with their groans, who are forced to sign,
with hands which have been in torture, and with
the thumb-screws but just taken from them, an at
testation in favor of the person from whom all their
sufferings have been derived! When we prove to
you the things that we shall prove, this will, I hope,
give your Lordships a full, conclusive, and satisfactory proof of the misery to which these people have
been reduced. You will see before you, what is so
well expressed by one of our poets as the homage
of tyrants, " that homage with the mouth which the
heart would fain deny, but dares not. " Mr. Hastings has received that homage, and that homage we
mean to present to your Lordships: we mean to present it, because it will show your Lordships clearly,
that, after Mr. Hastings has ransacked Bengal from
one end to the other, and has used all the power which
lie derives from having every friend and every dependant of his in every office from one end of that government to the other, lie has not, in all those panegyrics, those fine high-flown Eastern encomiums, got one
word of refutation or one word of evidence against
? ? ? ? 156 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any charge whatever which we produce against him.
Every one knows, that, in the course of criminal
trials, when no evidence of alibi can be brought,
when all the arts of the Old Bailey are exhausted,
the last thing produced is evidence to character.
His cause, therefore, is gone, when, having ransacked
Bengal, he has nothing to say for his conduct, and at
length appeals to his character. In those little papers which are given us of our proceedings in our criminal courts, it is always an omen of what is to
follow: after the evidence of a murder, a forgery, or
robbery, it ends in his character: " He has an admirable character; I have known him from a boy; he is wonderfully good; he is the best of men; I would
trust him with untold gold": and immediately follows, " Guilty, -Death. " This is the way in which,
in our courts, character is generally followed by sentence. The practice is not modern. Undoubtedly Mr. Hastings has the example of criminals of high
antiquity; for Caius Verres, Antonius, and every
other man who has been famous for the pillage and
destruction of provinces, never failed to bring before
their judges the attestations of the injured to their
character. Voltaire says, "Les bons mots sont toujours redits. " A similar occasion has here'produced a similar conduct. He has got just the same character as Caius Verres got in another cause; and the laudationes, which your Lordships know always followed, to save trouble, we mean ourselves to give your Lordships; we mean to give them with this
strong presumption of guilt, that in all this panegyric there is not one word of defence to a single article of charge; they are mere lip-honors: but we
think we derive from those panegyrics, which Mr.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 157
Hastings has had sent over as evidence to supply
the total want of it, an indication of the impossibility of attaining it. Mr. Hastings has brought them
here, and I must say we are under some difficulty
about them, and the difficulty is this. We think we
can produce before your Lordships proofs of barbarity
and peculation by Mr. Hastings; we have the proofs
of them in specific provinces, where those proofs may
be met by contrary proofs, or may lose their weight
from a variety of circumstances. We thought we
had got the matter sure, that everything was settled,
that he could not escape us, after he had himself confessed the bribes he had taken from the specific provinces. But in what condition are we now? We have from those specific provinces the strongest' attestations that there is not any credit to be paid to
his own acknowledgments. In short, we have the
complaints, concerning these crimes of Mr. Hastings,
of the injured persons themselves; we have his own
confessions; we shall produce both to your Lordships.
But these persons now declare, that not only their own
complaints are totally unfounded, but that Mr. Hastings's confessions are not true, and not to be credited.
These are circumstances which your Lordships will
consider in the view you take of this wonderful body
of attestation.
It is a pleasant thing to see in these addresses the
different character and modes of eloquefice of different
countries. In those that will be brought before your
Lordships you will see the beauty of chaste European
panegyric improved by degrees into high, Oriental,
exaggerated, and inflated metaphor. You will see
how the language is first written in English, then
translated into Persian, and then retranslated into
? ? ? ? 158 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
English. There may be something amusing to your
Lordships in this, and the beauty of these styles may,
in. this heavy investigation, tend to give a little gayety
and pleasure. We shall bring before you the European and Asiatic incense. You will have the perfume-shops of the two countries.
One of the accusations which we mean to bring
against Mr. Hastings is upon the part of the Zemindar Radanaut, of the country of Dinagepore. Now
hear what the Zemindar says himself. " As it has
been learned by me, the mutsuddies, and the respectable officers of my zemindary, that the ministers
of England are displeased with the late Governor,
Warren Hastings, Esquire, upon the suspicion that
he oppressed us, took money from us by deceit and
force, and ruined the country, therefore we, upon the
strength of our religion, which we think it incumbent
on and necessary for us to abide by, following the
rules laid down in giving evidence, declare the particulars of the acts and deeds of Warren Hastings,
Esquire, full of circumspection and caution, civility and justice, superior to the conduct of the most
learned, and, by representing what is fact, wipe away
the doubts that have possessed the minds of the ministers of England; that Mr. Hastings is possessed of
fidelity and confidence, and yielding protection to us;
that he is clear of the contamination of mistrust and
wrong, and his mind is free of covetousness or avarice. During the time of his administration no one
saw other conduct than that of protection to the husbandman, and justice. No inhabitant ever experienced afflictions, no one ever felt oppression from him; our reputations have always been guarded from attaclks by his prudence, and our families have always
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 159
been protected by his justice. He never omitted the
smallest instance of kindness towards us, but healed
the wounds of despair with the salve of consolation
by means of his benevolent and kind behavior, never
permitting one of us to sink in the pit of despondence.
He supported every one by his goodness, overset the
designs of evil-minded men by his authority, tied the
hand of oppression with the strong bandage ofjustice,
and by these means expanded the pleasing appearance of happiness and joy over us. He reestablished justice and impartiality. We were during his government in the enjoyment of perfect happiness and ease, and many of us are thankful and satisfied. As
Mr. Hastings was well acquainted with our manners
and customs, he was always desirous, in every respect,
of doing whatever would preserve our religious rites,
and guard them against every kind of accident and injury, and at all times protected us. Whatever we have
experienced from him, and whatever happened from
him, we have written without deceit or exaggeration. "
My Lords, here is a panegyric; and, directly contrary to the usual mode of other accusers, we begin
by producing the panegyrics made upon the person
whom we accuse. We shall produce along with the
charge, and give as evidence, the panegyric and certificate of the persons whom we suppose to have suffered these wrongs. We suffer ourselves even to abandon, what might be our last resource, his owll
confession, by showing that one of the princes from
whom he confesses that he took bribes has given a
certificate of the direct contrary.
All these things will have their weight upon your
Lordships' minds; and when we have put ourselves
under this disadvantage, (what disadvantage it is your
? ? ? ? 160 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Lordships will judge,) at least we shall stand acquitted
of unfairness in charging him with crimes directly
contrary to the panegyrics in this paper contained.
Indeed, I will say this for him, that general charge
and loose accusation may be answered by loose and
general panegyric, and that, if ours were of that
nature, this panegyric would be sufficient to overset
our accusation. But we come before your Lordships
in a different manner and upon different grounds.
I am ordered by the Commons of Great Britain to
support the charge that they have made, and persevere in making, against Warren Hastings, Esquire,
late Governor-General of Bengal, and now a culprit
at your bar: First, for having taken corruptly several bribes, and extorted by force, or under the power
and color of his office, several sums of money from
the unhappy natives of Bengal. The next article
which we shall bring before you is, that he is not only
personally corrupted, but that he has personally corrupted all the other servants of the Company, - those under him, whose corruptions he ought to have controlled, and those above him, whose business it was to control his corruptions.
We purpose to make good to your Lordships the
first of these, by submitting to you, that part of those
sums which are specified in the charge were taken by
Ihim with his own hand and in his own person, but
that much the greater part have been taken from the
natives by the instrumentality of his black agents,
banians, and other dependants, -whose confidential
connection with him, and whose agency on his part
in corrupt transactions, if his counsel should be bold
enough to challenge us to the proof, we shall fully
prove before you. The next part, and the second
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON'THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 161
branch of his corruption, namely, what is commonly
called his active corruption, distinguishing the per-.
sonal under the name of passive, will appear from his
having given, under color of contracts, a number of
corrupt and lucrative advantages from a number of
unauthorized and unreasonable grants, pensions, and
allowances, by which he corrupted actively the whole
service of the Company. And, lastly, we shall show.
that, by establishing a universal connivance from onle
end of the service to the other, lie has not only corrupted and contaminated it in all its parts, but bound it in a common league of iniquity to support mutually
each other against the inquiry that should detect and
the justice that should punish their offences. These
two charges, namely, of his active and passive corruption, we shall bring one after the other, as strongly and clearly illustrating and as powerfully confirming
each other.
The first which we shall bring before you is his own
passive corruption, - so we commonly call it. Bribes
are so little known in this country that we can hardly
get clear and specific technical names to distinguish
them; but in future, I am afraid, the conduct of Mr.
Hastings will improve our law vocabulary. The first,
then, of these offences with which Mr. Hastings stands
charged here is receiving bribes himself, or through
his banians. Every one of these are overt acts of the
general charge of bribery, and they are every one
of them, separately taken, substantive crimes. But
whatever the criminal nature of these acts was, (and
the nature was very criminal, and the consequences
to the country very dreadful,) yet we mean to prove
to your Lordships that they were not single acts, that
they were not acts committed as opportunity offered,.
VOL. X. 11
? ? ? ? 162 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or as necessity tempted or urged upon the occasion,
but that they are parts of a general systematic plan
of corruption, for advancing his fortune at the expense
of his integrity; that lie has, for that purpose, not
only taken the opportunity of his own power, but
made whole establishments, altered and perverted
others, and created complete revolutions in the country's government, for the purpose of makiing the power which ouglit to be subservient to legal government subserviellt to corruptionl; that, when he could no
loinger cover these fraudulent proceedings by artifice,
he endeavored to justify them by principle. These
artifices we mean to detect; these principles we mean
to attack, and, with your Lordships' aid, to demolish,
destroy,,and subvert forever.
My Lords, I must say, that in this business, which
is a matter of collusion, concealment, and deceit, your
Lordships will, perhaps, not feel the same degree of
interest as in the others. Hitherto you have had before you crimes of dignllity: you have had before you
the ruin and expulsion of great and illustrious families, the breach of solemnl public treaties, the merciless pillage and total subversion of the first houses in Asia. But the crimes which are the most striking to
~the imagination are not always the most pernicious
in their effects: in these high, eminent acts of domineering tyranlny, their very magnritude proves a sort
of corrective to their virulence. The occasions on
which they can be exercised are rare; the persons
upon whom they canl be exercised few; the persons
who can exercise them, in the nature of things, are
not many. These higlh tragic acts of superior, overbearing tyranny are privileged crimes; they are the. unhappy, dreadful prerogative, they are the distin
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 163
guished and incommunicable attributes, of superior
wickedness in eminent station.
But, my Lords, when the vices of low, sordid, and
illiberal minds infect that high situation,-when theft,
bribery, and peculation, attended with fraud, prevarication, falsehood, misrepresentation, and forgery -- when all these follow in one train, -- when these
vices, which gender and spawn in dirt, and are
nursed in dunghills, come and pollute with their
slime that throne which ought to be a seat of dignity
and purity, the evil is much greater; it may operate
daily and hourly; it is not only imitable, but improvable, and it will be imitated, and will be improved, from the highest to the lowest, through all the gradations of a corrupt government. They are
reptile vices. There are situations in which the acts
of the individual are of some moment, the example
comparatively of little importance. In the other, the
mischief of the example is infinite.
My Lords, when once a Governor-General receives
bribes, he gives a signal to universal pillage to all the
inferior parts of the service. The bridles upon hardmouthed passion are removed; they are taken away;
they are broken. Fear and shame, the great guards
to virtue next to conscience, are gone. Shame! how
can it exist? -- it will soon blush away its awkward
sensibility. Shame, my Lords, cannot exist long,
when it is seen that crimes which naturally bring
disgrace are attended with all the outward symbols,
characteristics, and rewards of honor and of virtue,
- when it is seen that high station, great rank, general applause, vast wealth follow the commission of
peculation and bribery. Is it to be believed that men
can long be ashamed of that which they see to be the
? ? ? ? 164 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
road to honor? As to fear, let a Governor-General
once take bribes, there is an end of all fear in the service. What have they to fear? Is it the man whose
example they follow that is to bring them before a
tribunal for their punishment? Can he open any inquiry? He cannot: he that opens a channel of inquiry under these circumstances opens a high-road to his own detection. Can he make any laws to prevent it? None: for he can make no laws to restrain
that practice without the breach of his own laws immediately in his own conduct. If we once can admit,
for a single instant, in a Governor-General, a principle, however defended, upon any pretence whatever,
to receive bribes in consequence of his office, there is
an end of all virtue, an end of the laws, and no hope
left in the supreme justice of the country. . We are
sensible of all these difficulties; we have felt them;
and perhaps it has required no small degree of exertion for us to get the better of these difficulties
which are thrown in our way by a Governor-General
accepting bribes, and thereby screening and protecting the whole service in such iniquitous proceedings.
With regard to this matter, we are to state to your
Lordships, ill order to bring it fully and distinctly before you, what the nature of this distemper of bribery is in the Indian government. We are to state what the laws and rules are which have been opposed
to prevent it, and the utter insufficiency of all that
have been proposed: to state the grievance, the instructions of the Company and government, the acts
of Parliament, the constructions upon the acts of
Parliament. We are to state to your Lordships the
particular situation of Mr. Hastings; we are to
state the trust the Company had in him for the pre
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 165
vention of all those evils; and then we are to prove
that every evil, that all those grievances which the law
intended to prevent, which there were covenants to
restrain, and with respect to which there were encouragements to smooth and make easy the path of duty, Mr. Hastings was invested with a special, direct, and
immediate trust to prevent. We are to prove to your
Lordships that he is the man who, in his own person
collectively, has done more mischief than all those
persons whose evil practices have produced all those
laws, those regulations, and even his own appointment.
The first thing that we shall do is to state, and which
we shall prove in evidence, that this vice of bribery
was the ancient, radical, endemical, and ruinous distemper of the Company's affairs in India, from the
time of their first establishment there. Very often
there are no words nor any description which can
adequately convey the state of a thing like the direct
evidence of the thing itself: because the former might
be suspected of exaggeration; you might think that
which was really fact to be nothing but the coloring
of the person that explained it; and therefore I think
that it will be much better to give to your Lordships
here a direct state of the Presidency at the time when
the Company enacted those covenants which Mr. Hastings entered into, and when they took those measures to prevent the very evils from persons placed in those
very stations and in those very circumstances in which
we charge Mr. Hastings with having committed the
offences we now bring before you.
I wish your Lordships to know that we are going to
read a consultation of Lord Clive's, who was sent out
for the express purpose of reforming the state of the
? ? ? ? 166 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS
Company, in order to show the magnitude of the pecuniary corruptions that prevailed in it. ' It is from a due sense of the regard we owe and
profess to. your interests and to our own honor, that
we think it indispensably necessary to lay open to your
view a series of transactions too notoriously known
to be suppressed, and too affecting to your interest,
to the national character, and to the existence of the
Company in Bengal, to escape unnoticed and uncensured, - transactions which seem to demonstrate that
every spring of this government was smeared with
corruption, that principles of rapacity and oppression
universally prevailed, and that every spark of sentiment and public spirit was lost and extinguished in
the unbounded lust of unmerited wealth.
"' To illustrate these positions, we must exhibit to
your view a most unpleasing variety of complaints,
inquiries, accusations, and vindications, the particulars of which are entered in our Proceedings and the
Appendix, - assuring you that we undertake this task
with peculiar reluctance, from the personal regard we
entertain for some of the gentlemen whose characters will appear to be deeply affected.
"' At Fort St. George we received the first advices
of the demise of Mir Jaffier and of Sujah Dowlah's
defeat. It was there firmly imagined that no definite
measures would be taken, either in respect to a peace
or filling the vacancy in the nizamut, before our arrival, - as the' Lapwing' arrived in the month of January with your general letter, and the appointment of a committee with express powers to that purpose,
for the successful exertion of which the happiest occasion now offered. However, a contrary resolution
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 167
prevailed in the Council. The opportunity of acquiring immense fortunes was too inviting to be neglected, and the temptation too powerful to be resisted. A treaty was hastily drawnl up by the board, or rather transcribed, with few unimportant additions, from
that concluded with Mir Jaffier, - and a deputation,
consisting of Messrs. Johnistone, senior, Middletoll, and
Leycester, appointed to raise the natural son of the deceased Nabob to the subahdarry, in prejudice of the
claim of the grandson; and for this measure sucll
reasons are assigned as ought to have dictated a diametrically opposite resolution. Meeran's son was a
minor, which circumstance alone would have naturally brought the whole administration into our hands,
at a juncture when it became indispensably necessary we should realize that shadow of power and influence which, having no solid foundation, was exposed to the danger of being annihilated by the first stroke
of adverse fortune. But this inconsistence was not
regarded; nor was it material to the views for precipitating the treaty, which was pressed on the young
Nabob at the first interview, in so earnest and indelicate a manner as highly disgusted him and chagrined
his ministers; while not a single rupee was stipulated
for the Company, whose interests were sacrificed, that
their servants might revel in the spoils of a treasury
before impoverished, but now totally exhausted.
"This scene of corruption was first disclosed, at
a visit the Nabob was paid, to Lord Clive and the
gentlemen of the Committee, a few days after our
arrival. He there delivered to his Lordship a letter
filled with bitter complaints of the insults and indignities he had been exposed to, and the embezzlement
of near twenty lacs of rupees, issued from his treas
? ? ? ? 168 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ury for purposes unknownl, during the late negotiations. So public a complaint could not be disregarded, and it soon produced an inquiry. We referred the letter to the board, in expectation of obtaining a satisfactory account of the application of this money, and were answered only by a warm remonstrance entered by Mr. Leycester against that
very Nabob in whose elevation he boasts of having
been a principal agent.
"' Mahomed Reza Khan, the Naib Subah, was then
called upon to account for this large disbursement
from the treasury; and he soon delivered to the
Committee the very extraordinary narrative entered
in our Proceedings the 6th of June, wherein he specifies the several names and sums, by whom paid, and
to whom, whether in cash, bills, or obligations. So
precise, so accurate an account as this of money for
secret and venal services was never, we believe, before
this period, exhibited to the Honorable Court of Directors, -at least, never vouched by such undeniable
testimony and authentic documents: by Juggut Seet,
who himself was obliged to contribute largely to the
sums demanded; by Muley Ram, who was employed
by Mr. Johnstone in all those pecuniary transactions;
by the Nabob and Mahomed Reza Khan, who were
the heaviest sufferers; and, lastly, by the confession
of the gentlemen themselves whose names are specified ill the distribution list.
"Juggut Seet expressly declared in his narrative,
that the sum which he agreed to pay the deputation,
amounting to 125,000 rupees, was extorted by menaces; and since the close of our inquiry, and the
opinions we delivered in the Proceedings of the 21st
June, it fully appears that the presents from the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 169
Nabob and Mahomed Reza Khan, exceeding the immense sum of seventeen lacs, were not the voluntary
offerings of gratitude, but contributions levied on the
weakness of the government, and violently exacted
from the dependent state and timid disposition of the
minister. The charge, indeed, is denied on the one
hand, as well as affirmed on the other. Your honorable board Mnust therefore determine how far the circumstance of extortion may aggravate the crime of disobedience to your positive orders, the exposing the
government in a manner to sale, and receiving the
infamous wages of corruption from opposite parties
and contending interests. We speak with boldness,
because we speak from conviction founded upon indubitable facts, that, besides the above sums specified
in the distribution account to the amount of 228,125
pounds sterling, there was likewise to the value of
several lacs of rupees procured from Nundcomar and
Roydullub, each of whom aspired at and obtained a
promise of that very employment it was predetermined to bestow on Mahomed Reza Khan.
(Signed at the end)
C CLIVE.
WM B. SUMNER.
JOHN CARNAC.
H. VERELST.
FRA8 SYKES. "
This paper cannot be denied to be a paper of
weight and authenticity, because it is signed by a
gentleman now in this House, who sits oil one side
of the gentleman at your bar, as his bail. This
grievance, therefore, so authenticated, so great, and
described in so many circumstances, I think it might
? ? ? ? 170 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
be sufficient for me, in this part of the business, to
show was, when Mr. Hastings was sent to India, a
prevalent evil.
But, my Lords, it is necessary that I should show
to you something more, because, prigna fronte, this
is some exculpation of Mr. Hastings: for, if he was
only a partaker in a general misconduct, it was
rather vitium loci et vitium, temporis than vitium
hominis. This might be said in his exculpation.
But I am next to show your Lordships the means
which the Company took for removing this grievance; and that Mr. Hastings's peculiar trust, the
great specific ground of his appointment, was a confidence that he would eradicate this very evil, of
which we are going to prove that he has been one
of the principal promoters. I wish your Lordships
to advert to one particular circumstance, - namely,
that the two persons who were bidders at this time,
and at this auction of government, for the favor and
countenance of the Presidency at Calcutta, were
Mahomed Reza Khan and Rajah Nundcomar. I
wish your Lordships to recollect this by-and-by, when
we shall bring before you the very same two persons,
who, in the same sort of transaction, and in circumstances exactly similar, or very nearly so, were candidates for the favor of Mr. Hastings. My Lords, our next step will be to show you that
the Company in 1768 had made a covenant expressly
forbidding the taking of presents of above 4001. value
in each present by the Governor-General. I take it
for granted, this will not be much litigated. They renewed and enforced that with other covenants and
other instructions; and at last came an act of Parliament, in the clearest, the most definite, the most spe
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 171
cific words that all the wisdom of the legislature, intent upon the eradication of this evil, could use, to prevent the receiving of presents.
My Lords, I think it is necessary to state, that
there has been some little difficulty concerning this
word, presents. Bribery and extortion have been
covered by the name of presents, and the authority
and practice of the East has been adduced as a palliation of the crime. My Lords, no authority of the East will be a palliation of the breach of laws enacted
in the West: and to those laws of the West, and not
the vicious customs of the East, we insist upon making Mr. Hastings liable. But do not your Lordships see that this is an entire mistake? that there never
was any custom of the East for it? I do not mean
vicious practices and customs, which it is the business
of good laws and good customs to eradicate. There
are three species of presents known in the East, - two
of them payments of money known to be legal, and
the other perfectly illegal, and which has a name exactly expressing it in the manner our language does. It is necessary that your Lordships should see that
Mr. Hastings has made use of a perversion of the
names of authorized gifts to cover the most abominable
and prostituted bribery. The first of these presents is
known in the country by the name of pesheush: this
peshcush is a fine paid, upon the grant of lands, to
the sovereign, or whoever grants them. The second
is the nuzzer, or nuzzerana, which is a tribute of acknowledgment from an inferior to a superior. The
last is called reshwat, in the Persian language,- that
is to say, a bribe, or sum of money clandestinely
and corruptly taken, - and is as much distinguished
from the others as, in the English language, a fine or
? ? ? ? 172 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
acknowledgment is distinguished from a bribe. To
show your Lordships this, we shall give in evidence,
that, whenever a peshcush or fine is paid, it is a sum
of money publicly paid, and paid in proportion to the
grant, - and that the sum is entered upon the very
grant itself. We shall prove the nuzzer is in the
same manner entered, and that all legal fees are indorsed upon the body of the grant for which they are
taken: and that they are no more in the East than
in the West any kind of color or pretence for corrupt
acts, which are known by the circumstance of their
being clandestinely taken, and which are acknowledged and confessed to be illegal and corrupt. Having stated that Mr. Hastings, in some of the evidence that we shall produce, endeavors to confound these
three things, I am only to remark that the nuzzer is
generally a very small sum of money, that it sometimes amounts to one gold mohur, that sometimes it
is less, and that, in all the records of the Company, I
have never known it exceed one gold mohur, or about
thirty-five shillings, -- passing by the fifty gold mohurs which were given to Mr. Hastings by Cheyt Sing,
and a hundred gold mohurs which were given to the
Mogul, as a nuzzer, by Mahomed Ali, Nabob of Arcot.
The Company, seeing that this nuzzer, though
small in each sum, might amount at last to a large
tax upon the country, (and it did so in fact,) thought
proper to prohibit any sum of money to be taken upon any pretext whatever; and the Company in the
year 1775 did expressly explode the whole doctrine
of peshcush, nuzzer, and every other private lucrative
emolument, under whatever name, to be taken by
the Governor-General, and did expressly send out an
order that that was the construction of the act, and
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 173
that he was not even to take a nuzzer. Thus we
shall show that that act had totally cut up the whole
system of bribery and corruption, and that Mr. Hastings had no sort of color whatever for taking the money which we shall prove he has taken.
I know that positive prohibitions, that acts of Parliament, that covenants, are things of very little validity indeed, as long as all the means of corruption are left in power, and all the temptations to corrupt
-profit are left in poverty. I should really think that
the Company deserved to be ill served, if they had
not annexed such appointments to great trusts as
might secure the persons intrusted from the temptations of unlawful emolument, and, what in all cases
is the greatest security, given a lawful gratification
to the natural passions of men. Matrimony is to be
used as a true remedy against a vicious course of
profligate manners; fair and lawful emoluments, and
the just profits of office, are opposed to the unlawful
means which might be made use of to supply them.
I impeach him in the name of the people of India,
whose laws, rights, and liberties he has subverted,
whose properties he has destroyed, whose country he
has laid waste and desolate.
I impeach him in the name and by virtue of those
eternal laws of justice which he has violated.
I impeach him in the name of human nature itself,
which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed,
in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life. VOL. X. 10
? ? ? ? SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE. APRIL AND MAY, I789.
? ? ? ? NOTE.
AFTER Mr. Burke had concluded the opening speeches, the
first article of the impeachment was brought forward, on the 22d
of February, 1788, by Mr. Fox, and supported by Mr. Grey on
the 25th. After the evidence upon this article had been adduced,
it was summed up and enforced by Mr. Anstruther, on the 11th
day of April following.
The next article with which the Commons proceeded was
brought forward on the 15th of April, 1788, by Mr. Adam, and
supported by Mr. Pelham; and the evidence, in part upon the
second article of charge, was summed up and enforced, on the 3d
of June, by Mr. Sheridan.
On the 21st of April, 1789, Mr. Burke opened the sixth charge,
bribery and corruption, in the following speech, which was continued on the 25th of April, and on the 5th and 7th May, in the same session.
? ? ? ? SP E E C H
ON
THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
FIRST DAY: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1789.
MY LORDS, -- An event which had spread for a
considerable time an universal grief and consternation through this kingdom, and which in its issue diffused as universal and transcendent a joy, has in the circumstances both of our depression and of our
exaltation produced a considerable delay, if not a total suspension, of the most important functions of
government.
My Lords, we now resume our office, --and we
resume it with new and redoubled alacrity, and, we
trust, under not less propitious omens than when we
left it, in this House, at the end of the preceding session. We come to this duty with a greater degree
of earnestness and zeal, because we are urged to it by
many and very peculiar circumstances. This day we
come from an House where the last steps Were taken
(and I suppose something has happened similar in
this) to prepare our way to attend with the utmost
solemnity, in another place, a great national thanksgiving for having restored the sovereign to his Parliament and the Parliament to its sovereign. But, my Lords, it is not only in the house of prayer
that we offer to the First Cause the acceptable homage
of our rational nature, - my Lords, in this House, at
? ? ? ? 150 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
this bar, in this place, in every place where His conmmands are obeyed, His worship is performed. And,
my Lords, I must boldly say, (and I think I shall
hardly be contradicted by your Lordships, or by any
persons versed in the law which guides us all,) that
the highest act of religion, and the highest homage
which we can and ought to pay, is an imitation of
the Divine perfections, as far as such a nature can
imitate such perfections, and that by this means alone
we can make our homage acceptable to Him.
My Lords, in His temple we shall not forget that
His most distinguished attribute is justice, and that
the first link in the chain by which we are held to the
Supreme Judge of All is justice; and that it is in this
solemn temple of representative justice we may best
give Him praise, because we can here best imitate His
divine attributes. If ever there was a cause in which
justice and mercy are not only combined and reconciled, but incorporated, it is in this cause of suffering
nations, which we now bring before your Lordships
this second session of Parliament, unwearied and unfatigued in our persevering pursuit; and we feel it
to be a necessary preliminary, a necessary fact, a necessary attendant and concomitant of every public
thanksgiving, that we should express our gratitude
by our virtues, and not merely with our mouths, and
that, when we are giving thanks for acts of mercy,
we should render ourselves worthy of them by doing
acts of mercy ourselves. My Lords, these considerations, independent of those which were our first movers in this business, strongly urge us at present to pursue with all zeal and perseverance the great cause
we have now in hand. And we feel this to be the
more necessary, because we cannot but be sensible that
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. FIRST DAY. 151
light, unstable, variable, capricious, inconstant, fastidious minds soon tire in any pursuit that requires strength, steadiness, and perseverance. Such persons,
who we trust are but few, and who certainly do not
resemble your Lordships nor us, begin already to say,
How long is this business to continue? Our answer
is, It is to continue till its ends are obtained.
We know, that, by a mysterious dispensation of
Providence, injury is quick and rapid, and justice
slow; and we may say that those who have not patience and vigor of mind to attend the tardy pace of justice counteract the order of Providence, and are
resolved not to be just at all. We, therefore, instead
of bending the order of Nature to the laxity of our
characters and tempers, must rather confirm ourselves
by a manly fortitude and virtuous perseverance to
continue within those forms, and to wrestle with injustice, until we have shown that those virtues which sometimes wickedness debauches into its cause, such
as vigor, energy, activity, fortitude of spirit, are called
back and brought to their true and natural service, --
and that in the pursuit of wickedness, in the following it through all the winding recesses and mazes of
its artifices, we shall show as much vigor, as much
constancy, as much diligence, energy, and perseverance, as any others can do in endeavoring to elude the laws and triumph over the justice of their country.
My Lords, we have thought it the more necessary to
say this, because it has been given out that we might
faint in this business. No: we follow, and trust we
shall always follow, that great emblem of antiquity, in
which the person who held out to the end of a long
line of labors found the reward of all the eleven in the
twelfth. Our labor, therefore, will be our reward;
? ? ? ? 152 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
and we' will go on, we will pursue with vigor and
diligence, in a manner suitable to the Commons of
Great Britain, every mode of corruption, till we have
thoroughly eradicated it.
I think it necessary to say a word, too, upon another circumstance, of which there is some complaint, as if some injustice had arisen from voluntary delay
on our part.
I have already alluded to, first, the melancholy,
then the joyful occasion of this delay; and I shall
now make one remark on another part of the complaint, which I understand was formally made to your Lordships soon after we had announced our
resolution to proceed in this great cause of suffering
nations before you. It has been alleged, that the
length of the pursuit had already very much distressed
the person who is the object of it,- that it leaned
upon a fortune unequal to support it, --and that
30,0001. had been already spent in the preliminary
preparations for the defence.
My Lords, I do admit that all true, genuine, and
unadulterated justice considers with a certain degree
of tenderness the person whom it is called to punish,
and never oppresses those by the process who ought
not to be oppressed but by the sentence of the court
before which they are brought. The Commons have
heard, indeed, with some degree of astonishment, that
30,0001. hath been laid out by Mr. Hastings in this
business. We, who have some experience in the
conduct of affairs of this nature, we, who profess to
proceed with regard not to the economy so much as
to the rigor of this prosecution, (and we are justified
by our country in so doing,) upon a collation and
comparison of the public expenses with those which
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. . 153
the defendant is supposed to have incurred, are much
surprised to hear it. We suppose that his solicitors
can give a good account to him of those expenses, -.
that the thing is true, -- and that he has actually,
through them, incurred this expense. We have nothing to do with this: but we shall remove ally degree of uneasiness from your Lordships' minds, and from
our own, when we show you in the charge which we
shall bring before you this day, that one bribe only
received by Mr. Hastings, the smallest of his bribes,
or nearly the smallest, the bribe received from Rajah
Nobkissin, is alone more than equal to have paid all
the charges Mr. Hastings is stated to have incurred;
and if this be the case, your Lordships will not be
made very uneasy in a case of bribery by finding that
you press upon the sources of peculation.
It has also been said that we weary out the public
patience in this cause. The House of Commons do
not call upon your Lordships to do anything of which
they do not set the example. They have very lately
sat in the Colchester Committee as many, within one
or two, days successively as have been spent in this
trial interruptedly in the course of two years. Every
cause deserves that it should be tried according to
its nature and circumstances; and in the case of the
Colchester Committee, in the trial of paltry briberies
of odd pounds, shillings, and pence, in the corruption
of a returning officer, who is but a miller, they spent
nearly the same number of days that we have been
inquiring into the ruin of kingdoms by the peculation
and bribery of the chief governor of the provinces of
Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Therefore God forbid
that we should faint at thrice thirty days, if the proceedings should be drawn into such a length, whel.
? ? ? ? 154 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
for a small crime as much time has been spent as has
yet been spent in this great cause!
Having now cleared the way with regard to the
local and temporary circumstances of this case, --
having shown your Lordships that too much time has
not been spent in it, - having no reason to think,
from the time which has hitherto been spent, that
time will be unnecessarily spent in future, --I trust
your Lordships will think that time ought neither to
be spared nor squandered in this business: we will
therefore proceed, article by article, as far as the discretion of the House of Commons shall think fit, for the justice of the case, to limit the inquiry, or to
extend it.
We are now going to bring before your Lordships
the sixth article. It is all article of charge of bribery and corruption against Mr. Hastings; but yet
we must confess that we feel some little difficulty in
limine. We here appear in the name and character
not only of representatives of the Commons of Great
Britain, but representatives of the inhabitants of Bengal: and yet we have had lately come into our hands such ample certificates, such full testimonials, from
every person in whose cause we complain, that we
shall appear to be in the strangest situation in the
world, --the situation of persons complaining, who
are disavowed by the persons in whose name and
character they complain. This would have been a
very great difficulty in the beginning, especially as it
is come before us in a flood-tide of panegyric. No
encomium can be more exalted or more beautifully
expressed. No language can more strongly paint
the perfect satisfaction, the entire acquiescence, of
all the nations of Bellgal, and their wonderful ad
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 155
miration of the character of the person whom we
have brought as a criminal to your bar upon their
part. I do admit that it is a very awkward circumstance; but yet, at the same time, the same candor which has induced the House of Commons to bring
before you the bosom friends and confidants of Mr.
Hastings as their evidence will not suffer them to
suppress or withhold for a moment from your Lordships this universal voice of Bengal, as an attestation
in Mr. Hastings's favor, and we shall produce it as a
part of our evidence. Oh, my Lords, consider the
situation of a people who are forced to mix their
praises with their groans, who are forced to sign,
with hands which have been in torture, and with
the thumb-screws but just taken from them, an at
testation in favor of the person from whom all their
sufferings have been derived! When we prove to
you the things that we shall prove, this will, I hope,
give your Lordships a full, conclusive, and satisfactory proof of the misery to which these people have
been reduced. You will see before you, what is so
well expressed by one of our poets as the homage
of tyrants, " that homage with the mouth which the
heart would fain deny, but dares not. " Mr. Hastings has received that homage, and that homage we
mean to present to your Lordships: we mean to present it, because it will show your Lordships clearly,
that, after Mr. Hastings has ransacked Bengal from
one end to the other, and has used all the power which
lie derives from having every friend and every dependant of his in every office from one end of that government to the other, lie has not, in all those panegyrics, those fine high-flown Eastern encomiums, got one
word of refutation or one word of evidence against
? ? ? ? 156 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
any charge whatever which we produce against him.
Every one knows, that, in the course of criminal
trials, when no evidence of alibi can be brought,
when all the arts of the Old Bailey are exhausted,
the last thing produced is evidence to character.
His cause, therefore, is gone, when, having ransacked
Bengal, he has nothing to say for his conduct, and at
length appeals to his character. In those little papers which are given us of our proceedings in our criminal courts, it is always an omen of what is to
follow: after the evidence of a murder, a forgery, or
robbery, it ends in his character: " He has an admirable character; I have known him from a boy; he is wonderfully good; he is the best of men; I would
trust him with untold gold": and immediately follows, " Guilty, -Death. " This is the way in which,
in our courts, character is generally followed by sentence. The practice is not modern. Undoubtedly Mr. Hastings has the example of criminals of high
antiquity; for Caius Verres, Antonius, and every
other man who has been famous for the pillage and
destruction of provinces, never failed to bring before
their judges the attestations of the injured to their
character. Voltaire says, "Les bons mots sont toujours redits. " A similar occasion has here'produced a similar conduct. He has got just the same character as Caius Verres got in another cause; and the laudationes, which your Lordships know always followed, to save trouble, we mean ourselves to give your Lordships; we mean to give them with this
strong presumption of guilt, that in all this panegyric there is not one word of defence to a single article of charge; they are mere lip-honors: but we
think we derive from those panegyrics, which Mr.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 157
Hastings has had sent over as evidence to supply
the total want of it, an indication of the impossibility of attaining it. Mr. Hastings has brought them
here, and I must say we are under some difficulty
about them, and the difficulty is this. We think we
can produce before your Lordships proofs of barbarity
and peculation by Mr. Hastings; we have the proofs
of them in specific provinces, where those proofs may
be met by contrary proofs, or may lose their weight
from a variety of circumstances. We thought we
had got the matter sure, that everything was settled,
that he could not escape us, after he had himself confessed the bribes he had taken from the specific provinces. But in what condition are we now? We have from those specific provinces the strongest' attestations that there is not any credit to be paid to
his own acknowledgments. In short, we have the
complaints, concerning these crimes of Mr. Hastings,
of the injured persons themselves; we have his own
confessions; we shall produce both to your Lordships.
But these persons now declare, that not only their own
complaints are totally unfounded, but that Mr. Hastings's confessions are not true, and not to be credited.
These are circumstances which your Lordships will
consider in the view you take of this wonderful body
of attestation.
It is a pleasant thing to see in these addresses the
different character and modes of eloquefice of different
countries. In those that will be brought before your
Lordships you will see the beauty of chaste European
panegyric improved by degrees into high, Oriental,
exaggerated, and inflated metaphor. You will see
how the language is first written in English, then
translated into Persian, and then retranslated into
? ? ? ? 158 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
English. There may be something amusing to your
Lordships in this, and the beauty of these styles may,
in. this heavy investigation, tend to give a little gayety
and pleasure. We shall bring before you the European and Asiatic incense. You will have the perfume-shops of the two countries.
One of the accusations which we mean to bring
against Mr. Hastings is upon the part of the Zemindar Radanaut, of the country of Dinagepore. Now
hear what the Zemindar says himself. " As it has
been learned by me, the mutsuddies, and the respectable officers of my zemindary, that the ministers
of England are displeased with the late Governor,
Warren Hastings, Esquire, upon the suspicion that
he oppressed us, took money from us by deceit and
force, and ruined the country, therefore we, upon the
strength of our religion, which we think it incumbent
on and necessary for us to abide by, following the
rules laid down in giving evidence, declare the particulars of the acts and deeds of Warren Hastings,
Esquire, full of circumspection and caution, civility and justice, superior to the conduct of the most
learned, and, by representing what is fact, wipe away
the doubts that have possessed the minds of the ministers of England; that Mr. Hastings is possessed of
fidelity and confidence, and yielding protection to us;
that he is clear of the contamination of mistrust and
wrong, and his mind is free of covetousness or avarice. During the time of his administration no one
saw other conduct than that of protection to the husbandman, and justice. No inhabitant ever experienced afflictions, no one ever felt oppression from him; our reputations have always been guarded from attaclks by his prudence, and our families have always
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 159
been protected by his justice. He never omitted the
smallest instance of kindness towards us, but healed
the wounds of despair with the salve of consolation
by means of his benevolent and kind behavior, never
permitting one of us to sink in the pit of despondence.
He supported every one by his goodness, overset the
designs of evil-minded men by his authority, tied the
hand of oppression with the strong bandage ofjustice,
and by these means expanded the pleasing appearance of happiness and joy over us. He reestablished justice and impartiality. We were during his government in the enjoyment of perfect happiness and ease, and many of us are thankful and satisfied. As
Mr. Hastings was well acquainted with our manners
and customs, he was always desirous, in every respect,
of doing whatever would preserve our religious rites,
and guard them against every kind of accident and injury, and at all times protected us. Whatever we have
experienced from him, and whatever happened from
him, we have written without deceit or exaggeration. "
My Lords, here is a panegyric; and, directly contrary to the usual mode of other accusers, we begin
by producing the panegyrics made upon the person
whom we accuse. We shall produce along with the
charge, and give as evidence, the panegyric and certificate of the persons whom we suppose to have suffered these wrongs. We suffer ourselves even to abandon, what might be our last resource, his owll
confession, by showing that one of the princes from
whom he confesses that he took bribes has given a
certificate of the direct contrary.
All these things will have their weight upon your
Lordships' minds; and when we have put ourselves
under this disadvantage, (what disadvantage it is your
? ? ? ? 160 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Lordships will judge,) at least we shall stand acquitted
of unfairness in charging him with crimes directly
contrary to the panegyrics in this paper contained.
Indeed, I will say this for him, that general charge
and loose accusation may be answered by loose and
general panegyric, and that, if ours were of that
nature, this panegyric would be sufficient to overset
our accusation. But we come before your Lordships
in a different manner and upon different grounds.
I am ordered by the Commons of Great Britain to
support the charge that they have made, and persevere in making, against Warren Hastings, Esquire,
late Governor-General of Bengal, and now a culprit
at your bar: First, for having taken corruptly several bribes, and extorted by force, or under the power
and color of his office, several sums of money from
the unhappy natives of Bengal. The next article
which we shall bring before you is, that he is not only
personally corrupted, but that he has personally corrupted all the other servants of the Company, - those under him, whose corruptions he ought to have controlled, and those above him, whose business it was to control his corruptions.
We purpose to make good to your Lordships the
first of these, by submitting to you, that part of those
sums which are specified in the charge were taken by
Ihim with his own hand and in his own person, but
that much the greater part have been taken from the
natives by the instrumentality of his black agents,
banians, and other dependants, -whose confidential
connection with him, and whose agency on his part
in corrupt transactions, if his counsel should be bold
enough to challenge us to the proof, we shall fully
prove before you. The next part, and the second
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON'THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 161
branch of his corruption, namely, what is commonly
called his active corruption, distinguishing the per-.
sonal under the name of passive, will appear from his
having given, under color of contracts, a number of
corrupt and lucrative advantages from a number of
unauthorized and unreasonable grants, pensions, and
allowances, by which he corrupted actively the whole
service of the Company. And, lastly, we shall show.
that, by establishing a universal connivance from onle
end of the service to the other, lie has not only corrupted and contaminated it in all its parts, but bound it in a common league of iniquity to support mutually
each other against the inquiry that should detect and
the justice that should punish their offences. These
two charges, namely, of his active and passive corruption, we shall bring one after the other, as strongly and clearly illustrating and as powerfully confirming
each other.
The first which we shall bring before you is his own
passive corruption, - so we commonly call it. Bribes
are so little known in this country that we can hardly
get clear and specific technical names to distinguish
them; but in future, I am afraid, the conduct of Mr.
Hastings will improve our law vocabulary. The first,
then, of these offences with which Mr. Hastings stands
charged here is receiving bribes himself, or through
his banians. Every one of these are overt acts of the
general charge of bribery, and they are every one
of them, separately taken, substantive crimes. But
whatever the criminal nature of these acts was, (and
the nature was very criminal, and the consequences
to the country very dreadful,) yet we mean to prove
to your Lordships that they were not single acts, that
they were not acts committed as opportunity offered,.
VOL. X. 11
? ? ? ? 162 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or as necessity tempted or urged upon the occasion,
but that they are parts of a general systematic plan
of corruption, for advancing his fortune at the expense
of his integrity; that lie has, for that purpose, not
only taken the opportunity of his own power, but
made whole establishments, altered and perverted
others, and created complete revolutions in the country's government, for the purpose of makiing the power which ouglit to be subservient to legal government subserviellt to corruptionl; that, when he could no
loinger cover these fraudulent proceedings by artifice,
he endeavored to justify them by principle. These
artifices we mean to detect; these principles we mean
to attack, and, with your Lordships' aid, to demolish,
destroy,,and subvert forever.
My Lords, I must say, that in this business, which
is a matter of collusion, concealment, and deceit, your
Lordships will, perhaps, not feel the same degree of
interest as in the others. Hitherto you have had before you crimes of dignllity: you have had before you
the ruin and expulsion of great and illustrious families, the breach of solemnl public treaties, the merciless pillage and total subversion of the first houses in Asia. But the crimes which are the most striking to
~the imagination are not always the most pernicious
in their effects: in these high, eminent acts of domineering tyranlny, their very magnritude proves a sort
of corrective to their virulence. The occasions on
which they can be exercised are rare; the persons
upon whom they canl be exercised few; the persons
who can exercise them, in the nature of things, are
not many. These higlh tragic acts of superior, overbearing tyranny are privileged crimes; they are the. unhappy, dreadful prerogative, they are the distin
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 163
guished and incommunicable attributes, of superior
wickedness in eminent station.
But, my Lords, when the vices of low, sordid, and
illiberal minds infect that high situation,-when theft,
bribery, and peculation, attended with fraud, prevarication, falsehood, misrepresentation, and forgery -- when all these follow in one train, -- when these
vices, which gender and spawn in dirt, and are
nursed in dunghills, come and pollute with their
slime that throne which ought to be a seat of dignity
and purity, the evil is much greater; it may operate
daily and hourly; it is not only imitable, but improvable, and it will be imitated, and will be improved, from the highest to the lowest, through all the gradations of a corrupt government. They are
reptile vices. There are situations in which the acts
of the individual are of some moment, the example
comparatively of little importance. In the other, the
mischief of the example is infinite.
My Lords, when once a Governor-General receives
bribes, he gives a signal to universal pillage to all the
inferior parts of the service. The bridles upon hardmouthed passion are removed; they are taken away;
they are broken. Fear and shame, the great guards
to virtue next to conscience, are gone. Shame! how
can it exist? -- it will soon blush away its awkward
sensibility. Shame, my Lords, cannot exist long,
when it is seen that crimes which naturally bring
disgrace are attended with all the outward symbols,
characteristics, and rewards of honor and of virtue,
- when it is seen that high station, great rank, general applause, vast wealth follow the commission of
peculation and bribery. Is it to be believed that men
can long be ashamed of that which they see to be the
? ? ? ? 164 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
road to honor? As to fear, let a Governor-General
once take bribes, there is an end of all fear in the service. What have they to fear? Is it the man whose
example they follow that is to bring them before a
tribunal for their punishment? Can he open any inquiry? He cannot: he that opens a channel of inquiry under these circumstances opens a high-road to his own detection. Can he make any laws to prevent it? None: for he can make no laws to restrain
that practice without the breach of his own laws immediately in his own conduct. If we once can admit,
for a single instant, in a Governor-General, a principle, however defended, upon any pretence whatever,
to receive bribes in consequence of his office, there is
an end of all virtue, an end of the laws, and no hope
left in the supreme justice of the country. . We are
sensible of all these difficulties; we have felt them;
and perhaps it has required no small degree of exertion for us to get the better of these difficulties
which are thrown in our way by a Governor-General
accepting bribes, and thereby screening and protecting the whole service in such iniquitous proceedings.
With regard to this matter, we are to state to your
Lordships, ill order to bring it fully and distinctly before you, what the nature of this distemper of bribery is in the Indian government. We are to state what the laws and rules are which have been opposed
to prevent it, and the utter insufficiency of all that
have been proposed: to state the grievance, the instructions of the Company and government, the acts
of Parliament, the constructions upon the acts of
Parliament. We are to state to your Lordships the
particular situation of Mr. Hastings; we are to
state the trust the Company had in him for the pre
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 165
vention of all those evils; and then we are to prove
that every evil, that all those grievances which the law
intended to prevent, which there were covenants to
restrain, and with respect to which there were encouragements to smooth and make easy the path of duty, Mr. Hastings was invested with a special, direct, and
immediate trust to prevent. We are to prove to your
Lordships that he is the man who, in his own person
collectively, has done more mischief than all those
persons whose evil practices have produced all those
laws, those regulations, and even his own appointment.
The first thing that we shall do is to state, and which
we shall prove in evidence, that this vice of bribery
was the ancient, radical, endemical, and ruinous distemper of the Company's affairs in India, from the
time of their first establishment there. Very often
there are no words nor any description which can
adequately convey the state of a thing like the direct
evidence of the thing itself: because the former might
be suspected of exaggeration; you might think that
which was really fact to be nothing but the coloring
of the person that explained it; and therefore I think
that it will be much better to give to your Lordships
here a direct state of the Presidency at the time when
the Company enacted those covenants which Mr. Hastings entered into, and when they took those measures to prevent the very evils from persons placed in those
very stations and in those very circumstances in which
we charge Mr. Hastings with having committed the
offences we now bring before you.
I wish your Lordships to know that we are going to
read a consultation of Lord Clive's, who was sent out
for the express purpose of reforming the state of the
? ? ? ? 166 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS
Company, in order to show the magnitude of the pecuniary corruptions that prevailed in it. ' It is from a due sense of the regard we owe and
profess to. your interests and to our own honor, that
we think it indispensably necessary to lay open to your
view a series of transactions too notoriously known
to be suppressed, and too affecting to your interest,
to the national character, and to the existence of the
Company in Bengal, to escape unnoticed and uncensured, - transactions which seem to demonstrate that
every spring of this government was smeared with
corruption, that principles of rapacity and oppression
universally prevailed, and that every spark of sentiment and public spirit was lost and extinguished in
the unbounded lust of unmerited wealth.
"' To illustrate these positions, we must exhibit to
your view a most unpleasing variety of complaints,
inquiries, accusations, and vindications, the particulars of which are entered in our Proceedings and the
Appendix, - assuring you that we undertake this task
with peculiar reluctance, from the personal regard we
entertain for some of the gentlemen whose characters will appear to be deeply affected.
"' At Fort St. George we received the first advices
of the demise of Mir Jaffier and of Sujah Dowlah's
defeat. It was there firmly imagined that no definite
measures would be taken, either in respect to a peace
or filling the vacancy in the nizamut, before our arrival, - as the' Lapwing' arrived in the month of January with your general letter, and the appointment of a committee with express powers to that purpose,
for the successful exertion of which the happiest occasion now offered. However, a contrary resolution
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 167
prevailed in the Council. The opportunity of acquiring immense fortunes was too inviting to be neglected, and the temptation too powerful to be resisted. A treaty was hastily drawnl up by the board, or rather transcribed, with few unimportant additions, from
that concluded with Mir Jaffier, - and a deputation,
consisting of Messrs. Johnistone, senior, Middletoll, and
Leycester, appointed to raise the natural son of the deceased Nabob to the subahdarry, in prejudice of the
claim of the grandson; and for this measure sucll
reasons are assigned as ought to have dictated a diametrically opposite resolution. Meeran's son was a
minor, which circumstance alone would have naturally brought the whole administration into our hands,
at a juncture when it became indispensably necessary we should realize that shadow of power and influence which, having no solid foundation, was exposed to the danger of being annihilated by the first stroke
of adverse fortune. But this inconsistence was not
regarded; nor was it material to the views for precipitating the treaty, which was pressed on the young
Nabob at the first interview, in so earnest and indelicate a manner as highly disgusted him and chagrined
his ministers; while not a single rupee was stipulated
for the Company, whose interests were sacrificed, that
their servants might revel in the spoils of a treasury
before impoverished, but now totally exhausted.
"This scene of corruption was first disclosed, at
a visit the Nabob was paid, to Lord Clive and the
gentlemen of the Committee, a few days after our
arrival. He there delivered to his Lordship a letter
filled with bitter complaints of the insults and indignities he had been exposed to, and the embezzlement
of near twenty lacs of rupees, issued from his treas
? ? ? ? 168 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ury for purposes unknownl, during the late negotiations. So public a complaint could not be disregarded, and it soon produced an inquiry. We referred the letter to the board, in expectation of obtaining a satisfactory account of the application of this money, and were answered only by a warm remonstrance entered by Mr. Leycester against that
very Nabob in whose elevation he boasts of having
been a principal agent.
"' Mahomed Reza Khan, the Naib Subah, was then
called upon to account for this large disbursement
from the treasury; and he soon delivered to the
Committee the very extraordinary narrative entered
in our Proceedings the 6th of June, wherein he specifies the several names and sums, by whom paid, and
to whom, whether in cash, bills, or obligations. So
precise, so accurate an account as this of money for
secret and venal services was never, we believe, before
this period, exhibited to the Honorable Court of Directors, -at least, never vouched by such undeniable
testimony and authentic documents: by Juggut Seet,
who himself was obliged to contribute largely to the
sums demanded; by Muley Ram, who was employed
by Mr. Johnstone in all those pecuniary transactions;
by the Nabob and Mahomed Reza Khan, who were
the heaviest sufferers; and, lastly, by the confession
of the gentlemen themselves whose names are specified ill the distribution list.
"Juggut Seet expressly declared in his narrative,
that the sum which he agreed to pay the deputation,
amounting to 125,000 rupees, was extorted by menaces; and since the close of our inquiry, and the
opinions we delivered in the Proceedings of the 21st
June, it fully appears that the presents from the
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 169
Nabob and Mahomed Reza Khan, exceeding the immense sum of seventeen lacs, were not the voluntary
offerings of gratitude, but contributions levied on the
weakness of the government, and violently exacted
from the dependent state and timid disposition of the
minister. The charge, indeed, is denied on the one
hand, as well as affirmed on the other. Your honorable board Mnust therefore determine how far the circumstance of extortion may aggravate the crime of disobedience to your positive orders, the exposing the
government in a manner to sale, and receiving the
infamous wages of corruption from opposite parties
and contending interests. We speak with boldness,
because we speak from conviction founded upon indubitable facts, that, besides the above sums specified
in the distribution account to the amount of 228,125
pounds sterling, there was likewise to the value of
several lacs of rupees procured from Nundcomar and
Roydullub, each of whom aspired at and obtained a
promise of that very employment it was predetermined to bestow on Mahomed Reza Khan.
(Signed at the end)
C CLIVE.
WM B. SUMNER.
JOHN CARNAC.
H. VERELST.
FRA8 SYKES. "
This paper cannot be denied to be a paper of
weight and authenticity, because it is signed by a
gentleman now in this House, who sits oil one side
of the gentleman at your bar, as his bail. This
grievance, therefore, so authenticated, so great, and
described in so many circumstances, I think it might
? ? ? ? 170 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
be sufficient for me, in this part of the business, to
show was, when Mr. Hastings was sent to India, a
prevalent evil.
But, my Lords, it is necessary that I should show
to you something more, because, prigna fronte, this
is some exculpation of Mr. Hastings: for, if he was
only a partaker in a general misconduct, it was
rather vitium loci et vitium, temporis than vitium
hominis. This might be said in his exculpation.
But I am next to show your Lordships the means
which the Company took for removing this grievance; and that Mr. Hastings's peculiar trust, the
great specific ground of his appointment, was a confidence that he would eradicate this very evil, of
which we are going to prove that he has been one
of the principal promoters. I wish your Lordships
to advert to one particular circumstance, - namely,
that the two persons who were bidders at this time,
and at this auction of government, for the favor and
countenance of the Presidency at Calcutta, were
Mahomed Reza Khan and Rajah Nundcomar. I
wish your Lordships to recollect this by-and-by, when
we shall bring before you the very same two persons,
who, in the same sort of transaction, and in circumstances exactly similar, or very nearly so, were candidates for the favor of Mr. Hastings. My Lords, our next step will be to show you that
the Company in 1768 had made a covenant expressly
forbidding the taking of presents of above 4001. value
in each present by the Governor-General. I take it
for granted, this will not be much litigated. They renewed and enforced that with other covenants and
other instructions; and at last came an act of Parliament, in the clearest, the most definite, the most spe
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. -FIRST DAY. 171
cific words that all the wisdom of the legislature, intent upon the eradication of this evil, could use, to prevent the receiving of presents.
My Lords, I think it is necessary to state, that
there has been some little difficulty concerning this
word, presents. Bribery and extortion have been
covered by the name of presents, and the authority
and practice of the East has been adduced as a palliation of the crime. My Lords, no authority of the East will be a palliation of the breach of laws enacted
in the West: and to those laws of the West, and not
the vicious customs of the East, we insist upon making Mr. Hastings liable. But do not your Lordships see that this is an entire mistake? that there never
was any custom of the East for it? I do not mean
vicious practices and customs, which it is the business
of good laws and good customs to eradicate. There
are three species of presents known in the East, - two
of them payments of money known to be legal, and
the other perfectly illegal, and which has a name exactly expressing it in the manner our language does. It is necessary that your Lordships should see that
Mr. Hastings has made use of a perversion of the
names of authorized gifts to cover the most abominable
and prostituted bribery. The first of these presents is
known in the country by the name of pesheush: this
peshcush is a fine paid, upon the grant of lands, to
the sovereign, or whoever grants them. The second
is the nuzzer, or nuzzerana, which is a tribute of acknowledgment from an inferior to a superior. The
last is called reshwat, in the Persian language,- that
is to say, a bribe, or sum of money clandestinely
and corruptly taken, - and is as much distinguished
from the others as, in the English language, a fine or
? ? ? ? 172 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
acknowledgment is distinguished from a bribe. To
show your Lordships this, we shall give in evidence,
that, whenever a peshcush or fine is paid, it is a sum
of money publicly paid, and paid in proportion to the
grant, - and that the sum is entered upon the very
grant itself. We shall prove the nuzzer is in the
same manner entered, and that all legal fees are indorsed upon the body of the grant for which they are
taken: and that they are no more in the East than
in the West any kind of color or pretence for corrupt
acts, which are known by the circumstance of their
being clandestinely taken, and which are acknowledged and confessed to be illegal and corrupt. Having stated that Mr. Hastings, in some of the evidence that we shall produce, endeavors to confound these
three things, I am only to remark that the nuzzer is
generally a very small sum of money, that it sometimes amounts to one gold mohur, that sometimes it
is less, and that, in all the records of the Company, I
have never known it exceed one gold mohur, or about
thirty-five shillings, -- passing by the fifty gold mohurs which were given to Mr. Hastings by Cheyt Sing,
and a hundred gold mohurs which were given to the
Mogul, as a nuzzer, by Mahomed Ali, Nabob of Arcot.
The Company, seeing that this nuzzer, though
small in each sum, might amount at last to a large
tax upon the country, (and it did so in fact,) thought
proper to prohibit any sum of money to be taken upon any pretext whatever; and the Company in the
year 1775 did expressly explode the whole doctrine
of peshcush, nuzzer, and every other private lucrative
emolument, under whatever name, to be taken by
the Governor-General, and did expressly send out an
order that that was the construction of the act, and
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE. - FIRST DAY. 173
that he was not even to take a nuzzer. Thus we
shall show that that act had totally cut up the whole
system of bribery and corruption, and that Mr. Hastings had no sort of color whatever for taking the money which we shall prove he has taken.
I know that positive prohibitions, that acts of Parliament, that covenants, are things of very little validity indeed, as long as all the means of corruption are left in power, and all the temptations to corrupt
-profit are left in poverty. I should really think that
the Company deserved to be ill served, if they had
not annexed such appointments to great trusts as
might secure the persons intrusted from the temptations of unlawful emolument, and, what in all cases
is the greatest security, given a lawful gratification
to the natural passions of men. Matrimony is to be
used as a true remedy against a vicious course of
profligate manners; fair and lawful emoluments, and
the just profits of office, are opposed to the unlawful
means which might be made use of to supply them.
