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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18161-8.txt b/18161-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0e0d5a --- /dev/null +++ b/18161-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13739 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund +Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12), by Edmund Burke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12) + +Author: Edmund Burke + +Release Date: April 13, 2006 [EBook #18161] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF THE RIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + + + + + + +THE WORKS + +OF + +THE RIGHT HONOURABLE + +EDMUND BURKE + + +IN TWELVE VOLUMES + +VOLUME THE EIGHTH + + +[Illustration: Burke Coat of Arms.] + + +LONDON +JOHN C. NIMMO +14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. +MDCCCLXXXVII + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. VIII. + + +NINTH REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON + THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. JUNE 25, 1783. + + OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF THE COMPANY'S AFFAIRS IN INDIA 3 + + CONNECTION OF GREAT BRITAIN WITH INDIA 41 + + EFFECT OF THE REVENUE INVESTMENT ON THE COMPANY 56 + + INTERNAL TRADE OF BENGAL 75 + SILK 83 + RAW SILK 88 + CLOTHS, OR PIECE-GOODS 99 + OPIUM 116 + SALT 142 + SALTPETRE 170 + + BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 173 + + +ELEVENTH REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON + THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE APPENDIX. + NOVEMBER 18, 1783 217 + + +ARTICLES OF CHARGE OF HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS AGAINST WARREN + HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL: PRESENTED TO + THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN APRIL AND MAY, 1786.--ARTICLES I.-VI. + + I. ROHILLA WAR 307 + + II. SHAH ALLUM 319 + + III. BENARES + + PART I. RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES 327 + + PART II. DESIGNS OF MR. HASTINGS TO RUIN THE RAJAH OF + BENARES 339 + + PART III. EXPULSION OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES 354 + + PART IV. SECOND REVOLUTION IN BENARES 380 + + PART V. THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES 386 + + IV. PRINCESSES OF OUDE 397 + + V. REVOLUTIONS IN FURRUCKABAD 467 + + VI. DESTRUCTION OF THE RAJAH OF SAHLONE 484 + + + + +NINTH REPORT + +OF THE + +SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS + +ON + +THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. + +June 25, 1783. + + + + +NINTH REPORT + + From the SELECT COMMITTEE [of the House of Commons] appointed + to take into consideration the state of the administration of + justice in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and to + report the same, as it shall appear to them, to the House, + with their observations thereupon; and who were instructed to + consider how the British possessions in the East Indies may + be held and governed with the greatest security and advantage + to this country, and by what means the happiness of the + native inhabitants may be best promoted. + + +I.--OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF THE COMPANY'S AFFAIRS IN INDIA. + + +In order to enable the House to adopt the most proper means for +regulating the British government in India, and for promoting the +happiness of the natives who live under its authority or influence, your +Committee hold it expedient to collect into distinct points of view the +circumstances by which that government appears to them to be most +essentially disordered, and to explain fully the principles of policy +and the course of conduct by which the natives of all ranks and orders +have been reduced to their present state of depression and misery. + +Your Committee have endeavored to perform this task in plain and popular +language, knowing that nothing has alienated the House from inquiries +absolutely necessary for the performance of one of the most essential +of all its duties so much as the technical language of the Company's +records, as the Indian names of persons, of offices, of the tenure and +qualities of estates, and of all the varied branches of their intricate +revenue. This language is, indeed, of necessary use in the executive +departments of the Company's affairs; but it is not necessary to +Parliament. A language so foreign from all the ideas and habits of the +far greater part of the members of this House has a tendency to disgust +them with all sorts of inquiry concerning this subject. They are +fatigued into such a despair of ever obtaining a competent knowledge of +the transactions in India, that they are easily persuaded to remand them +back to that obscurity, mystery, and intrigue out of which they have +been forced upon public notice by the calamities arising from their +extreme mismanagement. This mismanagement has itself, as your Committee +conceive, in a great measure arisen from dark cabals, and secret +suggestions to persons in power, without a regular public inquiry into +the good or evil tendency of any measure, or into the merit or demerit +of any person intrusted with the Company's concerns. + +[Sidenote: Present laws relating to the East India Company, and internal +and external policy.] + +The plan adopted by your Committee is, first, to consider the law +regulating the East India Company, as it now stands,--and, secondly, to +inquire into the circumstances of the two great links of connection by +which the territorial possessions in India are united to this kingdom, +namely, the Company's commerce, and the government exercised under the +charter and under acts of Parliament. The last [first] of these objects, +the commerce, is taken in two points of view: the _external_, or the +direct trade between India and Europe, and the _internal_, that is to +say, the trade of Bengal, in all the articles of produce and manufacture +which furnish the Company's investment. + +The government is considered by your Committee under the like +descriptions of internal and external. The internal regards the +communication between the Court of Directors and their servants in +India, the management of the revenue, the expenditure of public money, +the civil administration, the administration of justice, and the state +of the army. The external regards, first, the conduct and maxims of the +Company's government with respect to the native princes and people +dependent on the British authority,--and, next, the proceedings with +regard to those native powers which are wholly independent of the +Company. But your Committee's observations on the last division extend +to those matters only which are not comprehended in the Report of the +Committee of Secrecy. Under these heads, your Committee refer to the +most leading particulars of abuse which prevail in the administration of +India,--deviating only from this order where the abuses are of a +complicated nature, and where one cannot be well considered +independently of several others. + +[Sidenote: Second attempt made by Parliament for a reformation.] + +Your Committee observe, that this is the second attempt made by +Parliament for the reformation of abuses in the Company's government. It +appears, therefore, to them a necessary preliminary to this second +undertaking, _to consider the causes which, in their opinion_, have +produced the failure of the first,--that the defects of the original +plan may be supplied, its errors corrected, and such useful regulations +as were then adopted may be further explained, enlarged, and enforced. + +[Sidenote: Proceedings of session 1773.] + +The first design of this kind was formed in the session of the year +1773. In that year, Parliament, taking up the consideration of the +affairs of India, through two of its committees collected a very great +body of details concerning the interior economy of the Company's +possessions, and concerning many particulars of abuse which prevailed at +the time when those committees made their ample and instructive reports. +But it does not appear that the body of regulations enacted in that +year, that is, in the East India Act of the thirteenth of his Majesty's +reign, were altogether grounded on that information, but were adopted +rather on probable speculations and general ideas of good policy and +good government. New establishments, civil and judicial, were therefore +formed at a very great expense, and with much complexity of +constitution. Checks and counter-checks of all kinds were contrived in +the execution, as well as in the formation of this system, in which all +the existing authorities of this kingdom had a share: for Parliament +appointed the members of the presiding part of the new establishment, +the Crown appointed the judicial, and the Company preserved the +nomination of the other officers. So that, if the act has not fully +answered its purposes, the failure cannot be attributed to any want of +officers of every description, or to the deficiency of any mode of +patronage in their appointment. The cause must be sought elsewhere. + +[Sidenote: Powers and objects of act of 1773, and the effects thereof.] + +The act had in its view (independently of several detached regulations) +five fundamental objects. + +1st. The reformation of the Court of Proprietors of the East India +Company. + +2ndly. A new model of the Court of Directors, and an enforcement of +their authority over the servants abroad. + +3rdly. The establishment of a court of justice capable of protecting the +natives from the oppressions of British subjects. + +4thly. The establishment of a general council, to be seated in Bengal, +whose authority should, in many particulars, extend over all the British +settlements in India. + +5thly. To furnish the ministers of the crown with constant information +concerning the whole of the Company's correspondence with India, in +order that they might be enabled to inspect the conduct of the Directors +and servants, and to watch over the execution of all parts of the act; +that they might be furnished with matter to lay before Parliament from +time to time, according as the state of things should render regulation +or animadversion necessary. + +[Sidenote: Court of Proprietors.] + +[Sidenote: New qualification.] + +The first object of the policy of this act was to improve the +constitution of the Court of Proprietors. In this case, as in almost all +the rest, the remedy was not applied directly to the disease. The +complaint was, that factions in the Court of Proprietors had shown, in +several instances, a disposition to support the servants of the Company +against the just coercion and legal prosecution of the Directors. +Instead of applying a corrective to the distemper, a change was proposed +in the constitution. By this reform, it was presumed that an interest +would arise in the General Court more independent in itself, and more +connected with the commercial prosperity of the Company. Under the new +constitution, no proprietor, not possessed of a thousand pounds capital +stock, was permitted to vote in the General Court: before the act, five +hundred pounds was a sufficient qualification for one vote; and no value +gave more. But as the lower classes were disabled, the power was +increased in the higher: proprietors of three thousand pounds were +allowed two votes; those of six thousand were entitled to three; ten +thousand pounds was made the qualification for four. The votes were thus +regulated in the scale and gradation of property. On this scale, and on +some provisions to prevent occasional qualifications and splitting of +votes, the whole reformation rested. + +[Sidenote: The ballot.] + +[Sidenote: Indian interest.] + +Several essential points, however, seem to have been omitted or +misunderstood. No regulation was made to abolish the pernicious custom +of voting by _ballot_, by means of which acts of the highest concern to +the Company and to the state might be done by individuals with perfect +impunity; and even the body itself might be subjected to a forfeiture of +all its privileges for defaults of persons who, so far from being under +control, could not be so much as known in any mode of legal cognizance. +Nothing was done or attempted to prevent the operation of the interest +of delinquent servants of the Company in the General Court, by which +they might even come to be their own judges, and, in effect, under +another description, to become the masters in that body which ought to +govern them. Nor was anything provided to secure the independency of the +proprietary body from the various exterior interests by which it might +be disturbed, and diverted from the conservation of that pecuniary +concern which the act laid down as the sole security for preventing a +collusion between the General Court and the powerful delinquent servants +in India. The whole of the regulations concerning the Court of +Proprietors relied upon two principles, which have often proved +fallacious: namely, that small numbers were a security against faction +and disorder; and that integrity of conduct would follow the greater +property. In no case could these principles be less depended upon than +in the affairs of the East India Company. However, by wholly cutting off +the lower, and adding to the power of the higher classes, it was +supposed that the higher would keep their money in that fund to make +profit,--that the vote would be a secondary consideration, and no more +than a guard to the property,--and that therefore any abuse which tended +to depreciate the value of their stock would be warmly resented by such +proprietors. + +If the ill effects of every misdemeanor in the Company's servants were +to be _immediate_, and had a tendency to lower the value of the stock, +something might justly be expected from the pecuniary security taken by +the act. But from the then state of things, it was more than probable +that proceedings ruinous to the permanent interest of the Company might +commence in great lucrative advantages. Against this evil large +pecuniary interests were rather the reverse of a remedy. Accordingly, +the Company's servants have ever since covered over the worst +oppressions of the people under their government, and the most cruel and +wanton ravages of all the neighboring countries, by holding out, and for +a time actually realizing, additions of revenue to the territorial funds +of the Company, and great quantities of valuable goods to their +investment. + +[Sidenote: Proprietors.] + +But this consideration of mere income, whatever weight it might have, +could not be the first object of a proprietor, in a body so +circumstanced. The East India Company is not, like the Bank of England, +a mere moneyed society for the sole purpose of the preservation or +improvement of their capital; and therefore every attempt to regulate it +upon the same principles must inevitably fail. When it is considered +that a certain share in the stock gives a share in the government of so +vast an empire, with such a boundless patronage, civil, military, +marine, commercial, and financial, in every department of which such +fortunes have been made as could be made nowhere else, it is impossible +not to perceive that capitals far superior to any qualifications +appointed to proprietors, or even to Directors, would readily be laid +out for a participation in that power. The India proprietor, therefore, +will always be, in the first instance, a politician; and the bolder his +enterprise, and the more corrupt his views, the less will be his +consideration of the price to be paid for compassing them. The new +regulations did not reduce the number so low as not to leave the +assembly still liable to all the disorder which might be supposed to +arise from multitude. But if the principle had been well established and +well executed, a much greater inconveniency grew out of the reform than +that which had attended the old abuse: for if tumult and disorder be +lessened by reducing the number of proprietors, private cabal and +intrigue are facilitated at least in an equal degree; and it is cabal +and corruption, rather than disorder and confusion, that was most to be +dreaded in transacting the affairs of India. Whilst the votes of the +smaller proprietors continued, a door was left open for the public sense +to enter into that society: since that door has been closed, the +proprietary has become, even more than formerly, an aggregate of private +interests, which subsist at the expense of the collective body. At the +moment of this revolution in the proprietary, as it might naturally be +expected, those who had either no very particular interest in their vote +or but a petty object to pursue immediately disqualified; but those who +were deeply interested in the Company's patronage, those who were +concerned in the supply of ships and of the other innumerable objects +required for their immense establishments, those who were engaged in +contracts with the Treasury, Admiralty, and Ordnance, together with the +clerks in public offices, found means of securing qualifications at the +enlarged standard. All these composed a much greater proportion than +formerly they had done of the proprietary body. + +Against the great, predominant, radical corruption of the Court of +Proprietors the raising the qualification proved no sort of remedy. The +return of the Company's servants into Europe poured in a constant supply +of proprietors, whose ability to purchase the highest qualifications for +themselves, their agents, and dependants could not be dubious. And this +latter description form a very considerable, and by far the most active +and efficient part of that body. To add to the votes, which is adding to +the power in proportion to the wealth, of men whose very offences were +supposed to consist in acts which lead to the acquisition of enormous +riches, appears by no means a well-considered method of checking +rapacity and oppression. In proportion as these interests prevailed, the +means of cabal, of concealment, and of corrupt confederacy became far +more easy than before. Accordingly, there was no fault with respect to +the Company's government over its servants, charged or chargeable on the +General Court as it originally stood, of which since the reform it has +not been notoriously guilty. It was not, therefore, a matter of surprise +to your Committee, that the General Court, so composed, has at length +grown to such a degree of contempt both of its duty and of the permanent +interest of the whole corporation as to put itself into open defiance of +the salutary admonitions of this House, given for the purpose of +asserting and enforcing the legal authority of their own body over their +own servants. + +The failure in this part of the reform of 1773 is not stated by your +Committee as recommending a return to the ancient constitution of the +Company, which was nearly as far as the new from containing any +principle tending to the prevention or remedy of abuses,--but to point +out the probable failure of any future regulations which do not apply +directly to the grievance, but which may be taken up as experiments to +ascertain theories of the operation of councils formed of greater or +lesser numbers, or such as shall be composed of men of more or less +opulence, or of interests of newer or longer standing, or concerning the +distribution of power to various descriptions or professions of men, or +of the election to office by one authority rather than another. + +[Sidenote: Court of Directors.] + +The second object of the act was the Court of Directors. Under the +arrangement of the year 1773 that court appeared to have its authority +much strengthened. It was made less dependent than formerly upon its +constituents, the proprietary. The duration of the Directors in office +was rendered more permanent, and the tenure itself diversified by a +varied and intricate rotation. At the same time their authority was held +high over their servants of all descriptions; and the only rule +prescribed to the Council-General of Bengal, in the exercise of the +large and ill-defined powers given to them, was that they were to yield +obedience to the orders of the Court of Directors. As to the Court of +Directors itself, it was left with very little regulation. The custom of +ballot, infinitely the most mischievous in a body possessed of all the +ordinary executive powers, was still left; and your Committee have found +the ill effects of this practice in the course of their inquiries. +Nothing was done to oblige the Directors to attend to the promotion of +their servants according to their rank and merits. In judging of those +merits nothing was done to bind them to any observation of what appeared +on their records. Nothing was done to compel them to prosecution or +complaint where delinquency became visible. The act, indeed, prescribed +that no servant of the Company abroad should be eligible into the +direction until two years after his return to England. But as this +regulation rather presumes than provides for an inquiry into their +conduct, a very ordinary neglect in the Court of Directors might easily +defeat it, and a short remission might in this particular operate as a +total indemnity. In fact, however, the servants have of late seldom +attempted a seat in the direction,--an attempt which might possibly +rouse a dormant spirit of inquiry; but, satisfied with an interest in +the proprietary, they have, through that name, brought the direction +very much under their own control. + +As to the general authority of the Court of Directors, there is reason +to apprehend that on the whole it was somewhat degraded by the act whose +professed purpose was to exalt it, and that the only effect of the +Parliamentary sanction to their orders has been, that along with those +orders the law of the land has been despised and trampled under foot. +The Directors were not suffered either to nominate or to remove those +whom they were empowered to instruct; from masters they were reduced to +the situation of complainants,--a situation the imbecility of which no +laws or regulations could wholly alter; and when the Directors were +afterwards restored in some degree to their ancient power, on the +expiration of the lease given to their principal servants, it became +impossible for them to recover any degree of their ancient respect, even +if they had not in the mean time been so modelled as to be entirely free +from all ambition of that sort. + +From that period the orders of the Court of Directors became to be so +habitually despised by their servants abroad, and at length to be so +little regarded even by themselves, that this contempt of orders forms +almost the whole subject-matter of the voluminous reports of two of your +committees. If any doubt, however, remains concerning the cause of this +fatal decline of the authority of the Court of Directors, no doubt +whatsoever can remain of the fact itself, nor of the total failure of +one of the great leading regulations of the act of 1773. + +[Sidenote: Supreme Court of Judicature.] + +The third object was a new judicial arrangement, the chief purpose of +which was to form a strong and solid security for the natives against +the wrongs and oppressions of British subjects resident in Bengal. An +operose and expensive establishment of a Supreme Court was made, and +charged upon the revenues of the country. The charter of justice was by +the act left to the crown, as well as the appointment of the +magistrates. The defect in the institution seemed to be this,--that no +rule was laid down, either in the act or the charter, by which the court +was to judge. No descriptions of offenders or species of delinquency +were properly ascertained, according to the nature of the place, or to +the prevalent mode of abuse. Provision was made for the administration +of justice in the remotest part of Hindostan as if it were a province in +Great Britain. Your Committee have long had the constitution and conduct +of this court before them, and they have not yet been able to discover +very few instances (not one that appears to them of leading importance) +of relief given to the natives against the corruptions or oppressions of +British subjects in power,--though they do find one very strong and +marked instance of the judges having employed an unwarrantable extension +or application of the municipal law of England, to destroy a person of +the highest rank among those natives whom they were sent to protect. One +circumstance rendered the proceeding in this case fatal to all the good +purposes for which the court had been established. The sufferer (the +Rajah Nundcomar) appears, at the very time of this extraordinary +prosecution, a discoverer of some particulars of illicit gain then +charged upon Mr. Hastings, the Governor-General. Although in ordinary +cases, and in some lesser instances of grievance, it is very probable +that this court has done its duty, and has been, as every court must be, +of some service, yet one example of this kind must do more towards +deterring the natives from complaint, and consequently from the means +of redress, than many decisions favorable to them, in the ordinary +course of proceeding, can do for their encouragement and relief. So far +as your Committee has been able to discover, the court has been +generally terrible to the natives, and has distracted the government of +the Company without substantially reforming any one of its abuses. + +This court, which in its constitution seems not to have had sufficiently +in view the necessities of the people for whose relief it was intended, +and was, or thought itself, bound in some instances to too strict an +adherence to the forms and rules of English practice, in others was +framed upon principles perhaps too remote from the constitution of +English tribunals. By the usual course of English practice, the far +greater part of the redress to be obtained against oppressions of power +is by process in the nature of civil actions. In these a trial by jury +is a necessary part, with regard to the finding the offence and to the +assessment of the damages. Both these were in the charter of justice +left entirely to the judges. It was presumed, and not wholly without +reason, that the British subjects were liable to fall into factions and +combinations, in order to support themselves in the abuses of an +authority of which every man might in his turn become a sharer. And with +regard to the natives, it was presumed (perhaps a little too hastily) +that they were not capable of sharing in the functions of jurors. But it +was not foreseen that the judges were also liable to be engaged in the +factions of the settlement,--and if they should ever happen to be so +engaged, that the native people were then without that remedy which +obviously lay in the chance that the court and jury, though both liable +to bias, might not easily unite in the same identical act of injustice. +Your Committee, on full inquiry, are of opinion _that the use of juries +is neither impracticable nor dangerous in Bengal_. + +Your Committee refer to their report made in the year 1781, for the +manner in which this court, attempting to extend its jurisdiction, and +falling with extreme severity on the native magistrates, a violent +contest arose between the English judges and the English civil +authority. This authority, calling in the military arm, (by a most +dangerous example,) overpowered, and for a while suspended, the +functions of the court; but at length those functions, which were +suspended by the quarrel of the parties, were destroyed by their +reconciliation, and by the arrangements made in consequence of it. By +these the court was virtually annihilated; or if substantially it +exists, it is to be apprehended it exists only for purposes very +different from those of its institution. + +The fourth object of the act of 1773 was the Council-General. This +institution was intended to produce uniformity, consistency, and the +effective coöperation of all the settlements in their common defence. By +the ancient constitution of the Company's foreign settlements, they were +each of them under the orders of a President or Chief, and a Council, +more or fewer, according to the discretion of the Company. Among those, +Parliament (probably on account of the largeness of the territorial +acquisitions, rather than the conveniency of the situation) chose Bengal +for the residence of the controlling power, and, dissolving the +Presidency, appointed a new establishment, upon a plan somewhat similar +to that which had prevailed before; but the number was smaller. This +establishment was composed of a Governor-General and four Counsellors, +all named in the act of Parliament. They were to hold their offices for +five years, after which term the patronage was to revert to the Court of +Directors. In the mean time such vacancies as should happen were to be +filled by that court, with the concurrence of the crown. The first +Governor-General and one of the Counsellors had been old servants of the +Company; the others were new men. + +On this new arrangement the Courts of Proprietors and Directors +considered the details of commerce as not perfectly consistent with the +enlarged sphere of duty and the reduced number of the Council. +Therefore, to relieve them from this burden, they instituted a new +office, called the Board of Trade, for the subordinate management of +their commercial concerns, and appointed eleven of the senior servants +to fill the commission. + +[Sidenote: Object of powers to Governor-General and Council.] + +The powers given by the act to the new Governor-General and Council had +for their direct object the kingdom of Bengal and its dependencies. +Within that sphere (and it is not a small one) their authority extended +over all the Company's concerns of whatever description. In matters of +peace and war it seems to have been meant that the other Presidencies +should be subordinate to their board. But the law is loose and +defective, where it professes to restrain the subordinate Presidencies +from making war without the consent and approbation of the Supreme +Council. They are left free to act without it _in cases of imminent +necessity_, or _where they shall have received special orders from the +Company_. The first exception leaves it open to the subordinate to judge +of the necessity of measures which, when taken, bind or involve the +superior: the second refers a question of peace or war to two +jurisdictions, which may give different judgments. In both instances +cases in point have occurred.[1] With regard to their local +administration, their powers were exceedingly and dangerously loose and +undetermined. Their powers were not given directly, but in words of +reference, in which neither the objects related to nor the mode of the +relation were sufficiently expressed. Their legislative and executive +capacities were not so accurately drawn, and marked by such strong and +penal lines of distinction, as to keep these capacities separate. Where +legislative and merely executive powers were lodged in the same hands, +the legislative, which is the larger and the more ready for all +occasions, was constantly resorted to. The Governor-General and Council, +therefore, immediately gave constructions to their ill-defined authority +which rendered it perfectly despotic,--constructions which if they were +allowed, no action of theirs ought to be regarded as criminal. + +Armed as they were with an authority in itself so ample, and by abuse so +capable of an unlimited extent, very few, and these very insufficient +correctives, were administered. Ample salaries were provided for them, +which indeed removed the necessity, but by no means the inducements to +corruption and oppression. Nor was any barrier whatsoever opposed on the +part of the natives against their injustice, except the Supreme Court +of Judicature, which never could be capable of controlling a government +with such powers, without becoming such a government itself. + +There was, indeed, a prohibition against all concerns in trade to the +whole Council, and against all taking of presents by any in authority. A +right of prosecution in the King's Bench was also established; but it +was a right the exercise of which is difficult, and in many, and those +the most weighty cases, impracticable. No considerable facilities were +given to prosecution in Parliament; nothing was done to prevent +complaint from being far more dangerous to the sufferer than injustice +to the oppressor. No overt acts were fixed, upon which corruption should +be presumed in transactions of which secrecy and collusion formed the +very basis; no rules of evidence nor authentic mode of transmission were +settled in conformity to the unalterable circumstances of the country +and the people. + +[Sidenote: Removal of servants.] + +One provision, indeed, was made for restraining the servants, in itself +very wise and substantial: a delinquent once dismissed, could not be +restored, but by the votes of three fourths of the Directors and three +fourths of the proprietors: this was well aimed. But no method was +settled for bringing delinquents to the question of removal: and if they +should be brought to it, a door lay wide open for evasion of the law, +and for a return into the service, in defiance of its plain +intention,--that is, by resigning to avoid removal; by which measure +this provision of the act has proved as unoperative as all the rest. By +this management a mere majority may bring in the greater delinquent, +whilst the person removed for offences comparatively trivial may remain +excluded forever. + +[Sidenote: Council-General] + +The new Council nominated in the act was composed of two totally +discordant elements, which soon distinguished themselves into permanent +parties. One of the principal instructions which the three members of +the Council sent immediately from England, namely, General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, carried out with them was, to "_cause +the strictest inquiry to be made into all oppressions and abuses_," +among which _the practice of receiving presents from the natives_, at +that time generally charged upon men in power, was principally aimed at. + +Presents to any considerable value were justly reputed by the +legislature, not as marks of attention and respect, but as bribes or +extortions, for which either the beneficial and gratuitous duties of +government were sold, or they were the price paid for acts of +partiality, or, finally, they were sums of money extorted from the +givers by the terrors of power. Against the system of presents, +therefore, the new commission was in general opinion particularly +pointed. In the commencement of reformation, at a period when a +rapacious conquest had overpowered and succeeded to a corrupt +government, an act of indemnity might have been thought advisable; +perhaps a new account ought to have been opened; all retrospect ought to +have been forbidden, at least to certain periods. If this had not been +thought advisable, none in the higher departments of a suspected and +decried government ought to have been kept in their posts, until an +examination had rendered their proceedings clear, or until length of +time had obliterated, by an even course of irreproachable conduct, the +errors which so naturally grow out of a new power. But the policy +adopted was different: it was to begin with _examples_. The cry against +the abuses was strong and vehement throughout the whole nation, and the +practice of presents was represented to be as general as it was +mischievous. In such a case, indeed in any case, it seemed not to be a +measure the most provident, without a great deal of previous inquiry, to +place two persons, who from their situation must be the most exposed to +such imputations, in the commission which was to inquire into their own +conduct,--much less to place one of them at the head of that commission, +and with a casting vote in case of an equality. The persons who could +not be liable to that charge were, indeed, three to two; but any +accidental difference of opinion, the death of any one of them or his +occasional absence or sickness, threw the whole power into the hands of +the other two, who were Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, one the President, +and the other high in the Council of that establishment on which the +reform was to operate. Thus those who were liable to process as +delinquents were in effect set over the reformers; and that did actually +happen which might be expected to happen from so preposterous an +arrangement: a stop was soon put to all inquiries into the capital +abuses. + +Nor was the great political end proposed in the formation of a +superintending Council over all the Presidencies better answered than +that of an inquiry into corruptions and abuses. The several Presidencies +have acted in a great degree upon their own separate authority; and as +little of unity, concert, or regular system has appeared in their +conduct as was ever known before this institution. India is, indeed, so +vast a country, and the settlements are so divided, that their +intercourse with each other is liable to as many delays and difficulties +as the intercourse between distant and separate states. But one evil may +possibly have arisen from an attempt to produce an union, which, though +undoubtedly to be aimed at, is opposed in some degree by the unalterable +nature of their situation,--that it has taught the servants rather to +look to a superior among themselves than to their common superiors. This +evil, growing out of the abuse of the principle of subordination, can +only be corrected by a very strict enforcement of authority over that +part of the chain of dependence which is next to the original power. + +[Sidenote: Powers given to the ministers of the crown.] + +That which your Committee considers as the fifth and last of the capital +objects of the act, and as the binding regulation of the whole, is the +introduction (then for the first time) of the ministers of the crown +into the affairs of the Company. The state claiming a concern and share +of property in the Company's profits, the servants of the crown were +presumed the more likely to preserve with a scrupulous attention the +sources of the great revenues which they were to administer, and for the +rise and fall of which they were to render an account. + +The interference of government was introduced by this act in two ways: +one by a control, in effect by a share, in the appointment to vacancies +in the Supreme Council. The act provided that his Majesty's approbation +should be had to the persons named to that duty. Partaking thus in the +patronage of the Company, administration was bound to an attention to +the characters and capacities of the persons employed in that high +trust. The other part of their interference was by way of inspection. By +this right of inspection, everything in the Company's correspondence +from India, which related to the civil or military affairs and +government of the Company, was directed by the act to be within fourteen +days after the receipt laid before the Secretary of State, and +everything that related to the management of the revenues was to be laid +before the Commissioners of the Treasury. In fact, both description of +these papers have been generally communicated to that board. + +[Sidenote: Defects in the plan.] + +It appears to your Committee that there were great and material defects +in both parts of the plan. With regard to the approbation of persons +nominated to the Supreme Council by the Court of Directors, no +sufficient means were provided for carrying to his Majesty, along with +the nomination, the particulars in the conduct of those who had been in +the service before, which might render them proper objects of +approbation or rejection. The India House possesses an office of record +capable of furnishing, in almost all cases, materials for judging on the +behavior of the servants in their progress from the lowest to the +highest stations; and the whole discipline of the service, civil and +military, must depend upon an examination of these records inseparably +attending every application for an appointment to the highest stations. +But in the present state of the nomination the ministers of the crown +are not furnished with the proper means of exercising the power of +control intended by the law, even if they were scrupulously attentive to +the use of it. There are modes of proceeding favorable to neglect. +Others excite inquiry and stimulate to vigilance. + +[Sidenote: Proposition to remedy them.] + +Your Committee, therefore, are of opinion, that for the future +prevention of cabal, and of private and partial representation, whether +above or below, that, whenever any person who has been in the service +shall be recommended to the King's ministers to fill a vacancy in the +Council-General, the Secretary of the Court of Directors shall be +ordered to make a strict search into the records of the Company, and +shall annex to the recommendation the reasons of the Court of Directors +for their choice, together with a faithful copy of whatever shall be +found (if anything can be found) relative to his character and +conduct,--as also an account of his standing in the Company's service, +the time of his abode in India, the reasons for his return, and the +stations, whether civil or military, in which he has been successively +placed. + +With this account ought to be transmitted the names of those who were +proposed as candidates for the same office, with the correspondent +particulars relative to their conduct and situation: for not only the +separate, but the comparative merit, probably would, and certainly +ought, to have great influence in the approbation or rejection of the +party presented to the ministers of the crown. These papers should be +laid before the Commissioners of the Treasury and one of the Secretaries +of State, and entered in books to be kept in the Treasury and the +Secretary's office. + +[Sidenote: Appointment of Counsellors, &c.] + +[Sidenote: Macpherson's appointment.] + +[Sidenote: Stables's.] + +These precautions, in case of the nomination of any who have served the +Company, appear to be necessary from the improper nomination and +approbation of Mr. John Macpherson, notwithstanding the objections +which stood against him on the Company's records. The choice of Mr. John +Stables, from an inferior military to the highest civil capacity, was by +no means proper, nor an encouraging example to either service. His +conduct, indeed, in the subaltern military situation, had received, and +seems to have deserved, commendation; but no sufficient ground was +furnished for confounding the lines and gradations of service. This +measure was, however, far less exceptionable than the former; because an +irregular choice of a less competent person, and the preference given to +proved delinquency in prejudice to uncensured service, are very +different things. But even this latter appointment would in all +likelihood have been avoided, if rules of promotion had been +established. If such rules were settled, candidates qualified from +ability, knowledge, and service would not be discouraged by finding that +everything was open to every man, and that favor alone stood in the +place of civil or military experience. The elevation from the lowest +stations unfaithfully and negligently filled to the highest trusts, the +total inattention to rank and seniority, and, much more, the combination +of this neglect of rank with a confusion (unaccompanied with strong and +evident reasons) of the lines of service, cannot operate as useful +examples on those who serve the public in India. These servants, +beholding men who have been condemned for improper behavior to the +Company in inferior civil stations elevated above them, or (what is less +blamable, but still mischievous) persons without any distinguished civil +talents taken from the subordinate situations of another line to their +prejudice, will despair by any good behavior of ascending to the +dignities of their own: they will be led to improve, to the utmost +advantage of their fortune, the lower stages of power, and will endeavor +to make up in lucre what they can never hope to acquire in station. + +The temporary appointment by Parliament of the Supreme Council of India +arose from an opinion that the Company, at that time at least, was not +in a condition or not disposed to a proper exercise of the privileges +which they held under their charter. It therefore behoved the Directors +to be particularly attentive to their choice of Counsellors, on the +expiration of the period during which their patronage had been +suspended. The duties of the Supreme Council had been reputed of so +arduous a nature as to require even a legislative interposition. They +were called upon, by all possible care and impartiality, to justify +Parliament at least as fully in the restoration of their privileges as +the circumstances of the time had done in their suspension. + +But interests have lately prevailed in the Court of Directors, which, by +the violation of every rule, seemed to be resolved on the destruction of +those privileges of which they were the natural guardians. Every new +power given has been made the source of a new abuse; and the acts of +Parliament themselves, which provide but imperfectly for the prevention +of the mischief, have, it is to be feared, made provisions (contrary, +without doubt, to the intention of the legislature) which operate +against the possibility of any cure in the ordinary course. + +In the original institution of the Supreme Council, reasons may have +existed against rendering the tenure of the Counsellors in their office +precarious. A plan of reform might have required the permanence of the +persons who were just appointed by Parliament to execute it. But the act +of 1780 gave a duration coexistent with the statute itself to a Council +not appointed by act of Parliament, nor chosen for any temporary or +special purpose; by which means the servants in the highest situation, +let their conduct be never so grossly criminal, cannot be removed, +unless the Court of Directors and ministers of the crown can be found to +concur in the same opinion of it. The prevalence of the Indian factions +in the Court of Directors and Court of Proprietors, and sometimes in the +state itself, renders this agreement extremely difficult: if the +principal members of the Direction should be in a conspiracy with any +principal servant under censure, it will be impracticable; because the +first act must originate there. The reduced state of the authority of +this kingdom in Bengal may be traced in a great measure to that very +natural source of independence. In many cases the instant removal of an +offender from his power of doing mischief is the only mode of preventing +the utter and perhaps irretrievable ruin of public affairs. In such a +case the process ought to be simple, and the power absolute in one or in +either hand separately. By contriving the balance of interests formed in +the act, notorious offence, gross error, or palpable insufficiency have +many chances of retaining and abusing authority, whilst the variety of +representations, hearings, and conferences, and possibly the mere +jealousy and competition between rival powers, may prevent any decision, +and at length give time and means for settlements and compromises among +parties, made at the expense of justice and true policy. But this act of +1780, not properly distinguishing judicial process from executive +arrangements, requires in effect nearly the same degree of solemnity, +delay, and detail for removing a political inconvenience which attends a +criminal proceeding for the punishment of offences. It goes further, and +gives the same tenure to all who shall succeed to vacancies which was +given to those whom the act found in office. + +[Sidenote: Provisional appointment for vacancies.] + +Another regulation was made in the act, which has a tendency to render +the control of delinquency or the removal of incapacity in the +Council-General extremely difficult, as well as to introduce many other +abuses into the original appointment of Counsellors. The inconveniences +of a vacancy in that important office, at a great distance from the +authority that is to fill it, were visible; but your Committee have +doubts whether they balance the mischief which may arise from the power +given in this act, of a provisional appointment to vacancies, not on the +event, but on foresight. This mode of providing for the succession has a +tendency to promote cabal, and to prevent inquiry into the +qualifications of the persons to be appointed. An attempt has been +actually made, in consequence of this power, in a very marked manner, to +confound the whole order and discipline of the Company's service. Means +are furnished thereby for perpetuating the powers of some given Court of +Directors. They may forestall the patronage of their successors, on whom +they entail a line of Supreme Counsellors and Governors-General. And if +the exercise of this power should happen in its outset to fall into bad +hands, the ordinary chances for mending an ill choice upon death or +resignation are cut off. + +In these provisional arrangements it is to be considered that the +appointment is not in consequence of any marked event which calls +strongly on the attention of the public, but is made at the discretion +of those who lead in the Court of Directors, and may therefore be +brought forward at times the most favorable to the views of partiality +and corruption. Candidates have not, therefore, the notice that may be +necessary for their claims; and as the possession of the office to which +the survivors are to succeed seems remote, all inquiry into the +qualifications and character of those who are to fill it will naturally +be dull and languid. + +Your Committee are not also without a grounded apprehension of the ill +effect on any existing Council-General of all strong marks of influence +and favor which appear in the subordinates of Bengal. This previous +designation to a great and arduous trust, (the greatest that can be +reposed in subjects,) when made out of any regular course of succession, +marks that degree of countenance and support at home which may +overshadow the existing government. That government may thereby be +disturbed by factions, and led to corrupt and dangerous compliances. At +best, when these Counsellors elect are engaged in no fixed employment, +and have no lawful intermediate emolument, the natural impatience for +their situations may bring on a traffic for resignations between them +and the persons in possession, very unfavorable to the interests of the +public and to the duty of their situations. + +Since the act two persons have been nominated to the ministers of the +crown by the Court of Directors for this succession. Neither has yet +been approved. But by the description of the persons a judgment may be +formed of the principles on which this power is likely to be exercised. + +[Sidenote: Stuart and Sulivan's appointment to succeed to vacancies.] + +Your Committee find, that, in consequence of the above-mentioned act, +the Honorable Charles Stuart and Mr. Sulivan were appointed to succeed +to the first vacancies in the Supreme Council. Mr. Stuart's first +appointment in the Company's service was in the year 1761. He returned +to England in 1775, and was permitted to go back to India in 1780. In +August, 1781, he was nominated by the Court of Directors (Mr. Sulivan +and Sir William James were Chairman and Deputy-Chairman) to succeed to +the first vacancy in the Supreme Council, and on the 19th of September +following his Majesty's approval of such nomination was requested. + +[Sidenote: Mr. Stuart's situation at the time of his appointment.] + +In the nomination of Mr. Stuart, the consideration of rank in the +service was not neglected; but if the Court of Directors had thought fit +to examine their records, they would have found matter at least strongly +urging them to a suspension of this appointment, until the charges +against Mr. Stuart should be fully cleared up. That matter remained (as +it still remains) unexplained from the month of May, 1775, where, on the +Bengal Revenue Consultations of the 12th of that month, peculations to a +large amount are charged upon oath against Mr. Stuart under the +following title: "_The Particulars of the Money unjustly taken by Mr. +Stuart, during the Time he was at Burdwan._" The sum charged against him +in this account is 2,17,684 Sicca rupees (that is, 25,253_l._ sterling); +besides which there is another account with the following title: "_The +Particulars of the Money unjustly taken by Callypersaud Bose, Banian to +the Honorable Charles Stuart, Esquire, at Burdwan, and amounting to +Sicca Rupees 1,01,675_" (that is, 11,785_l._),--a large sum to be +received by a person in that subordinate situation. + +The minuteness with which these accounts appear to have been kept, and +the precision with which the date of each particular, sometimes of very +small sums, is stated, give them the appearance of authenticity, as far +as it can be conveyed on the face or in the construction of such +accounts, and, if they were forgeries, laid them open to an easy +detection. But no detection is easy, when no inquiry is made. It appears +an offence of the highest order in the Directors concerned in this +business, when, not satisfied with leaving such charges so long +unexamined, they should venture to present to the king's servants the +object of them for the highest trust which they have to bestow. If Mr. +Stuart was really guilty, the possession of this post must furnish him +not only with the means of renewing the former evil practices charged +upon him, and of executing them upon a still larger scale, but of +oppressing those unhappy persons who, under the supposed protection of +the faith of the Company, had appeared to give evidence concerning his +former misdemeanors. + +This attempt in the Directors was the more surprising, when it is +considered that two committees of this House were at that very time +sitting upon an inquiry that related directly to their conduct, and that +of their servants in India. + +[Sidenote: Mr. Sulivan's situation at the time of his appointment.] + +It was in the same spirit of defiance of Parliament, that at the same +time they nominated Mr. Sulivan, son to the then Chairman of the Court +of Directors, to the succession to the same high trust in India. On +these appointments, your Committee thought it proper to make those +inquiries which the Court of Directors thought proper to omit. They +first conceived it fitting to inquire what rank Mr. Sulivan bore in the +service; and they thought it not unnecessary here to state the +gradations in the service, according to the established usage of the +Company. + +The Company's civil servants generally go to India as _writers_, in +which capacity they serve the Company _five years_. The next step, in +point of rank, is to be a _factor_, and next to that a _junior +merchant_; in each of which capacities they serve the Company _three +years_. They then rise to the rank of _senior merchant_, in which +situation they remain till called by rotation to the _Board of Trade_. +Until the passing of the Regulation Act, in 1773, seniority entitled +them to succeed to the _Council_, and finally gave them pretensions to +the _government of the Presidency_. + +The above gradation of the service, your Committee conceive, ought never +to be superseded by the Court of Directors, without evident reason, in +persons or circumstances, to justify the breach of an ancient order. The +names, whether taken from civil or commercial gradation, are of no +moment. The order itself is wisely established, and tends to provide a +natural guard against partiality, precipitancy, and corruption in +patronage. It affords means and opportunities for an examination into +character; and among the servants it secures a strong motive to preserve +a fair reputation. Your Committee find that no respect whatsoever was +paid to this gradation in the instance of Mr. Sulivan, nor is there any +reason assigned for departing from it. They do not find that Mr. Sulivan +had ever served the Company in any one of the above capacities, but was, +in the year 1777, abruptly brought into the service, and sent to Madras +to succeed as Persian Translator and Secretary to the Council. + +Your Committee have found a letter from Mr. Sulivan to George Wombwell +and William Devaynes, Esquires, Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of the +Court of Directors, stating that he trusted _his applications_ would +have a place in their deliberations when Madras affairs were taken up. +Of what nature those applications were your Committee cannot discover, +as no traces of them appear on the Company's records,--nor whether any +proofs of his ability, even as Persian Translator, which might entitle +him to a preference to the many servants in India whose study and +opportunities afforded them the means of becoming perfect masters of +that language. + +On the above letter your Committee find that the Committee of +Correspondence proceeded; and on their recommendation the Court of +Directors unanimously approved of Mr. Sulivan to be appointed to succeed +to the posts of Secretary and Persian Translator. + +[Sidenote: Mr. Sulivan's succession of offices.] + +Conformably to the orders of the court, Mr. Sulivan succeeded to those +posts; and the President and Council acquainted the Court of Directors +that they had been obeyed. About five months after, it appears that Mr. +Sulivan thought fit to resign the office of Persian Translator, to which +he had been appointed by the Directors. In April, 1780, Mr. Sulivan is +commended for his _great diligence as Secretary_; in August following +he obtains leave to accompany Mrs. Sulivan to Bengal, whence she is to +proceed to Europe on account of her health; and he is charged with a +commission from the President and Council of Fort St. George to obtain +for that settlement supplies of grain, troops, and money, from the +Governor-General and Council of Bengal. In October the Governor-General +requests permission of the Council there to employ Mr. Sulivan as his +_Assistant_, for that he had experienced (between his arrival in Bengal +and that time) the abilities of Mr. Sulivan, and made choice of him as +_completely qualified for that trust_; also requests the board to +appoint him Judge-Advocate-General, and likewise to apply to the +Presidency of Madras for him to remain in Bengal without prejudice to +his rank on their establishment: which several requests the board at +Madras readily complied with, notwithstanding their natural sensibility +to the loss of a Secretary of such ability and diligence as they had +described Mr. Sulivan to be. + +On the 5th of December following, the President and Council received a +letter from Bengal, requesting that Mr. Sulivan might be allowed to keep +his rank. This request brought on some discussion. A Mr. Freeman, it +seems, who had acted under Mr. Sulivan as Sub-Secretary whilst his +principal obtained so much praise for his diligence, addressed the board +on the same day, and observed, "that, since Mr. Sulivan's arrival, _he_ +[Mr. Freeman] had, _without intermission_, done almost the _whole_ of +the duty allotted to the post of Secretary, _which it was notorious Mr. +Sulivan had paid but little attention to_; and neither his inclination +or duty led him to act any longer as Mr. Sulivan's deputy." + +Here your Committee cannot avoid remarking the direct contradiction +which this address of Mr. Freeman's gives to the letter from the +President and Council to the Court of Directors in April, 1780, wherein +Mr. Sulivan is praised for his "diligence and attention in his office of +Secretary." + +The President and Council do not show any displeasure at Mr. Freeman's +representation, (so contrary to their own,) the truth of which they thus +tacitly admit, but agree to write to the Governor-General and Council, +"that it could not be supposed that they could carry on the public +business for any length of time without _the services of a Secretary_ +and Clerk of Appeals, two offices that required personal attendance, and +which would be a general injury to the servants on their establishment, +and in particular to the person who acted in those capacities, as they +learnt that Mr. Sulivan had been appointed Judge-Advocate-General in +Bengal,--and to request the Governor-General and Council to inform Mr. +Sulivan of their sentiments, and to desire him to inform them whether he +meant to return to his station or to remain in Bengal." + +On the 5th December, as a mark of their approbation of Mr. Freeman, who +had so plainly contradicted their opinion of Mr. Sulivan, the President +and Council agree to appoint him to act as Secretary and Clerk of +Appeals, till Mr. Sulivan's answer should arrive, with the emoluments, +and to confirm him therein, if Mr. Sulivan should remain in Bengal. + +On the 14th February, 1781, the President and Council received a letter +from Bengal in reply, and stating their request that Mr. Sulivan might +reserve the right of returning to his original situation on the Madras +establishment, if the Court of Directors should disapprove of his being +transferred to Bengal. To this request the board at Madras declare they +have no objection: and here the matter rests; the Court of Directors not +having given any tokens of approbation or disapprobation of the +transaction. + +Such is the history of Mr. Sulivan's service from the time of his +appointment; such were the qualifications, and such the proofs of +assiduity and diligence given by him in holding so many incompatible +offices, (as well as being engaged in other dealings, which will appear +in their place,) when, after three years' desultory residence in India, +he was thought worthy to be nominated to the succession to the Supreme +Council. No proof whatsoever of distinguished capacity in any line +preceded his original appointment to the service: so that the whole of +his fitness for the Supreme Council rested upon his conduct and +character since his appointment as Persian Translator. + +Your Committee find that his Majesty has not yet given his approbation +to the nomination, made by the Court of Directors on the 30th of August, +1781, of Messrs. Stuart and Sulivan to succeed to the Supreme Council on +the first vacancies, though the Court applied for the royal approbation +so long ago as the 19th of September, 1781; and in these instances the +king's ministers performed their duty, in withholding their countenance +from a proceeding so exceptionable and of so dangerous an example. + +Your Committee, from a full view of the situation and duties of the +Court of Directors, are of opinion that effectual means ought to be +taken for regulating that court in such a manner as to prevent either +rivalship with or subserviency to their servants. It might, therefore, +be proper for the House to consider whether it is fit that those who +are, or have been within some given time, Directors of the Company, +should be capable of an appointment to any offices in India. Directors +can never properly govern those for whose employments they are or may be +themselves candidates; they can neither protect nor coerce them with due +impartiality or due authority. + +If such rules as are stated by your Committee under this head were +observed in the regular service at home and abroad, the necessity of +superseding the regular service by strangers would be more rare; and +whenever the servants were so superseded, those who put forward other +candidates would be obliged to produce a strong plea of merit and +ability, which, in the judgment of mankind, ought to overpower +pretensions so authentically established, and so rigorously guarded from +abuse. + +[Sidenote: Deficiency of powers to ministers of government.] + +The second object, in this part of the plan, of the act of 1773, namely, +that of inspection by the ministers of the crown, appears not to have +been provided for, so as to draw the timely and productive attention of +the state on the grievances of the people of India, and on the abuses of +its government. By the Regulating Act, the ministers were enabled to +inspect one part of the correspondence, that which was received in +England, but not that which went outward. They might know something, but +that very imperfectly and unsystematically, of the state of affairs; but +they were neither authorized to advance nor to retard any measure taken +by the Directors in consequence of that state: they were not provided +even with sufficient means of knowing what any of these measures were. +And this imperfect information, together with the want of a direct call +to any specific duty, might have, in some degree, occasioned that +remissness which rendered even the imperfect powers originally given by +the act of 1773 the less efficient. This defect was in a great measure +remedied by a subsequent act; but that act was not passed until the year +1780. + +[Sidenote: Disorders increased since 1773.] + +Your Committee find that during the whole period which elapsed from 1773 +to the commencement of 1782 disorders and abuses of every kind +multiplied. Wars contrary to policy and contrary to public faith were +carrying on in various parts of India. The allies, dependants, and +subjects of the Company were everywhere oppressed;[2] dissensions in the +Supreme Council prevailed, and continued for the greater part of that +time; the contests between the civil and judicial powers threatened that +issue to which they came at last, an armed resistance to the authority +of the king's court of justice; the orders which by an act of Parliament +the servants were bound to obey were avowedly and on principle +contemned; until at length the fatal effects of accumulated misdemeanors +abroad and neglects at home broke out in the alarming manner which your +Committee have so fully reported to this House.[3] + +[Sidenote: Proceedings in India not known to Parliament.] + +In all this time the true state of the several Presidencies, and the +real conduct of the British government towards the natives, was not at +all known to Parliament: it seems to have been very imperfectly known +even to ministers. Indeed, it required an unbroken attention, and much +comparison of facts and reasonings, to form a true judgment on that +difficult and complicated system of politics, revenue, and commerce, +whilst affairs were only in their progress to that state which produced +the present inquiries. Therefore, whilst the causes of their ruin were +in the height of their operation, both the Company and the natives were +understood by the public as in circumstances the most assured and most +flourishing; insomuch that, whenever the affairs of India were brought +before Parliament, as they were two or three times during that period, +the only subject-matter of discussion anywise important was concerning +the sums which might be taken out of the Company's surplus profits for +the advantage of the state. Little was thought of but the disengagement +of the Company from their debts in _England_, and to prevent the +servants abroad from drawing upon them, so as that body might be +enabled, without exciting clamors here, to afford the contribution that +was demanded. All descriptions of persons, either here or in India, +looking solely to appearances at home, the reputation of the Directors +depended on the keeping the Company's sales in a situation to support +the dividend, that of the ministers depended on the most lucrative +bargains for the Exchequer, and that of the servants abroad on the +largest investments; until at length there is great reason to apprehend, +that, unless some very substantial reform takes place in the management +of the Company's affairs, nothing will be left for investment, for +dividend, or for bargain, and India, instead of a resource to the +public, may itself come, in no great length of time, to be reckoned +amongst the public burdens. + +[Sidenote: Inspection of ministers has failed in effect.] + +In this manner the inspection of the ministers of the crown, the great +cementing regulation of the whole act of 1773, has, along with all the +others, entirely failed in its effect. + +[Sidenote: Failure in the act.] + +Your Committee, in observing on the failure of this act, do not consider +the intrinsic defects or mistakes in the law itself as the sole cause of +its miscarriage. The general policy of the nation with regard to this +object has been, they conceive, erroneous; and no remedy by laws, under +the prevalence of that policy, can be effectual. Before any remedial law +can have its just operation, the affairs of India must be restored to +their natural order. The prosperity of the natives must be previously +secured, before any profit from them whatsoever is attempted. For as +long as a system prevails which regards the transmission of great wealth +to this country, either for the Company or the state, as its principal +end, so long will it be impossible that those who are the instruments of +that scheme should not be actuated by the same spirit for their own +private purposes. It will be worse: they will support the injuries done +to the natives for their selfish ends by new injuries done in favor of +those before whom they are to account. It is not reasonably to be +expected that a public rapacious and improvident should be served by any +of its subordinates with disinterestedness or foresight. + + +II.--CONNECTION OF GREAT BRITAIN WITH INDIA. + +In order to open more fully the tendency of the policy which has +hitherto prevailed, and that the House may be enabled, in any +regulations which may be made, to follow the tracks of the abuse, and +to apply an appropriated remedy to a particular distemper, your +Committee think it expedient to consider in some detail the manner in +which India is connected with this kingdom,--which is the second head of +their plan. + +The two great links by which this connection is maintained are, first, +the East India Company's commerce, and, next, the government set over +the natives by that company and by the crown. The first of these +principles of connection, namely, the East India Company's trade, is to +be first considered, not only as it operates by itself, but as having a +powerful influence over the general policy and the particular measures +of the Company's government. Your Committee apprehend that the present +state, nature, and tendency of this trade are not generally understood. + +[Sidenote: Trade to India formerly carried on chiefly in silver.] + +Until the acquisition of great territorial revenues by the East India +Company, the trade with India was carried on upon the common principles +of commerce,--namely, by sending out such commodities as found a demand +in the India market, and, where that demand was not adequate to the +reciprocal call of the European market for Indian goods, by a large +annual exportation of treasure, chiefly in silver. In some years that +export has been as high as six hundred and eighty thousand pounds +sterling. The other European companies trading to India traded thither +on the same footing. Their export of bullion was probably larger in +proportion to the total of their commerce, as their commerce itself bore +a much larger proportion to the British than it does at this time or has +done for many years past. But stating it to be equal to the British, +the whole of the silver sent annually from Europe into Hindostan could +not fall very short of twelve or thirteen hundred thousand pounds a +year. This influx of money, poured into India by an emulation of all the +commercial nations of Europe, encouraged industry and promoted +cultivation in a high degree, notwithstanding the frequent wars with +which that country was harassed, and the vices which existed in its +internal government. On the other hand, the export of so much silver was +sometimes a subject of grudging and uneasiness in Europe, and a commerce +carried on through such a medium to many appeared in speculation of +doubtful advantage. But the practical demands of commerce bore down +those speculative objections. The East India commodities were so +essential for animating all other branches of trade, and for completing +the commercial circle, that all nations contended for it with the +greatest avidity. The English company flourished under this exportation +for a very long series of years. The nation was considerably benefited +both in trade and in revenue; and the dividends of the proprietors were +often high, and always sufficient to keep up the credit of the Company's +stock in heart and vigor. + +[Sidenote: How trade carried on since.] + +But at or very soon after the acquisition of the territorial revenues to +the English company, the period of which may be reckoned as completed +about the year 1765, a very great revolution took place in commerce as +well as in dominion; and it was a revolution which affected the trade of +Hindostan with all other European nations, as well as with that in whose +favor and by whose power it was accomplished. From that time bullion was +no longer regularly exported by the English East India Company to +Bengal, or any part of Hindostan; and it was soon exported in much +smaller quantities by any other nation. A new way of supplying the +market of Europe, by means of the British power and influence, was +invented: a species of trade (if such it may be called) by which it is +absolutely impossible that India should not be radically and +irretrievably ruined, although our possessions there were to be ordered +and governed upon principles diametrically opposite to those which now +prevail in the system and practice of the British company's +administration. + +[Sidenote: Investments.] + +A certain portion of the revenues of Bengal has been for many years set +apart to be employed in the purchase of goods for exportation to +England, and this is called the _Investment_. The greatness of this +investment has been the standard by which the merit of the Company's +principal servants has been too generally estimated; and this main cause +of the impoverishment of India has been generally taken as a measure of +its wealth and prosperity. Numerous fleets of large ships, loaded with +the most valuable commodities of the East, annually arriving in England, +in a constant and increasing succession, imposed upon the public eye, +and naturally gave rise to an opinion of the happy condition and growing +opulence of a country whose surplus productions occupied so vast a space +in the commercial world. This export from India seemed to imply also a +reciprocal supply, by which the trading capital employed in those +productions was continually strengthened and enlarged. But the payment +of a tribute, and not a beneficial commerce to that country, wore this +specious and delusive appearance. + +[Sidenote: Increase of expenses.] + +The fame of a great territorial revenue, exaggerated, as is usual in +such cases, beyond even its value, and the abundant fortunes of the +Company's officers, military and civil, which flowed into Europe with a +full tide, raised in the proprietors of East India stock a premature +desire of partaking with their servants in the fruits of that splendid +adventure. Government also thought they could not be too early in their +claims for a share of what they considered themselves as entitled to in +every foreign acquisition made by the power of this kingdom, through +whatever hands or by whatever means it was made. These two parties, +after some struggle, came to an agreement to divide between them the +profits which their speculation proposed to realize in England from the +territorial revenue in Bengal. About two hundred thousand pounds was +added to the annual dividends of the proprietors. Four hundred thousand +was given to the state, which, added to the old dividend, brought a +constant charge upon the mixed interest of Indian trade and revenue of +eight hundred thousand pounds a year. This was to be provided for at all +events. + +By that vast demand on the territorial fund, the correctives and +qualifications which might have been gradually applied to the abuses in +Indian commerce and government were rendered extremely difficult. + +[Sidenote: Progress of investments.] + +The practice of an investment from the revenue began in the year 1766, +before arrangements were made for securing and appropriating an assured +fund for that purpose in the treasury, and for diffusing it from thence +upon the manufactures of the country in a just proportion and in the +proper season. There was, indeed, for a short time, a surplus of cash in +the treasury. It was in some shape to be sent home to its owners. To +send it out in silver was subject to two manifest inconveniences. First, +the country would be exhausted of its circulating medium. A scarcity of +coin was already felt in Bengal. Cossim Ali Khân, (the Nabob whom the +Company's servants had lately set up, and newly expelled,) during the +short period of his power, had exhausted the country by every mode of +extortion; in his flight he carried off an immense treasure, which has +been variously computed, but by none at less than three millions +sterling. A country so exhausted of its coin, and harassed by three +revolutions rapidly succeeding each other, was rather an object that +stood in need of every kind of refreshment and recruit than one which +could subsist under new evacuations. The next, and equally obvious +inconvenience, was to the Company itself. To send silver into Europe +would be to send it from the best to the worst market. When arrived, the +most profitable use which could be made of it would be to send it back +to Bengal for the purchase of Indian merchandise. It was necessary, +therefore, to turn the Company's revenue into its commerce. The first +investment was about five hundred thousand pounds, and care was taken +afterwards to enlarge it. In the years 1767 and 1768 it arose to seven +hundred thousand. + +[Sidenote: Consequences of them.] + +This new system of trade, carried on through the medium of power and +public revenue, very soon produced its natural effects. The loudest +complaints arose among the natives, and among all the foreigners who +traded to Bengal. It must unquestionably have thrown the whole +mercantile system of the country into the greatest confusion. With +regard to the natives, no expedient was proposed for their relief. The +case was serious with respect to European powers. The Presidency plainly +represented to the Directors, that some agreement should be made with +foreign nations for providing their investment to a certain amount, or +that the deficiencies then subsisting must terminate in an open rupture +with France. The Directors, pressed by the large payments in England, +were not free to abandon their system; and all possible means of +diverting the manufactures into the Company's investment were still +anxiously sought and pursued, until the difficulties of the foreign +companies were at length removed by the natural flow of the fortunes of +the Company's servants into Europe, in the manner which will be stated +hereafter. + +But, with all these endeavors of the Presidency, the investment sunk in +1769, and they were even obliged to pay for a part of the goods to +private merchants in the Company's bonds, bearing interest. It was plain +that this course of business could not hold. The manufacturers of +Bengal, far from being generally in a condition to give credit, have +always required advances to be made to them; so have the merchants very +generally,--at least, since the prevalence of the English power in +India. It was necessary, therefore, and so the Presidency of Calcutta +represented the matter, to provide beforehand a year's advance. This +required great efforts; and they were made. Notwithstanding the famine +in 1770, which wasted Bengal in a manner dreadful beyond all example, +the investment, by a variety of successive expedients, many of them of +the most dangerous nature and tendency, was forcibly kept up; and even +in that forced and unnatural state it gathered strength almost every +year. The debts contracted in the infancy of the system were gradually +reduced, and the advances to contractors and manufacturers were +regularly made; so that the goods from Bengal, purchased from the +territorial revenues, from the sale of European goods, and from the +produce of the monopolies, for the four years which ended with 1780, +when the investment from the surplus revenues finally closed, were never +less than a million sterling, and commonly nearer twelve hundred +thousand pounds. This million is the lowest value of the goods sent to +Europe for which no satisfaction is made.[4] + +[Sidenote: Remittances from Bengal to China and the Presidencies.] + +About an hundred thousand pounds a year is also remitted from Bengal, on +the Company's account, to China; and the whole of the product of that +money flows into the direct trade from China to Europe. Besides this, +Bengal sends a regular supply in time of peace to those Presidencies +which are unequal to their own establishment. To Bombay the remittance +in money, bills, or goods, for none of which there is a return, amounts +to one hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year at a medium. + +[Sidenote: Exports from England to India.] + +The goods which are exported from Europe to India consist chiefly of +military and naval stores, of clothing for troops, and of other objects +for the consumption of the Europeans residing there; and, excepting some +lead, copper utensils and sheet copper, woollen cloth, and other +commodities of little comparative value, no sort of merchandise is sent +from England that is in demand for the wants or desires of the native +inhabitants. + +[Sidenote: Bad effects of investment.] + +When an account is taken of the intercourse (for it is not commerce) +which is carried on between Bengal and England, the pernicious effects +of the system of investment from revenue will appear in the strongest +point of view. In that view, the whole exported produce of the country, +so far as the Company is concerned, is not exchanged in the course of +barter, but is taken away without any return or payment whatsoever. In a +commercial light, therefore, England becomes annually bankrupt to Bengal +to the amount nearly of its whole dealing; or rather, the country has +suffered what is tantamount to an annual plunder of its manufactures and +its produce to the value of twelve hundred thousand pounds. + +[Sidenote: Foreign companies.] + +[Sidenote: Consequences of their trade.] + +In time of peace, three foreign companies appear at first sight to bring +their contribution of trade to the supply of this continual drain. These +are the companies of France, Holland, and Denmark. But when the object +is considered more nearly, instead of relief, these companies, who from +their want of authority in the country might seem to trade upon a +principle merely commercial, will be found to add their full proportion +to the calamity brought upon Bengal by the destructive system of the +ruling power; because the greater part of the capital of all these +companies, and perhaps the whole capital of some of them, is furnished +exactly as the British is, out of the revenues of the country. The civil +and military servants of the English East India Company being +restricted in drawing bills upon Europe, and none of them ever making or +proposing an establishment in India, a very great part of their +fortunes, well or ill gotten, is in all probability thrown, as fast as +required, into the cash of these companies. + +In all other countries, the revenue, following the natural course and +order of things, arises out of their commerce. Here, by a mischievous +inversion of that order, the whole foreign maritime trade, whether +English, French, Dutch, or Danish, arises from the revenues; and these +are carried out of the country without producing anything to compensate +so heavy a loss. + +[Sidenote: Foreign companies' investments.] + +Your Committee have not been able to discover the entire value of the +investment made by foreign companies. But, as the investment which the +English East India Company derived from its revenues, and even from its +public credit, is for the year 1783 to be wholly stopped, it has been +proposed to private persons to make a subscription for an investment on +their own account. This investment is to be equal to the sum of +800,000_l._ Another loan has been also made for an investment on the +Company's account to China of 200,000_l._ This makes a million; and +there is no question that much more could be readily had for bills upon +Europe. Now, as there is no doubt that the whole of the money remitted +is the property of British subjects, (none else having any interest in +remitting to Europe,) it is not unfair to suppose that a very great +part, if not the whole, of what may find its way into this new channel +is not newly created, but only diverted from those channels in which it +formerly ran, that is, the cash of the foreign trading companies. + +[Sidenote: Of the silver sent to China.] + +Besides the investment made in goods by foreign companies from the funds +of British subjects, these subjects have been for some time in the +practice of sending very great sums in gold and silver directly to China +on their own account. In a memorial presented to the Governor-General +and Council, in March, 1782, it appears that the principal money lent by +British subjects to one company of merchants in China then amounted to +seven millions of dollars, about one million seven hundred thousand +pounds sterling; and not the smallest particle of silver sent to China +ever returns to India. It is not easy to determine in what proportions +this enormous sum of money has been sent from Madras or from Bengal; but +it equally exhausts a country belonging to this kingdom, whether it +comes from the one or from the other. + +[Sidenote: Revenue above the investment, how applied.] + +[Sidenote: Allowance to Nabob of Bengal.] + +[Sidenote: How reduced.] + +But that the greatness of all these drains, and their effects, may be +rendered more visible, your Committee have turned their consideration to +the employment of those parts of the Bengal revenue which are not +employed in the Company's own investments for China and for Europe. What +is taken over and above the investment (when any investment can be made) +from the gross revenue, either for the charge of collection or for civil +and military establishments, is in time of peace two millions at the +least. From the portion of that sum which goes to the support of civil +government the natives are almost wholly excluded, as they are from the +principal collections of revenue. With very few exceptions, they are +only employed as servants and agents to Europeans, or in the inferior +departments of collection, when it is absolutely impossible to proceed +a step without their assistance. For some time after the acquisition of +the territorial revenue, the sum of 420,000_l._ a year was paid, +according to the stipulation of a treaty, to the Nabob of Bengal, for +the support of his government. This sum, however inconsiderable, +compared to the revenues of the province, yet, distributed through the +various departments of civil administration, served in some degree to +preserve the natives of the better sort, particularly those of the +Mahomedan profession, from being utterly ruined. The people of that +persuasion, not being so generally engaged in trade, and not having on +their conquest of Bengal divested the ancient Gentoo proprietors of +their lands of inheritance, had for their chief, if not their sole +support, the share of a moderate conqueror in all offices, civil and +military. But your Committee find that this arrangement was of a short +duration. Without the least regard to the subsistence of this innocent +people, or to the faith of the agreement on which they were brought +under the British government, this sum was reduced by a new treaty to +320,000_l._, and soon after, (upon a pretence of the present Nabob's +minority, and a temporary sequestration for the discharge of his debts,) +to 160,000_l._: but when he arrived at his majority, and when the debts +were paid, (if ever they were paid,) the sequestration still continued; +and so far as the late advices may be understood, the allowance to the +Nabob appears still to stand at the reduced sum of 160,000_l._ + +[Sidenote: Native officers.] + +The other resource of the Mahomedans, and of the Gentoos of certain of +the higher castes, was the army. In this army, nine tenths of which +consists of natives, no native, of whatever description, holds any rank +higher than that of a _Subahdar Commandant_, that is, of an officer +below the rank of an English subaltern, who is appointed to each company +of the native soldiery. + +[Sidenote: All lucrative employments in the hands of the English.] + +Your Committee here would be understood to state the ordinary +establishment: for the war may have made some alteration. All the +honorable, all the lucrative situations of the army, all the supplies +and contracts of whatever species that belong to it, are solely in the +hands of the English; so that whatever is beyond the mere subsistence of +a common soldier and some officers of a lower rank, together with the +immediate expenses of the English officers at their table, is sooner or +later, in one shape or another, sent out of the country. + +Such was the state of Bengal even in time of profound peace, and before +the whole weight of the public charge fell upon that unhappy country for +the support of other parts of India, which have been desolated in such a +manner as to contribute little or nothing to their own protection. + +[Sidenote: Former state of trade.] + +Your Committee have given this short comparative account of the effects +of the maritime traffic of Bengal, when in its natural state, and as it +has stood since the prevalence of the system of an investment from the +revenues. But before the formation of that system Bengal did by no means +depend for its resources on its maritime commerce. The inland trade, +from whence it derived a very great supply of silver and gold and many +kinds of merchantable goods, was very considerable. The higher provinces +of the Mogul Empire were then populous and opulent, and intercourse to +an immense amount was carried on between them and Bengal. A great trade +also passed through these provinces from all the countries on the +frontier of Persia, and the frontier provinces of Tartary, as well as +from Surat and Baroach on the western side of India. These parts opened +to Bengal a communication with the Persian Gulf and with the Red Sea, +and through them with the whole Turkish and the maritime parts of the +Persian Empire, besides the commercial intercourse which it maintained +with those and many other countries through its own seaports. + +[Sidenote: And the trade to Turkey.] + +During that period the remittances to the Mogul's treasury from Bengal +were never very large, at least for any considerable time, nor very +regularly sent; and the impositions of the state were soon repaid with +interest through the medium of a lucrative commerce. But the disorders +of Persia, since the death of Kouli Khân, have wholly destroyed the +trade of that country; and the trade to Turkey, by Jidda and Bussorah, +which was the greatest and perhaps best branch of the Indian trade, is +very much diminished. The fall of the throne of the Mogul emperors has +drawn with it that of the great marts of Agra and Delhi. The utmost +confusion of the northwestern provinces followed this revolution, which +was not absolutely complete until it received the last hand from Great +Britain. Still greater calamities have fallen upon the fine provinces of +Rohilcund and Oude, and on the countries of Corah and Allahabad. By the +operations of the British arms and influence, they are in many places +turned to mere deserts, or so reduced and decayed as to afford very few +materials or means of commerce. + +[Sidenote: State of trade in the Carnatic.] + +Such is the actual condition of the trade of Bengal since the +establishment of the British power there. The commerce of the Carnatic, +as far as the inquiries of your Committee have extended, did not appear +with a better aspect, even before the invasion of Hyder Ali Khân, and +the consequent desolation, which for many years to come must exclude it +from any considerable part of the trading system. + +It appears, on the examination of an intelligent person concerned in +trade, and who resided at Madras for several years, that on his arrival +there, which was in the year 1767, that city was in a flourishing +condition, and one of the first marts in India; but when he left it, in +1779, there was little or no trade remaining, and but one ship belonging +to the whole place. The evidence of this gentleman purports, that at his +first acquaintance with the Carnatic it was a well-cultivated and +populous country, and as such consumed many articles of merchandise; +that at his departure he left it much circumscribed in trade, greatly in +the decline as to population and culture, and with a correspondent decay +of the territorial revenue. + +Your Committee find that there has also been from Madras an investment +on the Company's account, taking one year with another, very nearly on +the same principles and with the same effects as that from Bengal; and +they think it is highly probable, that, besides the large sums remitted +directly from Madras to China, there has likewise been a great deal on a +private account, for that and other countries, invested in the cash of +foreign European powers trading on the coast of Coromandel. But your +Committee have not extended their inquiries relative to the commerce of +the countries dependent on Madras so far as they have done with regard +to Bengal. They have reason to apprehend that the condition is rather +worse; but if the House requires a more minute examination of this +important subject, your Committee is willing to enter into it without +delay. + + +III.--EFFECT OF THE REVENUE INVESTMENT ON THE COMPANY. + +Hitherto your Committee has considered this system of revenue +investment, substituted in the place of a commercial link between India +and Europe, so far as it affects India only: they are now to consider it +as it affects the Company. So long as that corporation continued to +receive a vast quantity of merchantable goods without any disbursement +for the purchase, so long it possessed wherewithal to continue a +dividend to pay debts, and to contribute to the state. But it must have +been always evident to considerate persons, that this vast extraction of +wealth from a country lessening in its resources in proportion to the +increase of its burdens was not calculated for a very long duration. For +a while the Company's servants kept up this investment, not by improving +commerce, manufacture, or agriculture, but by forcibly raising the +land-rents, on the principles and in the manner hereafter to be +described. When these extortions disappointed or threatened to +disappoint expectation, in order to purvey for the avarice which raged +in England, they sought for expedients in breaches of all the agreements +by which they were bound by any payment to the country powers, and in +exciting disturbances among all the neighboring princes. Stimulating +their ambition, and fomenting their mutual animosities, they sold to +them reciprocally their common servitude and ruin. + +The Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, and the Council, tell the Directors, +"that the supply for the investment has arisen from _casual_ and +_extraordinary_ resources, which they could not expect _always_ to +command." In an earlier minute he expresses himself still more +distinctly: he says, "If the internal resources of a state fail it, or +are not equal to its _occasional_ wants, whence can it obtain immediate +relief but from _external_ means?" Indeed, the investment has not been +for any long time the natural product of the revenue of Bengal. When, by +the vast charge and by the ill return of an evil political and military +traffic, and by a prodigal increase of establishments, and a profuse +conduct in distributing agencies and contracts, they found themselves +under difficulties, instead of being cured of their immoral and +impolitic delusion, they plunged deeper into it, and were drawn from +expedient to expedient for the supply of the investment into that +endless chain of wars which this House by its resolutions has so justly +condemned. At home these measures were sometimes countenanced, sometimes +winked at, sometimes censured, but always with an acceptance of whatever +profit they afforded. + +At length, the funds for the investment and for these wars together +could no longer be supplied. In the year 1778 the provision for the +investment from the revenues and from the monopolies stood very high. It +was estimated at a million four hundred thousand pounds; and of this it +appears that a great deal was realized. But this was the high flood-tide +of the investment; for in that year they announce its probable decline, +and that such extensive supplies could not be continued. The advances to +the Board of Trade became less punctual, and many disputes arose about +the time of making them. However, knowing that all their credit at home +depended on the investment, or upon an opinion of its magnitude, whilst +they repeat their warning of a probable deficiency, and that their +"finances bore an unfavorable aspect," in the year 1779 they rate their +investment still higher. But their payments becoming less and less +regular, and the war carrying away all the supplies, at length Mr. +Hastings, in December, 1780, denounced sentence of approaching +dissolution to this system, and tells the Directors that "he bore too +high a respect for their characters to treat them with the management of +a preparatory and gradual introduction to an unpleasing report: that it +is the _only substantial_ information he shall have to convey in that +letter." In confidence, therefore, of their fortitude, he tells them +without ceremony, "that there will be a necessity of making a large +reduction, or possibly a _total suspension_, of their investment;--that +they had already been reduced to borrow near 700,000_l._ This resource," +says he, "cannot last; it must cease at a certain period, and that +perhaps not far _distant_." + +He was not mistaken in his prognostic. Loans now becoming the regular +resource for retrieving the investment, whose ruin was inevitable, the +Council enable the Board of Trade, in April, 1781, to grant certificates +for government bonds at eight per cent interest for about 650,000_l._ +The investment was fixed at 900,000_l._ + +But now another alarming system appeared. These new bonds overloaded +the market. Those which had been formerly issued were at a discount; the +Board of Trade was obliged to advance, therefore, a fourth more than +usual to the contractors. This seemed to satisfy that description of +dealers. But as those who bought on agency were limited to no terms of +mutual advantage, and the bonds on the new issue falling from three to +eight, nine, and ten per cent discount, the agents were unable to +furnish at the usual prices. Accordingly a discount was settled on such +terms as could be made: the lowest discount, and that at two places +only, was at four per cent; which, with the interest on the bonds, made +(besides the earlier advance) at the least twelve per cent additional +charge upon all goods. It was evident, that, as the investment, instead +of being supported by the revenues, was sunk by the fall of their +credit, so the net revenues were diminished by the daily accumulation of +an interest accruing on account of the investment. What was done to +alleviate one complaint thus aggravating the other, and at length +proving pernicious to both, this trade on bonds likewise came to its +period. + +Your Committee has reason to think that the bonds have since that time +sunk to a discount much greater even than what is now stated. The Board +of Trade justly denominates their resource for that year "the sinking +credit of a paper currency, laboring, from the uncommon scarcity of +specie, under disadvantages scarcely surmountable." From this they value +themselves "on having effected an _ostensible_ provision, at least for +that investment." For 1783 nothing appears even ostensible. + +By this failure a total revolution ensued, of the most extraordinary +nature, and to which your Committee wish to call the particular +attention of the House. For the Council-General, in their letter of the +8th of April, 1782, after stating that they were disappointed in their +expectations, (how grounded it does not appear,) "thought that they +should be able to spare a sum to the Board of Trade,"--tell the Court of +Directors, "that they had adopted a _new_ method of keeping up the +investment, by private subscribers for eighty lacs of rupees, which will +find _cargoes for their ships_ on the usual terms of privilege, _at the +risk of the individuals_, and is to be repaid to them _according to the +produce of the sales in England_,"--and they tell the Directors, that "a +copy of the plan makes a number in their separate dispatches over land." + +It is impossible, in reporting this revolution to the House, to avoid +remarking with what fidelity Mr. Hastings and his Council have adhered +to the mode of transmitting their accounts which your Committee found it +necessary to mark and censure in their First Report. Its pernicious +tendency is there fully set forth. They were peculiarly called on for a +most accurate state of their affairs, in order to explain the necessity +of having recourse to such a scheme, as well as for a full and correct +account of the scheme itself. But they send only the above short minute +by one dispatch over land, whilst the copy of the plan itself, on which +the Directors must form their judgment, is sent separately in another +dispatch over land, which has never arrived. A third dispatch, which +also contained the plan, was sent by a sea conveyance, and arrived late. +The Directors have, for very obvious reasons, ordered, by a strict +injunction, that they should send _duplicates of all_ their dispatches +by _every ship_. The spirit of this rule, perhaps, ought to extend to +every mode of conveyance. In this case, so far from sending a duplicate, +they do not send even one perfect account. They announce a plan by one +conveyance, and they send it by another conveyance, with other delays +and other risks. + +At length, at nearly four months' distance, the plan has been received, +and appears to be substantially that which had been announced, but +developing in the particulars many new circumstances of the greatest +importance. By this plan it appears that the subscription, even in idea +or pretence, is not for the use of the Company, but that the subscribers +are united into a sort of society for the remitting their _private +fortunes_: the goods, indeed, are said to be _shipped on the Company's +account_, and they are directed to be sold on the same account, and at +the usual periods of sales; but, after the payment of duties, and such +other allowances as they choose to make, in the eleventh article they +provide "that _the remainder of the sales shall revert to the +subscribers_, and be declared to be _their property_, and divided in +proportion to _their_ respective shares." The compensation which they +allow in this plan to their masters for their brokerage is, that, if, +after deducting all the charges which they impose, "the amount of the +sales _should be found_ to exceed two shillings and twopence for the +current rupee of the invoice account, it shall be taken by the Company." +For the management of this concern in Bengal they choose commissioners +by their own authority. By the same authority they form them into a +body, they put them under rules and regulations, and they empower them +also to make regulations of their own. They remit, by the like +authority, the duties to which all private trade is subject; and they +charge the whole concern with seven per cent, to be paid from the net +produce of the sales in England, as a recompense to the commissioners: +for this the commissioners contract to bear all the charges on the goods +to the time of shipping. + +The servants having formed this plan of trade, and a new commission for +the conduct of it, on their private account, it is a matter of +consideration to know who the commissioners are. They turn out to be the +three senior servants of the Company's Board of Trade, who choose to +take upon them to be the factors of others for large emoluments, whilst +they receive salaries of two thousand pounds and fifteen hundred pounds +a year from the Company. As the Company have no other fund than the new +investment from whence they are to be paid for the care of their +servants' property, this commission and those salaries being to take +place of their brokerage, they in effect render it very difficult, if +not impossible, for them to derive advantage from their new occupation. + +As to the benefit of this _plan_: besides preventing the loss which must +happen from the Company's ships returning empty to Europe, and the +stopping of all trade between India and England, the authors of it +state, that it will "_open a new channel_ of remittance, and abolish the +practice, by precluding the necessity, of remitting _private fortunes_ +by _foreign bottoms_, and that it may lead to some _permanent mode_ for +remittance of private fortunes, and of combining it with the regular +provision of the Company's investment,--that it will yield _some_ profit +to the Company without risk, and the national gain will be the same as +upon the regular trade." + +As to the combination of this mode of remittance with the Company's +investment, nothing can be affirmed concerning it until some +satisfactory assurance can be held out that such an investment can ever +be realized. Mr. Hastings and the gentlemen of the Council have not +afforded any ground for such an expectation. That the Indian trade may +become a permanent vehicle of the private fortunes of the Company's +servants is very probable,--that is, as permanent as the means of +acquiring fortunes in India; but that _some profit_ will accrue to the +Company is absolutely impossible. The Company are to bear all the charge +outwards, and a very great part of that homewards; and their only +compensation is the surplus commission on the sale of other people's +goods. The nation will undoubtedly avoid great loss and detriment, which +would be the inevitable consequence of the total cessation of the trade +with Bengal and the ships returning without cargoes. But if this +temporary expedient should be improved into a system, no occasional +advantages to be derived from it would be sufficient to balance the +mischiefs of finding a great Parliamentary corporation turned into a +vehicle for remitting to England the private fortunes of those for whose +benefit the territorial possessions in India are in effect and substance +under this project to be _solely_ held. + +By this extraordinary scheme the Company is totally overturned, and all +its relations inverted. From being a body concerned in trade on their +own account, and employing their servants as factors, the servants have +at one stroke taken the whole trade into their own hands, on their own +capital of 800,000_l._, at their own risk, and the Company are become +agents and factors to them, to sell by commission _their_ goods for +_their_ profit. + +To enable your Committee to form some judgment upon the profit which may +accrue to the Company from its new relation and employment, they +directed that an estimate should be made of the probable proceeds of an +investment conducted on the principles of that intended to be realized +for 1783. By this estimate, which is subjoined,[5] it appears to your +Committee, that, so far from any surplus profit from this transaction, +the Bengal adventurers themselves, instead of realizing 2_s._ 2_d._ the +rupee, (the standard they fix for their payment,) will not receive the +1_s._ 9_d._ which is its utmost value in silver at the Mint, nor +probably above 1_s._ 5_d._ With this certain loss before their eyes, it +is impossible that they can ever complete their subscription, unless, by +management among themselves, they should be able to procure the goods +for their own account upon other terms than those on which they +purchased them for their masters, or unless they have for the supply of +the Company on their hands a quantity of goods which they cannot +otherwise dispose of. This latter case is not very improbable, from +their proposing to send ten sixteenths of the whole investment in +silk,--which, as will be seen hereafter, the Company has prohibited to +be sent on their account, as a disadvantageous article. Nothing but the +servants being overloaded can rationally account for their choice of so +great a proportion of so dubious a commodity. + +On the state made by two reports of a committee of the General Court in +1782, their affairs were even then reduced to a low ebb. But under the +arrangement announced by Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, it does not +appear, after this period of the servants' investment, from what fund +the proprietors are to make any dividend at all. The objects of the sale +from whence the dividend is to arise are not _their_ goods: they stand +accountable to others for the whole probable produce. The state of the +Company's commerce will therefore become an object of serious +consideration: an affair, as your Committee apprehends, of as much +difficulty as ever tried the faculties of this House. For, on the one +hand, it is plain that the system of providing the Company's import into +Europe, resting almost wholly by an investment from its territorial +revenues, has failed: during its continuance it was supported on +principles fatal to the prosperity of that country. On the other hand, +if the nominal commerce of the Company is suffered to be carried on for +the account of the servants abroad, by investing the emoluments made in +their stations, these emoluments are therefore inclusively authorized, +and with them the practices from which they accrue. All Parliamentary +attempts to reform this system will be contradictory to its institution. +If, for instance, five hundred thousand pounds sterling annually be +necessary for this kind of investment, any regulation which may prevent +the acquisition of that sum operates against the investment which is the +end proposed by the plan. + +On this new scheme, (which is neither calculated for a future security +nor for a present relief to the Company,) it is not visible in what +manner the settlements in India can be at all upheld. The gentlemen in +employments abroad call for the whole produce of the year's investment +from Bengal; but for the payment of the counter-investment from Europe, +which is for the far greater part sent out for the support of their +power, no provision at all is made: they have not, it seems, agreed that +it should be charged to their account, or that any deduction should be +made for it from the produce of their sales in Leadenhall Street. How +far such a scheme is preferable to the total suspension of trade your +Committee cannot positively determine. In all likelihood, extraordinary +expedients were necessary; but the causes which induced this necessity +ought to be more fully inquired into; for the last step in a series of +conduct may be justifiable upon principles that suppose great blame in +those which preceded it. + +After your Committee had made the foregoing observations upon the plan +of Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, transmitted to the Court of +Directors, an extract of the Madras Consultations was a few days ago +laid before us. This extract contains a letter from the Governor-General +and Council of Bengal to the Presidency of Fort St. George, which +affords a very striking, though to your Committee by no means an +unexpected, picture of the instability of their opinions and conduct. On +the 8th of April the servants had regularly formed and digested the +above-mentioned plan, which was to form the basis for the investment of +their own fortunes, and to furnish the sole means of the commercial +existence of their masters. Before the 10th of the following May, which +is the date of their letter to Madras, they inform Lord Macartney that +they had fundamentally altered the whole scheme. "Instead," say they, +"of allowing the subscribers to retain an interest in the goods, they +are to be provided entirely on account of the Company, and transported +_at their risk_; and the subscribers, instead of receiving certificates +payable out of the produce of the sales in Europe, are to be granted +receipts, on the payment of their advances, bearing an interest of eight +per cent per annum, until exchanged for drafts on the Court of +Directors, payable 365 days after sight, at the rate of two shillings +per current rupee,--which drafts shall be granted in the proper time, of +three eighths of the amount subscribed, on the 31st of December next, +and the remaining five eighths on the 31st of December, 1783." + +The plan of April divests the Company of all property in Bengal goods +transported to Europe: but in recompense they are freed from all the +risk and expense, they are not loaded with interest, and they are not +embarrassed with bills. The plan of May reinstates them in their old +relation: but in return, their revenues in Bengal are charged with an +interest of eight per cent on the sum subscribed, until bills shall be +drawn; they are made proprietors of cargoes purchased, under the +disadvantage of that interest, at their own hazard; they are subjected +to all losses; and they are involved in Europe for payments of bills to +the amount of eighty lacs of rupees, at two shillings the rupee,--that +is, in bills for eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. It is probably +on account of the previous interest of eight per cent that the value of +the rupee on this scheme is reduced. Mr. Hastings and his colleagues +announce to Lord Macartney no other than the foregoing alteration in +their plan. + +It is discouraging to attempt any sort of observation on plans thus +shifting their principle whilst their merits are under examination. The +judgment formed on the scheme of April has nothing to do with the +project of May. Your Committee has not suppressed any part of the +reflections which occurred to them on the former of these plans: first, +because the Company knows of no other by any regular transmissions; +secondly, because it is by no means certain that before the expiration +of June the Governor-General and Council may not revert to the plan of +April. They speak of that plan as likely to be, or make a part of one +that shall be, _permanent_. Many reasons are alleged by its authors in +its favor, grounded on the state of their affairs; none whatever are +assigned for the alteration. It is, indeed, morally certain that +persons who had money to remit must have made the same calculation which +has been made by the directions of your Committee, and the result must +have been equally clear to them,--which is, that, instead of realizing +two shillings and twopence the rupee on their subscription, as they +proposed, they could never hope to see more than one shilling and +ninepence. This calculation probably shook the main pillar of the +project of April. But, on the other hand, as the subscribers to the +second scheme can have no certain assurance that the Company will accept +bills so far exceeding their allowance in this particular, the necessity +of remitting their fortunes may beat them back to their old ground. The +Danish Company was the only means of remitting which remained. Attempts +have been made with success to revive a Portuguese trade for that +purpose. It is by no means clear whether Mr. Hastings and his colleagues +will adhere to either of the foregoing plans, or, indeed, whether any +investment at all to that amount can be realized; because nothing but +the convenience of remitting the gains of British subjects to London can +support any of these projects. + +The situation of the Company, under this perpetual variation in the +system of their investment, is truly perplexing. The manner in which +they arrive at any knowledge of it is no less so. The letter to Lord +Macartney, by which the variation is discovered, was not intended for +transmission to the Directors. It was merely for the information of +those who were admitted to a share of the subscription at Madras. When +Mr. Hastings sent this information to those subscribers, he might well +enough have presumed an event to happen which did happen,--that is, +that a vessel might be dispatched from Madras to Europe: and indeed, by +that, and by every devisable means, he ought not only to have apprised +the Directors of this most material change in the plan of the +investment, but to have entered fully into the grounds and reasons of +his making it. + +It appears to your Committee that the ships which brought to England the +plan of the 8th of April did not sail from Bengal until the 1st of May. +If the change had been in contemplation for any time before the 30th of +April, two days would have sufficed to send an account of it, and it +might have arrived along with the plan which it affected. If, therefore, +such a change was in agitation before the sailing of the ships, and yet +was concealed when it might have been communicated, the concealment is +censurable. It is not improbable that some change of the kind was made +or meditated before the sailing of the ships for Europe: for it is +hardly to be imagined that reasons wholly unlooked-for should appear for +setting aside a plan concerning the success of which the Council-General +seemed so very confident, that a new one should be proposed, that its +merits should be discussed among the moneyed men, that it should be +adopted in Council, and officially ready for transmission to Madras, in +twelve or thirteen days. In this perplexity of plan and of transmission, +the Court of Directors may have made an arrangement of their affairs on +the groundwork of the first scheme, which was officially and +authentically conveyed to them. The fundamental alteration of that plan +in India might require another of a very different kind in England, +which the arrangements taken in consequence of the first might make it +difficult, if not impossible, to execute. What must add to the confusion +is, that the alteration has not the regular and official authority of +the original plan, and may be presumed to indicate with certainty +nothing more than that the business is _again_ afloat, and that no +scheme is finally determined on. Thus the Company is left without any +fixed data upon which they can make a rational disposition of their +affairs. + +The fact is, that the principles and economy of the Company's trade have +been so completely corrupted by turning it into a vehicle for tribute, +that, whenever circumstances require it to be replaced again upon a +bottom truly commercial, hardly anything but confusion and disasters can +be expected as the first results. Even before the acquisition of the +territorial revenues, the system of the Company's commerce was not +formed upon principles the most favorable to its prosperity; for, +whilst, on the one hand, that body received encouragement by royal and +Parliamentary charters, was invested with several ample privileges, and +even with a delegation of the most essential prerogatives of the +crown,--on the other, its commerce was watched with an insidious +jealousy, as a species of dealing dangerous to the national interests. +In that light, with regard to the Company's imports, there was a total +prohibition from domestic use of the most considerable articles of their +trade,--that is, of all silk stuffs, and stained and painted cottons. +The British market was in a great measure interdicted to the British +trader. Whatever advantages might arise to the general trading interests +of the kingdom by this restraint, its East India interest was +undoubtedly injured by it. The Company is also, and has been from a +very early period, obliged to furnish the Ordnance with a quantity of +saltpetre at a certain price, without any reference to the standard of +the markets either of purchase or of sale. With regard to their export, +they were put also under difficulties upon very mistaken notions; for +they were obliged to export annually a certain proportion of British +manufactures, even though they should find for them in India none or but +an unprofitable want. This compulsory export might operate, and in some +instances has operated, in a manner more grievous than a tax to the +amount of the loss in trade: for the payment of a tax is in general +divided in unequal portions between the vender and consumer, the largest +part falling upon the latter; in the case before us the tax may be as a +dead charge on the trading capital of the Company. + +The spirit of all these regulations naturally tended to weaken, in the +very original constitution of the Company, the main-spring of the +commercial machine, _the principles of profit and loss_. And the +mischief arising from an inattention to those principles has constantly +increased with the increase of its power. For when the Company had +acquired the rights of sovereignty in India, it was not to be expected +that the attention to profit and loss would have increased. The idea of +remitting tribute in goods naturally produced an indifference to their +price and quality,--the goods themselves appearing little else than a +sort of package to the tribute. Merchandise taken as tribute, or bought +in lieu of it, can never long be of a kind or of a price fitted to a +market which stands solely on its commercial reputation. The +indifference of the mercantile sovereign to his trading advantages +naturally relaxed the diligence of his subordinate factor-magistrates +through all their gradations and in all their functions; it gave rise, +at least so far as the principal was concerned, to much neglect of price +and of goodness in their purchases. If ever they showed any +extraordinary degrees of accuracy and selection, it would naturally be +in favor of that interest to which they could not be indifferent. The +Company might suffer above, the natives might suffer below; the +intermediate party must profit to the prejudice of both. + +Your Committee are of opinion that the Company is now arrived at that +point, when, the investment from surplus revenue or from the spoil of +war ceasing, it is become much more necessary to fix its commerce upon a +commercial basis. And this opinion led your Committee to a detailed +review of all the articles of the Indian traffic upon which the profit +and loss was steady; and we have chosen a period of four years, during +the continuance of the revenue investment, and prior to any borrowing or +any extraordinary drawing of bills, in order to find out how far the +trade, under circumstances when it will be necessary to carry it on by +borrowing, or by bills, or by exportation of bullion, can be sustained +in the former course, so as to secure the capital and to afford a +reasonable dividend. And your Committee find that in the first four +years the investment from Bengal amounted to 4,176,525_l._; upon +2,260,277_l._ there was a gain of 186,337_l._, and upon 1,916,248_l._ a +loss of 705,566_l._: so that the excess of loss above gain, upon the +whole of the foregoing capital, was in the four years no less than +519,229_l._ + +If the trade were confined to Bengal, and the Company were to trade on +those terms upon a capital borrowed at eight per cent Indian interest, +their revenues in that province would be soon so overpowered with debt, +that those revenues, instead of supporting the trade, would be totally +destroyed by it. If, on the other hand, the Company traded upon bills +with every advantage, far from being in a condition to divide the +smallest percentage, their bankruptcy here would be inevitable. + +Your Committee then turned to the trade of the other factories and +Presidencies, and they constantly found, that, as the power and dominion +of the Company was less, their profit on the goods was greater. The +investments of Madras, Bombay, and Bencoolen have, in the foregoing four +years, upon a capital of 1,151,176_l._, had a gain upon the whole of +329,622_l._ The greatest of all is that of Bencoolen, which, on a +capital of 76,571_l._, produced a profit of 107,760_l._ This, however, +is but a small branch of the Company's trade. The trade to China, on a +capital of 1,717,463_l._, produced an excess of gain amounting to +874,096_l._, which is about fifty per cent. But such was the evil +influence of the Bengal investment, that not only the profits of the +Chinese trade, but of all the lucrative branches taken together, were so +sunk and ingulfed in it, that the whole profit on a capital of +7,045,164_l._ reached to no more than 684,489_l._, that is, to +189,607_l._ less than the profit on the Chinese trade alone,--less than +the total profits on the gainful trades taken together, 520,727_l._ + +It is very remarkable, that in the year 1778, when the Bengal investment +stood at the highest, that is, so high as 1,223,316_l._, though the +Chinese trade produced an excess of gain in that year of 209,243_l._, +and that no loss of moment could be added to that of Bengal, (except +about 45,000_l._ on the Bombay trade,) the whole profit of a capital of +2,040,787_l._ amounted only to the sum of 9,480_l._ + +The detail of the articles in which loss was incurred or gain made will +be found in the Appendix, No. 24. The circumstances of the time have +rendered it necessary to call up a vigorous attention to this state of +the trade of the Company between Europe and India. + + +INTERNAL TRADE OF BENGAL. + +The internal trade of Bengal has next attracted the inquiries of your +Committee. + +The great and valuable articles of the Company's investment, drawn from +the articles of internal trade, are raw silk, and various descriptions +of piece-goods made of silk and cotton. These articles are not under any +formal monopoly; nor does the Company at present exercise a _declared_ +right of preëmption with regard to them. But it does not appear that the +trade in these particulars is or can be perfectly free,--not so much on +account of any direct measures taken to prevent it as from the +circumstances of the country, and the manner of carrying on business +there: for the present trade, even in these articles, is built from the +ruins of old monopolies and preëmptions, and necessarily partakes of the +nature of its materials. + +In order to show in what manner manufactures and trade so constituted +contribute to the prosperity of the natives, your Committee conceives it +proper to take, in this place, a short general view of the progress of +the English policy with relation to the commerce of Bengal, and the +several stages and gradations by which it has been brought into its +actual state. The modes of abuse, and the means by which commerce has +suffered, will be considered in greater detail under the distinct heads +of those objects which have chiefly suffered by them. + +During the time of the Mogul government, the princes of that race, who +omitted nothing for the encouragement of commerce in their dominions, +bestowed very large privileges and immunities on the English East India +Company, exempting them from several duties to which their natural-born +subjects were liable. The Company's _dustuck_, or passport, secured to +them this exemption at all the custom-houses and toll-bars of the +country. The Company, not being able or not choosing to make use of +their privilege to the full extent to which it might be carried, +indulged their servants with a qualified use of their passport, under +which, and in the name of the Company, they carried on a private trade, +either by themselves or in society with natives, and thus found a +compensation for the scanty allowances made to them by their masters in +England. As the country government was at that time in the fulness of +its strength, and that this immunity existed by a double connivance, it +was naturally kept within tolerable limits. + +But by the revolution in 1757 the Company's servants obtained a mighty +ascendant over the native princes of Bengal, who owed their elevation to +the British arms. The Company, which was new to that kind of power, and +not yet thoroughly apprised of its real character and situation, +considered itself still as a trader in the territories of a foreign +potentate, in the prosperity of whose country it had neither interest +nor duty. The servants, with the same ideas, followed their fortune in +the channels in which it had hitherto ran, only enlarging them with the +enlargement of their power. For their first ideas of profit were not +official; nor were their oppressions those of ordinary despotism. The +first instruments of their power were formed out of evasions of their +ancient subjection. The passport of the Company in the hands of its +servants was no longer under any restraint; and in a very short time +their immunity began to cover all the merchandise of the country. Cossim +Ali Khân, the second of the Nabobs whom they had set up, was but ill +disposed to the instruments of his greatness. He bore the yoke of this +imperious commerce with the utmost impatience: he saw his subjects +excluded as aliens from their own trade, and the revenues of the prince +overwhelmed in the ruin of the commerce of his dominions. Finding his +reiterated remonstrances on the extent and abuse of the passport +ineffectual, he had recourse to an unexpected expedient, which was, to +declare his resolution at once to annul all the duties on trade, setting +it equally free to subjects and to foreigners. + +Never was a method of defeating the oppressions of monopoly more +forcible, more simple, or more equitable: no sort of plausible objection +could be made; and it was in vain to think of evading it. It was +therefore met with the confidence of avowed and determined injustice. +The Presidency of Calcutta openly denied to the prince the power of +protecting the trade of his subjects by the remission of his own duties. +It was evident that his authority drew to its period: many reasons and +motives concurred, and his fall was hastened by the odium of the +oppressions which he exercised voluntarily, as well as of those to which +he was obliged to submit. + +When this example was made, Jaffier Ali Khân, who had been deposed to +make room for the last actor, was brought from penury and exile to a +station the terms of which he could not misunderstand. During his life, +and in the time of his children who succeeded to him, parts of the +territorial revenue were assigned to the Company; and the whole, under +the name of residency at the Nabob's court, was brought, directly or +indirectly, under the control of British subjects. The Company's +servants, armed with authorities delegated from the nominal government, +or attended with what was a stronger guard, the fame of their own power, +appeared as magistrates in the markets in which they dealt as traders. +It was impossible for the natives in general to distinguish, in the +proceedings of the same persons, what was transacted on the Company's +account from what was done on their own; and it will ever be so +difficult to draw this line of distinction, that as long as the Company +does, directly or indirectly, aim at any advantage to itself in the +purchase of any commodity whatever, so long will it be impracticable to +prevent the servants availing themselves of the same privilege. + +The servants, therefore, for themselves or for their employers, +monopolized every article of trade, foreign and domestic: not only the +raw merchantable commodities, but the manufactures; and not only these, +but the necessaries of life, or what in these countries habit has +confounded with them,--not only silk, cotton, piece-goods, opium, +saltpetre, but not unfrequently salt, tobacco, betel-nut, and the grain +of most ordinary consumption. In the name of the country government +they laid on or took off, and at their pleasure heightened or lowered, +all duties upon goods: the whole trade of the country was either +destroyed or in shackles. The acquisition of the Duanné, in 1765, +bringing the English into the immediate government of the country in its +most essential branches, extended and confirmed all the former means of +monopoly. + +In the progress of these ruinous measures through all their details, +innumerable grievances were suffered by the native inhabitants, which +were represented in the strongest, that is, their true colors, in +England. Whilst the far greater part of the British in India were in +eager pursuit of the forced and exorbitant gains of a trade carried on +by power, contests naturally arose among the competitors: those who were +overpowered by their rivals became loud in their complaints to the Court +of Directors, and were very capable, from experience, of pointing out +every mode of abuse. + +The Court of Directors, on their part, began, though very slowly, to +perceive that the country which was ravaged by this sort of commerce was +their own. These complaints obliged the Directors to a strict +examination into the real sources of the mismanagement of their concerns +in India, and to lay the foundations of a system of restraint on the +exorbitancies of their servants. Accordingly, so early as the year 1765, +they confine them to a trade only in articles of export and import, and +strictly prohibit them from all dealing in objects of internal +consumption. About the same time the Presidency of Calcutta found it +necessary to put a restraint upon themselves, or at least to make show +of a disposition (with which the Directors appear much satisfied) to +keep their own enormous power within bounds. + +But whatever might have been the intentions either of the Directors or +the Presidency, both found themselves unequal to the execution of a plan +which went to defeat the projects of almost all the English in +India,--possibly comprehending some who were makers of the regulations. +For, as the complaint of the country or as their own interest +predominated with the Presidency, they were always shifting from one +course to the other; so that it became as impossible for the natives to +know upon what principle to ground any commercial speculation, from the +uncertainty of the law under which they acted, as it was when they were +oppressed by power without any color of law at all: for the Directors, +in a few months after they had given these tokens of approbation to the +above regulations in favor of the country trade, tell the Presidency, +"It is with concern we see in _every page_ of your Consultations +_restrictions, limitations, prohibitions, affecting various articles of +trade_." On their side, the Presidency freely confess that these +monopolies of inland trade "were the foundation of all the bloodsheds, +massacres, and confusions which have happened of late in Bengal." + +Pressed in this urgent manner, the Directors came more specifically to +the grievance, and at once annul all the passports with which their +servants traded without duties, holding out means of compensation, of +which it does not appear that any advantage was taken. In order that the +duties which existed should no longer continue to burden the trade +either of the servants or natives, they ordered that a number of +oppressive toll-bars should be taken away, and the whole number reduced +to nine of the most considerable. + +When Lord Clive was sent to Bengal to effect a reformation of the many +abuses which prevailed there, he considered monopoly to be so inveterate +and deeply rooted, and the just rewards of the Company's servants to be +so complicated with that injustice to the country, that the latter could +not easily be removed without taking away the former. He adopted, +therefore, a plan for dealing in certain articles, which, as he +conceived, rather ought to be called "a regulated and restricted trade" +than a formal monopoly. By this plan he intended that the profits should +be distributed in an orderly and proportioned manner for the reward of +services, and not seized by each individual according to the measure of +his boldness, dexterity, or influence. + +But this scheme of monopoly did not subsist long, at least in that mode +and for those purposes. Three of the grand monopolies, those of opium, +salt, and saltpetre, were successively by the Company taken into their +own hands. The produce of the sale of the two former articles was +applied to the purchase of goods for their investment; the latter was +exported in kind for their sales in Europe. The senior servants had a +certain share of emolument allotted to them from a commission on the +revenues. The junior servants were rigorously confined to salaries, on +which they were unable to subsist according to their rank. They were +strictly ordered to abstain from all dealing in objects of internal +commerce. Those of export and import were left open to young men without +mercantile experience, and wholly unprovided with mercantile capitals, +but abundantly furnished with large trusts of the public money, and with +all the powers of an absolute government. In this situation, a religious +abstinence from all illicit game was prescribed to men at nine thousand +miles' distance from the seat of the supreme authority. + +Your Committee is far from meaning to justify, or even to excuse, the +oppressions and cruelties used by many in supplying the deficiencies of +their regular allowances by all manner of extortion; but many smaller +irregularities may admit some alleviation from thence. Nor does your +Committee mean to express any desire of reverting to the mode (contrived +in India, but condemned by the Directors) of rewarding the servants of +an higher class by a regulated monopoly. Their object is to point out +the deficiencies in the system, by which restrictions were laid that +could have little or no effect whilst want and power were suffered to be +united. + +But the proceedings of the Directors at that time, though not altogether +judicious, were in many respects honorable to them, and favorable, in +the intention at least, to the country they governed. For, finding their +trading capital employed against themselves and against the natives, and +struggling in vain against abuses which were inseparably connected with +the system of their own preference in trade, in the year 1773 they came +to the manly resolution of setting an example to their servants, and +gave up all use of power and influence in the two grand articles of +their investment, silk and piece-goods. They directed that the articles +should be bought at an equal and public market from the native +merchants; and this order they directed to be published in all the +principal marts of Bengal. + +Your Committee are clearly of opinion that no better method of purchase +could be adopted. But it soon appeared that in deep-rooted and +inveterate abuses the wisest principles of reform may be made to operate +so destructively as wholly to discredit the design, and to dishearten +all persons from the prosecution of it. The Presidency, who seemed to +yield with the utmost reluctance to the execution of these orders, soon +made the Directors feel their evil influence upon their own investment; +for they found the silk and cotton cloths rose twenty-five per cent +above their former price, and a further rise of forty per cent was +announced to them. + + +SILK. + +What happened with regard to raw silk is still more remarkable, and +tends still more clearly to illustrate the effects of commercial +servitude during its unchecked existence, and the consequences which may +be made to arise from its sudden reformation. On laying open the trade, +the article of raw silk was instantly enhanced to the Company full +eighty per cent. The contract made for that commodity, wound off in the +Bengal method, which used to sell for less than six rupees, or thirteen +shillings, for two pounds' weight, arose to nine rupees, or near twenty +shillings, and the filature silk was very soon after contracted for at +fourteen. + +The Presidency accounted for this rise by observing that the price had +before been _arbitrary_, and that the persons who purveyed for the +Company paid no more than "what was _judged_ sufficient for the +maintenance of the first providers." This fact explains more fully than +the most labored description can do the dreadful effects of the monopoly +on the cultivators. They had the _sufficiency_ of their maintenance +measured out by the judgment of those who were to profit by their labor; +and this measure was not a great deal more, by their own account, than +about two thirds of the value of that labor. In all probability it was +much less, as these dealings rarely passed through intermediate hands +without leaving a considerable profit. These oppressions, it will be +observed, were not confined to the Company's share, which, however, +covered a great part of the trade; but as this was an article permitted +to the servants, the same power of arbitrary valuation must have been +extended over the whole, as the market must be equalized, if any +authority at all is extended over it by those who have an interest in +the restraint. The price was not only raised, but in the manufactures +the quality was debased nearly in an equal proportion. The Directors +conceived, with great reason, that this rise of price and debasement of +quality arose, not from the effect of a free market, but from the +servants having taken that opportunity of throwing upon the market of +their masters the refuse goods of their own private trade at such +exorbitant prices as by mutual connivance they were pleased to settle. +The mischief was greatly aggravated by its happening at a time when the +Company were obliged to pay for their goods with bonds bearing an high +interest. + +The perplexed system of the Company's concerns, composed of so many +opposite movements and contradictory principles, appears nowhere in a +more clear light. If trade continued under restraint, their territorial +revenues must suffer by checking the general prosperity of the country: +if they set it free, means were taken to raise the price and debase the +quality of the goods; and this again fell upon the revenues, out of +which the payment for the goods was to arise. The observations of the +Company on that occasion are just and sagacious; and they will not +permit the least doubt concerning the policy of these unnatural trades. +"The amount of our Bengal cargoes, from 1769 to 1773, is 2,901,194_l._ +sterling; and if the average increase of price be estimated at +twenty-five per cent only, the amount of such increase is 725,298_l._ +sterling. The above circumstances are exceedingly alarming to us; but +what must be our concern, to find by the advices of our President and +Council of 1773, that a further advance of forty per cent on Bengal +goods was expected, and allowed to be the consequence of advertisements +then published, authorizing a free trade in the service? We find the +Duanné revenues are in general farmed for five years, and the aggregate +increase estimated at only 183,170_l._ sterling (on a supposition that +such increase will be realized); yet if the annual investment be sixty +lacs, and the advance of price thirty per cent only, such advance will +_exceed the increase of the revenue by no less than 829,330l. +sterling_." + +The indignation which the Directors felt at being reduced to this +distressing situation was expressed to their servants in very strong +terms. They attributed the whole to their practices, and say, "We are +far from being convinced that the competition which tends to raise the +price of goods in Bengal is wholly between public European companies, or +between merchants in general who export to foreign markets: we are +rather of opinion that the sources of this grand evil have been the +extraordinary privileges granted to individuals in our service or under +our license to trade without restriction throughout the provinces of +Bengal, and the encouragement they have had to extend their trade to the +uttermost, even in such goods as were proper for our investment, by +observing the success of those persons who have from time to time _found +means to dispose of their merchandise to our Governor and Council_, +though of so bad a quality as to be sold here with great difficulty, +after having been frequently refused, and put up at the next sale +without price, to the very great discredit and disadvantage of the +Company." In all probability the Directors were not mistaken; for, upon +an inquiry instituted soon after, it was found that Cantû Babû, the +banian or native steward and manager to Mr. Hastings, (late President,) +held two of these contracts in his own name and that of his son for +considerably more than 150,000_l._ This discovery brought on a +prohibition from the Court of Directors of that suspicious and dangerous +dealing in the stewards of persons in high office. The same man held +likewise farms to the amount of 140,000_l._ a year of the landed +revenue, with the same suspicious appearance, contrary to the +regulations made under Mr. Hastings's own administration. + +In the mortifying dilemma to which the Directors found themselves +reduced, whereby the ruin of the revenues either by the freedom or the +restraint of trade was evident, they considered the first as most rapid +and urgent, and therefore once more revert to the system of their +ancient preëmption, and destroy that freedom which they had so lately +and with so much solemnity proclaimed, and that before it could be +abused or even enjoyed. They declare, that, "unwilling as we are to +return to _the former coercive system_ of providing an investment, or to +abridge that freedom of commerce which has been so lately established in +Bengal, yet at the same time finding it our indispensable duty to strike +at the _root_ of an evil which has been so severely felt by the Company, +and which can no longer be supported, we hereby direct that all persons +whatever in the Company's service, _or under our protection_, be +absolutely prohibited, by public advertisement, from trading in any of +those articles which compose our investment, directly or indirectly, +except on account of and for the East India Company, until their +investment is completed." + +As soon as this order was received in Bengal, it was construed, as +indeed the words seemed directly to warrant, to exclude all natives as +well as servants from the trade, until the Company was supplied. The +Company's preëmption was now authoritatively reëstablished, and some +feeble and ostensible regulations were made to relieve the weavers who +might suffer by it. The Directors imagined that the reëstablishment of +their coercive system would remove the evil which fraud and artifice had +grafted upon one more rational and liberal. But they were mistaken; for +it only varied, if it did so much as vary, the abuse. The servants might +as essentially injure their interest by a direct exercise of their power +as by pretexts drawn from the freedom of the natives,--but with this +fatal difference, that the frauds upon the Company must be of shorter +duration under a scheme of freedom. That state admitted, and indeed led +to, means of discovery and correction; whereas the system of coercion +was likely to be permanent. It carried force further than served the +purposes of those who authorized it: it tended to cover all frauds with +obscurity, and to bury all complaint in despair. The next year, +therefore, that is, in the year 1776, the Company, who complained that +their orders had been extended beyond their intentions, made a third +revolution in the trade of Bengal. It was set free again,--so far, at +least, as regarded the native merchants,--but in so imperfect a manner +as evidently to leave the roots of old abuses in the ground. The Supreme +Court of Judicature about this time (1776) also fulminated a charge +against monopolies, without any exception of those authorized by the +Company: but it does not appear that anything very material was done in +consequence of it. + +The trade became nominally free; but the course of business established +in consequence of coercive monopoly was not easily altered. In order to +render more distinct the principles which led to the establishment of a +course and habit of business so very difficult to change as long as +those principles exist, your Committee think it will not be useless here +to enter into the history of the regulations made in the first and +favorite matter of the Company's investment, the trade in _raw silk_, +from the commencement of these regulations to the Company's perhaps +finally abandoning all share in the trade which was their object. + + +RAW SILK + +The trade in _raw silk_ was at all times more popular in England than +really advantageous to the Company. In addition to the old jealousy +which prevailed between the Company and the manufactory interest of +England, they came to labor under no small odium on account of the +distresses of India. The public in England perceived, and felt with a +proper sympathy, the sufferings of the Eastern provinces in all cases in +which they might be attributed to the abuses of power exercised under +the Company's authority. But they were not equally sensible to the evils +which arose from a system of sacrificing the being of that country to +the advantage of this. They entered very readily into the former, but +with regard to the latter were slow and incredulous. It is not, +therefore, extraordinary that the Company should endeavor to ingratiate +themselves with the public by falling in with its prejudices. Thus they +were led to increase the grievance in order to allay the clamor. They +continued still, upon a larger scale, and still more systematically, +that plan of conduct which was the principal, though not the most +blamed, cause of the decay and depopulation of the country committed to +their care. + +With that view, and to furnish a cheap supply of materials to the +manufactures of England, they formed a scheme which tended to destroy, +or at least essentially to impair, the whole manufacturing interest of +Bengal. A policy of that sort could not fail of being highly popular, +when the Company submitted itself as an instrument for the improvement +of British manufactures, instead of being their most dangerous rival, as +heretofore they had been always represented. + +They accordingly notified to their Presidency in Bengal, in their letter +of the 17th of March, 1769, that "there was no branch of their trade +they more ardently wish to extend than that of raw silk." They +disclaim, however, all desire of employing compulsory measures for that +purpose, but recommended every mode of encouragement, and particularly +by augmented wages, "_in order to induce manufacturers of wrought silk +to quit that branch and take to the winding of raw silk_." + +Having thus found means to draw hands from the manufacture, and +confiding in the strength of a capital drawn from the public revenues, +they pursue their ideas from the purchase of their manufacture to the +purchase of the material in its crudest state. "We recommend you to give +an _increased price_, if necessary, _so as to take that trade out of the +hands of other merchants and rival nations_." A double bounty was thus +given against the manufactures, both in the labor and in the materials. + +It is very remarkable in what manner their vehement pursuit of this +object led the Directors to a speedy oblivion of those equitable +correctives before interposed by them, in order to prevent the mischiefs +which were apparent in the scheme, if left to itself. They could venture +so little to trust to the bounties given from the revenues a trade which +had a tendency to dry up their source, that, by the time they had +proceeded to the thirty-third paragraph of their letter, they revert to +those very compulsory means which they had disclaimed but three +paragraphs before. To prevent silk-winders from working in their private +houses, where they might work for private traders, and to confine them +to the Company's factories, where they could only be employed for the +Company's benefit, they desire that the newly acquired power of +government should be effectually employed. "Should," say they, "this +practice, through _inattention_, have been suffered to take place again, +it will be proper to put a stop to it, which may _now be more +effectually done by an absolute prohibition, under severe penalties, by +the authority of government_." + +This letter contains a perfect plan of policy, both of compulsion and +encouragement, which must in a very considerable degree operate +destructively to the manufactures of Bengal. Its effect must be (so far +as it could operate without being eluded) to change the whole face of +that industrious country, in order to render it a field for the produce +of crude materials subservient to the manufactures of Great Britain. The +manufacturing hands were to be seduced from their looms by high wages, +in order to prepare a raw produce for our market; they were to be locked +up in the factories; and the commodity acquired by these operations was, +in this immature state, carried out of the country, whilst its looms +would be left without any material but the debased refuse of a market +enhanced in its price and scanted in its supply. By the increase of the +price of this and other materials, manufactures formerly the most +flourishing gradually disappeared under the protection of Great Britain, +and were seen to rise again and flourish on the opposite coast of India, +under the dominion of the Mahrattas. + +These restraints and encouragements seem to have had the desired effect +in Bengal with regard to the diversion of labor from manufacture to +materials. The trade of raw silk increased rapidly. But the Company very +soon felt, in the increase of price and debasement of quality of the +wrought goods, a loss to themselves which fully counterbalanced all the +advantages to be derived to the nation from the increase of the raw +commodity. The necessary effect on the revenue was also foretold very +early: for their servants in the principal silk-factories declared that +the obstruction to the private trade in silk must in the end prove +detrimental to the revenues, and that the investment clashes with the +collection of these revenues. Whatsoever by bounties or immunities is +encouraged out of a landed revenue has certainly some tendency to lessen +the net amount of that revenue, and to forward a produce which does not +yield to the gross collection, rather than one that does. + +The Directors declare themselves unable to understand how this could be. +Perhaps it was not so difficult. But, pressed as they were by the +greatness of the payments which they were compelled to make to +government in England, the cries of Bengal could not be heard among the +contending claims of the General Court, of the Treasury, and of +Spitalfields. The speculation of the Directors was originally fair and +plausible,--so far as the mere encouragement of the commodity extended. +Situated as they were, it was hardly in their power to stop themselves +in the course they had begun. They were obliged to continue their +resolution, at any hazard, increasing the investment. "The state of our +affairs," say they, "requires the utmost extension of your investments. +You are not to forbear sending even those sorts _which are attended with +loss_, in case such should be necessary to supply an investment to as +great an amount as _you can provide from your own resources_; and we +have not the least doubt of your being thereby enabled to increase your +consignments of this valuable branch of national commerce, even to the +utmost of your wishes. But it is our positive order that no part of +such investment be provided with borrowed money which is to be repaid by +_drafts upon our treasury in London_; since the license which has +already been taken in this respect has involved us in difficulties which +we yet know not how we shall surmount." + +This very instructive paragraph lays open the true origin of the +internal decay of Bengal. The trade and revenues of that country were +(as the then system must necessarily have been) of secondary +consideration at best. Present supplies were to be obtained, and present +demands in England were to be avoided, at every expense to Bengal. + +The spirit of increasing the investment from revenue at any rate, and +the resolution of driving all competitors, Europeans or natives, out of +the market, prevailed at a period still more early, and prevailed not +only in Bengal, but seems, more or less, to have diffused itself through +the whole sphere of the Company's influence. In 1768 they gave to the +Presidency of Madras the following memorable instruction, strongly +declaratory of their general system of policy. + +"We shall depend upon your prudence," say they, "to discourage +foreigners; and being intent, as you have been repeatedly acquainted, on +bringing home as great a part of the revenues as possible in your +manufactures, the outbidding them in those parts where they interfere +with you would certainly prove an effectual step for answering that end. +We therefore recommend it to you to offer such increase of price as you +shall deem may be consistently given,--that, by beating them out of the +market, the quantities by you to be provided may be proportionally +enlarged; and if you take this method, it is to be so cautiously +practised as not to enhance the prices in the places immediately under +your control. On this subject we must not omit the approval of your +prohibiting the weavers of Cuddalore from making up any cloth of the +same sortments that are provided for us; and if such prohibition is not +now, it should by all means be in future, _made general, and strictly +maintained_." + +This system must have an immediate tendency towards disordering the +trade of India, and must finally end in great detriment to the Company +itself. The effect of the restrictive system on the weaver is evident. +The authority given to the servants to buy at an advanced price did of +necessity furnish means and excuses for every sort of fraud in their +purchases. The instant the servant of a merchant is admitted on his own +judgment to overbid the market, or to send goods to his master which +shall sell at loss, there is no longer any standard upon which his +unfair practices can be estimated, or any effectual means by which they +can be restrained. The hope entertained by the Directors, of confining +this destructive practice of giving an enhanced price to a particular +spot, must ever be found totally delusive. Speculations will be affected +by this artificial price in every quarter in which markets can have the +least communication with each other. + +In a very few years the Court of Directors began to feel, even in +Leadenhall Street, _the effects of trading to loss_ upon the revenues, +especially on those of Bengal. In the letter of February, 1774, they +observe, that, "looking back to their accounts for the four preceding +years, on several of the descriptions of silk there has been an +_increasing loss_, instead of any alteration for the better in the last +year's productions. This," they say, "threatens the destruction of that +valuable branch of national commerce." And then they recommend _such +regulations_ (as if regulations in that state of things could be of any +service) as may obtain "a profit in future, instead of so considerable a +loss, which _we can no longer sustain_." + +Your Committee thought it necessary to inquire into the losses which had +actually been suffered by this unnatural forced trade, and find the loss +so early as the season of 1776 to be 77,650_l._, that in the year 1777 +it arose to 168,205_l._ This was so great that worse could hardly be +apprehended: however, in the season of 1778 it amounted to 255,070_l._ +In 1779 it was not so ruinously great, because the whole import was not +so considerable; but it still stood enormously high,--so high as +141,800_l._ In the whole four years it came to 642,725_l._ The +observations of the Directors were found to be fully verified. It is +remarkable that the same article in the China trade produced a +considerable and uniform profit. On this circumstance little observation +is necessary. + +During the time of their struggles for enlarging this losing trade, +which they considered as a national object,--what in one point of view +it was, and, if it had not been grossly mismanaged, might have been in +more than one,--in this part it is impossible to refuse to the Directors +a very great share of merit. No degree of thought, of trouble, or of +reasonable expense was spared by them for the improvement of the +commodity. They framed with diligence, and apparently on very good +information, a code of manufacturing regulations for that purpose; and +several persons were sent out, conversant in the Italian method of +preparing and winding silk, aided by proper machines for facilitating +and perfecting the work. This, under proper care, and in course of time, +might have produced a real improvement to Bengal; but in the first +instance it naturally drew the business from native management, and it +caused a revulsion from the trade and manufactures of India which led as +naturally and inevitably to an European monopoly, in some hands or +other, as any of the modes of coercion which were or could be employed. +The evil was present and inherent in the act. The means of letting the +natives into the benefit of the improved system of produce was likely to +be counteracted by the general ill conduct of the Company's concerns +abroad. For a while, at least, it had an effect still worse: for the +Company purchasing the raw cocoon or silk-pod at a fixed rate, the first +producer, who, whilst he could wind at his own house, employed his +family in this labor, and could procure a reasonable livelihood by +buying up the cocoons for the Italian filature, now incurred the +enormous and ruinous loss of fifty per cent. This appears in a letter to +the Presidency, written by Mr. Boughton Rouse, now a member of your +Committee. But for a long time a considerable quantity of that in the +old Bengal mode of winding was bought for the Company from contractors, +and it continues to be so bought to the present time: but the Directors +complain, in their letter of the 12th of May, 1780, that both species, +and particularly the latter, had risen so extravagantly that it was +become more than forty per cent dearer than it had been fifteen years +ago. In that state of price, they condemn their servants, very justly, +for entering into contracts for three years,--and that for several +kinds of silk, of very different goodness, upon averages unfairly +formed, where the commodities averaged at an equal price differed from +twenty to thirty per cent on the sale. Soon after, they formed a regular +scale of fixed prices, above which they found they could not trade +without loss. + +Whilst they were continuing these methods to secure themselves against +future losses, the Bengal ships which arrived in that year announced +nothing but their continuance. Some articles by the high price, and +others from their ill quality, were such "as never could answer to be +sent to Europe at any price." The Directors renew their prohibition of +making fresh contracts, the present being generally to expire in the +year 1781. But this trade, whose fundamental policy might have admitted +of a doubt, as applied to Bengal, (whatever it might have been with +regard to England,) was now itself expiring in the hands of the Company, +so that they were obliged to apply to government for power to enlarge +their capacity of receiving bills upon Europe. The purchase by these +bills they entirely divert from raw silk, and order to be laid out +wholly in piece-goods. + +Thus, having found by experience that this trade, whilst carried on upon +the old principles, of whatever advantage it might have been to the +British manufacturers, or to the individuals who were concerned in it in +Bengal, had proved highly detrimental to the Company, the Directors +resolved to expunge the raw silk from their investment. They gave up the +whole to private traders, on condition of paying the freight, charges, +and duties,--permitting them to send it to Europe in the Company's ships +upon their own account. + +The whole of this history will serve to demonstrate that all attempts, +which in their original system or in their necessary consequences tend +to the distress of India, must, and in a very short time will, make +themselves felt even by those in whose favor such attempts have been +made. India may possibly in some future time bear and support itself +under an extraction of measure [treasure?] or of goods; but much care +ought to be taken that the influx of wealth shall be greater in quantity +and prior in time to the waste. + +On abandoning the trade in silk to private hands, the Directors issued +some prohibitions to prevent monopoly, and they gave some directions +about the improvement of the trade. The prohibitions were proper, and +the directions prudent; but it is much to be feared, that, whilst all +the means, instruments, and powers remain, by which monopolies were +made, and through which abuses formerly prevailed, all verbal orders +will be fruitless. + +This branch of trade, being so long principally managed by the Company's +servants for the Company and under its authority, cannot be easily taken +out of their hands and pass to the natives, especially when it is to be +carried on without the control naturally inherent in all participation. +It is not difficult to conceive how this forced preference of traffic in +a raw commodity must have injured the manufactures, while it was the +policy of the Company to continue the trade on their own account. The +servants, so far from deviating from their course, since they have taken +the trade into their own management, have gone much further into it. The +proportion of raw silk in the investment is to be augmented. The +proportion of the whole cargoes for the year 1783, divided into sixteen +parts, is ten of raw silk, and six only of manufactured goods. Such is +the proportion of this losing article in the scheme for the investment +of private fortunes. + +In the reformed scheme of sending the investment on account of the +Company, to be paid in bills upon Europe, no mention is made of any +change of these proportions. Indeed, some limits are attempted on the +article of silk, with regard to its price; and it is not improbable that +the price to the master and the servant will be very different: but they +cannot make profitable purchases of this article without strongly +condemning all the former purchases of the Board of Trade. + + +CLOTHS, OR PIECE-GOODS. + +The general system above stated, relative to the silk trade, must +materially have affected the manufactures of Bengal, merely as it was a +system of preference. It does by no means satisfactorily appear to your +Committee that the freedom held out by the Company's various orders has +been ever fully enjoyed, or that the grievances of the native merchants +and manufacturers have been redressed; for we find, on good authority, +that, at that very period at which it might be supposed that these +orders had their operation, the oppressions were in full vigor. They +appear to have fallen heaviest on the city of Dacca, formerly the great +staple for the finest goods in India,--a place once full of opulent +merchants and dealers of all descriptions. + +The city and district of Dacca, before the prevalence of the East India +Company's influence and authority, manufactured annually to about three +hundred thousand pounds' value in cloths. In the year 1776 it had +fallen to about two hundred thousand, or two thirds of its former +produce. Of this the Company's demand amounted only to a fourth part, +that is, about fifty thousand pounds yearly. This was at that time +provided by agents for the Company, under the inspection of their +commercial servants. On pretence of securing an advantage for this +fourth part for their masters, they exerted a most violent and arbitrary +power over the whole. It was asserted, that they fixed the Company's +mark to such goods as they thought fit, (to all goods, as stated in one +complaint,) and disposed of them as they thought proper, excluding not +only all the native dealers, but the Dutch Company, and private English +merchants,--that they made advances to the weavers often beyond their +known ability to repay in goods within the year, and by this means, +having got them in debt, held them in perpetual servitude. Their +inability to keep accounts left them at the discretion of the agents of +the supreme power to make their balances what they pleased, and they +recovered them, not by legal process, but by seizure of their goods and +arbitrary imprisonment of their persons. One and the same dealer made +the advance, valued the return, stated the account, passed the judgment, +and executed the process. + +Mr. Rouse, Chief of the Dacca Province, who struggled against those +evils, says, that in the year 1773 there were no balances due, as the +trade was then carried on by the native brokers. In less than three +years these balances amounted to an immense sum,--a sum lost to the +Company, but existing in full force for every purpose of oppression. In +the amount of these balances almost every weaver in the country bore a +part, and consequently they were almost all caught in this snare. "They +are in general," says Mr. Rouse, in a letter to General Clavering, +delivered to your Committee, "a timid, helpless people; many of them +poor to the utmost degree of wretchedness; incapable of keeping +accounts; industrious as it were by instinct; unable to defend +themselves, if oppressed; and satisfied, if with continual labor they +derive from the fair dealing and humanity of their employer a moderate +subsistence for their families." + +Such were the people who stood accused by the Company's agents as +_pretending_ grievances, in order to be excused the payment of their +balances. As to the commercial state of the province in general, Mr. +Rouse represents it "to be for those two years a perpetual scene of +complaint and disputation;--the Company's agents professing to pay +higher rates to weavers, whilst the Leadenhall sales showed an heavy +loss to the Company; the weavers have even travelled in multitudes to +prefer their complaints at the Presidency; the amount of the investment +comparatively small, with balances comparatively large, and, as I +understand, generally contested by the weavers; the native merchants, +called _delâls_, removed from their influence, as prejudicial to the +Company's concerns; and European merchants complaining against undue +influence of the Company's commercial agents, in preventing the free +purchase even of those goods which the Company never takes." + +The spirit of those agents will be fully comprehended from a state of +the proceedings before Mr. Rouse and Council, on the complaint of a Mr. +Cree, an English free merchant at Dacca, who had been twice treated in +the same injurious manner by the agents of Mr. Hurst, the Commercial +Chief at that place. On his complaint to the board of the seizure of the +goods, and imprisonment of his agents, Mr. Hurst was called upon for an +explanation. In return he informed them that he had sent to one of the +villages to inquire concerning the matter of fact alleged. The impartial +person sent to make this inquiry was the very man accused of the +oppressions into which he was sent to examine. The answer of Mr. Hurst +is in an high and determined tone. He does not deny that there are some +instances of abuse of power. "But I ask," says he, "what _authority_ can +guard against the conduct of individuals? but that a _single_ instance +cannot be brought of a general depravity." Your Committee have reason to +believe these coercive measures to have been very general, though +employed according to the degree of resistance opposed to the monopoly; +for we find at one time the whole trade of the Dutch involved in the +general servitude. But it appears very extraordinary that nothing but +the actual proof of a _general_ abuse could affect a practice the very +principle of which tends to make the coercion as general as the trade. +Mr. Hurst's reflection concerning the abuse of _authority_ is just, but +in this case it is altogether inapplicable; because the complaint was +not of the abuse, but of the use of authority in matters of trade, which +ought to have been free. He throws out a variety of invidious +reflections against the Council, as if they wanted zeal for the +Company's service; his justification of his practices, and his +declaration of his resolution to persevere in them, are firm and +determined,--asserting the right and policy of such restraints, and +laying down a rule for his conduct at the factory, which, he says, will +give no cause of just complaint to private traders. He adds, "I have no +doubt but that they have hitherto provided investments, and it cannot +turn to my interest to preclude them _now_, though I must ever think it +my duty to combat the private views of individuals who _set themselves +up as competitors_ under that very body under whose license and +indulgence only they can derive their privilege of trade: all I contend +for is the _same influence_ my employers have ever had." He ends by +declining any reply to any of their future references of this nature. + +The whole of this extraordinary letter is inserted in the Appendix, No. +51,--and Mr. Rouse's minute of observations upon it in Appendix, No. 52, +fully refuting the few pretexts alleged in that extraordinary +performance in support of the trade by influence and authority. Mr. +Hollond, one of the Council, joined Mr. Rouse in opinion that a letter +to the purport of that minute should be written; but they were overruled +by Messrs. Purling, Hogarth, and Shakespeare, who passed a resolution to +defer sending any reply to Mr. Hurst: and none was ever sent. Thus they +gave countenance to the doctrine contained in that letter, as well as to +the mischievous practices which must inevitably arise from the exercise +of such power. Some temporary and partial relief was given by the +vigorous exertions of Mr. Rouse; but he shortly after removing from that +government, all complaints were dropped. + +It is remarkable, that, during the long and warm contest between the +Company's agents and the dealers of Dacca, the Board of Trade seem to +have taken a decided part against the latter. They allow some sort of +justice in the complaints of the manufacturers with regard to low +valuation, and other particulars; but they say, that, "although" (during +the time of preëmption) "it appears that the weavers _were not allowed +the same liberty of selling to individuals they before enjoyed_, our +opinion on the whole is, that these complaints have originated upon the +premeditated designs of the delâls [factors or brokers] _to thwart the +new mode_ of carrying on the Company's business, _and to render +themselves necessary_." They say, in another place, that there is no +ground for the dissatisfactions and difficulties of the weavers: "that +they are owing to the delâls, _whose aim it is to be employed_." + +This desire of being employed, and of rendering themselves necessary, in +men whose only business it is to be employed in trade, is considered by +the gentlemen of the board as no trivial offence; and accordingly they +declare, "they have established it as _an invariable rule_, that, +_whatever deficiency_ there might be in the Dacca investment, no +purchase of the manufactures of _that quarter_ shall be made for account +of the Company from private merchants. We have passed this resolution, +which we deem of importance, from a persuasion that private merchants +are often _induced_ to make advances for Dacca goods, not by the +ordinary chance of sale, but merely from an expectation of disposing of +them at an enhanced price to the Company, against _whom a rivalship_ is +by this manner encouraged"; and they say, "that they intend to observe +the _same_ rule with respect to the investment of other of the factories +from whence similar complaints may come." + +This positive rule is opposed to the positive directions of the Company +to employ those obnoxious persons by preference. How far this violent +use of authority for the purpose of destroying rivalship has succeeded +in reducing the price of goods to the Company has been made manifest by +the facts before stated in their place. + +The recriminatory charges of the Company's agents on the native +merchants have made very little impression on your Committee. We have +nothing in favor of them, but the assertion of a party powerful and +interested. In such cases of mutual assertion and denial, your Committee +are led irresistibly to attach abuse to power, and to presume that +suffering and hardship are more likely to attend on weakness than that +any combination of unprotected individuals is of force to prevail over +influence, power, wealth, and authority. The complaints of the native +merchants ought not to have been treated in any of those modes in which +they were then treated. And when men are in the situation of +complainants against unbounded power, their abandoning their suit is far +from a full and clear proof of their complaints being groundless. It is +not because redress has been rendered impracticable that oppression does +not exist; nor is the despair of sufferers any alleviation of their +afflictions. A review of some of the most remarkable of the complaints +made by the native merchants in that province is so essential for laying +open the true spirit of the commercial administration, and the real +condition of those concerned in trade there, that your Committee +observing the records on this subject and at this period full of them, +they could not think themselves justifiable in not stating them to the +House. + +Your Committee have found many heavy charges of oppression against Mr. +Barwell, whilst Factory Chief at Dacca; which oppressions are stated to +have continued, and even to have been aggravated, on complaint at +Calcutta. These complaints appear in several memorials presented to the +Supreme Council of Calcutta, of which Mr. Barwell was a member. They +appeared yet more fully and more strongly in a bill in Chancery filed in +the Supreme Court, which was afterwards recorded before the +Governor-General and Council, and transmitted to the Court of Directors. + +Your Committee, struck with the magnitude and importance of these +charges, and finding that with regard to those before the Council no +regular investigation has ever taken place, and finding also that Mr. +Barwell had asserted in a Minute of Council that he had given a full +answer to the allegations in that bill, ordered a copy of the answer to +be laid before your Committee, that they might be enabled to state to +the House how far it appeared to them to be full, how far the charges +were denied as to the fact, or, where the facts might be admitted, what +justification was set up. It appeared necessary, in order to determine +on the true situation of the trade and the merchants of that great city +and district. + +The Secretary to the Court of Directors has informed your Committee that +no copy of the answer is to be found in the India House; nor has your +Committee been able to discover that any has been transmitted. On this +failure, your Committee ordered an application to be made to Mr. Barwell +for a copy of his answer to the bill, and any other information with +which he might be furnished with regard to that subject. + +Mr. Barwell, after reciting the above letter, returned in answer what +follows. + +"Whether the records of the Supreme Court of Judicature are lodged at +the India House I am ignorant, but on those records my answer is +certainly to be found. At this distance of time I am sorry I cannot from +memory recover the circumstances of this affair; but this I know, that +the bill did receive a complete answer, and the people the fullest +satisfaction: nor is it necessary for me to remark, that [in?] the state +of parties at that time in Bengal, could party have brought forward any +particle of that bill supported by any verified fact, the principle that +introduced it in the proceedings of the Governor-General and Council +would likewise have given the verification of that one circumstance, +whatever that might have been. As I generally attend in my place in the +House, I shall with pleasure answer any invitation of the gentlemen of +the Committee to attend their investigations up stairs with every +information and light in my power to give them. + +"St. James's Square, 15th April, 1783." + +Your Committee considered, that, with regard to the matter charged in +the several petitions to the board, no sort of specific answer had been +given at the time and place where they were made, and when and where the +parties might be examined and confronted. It was considered also, that +the bill had been transmitted, with other papers relating to the same +matter, to the Court of Directors, with the knowledge and consent of Mr. +Barwell,--and that he states that his answer had been filed, and no +proceedings had upon it for eighteen months. In that situation it was +thought something extraordinary that no care was taken by him to +transmit so essential a paper as his answer, and that he had no copy of +it in his hands. + +Your Committee, in this difficulty, thought themselves obliged to +decline any verbal explanation from the person who is defendant in the +suit, relative to matters which on the part of the complainant appear +upon record, and to leave the whole matter, as it is charged, to the +judgment of the House to determine how far it may be worthy of a further +inquiry, or how far they may admit such allegations as your Committee +could not think themselves justified in receiving. To this effect your +Committee ordered a letter to be written Mr. Barwell; from whom they +received the following answer. + +"Sir,--In consequence of your letter of the 17th, I must request the +favor of you to inform the Select Committee that I expect from their +justice, on any matter of public record in which I am personally to be +brought forward to the notice of the House, that they will at the same +time point out to the House what part of such matter has been verified, +and what parts have not nor ever were attempted to be verified, though +introduced in debate and entered on the records of the Governor-General +and Council of Bengal. I am anxious the information should be complete, +or the House will not be competent to judge; and if it is complete, it +will preclude all explanation as unnecessary. + + "I am, Sir, + "Your most obedient humble servant, + "RICHARD BARWELL. + + "St. James's Square, 22nd April, 1783. + +"P.S. As I am this moment returned from the country, I had it not in my +power to be earlier in acknowledging your letter of the 17th." + +Your Committee applied to Mr. Barwell to communicate any papers which +might tend to the elucidation of matters before them in which he was +concerned. This he has declined to do. Your Committee conceive that +under the orders of the House they are by no means obliged to make a +complete state of all the evidence which may tend to criminate or +exculpate every person whose transactions they may find it expedient to +report: this, if not specially ordered, has not hitherto been, as they +apprehend, the usage of any committee of this House. It is not for your +Committee, but for the discretion of the party, to call for, and for the +wisdom of the House to institute, such proceedings as may tend finally +to condemn or acquit. The Reports of your Committee are no charges, +though they may possibly furnish _matter_ for charge; and no +representations or observations of theirs can either clear or convict on +any proceeding which may hereafter be grounded on the facts which they +produce to the House. Their opinions are not of a judicial nature. Your +Committee has taken abundant care that every important fact in their +Report should be attended with the authority for it, either in the +course of their reflections or in the Appendix: to report everything +upon every subject before them which is to be found on the records of +the Company would be to transcribe, and in the event to print, almost +the whole of those voluminous papers. The matter which appears before +them is in a summary manner this. + +The Dacca merchants begin by complaining that in November, 1773, Mr. +Richard Barwell, then Chief of Dacca, had deprived them of their +employment and means of subsistence; that he had extorted from them +44,224 Arcot rupees (4,731_l._) by the terror of his threats, by long +imprisonment, and cruel confinement in the stocks; that afterwards they +were confined in a small room near the factory-gate, under a guard of +sepoys; that their food was stopped, and they remained starving a whole +day; that they were not permitted to take their food till next day at +noon, and were again brought back to the same confinement, in which they +were continued for six days, and were not set at liberty until they had +given Mr. Barwell's banian a certificate for forty thousand rupees; that +in July, 1774, when Mr. Barwell had left Dacca, they went to Calcutta to +seek justice; that Mr. Barwell confined them in his house at Calcutta, +and sent them back under a guard of peons to Dacca; that in December, +1774, on the arrival of the gentlemen from Europe, they returned to +Calcutta, and preferred their complaint to the Supreme Court of +Judicature. + +The bill in Chancery filed against Richard Barwell, John Shakespeare, +and others, contains a minute specification of the various acts of +personal cruelty said to be practised by Mr. Barwell's orders, to extort +money from these people. Among other acts of a similar nature he is +charged with having ordered the appraiser of the Company's cloths, who +was an old man, and who asserts that he had faithfully served the +Company above sixteen years without the least censure on his conduct, to +be severely flogged without reason. + +In the _manner_ of confining the delâls, with ten of their servants, it +is charged on him, that, "when he first ordered them to be put into the +stocks, it was at a time when the weather was exceedingly bad and the +rain very heavy, without allowing them the least covering for their +heads or any part of their body, or anything to raise them from the wet +ground; in which condition they were continued for many hours, until the +said Richard Barwell thought proper to remove them into a far worse +state, if possible, as if studying to exercise the most cruel acts of +barbarity on them, &c.; and that during their imprisonment they were +frequently carried to and tortured in the stocks in the middle of the +day, when the scorching heat of the sun was insupportable, +notwithstanding which they were denied the least covering." These men +assert that they had served the Company without blame for thirty +years,--a period commencing long before the power of the Company in +India. + +It was no slight aggravation of this severity, that the objects were not +young, nor of the lowest of the people, who might, by the vigor of their +constitutions, or by the habits of hardship, be enabled to bear up +against treatment so full of rigor. They were aged persons; they were +men of a reputable profession. + +The account given by these merchants of their first journey to Calcutta, +in July, 1774, is circumstantial and remarkable. They say, "that, on +their arrival, _to their astonishment, they soon learned that the +Governor, who had formerly been violently enraged against the said +Richard Barwell for different improprieties in his conduct, was now +reconciled to him; and that ever since there was a certainty of his +Majesty's appointments taking place in India, from being the most +inveterate enemies they were now become the most intimate friends; and +that this account soon taught them to believe they were not any nearer +justice from their journey to Calcutta than they had been before at +Dacca_." + +When this bill of complaint was, in 1776, laid before the Council, to be +transmitted to the Court of Directors, Mr. Barwell complained of the +introduction of such a paper, and asserted, _that he had answered to +every particular of it on oath about eighteen months, and that during +this long period no attempt had been made to controvert, refute, or even +to reply to it_. + +He did not, however, think it proper to enter his answer on the records +along with the bill of whose introduction he complained. + +On the declarations made by Mr. Barwell in his minute (September, 1776) +your Committee observe, that, considering him only as an individual +under prosecution in a court of justice, it might be sufficient for him +to exhibit his defence in the court where he was accused; but that, as a +member of government, specifically charged before that very government +with abusing the powers of his office in a very extraordinary manner, +and for purposes (as they allege) highly corrupt and criminal, it +appears to your Committee hardly sufficient to say that he had answered +elsewhere. The matter was to go before the Court of Directors, to whom +the question of his conduct in that situation, a situation of the +highest power and trust, was as much at least a question of state as a +matter of redress to be solely left to the discretion, capacity, or +perseverance of individuals. Mr. Barwell might possibly be generous +enough to take no advantage of his eminent situation; but these +unfortunate people would rather look to his power than his disposition. +In general, a man so circumstanced and so charged (though we do not know +this to be the case with Mr. Barwell) might easily contrive by legal +advantages to escape. The plaintiffs being at a great distance from the +seat of government, and possibly affected by fear or fatigue, or seeing +the impossibility of sustaining with the ruins of fortunes never perhaps +very opulent a suit against wealth, power, and influence, a compromise +might even take place, in which circumstances might make the +complainants gladly acquiesce. But the public injury is not in the least +repaired by the acquiescence of individuals, as it touched the honor of +the very highest parts of government. In the opinion of your Committee +some means ought to have been taken to bring the bill to a discussion on +the merits; or supposing that such decree could not be obtained by +reason of any failure of proceeding on the part of the plaintiffs, that +some process official or juridical ought to have been instituted against +them which might prove them guilty of slander and defamation in as +authentic a manner as they had made their charge, before the Council as +well as the Court. + +By the determination of Mr. Hurst, and the resolutions of the Board of +Trade, it is much to be apprehended that the native mercantile interest +must be exceedingly reduced. The above-mentioned resolutions of the +Board of Trade, if executed in their rigor, must almost inevitably +accomplish its ruin. The subsequent transactions are covered with an +obscurity which your Committee have not been able to dispel. All which +they can collect, but that by no means distinctly, is, that, as those +who trade for the Company in the articles of investment may also trade +for themselves in the same articles, the old opportunities of +confounding the capacities must remain, and all the oppressions by which +this confusion has been attended. The Company's investments, as the +General Letter from Bengal of the 20th of November, 1775, par. 28, +states the matter, "are never at a stand; advances are made and goods +are received all the year round." Balances, the grand instrument of +oppression, naturally accumulate on poor manufacturers who are intrusted +with money. Where there is not a vigorous rivalship, not only tolerated, +but encouraged, it is impossible ever to redeem the manufacturers from +the servitude induced by those unpaid balances. + +No such rivalship does exist: the policy practised and avowed is +directly against it. The reason assigned in the Board of Trade's letter +of the 28th of November, 1778, for its making their advances early in +the season is, to prevent the foreign merchants and private traders +_interfering_ with the purchase of their (the Company's) assortments. +"They also refer to the means taken to prevent this interference in +their letter of 26th January, 1779." It is impossible that the small +part of the trade should not fall into the hands of those who, with the +name and authority of the governing persons, have such extensive +contracts in their hands. It appears in evidence that natives can hardly +trade to the best advantage, (your Committee doubt whether they can +trade to any advantage at all,) if not joined with or countenanced by +British subjects. The Directors were in 1775 so strongly impressed with +this notion, and conceived the native merchants to have been even then +reduced to so low a state, that, notwithstanding the Company's earnest +desire of giving them a preference, they "doubt whether there are at +this time in Bengal native merchants possessed of property adequate to +such undertaking, or of credit and responsibility sufficient to make it +safe and prudent to trust them with such sums as might be necessary to +enable them to fulfil their engagements with the Company." + +The effect which so long continued a monopoly, followed by a preëmption, +and then by partial preferences supported by power, must necessarily +have in weakening the mercantile capital, and disabling the merchants +from all undertakings of magnitude, is but too visible. However, a +witness of understanding and credit does not believe the capitals of the +natives to be yet so reduced as to disable them from partaking in the +trade, if they were otherwise able to put themselves on an equal footing +with Europeans. + +The difficulties at the outset will, however, be considerable. For the +long continuance of abuse has in some measure conformed the whole trade +of the country to its false principle. To make a sudden change, +therefore, might destroy the few advantages which attend any trade, +without securing those which must flow from one established upon sound +mercantile principles, whenever such a trade can be established. The +fact is, that the forcible direction which the trade of India has had +towards Europe, to the neglect, or rather to the total abandoning, of +the Asiatic, has of itself tended to carry even the internal business +from the native merchant. The revival of trade in the native hands is of +absolute necessity; but your Committee is of opinion that it will +rather be the effect of a regular progressive course of endeavors for +that purpose than of any one regulation, however wisely conceived. + +After this examination into the condition of the trade and traders in +the principal articles provided for the investment to Europe, your +Committee proceeded to take into consideration those articles the +produce of which, after sale in Bengal, is to form a part of the fund +for the purchase of other articles of investment, or to make a part of +it in kind. These are, 1st, Opium,--2ndly, Saltpetre,--and, 3rdly, Salt. +These are all monopolized. + + +OPIUM. + +The first of the internal authorized monopolies is that of opium. This +drug, extracted from a species of the poppy, is of extensive consumption +in most of the Eastern markets. The best is produced in the province of +Bahar: in Bengal it is of an inferior sort, though of late it has been +improved. This monopoly is to be traced to the very origin of our +influence in Bengal. It is stated to have begun at Patna so early as the +year 1761, but it received no considerable degree of strength or +consistence until the year 1765, when the acquisition of the Duanné +opened a wide field for all projects of this nature. It was then adopted +and owned as a resource for persons in office,--was managed chiefly by +the civil servants of the Patna factory, and for their own benefit. The +policy was justified on the usual principles on which monopolies are +supported, and on some peculiar to the commodity, to the nature of the +trade, and to the state of the country: the security against +adulteration; the prevention of the excessive home consumption of a +pernicious drug; the stopping an excessive competition, which by an +over-proportioned supply would at length destroy the market abroad; the +inability of the cultivator to proceed in an expensive and precarious +culture without a large advance of capital; and, lastly, the incapacity +of private merchants to supply that capital on the feeble security of +wretched farmers. + +These were the principal topics on which the monopoly was supported. The +last topic leads to a serious consideration on the state of the country; +for, in pushing it, the gentlemen argued, that, in case such private +merchants should advance the necessary capital, the lower cultivators +"_would get money in abundance_." Admitting this fact, it seems to be a +part of the policy of this monopoly to prevent the cultivator from +obtaining the natural fruits of his labor. Dealing with a private +merchant, he could not get _money in abundance_, unless his commodity +could produce an _abundant_ profit. Further reasons, relative to the +peace and good order of the province, were assigned for thus preventing +the course of trade from the equitable distribution of the advantages of +the produce, in which the first, the poorest, and the most laborious +producer ought to have his first share. The cultivators, they add, would +squander part of the money, and not be able to complete their +engagements to the full; lawsuits, and even battles, would ensue between +the factors, contending for a deficient produce; and the farmers would +discourage the culture of an object which brought so much disturbance +into their districts. This competition, the operation of which they +endeavor to prevent, is the natural corrective of the abuse, and the +best remedy which could be applied to the disorder, even supposing its +probable existence. + +Upon whatever reasons or pretences the monopoly of opium was supported, +the real motive appears to be the profit of those who were in hopes to +be concerned in it. As these profits promised to be very considerable, +at length it engaged the attention of the Company; and after many +discussions, and various plans of application, it was at length taken +for their benefit, and the produce of the sale ordered to be employed in +the purchase of goods for their investment. + +In the year 1773 it had been taken out of the hands of the Council of +Patna, and leased to two of the natives,--but for a year only. The +contractors were to supply a certain quantity of opium at a given price. +Half the value was to be paid to those contractors in advance, and the +other half on the delivery. + +The proceedings on this contract demonstrated the futility of all the +principles on which the monopoly was founded. The Council, as a part of +their plan, were obliged, by heavy duties, and by a limitation of the +right of emption of foreign opium to the contractors for the home +produce, to check the influx of that commodity from the territories of +the Nabob of Oude and the Rajah of Benares. In these countries no +monopoly existed; and yet there the commodity was of such a quality and +so abundant as to bear the duty, and even with the duty in some degree +to rival the monopolist even in his own market. There was no complaint +in those countries of want of advances to cultivators, or of lawsuits +and tumults among the factors; nor was there any appearance of the +multitude of other evils which had been so much dreaded from the +vivacity of competition. + +On the other hand, several of the precautions inserted in this contract, +and repeated in all the subsequent, strongly indicated the evils against +which it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to guard a monopoly +of this nature and in that country. For in the first contract entered +into with the two natives it was strictly forbidden to compel the +tenants to the cultivation of this drug. Indeed, very shocking rumors +had gone abroad, and they were aggravated by an opinion universally +prevalent, that, even in the season immediately following that dreadful +famine which swept off one third of the inhabitants of Bengal, several +of the poorer farmers were compelled to plough up the fields they had +sown with grain in order to plant them with poppies for the benefit of +the engrossers of opium. This opinion grew into a strong presumption, +when it was seen that in the next year the produce of opium (contrary to +what might be naturally expected in a year following such a dearth) was +nearly doubled. It is true, that, when the quantity of land necessary +for the production of the largest quantity of opium is considered, it is +not just to attribute that famine to these practices, nor to any that +were or could be used; yet, where such practices did prevail, they must +have been very oppressive to individuals, extremely insulting to the +feelings of the people, and must tend to bring great and deserved +discredit on the British government. The English are a people who +appear in India as a conquering nation; all dealing with them is +therefore, more or less, a dealing with power. It is such when they +trade on a private account; and it is much more so in any authorized +monopoly, where the hand of government, which ought never to appear but +to protect, is felt as the instrument in every act of oppression. Abuses +must exist in a trade and a revenue so constituted, and there is no +effectual cure for them but to entirely cut off their cause. + +Things continued in this train, until the great revolution in the +Company's government was wrought by the Regulating Act of the thirteenth +of the king. In 1775 the new Council-General appointed by the act took +this troublesome business again into consideration. General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis expressed such strong doubts of the +propriety of this and of all other monopolies, that the Directors, in +their letter of the year following, left the Council at liberty to throw +the trade open, under a duty, if they should find it practicable. But +General Clavering, who most severely censured monopoly in general, +thought that this monopoly ought to be retained,--but for a reason which +shows his opinion of the wretched state of the country: for he supposed +it impossible, with the power and influence which must attend British +subjects in all their transactions, that monopoly could be avoided; and +he preferred an avowed monopoly, which brought benefit to government, to +a virtual engrossing, attended with profit only to individuals. But in +this opinion he did not seem to be joined by Mr. Francis, who thought +the suppression of this and of all monopolies to be practicable, and +strongly recommended their abolition in a plan sent to the Court of +Directors the year following.[6] + +The Council, however, submitting to the opinion of this necessity, +endeavored to render that dubious engagement as beneficial as possible +to the Company. They began by putting up the contract to the highest +bidder. The proposals were to be sealed. When the seals came to be +opened, a very extraordinary scene appeared. Every step in this business +develops more and more the effect of this junction of public monopoly +and private influence. Four English and eight natives were candidates +for the contract; three of the English far overbid the eight natives. +They who consider that the natives, from their superior dexterity, from +their knowledge of the country and of business, and from their extreme +industry, vigilance, and parsimony, are generally an over-match for +Europeans, and indeed are, and must ultimately be, employed by them in +all transactions whatsoever, will find it very extraordinary that they +did not by the best offers secure this dealing to themselves. It can be +attributed to this cause, and this only,--that they were conscious, +that, without power and influence to subdue the cultivators of the land +to their own purposes, they never could afford to engage on the lowest +possible terms. Those whose power entered into the calculation of their +profits could offer, as they did offer, terms without comparison better; +and therefore one of the English bidders, without partiality, secured +the preference. + +The contract to this first bidder, Mr. Griffiths, was prolonged from +year to year; and as during that time frequent complaints were made by +him to the Council Board, on the principle that the years answered very +differently, and that the business of one year ran into the other, +reasons or excuses were furnished for giving the next contract to Mr. +Mackenzie for three years. This third contract was not put up to +auction, as the second had been, and as this ought to have been. The +terms were, indeed, something better for the Company; and the engagement +was subject to qualifications, which, though they did not remove the +objection to the breach of the Company's orders, prevented the hands of +the Directors from being tied up. A proviso was inserted in the +contract, that it should not be anyways binding, if the Company by +orders from home should alter the existing practice with regard to such +dealing. + +Whilst these things were going on, the evils which this monopoly was in +show and pretence formed to prevent still existed, and those which were +naturally to be expected from a monopoly existed too. Complaints were +made of the bad quality of the opium; trials were made, and on those +trials the opium was found faulty. An office of inspection at Calcutta, +to ascertain its goodness, was established, and directions given to the +Provincial Councils at the places of growth to certify the quantity and +quality of the commodity transmitted to the Presidency. + +In 1776, notwithstanding an engagement in the contract strictly +prohibiting all compulsory culture of the poppy, information was given +to a member of the Council-General, that fields green with rice had been +forcibly ploughed up to make way for that plant,--and that this was done +in the presence of several English gentlemen, who beheld the spectacle +with a just and natural indignation. The board, struck with this +representation, ordered the Council of Patna to make an inquiry into the +fact; but your Committee can find no return whatsoever to this order. +The complaints were not solely on the part of the cultivators against +the contractor. The contractor for opium made loud complaints against +the inferior collectors of the landed revenue, stating their undue and +vexatious exactions from the cultivators of opium,--their throwing these +unfortunate people into prison upon frivolous pretences, by which the +tenants were ruined, and the contractor's advances lost. He stated, +that, if the contractor should interfere in favor of the cultivator, +then a deficiency would be caused to appear in the landed revenues, and +that deficiency would be charged on his interposition; he desired, +therefore, that the cultivators of opium should be taken out of the +general system of the landed revenue, and put under "his _protection_." +Here the effect naturally to be expected from the clashing of +inconsistent revenues appeared in its full light, as well as the state +of the unfortunate peasants of Bengal between such rival protectors, +where the ploughman, flying from the tax-gatherer, is obliged to take +refuge under the wings of the monopolist. No dispute arises amongst the +English subjects which does not divulge the misery of the natives; when +the former are in harmony, all is well with the latter. + +This monopoly continuing and gathering strength through a succession of +contractors, and being probably a most lucrative dealing, it grew to be +every day a greater object of competition. The Council of Patna +endeavored to recover the contract, or at least the agency, by the most +inviting terms; and in this eager state of mutual complaint and +competition between private men and public bodies things continued until +the arrival in Bengal of Mr. Stephen Sulivan, son of Mr. Sulivan, +Chairman of the East India Company, which soon put an end to all strife +and emulation. + +To form a clear judgment on the decisive step taken at this period, it +is proper to keep in view the opinion of the Court of Directors +concerning monopolies, against which they had uniformly declared in the +most precise terms. They never submitted to them, but as to a present +necessity; it was therefore not necessary for them to express any +particular approbation of a clause in Mr. Mackenzie's contract which was +made in favor of their own liberty. Every motive led them to preserve +it. On the security of that clause they could alone have suffered to +pass over in silence (for they never approved) the grant of the contract +which contained it for three years. It must also be remembered that they +had from the beginning positively directed that the contract should be +put up to public auction; and this not having been done in Mr. +Mackenzie's case, they severely reprimanded the Governor-General and +Council in their letter of the 23rd December, 1778. + +The Court of Directors were perfectly right in showing themselves +tenacious of this regulation,--not so much to secure the best +practicable revenue from their monopoly whilst it existed, but for a +much more essential reason, that is, from the corrective which this +method administered to that monopoly itself: it prevented the British +contractor from becoming doubly terrible to the natives, when they +should see that his contract was in effect _a grant_, and therefore +indicated particular favor and private influence with the ruling members +of an absolute government. + +On the expiration of Mr. Mackenzie's term, and but a few months after +Mr. Sulivan's arrival, the Governor-General, as if the contract was a +matter of patronage, and not of dealing, pitched upon Mr. Sulivan as the +most proper person for the management of this critical concern. Mr. +Sulivan, though a perfect stranger to Bengal, and to that sort and to +all sorts of local commerce, made no difficulty of accepting it. The +Governor-General was so fearful that his true motives in this business +should be mistaken, or that the smallest suspicion should arise of his +attending to the Company's orders, that, far from putting up the +contract (which, on account of its known profits, had become the object +of such pursuit) to _public auction_, he did not wait for receiving so +much as a _private proposal_ from Mr. Sulivan. The Secretary perceived +that in the rough draught of the contract the old recital of a proposal +to the board was inserted as a matter of course, but was contrary to the +fact; he therefore remarked it to Mr. Hastings. Mr. Hastings, with great +indifference, ordered that recital to be _omitted_; and the omission, +with the remark that led to it, has, with the same easy indifference, +been sent over to his masters. + +The Governor-General and Council declare themselves apprehensive that +Mr. Sulivan might be a loser by his bargain, upon account of troubles +which they supposed existing in the country which was the object of it. +This was the more indulgent, because the contractor was tolerably +secured against all losses. He received a certain price for his +commodity; but he was not obliged to pay any certain price to the +cultivator, who, having no other market than his, must sell it to him at +his own terms. He was to receive half the yearly payment by _advance_, +and he was not obliged to advance to the cultivator more than what he +thought expedient; but if this should not be enough, he might, if he +pleased, draw the _whole_ payment before the total delivery: such were +the terms of the engagement with him. He is a contractor of a new +species, who employs no capital whatsoever of his own, and has the +market of compulsion at his entire command. But all these securities +were not sufficient for the anxious attention of the Supreme Council to +Mr. Sulivan's welfare: Mr. Hastings had before given him the contract +without any proposal on his part; and to make their gift perfect, in a +second instance they proceed a step beyond their former ill precedent, +and they contract with Mr. Sulivan for _four_ years. + +Nothing appears to have been considered but the benefit of the +contractor, and for this purpose the solicitude shown in all the +provisions could not be exceeded. One of the first things that struck +Mr. Hastings as a blemish on his gift was the largeness of the penalty +which he had on former occasions settled as the sanction of the +contract: this he now discovered to be so great as to be likely to +frustrate its end by the impossibility of recovering so large a sum. How +a large penalty can prevent the recovery of any, even the smallest part +of it, is not quite apparent. In so vast a concern as that of opium, a +fraud which at first view may not appear of much importance, and which +may be very difficult in the discovery, may easily counterbalance the +reduced penalty in this contract, which was settled in favor of Mr. +Sulivan at about 20,000_l._ + +Monopolies were (as the House has observed) only tolerated evils, and at +best upon trial; a clause, therefore, was inserted in the contracts to +Mackenzie, annulling the obligation, if the Court of Directors should +resolve to abolish the monopoly; but at the request of Mr. Sulivan the +contract was without difficulty purged of this obnoxious clause. The +term was made absolute, the monopoly rendered irrevocable, and the +discretion of the Directors wholly excluded. Mr. Hastings declared the +reserved condition to be no longer necessary, "because the Directors had +approved the monopoly." + +The Chiefs and Councils at the principal factories had been obliged to +certify the quantity and quality of the opium before its transport to +Calcutta; and their control over the contractor had been assigned as the +reason for not leaving to those factories the management of this +monopoly. Now things were changed. Orders were sent to discontinue this +measure of invidious precaution, and the opium was sent to Calcutta +without anything done to ascertain its quality or even its quantity. + +An office of inspection had been also appointed to examine the quality +of the opium on its delivery at the capital settlement. In order to ease +Mr. Sulivan from this troublesome formality, Mr. Hastings abolished the +office; so that Mr. Sulivan was then totally freed from all examination, +or control whatsoever, either first or last. + +These extraordinary changes in favor of Mr. Sulivan were attended with +losses to others, and seem to have excited much discontent. This +discontent it was necessary in some manner to appease. The +vendue-master, who was deprived of his accustomed dues on the public +sales of the opium by the private dealing, made a formal complaint to +the board against this, as well as other proceedings relative to the +same business. He attributed the private sale to "_reasons of state_"; +and this strong reflection both on the Board of Trade and the Council +Board was passed over without observation. He was quieted by appointing +him to the duty of these very inspectors whose office had been just +abolished as useless. The House will judge of the efficacy of the +revival of this office by the motives to it, and by Mr. Hastings giving +that to _one_ as _a compensation_ which had been executed by several as +_a duty_. However, the orders for taking away the precautionary +inspection at Patna still remained in force. + +Some benefits, which had been given to former contractors at the +discretion of the board, were no longer held under that loose +indulgence, but were secured to Mr. Sulivan by his contract. Other +indulgences, of a lesser nature, and to which no considerable objection +could be made, were on the application of a Mr. Benn, calling himself +his attorney, granted. + +Your Committee, examining Mr. Higginson, late a member of the Board of +Trade, on that subject, were informed, that this contract, very soon +after the making, was generally understood at Calcutta to have been sold +to this Mr. Benn, but he could not particularize the sum for which it +had been assigned,--and that Mr. Benn had afterwards sold it to a Mr. +Young. By this transaction it appears clearly that the contract was +given to Mr. Sulivan for no other purpose than to supply him with a sum +of money; and the sale and re-sale seem strongly to indicate that the +reduction of the penalty, and the other favorable conditions, were not +granted for his ease in a business which he never was to execute, but to +heighten the value of the object which he was to sell. Mr. Sulivan was +at the time in Mr. Hastings's family, accompanied him in his progresses, +and held the office of Judge-Advocate. + +The monopoly given for these purposes thus permanently secured, all +power of reformation cut off, and almost every precaution against fraud +and oppression removed, the Supreme Council found, or pretended to find, +that the commodity for which they had just made such a contract was not +a salable article,--and in consequence of this opinion, or pretence, +entered upon a daring speculation hitherto unthought of, that of sending +the commodity on the Company's account to the market of Canton. The +Council alleged, that, the Dutch being driven from Bengal, and the seas +being infested with privateers, this commodity had none, or a very dull +and depreciated demand. + +Had this been true, Mr. Hastings's conduct could admit of no excuse. He +ought not to burden a falling market by long and heavy engagements. He +ought studiously to have kept in his power the means of proportioning +the supply to the demand. But his arguments, and those of the Council on +that occasion, do not deserve the smallest attention. Facts, to which +there is no testimony but the assertion of those who produce them in +apology for the ill consequences of their own irregular actions, cannot +be admitted. Mr. Hastings and the Council had nothing at all to do with +that business: the Court of Directors had wholly taken the management of +opium out of his and their hands, and by a solemn adjudication fixed it +in the Board of Trade. But after it had continued there some years, Mr. +Hastings, a little before his grant of the monopoly to Mr. Sulivan, +thought proper to reverse the decree of his masters, and by his own +authority to recall it to the Council. By this step he became +responsible for all the consequences. + +The Board of Trade appear, indeed, to merit reprehension for disposing +of the opium by private contract, as by that means the unerring standard +of the public market cannot be applied to it. But they justified +themselves by their success; and one of their members informed your +Committee that their last sale had been a good one: and though he +apprehended a fall in the next, it was not such as in the opinion of +your Committee could justify the Council-General in having recourse to +untried and hazardous speculations of commerce. It appears that there +must have been a market, and one sufficiently lively. They assign as a +reason of this assigned [alleged?] dulness of demand, that the Dutch had +been expelled from Bengal, and could not carry the usual quantity to +Batavia. But the Danes were not expelled from Bengal, and Portuguese +ships traded there: neither of them were interdicted at Batavia, and the +trade to the eastern ports was free to them. The Danes actually applied +for and obtained an increase of the quantity to which their purchases +had been limited; and as they asked, so they received this indulgence as +a great favor. It does not appear that they were not very ready to +supply the place of the Dutch. On the other hand, there is no doubt that +the Dutch would most gladly receive an article, convenient, if not +necessary, to the circulation of their commerce, from the Danes, or +under any name; nor was it fit that the Company should use an extreme +strictness in any inquiry concerning the necessary disposal of one of +their own staple commodities. + +The supply of the Canton treasury with funds for the provision of the +next year's China investment was the ground of this plan. But the +Council-General appear still to have the particular advantage of Mr. +Sulivan in view,--and, not satisfied with breaking so many of the +Company's orders for that purpose, to make the contract an object +salable to the greatest advantage, were obliged to transfer their +personal partiality from Mr. Sulivan to the contract itself, and to hand +it over to the assignees through all their successions. When the opium +was delivered, the duties and emoluments of the contractor ended; but +(it appears from Mr. Williamson's letter, 18th October, 1781, and it is +not denied by the Council-General) this new scheme _furnished them with +a pretext of making him broker for the China investment, with the profit +of a new commission_,--to what amount does not appear. But here their +constant and vigilant observer, the vendue-master, met them again:--they +seemed to live in no small terror of this gentleman. To satisfy him for +the loss of his fee to which he was entitled upon the public sale, they +gave _him_ also a commission of one per cent on the investment. Thus was +this object loaded with a double commission; and every act of partiality +to one person produced a chargeable compensation to some other for the +injustice that such partiality produced. Nor was this the whole. The +discontent and envy excited by this act went infinitely further than to +those immediately affected, and something or other was to be found out +to satisfy as many as possible. + +As soon as it was discovered that the Council entertained a design of +opening a trade on those principles, it immediately engaged the +attention of such as had an interest in speculations of freight. + +A memorial seems to have been drawn early, as it is dated on the 29th of +March, though it was not the first publicly presented to the board. This +memorial was presented on the 17th of September, 1781, by Mr. Wheler, +conformably (as he says) to the desire of the Governor-General; and it +contained a long and elaborate dissertation on the trade to China, +tending to prove the advantage of extending the sale of English +manufactures and other goods to the North of that country, beyond the +usual emporium of European nations. This ample and not ill-reasoned +theoretical performance (though not altogether new either in speculation +or attempt) ended by a practical proposition, very short, indeed, of the +ideas opened in the preliminary discourse, but better adapted to the +immediate effect. It was, that the Company should undertake the sale of +its own opium in China, and commit the management of the business to the +memorialist, who offered to furnish them with a strong armed ship for +that purpose. The offer was accepted, and the agreement made with him +for the transport of two thousand chests. + +A proposal by another person was made the July following the date of +this project: it appears to have been early in the formal delivery at +the board: this was for the export of one thousand four hundred and +eighty chests. This, too, was accepted, but with new conditions and +restrictions: for in so vast and so new an undertaking great +difficulties occurred. In the first place, all importation of that +commodity is rigorously forbidden by the laws of China. The impropriety +of a political trader, who is lord over a great empire, being concerned +in a contraband trade upon his own account, did not seem in the least to +affect them; but they were struck with the obvious danger of subjecting +their goods to seizure by the vastness of the prohibited import. To +secure the larger adventure, they require of the China factory that +Colonel Watson's ship should enter the port of Canton as an _armed +ship_, (they would not say a ship of war, though that must be meant,) +that her cargo should not be reported; they also ordered that other +measures should be adopted to secure this prohibited article from +seizure. If the cargo should get in safe, another danger was in +view,--the overloading the Chinese market by a supply beyond the demand; +for it is obvious that contraband trade must exist by small quantities +of goods poured in by intervals, and not by great importations at one +time. To guard against this inconvenience, they divide their second, +though the smaller adventure, into two parts; one of which was to go to +the markets of the barbarous natives which inhabit the coast of Malacca, +where the chances of its being disposed of by robbery or sale were at +least equal. If the opium should be disposed of there, the produce was +to be invested in merchandise salable in China, or in dollars, if to be +had. The other part (about one half) was to go in kind directly to the +port of Canton. + +The dealing at this time seemed closed; but the gentlemen who chartered +the ships, always recollecting something, applied anew to the board to +be furnished with cannon from the Company's ordnance. Some was +delivered to them; but the Office of Ordnance (so heavily expensive to +the Company) was not sufficient to spare a few iron guns for a merchant +ship. Orders were given to cast a few cannon, and an application made to +Madras, at a thousand miles' distance, for the rest. Madras answers, +that they cannot exactly comply with the requisition; but still the +board at Bengal _hopes_ better things from them than they promise, and +flatter themselves that with their assistance they shall properly arm a +ship of thirty-two guns. + +Whilst these dispositions were making, the first proposer, perceiving +advantages from the circuitous voyage of the second which had escaped +his observation, to make amends for his first omission, improved both on +his own proposal and on that of the person who had improved on him. He +therefore applied for leave to take two hundred and fifty chests on his +own account, which he said could "be _readily disposed of_ at the +several places where it was necessary for the ship to touch for wood and +water, or intelligence, during her intended voyage through _the Eastern +Islands_." As a corrective to this extraordinary request, he assured the +board, that, if he should meet with any unexpected delay at these +markets, he would send their cargo to its destination, having secured a +_swift-sailing_ sloop for the _protection_ of his ship; and this sloop +he proposed, in such a case, to leave behind. Such an extraordinary +eagerness to deal in opium lets in another view of the merits of the +alleged dulness of the market, on which this trade was undertaken for +the Company's account. + +The Council, who had with great condescension and official facility +consented to every demand hitherto made, were not reluctant with regard +to this last. The quantity of opium required by the freighters, and the +permission of a trading voyage, were granted without hesitation. The +cargo having become far more valuable by this small infusion of private +interest, the armament which was deemed sufficient to defend the +Company's large share of the adventure was now discovered to be unequal +to the protection of the whole. For the convoy of these two ships the +Council hire and arm another. How they were armed, or whether in fact +they were properly armed at all, does not appear. It is true that the +Supreme Council proposed that these ships should also convey supplies to +Madras; but this was a secondary consideration: their primary object was +the adventure of opium. To this they were permanently attached, and were +obliged to attend to its final destination. + +The difficulty of disposing of the opium according to this project being +thus got over, a material preliminary difficulty still stood in the way +of the whole scheme. The contractor, or his assignees, were to be paid. +The Company's treasure was wholly exhausted, and even its credit was +exceedingly strained. The latter, however, was the better resource, and +to this they resolved to apply. They therefore, at different times, +opened two loans of one hundred thousand pounds each. The first was +reserved for the Company's servants, civil and military, to be +distributed in shares according to their rank; the other was more +general. The terms of both loans were, that the risk of the voyage was +to be on account of _the Company_. The payment was to be in bills (at a +rate of exchange settled from the supercargoes at Canton) upon the same +Company. In whatever proportion the adventure should fail, either in the +ships not safely arriving in China or otherwise, in that proportion the +subscribers were to content themselves with the Company's bonds for +their money, bearing eight per cent interest. A share in this +subscription was thought exceeding desirable; for Mr. Hastings writes +from Benares, where he was employed in the manner already reported and +hereafter to be observed upon, requesting that the subscription should +be left open to his officers who were employed in the military +operations against Cheyt Sing; and accordingly three majors, seven +captains, twenty-three lieutenants, the surgeon belonging to the +detachment, and two civil servants of high rank who attended him, were +admitted to subscribe. + +Bills upon Europe without interest are always preferred to the Company's +bonds, even at the high interest allowed in India. They are, indeed, so +greedily sought there, and (because they tend to bring an immediate and +visible distress in Leadenhall Street) so much dreaded here, that by an +act of Parliament the Company's servants are restricted from drawing +bills beyond a certain amount upon the Company in England. In Bengal +they have been restrained to about one hundred and eighty thousand +pounds annually. The legislature, influenced more strongly with the same +apprehensions, has restrained the Directors, as the Directors have +restrained their servants, and have gone so far as to call in the power +of the Lords of the Treasury to authorize the acceptance of any bills +beyond an amount prescribed in the act. + +The false principles of this unmercantile transaction (to speak of it in +the mildest terms) were too gross not to be visible to those who +contrived it. That the Company should be made to borrow such a sum as +two hundred thousand pounds[7] at eight per cent, (or terms deemed by +the Company to be worse,) in order first to buy a commodity represented +by themselves as depreciated in its ordinary market, in order afterwards +to carry one half of it through a circuitous trading voyage, depending +for its ultimate success on the prudent and fortunate management of two +or three sales, and purchases and re-sales of goods, and the chance of +two or three markets, with all the risks of sea and enemy, was plainly +no undertaking for such a body. The activity, private interest, and the +sharp eye of personal superintendency may now and then succeed in such +projects; but the remote inspection and unwieldy movements of great +public bodies can find nothing but loss in them. Their gains, +comparatively small, ought to be upon sure grounds; but here (as the +Council states the matter) the private trader actually declines to deal, +which is a proof more than necessary to demonstrate the extreme +imprudence of such an undertaking on the Company's account. Still +stronger and equally obvious objections lay to that member of the +project which regards the introduction of a contraband commodity into +China, sent at such a risk of seizure not only of the immediate object +to be smuggled in, but of all the Company's property in Canton, and +possibly at a hazard to the existence of the British factory at that +port. + +It is stated, indeed, that a monopolizing company in Canton, called the +Cohong, had reduced commerce there to a deplorable state, and had +rendered the gains of private merchants, either in opium or anything +else, so small and so precarious that they were no longer able by +purchasing that article to furnish the Company with money for a China +investment. For this purpose the person whose proposal is accepted +declares his project to be to set up a monopoly on the part of the +Company against the monopoly of the Chinese merchants: but as the +Chinese monopoly is at home, and supported (as the minute referred to +asserts) by the country magistrates, it is plain it is the Chinese +company, not the English, which must prescribe the terms,--particularly +in a commodity which, if withheld from them at their market price, they +can, whenever they please, be certain of purchasing as a condemned +contraband. + +There are two further circumstances in this transaction which strongly +mark its character. The first is, that this adventure to China was not +recommended to them by the factory of Canton; it was dangerous to +attempt it without their previous advice, and an assurance, grounded on +the state of the market and the dispositions of the government, that the +measure, in a commercial light, would be profitable, or at least safe. +Neither was that factory applied to on the state of the bills which, +upon their own account, they might be obliged to draw upon Europe, at a +time when the Council of Bengal direct them to draw bills to so enormous +an amount. + +The second remarkable circumstance is, that the Board of Trade in +Calcutta (the proper administrator of all that relates to the Company's +investment) does not seem to have given its approbation to the project, +or to have been at all consulted upon it. The sale of opium had been +adjudged to the Board of Trade for the express purpose of selling it in +Bengal, not in China,--and of employing the produce of such sale in the +manufactures of the country in which the original commodity was +produced. On the whole, it appears a mere trading speculation of the +Council, invading the department of others, without lights of its own, +without authority or information from any other quarter. In a commercial +view, it straitened the Company's investment to which it was destined; +as a measure of finance, it is a contrivance by which a monopoly formed +for the increase of revenue, instead of becoming one of its resources, +involves the treasury, in the first instance, in a debt of two hundred +thousand pounds. + +If Mr. Hastings, on the expiration of Mr. Mackenzie's contract, the +advantages of which to the Company had been long doubtful, had put +himself in a situation to do his duty, some immediate loss to the +revenue would have been the worst consequence of the alleged +depreciation; probably it would not have been considerable. Mr. +Mackenzie's contract, which at first was for three years, had been only +renewed for a year. Had the same course been pursued with Mr. Sulivan, +they would have had it in their power to adopt some plan which might +have secured them from any loss at all. But they pursued another plan: +they carefully put all remedy still longer out of their reach by giving +their contract for four years. To cover all these irregularities, they +interest the settlement in their favor by holding out to them the most +tempting of all baits in a chance of bills upon Europe. + +In this manner the servants abroad have conducted themselves with regard +to Mr. Sulivan's contract for opium, and the disposal of the commodity. +In England the Court of Directors took it into consideration. First, as +to the contract, in a letter dated 12th July, 1782, they say, that, +"having condemned the contract entered into with Mr. Mackenzie for the +provision of opium, they cannot but be _surprised_ at your having +concluded a new contract for _four_ years relative to that article with +Mr. Stephen Sulivan, without leaving the decision of it to the Court of +Directors." + +The sentiments of the Directors are proper, and worthy of persons in +public trust. Their _surprise_, indeed, at the disobedience to their +orders is not perfectly natural in those who for many years have +scarcely been obeyed in a single instance. They probably asserted their +authority at this time with as much vigor as their condition admitted. + +They proceed: "We do not mean," say they, "to convey any censure on Mr. +Sulivan respecting the transaction; but we cannot withhold our +displeasure from the Governor-General and Council at such an instance of +_contempt_ of our authority." They then proceed justly to censure the +removal of the inspection, and some other particulars of this gross +proceeding. As to the criminality of the parties, it is undoubtedly true +that a breach of duty in servants is highly aggravated by the rank, +station, and trust of the offending party; but no party, in such +conspiracy to break orders, appear to us wholly free from fault. + +The Directors did their duty in reprobating this contract; but it is the +opinion of your Committee that further steps ought to be taken to +inquire into the legal validity of a transaction which manifestly +attempts to prevent the Court of Directors from applying any remedy to +a grievance which has been for years the constant subject of complaints. + +Both Mr. Sulivan and Mr. Hastings are the Company's servants, bound by +their covenants and their oaths to promote the interest of their +masters, and both equally bound to be obedient to their orders. If the +Governor-General had contracted with a stranger, not apprised of the +Company's orders, and not bound by any previous engagement, the contract +might have been good; but whether a contract made between two servants, +contrary to the orders of their common master, and to the prejudice of +his known interest, be a breach of trust on both sides, and whether the +contract can in equity have force to bind the Company, whenever they +shall be inclined to free themselves and the country they govern from +this mischievous monopoly, your Committee think a subject worthy of +further inquiry. + +With regard to the disposal of the opium, the Directors very properly +condemn the direct contraband, but they approve the trading voyage. The +Directors have observed nothing concerning the loans: they probably +reserved that matter for future consideration. + +In no affair has the connection between servants abroad and persons in +power among the proprietors of the India Company been more discernible +than in this. But if such confederacies, cemented by such means, are +suffered to pass without due animadversion, the authority of Parliament +must become as inefficacious as all other authorities have proved to +restrain the growth of disorders either in India or in Europe. + + +SALT. + +The reports made by the two committees of the House which sat in the +years 1772 and 1773 of the state and conduct of the inland trade of +Bengal up to that period have assisted the inquiries of your Committee +with respect to the third and last article of monopoly, viz., that of +salt, and made it unnecessary for them to enter into so minute a detail +on that subject as they have done on some others. + +Your Committee find that the late Lord Clive constantly asserted that +the salt trade in Bengal had been a monopoly time immemorial,--that it +ever was and ever must be a monopoly,--and that Coja Wazid, and other +merchants long before him, had given to the Nabob and his ministers two +hundred thousand pounds per annum for the exclusive privilege. The +Directors, in their letter of the 24th December, 1776, paragraph 76, +say, "that it has ever been in a great measure an exclusive trade." + +The Secret Committee report,[8] that under the government of the Nabobs +the duty on salt made in Bengal was two and an half per cent paid by +Mussulmen, and five per cent paid by Gentoos. On the accession of Mir +Cassim, in 1760, the claim of the Company's servants to trade in salt +duty-free was first avowed. Mr. Vansittart made an agreement with him by +which the duties should be fixed at nine per cent. The Council annulled +the agreement, and reduced the duty to two and an half per cent. On this +Mir Cassim ordered that no customs or duties whatsoever should be +collected for the future. But a majority of the Council (22nd March, +1763) resolved, that the making the exemption general was a breach of +the Company's privileges, and that the Nabob should be positively +required to recall it, and collect duties as before from the country +merchants, and all other persons who had not the protection of the +Company's _dustuck_. The Directors, as the evident reason of the thing +and as their duty required, disapproved highly of these transactions, +and ordered (8th February, 1764) _a final and effectual stop to be put +to the inland trade in salt_, and several other articles of commerce. +But other politics and other interests prevailed, so that in the May +following a General Court resolved, that it should be recommended to the +Court of Directors to reconsider the preceding orders; in consequence of +which the Directors ordered the Governor and Council to form a plan, in +concert with the Nabob, for regulating the inland trade. + +On these last orders Lord Clive's plan was formed, in 1765, for +engrossing the sole purchase of salt, and dividing the profits among the +Company's senior servants. The Directors, who had hitherto reluctantly +given way to a monopoly under any ideas or for any purposes, disapproved +of this plan, and on the 17th May, 1766, ordered it to be abolished; but +they substituted no other in its room.[9] In this manner things +continued until November, 1767, when the Directors repeated their orders +for excluding all persons whatever, excepting the natives only, from +being concerned in the inland trade in salt; and they declared that +(vide par. 90) "_such trade is hereby abolished and put a final end +to_." In the same letter (par. 92) they ordered that the salt trade +should be laid open to the natives in general, subject to such a duty +as might produce one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a year. This +policy was adopted by the legislature. In the act of 1773 it was +expressly provided, that it should not be lawful for any of his +Majesty's subjects to engage, intermeddle, or be any way concerned, +directly or indirectly, in the inland trade in salt, except on the India +Company's account. + +Under the positive orders of the Company, the salt trade appears to have +continued open from 1768 to 1772. The act, indeed, contained an +exception in favor of the Company, and left them a liberty of dealing in +salt upon their own account. But still this policy remained unchanged, +and their orders unrevoked. But in the year 1772, without any +instruction from the Court of Directors indicating a change of opinion +or system, the whole produce was again monopolized, professedly for the +use of the Company, by Mr. Hastings. Speaking of this plan, he says +(letter to the Directors, 22d February, 1775): "No new hardship has been +imposed upon the salt manufacturers by taking the management of that +article into the hands of government; the only difference is, that the +profit which was before reaped by English gentlemen and by banians is +now acquired by the Company." In May, 1766, the Directors had condemned +the monopoly _on any conditions whatsoever_. "At that time they thought +it neither consistent with their honor nor their dignity to promote such +an exclusive trade."[10] "They considered it, too, as disgraceful, _and +below the dignity of their present situation_, to allow of such a +monopoly, and that, were they to allow it under any restrictions, they +should consider themselves as assenting and subscribing to all the +mischiefs which Bengal had presented to them for four years past."[11] + +Notwithstanding this solemn declaration, in their letter of 24th +December, 1776, they approve the plan of Mr. Hastings, and say, "that +the monopoly, _on its present footing_, can be no considerable grievance +to the country," &c. + +This, however, was a rigorous monopoly. The account given of it by +General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, in their minute of +11th January, 1775, in which the situation of the _molungees_, or +persons employed in the salt manufacture, is particularly described, is +stated at length in the Appendix. Mr. Hastings himself says, "The power +of obliging molungees to work has been customary from time immemorial." + +Nothing but great and clear advantage to government could account for, +and nothing at all perhaps could justify, the revival of a monopoly thus +circumstanced. The advantage proposed by its revival was the +transferring the profit, which was before reaped by English gentlemen +and banians, to the Company. The profits of the former were not +problematical. It was to be seen what the effect would be of a scheme to +transfer them to the latter, even under the management of the projector +himself. In the Revenue Consultations of September, 1776, Mr. Hastings +said, "Many causes have since combined to reduce this article of revenue +_almost to nothing_. The plan which I am _now_ inclined to recommend for +the future management of the salt revenue differs widely from that +which I adopted under different circumstances." + +It appears that the ill success of his former scheme did not deter him +from recommending another. Accordingly, in July, 1777, Mr. Hastings +proposed, and it was resolved, that the salt mahls should be let, _with_ +the lands, to the farmers and zemindars for a ready-money rent, +including duties,--the salt to be left to their disposal. After some +trial of this method, Mr. Hastings thought fit to abandon it. In +September, 1780, he changed his plan a third time, and proposed the +institution of a _salt office_; the salt was to be again engrossed for +the benefit of the Company, and the management conducted by a number of +salt agents. + +From the preceding facts it appears that in this branch of the Company's +government little regard has been paid to the ease and welfare of the +natives, and that the Directors have nowhere shown greater inconsistency +than in their orders on this subject. Yet salt, considering it as a +necessary of life, was by no means a safe and proper subject for so many +experiments and innovations. For ten years together the Directors +reprobated the idea of suffering this necessary of life to be engrossed +on _any condition whatsoever_, and strictly prohibited all Europeans +from trading in it. Yet, as soon as they were made to expect from Mr. +Hastings that the profits of the monopoly should be converted to their +own use, they immediately declared that it "could be no considerable +grievance to the country," and authorized its continuance, until he +himself, finding it produced little or nothing, renounced it of his own +accord. Your Committee are apprehensive that this will at all times, +whatever flattering appearance it may wear for a time, be the fate of +any attempt to monopolize the salt for the profit of government. In the +first instance it will raise the price on the consumer beyond its just +level; but that evil will soon be corrected by means ruinous to the +Company as monopolists, viz., by the embezzlement of their own salt, and +by the importation of foreign salt, neither of which the government of +Bengal may have power for any long time to prevent. In the end +government will probably be undersold and beaten down to a losing price. +Or, if they should attempt to force all the advantages from this article +of which by every exertion it may be made capable, it may distress some +other part of their possessions in India, and destroy, or at least +impair, the natural intercourse between them. Ultimately it may hurt +Bengal itself, and the produce of its landed revenue, by destroying the +vent of that grain which it would otherwise barter for salt. + +Your Committee think it hardly necessary to observe, that the many +changes of plan which have taken place in the management of the salt +trade are far from honorable to the Company's government,--and that, +even if the monopoly of this article were a profitable concern, it +should not be permitted. Exclusive of the general effect of this and of +all monopolies, the oppressions which the manufacturers of salt, called +_molungees_, still suffer under it, though perhaps alleviated in some +particulars, deserve particular attention. There is evidence enough on +the Company's records to satisfy your Committee that these people have +been treated with great rigor, and not only defrauded of the due payment +of their labor, but delivered over, like cattle, in succession, to +different masters, who, under pretence of buying up the balances due to +their preceding employers, find means of keeping them in perpetual +slavery. For evils of this nature there can be no perfect remedy as long +as the monopoly continues. They are in the nature of the thing, and +cannot be cured, or effectually counteracted, even by a just and +vigilant administration on the spot. Many objections occur to the +farming of any branch of the public revenue in Bengal, particularly +against farming the salt lands. But the dilemma to which government by +this system is constantly reduced, of authorizing great injustice or +suffering great loss, is alone sufficient to condemn it. Either +government is expected to support the farmer or contractor in all his +pretensions by an exertion of power, which tends of necessity to the +ruin of the parties subjected to the farmer's contract, and to the +suppression of free trade,--or, if such assistance be refused him, he +complains that he is not supported, that private persons interfere with +his contract, that the manufacturers desert their labor, and that +proportionate deductions must be allowed him. + +After the result of their examination into the general nature and effect +of this monopoly, it remains only for your Committee to inquire whether +there was any valid foundation for that declaration of Mr. Hastings +which we conclude must have principally recommended the monopoly of salt +to the favor of the Court of Directors, viz., "that the profit, which +was before reaped by English gentlemen, and by banians, was now acquired +by the Company." On the contrary, it was proved and acknowledged before +the Governor-General and Council, when they inquired into this matter, +in March, 1775, that the Chiefs and Councils of those districts in which +there were salt mahls reserved particular salt farms for their _own_ +use, and divided the profits, in certain stated proportions, among +themselves and their assistants. But, unless a detail of these +transactions, and of the persons concerned in them, should be called for +by the House, it is our wish to avoid entering into it. On one example +only your Committee think it just and proper to insist, stating first to +the House on what principles they have made this selection. + +In pursuing their inquiries, your Committee have endeavored chiefly to +keep in view the conduct of persons in the highest station, particularly +of those in whom the legislature, as well as the Company, have placed a +special confidence,--judging that the conduct of such persons is not +only most important in itself, but most likely to influence the +subordinate ranks of the service. Your Committee have also examined the +proceedings of the Court of Directors on all those instances of the +behavior of their servants that seemed to deserve, and did sometimes +attract, their immediate attention. They constantly find that the +negligence of the Court of Directors has kept pace with, and must +naturally have quickened, the growth of the practices which they have +condemned. Breach of duty abroad will always go hand in hand with +neglect of it at home. In general, the Court of Directors, though +sufficiently severe in censuring offences, and sometimes in punishing +those whom they have regarded as offenders of a lower rank, appear to +have suffered the most conspicuous and therefore the most dangerous +examples of disobedience and misconduct in the first department of their +service to pass with a feeble and ineffectual condemnation. In those +cases which they have deemed too apparent and too strong to be +disregarded even with safety to themselves, and against which their +heaviest displeasure has been declared, it appears to your Committee +that their interference, such as it was, had a mischievous rather than a +useful tendency. A total neglect of duty in this respect, however +culpable, is not to be compared, either in its nature or in its +consequences, with the destructive principles on which they have acted. +It has been their practice, if not system, to inquire, to censure, and +not to punish. As long as the misconduct of persons in power in Bengal +was encouraged by nothing but the hopes of concealment, it may be +presumed that they felt some restraint upon their actions, and that they +stood in some awe of the power placed over them; whereas it is to be +apprehended that the late conduct of the Court of Directors tells them, +in effect, that they have nothing to fear from the certainty of a +discovery. + +On the same principle on which your Committee have generally limited +their researches to the persons placed by Parliament or raised or put in +nomination by the Court of Directors to the highest station in Bengal, +it was also their original wish to limit those inquiries to the period +at which Parliament interposed its authority between the Company and +their servants, and gave a new constitution to the Presidency of Fort +William. If the Company's servants had taken a new date from that +period, and if from thenceforward their conduct had corresponded with +the views of the legislature, it is probable that a review of the +transactions of remoter periods would not have been deemed necessary, +and that the remembrance of them would have been gradually effaced and +finally buried in oblivion. But the reports which your Committee have +already made have shown the House that from the year 1772, when those +proceedings commenced in Parliament on which the act of the following +year was founded, abuses of every kind have prevailed and multiplied in +Bengal to a degree unknown in former times, and are perfectly sufficient +to account for the present distress of the Company's affairs both at +home and abroad. The affair which your Committee now lays before the +House occupies too large a space in the Company's records, and is of too +much importance in every point of view, to be passed over. + +Your Committee find that in March, 1775, a petition was presented to the +Governor-General and Council by a person called Coja Kaworke, an +Armenian merchant, resident at Dacca, (of which division Mr. Richard +Barwell had lately been Chief,) setting forth in substance, that in +November, 1772, the petitioner had farmed a certain salt district, +called Savagepoor, and had entered into a contract with the Committee of +Circuit for providing and delivering to the India Company the salt +produced in that district; that in 1773 he farmed another, called +Selimabad, on similar conditions. He alleges, that in February, 1774, +when Mr. Barwell arrived at Dacca, he charged the petitioner with +1,25,500 rupees, (equal to 13,000_l._,) as a contribution, and, in order +to levy it, did the same year deduct 20,799 rupees from the amount of +the _advance money_ which was ordered to be paid to the petitioner, on +account of the India Company, for the provision of salt in the two +farms, and, after doing so, compelled the petitioner to execute and +give him four different bonds for 77,627 rupees, in the name of one +Porran Paul, for the remainder of such contribution, or unjust profit. + +Such were the allegations of the petition relative to the unjust +exaction. The harsh means of compelling the payment make another and +very material part; for the petitioner asserts, that, in order to +recover the amount of these bonds, guards were placed over him, and that +Mr. Barwell by ill usage and oppressions recovered from him at different +times 48,656 Arcot rupees, besides 283 rupees extorted by the +guard,--that, after this payment, two of the bonds, containing 36,313 +rupees, were restored to him, and he was again committed to the charge +of four _peons_, or guards, to pay the amount of the remaining two +bonds. The petition further charges, that the said gentleman and his +people had also extorted from the petitioner other sums of money, which, +taken together, amounted to 25,000 rupees. + +But the heaviest grievance alleged by him is, that, after the sums of +money had been extorted on account of the farms, the faith usual in such +transactions is allowed not to have been kept; but, after the petitioner +had been obliged to buy or compound for the farms, that they were taken +from him,--"that the said Richard Barwell, Esquire, about his departure +from Dacca, in October, 1774, for self-interest wrested from the +petitioner the aforesaid two mahls, (or districts,) and farmed them to +another person, notwithstanding he had extorted from the petitioner a +considerable sum of money on account of those purgunnahs." + +To this petition your Committee find two accounts annexed, in which the +sums said to be paid to or taken by Mr. Barwell, and the respective +dates of the several payments, are specified; and they find that the +account of particulars agrees with and makes up the gross sum charged in +the petition. + +Mr. Barwell's immediate answer to the preceding charge is contained in +two letters to the board, dated 23rd and 24th of March, 1775. The answer +is remarkable. He asserts, that "the whole of Kaworke's relation is a +gross misrepresentation of facts;--that the simple fact was, that in +January, 1774, the salt mahls of Savagepoor and Selimabad became _his_, +and were re-let by _him_ to this man, in the names of Bussunt Roy and +Kissen Deb, on condition that he should account with him [_Mr. Barwell_] +for profits to a certain sum, and that he [_Mr. Barwell_] engaged for +Savagepoor _in the persuasion of its being a very profitable farm_"; and +he concludes with saying, "If I am mistaken in my reasoning, and _the +wish to add to my fortune has warped my judgment_, in a transaction that +may appear to the board in a light different to what I view it in, it is +past,--I cannot recall it,--and I rather choose to admit an error than +deny a fact." In his second letter he says, "To the Honorable Court of +Directors I will submit all my rights in the salt contracts I engaged +in; and if in their opinion those rights vest in the Company, I will +account to them for the last shilling I have received from such +contracts, my intentions being upright; and as I never did wish to +profit myself to the prejudice of my employers, by their judgment I will +be implicitly directed." + +The majority of the board desired that Kaworke's petition should be +transmitted to England by the ship then under dispatch; and it was +accordingly sent with Mr. Barwell's replies. Mr. Barwell moved that a +committee should be appointed to take into consideration what he had to +offer on the subject of Kaworke's petition; and a committee was +accordingly appointed, consisting of all the members of the Council +except the Governor-General. + +The committee opened their proceedings with reading a second petition +from Kaworke, containing corrected accounts of cash said to be forcibly +taken, and of the extraordinary and unwarrantable profits taken or +received from him by Richard Barwell, Esquire; all which are inserted at +large in the Appendix. By these accounts Mr. Barwell is charged with a +balance or debt of 22,421 rupees to Kaworke. The principal difference +between him and Mr. Barwell arises from a different mode of stating the +accounts acknowledged to exist between them. In the account current +signed by Mr. Barwell, he gives Kaworke credit for the receipt of 98,426 +rupees, and charges him with a balance of 27,073 rupees. + +The facts stated or admitted by Mr. Barwell are as follow: that the salt +farms of Selimabad and Savagepoor were _his_, and re-let by him to the +two Armenian merchants, Michael and Kaworke, on condition of their +paying him 1,25,000 rupees, exclusive of their engagements to the +Company; that the engagement was written in the name of Bussunt Roy and +Kissen Deb Sing; and Mr. Barwell says, that the reason of its being "in +these people's names was because _it was not thought consistent with the +public regulations that the names of any Europeans should appear_." + +It is remarkable that this policy was carried to still greater length. +Means were used to remove such an obnoxious proceeding, as far as +possible, from the public eye; and they were such as will strongly +impress the House with the facility of abuse and the extreme difficulty +of detection in everything which relates to the Indian administration. +For these substituted persons were again represented by the further +substitution of another name, viz., _Rada Churn Dey_, whom Mr. Barwell +asserts to be a real person living at Dacca, and who _stood for the +factory of Dacca_; whereas the Armenian affirms that there was _no_ such +person as _Rada Churn_, and that it was a fictitious name. + +Mr. Barwell, in his justification, proceeds to affirm, that Coja Kaworke +never had the management of the salt mahls, "_but on condition of +accounting to the former Chief, and to Mr. Barwell, for a specified +advantage arising from them_,--that Mr. Barwell determined, _without he +could reconcile the interests of the public with his own private +emoluments_, that he would not engage in this concern,--and that, when +he took an interest in it, _it was for specified benefit in money_, and +every condition in the public engagement to be answered." + +Your Committee have stated the preceding facts in the same terms in +which they are stated by Mr. Barwell. The House is to judge how far they +amount to a defence against the charges contained in Kaworke's petition, +or to an admission of the truth of the principal part of it. Mr. Barwell +does not allow that compulsion was used to extort the money which he +received from the petitioner, or that the latter was dispossessed of the +farms in consequence of an offer made to Mr. Barwell by another person +(Ramsunder Paulet) to pay him a lac of rupees more for them. The truth +of _these_ charges has not been ascertained. They were declared by Mr. +Barwell to be false, but no attempt was made by him to invalidate or +confute them, though it concerned his reputation, and it was his duty, +in the station wherein he was placed, that charges of such a nature +should have been disproved,--at least, the accuser should have been +pushed to the proof of them. Nothing of this kind appears to have been +done, or even attempted. + +The transaction itself, as it stands, is clearly collusive; the form in +which it is conducted is clandestine and mysterious in an extraordinary +degree; and the acknowledged object of it a great illicit profit, to be +gained by an agent and trustee of the Company at the expense of his +employers, and of which he confesses he has received a considerable +part. + +The committee of the Governor-General and Council appear to have closed +their proceedings with several resolutions, which, with the answers +given by Mr. Barwell as a defence, are inserted in the Appendix. The +whole are referred thither together, on account of the ample extent of +the answer. These papers will be found to throw considerable light not +only on the points in question, but on the general administration of the +Company's revenues in Bengal. On some passages in Mr. Barwell's defence, +or account of his conduct, your Committee offer the following remarks to +the judgment of the House. + +In his letter of the 23rd March, 1775, he says, that he engaged for +Savagepoor _in the persuasion of its being a very profitable farm_. In +this place your Committee think it proper to state the 17th article of +the regulations of the Committee of Circuit, formed in May, 1772, by +the President and Council, of which Mr. Barwell was a member, together +with their own observations thereupon. + + 17th. "That no peshcar, banian, or other servant, of whatever + denomination, of the collector, or relation or dependant of any such + servant, be allowed to farm lands, nor directly or indirectly to + hold a concern in any farm, nor to be security for any farmer; that + the collector be strictly enjoined to prevent such practices; and + that, if it shall be discovered that any one, _under a false name, + or any kind of collusion_, hath found means to evade this order, he + shall be subject to an heavy fine, proportionate to the amount of + the farm, and the farm shall be re-let, or made _khas_: and if it + shall appear that the collector shall have countenanced, approved, + or connived at a breach of this regulation, he shall stand _ipso + facto_ dismissed from his collectorship. Neither shall any European, + directly or indirectly, be permitted to rent lands in any part of + the country." + + _Remark by the Board._ + + 17th. "If the collector, or any persons who partake of his + authority, are permitted to be the farmers of the country, no other + persons will dare to be their competitors: of course they will + obtain the farms on their own terms. _It is not fit that the + servants of the Company should be dealers with their masters._ The + collectors are checks on the farmers. If they themselves turn + farmers, what checks can be found for _them_? What security will the + Company have for their property, or where are the ryots to look for + relief against oppressions?" + +The reasons assigned for the preceding regulation seem to your Committee +to be perfectly just; but they can by no means be reconciled to those +which induced Mr. Barwell to engage in the salt farms of Selimabad and +Savagepoor. In the first place, his doing so is at length a direct and +avowed, though at first a covert, violation of the public regulation, to +which he was himself a party as a member of the government, as well as +an act of disobedience to the Company's positive orders on this subject. +In their General Letter of the 17th May, 1766, the Court of Directors +say, "We positively order, that no covenanted servant, or Englishman +residing under our protection, shall be suffered to hold any land for +his own account, directly or indirectly, in his own name or that of +others, or to be concerned in any farms or revenues whatsoever." + +Secondly, if, instead of letting the Company's lands or farms to +indifferent persons, their agent or trustee be at liberty to hold them +himself, he will always (on principles stated and adhered to in the +defence) have a sufficient reason for farming them on his own account, +since he can at all times make them as profitable as he pleases; or if +he leases them to a third person, yet reserves an intermediate profit +for himself, that profit may be as great as he thinks fit, and must be +necessarily made at the Company's expense. If at the same time he be +collector of the revenues, it will be his interest to recommend +remissions in favor of the nominal farmer, and he will have it in his +power to sink the amount of his collections. + +These principles, and the correspondent practices, leave the India +Company without any security that all the leases of the lands of Bengal +may not have been disposed of, under that administration which made the +five years' settlement in 1772, in the same manner and for the same +purpose. + +To enable the House to judge how far this apprehension may be founded, +it will be proper to state, that Mr. Nicholas Grueber, who preceded Mr. +Barwell in the Chiefship of Dacca, in a letter dated 29th of April, +1775, declares that he paid to the Committee of Circuit twelve thousand +rupees as their profit on a single salt farm,--which sum, he says, "I +paid the Committee at their request, before their departure from Dacca, +and reimbursed myself out of _the advances_ directed to be issued for +the provision of the salt." Thus one illicit and mischievous transaction +always leads to another; and the irregular farming of revenue brings on +the misapplication of the commercial advances. + +Mr. Barwell professes himself to be sensible "_that a wish to add to his +fortune may possibly have warped his judgment_, and that _he rather +chooses to admit an error than deny a fact_." But your Committee are of +opinion that the extraordinary caution and the intricate contrivances +with which his share in this transaction is wrapped up form a sufficient +proof that he was not altogether misled in his judgment; and though +there might be some merit in acknowledging an error before it was +discovered, there could be very little in a confession produced by +previous detection. + +The reasons assigned by Mr. Barwell, in defence of the clandestine part +of this transaction, seem to your Committee to be insufficient in +themselves, and not very fit to be urged by a man in his station. In one +place he says, that "_it was not thought consistent with the public +regulations that the names of any Europeans should appear_." In another +he says, "I am aware of the objection that has been made to the English +taking farms under the names of natives, as prohibited by the Company's +orders; and I must _deviate_ a little upon this. It has been generally +understood that the scope and tendency of the Honorable Company's +prohibition of farms to Europeans was meant only to exclude such as +could not possibly, in their own persons, come under the jurisdiction of +the Duanné courts of Adawlet, because, upon any failure of engagements, +upon any complaint of unjust oppression, or other cause of discontent +whatever, it was supposed an European might screen himself from the +process of the country judicature. But it was never supposed _that an +European of credit and responsibility_ was absolutely incapable from +holding certain tenures under the sanction and authority of the country +laws, or from becoming security for such native farmers, contractors, +&c., &c., as he might protect and employ." + +Your Committee have opposed this construction of Mr. Barwell's to the +positive order which the conduct it is meant to color has violated. +"Europeans of credit and responsibility," that is, Europeans armed with +wealth and power, and exercising offices of authority and trust, instead +of being excepted from the spirit of the restriction, must be supposed +the persons who are chiefly meant to be comprehended in it; for abstract +the idea of an European from the ideas of power and influence, and the +restriction is no longer rational. + +Your Committee are therefore of opinion that the nature of the evil +which was meant to be prevented by the above orders and regulations was +not altered, or the evil itself diminished, by the collusive methods +made use of to evade them,--and that, if the regulations were proper, +(as they unquestionably were,) they ought to have been punctually +complied with, particularly by the members of the government, _who +formed the plan_, and who, as trustees of the Company, were especially +answerable for their being duly carried into execution. Your Committee +have no reason to believe that it could ever have been generally +understood "that the Company's prohibition of farms to Europeans was +meant only to exclude such as could not possibly, in their own persons, +come under the jurisdiction of the Duanné courts": no such restriction +is so much as hinted at. And if it had been so understood, Mr. Barwell +was one of the persons who, from their rank, station, and influence, +must have been the principal objects of the prohibition. Since the +establishment of the Company's influence in Bengal, no Europeans, of any +rank whatever, have been subject to the process of the country +judicature; and whether they act avowedly for themselves, and take farms +in their own name, or substitute native Indians to act for them, the +difference is not material. The same influence that screened an European +from the jurisdiction of the country courts would have equally protected +his native agent and representative. For many years past the Company's +servants have presided in those courts, and in comparison with _their_ +authority the native authority is nothing. + +The earliest instructions that appear to have been given by the Court of +Directors in consequence of these transactions in Bengal are dated the +5th of February, 1777. In their letter of that date they applaud the +proceedings of the board, meaning the majority, (then consisting of +General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis,) _as highly +meritorious_, and promise them their _firmest support_. "Some of the +_cases_" they say, "_are so flagrantly corrupt, and others attended with +circumstances so oppressive to the inhabitants, that it would be unjust +to suffer the delinquents to go unpunished_." With this observation +their proceedings appear to have ended, and paused for more than a year. + +On the 4th of March, 1778, the Directors appear to have resumed the +subject. In their letter of that date they instructed the Governor and +Council forthwith to commence a prosecution in the Supreme Court of +Judicature against the persons who composed the Committee of Circuit, or +their representatives, and also against Mr. Barwell, in order to +recover, for the use of the Company, the amount of all advantages +acquired by them from their several engagements in salt contracts and +farms. Adverting, however, to the declaration made by Mr. Barwell, that +he would account to the Court of Directors for the last shilling he had +received and abide implicity by their judgment, they thought it +probable, that, on being acquainted with their peremptory orders for +commencing a prosecution, he might be desirous of paying his share of +profits into the Company's treasury; and they pointed out a precaution +to be used in accepting such a tender on his part. + +On this part of the transaction your Committee observe, that the Court +of Directors appear blamable in having delayed till February, 1777, to +take any measure in consequence of advices so interesting and important, +and on a matter concerning which they had made so strong a +declaration,--considering that early in April, 1776, they say "they had +investigated the charges, and had then come to certain resolutions +concerning them." But their delaying to send out positive orders for +commencing a prosecution against the parties concerned till March, 1778, +cannot be accounted for. In the former letter they promise, if they +should find it necessary, to return the original covenants of such of +their servants as had been any ways concerned in the undue receipt of +money, in order to enable the Governor-General and Council to recover +the same by suits in the Supreme Court. But your Committee do not find +that the covenants were ever transmitted to Bengal. To whatever cause +these instances of neglect and delay may be attributed, they could not +fail to create an opinion in Bengal that the Court of Directors were not +heartily intent upon the execution of their own orders, and to +discourage those members of government who were disposed to undertake so +invidious a duty. + +In consequence of these delays, even their first orders did not arrive +in Bengal until some time after the death of Colonel Monson, when the +whole power of the board had devolved to Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell. +When they sent what they call _their positive orders_, in March, 1778, +they had long been apprised of the death of Colonel Monson, and must +have been perfectly certain of the effect which that event would have on +the subsequent measures and proceedings of the Governor-General and +Council. Their opinion of the principles of those gentlemen appears in +their letter of the 28th of November, 1777, wherein they say "they +cannot but express their concern that the power of granting away their +property in perpetuity should have devolved upon such persons." + +But the conduct of the Court of Directors appears to be open to +objections of a nature still more serious and important. A recovery of +the amount of Mr. Barwell's profits seems to be the only purpose which +they even professed to have in view. But your Committee are of opinion +that to preserve the reputation and dignity of the government of Bengal +was a much more important object, and ought to have been their first +consideration. The prosecution was not the pursuit of mean and +subordinate persons, who might with safety to the public interest remain +in their seats during such an inquiry into their conduct. It appears +very doubtful, whether, if there were grounds for such a prosecution, a +proceeding in Great Britain were not more politic than one in Bengal. +Such a prosecution ought not to have been ordered by the Directors, but +upon grounds that would have fully authorized the recall of the +gentleman in question. This prosecution, supposing it to have been +seriously undertaken, and to have succeeded, must have tended to weaken +the government, and to degrade it in the eyes of all India. On the other +hand, to intrust a man, armed as he was with all the powers of his +station, and indeed of the government, with the conduct of a prosecution +against himself, was altogether inconsistent and absurd. The same letter +in which they give these orders exhibits an example which sets the +inconsistency of their conduct in a stronger light, because the case is +somewhat of a similar nature, but infinitely less pressing in its +circumstances. Observing that the Board of Trade had commenced a +prosecution against Mr. William Barton, a member of that board, for +various acts of peculation committed by him, they say, "We must be of +opinion, that, as _prosecutions are actually carrying on against him by +our Board of Trade_, he is, during such prosecution at least, an +improper person to hold a seat _at that board_; and therefore we direct +that he be suspended from the Company's service until our further +pleasure concerning him be known." The principle laid down in this +instruction, even before their own opinion concerning Mr. Barton's case +was declared, and merely on the prosecution of others, serves to render +their conduct not very accountable in the case of Mr. Barwell. Mr. +Barton was in a subordinate situation, and his remaining or not +remaining in it was of little or no moment to the prosecution. Mr. +Barton was but one of seven; whereas Mr. Barwell was one of four, and, +with the Governor-General, was in effect the Supreme Council. + +In the present state of power and patronage in India, and during the +relations which are permitted to subsist between the judges, the +prosecuting officers, and the Council-General, your Committee is very +doubtful whether the mode of prosecuting the highest members in the +Bengal government, before a court at Calcutta, could have been almost in +any case advisable. + +It is possible that particular persons, in high judicial and political +situations, may, by force of an unusual strain of virtue, be placed far +above the influence of those circumstances which in ordinary cases are +known to make an impression on the human mind. But your Committee, +sensible that laws and public proceedings ought to be made for general +situations, and not for personal dispositions, are not inclined to have +any confidence in the effect of criminal proceedings, where no means are +provided for preventing a mutual connection, by dependencies, agencies, +and employments, between the parties who are to prosecute and to judge +and those who are to be prosecuted and to be tried. + +Your Committee, in a former Report, have stated the consequences which +they apprehended from the dependency of the judges on the +Governor-General and Council of Bengal; and the House has entered into +their ideas upon this subject. Since that time it appears that Sir +Elijah Impey has accepted of the guardianship of Mr. Barwell's children, +and was the trustee for his affairs. There is no law to prevent this +sort of connection, and it is possible that it might not at all affect +the mind of that judge, or (upon his account) indirectly influence the +conduct of his brethren; but it must forcibly affect the minds of those +who have matter of complaint against government, and whose cause the +Court of Directors appear to espouse, in a country where the authority +of the Court of Directors has seldom been exerted but to be despised, +where the operation of laws is but very imperfectly understood, but +where men are acute, sagacious, and even suspicious of the effect of all +personal connections. Their suspicions, though perhaps not rightly +applied to every individual, will induce them to take indications from +the situations and connections of the prosecuting parties, as well as of +the judges. It cannot fail to be observed, that Mr. Naylor, the +Company's attorney, lived in Mr. Barwell's house; the late Mr. Bogle, +the Company's commissioner of lawsuits, owed his place to the patronage +of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, by whom the office was created for him; +and Sir John Day, the Company's advocate, who arrived in Bengal in +February, 1779, had not been four months in Calcutta, when Mr. Hastings, +Mr. Barwell, and Sir Eyre Coote doubled his salary, contrary to the +opinion of Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler. + +If the Directors are known to devolve the whole cognizance of the +offences charged on their servants so highly situated upon the Supreme +Court, an excuse will be furnished, if already it has not been +furnished, to the Directors for declining the use of their own proper +political power and authority in examining into and animadverting on the +conduct of their servants. Their true character, as strict masters and +vigilant governors, will merge in that of prosecutors. Their force and +energy will evaporate in tedious and intricate processes,--in lawsuits +which can never end, and which are to be carried on by the very +dependants of those who are under prosecution. On their part, these +servants will decline giving satisfaction to their masters, because they +are already before another tribunal; and thus, by shifting +responsibility from hand to hand, a confederacy to defeat the whole +spirit of the law, and to remove all real restraints on their actions, +may be in time formed between the servants, Directors, prosecutors, and +court. Of this great danger your Committee will take farther notice in +another place. + +No notice whatever appears to have been taken of the Company's orders in +Bengal till the 11th of January, 1779, when Mr. Barwell moved, _that the +claim made upon him by the Court of Directors should be submitted to the +Company's lawyers, and that they should be perfectly instructed to +prosecute upon it_. In his minute of that date he says, "_that the state +of his health had long since rendered it necessary for him to return to +Europe_." + +Your Committee observe that he continued in Bengal another year. He +says, "that he had hitherto waited for the arrival of Sir John Day, the +Company's advocate; but as the season was now far advanced, he wished to +bring the trial speedily to issue." + +In this minute he retracts his original engagement to submit himself to +the judgment of the Court of Directors, "and to account to them for the +last shilling he had received": he says, "that no merit had been given +him for the offer; that a most unjustifiable advantage had been +attempted to be made of it, by first declining it and _descending to +abuse_, and then giving orders upon it as if it had been rejected, when +called upon by him in the person of his agent to bring home the charge +of delinquency." + +Mr. Barwell's reflections on the proceedings of the Court of Directors +are not altogether clearly expressed; nor does it appear distinctly to +what facts he alludes. He asserts that a most unjustifiable advantage +had been attempted to be made of his offer. The fact is, the Court of +Directors have nowhere declined accepting it; on the contrary, they +caution the Governor-General and Council about the manner of receiving +the tender of the money which they expect him to make. They say nothing +of any call made on them by Mr. Barwell's agent in England; nor does it +appear to your Committee that they "have descended to abuse." They have +a right, and it is their duty, to express, in distinct and appropriated +terms, their sense of all blamable conduct in their servants. + +So far as may be collected from the evidence of the Company's records, +Mr. Barwell's assertions do not appear well supported; but even if they +were more plausible, your Committee apprehend that he could not be +discharged from his solemn recorded promise to abide by the judgment of +the Court of Directors. Their judgment was declared by their resolution +to prosecute, which it depended upon himself to satisfy by making good +his engagement. To excuse his not complying with the Company's claims, +he says, "_that his compliance would be urged as a confession of +delinquency, and to proceed from conviction of his having usurped on the +rights of the Company_." Considerations of this nature might properly +have induced Mr. Barwell to stand upon his right in the first instance, +"_and to appeal_" (to use his own words) "_to the laws of his country, +in order to vindicate his fame_." But his performance could not have +more weight to infer delinquency than his promise. Your Committee think +his observation comes too late. + +If he had stood a trial, when he first acknowledged the facts, and +submitted himself to the judgment of the Court of Directors, the suit +would have been carried on under the direction of General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis; whereas in the year 1779 his influence +at the board gave him the conduct of it himself. In an interval of four +years it may be presumed that great alterations might have happened in +the state of the evidence against him. + +In the subsequent proceedings of the Governor-General and Council the +House will find that Mr. Barwell complained that his instances for +carrying on the prosecution were ineffectual, owing to the legal +difficulties and delays _urged by the Company's law officers_, which +your Committee do not find have yet been removed. As far as the latest +advices reach, no progress appears to have been made in the business. In +July, 1782, the Court of Directors found it necessary to order an +account of all suits against Europeans depending in the Supreme Court of +Judicature to be transmitted to them, and that no time should be lost in +bringing them to a determination. + + +SALTPETRE. + +The next article of direct monopoly subservient to the Company's export +is saltpetre. This, as well as opium, is far the greater part the +produce of the province of Bahar. The difference between the management +and destination of the two articles has been this. Until the year 1782, +the opium has been sold in the country, and the produce of the sale laid +out in country merchandise for the Company's export. A great part of the +saltpetre is sent out in kind, and never has contributed to the interior +circulation and commerce of Bengal. It is managed by agency on the +Company's account. The price paid to the manufacturer is invariable. +Some of the larger undertakers receive advances to enable them to +prosecute their work; but as they are not always equally careful or +fortunate, it happens that large balances accumulate against them. +Orders have been sent from Calcutta from time to time to recover their +balances, with little or no success, but with great vexation to all +concerned in the manufacture. Sometimes they have imprisoned the failing +contractors in their own houses,--a severity which answers no useful +purpose. Such persons are so many hands detached from the improvement +and added to the burden of the country. They are persons of skill drawn +from the future supply of that monopoly in favor of which they are +prosecuted. In case of the death of the debtor, this rigorous demand +falls upon the ruined houses of widows and orphans, and may be easily +converted into a means either of cruel oppression or a mercenary +indulgence, according to the temper of the exactors. Instead of thus +having recourse to imprisonment, the old balance is sometimes deducted +from the current produce. This, in these circumstances, is a grievous +discouragement. People must be discouraged from entering into a +business, when, the commodity being fixed to one invariable standard and +confined to one market, the best success can be attended only with a +limited advantage, whilst a defective produce can never be compensated +by an augmented price. Accordingly, very little of these advances has +been recovered, and after much vexation the pursuit has generally been +abandoned. It is plain that there can be no life and vigor in any +business under a monopoly so constituted; nor can the true productive +resources of the country, in so large an article of its commerce, ever +come to be fully known. + +The supply for the Company's demand in England has rarely fallen short +of two thousand tons, nor much exceeded two thousand five hundred. A +discretionary allowance of this commodity has been made to the French, +Dutch, and Danes, who purchase their allotted shares at some small +advance on the Company's price. The supply destined for the London +market is proportioned to the spare tonnage; and to accommodate that +tonnage, the saltpetre is sometimes sent to Madras and sometimes even to +Bombay, and that not unfrequently in vessels expressly employed for the +purpose. + +Mr. Law, Chief of Patna, being examined on the effect of that monopoly, +delivered his opinion, that with regard to the Company's _trade_ the +monopoly was advantageous, but as sovereigns of the country they must be +losers by it. These two capacities in the Company are found in perpetual +contradiction. But much doubt may arise whether this monopoly will be +found advantageous to the Company either in the one capacity or the +other. The gross commodity monopolized for sale in London is procured +from the revenues in Bengal; the certain is given for the hazardous. The +loss of interest on the advances, sometimes the loss of the +principal,--the expense of carriage from Patna to Calcutta,--the various +loadings and unloadings, and insurance (which, though borne by the +Company, is still insurance),--the engagement for the Ordnance, limited +in price, and irregular in payment,--the charge of agency and +management, through all its gradations and successions,--when all these +are taken into consideration, it may be found that the gain of the +Company as traders will be far from compensating their loss as +sovereigns. A body like the East India Company can scarcely, in any +circumstance, hope to carry on the details of such a business, from its +commencement to its conclusion, with any degree of success. In the +subjoined estimate of profit and loss, the value of the commodity is +stated at its invoice price at Calcutta. But this affords no just +estimate of the whole effect of a dealing, where the Company's charge +commences in the first rudiments of the manufacture, and not at the +purchase at the place of sale and valuation: for they [there?] may be +heavy losses on the value at which the saltpetre is estimated, when, +shipped off on their account, without any appearance in the account; and +the inquiries of your Committee to find the charges on the saltpetre +previous to the shipping have been fruitless. + + +BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA. + +The other link by which India is bound to Great Britain is the +government established there originally by the authority of the East +India Company, and afterwards modified by Parliament by the acts of 1773 +and 1780. This system of government appears to your Committee to be at +least as much disordered, and as much perverted from every good purpose +for which lawful rule is established, as the trading system has been +from every just principle of commerce. Your Committee, in tracing the +causes of this disorder through its effects, have first considered the +government as it is constituted and managed within itself, beginning +with its most essential and fundamental part, the order and discipline +by which the supreme authority of this kingdom is maintained. + +The British government in India being a subordinate and delegated power, +it ought to be considered as a fundamental principle in such a system, +that it is to be preserved in the strictest obedience to the government +at home. Administration in India, at an immense distance from the seat +of the supreme authority,--intrusted with the most extensive +powers,--liable to the greatest temptations,--possessing the amplest +means of abuse,--ruling over a people guarded by no distinct or +well-ascertained privileges, whose language, manners, and radical +prejudices render not only redress, but all complaint on their part, a +matter of extreme difficulty,--such an administration, it is evident, +never can be made subservient to the interests of Great Britain, or even +tolerable to the natives, but by the strictest rigor in exacting +obedience to the commands of the authority lawfully set over it. + +But your Committee find that this principle has been for some years very +little attended to. Before the passing the act of 1773, the professed +purpose of which was to secure a better subordination in the Company's +servants, such was the firmness with which the Court of Directors +maintained their authority, that they displaced Governor Cartier, +confessedly a meritorious servant, for disobedience of orders, although +his case was not a great deal more than a question by whom the orders +were to be obeyed.[12] Yet the Directors were so sensible of the +necessity of a punctual and literal obedience, that, conceiving their +orders went to the parties who were to obey, as well as to the act to be +done, they proceeded with a strictness that, in all cases except that of +their peculiar government, might well be considered as rigorous. But in +proportion as the necessity of enforcing obedience grew stronger and +more urgent, and in proportion to the magnitude and importance of the +objects affected by disobedience, this rigor has been relaxed. Acts of +disobedience have not only grown frequent, but systematic; and they have +appeared in such instances, and are manifested in such a manner, as to +amount, in the Company's servants, to little less than absolute +independence, against which, on the part of the Directors, there is no +struggle, and hardly so much as a protest to preserve a claim. + +Before your Committee proceed to offer to the House their remarks on the +most distinguished of these instances, the particulars of which they +have already reported, they deem it necessary to enter into some detail +of a transaction equally extraordinary and important, though not yet +brought into the view of Parliament, which appears to have laid the +foundation of the principal abuses that ensued, as well as to have given +strength and encouragement to those that existed. To this transaction, +and to the conclusions naturally deducible from it, your Committee +attribute that general spirit of disobedience and independence which has +since prevailed in the government of Bengal. + +Your Committee find that in the year 1775 Mr. Lauchlan Macleane was sent +into England as agent to the Nabob of Arcot and to Mr. Hastings. The +conduct of Mr. Hastings, in assisting to extirpate, for a sum of money +to be paid to the Company, the innocent nation of the Rohillas, had +drawn upon him the censure of the Court of Directors, and the unanimous +censure of the Court of Proprietors. The former had even resolved to +prepare an application to his Majesty for Mr. Hastings's dismission. + +Another General Court was called on this proceeding. Mr. Hastings was +then openly supported by a majority of the Court of Proprietors, who +professed to entertain a good opinion of his general ability and +rectitude of intention, notwithstanding the unanimous censure passed +upon him. In that censure they therefore seemed disposed to acquiesce, +without pushing the matter farther. But, as the offence was far from +trifling, and the condemnation of the measure recent, they did not +directly attack the resolution of the Directors to apply to his Majesty, +but voted in the ballot that it should be reconsidered. The business +therefore remained in suspense, or it rather seemed to be dropped, for +some months, when Mr. Macleane took a step of a nature not in the least +to be expected from the condition in which the cause of his principal +stood, which was apparently as favorable as the circumstances could +bear. Hitherto the support of Mr. Hastings in the General Court was only +by a majority; but if on application from the Directors he should be +removed, a mere majority would not have been sufficient for his +restoration. The door would have been barred against his return to the +Company's service by one of the strongest and most substantial clauses +in the Regulating Act of 1778. Mr. Macleane, probably to prevent the +manifest ill consequences of such a step, came forward with a letter to +the Court of Directors, declaring his provisional powers, and offering +on the part of Mr. Hastings an immediate resignation of his office. + +On this occasion the Directors showed themselves extremely punctilious +with regard to Mr. Macleane's powers. They probably dreaded the charge +of becoming accomplices to an evasion of the act by which Mr. Hastings, +resigning the service, would escape the consequences attached by law to +a dismission; they therefore demanded Mr. Macleane's written authority. +This he declared he could not give into their hands, as the letter +contained other matters, of a nature extremely confidential, but that, +if they would appoint a committee of the Directors, he would readily +communicate to them the necessary parts of the letter, and give them +perfect satisfaction with regard to his authority. A deputation was +accordingly named, who reported that they had seen Mr. Hastings's +instructions, contained in a paper in _his own handwriting_, and that +the authority for the act now done by Mr. Macleane was clear and +sufficient. Mr. Vansittart, a very particular friend of Mr. Hastings, +and Mr. John Stewart, his most attached and confidential dependant, +attended on this occasion, and proved that directions perfectly +correspondent to this written authority had been given by Mr. Hastings +in their presence. By this means the powers were fully authenticated; +but the letter remained safe in Mr. Macleane's hands. + +Nothing being now wanting to the satisfaction of the Directors, the +resignation was formally accepted. Mr. Wheler was named to fill the +vacancy, and presented for his Majesty's approbation, which was +received. The act was complete, and the office that Mr. Hastings had +resigned was legally filled. This proceeding was officially notified in +Bengal, and General Clavering, as senior in Council, was in course to +succeed to the office of Governor-General. + +Mr. Hastings, to extricate himself from the difficulties into which this +resignation had brought him, had recourse to one of those unlooked-for +and hardy measures which characterize the whole of his administration. +He came to a resolution of disowning his agent, denying his letter, and +disavowing his friends. He insisted on continuing in the execution of +his office, and supported himself by such reasons as could be furnished +in such a cause. An open schism instantly divided the Council. General +Clavering claimed the office to which he ought to succeed, and Mr. +Francis adhered to him: Mr. Barwell stuck to Mr. Hastings. The two +parties assembled separately, and everything was running fast into a +confusion which suspended government, and might very probably have ended +in a civil war, had not the judges of the Supreme Court, on a reference +to them, settled the controversy by deciding that the resignation was an +invalid act, and that Mr. Hastings was still in the legal possession of +his place, which had been actually filled up in England. It was +extraordinary that the nullity of this resignation should not have been +discovered in England, where the act authorizing the resignation then +was, where the agent was personally present, where the witnesses were +examined, and where there was and could be no want of legal advice, +either on the part of the Company or of the crown. The judges took no +light matter upon them in superseding, and thereby condemning the +legality of his Majesty's appointment: for such it became by the royal +approbation. + +On this determination, such as it was, the division in the meeting, but +not in the minds of the Council, ceased. General Clavering uniformly +opposed the conduct of Mr. Hastings to the end of his life. But Mr. +Hastings showed more temper under much greater provocations. In +disclaiming his agent, and in effect accusing him of an imposture the +most deeply injurious to his character and fortune, and of the grossest +forgery to support it, he was so very mild and indulgent as not to show +any active resentment against his unfaithful agent, nor to complain to +the Court of Directors. It was expected in Bengal that some strong +measures would have immediately been taken to preserve the just rights +of the king and of the Court of Directors; as this proceeding, +unaccompanied with the severest animadversion, manifestly struck a +decisive blow at the existence of the most essential powers of both. But +your Committee do not find that any measures whatever, such as the case +seemed to demand, were taken. The observations made by the Court of +Directors on what they call "_these extraordinary transactions_" are +just and well applied. They conclude with a declaration, "_that the +measures which it might be necessary for them to take, in order to +retrieve the honor of the Company, and to prevent the like abuse from +being practised in future, should have their most serious and earliest +consideration_"; and with this declaration they appear to have closed +the account, and to have dismissed the subject forever. + +A sanction was hereby given to all future defiance of every authority in +this kingdom. Several other matters of complaint against Mr. Hastings, +particularly the charge of peculation, fell to the ground at the same +time. Opinions of counsel had been taken relative to a prosecution at +law upon this charge, from the then Attorney and the then +Solicitor-General and Mr. Dunning, (now the Lords Thurlow, Loughborough, +and Ashburton,) together with Mr. Adair (now Recorder of London). None +of them gave a positive opinion against the grounds of the prosecution. +The Attorney-General doubted on _the prudence_ of the proceedings, and +censured (as it well deserved) the ill statement of the case. Three of +them, Mr. Wedderburn, Mr. Dunning, and Mr. Adair, were clear in favor of +the prosecution. No prosecution, however, was had, and the Directors +contented themselves with censuring and admonishing Mr. Hastings. + +With regard to the Supreme Council, the members who chose (for it was +choice only) to attend to the orders which were issued from the +languishing authority of the Directors continued to receive unprofitable +applauses and no support. Their correspondence was always filled with +complaints, the justice of which was always admitted by the Court of +Directors; but this admission of the existence of the evil showed only +the impotence of those who were to administer the remedy. The authority +of the Court of Directors, resisted with success in so capital an +instance as that of the resignation, was not likely to be respected in +any other. What influence it really had on the conduct of the Company's +servants may be collected from the facts that followed it. + +The disobedience of Mr. Hastings has of late not only become uniform and +systematical in practice, but has been in principle, also, supported by +him, and by Mr. Barwell, late a member of the Supreme Council in Bengal, +and now a member of this House. + +In the Consultation of the 20th of July, 1778, Mr. Barwell gives it as +his solemn and deliberate opinion, that, "while Mr. Hastings is in the +government, the respect and dignity of his station should be supported. +In these sentiments, I must decline an acquiescence in _any_ order which +has a _tendency_ to bring the government into disrepute. As the Company +have the means and power of forming their own administration in India, +they may at pleasure place whom they please at the head; but in my +opinion they are not authorized to treat a person in that post with +_indignity_." + +By treating them with indignity (in the particular cases wherein they +have declined obedience to orders) they must mean those orders which +imply a censure on any part of their conduct, a reversal of any of their +proceedings, or, as Mr. Barwell expresses himself in words very +significant, in any orders that have a _tendency_ to bring _their_ +government into _disrepute_. The amplitude of this latter description, +reserving to them the judgment of any orders which have so much as that +_tendency_, puts them in possession of a complete independence, an +independence including a despotic authority over the subordinates and +the country. The very means taken by the Directors for enforcing their +authority becomes, on this principle, a cause of further disobedience. +It is observable, that their principles of disobedience do not refer to +any local consideration, overlooked by the Directors, which might +supersede their orders, or to any change of circumstances, which might +render another course advisable, or even perhaps necessary,--but it +relates solely to their own interior feelings in matters relative to +themselves, and their opinion of their own dignity and reputation. It is +plain that they have wholly forgotten who they are, and what the nature +of their office is. Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell are servants of the +Company, and as such, by the duty inherent in that relation, as well as +by their special covenants, were obliged to yield obedience to the +orders of their masters. They have, as far as they were able, cancelled +all the bonds of this relation, and all the sanctions of these +covenants. + +But in thus throwing off the authority of the Court of Directors, Mr. +Hastings and Mr. Barwell have thrown off the authority of the whole +legislative power of Great Britain; for, by the Regulating Act of the +thirteenth of his Majesty, they are expressly "directed and required to +pay due obedience to _all_ such orders as they shall receive from the +Court of Directors of the said United Company." Such is the declaration +of the law. But Mr. Barwell declares that he declines obedience to _any_ +orders which he shall interpret to be indignities on a Governor-General. +To the clear injunctions of the legislature Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell +have thought proper to oppose their pretended reputation and dignity; as +if the chief honor of public ministers in every situation was not to +yield a cheerful obedience to the laws of their country. Your Committee, +to render evident to this House the general nature and tendency of this +pretended dignity, and to illustrate the real principles upon which they +appear to have acted, think it necessary to make observations on three +or four of the cases, already reported, of marked disobedience to +particular and special orders, on one of which the above extraordinary +doctrine was maintained. + +These are the cases of Mr. Fowke, Mr. Bristow, and Mahomed Reza Khân. In +a few weeks after the death of Colonel Monson, Mr. Hastings having +obtained a majority in Council by his casting vote, Mr. Fowke and Mr. +Bristow were called from their respective offices of Residents at +Benares and Oude, places which have become the scenes of other +extraordinary operations under the conduct of Mr. Hastings in person. +For the recall of Mr. Bristow no reason was assigned. The reason +assigned for the proceeding with regard to Mr. Fowke was, that "the +purposes for which he was appointed were then fully accomplished." + +An account of the removal of Mr. Fowke was communicated to the Court of +Directors in a letter of the 22d of December, 1776. On this +notification the Court had nothing to conclude, but that Mr. Hastings, +from a rigid pursuit of economy in the management of the Company's +affairs, had recalled a useless officer. But, without alleging any +variation whatsoever in the circumstances, in less than twenty days +after the order for the recall of Mr. Fowke, and _the very day after the +dispatch_ containing an account of the transaction, Mr. Hastings +recommended Mr. Graham to this very office, the end of which, he +declared to the Directors but the day before, had been fully +accomplished; and not thinking this sufficient, he appointed Mr. D. +Barwell as his assistant, at a salary of about four hundred pounds a +year. Against this extraordinary act General Clavering and Mr. Francis +entered a protest. + +So early as the 6th of the following January the appointment of these +gentlemen was communicated in a letter to the Court of Directors, +without any sort of color, apology, or explanation. That court found a +servant removed from his station without complaint, contrary to the +tenor of one of their standing injunctions. They allow, however, and +with reason, that, "if it were possible to suppose that a saving, &c, +had been his motive, they would have approved his proceeding. But that +when immediately afterwards two persons, with _two_ salaries, had been +appointed to execute the office which had been filled with reputation by +Mr. Fowke alone, and that Mr. Graham enjoys all the emoluments annexed +to the office of Mr. Fowke,"--they properly conclude that Mr. Fowke was +removed without just cause, to make way for Mr. Graham, and strictly +enjoin that the former be reinstated in his office of Resident as +Post-master of Benares. In the same letter they assert their rights in +a tone of becoming firmness, and declare, that "on no account we can +permit our orders to be disobeyed or our authority disregarded." + +It was now to be seen which of the parties was to give way. The orders +were clear and precise, and enforced by a strong declaration of the +resolution of the Court to make itself obeyed. Mr. Hastings fairly +joined issue upon this point with his masters, and, having disobeyed the +general instructions of the Company, determined to pay no obedience to +their special order. + +On the 21st July, 1778, he moved, and succeeded in his proposition, that +the execution of these orders should be suspended. The reason he +assigned for this suspension lets in great light upon the true character +of all these proceedings: "That his consent to the recall of Mr. Graham +would be adequate to his own resignation of the service, as it would +inflict such a wound on _his authority and influence_ that he could not +maintain it." + +If that had been his opinion, he ought to have resigned, and not +disobeyed: because it was not necessary that he should hold his office; +but it was necessary, that, whilst he hold it, he should obey his +superiors, and submit to the law. Much more truly was his conduct a +virtual resignation of his lawful office, and at the same time an +usurpation of a situation which did not belong to him, to hold a +subordinate office, and to refuse to act according to its duties. Had +his authority been self-originated, it would have been wounded by his +submission; but in this case the true nature of his authority was +affirmed, not injured, by his obedience, because it was a power derived +from others, and, by its essence, to be executed according to their +directions. + +In this determined disobedience he was supported by Mr. Barwell, who on +that occasion delivered the dangerous doctrine to which your Committee +have lately adverted. Mr. Fowke, who had a most material interest in +this determination, applied by letter to be informed concerning it. An +answer was sent, acquainting him coldly, and without any reason +assigned, of what had been resolved relative to his office. This +communication was soon followed by another letter from Mr. Fowke, with +great submission and remarkable decency asserting his right to his +office under the authority of the Court of Directors, and for solid +reasons, grounded on the Company's express orders, praying to be +informed of the charge against him. This letter appears to have been +received by Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell very loftily. Mr. Hastings +said, "that such applications were irregular; that they are not +accountable to Mr. Fowke for their resolution respecting him. The +reasons for suspending the execution of the orders of the Court of +Directors contain _no charge, nor the slightest imputation of a charge_, +against Mr. Fowke; _but I see no reason why the board should condescend +to tell him so_." Accordingly, the proposition of Mr. Francis and Mr. +Wheler, to inform Mr. Fowke "that they had no reason to be dissatisfied +with his conduct," on the previous question was rejected. + +By this resolution Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell discovered another +principle, and no less dangerous than the first: namely, that persons +deriving a valuable interest under the Company's orders, so far from +being heard in favor of their right, are not so much as to be informed +of the grounds on which they are deprived of it. + +The arrival soon after of Sir Eyre Coote giving another opportunity of +trial, the question for obedience to the Company's orders was again[13] +brought on by Mr. Francis, and again received a negative. Sir Eyre +Coote, though present, and declaring, that, had he been at the original +consultation, he should have voted for the immediate execution of the +Company's orders, yet he was resolved to avoid what he called _any kind +of retrospect_. His neutrality gained the question in favor of this, the +third resolution for disobedience to orders. + +The resolution in Bengal being thus decisively taken, it came to the +turn of the Court of Directors to act their part. They did act their +part exactly in their old manner: they had recourse to their old remedy +of repeating orders which had been disobeyed. The Directors declare to +Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, though without any apparent reason, that +"they have read _with astonishment their formal resolution_ to suspend +the execution of their orders; that they shall take such measures as +appear necessary for _preserving the authority of the Court of +Directors_, and for preventing _such instances of direct and wilful_ +disobedience in their servants in time to come." They then renew their +directions concerning Mr. Fowke. The event of this _sole_ measure taken +to preserve their authority, and to prevent instances of direct and +wilful disobedience, your Committee will state in its proper +place,--taking into consideration, for the present, the proceedings +relative to Mr. Bristow, and to Mahomed Reza Khân, which were +altogether in the same spirit; but as they were diversified in the +circumstances of disobedience, as well from the case of Mr. Fowke as +from one another, and as these circumstances tend to discover other +dangerous principles of abuse, and the general prostrate condition of +the authority of Parliament in Bengal, your Committee proceed first to +make some observations upon them. + +The province of Oude, enlarged by the accession of several extensive and +once flourishing territories, that is, by the country of the Rohillas, +the district of Corah and Allahabad, and other provinces betwixt the +Ganges and Jumna, is under the nominal dominion of one of the princes of +the country, called Asoph ul Dowlah. But a body of English troops is +kept up in his country; and the greatest part of his revenues are, by +one description or another, substantially under the administration of +English subjects. He is to all purposes a dependent prince. The person +to be employed in his dominions to act for the Committee [Company?] was +therefore of little consequence in his capacity of negotiator; but he +was vested with a trust, great and critical, in all pecuniary affairs. +These provinces of dependence lie out of the system of the Company's +ordinary administration, and transactions there cannot be so readily +brought under the cognizance of the Court of Directors. This renders it +the more necessary that the Residents in such places should be persons +not disapproved of by the Court of Directors. They are to manage a +permanent interest, which is not, like a matter of political +negotiation, variable, and which, from circumstances, might possibly +excuse some degree of discretionary latitude in construing their orders. +During the lifetime of General Clavering and Colonel Monson, Mr. +Bristow was appointed to this Presidency, and that appointment, being +approved and confirmed by the Court of Directors, became in effect their +own. Mr. Bristow appears to have shown himself a man of talents and +activity. He had been principally concerned in the negotiations by which +the Company's interest in the higher provinces had been established; and +those services were considered by the Presidency of Calcutta as so +meritorious, that they voted him ten thousand pounds as a reward, with +many expressions of esteem and honor. + +Mr. Bristow, however, was recalled by Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, who +had then acquired the majority, without any complaint having been +assigned as the cause of his removal, and Mr. Middleton was sent in his +stead to reside at the capital of Oude. The Court of Directors, as soon +as they could be apprised of this extraordinary step, in their letter of +the 4th of July, 1777, express their strongest disapprobation of it: +they order Mr. Middleton to be recalled, and Mr. Bristow to be +reinstated in his office. In December, 1778, they repeat their order. Of +these repeated orders no notice was taken. Mr. Bristow, fatigued with +unsuccessful private applications, which met with a constant refusal, +did at length, on the 1st of May, 1780, address a letter to the board, +making his claim of right, entitling himself to his offices [office?] +under the authority of the Court of Directors, and complaining of the +hardships which he suffered by the delay in admitting him to the +exercise of it. This letter your Committee have inserted at large in the +Fifth Report, having found nothing whatsoever exceptionable in it, +although it seems to have excited the warmest resentment in Mr. +Hastings. + +This claim of the party gave no new force to the order of the Directors, +which remained without any attention from the board from Mr. Bristow's +arrival until the 1st of May, and with as little from the 1st of May to +the 2nd of October following. On that day, Mr. Francis, after having +caused the repeated orders of the Court of Directors to be first read, +moved that Mr. Bristow should be reinstated in his office. This motion, +in itself just and proper in the highest degree, and in which no fault +could be found, but that it was not made more early, was received by Mr. +Hastings with the greatest marks of resentment and indignation. He +declares in his minute, that, "were the most determined adversary of the +British nation to possess, by whatever means, a share in the +administration, he could not devise a measure in _itself_ so pernicious, +or _time_ it so effectually for the _ruin_ of the British interests in +India." Then turning to the object of the motion, he says, "I will ask, +Who is Mr. Bristow, that a member of the administration should, at such +a time, hold him forth, as _an instrument for the degradation of the +first executive member of this government?_ What are the professed +objects of his appointment? What are the _merits_ and services, or what +the _qualifications_, which entitle him to such uncommon distinction? Is +it for his superior _integrity_, or from his eminent _abilities_, that +he is to be dignified at such hazard of every consideration that ought +to influence the members of this administration? Of the former (his +integrity) I know _no proofs_; I am sure it is not an evidence of it, +that he has been _enabled_ to make himself the principal in such a +_competition:_ and for the test of his abilities I appeal to the letter +which he has _dared_ to write to this board, and which I am ashamed to +say we have _suffered_. I desire that a copy of it may be inserted in +this day's proceedings, that it may stand before the eyes of every +member of the board, when he shall give his vote upon a question for +giving their confidence to a man, _their servant_, who has publicly +insulted _them, his masters_, and the members of the government to whom +he owes _his obedience_,--who, assuming an association with the Court of +Directors, and erecting himself into a _tribunal_, has _arraigned_ them +for _disobedience_ of orders, _passed judgment_ upon them, _and +condemned or acquitted them, as their magistrate or superior_. Let the +board consider, whether a man possessed of so _independent_ a spirit, +who has already shown a _contempt_ of their authority, who has shown +himself _so wretched an advocate for his own cause and negotiator for +his own interest_, is fit to be trusted with the guardianship of _their_ +honor, the execution of _their_ measures, and as _their_ confidential +manager and negotiator with the princes of India. As the motion has been +unaccompanied by any reasons which should induce the board to pass their +acquiescence in it, I presume the motion which preceded it, for _reading +the orders of the Court of Directors, was intended to serve as an +argument for it, as well as an introduction to it_. The last of those +was dictated the 23rd December, 1778, almost two years past. They were +dictated at a time when, I am sorry to say, the Court of Directors were +in _the habit of casting reproach upon my conduct and heaping +indignities upon my station_." + +Had the language and opinions which prevail throughout this part of the +minute, as well as in all the others to which your Committee refer, been +uttered suddenly and in a passion, however unprovoked, some sort of +apology might be made for the Governor-General. But when it was produced +five months after the supposed offence, and then delivered in writing, +which always implies the power of a greater degree of recollection and +self-command, it shows how deeply the principles of disobedience had +taken root in his mind, and of an assumption to himself of exorbitant +powers, which he chooses to distinguish by the title of "_his +prerogative_." In this also will be found an obscure hint of the cause +of his disobedience, which your Committee conceive to allude to the main +cause of the disorders in the government of India,--namely, an underhand +communication with Europe. + +Mr. Hastings, by his confidence in the support derived from this source, +or from the habits of independent power, is carried to such a length as +to consider a motion to obey the Court of Directors as a degradation of +the executive government in his person. He looks upon a claim under that +authority, and a complaint that it has produced no effect, as a piece of +daring insolence which he is ashamed that the board has suffered. The +behavior which your Committee consider as so intemperate and despotic he +regards as a culpable degree of patience and forbearance. Major Scott, +his agent, enters so much into the principles of Mr. Hastings's conduct +as to tell your Committee that in his opinion Lord Clive would have sent +home Mr. Bristow a prisoner upon such an occasion. It is worthy of +remark, that, in the very same breath that Mr. Hastings so heavily +condemns a junior officer in the Company's service (not a _servant_ of +the Council, as he hazards to call him, but _their fellow-servant_) for +merely complaining of a supposed injury and requiring redress, he so far +forgets his own subordination as to reject the orders of the Court of +Directors even as an _argument_ in favor of appointing a person to an +office, to presume to censure _his_ undoubted masters, and to accuse +them of having been "in a habit of casting reproaches upon him, and +heaping indignities on _his_ station." And it is to be observed, that +this censure was not for the purpose of seeking or obtaining redress for +any injury, but appeared rather as a reason for refusing to obey their +lawful commands. It is plainly implied in that minute, that no servant +of the Company, in Mr. Bristow's rank, would dare to act in such a +manner, if he had not by indirect means obtained a premature fortune. +This alone is sufficient to show the situation of the Company's servants +in the subordinate situations, when the mere claim of a right, derived +from the sovereign legal power, becomes fatal not only to the objects +which they pursue, but deeply wounds that reputation both for ability +and integrity by which alone they are to be qualified for any other. + +If anything could add to the disagreeable situation of those who are +submitted to an authority conducted on such principles, it is this: The +Company has ordered that no complaint shall be made in Europe against +any of the Council without being previously communicated to them: a +regulation formed upon grave reasons; and it was certainly made in +_favor_ of that board. But if a person, having ground of complaint +against the Council, by making use of the mode prescribed in favor of +that very Council, and by complaining to themselves, commits an offence +for which he may be justly punished, the Directors have not regulated +the mode of complaint, they have actually forbidden it; they have, on +that supposition, renounced their authority; and the whole system of +their officers is delivered over to the arbitrary will of a few of their +chief servants. + +During the whole day of that deliberation things wore a decided face. +Mr. Hastings stood to his principles in their full extent, and seemed +resolved upon unqualified disobedience. But as the debate was adjourned +to the day following, time was given for expedients; and such an +expedient was hit upon by Mr. Hastings as will, no doubt, be unexpected +by the House; but it serves to throw new lights upon the motives of all +his struggles with the authority of the legislature. + +The next day the Council met upon the adjournment. Then Mr. Hastings +proposed, as a compromise, a division of the object in question. One +half was to be surrendered to the authority of the Court of Directors, +the other was reserved for his dignity. But the choice he made of his +own share in this partition is very worthy of notice. He had taken his +_sole_ ground of objection against Mr. Bristow on the supposed ill +effect that such an appointment would have on the minds of the Indian +powers. He said, "that these powers could have no dependence on his +fulfilling his engagements, _or maintaining the faith of treaties_ which +he might offer for their acceptance, if they saw him treated with such +contempt." Mr. Bristow's appearing in a political character was the +_whole_ of his complaint; yet, when he comes to a voluntary distribution +of the duties of the office, he gives Mr. Bristow those very political +negotiations of which but the day before he had in such strong terms +declared him personally incapable, whose appointment he considered to be +fatal to those negotiations, and which he then spoke of as a measure in +_itself_ such as the bitterest adversary to Great Britain would have +proposed. But having thus yielded his whole ground of ostensible +objection, he reserved to his own appointment the entire management of +the pecuniary trust. Accordingly he named Mr. Bristow for the former, +and Mr. Middleton for the latter. On his own principles he ought to have +done the very reverse. On every justifiable principle he ought to have +done so; for a servant who for a long time resists the orders of his +masters, and when he reluctantly gives way obeys them by halves, ought +to be remarkably careful to make his actions correspond with his words, +and to put himself out of all suspicion with regard to the purity of his +motives. It was possible that the political reasons, which were solely +assigned against Mr. Bristow's appointment, might have been the real +motives of Mr. Hastings's opposition. But these he totally abandons, and +holds fast to the pecuniary department. Now, as it is notorious that +most of the abuses of India grow out of money-dealing, it was peculiarly +unfit for a servant, delicate with regard to his reputation, to require +a _personal_ and confidential agent in a situation merely official, in +which secrecy and personal connections could be of no possible use, and +could only serve to excite distrust. Matters of account cannot be made +too public; and it is not the most confidential agent, but the most +responsible, who is the fittest for the management of pecuniary trusts. +That man was the fittest at once to do the duty, and to remove all +suspicions from the Governor-General's character, whom, by not being of +his appointment, he could not be supposed to favor for private purposes, +who must naturally stand in awe of his inspection, and whose misconduct +could not possibly be imputable to him. Such an agency in a pecuniary +trust was the very last on which Mr. Hastings ought to have risked his +disobedience to the orders of the Direction,--or, what is even worse for +his motives, a direct contradiction to all the principles upon which he +had attempted to justify that bold measure. + +The conduct of Mr. Hastings in the affair of Mahomed Reza Khân was an +act of disobedience of the same character, but wrought by other +instruments. When the Duanné (or universal perception, and management of +the revenues) of Bengal was acquired to the Company, together with the +command of the army, the Nabob, or governor, naturally fell into the +rank rather of a subject than that even of a dependent prince. Yet the +preservation of such a power in such a degree of subordination, with the +criminal jurisdiction, and the care of the public order annexed to it, +was a wise and laudable policy. It preserved a portion of the government +in the hands of the natives; it kept them in respect; it rendered them +quiet on the change; and it prevented that vast kingdom from wearing the +dangerous appearance, and still more from sinking into the terrible +state, of a country of conquest. Your Committee has already reported the +manner in which the Company (it must be allowed, upon pretences that +will not bear the slightest examination) diverted from its purposes a +great part of the revenues appropriated to the country government; but +they were very properly anxious that what remained should be well +administered. In the lifetime of General Clavering and Colonel Monson, +Mahomed Reza Khân, a man of rank among the natives, was judged by them +the fittest person to conduct the affairs of the Nabob, as his Naib, or +deputy: an office well known in the ancient constitution of these +provinces, at a time when the principal magistrates, by nature and +situation, were more efficient. This appointment was highly approved, +and in consequence confirmed, by the Court of Directors. Mr. Hastings +and Mr. Barwell, however, thought proper to remove him. To the authority +of the Court of Directors they opposed the request of the Nabob, stating +that he was arrived at the common age of maturity, and stood _in no need +of a deputy to manage his affairs_. On former occasions Mr. Hastings +conceived a very low opinion of the condition of the person whom he thus +set up against the authority of his masters. "On a former occasion," as +the Directors tell him, "and to serve a very different purpose, he had +not scrupled to declare it as visible as the sun that the Nabob was a +mere pageant, without even _the shadow of authority_." But on this +occasion he became more substantial. Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell +yielded to his representation that a deputy was not necessary, and +accordingly Mahomed Reza Khân was removed from his office. + +However, lest any one should so far mistrust their understanding as to +conceive them the dupes of this pretext, they who had disobeyed the +Company's orders under color that _no deputy was necessary_ immediately +appoint another deputy. This independent prince, who, as Mr. Hastings +said, "had an incontestable right to his situation, and that it was his +by inheritance," suddenly shrunk into his old state of insignificance, +and was even looked upon in so low a light as to receive a severe +reprimand from Mr. Hastings for _interposing_ in the duties of his (the +deputy's) office. + +The Company's orders, censuring this transaction in the strongest terms, +and ordering Mahomed Reza Khân to be immediately restored to the office +of Naib Subahdar, were received in Calcutta in November, 1779. Mr. +Hastings acted on this with the firmness which he had shown on other +occasions; but in his principles he went further. Thinking himself +assured of some extraordinary support, suitable to the open and +determined defiance with which he was resolved to oppose the lawful +authority of his superiors, and to exercise a despotic power, he no +longer adhered to Mr. Barwell's distinction of the orders which had a +tendency to bring his government into disrepute. This distinction +afforded sufficient latitude to disobedience; but here he disdained all +sorts of colors and distinctions. He directly set up an independent +right to administer the government according to his pleasure; and he +went so far as to bottom his claim to act independently of the Court of +Directors on the very statute which commanded his obedience to them. + +He declared roundly, "that he should _not_ yield to the authority of the +Court of Directors in _any_ instance in which it should require his +concession of the rights which he held under an act of Parliament." It +is too clear to stand in need of proof, that he neither did or could +hold any authority that was not subject, in every particle of it, and in +every instance in which it could be exercised, to the orders of the +Court of Directors. + +He therefore refused to back the Company's orders with any requisition +from himself to the Nabob, but merely suffered them to be transmitted to +him, leaving it to him to do just as he thought proper. The Nabob, who +called Mr. Hastings "his patron, and declared he would never do anything +without his consent and approbation," perfectly understood this kind of +signification. For the second time the Nabob recovered from his trance +of pageantry and insignificance, and collected courage enough to write +to the Council in these terms: "I administer the affairs of the Nizamut, +(the government,) which are the affairs of _my own family_, by _my own +authority_, and shall do so; and I never can _on any account agree_ to +the appointment of the Nabob Mahomed Reza Khân to the Naib Subahship." +Here was a second independent power in Bengal. This answer from that +power proved as satisfactory as it was resolute. No further notice was +taken of the orders of the Court of Directors, and Mahomed Reza Khân +found their protection much more of a shadow than the pageant of power +of which he aspired to be the representative. + +This act of disobedience differs from the others in one particular +which, in the opinion of your Committee, rather aggravates than +extenuates the offence. In the others, Messrs. Hastings and Barwell took +the responsibility on themselves; here they held up the pretext of the +country government. However, they obtained thereby one of the objects +which they appear to have systematically pursued. As they had in the +other instances shown to the British servants of the Company that the +Directors were not able to protect them, here the same lesson was taught +to the natives. Whilst the matter lay between the native power and the +servants, the former was considered by Mr. Hastings in the most +contemptible light. When the question was between the servants and the +Court of Directors, the native power was asserted to be a self-derived, +hereditary, uncontrollable authority, and encouraged to act as such. + +In this manner the authority of the British legislature was at that time +treated with every mark of reprobation and contempt. But soon after a +most unexpected change took place, by which the persons in whose favor +the Court of Directors had in vain interposed obtained specific objects +which had been refused to them; things were, however, so well contrived, +that legal authority was nearly as much affronted by the apparent +compliance with their orders as by the real resistance they had before +met with. After long and violent controversies, an agreement took place +between Mr. Hastings and Mr. Francis. It appears that Mr. Hastings, +embarrassed with the complicated wars and ruinous expenses into which +his measures had brought him, began to think of procuring peace at home. +The agreement originated in a conversation held on Christmas-Day, 1779, +between Major Scott, then aide-de-camp, and now agent, to Mr. Hastings, +and Mr. Ducarrel, a gentleman high in the Company's service at Calcutta. +Mr. Scott, in consequence of this conversation, was authorized to make +overtures to Mr. Francis through Mr. Ducarrel: to declare Mr. Hastings +tired of controversy; expressing his wish to have the Mahratta war +entirely left to him; that there were certain points _he could not give +up_; that he could _not_ (for reasons he then assigned) _submit_ to the +restoration of Mr. Fowke, Mahomed Reza Khân, and Mr. Bristow; that _he +had not the smallest personal objection to them_, and would willingly +provide for them in any other line. Mr. Francis in this treaty insisted +on those very points which Mr. Hastings declared he could never give up, +and that his conditions were the Company's orders,--that is, the +restoration of the persons whom they had directed to be restored. The +event of this negotiation was, that Mr. Hastings at length submitted to +Mr. Francis, and that Mr. Fowke and Mahomed Reza Khân were reinstated in +their situations. + +Your Committee observe on this part of the transaction of Mr. Hastings, +that as long as the question stood upon his obedience to his lawful +superiors, so long he considered the restoration of these persons as a +gross indignity, the submitting to which would destroy all his credit +and influence in the country; but when it was to accommodate his own +occasions in a treaty with a fellow-servant, all these difficulties +instantly vanish, and he finds it perfectly consistent with his dignity, +credit, and influence, to do for Mr. Francis what he had refused to the +strict and reiterated injunctions of the Court of Directors. +Tranquillity was, however, for a time restored by this measure, though +it did not continue long. In about three months an occasion occurred in +which Mr. Francis gave some opposition to a measure proposed by Mr. +Hastings, which brought on a duel, upon the mischievous effects of which +your Committee have already made their observations. + +The departure of Mr. Francis soon after for Europe opened a new scene, +and gave rise to a third revolution. Lest the arrangement with the +servants of the Company should have the least appearance of being +mistaken for obedience to their superiors, Mr. Francis was little more +than a month gone, when Mr. Fowke was again recalled from Benares, _and +Mr. Bristow soon after from Oude_. In these measures Mr. Hastings has +combined the principles of disobedience which he had used in all the +cases hitherto stated. In his Minute of Consultation on this recall he +refers to his former Minutes; and he adds, that he has "a recent motive +in the necessity of removing any circumstance which may contribute to +lessen his _influence_ in the effect of any negotiations in which he may +be engaged in the prosecution of his intended visit to Lucknow." He here +reverts to his old plea of preserving his influence; not content with +this, as in the case of Mahomed Reza Khân he had called in the aid of +the Nabob of Bengal, he here calls in the aid of the Nabob of Oude, who, +on reasons exactly tallying with those given by Mr. Hastings, desires +that Mr. Bristow may be removed. The true weight of these requisitions +will appear, if not sufficiently apparent from the known situation of +the parties, by the following extract of a letter from this Nabob of +Oude to his agent at Calcutta, desiring him to acquaint Mr. Hastings, +that, "if it is proper, I will write to the king [of Great Britain], and +the vizier [one of his Majesty's ministers], and the chief of the +Company, _in such a manner as he shall direct, and in the words that he +shall order_, that Mr. Bristow's views may be thwarted there." There is +no doubt of the entire coöperation of the Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah in all +the designs of Mr. Hastings, and in thwarting the views of any persons +who place their reliance on the authority of this kingdom. + +As usual, the Court of Directors appear in their proper order in the +procession. After this third act of disobedience with regard to the +same person and the same office, and after calling the proceedings +unwarrantable, "_in order to vindicate and uphold their own authority, +and thinking it a duty incumbent on them to maintain the authority of +the Court of Directors_," they again order Mr. Bristow to be reinstated, +and Mr. Middleton to be recalled: in this circle the whole moves with +great regularity. + +The extraordinary operations of Mr. Hastings, that soon after followed +in every department which was the subject of all these acts of +disobedience, have made them appear in a light peculiarly unpropitious +to his cause. It is but too probable, from his own accounts, that he +meditated some strong measure, both at Benares and at Oude, at the very +time of the removal of those officers. He declares he knew that his +conduct in those places was such as to lie very open to malicious +representations; he must have been sensible that he was open to such +representations from the beginning; he was therefore impelled by every +motive which ought to influence a man of sense by no means to disturb +the order which he had last established. + +Of this, however, he took no care; but he was not so inattentive to the +satisfaction of the sufferers, either in point of honor or of interest. +This was most strongly marked in the case of Mr. Fowke. His reparation +to that gentleman, in point of honor, is as full as possible. Mr. +Hastings "declared, that he approved his character and his conduct in +office, and believed that he might _depend_ upon _his exact and literal +obedience and fidelity_ in the execution of the functions annexed to +it." Such is the character of the man whom Mr. Hastings a second time +removed from the office to which he told the Court of Directors, in his +letter of the 3rd of March, 1780, he had appointed him in conformity to +their orders. On the 14th of January, 1781, he again finds it an +indispensable obligation in him to exercise powers "_inherent_ in the +constitution of his government." On this principle he claimed "the right +of nominating the agent of his own choice to the Residence of Benares; +that it is a representative situation: that, speaking for myself +_alone_, it may be _sufficient_ to say, that Mr. Francis Fowke is not +_my_ agent; _that I cannot give him my confidence_; that, while he +continues at Benares, he stands as a screen between the Rajah and this +government, instead of an instrument of control; that the Rajah himself, +and every chief in Hindostan, will regard it as the pledge and +foundation of his independence." Here Mr. Hastings has got back to his +old principles, where he takes post as on strong ground. This he +declares "to be his objection to Mr. Fowke, and that it is insuperable." +The very line before this paragraph he writes of this person, to whom he +_could_ not give his _confidence_, that "he believed he might _depend_ +upon _his fidelity_, and his exact and literal obedience." Mr. Scott, +who is authorized to defend Mr. Hastings, supported the same principles +before your Committee by a comparison that avowedly reduces the Court of +Directors to the state of a party against their servants. He declared, +that, in his opinion, "it would be just as _absurd_ to _deprive him_ of +the power of nominating his ambassador at Benares as it would be to +force on _the ministry_ of this country an ambassador from _the +opposition_." Such is the opinion entertained in Bengal, and that but +too effectually realized, of the relation between the principal servants +of the Company and the Court of Directors. + +So far the reparation, in point of honor, to Mr. Fowke was complete. The +reparation in point of interest your Committee do not find to have been +equally satisfactory; but they do find it to be of the most +extraordinary nature, and of the most mischievous example. Mr. Fowke had +been deprived of a place of rank and honor,--the place of a public +_Vackeel_, or representative. The recompense provided for him is a +succession to a contract. Mr. Hastings moved, that, on the expiration of +Colonel Morgan's contract, he should be appointed agent to all the boats +employed for the military service of that establishment, with a +commission of _fifteen per cent on all disbursements in that +office_,--permitting Mr. Fowke, at the same time, to draw his allowance +of an hundred pounds a month, as Resident, until the expiration of the +contract, and for three months after. + +Mr. Hastings is himself struck, as every one must be, with so +extraordinary a proceeding, the principle of which, he observes, "is +liable to _one_ material objection." That one is material indeed; for, +no limit being laid down for the expense in which the percentage is to +arise, it is the direct interest of the person employed to make his +department as expensive as possible. To this Mr. Hastings answers, that +"he is convinced by experience it will be better performed"; and yet he +immediately after subjoins, "This _defect_ can _only_ be corrected by +the probity of the person intrusted with so important a charge; and I am +willing to have it understood, as a proof of _the confidence I repose in +Mr. Fowke_, that I have proposed his appointment, in opposition _to a +general principle_, to a trust so constituted." + +In the beginning of this very Minute of Consultation, Mr. Hastings +removes Mr. Fowke from the Residency of Benares because "he cannot give +him his confidence"; and yet, before the pen is out of his hand, he +violates one of the soundest general principles in the whole system of +dealing, in order to give a proof of the confidence he reposes in that +gentleman. This apparent gross contradiction is to be reconciled but by +one way,--which is, that confidence with Mr. Hastings comes and goes +with his opposition to legal authority. Where that authority recommends +any person, his confidence in him vanishes; but to show that it is the +authority, and not the person, he opposes, when that is out of sight, +there is no rule so sacred which is not to be violated to manifest his +real esteem and perfect trust in the person whom he has rejected. +However, by overturning general principles to compliment Mr. Fowke's +integrity, he does all in his power to corrupt it; at the same time he +establishes an example that must either subject all future dealings to +the same pernicious clause, or which, being omitted, must become a +strong implied charge on the integrity of those who shall hereafter be +excluded from a trust so constituted. + +It is not foreign to the object of your Committee, in this part of their +observations, which relates to the obedience to orders, to remark upon +the manner in which the orders of the Court of Directors with regard to +this kind of dealing in contracts are observed. These orders relate to +contracts; and they contain two standing regulations. + +1st, That all contracts shall be publicly advertised, and that the most +reasonable proposals shall be accepted. + +2ndly, That two contracts, those of provisions and for carriage +bullocks, shall be only annual. + +These orders are undoubtedly some correctives to the abuses which may +arise in this very critical article of public dealing. But the House +will remark, that, if the business usually carried on by contracts can +be converted at pleasure into agencies, like that of Mr. Fowke, all +these regulations perish of course, and there is no direction whatsoever +for restraining the most prodigal and corrupt bargains for the public. + +Your Committee have inquired into the observance of these necessary +regulations, and they find that they have, like the rest, been entirely +contemned, and contemned with entire impunity. After the period of +Colonel Monson's death, and Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell obtaining the +lead in the Council, the contracts were disposed of without at all +advertising for proposals. Those in 1777 were given for three years; and +the gentlemen in question growing by habit and encouragement into more +boldness, in 1779 the contracts were disposed of for five years: and +this they did at the eve of the expiration of their own appointment to +the government. This increase in the length of the contracts, though +contrary to orders, might have admitted some excuse, if it had been +made, even in appearance, the means of lessening the expense. But the +advantages allowed to the contractors, instead of being diminished, were +enlarged, and in a manner far beyond the proportion of the enlargement +of terms. Of this abuse and contempt of orders a judgment may be formed +by the single contract for supplying the army with draught and carriage +bullocks. As it stood at the expiration of the contract in 1779, the +expense of that service was about one thousand three hundred pounds a +month. By the new contract, given away in September of that year, the +service was raised to the enormous sum of near six thousand pounds a +month. The monthly increase, therefore, being four thousand seven +hundred pounds, it constitutes a total increase of charges for the +Company, in the five years of the contract, of no less a sum than two +hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds. Now, as the former contract +was, without doubt, sufficiently advantageous, a judgment may be formed +of the extravagance of the present. The terms, indeed, pass the bounds +of all allowance for negligence and ignorance of office. + +The case of Mr. Belli's contract for supplying provisions to the Fort is +of the same description; and what exceedingly increases the suspicion +against this profusion, in contracts made in direct violation of orders, +is, that they are always found to be given in favor of persons closely +connected with Mr. Hastings in his family, or even in his actual +service. + +The principles upon which Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell justify this +disobedience, if admitted, reduce the Company's government, so far as it +regards the Supreme Council, to a mere patronage,--to a mere power of +nominating persons to or removing them from an authority which, is not +only despotic with regard to those who are subordinate to it, but in all +its acts entirely independent of the legal power which is nominally +superior. These are principles directly leading to the destruction of +the Company's government. A correspondent practice being established, +(as in this case of contracts, as well as others, it has been,) the +means are furnished of effectuating this purpose: for the common +superior, the Company, having no power to regulate or to support their +own appointments, nor to remove those whom they wish to remove, nor to +prevent the contracts from being made use of against their interest, all +the English in Bengal must naturally look to the next in authority; they +must depend upon, follow, and attach themselves to him solely; and thus +a party may be formed of the whole system of civil and military servants +for the support of the subordinate, and defiance of the supreme power. + +Your Committee being led to attend to the abuse of contracts, which are +given upon principles fatal to the subordination of the service, and in +defiance of orders, revert to the disobedience of orders in the case of +Mahomed Reza Khân. + +This transaction is of a piece with those that preceded it. On the 6th +of July, 1781, Mr. Hastings announced to the board the arrival of a +messenger and introduced a requisition from the young Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah, "that he might be _permitted to dispose of his own stipend, +without being made to depend on the will of another_." In favor of this +requisition Mr. Hastings urged various arguments:--that the Nabob could +no longer be deemed a minor;--that he was twenty-six years of age, and +father of many children;--that his understanding was much improved _of +late_ by an attention to his education;--that these circumstances gave +him a claim to the uncontrolled exercise of domestic authority; and it +might reasonably be supposed that he would pay a greater regard to a +just economy in his own family than had been observed by those who were +aliens to it. For these reasons Mr. Hastings recommended to the board +that Mahomed Reza Khân should be immediately divested of the office of +superintendent of the Nabob's household, _and that the Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah should be intrusted with the exclusive and entire receipts and +disbursements of his stipend, and the uncontrolled management and +regulation of his household_. Thus far your Committee are of opinion, +that the conclusion corresponds with the premises; for, supposing the +fact to be established or admitted, that the Nabob, in point of age, +capacity, and judgment, was qualified to act for himself, it seems +reasonable that the management of his domestic affairs should not be +withheld from him. On this part of the proceeding your Committee will +only observe, that, if it were strictly true that the Nabob's +understanding had been much improved _of late_ by an attention to his +education, (which seems an extraordinary way of describing the +qualifications of a man of six-and-twenty, the father of many children,) +the merit of such improvement must be attributed to Mahomed Reza Khân, +who was the only person of rank and character connected with him, or who +could be supposed to have any influence over him. Mr. Hastings himself +reproaches the Nabob with _raising mean men to be his companions_, and +tells him plainly, _that some persons, both of bad character and base +origin, had found the means of insinuating themselves into his company +and constant fellowship_. In such society it is not likely that either +the Nabob's morals or his understanding could have been _much improved_; +nor could it be deemed prudent to leave him without any check upon his +conduct. Mr. Hastings's opinion on this point may be collected from what +he did, but by no means from what he said, on the occasion. + +The House will naturally expect to find that the Nabob's request was +granted, and that the resolution of the board was conformable to the +terms of Mr. Hastings's recommendation. Yet the fact is directly the +reverse. Mr. Hastings, after advising _that the Nabob should be +intrusted with the exclusive and entire receipts and disbursements of +his stipend_, immediately corrects that advice, _being aware that so +sudden and unlimited a disposal of a large revenue might at first +encourage a spirit of dissipation in the Nabob_,--and reserves to +_himself_ a power of establishing, _with the Nabob's consent_, such a +plan for the regulation and equal distribution of the Nabob's expenses +_as should be adapted to the dissimilar appearances of preserving his +interests and his independence at the same time_. On the same +complicated principles the subsequent resolution of the board professes +to allow the Nabob the management of his stipend and expenses,--with _an +hope_, however, (which, considering the relative situation of the +parties, could be nothing less than an injunction,) that he would submit +to such a plan _as should be agreed on between him_ and the +Governor-General. + +The drift of these contradictions is sufficiently apparent. Mahomed Reza +Khân was to be divested of his office at all events, and the management +of the Nabob's stipend committed to other hands. To accomplish the +first, the Nabob is said to be "now arrived at that time of life when a +man may be supposed capable, _if ever_, of managing his own concerns." +When this principle has answered the momentary purpose for which it was +produced, we find it immediately discarded, and an opposite resolution +formed on an opposite principle, viz., that he shall _not_ have the +management of his own concerns, _in consideration of his want of +experience_. + +Mr. Hastings, on his arrival at Moorshedabad, gives Mr. Wheler an +account of his interview with the Nabob, and of the Nabob's implicit +submission to his advice. The principal, if not the sole, object of the +whole operation appears from the result of it. Sir John D'Oyly, a +gentleman in whom Mr. Hastings places particular confidence, succeeds to +the office of Mahomed Reza Khân, and to the same control over the +Nabob's expenses. Into the hands of this gentleman the Nabob's stipend +was _to be immediately paid, as every intermediate channel would be an +unavoidable cause of delay_; and to _his_ advice the Nabob was required +to give the same attention as if it were given by Mr. Hastings himself. +One of the conditions prescribed to the Nabob was, that he should admit +no Englishman to his presence without previously consulting Sir John +D'Oyly; _and he must forbid any person of that nation to be intruded +without his introduction_. On these arrangements it need only be +observed, that a measure which sets out with professing to relieve the +Nabob from a state of _perpetual pupilage_ concludes with delivering not +only his fortune, but his person, to the custody of a particular friend +of Mr. Hastings. + +The instructions given to the Nabob contain other passages that merit +attention. In one place Mr. Hastings tells him, "You have offered to +give up the sum of four lacs of rupees to be allowed the free use of the +remainder; but this we have refused." In another he says, that, "_as +many matters will occur which cannot be so easily explained by letter as +by conversation_, I desire that you will on such occasions give your +orders to Sir John D'Oyly respecting such points as you may desire to +have imparted to _me_." The offer alluded to in the first passage does +not appear in the Nabob's letters, therefore must have been in +conversation, and declined by Mr. Hastings without consulting his +colleague. A refusal of it might have been proper; but it supposes a +degree of incapacity in the Nabob not to be reconciled to the principles +on which Mahomed Reza Khân was removed from the management of his +affairs. Of the matters alluded to in the second, and which, it is said, +_could not be so easily explained by letters as in conversation_, no +explanation is given. Your Committee will therefore leave them, as Mr. +Hastings has done, to the opinion of the House. + +As soon as the Nabob's requisition was communicated to the board, it was +moved and resolved that Mahomed Reza Khân should be divested of his +office; and the House have seen in what manner it was disposed of. The +Nabob had stated various complaints against him:--that he had dismissed +the old established servants of the Nizamut, and filled their places +with his own dependants;--that he had _regularly received_ the stipend +of the Nizamut from the Company, yet had kept the Nabob involved in debt +and distress, and exposed to the clamors of his creditors, and sometimes +even in want of a dinner. All these complaints were recorded at large in +the proceedings of the Council; but it does not appear that they were +ever communicated to Mahomed Reza Khân, or that he was ever called upon, +in any shape, to answer them. This circumstance inclines your Committee +to believe that all of these charges were groundless,--especially as it +appears on the face of the proceedings, that the chief of them were not +well founded. Mr. Hastings, in his letter to Mr. Wheler, urges the +absolute necessity of the monthly payment of the Nabob's stipend _being +regularly made_, and says, that, to relieve the Nabob's present wants, +he had directed the Resident to raise an immediate supply on the credit +of the Company, to be repaid from the first receipts. From hence your +Committee conclude that the monthly payments had _not_ been regularly +made, and that whatever distresses the Nabob might have suffered must +have been owing to the Governor-General and Council, not to Mahomed Reza +Khân, who, for aught that appears to the contrary, paid away the stipend +as fast as he received it. Had it been otherwise, that is, if Mahomed +Reza Khân had reserved a balance of the Nabob's money in his hands, he +should, and undoubtedly he would, have been called upon to pay it in; +and then there would have been no necessity for raising an immediate +supply by other means. + +The transaction, on the whole, speaks very sufficiently for itself. It +is a gross instance of repeated disobedience to repeated orders; and it +is rendered particularly offensive to the authority of the Court of +Directors by the frivolous and contradictory reasons assigned for it. +But whether the Nabob's requisition was reasonable or not, the +Governor-General and Council were precluded by a special instruction +from complying with it. The Directors, in their letter of the 14th of +February, 1779, declare, that a resolution of Council, (taken by Mr. +Francis and Mr. Wheler, in the absence of Mr. Barwell,) viz., "that the +Nabob's letter should be referred to _them_ for _their_ decision, and +that no resolution should be taken in Bengal on his requisitions without +their special orders and instructions," was very proper. They prudently +reserved to themselves the right of deciding on such questions; but +they reserved it to no purpose. In England the authority is purely +formal. In Bengal the power is positive and real. When they clash, their +opposition serves only to degrade the authority that ought to +predominate, and to exalt the power that ought to be dependent. + + * * * * * + +Since the closing of the above Report, many material papers have arrived +from India, and have been laid before your Committee. That which they +think it most immediately necessary to annex to the Appendix to this +Report is the resolution of the Council-General to allow to the members +of the Board of Trade resident in Calcutta a charge of five per cent on +the sale in England of the investment formed upon their second plan, +namely, that plan which had been communicated to Lord Macartney. The +investment on this plan is stated to be raised from 800,000_l._ to +1,000,000_l._ sterling. + +It is on all accounts a very memorable transaction, and tends to bring +on a heavy burden, operating in the nature of a tax laid by their own +authority on the goods of their masters in England. If such a +compensation to the Board of Trade was necessary on account of their +engagement to take no further (that is to say, no unlawful) emolument, +it implies that the practice of making such unlawful emolument had +formerly existed; and your Committee think it very extraordinary that +the first notice the Company had received of such a practice should be +in taxing them for a compensation for a partial abolition of it, secured +on the parole of honor of those very persons who are supposed to have +been guilty of this unjustifiable conduct. Your Committee consider this +engagement, if kept, as only a partial abolition of the implied corrupt +practice: because no part of the compensation is given to the members of +the Board of Trade who reside at the several factories, though their +means of abuse are without all comparison greater; and if the corruption +was supposed so extensive as to be bought off at that price where the +means were fewer, the House will judge how far the tax has purchased off +the evil. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See the Secret Committee's Reports on the Mahratta War. + +[2] Vide Secret Committee Reports. + +[3] Vide Select Committee Reports, 1781 + +[4] The sale, to the amount of about one hundred thousand pounds +annually, of the export from Great Britain ought to be deducted from +this million. + +[5] Estimate of the Sale Amount and Net Proceeds in England of the +Cargoes to be sent from Bengal, agreeable to the Plan received by Letter +dated the 8th April, 1782. + +This calculation supposes the eighty lac investments will be equal to +the tonnage of five ships. + +[B] 2. To custom £320,000 |[A] 1. By sale amount of +[C] 3. " freight 200,000 | piece-goods and +[D] 4. " 5 per cent duty on | raw silk £1,300,000 + £1,300,000 65,000 | Discount 61/2 per +[E] 5. " 2 do. warehouse | cent allowed the + room do. 26,000 | buyers 84,500 + 7 do. commission | + on £604,500 42,315 | + ---------- | + £653,315 | +[F] 6. " Balance 562,185 | + ---------- | ---------- + £1,215,500 | £1,215,500 + +[A] 1. The sale amount is computed on an average of the sales of the two +last years' imports. + +[B] 2. The custom is computed on an average of what was paid on +piece-goods and raw silk of said imports, adding additional imposts. + +[C] 3. The ships going out of this season, (1782,) by which the above +investment is expected to be sent home, are taken up at 47_l._ 5_s._ per +ton, for the homeward cargo; this charge amounts to 35,815_l._ each +ship; the additional wages to the men, which the Company pay, and a very +small charge for demurrage, will increase the freight, &c., to +40,000_l._ per ship, agreeable to above estimate. + +[D] 4. The duty of five per cent is charged by the Company on the gross +sale amount of all private trade licensed to be brought from India: the +amount of this duty is the only benefit the Company are likely to +receive from the subscription investment. + +[E] 5. This charge is likewise made on private trade goods, and is +little, if anything, more than the real expense the Company are at on +account of the same; therefore no benefit will probably arise to the +Company from it on the sale of the said investment. + +[F] 6. This is the sum which will probably be realized in England, and +is only equal to 1_s._ 6_d._ per rupee, on the eighty lacs subscribed. + +[6] Vide Mr. Francis's plan in Appendix, No. 14, to the Select +Committee's Sixth Report. + +[7] The whole sum has not been actually raised; but the deficiency is +not very considerable. + +[8] Fourth Report, page 106. + +[9] Par. 36. Vide Fourth Report from Com. of Secrecy in 1773, Appendix, +No. 45. + +[10] Vide Sel. Letter to Bengal, 17 May, 1766, Par. 36, in Fourth Report +from Com. of Secrecy, in 1773, Appendix, No. 45. + +[11] Ibid. Par. 37. + +[12] Vide Committee's Fifth Report, page 21, and Appendix to that +Report, No. 12. + +[13] 1st and 5th April, 1779. + + + + +ELEVENTH REPORT + +OF THE + +SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS + +ON + +THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. + +WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE APPENDIX. + +November 18, 1783. + + + + +ELEVENTH REPORT + + From the SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to take into + consideration the state of the administration of justice in + the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and to report the + same, as it shall appear to them, to the House, with their + observations thereupon; and who were instructed to consider + how the British possessions in the East Indies may be held + and governed with the greatest security and advantage to this + country, and by what means the happiness of the native + inhabitants may be best protected. + +Your Committee, in the course of their inquiry into the obedience +yielded by the Company's Servants to the orders of the Court of +Directors, (the authority of which orders had been strengthened by the +Regulating Act of 1773,) could not overlook one of the most essential +objects of that act and of those orders, namely, _the taking of gifts +and presents_. These pretended free gifts from the natives to the +Company's servants in power had never been authorized by law; they are +contrary to the covenants formerly entered into by the President and +Council, they are strictly forbidden by the act of Parliament, and +forbidden upon grounds of the most substantial policy. + +Before the Regulating Act of 1773, the allowances made by the Company to +the Presidents of Bengal were abundantly sufficient to guaranty them +against anything like a necessity for giving into that pernicious +practice. The act of Parliament which appointed a Governor-General in +the place of a President, as it was extremely particular in enforcing +the prohibition of those presents, so it was equally careful in making +an ample provision for supporting the dignity of the office, in order to +remove all excuse for a corrupt increase of its emoluments. + +Although evidence on record, as well as verbal testimony, has appeared +before your Committee of presents to a large amount having been received +by Mr. Hastings and others before the year 1775, they were not able to +find distinct traces of that practice in him or any one else for a few +years. + +The inquiries set on foot in Bengal, by order of the Court of Directors, +in 1775, with regard to all corrupt practices, and the vigor with which +they were for some time pursued, might have given a temporary check to +the receipt of presents, or might have produced a more effectual +concealment of them, and afterwards the calamities which befell almost +all who were concerned in the first discoveries did probably prevent any +further complaint upon the subject; but towards the close of the last +session your Committee have received much of new and alarming +information concerning that abuse. + +The first traces appeared, though faintly and obscurely, in a letter to +the Court of Directors from the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, written +on the 29th of November, 1780.[14] It has been stated in a former Report +of your Committee,[15] that on the 26th of June, 1780, Mr. Hastings +being very earnest in the prosecution of a particular operation in the +Mahratta war, in order to remove objections to that measure, which were +made on account of the expense of the contingencies, he offered to +_exonerate_ the Company from that "charge." Continuing his Minute of +Council, he says, "That sum" (a sum of about 23,000_l._) "I have already +deposited, within a small amount, in the hands of the sub-treasurer; and +I _beg_ that the board will _permit_ it to be accepted for that +service." Here he offers in his own person; he deposits, or pretends +that he deposits, in his own person; and, with the zeal of a man eager +to pledge his private fortune in support of his measures, he prays that +his offer may be accepted. Not the least hint that he was delivering +back to the Company money of their own, which he had secreted from them. +Indeed, no man ever made it a request, much less earnestly entreated, +"begged to be permitted," to pay to any persons, public or private, +money that was their own. + +It appeared to your Committee that the money offered for that service, +which was to forward the operations of a detachment under Colonel Camac +in an expedition against one of the Mahratta chiefs, was not accepted. +And your Committee, having directed search to be made for any sums of +money paid into the Treasury by Mr. Hastings for this service, found, +that, notwithstanding his assertion of having deposited "two lacs of +rupees, or within a trifle of that sum, in the hands of the +sub-treasurer," no entry whatsoever of that or any other payment by the +Governor-General was made in the Treasury accounts at or about that +time.[16] This circumstance appeared very striking to your Committee, as +the non-appearance in the Company's books of the article in question +must be owing to one or other of these four causes:--That the assertion +of Mr. Hastings, of his having paid in near two lacs of rupees at that +time, was not true; or that the sub-treasurer may receive great sums in +deposit without entering them in the Company's Treasury accounts; or +that the Treasury books themselves are records not to be depended on; +or, lastly, that faithful copies of these books of accounts are not +transmitted to Europe. The defect of an entry corresponding with Mr. +Hastings's declaration in Council can be attributed only to one of these +four causes,--of which the want of foundation in his recorded assertion, +though very blamable, is the least alarming. + +On the 29th of November following, Mr. Hastings communicated to the +Court of Directors some sort of notice of this transaction.[17] In his +letter of that date he varies in no small degree the aspect under which +the business appeared in his Minute of Consultation of the 26th of June. +In his letter he says to the Directors, "The subject is now become +obsolete; the fair hopes which I had built upon the prosecution of the +Mahratta war have been blasted by the dreadful calamities which have +befallen your Presidency of Fort St. George, and changed the object of +our pursuit from the _aggrandizement_ of your power to its +preservation." After thus confessing, or rather boasting, of his motives +to the Mahratta war, he proceeds: "My present reason for reverting to my +own conduct on the occasion which I have mentioned" (namely, his +offering a sum of money for the Company's service) "is to obviate _the +false conclusions or purposed misrepresentations_ which may be made of +it, either as an artifice of _ostentation_ or the effect of _corrupt +influence_, by assuring you that the money, _by whatever means it came +into my possession, was not my own_, that I had myself _no right_ to it, +nor would or could have received it but for the occasion which prompted +me to avail myself _of the accidental means_ which were at that instant +afforded me of accepting and converting it to the property and use of +the Company: and with this brief apology I shall dismiss the subject." + +The apology is brief indeed, considering the nature of the transaction; +and what is more material than its length or its shortness, it is in all +points unsatisfactory. The matter becomes, if possible, more obscure by +his explanation. Here was money received by Mr. Hastings, which, +according to his own judgment, he had no right to receive; it was money +which, "but for the occasion that prompted him, he could not have +accepted"; it was money which came into his, and from his into the +Company's hands, by ways and means undescribed, and from persons +unnamed: yet, though apprehensive of false conclusions and purposed +misrepresentations, he gives his employers no insight whatsoever into a +matter which of all others stood in the greatest need of a full and +clear elucidation. + +Although he chooses to omit this essential point, he expresses the most +anxious solicitude to clear himself of the charges that might be made +against him, of the artifices of ostentation, and of corrupt influence. +To discover, if possible, the ground for apprehending such imputations, +your Committee adverted to the circumstances in which he stood at the +time: they found that this letter was dispatched about the time that +Mr. Francis took his passage for England; his fear of misrepresentation +may therefore allude to something which passed in conversation between +him and that gentleman at the time the offer was made. + +It was not easy, on the mere face of his offer, to give an ill turn to +it. The act, as it stands on the Minute, is not only disinterested, but +generous and public-spirited. If Mr. Hastings apprehended +misrepresentation from Mr. Francis, or from any other person, your +Committee conceive that he did not employ proper means for defeating the +ill designs of his adversaries. On the contrary, the course he has taken +in his letter to the Court of Directors is calculated to excite doubts +and suspicions in minds the most favorably disposed to him. Some degree +of ostentation is not extremely blamable at a time when a man advances +largely from his private fortune towards the public service. It is human +infirmity at the worst, and only detracts something from the lustre of +an action in itself meritorious. The kind of ostentation which is +criminal, and criminal only because it is fraudulent, is where a person +makes a show of giving when in reality he does not give. This imposition +is criminal more or less according to the circumstances. But if the +money received to furnish such a pretended gift is taken from any third +person without right to take it, a new guilt, and guilt of a much worse +quality and description, is incurred. The Governor-General, in order to +keep clear of ostentation, on the 29th of November, 1780, declares, that +the sum of money which he offered on the 26th of the preceding June as +his own was not his own, and that he had no right to it. Clearing +himself of vanity, he convicts himself of deceit, and of injustice. + +The other object of this brief apology was to clear himself of _corrupt +influence_. Of all ostentation he stands completely acquitted in the +month of November, however he might have been faulty in that respect in +the month of June; but with regard to the other part of the apprehended +charge, namely, _corrupt influence_, he gives no satisfactory solution. +A great sum of money "not his own,"--money to which "he had no +right,"--money which came into his possession "by whatever means":--if +this be not money obtained by corrupt influence, or by something worse, +that is, by violence or terror, it will be difficult to fix upon +circumstances which can furnish a presumption of unjustifiable use of +power and influence in the acquisition of profit. The last part of the +apology, that he had converted this money ("which he had no right to +receive") to the Company's use, so far as your Committee can discover, +_does nowhere appear_. He speaks, in the Minute of the 26th of June, as +having _then_ actually deposited it for the Company's service; in the +letter of November he says that he converted it to the Company's +property: but there is no trace in the Company's books of its being ever +brought to their credit in the expenditure for any specific service, +even if any such entry and expenditure could justify him in taking money +which he had by his own confession, "no right to receive." + +The Directors appear to have been deceived by this representation, and +in their letter of January, 1782,[18] consider the money as actually +paid into their Treasury. Even under their error concerning the +application of the money, they appear rather alarmed than satisfied +with the brief apology of the Governor-General. They consider the whole +proceeding as _extraordinary and mysterious_. They, however, do not +condemn it with any remarkable asperity; after admitting that he might +be induced to a temporary secrecy _respecting the members of the board_, +from a fear of their resisting the proposed application, or any +application of this money to the Company's use, yet they write to the +Governor-General and Council as follows:--"It does not appear to us that +there could be any real necessity for delaying to communicate to _us_ +immediate information of the _channel_ by which the money came into Mr. +Hastings's possession, with a complete illustration of the cause or +causes of so _extraordinary_ an event." And again: "The means proposed +of defraying the extra expenses are very _extraordinary_; and the money, +we conceive, must have come into his hands by an _unusual_ channel; and +when more complete information comes before us, we shall give our +sentiments fully on the transaction." And speaking of this and other +moneys under a similar description, they say, "We shall suspend our +judgment, without approving it in the least degree, or proceeding to +censure our Governor-General for this transaction." The expectations +entertained by the Directors of a more complete explanation were +natural, and their expression tender and temperate. But the more +complete information which they naturally expected they never have to +this day received. + +Mr. Hastings wrote two more letters to the Secret Committee of the Court +of Directors, in which he mentions this transaction: the first dated (as +he asserts, and a Mr. Larkins swears) on the 22d of May, 1782;[19] the +last, which accompanied it, so late as the 16th of December in the same +year.[20] Though so long an interval lay between the transaction of the +26th of June, 1780, and the middle of December, 1782, (upwards of two +years,) no further satisfaction is given. He has written, since the +receipt of the above letter of the Court of Directors, (which demanded, +what they had a right to demand, a clear explanation of the particulars +of this sum of money which he had no right to receive,) without giving +them any further satisfaction. Instead of explanation or apology, he +assumes a tone of complaint and reproach, to the Directors: he lays +before them a kind of an account of presents received, to the amount of +upwards of 200,000_l._,--some at a considerable distance of time, and +which had not been hitherto communicated to the Company. + +In the letter which accompanied that very extraordinary account, which +then for the first time appeared, he discovers no small solicitude to +clear himself from the imputation of having these discoveries drawn from +him by the terrors of the Parliamentary inquiries then on foot. To +remove all suspicion of such a motive for making these discoveries, Mr. +Larkins swears, in an affidavit made before Mr. Justice Hyde, bearing +even date with the letter which accompanies the account, that is, of the +16th of December, 1782, that this letter had been written by him on the +22d of May, several months before it was dispatched.[21] It appears that +Mr. Larkins, who makes this voluntary affidavit, is neither secretary to +the board, nor Mr. Hastings's private secretary, but an officer of the +Treasury of Bengal. + +Mr. Hastings was conscious that a question would inevitably arise, how +he came to delay the sending intelligence of so very interesting a +nature from May to December. He therefore thinks it necessary to account +for so suspicious a circumstance. He tells the Directors, "that the +dispatch of the 'Lively' having been protracted from time to time, the +accompanying address, which was originally designed and prepared for +that dispatch, _and no other since occurring_, has of course been thus +long delayed." + +The Governor-General's letter is dated the 22d May, and the "Resolution" +was the last ship of the season dispatched for Europe. The public +letters to the Directors are dated the 9th May; but it appears by the +letter of the commander of the ship that he did not receive his +dispatches from Mr. Lloyd, then at Kedgeree, until the 26th May, and +also that the pilot was not discharged from the ship until the 11th +June. Some of these presents (now for the first time acknowledged) had +been received eighteen months preceding the date of this letter,--none +less than four months; so that, in fact, he might have sent this account +by all the ships of that season; but the Governor-General chose to write +this letter thirteen days after the determination in Council for the +dispatch of the last ship. + +It does not appear that he has given any communication whatsoever to his +colleagues in office of those extraordinary transactions. Nothing +appears on the records of the Council of the receipt of the presents; +nor is the transmission of this account mentioned in the general letter +to the Court of Directors, but in a letter from himself to their Secret +Committee, consisting generally of two persons, but at most of three. It +is to be observed that the Governor-General states, "that the dispatch +of the 'Lively' had been protracted from time to time; that this delay +was of no public consequence; but that it produced a situation which +with respect to himself he regarded as unfortunate, because it exposed +him to the meanest imputations, from the occasion which the late +Parliamentary inquiries have since furnished, but which were unknown +when his letter was written." If the Governor-General thought his +silence exposed him to the _meanest imputations_, he had the means in +his own power of avoiding those imputations: he might have sent this +letter, dated the 22d May, by the Resolution. For we find, that, in a +letter from Captain Poynting, of the 26th May, he states it not possible +for him to proceed to sea with the smallest degree of safety without a +supply of anchors and cables, and most earnestly requests they may be +supplied from Calcutta; and on the 28th May we find a minute from the +Secretary of the Council, Mr. Auriol, requesting an order of Council to +the master-attendant to furnish a sloop to carry down those cables; +which order was accordingly issued on the 30th May. There requires no +other proof to show that the Governor-General had the means of sending +this letter seven days after he wrote it, instead of delaying it for +near seven months, and because no conveyance had offered. Your Committee +must also remark, that the conveyance by land to Madras was certain; and +whilst such important operations were carrying on, both by sea and land, +upon the coast, that dispatches would be sent to the Admiralty or to the +Company was highly probable. + +If the letter of the 22d May had been found in the list of packets sent +by the Resolution, the Governor General would have established in a +satisfactory manner, and far beyond the effect of any affidavit, that +the letter had been written at the time of the date. It appears that the +Resolution, being on her voyage to England, met with so severe a gale of +wind as to be obliged to put back to Bengal, and to unload her cargo. +This event makes no difference in the state of the transaction. Whatever +the cause of these new discoveries might have been, at the time of +sending them the fact of the Parliamentary inquiry was publicly known. + +In the letter of the above date Mr. Hastings laments the mortification +of being reduced to take precautions "to guard his reputation from +dishonor."--"If I had," says he, "_at any time_ possessed that degree of +confidence from my _immediate_ employers which they have never withheld +from the _meanest_ of my predecessors, I should have disdained to use +these attentions." + +Who the _meanest_ of Mr. Hastings's predecessors were does not appear to +your Committee; nor are they able to discern the ground of propriety or +decency for his assuming to himself a right to call any of them mean +persons. But if such mean persons have possessed that degree of +confidence from his immediate employers which for so many years he had +not possessed "_at any time_," inferences must be drawn from thence very +unfavorable to one or the other of the parties, or perhaps to both. The +attentions which he practises and disdains can in this case be of no +service to himself, his employers, or the public; the only attention at +all effectual towards extenuating, or in some degree atoning for, the +guilt of having taken money from individuals illegally was to be full +and fair in his confession of all the particulars of his offence. This +might not obtain that confidence which at no time he has enjoyed, but +still the Company and the nation might derive essential benefit from it; +the Directors might be able to afford redress to the sufferers; and by +his laying open the concealed channels of abuse, means might be +furnished for the better discovery, and possibly for the prevention, or +at least for the restraint, of a practice of the most dangerous +nature,--a practice of which the mere prohibition, without the means of +detection, must ever prove, as hitherto it had proved, altogether +frivolous. + +Your Committee, considering that so long a time had elapsed without any +of that information which the Directors expected, and perceiving that +this receipt of sums of money under color of gift seemed a growing evil, +ordered the attendance of Mr. Hastings's agent, Major Scott. They had +found, on former occasions, that this gentleman was furnished with much +more early and more complete intelligence of the Company's affairs in +India than was thought proper for the Court of Directors; they therefore +examined him concerning every particular sum of money the receipt of +which Mr. Hastings had confessed in his account. It was to their +surprise that Mr. Scott professed himself perfectly uninstructed upon +almost every part of the subject, though the express object of his +mission to England was to clear up such matters as might be objected to +Mr. Hastings; and for that purpose he had early qualified himself by the +production to your Committee of his powers of agency. The ignorance in +which Mr. Hastings had left his agent was the more striking, because he +must have been morally certain, that, if his conduct in these points +should have escaped animadversion from the Court of Directors, it must +become an object of Parliamentary inquiry; for, in his letter of the +15th [16th?] of December, 1782, to the Court of Directors, he expressly +mentions his fears that those Parliamentary inquiries might be thought +to have extorted from him the confessions which he had made. + +Your Committee, however, entering on a more strict examination +concerning the two lacs of rupees, which Mr. Hastings declares he had no +right to take, but had taken from some person then unknown, Major Scott +recollected that Mr. Hastings had, in a letter of the 7th of December, +1782, (in which he refers to some former letter,) acquainted him with +the name of the person from whom he had received these two lacs of +rupees, mentioned in the minute of June, 1780. It turned out to be the +Rajah of Benares, the unfortunate Cheyt Sing. + +In the single instance in which Mr. Scott seemed to possess intelligence +in this matter, he is preferred to the Court of Directors. Under their +censure as Mr. Hastings was, and as he felt himself to be, for not +informing them of the channel in which he received that money, he +perseveres obstinately and contemptuously to conceal it from them; +though he thought fit to intrust his agent with the secret. + +Your Committee were extremely struck with this intelligence. They were +totally unacquainted with it, when they presented to the House the +Supplement to their Second Report, on the affairs of Cheyt Sing. A gift +received by Mr. Hastings from the Rajah of Benares gave rise in their +minds to serious reflections on the condition of the princes of India +subjected to the British authority. Mr. Hastings was, at the very time +of his receiving this gift, in the course of making on the Rajah of +Benares a series of demands, unfounded and unjustifiable, and constantly +growing in proportion as they were submitted to. To these demands the +Rajah of Benares, besides his objections in point of right, constantly +sat up a plea of poverty. Presents from persons who hold up poverty as a +shield against extortion can scarcely in any case be considered as +gratuitous, whether the plea of poverty be true or false. In this case +the presents might have been bestowed; if not with an assurance, at +least with a rational hope, of some mitigation in the oppressive +requisitions that were made by Mr. Hastings; for to give much +voluntarily, when it is known that much will be taken away forcibly, is +a thing absurd and impossible. On the other [one?] hand, the acceptance +of that gift by Mr. Hastings must have pledged a tacit faith for some +degree of indulgence towards the donor: if it was a free gift, +gratitude, if it was a bargain, justice obliged him to do it. If, on the +other hand, Mr. Hastings originally destined (as he says he did) this +money, given to himself secretly and for his private emolument, to the +use of the Company, the Company's favor, to whom he acted as trustee, +ought to have been purchased by it. In honor and justice he bound and +pledged himself for that power which was to profit by the gift, and to +profit, too, in the success of an expedition which Mr. Hastings thought +so necessary to their aggrandizement. The unhappy man found his money +accepted, but no favor acquired on the part either of the Company or of +Mr. Hastings. + +Your Committee have, in another Report, stated to the House that Mr. +Hastings attributed the extremity of distress which the detachments +under Colonel Camac had suffered, and the great desertions which ensued +on that expedition, to the want of punctuality of the Rajah in making +payment of one of the sums which had been extorted from him; and this +want of punctual payment was afterwards assigned as a principal reason +for the ruin of this prince. Your Committee have shown to the House, by +a comparison of facts and dates, that this charge is wholly without +foundation. But if the cause of Colonel Camac's failure had been true as +to the sum which was the object of the public demand, the failure could +not be attributed to the Rajah, when he had on the _instant_ privately +furnished at least 23,000_l._ to Mr. Hastings,--that is, furnished the +identical money which he tells us (but carefully concealing the name of +the giver) he had from the beginning destined, as he afterwards publicly +offered, for this very expedition of Colonel Camac's. The complication +of fraud and cruelty in the transaction admits of few parallels. Mr. +Hastings at the Council Board of Bengal displays himself as a zealous +servant of the Company, bountifully giving from his own fortune, and in +his letter to the Directors (as he says himself) as going out of the +ordinary roads for their advantage;[22] and all this on the credit of +supplies derived from the gift of a man whom he treats with the utmost +severity, and whom he accuses, in this particular, of disaffection to +the Company's cause and interests. + +With 23,000_l._ of the Rajah's money in his pocket, he persecutes him to +his destruction,--assigning for a reason, that his reliance on the +Rajah's faith, and his breach of it, were the principal causes that _no +other_ provision was made for the detachment on the specific expedition +to which the Rajah's specific money was to be applied. The Rajah had +given it to be disposed of by Mr. Hastings; and if it was not disposed +of in the best manner for the accomplishing his objects, the accuser +himself is the criminal. + +To take money for the forbearance of a just demand would have been +corrupt only; but to urge unjust public demands,--to accept private +pecuniary favors in the course of those demands,--and, on the pretence +of delay or refusal, without mercy to persecute a benefactor,--to refuse +to hear his remonstrances,--to arrest him in his capital, in his palace, +in the face of all the people,--thus to give occasion to an +insurrection, and, on pretext of that insurrection, to refuse all treaty +or explanation,--to drive him from his government and his country,--to +proscribe him in a general amnesty,--and to send him all over India a +fugitive, to publish the shame of British government in all the nations +to whom he successively fled for refuge,--these are proceedings to +which, for the honor of human nature, it is hoped few parallels are to +be found in history, and in which the illegality and corruption of the +acts form the smallest part of the mischief. + +Such is the account of the first sum _confessed_ to be taken as a +present by Mr. Hastings, since the year 1775; and such are its +consequences. Mr. Hastings apologizes for this action by declaring "that +he would not have received the money but for the _occasion_, which +prompted him to avail himself of the accidental means which were at that +instant afforded him of accepting and converting it to the use of the +Company."[23] By this account, he considers the act as excusable only by +the particular occasion, by the temptation of accidental means, and by +the suggestion of the _instant_. How far this is the case appears by the +very next paragraph of this letter in which the account is given and in +which the apology is made. If these were his sentiments in June, 1780, +they lasted but a very short time: his accidental means appear to be +growing habitual. + +To point out in a clear manner the spirit of the second money +transaction to which your Committee adverted, which is represented by +Mr. Hastings as having some "affinity with the former _anecdote_,"[24] +(for in this light kind of phrase he chooses to express himself to his +masters,) your Committee think it necessary to state to the House, that +the business, namely, this business, which was the second object of +their inquiry, appears in three different papers and in three different +lights: on comparing of these authorities, in every one of which Mr. +Hastings is himself the voucher, if one of the three be true, the other +two must necessarily be false. + +These three authorities, which your Committee has accurately compared, +are, first, his minutes on the Consultations;[25] secondly, his letter +to the Court of Directors on the 29th of November, 1780;[26] thirdly, +his account, transmitted on the 16th of December, 1782.[27] + +About eight months after the first transaction relative to Cheyt Sing, +and which is just reported, that is, on the 5th of January, 1781, Mr. +Hastings produced a demand to the Council for money of his own expended +for the Company's service.[28] Here was no occasion for secrecy. Mr. +Francis was on his passage to Europe; Mr. Wheler was alone left, who no +longer dissented from anything; Mr. Hastings was in effect himself the +whole Council. He declared that _he_ had disbursed three lacs of rupees, +that is, thirty-four thousand five hundred pounds, in secret +services,--which having, he says, "been advanced from _my own private +cash_, I request that the same may be repaid to me in the following +manner." He accordingly desires three bonds, for a lac of Sicca rupees +each, to be given to him in two of the Company's subscriptions,--one to +bear interest on the eight per cent loan, the other two in the four per +cent: the bonds were antedated to the beginning of the preceding +October. On the 9th of the same month, that is, on the 9th of January, +1781, the three bonds were accordingly ordered.[29] So far the whole +transaction appears clear, and of a piece. Private money is subscribed, +and a public security is taken for it. When the Company's Treasury +accounts[30] are compared with the proceedings of their Council-General, +a perfect correspondence also appears. The three bonds are then [there?] +entered to Mr. Hastings, and he is credited for principal and interest +on them, in the exact terms of the order. So far the official +accounts,--which, because of their perfect harmony, are considered as +clear and consistent evidence to one body of fact. + +The second sort of document relative to these bonds (though the first in +order of time) is Mr. Hastings's letter of the 29th of November, +1780.[31] It is written between the time of the expenditure of the money +for the Company's use and the taking of the bonds. Here, for the first +time, a very material difference appears; and the difference is the more +striking, because Mr. Hastings claimed the _whole_ money as his own, and +took bonds for it as such, _after_ this representation. The letter to +the Company discovers that part of the money (the whole of which he had +declared on record to be his own, and for which he had taken bonds) was +not his, but the property of his masters, from whom he had taken the +security. It is no less remarkable that the letter which represents the +money as belonging to the Company was written about six weeks before the +Minute of Council in which he claims that money as his own. It is this +letter on which your Committee is to remark. + +Mr. Hastings, after giving his reasons for the application of the three +lacs of rupees, and for his having for some time concealed the fact, +says, "Two thirds of that sum I have raised _by my own credit_, and +shall charge it in my official account; _the other third_ I have +supplied from the cash in my hands belonging to the Honorable +Company."[32] + +The House will observe, that in November he tells the Directors that he +shall charge only _two thirds_ in his official accounts; in the +following January he charges the _whole_.[33] For the other third, +although he admitted that to belong to the Company, we have seen that he +takes a bond to _himself_. + +It is material that he tells the Company in his letter that these two +lacs of rupees were _raised on his credit_. His letter to the Council +says that they were advanced from his _private cash_. What he raises on +his credit may, on a fair construction, be considered as his own: but in +this, too, he fails; for it is certain he has never transferred these +bonds to any creditor; nor has he stated any sum he has paid, or for +which he stands indebted, on that account, to any specific person. +Indeed, it was out of his power; for the first two thirds of the money, +which he formerly stated as raised upon his credit, he now confesses to +have been from the beginning the Company's property, and therefore could +not have been raised on his private credit, or borrowed from any person +whatsoever. + +To these two accounts, thus essentially varying, he has added a +third,[34] varying at least as essentially from both. In his last or +third account, which is a statement of all the sums he has received in +an extraordinary manner, and confessed to be the Company's property, he +reverses the items of his first account, and, instead of allowing the +Company but one third and claiming two thirds for himself, he enters two +of the bonds, each for a lac of rupees, as belonging to the Company: of +the third bond, which appears so distinctly in the Consultations and in +the Treasury accounts, not one word is said; ten thousand pounds is +absorbed, sinks, and disappears at once, and no explanation whatsoever +concerning it is given; Mr. Hastings seems not yet to have decided to +whose account it ought to be placed. In this manner his debt to the +Company, or the Company's to him, is just what he thinks fit. In a +single article he has varied three times. In one account he states the +whole to be his own; in another he claims two thirds; in the last he +gives up the claim of the two thirds, and says nothing to the remaining +portion. + +To make amends, however, for the suppression of this third bond, given +with the two others in January, 1781, and antedated to the beginning of +October, Mr. Hastings, in the above-mentioned general account subjoined +to his letter of the 22d May, 1782, has brought to the Company's credit +a new bond.[35] + +This bond is for 17,000_l._ It was taken from the Company (and so it +appears on their Treasury accounts) on the 23d of November, 1780. He +took no notice of this, when, in January following, he called upon his +own Council for the three others. What is more extraordinary, he was +equally silent with regard to it, when, only six days after its date, he +wrote concerning the subject of the three other bonds to the Court of +Directors; yet now it comes out, that that bond also was taken by Mr. +Hastings from the Company for money which he declares he had received on +the Company's account, and that he entered himself as creditor when he +ought to have made himself debtor. + +Your Committee examined Major Scott concerning this money, which Mr. +Hastings must have obtained in some clandestine and irregular mode; but +they could obtain no information of the persons from whom it was taken, +nor of the occasion or pretence of taking this large sum; nor does any +Minute of Council appear for its application to any service. The whole +of the transaction, whatever it was, relative to this bond, is covered +with the thickest obscurity. + +Mr. Hastings, to palliate the blame of his conduct, declares that he +has not received any interest on these bonds,--and that he has indorsed +them as not belonging to himself, but to the Company.[36] As to the +first part of this allegation, whether he received the interest or let +it remain in arrear is a matter of indifference, as he entitled himself +to it; and so far as the legal security he has taken goes, he may, +whenever he pleases, dispose both of principal and interest. What he has +indorsed on the bonds, or when he made the indorsement, or whether in +fact he has made it at all, are matters known only to himself; for the +bonds must be in his possession, and are nowhere by him stated to be +given up or cancelled,--which is a thing very remarkable, when he +confesses that he had no right to receive them. + +These bonds make but a part of the account of private receipts of money +by Mr. Hastings, formerly paid into the Treasury as his own property, +and now allowed not to be so. This account brings into view other very +remarkable matters of a similar nature and description.[37] + +In the public records, a sum of not less than 23,871_l._ is set to his +credit as a _deposit_ for his private account, paid in by him into the +Treasury in gold, and coined at the Company's mint.[38] This appears in +the account furnished to the Directors, under the date of May, 1782, not +to be lawfully his money, and he therefore transfers it to the Company's +credit: it still remains as a deposit.[39] + +That the House may be apprised of the nature of this article of +deposit, it may not be improper to state that the Company receive into +their treasury the cash of private persons, placed there as in a bank. +On this no interest is paid, and the party depositing has a right to +receive it upon demand. Under this head of account no public money is +ever entered. Mr. Hastings, neither at making the deposit as his own, +nor at the time of his disclosure of the real proprietor, (which he +makes to be the Company,) has given any information of the persons from +whom this money had been received. Mr. Scott was applied to by your +Committee, but could not give any more satisfaction in this particular +than in those relative to the bonds. + +The title of the account of the 22d of May purports not only that those +sums were paid into the Company's treasury by Mr. Hastings's order, but +that they were applied to the Company's service. No service is +specified, directly or by any reference, to which this great sum of +money has been applied. + +Two extraordinary articles follow this, in the May account, amounting to +about 29,000_l._[40] These articles are called Receipts for Durbar +Charges. The general head of Durbar Charges, made by persons in office, +when analyzed into the particulars, contains various expenses, including +bounties and presents made by government, chiefly in the foreign +department. But in the last account he confesses that this sum also is +not his, but the Company's property; but as in all the rest, so in this, +he carefully conceals the means by which he acquired the money, the time +of his taking it, and the persons from whom it was taken. This is the +more extraordinary, because, in looking over the journals and ledgers +of the Treasury, the presents received and carried to the account of the +Company (which were generally small and complimental) were precisely +entered, with the name of the giver. + +Your Committee, on turning to the account of Durbar charges in the +ledger of that month, find the sum, as stated in the account of May 22d, +to be indeed paid in; but there is no specific application whatsoever +entered. + +The account of the whole money thus clandestinely received, as stated on +the 22d of May, 1782, (and for a great part of which Mr. Hastings to +that time took credit for, and for the rest has accounted in an +extraordinary manner as his own,) amounts in the whole to upwards of +ninety-three thousand pounds sterling: a vast sum to be so obtained, and +so loosely accounted for! If the money taken from the Rajah of Benares +be added, (as it ought,) it will raise the sum to upwards of +116,000_l._; if the 11,600_l._ bond in October be added, it will be +upwards of 128,000_l._ received in a secret manner by Mr. Hastings in +about one year and five months. To all these he adds another sum of one +hundred thousand pounds, received as a present from the Subah of Oude. +Total, upwards of 228,000_l._ + +Your Committee find that this last is the only sum the giver of which +Mr. Hastings has thought proper to declare. It is to be observed, that +he did not receive this 100,000_l._ in money, but in bills on a great +native money-dealer resident at Benares, and who has also an house at +Calcutta: he is called Gopâl Dâs. The negotiation of these bills tended +to make a discovery not so difficult as it would have been in other +cases. + +With regard to the application of this last sum of money, which is said +to be carried to the Durbar charges of April, 1782, your Committee are +not enabled to make any observations on it, as the account of that +period has not yet arrived. + +Your Committee have, in another Report, remarked fully upon most of the +circumstances of this extraordinary transaction. Here they only bring so +much of these circumstances again into view as may serve to throw light +upon the true nature of the sums of money taken by British subjects in +power, under the name of _presents_, and to show how far they are +entitled to that description in any sense which can fairly imply in the +pretended donors either willingness or ability to give. The condition of +the bountiful parties who are not yet discovered may be conjectured from +the state of those who have been made known: as far as that state +anywhere appears, their generosity is found in proportion, not to the +opulence they possess or to the favors they receive, but to the +indigence they feel and the insults they are exposed to. The House will +particularly attend to the situation of the principal giver, the Subah +of Oude. + +"When the knife," says he, "had penetrated to the bone, and I was +surrounded with such heavy distresses that I could no longer live in +expectations, I wrote you an account of my difficulties. + +"The answer which I have received to it is such that it has given me +inexpressible grief and affliction. I never had the least idea or +expectation from you and the Council that you would ever have given your +orders in so afflicting a manner, in which you never before wrote, and +which I could not have imagined. As I am resolved to _obey_ your orders, +and directions of the Council, without any delay, as long as I live, I +have, agreeably to those _orders_, delivered up _all my private papers_ +to him [the Resident], that, when he shall have examined my receipts and +expenses, _he may take whatever remains_. As I know it to be my duty to +satisfy you, the Company, and Council, I have not failed to _obey_ in +any instance, but requested of him that it might be done so as not to +_distress me in my necessary expenses_: there being no other funds but +those for the expenses of my mutseddies, household expenses, and +servants, &c. He demanded these in such a manner, that, being +_remediless_, I was obliged to comply with what he required. He has +accordingly _stopped the pensions of my old servants for thirty years, +whether sepoys, mutseddies, or household servants, and the expenses of +my family and kitchen, together with the jaghires of my grandmother, +mother, and aunts, and of my brothers and dependants, which were for +their support_. I had raised thirteen hundred horse and three battalions +of sepoys to attend upon me; but as I have no resources to support them, +I have been obliged to remove the people stationed in the mahals +[districts] and to send his people [the Resident's people] into the +mahals, so that I have not now one single servant about me. Should I +mention to what further difficulties I have been reduced, it would lay +me open to contempt." + +In other parts of this long remonstrance, as well as in other +remonstrances no less serious, he says, "that it is difficult for him to +save himself alive; that in all his affairs _Mr. Hastings had given full +powers to the gentlemen here_," (meaning the English Resident and +Assistants,) "_who have done whatever they chose, and still continue to +do it_. I never expected that _you_ would have brought me into such +apprehension, and into so weak a state, without _writing to me on any +one of those subjects_; since I have not the smallest connection with +anybody except yourself. I am in such distress, both day and night, that +I see not the smallest prospect of deliverance from it, since you are so +displeased with me _as not to honor me with a single letter_." + +In another remonstrance he thus expresses himself. "The affairs of this +world are unstable, and soon pass away: it would therefore be incumbent +on the _English_ gentlemen to show _some_ friendship for me in my +_necessities_,--I, who have always exerted my very life in the service +of the English, _assigned over to them all the resources left in my +country_, stopped my very household expenses, together with the jaghires +of my servants and dependants, to the amount of 98,98,375 rupees. +Besides this, as to the jaghires of my grandmother, mother, and uncle, +which were granted to them for their support, _agreeable to +engagements_, you are the _masters_,--if the Council have sent orders +for the stopping their jaghires also, stop them. I have no resources +left in my country, and have no friends by me, being even distressed in +my daily subsistence. I have some elephants, horses, and the houses +which I inhabit: if they can be of any service to my friends, they are +ready. Whenever you can discover any resources, seize upon them: I shall +not interfere to prevent you. In my present distress for my daily +expenses, I was in hopes that they would have excused some part of my +debt. Of what use is it for me to relate my situation, which is known to +the whole world? This much is sufficient." + +The truth of all these representations is nowhere contested by Mr. +Hastings. It is, indeed, admitted in something stronger than words; +for, upon account of the Nabob's condition, and the no less distressed +condition of his dominions, he thought it fit to withdraw from him and +them a large body of the Company's troops, together with all the English +of a civil description, who were found no less burdensome than the +military. This was done on the declared inability of the country any +longer to support them,--a country not much inferior to England in +extent and fertility, and, till lately at least, its equal in population +and culture. + +It was to a prince, in a state so far remote from freedom, authority, +and opulence, so penetrated with the treatment he had received, and the +behavior he had met with from Mr. Hastings, that Mr. Hastings has chosen +to attribute a disposition so very generous and munificent as, of his +own free grace and mere motion, to make him a present, at one donation, +of upwards of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. This vast private +donation was given at the moment of vast instant demands severely +exacted on account of the Company, and accumulated on immense debts to +the same body,--and all taken from a ruined prince and almost desolated +territory. + +Mr. Hastings has had the firmness, with all possible ease and apparent +unconcern, to request permission from the Directors to legalize this +forbidden present for his own use. This he has had the courage to do at +a time when he had abundant reason to look for what he has since +received,--their censure for many material parts of his conduct towards +the people from whose wasted substance this pretended free gift was +drawn. He does not pretend that he has reason to expect the smallest +degree of partiality, in this or any other point, from the Court of +Directors. For, besides his complaint, first stated, of having never +possessed their confidence, in a late letter[41] (in which, +notwithstanding the censures of Parliament, he magnifies his own +conduct) he says, that, in all the long period of his service, "he has +almost unremittedly wanted the support which all his predecessors had +enjoyed from their constituents. From mine," says he, "I have received +_nothing but reproach, hard_ epithets, _and indignities_, instead of +rewards and encouragement." It must therefore have been from some other +source of protection than that which the law had placed over him that he +looked for countenance and reward in violating an act of Parliament +which forbid him from _taking gifts or presents on any account +whatsoever_,--much less a gift of this magnitude, which, from the +distress of the giver, must be supposed the effect of the most cruel +extortion. + +The Directors did wrong in their orders to appropriate money, which they +must know could not have been acquired by the consent of the pretended +donor, to their own use.[42] They acted more properly in refusing to +confirm this grant to Mr. Hastings, and in choosing rather to refer him +to the law which he had violated than to his own sense of what he +thought he was entitled to take from the natives: putting him in mind +that the Regulating Act had expressly declared "that no +Governor-General, or any of the Council, shall, directly or indirectly, +accept, receive, or take, of or from any person or persons, or on any +account whatsoever, any present, gift, donation, gratuity, or reward, +pecuniary or otherwise, or any promise or engagement for any of the +aforesaid." Here is no reserve for the case of a disclosure to the +Directors, and for the legalizing the breach of an act of Parliament by +their subsequent consent. The illegality attached to the action at its +very commencement, and it could never be afterwards legalized: the +Directors had no such power reserved to them. Words cannot be devised of +a stronger import or studied with more care. To these words of the act +are opposed the declaration and conduct of Mr. Hastings, who, in his +letter of January, 1782, thinks fit to declare, that "an offer of a very +considerable sum of money was made to him, both on the part of the Nabob +and his ministers, as _a present_, which he _accepted without +hesitation_." The plea of his pretended necessity is of no avail. The +present was not in ready money, nor, as your Committee conceive, +applicable to his immediate necessities. Even his credit was not +bettered by bills at long periods; he does not pretend that he raised +any money upon them; nor is it conceivable that a banker at Benares +would be more willing to honor the drafts of so miserable, undone, and +dependent a person as the Nabob of Oude than those of the +Governor-General of Bengal, which might be paid either on the receipt of +the Benares revenue, or at the seat of his power, and of the Company's +exchequer. Besides, it is not explicable, upon any grounds that can be +avowed, why the Nabob, who could afford to give these bills as _a +present_ to Mr. Hastings, could not have equally given them in discharge +of the debt which he owed to the Company. It is, indeed, very much to be +feared that the people of India find it sometimes turn more to their +account to give presents to the English in authority than to pay their +debts to the public; and this is a matter of a very serious +consideration. + +No small merit is made by Mr. Hastings, and that, too, in a high and +upbraiding style, of his having come to a voluntary discovery of this +and other unlawful practices of the same kind. "That honorable court," +says Mr. Hastings, addressing himself to his masters, in his letter of +December, 1782, "ought to know whether I possess the integrity and honor +which are the first requisites of such a station. If I wanted these, +they have afforded me too powerful incentives to suppress the +information which I now convey to them through you, and to appropriate +to my own use the sums which I have already passed to their credit, by +their _unworthy_, and pardon me if I add _dangerous reflections_, which +they have passed upon me for the first communication of this kind"; and +he immediately adds, what is singular and striking, and savors of a +recriminatory insinuation, "_and your own experience_ will suggest to +you that there are persons who would profit by such a warning."[43] To +what Directors in particular this imputation of experience is applied, +and what other persons they are in whom _experience_ has shown a +disposition to profit of such a warning, is a matter highly proper to be +inquired into. What Mr. Hastings says further on this subject is no less +worthy of attention:--"_that he could have concealed these transactions, +if he had a wrong motive, from theirs and the public eye forever_."[44] +It is undoubtedly true, that, whether the observation be applicable to +the particular case or not, practices of this corrupt nature are +extremely difficult of detection anywhere, but especially in India; but +all restraint upon that grand fundamental abuse of presents is gone +forever, if the servants of the Company can derive safety from a +defiance of the law, when they can no longer hope to screen themselves +by an evasion of it. All hope of reformation is at an end, if, confiding +in the force of a faction among Directors or proprietors to bear them +out, and possibly to vote them the fruit of their crimes as a reward of +their discovery, they find that their bold avowal of their offences is +not only to produce indemnity, but to be rated for merit. If once a +presumption is admitted, that, wherever something is divulged, nothing +is hid, the discovering of one offence may become the certain means of +concealing a multitude of others. The contrivance is easy and trivial, +and lies open to the meanest proficient in this kind of art; it will not +only become an effectual cover to such practices, but will tend +infinitely to increase them. In that case, sums of money will be taken +for the purpose of discovery and making merit with the Company, and +other sums will be taken for the private advantage of the receiver. + +It must certainly be impossible for the natives to know what presents +are for one purpose, or what for the other. It is not for a Gentoo or a +Mahometan landholder at the foot of the remotest mountains in India, who +has no access to our records and knows nothing of our language, to +distinguish what lacs of rupees, which he has given _eo nomine_ as a +present to a Company's servant, are to be authorized by his masters in +Leadenhall Street as proper and legal, or carried to their public +account at their pleasure, and what are laid up for his own emolument. + +The legislature, in declaring all presents to be the property of the +Company, could not consider corruption, extortion, and fraud as any part +of their resources. The property in such presents was declared to be +theirs, not as a fund for their benefit, but in order to found a legal +title to a civil suit. It was declared theirs, to facilitate the +recovery out of corrupt and oppressive hands of money illegally taken; +but this legal fiction of property could not nor ought by the +legislature to be considered in any other light than as a trust held by +them for those who suffered the injury. Upon any other construction, the +Company would have a right, first, to extract money from the subjects or +dependants of this kingdom committed to their care, by means of +particular conventions, or by taxes, by rents, and by monopolies; and +when they had exhausted every contrivance of public imposition, then +they were to be at liberty to let loose upon the people all their +servants, from the highest rank to the lowest, to prey upon them at +pleasure, and to draw, by personal and official authority, by influence, +venality, and terror, whatever was left to them,--and that all this was +justified, provided the product was paid into the Company's exchequer. + +This prohibition and permission of presents, with this declaration of +property in the Company, would leave no property to any man in India. +If, however, it should be thought that this clause in the act[45] should +be capable, by construction and retrospect, of so legalizing and thus +appropriating these presents, (which your Committee conceive +impossible,) it is absolutely necessary that it should be very fully +explained. + +The provision in the act was made in favor of the natives. If such +construction prevails, the provision made as their screen from +oppression will become the means of increasing and aggravating it +without bounds and beyond remedy. If presents, which when they are given +were unlawful, can afterwards be legalized by an application of them to +the Company's service, no sufferer can even resort to a remedial process +at law for his own relief. The moment he attempts to sue, the money may +be paid into the Company's treasury; it is then lawfully taken, and the +party is non-suited. + +The Company itself must suffer extremely in the whole order and +regularity of their public accounts, if the idea upon which Mr. Hastings +justifies the taking of these presents receives the smallest +countenance. On his principles, the same sum may become private property +or public, at the pleasure of the receiver; it is in his power, Mr. +Hastings says, to conceal it forever.[46] He certainly has it in his +power not only to keep it back and bring it forward at his own times, +but even to shift and reverse the relations in the accounts (as Mr. +Hastings has done) in what manner and proportion seems good to him, and +to make himself alternately debtor or creditor for the same sums. + +Of this irregularity Mr. Hastings himself appears in some degree +sensible. He conceives it possible that his transactions of this nature +may to the Court of Directors seem unsatisfactory. He, however, puts it +hypothetically: "If to you," says he, "who are accustomed to view +business in an _official and regular light, they should appear +unprecedented, if not improper_."[47] He just conceives it possible that +in an official money transaction the Directors may expect a proceeding +official and regular. In what other lights than those which are official +and regular matters of public account ought to be regarded by those who +have the charge of them, either in Bengal or in England, does not appear +to your Committee. Any other is certainly "unprecedented and improper," +and can only serve to cover fraud both in the receipt and in the +expenditure. The acquisition of 58,000 rupees, or near 6000_l._, which +appears in the sort of _unofficial and irregular account_ that he +furnishes of his presents, in his letter of May, 1782,[48] must appear +extraordinary indeed to those who expect from men in office something +official and something regular. "This sum," says he, "I received while I +was on my journey to Benares."[49] He tells it with the same careless +indifference as if things of this kind were found by accident on the +high-road. + +Mr. Hastings did not, indeed he could not, doubt that this unprecedented +and improper account would produce much discussion. He says, "Why these +sums were taken by me, why they were (except the second) _quietly_ +transferred to the Company's account, why bonds were taken for the first +and not for the rest, might, were this matter to be exposed to the view +of the public, _furnish a variety of conjectures_."[50] + +This matter has appeared, and has furnished, as it ought to do, +something more serious than conjectures. It would in any other case be +supposed that Mr. Hastings, expecting such inquiries, and considering +that the questions are (even as they are imperfectly stated by himself) +far from frivolous, would condescend to give some information upon +them; but the conclusion of a sentence so importantly begun, and which +leads to such expectations, is, "that to these conjectures it would be +of little use to reply." This is all he says to public conjecture. + +To the Court of Directors he is very little more complaisant, and not at +all more satisfactory; he states merely as a supposition their inquiry +concerning matters of which he positively knew that they had called for +an explanation. He knew it, because he presumed to censure them for +doing so. To the hypothesis of a further inquiry he gives a conjectural +answer of such a kind as probably, in an account of a doubtful +transaction, and to a superior, was never done before. + +"_Were_ your Honorable Court to question me upon these points, I _would_ +answer, that the sums were taken for the Company's benefit, at times in +which the Company very much stood in need of them; that I _either_ chose +to conceal the first receipts from public curiosity by receiving bonds +for the amount, or _possibly acted without any studied design_ which my +memory could at this distance of time verify."[51] + +He here professes not to be certain of the motives by which he was +himself actuated in so extraordinary a concealment, and in the use of +such extraordinary means to effect it; and as if the acts in question +were those of an absolute stranger, and not his own, he gives various +loose conjectures concerning the motive to them. He even supposes, in +taking presents contrary to law, and in taking bonds for them as his +own, contrary to what he admits to be truth and fact, that he might have +acted without any distinct motive at all, or at least such as his +memory could reach at that distance of time. That immense distance, in +the faintness of which his recollection is so completely lost as to set +him guessing at his motives for his own conduct, was from the 15th of +January, 1781, when the bonds at his own request were given, to the date +of this letter, which is the 22d of May, 1782,--that is to say, about +one year and four months. + +As to the other sums, for which no bond was taken, the ground for the +difference in his explanation is still more extraordinary: he says, "I +did not think it worth my care to observe the same means with _the +rest_."[52] The rest of these sums, which were not worth his care, are +stated in his account to be greater than those he was so solicitous (for +some reason which he cannot guess) to cover under bonds: these sums +amount to near 53,000_l._; whereas the others did not much exceed +40,000_l._ For these actions, attended with these explanations, he +ventures to appeal to their (the Directors') breasts for a candid +interpretation, and "he assumes the freedom to add, that he thinks +himself, on _such_ a subject, and on _such_ an occasion, entitled to +it";[53] and then, as if he had performed some laudable exploit, in the +accompanying letter he glories in the integrity of his conduct; and +anticipating his triumph over injustice, and the applauses which at a +future time he seems confident he shall receive, says he, "The applause +of my own breast is my surest reward: your applause and that of my +country is my next wish in life."[54] He declares in that very letter +that he had not _at any time_ possessed the confidence with them which +they never withheld from the meanest of his predecessors. With wishes so +near his heart perpetually disappointed, and, instead of applauses, (as +he tells us,) receiving nothing but reproaches and disgraceful epithets, +his steady continuance for so many years in their service, in a place +obnoxious in the highest degree to suspicion and censure, is a thing +altogether singular. + +It appears very necessary to your Committee to observe upon the great +leading principles which Mr. Hastings assumes, to justify the irregular +taking of these vast sums of money, and all the irregular means he had +employed to cover the greater part of it. These principles are the more +necessary to be inquired into, because, if admitted, they will serve to +justify every species of improper conduct. His words are, "that the +sources from which these reliefs to the public service have come would +never have yielded them to the Company _publicly_; and that the +exigencies of their service (exigencies created by the exposition of +their affairs, and faction in their divided councils) required those +supplies."[55] + +As to the first of these extraordinary positions, your Committee cannot +conceive what motive could actuate any native of India dependent on the +Company, in assisting them privately, and in refusing to assist them +publicly. If the transaction was fair and honest, every native must have +been desirous of making merit with the great governing power. If he gave +his money as a free gift, he might value himself upon very honorable and +very acceptable service; if he lent it on the Company's bonds, it would +still have been of service, and he might also receive eight per cent +for his money. No native could, without some interested view, give to +the Governor-General what he would refuse to the Company as a grant, or +even as a loan. It is plain that the powers of government must, in some +way or other, be understood by the natives to be at sale. The +Governor-General says that he took the money with an original +destination to the purposes to which he asserts he has since applied it. +But this original destination was in his own mind only,--not declared, +nor by him pretended to be declared, to the party who gave the presents, +and who could perceive nothing in it but money paid to the supreme +magistrate for his private emolument. All that the natives could +possibly perceive in such a transaction must be highly dishonorable to +the Company's government; for they must conceive, when they gave money +to Mr. Hastings, that they bought from Mr. Hastings either what was +their own right or something that was not so, or that they redeemed +themselves from some acts of rigor inflicted, threatened, or +apprehended. If, in the first case, Mr. Hastings gave them the object +for which they bargained, his act, however proper, was corrupt,--if he +did not, it was both corrupt and fraudulent; if the money was extorted +by force or threats, it was oppressive and tyrannical. The very nature +of such transactions has a tendency to teach the natives to pay a +corrupt court to the servants of the Company; and they must thereby be +rendered less willing, or less able, or perhaps both, to fulfil their +engagements to the state. Mr. Scott's evidence asserts that they would +rather give to Mr. Hastings than lend to the Company. It is very +probable; but it is a demonstration of their opinion of his power and +corruption, and of the weak and precarious state of the Company's +authority. + +The second principle assumed by Mr. Hastings for his justification, +namely, that factious opposition and a divided government might create +exigencies requiring such supplies, is full as dangerous as the first; +for, if, in the divisions which must arise in all councils, one member +of government, when he thinks others factiously disposed, shall be +entitled to take money privately from the subject for the purposes of +his politics, and thereby to dispense with an act of Parliament, +pretences for that end cannot be wanting. A dispute may always be raised +in council in order to cover oppression and peculation elsewhere. But +these principles of Mr. Hastings tend entirely to destroy the character +and functions of a council, and to vest them in one of the dissentient +members. The law has placed the sense of the whole in the majority; and +it is not a thing to be suffered, that any of the members should +privately raise money for the avowed purpose of defeating that sense, or +for promoting designs that are contrary to it: a more alarming +assumption of power in an individual member of any deliberative or +executive body cannot be imagined. Mr. Hastings had no right, in order +to clear himself of peculation, to criminate the majority with faction. +No member of any body, outvoted on a question, has, or can have, a right +to direct any part of his public conduct by that principle. The members +of the Council had a common superior, to whom they might appeal in their +mutual charges of faction: they did so frequently; and the imputation of +faction has almost always been laid on Mr. Hastings himself. + +But there were periods, very distinguished periods too, in the records +of the Company, in which the clandestine taking of money could not be +supported even by this pretence. Mr. Hastings has been charged with +various acts of peculation, perpetrated at a time he could not excuse +himself by the plea of any public purpose to be carried on, or of any +faction in council by which it was traversed. It may be necessary here +to recall to the recollection of the House, that, on the cry which +prevailed of the ill practices of the Company's servants in India, +(which general cry in a great measure produced the Regulating Act of +1773,) the Court of Directors, in their instructions of the 29th of +March, 1774, gave it as an injunction to the Council-General, that "they +_immediately_ cause the _strictest_ inquiry to be made into _all_ +oppressions which may have been committed either against natives or +Europeans, and into _all_ abuses which may have prevailed in the +collection of the revenues or _any part of the civil government_ of the +Presidency; and that you communicate to us _all information_ which you +may be able to obtain relative thereto, or any embezzlement or +dissipation of the Company's money." + +In this inquiry, by far the most important abuse which appeared on any +of the above heads was that which was charged relative to the sale in +gross by Mr. Hastings of nothing less than the whole authority of the +country government in the disposal of the guardianship of the Nabob of +Bengal. + +The present Nabob, Mobarek ul Dowlah, was a minor when he succeeded to +the title and office of Subahdar of the three provinces in 1770. +Although in a state approaching to subjection, still his rank and +character were important. Much was necessarily to depend upon a person +who was to preserve the moderation of a sovereign not supported by +intrinsic power, and yet to maintain the dignity necessary to carry on +the representation of political government, as well as the substance of +the whole criminal justice of a great country. A good education, +conformably to the maxims of his religion and the manners of his people, +was necessary to enable him to fill that delicate place with reputation +either to the Mahometan government or to ours. He had still to manage a +revenue not inconsiderable, which remained as the sole resource for the +languishing dignity of persons any way distinguished in rank among +Mussulmen, who were all attached and clung to him. These considerations +rendered it necessary to put his person and affairs into proper hands. +They ought to have been men who were able by the gravity of their rank +and character to preserve his morals from the contagion of low and +vicious company,--men who by their integrity and firmness might be +enabled to resist in some degree the rapacity of Europeans, as well as +to secure the remaining fragments of his property from the attempts of +the natives themselves, who must lie under strong temptation of taking +their share in the last pillage of a decaying house. + +The Directors were fully impressed with the necessity of such an +arrangement. Your Committee find, that, on the 26th of August, 1771, +they gave instructions to the President and Council to appoint "a +minister to transact the political affairs of the circar +[government],--and to select for that purpose some person well qualified +for the affairs of government to be the minister of the government, and +guardian of the Nabob's minority." + +The order was so distinct as not to admit of a mistake; it was (for its +matter) provident and well considered; and the trust which devolved on +Mr. Hastings was of such a nature as might well stimulate a man +sensible to reputation to fulfil it in a manner agreeably to the +directions he had received, and not only above just cause of exception, +but out of the reach of suspicion and malice. In that situation it was +natural to suppose he would cast his eyes upon men of the first repute +and consideration among the Mussulmen of high rank. + +Mr. Hastings, instead of directing his eyes to the durbar, employed his +researches in the seraglio. In the inmost recesses of that place he +discovered a woman secluded from the intercourse and shut up from the +eyes of men, whom he found to correspond with the orders he had received +from the Directors, as a person well "qualified for the affairs of +government, fit to be a minister of government and the guardian of the +Nabob's minority." This woman he solemnly invests with these functions. +He appoints Rajah Gourdas, whom some time after he himself qualified +with a description of a young man of mean abilities, to be her duan, or +steward of the household. The rest of the arrangement was correspondent +to this disposition of the principal offices. + +It seems not to have been lawful or warrantable in Mr. Hastings to set +aside the arrangement positively prescribed by the Court of Directors, +which evidently pointed to a man, not to any woman whatever. As a woman +confined in the female apartment, the lady he appointed could not be +competent to hold or qualified to exercise any active employment: she +stood in need of guardians for herself, and had not the ability for the +guardianship of a person circumstanced as the Subah was. General +Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis declare in their minute, +"that they believe there never was an instance in India of such a trust +so disposed of." Mr. Hastings has produced no precedent in answer to +this objection. + +It will be proper to state to the House the situation and circumstances +of the women principally concerned, who were in the seraglio of Jaffier +Ali Khân at his death. The first of these was called Munny Begum, a +person originally born of poor and obscure parents, who delivered her +over to the conductress of a company of dancing girls; in which +profession being called to exhibit at a festival, the late Nabob took a +liking to her, and, after some cohabitation, she obtained such influence +over him that he took her for one of his wives and (she seems to have +been the favorite) put her at the head of his harem; and having a son by +her, this son succeeded to his authority and estate,--Munny Begum, the +mother, being by his will a devisee of considerable sums of money, and +other effects, on which he left a charge, which has since been applied +to the service of the East India Company. The son of this lady dying, +and a son by another wife succeeding, and dying also, the present Nabob, +Mobarek ul Dowlah, son by a third wife, succeeded. This woman was then +alive, and in the seraglio. + +It was Munny Begum that Mr. Hastings chose, and not the natural mother +of the Nabob. Whether, having chosen a woman in defiance of the +Company's orders, and in passing by the natural parent of the minor +prince, he was influenced by respect for the disposition made by the +deceased Nabob during his life, or by other motives, the House will +determine upon a view of the facts which follow. It will be matter of +inquiry, when the question is stated upon the appointment of a +stepmother in exclusion of the parent, whether the usage of the East +constantly authorizes the continuance of that same distribution of rank +and power which was settled in the seraglio during the life of a +deceased prince, and which was found so settled at his death, and +afterwards, to the exclusion of the mother of the successor. In case of +female guardianship, her claim seems to be a right of Nature, and which +nothing but a very clear positive law will (if that can) authorize the +departure from. The history of Munny Begum is stated on the records of +the Council-General, and no attempt made by Mr. Hastings to controvert +the truth of it. + +That was charged by the majority of Council to have happened which might +be expected inevitably to happen: the care of the Nabob's education was +grossly neglected, and his fortune as grossly mismanaged and embezzled. +What connection this waste and embezzlement had with the subsequent +events the House will judge. + +On the 2d of May, 1775, Mr. James Grant, accountant to the Provincial +Council of Moorshedabad, produced to the Governor-General and Council +certain Persian papers which stated nine lacs of rupees (upwards of +ninety thousand pounds sterling) received by Munny Begum, on her +appointment to the management of the Nabob's household, over and above +the balance due at that time, and not accounted for by her. These Grant +had received from Nuned Roy, who had been a writer in the Begum's +Treasury Office. Both Mr. Grant and Nuned Roy were called before the +board, and examined respecting the authenticity of the papers. Among +other circumstances tending to establish the credit of these papers, it +appears that Mr. Grant offered to make oath that the chief eunuch of the +Begum had come to him on purpose to prevail on him not to send the +papers, and had declared _that the accounts were not to be disputed_. + +On the 9th of May it was resolved by a majority of the board, against +the opinion and solemn protest of the Governor-General, that a gentleman +should be sent up to the city of Moorshedabad to demand of Munny Begum +the accounts of the nizamut and household, from April, 1764, to the +latest period to which they could be closed, and to divest the Begum of +the office of guardian to the Nabob; and Mr. Charles Goring was +appointed for this purpose. + +The preceding facts are stated to the House, not as the foundation of an +inquiry into the conduct of the Begum, but as they lead to and are +therefore necessary to explain by what means a discovery was made of a +sum of money given by her to Mr. Hastings. + +Mr. Goring's first letter from the city, dated 17th May, 1775, mentions, +among other particulars, the young Nabob's joy at being delivered out of +the hands of Munny Begum, of the mean and indigent state of confinement +in which he was kept by her, of the distress of his mother, and that he +had told Mr. Goring that the "Begum's eunuch had instructed the servants +not to suffer him to learn anything by which he might make himself +acquainted with business": and he adds, "Indeed, I believe there is +great truth in it, as his Excellency seems to be ignorant of almost +everything a man of his rank ought to know,--not from a want of +understanding, but of being properly educated." + +On the 21st of May, Mr. Goring transmitted to the Governor-General and +Council an account of sums given by the Begum under her seal, delivered +to Mr. Goring by the Nabob in her apartments. The account is as follows. + + Memorandum of Disbursements to English Gentlemen, from the + Nabob's Sircar, in the Bengal Year 1179. + + +--------------------+ + |Seal of Munny Begum,| + |Mother of the Nabob | + |Nudjuf ul Dowlah, | + |deceased. | + +--------------------+ + + To the Governor, Mr. Hastings, for an + entertainment 1,50,000 + + To Mr. Middleton, on account of an agreement + entered into by Baboo Begum 1,50,000 + -------- + Rupees 3,00,000 + + + +When this paper was delivered, the Governor-General moved that Mr. +Goring might be asked _how he came by it_, and _on what account this +partial selection was made by him_; also, that the Begum should be +desired _to explain the sum laid to his charge_, and that he should ask +_the Nabob or the Begum their reasons for delivering this separate +account_. + +The substance of the Governor's proposal was agreed to. + +Mr. Goring's answer to this requisition of the board is as follows. + +"In compliance with your orders to explain the delivery of the paper +containing an account of three lacs of rupees, I am to inform you, it +took its rise from a message sent me by the Begum, requesting I would +interest myself with the Nabob to have Akbar Ali Khân released to her +for a few hours, having something of importance to communicate to me, on +which she wished to consult him. Thinking the service might be benefited +by it, I accordingly desired the Nabob would be pleased to deliver him +to my charge, engaging to return him the same night,--which I did. I +heard no more till next day, when the Begum requested to see his +Excellency and myself, desiring Akbar Ali might attend. + +"On our first meeting, she entered into a long detail of her +administration, endeavoring to represent it in the fairest light; at +last she came to the point, and told me, my urgent and repeated +remonstrances to her to be informed how the balance arose of which I was +to inquire induced her from memory to say what she had herself +given,--then mentioning the sum of a lac and a half to the Governor to +feast him whilst he stayed there, and a lac and a half to Mr. Middleton +by the hands of Baboo Begum. As I looked on this no more than a matter +of conversation, I arose to depart, but was detained by the Begum's +requesting the Nabob to come to her. A scene of weeping and complaint +then began, which made me still more impatient to be gone, and I +repeatedly sent to his Excellency for that purpose: he at last came out +and delivered me the paper I sent you, declaring it was given him by the +Begum to be delivered me." + +Munny Begum also wrote a letter to General Clavering, in which she +directly asserts the same. "Mr. Goring has pressed me on the subject of +the balances; in answer to which I informed him, that all the +particulars, being on record, would in the course of the inquiry appear +from the papers. He accordingly received from the Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah a list of three lacs of rupees given to the Governor and Mr. +Middleton. I now send you inclosed a list of the dates when it was +presented, and through whose means, which you will receive." + +The Governor-General then desired that the following questions might be +proposed to the Begum by Mr. Martin, then Resident at the Durbar. + +1st. Was any application made to you for the account which you have +delivered, of three lacs of rupees said to have been paid to the +Governor and Mr. Middleton, or did you deliver the account of your own +free will, and unsolicited? + +2d. In what manner was the application made to you, and by whom? + +3d. On what account was the sum of one and half lacs given to the +Governor-General, which you have laid to his account? Was it in +consequence of any requisition from him, or of any previous agreement, +or of any established usage? + +The Governor-General objected strongly to Mr. Goring's being present +when the questions were put to the Begum; but it was insisted on by the +majority, and it was resolved accordingly, that he ought to be present. +The reasons on both sides will best appear by the copy of the debate, +inserted in the Appendix. + +The Begum's answer to the preceding questions, addressed to the +Governor-General and Council, where it touched the substance, was as +follows. + +"The case is this. Mr. Goring, on his arrival here, _seized all the +papers, and secured them under his seal; and all the mutsuddies [clerks +or accountants] attended him, and explained to him all the particulars +of them_. Mr. Goring inquired of me concerning the arrears due to the +sepoys, &c., observing, that the nizamut and bhela money [Nabob's +allowance] was received from the Company; from whence, then, could the +balance arise? I made answer, that the sum was not adequate to the +expenses. Mr. Goring then asked, What are those expenses which exceed +the sum received from the Company? I replied, _All the particulars will +be found in the papers_. The affair of the three lacs of rupees, _on +account of entertainment for the Governor and Mr. Middleton_, has been, +I am told, related to you by Rajah Gourdas; besides which there are many +other expenses, which will appear from the papers. As the custom of +entertainment is of long standing, and accordingly every Governor of +Calcutta who came to Moorshedabad received a daily sum of two thousand +rupees for entertainment, which, was in fact instead of provisions; and +the lac and an half of rupees laid to Mr. Middleton's charge was _a +present on account of an agreement entered into by the Bhow Begum_. I +therefore affixed my seal to the account, and forwarded it to Mr. Goring +by means of the Nabob." + +In this answer, the accounts given to Mr. Goring she asserts to be +genuine. They are explained, in all the particulars, by all the +secretaries and clerks in office. They are secured under Mr. Goring's +seal. To them she refers for everything; to them she refers for the +three lacs of rupees given to Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton. It is +impossible to combine together a clearer body of proof, composed of +record of office and verbal testimony mutually supporting and +illustrating each other. + +The House will observe that the receipt of the money is indirectly +admitted by one of the Governor's own questions to Munny Begum. + +If the money was not received, it would have been absurd to ask _on what +account it was given_. Both the question and the answer relate to some +established usage, the appeal to which might possibly be used to justify +the acceptance of the money, if it was accepted, but would be +superfluous, and no way applicable to the charge, if the money was never +given. + +On this point your Committee will only add, that, in all the controversy +between Mr. Hastings and the majority of the Council, he _nowhere denies +the receipt of this money_. In his letter to the Court of Directors of +the 31st of July, 1775, he says that the Begum was compelled by the ill +treatment of one of her servants, which he calls _a species of torture_, +to deliver the paper to Mr. Goring; but he nowhere affirms that the +contents of the paper were false. + +On this conduct the majority remark, "We confess it appears very +extraordinary that Mr. Hastings should employ so much time and labor to +show that the discoveries against him have been obtained by improper +means, but that he should take no step whatsoever _to invalidate the +truth of them_. He does not deny the receipt of the money: the Begum's +answers to the questions put to her at his own desire make it impossible +that he should deny it. It seems, he has formed some plan of defence +against this and similar charges, which he thinks will avail him in a +court of justice, and which it would be imprudent in him to anticipate +at this time. If he has not received the money, we see no reason for +such a guarded and cautious method of proceeding. An innocent man would +take a shorter and easier course. He would voluntarily exculpate +himself by his oath." + +Your Committee entertain doubts whether the refusal to exculpate by oath +can be used as a circumstance to infer any presumption of guilt. But +where the charge is direct, specific, circumstantial, supported by +papers and verbal testimony, made before his lawful superiors, to whom +he was accountable, by persons competent to charge, if innocent, he was +obliged at least to oppose to it a clear and formal denial of the fact, +and to make a demand for inquiry. But if he does not deny the fact, and +eludes inquiry, just presumptions will be raised against him. + +Your Committee, willing to go to the bottom of a mode of corruption deep +and dangerous in the act and the example, being informed that Mr. Goring +was in London, resolved to examine him upon the subject. Mr. Goring not +only agreed with all the foregoing particulars, but even produced to +your Committee what he declared to be the original Persian papers in his +hands, delivered from behind the curtain through the Nabob himself, who, +having privilege, as a son-in-law, to enter the women's apartment, +received them from Munny Begum as authentic,--the woman all the while +lamenting the loss of her power with many tears and much vociferation. +She appears to have been induced to make discovery of the above +practices in order to clear herself of the notorious embezzlement of the +Nabob's effects. + +Your Committee examining Mr. Scott and Mr. Baber on this subject, they +also produced a Persian paper, which Mr. Baber said he had received from +the hands of a servant of Munny Begum,--and along with it a paper +purporting to be a translation into English of the Persian original. In +the paper given as the translation, Munny Begum is made to allege many +matters of hardship and cruelty against Mr. Goring, and an attempt to +compel her to make out a false account, but does not at all deny the +giving the money: very far from it. She is made to assert, indeed, "that +Mr. Goring desired her to put down three lacs of rupees, as divided +between Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton. I begged to be excused, +observing to him that this money had neither been tendered or _accepted_ +with any criminal or improper view." After some lively expressions in +the European manner, she says, "that it had been customary to furnish a +table for the Governor and his attendants, during their stay at court. +With respect to the sum mentioned to Mr. Middleton, it was a _free gift_ +from my own _privy purse_. Purburam replied, he understood this money to +be paid to these gentlemen as a gratuity for _secret services_; and as +such he should assuredly represent it." Here the payments to Mr. +Hastings are fully admitted, and excused as agreeable to usage, and for +keeping a table. The present to Mr. Middleton is justified as a free +gift. The paper produced by Mr. Scott is not referred to by your +Committee as of any weight, but to show that it does not prove what it +is produced to prove. + +Your Committee, on reading the paper delivered in by Mr. Scott as a +translation, perceive it to be written in a style which they conceived +was little to be expected in a faithful translation from a Persian +original, being full of quaint terms and idiomatic phrases, which +strongly bespeak English habits in the way of thinking, and of English +peculiarities and affectations in the expression. Struck with these +strong internal marks of a suspicious piece, they turned to the Persian +manuscript produced by Mr. Scott and Mr. Baber, and comparing it with +Mr. Goring's papers, they found the latter carefully sealed upon every +leaf, as they believe is the practice universal in all authentic pieces. +They found on the former no seal or signature whatsoever, either at the +top or bottom of the scroll. This circumstance of a want of signature +not only takes away all authority from the piece as evidence, but +strongly confirmed the suspicions entertained by your Committee, on +reading the translation, of unwarrantable practices in the whole conduct +of this business, even if the translation should be found substantially +to agree with the original, such an original as it is. The Persian roll +is in the custody of the clerk of your Committee for further +examination. + +Mr. Baber and Mr. Scott, being examined on these material defects in the +authentication of a paper produced by them as authentic, could give no +sort of account how it happened to be without a signature; nor did Mr. +Baber explain how he came to accept and use it in that condition. + +On the whole, your Committee conceive that all the parts of the +transaction, as they appear in the Company's records, are consistent, +and mutually throw light on each other. + +The Court of Directors order the President and Council to appoint a +_minister_ to transact the _political_ affairs of the government, and to +_select_ for that purpose some person well qualified for the _affairs of +government_, and to be the _minister of government_. Mr. Hastings +selects for the minister so described and so qualified a woman locked up +in a seraglio. He is ordered to appoint a guardian to the Nabob's +minority. Mr. Hastings passes by his natural parent, and appoints +another woman. These acts would of themselves have been liable to +suspicion. But a great deficiency or embezzlement soon appears in this +woman's account. To exculpate herself, she voluntarily declares that she +gave a considerable sum to Mr. Hastings, who never once denies the +receipt. The account given by the principal living witness of the +transaction in his evidence is perfectly coherent, and consistent with +the recorded part. The original accounts, alleged to be delivered by the +lady in question, were produced by him, properly sealed and +authenticated. Nothing is opposed to all this but a paper without +signature, and therefore of no authority, attended with a translation of +a very extraordinary appearance; and this paper, in apologizing for it, +confirms the facts beyond a doubt. + +Finally, your Committee examined the principal living witness of the +transaction, and find his evidence consistent with the record. Your +Committee received the original accounts, alleged to be delivered by the +lady in question, properly sealed and authenticated, and find opposed to +them nothing but a paper without signature, and therefore of no +authority, attended with a translation of a very extraordinary +appearance. + +In Europe the Directors ordered opinions to be taken on a prosecution: +they received one doubtful, and three positively for it. + +They write, in their letter of 5th February, 1777, paragraphs 32 and +33:-- + +"Although it is rather our wish to prevent evils in future than to enter +into a severe retrospection of the past, and, where facts are doubtful, +or attended with alleviating circumstances, to proceed with lenity, +rather than to prosecute with rigor,--yet some of the cases are so +flagrantly corrupt, and others attended with circumstances so oppressive +to the inhabitants, that it would be unjust to suffer the delinquents to +go unpunished. The principal facts[56] have been communicated to our +solicitor, whose report, confirmed by our standing counsel, we send you +by the present conveyance,--authorizing you, at the same time, to take +such steps as shall appear proper to be pursued. + +"If we find it necessary, we shall return you the original covenants of +such of our servants as remain in India, and have been anyways concerned +in the undue receipt of money, in order to enable you to recover the +same for the use of the Company by a suit or suits at law, to be +instituted in the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal." + +Your Committee do not find that the covenants have been sent, or that +any prosecution has been begun. + +A vast scene of further peculation and corruption, as well in this +business as in several other instances, appears in the evidence of the +Rajah Nundcomar. That evidence, and all the proceedings relating to it, +are entered in the Appendix. It was the last evidence of the kind. The +informant was hanged. An attempt was made by Mr. Hastings to indict him +for a conspiracy; this failing of effect, another prosecutor appeared +for an offence not connected with these charges. Nundcomar, the object +of that charge, was executed, at the very crisis of the inquiry, for an +offence of another nature, not capital by the laws of the country. As +long as it appeared safe, several charges were made (which are inserted +at large in the Appendix); and Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell seemed +apprehensive of many more. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. +Francis declared, in a minute entered on the Consultations of the 5th +May, 1775, that, "in the late proceedings of the Revenue Board, it will +appear that there is no species of peculation from which the Honorable +Governor-General has thought proper to abstain." A charge of offences of +so heinous a nature, so very extensive, so very deliberate, made on +record by persons of great weight, appointed by act of Parliament his +associates in the highest trust,--a charge made at his own board, to his +own face, and transmitted to their common superiors, to whom they were +jointly and severally accountable, this was not a thing to be passed +over by Mr. Hastings; still less ought it to have perished in other +hands. It ought to have been brought to an immediate and strict +discussion. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis ought to +have been punished for a groundless accusation, if such it had been. If +the accusation were founded, Mr. Hastings was very unfit for the high +office of Governor-General, or for any office. + +After this comprehensive account by his colleagues of the +Governor-General's conduct, these gentlemen proceeded to the +particulars, and they produced the case of a corrupt bargain of Mr. +Hastings concerning the disposition of office. This transaction is here +stated by your Committee in a very concise manner, being on this +occasion merely intended to point out to the House the absolute +necessity which, in their opinion, exists for another sort of inquiry +into the corruptions of men in power in India than hitherto has been +pursued. The proceedings may be found at large in the Appendix. + +A complaint was made that Mr. Hastings had sold the office of Phousdar +of Hoogly to a person called Khân Jehan Khân on a corrupt agreement,--which +was, that from his emoluments of seventy-two thousand rupees a +year he was to pay to the Governor-General thirty-six thousand rupees +annually, and to his banian, Cantoo Baboo, four thousand more. The +complainant offers to pay to the Company the forty thousand rupees which +were corruptly paid to these gentlemen, and to content himself with the +allowance of thirty-two thousand. Mr. Hastings was, if on any occasion +of his life, strongly called upon to bring this matter to the most +distinct issue; and Mr. Barwell, who supported his administration, and +as such ought to have been tender for his honor, was bound to help him +to get to the bottom of it, if his enemies should be ungenerous enough +to countenance such an accusation, without permitting it to be detected +and exposed. But the course they held was directly contrary. They began +by an objection to receive the complaint, in which they obstinately +persevered as far as their power went. Mr. Barwell was of opinion that +the Company's instructions to inquire into peculation were intended for +the public interests,--that it could not forward the public interests to +enter into these inquiries,--and that "he never would be a channel of +aspersing any character, while it cannot conduce to the good of +government." Here was a new mode of reasoning found out by Mr. Barwell, +which might subject all inquiry into peculation to the discretion of +the very persons charged with it. By that reasoning all orders of his +superiors were at his mercy; and he actually undertook to set aside +those commands which by an express act of Parliament he was bound to +obey, on his opinion of what would or would not conduce to the good of +government. On his principles, he either totally annihilates the +authority of the act of Parliament, or he entertains so extravagant a +supposition as that the Court of Directors possessed a more absolute +authority, when their orders were not intended for the public good, than +when they were. + +General Clavering was of a different opinion. He thought "he should be +wanting to the legislature, and to the Court of Directors, if he was not +to receive the complaints of the inhabitants, when properly +authenticated, and to prefer them to the board for investigation, as the +only means by which these grievances can be redressed, and the Company +informed of the conduct of their servants." + +To these sentiments Colonel Monson and Mr. Francis adhered. Mr. Hastings +thought it more safe, on principles similar to those assumed by Mr. +Barwell, to refuse to hear the charge; but he reserved his remarks on +this transaction, because they will be equally applicable to _many +others which in the course of this business are likely to be brought +before the board_. There appeared, therefore, to him a probability that +the charge about the corrupt bargain was no more than the commencement +of a whole class of such accusations; since he was of opinion (and what +is very extraordinary, previous to any examination) that the same +remarks would be applicable to several of those which were to follow. He +must suppose this class of charges very uniform, as well as very +extensive. + +The majority, however, pressed their point; and notwithstanding his +opposition to all inquiry, as he was supported only by Mr. Barwell, the +question for it was carried. He was then desired to name a day for the +appearance of the accuser, and the institution of the inquiry. Though +baffled in his attempt to stop the inquiry in the first stage, Mr. +Hastings made a second stand. He seems here to have recollected +something inherent in his own office, that put the matter more in his +power than at first he had imagined; for he speaks in a positive and +commanding tone: "I will not," says his minute, "name a day for Mir Zin +ul ab Dien to appear before the board; _nor will I suffer him to appear +before the board_." + +The question for the inquiry had been carried; it was declared fit to +inquire; but there was, according to him, a power which might prevent +the appearance of witnesses. On the general policy of obstructing such +inquiries, Mr. Francis, on a motion to that effect, made a sound remark, +which cannot fail of giving rise to very serious thoughts: "That, +supposing it agreed among ourselves that the board shall not hear any +charges or complaints against a member of it, a case or cases may +hereafter happen, in which, by a reciprocal complaisance to each other, +our respective misconduct may be effectually screened from inquiry; and +the Company, whose interest is concerned, or the parties who may have +reason to complain of any one member individually, may be left without +remedy." + +Mr. Barwell was not of the opinion of that gentleman, nor of the maker +of the motion, General Clavering, nor of Mr. Monson, who supported it. +He entertains sentiments with regard to the orders of the Directors in +this particular perfectly correspondent with those which he had given +against the original inquiry. He says, "Though it may in some little +degree save the Governor-General from personal insult, where there is no +judicial power lodged, that of inquisition can never answer any good +purpose." This is doctrine of a most extraordinary nature and tendency, +and, as your Committee conceive, contrary to every sound principle to be +observed in the constitution of judicatures and inquisitions. The power +of inquisition ought rather to be wholly separated from the judicial, +the former being a previous step to the latter, which requires other +rules and methods, and ought not, if possible, to be lodged in the same +hands. The rest of his minute (contained in the Appendix) is filled with +a censure on the native inhabitants, with reflections on the ill +consequences which would arise from an attention to their complaints, +and with an assertion of the authority of the Supreme Court, as +superseding the necessity and propriety of such inquiries in Council. +With regard to his principles relative to the natives and their +complaints, if they are admitted, they are of a tendency to cut off the +very principle of redress. The existence of the Supreme Court, as a +means of relief to the natives under all oppressions, is held out to +qualify a refusal to hear in the Council. On the same pretence, Mr. +Hastings holds up the authority of the same tribunal. But this and other +proceedings show abundantly of what efficacy that court has been for the +relief of the unhappy people of Bengal. A person in delegated authority +refuses a satisfaction to his superiors, throwing himself on a court of +justice, and supposes that nothing but what judicially appears against +him is a fit subject of inquiry. But even in this Mr. Hastings fails in +his application of his principle; for the majority of the Council were +undoubtedly competent to order a prosecution against him in the Supreme +Court, which they had no ground for without a previous inquiry. But +their inquiry had other objects. No private accuser might choose to +appear. The party who was the subject of the peculation might be (as +here is stated) the accomplice in it. No popular action or popular suit +was provided by the charter under whose authority the court was +instituted. In any event, a suit might fail in the court for the +punishment of an actor in an abuse for want of the strictest legal +proof, which might yet furnish matter for the correction of the abuse, +and even reasons strong enough not only to justify, but to require, the +Directors instantly to address for the removal of a +Governor-General.--The opposition of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell proved +as ineffectual in this stage as the former; and a day was named by the +majority for the attendance of the party. + +The day following this deliberation, on the assembling of the Council, +the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, said, "he would not sit to be +confronted by such accusers, nor to _suffer_ a judicial inquiry into his +conduct at the board of which he is the president." As on the former +occasions, he declares the board dissolved. As on the former occasions, +the majority did not admit his claim to this power; they proceeded in +his absence to examine the accuser and witnesses. Their proceedings are +in Appendix K. + +It is remarkable, that, during this transaction, Khân Jehan Khân, the +party with whom the corrupt agreement was made, declined an attendance +under excuses which the majority thought pretences for delay, though +they used no compulsory methods towards his appearance. At length, +however, he did appear, and then a step was taken by Mr. Hastings of a +very extraordinary nature, after the steps which he had taken before, +and the declarations with which those steps had been accompanied. Mr. +Hastings, who had absolutely refused to be present in the foregoing part +of the proceeding, appeared with Khân Jehan Khân. And now the affair +took another turn; other obstructions were raised. General Clavering +said that the informations hitherto taken had proceeded upon oath. Khân +Jehan Khân had previously declared to General Clavering his readiness to +be so examined; but when called upon by the board, he changed his mind, +and alleged a delicacy, relative to his rank, with regard to the oath. +In this scruple he was strongly supported by Mr. Hastings. He and Mr. +Barwell went further: they contended that the Council had no right to +administer an oath. They must have been very clear in that opinion, when +they resisted the examination on oath of the very person who, if he +could safely swear to Mr. Hastings's innocence, owed it as a debt to his +patron not to refuse it; and of the payment of this debt it was +extraordinary in the patron not only to enforce, but to support, the +absolute refusal. + +Although the majority did not acquiesce in this doctrine, they appeared +to have doubts of the prudence of enforcing it by violent means; but, +construing his refusal into a disposition to screen the peculations of +the Governor-General, they treated him as guilty of a contempt of their +board, dismissed him from the service, and recommended another (not the +accuser) to his office. + +The reasons on both sides appear in the Appendix. Mr. Hastings accuses +them bitterly of injustice to himself in considering the refusal of this +person to swear as a charge proved. How far they did so, and under what +qualifications, will appear by reference to the papers in the Appendix. +But Mr. Hastings "thanks God that they are not his judges." His great +hold, and not without reason, is the Supreme Court; and he "blesses the +wisdom of Parliament, that constituted a court of judicature at so +seasonable a time, to check the despotism of the new Council." It was +thought in England that the court had other objects than the protection +of the Governor-General against the examinations of those sent out with +instructions to inquire into the peculations of men in power. + +Though Mr. Hastings did at that time, and avowedly did, everything to +prevent any inquiry that was instituted merely for the information of +the Court of Directors, yet he did not feel himself thoroughly satisfied +with his own proceedings. It was evident that to them his and Mr. +Barwell's reasonings would not appear very respectful or satisfactory; +he therefore promises to give them full satisfaction at some future +time. In his letter of the 14th of September, 1775, he reiterates a +former declaration, and assures them of his resolution to this purpose +in the strongest terms. "I now _again_ recur to the declaration which I +have before made, that it is my fixed determination to carry _literally_ +into execution, and _most fully and liberally explain every circumstance +of my conduct on the points upon which I have been injuriously +arraigned_,--and to afford you the clearest conviction of my own +integrity, and of the propriety of my motives for my declining a present +defence of it." + +These motives, as far as they can be discovered, were the violence of +his adversaries, the interested character and views of the accuser, and +the danger of a prosecution in the Supreme Court, which made it prudent +to reserve his defence. These arguments are applicable to any charge. +Notwithstanding these reasons, it is plain by the above letter that he +thought himself bound at some time or other to give satisfaction to his +masters: till he should do this, in his own opinion, he remained in an +unpleasant situation. But he bore his misfortune, it seems, patiently, +with a confidence in their justice for his future relief. He says, +"Whatever evil may fill the _long interval_ which may precede it." That +interval he has taken care to make long enough; for near eight years are +now elapsed, and he has not yet taken the smallest step towards giving +to the Court of Directors any explanation whatever, much less that full +and liberal explanation which he had so repeatedly and solemnly +promised. + +It is to be observed, that, though Mr. Hastings talks in these letters +much of his integrity, and of the purity of his motives, and of full +explanations, he nowhere denies the fact of this corrupt traffic of +office. Though he had adjourned his defence, with so much pain to +himself, to so very long a day, he was not so inattentive to the ease of +Khân Jehan Khân as he has shown himself to his own. He had been accused +of corruptly reserving to himself a part of the emoluments of this man's +office; it was a delicate business to handle, whilst his defence stood +adjourned; yet, in a very short time after a majority came into his +hands, he turned out the person appointed by General Clavering, &c, and +replaced the very man with whom he stood accused of the corrupt bargain; +what was worse, he had been charged with originally turning out +another, to make room for this man. The whole is put in strong terms by +the then majority of the Council, where, after charging him with every +species of peculation, they add, "We believe the proofs of his +appropriating four parts in seven of the salary with which the Company +is charged for the Phousdar of Hoogly are such as, whether sufficient or +not to convict him in a court of justice, will not leave the shadow of a +doubt concerning his guilt in the mind of any unprejudiced person. The +salary is seventy-two thousand rupees a year; the Governor takes +thirty-six thousand, and allows Cantoo Baboo four thousand more for the +trouble he submits to in conducting the negotiation with the Phousdar. +This also is the common subject of conversation and derision through the +whole settlement. It is our firm opinion and belief, that the late +Phousdar of Hoogly, a relation of Mahomed Reza Khân, was turned out of +this office merely because his terms were not so favorable as those +which the Honorable Governor-General has obtained from the present +Phousdar. The Honorable Governor-General is pleased to assert, with a +confidential spirit peculiar to himself, that his measures hitherto +stand unimpeached, except by us. We know not how this assertion is to be +made good, unless _the most daring and flagrant prostitution in every +branch_ be deemed an honor to his administration." + +The whole style and tenor of these accusations, as well as the nature of +them, rendered Mr. Hastings's first postponing, and afterwards totally +declining, all denial, or even defence or explanation, very +extraordinary. No Governor ought to hear in silence such charges; and +no Court of Directors ought to have slept upon them. + +The Court of Directors were not wholly inattentive to this business. +They condemned his act as it deserved, and they went into the business +of his legal right to dissolve the Council. Their opinions seemed +against it, and they gave precise orders against the use of any such +power in future. On consulting Mr. Sayer, the Company's counsel, he was +of a different opinion with regard to the legal right; but he thought, +very properly, that the use of a right, and the manner and purposes for +which it was used, ought not to have been separated. What he thought on +this occasion appears in his opinion transmitted by the Court of +Directors to Mr. Hastings and the Council-General. "But it was as great +a _crime_ to dissolve the Council upon _base and sinister motives_ as it +would be to assume the power of dissolving, if he had it not. I believe +he is _the first governor that ever_ dissolved a council inquiring into +his behavior, when he was innocent. Before he could summon three +councils and dissolve them, he had time fully to consider what would be +the result of such conduct, _to convince everybody, beyond a doubt, of +his conscious guilt_." + +It was a matter but of small consolation to Mr. Hastings, during the +painful interval he describes, to find that the Company's learned +counsel admitted that he had legal powers of which he made an use that +raised an universal presumption of his guilt. + +Other counsel did not think so favorably of the powers themselves. But +this matter was of less consequence, because a great difference of +opinion may arise concerning the extent of official powers, even among +men professionally educated, (as in this case such a difference did +arise,) and well-intentioned men may take either part. But the use that +was made of it, in systematical contradiction to the Company's orders, +has been stated in the Ninth Report, as well as in many of the others +made by two of your committees. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] Appendix B. No. 1. + +[15] Vide Supplement to the Second Report, page 7. + +[16] Appendix. B. No. 2. + +[17] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. + +[18] Appendix B. No. 7. + +[19] Appendix B. No. 3 and No. 5. + +[20] Appendix B. No 6. + +[21] Vide Larkins's Affidavit, Appendix B. No. 5. + +[22] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. + +[23] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. + +[24] Ibid. + +[25] Ibid., No. 8. + +[26] Ibid., No. 1. + +[27] Ibid., No. 4. + +[28] Appendix B. No. 8. + +[29] Ibid. + +[30] Ibid., No. 9. + +[31] Appendix B. No. 1. + +[32] Ibid. + +[33] Ibid., No. 8. + +[34] Appendix B. No. 4: The Governor-General's Account of Moneys +received, dated 22d May, 1782. Also, Appendix B. No. 9: The Auditor's +Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General. + +[35] Vide Appendix B. No. 4. + +[36] Vide Mr. Hastings's Account, in Appendix B. No. 4. + +[37] Vide Hastings's Account, dated 22d May, 1782, in Appendix B. No. 4. + +[38] Vide above Appendix, and B. No. 2. + +[39] Vide above Appendix. + +[40] Vide Appendix B. No. 4. + +[41] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. + +[42] Ibid., No. 7. + +[43] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. + +[44] Ibid. + +[45] Act 13 Geo. III. cap 63. + +[46] Vide Mr. Hastings's Letter of 16 December, 1782, in Appendix B. No. +6. + +[47] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. + +[48] Vide Appendix B. No. 3. + +[49] Ibid. + +[50] Ibid. + +[51] Vide Appendix B. No. 3. + +[52] Vide Appendix B. No. 3. + +[53] Ibid. + +[54] Ibid., No. 6. + +[55] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. + +[56] Relative to salt farms, charges of the Ranny of Burdwan, and the +charges of Nundcomar and Munny Begum. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +B. No. 1.[57] + + +_Copy of a Letter from the Governor-General to the Court of Directors._ + +To the Honorable the Court of Directors of the Honorable United East +India Company. + +FORT WILLIAM, 29th November, 1780. + +HONORABLE SIRS,-- + +You will be informed by our Consultations of the 26th of June of a very +unusual tender which was made by me to the board on that day, for the +purpose of indemnifying the Company for the extraordinary expense which +might be incurred by supplying the detachment under the command of Major +Camac in the invasion of the Mahratta dominions, which lay beyond the +district of Gohud, and drawing the attention of Mahdajee Sindia, to whom +that country immediately appertained, from General Goddard, while his +was employed in the reduction of Bassein, and in securing the conquests +made by your arms in Guzerat. I was desirous to remove the only +objection which has been or could be ostensibly made to the measure, +which I had very much at heart, as may be easily conceived from the +means which I took to effect it. For the reasons at large which induced +me to propose that diversion, it will be sufficient to refer to my +minute recommending it, and to the letters received from General Goddard +near the same period of time. The subject is now become obsolete, and +all the fair hopes which I had built upon the prosecution of the +Mahratta war, of its termination in a speedy, honorable, and +advantageous peace, have been blasted by the dreadful calamities which +have befallen your arms in the dependencies of your Presidency of Fort +St. George, and changed the object of our pursuit from the +aggrandizement of your power to its preservation. My present reason for +reverting to my own conduct on the occasion which I have mentioned is to +obviate the false conclusions or purposed misrepresentations which may +be made of it, either as an artifice of ostentation or as the effect of +corrupt influence, by assuring you that the money, _by whatever means it +came into your possession_, was not my own,--that I had myself no right +to it, nor would or could have received it, but for the occasion which +prompted me to avail myself of the accidental means which were at that +instant afforded me of accepting and converting it to the property and +use of the Company; and with this brief apology I shall dismiss the +subject. + +Something of affinity to this anecdote may appear in the first aspect of +_another_ transaction, which I shall proceed to relate, and of which it +is more immediately my duty to inform you. + +You will have been advised, by repeated addresses of this government, of +the arrival of an army at Cuttack, under the command of Chimnajee +Boosla, the second son of Moodajee Boosla, the Rajah of Berar. The +origin and destination of this force have been largely explained and +detailed in the correspondence of the government of Berar, and in +various parts of our Consultations. The minute relation of these would +exceed the bounds of a letter; I shall therefore confine myself to the +principal fact. + +About the middle of the last year, a plan of confederacy was formed by +the Nabob Nizam Ali Khân, by which it was proposed, that, while the army +of the Mahrattas, under the command of Mahdajee Sindia and Tuckoojee +Hoolkar, was employed to check the operations of General Goddard in the +West of India, Hyder Ali Khân should invade the Carnatic, Moodajee +Boosla the provinces of Bengal, and he himself the Circars of Rajamundry +and Chicacole. + +The government of Berar was required to accept the part assigned it in +this combination, and to march a large body of troops immediately into +Bengal. To enforce the request on the part of the ruling member of the +Mahratta state, menaces of instant hostility by the combined forces were +added by Mahdajee Sindia, Tuckoojee Hoolkar, and Nizam Ali Khân, in +letters written by them to Moodajee Boosla on the occasion. He was not +in a state to sustain the brunt of so formidable a league, and +ostensibly yielded. Such at least was the turn which he gave to his +acquiescence, in his letters to me; and his subsequent conduct has +justified his professions. I was early and progressively acquainted by +him with the requisition, and with the measures which were intended to +be taken, and which were taken, by him upon it. The army professedly +destined for Bengal marched on the Dusserra of the last year, +corresponding with the 7th of October. Instead of taking the direct +course to Bahar, which had been prescribed, it proceeded by varied +deviations and studied delays to Cuttack, where it arrived late in May +last, having performed a practicable journey of three mouths in seven, +and concluded it at the instant commencement of the rains, which of +course would preclude its operations, and afford the government of Berar +a further interval of five months to provide for the part which it would +then be compelled to choose. + +In the mean time letters were continually written by the Rajah and his +minister to this government, explanatory of their situation and motives, +proposing their mediation and guaranty for a peace and alliance with the +Peshwa, and professing, without solicitation on our part, the most +friendly disposition towards us, and the most determined resolution to +maintain it. Conformably to these assurances, and the acceptance of a +proposal made by Moodajee Boosla to depute his minister to Bengal for +the purpose of negotiating and concluding the proposed treaty of peace, +application had been made to the Peshwa for credentials to the same +effect. + +In the mean time the fatal news arrived of the defeat of your army at +Conjeveram. It now became necessary that every other object should give +place or be made subservient to the preservation of the Carnatic; nor +would the measures requisite for that end admit an instant of delay. +Peace with the Mahrattas was the first object; to conciliate their +alliance, and that of every other power in natural enmity with Hyder +Ali, the next. Instant measures were taken (as our general advices will +inform you) to secure both these points, and to employ the government +of Berar as the channel and instrument of accomplishing them. Its army +still lay on our borders, and in distress for a long arrear of pay, not +less occasioned by the want of pecuniary funds than a stoppage of +communication. An application had been made to us for a supply of money; +and the sum specified for the complete relief of the army was sixteen +lacs. We had neither money to spare, nor, in the apparent state of that +government in its relation to ours, would it have been either prudent or +consistent with our public credit to have afforded it. It was +nevertheless my decided opinion that some aid should be given,--not less +as a necessary relief than as an indication of confidence, and a return +for the many instances of substantial kindness which we had within the +course of the last two years experienced from the government of Berar. I +had an assurance that such a proposal would receive the acquiescence of +the board; but I knew that it would not pass without opposition, and it +would have become public, which might have defeated its purpose. +Convinced of the necessity of the expedient, and assured of the +sincerity of the government of Berar, from evidences of stronger proof +to me than I could make them appear to the other members of the board, I +resolved to adopt it, and take the entire responsibility of it upon +myself. In this mode a less considerable sum would suffice. I +accordingly caused three lacs of rupees to be delivered to the minister +of the Rajah of Berar, resident in Calcutta: he has transmitted it to +Cuttack. Two thirds of this sum I have raised by my own credit, and +shall charge it in my official accounts; the other third I have supplied +from the cash in my hands belonging to the Honorable Company. I have +given due notice to Moodajee Boosla of this transaction, and explained +it to have been a private act of my own, unknown to the other members of +the Council. I have given him expectations of the remainder of the +amount required for the arrears of his army, proportioned to the extent +to which he may put it in my power to propose it as a public gratuity by +his effectual orders for the recall of these troops, or for their +junction with ours. + +I hope I shall receive your approbation of what I have done for your +service, and your indulgence for the length of this narrative, which I +could not comprise within a narrower compass. + + I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs, + Your most faithful, obedient, + and humble servant, + + WARREN HASTINGS. + + +B. No. 2. + +_An Account of Money paid into the Company's Treasury by the +Governor-General, since the Year 1773._ + +May April CRs. | CRs. + | +1774 to 1775. For interest bonds 2,175[58]| + For bills of exchange on the | + Court 1,43,937 | + For money refunded by | + order of Court, account | + General Coote's commission 8,418 | + -------- | 1,54,530 + | + | +1775-1776. For bills of exchange on the Court | 1,80,480 +1776-1777. Do. do. do. | 1,96,800 +1777-1778. Do. do. do. | 1,08,000 +1778-1779. Do. do. do. | 1,43,000 +1779-1780. Do. do. do. | 1,21,600 +1780-1781. For bills of exchange 43,000 | + For deposits 2,38,715 | + For interest bonds, at 8 per | + cent 4,75,600 | + For do. 4 per | + cent 1,66,000 | + For Durbar charges 2,32,000 | + -------- | 11,55,315 +May, 1782. For interest bonds | 35,000 + | --------- + | 20,94,725 + (Errors excepted.) + +JOHN ANNIS, + _Auditor of Indian Accounts._ + EAST INDIA HOUSE, 11th June, 1783. + + +B. No. 3. + +To the Honorable the Secret Committee of the Honorable Court of +Directors. + +FORT WILLIAM, 22d May, 1782. + +HONORABLE SIRS,-- + +In a letter which I have had the honor to address you in duplicate, and +of which a triplicate accompanies this, dated 20th January, 1782, I +informed you that I had received the offer of a sum of money from the +Nabob Vizier and his ministers to the nominal amount of ten lacs of +Lucknow siccas, and that bills on the house of Gopaul Doss had been +actually given me for the amount, which I had accepted for the use of +the Honorable Company; and I promised to account with you for the same +as soon as it should be in my power, after the whole sum had come into +my possession. This promise I now perform; and deeming it consistent +with the spirit of it, I have added such _other_ sums as have been +occasionally converted to the Company's property through my means, and +in consequence of the like original destination. Of the second of these +you have been already advised in a letter which I had the honor to +address the Honorable Court of Directors, dated 29th November, 1780. +Both this and the third article were paid immediately to the Treasury, +by my order to the sub-treasurer to receive them on the Company's +account, but never passed through my hands. The three sums for which +bonds were granted were in like manner paid to the Company's Treasury +without passing through my hands; but their appropriation was not +specified. The sum of 58,000 current rupees was received while I was on +my journey to Benares, and applied as expressed in the account. + +As to the manner in which these sums have been expended, the reference +which I have made of it, in the accompanying account, to the several +accounts in which they are credited, renders any other specification of +it unnecessary; besides that those accounts either have or will have +received a much stronger authentication than any that I could give to +mine. + +Why these sums were taken by me,--why they were, except the second, +quietly transferred to the Company's use,--why bonds were taken for the +first, and not for the rest,--might, were this matter to be exposed to +the view of the public, furnish a variety of conjectures, to which it +would be of little use to reply. Were your Honorable Court to question +me upon these points, I would answer, that the sums were taken for the +Company's benefit at times in which the Company very much needed +them,--that I either chose to conceal the first receipts from public +curiosity by receiving bonds for the amount, or possibly acted without +any studied design which my memory could at this distance of time +verify, and that I did not think it worth my care to observe the same +means with the rest. I trust, Honorable Sirs, to your breasts for a +candid interpretation of my actions, and assume the freedom to add, that +I think myself, on such a subject, and on such an occasion, entitled to +it. + + I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs, + Your most faithful, most obedient, + and most humble servant, + + WARREN HASTINGS. + + +B. No. 4. + +_An Account of Sums received on the Account of the Honorable Company of +the Governor-General, or paid to their Treasury by his Order, and +applied to their Service._ + +-------------------------------------------------+---------------- +1780. | +October. | + The following sums were paid into the | +Treasury, and bonds granted for the same, in the | +name of the Governor-General, in whose possession| +the bonds remain, with a declaration upon each | +indorsed and signed by him, that he has no claim | +on the Company for the amount either of principal| +or interest, no part of the latter having been | +received: | + | +One bond, dated the 1st October, | + 1780, No. 1539 1,16,000 0 0 | + | +One bond, dated the 2d October, | + 1780, No. 1540 1,16,000 0 0 | + | +One bond, dated the 23d November, | + 1780, No. 1354 1,74,000 0 0 | + -------------- | 4,06,000 0 0 +November. | + Paid into the Treasury, and carried | +to the Governor-General's credit in the | +12th page of the Deposits Journal of 1780-81, | +mohurs of sorts which had been coined in the | +Mint, and produced, as per 358 and 359 | +pages of the Company's General Journal of | +1780-81: | + Gold mohurs, 12,861 12 11, or | + Calcutta siccas 2,05,788 14 9 | + Batta, 16 per cent 32,926 3 6 | + -------------- | 2,38,715 2 3 +1781. | +30 April. | + Paid into the Treasury, and credited | +in the 637th page of the Company's General | +Journal, as money received from the | +Governor-General on account of Durbar charges: | + Sicca rupees 2,00,000 0 0 | + Batta, 16 per cent 32,000 0 0 | 2,32,000 0 0 + -------------- | -------------- + Carried forward | 8,76,715 2 3 + + Brought forward | 8,76,715 2 3 +August. | + Received in cash, and employed in | +defraying my public disbursements, and credited | +in the Governor-General's account of | +Durbar charges for April, 1782 | 58,000 0 0 + + Produce of the sum mentioned in the | +Governor-General's letter to the Honorable | +Secret Committee, dated 20th January, 1782, | +and credited in the Governor-General's account | +of Durbar charges for April, 1782 | 10,30,275 1 3 + |---------------- + Current rupees | 19,64,990 3 6 + ( Errors excepted.) + + WARREN HASTINGS. + FORT WILLIAM, 22d May, 1782. + + +B. No. 5. + +I, William Larkins, do make oath and say, that the letter and account to +which this affidavit is affixed were written by me at the request of the +Honorable Warren Hastings, Esquire, on the 22d May, 1782, from rough +draughts written by himself in my presence; that the cover of the letter +was sealed up by him in my presence, and was then intended to have been +transmitted to England by the "Lively," when that vessel was first +ordered for dispatch; and that it has remained closed until this day, +when it was opened for the express purpose of being accompanied by this +affidavit. + + So help me God. + WILLIAM LARKINS. + + CALCUTTA, 16th December 1782. + + Sworn this 16th day of December, 1782, before me, + J. HYDE. + + +B. No. 6. + +To the Honorable the Secret Committee of the Honorable Court of +Directors. + +FORT WILLIAM, 16 December, 1782. + +HONORABLE SIRS,-- + +The dispatch of the "Lively" having been protracted by various causes +from time to time, the accompanying address, which was originally +designed and prepared for that dispatch, (no other conveyance since +occurring,) has of course been thus long detained. The delay is of no +public consequence; but it has produced a situation which with respect +to myself I regard as unfortunate, because it exposes me to the meanest +imputation from the occasion which the late Parliamentary Inquiries have +since furnished, but which were unknown when my letter was written, and +written in the necessary consequence of a promise made to that effect in +a former letter to your Honorable Committee, dated 20th January last. +However, to preclude the possibility of such reflections from affecting +me, I have desired Mr. Larkins, who was privy to the whole transaction, +to affix to the letter his affidavit of the date in which it was +written. I own I feel most sensibly the mortification of being reduced +to the necessity of using such precautions to guard my reputation from +dishonor. If I had at any time possessed that degree of confidence from +my immediate employers which they never withheld from the meanest of my +predecessors, I should have disdained to use these attentions. How I +have drawn on me a different treatment I know not; it is sufficient that +I have not merited it: and in the course of a service of thirty-two +years, and ten of these employed in maintaining the powers and +discharging the duties of the first office of the British government in +India, that Honorable Court ought to know whether I possess the +integrity and honor which are the first requisites of such a station. If +I wanted these, they have afforded me but too powerful incentives to +suppress the information which I now convey to them through you, and to +appropriate to my own use the sums which I have already passed to their +credit, by the unworthy, and, pardon me if I add, dangerous, reflections +which they have passed upon me for the first communication of this kind: +and your own experience will suggest to you, that there are persons who +would profit by such a warning. + +Upon the whole of these transactions, which to you, who are accustomed +to view business in an official and regular light, may appear +unprecedented, if not improper, I have but a few short remarks to +suggest to your consideration. + +If I appear in any unfavorable light by these transactions, I resign the +common and legal security of those who commit crimes or errors. I am +ready to answer every particular question that may be put against +myself, upon honor or upon oath. + +The sources from which these reliefs to the public service have come +would never have yielded them to the Company publicly; and the +exigencies of your service (exigencies created by the exposition of your +affairs, and faction in your councils) required those supplies. + +I could have concealed them, had I had a wrong motive, from yours and +the public eye forever; and I know that the difficulties to which a +spirit of injustice may subject me for my candor and avowal are greater +than any possible inconvenience that could have attended the +concealment, except the dissatisfaction of my own mind. These +difficulties are but a few of those which I have suffered in your +service. The applause of my own breast is my surest reward, and was the +support of my mind in meeting them: your applause, and that of my +country, are my next wish in life. + + I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs, + Your most faithful, most obedient, + and most humble servant, + + WARREN HASTINGS. + + +B. No. 7. + +_Extract of the Company's General Letter to Bengal, dated the 25th +January, 1782._ + +Par. 127. We have received a letter from our Governor-General, +dated the 29th of November, 1780, relative to an unusual tender and +advance of money made by him to the Council, as entered on your +Consultation of the 26th of June, for the purpose of indemnifying the +Company from the extraordinary charge which might be incurred by +supplying the detachment under the command of Major Camac in the +invasion of the Mahratta dominions, which lay beyond the district of +Gohud, and thereby drawing the attention of Mahdajee Sindia (to whom the +country appertained) from General Goddard, while the General was +employed in the reduction of Bassein, and in securing the conquests +made in the Guzerat country; and also respecting the sum of three lacs +of rupees advanced by the Governor-General for the use of the army under +the command of Chimnajee Boosla without the authority or knowledge of +the Council; with the reasons for taking these extraordinary steps under +the circumstances stated in his letter. + +128. In regard to the first of these transactions, we readily conceive, +that, in the then state of the Council, the Governor-General might be +induced to temporary secrecy respecting the members of the board, not +only because he might be apprehensive of opposition to the proposed +application of the money, but, perhaps, because doubts might have arisen +concerning the propriety of appropriating it to the Company's use on any +account; but it does _not appear to us_ that there could be any real +necessity for delaying to communicate to us immediate information of the +channel by which the money came into his possession, with a complete +illustration of the cause or causes of so extraordinary an event. + +129. Circumstanced as affairs were at the moment, it appears that the +Governor-General had the measure much at heart, and judged it absolutely +necessary. The means proposed of defraying the extra expense were very +extraordinary; and the money, as we conceive, must have come into his +hands by an unusual channel: and when more complete information comes +before us, we shall give our sentiments fully upon the whole +transaction. + +130. In regard to the application of the Company's money to the army of +Chimnajee Boosla by the sole authority of the Governor-General, he knew +that it was entirely at his own risk, and he has taken the +responsibility upon himself; nothing but the most urgent necessity +could warrant the measure; nor can anything short of full proof of such +necessity, and of the propriety and utility of the extraordinary step +taken on the occasion, entitle the Governor-General to the approbation +of the Court of Directors; and therefore, as in the former instance +relative to the sum advanced and paid into our Treasury, we must also +for the present _suspend_ our judgment respecting the money sent to the +Berar army, without approving it in the least degree, or proceeding to +censure our Governor-General for this transaction. + + +B. No. 8. + +_Extract of Bengal Secret Consultations, the 9th January, 1781._ + +The following letter from the Governor-General having been circulated, +and the request therein made complied with, an order on the Treasury +passed accordingly. + +HONORABLE SIR AND SIRS,-- + +Having had occasion to disburse the sum of three lacs of sicca rupees on +account of secret services, which having been advanced from my own +private cash, I request that the same may be repaid to me in the +following manner:--A bond to be granted me upon the terms of the second +loan, bearing date from the 1st October, for one lac of sicca rupees; a +bond to be granted me upon the terms of the first loan, bearing date +from the 1st October, for one lac of sicca rupees; a bond to be granted +me upon the terms of the first loan, bearing date from the 2d October, +for one lac of sicca rupees. + + I have the honor to be, &c., &c., + + (Signed) WARREN HASTINGS. + + Fort William, 5th January, 1781. + + +B. No. 9. + +_An Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General, from 1st January, +1779, to 31st May, 1782, with Interest paid or credited thereon._ + +-------------------+----------+------------------+------------------ +When paid into the | Sum. | Date of Bond. | Rate of Interest. + Treasury. | | | +-------------------+----------+------------------+------------------ + | CRs. | | +23d Nov., 1780 | 1,74,000 | 23d Nov., 1780 | at 8 per cent. +15th Dec. | 69,600 | 15th Dec. | Do. +15th Jan., 1781 | 1,16,000 | 1st Oct., 1780 | Do. + Do. | 1,16,000 | 2d Do. | Do. + Do. | 1,16,000 | 1st Do. | 4 per cent. +17th March | 50,000 | 17th Mar., 1781 | Do. +8th May, 1782 | 20,000 | 15th Sept., 1781 | 8 per cent. + Do. | 15,000 | 8th Dec., 1781 | Do. + |----------| | + | 6,76,600 | | + +There does not appear to have been any interest paid on the above bonds +to 31st May, 1782, the last accounts received. In the Interest Books, +1780-81, the last received, the Governor-General has credit for interest +on the first six to April, 1781, to the amount of CRs. 21,964 12 8. + + (Errors excepted.) + + JOHN ANNIS, + _Auditor of Indian Accounts._ + EAST INDIA HOUSE, 5th June, 1783. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[57] As the Appendixes originally printed with the foregoing Reports, +and which consist chiefly of official documents, would have swelled this +volume to an enormous size, it has been thought proper to omit them, +with the exception of the first nine numbers of the Appendix B. to the +Eleventh Report, the insertion of which has been judged necessary for +the elucidation of the subject-matter of that Report. + +[58] {Received 19th May, + {Cancelled 30th July, 1774. + + + + +ARTICLES OF CHARGE + +OF + +HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS + +AGAINST + +WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE + +LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL: + +PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS + +IN APRIL AND MAY, 1786. + + +ARTICLES I.-VI. + + + + +ARTICLES OF CHARGE + +AGAINST + +WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ., + +LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. + + +I.--ROHILLA WAR. + +That the Court of Directors of the East India Company, from a just sense +of the danger and odium incident to the extension of their conquests in +the East Indies, and from an experience of the disorders and corrupt +practices which intrigues and negotiations to bring about revolutions +among the country powers had produced, did positively and repeatedly +direct their servants in Bengal not to engage in any offensive war +whatsoever. That the said Court laid it down as _an invariable maxim, +which ought ever to be maintained, that they were to avoid taking part +in the political schemes of any of the country princes_,--and did, in +particular, order and direct that they should not engage with a certain +prince called Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, and Vizier of the Empire, +in any operations beyond certain limits in the said orders specially +described. + +That Warren Hastings, Esquire, then Governor of Fort William in Bengal, +did, with other members of the Council, declare his clear understanding +of the true intent and meaning of the said positive and repeated orders +and injunctions,--did express to the Court of Directors his approbation +of the policy thereof,--did declare that he adopted the same _with +sincerity and satisfaction_, and that he was _too well aware of the +ruinous tendency of all schemes of conquest ever to adopt them, or ever +to depart from the absolute line of self-defence, unless impelled to it +by the most obvious necessity_,--did signify to the Nabob of Oude the +said orders, and his obligation to yield punctual obedience +thereto,--and did solemnly engage and promise to the Court of Directors, +with the _unanimous concurrence_ of the whole Council, "that no object +or consideration should either tempt or compel him to pass the political +line which they [the Directors] had laid down for his operations with +the Vizier," assuring the Court of Directors that he "scarce saw a +possible advantage which could compensate the hazard and expense to be +incurred by a contrary conduct,"--that he did frequently repeat the same +declarations, or declarations to the same effect, particularly in a +letter to the Nabob himself, of the 22d of November, 1773, in the +following words: "The commands of my superiors are, as I have repeatedly +informed you, peremptory, that I shall not suffer their arms to be +carried beyond the line of their own boundaries, and those of your +Excellency, their ally." + +That the said Warren Hastings, in direct contradiction to the said +orders, and to his own sense of their propriety and coercive authority, +and in breach of his express promises and engagements, did, in +September, 1773, enter into a private engagement with the said Nabob of +Oude, who was the special object of the prohibition, to furnish him, for +a stipulated sum of money to be paid to the East India Company, with a +body of troops for the declared purpose of "thoroughly extirpating the +nation of the Rohillas": a nation from whom the Company had never +received, or pretended to receive or apprehend, any injury whatsoever; +whose country, in the month of February, 1773, by an unanimous +resolution of the said Warren Hastings and his Council, was included in +the line of defence against the Mahrattas; and from whom the Nabob never +complained of an aggression or act of hostility, nor pretended a +distinct cause of quarrel, other than the non-payment of a sum of money +in dispute between him and that people. + +That, supposing the sum of money in question to have been strictly due +to the said Nabob by virtue of any engagement between him and the +Rohilla chiefs, the East India Company, or their representatives, were +not parties to that engagement, or guaranties thereof, nor bound by any +obligation whatever to enforce the execution of it. + +That, previous to the said Warren Hastings's entering into the agreement +or bargain aforesaid to extirpate the said nation, he did not make, or +cause to be made, a due inquiry into the validity of the sole pretext +used by the said Nabob; nor did he give notice of the said claims of +debt to the nation of the Rohillas, in order to receive an explanation +on their part of the matter in litigation; nor did he offer any +mediation, nor propose, nor afford an opportunity of proposing, an +agreement or submission by which the calamities of war might be avoided, +as, by the high state in which the East India Company stood as a +sovereign power in the East, and the honor and character it ought to +maintain, as well as by the principles of equity and humanity, and by +the true and obvious policy of uniting the power of the Mahometan +princes against the Mahrattas, he was bound to do. That, instead of +such previous inquiry, or tender of good offices, the said Warren +Hastings did stimulate the ambition and ferocity of the Nabob of Oude to +the full completion of the inhuman end of the said unjustifiable +enterprise, by informing him "that it would be absolutely necessary to +persevere in it until it should be accomplished"; pretending that a fear +of the Company's displeasure was his motive for annexing the +accomplishment of the enterprise as a condition of his assistance, and +asserting "that he could not hazard or answer for the displeasure of the +Company, his masters, if they should find themselves involved in a +_fruitless_ war, or in an expense for prosecuting it,"--a pretence +tending to the high dishonor of the East India Company, as if the gain +to be acquired was to reconcile that body to the breach of their own +orders prohibiting all such enterprises;--and in order further to +involve the said Nabob beyond the power of retreating, he did, in the +course of the proceeding, purposely put the said Nabob under +difficulties in case he should decline that war, and did oblige him to +accept even the permission to relinquish the execution of this unjust +project as a favor, and _to make concessions for it_; thereby acting as +if the Company were principals in the hostility; and employing for this +purpose much double dealing and divers unworthy artifices to entangle +and perplex the said Nabob, but by means of which he found himself (as +he has entered it on record) _hampered and embarrassed in a particular +manner_. + +That the said compact for offensive alliance in favor of a great prince +against a considerable nation was not carried on by projects and +counter-projects in writing; nor were the articles and conditions +thereof formed into any regular written instrument, signed and sealed +by the parties; but the whole (both the negotiation and the compact of +offensive alliance against the Rohillas) was a mere verbal engagement, +the purport and conventions whereof nowhere appeared, except in +subsequent correspondence, in which certain of the articles, as they +were stated by the several parties, did materially differ: a proceeding +new and unprecedented, and directly leading to mutual misconstruction, +evasion, and ill faith, and tending to encourage and protect every +species of corrupt, clandestine practice. That, at the time when this +private verbal agreement was made by the said Warren Hastings with the +Nabob of Oude, a public ostensible treaty was concluded by him with the +said Nabob, in which there is no mention whatever of such agreement, or +reference whatever to it: in defence of which omission, it is asserted +by the said Warren Hastings, that _the multiplication of treaties +weakens their efficacy, and therefore they should be reserved only for +very important and permanent obligations_; notwithstanding he had +previously declared to the said Nabob, "that the points which he had +proposed required much consideration, and the previous ratification of a +formal agreement, before he could consent to them." That the whole of +the said verbal agreement with the Nabob of Oude in his own person, +without any assistance on his part, was carried on and concluded by the +said Warren Hastings alone, without any person who might witness the +same, without the intervention even of an interpreter, though he +confesses that he spoke the Hindostan language _imperfectly_, and +although he had with him at that time and place several persons high in +the Company's service and confidence, namely, the commander-in-chief of +their forces, two members of their Council, and the Secretary to the +Council, who were not otherwise acquainted with the proceedings between +him and the said Nabob than by such communications as he thought fit to +make to them. + +That the object avowed by the said Warren Hastings, and the motives +urged by him for employing the British arms in the utter extirpation of +the Rohilla nation, are stated by himself in the following terms:--"The +acquisition of forty lacs of rupees to the Company, and of so much +specie added to the exhausted currency of our provinces;--that it would +give wealth to the Nabob of Oude, of which we should participate;--that +the said Warren Hastings _should_ always be ready to profess that he did +reckon the probable acquisition of wealth among his reasons for taking +up arms against his _neighbors_;--that it would ease the Company of a +considerable part of their military expense, and preserve their troops +from inaction and relaxation of discipline;--that the weak state of the +Rohillas promised an easy conquest of them;--and, finally, that such was +his idea of the Company's distress at home, added to his knowledge of +their wants abroad, that he should have been glad of _any_ occasion to +employ their forces which saved so much of their pay and expenses." + +That, in the private verbal agreement aforesaid for offensive war, the +said Warren Hastings did transgress the bounds of the authority given +him by his instructions from the Council of Fort William, which had +limited his powers to such compacts "as were consistent with the spirit +of the Company's orders"; which Council he afterwards persuaded, and +with difficulty drew into an acquiescence in what he had done. + +That the agreement to the effect aforesaid was settled in the said +secret conferences before the 10th of September, 1773; but the said +Warren Hastings, concealing from the Court of Directors a matter of +which it was his duty to afford them the earliest and fullest +information, did, on the said 10th of September, 1773, write to the +Directors, and dispatched his letter over land, giving them an account +of the public treaty, but taking not the least notice of his agreement +for a mercenary war against the nation of the Rohillas. + +That, in order to conceal the true purport of the said clandestine +agreement the more effectually, and until he should find means of +gaining over the rest of the Council to a concurrence in his +disobedience of orders, he entered a minute in the Council books, giving +a false account of the transaction; in which minute he represented that +the Nabob had indeed _proposed_ the design aforesaid, and that he, the +said Warren Hastings, _was pleased that he urged the scheme of this +expedition no further_, when in reality and truth he had absolutely +consented to the said enterprise, and had engaged to assist him in it, +which he afterwards admitted, and confessed that he did act in +consequence of the same. + +That the said Warren Hastings and his Council were sensible of the true +nature of the enterprise in which they had engaged the Company's arms, +and of the heavy responsibility to which it would subject himself and +the Council,--"the personal hazard they, the Council, run, in +undertaking so _uncommon_ a measure without _positive_ instructions, at +their own risk, with the eyes of the whole nation on the affairs of the +Company, and the passions and prejudices of almost every man in England +inflamed against the conduct of the Company and the character of its +servants"; yet they engaged in the very practice which had brought such +odium on the Company, and on the character of its servants, though they +further say that they had continually before _their eyes the dread of +forfeiting the favor of their employers_, and becoming the "objects of +_popular_ invectives." The said Warren Hastings himself says, at the +very time when he proposed the measure, "I must confess I entertain some +doubts as to its expediency at this time, from the circumstances of the +_Company_ at home, exposed to _popular_ clamor, and all its measures +liable to be canvassed in _Parliament_, their charter drawing to a +close, and his Majesty's ministers unquestionably ready to take +advantage of every unfavorable circumstance in the negotiations of its +renewal." All these considerations did not prevent the said Warren +Hastings from making and carrying into execution the said mercenary +agreement for a sum of money, the payment of which the Nabob endeavored +to evade on a construction of the verbal treaty, and was so far from +being insisted on, as it ought to have been, by the said Warren +Hastings, that, when, after the completion of the service, the +commander-in-chief was directed to make a demand of the money, the agent +of the said Warren Hastings at the same time assured the Nabob "that the +demand was nothing more than matter of form, common, and even necessary, +in all public transactions, and that, although the board considered the +claim of the government literally due, it was not the intention of +administration to prescribe to his Excellency _the mode, or even +limits, of payment_." Nor was any part of the money recovered, until the +establishment of the Governor-General and Council by act of Parliament, +and their determination to withdraw the brigade from the Nabob's +service,--the Resident at his court, appointed by the said Warren +Hastings, having written, _that he had experienced much duplicity and +deceit in most of his transactions with his Excellency_; and the said +Nabob and his successors falling back in other payments in the same or +greater proportion as he advanced in the payment of this debt, the +consideration of lucre to the Company, the declared motive to this +shameful transaction, totally failed, and no money in effect and +substance (as far as by any account to be depended on appears) has been +obtained. + +That the said Nabob of Oude did, in consequence of the said agreement, +and with the assistance of British troops, which were ordered to march +and subjected to his disposal by the said Warren Hastings and the +Council, unjustly enter into and invade the country of the Rohillas, and +did there make war in a barbarous and inhuman manner, "by an abuse of +victory," "by the unnecessary destruction of the country," "by a wanton +display of violence and oppression, of inhumanity and cruelty," and "by +the sudden expulsion and casting down of an whole race of people, to +whom the slightest benevolence was denied." When prayer was made not to +dishonor the Begum (a princess of great rank, whose husband had been +killed in battle) and other women, by _dragging them about the country, +to be loaded with the scoffs of the Nabob's rabble, and otherwise still +worse used_, the Nabob refused to listen to the entreaties of a British +commander-in-chief in their favor; and the said women of high rank were +exposed not only to the vilest personal indignities, but even to +absolute want: and these transactions being by Colonel Champion +communicated to the said Warren Hastings, instead of commendations for +his intelligence, and orders to redress the said evils, and to prevent +the like in future, by means which were suggested, and which appear to +have been proper and feasible, he received a reprimand from the said +Warren Hastings, who declared that we had no authority to control the +conduct of the Vizier in the treatment of his subjects; and that Colonel +Champion desisted from making further representations on this subject to +the said Warren Hastings, being apprehensive of having already run some +risk of displeasing by perhaps a too free communication of sentiments. +That, in consequence of the said proceedings, not only the eminent +families of the chiefs of the Rohilla nation were either cut off or +banished, and their wives and offspring reduced to utter ruin, but the +country itself, heretofore distinguished above all others for the extent +of its cultivation as a _garden_, not having _one spot_ in it of +_uncultivated_ ground, and from being _in the most flourishing state +that a country could be_, was by the inhuman mode of carrying on the +war, and the ill government during the consequent usurpation, reduced to +a state of great decay and depopulation, in which it still remains. + +That the East India Company, having had reason to conceive, that, for +the purpose of concealing corrupt transactions, their servants in India +had made unfair, mutilated, and garbled communications of +correspondence, and sometimes had wholly withheld the same, made an +order in their letter of the 23d of March, 1770, in the following +tenor:--"The Governor singly shall correspond with the country powers; +but _all_ letters, before they shall be by him sent, must be +communicated to the other members of the Select Committee, and receive +their approbation; and also _all_ letters _whatsoever_ which may be +received by the Governor, in answer to or in course of correspondence, +shall likewise be laid before the said Select Committee for their +information and consideration"; and that in their instructions to their +Governor-General and Council, dated 30th March, 1774, they did repeat +their orders to the same purpose and effect. + +That the said Warren Hastings did not obey, as in duty he was bound to +do, the said standing orders; nor did communicate all his correspondence +with Mr. Middleton, the Company's agent at the court of the Subah of +Oude, or with Colonel Champion, the commander-in-chief of the Company's +forces in the Rohilla war, to the Select Committee: and when afterwards, +that is to say, on the 25th of October, 1774, he was required by the +majority of the Council appointed by the act of Parliament of 1773, +whose opinion was by the said act directed to be taken as the act of the +whole Council, to produce _all_ his correspondence with Mr. Middleton +and Colonel Champion for the direction of their future proceedings +relative to the obscure, intricate, and critical transaction aforesaid, +he did positively and pertinaciously refuse to deliver any other than +such parts of the said correspondence as he thought convenient, covering +his said illegal refusal under general vague pretences of secrecy and +danger from the communication, although the said order and instruction +of the Court of Directors above mentioned was urged to him, and although +it was represented to him by the said Council, that they, as well as +he, were bound by an oath of secrecy: which refusal to obey the orders +of the Court of Directors (orders specially, and on weighty grounds of +experience, pointed to cases of this very nature) gave rise to much +jealousy, and excited great suspicions relative to the motives and +grounds on which the Rohilla war had been undertaken. + +That the said Warren Hastings, in the grounds alleged in his +justification of his refusal to communicate to his colleagues in the +Superior Council his correspondence with Mr. Middleton, the Company's +Resident at Oude, was guilty of a new offence, arrogating to himself +unprecedented and dangerous powers, on principles utterly subversive of +all order and discipline in service, and introductory to corrupt +confederacies and disobedience among the Company's servants; the said +Warren Hastings insisting that Mr. Middleton, the Company's covenanted +servant, the public Resident for transacting the Company's affairs at +the court of the Subah of Oude, and as such receiving from the Company a +salary for his service, was no other than the _official agent_ of him, +the said Warren Hastings, and that, being such, he was not obliged to +communicate his correspondence. + +That the Court of Directors, and afterwards a General Court of the +Proprietors of the East India Company, (although the latter showed +favorable dispositions towards the said Warren Hastings, and expressed, +but without assigning any ground or reason, the highest opinion of his +services and integrity,) did unanimously condemn, along with his conduct +relative to the Rohilla treaty and war, his refusal to communicate his +whole correspondence with Mr. Middleton to the Superior Council: yet the +said Warren Hastings, in defiance of the opinion of the Directors, and +the unanimous opinion of the General Court of the said East India +Company, as well as the precedent positive orders of the Court of +Directors, and the injunctions of an act of Parliament, has, from that +time to the present, never made any communication of the whole of his +correspondence to the Governor-General and Council, or to the Court of +Directors. + + +II.--SHAH ALLUM. + +That, in a solemn treaty of peace, concluded the 16th of August, 1765, +between the East India Company and the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah ul +Dowlah, and highly approved of, confirmed, and ratified by the said +Company, it is agreed, "that the King Shah Allum shall remain in full +possession of Corah, and such part of the province of Allahabad as he +now possesses, which are ceded to his Majesty as a royal demesne for the +support of his dignity and expenses." That, in a separate agreement, +concluded at the same time, between the King Shah Allum and the then +Subahdar of Bengal, under the immediate security and guaranty of the +English Company, the faith of the Company was pledged to the said King +for the annual payment of twenty-six lac of rupees for his support out +of the revenues of Bengal; and that the said Company did then receive +from the said King a grant of the duanné of the provinces of Bengal, +Bahar, and Orissa, on the express condition of their being security for +the annual payment above mentioned. That the East India Company have +held, and continue to hold, the duanné so granted, and for some years +have complied with the conditions on which they accepted of the grant +thereof, and have at all times acknowledged that they held the duanné +_in virtue of the Mogul's grants_. That the said Court of Directors, in +their letter of the 30th June, 1769, to Bengal, declared, "that they +esteemed themselves bound by treaty to protect the King's person, and to +secure him the possession of the Corah and Allahabad districts"; and +supposing an agreement should be made respecting these provinces between +the King and Sujah ul Dowlah, the Directors then said, "that they should +be subject to no further claim or requisition from the King, excepting +for the stipulated tribute for Bengal, which they [the Governor and +Council] were to pay to his agent, or remit to him in such manner as he +might direct." + +That, in the year 1772, the King Shah Allum, who had hitherto resided at +Allahabad, trusting to engagements which he had entered into with the +Mahrattas, quitted that place, and removed to Delhi; but, having soon +quarrelled with those people, and afterwards being taken prisoner, had +been treated by them with very great disrespect and cruelty. That, among +other instances of their abuse of their immediate power over him, the +Governor and Council of Bengal, in their letter of the 16th of August, +1773, inform the Court of Directors that he had been _compelled, while a +prisoner in their hands, to grant sunnuds for the surrender of Corah and +Allahabad to them_; and it appears from sundry other minutes of their +own that the said Governor and Council did at all times consider the +surrender above mentioned as _extorted_ from the King, and +_unquestionably an act of violence_, which could not alienate or impair +his right to those provinces, and that, when they took possession +thereof, it was at the request of the King's Naib, or viceroy, who put +them under the Council's _protection_. That on this footing they were +accepted by the said Warren Hastings and his Council, and for some time +considered by them as a deposit committed to their care by a prince to +whom the possession thereof was particularly guarantied by the East +India Company. In their letter of the 1st of March, 1773, they (the said +Warren Hastings and his Council) say, "In no shape can this compulsatory +cession by the King release us from the obligation we are under to +defend the provinces which we have so particularly guarantied to him." +But it appears that they soon adopted other ideas and assumed other +principles concerning this object. In the instructions, dated the 23d of +June, 1773, which the Council of Fort William gave to the said Warren +Hastings, previous to his interview with the Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah at +Benares, they say, that, "while the King continued at Delhi, whither he +proceeded in opposition to their most strenuous remonstrances, they +should certainly consider the engagements between him and the Company as +dissolved by his alienation from them and their interest; that the +possession of so remote a country could never be expected to yield any +profit to the Company, and the defence of it must require a perpetual +aid of their forces": yet in the same instructions they declare their +opinion, that, "if the King should make overtures to renew his former +connection, _his right to reclaim the districts of Corah and Allahabad +could not with propriety be disputed_," and they authorize the said +Warren Hastings to restore them to him _on condition that he should +renounce his claim to the annual tribute of twenty-six lac of rupees_, +herein before mentioned, _and to the arrears which might be due_, +thereby acknowledging the justice of a claim which they determined not +to comply with but in return for the surrender of another equally +valid;--that, nevertheless, in the treaty concluded by the said Warren +Hastings with Sujah ul Dowlah on the 7th of September, 1773, it is +asserted, that his Majesty, (meaning the King Shah Allum,) "having +abandoned the districts of Corah and Allahabad, and given a sunnud for +Corah and Currah to the Mahrattas, had thereby forfeited his right to +the said districts," although it was well known to the said Warren +Hastings, and had been so stated by him to the Court of Directors, that +this surrender on the part of the King had been extorted from him by +violence, while he was a prisoner in the hands of the Mahrattas, and +although it was equally well known to the said Warren Hastings that +there was nothing in the original treaty of 1765 which could restrain +the King from changing the place of his residence, consequently that his +removal to Delhi could not occasion a forfeiture of his right to the +provinces secured to him by that treaty. + +That the said Warren Hastings, in the report which he made of his +interview and negotiations with Sujah ul Dowlah, dated the 4th of +October, 1773, declared, "that the administration would have been +culpable in the highest degree in retaining possession of Corah and +Allahabad _for any other purpose than that of making an advantage by the +disposal of them_," and therefore he had ceded them to the Vizier for +fifty lac of rupees: a measure for which he had no authority whatever +from the King Shah Allum, and in the execution of which no reserve +whatever was made in favor of the rights of that prince, nor any care +taken of his interests. + +That the sale of these provinces to Sujah Dowlah involved the East India +Company in a triple breach of justice; since by the same act they +violated a treaty, they sold the property of another, and they alienated +a deposit committed to their friendship and good faith, and as such +accepted by them. That a measure of this nature is not to be defended on +motives of policy and convenience, supposing such motives to have +existed, without a total loss of public honor, and shaking all security +in the faith of treaties; but that in reality the pretences urged by the +said Warren Hastings for selling the King's country to Sujah Dowlah were +false and invalid. It could not strengthen our alliance with Sujah ul +Dowlah; since, paying a price for a purchase, he received no favor and +incurred no obligation. It did not free the Company from all the dangers +attending either a remote property or a remote connection; since, the +moment the country in question became part of Sujah Dowlah's dominions, +it was included in the Company's former guaranty of those dominions, and +in case of invasion the Company were obliged to send part of their army +to defend it at the requisition of the said Sujah Dowlah; and if the +remote situation of those provinces made the defence of them difficult +and dangerous, much more was it a difficult and dangerous enterprise to +engage the Company's force in an attack and invasion of the Rohillas, +whose country lay at a much greater distance from the Company's +frontier,--which, nevertheless, the said Warren Hastings agreed to and +undertook at the very time when, under pretence of the difficulty of +defending Corah and Allahabad, he sold those provinces to Sujah Dowlah. +It did not relieve the Company from the _expense_ of defending the +country; since the revenues thereof far exceeded the subsidy to be paid +by Sujah Dowlah, and these revenues justly belonged to the Company as +long as the country continued under their protection, and would have +answered the expense of defending it. Finally, that the sum of fifty lac +of rupees, stipulated with the said Sujah Dowlah, was inadequate to the +value of the country, the annual revenues of which were stated at +twenty-five lac of rupees, which General Sir Robert Barker, then +commander-in-chief of the Company's forces, affirms _was certain, and +too generally known to admit of a doubt_. + +That the King Shah Allum received for some years the annual tribute of +twenty-six lac of rupees above mentioned, and was entitled to continue +to receive it by virtue of an engagement deliberately, and for an +adequate consideration, entered into with him by the Company's servants, +and approved of and ratified by the Company themselves;--that this +engagement was absolute and unconditional, and did neither express nor +suppose any case in which the said King should forfeit or the Company +should have a right to resume the tribute;--that, nevertheless, the said +Warren Hastings and his Council, immediately after selling the King's +country to Sujah Dowlah, resolved to withhold, and actually withheld, +the payment of the said tribute, of which the King Shah Allum has never +since received any part;--that this resolution of the Council is not +justified even by themselves on principles of right and justice, but by +arguments of policy and convenience, by which the best founded claims +of right and justice may at all times be set aside and defeated. "They +judged it highly impolitic and unsafe to answer the drafts of the King, +until they were satisfied of his amicable intentions, and those of his +new allies." But neither had they any reason to question the King's +amicable intentions, nor was he pledged to answer for those of the +Mahrattas; his trusting to the good faith of that people, and relying on +their assistance to reinstate him in the possession of his capital, +might have been imprudent and impolitic, but these measures, however +ruinous to himself, indicated no enmity to the English, nor were they +productive of any effects injurious to the English interests. And it is +plain that the said Warren Hastings and his Council were perfectly aware +that their motives or pretences for withholding the tribute were too +weak to justify their conduct, having principally insisted on the +reduced state of their treasury, which, as they said, _rendered it +impracticable to comply with those payments_. The _right_ of a creditor +does not depend on the circumstances of the debtor: on the contrary, the +plea of inability includes a virtual acknowledgment of the debt; since, +if the creditor's right were denied, the plea would be superfluous. + +That the East India Company, having on their part violated the +engagements and renounced the conditions on which they received and have +hitherto held and enjoyed the duanné of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa from +the King Shah Allum, have thereby forfeited all right and title to the +said duanné arising from the said grant, and that it is free and open to +the said King to resume such grant, and to transfer it to any other +prince or state;--that, notwithstanding any distress or weakness to +which he may be actually reduced, his lawful authority, as sovereign of +the Mogul Empire, is still acknowledged in India, and that his grant of +the duanné would sufficiently authorize and materially assist any prince +or state that might attempt to dispossess the East India Company +thereof, since it would convey a right which could not be disputed, and +to which nothing but force could be opposed. Nor can these opinions be +more strongly expressed than they have been lately by the said Warren +Hastings himself, who, in a minute recorded the 1st of December, 1784, +has declared, that, "fallen as the House of Timur is, it is yet the +relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern world; that _its +sovereignty is universally acknowledged_, though the substance of it no +longer exists; and that the Company itself derives its constitutional +dominion from its ostensible bounty." + +That the said Warren Hastings by this declaration has renounced and +condemned the principle on which he avowedly acted towards the Mogul in +the year 1773, when he denied that the sunnuds or grants of the Mogul, +if they were in the hands of another nation, would avail them +anything,--and when he declared "that the sword which gave us the +dominion of Bengal must be the instrument of its preservation, and that, +if it should ever cease to be ours, the next proprietor would derive his +_right_ and possession from the same _natural charter_." That the said +Warren Hastings, to answer any immediate purpose, adopts any principle +of policy, however false or dangerous, without any regard to former +declarations made, or to principles avowed on other occasions by +himself; and particularly, that in his conduct to Shah Allum he first +maintained that the grants of that prince were of no avail,--that we +held the dominion of Bengal by the sword, which he has falsely declared +the source of _right_, and the _natural charter_ of dominion,--whereas +at a later period he has declared that the sovereignty of the family of +Shah Allum is universally acknowledged, and that the Company itself +derives its constitutional dominion from their ostensible bounty. + + +III.--BENARES. + +PART I. + +RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES. + +I. That the territory of Benares is a fruitful, and has been, not long +since, an orderly, well-cultivated, and improved province, of great +extent; and its capital city, as Warren Hastings, Esquire, has informed +the Court of Directors, in his letter of the 21st of November, 1781, "is +highly revered by the natives of the Hindoo persuasion, so that many who +have acquired independent fortunes retire to close their days in a place +so eminently distinguished for its sanctity"; and he further acquaints +the Directors, "that it may rather be considered as the seat of the +Hindoo religion than as the capital of a province. But as its +inhabitants are not composed of Hindoos only, the _former_ wealth which +flowed into it from the offerings of pilgrims, as well as from the +transactions of exchange, for which its central situation is adapted, +has attracted numbers of Mahomedans, who still continue to reside in it +with their families." And these circumstances of the city of Benares, +which not only attracted the attention of all the different +descriptions of men who inhabit Hindostan, but interested them warmly in +whatever it might suffer, did in a peculiar manner require that the +Governor-General and Council of Calcutta should conduct themselves with +regard to its rulers and inhabitants, when it became dependent on the +Company, on the most distinguished principles of good faith, equity, +moderation, and mildness. + +II. That the Rajah Bulwant Sing, late prince or Zemindar of the province +aforesaid, was a great lord of the Mogul Empire, dependent on the same, +through the Vizier of the Empire, the late Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of +Oude; and the said Bulwant Sing, in the commencement of the English +power, did attach himself to the cause of the English Company; and the +Court of Directors of the said Company did acknowledge, in their letter +of the 26th of May, 1768, that "Bulwant Sing's joining us at the time he +did was of _signal service_, and the stipulation in his favor was what +he was justly entitled to"; and they did commend "the care that had been +taken [by the then Presidency] of those that had shown their attachment +to them [the Company] during the war"; and they did finally express +their hope and expectation in the words following: "The moderation and +attention paid to those who have espoused our interests in this war will +_restore_ our reputation in Hindostan, and that the Indian powers will +be convinced _NO breach of treaty will ever have our sanction_." + +III. That the Rajah Bulwant Sing died on the 23d of August, 1770, and +his son, Cheyt Sing, succeeding to his rights and pretensions, the +Presidency of Calcutta (John Cartier, Esquire, being then President) did +instruct Captain Gabriel Harper to procure a confirmation of the +succession to his son Cheyt Sing, "as it was of the utmost political +import to the Company's affairs; and that the young man ought not to +consider the price to be paid to satisfy _the Vizier's jealousy and +avarice_." And they did further declare as follows: "The strong and +inviolable attachment which subsisted betwixt the Company and the father +makes us most readily interpose our good offices for the son." And the +young Rajah aforesaid having agreed, under the mediation of Captain +Harper, to pay near two hundred thousand pounds as a gift to the said +Vizier, and to increase his tribute by near thirty thousand pounds +annually, a deed of confirmation was passed by the said Vizier to the +said Rajah and his heirs, by which he became a purchaser, for valuable +considerations, of his right and inheritance in the zemindary aforesaid. +In consequence of this grant, so by him purchased, the Rajah was +solemnly invested with the government in the city of Benares, "amidst +the acclamations of a numerous people, and to the great satisfaction of +all parties." And the said Harper, in his letter of the 8th October, +1770, giving an account of the investiture aforesaid, did express +himself in these words: "I will leave the young Rajah and others to +acquaint you how I have conducted myself; only thus much let me say, +that I have kept a strict eye not to diminish our national honor, +disinterestedness, and justice, which I will conclude has had a greater +effect in securing to the Company their vast possessions than even the +force of arms, however formidable, could do." The President of Calcutta +testified his approbation of the said Harper's conduct in the strongest +terms, that is, in the following: "Your disinterestedness has been +equally distinguishable as your abilities, and both do you the greatest +honor." + +IV. That the agreement between the Rajah and Nabob aforesaid continued +on both sides without any violation, under the sanction and guaranty of +the East India Company, for three years, when Warren Hastings, Esquire, +being then President, did propose a further confirmation of the said +grant, and did, on the 12th of October, 1773, obtain a delegation for +himself to be the person to negotiate the same: it being his opinion, as +expressed in his report of October 4th, 1773, that the Rajah was not +only entitled to the inheritance of his zemindary by the grants through +Captain Harper, but that the preceding treaty of Allahabad, though +literally expressing no more than a security personal to Bulwant Sing, +did, notwithstanding, in the true sense and import thereof, extend to +his posterity; "and that it had been differently understood" (that is, +not literally) "by the Company, and by this administration; and the +Vizier had _before_ put it out of all dispute by the solemn act passed +in the Rajah's favor on his succession to the zemindary." + +V. That the Council, in their instructions to the said Governor +Hastings, did empower him "to _renew_, in behalf of the Rajah Cheyt +Sing, the stipulation which was formerly made with the Vizier in +consideration of his services in 1764"; and the government was +accordingly settled on the Rajah and his posterity, or to his heirs, on +the same footing on which it was granted to his said father, excepting +the addition aforesaid to the tribute, with an express provision "that +_no increase_ shall ever hereafter be demanded." And the grant and +stipulation aforesaid was further confirmed by the said Sujah ul Dowlah, +under the Company's guaranty, by the most solemn and awful form of oath +known in the Mahomedan religion, inserted in the body of the deed or +grant; and the said Warren Hastings, strongly impressed with the opinion +of the propriety of protecting the Rajah, and of the injustice, malice, +and avarice of the said Sujah Dowlah, and the known family enmity +subsisting between him and the Rajah, did declare, in his report to the +Council, as follows: "I am well convinced that the Rajah's inheritance, +and perhaps his life, are no longer safe than while he enjoys the +Company's protection, which is his due by the ties of justice and the +obligations of public faith." + +VI. That some time after the new confirmation aforesaid, that is to say, +in the year 1774, the Governor-General and Council, which had been +formed and the members thereof appointed by act of Parliament, did +obtain the assignment of the sovereignty paramount of the said +government by treaty with the Nabob of Oude, by which, although the +supreme dominion was changed, the terms and the conditions of the tenure +of the Rajah of Benares remained; as the said Nabob of Oude could +transfer to the East India Company no other or greater estate than he +himself possessed in or over the said zemindary. But to obviate any +misconstruction on the subject, the said Warren Hastings did propose to +the board, that, whatever provision might in the said treaty be made +for the interest of the Company, the same should be "without an +encroachment on the just rights of the Rajah, or _the engagements +actually subsisting with him_." + +VII. That the said Warren Hastings, then having, or pretending to have, +an extraordinary care of the interest of the Rajah of Benares, did, on +his transfer of the sovereignty, propose a new grant, to be conveyed in +new instruments to the said Rajah, conferring upon him further +privileges, namely, the addition of the sovereign rights of the mint, +and of the right of criminal justice of life and death. And he, the said +Warren Hastings, as Governor-General, did himself propose the resolution +for that purpose in Council, in the following words, with remarks +explanatory of the principles upon which the grants aforesaid were made, +namely:-- + +MINUTE. + +VIII. "That the perpetual and _independent_ possession of the zemindary +of Benares and its dependencies be _confirmed_ and guarantied to the +Rajah Cheyt Sing and his heirs forever, _subject only to the annual +payment of the revenues hitherto paid to the late Vizier_, amounting to +Benares Sicca Rupees 23,71,656.12, to be disposed of as is expressed in +the following article: _That no other demand be made on him either by +the Nabob of Oude or this government; nor any kind of authority or +jurisdiction be exercised by either within the districts assigned him_." +To which minute he, the said Warren Hastings, did subjoin the following +observation in writing, and recorded therewith in the Council books, +that is to say: "_The Rajah of Benares, from the situation of his +country, which is a frontier to the provinces of Oude and Bahar, may be +made a serviceable ally to the Company, whenever their affairs shall +require it. He has always been considered in this light both by the +Company and the successive members of the late Council; but to insure +his attachment to the Company, his interest must be connected with it, +which cannot be better effected than by freeing him totally from the +REMAINS of his present vassalage under the guaranty and protection of +the Company, and at the same time guarding him against any apprehensions +from this government, by thus pledging its faith that no encroachment +shall ever be made on his rights by the Company._" And the said Warren +Hastings, on the 5th of July, 1775, did himself propose, among other +articles of the treaty relative to this object, one of the following +tenor: "That, whilst the Rajah shall continue faithful to these +engagements and punctual in his payments, and shall pay due obedience to +the authority of this government, _no more demands_ shall be made upon +him by the Honorable Company of ANY KIND, or, on any pretence +whatsoever, shall any person be allowed to interfere with his authority, +or to disturb the peace of his country." And the said article was by the +other members of the Council assented to without debate. + +IX. On transferring the Rajah's tribute from the Nabob to the Company, +the stipulation with the Nabob was renewed on the proposition of the +said Warren Hastings himself, and expressed in a yet more distinct +manner, namely: "That no more demands shall be made upon him by the +Honorable Company of any kind." And the said Warren Hastings, in +justification of his proposal of giving the Rajah "a complete and +uncontrolled authority over his zemindary," did enter on the Council +book the following reasons for investing him with the same, strongly +indicating the situation in which he must be left under any other +circumstances, whether under the Nabob of Oude, or under the English, or +under the double influence of both: "That the security of his person and +possessions from the Company's protection may be rated equal to many +lacs of rupees, _which, though saved to him, are no loss to the +government on which he depends, being all articles of invisible +expense_: in fees to the ministers and officers of the Nabob; in the +charges of a double establishment of vackeels to both governments; in +presents and charges of accommodation to the Nabob, during his residence +at any place within the boundaries of his zemindary; in _the frauds, +embezzlements, and oppressions exercised in the mint and cutwally_; +besides the allowed profits of those officers, and the advantages which +every man _in occasional power, or in the credit of it, might make of +the Rajah's known weakness_, and the dread he stood in both of the +displeasure of the Nabob _and the ill-will of individuals among the +English, who were all considered, either in their present stations or +connections, or the right of succession, as members of the state of +Bengal_. It would be scarce possible to enumerate all the inconveniences +to which the Rajah was liable _in his former situation_, or to estimate +the precise effect which they produced on his revenue and on the gross +amount of his expense; but it may be easily conceived that both were +enormous, and of a nature the most likely to lessen the profits of +government, instead of adding to them." And in justification of his +proposal of giving the Rajah the symbols of sovereignty in the power of +life and death, and in the coining of money, as pledges of his +_independence_, he states the deplorable situation of princes reduced to +dependence on the Vizier or the Company, and obliged to entertain an +English Resident at their court, in the following words: "It is proposed +to receive the payment of his [the Rajah's] rents at Patna, because that +is the nearest provincial station, and because it would not frustrate +_the intention of rendering the Rajah independent_. If a Resident was +appointed to receive the money, as it became due, at Benares, _such a +Resident_ would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and +over his country, _which would in effect render him the master of both_. +This consequence might not perhaps be brought completely to pass without +_a struggle and many appeals to the Council_, which, in a government +constituted like this, _cannot fail to terminate against the Rajah, and, +by the construction to which his opposition to the agent would be +liable, might eventually draw on him severe restrictions, and end in +reducing him to the mean and depraved state of a mere zemindar_." + +X. That, in order to satisfy the said Rajah of the intentions of the +Company towards him, and of the true sense and construction of the +grants to him, the said Rajah, to be made, the Governor-General (he, the +said Warren Hastings) and Council did, on the 24th August, 1775, +instruct Mr. Fowke, the Resident at the Rajah's court, in the following +words: "It is proper to assure the Rajah, we do not mean to increase his +tribute, but to require from him an exact sum; that, under the +sovereignty of the Company, we are determined to leave him the free and +uncontrolled management of the internal government of his country, and +the collection and regulation of the revenues, so long as he adheres to +the terms of his engagement; and will _never_ demand _any_ augmentation +of the annual tribute which may be fixed." + +XI. That the said Warren Hastings and the Council-General, not being +satisfied with having instructed the Resident to make the representation +aforesaid, to remove all suspicion that by the new grants any attempt +should insidiously be made to change his former tenure, did resolve that +a letter should be written by the Governor-General himself to the Rajah +of Benares, to be delivered to Mr. Fowke, the Resident, together with +his credentials; in which letter they declare "the board willing to +continue the grant of the zemindary to him _in as full and ample a +manner as he possessed it from former sovereigns_; and on his paying the +annual tribute," &c;--and in explaining the reasons for granting to him +the mint and criminal justice, they inform him that this is done in +order "that he may possess an _uncontrolled and free authority_ in the +regulation and government of his zemindary." + +XII. That on the 26th February, 1776, the Board and Council did order +that the proper instruments should be prepared for conveying to the +Rajah aforesaid the government and criminal justice and mint of Benares, +with its dependencies, "in the usual form, _expressing the conditions +already resolved on in the several proceedings of the board_." And on +the same day a letter was written to the Resident at Benares, signifying +that they had ordered the proper instruments to be prepared, specifying +the terms concerning the remittance of the Rajah's tribute to Calcutta, +as well as "_the several other conditions which had been already agreed +to_,--and that they should forward it to him, to be delivered to the +Rajah." And on the 20th of March following, the board did again explain +the terms of the said tribute, in a letter to the Court of Directors, +and did add, "that a _sunnud_ [grant or patent] for his [Cheyt Sing's] +zemindary should be furnished him _on these and the conditions before +agreed on_." + +XIII. That during the course of the transactions aforesaid in Council, +and the various assurances given to the Rajah and the Court of +Directors, certain improper and fraudulent practices were used with +regard to the symbols of investiture which ought to have been given, and +the form of the deeds by which the said zemindary ought to have been +granted. For it appears that the original deeds were signed by the board +on the 4th September, 1775, and transmitted to Mr. Fowke, the Resident +at the Rajah's court, and that on the 20th of November following the +Court of Directors were acquainted by the said Warren Hastings and the +Council that Rajah Cheyt Sing had been invested with the _sunnud_ +(charters or patents) for his zemindary, and the _kellaut_, (or robes of +investiture,) in all the proper forms; but on the 1st of October, 1775, +the Rajah did complain to the Governor-General and Council, that the +_kellaut_, (or robes,) with which he was to be invested according to +their order, "_is not of the same kind_ as that which he received from +the late Vizier on the like occasion." In consequence of the said +complaint, the board did, in their letter to the Resident of the 11th of +the same month, desire him "to make inquiry respecting the nature of +the kellaut, and invest him with _one of the same sort_, on the part of +this government, instead of that which they formerly described to him." +And it appears highly probable that the instruments which accompanied +the said robes of investiture were made in a manner conformable to the +orders and directions of the board, and the conditions by them agreed +to; as the Rajah, who complained of the insufficiency of the robes, did +make no complaint of the insufficiency of the instruments, or of any +deviation in them from those he had formerly received from the Vizier. +_But a copy or duplicate of the said deeds or instruments were in some +manner surreptitiously disposed of, and withheld from the records of the +Company, and never were transmitted to the Court of Directors._ + +XIV. That several months after the said settlement and investiture, +namely, on the 15th of April, 1776, the Secretary informed the Court +that he had prepared a _sunnud_, _cabbolut_, and _pottah_ (that is, a +patent, an agreement, and a rent-roll) for Cheyt Sing's zemindary, and +the board ordered the same to be executed; but the Resident, on +receiving the same, did transmit the several objections made by the +Rajah thereto, and particularly to a clause in the patent, made in +direct contradiction to the engagements of the Council so solemnly and +repeatedly given, by which clause the former patents _are declared to be +null_. That, on the representation aforesaid, on the 29th July, the +Secretary was ordered to prepare new and proper instruments, _omitting +the clause declaring the former patents to be null_, and the said new +patents were delivered to the Rajah; and the others, which he objected +to, as well as those which had been delivered to him originally, were +returned to the Presidency. But neither the first set of deeds, nor the +fraudulent patent aforesaid, nor the new instruments made out on the +complaint of the Rajah, omitting the exceptionable words, have been +inserted in the records, although it was the particular duty of the said +Warren Hastings that all transactions with the country powers should be +faithfully entered, as well as to take care that all instruments +transmitted to them on the faith of the Company should be honestly, +candidly, and fairly executed, according to the true intent and meaning +of the engagements entered into on the part of the Company,--giving by +the said complicated, artificial, and fraudulent management, as well as +by his said omitting to record the said material document, strong reason +to presume that he did even then meditate to make some evil use of the +deeds which he thus withheld from the Company, and which he did +afterwards in reality make, when he found means and opportunity to +effect his evil purpose. + + +PART II. + +DESIGNS OF MR. HASTINGS TO RUIN THE RAJAH OF BENARES. + +I. That the tribute transferred to the Company by the treaty with the +Nabob of Oude, being 250,000_l._ a year sterling, and upwards, without +any deductions whatsoever, was paid monthly, with such punctual +exactness as had no parallel in the Company's dealings with any of the +native princes or with any subject zemindar, being the only one who +never was in arrears; and according to all appearance, a perfect +harmony did prevail between the Supreme Council at Calcutta and the +Rajah. But though the Rajah of Benares furnished no occasion of +displeasure to the board, yet it since appears that the said Warren +Hastings did, at some time in the year 1777, conceive displeasure +against him. In that year, he, the said Warren Hastings, retracted his +own act of resignation of his office, made to the Court of Directors +through his agent, Mr. Macleane, and, calling in the aid of the military +to support him in his authority, brought the divisions of the +government, according to his own expression, "to an extremity bordering +on civil violence." This extremity he attributes, in a narrative by him +transmitted to the Court of Directors, and printed, not to his own fraud +and prevarication, but to what he calls "an attempt to wrest from him +his authority"; and in the said narrative he pretends that the Rajah of +Benares had deputed an agent with an express commission to his opponent, +Sir John Clavering. This fact, if it had been true, (which is not +proved,) was in no sort criminal or offensive to the Company's +government, but was at first sight nothing more than a proper mark of +duty and respect to the supposed succession of office. Nor is it +possible to conceive in what manner it could offend the said Hastings, +if he did not imagine that the express commission to which in the said +narrative he refers might relate to the discovery to Sir John Clavering +of some practice which he might wish to conceal,--the said Clavering, +whom he styles "_his opponent_," having been engaged, in obedience to +the Company's express orders, in the discovery of sundry peculations and +other evil practices charged upon the said Hastings. But although, at +the time of the said pretended deputation, he dissembled his +resentment, it appears to have rankled in his mind, and that he never +forgave it, of whatever nature it might have been (the same never having +been by him explained); and some years after, he recorded it in his +justification of his oppressive conduct towards the Rajah, urging the +same with great virulence and asperity, as a proof or presumption of +his, the said Rajah's, disaffection to the Company's government; and by +his subsequent acts, he seems from the first to have resolved, when +opportunity should occur, on a severe revenge. + +II. That, having obtained, in his casting vote, a majority in Council on +the death of Sir John Clavering and Mr. Monson, he did suddenly, and +without any previous general communication with the members of the +board, by a Minute of Consultation of the 9th of July, 1778, make an +extraordinary demand, namely: "That the Rajah of Benares should +_consent_ to the establishment of three regular battalions of sepoys, +_to be raised and maintained at his own expense_"; and the said expense +was estimated at between fifty and sixty thousand pounds sterling. + +III. That the said requisition did suppose the _consent_ of the +Rajah,--the very word being inserted in the body of his, the said Warren +Hastings's, minute; and the same was agreed to, though with some doubts +on the parts of two of his colleagues, Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler, +concerning the right of making the same, even worded as it was. But Mr. +Francis and Mr. Wheler, soon after, finding that the Rajah was much +alarmed by this departure from the treaty, the requisition aforesaid was +strenuously opposed by them. The said Hastings did, notwithstanding +this opposition, persevere, and by his casting vote alone did carry the +said unjust and oppressive demand. The Rajah submitted, after some +murmuring and remonstrance, to pay the sum required,--but on the express +condition (as has been frequently asserted by him to the said Warren +Hastings without any contradiction) that the exaction should continue +_but for one year, and should not be drawn into precedent_. He also +requested that the extraordinary demand should be paid along with the +instalments of his monthly tribute: but although the said Warren +Hastings did not so much as pretend that the instant payment was at all +necessary, and though he was urged by his before-mentioned colleagues to +moderate his proceedings, he did insist upon immediate payment of the +whole; and did deliver his demand in proud and insulting language, +wholly unfit for a governor of a civilized nation to use towards eminent +persons in alliance with and in honorable and free dependence upon its +government; and did support the same with arguments full of +unwarrantable passion, and with references to reports affecting merely +his own personal power and consideration, which reports were not proved, +nor attempted to be proved, and, if proved, furnishing reasons +insufficient for his purpose, and indecent in any public proceedings. +That the said Hastings did cause the said sums of money to be rigorously +exacted, although no such regular battalions as he pretended to +establish, as a color for his demand on the Rajah, were then raised, or +any steps taken towards raising them; and when the said Rajah pleaded +his inability to pay the whole sum at once, he, the said Hastings, +persevering in his said outrageous and violent demeanor, did order the +Resident to wait on the Rajah forthwith, and "demand of him in person, +and by writing, the full payment in specie to be made to him within five +days of such demand, and to declare to him, in the name of this +government, that his evading or neglecting to accomplish the payment +thereof within that space of time should be deemed _equivalent to an +absolute refusal_; and in case of non-compliance with this [the +Resident's] demand, _we peremptorily enjoin you to refrain from all +further intercourse with him_": the said Hastings appearing by all his +proceedings to be more disposed to bring on a quarrel with the Prince of +Benares, than to provide money for any public service. + +IV. That the said demand was complied with, and the whole thereof paid +on the 10th of October that year. And the said Rajah did write to the +said Hastings a letter, in order to mitigate and mollify him, declaring +to the said Hastings that his sole reliance was on him, "and that in +every instance he depended on his faith, religion, promises, and +actions." But he, the said Warren Hastings, as if the being reminded of +his faith and promises were an incentive to him to violate the same, +although he had agreed that his demand should not be drawn into +precedent, and the payment of the fifty thousand pounds aforesaid should +continue only for one year, did, the very day after he had received the +letter aforesaid, renew a demand of the same nature and on the same +pretence, this year even less plausible than the former, of three +battalions _to be_ raised. The said Rajah, on being informed of this +requisition, did remind the said Warren Hastings that he engaged in the +last year that but one payment should be made, and that he should not be +called upon in future, and, pleading inability to discharge the new +demand, declared himself in the following words to the said Warren +Hastings: "I am therefore hopeful you will be kindly pleased to excuse +me the five lacs now demanded, and that nothing may be demanded of me +beyond the amount expressed in the pottah." + +V. That on the day after the receipt of this letter, that is, on the +28th August, 1779, he, the said Warren Hastings, made a reply to the +said letter; and without any remark whatsoever on the allegation of the +Rajah, stating to him his engagement, that he, the said Rajah, should +not be called upon in future, he says, "I now repeat my demand, that you +do, on the receipt of this, without evasion or delay, pay the five lac +of rupees into the hands of Mr. Thomas Graham, who has orders to receive +it from you, and, in case of your refusal, to summon the two battalions +of sepoys under the command of Major Camac to Benares, that measures may +be taken to oblige you to a compliance; and in this case, the whole +expense of the corps, from the time of its march, will fall on you." + +VI. That the said Rajah did a second and third time represent to the +said Warren Hastings that he had broke his promise, and the said +Hastings did in no manner deny the same, but did, in contempt thereof, +as well as of the original treaty between the Company and the Rajah, +order two battalions of troops to march into his territories, and in a +manner the most harsh, insulting, and despotic, as if to provoke that +prince to some act of resistance, did compel him to the payment of the +said second unjust demand; and did extort also the sum of two thousand +pounds, on pretence of the charge of the troops employed to coerce him. + +VII. That the third year, that is to say, in the year 1780, the same +demand was, with the same menaces, renewed, and did, as before, produce +several humble remonstrances and submissive complaints, which the said +Hastings did always treat as crimes and offences of the highest order; +and although in the regular subsidy or tribute, which was monthly +payable by treaty, fifty days of grace were allowed on each payment, and +after the expiration of the said fifty days one quarter par cent only +was provided as a penalty, he, the said Warren Hastings, on some short +delay of payment of his third arbitrary and illegal demand, did presume +of his own authority to impose a fine or mulct of ten thousand pounds on +the said Rajah; and though it does not appear whether or no the same was +actually levied, the said threat was soon after followed by an order +from the said Hastings for the march of troops into the country of +Benares, as in the preceding year. + +VIII. That, these violent and insulting measures failing to provoke the +Rajah, and he having paid up the whole demand, the said Warren Hastings, +being resolved to drive him to extremities, did make on the said Rajah a +sudden demand, over and above the ordinary tribute or subsidy of +260,000_l._ per annum, and over and above the 50,000_l._ extraordinary, +to provide a body of cavalry for the service of the Bengal government. + +IX. The demand, as expressed in the Minute of Consultation, and in the +public instructions of the board to the Resident to make the +requisition, is "for such part of the cavalry entertained in his service +as he can spare"; and the demand is in this and in no other manner +described by the Governor-General and Council in their letter to the +Court of Directors. But in a Narrative of the said Warren Hastings's, +addressed to Edward Wheler, Esquire, it appears, that, upon the Rajah's +making difficulties, according to the representation of the said +Hastings, relative to the said requisition, the correspondence +concerning which the said Hastings hath fraudulently suppressed, he, the +said Hastings, instead of adhering to the requisition of such cavalry +_as the Rajah could spare_, and which was all that by the order of +Council he was authorized to make, did, of his own private and arbitrary +authority, in some letter which he hath suppressed, instruct the +Resident, Markham, to make a peremptory demand for two thousand cavalry, +which he well knew to be more than the Rajah's finances could support, +estimating the provision for the same at 96,000_l._ a year at the +lowest, though the expense of the same would probably have been much +more: which extravagant demand the said Hastings could only have made in +hopes of provoking the Rajah to some imprudent measure or passionate +remonstrance. And this arbitrary demand of cavalry was made, and +peremptorily insisted on, although in the original treaty with the said +Rajah it was left entirely optional whether or not he should keep up any +cavalry at all, and in the Minute of Consultation it was expressly +mentioned to be thus optional, and that for whatsoever cavalry he, the +said Rajah, should furnish, he should be paid fifteen rupees per month +for each private, and so in proportion for officers: yet the demand +aforesaid was made without any offer whatsoever of providing the said +payment according to treaty. + +X. That the said Hastings did soon after, but upon what grounds does not +appear by any Minute of Council, or from any correspondence contained in +his Narrative, reduce the demand to fifteen hundred, and afterwards to +one thousand: by which he showed himself to be sensible of the +extravagance of his first requisition. + +XI. That, in consequence of these requisitions, as he asserts in his +Narrative aforesaid, the Rajah "did offer two hundred and fifty horse, +but sent none." But the said Hastings doth not accompany his said +Narrative with any voucher or document whatever; and therefore the +account given by the Rajah, and delivered to the said Warren Hastings +himself, inserted by the said Warren Hastings himself in his Narrative, +and in no part thereof attempted to be impeached, is more worthy of +credit: that is to say,-- + +"With respect to the horse, you desired me in your letter to inform you +of what number I could afford to station with you. I sent you a +particular account of all that were in my service, amounting to one +thousand three hundred horse, of which several were stationed at distant +places; but I received no answer to this. Mr. Markham delivered me an +order to prepare a thousand horse. In compliance with your wishes I +collected five hundred horse, and a substitute for the remainder, five +hundred _burkundasses_ [matchlock-men], of which I sent you information; +and I told Mr. Markham that they were ready to go to whatever place they +should be sent. No answer, however, came from you on this head, and I +remained astonished at the cause of it. Repeatedly I asked Mr. Markham +about an answer to my letter about the horse; but he told me that he did +not know the reason of no answer having been sent. I remained +astonished." + +XII. That the said Hastings is guilty of an high offence in not giving +an answer to letters of such importance, and in concealing the said +letters from the Court of Directors, as well as much of his +correspondence with the Residents,--and more particularly in not +directing to what place the cavalry and matchlock-men aforesaid should +be sent, when the Rajah had declared they were ready to go to whatever +service should be destined for them, and afterwards in maliciously +accusing the Rajah for not having sent the same. + +XIII. That, on the 3d of February, 1781, a new demand for the support of +the three fictitious battalions of sepoys aforesaid was made by the said +Warren Hastings; but whilst the Rajah was paying by instalments the said +arbitrary demand, the said Rajah was alarmed with some intelligence of +secret projects on foot for his ruin, and, being well apprised of the +malicious and revengeful temper of the said Hastings, in order to pacify +him, if possible, offered to redeem himself by a large ransom, to the +amount of two hundred thousand pounds sterling, to be paid for the use +of the Company. And it appears that the said alarm was far from +groundless; for Major Palmer, one of the secret and confidential agents +of the said Hastings, hath sworn, on the 4th of December, 1781, at the +desire of the said Warren Hastings, before Sir Elijah Impey, to the +following effect, that is to say: "That the said Warren Hastings had +told him, the said Palmer, that he, the said Hastings, had rejected the +offer of two hundred thousand pounds made by the Rajah of Benares for +the public service, and that he was resolved _to convert the faults +committed by the Rajah into a public benefit_, and would exact the sum +of five hundred thousand pounds, as a punishment for his breach of +engagements with the government of Bengal, and acts of misconduct in his +zemindary; and if the Rajah should absolutely refuse the demand, that he +would deprive him of his zemindary, or transfer the sovereignty thereof +to the Nabob of Oude." + +XIV. And Mr. Anderson, in his declaration from Sindia's camp, of the 4th +of January, 1782, did also, at the desire of Mr. Hastings, depose +(though not on oath) concerning a conversation between him and the said +Hastings (but mentioning neither the time nor place where the same was +held); in which conversation, after reciting the allegations of the said +Hastings relative to several particulars of the delay and backwardness +of the Rajah in paying the aforesaid extra demand, and his resolution to +exact from the Rajah "a considerable sum of money to the relief of the +Company's exigencies," he proceeds in the following words: "That, if he +[the Rajah] consented, you [the said Warren Hastings] were desirous of +_establishing his possessions on the most permanent and eligible +footing_; but if he refused, you had it in your power to _raise a large +sum_ for the Company by accepting an offer which had been made for his +districts by the Vizier." And the said Anderson, in the declaration +aforesaid, made at the request of the said Hastings, and addressed to +him, expressed himself as follows: "That you told me you had +communicated our designs to Mr. Wheler [his only remaining colleague]; +and I believe, but I do not positively recollect, you said he concurred +in them." But no trace of any such communication or concurrence did, at +the time referred to, or at any time ever after, appear on the +Consultations, as it ought to have done; and the said Hastings is +criminal for having omitted to enter and record the proceeding. That the +said Wheler did also declare, but a considerable time after the date of +the conversations aforesaid, that, "on the eve of the Governor-General's +departure, the said Hastings had told him that the Rajah's offences (not +stating what offences, he having paid up all the demands, ordinary and +extraordinary) _were declared_ to require early punishment; and as _his +wealth was great, and the Company's exigencies pressing_, it was thought +a measure of policy and of justice to exact from him a large pecuniary +mulct for their relief. The sum to which the Governor declared his +resolution to extend the fine was forty _or_ fifty lacs; his ability to +pay it was stated as a fact that could not admit of a doubt; and the two +alternatives on which the Governor declared himself to have resolved +were, to the best of my recollection, either a removal from his +zemindary entirely, or, by taking immediate possession of all his +forts, to obtain out of the treasure deposited in them the above sum for +the Company." + +XV. That in the declaration of the said Wheler the time of the +conversation aforesaid is stated to be on the eve of the Governor's +departure, and then said to be confidential; nor is it said or +insinuated that he knew or ever heard thereof at a more early period, +though it appears by Major Palmer's affidavit that the design of taking, +not four _or_ five, but absolutely five, hundred thousand pounds from +the Rajah, was communicated to him as early as the month of June. And it +does not appear by the declarations of the said Wheler he did ever +casually or officially approve of the measure; which long concealment +and late communication, time not being allowed to his colleague to +consider the nature and consequences of such a project, or to advise any +precaution concerning the same, is a high misdemeanor. + +XVI. That the said Hastings, having formed a resolution to execute one +of the three violent and arbitrary resolutions aforesaid,--namely, to +sell the Company's sovereignty over Benares to the Nabob of Oude, or to +dispossess the Rajah of his territories, or to seize upon his forts, and +to plunder them of the treasure therein contained, to the amount of four +or five hundred thousand pounds,--did reject the offer of two hundred +thousand pounds, tendered by the said Rajah for his redemption from the +injuries which he had discovered that the said Hastings had +clandestinely meditated against him, although the sum aforesaid would +have been a considerable and seasonable acquisition at that time: the +said Hastings being determined, at a critical period, to risk the +existence of the British empire, rather than fail in the gratification +of his revenge against the said Rajah. + +XVII. That the first of his three instituted projects, namely, the +depriving the Rajah of his territories, was by himself considered as a +measure likely to be productive of much odium to the British government: +he having declared, whatever opinions he might entertain of its justice, +"that it would have an appearance of _severity_, and might furnish +grounds _unfavorable to the credit of our government, and to his own +reputation_, from the natural influence which every _act of rigor_, +exercised in the persons of men in _elevated situations_, is apt to +impress on those who are too remote from the scene of action to judge, +by any evidence of the facts themselves, of their motives or propriety." +And the second attempt, the sum of money which he aimed at by attacking +the fortresses of the Rajah, and plundering them of the treasure +supposed to be there secured, besides the obvious uncertainty of +acquiring what was thus sought, would be liable to the same imputations +with the former. And with regard to the third project, namely, the sale +of the Company's sovereignty to the Nabob of Oude, and his having +actually received proposals for the same, it was an high offence to the +Company, as presuming, without their authority or consent, to put up to +sale their sovereign rights, and particularly to put them up to sale to +that very person against whom the independence of the said province had +been declared by the Governor-General and Council to be necessary, as a +barrier for the security of the other provinces, in case of a future +rupture with him.[59] It was an heinous injury to the said Rajah to +attempt to change his relation without his consent, especially on +account of the person to whom he was to be made over for money, by +reason of the known enmity subsisting between his family and that of the +Nabob, who was to be the purchaser; and it was a grievous outrage on the +innocent inhabitants of the zemindary of Benares to propose putting them +under a person long before described by himself to the Court of +Directors "to want the qualities of the head and heart requisite for his +station"; and a letter from the British Resident at Oude, transmitted to +the said Court, represents him "to have wholly lost, by his +_oppressions_, the confidence and affections of his own subjects"; and +whose distresses, and the known disorders in his government, he, the +said Hastings, did attribute solely to his own bad conduct and evil +character; admitting also, in a letter written to Edward Wheler, +Esquire, and transmitted to the Court of Directors, "that many +circumstances did favor suspicion of his [the said Nabob's] fidelity to +the English interest, the Nabob being surrounded by men base in their +characters and improvident in their understandings, his favorites, and +his companions of his looser hours. These had every cause to dread the +effect of my influence on theirs; and both these, and the relations of +the family, whose views of consequence and power were intercepted by our +participation in the administration of his affairs, entertained a mortal +hatred to our nation, and openly avowed it." And the said Hastings was +well aware, that, in case the Nabob, by him described in the manner +aforesaid, on making such purchase, should continue to observe the +terms of his father's original covenants and engagements with the Rajah, +and should pay the Company the only tribute which he could lawfully +exact from the said Rajah, it was impossible that he could, for the mere +naked and unprofitable rights of a sovereignty paramount, afford to +offer so great a sum as the Rajah did offer to the said Hastings for his +redemption from oppression; such an acquisition to the Nabob (while he +kept his faith) could not possibly be of any advantage whatever to him; +and that therefore, if a great sum was to be paid by the Nabob of Oude, +it must be for the purpose of oppression and violation of public faith, +to be perpetrated in the person of the said Nabob, to an extent and in a +manner which the said Hastings was then apprehensive he could not +justify to the Court of Directors as his own personal act. + + +PART III. + +EXPULSION OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES. + +I. That the said Warren Hastings, being resolved on the ruin of the +Rajah aforesaid, as a preliminary step thereto, did, against the express +orders of the Court of Directors, remove Francis Fowke, Esquire, the +Company's Resident at the city of Benares, without any complaint or +pretence of complaint whatsoever, but merely on his own declaration that +he must have as a Resident at Benares a person of his own special and +personal nomination and confidence, and not a man of the Company's +nomination,--and in the place of the said Francis Fowke, thus illegally +divested of his office, did appoint thereto another servant of the +Company of his own choice. + +II. That, soon after he had removed the Company's Resident, he prepared +for a journey to the upper provinces, and particularly to Benares, in +order to execute the wicked and perfidious designs by him before +meditated and contrived: and although he did communicate his purpose +privately to such persons as he thought fit to intrust therewith, he did +not enter anything on the Consultations to that purpose, or record the +principles, real or pretended, on which he had resolved to act, nor did +he state any guilt in the Rajah which he intended to punish, or charge +him, the said Rajah, with entertaining any hostile intentions, the +effects of which were to be prevented by any strong measure; but, on the +contrary, he did industriously conceal his real designs from the Court +of Directors, and did fallaciously enter on the Consultations a minute +declaratory of purposes wholly different therefrom, and which supposed +nothing more than an amicable adjustment, founded on the treaties +between the Company and the Rajah, investing himself by his said minute +with "full power and authority to form _such_ arrangements _with_ the +Rajah of Benares for the _better_ government and management of his +zemindary, and to perform such acts for the improvement of the interest +which the Company possesses in it, as he shall think _fit and consonant +to the mutual engagements subsisting between the Company and the +Rajah_"; and for this and other purposes he did invest himself with the +whole power of the Council, giving to himself an authority as if his +acts had been the acts of the Council itself: which, though a power of a +dangerous, unwarrantable, and illegal extent, yet does plainly imply the +following limits, namely, that the acts done should be _arranged with_ +the Rajah, that is, _with his consent_; and, secondly, that they should +be consonant to the actual engagements between the parties; and nothing +appears in the minute conferring the said power, which did express or +imply any authority for depriving the Rajah of his government, or +selling the sovereignty thereof to his hereditary enemy, or for the +plunder of his fort-treasures. + +III. That the said Warren Hastings, having formed the plans aforesaid +for the ruin of the Rajah, did set out on a journey to the city of +Benares with a great train, but with a very small force, not much +exceeding six companies of regular black soldiers, to perpetrate some of +the unjust and violent acts by him meditated and resolved on; and the +said Hastings was met, according to the usage of distinguished persons +in that country, by the Rajah of Benares with a very great attendance, +both in boats and on shore, which attendance he did apparently intend as +a mark of honor and observance to the place and person of the said +Hastings, but which the said Hastings did afterwards groundlessly and +maliciously represent as an indication of a design upon his life; and +the said Rajah came into the pinnace in which the said Hastings was +carried, and in a lowly and suppliant manner, alone, and without any +guard or attendance whatsoever, entreated his favor; and being received +with great sternness and arrogance, he did put his turban in the lap of +the said Hastings, thereby signifying that he abandoned his life and +fortune to his disposal, and then departed, the said Hastings not +apprehending, nor having any reason to apprehend, any violence +whatsoever to his person. + +IV. That the said Hastings, in the utmost security and freedom from +apprehension, did pursue his journey, and did arrive at the city of +Benares on the 14th of August, 1781, some hours before the Rajah, who, +soon after his arrival, intended to pay him a visit of honor and respect +at his quarters, but was by the said Hastings rudely and insolently +forbid, until he should receive his permission. And the said Hastings, +although he had previously determined on the ruin of the said Rajah, in +order to afford some color of regularity and justice to his proceedings, +did, on the day after his arrival, that is, on the 15th day of August, +1781, send to the Rajah a charge in writing, which, though informal and +irregular, may be reduced to four articles, two general, and two more +particular: the first of the general being, "That he [the Rajah] had, by +the means of his secret agents, endeavored to excite disorders in the +government on which he depended"; the second, "That he had suffered the +_daily_ perpetration of robberies and murders, even in the streets of +Benares, to the great and public scandal of the English name." + +V. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings is guilty of an high +offence, contrary to the fundamental principles of justice, in the said +mode of charging misdemeanors, without any specification of person or +place or time or act, or any offer of specification or proofs by which +the party charged may be enabled to refute the same, in order to +unjustly load his reputation, and to prejudice him with regard to the +articles more clearly specified. + +VI. That the two specified articles relate to certain delays: the +first, with regard to the payment of the sums of money unjustly extorted +as aforesaid; and the second, the non-compliance with a requisition of +cavalry,--which non-compliance the said Hastings (even if the said +charges had been founded) did falsely, and in contradiction to all law, +affirm and maintain (in his accusation against the Rajah, and addressing +himself to him) "to amount to a _direct_ charge of disaffection and +_infidelity_ to the government on which you depend": and further +proceeded as follows: "I therefore judged it proper to state them [the +said charges] thus fully to you in writing, and to _require_ your +answer; and this I expect _immediately_." That the said Hastings, +stating his pretended facts to amount to a charge of the nature (as he +would have it understood) of high treason, and _therefore_ calling for +an _immediate_ answer, did wilfully act against the rules of natural +justice, which requires that a convenient time should be given to +answer, proportioned to the greatness of the offence alleged, and the +heavy penalties which attend it; and when he did arrogate to himself a +right both to charge and to judge in his own person, he ought to have +allowed the Rajah full opportunity for conferring with his ministers, +his doctors of law, and his accountants, on the facts charged, and on +the criminality inferred in the said accusation of disloyalty and +disaffection, or offences of that quality. + +VII. That the said Rajah did, under the pressure of the disadvantages +aforesaid, deliver in, upon the very evening of the day of the charge, a +full, complete, and specific answer to the two articles therein +specified; and did allege and offer proof that the whole of the +extraordinary demands of the said Hastings had been actually long before +paid and discharged; and did state a proper defence, with regard to the +cavalry, even supposing him bound (when he was not bound) to furnish +any. And the said Rajah did make a direct denial of the truth, of the +two _general_ articles, and did explain himself on the same in as +satisfactory a manner and as fully as their nature could permit, +offering to enter into immediate trial of the points in issue between +him and the said Hastings, in the remarkable words following. "My +enemies, with a view to my ruin, have made false representations to you. +Now that, _happily for me_, you have yourself arrived at this place, you +will be able to ascertain all the circumstances: first, relative to the +horse; secondly, to my people going to Calcutta; and thirdly, the dates +of the receipts of the particular sums above mentioned. You will then +know whether I have amused you with a false representation, or made a +just report to you." And in the said answer the said Rajah complained, +but in the most modest terms, of an injury to him of the most dangerous +and criminal nature in transactions of such moment, namely, his not +receiving any answer to his letters and petitions, and concluded in the +following words. "I have never swerved in the smallest degree from my +duty to you. It remains with you to decide on all these matters. I am in +every case your slave. What is just I have represented to you. May your +prosperity increase!" + +VIII. That the said Warren Hastings was bound by the essential +principles of natural justice to attend to the claim made by the Rajah +to a fair and impartial trial and inquiry into the matter of accusation +brought against him by the said Hastings, at a time and place which +furnished all proper materials and the presence of all necessary +witnesses; but the said Hastings, instead of instituting the said +inquiry and granting trial, did receive an humble request for justice +from a great prince as a fresh offence, and as a personal insult to +himself, and did conceive a violent passion of anger and a strong +resentment thereat, declaring that he did consider the said answer as +not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style. "This +answer you will perceive to be not only unsatisfactory in substance, but +offensive in style, and less a vindication of himself than a +recrimination on me. It expresses no concern for the causes of complaint +contained in my letter, or desire to atone for them, nor the smallest +intention to pursue a different line of conduct. An answer couched +nearly _in terms of defiance_ to requisitions of so serious a nature I +could not but consider as _a strong indication of that spirit of +independency_ which the Rajah has for some years past assumed, and of +which indeed I had early observed other manifest symptoms, both before +and from the instant of my arrival." Which representation is altogether +and in all parts thereof groundless and injurious; as the substance of +the answer is a justification proper to be pleaded, and the style, if in +anything exceptionable, it is in its extreme humility, resulting rather +from an unmanly and abject spirit than from anything of an offensive +liberty; but being received as disrespectful by the said Hastings, it +abundantly indicates the tyrannical arrogance of the said Hastings, and +the depression into which the natives are sunk under the British +government. + +IX. That the said Warren Hastings, pretending to have been much alarmed +at the offensive language of the said Rajah's defence, and at certain +appearances of independency which he had observed, not only on former +occasions, but since his arrival at Benares, (where he had been but +little more than one day,) and which appearances he never has specified +in any one instance, did assert that he conceived himself indispensably +obliged to adopt some decisive plan; and without any farther inquiry or +consultation (which appears) with any person, did, at ten o'clock of the +very night on which he received the before-mentioned full and +satisfactory as well as submissive answer, send an order to the British +Resident (then being a public minister representing the British +government at the court of the said Rajah, and as such bound by the law +of nations to respect the prince at whose court he was Resident, and not +to attempt anything against his person or state, and who ought not, +therefore, to have been chosen by the said Hastings, and compelled to +serve in that business) that he should on the next morning arrest the +said prince in his palace, and keep him in his custody until further +orders; which said order being conceived in the most peremptory terms, +the Rajah was put under arrest, with a guard of about thirty orderly +sepoys, with their swords drawn; and the particulars thereof were +reported to him as follows. + +"HONORABLE SIR,--I this morning, in obedience to your orders of last +night, proceeded with a few of my orderlies, accompanied by Lieutenant +Stalker, to Shewalla Ghaut, the present residence of Rajah Cheyt Sing, +and acquainted him it was your pleasure he should consider himself in +arrest; that he should order his people to behave in a quiet and orderly +manner, for that any attempt _to rescue him would be attended with his +own destruction. The Rajah submitted quietly to the arrest_, and assured +me, that, whatever were your orders, he was ready implicitly to obey; he +hoped that you would allow him a _subsistence_, but as for _his +zemindary, his forts, and his treasure, he was ready to lay them at your +feet, and his life, if required_. He expressed himself much hurt at the +ignominy which he affirmed must be the consequence of his confinement, +and entreated me to return to you with the foregoing submission, hoping +that you would make allowances for his youth and inexperience, and in +consideration of his father's name release him from his confinement, as +soon as he should prove the sincerity of his offers, and himself +deserving of your compassion and forgiveness." + +X. That a further order was given, that every servant of the Rajah's +should be disarmed, and a certain number only left to attend him under a +strict watch. In a quarter of an hour after this conversation, two +companies of grenadier sepoys were sent to the Rajah's palace by the +said Hastings; and the Rajah, being dismayed by this unexpected and +unprovoked treatment, wrote two short letters or petitions to the said +Hastings, under the greatest apparent dejection at the outrage and +dishonor he had suffered in the eyes of his subjects, (all imprisonment +of persons of rank being held in that country as a mark of indelible +infamy, and he also, in all probability, considering his imprisonment as +a prelude to the taking away his life,) and in the first of the said +petitions he did express himself in this manner: "Whatever may be your +pleasure, do it with your own hands; I am your slave. What occasion can +there be for a guard?" And in the other: "My honor was bestowed upon me +by your Highness. It depends on you alone to take away or not to take +away the country out of my hands. In case my honor is not left to me, +how shall I be equal to the business of the government? Whoever, with +his hands in a supplicating posture, is ready with his life and +property, what necessity can there be for him to be dealt with in this +way?" + +XI. That, according to the said Hastings's narrative of this +transaction, he, the said Hastings, on account of the apparent +despondency in which these letters were written, "thought it _necessary_ +to give him _some_ encouragement," and therefore wrote him a note of a +few lines, carelessly and haughtily expressed, and little calculated to +relieve him from his uneasiness, promising to send to him a person to +explain particulars, and desiring him "to set his mind at rest, and not +to conceive any terror or apprehension." To which an answer of great +humility and dejection was received. + +XII. That the report of the Rajah's arrest did cause a great alarm in +the city, in the suburbs of which the Rajah's palace is situated, and in +the adjacent country. The people were filled with dismay and anger at +the outrage and indignity offered to a prince under whose government +they enjoyed much ease and happiness. Under these circumstances the +Rajah desired leave to perform his ablutions; which was refused, unless +he sent for water, and performed that ceremony on the spot. This he +did. And soon after some of the people, who now began to surround the +palace in considerable numbers, attempting to force their way into the +palace, a British officer, commanding the guard upon the Rajah, struck +one of them with his sword. The people grew more and more irritated; but +a message being sent from the Rajah to appease them, they continued, on +this interposition, for a while quiet. Then the Rajah retired to a sort +of stone pavilion, or bastion, to perform his devotions, the guard of +sepoys attending him in this act of religion. In the mean time a person +of the meanest station, called a _chubdar_, at best answering to our +common beadle or tipstaff, was sent with a message (of what nature does +not appear) from Mr. Hastings, or the Resident, to the prince under +arrest: and this base person, without regard to the rank of the +prisoner, or to his then occupation, addressed him in a rude, boisterous +manner, "passionately and insultingly," (as the said Rajah has without +contradiction asserted,) "and, reviling him with a loud voice, gave both +him and his people the vilest abuse"; and the manner and matter being +observable and audible to the multitude, divided only by an open stone +lattice from the scene within, a firing commenced from without the +palace; on which the Rajah again interposed, and did what in him lay to +suppress the tumult, until, an English officer striking him with a +sword, and wounding him on the hand, the people no longer kept any +measures, but broke through the inclosure of the palace. The insolent +tipstaff was first cut down, and the multitude falling upon the sepoys +and the English officers, the whole, or nearly the whole, were cut to +pieces: the soldiers having been ordered to that service without any +charges for their pieces. And in this tumult, the Rajah, being justly +fearful of falling into the hands of the said Hastings, did make his +escape over the walls of his palace, by means of a rope formed of his +turban tied together, into a boat upon the river, and from thence into a +place of security; abandoning many of his family to the discretion of +the said Hastings, who did cause the said palace to be occupied by a +company of soldiers after the flight of the Rajah. + +XIII. That the Rajah, as soon as he had arrived at a place of refuge, +did, on the very day of his flight, send a suppliant letter to the said +Hastings, filled with expressions of concern (affirmed by the said +Hastings to be slight expressions) for what had happened, and +professions (said by the said Hastings to be indefinite and unapplied) +of fidelity: but the said Warren Hastings, though bound by his duty to +hear the said Rajah, and to prevent extremities, if possible, being +filled with insolence and malice, did not think it "_becoming_ of him to +make any reply to it; and that he _thought_ he ordered the bearer of the +letter to be told that _it required none_." + +XIV. That this letter of submission having been received, the said +Rajah, not discouraged or provoked from using every attempt towards +peace and reconciliation, did again apply, on the very morning +following, to Richard Johnson, Esquire, for his interposition, but to no +purpose; and did likewise, with as little effect, send a message to +Cantoo Baboo, native steward and confidential agent of the said +Hastings, which was afterwards reduced into writing, "to exculpate +himself from any concern in what had passed, and to profess his +obedience to his _will_ [Hastings's] _in whatever_ way he should +dictate." But the said Hastings, for several false and contradictory +reasons by him assigned, did not take any advantage of the said opening, +attributing the same to artifice in order to gain time; but instead of +accepting the said submissions, he did resolve upon flight from the city +of Benares, and did suddenly fly therefrom in great confusion. + +XV. That the said Hastings did persevere in his resolutions not to +listen to any submission or offer of accommodation whatsoever, though +several were afterwards made through almost every person who might be +supposed to have influence with him, but did cause the Rajah's troops to +be attacked and fallen upon, though they only acted on the defensive, +(as the Rajah has without contradiction asserted,) and thereby, and by +his preceding refusal of propositions of the same nature, and by other +his perfidious, unjust, and tyrannical acts by him perpetrated and done, +and by his total improvidence in not taking any one rational security +whatsoever against the inevitable consequences of those acts, did make +himself guilty of all the mutual slaughter and devastation which ensued, +as well as, in his opinion, of the imminent danger of the total +subversion of the British power in India by the risk of his own person, +which he asserts that it did run,--as also "that it ought not to be +thought that he attributed too much consequence to his personal safety, +when he supposed _the fate of the British empire in India connected with +it_, and that, mean as its substance may be, its accidental qualities +were equivalent to those which, like the characters of a talisman in +the Arabian mythology, formed the _essence_ of the state itself, +representation, title, and the _estimate_ of the public opinion; that, +had he fallen, such a stroke would be universally considered as decisive +of the national fate; every state round it would have started into arms +against it, and _every subject of its own dominion would, according to +their several abilities, have become its enemy_": and that he knew and +has declared, that, though the said stroke was not struck, that great +convulsions did actually ensue from his proceedings, "that half the +province of Oude was in a state of as complete rebellion as that of +Benares," and that invasions, tumults, and insurrections were occasioned +thereby in various other parts. + +XVI. That the said Warren Hastings, after he had collected his forces +from all parts, did, with little difficulty or bloodshed, subsequent to +that time, on the part of his troops, and in a few days, entirely reduce +the said province of Benares; and did, after the said short and little +resisted hostility, in cold blood, issue an order for burning a certain +town, in which he accused the people at large of having killed, "upon +what provocation he knows not," certain wounded sepoys, who were +prisoners: which order, being _generally_ given, when it was his duty to +have made some inquiry concerning the particular offenders, but which he +did never make, or cause to be made, was cruel, inhuman, and tended to +the destruction of the revenues of the Company; and that this, and other +acts of devastation, did cause the loss of two months of the +collections. + +XVII. That the said Warren Hastings did not only refuse the submissions +of the said Rajah, which were frequently repeated through various +persons after he had left Benares, and even after the defeat of certain +of the Company's forces, but did proscribe and except him from the +pardons which he issued after he had satisfied his vengeance on the +province of Benares. + +XVIII. That the said Warren Hastings did send to a certain castle, +called Bidzigur, the residence of a person of high rank, called Panna, +the mother of the Rajah of Benares, with whom his wife, a woman +described by the said Hastings "to be of an amiable character," and all +the other women of the Rajah's family, and the survivors of the family +of his father, Bulwant Sing, did then reside, a body of troops to +dispossess them of her said residence, and to seize upon her money and +effects, although she did not stand, even by himself, accused of any +offence whatsoever,--pretending, but not proving, and not attempting to +prove, then nor since, that the treasures therein contained were the +property of the Rajah, and not her own; and did, in order to stimulate +the British soldiery to rapine and outrage, issue to them several +barbarous orders, contrary to the practice of civilized nations, +relative to their property, movable and immovable, attended with +unworthy and unbecoming menaces, highly offensive to the manners of the +East and the particular respect there paid to the female sex,--which +letters and orders, as well as the letters which he had received from +the officers concerned, the said Hastings did unlawfully suppress, until +forced by the disputes between him and the said officers to discover +the same: and the said orders are as follow. + +"I am this instant favored with yours of yesterday. Mine of the same +date [22d October, 1781] has before this time acquainted you with my +resolutions and sentiments respecting the Rannee [the mother of the +Rajah Cheyt Sing]. I think every demand she has made to you, except that +of safety and respect for her person, is unreasonable. If the reports +brought to me are true, _your rejecting her offers, or any negotiations +with her_, would soon obtain you possession of the fort upon your own +terms. I apprehend that she will contrive _to defraud the captors of a +considerable part of the booty by being suffered to retire without +examination. But this is your consideration, and 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 I cannot make any objection, as +you must be the best judge of the expediency of the _promised_ +indulgence to the Rannee. What you have engaged for I will certainly +ratify; but as to permitting the Rannee to hold the purgunnah of Hurluk, +or any other in the zemindary, without being subject to the authority of +the zemindar, or any lands whatever, _or indeed making any conditions +with her for a provision, I will never consent to it_." And in another +letter to the same person, dated Benares, 3d of November, 1781, in which +he, the said Hastings, consents that the said woman of distinction +should be allowed to evacuate the place and to receive protection, he +did express himself as follows. "I am willing to grant her now the same +conditions to which I at first consented, provided that she delivers +into your possession, within twenty-four hours from the time of +receiving your message, the fort of Bidzigur, with the treasure and +effects lodged therein by Cheyt Sing or any of his adherents, with the +reserve only, as above mentioned, of such articles _as you shall think +necessary to her sex and condition_, or as you shall be disposed _of +yourself to indulge her with_. If she complies, as I expect she will, it +will be your part to secure the fort and the property it contains _for +the benefit of yourself and detachment_. I have only further to request +that you will grant an escort, if Panna should require it, to conduct +her here, or wherever she may choose to retire to. But should she refuse +to execute the promise she has made, _or delay it beyond the 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." + +XIX. That the castle aforesaid being surrendered upon terms of safety, +and on express condition of not attempting to search their persons, the +woman of rank aforesaid, her female relations and female dependants, to +the number of three hundred, besides children, evacuated the said +castle; but the spirit of rapacity being excited by the letters and +other proceedings of the said Hastings, the capitulation was shamefully +and outrageously broken, and, in despite of the endeavors of the +commanding officer, the said woman of high condition, and her female +dependants, friends, and servants, were plundered of the effects they +carried with them, and which were reserved to them in the capitulation +of their fortress, and in their persons were otherwise rudely and +inhumanly dealt with by the licentious followers of the camp: for which +outrages, represented to the said Hastings with great concern by the +commanding officer, Major Popham, he, the said Hastings, did afterwards +recommend a late and fruitless redress. + +XX. That the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, in exciting the hopes of +the military by declaring them _well entitled to the plunder_ of the +fortress aforesaid, the residence of the mother and other women of the +Rajah of Benares, and by wishing the troops to secure the same for their +own benefit, did advise and act in direct contradiction to the orders of +the Court of Directors, and to his own opinion of his public duty, as +well as to the truth and reality thereof,--he having some years before +entered in writing the declaration which follows. + +"The very idea of _prize-money_ suggests to my remembrance _the former +disorders which arose in our army from this source, and had almost +proved fatal to it_. Of this circumstance you must be sufficiently +apprised, and of the necessity for discouraging every expectation of +this kind amongst the troops. _It is to be avoided like poison._ The bad +effects of a similar measure were but too plainly felt in a former +period, and our honorable masters did not fail on that occasion to +reprobate with their censure, in the most severe terms, a practice which +they regarded as the source of infinite evils, and which, if +established, would in their judgment necessarily bring corruption and +ruin on their army." + +XXI. That the said Hastings, after he had given the license aforesaid, +and that in consequence thereof the booty found in the castle, to the +amount of 23,27,813 current rupees, was distributed among the soldiers +employed in its reduction, the said Hastings did retract his declaration +of right, and his permission to the soldiers to appropriate to +themselves the plunder, and endeavored, by various devices and +artifices, to explain the same away, and to recover the spoil aforesaid +for the use of the Company; and wholly failing in his attempts to resume +by a breach of faith with the soldiers what he had unlawfully disposed +of by a breach of duty to his constituents, he attempted to obtain the +same as a loan, in which attempt he also failed; and the aforesaid money +being the only part of the treasures belonging to the Rajah, or any of +his family, that had been found, he was altogether frustrated in the +acquisition of every part of that dishonorable object which alone he +pretended to, and pursued through a long series of acts of injustice, +inhumanity, oppression, violence, and bloodshed, at the hazard of his +person and reputation, and, in his own opinion, at the risk of the total +subversion of the British empire. + +XXI. That the said Warren Hastings, after the commission of the +offences aforesaid, being well aware that he should be called to an +account for the same, did, by the evil counsel and agency of Sir Elijah +Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, who was then out of the +limits of his jurisdiction, cause to be taken at Benares, before or by +the said Sir Elijah Impey, and through the intervention, not of the +Company's interpreter, but of a certain private interpreter of his, the +said Hastings's, own appointment, and a dependant on him, called Major +Davy, several declarations and depositions by natives of Hindostan,--and +did also cause to be taken before the said Sir Elijah Impey several +attestations in English, made by British subjects, and which were +afterwards transmitted to Calcutta, and laid before the +Council-General,--some of which depositions were upon oath, some upon +honor, and others neither upon _oath_ nor _honor_, but all or most of +which were of an irregular and irrelevant nature, and not fit or decent +to be taken by a British magistrate, or to be transmitted to a British +government. + +XXIII. That one of the said attestations (but not on oath) was made by a +principal minister of the Nabob of Oude, to whom the said Hastings had +some time before proposed to sell the sovereignty of that very territory +of Benares; and that one other attestation (not upon oath) was made by a +native woman of distinction, whose son he, the said Hastings, did +actually promote to the government of Benares, vacated by the unjust +expulsion of the Rajah aforesaid, and who in her deposition did declare +that she considered the expelled Rajah as her enemy, and that he never +did confer with her, or suffer her to be acquainted with any of his +designs. + +XXIV. That, besides the depositions of persons interested in the ruin of +the Rajah, others were made by persons who then received pensions from +him, the said Hastings; and several of the affidavits were made by +persons of mean condition, and so wholly illiterate as not to be able to +write their names. + +XXV. That he, the said Hastings, did also cause to be examined by +various proofs and essays, the result of which was delivered in upon +honor, the quality of certain military stores taken by the British +troops from the said Rajah of Benares; and upon the report that the same +were of a good quality, and executed by persons conversant in the making +of good military stores, although the cannon was stated by the same +authority to be bad, he, the said Warren Hastings, from the report +aforesaid, did maliciously, and contrary to the principles of natural +and legal reason, infer that the insurrection which had been raised by +his own violence and oppression, and rendered for a time successful by +his own improvidence, was the consequence of a premeditated design to +overturn the British empire in India, and to exterminate therefrom the +British nation; which design, if it had been true, the said Hastings +might have known, or rationally conjectured, and ought to have provided +against. And if the said Hastings had received any credible information +of such design, it was his duty to lay the same before the Council +Board, and to state the same to the Rajah, when he was in a condition to +have given an answer thereto or to observe thereon, and not, after he +had proscribed and driven him from his dominions, to have inquired into +offences to justify the previous infliction of punishment. + +XXVI. That it does not appear, that, in taking the said depositions, +there was any person present on the part of the Rajah to object to the +competence or credibility or relevancy of any of the said affidavits or +other attestations, or to account, otherwise than as the said deponents +did account, for any of the facts therein stated; nor were any copies +thereof sent to the said Rajah, although the Company had a minister at +the place of his residence, namely, in the camp of the Mahratta chief +Sindia, so as to enable him to transmit to the Company any matters which +might induce or enable them to do justice to the injured prince +aforesaid. And it does not appear that the said Hastings has ever +produced any witness, letter, or other document, tending to prove that +the said Rajah ever did carry on any hostile negotiation whatever with +any of those powers with whom he was charged with a conspiracy against +the Company, previous to the period of the said Hastings's having +arrested him in his palace, although he, the said Hastings, had various +agents at the courts of all those princes,--and that a late principal +agent and near relation of a minister of one them, the Rajah of Berar, +called Benaram Pundit, was, at the time of the tumult at Benares, +actually with the said Hastings, and the said Benaram Pundit was by him +highly applauded for his zeal and fidelity, and was therefore by him +rewarded with a large pension on those very revenues which he had taken +from the Rajah Cheyt Sing, and if such a conspiracy had previously +existed, the Mahratta minister aforesaid must have known, and would have +attested it. + +XXVII. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings, at the time that +he formed his design of seizing upon the treasures of the Rajah of +Benares, and of deposing him, did not believe him guilty of that +premeditated project for driving the English out of India with which he +afterwards thought fit to charge him, or that he was really guilty of +any other great offence: because he has caused it to be deposed, that, +if the said Rajah should pay the sum of money by him exacted, "he would +settle his zemindary upon him on the most eligible footing"; whereas, if +he had conceived him to have entertained traitorous designs against the +Company, from whom he held his tributary estate, or had been otherwise +guilty of such enormous offences as to make it necessary to take +extraordinary methods for coercing him, it would not have been proper +for him to settle upon such a traitor and criminal the zemindary of +Benares, or any other territory, upon the most eligible, or upon any +other footing whatever: whereby the said Hastings has by his own stating +demonstrated that the money intended to have been exacted was not as a +punishment for crimes, but that the crimes were pretended for the +purpose of exacting money. + +XXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to justify the acts of +violence aforesaid to the Court of Directors, did assert certain false +facts, known by him to be such, and did draw from them certain false and +dangerous inferences, utterly subversive of the rights of the princes +and subjects dependent on the British nation in India, contrary to the +principles of all just government, and highly dishonorable to that of +Great Britain: namely, that the "Rajah of Benares was not a vassal or +tributary prince, and that the deeds which passed between him and the +board, upon the transfer of the zemindary in 1775, were not to be +understood to bear the quality and force of a treaty upon optional +conditions between equal states; that the payments to be made by him +were not a tribute, but a rent; and that the instruments by which his +territories were conveyed to him did not differ from common grants to +zemindars who were merely subjects; but that, being nothing more than a +common zemindar and mere subject, and the Company holding the +acknowledged rights of his former sovereign, held an absolute authority +over him; that, in the known relations of zemindar to the sovereign +authority, or power delegated by it, he owed a personal allegiance and +an implicit and unreserved obedience to that authority, at the +forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property." Whereas +the said Hastings did well know, that, whether the payments from the +Rajah were called _rent_ or _tribute_, having been frequently by himself +called the one and the other, and that of whatever nature the +instruments by which he held might have been, he did not consider him as +a common zemindar or landholder, but as far independent as a tributary +prince could be: for he did assign as a reason for receiving his rent +rather within the Company's province than in his own capital, that it +would not "frustrate the intention of rendering the Rajah _independent_; +that, if a Resident was appointed to receive the money as it became due +at Benares, such a Resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over +the Rajah, and over his country, which would in effect render him the +master of both; that this consequence might not, perhaps, be brought +completely to pass without a struggle, and many appeals to the Council, +which, in a government constituted like this, cannot fail to terminate +against the Rajah, and, by the construction to which his opposition to +the agent would be liable, might eventually draw on him severe +restrictions, and end _in reducing him to the mean and depraved state of +a zemindar_." + +XXIX. And the said Hastings, in the said Minute of Consultation, having +enumerated the frauds, embezzlements, and oppressions which would ensue +from the Rajah's being in the dependent state aforesaid, and having +obviated all apprehensions from giving to him the implied symbols of +dominion, did assert, "that, without such appearance, he would expect +from every change of government additional demands to be made upon him, +and would of course descend to all the arts of intrigue and concealment +practised by other dependent Rajahs, which would keep him indigent and +weak, and eventually prove hurtful to the Company; but that, by proper +encouragement and protection, he might prove a profitable dependant, an +useful barrier, and even a powerful ally to the Company; but that he +would be neither, if the conditions of his connection with the Company +were left open to future variations." + +XXX. That, if the fact had been true that the Rajah of Benares was +merely an eminent landholder or any other subject, the wicked and +dangerous doctrine aforesaid, namely, that he owed a personal allegiance +and an implicit and unreserved obedience to the sovereign authority, at +the forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property, at +the discretion of those who held or fully represented the sovereign +authority, doth leave security neither for life nor property to any +persons residing under the Company's protection; and that no such +powers, nor any powers of that nature, had been delegated to the said +Warren Hastings by any provisions of the act of Parliament appointing a +Governor-General and Council at Fort William in Bengal. + +XXXI. That the said Warren Hastings did also advance another dangerous +and pernicious principle in justification of his violent, arbitrary, and +iniquitous actings aforesaid: namely, "that, if he had acted with an +unwarrantable rigor, and even injustice, towards Cheyt Sing, yet, first, +if he did _believe_ that extraordinary means were necessary, and those +exerted with a strong hand, to preserve the Company's interests from +sinking under the accumulated weight that oppressed them, or, secondly, +if he saw a _political necessity_ for curbing the _overgrown_ power of a +great member of their dominion, and to make it contribute to the relief +of their pressing exigencies, that his error would be excusable, as +prompted by an excess of zeal for their [the Company's] interest, +operating with too strong a bias on his judgment; but that much stronger +is the presumption, that such acts are founded on just principles than +that they are the result of a misguided judgment." That the said +doctrines are, in both the members thereof, subversive of all the +principles of just government, by empowering a governor with delegated +authority, in the first case, on his own private _belief_ concerning the +necessities of the state, not to levy an impartial and equal rate of +taxation suitable to the circumstances of the several members of the +community, but to select any individual from the same as an object of +arbitrary and unmeasured imposition,--and, in the second case, enabling +the same governor, on the same arbitrary principles, to determine whose +property should be considered as overgrown, and to reduce the same at +his pleasure. + + +PART IV. + +SECOND REVOLUTION IN BENARES. + +That the said Warren Hastings, after he had, in the manner aforesaid, +unjustly and violently expelled the Rajah Cheyt Sing, the lord or +zemindar of Benares, from his said lordship or zemindary, did, of his +own mere usurped authority, and without any communication with the other +members of the Council of Calcutta, appoint another person, of the name +of Mehip Narrain, a descendant by the mother from the late Rajah, +Bulwant Sing, to the government of Benares; and on account or pretence +of his youth and inexperience (the said Mehip Narrain not being above +twenty years old) did appoint his father, Durbege Sing, to act as his +representative or administrator of his affairs; but did give a +controlling authority to the British Resident over both, notwithstanding +his declarations before mentioned of the mischiefs likely to happen to +the said country from the establishment of a Resident, and his opinion +since declared in a letter to the Court of Directors, dated from this +very place (Benares) the 1st of October, 1784, to the same or stronger +effect, in case "agents are sent into the country, and armed with +authority for the purposes of vengeance and corruption,--_for to no +other will they be applied_." + +That the said Warren Hastings did, by the same usurped authority, +entirely set aside all the agreements made between the late Rajah and +the Company (which were real agreements with the state of Benares, in +the person of the lord or prince thereof, and his heirs); and without +any form of trial, inquisition, or other legal process, for forfeiture +of the privileges of the people to be governed by magistrates of their +own, and according to their natural laws, customs, and usages, did, +contrary to the said agreement, separate the mint and the criminal +justice from the said government, and did vest the mint in the British +Resident, and the criminal justice in a Mahomedan native of his own +appointment; and did enhance the tribute to be paid from the province, +from two hundred and fifty thousand pounds annually, limited by treaty, +or thereabouts, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the +first year, and to four hundred thousand for every year after; and did +compel the administrator aforesaid (father to the Rajah) to agree to the +same; and did, by the same usurped authority, illegally impose, and +cause to be levied, sundry injudicious and oppressive duties on goods +and merchandise, which did greatly impair the trade of the province, and +threaten the utter ruin thereof; and did charge several pensions on the +said revenues, of his own mere authority; and did send and keep up +various bodies of the Company's troops in the said country; and did +perform sundry other acts with regard to the said territory, in total +subversion of the rights of the sovereign and the people, and in +violation of the treaties and agreements aforesaid. + +That the said Warren Hastings, being absent, on account of ill health, +from the Presidency of Calcutta, at a place called Nia Serai, about +forty miles distant therefrom, did carry on a secret correspondence with +the Resident at Benares, and, under color that the instalments for the +new rent or tribute were in arrear, did of his own authority make, in +about one year, a second revolution in the government of the territory +aforesaid, and did order and direct that Durbege Sing aforesaid, father +of the Rajah, and administrator of his authority, should be deprived of +his office and of his lands, and thrown into prison, and did threaten +him with death: although he, the said Warren Hastings, had, at the time +of the making his new arrangement, declared himself sensible that the +rent aforesaid might require abatement; although he was well apprised +that the administrator had been for two months of his administration in +a weak and languid state of body, and wholly incapable of attending to +the business of the collections; though a considerable drought had +prevailed in the said province, and did consequently affect the +regularity and produce of the collections; and though he had other +sufficient reason to believe that the said administrator had not himself +received from the collectors of government and the cultivators of the +soil the rent in arrear: yet he, the said Warren Hastings, without any +known process, or recording any answer, defence, plea, exculpation, or +apology from the party, or recording any other grounds of rigor against +him, except the following paragraph of a letter from the Resident, not +only gave the order as aforesaid, but did afterwards, without laying any +other or better ground before the Council-General, persuade them to, and +did procure from them, a confirmation of the aforesaid cruel and +illegal proceedings, the correspondence concerning which had not been +before communicated: he pleading his illness for not communicating the +same, though that illness did not prevent him from carrying on +correspondence concerning the deposition of the said administrator, and +other important affairs in various places. + +That in the letter to the Council requiring the confirmation of his acts +aforesaid the said Warren Hastings did not only propose the confinement +of the said administrator at Benares, although by his imprisonment he +must have been in a great measure disabled from recovering the balances +due to him, and for the non-payment of which he was thus imprisoned, but +did propose, as an alternative, his imprisonment at a remote fortress, +out of the said territory, and in the Company's provinces, called +Chunar: desiring them to direct the Resident at Benares "to exact from +Baboo Durbege Sing every rupee of the collections which it shall appear +that he has made and not brought to account, and either to confine him +at Benares, or to send him a prisoner to Chunar, and to keep him in +confinement until he shall have discharged the whole of the amount due +from him." And the said Warren Hastings did assign motives of passion +and personal resentment for the said unjust and rigorous proceedings, as +follows: "I feel myself, and may be allowed on such an occasion to +acknowledge it, personally hurt at the ingratitude of this man, and at +the discredit which his ill conduct has thrown on my appointment of him. +He has deceived me; he has offended against the government which I then +represented." And as a further reason for depriving him of his jaghire, +(or salary out of land,) he did insinuate in the said letter, but +without giving or offering any proof, "that the said Rajah had been +guilty of _little and mean peculations_, although the appointments +assigned to him had been sufficient to free him from the temptations +thereto." + +That it appears, as it might naturally have been expected, that the wife +of the said administrator, the daughter of Bulwant Sing, the late Rajah +of Benares, and her son, the reigning Rajah, did oppose to the best of +their power, but by what remonstrances or upon what plea the said Warren +Hastings did never inform the Court of Directors, the deposition, +imprisonment, and confiscation of the estates of the husband of the one +and the father of the other; but that the said Hastings, persisting in +his malice, did declare to the said Council as follows: "The opposition +made by the Rajah and the old Rannee, both equally incapable of judging +for _themselves_, does certainly originate from some secret influence, +which ought to be checked by a decided and peremptory declaration of the +authority of the board, and a denunciation of their displeasure at +_their presumption_." + +That the said Warren Hastings, not satisfied with the injuries done and +the insults and disgraces offered to the family aforesaid, did, in a +manner unparalleled, except by an act of his own on another occasion, +fraudulently and inhumanly endeavor to make the wife and son of the said +administrator, contrary to the sentiments and the law of Nature, the +instruments of his oppressions: directing, "that, if they" (the mother +and son aforesaid) "could be _induced_ to yield _the appearance of a +cheerful acquiescence_ in the new arrangement, and to adopt it as _a +measure formed with their participation_, it would be better than that +it should be done by a declared act of compulsion; but that at all +events it ought to be done." + +That, in consequence of the pressing declarations aforesaid, the said +Warren Hastings did on his special recommendation appoint, in opposition +to the wishes and desires of the Rajah and his mother, another person to +the administration of his affairs, called Jagher Deo Seo. + +That, the Company having sent express orders for the sending the +Resident by them before appointed to Benares, the said Warren Hastings +did strongly oppose himself to the same, and did throw upon the person +appointed by the Company (Francis Fowke, Esquire) several strong, but +unspecified, reflections and aspersions, contrary to the duty he owed to +the Company, and to the justice he owed to all its servants. + +That the said Resident, being appointed by the votes of the rest of the +Council, in obedience to the reiterated orders of the Company, and in +despite of the opposition of the said Hastings, did proceed to Benares, +and, on the representation of the parties, and the submission of the +accounts of the aforesaid Durbege Sing to an arbitrator, did find him, +the said Durbege Sing, in debt to the Company for a sum not considerable +enough to justify the severe treatment of the said Durbege Sing: his +wife and son complaining, at or about the same time, that the balances +due to him from the _aumils_, or sub-collectors, had been received by +the new administrator, and carried to his own credit, in prejudice and +wrong to the said Durbege Sing; which representation, the only one that +has been transmitted on the part of the said sufferers, has not been +contradicted. + +That it appears that the said Durbege Sing did afterwards go to Calcutta +for the redress of his grievances, and that it does not appear that the +same were redressed, or even his complaints heard, but he received two +peremptory orders from the Supreme Council to leave the said city and to +return to Benares; that, on his return to Benares, and being there met +by Warren Hastings aforesaid, he, the said Warren Hastings, although he +had reason to be well assured that the said Durbege Sing was in +possession of small or no substance, did again cruelly and inhumanly, +and without any legal authority, order the said Durbege Sing to be +strictly imprisoned; and the said Durbege Sing, in consequence of the +vexations, hardships, and oppressions aforesaid, died in a short time +after, insolvent, but whether in prison or not does not appear. + + +PART V. + +THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES. + +That the said Warren Hastings, having, in the manner before recited, +divested Durbege Sing of the administration of the province of Benares, +did, of his own arbitrary will and pleasure, and against the +remonstrances of the Rajah and his mother, (in whose name and in whose +right the said Durbege Sing, father of the one, and husband of the +other, had administered the affairs of the government,) appoint a person +called Jagher Deo Seo to administer the same. + +That the new administrator, warned by the severe example made of his +predecessor, is represented by the said Warren Hastings as having made +it his "avowed principle" (as it might be expected it should be) "that +the sum fixed for the revenue _must_ be collected." And he did, upon the +principle aforesaid, and by the means suggested by a principle of that +sort, accordingly levy from the country, and did regularly discharge to +the British Resident at Benares, by monthly payments, the sums imposed +by the said Warren Hastings, as it is asserted by the Resident, Fowke; +but the said Warren Hastings did assert that his annual collections did +not amount to more than Lac 37,37,600, or thereabouts, which he says is +much short of the revenues of the province, and is by about twenty-four +thousand pounds short of his agreement. + +That it further appears, that, notwithstanding the new administrator +aforesaid was appointed two months, or thereabouts, after the beginning +of the Fusseli year, that is to say, about the middle of November, 1782, +and the former administrator had collected a certain portion of the +revenues of that year, amounting to 17,000_l._ and upwards, yet he, the +said new administrator, upon the unjust and destructive principle +aforesaid, suggested by the cruel and violent proceedings of the said +Warren Hastings towards his predecessor, did levy on the province, +within the said year, the whole amount of the revenues to be collected, +in addition to the sum collected by his predecessor aforesaid. + +That, on account of a great drought which prevailed in the province +aforesaid, a remission of certain duties in grain was proposed by the +chief criminal judge at Benares; but the administrator aforesaid, being +fearful that the revenue should fall short in his hands, did strenuously +oppose himself to the necessary relief to the inhabitants of the said +city. + +That, notwithstanding the cantonment of several bodies of the Company's +troops within the province, since the abolition of the native +government, it became subject in a particular manner to the depredations +of the Rajahs upon the borders; insomuch that in one quarter no fewer +than thirty villages had been sacked and burned, and the inhabitants +reduced to the most extreme distress. + +That the Resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent +that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult, and, +besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty +the following. "That there is also one fund which in former years was +often applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the +revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This was the +private fortunes of merchants and _shroffs_ [bankers] resident in +Benares, from whom _aumils_ [collectors] of credit could obtain +temporary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of the Rajah. These sums, +which used to circulate between the aumil and the merchant, have been +turned into a different channel, by bills of exchange to defray the +expenses of government, both on the west coast of India, and also at +Madras." To which representation it does not appear that any answer was +given, or that any mode of redress was adopted in consequence thereof. + +That the said Warren Hastings, having passed through the province of +Benares (Gazipore) in his progress towards Oude, did, in a letter dated +from the city of Lucknow, the 2d of April, 1784, give to the Council +Board at Calcutta an account, highly dishonorable to the British +government, of the effect of the arrangements made by himself in the +years 1781 and 1782, in the words following. "Having contrived, by +making forced stages, while the troops of my escort marched at the +ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at Benares, I was thereby +furnished with the means of acquiring some knowledge of the state of the +province, which I am anxious to communicate to you. Indeed, the inquiry, +which was _in a great degree obtruded upon me_, affected me with very +mortifying reflections on my inability to apply it to any useful +purpose. From the confines of Buxar to Benares I was followed and +_fatigued_ by the clamors of the discontented inhabitants. It was what I +expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority +should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it. The +distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably +tended to heighten the general discontent; _yet I have reason to fear +that the cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and +oppressive administration_. Of a multitude of petitions which were +presented to me, and of which I took minutes, every one that did not +relate to a personal grievance contained the representation of one and +the same species of oppression, which is in its nature of an influence +most fatal to the future cultivation. The practice to which I allude is +this. It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the +proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in kind on their +stipulated rent: that is, from those who hold their _pottah_ by the +tenure of paying _one half_ of the produce of their crops, either _the +whole_ without subterfuge, or a _large_ proportion of it by a _false +measurement_ or other pretexts; and from those whose engagements are for +a fixed rent _in money_, the half, or a greater proportion, is taken _in +kind_. This is in effect a tax upon the industry of the inhabitants: +since there is scarce a field of grain in the province, _I might say not +one_, which has not been preserved by the incessant labor of the +cultivator, by digging wells for their supply, or watering them from the +wells of masonry with which their country abounds, or from the +neighboring tanks, rivers, and nullahs. The people who imposed on +themselves this voluntary and extraordinary labor, and not unattended +with expense, did it on the expectation of reaping the profits of it; +and it is certain they would not have done it, if they had known that +their rulers, _from whom they were entitled to an indemnification_, +would take from them what they had so hardly earned. If the same +administration continues, and the country shall again labor under a want +of rain, _every field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands +perish through want of subsistence_: for who will labor for the _sole_ +benefit of others, and to make himself the subject of exaction? These +practices are to be imputed to the Naib himself" (the administrator +forced by the said Warren Hastings on the present Rajah of Benares). +"The avowed principle on which he acts, and which he acknowledged to +myself, is, that the _whole_ sum fixed for the revenue of the province +_must_ be collected,--and that, for this purpose, the deficiency arising +in places where the crops have failed, or which have been left +uncultivated, must be supplied from the resources of others, where the +soil has been better suited to the season, or the industry of the +cultivators hath been more successfully exerted: a principle which, +however specious and plausible it may at first appear, _certainly tends +to the most pernicious and destructive consequences_. If this +declaration of the Naib had been made only to myself, I might have +doubted my construction of it; but it was repeated by him to Mr. +Anderson, who understood it exactly in the same sense. In the management +of the customs, the conduct of the Naib, or of the officer under him, +was forced also upon my attention. _The exorbitant rates exacted by an +arbitrary valuation of the goods_, the practice of exacting duties +_twice_ on the same goods, (first from the seller, and afterwards from +the buyer,) and the vexations, disputes, and delays drawn on the +merchants by these oppressions, were loudly complained of; and some +instances of this kind were said to exist at the very time I was at +Benares. Under such circumstances, we are not to wonder, if the +merchants of foreign countries are discouraged from resorting to +Benares, and if the commerce of that province should annually decay. +_Other_ evils, or imputed evils, have accidentally come to my knowledge, +which I will not now particularize, as I hope, that, with the +assistance of the Resident, they may be _in part_ corrected. One evil I +must mention, because it has been verified by my own observation, and is +of that kind which reflects an unmerited reproach on our general and +national character. When I was at Buxar, the Resident, at my desire, +enjoined the Naib to appoint creditable people to every town through +which our route lay, to persuade and encourage the inhabitants to remain +in their houses, promising to give them guards as I approached, and they +required it for their protection; and that he might perceive how earnest +I was for his observation of this precaution, I repeated it to him in +person, and dismissed him that he might precede me for that purpose. +But, to my great disappointment, _I found every place through which I +passed abandoned; nor had there been a man left in any of them for their +protection_. I am sorry to add, _that, from Buxar to the opposite +boundary, I have seen nothing but traces of complete devastation in +every village: whether caused by the followers of the troops which have +lately passed, for their natural relief, (and I know not whether my own +may not have had their share,)_ or from the apprehensions of the +inhabitants left to themselves, and of themselves deserting their +houses. I wish to acquit my own countrymen of the blame of these +unfavorable appearances, and in my own heart I do acquit them; for at +one encampment a crowd of people came to me complaining that _their new +aumil (collector), on the approach of any military detachment, himself +first fled from the place; and the inhabitants, having no one to whom +they could apply for redress, or for the representation of their +grievances, and being thus remediless, fled also; so that their houses +and effects became a prey to any person who chose to plunder them_. The +general conclusion appeared to me an inevitable consequence from such a +state of facts; and my own senses bore testimony to it in this specific +instance: nor do I know how it is possible for any officer commanding a +military party, how attentive soever he may be to the discipline and +forbearance of his people, to prevent disorders, _when there is neither +opposition to hinder nor evidence to detect them_. These and many other +irregularities I impute _solely_ to the Naib, and recommend his instant +removal. I cannot help remarking, that, except the city of Benares, _the +province is in effect without a government. The administration of the +province is misconducted, and the people oppressed, trade discouraged, +and the revenue in danger of a rapid decline, from the violent +appropriation of its means._" + +That the said Warren Hastings did recommend to the Council, for a remedy +of the disorders and calamities which had arisen from his own acts, +dispositions, and appointments, that the administrator aforesaid should +be instantly removed from his office,--attributing the aforesaid +"irregularities, _and many others, solely_ to him," although, on his own +representation, it does appear that he was the sole cause of the +irregularities therein described. Neither does it appear that the +administrator, so by the said Hastings nominated and removed, was +properly charged and called to answer for the said recited +irregularities, or for the _many others_ not recited, but _attributed +solely_ to him; nor has any plea or excuse from him been transmitted to +the board, or to the Court of Directors; but he was, at the instance of +the said Hastings, deprived of his said office, contrary to the +principles of natural justice, in a violent and arbitrary manner; which +proceeding, combined with the example made of his predecessor, must +necessarily leave to the person who should succeed to the said office no +distinct principle upon which he might act with safety. But in comparing +the consequences of the two delinquencies charged, the failure of the +payment of the revenues (from whatever cause it may arise) is more +likely to be avoided than any severe course towards the inhabitants: as +the former fault was, besides the deprivation of office, attended with +two imprisonments, with a menace of death, and an actual death, in +disgrace, poverty, and insolvency; whereas the latter, namely, the +oppression, and thereby the total ruin, of the country, charged on the +second administrator, was only followed by loss of office,--although, +he, the said Warren Hastings, did farther assert (but with what truth +does not appear) that the collection of the last administrator had +fallen much short of the revenue of the province. + +That the said Warren Hastings himself was sensible that the frequent +changes by him made would much disorder the management of the revenues, +and seemed desirous of concealing his intentions concerning the last +change until the time of its execution. Yet it appears, by a letter from +the British Resident, dated the 23d of June, 1784, "that a very strong +report prevailed at Benares of his [the said Hastings's] intentions of +appointing a new Naib for the approaching year, and that the effect is +evident which the prevalence of such an idea amongst the aumils would +probably have on the cultivation at this particular time. The heavy +mofussil kists [harvest instalments] have now been collected by the +aumils; the season of tillage is arrived; the ryots [country farmers] +must be indulged, and even assisted by advances; and the aumil must look +for his returns in the abundance of the crop, _the consequence of this +early attention to the cultivation_. The effect is evident _which the +report of a change in the first officer of the revenue must have on the +minds of the aumils, by leaving them at an uncertainty of what they have +in future to expect_; and in proportion to the degree of this +uncertainty, their efforts and expenses in promoting the cultivation +will be languid and sparing. In compliance with the Naib's request, I +have written to all the aumils, encouraging and ordering them to attend +to the cultivation of their respective districts; but I conceive I +should be able to promote this very desirable intention much more +effectually, if you will honor me with the communication of your +intentions on this subject. At the same time I cannot help just +remarking, that, if a change is intended, the sooner it takes place, the +more _the bad effects_ I have described will be obviated." + +That the Council, having received the proposition for the removal of the +administrator aforesaid, did also, in a letter to him, the said +Hastings, condemn the frequent changes by him made in the administration +of the collections of Benares,--but did consent to such alterations as +might be made without encroaching on the rights established by his, the +said Hastings's, agreement in the year 1781, and did desire him to +transmit to them his plan for a new administration. + +That the said Hastings did transmit a plan, which, notwithstanding the +evils which had happened from the former frequent changes, he did +propose _as a temporary expedient_ for the administration of the +revenues of the said province,--in which no provision was made for the +reduction or remission of revenue as exigences might require, or for the +extraction of the circulating specie from the said province, or for the +supply of the necessary advances for cultivation, nor for the removal or +prevention of any of the grievances by him before complained of, other +than an inspection by the Resident and the chief criminal magistrate of +Benares, and other regulations equally void of effect and +authority,--and which plan Mr. Stables, one of the Supreme Council, did +altogether reject; but the same was approved of _as a temporary +expedient_, with some exceptions, by two other members of the board, Mr. +Wheler and Mr. Macpherson, declaring _the said Warren Hastings +responsible for the temporary expediency of the same_. + +That the said Warren Hastings, in the plan aforesaid, having strongly +objected to the appointment of any European collectors, that is to say, +of any European servants of the Company being concerned in the same, +declaring that there had been sufficient experience of the ill effects +of their being so employed in the province of Bengal,--by which the said +Hastings did either in loose and general terms convey a false imputation +upon the conduct of the Company's servants employed in the collection of +the revenues of Bengal, or he was guilty of a criminal neglect of duty +in not bringing to punishment the particular persons whose evil +practices had given rise to such a general imputation on British +subjects and servants of the Company as to render them unfit for service +in other places. + +That the said Warren Hastings, having in the course of three years made +three complete revolutions in the state of Benares, by expelling, in the +first instance, the lawful and rightful governor of the same, under +whose care and superintendence a large and certain revenue, suitable to +the abilities of the country, and consistent with its prosperity, was +paid with the greatest punctuality, and by afterwards displacing two +effective governors or administrators of the province, appointed in +succession by himself, and, in consequence of the said appointments and +violent and arbitrary removals, the said province "being left in effect +without a government," except in one city only, and having, after all, +settled no more than a temporary arrangement, is guilty of an high crime +and misdemeanor in the destruction of the country aforesaid. + + +IV.--PRINCESSES OF OUDE. + +I. That the reigning Nabob of Oude, commonly called Asoph ul Dowlah, +(son and successor to Sujah ul Dowlah,) by taking into or continuing in +his pay certain bodies of regular British troops, and by having +afterwards admitted the British Resident at his court into the +management of all his affairs, foreign and domestic, and particularly +into the administration of his finances, did gradually become in +substance and effect, as well as in general repute and estimation, a +dependant on, or vassal of, the East India Company, and was, and is, so +much under the control of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal, +that, in the opinion of all the native powers, the English name and +character is concerned in every act of his government. + +II. That Warren Hastings, Esquire, contrary to law and to his duty, and +in disobedience to the orders of the East India Company, arrogating to +himself the nomination of the Resident at the court of Oude, as his +particular agent and representative, and rejecting the Resident +appointed by the Company, and obtruding upon them a person of his own +choice, did from that time render himself in a particular manner +responsible for the good government of the provinces composing the +dominions of the Nabob of Oude. + +III. That the provinces aforesaid, having been at the time of their +first connection with the Company in an improved and flourishing +condition, and yielding a revenue of more than three millions of pounds +sterling, or thereabouts, did soon after that period begin sensibly to +decline, and the subsidy of the British troops stationed in that +province, as well as other sums of money due to the Company by treaty, +ran considerably in arrear; although the prince of the country, during +the time these arrears accrued, was otherwise in distress, and had been +obliged to reduce all his establishments. + +IV. That the prince aforesaid, or Nabob of Oude, did, in humble and +submissive terms, supplicate the said Warren Hastings to be relieved +from a body of troops whose licentious behavior he complained of, and +who were stationed in his country without any obligation by treaty to +maintain them,--pleading the failure of harvest and the prevalence of +famine in his country: a compliance with which request by the said +Warren Hastings was refused in unbecoming, offensive, and insulting +language. + +V. That the said Nabob, laboring under the aforesaid and other burdens, +and being continually urged for payment, was advised to extort, and did +extort, from his mother and grandmother, under the pretext of loans, +(and sometimes without that appearance,) various great sums of money, +amounting in the whole to six hundred and thirty thousand pounds +sterling, or thereabouts: alleging in excuse the rigorous demands of the +East India Company, for whose use the said extorted money had been +demanded, and to which a considerable part of it had been applied. + +VI. That the two female parents of the Nabob aforesaid were among the +women of the greatest rank, family, and distinction in Asia, and were +left by the deceased Nabob, the son of the one and the husband of the +other, in charge of certain considerable part of his treasures, in money +and other valuable movables, as well as certain landed estates, called +jaghires, in order to the support of their own dignity, and the +honorable maintenance of his women, and a numerous offspring, and their +dependants: the said family amounting in the whole to two thousand +persons, who were by the said Nabob, at his death, recommended in a +particular manner to the care and protection of the said Warren +Hastings. + +VII. That, on the demand of the Nabob of Oude on his parents for the +last of the sums which completed the six hundred and thirty thousand +pounds aforesaid, they, the said parents, did positively refuse to pay +any part of the same to their son for the use of the Company, until he +should agree to certain terms to be stipulated in a regular treaty, and +among other particulars to secure them in the remainder of their +possessions, and also on no account or pretence to make any further +demands or claims on them; and well knowing from whence all his claims +and exactions had arisen, they demanded that the said treaty, or family +compact, should be guarantied by the Governor-General and Council of +Bengal: and a treaty was accordingly agreed to, executed by the Nabob, +and guarantied by John Bristow, Esquire, the Resident at Oude, under the +authority and with the express consent of the said Warren Hastings and +the Council-General, and in consequence thereof the sum last required +was paid, and discharges given to the Nabob for all the money which he +had borrowed from his own mother and the mother of his father. + +That, the distresses and disorders in the Nabob's government and his +debt to the Company continuing to increase, notwithstanding the violent +methods before mentioned taken to augment his resources, the said Warren +Hastings, on the 21st of May, and on the 31st July, 1781, (he and Mr. +Wheler being the only remaining members of the Council-General, and he +having the conclusive and casting voice, and thereby being in effect the +whole Council,) did, in the name and under the authority of the board, +resolve on a journey to the upper provinces, in order to a personal +interview with the Nabob of Oude, towards the settlement of his +distressed affairs, and did give to himself a delegation of the powers +of the said Council, in direct violation of the Company's orders +forbidding such delegation. + +VIII. That the said Warren Hastings having by his appointment met the +Nabob of Oude near a place called Chunar, and possessing an entire and +absolute command over the said prince, he did, contrary to justice and +equity and the security of property, as well as to public faith and the +sanction of the Company's guaranty, under the color of a treaty, which +treaty was conducted secretly, without a written document of any part of +the proceeding except the pretended treaty itself, authorize the said +Nabob to seize upon, and confiscate to his own profit, the landed +estates, called jaghires, of his parents, kindred, and principal +nobility: only stipulating a pension to the net amount of the rent of +the said lands as an equivalent, and that equivalent to such only whose +lands had been guarantied to them by the Company; but provided neither +in the said pretended treaty nor in any subsequent act the least +security for the payment of the said pension to those for whom such +pension was ostensibly reserved, and for the others not so much as a +show of indemnity;--to the extreme scandal of the British government, +which, valuing itself upon a strict regard to property, did expressly +authorize, if it did not command, an attack upon that right, +unprecedented in the despotic governments of India. + +IX. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to cover the violent and +unjust proceedings aforesaid, did assert a claim of right in the same +Nabob to all the possessions of his said mother and grandmother, as +belonging to him by the Mahomedan law; and this pretended claim was set +up by the said Warren Hastings, after the Nabob had, by a regular treaty +ratified and guarantied by the said Hastings as Governor-General, +renounced and released all demands on them. And this false pretence of a +legal demand was taken up and acted upon by the said Warren Hastings, +without laying the said question on record before the Council-General, +or giving notice to the persons to be affected thereby to support their +rights before any of the principal magistrates and expounders of the +Mahomedan law, or taking publicly the opinions of any person conversant +therein. + +X. That, in order to give further color to the acts of ill faith and +violence aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did cause to be taken at +Lucknow and other places, before divers persons, and particularly before +Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, acting +extra-judicially, and not within the limits of his jurisdiction, several +passionate, careless, irrelevant, and irregular affidavits, consisting +of matter not fit to be deposed on oath,--of reports, conjectures, and +hearsays; some of the persons swearing to the said hearsays having +declined to declare from whom they heard the accounts at second hand +sworn to; the said affidavits in general tending to support the +calumnious charge of the said Warren Hastings, namely, that the aged +women before mentioned had formed or engaged in a plan for the +deposition of their son and sovereign, and the _utter extirpation_ of +the English nation: and neither the said charge against persons whose +dependence was principally, if not wholly, on the good faith of this +nation, and highly affecting the honor, property, and even lives, of +women of the highest condition, nor the affidavits intended to support +the same, extra-judicially taken, _ex parte_, and without notice, by the +said Sir Elijah Impey and others, were at any time communicated to the +parties charged, or to any agent for them; nor were they called upon to +answer, nor any explanation demanded of them. + +XI. That the article affecting private property secured by public acts, +in the said pretended treaty, contains nothing more than a general +permission, given by the said Warren Hastings, for confiscating such +jaghires, or landed estates, with the modifications therein contained, +"as _he_ [the Nabob] may find necessary," but does not directly point +at, or express by name, any of the landed possessions of the Nabob's +mother. But soon after the signing of the said pretended treaty, (that +is, on the 29th November, 1781,) it did appear that a principal object +thereof was to enable the Nabob to seize upon the estates of his female +parents aforesaid, which had been guarantied to them by the East India +Company. And although in the treaty, or pretended treaty, aforesaid, +nothing more is purported than to give a simple permission to the Nabob +to seize upon and confiscate the estates, leaving the execution or +non-execution of the same wholly to his discretion, yet it appears, by +several letters from Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, the Resident at the +Court of Oude, of the 6th, 7th, and 9th of December, 1781, that no such +discretion as expressed in the treaty was left, or intended to be left, +with him, the said Nabob, but that the said article ought practically to +have a construction of a directly contrary tendency: that, instead of +considering the article as originating from the Nabob, and containing a +power provided in his favor which he did not possess before, the +confiscation of the jaghires aforesaid was to be considered as a measure +originating from the English, and to be intended for their benefit, and, +as such, that the execution was to be forced upon him; and the execution +thereof was accordingly forced upon him. And the Resident, Middleton, on +the Nabob's refusal to act in contradiction to his sworn engagement +guarantied by the East India Company, and in the undutiful and unnatural +manner required, did totally supersede his authority in his own +dominions, considering himself as empowered so to act by the +instructions of the said Hastings, although he had reason to apprehend a +general insurrection in consequence thereof, and that he found it +necessary to remove his family, "which he did not wish to retain there, +in case of a rupture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing the +British forces in the reduction of _his_ aumils and troops"; and he did +accordingly, as sovereign, issue his own edicts and warrants, in +defiance of the resistance of the Nabob, in the manner by him described +in the letters aforesaid,--in a letter of 6th December, 1781, that is to +say: "_Finding the Nabob wavering in his determination about the +resumption of the jaghires_, I this day, in presence of and with the +minister's concurrence, ordered the necessary purwannahs to be written +to the several aumils for that purpose; and it was my firm resolution to +have dispatched them this evening, with proper people to see them +punctually and implicitly carried into execution; but before they were +all transcribed, I received a message from the Nabob, who had been +informed by the minister of the resolution I had taken, entreating that +I would withhold the purwannahs until to-morrow morning, when he would +attend me, and afford me satisfaction on this point. As the loss of a +few hours in the dispatch of the purwannahs appeared of little moment, +and as it is possible the Nabob, _seeing that the business will at all +events be done, may make it an act of his own, I have consented to +indulge him in his request; but, be the remit of our interview whatever +it may, nothing shall prevent the orders being issued to-morrow, either +by him or myself, with the concurrence of the ministers_. Your pleasure +respecting the Begums I have learnt from Sir Elijah, and the measure +heretofore proposed will soon follow the resumption of the jaghires. +From both, or indeed from the former alone, I have no doubt of the +complete liquidation of the Company's balance." And also in another +letter, of the 7th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you +yesterday, informing you of the steps I had taken in regard to the +resumption of _the jaghires. This morning the Vizier came to me +according to his agreement, but seemingly without any intention or +desire to yield me satisfaction on the subject under discussion; for, +after a great deal of conversation, consisting on his part of trifling +evasion and puerile excuses for withholding his assent to the measure, +though at the same time professing the most implicit submission to your +wishes, I found myself without any other resource than the one of +employing that exclusive authority with which I consider your +instructions to vest me: I therefore declared to the Nabob, in presence +of the minister and Mr. Johnson, who I desired might bear witness of the +conversation, that I construed his rejection of the measure proposed as +a breach of his solemn promise to you, and an unwillingness to yield +that assistance which was evidently in his power towards liquidating his +heavy accumulating debt to the Company_, and that I must in consequence +determine, in my own justification, _to issue immediately the +purwannahs_, which had only been withheld in the sanguine hope that he +would be prevailed upon _to make that his own act_ which nothing but the +most urgent necessity could force _me to make mine_. He left me without +any reply, but afterwards sent for his minister and authorized him to +give me hopes that my requisition would be complied with; on which I +expressed my satisfaction, but declared that I could admit of no further +delays, and, unless I received his Excellency's formal acquiescence +before the evening, I should then most assuredly issue _my_ purwannahs; +which _I have accordingly done_, not having had any assurances from his +Excellency that could justify a further suspension. I shall, as soon as +possible, inform you of the effect of the purwannahs, which, in many +parts, I am apprehensive it will be found necessary _to enforce with +military aid_. I am not, however, entirely without hopes that the Nabob, +_when he sees the inefficacy of further opposition_, may alter his +conduct, and prevent _the confusion and disagreeable consequences which +would be too likely to result from the prosecution of a measure of such +importance without his concurrence_. His Excellency talks of going to +Fyzabad, for the purpose heretofore mentioned, in three or four days: _I +wish he may be serious in his intention_, and you may rest assured _I +shall spare no pains to keep him to it_." And further, in a letter of +the 9th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you on the 7th +instant, informing you of the conversation which had passed between the +Nabob and me on the subject of resuming the jaghires, and the step I had +taken in consequence. _His Excellency appeared to be very much hurt and +incensed at the measure, and loudly complains of the treachery of his +ministers,--first, in giving you any hopes that such a measure would be +adopted, and, secondly, in their promising me their whole support in +carrying it through; but, as I apprehended, rather than suffer it to +appear that the point had been carried in opposition to his will_, he at +length yielded a _nominal_ acquiescence, and has this day issued his own +purwannahs to that effect,--_declaring, however, at the same time, both +to me and his ministers, that it is an act of compulsion_. I hope to be +able in a few days, in consequence of this measure, to transmit you an +account of the actual value and produce of the jaghires, opposed to the +nominal amount at which they stand rated on the books of the circar." + +XII. That the said Warren Hastings, instead of expressing any +disapprobation of the proceedings aforesaid, in violation of the rights +secured by treaty with the mother and grandmother of the reigning prince +of Oude, and not less in violation of the sovereign rights of the Nabob +himself, did by frequent messages stimulate the said Middleton to a +perseverance in and to a rigorous execution of the same,--and in his +letter from Benares of the 25th December, 1781, did "express doubts of +his firmness and activity, and, above all, of his recollection of his +instructions and their importance; and that, if he could not rely on his +own [power] and the means he possessed for performing those services, he +_would free him_ [the said Middleton] _from the charges_, and would +proceed _himself_ to Lucknow, and would _himself_ undertake them." + +XIII. That very doubtful credit is to be given to any letters written by +the said Middleton to the said Warren Hastings, when they answer the +purposes which the said Warren Hastings had evidently in view: the said +Middleton having written to him in the following manner from Lucknow, +30th December, 1781. + +XIV. "MY DEAR SIR,--I have this day answered your _public_ +letter in the form _you seem to expect_. I hope there is nothing in it +that may appear to you too pointed. _If you wish the matter to be +otherwise understood than I have taken up and stated it, I need not say +I shall be ready to conform to whatever you may prescribe, and to take +upon myself any share of the blame of the (hitherto) non-performance of +the stipulations made on behalf of the Nabob_: though I do assure you I +myself represented to his Excellency and the ministers, (conceiving it +to be your desire,) that _the apparent assumption of the reins of his +government_, (for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at the +first view,) as specified in the agreement executed by him, was not +meant to be _fully_ and _literally_ enforced, but that it was necessary +_you should have something to show on your side, as the Company were +deprived of a benefit without a requital; and upon the faith of this +assurance alone_, I believe I may safely affirm, his Excellency's +objections to signing the treaty were given up. If I have understood the +matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am truly sorry for it: +_however, it is not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to +undertake, and, God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on +receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final resolve_." + +XV. That it appears, but on his, the said Middleton's, sole authority, +in a letter from the said Middleton, dated Lucknow, 2d December, 1781, +that the Nabob of Oude, wishing to evade the measure of resuming the +jaghires aforesaid, did send a message to him, purporting, "that, if the +measure proposed was intended to procure the payment of the balance due +to the Company, he could better and more expeditiously effect that +object by taking from his mother the treasures of his father, which he +did assert to be in her hands, and to which he did claim a right; and +that it would be sufficient that he, the said Hastings, _would hint his +opinion upon it, without giving a formal sanction to the measure +proposed_; and that, whatever his resolution upon the subject should be, +it would be expedient to keep it secret": adding, "_The resumption of +the jaghires it is necessary to suspend till I have your answer to this +letter_." + +XVI. That it does not appear that the said Hastings did write any +letter in answer to the proposal of the said Middleton, but he, the said +Hastings, did communicate his pleasure thereon, to Sir Elijah Impey, +being then at Lucknow, for his, the said Middleton's, information; and +it does appear that the seizing of the treasures of the mother of the +Nabob, said to have been proposed as _an alternative_ by the said Nabob +to prevent the resumption of the jaghires, was determined upon and +ordered by the said Hastings,--and that the resumption of the said +jaghires, for the ransom of which the seizing of the treasures was +proposed, was also directed: not one only, but both sides of the +alternative, being enforced upon the female parents of the Nabob +aforesaid, although both the one and the other had been secured to them +by a treaty with the East India Company. + +XVIII.[60] That Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice at +Port William, did undertake a journey of nine hundred miles, from +Calcutta to Lucknow, on pretence of health and pleasure, but was in +reality in the secret of these and other irregular transactions, and +employed as a channel of confidential communication therein. And the +said Warren Hastings, by presuming to employ the said chief-justice, a +person particularly unfit for an agent, in the transaction of affairs +_primâ facie_ at least unjust, violent, and oppressive, contrary to +public faith, and to the sentiments and law of Nature, and which he, the +said Hastings, was sensible "could not fail to draw obloquy on himself +by his participation," did disgrace the king's commission, and render +odious to the natives of Hindostan the justice of the crown of Great +Britain. + +XIX. That, although the said Warren Hastings was from the beginning duly +informed of the violence offered to the personal inclinations of the +Nabob, and the "apparent assumption of the reins of his government," for +the purposes aforesaid, yet more than two years after he did write to +his private agent, Major Palmer, that is to say, in his letter of the +6th of May, 1783, "that it has been a matter of _equal surprise and +concern_ to him to learn from the letters of the Resident that the Nabob +Vizier was with difficulty and almost unconquerable reluctance induced +to give his consent to the attachment of the treasure deposited by his +father under the charge of the Begum, his mother, and to the resumption +of her jaghire, and the other jaghires of the individuals of his +family": which pretence of ignorance of the Nabob's inclinations is +fictitious and groundless. But whatever deception he might pretend to be +in concerning the original intention of the Nabob, he was not, nor did +he pretend to be, ignorant of his, the Nabob's, reluctance to _proceed_ +in the said measures; but did admit his knowledge of the Nabob's +reluctance to their full execution, and yet did justify the same as +follows. + +XX. "I desire that you will inform him [the Nabob], that, in these and +the other measures which were either proposed by him or received his +concurrence in the agreement passed between us at Chunar, I neither had +nor could have any object _but his relief, and the strengthening of his +connection with the Company_; and that I should not on any other ground +have exposed myself to _the personal obloquy which they could not fail +to draw upon me by my participation in them_, but left him to regulate +by his own discretion and by his own means the economy of his own +finances, and, _with much more cause, the assertion of his domestic +right. In these he had no regular claim to my interference_; nor had I, +in my public character, any claim upon him, but for the payment of the +debt then due from him to the Company, although I was under the +strongest obligations to require it for the relief of the pressing +exigencies of their affairs. He will well remember the manner in which, +at a visit to him in his own tent, I declared my acquiescence freely, +and without hesitation, to each proposition, which afterwards formed the +substance of a written agreement, as he severally made them; and he can +want no other evidence of my motives for _so cheerful a consent_, nor +for the requests which I added as the means of fulfilling his purposes +in them. Had he not made these measures his own option, I should not +have proposed them; _but having once adopted them, and made them the +conditions of a formal and sacred agreement, I had no longer an option +to dispense with them, but was bound to the complete performance and +execution of them, as points of public duty and of national faith, for +which I was responsible to my king, and the Company my immediate +superiors: and this was the reason for my insisting on their performance +and execution, when I was told that the Nabob himself had relaxed from +his original purpose, and expressed a reluctance to proceed in it_." + +XXI. That the said Warren Hastings does admit that the Nabob _had_ +originally no regular claim upon him for his interference, or he any +claim on the Nabob, which, might entitle him to interfere in the Nabob's +domestic concerns; yet, in order to justify his so invidious an +interference, he did, in the letter aforesaid, give a false account of +the said treaty, which (as before mentioned) did nothing more than give +a _permission_ to the Nabob to resume the jaghires, _if HE should judge +the same to be necessary_, and did therefore leave the right of +dispensing with the whole, or any part thereof, as much in his option +after the treaty as it was before: the declared intent of the article +being only to remove the restraint of the Company's guaranty forbidding +such resumption, but furnishing nothing which could authorize putting +that resumption into the hands and power of the Company, to be enforced +at their discretion. And with regard to the other part of the spoil made +by order of the said Hastings, and by him in the letter aforesaid stated +to be made equally against the will of the Nabob, namely, that which was +committed on the personal and movable property of the female parents of +the Nabob, nothing whatsoever in relation to the same is stipulated in +the said pretended treaty. + +XXII. That the said Hastings, in asserting that he was bound to the acts +aforesaid by public duty, and even by national faith, in the very +instance in which that national faith was by him grossly violated, and +in justifying himself by alleging that he was bound to the _complete_ +execution by a responsibility to the Company which he immediately +served, and by asserting that these violent and rapacious proceedings, +subjecting all persons concerned in them to obloquy, would be the means +of strengthening the connection of the Nabob with the British United +Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, did disgrace the +authority under which he immediately acted. And that the said Hastings, +in justifying his obligations to the said acts by a responsibility to +the _king_, namely, to the King of Great Britain, did endeavor to throw +upon his Majesty, his lawful sovereign, (whose name and character he was +bound to respect, and to preserve in estimation with all persons, and +particularly with the sovereign princes, the allies of his government,) +the disgrace and odium of the aforesaid acts, in which a sovereign +prince was by him, the said Hastings, made an instrument of perfidy, +wrong, and outrage to two mothers and wives of sovereign princes, and in +which he did exhibit to all Asia (a country remarkable for the utmost +devotion to parental authority) the spectacle of a Christian governor, +representing a Christian sovereign, compelling a son to become the +instrument of such violence and extortion against his own mother. + +That the said Warren Hastings, by repeated messages and injunctions, and +under menaces of "a dreadful responsibility," did urge the Resident to a +completion of this barbarous act; and well knowing that such an act +would probably be resisted, did order him, the said Resident, to use the +British troops under his direction for that purpose; and did offer the +assistance of further forces, urging the execution in the following +peremptory terms: "You _yourself_ must be _personally present_; you must +not allow _any_ negotiation or forbearance, but must prosecute both +services, until the Begums [princesses] are at the entire mercy of the +Nabob."[61] + +XXIII. That, in conformity to the said peremptory orders, a party of +British and other troops, with the Nabob in the ostensible, and the +British Resident in the real command, were drawn towards the city of +Fyzabad, in the castle of which city the mother and grandmother of the +Nabob had their residence; and after expending two days in negotiation, +(the particulars of which do not appear,) the Resident not receiving the +satisfaction he looked for, the town was first stormed, and afterwards +the castle; and little or no resistance being made, and no blood being +shed on either side, the British troops occupied all the outer inclosure +of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.[62] + +XXIV. That this violent assault, and forcible occupation of their +houses, and the further extremities they had to apprehend, did not +prevail on the female parents of the Nabob to consent to any submission, +until the Resident sent in unto them a letter from the said Warren +Hastings,[63] (no copy of which appears,) declaring himself no longer +bound by the guaranty, and containing such other matter as tended to +remove all their hopes, which seemed to be centred in British faith. + +XXV. That the chief officers of their household, who were their +treasurers and confidential agents, the eunuchs Jewar Ali Khân and Behar +Ali Khân, persons of great eminence, rank, and distinction, who had been +in high trust and favor with the late Nabob, were ignominiously put into +confinement under an inferior officer, in order to extort the discovery +of the treasures and effects committed to their care and fidelity. And +the said Middleton did soon after, that is to say, on the 12th of +January, 1782, deliver them over for the same purpose into the custody +of Captain Neal Stuart, commanding the eighth regiment, by his order +given in the following words: "To be kept in close and secure +confinement, admitting of no intercourse with them, excepting by their +four menial servants, who are authorized to attend them until further +orders. You will allow them to have any necessary and convenience which +may be consistent with a strict guard over them." + +XXVI. That, in consequence of these severities upon herself, and on +those whom she most regarded and trusted, the mother of the said Nabob +did at length consent to the delivering up of her treasures, and the +same were paid to the Resident, to the amount of the bond given by the +Nabob to the Company for his balance of the year 1779-80; and the said +treasure "was taken from the most secret recesses in the houses of the +two eunuchs." + +XXVII. That the Nabob continuing still under the pressure of a further +pretended debt to the Company for his balance of the year 1780-81, the +Resident, not satisfied with the seizure of the estates and treasures of +his parents aforesaid, although he, the said Resident, did confess that +the princess mother "had declared, _with apparent truth_, that she had +delivered up _the whole of the property in her hands_, excepting goods +which from the experience which he, the Resident, had of the _small +produce_ of the sales of a former payment made by her in that mode he +did refuse, and that in his opinion it certainly would have amounted to +little or nothing," did proceed to extort another great sum of money, +that is to say, the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds +sterling, on account of the last pretended balance aforesaid: in order, +therefore, to compel the said ministers and treasurers either to +distress their principals by extorting whatever valuable substance might +by any possibility remain concealed, or to furnish the said sum from +their own estates or from their credit with their friends, did order +their imprisonment to be aggravated with circumstances of great cruelty, +giving an order to Lieutenant Francis Rutledge, dated 20th January, +1782, in the following words. + +XXVIII. "SIR,--When this note is delivered to you by Hoolas +Roy, I have to desire that you order the two prisoners to be put _in +irons, keeping them from all food, &c., agreeable to my instructions of +yesterday_. + + (Signed) "NATH^L MIDDLETON." + +XXIX. That by the said unjust and rigorous proceeding the said eunuchs +were compelled to give their engagement for the payment of one hundred +and twenty thousand pounds sterling aforesaid, to be completed within +the period of one month; but after they had entered into the said +compulsory engagement, they were still kept in close imprisonment, and +the mother and grandmother of the Nabob were themselves held under a +strict guard,--although, at the same time, the confiscated estates were +actually in the Company's possession, and found to exceed the amount of +what they were rated at in the general list of confiscated estates,[64] +and although the Assistant Resident, Johnson, did confess, "that the +object of distressing the Bhow Begum was merely to obtain a +_ready-money_ instead of a _dilatory payment_, and that this ready-money +payment, if not paid, was recoverable in the course of a few months upon +the jaghires in his possession, and that therefore it was not worth +proceeding to any extremities, beyond the one described," (namely, the +confinement of the princesses, and the imprisonment and fettering of +their ministers,) "upon so respectable a family."[65] + +XXX. That, after the surrender of the treasure, and the passing the +bonds and obligations given as aforesaid, the Resident having been +strictly ordered by the said Warren Hastings not to make any settlement +whatsoever with the said women of high rank, the Nabob was induced to +leave the city of Fyzabad without taking leave of his mother, or showing +her any mark of duty or civility. And on the same day the Resident left +the city aforesaid; and after his return to Lucknow, in order to pacify +the said Hastings, who appeared to resent that the Nabob was not urged +to greater degrees of rigor than those hitherto used towards his mother, +he, the said Resident, did, in his letter of the 6th February, give him +an assurance in the following words:--"I shall, as you direct, use my +influence to dissuade his Excellency from concluding _any settlement_ +until I have your further commands." + +XXXI. That the payment of the bond last extorted from the eunuchs was +soon after commenced, and the grandmother, as well as the mother, were +now compelled to deliver what they declared was _the extent of the +whole_ of both their possessions, including down to their _table +utensils_; which, as the Resident admitted, "they had been and were +still delivering, and that no proof had yet been obtained of their +having more." + +XXXII. That bullion, jewels, and goods, to the amount of five hundred +thousand pounds and upwards, were actually received by the Resident for +the use of the Company before the 23d of February, 1782; and there +remained on the said extorted bond no more than about twenty-five +thousand pounds, according to the statement of the eunuchs, and not +above fifty thousand according to that made by the Resident. + +XXXIII. That, in this advanced state of the delivery of the extorted +treasure, the ministers of the women aforesaid of the reigning family +did apply to Captain Leonard Jaques, under whose custody they were +confined, to be informed of the deficiency with which they stood +charged, that they might endeavor, with the assistance of their friends, +to provide for the same, and praying that they might through his +mediation be freed from the hardships they suffered under their +confinement: to which application they received an insolent answer from +the said Richard Johnson, dated February 27th, 1782, declaring that part +of what he had received in payment was in jewels and bullion, and that +more than a month, the time fixed for the final payment, would elapse +before he could dispose of the same,--insisting upon a ready-money +payment, and assuring them "that the day on which their agreement +expired he should be indispensably obliged to recommence severities upon +them, until the last farthing was fully paid." And in order to add to +their terrors and hardships, as well as to find some pretext for the +further cruel and inhuman acts intended, an apparently groundless and +injurious charge was suggested to the imprisoned ministers aforesaid in +the following words. "You may also mention to them, that I have reason +to _suspect_ that the commotions raised by Bulbudder have not been +without their _suggestion and abetment_, which, if proved upon them, in +addition to the _probable_ breach of their agreement, will make their +situation _very desperate_." + +XXXIV. That on the receipt of the said letter, that is, on the 2d March, +the ministers aforesaid did aver, that they were not able to obtain +cash, in lieu of the jewels and other effects, but that, if the goods +were sold, and they released from their confinement, and permitted (as +they have before requested) to go abroad among their friends, they could +soon make good the deficiency; and they did absolutely deny "that they +had any hand in the commotions raised by Bulbudder, or any kind of +correspondence with him or his adherents." + +XXXV. That the prisoners aforesaid did shortly after, that is to say, on +the 13th March, a third time renew their application to Nathaniel +Middleton, Esquire, the Resident, and did request that the jewels +remaining in his, the said Resident's, hands, towards the payment of the +balance remaining, "might be valued by four or five eminent merchants, +Mussulmen and Hindoos, upon oath," and that, if any balance should +afterwards appear, they would upon their release get their friends to +advance the same; and they did again represent the hardship of their +imprisonment, and pray for relief; and did again assert that the +imputations thrown upon them by the said Richard Johnson were false and +groundless,--"that they had no kind of intercourse, either directly or +indirectly, with the authors of the commotions alluded to, and that they +did stake their lives upon the smallest proof thereof being brought." + +XXXVI. That, instead of their receiving any answer to any of the +aforesaid reasonable propositions, concerning either the account stated, +or the crimes imputed to them, or any relief from the hardships they +suffered, he, the Resident, Middleton, did, on the 18th of the said +month, give to the officer who had supplicated in favor of the said +prisoners an order in which he declared himself "under the disagreeable +necessity of recurring to severities to enforce the said payment, and +that this is therefore to desire that you immediately cause them _to be +put in irons_, and keep them so until I shall arrive at Fyzabad to take +further measures as may be necessary": which order being received at +Fyzabad the day after it was given, the said eunuchs were a second time +thrown into irons. And it appears that (probably in resentment for the +humane representations of the said Captain Jaques) the Resident did +refuse to pay for the fetters, and other contingent charges of the +imprisonment of the said ministers of the Nabob's mother, when at the +same time very liberal contingent allowances were made to other +officers; and the said Jaques did strongly remonstrate against the same +as follows. "You have also ordered me to put the prisoners in irons: +this I have done; yet, as I have no business to purchase fetters, or +supply them any other way, it is but reasonable that you should order me +to be reimbursed. And why should I add anything more? A late commander +at this place, I am told, draws near as many thousands monthly +contingencies as my trifling letter for hundreds. However, if you cannot +get my bill paid, be so obliging as to return it, and give me an +opportunity of declaring to the world that I believe I am the first +officer in the Company's service who has suffered in his property by an +independent command." + +XXXVI. That, in about two months after the said prisoners had continued +in irons in the manner aforesaid, the officer on guard, in a letter of +the 18th May, did represent to the Resident as follows. "The prisoners, +Behar and Jewar Ali Khân, who seem to be very sickly, have requested +their irons might be taken off for a few days, that they might take +medicine, and walk about the garden of the place where they are +confined. Now, as I am sure _they will be equally secure without their +irons as with them_, I think it my duty to inform you of this request: I +desire to know your pleasure concerning it." To which letter the said +officer did receive a direct refusal, dated 22d May, 1782, in the +following words. "I am sorry it is not in my power to comply with your +proposal of easing the prisoners for a few days of their fetters. Much +as my humanity may be touched by their sufferings, I should think it +inexpedient to afford them any alleviation while they persist in a +breach of their contract with me: and, indeed, no indulgence can be +shown them without the authority of the Nabob, who, instead of +consenting to moderate the rigors of their situation, would be most +willing to multiply them":--endeavoring to join the Nabob, whom he well +knew to be reluctant in the whole proceeding, as a party in the +cruelties by which, through the medium of her servants, it was intended +to coerce his mother. + +XXXVIII. That the said Resident, in a few days after, that is to say, on +the 1st June, 1782, in a letter to Major Gilpin, in command at Fyzabad, +did order the account, as by himself stated, to be read to the +prisoners, and, without taking any notice of their proposal concerning +the valuation of the effects, or their denial of the offences imputed to +them, to demand a positive answer relative to the payment, and, "upon +receiving from them a negative or unsatisfactory reply, to inform them, +that, all further negotiation being at an end, they must prepare for +their removal to Lucknow, where they would be called upon to answer not +only their recent breach of faith and solemn engagement, but also to +atone for other heavy offences, the punishment of which, as had +frequently been signified to them, it was in their power to have +mitigated by a proper acquittal of themselves in this transaction." By +which insinuations concerning the pretended offences of the said unhappy +persons, and the manner by which they were to atone for the same, and by +their never having been specifically and directly made, it doth appear +that the said crimes and offences were charged for the purpose of +extorting money, and not upon principles or for the ends of justice. + +XXXIX. That, after some ineffectual negotiations to make the prisoners +pay the money, which it does not appear to have been in their power to +pay, they were again threatened by the Resident, in a letter to Major +Gilpin, dated 9th June, 1782, in the following terms. "I wish you to +explain once more to the prisoners the imprudence and folly of their +conduct in forcing me to a measure which must be attended with +consequences so very serious to them, and that, when once they are +removed to Lucknow, it will not be in my power to show them mercy, or to +stand between them and the vengeance of the Nabob. Advise them to +reflect seriously upon the unhappy situation in which they will be +involved in one case, and the relief it will be in my power to procure +them in the other; and let them make their option." + +XL. That he, the said Resident, did also, at the same time, receive a +letter from the princess mother, which letter does not appear, but to +which only the following insolent return was made,--that is to say: "The +letter from the Bhow Begum is no ways satisfactory, and I cannot think +of returning an answer to it. Indeed, all correspondence between the +Begum and me has long been stopped; and I request you will be pleased to +inform her that I by no means wish to resume it, or to maintain any +friendly intercourse with her, until she has made good my claim upon her +for the balance due." + +XLI. That, in consequence of these threats, and to prevent a separation +of the ministers from their mistresses, several plans for the payment of +the balance were offered, both by the mother of the Nabob and the +prisoners, to which no other objection appears to have been made than +the length of time required by the parties to discharge the +comparatively small remainder of the extorted bond: the officer on +command declaring, that, conformable to his instructions, he could not +receive the same.[66] + +XLII. That the prisoners were actually removed from the city of their +residence to the city of Lucknow, where they arrived on the 24th of +June, 1782, and were on the next day threatened with severities, "to +make them discover where the balance might be procurable." And on the +28th, it should seem, that the severities for the purpose aforesaid were +inflicted, at least upon one of them; for the Assistant Resident, +Johnson, did on that day write to Captain Waugh, the officer commanding +the guard, the letter following, full of disgrace to the honor, justice, +and humanity of the British nation. + +XLIII. "SIR,--The Nabob having determined _to inflict corporal +punishment upon the prisoners_ under your guard, this is to desire that +his officers, when they shall come, may have free access to the +prisoners, and _be permitted to do with them as they shall see proper_, +only taking care that they leave them always under your charge." + +XLIV. That the said Richard Johnson did, further to terrify the +prisoners, and to extort by all ways the remainder of the said unjust, +oppressive, and rapacious demand, threaten to remove them out of the +Nabob's dominions into the castle of Churnagur, in order forever to +separate them from their principals, and deprive both of their +reciprocal protection and services,[67]--and did order a further guard +to be put on the palace of the grandmother of the Nabob, an ally of the +Company, and to prevent the entrance of the provisions to her, (which +order relative to the guard only was executed,) and did use sundry +unworthy and insulting menaces both with regard to herself and to her +principal ministers.[68] + +XLV. That a proposal was soon after made by the said princess and her +daughter-in-law, praying that their ministers aforesaid should be +returned to Fyzabad, and offering to raise a sum of money on that +condition;[69] as also that they would remove from one of their palaces, +whilst the English were to be permitted to search the other.[70] But the +Assistant Resident, Johnson, did, instead of a compliance with the +former of these propositions, send the following orders, dated 23d July, +1782, to the officer commanding the guard on the ministers aforesaid: +"Some violent demands having been made for the release of the prisoners, +it is necessary that every possible precaution be taken for their +security; you will therefore be pleased to be very strict in guarding +them; and I herewith send _another pair of fetters to be added to those +now upon the prisoners_." And in answer to the second proposition, the +said Resident did reply in the following terms: "The proposal of +evacuating one palace, that it may be searched, and then evacuating the +next, upon the same principle, is apparently fair; but it is well known, +in the first place, that such bricked-up or otherwise hidden treasure +is not to be hit upon in a day without a guide. I have therefore +informed the Nabob of this proposal, and, if the matter is to be reduced +to a search, he will go himself, with such people as he may possess for +information, together with the prisoners; and when in possession of the +ground, by _punishing the prisoners_, or by such _other means as he may +find most effectual_ to forward a successful search upon the spot, he +will avail himself of the proposal made by the Bhow Begum." + +XLVI. That, probably from the Nabob's known and avowed reluctance to +lend himself to the perpetration of the oppressive and iniquitous +proceedings of the representative of the British government, the +scandalous plan aforesaid was not carried into execution; and all the +rigors practised upon the chief ministers of the ladies aforesaid at +Lucknow being found ineffectual, and the princess mother having declared +herself ready to deliver up everything valuable in her possession, which +Behar Ali Khân, one of her confidential ministers aforesaid, only could +come at, the said change of prison was agreed to,--but not until the +Nabob's mother aforesaid had engaged to pay for the said change of +prison a sum of ten thousand pounds, (one half of which was paid on the +return of the eunuchs,) and that "she would ransack the _zenanah_ +[women's apartments] for kincobs, muslins, clothes, &c., &c., &c., and +that she would even allow a deduction from the annual allowance made to +her for her subsistence in lieu of her jaghire."[71] + +XLVII. That, soon after the return of the aforesaid ministers to the +place of their imprisonment at Fyzabad, bonds for the five thousand +pounds aforesaid, and goods, estimated, according to the valuation of a +merchant appointed to value the same, at the sum of forty thousand +pounds, even allowing them to sell greatly under their value, were +delivered to the commanding officer at Fyzabad; and the said commanding +officer did promise to the Begum to visit Lucknow with such proposals as +he hoped would secure the _small balance_ of fifteen thousand pounds +remaining of the unjust exaction aforesaid.[72] But the said Resident, +Middleton, did, in his letter of the 17th of the said month, positively +refuse to listen to any terms before the final discharge of the whole of +the demand, and did positively forbid the commanding officer to come to +Lucknow to make the proposal aforesaid in the terms following. "As it is +not possible to listen to _any_ terms from the Begums before the final +discharge of their conditional agreement for fifty-five lacs, your +coming here upon such an agency can only be _loss of time_ in completing +the recovery of the balance of 6,55,000, for which your regiment was +sent to Fyzabad. I must therefore desire you will leave _no efforts, +gentle or harsh_, unattempted to complete this, before you move from +Fyzabad; and I am very anxious that this should be as soon as possible, +_as I want to employ your regiment upon other emergent service, now +suffering by every delay_." + +XLVIII. That the goods aforesaid were sent to Lucknow, and disposed of +in a manner unknown; and the harsh and oppressive measures aforesaid +being still continued, the Begum did, about the middle of October, +1782, cause to be represented to the said Middleton as follows. "That +her situation was truly pitiable,--her estate sequestered, her treasury +ransacked, her cojahs prisoners, and her servants deserting daily from +want of subsistence. That she had solicited the loan of money, to +satisfy the demands of the Company, from every person that she imagined +would or could assist her with any; but that the opulent would not +listen to her adversity. She had hoped that the wardrobe sent to Lucknow +might have sold for at least one half of the Company's demands on her; +but even jewelry and goods, she finds from woful experience, lose their +value the moment it is known they come from her. That she had now +solicited the loan of cash from Almas Ali Khân, and if she failed in +that application, she had no hopes of ever borrowing a sum equal to the +demand":[73]--an hope not likely to be realized, as the said Almas Ali +was then engaged for a sum of money to be raised for the Company's use +on the security of their confiscated lands, the restoration of which +could form the only apparent security for a loan. + +XLIX. That this remonstrance produced no effect on the mind of the +aforesaid Resident,--who, being about this time removed from his +Residency, did, in a letter to his successor, Mr. Bristow, dated 23d +October, 1782, in effect recommend a perseverance in the cruel and +oppressive restraints aforesaid as a certain means of recovering the +remainder of the extorted bond, and that the lands with which the +princesses aforesaid had been endowed should not be restored to them. + +L. That the said Warren Hastings was duly apprised of all the material +circumstances in the unjust proceedings aforesaid, but did nothing to +stop the course they were in, or to prevent, relieve, or mitigate the +sufferings of the parties affected by them: on the contrary, he did, in +his letter of the 25th of January, 1782, to the Resident, Middleton, +declare, that the Nabob having consented to the "resumption of the +jaghires held by the Begums, and to the confiscation of their treasures, +and thereby involved my own name and the credit of the Company in a +participation of both measures, I have a right to _require and insist on +the complete execution of them_; and I look to you for their execution, +declaring that I shall hold you accountable for it." And it appears that +he did write to the Nabob a letter in the same peremptory manner; but +the said letter has been suppressed. + +LI. That he, the said Hastings, farther did manifest the concern he took +in, and the encouragement which he gave to the proceedings aforesaid, by +conferring honors and distinctions upon the ministers of the Nabob, whom +he, the Nabob, did consider as having in the said proceedings disobeyed +him and betrayed him, and as instruments in the dishonor of his family +and the usurpation of his authority. That the said ministers did make +addresses to the said Hastings for that purpose (which addresses the +said Hastings hath suppressed); and the Resident, Middleton, did, with +his letter of the 11th of February, 1782, transmit the same, and did in +the said letter acquaint the said Hastings "that the ministers of the +Nabob had incurred much odium on account of their participation in his +measures, and that they were not only considered by the party of the +dispossessed jaghiredars, and the mother and uncle of the Nabob, but _by +the Nabob himself_, as the _dependants of the English government, which +they certainly are, and it is by its declared and most obvious support +alone_ that they can maintain the authority and influence which is +indispensably necessary." And the said Middleton did therefore recommend +"that they should be honored with some testimony of his [the said +Hastings's] approbation and favor." And he, the said Warren Hastings, +did send _kellauts_, or robes of honor, (the most public and +distinguished mode of acknowledging merit known in India,) to the said +ministers, in testimony of his approbation of their late services. + +LII. That the said Hastings did not only give the aforesaid public +encouragement to the ministers of the Nabob to betray and insult their +master and his family in the manner aforesaid, but, when the said Nabob +did write several letters to him, the said Hastings, expressive of his +dislike of being used as an instrument in the dishonorable acts +aforesaid, and refusing to be further concerned therein, he, the said +Warren Hastings, did not only suppress and hide the said letters from +the view of the Court of Directors, but in his instructions to the +Resident, Bristow, did attribute them to Hyder Beg Khân, minister to the +Nabob, (whom in other respects he did before and ever since support +against his master,) and did express himself with great scorn and +contempt of the said Nabob, and with much asperity against the said +minister: affirming, in proud and insolent terms, that he had, "by an +abuse of his influence over the Nabob,--he, the Nabob himself, being +(_as he ever must be in the hands of some person_) _a mere cipher in +his [the said minister's],--dared_ to make him [the Nabob] _assume_ a +very _unbecoming_ tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, in +opposition to _measures recommended by ME_, and even to _acts done by MY +authority_": the said Hastings, in the instruction aforesaid, +particularizing the resumption of the jaghires, and the confiscation of +the treasures that had been so long suffered to remain in the hands of +his, the Nabob's, mother. But the letters of the Nabob, which in the +said instructions he refers to as containing an opposition to the +measures recommended by him, and which he asserts was conveyed in a very +unbecoming tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, he, the said +Hastings, hath criminally withheld from the Company, contrary to their +orders, and to his duty,--and the more, as the said letters must tend to +show in what manner the said Nabob did feel the indignities offered to +his mother, and the manner in which the said ministers, notwithstanding +their known dependence on the English government, did express their +sense of the part which their sovereign was compelled to act in the said +disgraceful measures. And in farther instructions to him, the said new +Resident, he did declare his approbation of the evil acts aforesaid, as +well as his resolution of compelling the Nabob to those rigorous +proceedings against his parent from which he had long shown himself so +very averse, in the following words. "The severities which have been +increased towards the Begums were most justly merited by the advantage +which they took of the troubles in which I was personally involved last +year, to create a rebellion in the Nabob's government, and to complete +the ruin which they thought was impending on ours. If it is the Nabob's +desire to forget and to forgive their past offence, I have no objection +to his allowing them, in pension, the nominal amount of their jaghires; +but if he shall _ever offer_ to restore their jaghires to them, or to +give them any property in land, after the warning which they have given +him by the dangerous abuse which they formerly made of his indulgence, +you must remonstrate in the strongest terms against it; _you must not +permit such an event to take place_, until this government shall have +received information of it, and shall have had time to interpose its +influence for the prevention of it." And the said Warren Hastings, who +did in the manner aforesaid positively refuse to admit the Nabob to +restore to his mother and grandmother any part of their landed estates +for their maintenance, did well know that the revenues of the said Nabob +were at that time so far applied to the demands of the Company, (by him, +the said Warren Hastings, aggravated beyond the whole of what they did +produce,) or were otherwise so far applied to the purposes of several of +the servants of the Company, and others, the dependants of him, the said +Hastings, that none of the pensions or allowances, assigned by the said +Nabob in lieu of the estates confiscated, were paid, or were likely to +be discharged, with that punctuality which was necessary even to the +scanty subsistence of the persons to which they were in name and +appearance applied. For, + +LIII. That, so early as the 6th March, 1782, Captain Leonard Jaques, who +commanded the forces on duty for the purpose of distressing the several +women in the palaces at Fyzabad, did complain to the Resident, Richard +Johnson, in the following words. "The women belonging to the Khord +Mohul (or lesser palace) complain of their being in want of every +necessary of life, and are at last driven to that desperation that they +at night get on the top of the zenanah, make a great disturbance, and +last night not only alarmed the sentinels posted in the garden, but +threw dirt at them; they threaten to throw themselves from the walls of +the zenanah, and also to break out of it. Humanity obliges me to +acquaint you of this matter, and to request to know if you have any +directions to give me concerning it. I also beg leave to acquaint you I +sent for Letafit Ali Khân, the cojah who has the charge of them, and who +informs me it is well grounded,--that they _have sold everything they +had, even to the clothes from their backs, and now have no means of +subsisting_." + +LIV. That the distresses of the said women grew so urgent on the night +of the said 6th of March, the day when the letter above recited was +written, that Captain Leonard Jaques aforesaid did think it necessary to +write again, on the day following, to the British Resident in the +following words. "I beg leave to address you again concerning the women +in the Khord Mohul [the lesser palace]. Their behavior last night was so +furious, that there seemed the greatest probability of their proceeding +to the uttermost extremities, and that they would either _throw +themselves from the walls or force open the doors of the zenanah_. I +have made every inquiry concerning the cause of their complaints, and +find from Letafit Ali Khân that they are in _a starving condition, +having sold all their clothes and necessaries, and now have not +wherewithal to support nature_; and as my instructions are quite silent +on this head, I should be glad to know how to proceed, in case they were +to force the doors of the zenanah, as I suspect it will happen, should +no subsistence be very quickly sent to them." + +LV. That, in consequence of these representations, it appears that the +said Resident, Richard Johnson, did promise that an application should +be made to certain of the servants of the Nabob Vizier to provide for +their subsistence. + +LVI. That Captain Jaques being relieved from the duty of imprisoning the +women of Sujah ul Dowlah, the late sovereign of Oude, an ally of the +Company, who dwelt in the said lesser palace, and Major Gilpin being +appointed to succeed, the same malicious design of destroying the said +women, or the same scandalous neglect of their preservation and +subsistence, did still continue; and Major Gilpin found it necessary to +apply to the new Resident, Bristow, in a letter of the 30th of October, +1782, as follows. + +LVII. "SIR,--Last night, about eight o'clock, the women in the +Khord Mohul [lesser palace] or zenanah [women's apartment] under the +charge of Letafit Ali Khân, assembled on the tops of the buildings, +_crying in a most lamentable manner for food,--that for the last four +days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they +had got none_. + +LVIII. "_The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than +described_; and from their representation I fear the Nabob's agents for +that business are very inattentive. I therefore think it requisite to +make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency, the +Nabob, may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct +towards these poor unhappy women." + +LIX. That, although the Resident, Bristol, did not then think himself +authorized to remove the guard, he did apply to the minister of the +Nabob, who did promise some relief to the women of the late Nabob, +confined in the lesser palace; but apprehending, with reason, that the +minister aforesaid might not be more ready or active in making the +necessary provision for them than on former occasions, he did render +himself personally responsible to Major Gilpin for the repayment of any +sum, equal to one thousand pounds sterling, which he might procure for +the subsistence of the sufferers. But whatever relief was given, (the +amount thereof not appearing,) the same was soon exhausted; and the +number of persons to be maintained in the said lesser palace being eight +hundred women, the women of the late sovereign, Sujah ul Dowlah, and +several of the younger children of the said sovereign prince, besides +their attendants, Major Gilpin was obliged, on the 15th of November +following, again to address the Resident by a representation of this +tenor. + +"SIR,--The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul +Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy. + +LX. "_They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their +daily bread by laborious servitude, or to be relieved from their misery +by immediate death._ + +LXI. "In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken +the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain, at ten days' sight, +for twenty Son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah +Letafit Ali Khân, under whose charge that zenanah is." + +LXII. That, notwithstanding all the promises and reiterated engagements +of the minister, Hyder Beg Khân, the ladies of the palace aforesaid fell +again into extreme distress; and the Resident did again complain to the +said minister, who was considered to be, and really and substantially +was, the minister of the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, aforesaid, +and not of the Nabob, (the said Nabob being, according to the said +Hastings's own account, "a cipher in his [the said minister's] hands,") +that the funds allowed for their subsistence were not applied to their +support. But notwithstanding all these repeated complaints and +remonstrances, and the constant promise of amendment on the part of his, +the said Hastings's, minister, the supply was not more plentiful or more +regular than before. + +LXIII. That the said Resident, Bristow, finding by experience the +inefficacy of the courses which had been pursued with regard to the +mother and grandmother of the reigning prince of Oude, and having +received a report from Major Gilpin, informing him that all which could +be done by force had been done, and that the only hope which remained +for realizing the remainder of the money, unjustly exacted as aforesaid, +lay in more lenient methods,[74] he, the said Resident, did, of his own +authority, order the removal of the guard from the palaces, the troops +being long and much wanted for the defence of the frontier, and other +material services,--and did release the said ministers of the said women +of rank, who had been confined and put in irons, and variously +distressed and persecuted, as aforerecited, for near twelve months.[75] + +LXIV. That the manner in which the said inhuman acts of rapacity and +violence were felt, both by the women of high rank concerned, and by all +the people, strongly appears in the joy expressed on their release, +which took place on the 5th of December, 1782, and is stated in two +letters of that date from Major Gilpin to the Resident, in the words +following. + +LXV. "I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d +instant, and in consequence immediately enlarged the prisoners Behar Ali +Khân and Jewar Ali Khân from their confinement: a circumstance that gave +the Begums, and the city of Fyzabad in general, the greatest +satisfaction. + +LXVI. "In tears of joy Behar and Jewar Ali Khân expressed their sincere +acknowledgments to the Governor-General, his Excellency the Nabob +Vizier, and to you, Sir, for restoring them to that invaluable blessing, +liberty, for which they would ever retain the most grateful remembrance; +and at their request I transmit you the inclosed letters. + +LXVII. "I wish you had been present at the enlargement of the +prisoners. The quivering lips, with the tears of joy stealing down the +poor men's cheeks, was a scene truly affecting. + +LXVIII. "If the prayers of these poor men will avail, you will, at the +LAST TRUMP, be translated to the happiest regions in heaven." + +LXIX. And the Resident, Bristow, knowing how acceptable the said +proceeding would be to all the people of Oude, and the neighboring +independent countries, did generously and politically, (though not +truly,) in his letter to the princess mother attribute the said relief +given to herself, and the release of her ministers, to the humanity of +the said Warren Hastings, agreeably to whose orders he pretended to act: +asserting, that he, the said Hastings, "was the spring from whence she +was restored to her dignity and consequence."[76] And the account of the +proceedings aforesaid was regularly transmitted to the said Warren +Hastings on the 30th of December, 1782, with the reasons and motives +thereto, and a copy of the report of the officer concerning the +inutility of further force, attended with sundry documents concerning +the famishing, and other treatment, of the women and children of the +late sovereign: but the same appear to have made no proper impression on +the mind of the said Warren Hastings; for no answer whatsoever was given +to the said letter until the 3d of March, 1783, when the said Hastings, +writing in his own character and that of the Council, did entirely pass +by all the circumstances before recited, but did give directions for the +renewal of measures of the like nature and tendency with those which +(for several of the last months at least of the said proceeding) had +been employed with so little advantage to the interest and with so much +injury to the reputation of the Company, his masters, in whose name he +acted,--expressing himself in the said letter of the 3d of March, 1783, +as follows: "We desire you will inform us what means have been taken for +recovering the balance [the pretended balance of the extorted money] due +from the Begums [princesses] at Fyzabad; and if necessary, you must +recommend it to the Vizier _to enforce the most effectual means_ for +that purpose." And the Resident did, in his answer to the board, dated +31st March, 1783, on this peremptory order, again detail the particulars +aforesaid to the said Warren Hastings, referring him to his former +correspondence, stating the utter impossibility of proceeding further by +force, and mentioning certain other disgraceful and oppressive +circumstances, and in particular, that the Company did not, in +plundering the mother of the reigning prince of her wearing apparel and +beasts of carriage, receive a value in the least equal to the loss she +suffered: the elephants having no buyer but the Nabob, and the clothes, +which had last been delivered to Middleton at a valuation of thirty +thousand pounds, were so damaged by ill keeping in warehouses, that they +could not be sold, even for six months' credit, at much more than about +eight thousand pounds; by which a loss in a single article was incurred +of twenty-two thousand pounds out of the fifty, for the recovery of +which (supposing it had been a just debt) such rigorous means had been +employed, after having actually received upwards of five hundred +thousand pounds in value to the Company, and extorted much more in loss +to the suffering individuals. And the said Bristow, being well +acquainted with the unmerciful temper of the said Hastings, in order to +leave no means untried to appease him, not contented with the letter to +the Governor-General and Council, did on the same day write another +letter _to him particularly_, in which he did urge several arguments, +the necessity of using of which to the said Hastings did reflect great +dishonor on this nation, and on the Christian religion therein +professed, namely: "That he had experienced great embarrassment in +treating with her [the mother of the reigning prince]; for, as the +mother of the Vizier, the people look up to her with respect, and any +hard measures practised against women of her high rank create +discontent, and affect our national character." And the said Resident, +after condemning very unjustly her conduct, added, "Still she is the +mother of the prince of the country, and the religious prejudices of +Mussulmen prevail too strongly in their minds to forget her situation." + +LXX. That the said Warren Hastings did not make any answer to the said +letter. But the mother of the prince aforesaid, as well as the mother of +his father, being, in consequence of his, the said Hastings's, +directions, incessantly and rudely pressed by their descendant, in the +name of the Company, to pay to the last farthing of the demand, they did +both positively refuse to pay any part of the pretended balances +aforesaid, until their landed estates were restored to them; on the +security of which alone they alleged themselves to be in a condition to +borrow any money, or even to provide for the subsistence of themselves +and their numerous dependants. And in order to put some end to these +differences, the Vizier did himself, about the beginning of August, +1783, go to Fyzabad, and did hold divers conferences with his parents, +and did consent and engage to restore to them their landed estates +aforesaid, and did issue an order that they should be restored +accordingly; but his minister aforesaid, having before his eyes the +peremptory orders of him, the said Warren Hastings, did persuade his +master to dishonor himself in breaking his faith and engagement with his +mother and the mother of his father, by first evading the execution, and +afterwards totally revoking his said public and solemn act, on pretence +that he had agreed to the grant "from shame, being in their presence +[the presence of his mother and grandmother], and that it was +unavoidable at the time";[77]--the said minister declaring to him, that +it would be sufficient, if he allowed them "money for their _necessary_ +expenses, and that would be _doing enough_." + +LXXI. That the faith given for the restoration of their landed estates +being thus violated, and the money for necessary expenses being as ill +supplied as before, the women and children of the late sovereign, father +of the reigning prince, continued exposed to frequent want of the common +necessaries of life;[78] and being sorely pressed by famine, they were +compelled to break through all the principles of local decorum and +reserve which constitute the dignity of the female sex in that part of +the world, and, after great clamor and violent attempts for one whole +day to break the inclosure of the palace, and to force their way into +the public market, in order to move the compassion of the people, and to +beg their bread, they did, on the next day, actually proceed to the +extremity of exposing themselves to public view,--an extremity implying +the lowest state of disgrace and degradation, to avoid which many women +in India have laid violent hands upon themselves,--and they did proceed +to the public market-place with the starving children of the late +sovereign, and the brothers and sisters of the reigning prince! A minute +account of the transaction aforesaid was written to the British Resident +at Lucknow by the person appointed to convey intelligence to him from +Fyzabad, in the following particulars, highly disgraceful to the honor, +justice, and humanity of this nation. + +LXXII. "The ladies, their attendants and servants, were still as +clamorous as last night. Letafit, the _darogah_, went to them and +remonstrated with them on the impropriety of their conduct, at the same +time assuring them that in a few days all their allowances would be +paid, and should not that be the case, he would advance them ten days' +subsistence, upon condition that they returned to their habitation. None +of them, however, consented to his proposals, but were still intent upon +making their escape through the _bazar_ [market-place], and in +consequence formed themselves into a line, arranging themselves in the +following order: the children in the front; behind them the ladies of +the seraglio; and behind them again their attendants: but their +intentions were frustrated by the opposition which they met from +Letafit's sepoys. + +LXXIII. "The next day Letafit went twice to the women, and used his +endeavors to make them return into the zenanah, promising to advance +them ten thousand rupees; which, upon the money being paid down, they +agreed to comply with: but night coming on, nothing transpired. + +LXXIV. "On the day following their clamors were more violent than usual. +Letafit went to confer with them, upon the business of yesterday; +offering the same terms. Depending upon the fidelity of his promises, +they consented to return to their apartments, which they accordingly +did, except two or three of the ladies, and most of their attendants. +Letafit then went to Hossmund Ali Khân, to consult with him upon what +means they should take. They came to a resolution of driving them in by +force, and gave orders to their sepoys to beat any one of the women who +should attempt to move forward. The sepoys consequently assembled; and +each one being provided with a bludgeon, they drove them by dint of +beating into the zenanah. The women, seeing the treachery of Letafit, +proceeded to throw stones and bricks at the sepoys, and again attempted +to get out; but finding that impossible, from the gates being shut, they +kept up a continual discharge of stones and bricks till about ten, when, +finding their situation desperate, they retired into the Kung Mohul, and +forced their way from thence into the palace, and dispersed themselves +about the house and garden; after this they were desirous of getting +into the Begum's apartment, but she, being apprised of their intention, +ordered her doors to be shut. In the mean time Letafit and Hossmund Ali +Khân posted sentries to secure the gates of the lesser Mohul. During +the whole of this conflict, all the ladies and women remained exposed to +the view of the sepoys. The Begum then sent for Letafit and Hossmund Ali +Khân, whom she severely reprimanded, and insisted upon knowing the +causes of this infamous behavior. They pleaded in their defence the +impossibility of helping it, as the treatment the women had met with had +been conformable to his Excellency the Vizier's orders. The Begum +alleged, that, even admitting that the Nabob had given those orders, +they were by no means authorized in this manner to disgrace the family +of Sujah Dowlah; and should they not receive their allowance for a day +or two, it could be of no great moment: what was passed was now at an +end; but that the Vizier should certainly be acquainted with the whole +of the affair, and that whatever he desired she should implicitly comply +with. The Begum then sent for five of the children, who were wounded in +the affray of last night, and, after endeavoring to soothe them, she +sent again for Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khân, and in the presence of the +children expressed her disapprobation of their conduct, and the +improbability of Asoph ul Dowlah's suffering the ladies and children of +Sujah Dowlah to be disgraced by being exposed to the view of the rabble. +Upon which Letafit produced the letter from the Nabob, at the same time +representing that he was amenable only to the orders of his Excellency, +and that whatever he ordered it was his duty to obey, and that, had the +ladies thought proper to have retired into their apartments quietly, he +would not have used the means he had taken to compel them. The Begum +again observed, that what had happened was now over. She then gave the +children four hundred rupees, and dismissed them, and sent word by +Jumrud and the other eunuchs, that, if the ladies would peaceably retire +to their apartments, Letafit would supply them with three or four +thousand rupees for their personal expenses, and recommended to them not +to incur any further disgrace, and that, if they did not think proper to +act agreeable to her directions, they would do wrong. The ladies +followed her advice, and about ten at night went back into the zenanah. +The nest morning the Begum waited upon the mother of Sujah Dowlah, and +related to her all the circumstances of the disturbances. The mother of +Sujah Dowlah returned for answer, that, after there being no accounts +kept of crores of revenues, she was not surprised that the family of +Sujah Dowlah, in their endeavors to procure a subsistence, should be +obliged to expose themselves to the meanest of the people. After +bewailing their misfortunes, and shedding many tears, the Begum took her +leave, and returned home." + +That the said affecting narrative being sent, with others of the same +nature, on the 29th of January, 1784, to the said Warren Hastings, he +did not order any relief in consequence thereof, or take any sort of +notice whatsoever of the said intelligence. + +LXXV. That the Court of Directors did express strong doubts of the +propriety of seizing the estates aforesaid, and did declare to him, the +said Hastings, "that the only consolation they felt on the occasion is, +that the amount of those jaghires _for which the Company were +guaranties_ is to be paid _through our Resident at the court of the +Vizier_; and it very materially concerns the credit of your Governor on +no account to _suffer such payments to be evaded_." But the said Warren +Hastings did never make the arrangement supposed in the said letter to +be actually made, nor did he cause the Resident to pay them the amount +of their jaghires, or to make any payment to them. + +And the said Hastings being expressly ordered by the Court of Directors +to restore to them their estates, in case the charges made upon them +should not be found true, he, the said Hastings, did contumaciously and +cruelly decline any compliance with the said orders until his journey to +Lucknow, in ----, when he did, as he says, "conformably to the orders of +the Court of Directors, and more to the inclination of the Nabob Vizier, +restore to them their jaghires, but with the defalcation, according to +his own account, of _a large portion_ of their respective shares": +pretending, without the least probability, that the said defalcation was +a "voluntary concession on their part." But what he has left to them for +their support, or in what proportion to that which he has taken away, he +has nowhere stated to the Court of Directors, whose faith he has broken, +and whose orders he has thus eluded, whilst he pretended to yield _some_ +obedience to them. + +LXXVI. That the said Warren Hastings having made a malicious, loose, and +ill-supported charge, backed by certain unsatisfactory affidavits, as a +ground for his seizing on the jaghires and the treasures of the Vizier's +mother, solemnly guarantied to them, the Court of Directors did, in +their letter of the 14th of February, 1783, express themselves as +follows concerning that measure,--"which the Governor-General, [he, the +said Warren Hastings,] in his letter to your board, the 23d of January, +1782, has declared _he strenuously encouraged and supported_: we hope +and trust, for the honor of the British nation, that the measure +appeared fully justified in the eyes of all Hindostan. The +Governor-General has informed us that it can be well attested that the +Begums [the mother and grandmother of the Nabob aforesaid] _principally_ +excited and supported the late commotions, and that they carried their +inveteracy to the English nation so far _as to aim at our utter +extirpation_." And the Court of Directors did farther declare as +follows: "That it nowhere appears from the papers at present in our +possession, that they [the mother and grandmother of the Nabob of Oude] +excited any commotions previous to the imprisonment of Rajah Cheyt Sing, +and only armed themselves in consequence of that transaction; and, as it +is probable, that such a conduct proceeded from motives of +self-defence, under an apprehension that they themselves might likewise +be laid under unwarrantable contributions." And the said Court of +Directors, in giving their orders for the restoration of the jaghires, +or for the payment of an equivalent through the Resident, did give this +order for the restoration of their estates as aforesaid on condition +that it should appear from inquiry that they were not guilty of the +practices charged upon them by the said Hastings. Mr. Stables, one of +the Council-General, did, in execution of the said conditional order, +propose an inquiry leading to the ascertainment of the condition, and +did enter a minute as follows: "That the Court of Directors, by their +letters of the 14th of February, 1783, seem not to be satisfied that the +disaffection of the Begums to this government is sufficiently proved by +the evidence before them; I therefore think that the late and present +Resident, and commanding officer in the Vizier's country at the time, +should be called on to collect what further information they can on this +subject, in which the honor and dignity of this government is so +_materially concerned_, and that such information may be transmitted to +the Court of Directors." And he did further propose heads and modes of +inquiry suitable to the doubts expressed by the Court of Directors. But +the said Warren Hastings, who ought long before, on principles of +natural justice, to have instituted a diligent inquiry in support of his +so improbable a charge, and was bound, even for his own honor, as well +as for the satisfaction of the Court of Directors, to take a strong part +in the said inquiry, did set himself in opposition to the same, and did +carry with him a majority of Council against the said inquiry into the +justice of the cause, or any proposition for the relief of the +sufferers: asserting, "that the reasons of the Court of Directors, if +transmitted with the orders for the inquiry, will prove in effect an +order for collecting evidence _to the justification and acquittal of the +Begums, and not for the investigation of the truth of the charges which +have been preferred against them_." That Mr. Stables did not propose (as +in the said Hastings's minute is groundlessly supposed) that the reasons +of the Court of Directors should be transmitted with the orders for an +inquiry. But the apprehension of the said Warren Hastings of the +probable result of the inquiry proposed did strongly indicate his sense +of his own guilt and the innocence of the parties accused by him; and +if, by his construction, Mr. Stables's minute did indicate an inquiry +merely for the justification of the parties by him accused, (which +construction the motion did not bear,) it was no more than what the +obvious rules of justice would well support, his own proceedings having +been _ex parte_,--he having employed Sir Elijah Impey to take affidavits +against the women of high rank aforesaid, not only without any inquiry +made on their part, but without any communication to them of his +practice and proceeding against them; and equity did at least require +that they, with his own knowledge and by the subordinates of his own +government, should be allowed a public inquiry to acquit themselves of +the heavy offences with which they had been by him clandestinely +charged. + +LXXVII. That he, the said Hastings, in order to effectually stifle the +said inquiry, did enter on record a further minute, asserting that the +said inquiry would be productive "of evils greater than any which exist +in the consequences which have already taken place, _and which time has +almost obliterated_"; as also the following: "If I am rightly informed, +the Nabob Vizier and the Begums are on terms of mutual goodwill. It +would ill become this government to interpose its influence by any act +which might tend to revive their animosities,--and a very slight +occasion would be sufficient to effect it. They will instantly take fire +on such a declaration, proclaim the judgment of the Company in their +favor, demand a reparation of the acts which they will construe wrongs +with such a sentence warranting that construction, and either accept the +invitation to the proclaimed scandal of the Nabob Vizier, which _will +not add to the credit of our government_, or remain in his dominions, +but not under his authority, to add to his vexations and the disorders +of the country by continual intrigues and seditions. Enough already +exists to affect his peace and the quiet of his people. If we cannot +heal, let us not inflame the wounds _which have been inflicted_."--"If +the Begums think themselves aggrieved to such a degree as to justify +them in _an appeal to a foreign jurisdiction_, to appeal to it against a +man standing in the relation of son and grandson to them, _to appeal to +the justice of those who have been the abettors and instruments of their +imputed wrongs_, let us at least permit them to be the judges of their +own feelings, and prefer their complaints before we offer to redress +them. They will not need to be prompted. I hope I shall not depart from +the simplicity of official language in saying, the majesty of justice +ought to be approached with solicitation, not descend to provoke or +invite it, much less to debase itself by the suggestion of wrongs and +the promise of redress, with the denunciation of punishments before +trial, and even before accusation." + +LXXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in attempting to pass an act of +indemnity for his own crimes, and of oblivion for the sufferings of +others, supposing the latter _almost obliterated_ by time, did not only +mock and insult over the sufferings of the allies of the Company, but +did show an indecent contempt of the understandings of the Court of +Directors: because his violent attempts on the property and liberty of +the mother and grandmother of the ally aforesaid had not their first +commencement much above two years before that time, and had been +continued, without abatement or relaxation on his part, to the very time +of his minute; the Nabob having, by the instigation of his, the said +Hastings's, instrument, Hyder Beg Khân, not two months before the date +of the Consultation, been obliged a second time to break his faith with +relation to the estates of his mother, in the manner hereinbefore +recited. And the said Hastings did not and could not conceive that the +clearing the mother could revive any animosity between her and her son, +by whom she never had been accused. The said Hastings was also sensible +that the restoration of her landed estates, recommended by the Court of +Directors, could not produce any ill effect on the mind of the said son, +as it was "with almost unconquerable reluctance he had been persuaded to +deprive her of them," and at the time of his submitting to become an +instrument in this injustice, did "declare," both, to the Resident and +his ministers, "that it was an act of compulsion." + +LXXIX. That the said Hastings further, by insinuating that the women in +question would act amiss in appealing to _a foreign jurisdiction_ +against a son and grandson, could not forget that he himself, being that +foreign jurisdiction, (if any jurisdiction there was,) did himself +direct and order the injuries, did himself urge the calumnies, and did +himself cause to be taken and produced the unsatisfactory evidence by +which the women in question had suffered,--and that it was against him, +the said Hastings, and not against their son, that they had reason to +appeal. But the truth is, that the inquiry was moved for by Mr. Stables, +not on the prayer or appeal of the sufferers, but upon the ill +impression which the said Hastings's own conduct, merely and solely on +his own state of it, and on his own evidence in support of it, had made +on the Court of Directors, who were his lawful masters, and not suitors +in his court. And his arrogating to himself and his colleagues to be a +tribunal, and a tribunal not for the purpose of doing justice, but of +refusing inquiry, was an high offence and misdemeanor (particularly as +the due obedience to the Company's orders was eluded on the insolent +pretence "that the majesty of justice ought to be approached with +solicitation, and that it would debase itself by the suggestion of +wrongs and the promise of redress") in a Governor, whose business it is, +even of himself, and unsolicited, not only to promise, but to afford, +redress to all those who should suffer under the power of the Company, +even if their ignorance, or want of protection, or the imbecility of +their sex, or the fear of irritating persons in rank and station, should +prevent them from seeking it by formal solicitation. + +LXXX. That the said Warren Hastings, at the time when he pretended +ignorance of all solicitation for justice on the part of the women +aforesaid, and on that pretence did refuse the inquiry moved by his +colleague, Mr. Stables, had in all probability received from the +Resident, Middleton, or, if he had made the slightest inquiry from the +said Middleton, then at Calcutta, might immediately receive, an account +that _they did actually solicit_ the said Resident, through Major +Gilpin, for redress against his, the said Hastings's, calumnious +accusation, and the false testimony by which it was supported, and did +send the said complaint to the Resident, Middleton, by the said Gilpin, +to be transmitted to him, the said Hastings, and the Council, so early +as the 19th of October, 1782; and that she, the mother of the Nabob, +did afterwards send the same to the Resident, Bristow, asserting their +innocence, and accompanying the same with the copies of letters (the +originals of which they asserted were in their hands) from the chief +witnesses against them, Hannay and Gordon, which letters did directly +overturn the charges or insinuations in the affidavits made by them, and +that, instead of any accusation of an attempt upon them and their +parties by the instigation of the mother of the Nabob, or by her +ministers, they, the said Hannay and Gordon, did attribute their +preservation to them and to their services, and did, with strong +expressions of gratitude both to the mother of the Nabob and to her +ministers, fully acknowledge the same: which remonstrance of the mother +of the Nabob, and the letters of the said Hannay and Gordon, are annexed +to this charge; and the said Hastings is highly criminal for not having +examined into the facts alleged in the said remonstrance. + +LXXXI. That the violent proceedings of the said Warren Hastings did tend +to impress all the neighboring princes, some of whom were allied in +blood to the oppressed women of rank aforesaid, with an ill opinion of +the faith, honor, and decency of the British nation; and accordingly, on +the journey aforesaid made by the Nabob from Lucknow to Fyzabad, in +which the said Nabob did restore, in the manner before mentioned, the +confiscated estates of his mother and grandmother, and did afterwards +revoke his said grant, it appears that the said journey did cause a +general alarm (the worst motives obtaining the most easy credit with +regard to any future proceeding, on account of the foregone acts) and +excited great indignation among the ruling persons of the adjacent +country, insomuch that Major Brown, agent to the said Warren Hastings at +the court of the King Shah Allum at Delhi, did write a remonstrance +therein to Mr. Bristow, Resident at Oude, as follows. + +"The evening of the 7th, at a conference I had with Mirza Shaffee Khân, +he introduced a subject, respecting the Nabob Vizier, which, however it +may be disagreeable for you to know, and consequently for me to +communicate, I am under a necessity of laying before you. He told me he +had received information from Lucknow, that, by the advice of Hyder Beg +Khân, the Vizier had determined to bring his grandmother, the widow of +Sufdar Jung, from Fyzabad to Lucknow, with a view of getting a further +sum of money from her, by seizing on her eunuchs, digging up the +apartments of her house at Fyzabad, and putting her own person under +restraint. This, he said, he knew was not an act of our government, but +the mere advice of Hyder Beg Khân, to which the Vizier had been induced +to attend. He added, that the old Begum had resolved rather to put +herself to death than submit to the disgrace intended to be put upon +her; that, if such a circumstance should happen, there is _not a man in +Hindostan who will attribute the act to the Vizier [Nabob of Oude], but +every one will fix the odium on the English, who might easily, by the +influence they so largely exercise in their own concerns there_, have +prevented such unnatural conduct in the Vizier. He therefore called upon +me, as the English representative in this quarter, to inform you of +this, that you may prevent a step which will destroy all confidence in +the English nation throughout Hindostan, and excite the bitterest +resentment in all those who by blood are connected with the house of +Sufdar Jung. He concluded by saying, that, 'if the Vizier so little +regarded his family and personal honor, or his natural duty, as to wish +to disgrace his father's mother for a sum of money, let him plunder her +of all she has, but let him send her safe up to Delhi or Agra, and, poor +as I am, I will furnish subsistence for her, which she shall possess +with safety and honor, though it cannot be adequate to her rank.' + +"This, Sir, is a most exact detail of the conversation (as far as +related to that affair) on the part of Mirza Shaffee Khân. On my part I +could only say, that I imagined the affair was misrepresented, and that +I should write as he requested. Let me therefore request that you will +enable me to answer in a more effectual manner any further questions on +this subject. + +LXXXII. "As Mirza Shaffee's grandfather was brother to Sufdar Jung, +there can be no doubt of what his declaration means; and if this measure +of dismissing the old Begum should be persisted in, I should not, from +the state of affairs, and the character of the Amir ul Omrah, be +surprised at some immediate and violent resolution being adopted by +him." + +LXXXIII. That Mirza Shaffee, mentioned in this correspondence, (who has +since been murdered,) was of near kindred to the lady in question, +(grandmother to the Nabob,) was resident in a province immediately +adjoining to the province of Oude, and, from proximity of situation and +nearness of connection, was likely to have any intelligence concerning +his female relations from the best authority. + +LXXXIV. That the Resident, Bristow, on receiving this letter, did apply +to the said Hyder Beg Khân for an explanation of the Nabob's intentions, +who denied that the Nabob intended more than a visit of duty and +ceremony: which, whatever his dispositions might have been, and probably +were, towards his own mother, was not altogether probable, as it was +well known that he was on very bad terms with the mother of his father, +and it appears that intentions of a similar nature had been before +manifested even with regard to his own mother, and therefore obtained +the more easy credit concerning the other woman of high rank aforesaid, +especially as the evil designs of the said Hyder Beg were abundantly +known, and that the said Hastings, upon whom he did wholly depend, +continued to recommend "the most effectual, that is, the most violent, +means for the recovery of the small remains of his extorted demand." But +although it does not appear that the Resident did give credit to the +said report, yet the effect of the same on the minds of the neighboring +princes did make it proper and necessary to direct a strict inquiry into +the same, which was not done; and it does not appear that any further +inquiry was made into the true motives for this projected journey to +Fyzabad, nor into the proceedings of Hyder Beg Khân, although the said +Warren Hastings well knew that all the acts of the Nabob and his +principal ministers were constantly attributed to him, and that it was +known that secret agents, as well as the Company's regular agent, were +employed by him at Lucknow and other places. + +LXXXV. That the said Hastings, who did, on pretence of the majesty of +justice, refuse to inquire into the charges made upon the female +parents of the Nabob of Oude, in justification of the violence offered +to them, did voluntarily and of his own accord make himself an accuser +of the Resident, Middleton, for the want of a literal execution of his +orders in the plans of extortion and rapine aforesaid: the criminal +nature, spirit, and tendency of the said proceedings, for the defective +execution of which he brought the said charge, appearing in the defence +or apology made by Mr. Middleton, the Resident, for his temporary and +short forbearances. + +LXXXVI. "It could not, I flatter myself, be termed a long or +unwarrantable delay [two days], when the importance of the business, and +the peculiar embarrassments attending the prosecution of it to its +desired end, are considered. The Nabob was _son_ to the Begum whom we +were to proceed against: a son against a mother must at least _save +appearances in his mode of proceeding_. The produce of his negotiation +was to be received by the Company. Receiving a benefit, accompanying the +Nabob, withdrawing their protection, were circumstances sufficient to +_mark the English as the principal movers in this business_. At a court +where no opportunity is lost to throw odium on us, so favorable an +occasion was not missed to persuade the Nabob that we instigated him to +dishonor his family for our benefit. The impressions made by these +suggestions constantly retarded the progress, and more than once +actually broke off the business: which rendered the utmost caution on my +part necessary, especially as I had no assistance to expect from the +ministers, who could not openly move in the business. In the East, it is +well known that no man either by himself or his troops, can enter the +walls of a zenanah, scarcely in the case of acting against an open +enemy, much less of _an ally,--an ally acting against his own mother_. +The outer walls, and the Begum's agents, were all that were liable to +immediate attack: they were dealt with, and successfully, as the event +proved."--He had before observed to Mr. Hastings, in his correspondence, +what Mr. Hastings well knew to be true, "that no farther rigor than that +he had exerted could be used against females in that country; where +force could be employed, it was not spared;--that the place of +concealment was only known to the chief eunuchs, who could not be drawn +out of the women's apartments, where they had taken refuge, and from +which, if an attempt had been made to storm them, they might escape; and +the secret of the money being known only to them, it was necessary to +get their persons into his hands, which could be obtained by negotiation +only."--The Resident concluded his defence by declaring his "hope, that, +if the main object of his orders was fulfilled, he should be no longer +held criminal for a deviation from the precise letter of them." + +LXXXVII. That the said Warren Hastings did enter a reply to this answer, +in support of his criminal charge, continuing to insist "that his orders +ought to have been literally obeyed," although he did not deny that the +above difficulties occurred, and the above consequences must have been +the result,--and though the reports of the military officers charged +with the execution of his commission confirmed the moral impossibility, +as well as inutility in point of profit, of forcing a son to greater +violence and rigor against his mother. + +LXXXVIII. That the said Hastings, after all the acts aforesaid, did +presume to declare on record, in his minute of the 23d September, 1788, +"that, whatever may happen of the events which he dreads in the train of +affairs now subsisting, he shall at least receive this consolation under +them, that he used his utmost exertions to prevent them, and that in the +annals of the nations of India which have been subjected to the British +dominions _HE shall not be remembered among their oppressors_." And +speaking of certain alleged indignities offered to the Nabob of Oude, +and certain alleged suspicions of his authority with regard to the +management of his household, he, the said Hastings, did, in the said +minute, endeavor to excite the spirit of the British nation, severely +animadverting on such offences, making use of the following terms: "If +there be a spark of generous virtue in the breasts of any of my +countrymen who shall be the readers of this compilation, this letter" (a +letter of complaint from the Nabob) "shall stand for an instrument to +awaken it to the call of vengeance against so flagitious an abuse of +authority and reproach to the British name." + + +_From her Excellency the Bhow Begum to Mr. Bristow, Resident at the +Vizier's Court._ + +There is no necessity to write to you by way of information a detail of +my sufferings. From common report, and the intelligence of those who are +about you, the account of them will have reached your ears. I will here +relate a part of them. + +After the death of Sujah Dowlah, most of his ungrateful servants were +constantly laboring to gratify their enmity; but finding, from the firm +and sincere friendship which subsisted between me and the English, that +the accomplishment of their purposes was frustrated, they formed the +design of occasioning a breach in that alliance, to insure their own +success. I must acquaint you that my son Asoph ul Dowlah had formerly +threatened to seize my jaghire; but, upon producing the treaty signed by +you, and showing it to Mr. Middleton, he interfered, and prevented the +impending evil. The conspiration now framed an accusation against me of +a conduct which I had never conceived even in idea, of rendering +assistance to Rajah Cheyt Sing. The particulars are as follow. My son +Asoph ul Dowlah and his ministers, with troops and a train of artillery, +accompanied by Mr. Middleton, on the 16th of the month of Mohurum, +arrived at Fyzabad, and made a demand of a crore of rupees. As my +inability to pay so vast a sum was manifest, I produced the treaty _you_ +signed and gave me, but to no effect: their hearts were determined upon +violence. I offered my son Asoph ul Dowlah, whose will is dearer to me +than all my riches, or even life itself, whatever money and goods I was +possessed of: but an amicable adjustment seemed not worth accepting: he +demanded the delivering up the fort, and the recall of the troops that +were stationed for the preserving the peace of the city. To me tumult +and discord appeared unnecessary. I gave up these points, upon which +they seized my head eunuchs, Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, and sent +them to Mr. Middleton, after having obliged them to sign a bond for +sixty lacs of rupees; they were thrown into prison, with fetters about +their feet, and denied food and water. I, who had never, even in my +dreams, experienced such an oppression, gave up all I had to preserve +my honor and dignity: but this would not satisfy their demands: they +charged me with a rupee and a half batta upon each mohur, and on this +account laid claims upon me to the amount of six lacs some thousand +rupees, and sent Major Gilpin to exact the payment. Major Gilpin, +according to orders, at first was importunate; but being a man of +experience, and of a benevolent disposition, when he was convinced of my +want of means, he changed his conduct, and was willing to apply to the +shroffs and bankers to lend me the money. But with the loss of my +jaghire my credit was sunk; I could not raise the sum. At last, feeling +my helpless situation, I collected my wardrobe and furniture, to the +amount of about three lacs of rupees, besides fifty thousand rupees +which I borrowed from one place or other, and sent Major Gilpin with it +to Lucknow. My sufferings did not terminate here. The disturbances of +Colonel Hannay and Mr. Gordon were made a pretence for seizing my +jaghire. The state of the matter is this. When Colonel Hannay was by Mr. +Hastings ordered to march to Benares, during the troubles of Cheyt Sing, +the Colonel, _who had plundered the whole country, was incapable of +proceeding, from the union of thousands of zemindars, who had seized +this favorable opportunity_: they harassed Mr. Gordon near Junivard +[Juanpore?], and the zemindars of that place and Acberpore opposed his +march from thence, till he arrived near Taunda. As the Taunda nullah, +from its overflowing, was difficult to cross without a boat, Mr. Gordon +sent to the Phousdar to supply him. He replied, the boats were all in +the river, but would, according to orders, assist him as soon as +possible. Mr. Gordon's situation would not admit of his waiting: he +forded the nullah upon his elephant, and was hospitably entertained and +protected by the Phousdar for six days. In the mean time a letter was +received by me from Colonel Hannay, desiring me to escort Mr. Gordon to +Fyzabad. As my friendship for the English was always sincere, I readily +complied, and sent some companies of nejeebs to escort Mr. Gordon, and +all his effects, to Fyzabad, where, having provided for his +entertainment, I effected his junction with Colonel Hannay. The letters +of thanks I received from both these gentlemen upon this occasion are +still in my possession, copies of which I gave in charge to Major +Gilpin, to be delivered to Mr. Middleton, that he might forward them to +the Governor-General. To be brief, those who have loaded me with +accusations are now clearly convicted of falsehood. But is it not +extraordinary, notwithstanding the justness of my cause, that nobody +relieves my misfortunes? Why did Major Gilpin return without effect? + +My prayers have been constantly offered to Heaven for your arrival; +report has announced it; for which reason I have taken up the pen, and +request you will not place implicit confidence in my accusers, but, +weighing in the scale of justice their falsehoods and my +representations, you will exert your influence in putting a period to +the misfortunes with which I am overwhelmed. + + +_Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali +Khân._ + +I had the pleasure to receive your friendly letter, fraught with +benevolence; and whatever favors you, my friends, have been pleased to +confer respecting Mr. Gordon afforded me the greatest pleasure. + +Placing a firm reliance on your friendship, I am in expectation that the +aforesaid gentleman, with his baggage, will arrive at Fyzabad in safety, +that the same may oblige and afford satisfaction to me. + +A letter from Mr. Gordon is inclosed to you. I am in expectation of its +being inclosed in a cover to the Aumil of Taunda, to the end that the +Aumil may forward it to the above-mentioned gentleman, and procure his +reply. Whenever the answer arrives, let it be delivered to Hoolas Roy, +who will forward it to me. + +Always rejoice me by a few lines respecting your health. [Continue to +honor me with your correspondence.] + + +_Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar and Behar Ali Khân._ + +Khân Saib, my indulgent friends, remain under the protection of God! + +Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, accompanied by an honorary +letter from the Begum Saib, of exalted dignity, and inclosing a letter +from Mr. Gordon, sent through your hircarrahs, obliged and rejoiced me. + +With respect to what you communicate regarding your not having received +an answer to your friendly epistle, I became perfectly astonished, as a +reply was written from Mohadree. It may be owing to the danger of the +road that it never arrived,--not to the smallest neglect on my side [or +of mine]. + +I now send two letters to you,--one by the Dawk people, and the second +by one of my hircarrahs, (who will present them to you,) which you +certainly will receive. + +I am extremely well contented and pleased with the friendship you have +shown. + +You wrote me to remain perfectly easy concerning Mr. Gordon. Verily, +from the kindness of you, my indulgent friends, my heart is quite easy. +You also observed and mentioned, that, as Mr. Gordon's coming with those +attached to him [probably his sepoys and others] might be attended with +difficulty, if I approved, he should be invited alone to Fyzabad. My +friends, I place my expectation entirely upon your friendships, and +leave it to you to adopt the manner in which the said gentleman may +arrive in security, without molestation, at Fyzabad; but at the same +time let the plan be so managed that it may not come to the knowledge of +any zemindars: in this case you are men of discernment. However, he is +to come to Fyzabad: extend your assistance and endeavors. + +It is probable that the Begum Saib, of high dignity, has received +authentic intelligence from the camp at Benares. Favor me with the +contents or purport. + +From Mr. Gordon's letter I understand that Mirza Imaum Buksh, whom you +dispatched thither [Taunda], has and still continues to pay great +attention to that gentleman, which affords me great pleasure. + +An answer to the Begum's letter is to be presented. I also send a letter +for Mr. Gordon, which please to forward. + + +_An Address from Colonel Hannay to the Begum._ + +Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, &c., whom God preserve! + +Your exalting letter, fraught with grace and benevolence, that through +your unbounded generosity and goodness was sent through grace and favor, +I had the honor to receive in a fortunate moment, and whatever you were +pleased to write respecting Mr. Gordon,--"that, as at this time the +short-sighted and deluded ryots had carried their disturbances and +ravages beyond all bounds, Mr. Gordon's coming with his whole people [or +adherents] might be attended with difficulty, and therefore, if I chose, +he should be invited to come alone." Now, as your Highness is the best +judge, your faithful servant reposeth his most unbounded hopes and +expectation upon your Highness, that the aforesaid Mr. Gordon may arrive +at Fyzabad without any apprehension or danger. I shall be then extremely +honored and obliged. + +Considering me in the light of a firm and faithful servant, continue to +honor and exalt me by your letters. + +What further can I say? + + +_A Copy of an Address from Mr. Gordon to the Begum._ + +Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, whom God preserve! + +After presenting the usual professions of servitude, &c., in the +customary manner, my address is presented. + +Your gracious letter, in answer to the petition of your servant from +Goondah, exalted me. From the contents I became unspeakably impressed +with the honor it conferred. May the Almighty protect that royal purity, +and bestow happiness, increase of wealth, and prosperity! + +The welfare of your servant is entirely owing to your favor and +benevolence. A few days have elapsed since I arrived at Goondah with the +Colonel Saib. + +This is presented for your Highness's information. I cherish hopes from +your generosity, that, considering me in the light of one of your +servants, you will always continue to exalt and honor me with your +gracious letters. + +May the sun of prosperity continually shine! + + +_Copy of a Letter to Mahomed Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, from Mr. +Gordon._ + + Sirs, my indulgent friends, + Remain under, &c., &c. + +After compliments. I have the pleasure to acquaint you that yesterday +having taken leave of you, I passed the night at Noorgunge, and next +morning, about ten or eleven o'clock, through your favor and +benevolence, arrived safe at Goondah. Mir Aboo Buksh, zemindar, and Mir +Rustum Ali, accompanied me. + +To what extent can I prolong the praises of you, my beneficent friends? +May the Supreme Being, for this benign, compassionate, humane action, +have you in His keeping, and increase your prosperity, and speedily +grant me the pleasure of an interview! Until which time continue to +favor me with friendly letters, and oblige me by any commands in my +power to execute. + +May your wishes be ever crowned with success! + + My compliments, &c., &c., &c. + + +_Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali +Khân._ + + Khân Saib, my indulgent friends, + +Remain under the protection of the Supreme Being! + +After compliments, and signifying my earnest desire of an interview, I +address you. + +Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, I had the pleasure to +receive in a propitious hour, and your inexpressible kindness in sending +for Mir Nassar Ali with a force to Taunda, for the purpose of conducting +Mr. Gordon, with all his baggage, who is now arrived at Fyzabad. + +This event has afforded me the most excessive pleasure and satisfaction. +May the Omnipotence preserve you, my steadfast, firm friends! The pen of +friendship itself cannot sufficiently express your generosity and +benevolence, and that of the Begum of high dignity, who so graciously +has interested herself in this matter. Inclosed is an address for her, +which please to forward. I hope from your friendship, until we meet, you +will continue to honor me with an account of your health and welfare. +What further can I write? + + +V.--REVOLUTIONS IN FURRUCKABAD. + +I. That a prince called Ahmed Khân was of a family amongst the most +distinguished in Hindostan, and of a nation famous through that empire +for its valor in acquiring, and its policy and prudence in well +governing the territories it had acquired, called the Patans, or +Afghans, of which the Rohillas were a branch. The said Ahmed Khân had +fixed his residence in the city of Furruckabad, and in the first wars +of this nation in India the said Ahmed Khân attached himself to the +Company against Sujah Dowlah, then an enemy, now a dependant on that +Company. Ahmed Khân, towards the close of his life, was dispossessed of +a large part of his dominions by the prevalence of the Mahratta power; +but his son, a minor, succeeded to his pretensions, and to the remainder +of his dominions. The Mahrattas were expelled by Sujah ul Dowlah, the +late Vizier, who, finding a want of the services of the son and +successor of Ahmed Khân, called Muzuffer Jung, did not only guaranty him +in the possession of what he then actually held, but engaged to restore +all the other territories which had been occupied by the Mahrattas; and +this was confirmed by repeated treaties and solemn oaths, by the late +Vizier and by the present. But neither the late nor the present Vizier +fulfilled their engagements, or observed their oaths: the former having +withheld what he had stipulated to restore; and the latter not only +subjecting him to a tribute, instead of restoring him to what his father +had unjustly withheld, but having made a further invasion by depriving +him of fifteen of his districts, levying the tribute of the whole on the +little that remained, and putting the small remains of his territory +under a sequestrator or collector appointed by Almas Ali Khân, who did +grievously afflict and oppress the prince and territory aforesaid. + +That the hardships of his case being frequently represented to Warren +Hastings, Esquire, he did suggest a doubt whether "that little ought to +be still subject to tribute," indicating that the said tribute might be +hard and inequitable,--but, whatever its justice might have been, that, +"from the _earliest period_ of our connection with the present Nabob of +Oude, it had invariably continued a part of the funds assigned by his +Excellency as a provision for the liquidation of the several public +demands of _this government_ [Calcutta] upon him; and in consequence of +the powers the board deemed it expedient to vest in the Resident at his +court for the collection of the Company's assignments, a _sezauwil_ [a +sequestrator] has always been stationed to enforce by every means in his +power the payment of the tribute." And the said tribute was, in +consequence of this arrangement, not paid to the Nabob, but to the +British Resident at Oude; and the same being therefore under the +direction and for the sole use of the Company, and indeed the prince +himself wholly dependent, the representatives of the said Company were +responsible for the protection of the prince, and for the good +government of the country. + +II. That the said "Warren Hastings did, on the 22d of May, 1780, +represent to the board of Calcutta the condition of the said country in +the following manner. + +"To the total want of all order, regularity, or _authority_ in his +government [the Furruckabad government], among _other obvious causes_, +it may, no doubt, be owing, that the country of Furruckabad is become +_an almost 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 the Nabob himself, though in possession of a tract of +country which with only common care is notoriously capable of yielding +an annual revenue of between thirty and forty lacs [three or four +hundred thousand pounds], with _no military establishment to maintain, +scarcely commanding the means of bare subsistence_." And the said Warren +Hastings, taking into consideration the said state of the country and +its prince, and that the latter had "_preferred frequent complaints_" +(which complaints the said Hastings to that time did not lay before the +board, as his duty required) "_of the hardships and indignities_ to +which he is subjected by the conduct of the sezauwil [sequestrator] +stationed in the country for the purpose of levying the annual tribute +which he is bound by treaty to pay to the Subah of Oude," he, the said +Warren Hastings, did declare himself "extremely desirous, as well from +motives of _common justice_ as _due_ regard to _the rank which that +chief holds among the princes of Hindostan_, of affording him relief." +And he, the said Warren Hastings, as the means of the said relief, did, +with the consent of the board, order the said native sequestrator to be +removed, and an English Resident, a servant of the Company, to be +appointed in his room, declaring "he understood a local interference to +be _indispensably necessary_ for realizing the Vizier's just demands." + +III. That the said native sequestrator being withdrawn, and a Resident +appointed, no complaint whatever concerning the collection of the +revenue, or of any indignities offered to the prince of the country or +oppression of his subjects by the said Resident, was made to the +Superior Council at Calcutta; yet the said Warren Hastings did, +nevertheless, in a certain paper, purporting to be a treaty made at +Chunar with the Nabob of Oude, on the 19th September, 1781, at the +request of the said Nabob, consent to an article therein, "That no +English Resident be appointed to Furruckabad, and that the present be +recalled." And the said Warren Hastings, knowing that the Nabob of Oude +was ill-affected towards the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and that he was +already supposed to have oppressed him, did justify his conduct on the +principles and in the words following: "That, if the Nabob Muzuffer Jung +_must_ endure oppression, (_and I dare not at this time propose his +total relief_,) it concerns the reputation of our government to remove +_our participation in it_." And the said Warren Hastings making, +recording, and acting upon the first of the said false and inhuman +suppositions, most scandalous to this nation, namely, that princes +paying money wholly for the use of the Company, and directly to its +agent, for the maintenance of British troops, by whose force and power +the said revenue was in effect collected, must of necessity endure +oppression, and that our government at any time _dare_ not propose their +_total_ relief, was an high offence and misdemeanor in the said Warren +Hastings, and the rather, because in the said treaty, as well as before +and after, the said Hastings, who pretended not to dare to relieve those +oppressed by the Nabob of Oude, did assume a complete authority over the +said Nabob himself, and did dare to oppress him. + +IV. That the second principle assumed by the said Warren Hastings, as +ground for voluntarily abandoning the protection of those whom he had +before undertaken to relieve, _on the sole strength of his own +authority_, and in full confidence of the lawful foundation thereof, and +for delivering over the persons so taken into protection, under false +names and pretended descriptions, to known oppression, asserting that +the reputation of the Company was saved by removing this apparent +participation, when the new as well as the old arrangements were truly +and substantially acts of the British government, was disingenuous, +deceitful, and used to cover unjustifiable designs: since the said +Warren Hastings well knew that all oppressions exercised by the Nabob of +Oude were solely, and in this instance particularly, upheld by British +force, and were imputed to this nation; and because he himself, in not +more than three days after the execution of this treaty, and in virtue +thereof, did direct the British Resident at Oude, in orders _to which he +required his most implicit obedience_, "that the ministers [the Nabob of +Oude's ministers] are to choose _all_ aumils and collectors of revenue +with your concurrence." And the dishonor to the Company, in thus +deceitfully concurring in oppression, which they were able and were +bound to prevent, is much aggravated by the said Warren Hastings's +receiving from the person to whose oppression he had delivered the said +prince, as a private gift or donation to himself and for his own use, a +sum of money amounting to one hundred thousand pounds and upwards, which +might give just ground of suspicion that the said gift from the +oppressor to the person surrendering the person injured to his mercy +might have had some share in the said criminal transaction. + +V. That the said Warren Hastings did (in the paper justifying the said +surrender of the prince put by himself under the protection of the East +India Company) assert, "that it was a fact, that the Nabob Muzuffer +Jung [the Nabob of Furruckabad] is equally urgent with the Nabob Vizier +for the removal of a Resident," without producing, as he ought to have +done, any document to prove his improbable assertion, namely, his +assertion that the oppressed prince did apply to his known enemy and +oppressor, the Nabob of Oude, (who, if he would, was not able to relieve +him against the will of the English government,) rather than to that +English government, which he must have conceived to be more impartial, +to which he had made his former complaint, and which was alone able to +relieve him. + +VI. That the said Warren Hastings, in the said writing, did further +convey an insinuation of an ambiguous, but, on any construction, of a +suspicious and dangerous import, viz.: "It is a fact, that Mr. Shee's +[the Resident's] authority over the territory of Furruckabad is in +itself as much subversive of that [_of the lawful rulers_] as that of +the Vizier's aumil [collector] ever was, and is the more _oppressive_ as +the power from whence it is derived is greater." The said assertion +proceeds upon a supposition of the illegality both of the Nabob's and +the Company's government; all consideration of the _title_ to authority +being, therefore, on that supposition, put out of the question, and the +whole turning only upon the _exercise_ of authority, the said Hastings's +suggestion, that the oppression of government must be in proportion to +its power, is the result of a false and dangerous principle, and such as +it is criminal for any person intrusted with the lives and fortunes of +men to entertain, much more, publicly to profess as a rule of action, as +the same hath a direct tendency to make the new and powerful government +of this kingdom in India dreadful to the natives and odious to the +world. But if the said Warren Hastings did mean thereby indirectly to +insinuate that oppressions had been actually exercised under the British +authority, he was bound to inquire into these oppressions, and to +animadvert on the person guilty of the same, if proof thereof could be +had,--and the more, as the authority was given by _himself_, and the +person exercising it was by himself also named. And the said Warren +Hastings did on another occasion assert that "whether they were well or +ill-founded he never had an opportunity to ascertain." But it is not +true that the said Hastings did or could want such opportunity: the fact +being, that the said Warren Hastings did never cause any inquiry to be +made into any supposed abuses during the said Residency, but did give a +pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year to the said late Resident as a +compensation to him for an injury received, and did afterwards promote +the Resident, as a faithful servant of the Company, (and nothing appears +to show him otherwise,) to a judicial office of high trust,--thereby +taking away all credit from any grounds asserted or insinuated by the +said Hastings for delivering the said Nabob of Furruckabad to the hand +of a known enemy and oppressor, who had already, contrary to repeated +treaties, deprived him of a large part of his territories. + +VII. That, on the said Warren Hastings's representation of the +transaction aforesaid to the Court of Directors, they did heavily and +justly censure the said Warren Hastings for the same, and did convey +their censure to him, recommending relief to the suffering prince, but +without any order for sending a new Resident: being, as it may be +supposed, prevented from taking that step by the faith of the treaty +made at Chunar. + +VIII. That all the oppressions foreseen by him, the said Warren +Hastings, when he made the article aforesaid in the treaty of Chunar, +did actually happen: for, immediately on the removal of the British +Resident, the country of Furruckabad was subjected to the discretion of +a certain native manager of revenue, called Almas Ali Khân, who did +impoverish and oppress the country and insult the prince, and did +deprive him of all subsistence from his own estates,--taking from him +even his gardens and the tombs of his ancestors, and the funds for +maintaining the same. + +IX. That, on complaint of those proceedings, the said Hastings did of +his own authority, and without communicating with his Council, direct +the native collector aforesaid to be removed, and the territory of +Furruckabad to be left to the sole management of its natural prince. But +in a short time the said Hastings, pretending to receive many complaints +purporting that the tribute to the Nabob remained wholly unpaid, and the +agent to the prince of Furruckabad at the Presidency, and afterwards +chief manager to the prince aforesaid, having, as the said Warren +Hastings saith, "had the insolence to propagate a report that the +_interference_ to which his master owed the power he then enjoyed was +_purchased_ through him," he, the said Hastings, did again (but, as +before, without the Council) "withdraw his protection and interference +altogether," on or about the month of August, 1782, and did signify his +resolution, through the Resident, Middleton, to the Nabob Vizier. But +the said Hastings asserts that "the consequence of this his own second +dereliction of the prince of Furruckabad was _an aggravated renewal of +the severities_ exercised against his government, and the reappointment +of a sezauwil, with powers delegated or assumed, to the _utter +extinction_ of the rights of Muzuffer Jung, and actually depriving him +of the means of subsistence." And the said Hastings did receive, on the +16th of February, 1783, from the prince aforesaid, a bitter complaint of +the same to the following tenor. + +"The miseries which have fallen upon my country, and the poverty and +distress which have been heaped upon me by the reappointment of the +sezauwil, are such, that a relation of them would, I am convinced, +excite the strongest feelings of compassion in your breast. But it is +impossible to relate them: on one side, my country ruined and +uncultivated to a degree of desolation which exceeds all description; on +the other, my domestic concerns and connections involved _in such a +state of distress and horror, that even the relations, the children, and +the wives of my father are starving in want of daily bread, and are on +the point of flying voluntary exiles from their country and from each +other_." + +But although the said Hastings did, on the 16th of February, receive and +admit the justice of the said complaint, and did not deny the urgent +necessity of redress, the said letter containing the following sentence, +"If there should be _any delay_ in your acceptance of this proposal, _my +existence and the existence of my family will become difficult and +doubtful_,"--and although he did admit the interference to be the more +urgently demanded, "as the services of the English troops have been +added to enforce the authority of the sezauwil,"--and although he admits +also, that, even before that time, similar complaints and applications +had been made,--yet he did withhold the said letter of complaint, a +minute of which he asserts he had, at or about that time, prepared for +the relief of the sufferer, from the Board of Council, and did not so +much as propose anything relative to the same for seven months after, +viz., until the 6th of October, 1783: the said letter and minute being, +as he asserts, "_withheld_, from causes _not necessary to mention_, from +presentation." By which means the said country and prince did suffer a +long continuance of unnecessary hardship, from which the said Hastings +confessed it was his duty to relieve them, and that a British Resident +was necessary at Furruckabad, "from a sense of submission to the +_implied_ orders of the Court of Directors in their letter of 1783, +lately received, added to _the conviction I have LONG SINCE_ entertained +_of the necessity of such an appointment for the preservation of our +national credit_, and the means of rescuing an ancient and respectable +family from ruin." + +And the said Warren Hastings did at length perform what he thought had +_long since_ been necessary; and in contradiction to his engagements +with the Nabob in the treaty of Chunar, and against his strong +remonstrances, urging his humiliation from this measure, and the faith +of the agreement, and against his own former declaration that it +concerned the reputation of our government to remove our participation +in the oppressions which he, the said Hastings, supposed the prince of +Furruckabad must undergo, did once more recommend to the Council a +British Resident at Furruckabad, and the withdrawing the native +sezauwil: no course being left to the said Hastings to take which was +not a violation of some engagement, and a contradiction to some +principle of justice and policy by him deliberately advanced and entered +on record. + +That Mr. Willes being appointed Resident, and having arrived at +Furruckabad on the 25th of February, 1784, with instructions to inquire +minutely into the state of the country and the ruling family, he, the +said Resident, Willes, in obedience thereto, did fully explain to him, +the Governor-General, the said Warren Hastings, (he being then out of +the Company's provinces, at Lucknow, on a delegation which respected +this very country, as part of the dependencies of Oude,) the situation +of the province of Furruckabad; but the said Warren Hastings did not +take or recommend any measure whatsoever for the relief thereof in +consequence of the said representation, nor even communicate to the +Council-General the said representation; and it was not until the 28th +of June, 1783 [1785?], that is, sixteen months from the arrival of the +Resident at his station, that anything was laid before the board +relative to the regulation or relief of the distressed country +aforesaid, and that not from the said Warren Hastings, but from other +members of the Council: which purposed neglect of duty, joined to the +preceding wilful delay of seven months in proposing the said relief +originally, caused near two years' delay. And the said Warren Hastings +is further culpable in not communicating to the Council Board the order +which he had, of his own authority, and without any powers from them, +given to the said Resident, Willes, and did thereby prevent them from +taking such steps as might counteract the ill effects of the said order; +which order purported, that the said Willes was not to interfere with +the Nabob of Furruckabad's government, for the regulation of which he +was in effect appointed to the Residency,--declaring as follows: "I rely +much on your moderation and good judgment, which I hope will enable you +to regulate your conduct towards the Nabob and his _servants_ in such a +manner, that, _without interfering in the executive part of his +government_, you may render him essential service by _your council and +advice_." And this restriction the said Hastings did impose, which +totally frustrated the purpose of the Resident's mission, though he well +knew, and had frequently stated, the extreme imbecility and weakness of +the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and his subjection to unworthy servants; +and in the Minute of Consultation upon which he founded the appointment +did state the Nabob of Furruckabad "as a weak and unexperienced young +man, who had abandoned himself entirely to the discretion of his +servants, and the restoration of his independence was followed by a +_total_ breach of the engagements he had promised to fulfil, attended by +pointed instances of contumacy and disrespect"; and in the said minute +the said Hastings adds, (as before mentioned,) his principal servant and +manager had propagated a report that the "_interference_" (namely, his, +the said Hastings's, interference) "to which his master owed the power +he then enjoyed was purchased by him," the principal servant aforesaid: +yet he, the said Hastings, who had assigned on record the character of +the said Nabob, and the conduct of his servants, and the aforesaid +report of his principal servant, so highly dishonorable to him, the said +Hastings, as reasons for taking away the independency of the Nabob of +Furruckabad, and the subjecting him to the oppression of the Nabob of +Oude's officer, Almas Ali, did again himself establish the pretended +independence of the said prince of Furruckabad, and the real +independence of his corrupt and perfidious servants, not against the +Nabob of Oude, but against a British Resident appointed by himself ("as +a character eminently qualified for such a charge") for the correction +of those evils, and for rendering the prince aforesaid an useful ally to +the Company, and restoring his dominions to order and plenty. + +That the said Hastings did not only disable the Resident at Furruckabad +by his said prohibitory letter, but did render his very remaining at all +in that station perfectly precarious by a subsequent letter, rendering +him liable to dismission by the Vizier,--thereby changing the tenure of +the Resident's office, and changing him from a minister of the Company, +dependent on the Governor-General and Council, to a dependant upon an +unresponsible power,--in this also acting without the Council, and by +his own usurped authority: and accordingly the said Resident did +declare, in his letter of the 24th of April, 1785, "that the situation +of the country was _more_ distressful than when he [the prince of +Furruckabad] addressed himself for relief in 1783, and that he was sorry +to say that his appointment at Furruckabad was of no use"; that, though +the old tribute could not be paid, owing to famine and other causes, it +was increased by a new imposition, making the whole equal the entire +_gross_ produce of the revenue; that therefore there will not be +"_anything for the subsistence of the Nabob and family_." And the uncles +of the said Nabob of Furruckabad, the brethren of the late Ahmed Khân, +(who had rendered important services to the Company,) and their +children, in a petition to the Resident, represented that soon after the +succession of Muzuffer Jung "their misery commenced. The jaghires [lands +and estates] on which they subsisted were disallowed. Our distress is +great: we have neither clothes nor food. Though we felt hurt at the idea +of explaining our situation, yet, could we have found a mode of +conveyance, we would have proceeded to Calcutta for redress. The +scarcity of grain this season is an additional misfortune. With +difficulty we support life. From your presence without the provinces we +expect relief. It is not the custom of the Company to deprive the +zemindars and jaghiredars of the means of subsistence. To your justice +we look up." + +This being the situation of the person and family of the Nabob of +Furruckabad and his nearest relations, the state of the country and its +capital, prevented from all relief by the said Warren Hastings, is +described in the following words by the Resident, Willes. + +"Almas Ali has taken the purgunnah of Marara at a very inadequate rent, +and his aumils have seized many adjacent villages: the purgunnahs of +Cocutmow and Souje are constantly plundered by his people. The +collection of the ghauts near Futtyghur has been seized by the Vizier's +_cutwal_, and the zemindars in four purgunnahs are so refractory as to +have fortified themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments +of revenue. This is the state of the purgunnahs. _And Furruckabad, +which was once the seat of great opulence and trade, is now daily +deserted by its inhabitants, its walls mouldering away, without police, +without protection, exposed to the depredations of a banditti of two or +three hundred robbers, who, night after night, enter it for plunder, +murdering all who oppose them. The ruin that has overtaken this country +is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that there has been no +state, no stable government, for many years._ There has been the Nabob +Vizier's authority, his ministers', the Residents' at Lucknow, the +sezauwils', the camp authority, the Nabob Muzuffer Jung's, and that of +twenty duans or advisers: no authority sufficiently predominant to +establish any regulations for the benefit of the country, whilst each +authority has been exerted, as opportunity offered, for temporary +purposes. + +"Such being the present _deplorable_ state of Furruckabad and its +districts, in the ensuing year it will be in vain to look for revenue, +if some regulations equal to the exigency be not adopted. The whole +country will be divided between the neighboring powerful aumils, the +refractory zemindars, and banditti of robbers; and the Patans, who might +be made useful subjects, will fly from the scene of anarchy. The crisis +appears now come, that either some plan of government should be resolved +on, so as to form faithful subjects on the frontier, or the country be +given up to its fate: and if it be abandoned, there can be little doubt +but that the Mahrattas will gladly seize on a station so favorable to +incursions into the Vizier's dominions, will attach to their interests +the Hindoo zemindars, and possess themselves of forts, which, with +little expense being made formidable, would give employment perhaps to +the whole of our force, should it be ever necessary to recover them." + +That the Council at Calcutta, on the representation aforesaid made by +the Resident at Furruckabad, did propose and record a plan for the +better government of the said country, but did delay the execution of +the same until the arrangements made by the said Hastings with the Nabob +Vizier should be known; but the said Hastings, as far as in him lay, did +entirely set aside any plan that could be formed for that purpose upon +the basis of a British Resident at Furruckabad, by engaging with the +said Nabob Vizier that no British influence shall be employed within his +dominions, and he has engaged to that prince not to abandon him to any +other mode of relation; and he has informed the Court of Directors that +the territories of the Nabob of Oude will be ruined, if Residents are +sent into them, observing, that "Residents never will be sent for any +other purposes than those of vengeance and corruption." + +That the said Warren Hastings did declare to the Court of Directors, +that in his opinion the mode of relief most effectual, and most lenient +with regard to Furruckabad, would be to nominate one of the family of +the prince to superintend his affairs and to secure the payments; but +this plan, which appears to be most connected with the rights of the +ruling family, whilst it provides against the imbecility of the natural +lord, and is free from his objection to a Resident, is the only one +which the said Hastings never has executed, or even proposed to execute. + +That the said Hastings, by the agreements aforesaid, has left the +Company in such an alternative, that they can neither relieve the said +prince of Furruckabad from oppression without a breach of the +engagements entered into by him, the said Hastings, with the Nabob +Vizier in the name of the Company, nor suffer him to remain under the +said oppression without violating all faith and all the rules of justice +with regard to him. And the said Hastings hath directly made or +authorized no less than six revolutions in less than five years in the +aforesaid harassed province; by which frequent and rapid changes of +government, all of them made in contradiction to all his own declared +motives and reasons for the several acts successively done and undone in +this transaction, the distresses of the country and the disorders in its +administration have been highly aggravated; and in the said irregular +proceedings, and in the gross and complicated violations of faith with +all parties, the said Hastings is guilty of high crimes and +misdemeanors. + + +VI.--DESTRUCTION OF THE RAJAH OF SAHLONE. + +I. That the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah ul Dowlah, did (on what reasons of +policy or pretences of justice is unknown) dispossess a certain native +person of distinction, or eminent Rajah, residing in the country of +Sahlone, "the lineal descendant of the most powerful Hindoo family in +that part of Hindostan," of his patrimonial estate, and conferred the +same, or part of the same, on his, the Nabob's, mother, as a jaghire, or +estate, for the term of her life: and the mother of the Nabob, in order +to quiet the country, and to satisfy in some measure the principal and +other inhabitants, did allow and pay a certain pension to the said +Rajah; which pension, on the general confiscation of jaghires, made at +the instigation of the said Warren Hastings, and by the letting the +lands so confiscated to farmers at rack-rents, was discontinued and +refused to be paid; and the discontinuance of the said pension, "on +account of the personal respect borne to the Rajah, (as connections with +him are sought for, and thought _to confer honor_,)" did cause an +universal discontent and violent commotions in the district of Sahlone, +and other parts of the province of Oude, with great consequent effusion +of blood, and interruption, if not total discontinuance, to the +collection of the revenues in those parts, other than as the same was +irregularly, and with great damage to the country, enforced by British +troops. + +II. That Mr. Lumsdaine, the officer employed to reduce those disordered +parts of the province to submission, after several advantages gained +over the Rajah and his adherents, and expelling him from the country, +did represent the utter impossibility of bringing it to a permanent +settlement "merely by forcible methods; as in any of his [the Rajah's] +incursions it would not be necessary to bring even a force with him, as +the zemindars [landed proprietors and freeholders] are much attached to +the Rajah, whom they consider as their hereditary prince, and never fail +to assist him, and that his rebellion against government is not looked +on as a crime": and Mr. Lumsdaine declared it "as his clear opinion, +that the allowing the said Rajah a pension suitable to his rank and +influence in the country would be the most certain mode of obtaining a +permanent peace,"--alleging, among other cogent reasons, "that the +expense of the force necessary to be employed to subdue the country +might be spared, and employed elsewhere, and that the people would +return to their villages with their cattle and effects, and of course +government have some security for the revenue, whereas at present they +have none." And the representation containing that prudent and temperate +counsel, given by a military man of undoubted information and perfect +experience in the local circumstances of the country, was transmitted by +the Resident, Bristow, to the said Warren Hastings, who did wilfully and +criminally omit to order any relief to the said Rajah in conformity to +the general sense and wishes of the inhabitants, a compliance with whose +so reasonable an expectation his duty in restoring the tranquillity of +the country and in retrieving the honor of the English government did +absolutely require; but instead of making such provision, a price was +set upon his head, and several bodies of British troops being employed +to pursue him, after many skirmishes and much bloodshed and mutual waste +of the country, the said Rajah, honored and respected by the natives, +was hunted down, and at length killed in a thicket. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[59] See Hastings's Letter. + +[60] Sic orig. + +[61] 26th Dec., 1781. + +[62] 13th Jan., 1782. + +[63] 18th Jan., 1782. + +[64] Letter from Mr. Middleton, 2d Feb., 1782. + +[65] Lucknow, 22d July, 1782. + +[66] Major Gilpin's Letter, 15th June, 1782. + +[67] Mr. Johnson's letter, 9th July, 1782. + +[68] Ibid., 4th July, 1782. + +[69] Major Gilpin's Letter, 6th July, 1782. + +[70] Mr. Johnson's Letter, 22d July, 1782. + +[71] Major Gilpin's Letters, 16th June and 15th Sept., 1782. + +[72] Major Gilpin's letter, 15th Sept., 1782. + +[73] Major Gilpin's letter, 19th Oct., 1782. + +[74] Major Gilpin's Letter, 18 Nov., 1782. + +[75] Mr. Bristow's Letter, 2d Dec., 1782. + +[76] Mr. Bristow's Letter, 12 Dec., 1782. + +[77] Shoka from the Vizier to Hyder Beg Khân, 2d Ramsur, 1197 + +[78] Bristow's Letter, 29th Jan., 1784, with inclosures. + + +END OF VOL. VIII. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable +Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12), by Edmund Burke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF THE RIGHT *** + +***** This file should be named 18161-8.txt or 18161-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/1/6/18161/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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(of 12), by Edmund Burke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12) + +Author: Edmund Burke + +Release Date: April 13, 2006 [EBook #18161] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF THE RIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><a name="Page_-3" id="Page_-3"></a></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>THE WORKS +<br /><br /> +<span style="font-size: 71%">OF</span> +<br /><br /> +THE RIGHT HONOURABLE<br /> + +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 200%">EDMUND BURKE</span></h2> + +<h3>IN TWELVE VOLUMES<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: smaller">VOLUME THE EIGHTH</span></h3> +<p /> +<div style="text-align: center"> +<img src="images/001.png" alt="BURKE COAT OF ARMS." title="BURKE COAT OF ARMS" /> +</div> +<p /> +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0"><b>London</b><br /> + +<br /> + +JOHN C. NIMMO<br /> +<br /> +14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.<br /> + +MDCCCLXXXVII<br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_VIII" id="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_VIII"></a>CONTENTS OF VOL. VIII</h2> + + + +<ul class="TOC"><li><a href="#NINTH_REPORT">NINTH REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON + THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. JUNE 25, 1783.</a> + + <ul class="TOCSub"><li><a href="#I_OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_STATE_OF_THE_COMPANYS_AFFAIRS_IN_INDIA">OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF THE COMPANY'S AFFAIRS IN INDIA</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#II_CONNECTION_OF_GREAT_BRITAIN_WITH_INDIA">CONNECTION OF GREAT BRITAIN WITH INDIA</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#III_EFFECT_OF_THE_REVENUE_INVESTMENT_ON_THE_COMPANY">EFFECT OF THE REVENUE INVESTMENT ON THE COMPANY</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#INTERNAL_TRADE_OF_BENGAL">INTERNAL TRADE OF BENGAL</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></span> + <ul class="TOCSub"><li><a href="#SILK">SILK</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></span></li> + <li><a href="#RAW_SILK">RAW SILK</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></span></li> + <li><a href="#CLOTHS_OR_PIECE-GOODS">CLOTHS, OR PIECE-GOODS</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></span></li> + <li><a href="#OPIUM">OPIUM</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></span></li> + <li><a href="#SALT">SALT</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></span></li> + <li><a href="#SALTPETRE">SALTPETRE</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></span></li></ul></li> + + <li><a href="#BRITISH_GOVERNMENT_IN_INDIA">BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></span></li></ul></li> + + +<li><a href="#ELEVENTH_REPORT">ELEVENTH REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON + THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE APPENDIX. + NOVEMBER 18, 1783</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></span></li> + + +<li><a href="#ARTICLES_OF_CHARGE">ARTICLES OF CHARGE OF HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS AGAINST WARREN + HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL: PRESENTED TO + THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN APRIL AND MAY, 1786.—ARTICLES I.-VI.</a> + + <ul class="TOCSub"><li><a href="#I_ROHILLA_WAR">I. ROHILLA WAR</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_307">307</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#II_SHAH_ALLUM">II. SHAH ALLUM</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_319">319</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#III_BENARES">III. BENARES</a> + + <ul class="TOCSub"><li><a href="#RIGHTS_AND_TITLES_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES">PART I. RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_327">327</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#DESIGNS_OF_MR_HASTINGS_TO_RUIN_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES">PART II. DESIGNS OF MR. HASTINGS TO RUIN THE RAJAH OF + BENARES</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#EXPULSION_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES">PART III. EXPULSION OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_354">354</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#SECOND_REVOLUTION_IN_BENARES">PART IV. SECOND REVOLUTION IN BENARES</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_380">380</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#THIRD_REVOLUTION_IN_BENARES">PART V. THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_386">386</a></span></li></ul></li> + + <li><a href="#IV_PRINCESSES_OF_OUDE">IV. PRINCESSES OF OUDE</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_397">397</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#V_REVOLUTIONS_IN_FURRUCKABAD">V. REVOLUTIONS IN FURRUCKABAD</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_467">467</a></span></li> + + <li><a href="#VI_DESTRUCTION_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_SAHLONE">VI. DESTRUCTION OF THE RAJAH OF SAHLONE</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_484">484</a></span></li></ul></li></ul> + + +<p><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" title="1" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NINTH_REPORT" id="NINTH_REPORT"></a>NINTH REPORT<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">OF THE</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 85%;">SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">ON</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 85%;">THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">June 25, 1783.</span></h2> +<p><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" title="2" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" title="3" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>NINTH REPORT</h2> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>From the SELECT COMMITTEE [of the House of Commons] +appointed to take into consideration the state of the +administration of justice in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, +and Orissa, and to report the same, as it shall appear to +them, to the House, with their observations thereupon; and +who were instructed to consider how the British possessions +in the East Indies may be held and governed with the greatest +security and advantage to this country, and by what means the +happiness of the native inhabitants may be best promoted.</p></div> + + +<h3><a name="I_OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_STATE_OF_THE_COMPANYS_AFFAIRS_IN_INDIA" id="I_OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_STATE_OF_THE_COMPANYS_AFFAIRS_IN_INDIA"></a>I.—OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF THE COMPANY'S AFFAIRS IN INDIA.</h3> + + +<p>In order to enable the House to adopt the most proper means for +regulating the British government in India, and for promoting the +happiness of the natives who live under its authority or influence, your +Committee hold it expedient to collect into distinct points of view the +circumstances by which that government appears to them to be most +essentially disordered, and to explain fully the principles of policy +and the course of conduct by which the natives of all ranks and orders +have been reduced to their present state of depression and misery.</p> + +<p>Your Committee have endeavored to perform this task in plain and popular +language, knowing that nothing has alienated the House from inquiries +ab<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" title="4" class="pagenum"></a>solutely necessary for the performance of one of the most essential +of all its duties so much as the technical language of the Company's +records, as the Indian names of persons, of offices, of the tenure and +qualities of estates, and of all the varied branches of their intricate +revenue. This language is, indeed, of necessary use in the executive +departments of the Company's affairs; but it is not necessary to +Parliament. A language so foreign from all the ideas and habits of the +far greater part of the members of this House has a tendency to disgust +them with all sorts of inquiry concerning this subject. They are +fatigued into such a despair of ever obtaining a competent knowledge of +the transactions in India, that they are easily persuaded to remand them +back to that obscurity, mystery, and intrigue out of which they have +been forced upon public notice by the calamities arising from their +extreme mismanagement. This mismanagement has itself, as your Committee +conceive, in a great measure arisen from dark cabals, and secret +suggestions to persons in power, without a regular public inquiry into +the good or evil tendency of any measure, or into the merit or demerit +of any person intrusted with the Company's concerns.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Present laws relating to the East India Company, and internal +and external policy.</span>The plan adopted by your Committee is, first, to consider the law +regulating the East India Company, as it now stands,—and, secondly, to +inquire into the circumstances of the two great links of connection by +which the territorial possessions in India are united to this kingdom, +namely, the Company's commerce, and the government exercised under the +charter and under acts of Parliament. The last [first] of these objects, +the commerce, is taken in two points of view: the<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" title="5" class="pagenum"></a> <i>external</i>, or the +direct trade between India and Europe, and the <i>internal</i>, that is to +say, the trade of Bengal, in all the articles of produce and manufacture +which furnish the Company's investment.</p> + +<p>The government is considered by your Committee under the like +descriptions of internal and external. The internal regards the +communication between the Court of Directors and their servants in +India, the management of the revenue, the expenditure of public money, +the civil administration, the administration of justice, and the state +of the army. The external regards, first, the conduct and maxims of the +Company's government with respect to the native princes and people +dependent on the British authority,—and, next, the proceedings with +regard to those native powers which are wholly independent of the +Company. But your Committee's observations on the last division extend +to those matters only which are not comprehended in the Report of the +Committee of Secrecy. Under these heads, your Committee refer to the +most leading particulars of abuse which prevail in the administration of +India,—deviating only from this order where the abuses are of a +complicated nature, and where one cannot be well considered +independently of several others.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Second attempt made by Parliament for a reformation.</span>Your Committee observe, that this is the second attempt made by +Parliament for the reformation of abuses in the Company's government. It +appears, therefore, to them a necessary preliminary to this second +undertaking, <i>to consider the causes which, in their opinion</i>, have +produced the failure of the first,—that the defects of the original +plan may be supplied, its errors corrected, and such useful regulations +as were then adopted may be further explained, enlarged, and enforced.</p><p><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" title="6" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Proceedings of session 1773.</span>The first design of this kind was formed in the session of the year +1773. In that year, Parliament, taking up the consideration of the +affairs of India, through two of its committees collected a very great +body of details concerning the interior economy of the Company's +possessions, and concerning many particulars of abuse which prevailed at +the time when those committees made their ample and instructive reports. +But it does not appear that the body of regulations enacted in that +year, that is, in the East India Act of the thirteenth of his Majesty's +reign, were altogether grounded on that information, but were adopted +rather on probable speculations and general ideas of good policy and +good government. New establishments, civil and judicial, were therefore +formed at a very great expense, and with much complexity of +constitution. Checks and counter-checks of all kinds were contrived in +the execution, as well as in the formation of this system, in which all +the existing authorities of this kingdom had a share: for Parliament +appointed the members of the presiding part of the new establishment, +the Crown appointed the judicial, and the Company preserved the +nomination of the other officers. So that, if the act has not fully +answered its purposes, the failure cannot be attributed to any want of +officers of every description, or to the deficiency of any mode of +patronage in their appointment. The cause must be sought elsewhere.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Powers and objects of act of 1773, and the effects thereof.</span>The act had in its view (independently of several detached regulations) +five fundamental objects.</p> + +<p>1st. The reformation of the Court of Proprietors of the East India +Company.</p> + +<p>2ndly. A new model of the Court of Directors, and <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" title="7" class="pagenum"></a>an enforcement of +their authority over the servants abroad.</p> + +<p>3rdly. The establishment of a court of justice capable of protecting the +natives from the oppressions of British subjects.</p> + +<p>4thly. The establishment of a general council, to be seated in Bengal, +whose authority should, in many particulars, extend over all the British +settlements in India.</p> + +<p>5thly. To furnish the ministers of the crown with constant information +concerning the whole of the Company's correspondence with India, in +order that they might be enabled to inspect the conduct of the Directors +and servants, and to watch over the execution of all parts of the act; +that they might be furnished with matter to lay before Parliament from +time to time, according as the state of things should render regulation +or animadversion necessary.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Court of Proprietors.</span>The first object of the policy of this act was to improve the +constitution of the Court of Proprietors. In this case, as in almost all +the rest, the remedy was not applied directly to the disease. The +complaint was, that factions in the Court of Proprietors had shown, in +several instances, a disposition to support the servants of the Company +against the just coercion and legal prosecution of the Directors. +Instead of applying a corrective to the distemper, a change was proposed +in the constitution. By this reform, it was presumed that an interest +would arise in the General Court more independent in itself, and more +connected with the commercial prosperity of the Company. <span class="sidenote">New qualification.</span>Under the new +constitution, no proprietor, not possessed of a thousand pounds capital +stock, was permitted to <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" title="8" class="pagenum"></a>vote in the General Court: before the act, five +hundred pounds was a sufficient qualification for one vote; and no value +gave more. But as the lower classes were disabled, the power was +increased in the higher: proprietors of three thousand pounds were +allowed two votes; those of six thousand were entitled to three; ten +thousand pounds was made the qualification for four. The votes were thus +regulated in the scale and gradation of property. On this scale, and on +some provisions to prevent occasional qualifications and splitting of +votes, the whole reformation rested.</p> + +<p>Several essential points, however, seem to have been omitted or +misunderstood. No regulation was made to abolish the pernicious custom +of voting by <span class="sidenote">The ballot.</span><i>ballot</i>, by means of which acts of the highest concern to +the Company and to the state might be done by individuals with perfect +impunity; and even the body itself might be subjected to a forfeiture of +all its privileges for defaults of persons who, so far from being under +control, could not be so much as known in any mode of legal cognizance. +<span class="sidenote">Indian interest.</span>Nothing was done or attempted to prevent the operation of the interest +of delinquent servants of the Company in the General Court, by which +they might even come to be their own judges, and, in effect, under +another description, to become the masters in that body which ought to +govern them. Nor was anything provided to secure the independency of the +proprietary body from the various exterior interests by which it might +be disturbed, and diverted from the conservation of that pecuniary +concern which the act laid down as the sole security for preventing a +collusion between the General Court and the powerful delinquent servants +in India. The <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" title="9" class="pagenum"></a>whole of the regulations concerning the Court of +Proprietors relied upon two principles, which have often proved +fallacious: namely, that small numbers were a security against faction +and disorder; and that integrity of conduct would follow the greater +property. In no case could these principles be less depended upon than +in the affairs of the East India Company. However, by wholly cutting off +the lower, and adding to the power of the higher classes, it was +supposed that the higher would keep their money in that fund to make +profit,—that the vote would be a secondary consideration, and no more +than a guard to the property,—and that therefore any abuse which tended +to depreciate the value of their stock would be warmly resented by such +proprietors.</p> + +<p>If the ill effects of every misdemeanor in the Company's servants were +to be <i>immediate</i>, and had a tendency to lower the value of the stock, +something might justly be expected from the pecuniary security taken by +the act. But from the then state of things, it was more than probable +that proceedings ruinous to the permanent interest of the Company might +commence in great lucrative advantages. Against this evil large +pecuniary interests were rather the reverse of a remedy. Accordingly, +the Company's servants have ever since covered over the worst +oppressions of the people under their government, and the most cruel and +wanton ravages of all the neighboring countries, by holding out, and for +a time actually realizing, additions of revenue to the territorial funds +of the Company, and great quantities of valuable goods to their +investment.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Proprietors.</span>But this consideration of mere income, whatever weight it might have, +could not <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" title="10" class="pagenum"></a>be the first object of a proprietor, in a body so +circumstanced. The East India Company is not, like the Bank of England, +a mere moneyed society for the sole purpose of the preservation or +improvement of their capital; and therefore every attempt to regulate it +upon the same principles must inevitably fail. When it is considered +that a certain share in the stock gives a share in the government of so +vast an empire, with such a boundless patronage, civil, military, +marine, commercial, and financial, in every department of which such +fortunes have been made as could be made nowhere else, it is impossible +not to perceive that capitals far superior to any qualifications +appointed to proprietors, or even to Directors, would readily be laid +out for a participation in that power. The India proprietor, therefore, +will always be, in the first instance, a politician; and the bolder his +enterprise, and the more corrupt his views, the less will be his +consideration of the price to be paid for compassing them. The new +regulations did not reduce the number so low as not to leave the +assembly still liable to all the disorder which might be supposed to +arise from multitude. But if the principle had been well established and +well executed, a much greater inconveniency grew out of the reform than +that which had attended the old abuse: for if tumult and disorder be +lessened by reducing the number of proprietors, private cabal and +intrigue are facilitated at least in an equal degree; and it is cabal +and corruption, rather than disorder and confusion, that was most to be +dreaded in transacting the affairs of India. Whilst the votes of the +smaller proprietors continued, a door was left open for the public sense +to enter into that society: since that <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" title="11" class="pagenum"></a>door has been closed, the +proprietary has become, even more than formerly, an aggregate of private +interests, which subsist at the expense of the collective body. At the +moment of this revolution in the proprietary, as it might naturally be +expected, those who had either no very particular interest in their vote +or but a petty object to pursue immediately disqualified; but those who +were deeply interested in the Company's patronage, those who were +concerned in the supply of ships and of the other innumerable objects +required for their immense establishments, those who were engaged in +contracts with the Treasury, Admiralty, and Ordnance, together with the +clerks in public offices, found means of securing qualifications at the +enlarged standard. All these composed a much greater proportion than +formerly they had done of the proprietary body.</p> + +<p>Against the great, predominant, radical corruption of the Court of +Proprietors the raising the qualification proved no sort of remedy. The +return of the Company's servants into Europe poured in a constant supply +of proprietors, whose ability to purchase the highest qualifications for +themselves, their agents, and dependants could not be dubious. And this +latter description form a very considerable, and by far the most active +and efficient part of that body. To add to the votes, which is adding to +the power in proportion to the wealth, of men whose very offences were +supposed to consist in acts which lead to the acquisition of enormous +riches, appears by no means a well-considered method of checking +rapacity and oppression. In proportion as these interests prevailed, the +means of cabal, of concealment, and of corrupt confederacy became far +more easy than before. Ac<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" title="12" class="pagenum"></a>cordingly, there was no fault with respect to +the Company's government over its servants, charged or chargeable on the +General Court as it originally stood, of which since the reform it has +not been notoriously guilty. It was not, therefore, a matter of surprise +to your Committee, that the General Court, so composed, has at length +grown to such a degree of contempt both of its duty and of the permanent +interest of the whole corporation as to put itself into open defiance of +the salutary admonitions of this House, given for the purpose of +asserting and enforcing the legal authority of their own body over their +own servants.</p> + +<p>The failure in this part of the reform of 1773 is not stated by your +Committee as recommending a return to the ancient constitution of the +Company, which was nearly as far as the new from containing any +principle tending to the prevention or remedy of abuses,—but to point +out the probable failure of any future regulations which do not apply +directly to the grievance, but which may be taken up as experiments to +ascertain theories of the operation of councils formed of greater or +lesser numbers, or such as shall be composed of men of more or less +opulence, or of interests of newer or longer standing, or concerning the +distribution of power to various descriptions or professions of men, or +of the election to office by one authority rather than another.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Court of Directors.</span>The second object of the act was the Court of Directors. Under the +arrangement of the year 1773 that court appeared to have its authority +much strengthened. It was made less dependent than formerly upon its +constituents, the proprietary. The duration of the Directors in office +was <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" title="13" class="pagenum"></a>rendered more permanent, and the tenure itself diversified by a +varied and intricate rotation. At the same time their authority was held +high over their servants of all descriptions; and the only rule +prescribed to the Council-General of Bengal, in the exercise of the +large and ill-defined powers given to them, was that they were to yield +obedience to the orders of the Court of Directors. As to the Court of +Directors itself, it was left with very little regulation. The custom of +ballot, infinitely the most mischievous in a body possessed of all the +ordinary executive powers, was still left; and your Committee have found +the ill effects of this practice in the course of their inquiries. +Nothing was done to oblige the Directors to attend to the promotion of +their servants according to their rank and merits. In judging of those +merits nothing was done to bind them to any observation of what appeared +on their records. Nothing was done to compel them to prosecution or +complaint where delinquency became visible. The act, indeed, prescribed +that no servant of the Company abroad should be eligible into the +direction until two years after his return to England. But as this +regulation rather presumes than provides for an inquiry into their +conduct, a very ordinary neglect in the Court of Directors might easily +defeat it, and a short remission might in this particular operate as a +total indemnity. In fact, however, the servants have of late seldom +attempted a seat in the direction,—an attempt which might possibly +rouse a dormant spirit of inquiry; but, satisfied with an interest in +the proprietary, they have, through that name, brought the direction +very much under their own control.</p> + +<p>As to the general authority of the Court of Direc<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" title="14" class="pagenum"></a>tors, there is reason +to apprehend that on the whole it was somewhat degraded by the act whose +professed purpose was to exalt it, and that the only effect of the +Parliamentary sanction to their orders has been, that along with those +orders the law of the land has been despised and trampled under foot. +The Directors were not suffered either to nominate or to remove those +whom they were empowered to instruct; from masters they were reduced to +the situation of complainants,—a situation the imbecility of which no +laws or regulations could wholly alter; and when the Directors were +afterwards restored in some degree to their ancient power, on the +expiration of the lease given to their principal servants, it became +impossible for them to recover any degree of their ancient respect, even +if they had not in the mean time been so modelled as to be entirely free +from all ambition of that sort.</p> + +<p>From that period the orders of the Court of Directors became to be so +habitually despised by their servants abroad, and at length to be so +little regarded even by themselves, that this contempt of orders forms +almost the whole subject-matter of the voluminous reports of two of your +committees. If any doubt, however, remains concerning the cause of this +fatal decline of the authority of the Court of Directors, no doubt +whatsoever can remain of the fact itself, nor of the total failure of +one of the great leading regulations of the act of 1773.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Supreme Court of Judicature.</span>The third object was a new judicial arrangement, the chief purpose of +which was to form a strong and solid security for the natives against +the wrongs and oppressions of British subjects resident in Bengal. An +operose and expensive <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" title="15" class="pagenum"></a>establishment of a Supreme Court was made, and +charged upon the revenues of the country. The charter of justice was by +the act left to the crown, as well as the appointment of the +magistrates. The defect in the institution seemed to be this,—that no +rule was laid down, either in the act or the charter, by which the court +was to judge. No descriptions of offenders or species of delinquency +were properly ascertained, according to the nature of the place, or to +the prevalent mode of abuse. Provision was made for the administration +of justice in the remotest part of Hindostan as if it were a province in +Great Britain. Your Committee have long had the constitution and conduct +of this court before them, and they have not yet been able to discover +very few instances (not one that appears to them of leading importance) +of relief given to the natives against the corruptions or oppressions of +British subjects in power,—though they do find one very strong and +marked instance of the judges having employed an unwarrantable extension +or application of the municipal law of England, to destroy a person of +the highest rank among those natives whom they were sent to protect. One +circumstance rendered the proceeding in this case fatal to all the good +purposes for which the court had been established. The sufferer (the +Rajah Nundcomar) appears, at the very time of this extraordinary +prosecution, a discoverer of some particulars of illicit gain then +charged upon Mr. Hastings, the Governor-General. Although in ordinary +cases, and in some lesser instances of grievance, it is very probable +that this court has done its duty, and has been, as every court must be, +of some service, yet one example of this kind must do more towards +deterring <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" title="16" class="pagenum"></a>the natives from complaint, and consequently from the means +of redress, than many decisions favorable to them, in the ordinary +course of proceeding, can do for their encouragement and relief. So far +as your Committee has been able to discover, the court has been +generally terrible to the natives, and has distracted the government of +the Company without substantially reforming any one of its abuses.</p> + +<p>This court, which in its constitution seems not to have had sufficiently +in view the necessities of the people for whose relief it was intended, +and was, or thought itself, bound in some instances to too strict an +adherence to the forms and rules of English practice, in others was +framed upon principles perhaps too remote from the constitution of +English tribunals. By the usual course of English practice, the far +greater part of the redress to be obtained against oppressions of power +is by process in the nature of civil actions. In these a trial by jury +is a necessary part, with regard to the finding the offence and to the +assessment of the damages. Both these were in the charter of justice +left entirely to the judges. It was presumed, and not wholly without +reason, that the British subjects were liable to fall into factions and +combinations, in order to support themselves in the abuses of an +authority of which every man might in his turn become a sharer. And with +regard to the natives, it was presumed (perhaps a little too hastily) +that they were not capable of sharing in the functions of jurors. But it +was not foreseen that the judges were also liable to be engaged in the +factions of the settlement,—and if they should ever happen to be so +engaged, that the native people were then without that remedy which +<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" title="17" class="pagenum"></a>obviously lay in the chance that the court and jury, though both liable +to bias, might not easily unite in the same identical act of injustice. +Your Committee, on full inquiry, are of opinion <i>that the use of juries +is neither impracticable nor dangerous in Bengal</i>.</p> + +<p>Your Committee refer to their report made in the year 1781, for the +manner in which this court, attempting to extend its jurisdiction, and +falling with extreme severity on the native magistrates, a violent +contest arose between the English judges and the English civil +authority. This authority, calling in the military arm, (by a most +dangerous example,) overpowered, and for a while suspended, the +functions of the court; but at length those functions, which were +suspended by the quarrel of the parties, were destroyed by their +reconciliation, and by the arrangements made in consequence of it. By +these the court was virtually annihilated; or if substantially it +exists, it is to be apprehended it exists only for purposes very +different from those of its institution.</p> + +<p>The fourth object of the act of 1773 was the Council-General. This +institution was intended to produce uniformity, consistency, and the +effective coöperation of all the settlements in their common defence. By +the ancient constitution of the Company's foreign settlements, they were +each of them under the orders of a President or Chief, and a Council, +more or fewer, according to the discretion of the Company. Among those, +Parliament (probably on account of the largeness of the territorial +acquisitions, rather than the conveniency of the situation) chose Bengal +for the residence of the controlling power, <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" title="18" class="pagenum"></a>and, dissolving the +Presidency, appointed a new establishment, upon a plan somewhat similar +to that which had prevailed before; but the number was smaller. This +establishment was composed of a Governor-General and four Counsellors, +all named in the act of Parliament. They were to hold their offices for +five years, after which term the patronage was to revert to the Court of +Directors. In the mean time such vacancies as should happen were to be +filled by that court, with the concurrence of the crown. The first +Governor-General and one of the Counsellors had been old servants of the +Company; the others were new men.</p> + +<p>On this new arrangement the Courts of Proprietors and Directors +considered the details of commerce as not perfectly consistent with the +enlarged sphere of duty and the reduced number of the Council. +Therefore, to relieve them from this burden, they instituted a new +office, called the Board of Trade, for the subordinate management of +their commercial concerns, and appointed eleven of the senior servants +to fill the commission.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Object of powers to Governor-General and Council.</span>The powers given by the act to the new Governor-General and Council had +for their direct object the kingdom of Bengal and its dependencies. +Within that sphere (and it is not a small one) their authority extended +over all the Company's concerns of whatever description. In matters of +peace and war it seems to have been meant that the other Presidencies +should be subordinate to their board. But the law is loose and +defective, where it professes to restrain the subordinate Presidencies +from making war without the consent and approbation of the Supreme +Council. They are left free to act with<a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" title="19" class="pagenum"></a>out it <i>in cases of imminent +necessity</i>, or <i>where they shall have received special orders from the +Company</i>. The first exception leaves it open to the subordinate to judge +of the necessity of measures which, when taken, bind or involve the +superior: the second refers a question of peace or war to two +jurisdictions, which may give different judgments. In both instances +cases in point have occurred.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor" title=" See the Secret Committee's Reports on the Mahratta War.">[1]</a> With regard to their local +administration, their powers were exceedingly and dangerously loose and +undetermined. Their powers were not given directly, but in words of +reference, in which neither the objects related to nor the mode of the +relation were sufficiently expressed. Their legislative and executive +capacities were not so accurately drawn, and marked by such strong and +penal lines of distinction, as to keep these capacities separate. Where +legislative and merely executive powers were lodged in the same hands, +the legislative, which is the larger and the more ready for all +occasions, was constantly resorted to. The Governor-General and Council, +therefore, immediately gave constructions to their ill-defined authority +which rendered it perfectly despotic,—constructions which if they were +allowed, no action of theirs ought to be regarded as criminal.</p> + +<p>Armed as they were with an authority in itself so ample, and by abuse so +capable of an unlimited extent, very few, and these very insufficient +correctives, were administered. Ample salaries were provided for them, +which indeed removed the necessity, but by no means the inducements to +corruption and oppression. Nor was any barrier whatsoever opposed on the +part of the natives against their injustice, ex<a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" title="20" class="pagenum"></a>cept the Supreme Court +of Judicature, which never could be capable of controlling a government +with such powers, without becoming such a government itself.</p> + +<p>There was, indeed, a prohibition against all concerns in trade to the +whole Council, and against all taking of presents by any in authority. A +right of prosecution in the King's Bench was also established; but it +was a right the exercise of which is difficult, and in many, and those +the most weighty cases, impracticable. No considerable facilities were +given to prosecution in Parliament; nothing was done to prevent +complaint from being far more dangerous to the sufferer than injustice +to the oppressor. No overt acts were fixed, upon which corruption should +be presumed in transactions of which secrecy and collusion formed the +very basis; no rules of evidence nor authentic mode of transmission were +settled in conformity to the unalterable circumstances of the country +and the people.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Removal of servants.</span>One provision, indeed, was made for restraining the servants, in itself +very wise and substantial: a delinquent once dismissed, could not be +restored, but by the votes of three fourths of the Directors and three +fourths of the proprietors: this was well aimed. But no method was +settled for bringing delinquents to the question of removal: and if they +should be brought to it, a door lay wide open for evasion of the law, +and for a return into the service, in defiance of its plain +intention,—that is, by resigning to avoid removal; by which measure +this provision of the act has proved as unoperative as all the rest. By +this management a mere majority may bring in the greater delinquent, +whilst the person re<a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" title="21" class="pagenum"></a>moved for offences comparatively trivial may remain +excluded forever.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Council-General</span>The new Council nominated in the act was composed of two totally +discordant elements, which soon distinguished themselves into permanent +parties. One of the principal instructions which the three members of +the Council sent immediately from England, namely, General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, carried out with them was, to "<i>cause +the strictest inquiry to be made into all oppressions and abuses</i>," +among which <i>the practice of receiving presents from the natives</i>, at +that time generally charged upon men in power, was principally aimed at.</p> + +<p>Presents to any considerable value were justly reputed by the +legislature, not as marks of attention and respect, but as bribes or +extortions, for which either the beneficial and gratuitous duties of +government were sold, or they were the price paid for acts of +partiality, or, finally, they were sums of money extorted from the +givers by the terrors of power. Against the system of presents, +therefore, the new commission was in general opinion particularly +pointed. In the commencement of reformation, at a period when a +rapacious conquest had overpowered and succeeded to a corrupt +government, an act of indemnity might have been thought advisable; +perhaps a new account ought to have been opened; all retrospect ought to +have been forbidden, at least to certain periods. If this had not been +thought advisable, none in the higher departments of a suspected and +decried government ought to have been kept in their posts, until an +examination had rendered their proceedings clear, or until length of +time had obliterated, by an <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" title="22" class="pagenum"></a>even course of irreproachable conduct, the +errors which so naturally grow out of a new power. But the policy +adopted was different: it was to begin with <i>examples</i>. The cry against +the abuses was strong and vehement throughout the whole nation, and the +practice of presents was represented to be as general as it was +mischievous. In such a case, indeed in any case, it seemed not to be a +measure the most provident, without a great deal of previous inquiry, to +place two persons, who from their situation must be the most exposed to +such imputations, in the commission which was to inquire into their own +conduct,—much less to place one of them at the head of that commission, +and with a casting vote in case of an equality. The persons who could +not be liable to that charge were, indeed, three to two; but any +accidental difference of opinion, the death of any one of them or his +occasional absence or sickness, threw the whole power into the hands of +the other two, who were Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, one the President, +and the other high in the Council of that establishment on which the +reform was to operate. Thus those who were liable to process as +delinquents were in effect set over the reformers; and that did actually +happen which might be expected to happen from so preposterous an +arrangement: a stop was soon put to all inquiries into the capital +abuses.</p> + +<p>Nor was the great political end proposed in the formation of a +superintending Council over all the Presidencies better answered than +that of an inquiry into corruptions and abuses. The several Presidencies +have acted in a great degree upon their own separate authority; and as +little of unity, concert, or regular system has appeared in their +conduct as was <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" title="23" class="pagenum"></a>ever known before this institution. India is, indeed, so +vast a country, and the settlements are so divided, that their +intercourse with each other is liable to as many delays and difficulties +as the intercourse between distant and separate states. But one evil may +possibly have arisen from an attempt to produce an union, which, though +undoubtedly to be aimed at, is opposed in some degree by the unalterable +nature of their situation,—that it has taught the servants rather to +look to a superior among themselves than to their common superiors. This +evil, growing out of the abuse of the principle of subordination, can +only be corrected by a very strict enforcement of authority over that +part of the chain of dependence which is next to the original power.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Powers given to the ministers of the crown.</span>That which your Committee considers as the fifth and last of the capital +objects of the act, and as the binding regulation of the whole, is the +introduction (then for the first time) of the ministers of the crown +into the affairs of the Company. The state claiming a concern and share +of property in the Company's profits, the servants of the crown were +presumed the more likely to preserve with a scrupulous attention the +sources of the great revenues which they were to administer, and for the +rise and fall of which they were to render an account.</p> + +<p>The interference of government was introduced by this act in two ways: +one by a control, in effect by a share, in the appointment to vacancies +in the Supreme Council. The act provided that his Majesty's approbation +should be had to the persons named to that duty. Partaking thus in the +patronage of the Company, administration was bound to an attention <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" title="24" class="pagenum"></a>to +the characters and capacities of the persons employed in that high +trust. The other part of their interference was by way of inspection. By +this right of inspection, everything in the Company's correspondence +from India, which related to the civil or military affairs and +government of the Company, was directed by the act to be within fourteen +days after the receipt laid before the Secretary of State, and +everything that related to the management of the revenues was to be laid +before the Commissioners of the Treasury. In fact, both description of +these papers have been generally communicated to that board.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Defects in the plan.</span>It appears to your Committee that there were great and material defects +in both parts of the plan. With regard to the approbation of persons +nominated to the Supreme Council by the Court of Directors, no +sufficient means were provided for carrying to his Majesty, along with +the nomination, the particulars in the conduct of those who had been in +the service before, which might render them proper objects of +approbation or rejection. The India House possesses an office of record +capable of furnishing, in almost all cases, materials for judging on the +behavior of the servants in their progress from the lowest to the +highest stations; and the whole discipline of the service, civil and +military, must depend upon an examination of these records inseparably +attending every application for an appointment to the highest stations. +But in the present state of the nomination the ministers of the crown +are not furnished with the proper means of exercising the power of +control intended by the law, even if they were scrupulously attentive to +the use of it. There are modes of proceeding favorable to neglect. +Others excite inquiry and stimulate to vigilance.</p><p><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" title="25" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Proposition to remedy them.</span>Your Committee, therefore, are of opinion, that for the future +prevention of cabal, and of private and partial representation, whether +above or below, that, whenever any person who has been in the service +shall be recommended to the King's ministers to fill a vacancy in the +Council-General, the Secretary of the Court of Directors shall be +ordered to make a strict search into the records of the Company, and +shall annex to the recommendation the reasons of the Court of Directors +for their choice, together with a faithful copy of whatever shall be +found (if anything can be found) relative to his character and +conduct,—as also an account of his standing in the Company's service, +the time of his abode in India, the reasons for his return, and the +stations, whether civil or military, in which he has been successively +placed.</p> + +<p>With this account ought to be transmitted the names of those who were +proposed as candidates for the same office, with the correspondent +particulars relative to their conduct and situation: for not only the +separate, but the comparative merit, probably would, and certainly +ought, to have great influence in the approbation or rejection of the +party presented to the ministers of the crown. These papers should be +laid before the Commissioners of the Treasury and one of the Secretaries +of State, and entered in books to be kept in the Treasury and the +Secretary's office.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Appointment of Counsellors, &c.</span>These precautions, in case of the nomination of any who have served the +Company, appear to be necessary from the improper nomination and +approbation of Mr. John <span class="sidenote">Macpherson's appointment.</span>Macpherson, notwithstanding the ob<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" title="26" class="pagenum"></a>jections +which stood against him on the Company's records. The choice of Mr. John +<span class="sidenote">Stables's.</span>Stables, from an inferior military to the highest civil capacity, was by +no means proper, nor an encouraging example to either service. His +conduct, indeed, in the subaltern military situation, had received, and +seems to have deserved, commendation; but no sufficient ground was +furnished for confounding the lines and gradations of service. This +measure was, however, far less exceptionable than the former; because an +irregular choice of a less competent person, and the preference given to +proved delinquency in prejudice to uncensured service, are very +different things. But even this latter appointment would in all +likelihood have been avoided, if rules of promotion had been +established. If such rules were settled, candidates qualified from +ability, knowledge, and service would not be discouraged by finding that +everything was open to every man, and that favor alone stood in the +place of civil or military experience. The elevation from the lowest +stations unfaithfully and negligently filled to the highest trusts, the +total inattention to rank and seniority, and, much more, the combination +of this neglect of rank with a confusion (unaccompanied with strong and +evident reasons) of the lines of service, cannot operate as useful +examples on those who serve the public in India. These servants, +beholding men who have been condemned for improper behavior to the +Company in inferior civil stations elevated above them, or (what is less +blamable, but still mischievous) persons without any distinguished civil +talents taken from the subordinate situations of another line to their +prejudice, will despair by any good behavior of ascending to the +digni<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" title="27" class="pagenum"></a>ties of their own: they will be led to improve, to the utmost +advantage of their fortune, the lower stages of power, and will endeavor +to make up in lucre what they can never hope to acquire in station.</p> + +<p>The temporary appointment by Parliament of the Supreme Council of India +arose from an opinion that the Company, at that time at least, was not +in a condition or not disposed to a proper exercise of the privileges +which they held under their charter. It therefore behoved the Directors +to be particularly attentive to their choice of Counsellors, on the +expiration of the period during which their patronage had been +suspended. The duties of the Supreme Council had been reputed of so +arduous a nature as to require even a legislative interposition. They +were called upon, by all possible care and impartiality, to justify +Parliament at least as fully in the restoration of their privileges as +the circumstances of the time had done in their suspension.</p> + +<p>But interests have lately prevailed in the Court of Directors, which, by +the violation of every rule, seemed to be resolved on the destruction of +those privileges of which they were the natural guardians. Every new +power given has been made the source of a new abuse; and the acts of +Parliament themselves, which provide but imperfectly for the prevention +of the mischief, have, it is to be feared, made provisions (contrary, +without doubt, to the intention of the legislature) which operate +against the possibility of any cure in the ordinary course.</p> + +<p>In the original institution of the Supreme Council, reasons may have +existed against rendering the tenure of the Counsellors in their office +precarious. A plan of reform might have required the permanence <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" title="28" class="pagenum"></a>of the +persons who were just appointed by Parliament to execute it. But the act +of 1780 gave a duration coexistent with the statute itself to a Council +not appointed by act of Parliament, nor chosen for any temporary or +special purpose; by which means the servants in the highest situation, +let their conduct be never so grossly criminal, cannot be removed, +unless the Court of Directors and ministers of the crown can be found to +concur in the same opinion of it. The prevalence of the Indian factions +in the Court of Directors and Court of Proprietors, and sometimes in the +state itself, renders this agreement extremely difficult: if the +principal members of the Direction should be in a conspiracy with any +principal servant under censure, it will be impracticable; because the +first act must originate there. The reduced state of the authority of +this kingdom in Bengal may be traced in a great measure to that very +natural source of independence. In many cases the instant removal of an +offender from his power of doing mischief is the only mode of preventing +the utter and perhaps irretrievable ruin of public affairs. In such a +case the process ought to be simple, and the power absolute in one or in +either hand separately. By contriving the balance of interests formed in +the act, notorious offence, gross error, or palpable insufficiency have +many chances of retaining and abusing authority, whilst the variety of +representations, hearings, and conferences, and possibly the mere +jealousy and competition between rival powers, may prevent any decision, +and at length give time and means for settlements and compromises among +parties, made at the expense of justice and true policy. But this act of +1780, not properly distin<a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" title="29" class="pagenum"></a>guishing judicial process from executive +arrangements, requires in effect nearly the same degree of solemnity, +delay, and detail for removing a political inconvenience which attends a +criminal proceeding for the punishment of offences. It goes further, and +gives the same tenure to all who shall succeed to vacancies which was +given to those whom the act found in office.</p> + +<p>Another regulation was made in the act, which has a tendency to render +the control of delinquency or the removal of incapacity in the +Council-General extremely difficult, as well as to introduce many other +abuses into the original appointment of Counsellors. <span class="sidenote">Provisional appointment for vacancies.</span>The inconveniences +of a vacancy in that important office, at a great distance from the +authority that is to fill it, were visible; but your Committee have +doubts whether they balance the mischief which may arise from the power +given in this act, of a provisional appointment to vacancies, not on the +event, but on foresight. This mode of providing for the succession has a +tendency to promote cabal, and to prevent inquiry into the +qualifications of the persons to be appointed. An attempt has been +actually made, in consequence of this power, in a very marked manner, to +confound the whole order and discipline of the Company's service. Means +are furnished thereby for perpetuating the powers of some given Court of +Directors. They may forestall the patronage of their successors, on whom +they entail a line of Supreme Counsellors and Governors-General. And if +the exercise of this power should happen in its outset to fall into bad +hands, the ordinary chances for mending an ill choice upon death or +resignation are cut off.</p><p><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" title="30" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>In these provisional arrangements it is to be considered that the +appointment is not in consequence of any marked event which calls +strongly on the attention of the public, but is made at the discretion +of those who lead in the Court of Directors, and may therefore be +brought forward at times the most favorable to the views of partiality +and corruption. Candidates have not, therefore, the notice that may be +necessary for their claims; and as the possession of the office to which +the survivors are to succeed seems remote, all inquiry into the +qualifications and character of those who are to fill it will naturally +be dull and languid.</p> + +<p>Your Committee are not also without a grounded apprehension of the ill +effect on any existing Council-General of all strong marks of influence +and favor which appear in the subordinates of Bengal. This previous +designation to a great and arduous trust, (the greatest that can be +reposed in subjects,) when made out of any regular course of succession, +marks that degree of countenance and support at home which may +overshadow the existing government. That government may thereby be +disturbed by factions, and led to corrupt and dangerous compliances. At +best, when these Counsellors elect are engaged in no fixed employment, +and have no lawful intermediate emolument, the natural impatience for +their situations may bring on a traffic for resignations between them +and the persons in possession, very unfavorable to the interests of the +public and to the duty of their situations.</p> + +<p>Since the act two persons have been nominated to the ministers of the +crown by the Court of Directors for this succession. Neither has yet +been approved.<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" title="31" class="pagenum"></a> But by the description of the persons a judgment may be +formed of the principles on which this power is likely to be exercised.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Stuart and Sulivan's appointment to succeed to vacancies.</span>Your Committee find, that, in consequence of the above-mentioned act, +the Honorable Charles Stuart and Mr. Sulivan were appointed to succeed +to the first vacancies in the Supreme Council. Mr. Stuart's first +appointment in the Company's service was in the year 1761. He returned +to England in 1775, and was permitted to go back to India in 1780. In +August, 1781, he was nominated by the Court of Directors (Mr. Sulivan +and Sir William James were Chairman and Deputy-Chairman) to succeed to +the first vacancy in the Supreme Council, and on the 19th of September +following his Majesty's approval of such nomination was requested.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Mr. Stuart's situation at the time of his appointment.</span>In the nomination of Mr. Stuart, the consideration of rank in the +service was not neglected; but if the Court of Directors had thought fit +to examine their records, they would have found matter at least strongly +urging them to a suspension of this appointment, until the charges +against Mr. Stuart should be fully cleared up. That matter remained (as +it still remains) unexplained from the month of May, 1775, where, on the +Bengal Revenue Consultations of the 12th of that month, peculations to a +large amount are charged upon oath against Mr. Stuart under the +following title: "<i>The Particulars of the Money unjustly taken by Mr. +Stuart, during the Time he was at Burdwan.</i>" The sum charged against him +in this account is 2,17,684 Sicca rupees (that is, 25,253<i>l.</i> sterling); +besides which there is another account with the fol<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" title="32" class="pagenum"></a>lowing title: "<i>The +Particulars of the Money unjustly taken by Callypersaud Bose, Banian to +the Honorable Charles Stuart, Esquire, at Burdwan, and amounting to +Sicca Rupees 1,01,675</i>" (that is, 11,785<i>l.</i>),—a large sum to be +received by a person in that subordinate situation.</p> + +<p>The minuteness with which these accounts appear to have been kept, and +the precision with which the date of each particular, sometimes of very +small sums, is stated, give them the appearance of authenticity, as far +as it can be conveyed on the face or in the construction of such +accounts, and, if they were forgeries, laid them open to an easy +detection. But no detection is easy, when no inquiry is made. It appears +an offence of the highest order in the Directors concerned in this +business, when, not satisfied with leaving such charges so long +unexamined, they should venture to present to the king's servants the +object of them for the highest trust which they have to bestow. If Mr. +Stuart was really guilty, the possession of this post must furnish him +not only with the means of renewing the former evil practices charged +upon him, and of executing them upon a still larger scale, but of +oppressing those unhappy persons who, under the supposed protection of +the faith of the Company, had appeared to give evidence concerning his +former misdemeanors.</p> + +<p>This attempt in the Directors was the more surprising, when it is +considered that two committees of this House were at that very time +sitting upon an inquiry that related directly to their conduct, and that +of their servants in India.</p> + +<p>It was in the same spirit of defiance of Parliament, that at the same +time they nominated Mr. Sulivan, <a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" title="33" class="pagenum"></a>son to the then Chairman of the Court +<span class="sidenote">Mr. Sulivan's situation at the time of his appointment.</span>of Directors, to the succession to the same high trust in India. On +these appointments, your Committee thought it proper to make those +inquiries which the Court of Directors thought proper to omit. They +first conceived it fitting to inquire what rank Mr. Sulivan bore in the +service; and they thought it not unnecessary here to state the +gradations in the service, according to the established usage of the +Company.</p> + +<p>The Company's civil servants generally go to India as <i>writers</i>, in +which capacity they serve the Company <i>five years</i>. The next step, in +point of rank, is to be a <i>factor</i>, and next to that a <i>junior +merchant</i>; in each of which capacities they serve the Company <i>three +years</i>. They then rise to the rank of <i>senior merchant</i>, in which +situation they remain till called by rotation to the <i>Board of Trade</i>. +Until the passing of the Regulation Act, in 1773, seniority entitled +them to succeed to the <i>Council</i>, and finally gave them pretensions to +the <i>government of the Presidency</i>.</p> + +<p>The above gradation of the service, your Committee conceive, ought never +to be superseded by the Court of Directors, without evident reason, in +persons or circumstances, to justify the breach of an ancient order. The +names, whether taken from civil or commercial gradation, are of no +moment. The order itself is wisely established, and tends to provide a +natural guard against partiality, precipitancy, and corruption in +patronage. It affords means and opportunities for an examination into +character; and among the servants it secures a strong motive to preserve +a fair reputation. Your Committee find that no respect whatsoever was +paid to this gradation in <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" title="34" class="pagenum"></a>the instance of Mr. Sulivan, nor is there any +reason assigned for departing from it. They do not find that Mr. Sulivan +had ever served the Company in any one of the above capacities, but was, +in the year 1777, abruptly brought into the service, and sent to Madras +to succeed as Persian Translator and Secretary to the Council.</p> + +<p>Your Committee have found a letter from Mr. Sulivan to George Wombwell +and William Devaynes, Esquires, Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of the +Court of Directors, stating that he trusted <i>his applications</i> would +have a place in their deliberations when Madras affairs were taken up. +Of what nature those applications were your Committee cannot discover, +as no traces of them appear on the Company's records,—nor whether any +proofs of his ability, even as Persian Translator, which might entitle +him to a preference to the many servants in India whose study and +opportunities afforded them the means of becoming perfect masters of +that language.</p> + +<p>On the above letter your Committee find that the Committee of +Correspondence proceeded; and on their recommendation the Court of +Directors unanimously approved of Mr. Sulivan to be appointed to succeed +to the posts of Secretary and Persian Translator.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Mr. Sulivan's succession of offices.</span>Conformably to the orders of the court, Mr. Sulivan succeeded to those +posts; and the President and Council acquainted the Court of Directors +that they had been obeyed. About five months after, it appears that Mr. +Sulivan thought fit to resign the office of Persian Translator, to which +he had been appointed by the Directors. In April, 1780, Mr. Sulivan is +commended for his <i>great diligence as<a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" title="35" class="pagenum"></a> Secretary</i>; in August following +he obtains leave to accompany Mrs. Sulivan to Bengal, whence she is to +proceed to Europe on account of her health; and he is charged with a +commission from the President and Council of Fort St. George to obtain +for that settlement supplies of grain, troops, and money, from the +Governor-General and Council of Bengal. In October the Governor-General +requests permission of the Council there to employ Mr. Sulivan as his +<i>Assistant</i>, for that he had experienced (between his arrival in Bengal +and that time) the abilities of Mr. Sulivan, and made choice of him as +<i>completely qualified for that trust</i>; also requests the board to +appoint him Judge-Advocate-General, and likewise to apply to the +Presidency of Madras for him to remain in Bengal without prejudice to +his rank on their establishment: which several requests the board at +Madras readily complied with, notwithstanding their natural sensibility +to the loss of a Secretary of such ability and diligence as they had +described Mr. Sulivan to be.</p> + +<p>On the 5th of December following, the President and Council received a +letter from Bengal, requesting that Mr. Sulivan might be allowed to keep +his rank. This request brought on some discussion. A Mr. Freeman, it +seems, who had acted under Mr. Sulivan as Sub-Secretary whilst his +principal obtained so much praise for his diligence, addressed the board +on the same day, and observed, "that, since Mr. Sulivan's arrival, <i>he</i> +[Mr. Freeman] had, <i>without intermission</i>, done almost the <i>whole</i> of +the duty allotted to the post of Secretary, <i>which it was notorious Mr. +Sulivan had paid but little attention to</i>; and neither his inclination +or duty led him to act any longer as Mr. Sulivan's deputy."</p><p><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" title="36" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Here your Committee cannot avoid remarking the direct contradiction +which this address of Mr. Freeman's gives to the letter from the +President and Council to the Court of Directors in April, 1780, wherein +Mr. Sulivan is praised for his "diligence and attention in his office of +Secretary."</p> + +<p>The President and Council do not show any displeasure at Mr. Freeman's +representation, (so contrary to their own,) the truth of which they thus +tacitly admit, but agree to write to the Governor-General and Council, +"that it could not be supposed that they could carry on the public +business for any length of time without <i>the services of a Secretary</i> +and Clerk of Appeals, two offices that required personal attendance, and +which would be a general injury to the servants on their establishment, +and in particular to the person who acted in those capacities, as they +learnt that Mr. Sulivan had been appointed Judge-Advocate-General in +Bengal,—and to request the Governor-General and Council to inform Mr. +Sulivan of their sentiments, and to desire him to inform them whether he +meant to return to his station or to remain in Bengal."</p> + +<p>On the 5th December, as a mark of their approbation of Mr. Freeman, who +had so plainly contradicted their opinion of Mr. Sulivan, the President +and Council agree to appoint him to act as Secretary and Clerk of +Appeals, till Mr. Sulivan's answer should arrive, with the emoluments, +and to confirm him therein, if Mr. Sulivan should remain in Bengal.</p> + +<p>On the 14th February, 1781, the President and Council received a letter +from Bengal in reply, and stating their request that Mr. Sulivan might +reserve the right of returning to his original situation on the<a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" title="37" class="pagenum"></a> Madras +establishment, if the Court of Directors should disapprove of his being +transferred to Bengal. To this request the board at Madras declare they +have no objection: and here the matter rests; the Court of Directors not +having given any tokens of approbation or disapprobation of the +transaction.</p> + +<p>Such is the history of Mr. Sulivan's service from the time of his +appointment; such were the qualifications, and such the proofs of +assiduity and diligence given by him in holding so many incompatible +offices, (as well as being engaged in other dealings, which will appear +in their place,) when, after three years' desultory residence in India, +he was thought worthy to be nominated to the succession to the Supreme +Council. No proof whatsoever of distinguished capacity in any line +preceded his original appointment to the service: so that the whole of +his fitness for the Supreme Council rested upon his conduct and +character since his appointment as Persian Translator.</p> + +<p>Your Committee find that his Majesty has not yet given his approbation +to the nomination, made by the Court of Directors on the 30th of August, +1781, of Messrs. Stuart and Sulivan to succeed to the Supreme Council on +the first vacancies, though the Court applied for the royal approbation +so long ago as the 19th of September, 1781; and in these instances the +king's ministers performed their duty, in withholding their countenance +from a proceeding so exceptionable and of so dangerous an example.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, from a full view of the situation and duties of the +Court of Directors, are of opinion that effectual means ought to be +taken for regulating that court in such a manner as to prevent either +rivalship with or subserviency to their servants. It <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" title="38" class="pagenum"></a>might, therefore, +be proper for the House to consider whether it is fit that those who +are, or have been within some given time, Directors of the Company, +should be capable of an appointment to any offices in India. Directors +can never properly govern those for whose employments they are or may be +themselves candidates; they can neither protect nor coerce them with due +impartiality or due authority.</p> + +<p>If such rules as are stated by your Committee under this head were +observed in the regular service at home and abroad, the necessity of +superseding the regular service by strangers would be more rare; and +whenever the servants were so superseded, those who put forward other +candidates would be obliged to produce a strong plea of merit and +ability, which, in the judgment of mankind, ought to overpower +pretensions so authentically established, and so rigorously guarded from +abuse.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Deficiency of powers to ministers of government.</span>The second object, in this part of the plan, of the act of 1773, namely, +that of inspection by the ministers of the crown, appears not to have +been provided for, so as to draw the timely and productive attention of +the state on the grievances of the people of India, and on the abuses of +its government. By the Regulating Act, the ministers were enabled to +inspect one part of the correspondence, that which was received in +England, but not that which went outward. They might know something, but +that very imperfectly and unsystematically, of the state of affairs; but +they were neither authorized to advance nor to retard any measure taken +by the Directors in consequence of that state: they were not provided +even with sufficient means of knowing what any of these measures <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" title="39" class="pagenum"></a>were. +And this imperfect information, together with the want of a direct call +to any specific duty, might have, in some degree, occasioned that +remissness which rendered even the imperfect powers originally given by +the act of 1773 the less efficient. This defect was in a great measure +remedied by a subsequent act; but that act was not passed until the year +1780.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Disorders increased since 1773.</span>Your Committee find that during the whole period which elapsed from 1773 +to the commencement of 1782 disorders and abuses of every kind +multiplied. Wars contrary to policy and contrary to public faith were +carrying on in various parts of India. The allies, dependants, and +subjects of the Company were everywhere oppressed;<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Secret Committee Reports.">[2]</a> dissensions in the +Supreme Council prevailed, and continued for the greater part of that +time; the contests between the civil and judicial powers threatened that +issue to which they came at last, an armed resistance to the authority +of the king's court of justice; the orders which by an act of Parliament +the servants were bound to obey were avowedly and on principle +contemned; until at length the fatal effects of accumulated misdemeanors +abroad and neglects at home broke out in the alarming manner which your +Committee have so fully reported to this House.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Select Committee Reports, 1781">[3]</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Proceedings in India not known to Parliament.</span>In all this time the true state of the several Presidencies, and the +real conduct of the British government towards the natives, was not at +all known to Parliament: it seems to have been very imperfectly known +even to ministers. Indeed, it required an unbroken attention, and much +<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" title="40" class="pagenum"></a>comparison of facts and reasonings, to form a true judgment on that +difficult and complicated system of politics, revenue, and commerce, +whilst affairs were only in their progress to that state which produced +the present inquiries. Therefore, whilst the causes of their ruin were +in the height of their operation, both the Company and the natives were +understood by the public as in circumstances the most assured and most +flourishing; insomuch that, whenever the affairs of India were brought +before Parliament, as they were two or three times during that period, +the only subject-matter of discussion anywise important was concerning +the sums which might be taken out of the Company's surplus profits for +the advantage of the state. Little was thought of but the disengagement +of the Company from their debts in <i>England</i>, and to prevent the +servants abroad from drawing upon them, so as that body might be +enabled, without exciting clamors here, to afford the contribution that +was demanded. All descriptions of persons, either here or in India, +looking solely to appearances at home, the reputation of the Directors +depended on the keeping the Company's sales in a situation to support +the dividend, that of the ministers depended on the most lucrative +bargains for the Exchequer, and that of the servants abroad on the +largest investments; until at length there is great reason to apprehend, +that, unless some very substantial reform takes place in the management +of the Company's affairs, nothing will be left for investment, for +dividend, or for bargain, and India, instead of a resource to the +public, may itself come, in no great length of time, to be reckoned +amongst the public burdens.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Inspection of ministers has failed in effect.</span>In this manner the inspection of the ministers of <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" title="41" class="pagenum"></a>the crown, the great +cementing regulation of the whole act of 1773, has, along with all the +others, entirely failed in its effect.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Failure in the act.</span>Your Committee, in observing on the failure of this act, do not consider +the intrinsic defects or mistakes in the law itself as the sole cause of +its miscarriage. The general policy of the nation with regard to this +object has been, they conceive, erroneous; and no remedy by laws, under +the prevalence of that policy, can be effectual. Before any remedial law +can have its just operation, the affairs of India must be restored to +their natural order. The prosperity of the natives must be previously +secured, before any profit from them whatsoever is attempted. For as +long as a system prevails which regards the transmission of great wealth +to this country, either for the Company or the state, as its principal +end, so long will it be impossible that those who are the instruments of +that scheme should not be actuated by the same spirit for their own +private purposes. It will be worse: they will support the injuries done +to the natives for their selfish ends by new injuries done in favor of +those before whom they are to account. It is not reasonably to be +expected that a public rapacious and improvident should be served by any +of its subordinates with disinterestedness or foresight.</p> + + +<h3><a name="II_CONNECTION_OF_GREAT_BRITAIN_WITH_INDIA" id="II_CONNECTION_OF_GREAT_BRITAIN_WITH_INDIA"></a>II.—CONNECTION OF GREAT BRITAIN WITH INDIA.</h3> + +<p>In order to open more fully the tendency of the policy which has +hitherto prevailed, and that the House may be enabled, in any +regulations which may be made, to follow the tracks of the abuse, and +<a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" title="42" class="pagenum"></a>to apply an appropriated remedy to a particular distemper, your +Committee think it expedient to consider in some detail the manner in +which India is connected with this kingdom,—which is the second head of +their plan.</p> + +<p>The two great links by which this connection is maintained are, first, +the East India Company's commerce, and, next, the government set over +the natives by that company and by the crown. The first of these +principles of connection, namely, the East India Company's trade, is to +be first considered, not only as it operates by itself, but as having a +powerful influence over the general policy and the particular measures +of the Company's government. Your Committee apprehend that the present +state, nature, and tendency of this trade are not generally understood.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Trade to India formerly carried on chiefly in silver.</span>Until the acquisition of great territorial revenues by the East India +Company, the trade with India was carried on upon the common principles +of commerce,—namely, by sending out such commodities as found a demand +in the India market, and, where that demand was not adequate to the +reciprocal call of the European market for Indian goods, by a large +annual exportation of treasure, chiefly in silver. In some years that +export has been as high as six hundred and eighty thousand pounds +sterling. The other European companies trading to India traded thither +on the same footing. Their export of bullion was probably larger in +proportion to the total of their commerce, as their commerce itself bore +a much larger proportion to the British than it does at this time or has +done for many years past. But stating it to be equal to <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" title="43" class="pagenum"></a>the British, +the whole of the silver sent annually from Europe into Hindostan could +not fall very short of twelve or thirteen hundred thousand pounds a +year. This influx of money, poured into India by an emulation of all the +commercial nations of Europe, encouraged industry and promoted +cultivation in a high degree, notwithstanding the frequent wars with +which that country was harassed, and the vices which existed in its +internal government. On the other hand, the export of so much silver was +sometimes a subject of grudging and uneasiness in Europe, and a commerce +carried on through such a medium to many appeared in speculation of +doubtful advantage. But the practical demands of commerce bore down +those speculative objections. The East India commodities were so +essential for animating all other branches of trade, and for completing +the commercial circle, that all nations contended for it with the +greatest avidity. The English company flourished under this exportation +for a very long series of years. The nation was considerably benefited +both in trade and in revenue; and the dividends of the proprietors were +often high, and always sufficient to keep up the credit of the Company's +stock in heart and vigor.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">How trade carried on since.</span>But at or very soon after the acquisition of the territorial revenues to +the English company, the period of which may be reckoned as completed +about the year 1765, a very great revolution took place in commerce as +well as in dominion; and it was a revolution which affected the trade of +Hindostan with all other European nations, as well as with that in whose +favor and by whose power it was accomplished. From that time bullion was +no <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" title="44" class="pagenum"></a>longer regularly exported by the English East India Company to +Bengal, or any part of Hindostan; and it was soon exported in much +smaller quantities by any other nation. A new way of supplying the +market of Europe, by means of the British power and influence, was +invented: a species of trade (if such it may be called) by which it is +absolutely impossible that India should not be radically and +irretrievably ruined, although our possessions there were to be ordered +and governed upon principles diametrically opposite to those which now +prevail in the system and practice of the British company's +administration.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Investments.</span>A certain portion of the revenues of Bengal has been for many years set +apart to be employed in the purchase of goods for exportation to +England, and this is called the <i>Investment</i>. The greatness of this +investment has been the standard by which the merit of the Company's +principal servants has been too generally estimated; and this main cause +of the impoverishment of India has been generally taken as a measure of +its wealth and prosperity. Numerous fleets of large ships, loaded with +the most valuable commodities of the East, annually arriving in England, +in a constant and increasing succession, imposed upon the public eye, +and naturally gave rise to an opinion of the happy condition and growing +opulence of a country whose surplus productions occupied so vast a space +in the commercial world. This export from India seemed to imply also a +reciprocal supply, by which the trading capital employed in those +productions was continually strengthened and enlarged. But the payment +of a tribute, and not a beneficial commerce to that <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" title="45" class="pagenum"></a>country, wore this +specious and delusive appearance.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Increase of expenses.</span>The fame of a great territorial revenue, exaggerated, as is usual in +such cases, beyond even its value, and the abundant fortunes of the +Company's officers, military and civil, which flowed into Europe with a +full tide, raised in the proprietors of East India stock a premature +desire of partaking with their servants in the fruits of that splendid +adventure. Government also thought they could not be too early in their +claims for a share of what they considered themselves as entitled to in +every foreign acquisition made by the power of this kingdom, through +whatever hands or by whatever means it was made. These two parties, +after some struggle, came to an agreement to divide between them the +profits which their speculation proposed to realize in England from the +territorial revenue in Bengal. About two hundred thousand pounds was +added to the annual dividends of the proprietors. Four hundred thousand +was given to the state, which, added to the old dividend, brought a +constant charge upon the mixed interest of Indian trade and revenue of +eight hundred thousand pounds a year. This was to be provided for at all +events.</p> + +<p>By that vast demand on the territorial fund, the correctives and +qualifications which might have been gradually applied to the abuses in +Indian commerce and government were rendered extremely difficult.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Progress of investments.</span>The practice of an investment from the revenue began in the year 1766, +before arrangements were made for securing and appropriating an assured +fund for that purpose in the treasury, and for diffusing it from thence +upon the <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" title="46" class="pagenum"></a>manufactures of the country in a just proportion and in the +proper season. There was, indeed, for a short time, a surplus of cash in +the treasury. It was in some shape to be sent home to its owners. To +send it out in silver was subject to two manifest inconveniences. First, +the country would be exhausted of its circulating medium. A scarcity of +coin was already felt in Bengal. Cossim Ali Khân, (the Nabob whom the +Company's servants had lately set up, and newly expelled,) during the +short period of his power, had exhausted the country by every mode of +extortion; in his flight he carried off an immense treasure, which has +been variously computed, but by none at less than three millions +sterling. A country so exhausted of its coin, and harassed by three +revolutions rapidly succeeding each other, was rather an object that +stood in need of every kind of refreshment and recruit than one which +could subsist under new evacuations. The next, and equally obvious +inconvenience, was to the Company itself. To send silver into Europe +would be to send it from the best to the worst market. When arrived, the +most profitable use which could be made of it would be to send it back +to Bengal for the purchase of Indian merchandise. It was necessary, +therefore, to turn the Company's revenue into its commerce. The first +investment was about five hundred thousand pounds, and care was taken +afterwards to enlarge it. In the years 1767 and 1768 it arose to seven +hundred thousand.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Consequences of them.</span>This new system of trade, carried on through the medium of power and +public revenue, very soon produced its natural effects. The loudest +complaints arose among the natives, and among all the foreigners who +traded to Bengal.<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" title="47" class="pagenum"></a> It must unquestionably have thrown the whole +mercantile system of the country into the greatest confusion. With +regard to the natives, no expedient was proposed for their relief. The +case was serious with respect to European powers. The Presidency plainly +represented to the Directors, that some agreement should be made with +foreign nations for providing their investment to a certain amount, or +that the deficiencies then subsisting must terminate in an open rupture +with France. The Directors, pressed by the large payments in England, +were not free to abandon their system; and all possible means of +diverting the manufactures into the Company's investment were still +anxiously sought and pursued, until the difficulties of the foreign +companies were at length removed by the natural flow of the fortunes of +the Company's servants into Europe, in the manner which will be stated +hereafter.</p> + +<p>But, with all these endeavors of the Presidency, the investment sunk in +1769, and they were even obliged to pay for a part of the goods to +private merchants in the Company's bonds, bearing interest. It was plain +that this course of business could not hold. The manufacturers of +Bengal, far from being generally in a condition to give credit, have +always required advances to be made to them; so have the merchants very +generally,—at least, since the prevalence of the English power in +India. It was necessary, therefore, and so the Presidency of Calcutta +represented the matter, to provide beforehand a year's advance. This +required great efforts; and they were made. Notwithstanding the famine +in 1770, which wasted Bengal in a manner dreadful beyond all example, +the investment, by a variety <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" title="48" class="pagenum"></a>of successive expedients, many of them of +the most dangerous nature and tendency, was forcibly kept up; and even +in that forced and unnatural state it gathered strength almost every +year. The debts contracted in the infancy of the system were gradually +reduced, and the advances to contractors and manufacturers were +regularly made; so that the goods from Bengal, purchased from the +territorial revenues, from the sale of European goods, and from the +produce of the monopolies, for the four years which ended with 1780, +when the investment from the surplus revenues finally closed, were never +less than a million sterling, and commonly nearer twelve hundred +thousand pounds. This million is the lowest value of the goods sent to +Europe for which no satisfaction is made.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor" title=" The sale, to the amount of about one hundred thousand +pounds annually, of the export from Great Britain ought to be deducted +from this million.">[4]</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Remittances from Bengal to China and the Presidencies.</span>About an hundred thousand pounds a year is also remitted from Bengal, on +the Company's account, to China; and the whole of the product of that +money flows into the direct trade from China to Europe. Besides this, +Bengal sends a regular supply in time of peace to those Presidencies +which are unequal to their own establishment. To Bombay the remittance +in money, bills, or goods, for none of which there is a return, amounts +to one hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year at a medium.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Exports from England to India.</span>The goods which are exported from Europe to India consist chiefly of +military and naval stores, of clothing for troops, and of other objects +for the consumption of the Europeans residing there; and, excepting some +lead, copper uten<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" title="49" class="pagenum"></a>sils and sheet copper, woollen cloth, and other +commodities of little comparative value, no sort of merchandise is sent +from England that is in demand for the wants or desires of the native +inhabitants.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Bad effects of investment.</span>When an account is taken of the intercourse (for it is not commerce) +which is carried on between Bengal and England, the pernicious effects +of the system of investment from revenue will appear in the strongest +point of view. In that view, the whole exported produce of the country, +so far as the Company is concerned, is not exchanged in the course of +barter, but is taken away without any return or payment whatsoever. In a +commercial light, therefore, England becomes annually bankrupt to Bengal +to the amount nearly of its whole dealing; or rather, the country has +suffered what is tantamount to an annual plunder of its manufactures and +its produce to the value of twelve hundred thousand pounds.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Foreign companies.</span>In time of peace, three foreign companies appear at first sight to bring +their contribution of trade to the supply of this continual drain. These +are the companies of France, Holland, and Denmark. <span class="sidenote">Consequences of their trade.</span>But when the object +is considered more nearly, instead of relief, these companies, who from +their want of authority in the country might seem to trade upon a +principle merely commercial, will be found to add their full proportion +to the calamity brought upon Bengal by the destructive system of the +ruling power; because the greater part of the capital of all these +companies, and perhaps the whole capital of some of them, is furnished +exactly as the British is, out of the revenues of the country. The civil +and military servants of the English<a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" title="50" class="pagenum"></a> East India Company being +restricted in drawing bills upon Europe, and none of them ever making or +proposing an establishment in India, a very great part of their +fortunes, well or ill gotten, is in all probability thrown, as fast as +required, into the cash of these companies.</p> + +<p>In all other countries, the revenue, following the natural course and +order of things, arises out of their commerce. Here, by a mischievous +inversion of that order, the whole foreign maritime trade, whether +English, French, Dutch, or Danish, arises from the revenues; and these +are carried out of the country without producing anything to compensate +so heavy a loss.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Foreign companies' investments.</span>Your Committee have not been able to discover the entire value of the +investment made by foreign companies. But, as the investment which the +English East India Company derived from its revenues, and even from its +public credit, is for the year 1783 to be wholly stopped, it has been +proposed to private persons to make a subscription for an investment on +their own account. This investment is to be equal to the sum of +800,000<i>l.</i> Another loan has been also made for an investment on the +Company's account to China of 200,000<i>l.</i> This makes a million; and +there is no question that much more could be readily had for bills upon +Europe. Now, as there is no doubt that the whole of the money remitted +is the property of British subjects, (none else having any interest in +remitting to Europe,) it is not unfair to suppose that a very great +part, if not the whole, of what may find its way into this new channel +is not newly created, but only diverted from those channels in which it +formerly ran, that is, the cash of the foreign trading companies.</p><p><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" title="51" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Of the silver sent to China.</span>Besides the investment made in goods by foreign companies from the funds +of British subjects, these subjects have been for some time in the +practice of sending very great sums in gold and silver directly to China +on their own account. In a memorial presented to the Governor-General +and Council, in March, 1782, it appears that the principal money lent by +British subjects to one company of merchants in China then amounted to +seven millions of dollars, about one million seven hundred thousand +pounds sterling; and not the smallest particle of silver sent to China +ever returns to India. It is not easy to determine in what proportions +this enormous sum of money has been sent from Madras or from Bengal; but +it equally exhausts a country belonging to this kingdom, whether it +comes from the one or from the other.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Revenue above the investment, how applied.</span>But that the greatness of all these drains, and their effects, may be +rendered more visible, your Committee have turned their consideration to +the employment of those parts of the Bengal revenue which are not +employed in the Company's own investments for China and for Europe. What +is taken over and above the investment (when any investment can be made) +from the gross revenue, either for the charge of collection or for civil +and military establishments, is in time of peace two millions at the +least. From the portion of that sum which goes to the support of civil +government the natives are almost wholly excluded, as they are from the +principal collections of revenue. With very few exceptions, they are +only employed as servants and agents to Europeans, or in the inferior +departments of collection, when it is absolutely im<a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" title="52" class="pagenum"></a>possible to proceed +a step without their assistance. <span class="sidenote">Allowance to Nabob of Bengal.</span>For some time after the acquisition of +the territorial revenue, the sum of 420,000<i>l.</i> a year was paid, +according to the stipulation of a treaty, to the Nabob of Bengal, for +the support of his government. This sum, however inconsiderable, +compared to the revenues of the province, yet, distributed through the +various departments of civil administration, served in some degree to +preserve the natives of the better sort, particularly those of the +Mahomedan profession, from being utterly ruined. The people of that +persuasion, not being so generally engaged in trade, and not having on +their conquest of Bengal divested the ancient Gentoo proprietors of +their lands of inheritance, had for their chief, if not their sole +support, the share of a moderate conqueror in all offices, civil and +military. But your Committee find that this arrangement was of a short +duration. Without the least regard to the subsistence of this innocent +people, or to the faith of the agreement on which they were brought +under the British government,<span class="sidenote">How reduced.</span> this sum was reduced by a new treaty to +320,000<i>l.</i>, and soon after, (upon a pretence of the present Nabob's +minority, and a temporary sequestration for the discharge of his debts,) +to 160,000<i>l.</i>: but when he arrived at his majority, and when the debts +were paid, (if ever they were paid,) the sequestration still continued; +and so far as the late advices may be understood, the allowance to the +Nabob appears still to stand at the reduced sum of 160,000<i>l.</i></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Native officers.</span>The other resource of the Mahomedans, and of the Gentoos of certain of +the higher castes, was the army. In this army, nine tenths of which +consists of natives, no native, of whatever de<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" title="53" class="pagenum"></a>scription, holds any rank +higher than that of a <i>Subahdar Commandant</i>, that is, of an officer +below the rank of an English subaltern, who is appointed to each company +of the native soldiery.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">All lucrative employments in the hands of the English.</span>Your Committee here would be understood to state the ordinary +establishment: for the war may have made some alteration. All the +honorable, all the lucrative situations of the army, all the supplies +and contracts of whatever species that belong to it, are solely in the +hands of the English; so that whatever is beyond the mere subsistence of +a common soldier and some officers of a lower rank, together with the +immediate expenses of the English officers at their table, is sooner or +later, in one shape or another, sent out of the country.</p> + +<p>Such was the state of Bengal even in time of profound peace, and before +the whole weight of the public charge fell upon that unhappy country for +the support of other parts of India, which have been desolated in such a +manner as to contribute little or nothing to their own protection.</p> + +<p>Your Committee have given this short comparative account of the effects +of the maritime traffic of Bengal, when in its natural state, and as it +has stood since the prevalence of the system of an investment from the +revenues. <span class="sidenote">Former state of trade.</span>But before the formation of that system Bengal did by no means +depend for its resources on its maritime commerce. The inland trade, +from whence it derived a very great supply of silver and gold and many +kinds of merchantable goods, was very considerable. The higher provinces +of the Mogul Empire were then populous and opulent, and intercourse to +an immense amount was carried on between them and Bengal.<a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" title="54" class="pagenum"></a> A great trade +also passed through these provinces from all the countries on the +frontier of Persia, and the frontier provinces of Tartary, as well as +from Surat and Baroach on the western side of India. These parts opened +to Bengal a communication with the Persian Gulf and with the Red Sea, +and through them with the whole Turkish and the maritime parts of the +Persian Empire, besides the commercial intercourse which it maintained +with those and many other countries through its own seaports.</p> + +<p>During that period the remittances to the Mogul's treasury from Bengal +were never very large, at least for any considerable time, nor very +regularly sent; and the impositions of the state were soon repaid with +interest through the medium of a lucrative commerce. But the disorders +of Persia, since the death of Kouli Khân, have wholly destroyed the +trade of that country;<span class="sidenote">And the trade to Turkey.</span> and the trade to Turkey, by Jidda and Bussorah, +which was the greatest and perhaps best branch of the Indian trade, is +very much diminished. The fall of the throne of the Mogul emperors has +drawn with it that of the great marts of Agra and Delhi. The utmost +confusion of the northwestern provinces followed this revolution, which +was not absolutely complete until it received the last hand from Great +Britain. Still greater calamities have fallen upon the fine provinces of +Rohilcund and Oude, and on the countries of Corah and Allahabad. By the +operations of the British arms and influence, they are in many places +turned to mere deserts, or so reduced and decayed as to afford very few +materials or means of commerce.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">State of trade in the Carnatic.</span>Such is the actual condition of the trade of Bengal since the +establishment of the<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" title="55" class="pagenum"></a> British power there. The commerce of the Carnatic, +as far as the inquiries of your Committee have extended, did not appear +with a better aspect, even before the invasion of Hyder Ali Khân, and +the consequent desolation, which for many years to come must exclude it +from any considerable part of the trading system.</p> + +<p>It appears, on the examination of an intelligent person concerned in +trade, and who resided at Madras for several years, that on his arrival +there, which was in the year 1767, that city was in a flourishing +condition, and one of the first marts in India; but when he left it, in +1779, there was little or no trade remaining, and but one ship belonging +to the whole place. The evidence of this gentleman purports, that at his +first acquaintance with the Carnatic it was a well-cultivated and +populous country, and as such consumed many articles of merchandise; +that at his departure he left it much circumscribed in trade, greatly in +the decline as to population and culture, and with a correspondent decay +of the territorial revenue.</p> + +<p>Your Committee find that there has also been from Madras an investment +on the Company's account, taking one year with another, very nearly on +the same principles and with the same effects as that from Bengal; and +they think it is highly probable, that, besides the large sums remitted +directly from Madras to China, there has likewise been a great deal on a +private account, for that and other countries, invested in the cash of +foreign European powers trading on the coast of Coromandel. But your +Committee have not extended their inquiries relative to the commerce of +the countries dependent on Madras so far as they have done with regard +to Bengal. They have reason to ap<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" title="56" class="pagenum"></a>prehend that the condition is rather +worse; but if the House requires a more minute examination of this +important subject, your Committee is willing to enter into it without +delay.</p> + + +<h3><a name="III_EFFECT_OF_THE_REVENUE_INVESTMENT_ON_THE_COMPANY" id="III_EFFECT_OF_THE_REVENUE_INVESTMENT_ON_THE_COMPANY"></a>III.—EFFECT OF THE REVENUE INVESTMENT ON THE COMPANY.</h3> + +<p>Hitherto your Committee has considered this system of revenue +investment, substituted in the place of a commercial link between India +and Europe, so far as it affects India only: they are now to consider it +as it affects the Company. So long as that corporation continued to +receive a vast quantity of merchantable goods without any disbursement +for the purchase, so long it possessed wherewithal to continue a +dividend to pay debts, and to contribute to the state. But it must have +been always evident to considerate persons, that this vast extraction of +wealth from a country lessening in its resources in proportion to the +increase of its burdens was not calculated for a very long duration. For +a while the Company's servants kept up this investment, not by improving +commerce, manufacture, or agriculture, but by forcibly raising the +land-rents, on the principles and in the manner hereafter to be +described. When these extortions disappointed or threatened to +disappoint expectation, in order to purvey for the avarice which raged +in England, they sought for expedients in breaches of all the agreements +by which they were bound by any payment to the country powers, and in +exciting disturbances among all the neighboring princes. Stimulating +their ambition, and fomenting <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" title="57" class="pagenum"></a>their mutual animosities, they sold to +them reciprocally their common servitude and ruin.</p> + +<p>The Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, and the Council, tell the Directors, +"that the supply for the investment has arisen from <i>casual</i> and +<i>extraordinary</i> resources, which they could not expect <i>always</i> to +command." In an earlier minute he expresses himself still more +distinctly: he says, "If the internal resources of a state fail it, or +are not equal to its <i>occasional</i> wants, whence can it obtain immediate +relief but from <i>external</i> means?" Indeed, the investment has not been +for any long time the natural product of the revenue of Bengal. When, by +the vast charge and by the ill return of an evil political and military +traffic, and by a prodigal increase of establishments, and a profuse +conduct in distributing agencies and contracts, they found themselves +under difficulties, instead of being cured of their immoral and +impolitic delusion, they plunged deeper into it, and were drawn from +expedient to expedient for the supply of the investment into that +endless chain of wars which this House by its resolutions has so justly +condemned. At home these measures were sometimes countenanced, sometimes +winked at, sometimes censured, but always with an acceptance of whatever +profit they afforded.</p> + +<p>At length, the funds for the investment and for these wars together +could no longer be supplied. In the year 1778 the provision for the +investment from the revenues and from the monopolies stood very high. It +was estimated at a million four hundred thousand pounds; and of this it +appears that a great deal was realized. But this was the high flood-tide +of the investment; for in that year they announce <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" title="58" class="pagenum"></a>its probable decline, +and that such extensive supplies could not be continued. The advances to +the Board of Trade became less punctual, and many disputes arose about +the time of making them. However, knowing that all their credit at home +depended on the investment, or upon an opinion of its magnitude, whilst +they repeat their warning of a probable deficiency, and that their +"finances bore an unfavorable aspect," in the year 1779 they rate their +investment still higher. But their payments becoming less and less +regular, and the war carrying away all the supplies, at length Mr. +Hastings, in December, 1780, denounced sentence of approaching +dissolution to this system, and tells the Directors that "he bore too +high a respect for their characters to treat them with the management of +a preparatory and gradual introduction to an unpleasing report: that it +is the <i>only substantial</i> information he shall have to convey in that +letter." In confidence, therefore, of their fortitude, he tells them +without ceremony, "that there will be a necessity of making a large +reduction, or possibly a <i>total suspension</i>, of their investment;—that +they had already been reduced to borrow near 700,000<i>l</i>. This resource," +says he, "cannot last; it must cease at a certain period, and that +perhaps not far <i>distant</i>."</p> + +<p>He was not mistaken in his prognostic. Loans now becoming the regular +resource for retrieving the investment, whose ruin was inevitable, the +Council enable the Board of Trade, in April, 1781, to grant certificates +for government bonds at eight per cent interest for about 650,000<i>l</i>. +The investment was fixed at 900,000<i>l</i>.</p> + +<p>But now another alarming system appeared. These <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" title="59" class="pagenum"></a>new bonds overloaded +the market. Those which had been formerly issued were at a discount; the +Board of Trade was obliged to advance, therefore, a fourth more than +usual to the contractors. This seemed to satisfy that description of +dealers. But as those who bought on agency were limited to no terms of +mutual advantage, and the bonds on the new issue falling from three to +eight, nine, and ten per cent discount, the agents were unable to +furnish at the usual prices. Accordingly a discount was settled on such +terms as could be made: the lowest discount, and that at two places +only, was at four per cent; which, with the interest on the bonds, made +(besides the earlier advance) at the least twelve per cent additional +charge upon all goods. It was evident, that, as the investment, instead +of being supported by the revenues, was sunk by the fall of their +credit, so the net revenues were diminished by the daily accumulation of +an interest accruing on account of the investment. What was done to +alleviate one complaint thus aggravating the other, and at length +proving pernicious to both, this trade on bonds likewise came to its +period.</p> + +<p>Your Committee has reason to think that the bonds have since that time +sunk to a discount much greater even than what is now stated. The Board +of Trade justly denominates their resource for that year "the sinking +credit of a paper currency, laboring, from the uncommon scarcity of +specie, under disadvantages scarcely surmountable." From this they value +themselves "on having effected an <i>ostensible</i> provision, at least for +that investment." For 1783 nothing appears even ostensible.</p> + +<p>By this failure a total revolution ensued, of the most <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" title="60" class="pagenum"></a>extraordinary +nature, and to which your Committee wish to call the particular +attention of the House. For the Council-General, in their letter of the +8th of April, 1782, after stating that they were disappointed in their +expectations, (how grounded it does not appear,) "thought that they +should be able to spare a sum to the Board of Trade,"—tell the Court of +Directors, "that they had adopted a <i>new</i> method of keeping up the +investment, by private subscribers for eighty lacs of rupees, which will +find <i>cargoes for their ships</i> on the usual terms of privilege, <i>at the +risk of the individuals</i>, and is to be repaid to them <i>according to the +produce of the sales in England</i>,"—and they tell the Directors, that "a +copy of the plan makes a number in their separate dispatches over land."</p> + +<p>It is impossible, in reporting this revolution to the House, to avoid +remarking with what fidelity Mr. Hastings and his Council have adhered +to the mode of transmitting their accounts which your Committee found it +necessary to mark and censure in their First Report. Its pernicious +tendency is there fully set forth. They were peculiarly called on for a +most accurate state of their affairs, in order to explain the necessity +of having recourse to such a scheme, as well as for a full and correct +account of the scheme itself. But they send only the above short minute +by one dispatch over land, whilst the copy of the plan itself, on which +the Directors must form their judgment, is sent separately in another +dispatch over land, which has never arrived. A third dispatch, which +also contained the plan, was sent by a sea conveyance, and arrived late. +The Directors have, for very obvious reasons, ordered, by a strict +injunction, that they should send <i>duplicates of all</i> their dispatches +by<a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" title="61" class="pagenum"></a> <i>every ship</i>. The spirit of this rule, perhaps, ought to extend to +every mode of conveyance. In this case, so far from sending a duplicate, +they do not send even one perfect account. They announce a plan by one +conveyance, and they send it by another conveyance, with other delays +and other risks.</p> + +<p>At length, at nearly four months' distance, the plan has been received, +and appears to be substantially that which had been announced, but +developing in the particulars many new circumstances of the greatest +importance. By this plan it appears that the subscription, even in idea +or pretence, is not for the use of the Company, but that the subscribers +are united into a sort of society for the remitting their <i>private +fortunes</i>: the goods, indeed, are said to be <i>shipped on the Company's +account</i>, and they are directed to be sold on the same account, and at +the usual periods of sales; but, after the payment of duties, and such +other allowances as they choose to make, in the eleventh article they +provide "that <i>the remainder of the sales shall revert to the +subscribers</i>, and be declared to be <i>their property</i>, and divided in +proportion to <i>their</i> respective shares." The compensation which they +allow in this plan to their masters for their brokerage is, that, if, +after deducting all the charges which they impose, "the amount of the +sales <i>should be found</i> to exceed two shillings and twopence for the +current rupee of the invoice account, it shall be taken by the Company." +For the management of this concern in Bengal they choose commissioners +by their own authority. By the same authority they form them into a +body, they put them under rules and regulations, and they empower them +also to make regulations of their own. They remit, by the like +authority, the <a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" title="62" class="pagenum"></a>duties to which all private trade is subject; and they +charge the whole concern with seven per cent, to be paid from the net +produce of the sales in England, as a recompense to the commissioners: +for this the commissioners contract to bear all the charges on the goods +to the time of shipping.</p> + +<p>The servants having formed this plan of trade, and a new commission for +the conduct of it, on their private account, it is a matter of +consideration to know who the commissioners are. They turn out to be the +three senior servants of the Company's Board of Trade, who choose to +take upon them to be the factors of others for large emoluments, whilst +they receive salaries of two thousand pounds and fifteen hundred pounds +a year from the Company. As the Company have no other fund than the new +investment from whence they are to be paid for the care of their +servants' property, this commission and those salaries being to take +place of their brokerage, they in effect render it very difficult, if +not impossible, for them to derive advantage from their new occupation.</p> + +<p>As to the benefit of this <i>plan</i>: besides preventing the loss which must +happen from the Company's ships returning empty to Europe, and the +stopping of all trade between India and England, the authors of it +state, that it will "<i>open a new channel</i> of remittance, and abolish the +practice, by precluding the necessity, of remitting <i>private fortunes</i> +by <i>foreign bottoms</i>, and that it may lead to some <i>permanent mode</i> for +remittance of private fortunes, and of combining it with the regular +provision of the Company's investment,—that it will yield <i>some</i> profit +to the Company without risk, and the national gain will be the same as +upon the regular trade."</p><p><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" title="63" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>As to the combination of this mode of remittance with the Company's +investment, nothing can be affirmed concerning it until some +satisfactory assurance can be held out that such an investment can ever +be realized. Mr. Hastings and the gentlemen of the Council have not +afforded any ground for such an expectation. That the Indian trade may +become a permanent vehicle of the private fortunes of the Company's +servants is very probable,—that is, as permanent as the means of +acquiring fortunes in India; but that <i>some profit</i> will accrue to the +Company is absolutely impossible. The Company are to bear all the charge +outwards, and a very great part of that homewards; and their only +compensation is the surplus commission on the sale of other people's +goods. The nation will undoubtedly avoid great loss and detriment, which +would be the inevitable consequence of the total cessation of the trade +with Bengal and the ships returning without cargoes. But if this +temporary expedient should be improved into a system, no occasional +advantages to be derived from it would be sufficient to balance the +mischiefs of finding a great Parliamentary corporation turned into a +vehicle for remitting to England the private fortunes of those for whose +benefit the territorial possessions in India are in effect and substance +under this project to be <i>solely</i> held.</p> + +<p>By this extraordinary scheme the Company is totally overturned, and all +its relations inverted. From being a body concerned in trade on their +own account, and employing their servants as factors, the servants have +at one stroke taken the whole trade into their own hands, on their own +capital of 800,000<i>l.</i>, at their own risk, and the Company are <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" title="64" class="pagenum"></a>become +agents and factors to them, to sell by commission <i>their</i> goods for +<i>their</i> profit.</p> + +<p>To enable your Committee to form some judgment upon the profit which may +accrue to the Company from its new relation and employment, they +directed that an estimate should be made of the probable proceeds of an +investment conducted on the principles of that intended to be realized +for 1783. By this estimate, which is subjoined,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor" title=" Estimate of the Sale Amount and Net Proceeds in England of +the Cargoes to be sent from Bengal, agreeable to the Plan received by +Letter dated the 8th April, 1782.">[5]</a> it appears to your +Com<a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" title="65" class="pagenum"></a>mittee, that, so far from any surplus profit from this transaction, +the Bengal adventurers themselves, instead of realizing 2<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i> the +rupee, (the standard they fix for their payment,) will not receive the +1<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i> which is its utmost value in silver at the Mint, nor +probably above 1<i>s.</i> 5<i>d.</i> With this certain loss before their eyes, it +is impossible that they can ever complete their subscription, unless, by +management among themselves, they should be able to procure the goods +for their own account upon other terms than those on which they +purchased them for their masters, or unless they have for the supply of +the Company on their hands a quantity of goods which they cannot +otherwise dispose of. This latter case is not very improbable, from +their proposing to send ten sixteenths of the whole investment in +silk,—which, as will be seen hereafter, the Company has prohibited to +be sent on their account, as a disadvantageous article. Nothing but the +servants being overloaded can rationally account for their choice of so +great a proportion of so dubious a commodity.</p> + +<p>On the state made by two reports of a committee of the General Court in +1782, their affairs were even then reduced to a low ebb. But under the +arrangement announced by Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, it does not +appear, after this period of the servants' investment, from what fund +the proprietors are to make any dividend at all. The objects of the sale +from whence the dividend is to arise are not <i>their</i> goods: they stand +accountable to others for the whole probable produce. The state of the +Company's commerce will therefore become an object of serious +consideration: an affair, as your Committee apprehends, of as much +difficulty as ever tried the fac<a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" title="66" class="pagenum"></a>ulties of this House. For, on the one +hand, it is plain that the system of providing the Company's import into +Europe, resting almost wholly by an investment from its territorial +revenues, has failed: during its continuance it was supported on +principles fatal to the prosperity of that country. On the other hand, +if the nominal commerce of the Company is suffered to be carried on for +the account of the servants abroad, by investing the emoluments made in +their stations, these emoluments are therefore inclusively authorized, +and with them the practices from which they accrue. All Parliamentary +attempts to reform this system will be contradictory to its institution. +If, for instance, five hundred thousand pounds sterling annually be +necessary for this kind of investment, any regulation which may prevent +the acquisition of that sum operates against the investment which is the +end proposed by the plan.</p> + +<p>On this new scheme, (which is neither calculated for a future security +nor for a present relief to the Company,) it is not visible in what +manner the settlements in India can be at all upheld. The gentlemen in +employments abroad call for the whole produce of the year's investment +from Bengal; but for the payment of the counter-investment from Europe, +which is for the far greater part sent out for the support of their +power, no provision at all is made: they have not, it seems, agreed that +it should be charged to their account, or that any deduction should be +made for it from the produce of their sales in Leadenhall Street. How +far such a scheme is preferable to the total suspension of trade your +Committee cannot positively determine. In all likelihood, extraordinary +expedients were necessary; but the causes <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" title="67" class="pagenum"></a>which induced this necessity +ought to be more fully inquired into; for the last step in a series of +conduct may be justifiable upon principles that suppose great blame in +those which preceded it.</p> + +<p>After your Committee had made the foregoing observations upon the plan +of Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, transmitted to the Court of +Directors, an extract of the Madras Consultations was a few days ago +laid before us. This extract contains a letter from the Governor-General +and Council of Bengal to the Presidency of Fort St. George, which +affords a very striking, though to your Committee by no means an +unexpected, picture of the instability of their opinions and conduct. On +the 8th of April the servants had regularly formed and digested the +above-mentioned plan, which was to form the basis for the investment of +their own fortunes, and to furnish the sole means of the commercial +existence of their masters. Before the 10th of the following May, which +is the date of their letter to Madras, they inform Lord Macartney that +they had fundamentally altered the whole scheme. "Instead," say they, +"of allowing the subscribers to retain an interest in the goods, they +are to be provided entirely on account of the Company, and transported +<i>at their risk</i>; and the subscribers, instead of receiving certificates +payable out of the produce of the sales in Europe, are to be granted +receipts, on the payment of their advances, bearing an interest of eight +per cent per annum, until exchanged for drafts on the Court of +Directors, payable 365 days after sight, at the rate of two shillings +per current rupee,—which drafts shall be granted in the proper time, of +three eighths of the amount subscribed, on the 31st of December next, +and the remaining five eighths on the 31st of December, 1783."</p><p><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" title="68" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The plan of April divests the Company of all property in Bengal goods +transported to Europe: but in recompense they are freed from all the +risk and expense, they are not loaded with interest, and they are not +embarrassed with bills. The plan of May reinstates them in their old +relation: but in return, their revenues in Bengal are charged with an +interest of eight per cent on the sum subscribed, until bills shall be +drawn; they are made proprietors of cargoes purchased, under the +disadvantage of that interest, at their own hazard; they are subjected +to all losses; and they are involved in Europe for payments of bills to +the amount of eighty lacs of rupees, at two shillings the rupee,—that +is, in bills for eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. It is probably +on account of the previous interest of eight per cent that the value of +the rupee on this scheme is reduced. Mr. Hastings and his colleagues +announce to Lord Macartney no other than the foregoing alteration in +their plan.</p> + +<p>It is discouraging to attempt any sort of observation on plans thus +shifting their principle whilst their merits are under examination. The +judgment formed on the scheme of April has nothing to do with the +project of May. Your Committee has not suppressed any part of the +reflections which occurred to them on the former of these plans: first, +because the Company knows of no other by any regular transmissions; +secondly, because it is by no means certain that before the expiration +of June the Governor-General and Council may not revert to the plan of +April. They speak of that plan as likely to be, or make a part of one +that shall be, <i>permanent</i>. Many reasons are alleged by its authors in +its favor, grounded on the state of their affairs; none whatever are +assigned for <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" title="69" class="pagenum"></a>the alteration. It is, indeed, morally certain that +persons who had money to remit must have made the same calculation which +has been made by the directions of your Committee, and the result must +have been equally clear to them,—which is, that, instead of realizing +two shillings and twopence the rupee on their subscription, as they +proposed, they could never hope to see more than one shilling and +ninepence. This calculation probably shook the main pillar of the +project of April. But, on the other hand, as the subscribers to the +second scheme can have no certain assurance that the Company will accept +bills so far exceeding their allowance in this particular, the necessity +of remitting their fortunes may beat them back to their old ground. The +Danish Company was the only means of remitting which remained. Attempts +have been made with success to revive a Portuguese trade for that +purpose. It is by no means clear whether Mr. Hastings and his colleagues +will adhere to either of the foregoing plans, or, indeed, whether any +investment at all to that amount can be realized; because nothing but +the convenience of remitting the gains of British subjects to London can +support any of these projects.</p> + +<p>The situation of the Company, under this perpetual variation in the +system of their investment, is truly perplexing. The manner in which +they arrive at any knowledge of it is no less so. The letter to Lord +Macartney, by which the variation is discovered, was not intended for +transmission to the Directors. It was merely for the information of +those who were admitted to a share of the subscription at Madras. When +Mr. Hastings sent this information to those subscribers, he might well +enough have presumed an <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" title="70" class="pagenum"></a>event to happen which did happen,—that is, +that a vessel might be dispatched from Madras to Europe: and indeed, by +that, and by every devisable means, he ought not only to have apprised +the Directors of this most material change in the plan of the +investment, but to have entered fully into the grounds and reasons of +his making it.</p> + +<p>It appears to your Committee that the ships which brought to England the +plan of the 8th of April did not sail from Bengal until the 1st of May. +If the change had been in contemplation for any time before the 30th of +April, two days would have sufficed to send an account of it, and it +might have arrived along with the plan which it affected. If, therefore, +such a change was in agitation before the sailing of the ships, and yet +was concealed when it might have been communicated, the concealment is +censurable. It is not improbable that some change of the kind was made +or meditated before the sailing of the ships for Europe: for it is +hardly to be imagined that reasons wholly unlooked-for should appear for +setting aside a plan concerning the success of which the Council-General +seemed so very confident, that a new one should be proposed, that its +merits should be discussed among the moneyed men, that it should be +adopted in Council, and officially ready for transmission to Madras, in +twelve or thirteen days. In this perplexity of plan and of transmission, +the Court of Directors may have made an arrangement of their affairs on +the groundwork of the first scheme, which was officially and +authentically conveyed to them. The fundamental alteration of that plan +in India might require another of a very different kind in England, +which the arrangements taken in conse<a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" title="71" class="pagenum"></a>quence of the first might make it +difficult, if not impossible, to execute. What must add to the confusion +is, that the alteration has not the regular and official authority of +the original plan, and may be presumed to indicate with certainty +nothing more than that the business is <i>again</i> afloat, and that no +scheme is finally determined on. Thus the Company is left without any +fixed data upon which they can make a rational disposition of their +affairs.</p> + +<p>The fact is, that the principles and economy of the Company's trade have +been so completely corrupted by turning it into a vehicle for tribute, +that, whenever circumstances require it to be replaced again upon a +bottom truly commercial, hardly anything but confusion and disasters can +be expected as the first results. Even before the acquisition of the +territorial revenues, the system of the Company's commerce was not +formed upon principles the most favorable to its prosperity; for, +whilst, on the one hand, that body received encouragement by royal and +Parliamentary charters, was invested with several ample privileges, and +even with a delegation of the most essential prerogatives of the +crown,—on the other, its commerce was watched with an insidious +jealousy, as a species of dealing dangerous to the national interests. +In that light, with regard to the Company's imports, there was a total +prohibition from domestic use of the most considerable articles of their +trade,—that is, of all silk stuffs, and stained and painted cottons. +The British market was in a great measure interdicted to the British +trader. Whatever advantages might arise to the general trading interests +of the kingdom by this restraint, its East India interest was +undoubtedly <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" title="72" class="pagenum"></a>injured by it. The Company is also, and has been from a +very early period, obliged to furnish the Ordnance with a quantity of +saltpetre at a certain price, without any reference to the standard of +the markets either of purchase or of sale. With regard to their export, +they were put also under difficulties upon very mistaken notions; for +they were obliged to export annually a certain proportion of British +manufactures, even though they should find for them in India none or but +an unprofitable want. This compulsory export might operate, and in some +instances has operated, in a manner more grievous than a tax to the +amount of the loss in trade: for the payment of a tax is in general +divided in unequal portions between the vender and consumer, the largest +part falling upon the latter; in the case before us the tax may be as a +dead charge on the trading capital of the Company.</p> + +<p>The spirit of all these regulations naturally tended to weaken, in the +very original constitution of the Company, the main-spring of the +commercial machine, <i>the principles of profit and loss</i>. And the +mischief arising from an inattention to those principles has constantly +increased with the increase of its power. For when the Company had +acquired the rights of sovereignty in India, it was not to be expected +that the attention to profit and loss would have increased. The idea of +remitting tribute in goods naturally produced an indifference to their +price and quality,—the goods themselves appearing little else than a +sort of package to the tribute. Merchandise taken as tribute, or bought +in lieu of it, can never long be of a kind or of a price fitted to a +market which stands solely on its commercial reputation.<a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" title="73" class="pagenum"></a> The +indifference of the mercantile sovereign to his trading advantages +naturally relaxed the diligence of his subordinate factor-magistrates +through all their gradations and in all their functions; it gave rise, +at least so far as the principal was concerned, to much neglect of price +and of goodness in their purchases. If ever they showed any +extraordinary degrees of accuracy and selection, it would naturally be +in favor of that interest to which they could not be indifferent. The +Company might suffer above, the natives might suffer below; the +intermediate party must profit to the prejudice of both.</p> + +<p>Your Committee are of opinion that the Company is now arrived at that +point, when, the investment from surplus revenue or from the spoil of +war ceasing, it is become much more necessary to fix its commerce upon a +commercial basis. And this opinion led your Committee to a detailed +review of all the articles of the Indian traffic upon which the profit +and loss was steady; and we have chosen a period of four years, during +the continuance of the revenue investment, and prior to any borrowing or +any extraordinary drawing of bills, in order to find out how far the +trade, under circumstances when it will be necessary to carry it on by +borrowing, or by bills, or by exportation of bullion, can be sustained +in the former course, so as to secure the capital and to afford a +reasonable dividend. And your Committee find that in the first four +years the investment from Bengal amounted to 4,176,525<i>l.</i>; upon +2,260,277<i>l.</i> there was a gain of 186,337<i>l.</i>, and upon 1,916,248<i>l.</i> a +loss of 705,566<i>l.</i>: so that the excess of loss above gain, upon the +whole of the foregoing capital, was in the four years no less than +519,229<i>l.</i></p><p><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" title="74" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>If the trade were confined to Bengal, and the Company were to trade on +those terms upon a capital borrowed at eight per cent Indian interest, +their revenues in that province would be soon so overpowered with debt, +that those revenues, instead of supporting the trade, would be totally +destroyed by it. If, on the other hand, the Company traded upon bills +with every advantage, far from being in a condition to divide the +smallest percentage, their bankruptcy here would be inevitable.</p> + +<p>Your Committee then turned to the trade of the other factories and +Presidencies, and they constantly found, that, as the power and dominion +of the Company was less, their profit on the goods was greater. The +investments of Madras, Bombay, and Bencoolen have, in the foregoing four +years, upon a capital of 1,151,176<i>l.</i>, had a gain upon the whole of +329,622<i>l.</i> The greatest of all is that of Bencoolen, which, on a +capital of 76,571<i>l.</i>, produced a profit of 107,760<i>l.</i> This, however, +is but a small branch of the Company's trade. The trade to China, on a +capital of 1,717,463<i>l.</i>, produced an excess of gain amounting to +874,096<i>l.</i>, which is about fifty per cent. But such was the evil +influence of the Bengal investment, that not only the profits of the +Chinese trade, but of all the lucrative branches taken together, were so +sunk and ingulfed in it, that the whole profit on a capital of +7,045,164<i>l.</i> reached to no more than 684,489<i>l.</i>, that is, to +189,607<i>l.</i> less than the profit on the Chinese trade alone,—less than +the total profits on the gainful trades taken together, 520,727<i>l.</i></p> + +<p>It is very remarkable, that in the year 1778, when the Bengal investment +stood at the highest, that is, so high as 1,223,316<i>l.</i>, though the +Chinese trade pro<a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" title="75" class="pagenum"></a>duced an excess of gain in that year of 209,243<i>l.</i>, +and that no loss of moment could be added to that of Bengal, (except +about 45,000<i>l.</i> on the Bombay trade,) the whole profit of a capital of +2,040,787<i>l.</i> amounted only to the sum of 9,480<i>l.</i></p> + +<p>The detail of the articles in which loss was incurred or gain made will +be found in the Appendix, No. 24. The circumstances of the time have +rendered it necessary to call up a vigorous attention to this state of +the trade of the Company between Europe and India.</p> + + +<h3><a name="INTERNAL_TRADE_OF_BENGAL" id="INTERNAL_TRADE_OF_BENGAL"></a>INTERNAL TRADE OF BENGAL.</h3> + +<p>The internal trade of Bengal has next attracted the inquiries of your +Committee.</p> + +<p>The great and valuable articles of the Company's investment, drawn from +the articles of internal trade, are raw silk, and various descriptions +of piece-goods made of silk and cotton. These articles are not under any +formal monopoly; nor does the Company at present exercise a <i>declared</i> +right of preëmption with regard to them. But it does not appear that the +trade in these particulars is or can be perfectly free,—not so much on +account of any direct measures taken to prevent it as from the +circumstances of the country, and the manner of carrying on business +there: for the present trade, even in these articles, is built from the +ruins of old monopolies and preëmptions, and necessarily partakes of the +nature of its materials.</p> + +<p>In order to show in what manner manufactures and trade so constituted +contribute to the prosperity of the natives, your Committee conceives it +proper to take, in this place, a short general view of the progress of +the English policy with relation to the commerce of<a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" title="76" class="pagenum"></a> Bengal, and the +several stages and gradations by which it has been brought into its +actual state. The modes of abuse, and the means by which commerce has +suffered, will be considered in greater detail under the distinct heads +of those objects which have chiefly suffered by them.</p> + +<p>During the time of the Mogul government, the princes of that race, who +omitted nothing for the encouragement of commerce in their dominions, +bestowed very large privileges and immunities on the English East India +Company, exempting them from several duties to which their natural-born +subjects were liable. The Company's <i>dustuck</i>, or passport, secured to +them this exemption at all the custom-houses and toll-bars of the +country. The Company, not being able or not choosing to make use of +their privilege to the full extent to which it might be carried, +indulged their servants with a qualified use of their passport, under +which, and in the name of the Company, they carried on a private trade, +either by themselves or in society with natives, and thus found a +compensation for the scanty allowances made to them by their masters in +England. As the country government was at that time in the fulness of +its strength, and that this immunity existed by a double connivance, it +was naturally kept within tolerable limits.</p> + +<p>But by the revolution in 1757 the Company's servants obtained a mighty +ascendant over the native princes of Bengal, who owed their elevation to +the British arms. The Company, which was new to that kind of power, and +not yet thoroughly apprised of its real character and situation, +considered itself still as a trader in the territories of a foreign +potentate, in <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" title="77" class="pagenum"></a>the prosperity of whose country it had neither interest +nor duty. The servants, with the same ideas, followed their fortune in +the channels in which it had hitherto ran, only enlarging them with the +enlargement of their power. For their first ideas of profit were not +official; nor were their oppressions those of ordinary despotism. The +first instruments of their power were formed out of evasions of their +ancient subjection. The passport of the Company in the hands of its +servants was no longer under any restraint; and in a very short time +their immunity began to cover all the merchandise of the country. Cossim +Ali Khân, the second of the Nabobs whom they had set up, was but ill +disposed to the instruments of his greatness. He bore the yoke of this +imperious commerce with the utmost impatience: he saw his subjects +excluded as aliens from their own trade, and the revenues of the prince +overwhelmed in the ruin of the commerce of his dominions. Finding his +reiterated remonstrances on the extent and abuse of the passport +ineffectual, he had recourse to an unexpected expedient, which was, to +declare his resolution at once to annul all the duties on trade, setting +it equally free to subjects and to foreigners.</p> + +<p>Never was a method of defeating the oppressions of monopoly more +forcible, more simple, or more equitable: no sort of plausible objection +could be made; and it was in vain to think of evading it. It was +therefore met with the confidence of avowed and determined injustice. +The Presidency of Calcutta openly denied to the prince the power of +protecting the trade of his subjects by the remission of his own duties. +It was evident that his authority drew to its period: many reasons and +motives concurred, and <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" title="78" class="pagenum"></a>his fall was hastened by the odium of the +oppressions which he exercised voluntarily, as well as of those to which +he was obliged to submit.</p> + +<p>When this example was made, Jaffier Ali Khân, who had been deposed to +make room for the last actor, was brought from penury and exile to a +station the terms of which he could not misunderstand. During his life, +and in the time of his children who succeeded to him, parts of the +territorial revenue were assigned to the Company; and the whole, under +the name of residency at the Nabob's court, was brought, directly or +indirectly, under the control of British subjects. The Company's +servants, armed with authorities delegated from the nominal government, +or attended with what was a stronger guard, the fame of their own power, +appeared as magistrates in the markets in which they dealt as traders. +It was impossible for the natives in general to distinguish, in the +proceedings of the same persons, what was transacted on the Company's +account from what was done on their own; and it will ever be so +difficult to draw this line of distinction, that as long as the Company +does, directly or indirectly, aim at any advantage to itself in the +purchase of any commodity whatever, so long will it be impracticable to +prevent the servants availing themselves of the same privilege.</p> + +<p>The servants, therefore, for themselves or for their employers, +monopolized every article of trade, foreign and domestic: not only the +raw merchantable commodities, but the manufactures; and not only these, +but the necessaries of life, or what in these countries habit has +confounded with them,—not only silk, cotton, piece-goods, opium, +saltpetre, but not unfrequently salt, tobacco, betel-nut, and the grain +<a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" title="79" class="pagenum"></a>of most ordinary consumption. In the name of the country government +they laid on or took off, and at their pleasure heightened or lowered, +all duties upon goods: the whole trade of the country was either +destroyed or in shackles. The acquisition of the Duanné, in 1765, +bringing the English into the immediate government of the country in its +most essential branches, extended and confirmed all the former means of +monopoly.</p> + +<p>In the progress of these ruinous measures through all their details, +innumerable grievances were suffered by the native inhabitants, which +were represented in the strongest, that is, their true colors, in +England. Whilst the far greater part of the British in India were in +eager pursuit of the forced and exorbitant gains of a trade carried on +by power, contests naturally arose among the competitors: those who were +overpowered by their rivals became loud in their complaints to the Court +of Directors, and were very capable, from experience, of pointing out +every mode of abuse.</p> + +<p>The Court of Directors, on their part, began, though very slowly, to +perceive that the country which was ravaged by this sort of commerce was +their own. These complaints obliged the Directors to a strict +examination into the real sources of the mismanagement of their concerns +in India, and to lay the foundations of a system of restraint on the +exorbitancies of their servants. Accordingly, so early as the year 1765, +they confine them to a trade only in articles of export and import, and +strictly prohibit them from all dealing in objects of internal +consumption. About the same time the Presidency of Calcutta found it +necessary to put a restraint upon themselves, <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" title="80" class="pagenum"></a>or at least to make show +of a disposition (with which the Directors appear much satisfied) to +keep their own enormous power within bounds.</p> + +<p>But whatever might have been the intentions either of the Directors or +the Presidency, both found themselves unequal to the execution of a plan +which went to defeat the projects of almost all the English in +India,—possibly comprehending some who were makers of the regulations. +For, as the complaint of the country or as their own interest +predominated with the Presidency, they were always shifting from one +course to the other; so that it became as impossible for the natives to +know upon what principle to ground any commercial speculation, from the +uncertainty of the law under which they acted, as it was when they were +oppressed by power without any color of law at all: for the Directors, +in a few months after they had given these tokens of approbation to the +above regulations in favor of the country trade, tell the Presidency, +"It is with concern we see in <i>every page</i> of your Consultations +<i>restrictions, limitations, prohibitions, affecting various articles of +trade</i>." On their side, the Presidency freely confess that these +monopolies of inland trade "were the foundation of all the bloodsheds, +massacres, and confusions which have happened of late in Bengal."</p> + +<p>Pressed in this urgent manner, the Directors came more specifically to +the grievance, and at once annul all the passports with which their +servants traded without duties, holding out means of compensation, of +which it does not appear that any advantage was taken. In order that the +duties which existed should no longer continue to burden the trade +either of the servants or natives, they ordered that a number of +<a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" title="81" class="pagenum"></a>oppressive toll-bars should be taken away, and the whole number reduced +to nine of the most considerable.</p> + +<p>When Lord Clive was sent to Bengal to effect a reformation of the many +abuses which prevailed there, he considered monopoly to be so inveterate +and deeply rooted, and the just rewards of the Company's servants to be +so complicated with that injustice to the country, that the latter could +not easily be removed without taking away the former. He adopted, +therefore, a plan for dealing in certain articles, which, as he +conceived, rather ought to be called "a regulated and restricted trade" +than a formal monopoly. By this plan he intended that the profits should +be distributed in an orderly and proportioned manner for the reward of +services, and not seized by each individual according to the measure of +his boldness, dexterity, or influence.</p> + +<p>But this scheme of monopoly did not subsist long, at least in that mode +and for those purposes. Three of the grand monopolies, those of opium, +salt, and saltpetre, were successively by the Company taken into their +own hands. The produce of the sale of the two former articles was +applied to the purchase of goods for their investment; the latter was +exported in kind for their sales in Europe. The senior servants had a +certain share of emolument allotted to them from a commission on the +revenues. The junior servants were rigorously confined to salaries, on +which they were unable to subsist according to their rank. They were +strictly ordered to abstain from all dealing in objects of internal +commerce. Those of export and import were left open to young men without +mercantile experience, and wholly unprovided <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" title="82" class="pagenum"></a>with mercantile capitals, +but abundantly furnished with large trusts of the public money, and with +all the powers of an absolute government. In this situation, a religious +abstinence from all illicit game was prescribed to men at nine thousand +miles' distance from the seat of the supreme authority.</p> + +<p>Your Committee is far from meaning to justify, or even to excuse, the +oppressions and cruelties used by many in supplying the deficiencies of +their regular allowances by all manner of extortion; but many smaller +irregularities may admit some alleviation from thence. Nor does your +Committee mean to express any desire of reverting to the mode (contrived +in India, but condemned by the Directors) of rewarding the servants of +an higher class by a regulated monopoly. Their object is to point out +the deficiencies in the system, by which restrictions were laid that +could have little or no effect whilst want and power were suffered to be +united.</p> + +<p>But the proceedings of the Directors at that time, though not altogether +judicious, were in many respects honorable to them, and favorable, in +the intention at least, to the country they governed. For, finding their +trading capital employed against themselves and against the natives, and +struggling in vain against abuses which were inseparably connected with +the system of their own preference in trade, in the year 1773 they came +to the manly resolution of setting an example to their servants, and +gave up all use of power and influence in the two grand articles of +their investment, silk and piece-goods. They directed that the articles +should be bought at an equal and public market from the native +merchants; and this order they directed to be published in all the +principal marts of Bengal.</p><p><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" title="83" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Your Committee are clearly of opinion that no better method of purchase +could be adopted. But it soon appeared that in deep-rooted and +inveterate abuses the wisest principles of reform may be made to operate +so destructively as wholly to discredit the design, and to dishearten +all persons from the prosecution of it. The Presidency, who seemed to +yield with the utmost reluctance to the execution of these orders, soon +made the Directors feel their evil influence upon their own investment; +for they found the silk and cotton cloths rose twenty-five per cent +above their former price, and a further rise of forty per cent was +announced to them.</p> + + +<h3><a name="SILK" id="SILK"></a>SILK.</h3> + +<p>What happened with regard to raw silk is still more remarkable, and +tends still more clearly to illustrate the effects of commercial +servitude during its unchecked existence, and the consequences which may +be made to arise from its sudden reformation. On laying open the trade, +the article of raw silk was instantly enhanced to the Company full +eighty per cent. The contract made for that commodity, wound off in the +Bengal method, which used to sell for less than six rupees, or thirteen +shillings, for two pounds' weight, arose to nine rupees, or near twenty +shillings, and the filature silk was very soon after contracted for at +fourteen.</p> + +<p>The Presidency accounted for this rise by observing that the price had +before been <i>arbitrary</i>, and that the persons who purveyed for the +Company paid no more than "what was <i>judged</i> sufficient for the +maintenance of the first providers." This fact explains <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" title="84" class="pagenum"></a>more fully than +the most labored description can do the dreadful effects of the monopoly +on the cultivators. They had the <i>sufficiency</i> of their maintenance +measured out by the judgment of those who were to profit by their labor; +and this measure was not a great deal more, by their own account, than +about two thirds of the value of that labor. In all probability it was +much less, as these dealings rarely passed through intermediate hands +without leaving a considerable profit. These oppressions, it will be +observed, were not confined to the Company's share, which, however, +covered a great part of the trade; but as this was an article permitted +to the servants, the same power of arbitrary valuation must have been +extended over the whole, as the market must be equalized, if any +authority at all is extended over it by those who have an interest in +the restraint. The price was not only raised, but in the manufactures +the quality was debased nearly in an equal proportion. The Directors +conceived, with great reason, that this rise of price and debasement of +quality arose, not from the effect of a free market, but from the +servants having taken that opportunity of throwing upon the market of +their masters the refuse goods of their own private trade at such +exorbitant prices as by mutual connivance they were pleased to settle. +The mischief was greatly aggravated by its happening at a time when the +Company were obliged to pay for their goods with bonds bearing an high +interest.</p> + +<p>The perplexed system of the Company's concerns, composed of so many +opposite movements and contradictory principles, appears nowhere in a +more clear light. If trade continued under restraint, <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" title="85" class="pagenum"></a>their territorial +revenues must suffer by checking the general prosperity of the country: +if they set it free, means were taken to raise the price and debase the +quality of the goods; and this again fell upon the revenues, out of +which the payment for the goods was to arise. The observations of the +Company on that occasion are just and sagacious; and they will not +permit the least doubt concerning the policy of these unnatural trades. +"The amount of our Bengal cargoes, from 1769 to 1773, is 2,901,194<i>l.</i> +sterling; and if the average increase of price be estimated at +twenty-five per cent only, the amount of such increase is 725,298<i>l.</i> +sterling. The above circumstances are exceedingly alarming to us; but +what must be our concern, to find by the advices of our President and +Council of 1773, that a further advance of forty per cent on Bengal +goods was expected, and allowed to be the consequence of advertisements +then published, authorizing a free trade in the service? We find the +Duanné revenues are in general farmed for five years, and the aggregate +increase estimated at only 183,170<i>l.</i> sterling (on a supposition that +such increase will be realized); yet if the annual investment be sixty +lacs, and the advance of price thirty per cent only, such advance will +<i>exceed the increase of the revenue by no less than 829,330l. +sterling</i>."</p> + +<p>The indignation which the Directors felt at being reduced to this +distressing situation was expressed to their servants in very strong +terms. They attributed the whole to their practices, and say, "We are +far from being convinced that the competition which tends to raise the +price of goods in Bengal is wholly between public European companies, or +between merchants in general who export to foreign markets:<a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" title="86" class="pagenum"></a> we are +rather of opinion that the sources of this grand evil have been the +extraordinary privileges granted to individuals in our service or under +our license to trade without restriction throughout the provinces of +Bengal, and the encouragement they have had to extend their trade to the +uttermost, even in such goods as were proper for our investment, by +observing the success of those persons who have from time to time <i>found +means to dispose of their merchandise to our Governor and Council</i>, +though of so bad a quality as to be sold here with great difficulty, +after having been frequently refused, and put up at the next sale +without price, to the very great discredit and disadvantage of the +Company." In all probability the Directors were not mistaken; for, upon +an inquiry instituted soon after, it was found that Cantû Babû, the +banian or native steward and manager to Mr. Hastings, (late President,) +held two of these contracts in his own name and that of his son for +considerably more than 150,000<i>l</i>. This discovery brought on a +prohibition from the Court of Directors of that suspicious and dangerous +dealing in the stewards of persons in high office. The same man held +likewise farms to the amount of 140,000<i>l.</i> a year of the landed +revenue, with the same suspicious appearance, contrary to the +regulations made under Mr. Hastings's own administration.</p> + +<p>In the mortifying dilemma to which the Directors found themselves +reduced, whereby the ruin of the revenues either by the freedom or the +restraint of trade was evident, they considered the first as most rapid +and urgent, and therefore once more revert to the system of their +ancient preëmption, and destroy that freedom which they had so lately +and with so <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" title="87" class="pagenum"></a>much solemnity proclaimed, and that before it could be +abused or even enjoyed. They declare, that, "unwilling as we are to +return to <i>the former coercive system</i> of providing an investment, or to +abridge that freedom of commerce which has been so lately established in +Bengal, yet at the same time finding it our indispensable duty to strike +at the <i>root</i> of an evil which has been so severely felt by the Company, +and which can no longer be supported, we hereby direct that all persons +whatever in the Company's service, <i>or under our protection</i>, be +absolutely prohibited, by public advertisement, from trading in any of +those articles which compose our investment, directly or indirectly, +except on account of and for the East India Company, until their +investment is completed."</p> + +<p>As soon as this order was received in Bengal, it was construed, as +indeed the words seemed directly to warrant, to exclude all natives as +well as servants from the trade, until the Company was supplied. The +Company's preëmption was now authoritatively reëstablished, and some +feeble and ostensible regulations were made to relieve the weavers who +might suffer by it. The Directors imagined that the reëstablishment of +their coercive system would remove the evil which fraud and artifice had +grafted upon one more rational and liberal. But they were mistaken; for +it only varied, if it did so much as vary, the abuse. The servants might +as essentially injure their interest by a direct exercise of their power +as by pretexts drawn from the freedom of the natives,—but with this +fatal difference, that the frauds upon the Company must be of shorter +duration under a scheme of freedom. That state admitted, and indeed led +to, means of discovery and correction; <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" title="88" class="pagenum"></a>whereas the system of coercion +was likely to be permanent. It carried force further than served the +purposes of those who authorized it: it tended to cover all frauds with +obscurity, and to bury all complaint in despair. The next year, +therefore, that is, in the year 1776, the Company, who complained that +their orders had been extended beyond their intentions, made a third +revolution in the trade of Bengal. It was set free again,—so far, at +least, as regarded the native merchants,—but in so imperfect a manner +as evidently to leave the roots of old abuses in the ground. The Supreme +Court of Judicature about this time (1776) also fulminated a charge +against monopolies, without any exception of those authorized by the +Company: but it does not appear that anything very material was done in +consequence of it.</p> + +<p>The trade became nominally free; but the course of business established +in consequence of coercive monopoly was not easily altered. In order to +render more distinct the principles which led to the establishment of a +course and habit of business so very difficult to change as long as +those principles exist, your Committee think it will not be useless here +to enter into the history of the regulations made in the first and +favorite matter of the Company's investment, the trade in <i>raw silk</i>, +from the commencement of these regulations to the Company's perhaps +finally abandoning all share in the trade which was their object.</p> + + +<h3><a name="RAW_SILK" id="RAW_SILK"></a>RAW SILK</h3> + +<p>The trade in <i>raw silk</i> was at all times more popular in England than +really advantageous to the Company. In addition to the old jealousy +which pre<a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" title="89" class="pagenum"></a>vailed between the Company and the manufactory interest of +England, they came to labor under no small odium on account of the +distresses of India. The public in England perceived, and felt with a +proper sympathy, the sufferings of the Eastern provinces in all cases in +which they might be attributed to the abuses of power exercised under +the Company's authority. But they were not equally sensible to the evils +which arose from a system of sacrificing the being of that country to +the advantage of this. They entered very readily into the former, but +with regard to the latter were slow and incredulous. It is not, +therefore, extraordinary that the Company should endeavor to ingratiate +themselves with the public by falling in with its prejudices. Thus they +were led to increase the grievance in order to allay the clamor. They +continued still, upon a larger scale, and still more systematically, +that plan of conduct which was the principal, though not the most +blamed, cause of the decay and depopulation of the country committed to +their care.</p> + +<p>With that view, and to furnish a cheap supply of materials to the +manufactures of England, they formed a scheme which tended to destroy, +or at least essentially to impair, the whole manufacturing interest of +Bengal. A policy of that sort could not fail of being highly popular, +when the Company submitted itself as an instrument for the improvement +of British manufactures, instead of being their most dangerous rival, as +heretofore they had been always represented.</p> + +<p>They accordingly notified to their Presidency in Bengal, in their letter +of the 17th of March, 1769, that "there was no branch of their trade +they more <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" title="90" class="pagenum"></a>ardently wish to extend than that of raw silk." They +disclaim, however, all desire of employing compulsory measures for that +purpose, but recommended every mode of encouragement, and particularly +by augmented wages, "<i>in order to induce manufacturers of wrought silk +to quit that branch and take to the winding of raw silk</i>."</p> + +<p>Having thus found means to draw hands from the manufacture, and +confiding in the strength of a capital drawn from the public revenues, +they pursue their ideas from the purchase of their manufacture to the +purchase of the material in its crudest state. "We recommend you to give +an <i>increased price</i>, if necessary, <i>so as to take that trade out of the +hands of other merchants and rival nations</i>." A double bounty was thus +given against the manufactures, both in the labor and in the materials.</p> + +<p>It is very remarkable in what manner their vehement pursuit of this +object led the Directors to a speedy oblivion of those equitable +correctives before interposed by them, in order to prevent the mischiefs +which were apparent in the scheme, if left to itself. They could venture +so little to trust to the bounties given from the revenues a trade which +had a tendency to dry up their source, that, by the time they had +proceeded to the thirty-third paragraph of their letter, they revert to +those very compulsory means which they had disclaimed but three +paragraphs before. To prevent silk-winders from working in their private +houses, where they might work for private traders, and to confine them +to the Company's factories, where they could only be employed for the +Company's benefit, they desire that the newly acquired power of +government should be effectually employed.<a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" title="91" class="pagenum"></a> "Should," say they, "this +practice, through <i>inattention</i>, have been suffered to take place again, +it will be proper to put a stop to it, which may <i>now be more +effectually done by an absolute prohibition, under severe penalties, by +the authority of government</i>."</p> + +<p>This letter contains a perfect plan of policy, both of compulsion and +encouragement, which must in a very considerable degree operate +destructively to the manufactures of Bengal. Its effect must be (so far +as it could operate without being eluded) to change the whole face of +that industrious country, in order to render it a field for the produce +of crude materials subservient to the manufactures of Great Britain. The +manufacturing hands were to be seduced from their looms by high wages, +in order to prepare a raw produce for our market; they were to be locked +up in the factories; and the commodity acquired by these operations was, +in this immature state, carried out of the country, whilst its looms +would be left without any material but the debased refuse of a market +enhanced in its price and scanted in its supply. By the increase of the +price of this and other materials, manufactures formerly the most +flourishing gradually disappeared under the protection of Great Britain, +and were seen to rise again and flourish on the opposite coast of India, +under the dominion of the Mahrattas.</p> + +<p>These restraints and encouragements seem to have had the desired effect +in Bengal with regard to the diversion of labor from manufacture to +materials. The trade of raw silk increased rapidly. But the Company very +soon felt, in the increase of price and debasement of quality of the +wrought goods, a loss to themselves which fully counterbalanced all the +advan<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" title="92" class="pagenum"></a>tages to be derived to the nation from the increase of the raw +commodity. The necessary effect on the revenue was also foretold very +early: for their servants in the principal silk-factories declared that +the obstruction to the private trade in silk must in the end prove +detrimental to the revenues, and that the investment clashes with the +collection of these revenues. Whatsoever by bounties or immunities is +encouraged out of a landed revenue has certainly some tendency to lessen +the net amount of that revenue, and to forward a produce which does not +yield to the gross collection, rather than one that does.</p> + +<p>The Directors declare themselves unable to understand how this could be. +Perhaps it was not so difficult. But, pressed as they were by the +greatness of the payments which they were compelled to make to +government in England, the cries of Bengal could not be heard among the +contending claims of the General Court, of the Treasury, and of +Spitalfields. The speculation of the Directors was originally fair and +plausible,—so far as the mere encouragement of the commodity extended. +Situated as they were, it was hardly in their power to stop themselves +in the course they had begun. They were obliged to continue their +resolution, at any hazard, increasing the investment. "The state of our +affairs," say they, "requires the utmost extension of your investments. +You are not to forbear sending even those sorts <i>which are attended with +loss</i>, in case such should be necessary to supply an investment to as +great an amount as <i>you can provide from your own resources</i>; and we +have not the least doubt of your being thereby enabled to increase your +consignments of this valuable branch of national commerce, even to the +utmost of <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" title="93" class="pagenum"></a>your wishes. But it is our positive order that no part of +such investment be provided with borrowed money which is to be repaid by +<i>drafts upon our treasury in London</i>; since the license which has +already been taken in this respect has involved us in difficulties which +we yet know not how we shall surmount."</p> + +<p>This very instructive paragraph lays open the true origin of the +internal decay of Bengal. The trade and revenues of that country were +(as the then system must necessarily have been) of secondary +consideration at best. Present supplies were to be obtained, and present +demands in England were to be avoided, at every expense to Bengal.</p> + +<p>The spirit of increasing the investment from revenue at any rate, and +the resolution of driving all competitors, Europeans or natives, out of +the market, prevailed at a period still more early, and prevailed not +only in Bengal, but seems, more or less, to have diffused itself through +the whole sphere of the Company's influence. In 1768 they gave to the +Presidency of Madras the following memorable instruction, strongly +declaratory of their general system of policy.</p> + +<p>"We shall depend upon your prudence," say they, "to discourage +foreigners; and being intent, as you have been repeatedly acquainted, on +bringing home as great a part of the revenues as possible in your +manufactures, the outbidding them in those parts where they interfere +with you would certainly prove an effectual step for answering that end. +We therefore recommend it to you to offer such increase of price as you +shall deem may be consistently given,—that, by beating them out of the +market, the quantities by you to be provided may be proportionally +<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" title="94" class="pagenum"></a>enlarged; and if you take this method, it is to be so cautiously +practised as not to enhance the prices in the places immediately under +your control. On this subject we must not omit the approval of your +prohibiting the weavers of Cuddalore from making up any cloth of the +same sortments that are provided for us; and if such prohibition is not +now, it should by all means be in future, <i>made general, and strictly +maintained</i>."</p> + +<p>This system must have an immediate tendency towards disordering the +trade of India, and must finally end in great detriment to the Company +itself. The effect of the restrictive system on the weaver is evident. +The authority given to the servants to buy at an advanced price did of +necessity furnish means and excuses for every sort of fraud in their +purchases. The instant the servant of a merchant is admitted on his own +judgment to overbid the market, or to send goods to his master which +shall sell at loss, there is no longer any standard upon which his +unfair practices can be estimated, or any effectual means by which they +can be restrained. The hope entertained by the Directors, of confining +this destructive practice of giving an enhanced price to a particular +spot, must ever be found totally delusive. Speculations will be affected +by this artificial price in every quarter in which markets can have the +least communication with each other.</p> + +<p>In a very few years the Court of Directors began to feel, even in +Leadenhall Street, <i>the effects of trading to loss</i> upon the revenues, +especially on those of Bengal. In the letter of February, 1774, they +observe, that, "looking back to their accounts for the four preceding +years, on several of the descriptions <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" title="95" class="pagenum"></a>of silk there has been an +<i>increasing loss</i>, instead of any alteration for the better in the last +year's productions. This," they say, "threatens the destruction of that +valuable branch of national commerce." And then they recommend <i>such +regulations</i> (as if regulations in that state of things could be of any +service) as may obtain "a profit in future, instead of so considerable a +loss, which <i>we can no longer sustain</i>."</p> + +<p>Your Committee thought it necessary to inquire into the losses which had +actually been suffered by this unnatural forced trade, and find the loss +so early as the season of 1776 to be 77,650<i>l.</i>, that in the year 1777 +it arose to 168,205<i>l.</i> This was so great that worse could hardly be +apprehended: however, in the season of 1778 it amounted to 255,070<i>l.</i> +In 1779 it was not so ruinously great, because the whole import was not +so considerable; but it still stood enormously high,—so high as +141,800<i>l.</i> In the whole four years it came to 642,725<i>l.</i> The +observations of the Directors were found to be fully verified. It is +remarkable that the same article in the China trade produced a +considerable and uniform profit. On this circumstance little observation +is necessary.</p> + +<p>During the time of their struggles for enlarging this losing trade, +which they considered as a national object,—what in one point of view +it was, and, if it had not been grossly mismanaged, might have been in +more than one,—in this part it is impossible to refuse to the Directors +a very great share of merit. No degree of thought, of trouble, or of +reasonable expense was spared by them for the improvement of the +commodity. They framed with diligence, and apparently on very good +information, a code of manufacturing regulations for that purpose; and +several per<a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" title="96" class="pagenum"></a>sons were sent out, conversant in the Italian method of +preparing and winding silk, aided by proper machines for facilitating +and perfecting the work. This, under proper care, and in course of time, +might have produced a real improvement to Bengal; but in the first +instance it naturally drew the business from native management, and it +caused a revulsion from the trade and manufactures of India which led as +naturally and inevitably to an European monopoly, in some hands or +other, as any of the modes of coercion which were or could be employed. +The evil was present and inherent in the act. The means of letting the +natives into the benefit of the improved system of produce was likely to +be counteracted by the general ill conduct of the Company's concerns +abroad. For a while, at least, it had an effect still worse: for the +Company purchasing the raw cocoon or silk-pod at a fixed rate, the first +producer, who, whilst he could wind at his own house, employed his +family in this labor, and could procure a reasonable livelihood by +buying up the cocoons for the Italian filature, now incurred the +enormous and ruinous loss of fifty per cent. This appears in a letter to +the Presidency, written by Mr. Boughton Rouse, now a member of your +Committee. But for a long time a considerable quantity of that in the +old Bengal mode of winding was bought for the Company from contractors, +and it continues to be so bought to the present time: but the Directors +complain, in their letter of the 12th of May, 1780, that both species, +and particularly the latter, had risen so extravagantly that it was +become more than forty per cent dearer than it had been fifteen years +ago. In that state of price, they condemn their servants, very justly, +for entering into contracts for three years,—<a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" title="97" class="pagenum"></a>and that for several +kinds of silk, of very different goodness, upon averages unfairly +formed, where the commodities averaged at an equal price differed from +twenty to thirty per cent on the sale. Soon after, they formed a regular +scale of fixed prices, above which they found they could not trade +without loss.</p> + +<p>Whilst they were continuing these methods to secure themselves against +future losses, the Bengal ships which arrived in that year announced +nothing but their continuance. Some articles by the high price, and +others from their ill quality, were such "as never could answer to be +sent to Europe at any price." The Directors renew their prohibition of +making fresh contracts, the present being generally to expire in the +year 1781. But this trade, whose fundamental policy might have admitted +of a doubt, as applied to Bengal, (whatever it might have been with +regard to England,) was now itself expiring in the hands of the Company, +so that they were obliged to apply to government for power to enlarge +their capacity of receiving bills upon Europe. The purchase by these +bills they entirely divert from raw silk, and order to be laid out +wholly in piece-goods.</p> + +<p>Thus, having found by experience that this trade, whilst carried on upon +the old principles, of whatever advantage it might have been to the +British manufacturers, or to the individuals who were concerned in it in +Bengal, had proved highly detrimental to the Company, the Directors +resolved to expunge the raw silk from their investment. They gave up the +whole to private traders, on condition of paying the freight, charges, +and duties,—permitting them to send it to Europe in the Company's ships +upon their own account.</p><p><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" title="98" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The whole of this history will serve to demonstrate that all attempts, +which in their original system or in their necessary consequences tend +to the distress of India, must, and in a very short time will, make +themselves felt even by those in whose favor such attempts have been +made. India may possibly in some future time bear and support itself +under an extraction of measure [treasure?] or of goods; but much care +ought to be taken that the influx of wealth shall be greater in quantity +and prior in time to the waste.</p> + +<p>On abandoning the trade in silk to private hands, the Directors issued +some prohibitions to prevent monopoly, and they gave some directions +about the improvement of the trade. The prohibitions were proper, and +the directions prudent; but it is much to be feared, that, whilst all +the means, instruments, and powers remain, by which monopolies were +made, and through which abuses formerly prevailed, all verbal orders +will be fruitless.</p> + +<p>This branch of trade, being so long principally managed by the Company's +servants for the Company and under its authority, cannot be easily taken +out of their hands and pass to the natives, especially when it is to be +carried on without the control naturally inherent in all participation. +It is not difficult to conceive how this forced preference of traffic in +a raw commodity must have injured the manufactures, while it was the +policy of the Company to continue the trade on their own account. The +servants, so far from deviating from their course, since they have taken +the trade into their own management, have gone much further into it. The +proportion of raw silk in the investment is to be augmented. The +proportion of the whole cargoes for the year 1783, divided into sixteen +<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" title="99" class="pagenum"></a>parts, is ten of raw silk, and six only of manufactured goods. Such is +the proportion of this losing article in the scheme for the investment +of private fortunes.</p> + +<p>In the reformed scheme of sending the investment on account of the +Company, to be paid in bills upon Europe, no mention is made of any +change of these proportions. Indeed, some limits are attempted on the +article of silk, with regard to its price; and it is not improbable that +the price to the master and the servant will be very different: but they +cannot make profitable purchases of this article without strongly +condemning all the former purchases of the Board of Trade.</p> + + +<h3><a name="CLOTHS_OR_PIECE-GOODS" id="CLOTHS_OR_PIECE-GOODS"></a>CLOTHS, OR PIECE-GOODS.</h3> + +<p>The general system above stated, relative to the silk trade, must +materially have affected the manufactures of Bengal, merely as it was a +system of preference. It does by no means satisfactorily appear to your +Committee that the freedom held out by the Company's various orders has +been ever fully enjoyed, or that the grievances of the native merchants +and manufacturers have been redressed; for we find, on good authority, +that, at that very period at which it might be supposed that these +orders had their operation, the oppressions were in full vigor. They +appear to have fallen heaviest on the city of Dacca, formerly the great +staple for the finest goods in India,—a place once full of opulent +merchants and dealers of all descriptions.</p> + +<p>The city and district of Dacca, before the prevalence of the East India +Company's influence and authority, manufactured annually to about three +<a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" title="100" class="pagenum"></a>hundred thousand pounds' value in cloths. In the year 1776 it had +fallen to about two hundred thousand, or two thirds of its former +produce. Of this the Company's demand amounted only to a fourth part, +that is, about fifty thousand pounds yearly. This was at that time +provided by agents for the Company, under the inspection of their +commercial servants. On pretence of securing an advantage for this +fourth part for their masters, they exerted a most violent and arbitrary +power over the whole. It was asserted, that they fixed the Company's +mark to such goods as they thought fit, (to all goods, as stated in one +complaint,) and disposed of them as they thought proper, excluding not +only all the native dealers, but the Dutch Company, and private English +merchants,—that they made advances to the weavers often beyond their +known ability to repay in goods within the year, and by this means, +having got them in debt, held them in perpetual servitude. Their +inability to keep accounts left them at the discretion of the agents of +the supreme power to make their balances what they pleased, and they +recovered them, not by legal process, but by seizure of their goods and +arbitrary imprisonment of their persons. One and the same dealer made +the advance, valued the return, stated the account, passed the judgment, +and executed the process.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rouse, Chief of the Dacca Province, who struggled against those +evils, says, that in the year 1773 there were no balances due, as the +trade was then carried on by the native brokers. In less than three +years these balances amounted to an immense sum,—a sum lost to the +Company, but existing in full force for every purpose of oppression. In +the amount <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" title="101" class="pagenum"></a>of these balances almost every weaver in the country bore a +part, and consequently they were almost all caught in this snare. "They +are in general," says Mr. Rouse, in a letter to General Clavering, +delivered to your Committee, "a timid, helpless people; many of them +poor to the utmost degree of wretchedness; incapable of keeping +accounts; industrious as it were by instinct; unable to defend +themselves, if oppressed; and satisfied, if with continual labor they +derive from the fair dealing and humanity of their employer a moderate +subsistence for their families."</p> + +<p>Such were the people who stood accused by the Company's agents as +<i>pretending</i> grievances, in order to be excused the payment of their +balances. As to the commercial state of the province in general, Mr. +Rouse represents it "to be for those two years a perpetual scene of +complaint and disputation;—the Company's agents professing to pay +higher rates to weavers, whilst the Leadenhall sales showed an heavy +loss to the Company; the weavers have even travelled in multitudes to +prefer their complaints at the Presidency; the amount of the investment +comparatively small, with balances comparatively large, and, as I +understand, generally contested by the weavers; the native merchants, +called <i>delâls</i>, removed from their influence, as prejudicial to the +Company's concerns; and European merchants complaining against undue +influence of the Company's commercial agents, in preventing the free +purchase even of those goods which the Company never takes."</p> + +<p>The spirit of those agents will be fully comprehended from a state of +the proceedings before Mr. Rouse and Council, on the complaint of a Mr. +Cree, an English free merchant at Dacca, who had been <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" title="102" class="pagenum"></a>twice treated in +the same injurious manner by the agents of Mr. Hurst, the Commercial +Chief at that place. On his complaint to the board of the seizure of the +goods, and imprisonment of his agents, Mr. Hurst was called upon for an +explanation. In return he informed them that he had sent to one of the +villages to inquire concerning the matter of fact alleged. The impartial +person sent to make this inquiry was the very man accused of the +oppressions into which he was sent to examine. The answer of Mr. Hurst +is in an high and determined tone. He does not deny that there are some +instances of abuse of power. "But I ask," says he, "what <i>authority</i> can +guard against the conduct of individuals? but that a <i>single</i> instance +cannot be brought of a general depravity." Your Committee have reason to +believe these coercive measures to have been very general, though +employed according to the degree of resistance opposed to the monopoly; +for we find at one time the whole trade of the Dutch involved in the +general servitude. But it appears very extraordinary that nothing but +the actual proof of a <i>general</i> abuse could affect a practice the very +principle of which tends to make the coercion as general as the trade. +Mr. Hurst's reflection concerning the abuse of <i>authority</i> is just, but +in this case it is altogether inapplicable; because the complaint was +not of the abuse, but of the use of authority in matters of trade, which +ought to have been free. He throws out a variety of invidious +reflections against the Council, as if they wanted zeal for the +Company's service; his justification of his practices, and his +declaration of his resolution to persevere in them, are firm and +determined,—asserting the right and policy of such re<a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" title="103" class="pagenum"></a>straints, and +laying down a rule for his conduct at the factory, which, he says, will +give no cause of just complaint to private traders. He adds, "I have no +doubt but that they have hitherto provided investments, and it cannot +turn to my interest to preclude them <i>now</i>, though I must ever think it +my duty to combat the private views of individuals who <i>set themselves +up as competitors</i> under that very body under whose license and +indulgence only they can derive their privilege of trade: all I contend +for is the <i>same influence</i> my employers have ever had." He ends by +declining any reply to any of their future references of this nature.</p> + +<p>The whole of this extraordinary letter is inserted in the Appendix, No. +51,—and Mr. Rouse's minute of observations upon it in Appendix, No. 52, +fully refuting the few pretexts alleged in that extraordinary +performance in support of the trade by influence and authority. Mr. +Hollond, one of the Council, joined Mr. Rouse in opinion that a letter +to the purport of that minute should be written; but they were overruled +by Messrs. Purling, Hogarth, and Shakespeare, who passed a resolution to +defer sending any reply to Mr. Hurst: and none was ever sent. Thus they +gave countenance to the doctrine contained in that letter, as well as to +the mischievous practices which must inevitably arise from the exercise +of such power. Some temporary and partial relief was given by the +vigorous exertions of Mr. Rouse; but he shortly after removing from that +government, all complaints were dropped.</p> + +<p>It is remarkable, that, during the long and warm contest between the +Company's agents and the dealers of Dacca, the Board of Trade seem to +have taken a de<a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" title="104" class="pagenum"></a>cided part against the latter. They allow some sort of +justice in the complaints of the manufacturers with regard to low +valuation, and other particulars; but they say, that, "although" (during +the time of preëmption) "it appears that the weavers <i>were not allowed +the same liberty of selling to individuals they before enjoyed</i>, our +opinion on the whole is, that these complaints have originated upon the +premeditated designs of the delâls [factors or brokers] <i>to thwart the +new mode</i> of carrying on the Company's business, <i>and to render +themselves necessary</i>." They say, in another place, that there is no +ground for the dissatisfactions and difficulties of the weavers: "that +they are owing to the delâls, <i>whose aim it is to be employed</i>."</p> + +<p>This desire of being employed, and of rendering themselves necessary, in +men whose only business it is to be employed in trade, is considered by +the gentlemen of the board as no trivial offence; and accordingly they +declare, "they have established it as <i>an invariable rule</i>, that, +<i>whatever deficiency</i> there might be in the Dacca investment, no +purchase of the manufactures of <i>that quarter</i> shall be made for account +of the Company from private merchants. We have passed this resolution, +which we deem of importance, from a persuasion that private merchants +are often <i>induced</i> to make advances for Dacca goods, not by the +ordinary chance of sale, but merely from an expectation of disposing of +them at an enhanced price to the Company, against <i>whom a rivalship</i> is +by this manner encouraged"; and they say, "that they intend to observe +the <i>same</i> rule with respect to the investment of other of the factories +from whence similar complaints may come."</p> + +<p>This positive rule is opposed to the positive direc<a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" title="105" class="pagenum"></a>tions of the Company +to employ those obnoxious persons by preference. How far this violent +use of authority for the purpose of destroying rivalship has succeeded +in reducing the price of goods to the Company has been made manifest by +the facts before stated in their place.</p> + +<p>The recriminatory charges of the Company's agents on the native +merchants have made very little impression on your Committee. We have +nothing in favor of them, but the assertion of a party powerful and +interested. In such cases of mutual assertion and denial, your Committee +are led irresistibly to attach abuse to power, and to presume that +suffering and hardship are more likely to attend on weakness than that +any combination of unprotected individuals is of force to prevail over +influence, power, wealth, and authority. The complaints of the native +merchants ought not to have been treated in any of those modes in which +they were then treated. And when men are in the situation of +complainants against unbounded power, their abandoning their suit is far +from a full and clear proof of their complaints being groundless. It is +not because redress has been rendered impracticable that oppression does +not exist; nor is the despair of sufferers any alleviation of their +afflictions. A review of some of the most remarkable of the complaints +made by the native merchants in that province is so essential for laying +open the true spirit of the commercial administration, and the real +condition of those concerned in trade there, that your Committee +observing the records on this subject and at this period full of them, +they could not think themselves justifiable in not stating them to the +House.</p><p><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" title="106" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Your Committee have found many heavy charges of oppression against Mr. +Barwell, whilst Factory Chief at Dacca; which oppressions are stated to +have continued, and even to have been aggravated, on complaint at +Calcutta. These complaints appear in several memorials presented to the +Supreme Council of Calcutta, of which Mr. Barwell was a member. They +appeared yet more fully and more strongly in a bill in Chancery filed in +the Supreme Court, which was afterwards recorded before the +Governor-General and Council, and transmitted to the Court of Directors.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, struck with the magnitude and importance of these +charges, and finding that with regard to those before the Council no +regular investigation has ever taken place, and finding also that Mr. +Barwell had asserted in a Minute of Council that he had given a full +answer to the allegations in that bill, ordered a copy of the answer to +be laid before your Committee, that they might be enabled to state to +the House how far it appeared to them to be full, how far the charges +were denied as to the fact, or, where the facts might be admitted, what +justification was set up. It appeared necessary, in order to determine +on the true situation of the trade and the merchants of that great city +and district.</p> + +<p>The Secretary to the Court of Directors has informed your Committee that +no copy of the answer is to be found in the India House; nor has your +Committee been able to discover that any has been transmitted. On this +failure, your Committee ordered an application to be made to Mr. Barwell +for a copy of his answer to the bill, and any other information with +which he might be furnished with regard to that subject.</p><p><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" title="107" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Mr. Barwell, after reciting the above letter, returned in answer what +follows.</p> + +<p>"Whether the records of the Supreme Court of Judicature are lodged at +the India House I am ignorant, but on those records my answer is +certainly to be found. At this distance of time I am sorry I cannot from +memory recover the circumstances of this affair; but this I know, that +the bill did receive a complete answer, and the people the fullest +satisfaction: nor is it necessary for me to remark, that [in?] the state +of parties at that time in Bengal, could party have brought forward any +particle of that bill supported by any verified fact, the principle that +introduced it in the proceedings of the Governor-General and Council +would likewise have given the verification of that one circumstance, +whatever that might have been. As I generally attend in my place in the +House, I shall with pleasure answer any invitation of the gentlemen of +the Committee to attend their investigations up stairs with every +information and light in my power to give them.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"St. James's Square, 15th April, 1783."<br /></span> +</p> + +<p>Your Committee considered, that, with regard to the matter charged in +the several petitions to the board, no sort of specific answer had been +given at the time and place where they were made, and when and where the +parties might be examined and confronted. It was considered also, that +the bill had been transmitted, with other papers relating to the same +matter, to the Court of Directors, with the knowledge and consent of Mr. +Barwell,—and that he states that his answer had been filed, and no +proceedings had upon it for eighteen months. In that <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" title="108" class="pagenum"></a>situation it was +thought something extraordinary that no care was taken by him to +transmit so essential a paper as his answer, and that he had no copy of +it in his hands.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, in this difficulty, thought themselves obliged to +decline any verbal explanation from the person who is defendant in the +suit, relative to matters which on the part of the complainant appear +upon record, and to leave the whole matter, as it is charged, to the +judgment of the House to determine how far it may be worthy of a further +inquiry, or how far they may admit such allegations as your Committee +could not think themselves justified in receiving. To this effect your +Committee ordered a letter to be written Mr. Barwell; from whom they +received the following answer.</p> + +<p>"Sir,—In consequence of your letter of the 17th, I must request the +favor of you to inform the Select Committee that I expect from their +justice, on any matter of public record in which I am personally to be +brought forward to the notice of the House, that they will at the same +time point out to the House what part of such matter has been verified, +and what parts have not nor ever were attempted to be verified, though +introduced in debate and entered on the records of the Governor-General +and Council of Bengal. I am anxious the information should be complete, +or the House will not be competent to judge; and if it is complete, it +will preclude all explanation as unnecessary.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"I am, Sir,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">"Your most obedient humble servant,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"RICHARD BARWELL.<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"St. James's Square, 22nd April, 1783.<br /></span> +</p> + +<p><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" title="109" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>"P.S. As I am this moment returned from the country, I had it not in my +power to be earlier in acknowledging your letter of the 17th."</p> + +<p>Your Committee applied to Mr. Barwell to communicate any papers which +might tend to the elucidation of matters before them in which he was +concerned. This he has declined to do. Your Committee conceive that +under the orders of the House they are by no means obliged to make a +complete state of all the evidence which may tend to criminate or +exculpate every person whose transactions they may find it expedient to +report: this, if not specially ordered, has not hitherto been, as they +apprehend, the usage of any committee of this House. It is not for your +Committee, but for the discretion of the party, to call for, and for the +wisdom of the House to institute, such proceedings as may tend finally +to condemn or acquit. The Reports of your Committee are no charges, +though they may possibly furnish <i>matter</i> for charge; and no +representations or observations of theirs can either clear or convict on +any proceeding which may hereafter be grounded on the facts which they +produce to the House. Their opinions are not of a judicial nature. Your +Committee has taken abundant care that every important fact in their +Report should be attended with the authority for it, either in the +course of their reflections or in the Appendix: to report everything +upon every subject before them which is to be found on the records of +the Company would be to transcribe, and in the event to print, almost +the whole of those voluminous papers. The matter which appears before +them is in a summary manner this.</p><p><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" title="110" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The Dacca merchants begin by complaining that in November, 1773, Mr. +Richard Barwell, then Chief of Dacca, had deprived them of their +employment and means of subsistence; that he had extorted from them +44,224 Arcot rupees (4,731<i>l.</i>) by the terror of his threats, by long +imprisonment, and cruel confinement in the stocks; that afterwards they +were confined in a small room near the factory-gate, under a guard of +sepoys; that their food was stopped, and they remained starving a whole +day; that they were not permitted to take their food till next day at +noon, and were again brought back to the same confinement, in which they +were continued for six days, and were not set at liberty until they had +given Mr. Barwell's banian a certificate for forty thousand rupees; that +in July, 1774, when Mr. Barwell had left Dacca, they went to Calcutta to +seek justice; that Mr. Barwell confined them in his house at Calcutta, +and sent them back under a guard of peons to Dacca; that in December, +1774, on the arrival of the gentlemen from Europe, they returned to +Calcutta, and preferred their complaint to the Supreme Court of +Judicature.</p> + +<p>The bill in Chancery filed against Richard Barwell, John Shakespeare, +and others, contains a minute specification of the various acts of +personal cruelty said to be practised by Mr. Barwell's orders, to extort +money from these people. Among other acts of a similar nature he is +charged with having ordered the appraiser of the Company's cloths, who +was an old man, and who asserts that he had faithfully served the +Company above sixteen years without the least censure on his conduct, to +be severely flogged without reason.</p><p><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" title="111" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>In the <i>manner</i> of confining the delâls, with ten of their servants, it +is charged on him, that, "when he first ordered them to be put into the +stocks, it was at a time when the weather was exceedingly bad and the +rain very heavy, without allowing them the least covering for their +heads or any part of their body, or anything to raise them from the wet +ground; in which condition they were continued for many hours, until the +said Richard Barwell thought proper to remove them into a far worse +state, if possible, as if studying to exercise the most cruel acts of +barbarity on them, &c.; and that during their imprisonment they were +frequently carried to and tortured in the stocks in the middle of the +day, when the scorching heat of the sun was insupportable, +notwithstanding which they were denied the least covering." These men +assert that they had served the Company without blame for thirty +years,—a period commencing long before the power of the Company in +India.</p> + +<p>It was no slight aggravation of this severity, that the objects were not +young, nor of the lowest of the people, who might, by the vigor of their +constitutions, or by the habits of hardship, be enabled to bear up +against treatment so full of rigor. They were aged persons; they were +men of a reputable profession.</p> + +<p>The account given by these merchants of their first journey to Calcutta, +in July, 1774, is circumstantial and remarkable. They say, "that, on +their arrival, <i>to their astonishment, they soon learned that the +Governor, who had formerly been violently enraged against the said +Richard Barwell for different improprieties in his conduct, was now +reconciled to him; and that ever <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" title="112" class="pagenum"></a>since there was a certainty of his +Majesty's appointments taking place in India, from being the most +inveterate enemies they were now become the most intimate friends; and +that this account soon taught them to believe they were not any nearer +justice from their journey to Calcutta than they had been before at +Dacca</i>."</p> + +<p>When this bill of complaint was, in 1776, laid before the Council, to be +transmitted to the Court of Directors, Mr. Barwell complained of the +introduction of such a paper, and asserted, <i>that he had answered to +every particular of it on oath about eighteen months, and that during +this long period no attempt had been made to controvert, refute, or even +to reply to it</i>.</p> + +<p>He did not, however, think it proper to enter his answer on the records +along with the bill of whose introduction he complained.</p> + +<p>On the declarations made by Mr. Barwell in his minute (September, 1776) +your Committee observe, that, considering him only as an individual +under prosecution in a court of justice, it might be sufficient for him +to exhibit his defence in the court where he was accused; but that, as a +member of government, specifically charged before that very government +with abusing the powers of his office in a very extraordinary manner, +and for purposes (as they allege) highly corrupt and criminal, it +appears to your Committee hardly sufficient to say that he had answered +elsewhere. The matter was to go before the Court of Directors, to whom +the question of his conduct in that situation, a situation of the +highest power and trust, was as much at least a question of state as a +matter of redress to be solely left to the discretion, capacity, or +perseverance of indi<a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" title="113" class="pagenum"></a>viduals. Mr. Barwell might possibly be generous +enough to take no advantage of his eminent situation; but these +unfortunate people would rather look to his power than his disposition. +In general, a man so circumstanced and so charged (though we do not know +this to be the case with Mr. Barwell) might easily contrive by legal +advantages to escape. The plaintiffs being at a great distance from the +seat of government, and possibly affected by fear or fatigue, or seeing +the impossibility of sustaining with the ruins of fortunes never perhaps +very opulent a suit against wealth, power, and influence, a compromise +might even take place, in which circumstances might make the +complainants gladly acquiesce. But the public injury is not in the least +repaired by the acquiescence of individuals, as it touched the honor of +the very highest parts of government. In the opinion of your Committee +some means ought to have been taken to bring the bill to a discussion on +the merits; or supposing that such decree could not be obtained by +reason of any failure of proceeding on the part of the plaintiffs, that +some process official or juridical ought to have been instituted against +them which might prove them guilty of slander and defamation in as +authentic a manner as they had made their charge, before the Council as +well as the Court.</p> + +<p>By the determination of Mr. Hurst, and the resolutions of the Board of +Trade, it is much to be apprehended that the native mercantile interest +must be exceedingly reduced. The above-mentioned resolutions of the +Board of Trade, if executed in their rigor, must almost inevitably +accomplish its ruin. The subsequent transactions are covered with an +obscurity which your Committee have not been able <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" title="114" class="pagenum"></a>to dispel. All which +they can collect, but that by no means distinctly, is, that, as those +who trade for the Company in the articles of investment may also trade +for themselves in the same articles, the old opportunities of +confounding the capacities must remain, and all the oppressions by which +this confusion has been attended. The Company's investments, as the +General Letter from Bengal of the 20th of November, 1775, par. 28, +states the matter, "are never at a stand; advances are made and goods +are received all the year round." Balances, the grand instrument of +oppression, naturally accumulate on poor manufacturers who are intrusted +with money. Where there is not a vigorous rivalship, not only tolerated, +but encouraged, it is impossible ever to redeem the manufacturers from +the servitude induced by those unpaid balances.</p> + +<p>No such rivalship does exist: the policy practised and avowed is +directly against it. The reason assigned in the Board of Trade's letter +of the 28th of November, 1778, for its making their advances early in +the season is, to prevent the foreign merchants and private traders +<i>interfering</i> with the purchase of their (the Company's) assortments. +"They also refer to the means taken to prevent this interference in +their letter of 26th January, 1779." It is impossible that the small +part of the trade should not fall into the hands of those who, with the +name and authority of the governing persons, have such extensive +contracts in their hands. It appears in evidence that natives can hardly +trade to the best advantage, (your Committee doubt whether they can +trade to any advantage at all,) if not joined with or countenanced by +British subjects. The Directors were in 1775 so <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" title="115" class="pagenum"></a>strongly impressed with +this notion, and conceived the native merchants to have been even then +reduced to so low a state, that, notwithstanding the Company's earnest +desire of giving them a preference, they "doubt whether there are at +this time in Bengal native merchants possessed of property adequate to +such undertaking, or of credit and responsibility sufficient to make it +safe and prudent to trust them with such sums as might be necessary to +enable them to fulfil their engagements with the Company."</p> + +<p>The effect which so long continued a monopoly, followed by a preëmption, +and then by partial preferences supported by power, must necessarily +have in weakening the mercantile capital, and disabling the merchants +from all undertakings of magnitude, is but too visible. However, a +witness of understanding and credit does not believe the capitals of the +natives to be yet so reduced as to disable them from partaking in the +trade, if they were otherwise able to put themselves on an equal footing +with Europeans.</p> + +<p>The difficulties at the outset will, however, be considerable. For the +long continuance of abuse has in some measure conformed the whole trade +of the country to its false principle. To make a sudden change, +therefore, might destroy the few advantages which attend any trade, +without securing those which must flow from one established upon sound +mercantile principles, whenever such a trade can be established. The +fact is, that the forcible direction which the trade of India has had +towards Europe, to the neglect, or rather to the total abandoning, of +the Asiatic, has of itself tended to carry even the internal business +from the native merchant. The revival of trade in the native hands is of +absolute necessity; but your Com<a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" title="116" class="pagenum"></a>mittee is of opinion that it will +rather be the effect of a regular progressive course of endeavors for +that purpose than of any one regulation, however wisely conceived.</p> + +<p>After this examination into the condition of the trade and traders in +the principal articles provided for the investment to Europe, your +Committee proceeded to take into consideration those articles the +produce of which, after sale in Bengal, is to form a part of the fund +for the purchase of other articles of investment, or to make a part of +it in kind. These are, 1st, Opium,—2ndly, Saltpetre,—and, 3rdly, Salt. +These are all monopolized.</p> + + +<h3><a name="OPIUM" id="OPIUM"></a>OPIUM.</h3> + +<p>The first of the internal authorized monopolies is that of opium. This +drug, extracted from a species of the poppy, is of extensive consumption +in most of the Eastern markets. The best is produced in the province of +Bahar: in Bengal it is of an inferior sort, though of late it has been +improved. This monopoly is to be traced to the very origin of our +influence in Bengal. It is stated to have begun at Patna so early as the +year 1761, but it received no considerable degree of strength or +consistence until the year 1765, when the acquisition of the Duanné +opened a wide field for all projects of this nature. It was then adopted +and owned as a resource for persons in office,—was managed chiefly by +the civil servants of the Patna factory, and for their own benefit. The +policy was justified on the usual principles on which monopolies are +supported, and on some peculiar to the commodity, to the nature of the +trade, and to the <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" title="117" class="pagenum"></a>state of the country: the security against +adulteration; the prevention of the excessive home consumption of a +pernicious drug; the stopping an excessive competition, which by an +over-proportioned supply would at length destroy the market abroad; the +inability of the cultivator to proceed in an expensive and precarious +culture without a large advance of capital; and, lastly, the incapacity +of private merchants to supply that capital on the feeble security of +wretched farmers.</p> + +<p>These were the principal topics on which the monopoly was supported. The +last topic leads to a serious consideration on the state of the country; +for, in pushing it, the gentlemen argued, that, in case such private +merchants should advance the necessary capital, the lower cultivators +"<i>would get money in abundance</i>." Admitting this fact, it seems to be a +part of the policy of this monopoly to prevent the cultivator from +obtaining the natural fruits of his labor. Dealing with a private +merchant, he could not get <i>money in abundance</i>, unless his commodity +could produce an <i>abundant</i> profit. Further reasons, relative to the +peace and good order of the province, were assigned for thus preventing +the course of trade from the equitable distribution of the advantages of +the produce, in which the first, the poorest, and the most laborious +producer ought to have his first share. The cultivators, they add, would +squander part of the money, and not be able to complete their +engagements to the full; lawsuits, and even battles, would ensue between +the factors, contending for a deficient produce; and the farmers would +discourage the culture of an object which brought so much disturbance +into their districts. This competition, the operation <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" title="118" class="pagenum"></a>of which they +endeavor to prevent, is the natural corrective of the abuse, and the +best remedy which could be applied to the disorder, even supposing its +probable existence.</p> + +<p>Upon whatever reasons or pretences the monopoly of opium was supported, +the real motive appears to be the profit of those who were in hopes to +be concerned in it. As these profits promised to be very considerable, +at length it engaged the attention of the Company; and after many +discussions, and various plans of application, it was at length taken +for their benefit, and the produce of the sale ordered to be employed in +the purchase of goods for their investment.</p> + +<p>In the year 1773 it had been taken out of the hands of the Council of +Patna, and leased to two of the natives,—but for a year only. The +contractors were to supply a certain quantity of opium at a given price. +Half the value was to be paid to those contractors in advance, and the +other half on the delivery.</p> + +<p>The proceedings on this contract demonstrated the futility of all the +principles on which the monopoly was founded. The Council, as a part of +their plan, were obliged, by heavy duties, and by a limitation of the +right of emption of foreign opium to the contractors for the home +produce, to check the influx of that commodity from the territories of +the Nabob of Oude and the Rajah of Benares. In these countries no +monopoly existed; and yet there the commodity was of such a quality and +so abundant as to bear the duty, and even with the duty in some degree +to rival the monopolist even in his own market. There was no complaint +in those countries of <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" title="119" class="pagenum"></a>want of advances to cultivators, or of lawsuits +and tumults among the factors; nor was there any appearance of the +multitude of other evils which had been so much dreaded from the +vivacity of competition.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, several of the precautions inserted in this contract, +and repeated in all the subsequent, strongly indicated the evils against +which it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to guard a monopoly +of this nature and in that country. For in the first contract entered +into with the two natives it was strictly forbidden to compel the +tenants to the cultivation of this drug. Indeed, very shocking rumors +had gone abroad, and they were aggravated by an opinion universally +prevalent, that, even in the season immediately following that dreadful +famine which swept off one third of the inhabitants of Bengal, several +of the poorer farmers were compelled to plough up the fields they had +sown with grain in order to plant them with poppies for the benefit of +the engrossers of opium. This opinion grew into a strong presumption, +when it was seen that in the next year the produce of opium (contrary to +what might be naturally expected in a year following such a dearth) was +nearly doubled. It is true, that, when the quantity of land necessary +for the production of the largest quantity of opium is considered, it is +not just to attribute that famine to these practices, nor to any that +were or could be used; yet, where such practices did prevail, they must +have been very oppressive to individuals, extremely insulting to the +feelings of the people, and must tend to bring great and deserved +discredit on the British government. The English are a people <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" title="120" class="pagenum"></a>who +appear in India as a conquering nation; all dealing with them is +therefore, more or less, a dealing with power. It is such when they +trade on a private account; and it is much more so in any authorized +monopoly, where the hand of government, which ought never to appear but +to protect, is felt as the instrument in every act of oppression. Abuses +must exist in a trade and a revenue so constituted, and there is no +effectual cure for them but to entirely cut off their cause.</p> + +<p>Things continued in this train, until the great revolution in the +Company's government was wrought by the Regulating Act of the thirteenth +of the king. In 1775 the new Council-General appointed by the act took +this troublesome business again into consideration. General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis expressed such strong doubts of the +propriety of this and of all other monopolies, that the Directors, in +their letter of the year following, left the Council at liberty to throw +the trade open, under a duty, if they should find it practicable. But +General Clavering, who most severely censured monopoly in general, +thought that this monopoly ought to be retained,—but for a reason which +shows his opinion of the wretched state of the country: for he supposed +it impossible, with the power and influence which must attend British +subjects in all their transactions, that monopoly could be avoided; and +he preferred an avowed monopoly, which brought benefit to government, to +a virtual engrossing, attended with profit only to individuals. But in +this opinion he did not seem to be joined by Mr. Francis, who thought +the suppression of this and of all monopolies to be practicable, and +strongly recommended <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" title="121" class="pagenum"></a>their abolition in a plan sent to the Court of +Directors the year following.<a name="FNanchor_6_12" id="FNanchor_6_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_12" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Mr. Francis's plan in Appendix, No. 14, to the Select +Committee's Sixth Report.">[6]</a></p> + +<p>The Council, however, submitting to the opinion of this necessity, +endeavored to render that dubious engagement as beneficial as possible +to the Company. They began by putting up the contract to the highest +bidder. The proposals were to be sealed. When the seals came to be +opened, a very extraordinary scene appeared. Every step in this business +develops more and more the effect of this junction of public monopoly +and private influence. Four English and eight natives were candidates +for the contract; three of the English far overbid the eight natives. +They who consider that the natives, from their superior dexterity, from +their knowledge of the country and of business, and from their extreme +industry, vigilance, and parsimony, are generally an over-match for +Europeans, and indeed are, and must ultimately be, employed by them in +all transactions whatsoever, will find it very extraordinary that they +did not by the best offers secure this dealing to themselves. It can be +attributed to this cause, and this only,—that they were conscious, +that, without power and influence to subdue the cultivators of the land +to their own purposes, they never could afford to engage on the lowest +possible terms. Those whose power entered into the calculation of their +profits could offer, as they did offer, terms without comparison better; +and therefore one of the English bidders, without partiality, secured +the preference.</p> + +<p>The contract to this first bidder, Mr. Griffiths, was prolonged from +year to year; and as during that <a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" title="122" class="pagenum"></a>time frequent complaints were made by +him to the Council Board, on the principle that the years answered very +differently, and that the business of one year ran into the other, +reasons or excuses were furnished for giving the next contract to Mr. +Mackenzie for three years. This third contract was not put up to +auction, as the second had been, and as this ought to have been. The +terms were, indeed, something better for the Company; and the engagement +was subject to qualifications, which, though they did not remove the +objection to the breach of the Company's orders, prevented the hands of +the Directors from being tied up. A proviso was inserted in the +contract, that it should not be anyways binding, if the Company by +orders from home should alter the existing practice with regard to such +dealing.</p> + +<p>Whilst these things were going on, the evils which this monopoly was in +show and pretence formed to prevent still existed, and those which were +naturally to be expected from a monopoly existed too. Complaints were +made of the bad quality of the opium; trials were made, and on those +trials the opium was found faulty. An office of inspection at Calcutta, +to ascertain its goodness, was established, and directions given to the +Provincial Councils at the places of growth to certify the quantity and +quality of the commodity transmitted to the Presidency.</p> + +<p>In 1776, notwithstanding an engagement in the contract strictly +prohibiting all compulsory culture of the poppy, information was given +to a member of the Council-General, that fields green with rice had been +forcibly ploughed up to make way for that plant,—and that this was done +in the presence of several English gentlemen, who beheld the spectacle +with a just <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" title="123" class="pagenum"></a>and natural indignation. The board, struck with this +representation, ordered the Council of Patna to make an inquiry into the +fact; but your Committee can find no return whatsoever to this order. +The complaints were not solely on the part of the cultivators against +the contractor. The contractor for opium made loud complaints against +the inferior collectors of the landed revenue, stating their undue and +vexatious exactions from the cultivators of opium,—their throwing these +unfortunate people into prison upon frivolous pretences, by which the +tenants were ruined, and the contractor's advances lost. He stated, +that, if the contractor should interfere in favor of the cultivator, +then a deficiency would be caused to appear in the landed revenues, and +that deficiency would be charged on his interposition; he desired, +therefore, that the cultivators of opium should be taken out of the +general system of the landed revenue, and put under "his <i>protection</i>." +Here the effect naturally to be expected from the clashing of +inconsistent revenues appeared in its full light, as well as the state +of the unfortunate peasants of Bengal between such rival protectors, +where the ploughman, flying from the tax-gatherer, is obliged to take +refuge under the wings of the monopolist. No dispute arises amongst the +English subjects which does not divulge the misery of the natives; when +the former are in harmony, all is well with the latter.</p> + +<p>This monopoly continuing and gathering strength through a succession of +contractors, and being probably a most lucrative dealing, it grew to be +every day a greater object of competition. The Council of Patna +endeavored to recover the contract, or at least the agency, by the most +inviting terms; and in this <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" title="124" class="pagenum"></a>eager state of mutual complaint and +competition between private men and public bodies things continued until +the arrival in Bengal of Mr. Stephen Sulivan, son of Mr. Sulivan, +Chairman of the East India Company, which soon put an end to all strife +and emulation.</p> + +<p>To form a clear judgment on the decisive step taken at this period, it +is proper to keep in view the opinion of the Court of Directors +concerning monopolies, against which they had uniformly declared in the +most precise terms. They never submitted to them, but as to a present +necessity; it was therefore not necessary for them to express any +particular approbation of a clause in Mr. Mackenzie's contract which was +made in favor of their own liberty. Every motive led them to preserve +it. On the security of that clause they could alone have suffered to +pass over in silence (for they never approved) the grant of the contract +which contained it for three years. It must also be remembered that they +had from the beginning positively directed that the contract should be +put up to public auction; and this not having been done in Mr. +Mackenzie's case, they severely reprimanded the Governor-General and +Council in their letter of the 23rd December, 1778.</p> + +<p>The Court of Directors were perfectly right in showing themselves +tenacious of this regulation,—not so much to secure the best +practicable revenue from their monopoly whilst it existed, but for a +much more essential reason, that is, from the corrective which this +method administered to that monopoly itself: it prevented the British +contractor from becoming doubly terrible to the natives, when they +<a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" title="125" class="pagenum"></a>should see that his contract was in effect <i>a grant</i>, and therefore +indicated particular favor and private influence with the ruling members +of an absolute government.</p> + +<p>On the expiration of Mr. Mackenzie's term, and but a few months after +Mr. Sulivan's arrival, the Governor-General, as if the contract was a +matter of patronage, and not of dealing, pitched upon Mr. Sulivan as the +most proper person for the management of this critical concern. Mr. +Sulivan, though a perfect stranger to Bengal, and to that sort and to +all sorts of local commerce, made no difficulty of accepting it. The +Governor-General was so fearful that his true motives in this business +should be mistaken, or that the smallest suspicion should arise of his +attending to the Company's orders, that, far from putting up the +contract (which, on account of its known profits, had become the object +of such pursuit) to <i>public auction</i>, he did not wait for receiving so +much as a <i>private proposal</i> from Mr. Sulivan. The Secretary perceived +that in the rough draught of the contract the old recital of a proposal +to the board was inserted as a matter of course, but was contrary to the +fact; he therefore remarked it to Mr. Hastings. Mr. Hastings, with great +indifference, ordered that recital to be <i>omitted</i>; and the omission, +with the remark that led to it, has, with the same easy indifference, +been sent over to his masters.</p> + +<p>The Governor-General and Council declare themselves apprehensive that +Mr. Sulivan might be a loser by his bargain, upon account of troubles +which they supposed existing in the country which was the object of it. +This was the more indulgent, because the contractor was tolerably +secured against all losses. He <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" title="126" class="pagenum"></a>received a certain price for his +commodity; but he was not obliged to pay any certain price to the +cultivator, who, having no other market than his, must sell it to him at +his own terms. He was to receive half the yearly payment by <i>advance</i>, +and he was not obliged to advance to the cultivator more than what he +thought expedient; but if this should not be enough, he might, if he +pleased, draw the <i>whole</i> payment before the total delivery: such were +the terms of the engagement with him. He is a contractor of a new +species, who employs no capital whatsoever of his own, and has the +market of compulsion at his entire command. But all these securities +were not sufficient for the anxious attention of the Supreme Council to +Mr. Sulivan's welfare: Mr. Hastings had before given him the contract +without any proposal on his part; and to make their gift perfect, in a +second instance they proceed a step beyond their former ill precedent, +and they contract with Mr. Sulivan for <i>four</i> years.</p> + +<p>Nothing appears to have been considered but the benefit of the +contractor, and for this purpose the solicitude shown in all the +provisions could not be exceeded. One of the first things that struck +Mr. Hastings as a blemish on his gift was the largeness of the penalty +which he had on former occasions settled as the sanction of the +contract: this he now discovered to be so great as to be likely to +frustrate its end by the impossibility of recovering so large a sum. How +a large penalty can prevent the recovery of any, even the smallest part +of it, is not quite apparent. In so vast a concern as that of opium, a +fraud which at first view may not appear of much importance, and which +may be very difficult in the discovery, <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" title="127" class="pagenum"></a>may easily counterbalance the +reduced penalty in this contract, which was settled in favor of Mr. +Sulivan at about 20,000<i>l.</i></p> + +<p>Monopolies were (as the House has observed) only tolerated evils, and at +best upon trial; a clause, therefore, was inserted in the contracts to +Mackenzie, annulling the obligation, if the Court of Directors should +resolve to abolish the monopoly; but at the request of Mr. Sulivan the +contract was without difficulty purged of this obnoxious clause. The +term was made absolute, the monopoly rendered irrevocable, and the +discretion of the Directors wholly excluded. Mr. Hastings declared the +reserved condition to be no longer necessary, "because the Directors had +approved the monopoly."</p> + +<p>The Chiefs and Councils at the principal factories had been obliged to +certify the quantity and quality of the opium before its transport to +Calcutta; and their control over the contractor had been assigned as the +reason for not leaving to those factories the management of this +monopoly. Now things were changed. Orders were sent to discontinue this +measure of invidious precaution, and the opium was sent to Calcutta +without anything done to ascertain its quality or even its quantity.</p> + +<p>An office of inspection had been also appointed to examine the quality +of the opium on its delivery at the capital settlement. In order to ease +Mr. Sulivan from this troublesome formality, Mr. Hastings abolished the +office; so that Mr. Sulivan was then totally freed from all examination, +or control whatsoever, either first or last.</p> + +<p>These extraordinary changes in favor of Mr. Sulivan were attended with +losses to others, and seem to <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" title="128" class="pagenum"></a>have excited much discontent. This +discontent it was necessary in some manner to appease. The +vendue-master, who was deprived of his accustomed dues on the public +sales of the opium by the private dealing, made a formal complaint to +the board against this, as well as other proceedings relative to the +same business. He attributed the private sale to "<i>reasons of state</i>"; +and this strong reflection both on the Board of Trade and the Council +Board was passed over without observation. He was quieted by appointing +him to the duty of these very inspectors whose office had been just +abolished as useless. The House will judge of the efficacy of the +revival of this office by the motives to it, and by Mr. Hastings giving +that to <i>one</i> as <i>a compensation</i> which had been executed by several as +<i>a duty</i>. However, the orders for taking away the precautionary +inspection at Patna still remained in force.</p> + +<p>Some benefits, which had been given to former contractors at the +discretion of the board, were no longer held under that loose +indulgence, but were secured to Mr. Sulivan by his contract. Other +indulgences, of a lesser nature, and to which no considerable objection +could be made, were on the application of a Mr. Benn, calling himself +his attorney, granted.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, examining Mr. Higginson, late a member of the Board of +Trade, on that subject, were informed, that this contract, very soon +after the making, was generally understood at Calcutta to have been sold +to this Mr. Benn, but he could not particularize the sum for which it +had been assigned,—and that Mr. Benn had afterwards sold it to a Mr. +Young. By this transaction it appears clearly that the contract was +given to Mr. Sulivan for no other purpose than <a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" title="129" class="pagenum"></a>to supply him with a sum +of money; and the sale and re-sale seem strongly to indicate that the +reduction of the penalty, and the other favorable conditions, were not +granted for his ease in a business which he never was to execute, but to +heighten the value of the object which he was to sell. Mr. Sulivan was +at the time in Mr. Hastings's family, accompanied him in his progresses, +and held the office of Judge-Advocate.</p> + +<p>The monopoly given for these purposes thus permanently secured, all +power of reformation cut off, and almost every precaution against fraud +and oppression removed, the Supreme Council found, or pretended to find, +that the commodity for which they had just made such a contract was not +a salable article,—and in consequence of this opinion, or pretence, +entered upon a daring speculation hitherto unthought of, that of sending +the commodity on the Company's account to the market of Canton. The +Council alleged, that, the Dutch being driven from Bengal, and the seas +being infested with privateers, this commodity had none, or a very dull +and depreciated demand.</p> + +<p>Had this been true, Mr. Hastings's conduct could admit of no excuse. He +ought not to burden a falling market by long and heavy engagements. He +ought studiously to have kept in his power the means of proportioning +the supply to the demand. But his arguments, and those of the Council on +that occasion, do not deserve the smallest attention. Facts, to which +there is no testimony but the assertion of those who produce them in +apology for the ill consequences of their own irregular actions, cannot +be admitted. Mr. Hastings and the Council had nothing at all to do with +that business: the Court of Directors had wholly taken the management of +opium out of his <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" title="130" class="pagenum"></a>and their hands, and by a solemn adjudication fixed it +in the Board of Trade. But after it had continued there some years, Mr. +Hastings, a little before his grant of the monopoly to Mr. Sulivan, +thought proper to reverse the decree of his masters, and by his own +authority to recall it to the Council. By this step he became +responsible for all the consequences.</p> + +<p>The Board of Trade appear, indeed, to merit reprehension for disposing +of the opium by private contract, as by that means the unerring standard +of the public market cannot be applied to it. But they justified +themselves by their success; and one of their members informed your +Committee that their last sale had been a good one: and though he +apprehended a fall in the next, it was not such as in the opinion of +your Committee could justify the Council-General in having recourse to +untried and hazardous speculations of commerce. It appears that there +must have been a market, and one sufficiently lively. They assign as a +reason of this assigned [alleged?] dulness of demand, that the Dutch had +been expelled from Bengal, and could not carry the usual quantity to +Batavia. But the Danes were not expelled from Bengal, and Portuguese +ships traded there: neither of them were interdicted at Batavia, and the +trade to the eastern ports was free to them. The Danes actually applied +for and obtained an increase of the quantity to which their purchases +had been limited; and as they asked, so they received this indulgence as +a great favor. It does not appear that they were not very ready to +supply the place of the Dutch. On the other hand, there is no doubt that +the Dutch would most gladly receive an article, convenient, if not +necessary, to the circulation of their commerce, from the Danes, or +under any <a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" title="131" class="pagenum"></a>name; nor was it fit that the Company should use an extreme +strictness in any inquiry concerning the necessary disposal of one of +their own staple commodities.</p> + +<p>The supply of the Canton treasury with funds for the provision of the +next year's China investment was the ground of this plan. But the +Council-General appear still to have the particular advantage of Mr. +Sulivan in view,—and, not satisfied with breaking so many of the +Company's orders for that purpose, to make the contract an object +salable to the greatest advantage, were obliged to transfer their +personal partiality from Mr. Sulivan to the contract itself, and to hand +it over to the assignees through all their successions. When the opium +was delivered, the duties and emoluments of the contractor ended; but +(it appears from Mr. Williamson's letter, 18th October, 1781, and it is +not denied by the Council-General) this new scheme <i>furnished them with +a pretext of making him broker for the China investment, with the profit +of a new commission</i>,—to what amount does not appear. But here their +constant and vigilant observer, the vendue-master, met them again:—they +seemed to live in no small terror of this gentleman. To satisfy him for +the loss of his fee to which he was entitled upon the public sale, they +gave <i>him</i> also a commission of one per cent on the investment. Thus was +this object loaded with a double commission; and every act of partiality +to one person produced a chargeable compensation to some other for the +injustice that such partiality produced. Nor was this the whole. The +discontent and envy excited by this act went infinitely further than to +those immediately affected, and something <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" title="132" class="pagenum"></a>or other was to be found out +to satisfy as many as possible.</p> + +<p>As soon as it was discovered that the Council entertained a design of +opening a trade on those principles, it immediately engaged the +attention of such as had an interest in speculations of freight.</p> + +<p>A memorial seems to have been drawn early, as it is dated on the 29th of +March, though it was not the first publicly presented to the board. This +memorial was presented on the 17th of September, 1781, by Mr. Wheler, +conformably (as he says) to the desire of the Governor-General; and it +contained a long and elaborate dissertation on the trade to China, +tending to prove the advantage of extending the sale of English +manufactures and other goods to the North of that country, beyond the +usual emporium of European nations. This ample and not ill-reasoned +theoretical performance (though not altogether new either in speculation +or attempt) ended by a practical proposition, very short, indeed, of the +ideas opened in the preliminary discourse, but better adapted to the +immediate effect. It was, that the Company should undertake the sale of +its own opium in China, and commit the management of the business to the +memorialist, who offered to furnish them with a strong armed ship for +that purpose. The offer was accepted, and the agreement made with him +for the transport of two thousand chests.</p> + +<p>A proposal by another person was made the July following the date of +this project: it appears to have been early in the formal delivery at +the board: this was for the export of one thousand four hundred and +eighty chests. This, too, was accepted, but with new conditions and +restrictions: for in so vast and so new <a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" title="133" class="pagenum"></a>an undertaking great +difficulties occurred. In the first place, all importation of that +commodity is rigorously forbidden by the laws of China. The impropriety +of a political trader, who is lord over a great empire, being concerned +in a contraband trade upon his own account, did not seem in the least to +affect them; but they were struck with the obvious danger of subjecting +their goods to seizure by the vastness of the prohibited import. To +secure the larger adventure, they require of the China factory that +Colonel Watson's ship should enter the port of Canton as an <i>armed +ship</i>, (they would not say a ship of war, though that must be meant,) +that her cargo should not be reported; they also ordered that other +measures should be adopted to secure this prohibited article from +seizure. If the cargo should get in safe, another danger was in +view,—the overloading the Chinese market by a supply beyond the demand; +for it is obvious that contraband trade must exist by small quantities +of goods poured in by intervals, and not by great importations at one +time. To guard against this inconvenience, they divide their second, +though the smaller adventure, into two parts; one of which was to go to +the markets of the barbarous natives which inhabit the coast of Malacca, +where the chances of its being disposed of by robbery or sale were at +least equal. If the opium should be disposed of there, the produce was +to be invested in merchandise salable in China, or in dollars, if to be +had. The other part (about one half) was to go in kind directly to the +port of Canton.</p> + +<p>The dealing at this time seemed closed; but the gentlemen who chartered +the ships, always recollecting something, applied anew to the board to +be fur<a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" title="134" class="pagenum"></a>nished with cannon from the Company's ordnance. Some was +delivered to them; but the Office of Ordnance (so heavily expensive to +the Company) was not sufficient to spare a few iron guns for a merchant +ship. Orders were given to cast a few cannon, and an application made to +Madras, at a thousand miles' distance, for the rest. Madras answers, +that they cannot exactly comply with the requisition; but still the +board at Bengal <i>hopes</i> better things from them than they promise, and +flatter themselves that with their assistance they shall properly arm a +ship of thirty-two guns.</p> + +<p>Whilst these dispositions were making, the first proposer, perceiving +advantages from the circuitous voyage of the second which had escaped +his observation, to make amends for his first omission, improved both on +his own proposal and on that of the person who had improved on him. He +therefore applied for leave to take two hundred and fifty chests on his +own account, which he said could "be <i>readily disposed of</i> at the +several places where it was necessary for the ship to touch for wood and +water, or intelligence, during her intended voyage through <i>the Eastern +Islands</i>." As a corrective to this extraordinary request, he assured the +board, that, if he should meet with any unexpected delay at these +markets, he would send their cargo to its destination, having secured a +<i>swift-sailing</i> sloop for the <i>protection</i> of his ship; and this sloop +he proposed, in such a case, to leave behind. Such an extraordinary +eagerness to deal in opium lets in another view of the merits of the +alleged dulness of the market, on which this trade was undertaken for +the Company's account.</p> + +<p>The Council, who had with great condescension <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" title="135" class="pagenum"></a>and official facility +consented to every demand hitherto made, were not reluctant with regard +to this last. The quantity of opium required by the freighters, and the +permission of a trading voyage, were granted without hesitation. The +cargo having become far more valuable by this small infusion of private +interest, the armament which was deemed sufficient to defend the +Company's large share of the adventure was now discovered to be unequal +to the protection of the whole. For the convoy of these two ships the +Council hire and arm another. How they were armed, or whether in fact +they were properly armed at all, does not appear. It is true that the +Supreme Council proposed that these ships should also convey supplies to +Madras; but this was a secondary consideration: their primary object was +the adventure of opium. To this they were permanently attached, and were +obliged to attend to its final destination.</p> + +<p>The difficulty of disposing of the opium according to this project being +thus got over, a material preliminary difficulty still stood in the way +of the whole scheme. The contractor, or his assignees, were to be paid. +The Company's treasure was wholly exhausted, and even its credit was +exceedingly strained. The latter, however, was the better resource, and +to this they resolved to apply. They therefore, at different times, +opened two loans of one hundred thousand pounds each. The first was +reserved for the Company's servants, civil and military, to be +distributed in shares according to their rank; the other was more +general. The terms of both loans were, that the risk of the voyage was +to be on account of <i>the Company</i>. The payment was to be in bills (at a +rate of exchange settled from the supercargoes at Canton) upon the <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" title="136" class="pagenum"></a>same +Company. In whatever proportion the adventure should fail, either in the +ships not safely arriving in China or otherwise, in that proportion the +subscribers were to content themselves with the Company's bonds for +their money, bearing eight per cent interest. A share in this +subscription was thought exceeding desirable; for Mr. Hastings writes +from Benares, where he was employed in the manner already reported and +hereafter to be observed upon, requesting that the subscription should +be left open to his officers who were employed in the military +operations against Cheyt Sing; and accordingly three majors, seven +captains, twenty-three lieutenants, the surgeon belonging to the +detachment, and two civil servants of high rank who attended him, were +admitted to subscribe.</p> + +<p>Bills upon Europe without interest are always preferred to the Company's +bonds, even at the high interest allowed in India. They are, indeed, so +greedily sought there, and (because they tend to bring an immediate and +visible distress in Leadenhall Street) so much dreaded here, that by an +act of Parliament the Company's servants are restricted from drawing +bills beyond a certain amount upon the Company in England. In Bengal +they have been restrained to about one hundred and eighty thousand +pounds annually. The legislature, influenced more strongly with the same +apprehensions, has restrained the Directors, as the Directors have +restrained their servants, and have gone so far as to call in the power +of the Lords of the Treasury to authorize the acceptance of any bills +beyond an amount prescribed in the act.</p> + +<p>The false principles of this unmercantile transaction (to speak of it in +the mildest terms) were too gross not to be visible to those who +contrived it.<a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" title="137" class="pagenum"></a> That the Company should be made to borrow such a sum as +two hundred thousand pounds<a name="FNanchor_7_13" id="FNanchor_7_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_13" class="fnanchor" title=" The whole sum has not been actually raised; but the +deficiency is not very considerable.">[7]</a> at eight per cent, (or terms deemed by +the Company to be worse,) in order first to buy a commodity represented +by themselves as depreciated in its ordinary market, in order afterwards +to carry one half of it through a circuitous trading voyage, depending +for its ultimate success on the prudent and fortunate management of two +or three sales, and purchases and re-sales of goods, and the chance of +two or three markets, with all the risks of sea and enemy, was plainly +no undertaking for such a body. The activity, private interest, and the +sharp eye of personal superintendency may now and then succeed in such +projects; but the remote inspection and unwieldy movements of great +public bodies can find nothing but loss in them. Their gains, +comparatively small, ought to be upon sure grounds; but here (as the +Council states the matter) the private trader actually declines to deal, +which is a proof more than necessary to demonstrate the extreme +imprudence of such an undertaking on the Company's account. Still +stronger and equally obvious objections lay to that member of the +project which regards the introduction of a contraband commodity into +China, sent at such a risk of seizure not only of the immediate object +to be smuggled in, but of all the Company's property in Canton, and +possibly at a hazard to the existence of the British factory at that +port.</p> + +<p>It is stated, indeed, that a monopolizing company in Canton, called the +Cohong, had reduced commerce there to a deplorable state, and had +rendered the <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" title="138" class="pagenum"></a>gains of private merchants, either in opium or anything +else, so small and so precarious that they were no longer able by +purchasing that article to furnish the Company with money for a China +investment. For this purpose the person whose proposal is accepted +declares his project to be to set up a monopoly on the part of the +Company against the monopoly of the Chinese merchants: but as the +Chinese monopoly is at home, and supported (as the minute referred to +asserts) by the country magistrates, it is plain it is the Chinese +company, not the English, which must prescribe the terms,—particularly +in a commodity which, if withheld from them at their market price, they +can, whenever they please, be certain of purchasing as a condemned +contraband.</p> + +<p>There are two further circumstances in this transaction which strongly +mark its character. The first is, that this adventure to China was not +recommended to them by the factory of Canton; it was dangerous to +attempt it without their previous advice, and an assurance, grounded on +the state of the market and the dispositions of the government, that the +measure, in a commercial light, would be profitable, or at least safe. +Neither was that factory applied to on the state of the bills which, +upon their own account, they might be obliged to draw upon Europe, at a +time when the Council of Bengal direct them to draw bills to so enormous +an amount.</p> + +<p>The second remarkable circumstance is, that the Board of Trade in +Calcutta (the proper administrator of all that relates to the Company's +investment) does not seem to have given its approbation to the project, +or to have been at all consulted upon it. The sale of opium had been +adjudged to the<a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" title="139" class="pagenum"></a> Board of Trade for the express purpose of selling it in +Bengal, not in China,—and of employing the produce of such sale in the +manufactures of the country in which the original commodity was +produced. On the whole, it appears a mere trading speculation of the +Council, invading the department of others, without lights of its own, +without authority or information from any other quarter. In a commercial +view, it straitened the Company's investment to which it was destined; +as a measure of finance, it is a contrivance by which a monopoly formed +for the increase of revenue, instead of becoming one of its resources, +involves the treasury, in the first instance, in a debt of two hundred +thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>If Mr. Hastings, on the expiration of Mr. Mackenzie's contract, the +advantages of which to the Company had been long doubtful, had put +himself in a situation to do his duty, some immediate loss to the +revenue would have been the worst consequence of the alleged +depreciation; probably it would not have been considerable. Mr. +Mackenzie's contract, which at first was for three years, had been only +renewed for a year. Had the same course been pursued with Mr. Sulivan, +they would have had it in their power to adopt some plan which might +have secured them from any loss at all. But they pursued another plan: +they carefully put all remedy still longer out of their reach by giving +their contract for four years. To cover all these irregularities, they +interest the settlement in their favor by holding out to them the most +tempting of all baits in a chance of bills upon Europe.</p> + +<p>In this manner the servants abroad have conducted themselves with regard +to Mr. Sulivan's <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" title="140" class="pagenum"></a>contract for opium, and the disposal of the commodity. +In England the Court of Directors took it into consideration. First, as +to the contract, in a letter dated 12th July, 1782, they say, that, +"having condemned the contract entered into with Mr. Mackenzie for the +provision of opium, they cannot but be <i>surprised</i> at your having +concluded a new contract for <i>four</i> years relative to that article with +Mr. Stephen Sulivan, without leaving the decision of it to the Court of +Directors."</p> + +<p>The sentiments of the Directors are proper, and worthy of persons in +public trust. Their <i>surprise</i>, indeed, at the disobedience to their +orders is not perfectly natural in those who for many years have +scarcely been obeyed in a single instance. They probably asserted their +authority at this time with as much vigor as their condition admitted.</p> + +<p>They proceed: "We do not mean," say they, "to convey any censure on Mr. +Sulivan respecting the transaction; but we cannot withhold our +displeasure from the Governor-General and Council at such an instance of +<i>contempt</i> of our authority." They then proceed justly to censure the +removal of the inspection, and some other particulars of this gross +proceeding. As to the criminality of the parties, it is undoubtedly true +that a breach of duty in servants is highly aggravated by the rank, +station, and trust of the offending party; but no party, in such +conspiracy to break orders, appear to us wholly free from fault.</p> + +<p>The Directors did their duty in reprobating this contract; but it is the +opinion of your Committee that further steps ought to be taken to +inquire into the legal validity of a transaction which manifestly +attempts to prevent the Court of Directors from ap<a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" title="141" class="pagenum"></a>plying any remedy to +a grievance which has been for years the constant subject of complaints.</p> + +<p>Both Mr. Sulivan and Mr. Hastings are the Company's servants, bound by +their covenants and their oaths to promote the interest of their +masters, and both equally bound to be obedient to their orders. If the +Governor-General had contracted with a stranger, not apprised of the +Company's orders, and not bound by any previous engagement, the contract +might have been good; but whether a contract made between two servants, +contrary to the orders of their common master, and to the prejudice of +his known interest, be a breach of trust on both sides, and whether the +contract can in equity have force to bind the Company, whenever they +shall be inclined to free themselves and the country they govern from +this mischievous monopoly, your Committee think a subject worthy of +further inquiry.</p> + +<p>With regard to the disposal of the opium, the Directors very properly +condemn the direct contraband, but they approve the trading voyage. The +Directors have observed nothing concerning the loans: they probably +reserved that matter for future consideration.</p> + +<p>In no affair has the connection between servants abroad and persons in +power among the proprietors of the India Company been more discernible +than in this. But if such confederacies, cemented by such means, are +suffered to pass without due animadversion, the authority of Parliament +must become as inefficacious as all other authorities have proved to +restrain the growth of disorders either in India or in Europe.</p><p><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" title="142" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<h3><a name="SALT" id="SALT"></a>SALT.</h3> + +<p>The reports made by the two committees of the House which sat in the +years 1772 and 1773 of the state and conduct of the inland trade of +Bengal up to that period have assisted the inquiries of your Committee +with respect to the third and last article of monopoly, viz., that of +salt, and made it unnecessary for them to enter into so minute a detail +on that subject as they have done on some others.</p> + +<p>Your Committee find that the late Lord Clive constantly asserted that +the salt trade in Bengal had been a monopoly time immemorial,—that it +ever was and ever must be a monopoly,—and that Coja Wazid, and other +merchants long before him, had given to the Nabob and his ministers two +hundred thousand pounds per annum for the exclusive privilege. The +Directors, in their letter of the 24th December, 1776, paragraph 76, +say, "that it has ever been in a great measure an exclusive trade."</p> + +<p>The Secret Committee report,<a name="FNanchor_8_14" id="FNanchor_8_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_14" class="fnanchor" title=" Fourth Report, page 106.">[8]</a> that under the government of the Nabobs +the duty on salt made in Bengal was two and an half per cent paid by +Mussulmen, and five per cent paid by Gentoos. On the accession of Mir +Cassim, in 1760, the claim of the Company's servants to trade in salt +duty-free was first avowed. Mr. Vansittart made an agreement with him by +which the duties should be fixed at nine per cent. The Council annulled +the agreement, and reduced the duty to two and an half per cent. On this +Mir Cassim ordered that no customs or duties whatsoever should be +collected for the future. But a majority of the Council (22nd March, +1763) resolved, that the <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" title="143" class="pagenum"></a>making the exemption general was a breach of +the Company's privileges, and that the Nabob should be positively +required to recall it, and collect duties as before from the country +merchants, and all other persons who had not the protection of the +Company's <i>dustuck</i>. The Directors, as the evident reason of the thing +and as their duty required, disapproved highly of these transactions, +and ordered (8th February, 1764) <i>a final and effectual stop to be put +to the inland trade in salt</i>, and several other articles of commerce. +But other politics and other interests prevailed, so that in the May +following a General Court resolved, that it should be recommended to the +Court of Directors to reconsider the preceding orders; in consequence of +which the Directors ordered the Governor and Council to form a plan, in +concert with the Nabob, for regulating the inland trade.</p> + +<p>On these last orders Lord Clive's plan was formed, in 1765, for +engrossing the sole purchase of salt, and dividing the profits among the +Company's senior servants. The Directors, who had hitherto reluctantly +given way to a monopoly under any ideas or for any purposes, disapproved +of this plan, and on the 17th May, 1766, ordered it to be abolished; but +they substituted no other in its room.<a name="FNanchor_9_15" id="FNanchor_9_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_15" class="fnanchor" title=" Par. 36. Vide Fourth Report from Com. of Secrecy in 1773, +Appendix, No. 45.">[9]</a> In this manner things +continued until November, 1767, when the Directors repeated their orders +for excluding all persons whatever, excepting the natives only, from +being concerned in the inland trade in salt; and they declared that +(vide par. 90) "<i>such trade is hereby abolished and put a final end +to</i>." In the same letter (par. 92) they ordered that the salt trade +should be laid <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" title="144" class="pagenum"></a>open to the natives in general, subject to such a duty +as might produce one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a year. This +policy was adopted by the legislature. In the act of 1773 it was +expressly provided, that it should not be lawful for any of his +Majesty's subjects to engage, intermeddle, or be any way concerned, +directly or indirectly, in the inland trade in salt, except on the India +Company's account.</p> + +<p>Under the positive orders of the Company, the salt trade appears to have +continued open from 1768 to 1772. The act, indeed, contained an +exception in favor of the Company, and left them a liberty of dealing in +salt upon their own account. But still this policy remained unchanged, +and their orders unrevoked. But in the year 1772, without any +instruction from the Court of Directors indicating a change of opinion +or system, the whole produce was again monopolized, professedly for the +use of the Company, by Mr. Hastings. Speaking of this plan, he says +(letter to the Directors, 22d February, 1775): "No new hardship has been +imposed upon the salt manufacturers by taking the management of that +article into the hands of government; the only difference is, that the +profit which was before reaped by English gentlemen and by banians is +now acquired by the Company." In May, 1766, the Directors had condemned +the monopoly <i>on any conditions whatsoever</i>. "At that time they thought +it neither consistent with their honor nor their dignity to promote such +an exclusive trade."<a name="FNanchor_10_16" id="FNanchor_10_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_16" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Sel. Letter to Bengal, 17 May, 1766, Par. 36, in +Fourth Report from Com. of Secrecy, in 1773, Appendix, No. 45.">[10]</a> "They considered it, too, as disgraceful, <i>and +below the dignity of their present situation</i>, to allow <a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" title="145" class="pagenum"></a>of such a +monopoly, and that, were they to allow it under any restrictions, they +should consider themselves as assenting and subscribing to all the +mischiefs which Bengal had presented to them for four years past."<a name="FNanchor_11_17" id="FNanchor_11_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_17" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid. Par. 37.">[11]</a></p> + +<p>Notwithstanding this solemn declaration, in their letter of 24th +December, 1776, they approve the plan of Mr. Hastings, and say, "that +the monopoly, <i>on its present footing</i>, can be no considerable grievance +to the country," &c.</p> + +<p>This, however, was a rigorous monopoly. The account given of it by +General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, in their minute of +11th January, 1775, in which the situation of the <i>molungees</i>, or +persons employed in the salt manufacture, is particularly described, is +stated at length in the Appendix. Mr. Hastings himself says, "The power +of obliging molungees to work has been customary from time immemorial."</p> + +<p>Nothing but great and clear advantage to government could account for, +and nothing at all perhaps could justify, the revival of a monopoly thus +circumstanced. The advantage proposed by its revival was the +transferring the profit, which was before reaped by English gentlemen +and banians, to the Company. The profits of the former were not +problematical. It was to be seen what the effect would be of a scheme to +transfer them to the latter, even under the management of the projector +himself. In the Revenue Consultations of September, 1776, Mr. Hastings +said, "Many causes have since combined to reduce this article of revenue +<i>almost to nothing</i>. The plan which I am <i>now</i> inclined to recommend for +the future <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" title="146" class="pagenum"></a>management of the salt revenue differs widely from that +which I adopted under different circumstances."</p> + +<p>It appears that the ill success of his former scheme did not deter him +from recommending another. Accordingly, in July, 1777, Mr. Hastings +proposed, and it was resolved, that the salt mahls should be let, <i>with</i> +the lands, to the farmers and zemindars for a ready-money rent, +including duties,—the salt to be left to their disposal. After some +trial of this method, Mr. Hastings thought fit to abandon it. In +September, 1780, he changed his plan a third time, and proposed the +institution of a <i>salt office</i>; the salt was to be again engrossed for +the benefit of the Company, and the management conducted by a number of +salt agents.</p> + +<p>From the preceding facts it appears that in this branch of the Company's +government little regard has been paid to the ease and welfare of the +natives, and that the Directors have nowhere shown greater inconsistency +than in their orders on this subject. Yet salt, considering it as a +necessary of life, was by no means a safe and proper subject for so many +experiments and innovations. For ten years together the Directors +reprobated the idea of suffering this necessary of life to be engrossed +on <i>any condition whatsoever</i>, and strictly prohibited all Europeans +from trading in it. Yet, as soon as they were made to expect from Mr. +Hastings that the profits of the monopoly should be converted to their +own use, they immediately declared that it "could be no considerable +grievance to the country," and authorized its continuance, until he +himself, finding it produced little or nothing, renounced it of his own +accord. Your Committee are apprehensive that this will at all <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" title="147" class="pagenum"></a>times, +whatever flattering appearance it may wear for a time, be the fate of +any attempt to monopolize the salt for the profit of government. In the +first instance it will raise the price on the consumer beyond its just +level; but that evil will soon be corrected by means ruinous to the +Company as monopolists, viz., by the embezzlement of their own salt, and +by the importation of foreign salt, neither of which the government of +Bengal may have power for any long time to prevent. In the end +government will probably be undersold and beaten down to a losing price. +Or, if they should attempt to force all the advantages from this article +of which by every exertion it may be made capable, it may distress some +other part of their possessions in India, and destroy, or at least +impair, the natural intercourse between them. Ultimately it may hurt +Bengal itself, and the produce of its landed revenue, by destroying the +vent of that grain which it would otherwise barter for salt.</p> + +<p>Your Committee think it hardly necessary to observe, that the many +changes of plan which have taken place in the management of the salt +trade are far from honorable to the Company's government,—and that, +even if the monopoly of this article were a profitable concern, it +should not be permitted. Exclusive of the general effect of this and of +all monopolies, the oppressions which the manufacturers of salt, called +<i>molungees</i>, still suffer under it, though perhaps alleviated in some +particulars, deserve particular attention. There is evidence enough on +the Company's records to satisfy your Committee that these people have +been treated with great rigor, and not only defrauded of the due payment +of their labor, but deliv<a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" title="148" class="pagenum"></a>ered over, like cattle, in succession, to +different masters, who, under pretence of buying up the balances due to +their preceding employers, find means of keeping them in perpetual +slavery. For evils of this nature there can be no perfect remedy as long +as the monopoly continues. They are in the nature of the thing, and +cannot be cured, or effectually counteracted, even by a just and +vigilant administration on the spot. Many objections occur to the +farming of any branch of the public revenue in Bengal, particularly +against farming the salt lands. But the dilemma to which government by +this system is constantly reduced, of authorizing great injustice or +suffering great loss, is alone sufficient to condemn it. Either +government is expected to support the farmer or contractor in all his +pretensions by an exertion of power, which tends of necessity to the +ruin of the parties subjected to the farmer's contract, and to the +suppression of free trade,—or, if such assistance be refused him, he +complains that he is not supported, that private persons interfere with +his contract, that the manufacturers desert their labor, and that +proportionate deductions must be allowed him.</p> + +<p>After the result of their examination into the general nature and effect +of this monopoly, it remains only for your Committee to inquire whether +there was any valid foundation for that declaration of Mr. Hastings +which we conclude must have principally recommended the monopoly of salt +to the favor of the Court of Directors, viz., "that the profit, which +was before reaped by English gentlemen, and by banians, was now acquired +by the Company." On the contrary, it was proved and acknowledged before +the Governor-General and Council, when they inquired into <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" title="149" class="pagenum"></a>this matter, +in March, 1775, that the Chiefs and Councils of those districts in which +there were salt mahls reserved particular salt farms for their <i>own</i> +use, and divided the profits, in certain stated proportions, among +themselves and their assistants. But, unless a detail of these +transactions, and of the persons concerned in them, should be called for +by the House, it is our wish to avoid entering into it. On one example +only your Committee think it just and proper to insist, stating first to +the House on what principles they have made this selection.</p> + +<p>In pursuing their inquiries, your Committee have endeavored chiefly to +keep in view the conduct of persons in the highest station, particularly +of those in whom the legislature, as well as the Company, have placed a +special confidence,—judging that the conduct of such persons is not +only most important in itself, but most likely to influence the +subordinate ranks of the service. Your Committee have also examined the +proceedings of the Court of Directors on all those instances of the +behavior of their servants that seemed to deserve, and did sometimes +attract, their immediate attention. They constantly find that the +negligence of the Court of Directors has kept pace with, and must +naturally have quickened, the growth of the practices which they have +condemned. Breach of duty abroad will always go hand in hand with +neglect of it at home. In general, the Court of Directors, though +sufficiently severe in censuring offences, and sometimes in punishing +those whom they have regarded as offenders of a lower rank, appear to +have suffered the most conspicuous and therefore the most dangerous +examples of disobedience and misconduct in the first department of their +service to pass with a <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" title="150" class="pagenum"></a>feeble and ineffectual condemnation. In those +cases which they have deemed too apparent and too strong to be +disregarded even with safety to themselves, and against which their +heaviest displeasure has been declared, it appears to your Committee +that their interference, such as it was, had a mischievous rather than a +useful tendency. A total neglect of duty in this respect, however +culpable, is not to be compared, either in its nature or in its +consequences, with the destructive principles on which they have acted. +It has been their practice, if not system, to inquire, to censure, and +not to punish. As long as the misconduct of persons in power in Bengal +was encouraged by nothing but the hopes of concealment, it may be +presumed that they felt some restraint upon their actions, and that they +stood in some awe of the power placed over them; whereas it is to be +apprehended that the late conduct of the Court of Directors tells them, +in effect, that they have nothing to fear from the certainty of a +discovery.</p> + +<p>On the same principle on which your Committee have generally limited +their researches to the persons placed by Parliament or raised or put in +nomination by the Court of Directors to the highest station in Bengal, +it was also their original wish to limit those inquiries to the period +at which Parliament interposed its authority between the Company and +their servants, and gave a new constitution to the Presidency of Fort +William. If the Company's servants had taken a new date from that +period, and if from thenceforward their conduct had corresponded with +the views of the legislature, it is probable that a review of the +transactions of remoter periods would not have been deemed necessary, +and that the remembrance of them <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" title="151" class="pagenum"></a>would have been gradually effaced and +finally buried in oblivion. But the reports which your Committee have +already made have shown the House that from the year 1772, when those +proceedings commenced in Parliament on which the act of the following +year was founded, abuses of every kind have prevailed and multiplied in +Bengal to a degree unknown in former times, and are perfectly sufficient +to account for the present distress of the Company's affairs both at +home and abroad. The affair which your Committee now lays before the +House occupies too large a space in the Company's records, and is of too +much importance in every point of view, to be passed over.</p> + +<p>Your Committee find that in March, 1775, a petition was presented to the +Governor-General and Council by a person called Coja Kaworke, an +Armenian merchant, resident at Dacca, (of which division Mr. Richard +Barwell had lately been Chief,) setting forth in substance, that in +November, 1772, the petitioner had farmed a certain salt district, +called Savagepoor, and had entered into a contract with the Committee of +Circuit for providing and delivering to the India Company the salt +produced in that district; that in 1773 he farmed another, called +Selimabad, on similar conditions. He alleges, that in February, 1774, +when Mr. Barwell arrived at Dacca, he charged the petitioner with +1,25,500 rupees, (equal to 13,000<i>l.</i>,) as a contribution, and, in order +to levy it, did the same year deduct 20,799 rupees from the amount of +the <i>advance money</i> which was ordered to be paid to the petitioner, on +account of the India Company, for the provision of salt in the two +farms, and, after doing so, compelled the petitioner to execute and +<a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" title="152" class="pagenum"></a>give him four different bonds for 77,627 rupees, in the name of one +Porran Paul, for the remainder of such contribution, or unjust profit.</p> + +<p>Such were the allegations of the petition relative to the unjust +exaction. The harsh means of compelling the payment make another and +very material part; for the petitioner asserts, that, in order to +recover the amount of these bonds, guards were placed over him, and that +Mr. Barwell by ill usage and oppressions recovered from him at different +times 48,656 Arcot rupees, besides 283 rupees extorted by the +guard,—that, after this payment, two of the bonds, containing 36,313 +rupees, were restored to him, and he was again committed to the charge +of four <i>peons</i>, or guards, to pay the amount of the remaining two +bonds. The petition further charges, that the said gentleman and his +people had also extorted from the petitioner other sums of money, which, +taken together, amounted to 25,000 rupees.</p> + +<p>But the heaviest grievance alleged by him is, that, after the sums of +money had been extorted on account of the farms, the faith usual in such +transactions is allowed not to have been kept; but, after the petitioner +had been obliged to buy or compound for the farms, that they were taken +from him,—"that the said Richard Barwell, Esquire, about his departure +from Dacca, in October, 1774, for self-interest wrested from the +petitioner the aforesaid two mahls, (or districts,) and farmed them to +another person, notwithstanding he had extorted from the petitioner a +considerable sum of money on account of those purgunnahs."</p> + +<p>To this petition your Committee find two accounts annexed, in which the +sums said to be paid to or <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" title="153" class="pagenum"></a>taken by Mr. Barwell, and the respective +dates of the several payments, are specified; and they find that the +account of particulars agrees with and makes up the gross sum charged in +the petition.</p> + +<p>Mr. Barwell's immediate answer to the preceding charge is contained in +two letters to the board, dated 23rd and 24th of March, 1775. The answer +is remarkable. He asserts, that "the whole of Kaworke's relation is a +gross misrepresentation of facts;—that the simple fact was, that in +January, 1774, the salt mahls of Savagepoor and Selimabad became <i>his</i>, +and were re-let by <i>him</i> to this man, in the names of Bussunt Roy and +Kissen Deb, on condition that he should account with him [<i>Mr. Barwell</i>] +for profits to a certain sum, and that he [<i>Mr. Barwell</i>] engaged for +Savagepoor <i>in the persuasion of its being a very profitable farm</i>"; and +he concludes with saying, "If I am mistaken in my reasoning, and <i>the +wish to add to my fortune has warped my judgment</i>, in a transaction that +may appear to the board in a light different to what I view it in, it is +past,—I cannot recall it,—and I rather choose to admit an error than +deny a fact." In his second letter he says, "To the Honorable Court of +Directors I will submit all my rights in the salt contracts I engaged +in; and if in their opinion those rights vest in the Company, I will +account to them for the last shilling I have received from such +contracts, my intentions being upright; and as I never did wish to +profit myself to the prejudice of my employers, by their judgment I will +be implicitly directed."</p> + +<p>The majority of the board desired that Kaworke's petition should be +transmitted to England by the ship then under dispatch; and it was +accordingly sent <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" title="154" class="pagenum"></a>with Mr. Barwell's replies. Mr. Barwell moved that a +committee should be appointed to take into consideration what he had to +offer on the subject of Kaworke's petition; and a committee was +accordingly appointed, consisting of all the members of the Council +except the Governor-General.</p> + +<p>The committee opened their proceedings with reading a second petition +from Kaworke, containing corrected accounts of cash said to be forcibly +taken, and of the extraordinary and unwarrantable profits taken or +received from him by Richard Barwell, Esquire; all which are inserted at +large in the Appendix. By these accounts Mr. Barwell is charged with a +balance or debt of 22,421 rupees to Kaworke. The principal difference +between him and Mr. Barwell arises from a different mode of stating the +accounts acknowledged to exist between them. In the account current +signed by Mr. Barwell, he gives Kaworke credit for the receipt of 98,426 +rupees, and charges him with a balance of 27,073 rupees.</p> + +<p>The facts stated or admitted by Mr. Barwell are as follow: that the salt +farms of Selimabad and Savagepoor were <i>his</i>, and re-let by him to the +two Armenian merchants, Michael and Kaworke, on condition of their +paying him 1,25,000 rupees, exclusive of their engagements to the +Company; that the engagement was written in the name of Bussunt Roy and +Kissen Deb Sing; and Mr. Barwell says, that the reason of its being "in +these people's names was because <i>it was not thought consistent with the +public regulations that the names of any Europeans should appear</i>."</p> + +<p>It is remarkable that this policy was carried to still greater length. +Means were used to remove such <a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" title="155" class="pagenum"></a>an obnoxious proceeding, as far as +possible, from the public eye; and they were such as will strongly +impress the House with the facility of abuse and the extreme difficulty +of detection in everything which relates to the Indian administration. +For these substituted persons were again represented by the further +substitution of another name, viz., <i>Rada Churn Dey</i>, whom Mr. Barwell +asserts to be a real person living at Dacca, and who <i>stood for the +factory of Dacca</i>; whereas the Armenian affirms that there was <i>no</i> such +person as <i>Rada Churn</i>, and that it was a fictitious name.</p> + +<p>Mr. Barwell, in his justification, proceeds to affirm, that Coja Kaworke +never had the management of the salt mahls, "<i>but on condition of +accounting to the former Chief, and to Mr. Barwell, for a specified +advantage arising from them</i>,—that Mr. Barwell determined, <i>without he +could reconcile the interests of the public with his own private +emoluments</i>, that he would not engage in this concern,—and that, when +he took an interest in it, <i>it was for specified benefit in money</i>, and +every condition in the public engagement to be answered."</p> + +<p>Your Committee have stated the preceding facts in the same terms in +which they are stated by Mr. Barwell. The House is to judge how far they +amount to a defence against the charges contained in Kaworke's petition, +or to an admission of the truth of the principal part of it. Mr. Barwell +does not allow that compulsion was used to extort the money which he +received from the petitioner, or that the latter was dispossessed of the +farms in consequence of an offer made to Mr. Barwell by another person +(Ramsunder Paulet) to pay him a lac of ru<a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" title="156" class="pagenum"></a>pees more for them. The truth +of <i>these</i> charges has not been ascertained. They were declared by Mr. +Barwell to be false, but no attempt was made by him to invalidate or +confute them, though it concerned his reputation, and it was his duty, +in the station wherein he was placed, that charges of such a nature +should have been disproved,—at least, the accuser should have been +pushed to the proof of them. Nothing of this kind appears to have been +done, or even attempted.</p> + +<p>The transaction itself, as it stands, is clearly collusive; the form in +which it is conducted is clandestine and mysterious in an extraordinary +degree; and the acknowledged object of it a great illicit profit, to be +gained by an agent and trustee of the Company at the expense of his +employers, and of which he confesses he has received a considerable +part.</p> + +<p>The committee of the Governor-General and Council appear to have closed +their proceedings with several resolutions, which, with the answers +given by Mr. Barwell as a defence, are inserted in the Appendix. The +whole are referred thither together, on account of the ample extent of +the answer. These papers will be found to throw considerable light not +only on the points in question, but on the general administration of the +Company's revenues in Bengal. On some passages in Mr. Barwell's defence, +or account of his conduct, your Committee offer the following remarks to +the judgment of the House.</p> + +<p>In his letter of the 23rd March, 1775, he says, that he engaged for +Savagepoor <i>in the persuasion of its being a very profitable farm</i>. In +this place your Committee think it proper to state the 17th article of +the regulations of the Committee of Circuit, formed in<a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" title="157" class="pagenum"></a> May, 1772, by +the President and Council, of which Mr. Barwell was a member, together +with their own observations thereupon.</p> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p>17th. "That no peshcar, banian, or other servant, of whatever +denomination, of the collector, or relation or dependant of any such +servant, be allowed to farm lands, nor directly or indirectly to hold a +concern in any farm, nor to be security for any farmer; that the +collector be strictly enjoined to prevent such practices; and that, if +it shall be discovered that any one, <i>under a false name, or any kind of +collusion</i>, hath found means to evade this order, he shall be subject to +an heavy fine, proportionate to the amount of the farm, and the farm +shall be re-let, or made <i>khas</i>: and if it shall appear that the +collector shall have countenanced, approved, or connived at a breach of +this regulation, he shall stand <i>ipso facto</i> dismissed from his +collectorship. Neither shall any European, directly or indirectly, be +permitted to rent lands in any part of the country."</p> + + +<h3><i>Remark by the Board.</i></h3> + +<p>17th. "If the collector, or any persons who partake of his authority, +are permitted to be the farmers of the country, no other persons will +dare to be their competitors: of course they will obtain the farms on +their own terms. <i>It is not fit that the servants of the Company should +be dealers with their masters.</i> The collectors are checks on the +farmers. If they themselves turn farmers, what checks can be found for +<i>them</i>? What security will the Company have for their property, or where +are the ryots to look for relief against oppressions?"</p> +</div> +<p><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" title="158" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The reasons assigned for the preceding regulation seem to your Committee +to be perfectly just; but they can by no means be reconciled to those +which induced Mr. Barwell to engage in the salt farms of Selimabad and +Savagepoor. In the first place, his doing so is at length a direct and +avowed, though at first a covert, violation of the public regulation, to +which he was himself a party as a member of the government, as well as +an act of disobedience to the Company's positive orders on this subject. +In their General Letter of the 17th May, 1766, the Court of Directors +say, "We positively order, that no covenanted servant, or Englishman +residing under our protection, shall be suffered to hold any land for +his own account, directly or indirectly, in his own name or that of +others, or to be concerned in any farms or revenues whatsoever."</p> + +<p>Secondly, if, instead of letting the Company's lands or farms to +indifferent persons, their agent or trustee be at liberty to hold them +himself, he will always (on principles stated and adhered to in the +defence) have a sufficient reason for farming them on his own account, +since he can at all times make them as profitable as he pleases; or if +he leases them to a third person, yet reserves an intermediate profit +for himself, that profit may be as great as he thinks fit, and must be +necessarily made at the Company's expense. If at the same time he be +collector of the revenues, it will be his interest to recommend +remissions in favor of the nominal farmer, and he will have it in his +power to sink the amount of his collections.</p> + +<p>These principles, and the correspondent practices, leave the India +Company without any security that all the leases of the lands of Bengal +may not have <a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" title="159" class="pagenum"></a>been disposed of, under that administration which made the +five years' settlement in 1772, in the same manner and for the same +purpose.</p> + +<p>To enable the House to judge how far this apprehension may be founded, +it will be proper to state, that Mr. Nicholas Grueber, who preceded Mr. +Barwell in the Chiefship of Dacca, in a letter dated 29th of April, +1775, declares that he paid to the Committee of Circuit twelve thousand +rupees as their profit on a single salt farm,—which sum, he says, "I +paid the Committee at their request, before their departure from Dacca, +and reimbursed myself out of <i>the advances</i> directed to be issued for +the provision of the salt." Thus one illicit and mischievous transaction +always leads to another; and the irregular farming of revenue brings on +the misapplication of the commercial advances.</p> + +<p>Mr. Barwell professes himself to be sensible "<i>that a wish to add to his +fortune may possibly have warped his judgment</i>, and that <i>he rather +chooses to admit an error than deny a fact</i>." But your Committee are of +opinion that the extraordinary caution and the intricate contrivances +with which his share in this transaction is wrapped up form a sufficient +proof that he was not altogether misled in his judgment; and though +there might be some merit in acknowledging an error before it was +discovered, there could be very little in a confession produced by +previous detection.</p> + +<p>The reasons assigned by Mr. Barwell, in defence of the clandestine part +of this transaction, seem to your Committee to be insufficient in +themselves, and not very fit to be urged by a man in his station. In one +place he says, that "<i>it was not thought consistent with the public +regulations that the names of any Europeans <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" title="160" class="pagenum"></a>should appear</i>." In another +he says, "I am aware of the objection that has been made to the English +taking farms under the names of natives, as prohibited by the Company's +orders; and I must <i>deviate</i> a little upon this. It has been generally +understood that the scope and tendency of the Honorable Company's +prohibition of farms to Europeans was meant only to exclude such as +could not possibly, in their own persons, come under the jurisdiction of +the Duanné courts of Adawlet, because, upon any failure of engagements, +upon any complaint of unjust oppression, or other cause of discontent +whatever, it was supposed an European might screen himself from the +process of the country judicature. But it was never supposed <i>that an +European of credit and responsibility</i> was absolutely incapable from +holding certain tenures under the sanction and authority of the country +laws, or from becoming security for such native farmers, contractors, +&c., &c., as he might protect and employ."</p> + +<p>Your Committee have opposed this construction of Mr. Barwell's to the +positive order which the conduct it is meant to color has violated. +"Europeans of credit and responsibility," that is, Europeans armed with +wealth and power, and exercising offices of authority and trust, instead +of being excepted from the spirit of the restriction, must be supposed +the persons who are chiefly meant to be comprehended in it; for abstract +the idea of an European from the ideas of power and influence, and the +restriction is no longer rational.</p> + +<p>Your Committee are therefore of opinion that the nature of the evil +which was meant to be prevented by the above orders and regulations was +not altered, <a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" title="161" class="pagenum"></a>or the evil itself diminished, by the collusive methods +made use of to evade them,—and that, if the regulations were proper, +(as they unquestionably were,) they ought to have been punctually +complied with, particularly by the members of the government, <i>who +formed the plan</i>, and who, as trustees of the Company, were especially +answerable for their being duly carried into execution. Your Committee +have no reason to believe that it could ever have been generally +understood "that the Company's prohibition of farms to Europeans was +meant only to exclude such as could not possibly, in their own persons, +come under the jurisdiction of the Duanné courts": no such restriction +is so much as hinted at. And if it had been so understood, Mr. Barwell +was one of the persons who, from their rank, station, and influence, +must have been the principal objects of the prohibition. Since the +establishment of the Company's influence in Bengal, no Europeans, of any +rank whatever, have been subject to the process of the country +judicature; and whether they act avowedly for themselves, and take farms +in their own name, or substitute native Indians to act for them, the +difference is not material. The same influence that screened an European +from the jurisdiction of the country courts would have equally protected +his native agent and representative. For many years past the Company's +servants have presided in those courts, and in comparison with <i>their</i> +authority the native authority is nothing.</p> + +<p>The earliest instructions that appear to have been given by the Court of +Directors in consequence of these transactions in Bengal are dated the +5th of February, 1777. In their letter of that date they applaud the +proceedings of the board, meaning the majority,<a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" title="162" class="pagenum"></a> (then consisting of +General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis,) <i>as highly +meritorious</i>, and promise them their <i>firmest support</i>. "Some of the +<i>cases</i>" they say, "<i>are so flagrantly corrupt, and others attended with +circumstances so oppressive to the inhabitants, that it would be unjust +to suffer the delinquents to go unpunished</i>." With this observation +their proceedings appear to have ended, and paused for more than a year.</p> + +<p>On the 4th of March, 1778, the Directors appear to have resumed the +subject. In their letter of that date they instructed the Governor and +Council forthwith to commence a prosecution in the Supreme Court of +Judicature against the persons who composed the Committee of Circuit, or +their representatives, and also against Mr. Barwell, in order to +recover, for the use of the Company, the amount of all advantages +acquired by them from their several engagements in salt contracts and +farms. Adverting, however, to the declaration made by Mr. Barwell, that +he would account to the Court of Directors for the last shilling he had +received and abide implicity by their judgment, they thought it +probable, that, on being acquainted with their peremptory orders for +commencing a prosecution, he might be desirous of paying his share of +profits into the Company's treasury; and they pointed out a precaution +to be used in accepting such a tender on his part.</p> + +<p>On this part of the transaction your Committee observe, that the Court +of Directors appear blamable in having delayed till February, 1777, to +take any measure in consequence of advices so interesting and important, +and on a matter concerning which they had made so strong a +declaration,—considering that <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" title="163" class="pagenum"></a>early in April, 1776, they say "they had +investigated the charges, and had then come to certain resolutions +concerning them." But their delaying to send out positive orders for +commencing a prosecution against the parties concerned till March, 1778, +cannot be accounted for. In the former letter they promise, if they +should find it necessary, to return the original covenants of such of +their servants as had been any ways concerned in the undue receipt of +money, in order to enable the Governor-General and Council to recover +the same by suits in the Supreme Court. But your Committee do not find +that the covenants were ever transmitted to Bengal. To whatever cause +these instances of neglect and delay may be attributed, they could not +fail to create an opinion in Bengal that the Court of Directors were not +heartily intent upon the execution of their own orders, and to +discourage those members of government who were disposed to undertake so +invidious a duty.</p> + +<p>In consequence of these delays, even their first orders did not arrive +in Bengal until some time after the death of Colonel Monson, when the +whole power of the board had devolved to Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell. +When they sent what they call <i>their positive orders</i>, in March, 1778, +they had long been apprised of the death of Colonel Monson, and must +have been perfectly certain of the effect which that event would have on +the subsequent measures and proceedings of the Governor-General and +Council. Their opinion of the principles of those gentlemen appears in +their letter of the 28th of November, 1777, wherein they say "they +cannot but express their concern that the power of granting away their +property in perpetuity should have devolved upon such persons."</p><p><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" title="164" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>But the conduct of the Court of Directors appears to be open to +objections of a nature still more serious and important. A recovery of +the amount of Mr. Barwell's profits seems to be the only purpose which +they even professed to have in view. But your Committee are of opinion +that to preserve the reputation and dignity of the government of Bengal +was a much more important object, and ought to have been their first +consideration. The prosecution was not the pursuit of mean and +subordinate persons, who might with safety to the public interest remain +in their seats during such an inquiry into their conduct. It appears +very doubtful, whether, if there were grounds for such a prosecution, a +proceeding in Great Britain were not more politic than one in Bengal. +Such a prosecution ought not to have been ordered by the Directors, but +upon grounds that would have fully authorized the recall of the +gentleman in question. This prosecution, supposing it to have been +seriously undertaken, and to have succeeded, must have tended to weaken +the government, and to degrade it in the eyes of all India. On the other +hand, to intrust a man, armed as he was with all the powers of his +station, and indeed of the government, with the conduct of a prosecution +against himself, was altogether inconsistent and absurd. The same letter +in which they give these orders exhibits an example which sets the +inconsistency of their conduct in a stronger light, because the case is +somewhat of a similar nature, but infinitely less pressing in its +circumstances. Observing that the Board of Trade had commenced a +prosecution against Mr. William Barton, a member of that board, for +various acts of peculation committed by him, they say, "We must be of +opinion, that, <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" title="165" class="pagenum"></a>as <i>prosecutions are actually carrying on against him by +our Board of Trade</i>, he is, during such prosecution at least, an +improper person to hold a seat <i>at that board</i>; and therefore we direct +that he be suspended from the Company's service until our further +pleasure concerning him be known." The principle laid down in this +instruction, even before their own opinion concerning Mr. Barton's case +was declared, and merely on the prosecution of others, serves to render +their conduct not very accountable in the case of Mr. Barwell. Mr. +Barton was in a subordinate situation, and his remaining or not +remaining in it was of little or no moment to the prosecution. Mr. +Barton was but one of seven; whereas Mr. Barwell was one of four, and, +with the Governor-General, was in effect the Supreme Council.</p> + +<p>In the present state of power and patronage in India, and during the +relations which are permitted to subsist between the judges, the +prosecuting officers, and the Council-General, your Committee is very +doubtful whether the mode of prosecuting the highest members in the +Bengal government, before a court at Calcutta, could have been almost in +any case advisable.</p> + +<p>It is possible that particular persons, in high judicial and political +situations, may, by force of an unusual strain of virtue, be placed far +above the influence of those circumstances which in ordinary cases are +known to make an impression on the human mind. But your Committee, +sensible that laws and public proceedings ought to be made for general +situations, and not for personal dispositions, are not inclined to have +any confidence in the effect of criminal proceedings, where no means are +provided <a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" title="166" class="pagenum"></a>for preventing a mutual connection, by dependencies, agencies, +and employments, between the parties who are to prosecute and to judge +and those who are to be prosecuted and to be tried.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, in a former Report, have stated the consequences which +they apprehended from the dependency of the judges on the +Governor-General and Council of Bengal; and the House has entered into +their ideas upon this subject. Since that time it appears that Sir +Elijah Impey has accepted of the guardianship of Mr. Barwell's children, +and was the trustee for his affairs. There is no law to prevent this +sort of connection, and it is possible that it might not at all affect +the mind of that judge, or (upon his account) indirectly influence the +conduct of his brethren; but it must forcibly affect the minds of those +who have matter of complaint against government, and whose cause the +Court of Directors appear to espouse, in a country where the authority +of the Court of Directors has seldom been exerted but to be despised, +where the operation of laws is but very imperfectly understood, but +where men are acute, sagacious, and even suspicious of the effect of all +personal connections. Their suspicions, though perhaps not rightly +applied to every individual, will induce them to take indications from +the situations and connections of the prosecuting parties, as well as of +the judges. It cannot fail to be observed, that Mr. Naylor, the +Company's attorney, lived in Mr. Barwell's house; the late Mr. Bogle, +the Company's commissioner of lawsuits, owed his place to the patronage +of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, by whom the office was created for him; +and Sir John Day, the Company's advocate, who arrived in<a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" title="167" class="pagenum"></a> Bengal in +February, 1779, had not been four months in Calcutta, when Mr. Hastings, +Mr. Barwell, and Sir Eyre Coote doubled his salary, contrary to the +opinion of Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler.</p> + +<p>If the Directors are known to devolve the whole cognizance of the +offences charged on their servants so highly situated upon the Supreme +Court, an excuse will be furnished, if already it has not been +furnished, to the Directors for declining the use of their own proper +political power and authority in examining into and animadverting on the +conduct of their servants. Their true character, as strict masters and +vigilant governors, will merge in that of prosecutors. Their force and +energy will evaporate in tedious and intricate processes,—in lawsuits +which can never end, and which are to be carried on by the very +dependants of those who are under prosecution. On their part, these +servants will decline giving satisfaction to their masters, because they +are already before another tribunal; and thus, by shifting +responsibility from hand to hand, a confederacy to defeat the whole +spirit of the law, and to remove all real restraints on their actions, +may be in time formed between the servants, Directors, prosecutors, and +court. Of this great danger your Committee will take farther notice in +another place.</p> + +<p>No notice whatever appears to have been taken of the Company's orders in +Bengal till the 11th of January, 1779, when Mr. Barwell moved, <i>that the +claim made upon him by the Court of Directors should be submitted to the +Company's lawyers, and that they should be perfectly instructed to +prosecute upon it</i>. In his minute of that date he says, "<i>that the state +of his health had long since rendered it necessary for him to return to +Europe</i>."</p><p><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" title="168" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Your Committee observe that he continued in Bengal another year. He +says, "that he had hitherto waited for the arrival of Sir John Day, the +Company's advocate; but as the season was now far advanced, he wished to +bring the trial speedily to issue."</p> + +<p>In this minute he retracts his original engagement to submit himself to +the judgment of the Court of Directors, "and to account to them for the +last shilling he had received": he says, "that no merit had been given +him for the offer; that a most unjustifiable advantage had been +attempted to be made of it, by first declining it and <i>descending to +abuse</i>, and then giving orders upon it as if it had been rejected, when +called upon by him in the person of his agent to bring home the charge +of delinquency."</p> + +<p>Mr. Barwell's reflections on the proceedings of the Court of Directors +are not altogether clearly expressed; nor does it appear distinctly to +what facts he alludes. He asserts that a most unjustifiable advantage +had been attempted to be made of his offer. The fact is, the Court of +Directors have nowhere declined accepting it; on the contrary, they +caution the Governor-General and Council about the manner of receiving +the tender of the money which they expect him to make. They say nothing +of any call made on them by Mr. Barwell's agent in England; nor does it +appear to your Committee that they "have descended to abuse." They have +a right, and it is their duty, to express, in distinct and appropriated +terms, their sense of all blamable conduct in their servants.</p> + +<p>So far as may be collected from the evidence of the Company's records, +Mr. Barwell's assertions do <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" title="169" class="pagenum"></a>not appear well supported; but even if they +were more plausible, your Committee apprehend that he could not be +discharged from his solemn recorded promise to abide by the judgment of +the Court of Directors. Their judgment was declared by their resolution +to prosecute, which it depended upon himself to satisfy by making good +his engagement. To excuse his not complying with the Company's claims, +he says, "<i>that his compliance would be urged as a confession of +delinquency, and to proceed from conviction of his having usurped on the +rights of the Company</i>." Considerations of this nature might properly +have induced Mr. Barwell to stand upon his right in the first instance, +"<i>and to appeal</i>" (to use his own words) "<i>to the laws of his country, +in order to vindicate his fame</i>." But his performance could not have +more weight to infer delinquency than his promise. Your Committee think +his observation comes too late.</p> + +<p>If he had stood a trial, when he first acknowledged the facts, and +submitted himself to the judgment of the Court of Directors, the suit +would have been carried on under the direction of General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis; whereas in the year 1779 his influence +at the board gave him the conduct of it himself. In an interval of four +years it may be presumed that great alterations might have happened in +the state of the evidence against him.</p> + +<p>In the subsequent proceedings of the Governor-General and Council the +House will find that Mr. Barwell complained that his instances for +carrying on the prosecution were ineffectual, owing to the legal +difficulties and delays <i>urged by the Company's law officers</i>, which +your Committee do not find have <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" title="170" class="pagenum"></a>yet been removed. As far as the latest +advices reach, no progress appears to have been made in the business. In +July, 1782, the Court of Directors found it necessary to order an +account of all suits against Europeans depending in the Supreme Court of +Judicature to be transmitted to them, and that no time should be lost in +bringing them to a determination.</p> + + +<h3><a name="SALTPETRE" id="SALTPETRE"></a>SALTPETRE.</h3> + +<p>The next article of direct monopoly subservient to the Company's export +is saltpetre. This, as well as opium, is far the greater part the +produce of the province of Bahar. The difference between the management +and destination of the two articles has been this. Until the year 1782, +the opium has been sold in the country, and the produce of the sale laid +out in country merchandise for the Company's export. A great part of the +saltpetre is sent out in kind, and never has contributed to the interior +circulation and commerce of Bengal. It is managed by agency on the +Company's account. The price paid to the manufacturer is invariable. +Some of the larger undertakers receive advances to enable them to +prosecute their work; but as they are not always equally careful or +fortunate, it happens that large balances accumulate against them. +Orders have been sent from Calcutta from time to time to recover their +balances, with little or no success, but with great vexation to all +concerned in the manufacture. Sometimes they have imprisoned the failing +contractors in their own houses,—a severity which answers no useful +purpose. Such persons are so many hands detached from the im<a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" title="171" class="pagenum"></a>provement +and added to the burden of the country. They are persons of skill drawn +from the future supply of that monopoly in favor of which they are +prosecuted. In case of the death of the debtor, this rigorous demand +falls upon the ruined houses of widows and orphans, and may be easily +converted into a means either of cruel oppression or a mercenary +indulgence, according to the temper of the exactors. Instead of thus +having recourse to imprisonment, the old balance is sometimes deducted +from the current produce. This, in these circumstances, is a grievous +discouragement. People must be discouraged from entering into a +business, when, the commodity being fixed to one invariable standard and +confined to one market, the best success can be attended only with a +limited advantage, whilst a defective produce can never be compensated +by an augmented price. Accordingly, very little of these advances has +been recovered, and after much vexation the pursuit has generally been +abandoned. It is plain that there can be no life and vigor in any +business under a monopoly so constituted; nor can the true productive +resources of the country, in so large an article of its commerce, ever +come to be fully known.</p> + +<p>The supply for the Company's demand in England has rarely fallen short +of two thousand tons, nor much exceeded two thousand five hundred. A +discretionary allowance of this commodity has been made to the French, +Dutch, and Danes, who purchase their allotted shares at some small +advance on the Company's price. The supply destined for the London +market is proportioned to the spare tonnage; and to accommodate that +tonnage, the saltpetre is sometimes sent to Madras and sometimes even to +Bombay, and that <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" title="172" class="pagenum"></a>not unfrequently in vessels expressly employed for the +purpose.</p> + +<p>Mr. Law, Chief of Patna, being examined on the effect of that monopoly, +delivered his opinion, that with regard to the Company's <i>trade</i> the +monopoly was advantageous, but as sovereigns of the country they must be +losers by it. These two capacities in the Company are found in perpetual +contradiction. But much doubt may arise whether this monopoly will be +found advantageous to the Company either in the one capacity or the +other. The gross commodity monopolized for sale in London is procured +from the revenues in Bengal; the certain is given for the hazardous. The +loss of interest on the advances, sometimes the loss of the +principal,—the expense of carriage from Patna to Calcutta,—the various +loadings and unloadings, and insurance (which, though borne by the +Company, is still insurance),—the engagement for the Ordnance, limited +in price, and irregular in payment,—the charge of agency and +management, through all its gradations and successions,—when all these +are taken into consideration, it may be found that the gain of the +Company as traders will be far from compensating their loss as +sovereigns. A body like the East India Company can scarcely, in any +circumstance, hope to carry on the details of such a business, from its +commencement to its conclusion, with any degree of success. In the +subjoined estimate of profit and loss, the value of the commodity is +stated at its invoice price at Calcutta. But this affords no just +estimate of the whole effect of a dealing, where the Company's charge +commences in the first rudiments of the manufacture, and not at the +purchase at the place of sale and valuation: for they [there?]<a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" title="173" class="pagenum"></a> may be +heavy losses on the value at which the saltpetre is estimated, when, +shipped off on their account, without any appearance in the account; and +the inquiries of your Committee to find the charges on the saltpetre +previous to the shipping have been fruitless.</p> + + +<h3><a name="BRITISH_GOVERNMENT_IN_INDIA" id="BRITISH_GOVERNMENT_IN_INDIA"></a>BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA.</h3> + +<p>The other link by which India is bound to Great Britain is the +government established there originally by the authority of the East +India Company, and afterwards modified by Parliament by the acts of 1773 +and 1780. This system of government appears to your Committee to be at +least as much disordered, and as much perverted from every good purpose +for which lawful rule is established, as the trading system has been +from every just principle of commerce. Your Committee, in tracing the +causes of this disorder through its effects, have first considered the +government as it is constituted and managed within itself, beginning +with its most essential and fundamental part, the order and discipline +by which the supreme authority of this kingdom is maintained.</p> + +<p>The British government in India being a subordinate and delegated power, +it ought to be considered as a fundamental principle in such a system, +that it is to be preserved in the strictest obedience to the government +at home. Administration in India, at an immense distance from the seat +of the supreme authority,—intrusted with the most extensive +powers,—liable to the greatest temptations,—possessing the amplest +means of abuse,—ruling over a people guarded by no distinct or +well-ascertained <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" title="174" class="pagenum"></a>privileges, whose language, manners, and radical +prejudices render not only redress, but all complaint on their part, a +matter of extreme difficulty,—such an administration, it is evident, +never can be made subservient to the interests of Great Britain, or even +tolerable to the natives, but by the strictest rigor in exacting +obedience to the commands of the authority lawfully set over it.</p> + +<p>But your Committee find that this principle has been for some years very +little attended to. Before the passing the act of 1773, the professed +purpose of which was to secure a better subordination in the Company's +servants, such was the firmness with which the Court of Directors +maintained their authority, that they displaced Governor Cartier, +confessedly a meritorious servant, for disobedience of orders, although +his case was not a great deal more than a question by whom the orders +were to be obeyed.<a name="FNanchor_12_18" id="FNanchor_12_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_18" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Committee's Fifth Report, page 21, and Appendix to +that Report, No. 12.">[12]</a> Yet the Directors were so sensible of the +necessity of a punctual and literal obedience, that, conceiving their +orders went to the parties who were to obey, as well as to the act to be +done, they proceeded with a strictness that, in all cases except that of +their peculiar government, might well be considered as rigorous. But in +proportion as the necessity of enforcing obedience grew stronger and +more urgent, and in proportion to the magnitude and importance of the +objects affected by disobedience, this rigor has been relaxed. Acts of +disobedience have not only grown frequent, but systematic; and they have +appeared in such instances, and are manifested in such a manner, as to +amount, in the Company's <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" title="175" class="pagenum"></a>servants, to little less than absolute +independence, against which, on the part of the Directors, there is no +struggle, and hardly so much as a protest to preserve a claim.</p> + +<p>Before your Committee proceed to offer to the House their remarks on the +most distinguished of these instances, the particulars of which they +have already reported, they deem it necessary to enter into some detail +of a transaction equally extraordinary and important, though not yet +brought into the view of Parliament, which appears to have laid the +foundation of the principal abuses that ensued, as well as to have given +strength and encouragement to those that existed. To this transaction, +and to the conclusions naturally deducible from it, your Committee +attribute that general spirit of disobedience and independence which has +since prevailed in the government of Bengal.</p> + +<p>Your Committee find that in the year 1775 Mr. Lauchlan Macleane was sent +into England as agent to the Nabob of Arcot and to Mr. Hastings. The +conduct of Mr. Hastings, in assisting to extirpate, for a sum of money +to be paid to the Company, the innocent nation of the Rohillas, had +drawn upon him the censure of the Court of Directors, and the unanimous +censure of the Court of Proprietors. The former had even resolved to +prepare an application to his Majesty for Mr. Hastings's dismission.</p> + +<p>Another General Court was called on this proceeding. Mr. Hastings was +then openly supported by a majority of the Court of Proprietors, who +professed to entertain a good opinion of his general ability and +rectitude of intention, notwithstanding the unanimous censure passed +upon him. In that censure <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" title="176" class="pagenum"></a>they therefore seemed disposed to acquiesce, +without pushing the matter farther. But, as the offence was far from +trifling, and the condemnation of the measure recent, they did not +directly attack the resolution of the Directors to apply to his Majesty, +but voted in the ballot that it should be reconsidered. The business +therefore remained in suspense, or it rather seemed to be dropped, for +some months, when Mr. Macleane took a step of a nature not in the least +to be expected from the condition in which the cause of his principal +stood, which was apparently as favorable as the circumstances could +bear. Hitherto the support of Mr. Hastings in the General Court was only +by a majority; but if on application from the Directors he should be +removed, a mere majority would not have been sufficient for his +restoration. The door would have been barred against his return to the +Company's service by one of the strongest and most substantial clauses +in the Regulating Act of 1778. Mr. Macleane, probably to prevent the +manifest ill consequences of such a step, came forward with a letter to +the Court of Directors, declaring his provisional powers, and offering +on the part of Mr. Hastings an immediate resignation of his office.</p> + +<p>On this occasion the Directors showed themselves extremely punctilious +with regard to Mr. Macleane's powers. They probably dreaded the charge +of becoming accomplices to an evasion of the act by which Mr. Hastings, +resigning the service, would escape the consequences attached by law to +a dismission; they therefore demanded Mr. Macleane's written authority. +This he declared he could not give into their hands, as the letter +contained other matters, of a nature extremely confidential, but that, +<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" title="177" class="pagenum"></a>if they would appoint a committee of the Directors, he would readily +communicate to them the necessary parts of the letter, and give them +perfect satisfaction with regard to his authority. A deputation was +accordingly named, who reported that they had seen Mr. Hastings's +instructions, contained in a paper in <i>his own handwriting</i>, and that +the authority for the act now done by Mr. Macleane was clear and +sufficient. Mr. Vansittart, a very particular friend of Mr. Hastings, +and Mr. John Stewart, his most attached and confidential dependant, +attended on this occasion, and proved that directions perfectly +correspondent to this written authority had been given by Mr. Hastings +in their presence. By this means the powers were fully authenticated; +but the letter remained safe in Mr. Macleane's hands.</p> + +<p>Nothing being now wanting to the satisfaction of the Directors, the +resignation was formally accepted. Mr. Wheler was named to fill the +vacancy, and presented for his Majesty's approbation, which was +received. The act was complete, and the office that Mr. Hastings had +resigned was legally filled. This proceeding was officially notified in +Bengal, and General Clavering, as senior in Council, was in course to +succeed to the office of Governor-General.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, to extricate himself from the difficulties into which this +resignation had brought him, had recourse to one of those unlooked-for +and hardy measures which characterize the whole of his administration. +He came to a resolution of disowning his agent, denying his letter, and +disavowing his friends. He insisted on continuing in the execution of +his office, and supported himself by such reasons as could be furnished +in such a cause. An open <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" title="178" class="pagenum"></a>schism instantly divided the Council. General +Clavering claimed the office to which he ought to succeed, and Mr. +Francis adhered to him: Mr. Barwell stuck to Mr. Hastings. The two +parties assembled separately, and everything was running fast into a +confusion which suspended government, and might very probably have ended +in a civil war, had not the judges of the Supreme Court, on a reference +to them, settled the controversy by deciding that the resignation was an +invalid act, and that Mr. Hastings was still in the legal possession of +his place, which had been actually filled up in England. It was +extraordinary that the nullity of this resignation should not have been +discovered in England, where the act authorizing the resignation then +was, where the agent was personally present, where the witnesses were +examined, and where there was and could be no want of legal advice, +either on the part of the Company or of the crown. The judges took no +light matter upon them in superseding, and thereby condemning the +legality of his Majesty's appointment: for such it became by the royal +approbation.</p> + +<p>On this determination, such as it was, the division in the meeting, but +not in the minds of the Council, ceased. General Clavering uniformly +opposed the conduct of Mr. Hastings to the end of his life. But Mr. +Hastings showed more temper under much greater provocations. In +disclaiming his agent, and in effect accusing him of an imposture the +most deeply injurious to his character and fortune, and of the grossest +forgery to support it, he was so very mild and indulgent as not to show +any active resentment against his unfaithful agent, nor to complain to +the Court of Directors. It was expected in Bengal that <a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" title="179" class="pagenum"></a>some strong +measures would have immediately been taken to preserve the just rights +of the king and of the Court of Directors; as this proceeding, +unaccompanied with the severest animadversion, manifestly struck a +decisive blow at the existence of the most essential powers of both. But +your Committee do not find that any measures whatever, such as the case +seemed to demand, were taken. The observations made by the Court of +Directors on what they call "<i>these extraordinary transactions</i>" are +just and well applied. They conclude with a declaration, "<i>that the +measures which it might be necessary for them to take, in order to +retrieve the honor of the Company, and to prevent the like abuse from +being practised in future, should have their most serious and earliest +consideration</i>"; and with this declaration they appear to have closed +the account, and to have dismissed the subject forever.</p> + +<p>A sanction was hereby given to all future defiance of every authority in +this kingdom. Several other matters of complaint against Mr. Hastings, +particularly the charge of peculation, fell to the ground at the same +time. Opinions of counsel had been taken relative to a prosecution at +law upon this charge, from the then Attorney and the then +Solicitor-General and Mr. Dunning, (now the Lords Thurlow, Loughborough, +and Ashburton,) together with Mr. Adair (now Recorder of London). None +of them gave a positive opinion against the grounds of the prosecution. +The Attorney-General doubted on <i>the prudence</i> of the proceedings, and +censured (as it well deserved) the ill statement of the case. Three of +them, Mr. Wedderburn, Mr. Dunning, and Mr. Adair, were clear in favor of +the prosecution. No prosecution, however, was <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" title="180" class="pagenum"></a>had, and the Directors +contented themselves with censuring and admonishing Mr. Hastings.</p> + +<p>With regard to the Supreme Council, the members who chose (for it was +choice only) to attend to the orders which were issued from the +languishing authority of the Directors continued to receive unprofitable +applauses and no support. Their correspondence was always filled with +complaints, the justice of which was always admitted by the Court of +Directors; but this admission of the existence of the evil showed only +the impotence of those who were to administer the remedy. The authority +of the Court of Directors, resisted with success in so capital an +instance as that of the resignation, was not likely to be respected in +any other. What influence it really had on the conduct of the Company's +servants may be collected from the facts that followed it.</p> + +<p>The disobedience of Mr. Hastings has of late not only become uniform and +systematical in practice, but has been in principle, also, supported by +him, and by Mr. Barwell, late a member of the Supreme Council in Bengal, +and now a member of this House.</p> + +<p>In the Consultation of the 20th of July, 1778, Mr. Barwell gives it as +his solemn and deliberate opinion, that, "while Mr. Hastings is in the +government, the respect and dignity of his station should be supported. +In these sentiments, I must decline an acquiescence in <i>any</i> order which +has a <i>tendency</i> to bring the government into disrepute. As the Company +have the means and power of forming their own administration in India, +they may at pleasure place whom they please at the head; but in my +opinion they are not authorized to treat a person in that post with +<i>indignity</i>."</p> + +<p>By treating them with indignity (in the particular <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" title="181" class="pagenum"></a>cases wherein they +have declined obedience to orders) they must mean those orders which +imply a censure on any part of their conduct, a reversal of any of their +proceedings, or, as Mr. Barwell expresses himself in words very +significant, in any orders that have a <i>tendency</i> to bring <i>their</i> +government into <i>disrepute</i>. The amplitude of this latter description, +reserving to them the judgment of any orders which have so much as that +<i>tendency</i>, puts them in possession of a complete independence, an +independence including a despotic authority over the subordinates and +the country. The very means taken by the Directors for enforcing their +authority becomes, on this principle, a cause of further disobedience. +It is observable, that their principles of disobedience do not refer to +any local consideration, overlooked by the Directors, which might +supersede their orders, or to any change of circumstances, which might +render another course advisable, or even perhaps necessary,—but it +relates solely to their own interior feelings in matters relative to +themselves, and their opinion of their own dignity and reputation. It is +plain that they have wholly forgotten who they are, and what the nature +of their office is. Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell are servants of the +Company, and as such, by the duty inherent in that relation, as well as +by their special covenants, were obliged to yield obedience to the +orders of their masters. They have, as far as they were able, cancelled +all the bonds of this relation, and all the sanctions of these +covenants.</p> + +<p>But in thus throwing off the authority of the Court of Directors, Mr. +Hastings and Mr. Barwell have thrown off the authority of the whole +legislative power of Great Britain; for, by the Regulating Act of the +<a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" title="182" class="pagenum"></a>thirteenth of his Majesty, they are expressly "directed and required to +pay due obedience to <i>all</i> such orders as they shall receive from the +Court of Directors of the said United Company." Such is the declaration +of the law. But Mr. Barwell declares that he declines obedience to <i>any</i> +orders which he shall interpret to be indignities on a Governor-General. +To the clear injunctions of the legislature Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell +have thought proper to oppose their pretended reputation and dignity; as +if the chief honor of public ministers in every situation was not to +yield a cheerful obedience to the laws of their country. Your Committee, +to render evident to this House the general nature and tendency of this +pretended dignity, and to illustrate the real principles upon which they +appear to have acted, think it necessary to make observations on three +or four of the cases, already reported, of marked disobedience to +particular and special orders, on one of which the above extraordinary +doctrine was maintained.</p> + +<p>These are the cases of Mr. Fowke, Mr. Bristow, and Mahomed Reza Khân. In +a few weeks after the death of Colonel Monson, Mr. Hastings having +obtained a majority in Council by his casting vote, Mr. Fowke and Mr. +Bristow were called from their respective offices of Residents at +Benares and Oude, places which have become the scenes of other +extraordinary operations under the conduct of Mr. Hastings in person. +For the recall of Mr. Bristow no reason was assigned. The reason +assigned for the proceeding with regard to Mr. Fowke was, that "the +purposes for which he was appointed were then fully accomplished."</p> + +<p>An account of the removal of Mr. Fowke was communicated to the Court of +Directors in a letter of the<a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" title="183" class="pagenum"></a> 22d of December, 1776. On this +notification the Court had nothing to conclude, but that Mr. Hastings, +from a rigid pursuit of economy in the management of the Company's +affairs, had recalled a useless officer. But, without alleging any +variation whatsoever in the circumstances, in less than twenty days +after the order for the recall of Mr. Fowke, and <i>the very day after the +dispatch</i> containing an account of the transaction, Mr. Hastings +recommended Mr. Graham to this very office, the end of which, he +declared to the Directors but the day before, had been fully +accomplished; and not thinking this sufficient, he appointed Mr. D. +Barwell as his assistant, at a salary of about four hundred pounds a +year. Against this extraordinary act General Clavering and Mr. Francis +entered a protest.</p> + +<p>So early as the 6th of the following January the appointment of these +gentlemen was communicated in a letter to the Court of Directors, +without any sort of color, apology, or explanation. That court found a +servant removed from his station without complaint, contrary to the +tenor of one of their standing injunctions. They allow, however, and +with reason, that, "if it were possible to suppose that a saving, &c., +had been his motive, they would have approved his proceeding. But that +when immediately afterwards two persons, with <i>two</i> salaries, had been +appointed to execute the office which had been filled with reputation by +Mr. Fowke alone, and that Mr. Graham enjoys all the emoluments annexed +to the office of Mr. Fowke,"—they properly conclude that Mr. Fowke was +removed without just cause, to make way for Mr. Graham, and strictly +enjoin that the former be reinstated in his office of Resident as +Post-<a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" title="184" class="pagenum"></a>master of Benares. In the same letter they assert their rights in +a tone of becoming firmness, and declare, that "on no account we can +permit our orders to be disobeyed or our authority disregarded."</p> + +<p>It was now to be seen which of the parties was to give way. The orders +were clear and precise, and enforced by a strong declaration of the +resolution of the Court to make itself obeyed. Mr. Hastings fairly +joined issue upon this point with his masters, and, having disobeyed the +general instructions of the Company, determined to pay no obedience to +their special order.</p> + +<p>On the 21st July, 1778, he moved, and succeeded in his proposition, that +the execution of these orders should be suspended. The reason he +assigned for this suspension lets in great light upon the true character +of all these proceedings: "That his consent to the recall of Mr. Graham +would be adequate to his own resignation of the service, as it would +inflict such a wound on <i>his authority and influence</i> that he could not +maintain it."</p> + +<p>If that had been his opinion, he ought to have resigned, and not +disobeyed: because it was not necessary that he should hold his office; +but it was necessary, that, whilst he hold it, he should obey his +superiors, and submit to the law. Much more truly was his conduct a +virtual resignation of his lawful office, and at the same time an +usurpation of a situation which did not belong to him, to hold a +subordinate office, and to refuse to act according to its duties. Had +his authority been self-originated, it would have been wounded by his +submission; but in this case the true nature of his authority was +affirmed, not injured, by his obedience, because it was a power <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" title="185" class="pagenum"></a>derived +from others, and, by its essence, to be executed according to their +directions.</p> + +<p>In this determined disobedience he was supported by Mr. Barwell, who on +that occasion delivered the dangerous doctrine to which your Committee +have lately adverted. Mr. Fowke, who had a most material interest in +this determination, applied by letter to be informed concerning it. An +answer was sent, acquainting him coldly, and without any reason +assigned, of what had been resolved relative to his office. This +communication was soon followed by another letter from Mr. Fowke, with +great submission and remarkable decency asserting his right to his +office under the authority of the Court of Directors, and for solid +reasons, grounded on the Company's express orders, praying to be +informed of the charge against him. This letter appears to have been +received by Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell very loftily. Mr. Hastings +said, "that such applications were irregular; that they are not +accountable to Mr. Fowke for their resolution respecting him. The +reasons for suspending the execution of the orders of the Court of +Directors contain <i>no charge, nor the slightest imputation of a charge</i>, +against Mr. Fowke; <i>but I see no reason why the board should condescend +to tell him so</i>." Accordingly, the proposition of Mr. Francis and Mr. +Wheler, to inform Mr. Fowke "that they had no reason to be dissatisfied +with his conduct," on the previous question was rejected.</p> + +<p>By this resolution Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell discovered another +principle, and no less dangerous than the first: namely, that persons +deriving a valuable interest under the Company's orders, so far from +being heard in favor of their right, are not so <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" title="186" class="pagenum"></a>much as to be informed +of the grounds on which they are deprived of it.</p> + +<p>The arrival soon after of Sir Eyre Coote giving another opportunity of +trial, the question for obedience to the Company's orders was again<a name="FNanchor_13_19" id="FNanchor_13_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_19" class="fnanchor" title=" 1st and 5th April, 1779.">[13]</a> +brought on by Mr. Francis, and again received a negative. Sir Eyre +Coote, though present, and declaring, that, had he been at the original +consultation, he should have voted for the immediate execution of the +Company's orders, yet he was resolved to avoid what he called <i>any kind +of retrospect</i>. His neutrality gained the question in favor of this, the +third resolution for disobedience to orders.</p> + +<p>The resolution in Bengal being thus decisively taken, it came to the +turn of the Court of Directors to act their part. They did act their +part exactly in their old manner: they had recourse to their old remedy +of repeating orders which had been disobeyed. The Directors declare to +Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, though without any apparent reason, that +"they have read <i>with astonishment their formal resolution</i> to suspend +the execution of their orders; that they shall take such measures as +appear necessary for <i>preserving the authority of the Court of +Directors</i>, and for preventing <i>such instances of direct and wilful</i> +disobedience in their servants in time to come." They then renew their +directions concerning Mr. Fowke. The event of this <i>sole</i> measure taken +to preserve their authority, and to prevent instances of direct and +wilful disobedience, your Committee will state in its proper +place,—taking into consideration, for the present, the proceedings +relative to Mr. Bristow, and to Mahomed Reza Khân, which were +<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" title="187" class="pagenum"></a>altogether in the same spirit; but as they were diversified in the +circumstances of disobedience, as well from the case of Mr. Fowke as +from one another, and as these circumstances tend to discover other +dangerous principles of abuse, and the general prostrate condition of +the authority of Parliament in Bengal, your Committee proceed first to +make some observations upon them.</p> + +<p>The province of Oude, enlarged by the accession of several extensive and +once flourishing territories, that is, by the country of the Rohillas, +the district of Corah and Allahabad, and other provinces betwixt the +Ganges and Jumna, is under the nominal dominion of one of the princes of +the country, called Asoph ul Dowlah. But a body of English troops is +kept up in his country; and the greatest part of his revenues are, by +one description or another, substantially under the administration of +English subjects. He is to all purposes a dependent prince. The person +to be employed in his dominions to act for the Committee [Company?] was +therefore of little consequence in his capacity of negotiator; but he +was vested with a trust, great and critical, in all pecuniary affairs. +These provinces of dependence lie out of the system of the Company's +ordinary administration, and transactions there cannot be so readily +brought under the cognizance of the Court of Directors. This renders it +the more necessary that the Residents in such places should be persons +not disapproved of by the Court of Directors. They are to manage a +permanent interest, which is not, like a matter of political +negotiation, variable, and which, from circumstances, might possibly +excuse some degree of discretionary latitude in construing their orders. +During the life<a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" title="188" class="pagenum"></a>time of General Clavering and Colonel Monson, Mr. +Bristow was appointed to this Presidency, and that appointment, being +approved and confirmed by the Court of Directors, became in effect their +own. Mr. Bristow appears to have shown himself a man of talents and +activity. He had been principally concerned in the negotiations by which +the Company's interest in the higher provinces had been established; and +those services were considered by the Presidency of Calcutta as so +meritorious, that they voted him ten thousand pounds as a reward, with +many expressions of esteem and honor.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bristow, however, was recalled by Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, who +had then acquired the majority, without any complaint having been +assigned as the cause of his removal, and Mr. Middleton was sent in his +stead to reside at the capital of Oude. The Court of Directors, as soon +as they could be apprised of this extraordinary step, in their letter of +the 4th of July, 1777, express their strongest disapprobation of it: +they order Mr. Middleton to be recalled, and Mr. Bristow to be +reinstated in his office. In December, 1778, they repeat their order. Of +these repeated orders no notice was taken. Mr. Bristow, fatigued with +unsuccessful private applications, which met with a constant refusal, +did at length, on the 1st of May, 1780, address a letter to the board, +making his claim of right, entitling himself to his offices [office?] +under the authority of the Court of Directors, and complaining of the +hardships which he suffered by the delay in admitting him to the +exercise of it. This letter your Committee have inserted at large in the +Fifth Report, having found nothing whatsoever exceptionable in it, +although it seems to have excited the warmest resentment in Mr. +Hastings.</p><p><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" title="189" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>This claim of the party gave no new force to the order of the Directors, +which remained without any attention from the board from Mr. Bristow's +arrival until the 1st of May, and with as little from the 1st of May to +the 2nd of October following. On that day, Mr. Francis, after having +caused the repeated orders of the Court of Directors to be first read, +moved that Mr. Bristow should be reinstated in his office. This motion, +in itself just and proper in the highest degree, and in which no fault +could be found, but that it was not made more early, was received by Mr. +Hastings with the greatest marks of resentment and indignation. He +declares in his minute, that, "were the most determined adversary of the +British nation to possess, by whatever means, a share in the +administration, he could not devise a measure in <i>itself</i> so pernicious, +or <i>time</i> it so effectually for the <i>ruin</i> of the British interests in +India." Then turning to the object of the motion, he says, "I will ask, +Who is Mr. Bristow, that a member of the administration should, at such +a time, hold him forth, as <i>an instrument for the degradation of the +first executive member of this government?</i> What are the professed +objects of his appointment? What are the <i>merits</i> and services, or what +the <i>qualifications</i>, which entitle him to such uncommon distinction? Is +it for his superior <i>integrity</i>, or from his eminent <i>abilities</i>, that +he is to be dignified at such hazard of every consideration that ought +to influence the members of this administration? Of the former (his +integrity) I know <i>no proofs</i>; I am sure it is not an evidence of it, +that he has been <i>enabled</i> to make himself the principal in such a +<i>competition:</i> and for the test of his abilities I appeal to the letter +which he has <i>dared</i> to write to <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" title="190" class="pagenum"></a>this board, and which I am ashamed to +say we have <i>suffered</i>. I desire that a copy of it may be inserted in +this day's proceedings, that it may stand before the eyes of every +member of the board, when he shall give his vote upon a question for +giving their confidence to a man, <i>their servant</i>, who has publicly +insulted <i>them, his masters</i>, and the members of the government to whom +he owes <i>his obedience</i>,—who, assuming an association with the Court of +Directors, and erecting himself into a <i>tribunal</i>, has <i>arraigned</i> them +for <i>disobedience</i> of orders, <i>passed judgment</i> upon them, <i>and +condemned or acquitted them, as their magistrate or superior</i>. Let the +board consider, whether a man possessed of so <i>independent</i> a spirit, +who has already shown a <i>contempt</i> of their authority, who has shown +himself <i>so wretched an advocate for his own cause and negotiator for +his own interest</i>, is fit to be trusted with the guardianship of <i>their</i> +honor, the execution of <i>their</i> measures, and as <i>their</i> confidential +manager and negotiator with the princes of India. As the motion has been +unaccompanied by any reasons which should induce the board to pass their +acquiescence in it, I presume the motion which preceded it, for <i>reading +the orders of the Court of Directors, was intended to serve as an +argument for it, as well as an introduction to it</i>. The last of those +was dictated the 23rd December, 1778, almost two years past. They were +dictated at a time when, I am sorry to say, the Court of Directors were +in <i>the habit of casting reproach upon my conduct and heaping +indignities upon my station</i>."</p> + +<p>Had the language and opinions which prevail throughout this part of the +minute, as well as in all the others to which your Committee refer, been +<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" title="191" class="pagenum"></a>uttered suddenly and in a passion, however unprovoked, some sort of +apology might be made for the Governor-General. But when it was produced +five months after the supposed offence, and then delivered in writing, +which always implies the power of a greater degree of recollection and +self-command, it shows how deeply the principles of disobedience had +taken root in his mind, and of an assumption to himself of exorbitant +powers, which he chooses to distinguish by the title of "<i>his +prerogative</i>." In this also will be found an obscure hint of the cause +of his disobedience, which your Committee conceive to allude to the main +cause of the disorders in the government of India,—namely, an underhand +communication with Europe.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, by his confidence in the support derived from this source, +or from the habits of independent power, is carried to such a length as +to consider a motion to obey the Court of Directors as a degradation of +the executive government in his person. He looks upon a claim under that +authority, and a complaint that it has produced no effect, as a piece of +daring insolence which he is ashamed that the board has suffered. The +behavior which your Committee consider as so intemperate and despotic he +regards as a culpable degree of patience and forbearance. Major Scott, +his agent, enters so much into the principles of Mr. Hastings's conduct +as to tell your Committee that in his opinion Lord Clive would have sent +home Mr. Bristow a prisoner upon such an occasion. It is worthy of +remark, that, in the very same breath that Mr. Hastings so heavily +condemns a junior officer in the Company's service (not a <i>servant</i> of +the Council, as he hazards <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" title="192" class="pagenum"></a>to call him, but <i>their fellow-servant</i>) for +merely complaining of a supposed injury and requiring redress, he so far +forgets his own subordination as to reject the orders of the Court of +Directors even as an <i>argument</i> in favor of appointing a person to an +office, to presume to censure <i>his</i> undoubted masters, and to accuse +them of having been "in a habit of casting reproaches upon him, and +heaping indignities on <i>his</i> station." And it is to be observed, that +this censure was not for the purpose of seeking or obtaining redress for +any injury, but appeared rather as a reason for refusing to obey their +lawful commands. It is plainly implied in that minute, that no servant +of the Company, in Mr. Bristow's rank, would dare to act in such a +manner, if he had not by indirect means obtained a premature fortune. +This alone is sufficient to show the situation of the Company's servants +in the subordinate situations, when the mere claim of a right, derived +from the sovereign legal power, becomes fatal not only to the objects +which they pursue, but deeply wounds that reputation both for ability +and integrity by which alone they are to be qualified for any other.</p> + +<p>If anything could add to the disagreeable situation of those who are +submitted to an authority conducted on such principles, it is this: The +Company has ordered that no complaint shall be made in Europe against +any of the Council without being previously communicated to them: a +regulation formed upon grave reasons; and it was certainly made in +<i>favor</i> of that board. But if a person, having ground of complaint +against the Council, by making use of the mode prescribed in favor of +that very Council, and by complaining to themselves, commits an offence +for <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" title="193" class="pagenum"></a>which he may be justly punished, the Directors have not regulated +the mode of complaint, they have actually forbidden it; they have, on +that supposition, renounced their authority; and the whole system of +their officers is delivered over to the arbitrary will of a few of their +chief servants.</p> + +<p>During the whole day of that deliberation things wore a decided face. +Mr. Hastings stood to his principles in their full extent, and seemed +resolved upon unqualified disobedience. But as the debate was adjourned +to the day following, time was given for expedients; and such an +expedient was hit upon by Mr. Hastings as will, no doubt, be unexpected +by the House; but it serves to throw new lights upon the motives of all +his struggles with the authority of the legislature.</p> + +<p>The next day the Council met upon the adjournment. Then Mr. Hastings +proposed, as a compromise, a division of the object in question. One +half was to be surrendered to the authority of the Court of Directors, +the other was reserved for his dignity. But the choice he made of his +own share in this partition is very worthy of notice. He had taken his +<i>sole</i> ground of objection against Mr. Bristow on the supposed ill +effect that such an appointment would have on the minds of the Indian +powers. He said, "that these powers could have no dependence on his +fulfilling his engagements, <i>or maintaining the faith of treaties</i> which +he might offer for their acceptance, if they saw him treated with such +contempt." Mr. Bristow's appearing in a political character was the +<i>whole</i> of his complaint; yet, when he comes to a voluntary distribution +of the duties of the office, he gives Mr. Bristow those very political +negotiations of which but the <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" title="194" class="pagenum"></a>day before he had in such strong terms +declared him personally incapable, whose appointment he considered to be +fatal to those negotiations, and which he then spoke of as a measure in +<i>itself</i> such as the bitterest adversary to Great Britain would have +proposed. But having thus yielded his whole ground of ostensible +objection, he reserved to his own appointment the entire management of +the pecuniary trust. Accordingly he named Mr. Bristow for the former, +and Mr. Middleton for the latter. On his own principles he ought to have +done the very reverse. On every justifiable principle he ought to have +done so; for a servant who for a long time resists the orders of his +masters, and when he reluctantly gives way obeys them by halves, ought +to be remarkably careful to make his actions correspond with his words, +and to put himself out of all suspicion with regard to the purity of his +motives. It was possible that the political reasons, which were solely +assigned against Mr. Bristow's appointment, might have been the real +motives of Mr. Hastings's opposition. But these he totally abandons, and +holds fast to the pecuniary department. Now, as it is notorious that +most of the abuses of India grow out of money-dealing, it was peculiarly +unfit for a servant, delicate with regard to his reputation, to require +a <i>personal</i> and confidential agent in a situation merely official, in +which secrecy and personal connections could be of no possible use, and +could only serve to excite distrust. Matters of account cannot be made +too public; and it is not the most confidential agent, but the most +responsible, who is the fittest for the management of pecuniary trusts. +That man was the fittest at once to do the duty, and to <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" title="195" class="pagenum"></a>remove all +suspicions from the Governor-General's character, whom, by not being of +his appointment, he could not be supposed to favor for private purposes, +who must naturally stand in awe of his inspection, and whose misconduct +could not possibly be imputable to him. Such an agency in a pecuniary +trust was the very last on which Mr. Hastings ought to have risked his +disobedience to the orders of the Direction,—or, what is even worse for +his motives, a direct contradiction to all the principles upon which he +had attempted to justify that bold measure.</p> + +<p>The conduct of Mr. Hastings in the affair of Mahomed Reza Khân was an +act of disobedience of the same character, but wrought by other +instruments. When the Duanné (or universal perception, and management of +the revenues) of Bengal was acquired to the Company, together with the +command of the army, the Nabob, or governor, naturally fell into the +rank rather of a subject than that even of a dependent prince. Yet the +preservation of such a power in such a degree of subordination, with the +criminal jurisdiction, and the care of the public order annexed to it, +was a wise and laudable policy. It preserved a portion of the government +in the hands of the natives; it kept them in respect; it rendered them +quiet on the change; and it prevented that vast kingdom from wearing the +dangerous appearance, and still more from sinking into the terrible +state, of a country of conquest. Your Committee has already reported the +manner in which the Company (it must be allowed, upon pretences that +will not bear the slightest examination) diverted from its purposes a +great part of the revenues appropriated <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" title="196" class="pagenum"></a>to the country government; but +they were very properly anxious that what remained should be well +administered. In the lifetime of General Clavering and Colonel Monson, +Mahomed Reza Khân, a man of rank among the natives, was judged by them +the fittest person to conduct the affairs of the Nabob, as his Naib, or +deputy: an office well known in the ancient constitution of these +provinces, at a time when the principal magistrates, by nature and +situation, were more efficient. This appointment was highly approved, +and in consequence confirmed, by the Court of Directors. Mr. Hastings +and Mr. Barwell, however, thought proper to remove him. To the authority +of the Court of Directors they opposed the request of the Nabob, stating +that he was arrived at the common age of maturity, and stood <i>in no need +of a deputy to manage his affairs</i>. On former occasions Mr. Hastings +conceived a very low opinion of the condition of the person whom he thus +set up against the authority of his masters. "On a former occasion," as +the Directors tell him, "and to serve a very different purpose, he had +not scrupled to declare it as visible as the sun that the Nabob was a +mere pageant, without even <i>the shadow of authority</i>." But on this +occasion he became more substantial. Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell +yielded to his representation that a deputy was not necessary, and +accordingly Mahomed Reza Khân was removed from his office.</p> + +<p>However, lest any one should so far mistrust their understanding as to +conceive them the dupes of this pretext, they who had disobeyed the +Company's orders under color that <i>no deputy was necessary</i> immediately +appoint another deputy. This independent prince, who, as Mr. Hastings +said, "had an incon<a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" title="197" class="pagenum"></a>testable right to his situation, and that it was his +by inheritance," suddenly shrunk into his old state of insignificance, +and was even looked upon in so low a light as to receive a severe +reprimand from Mr. Hastings for <i>interposing</i> in the duties of his (the +deputy's) office.</p> + +<p>The Company's orders, censuring this transaction in the strongest terms, +and ordering Mahomed Reza Khân to be immediately restored to the office +of Naib Subahdar, were received in Calcutta in November, 1779. Mr. +Hastings acted on this with the firmness which he had shown on other +occasions; but in his principles he went further. Thinking himself +assured of some extraordinary support, suitable to the open and +determined defiance with which he was resolved to oppose the lawful +authority of his superiors, and to exercise a despotic power, he no +longer adhered to Mr. Barwell's distinction of the orders which had a +tendency to bring his government into disrepute. This distinction +afforded sufficient latitude to disobedience; but here he disdained all +sorts of colors and distinctions. He directly set up an independent +right to administer the government according to his pleasure; and he +went so far as to bottom his claim to act independently of the Court of +Directors on the very statute which commanded his obedience to them.</p> + +<p>He declared roundly, "that he should <i>not</i> yield to the authority of the +Court of Directors in <i>any</i> instance in which it should require his +concession of the rights which he held under an act of Parliament." It +is too clear to stand in need of proof, that he neither did or could +hold any authority that was not subject, in every particle of it, and in +every instance in which it could be exercised, to the orders of the +Court of Directors.</p><p><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" title="198" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>He therefore refused to back the Company's orders with any requisition +from himself to the Nabob, but merely suffered them to be transmitted to +him, leaving it to him to do just as he thought proper. The Nabob, who +called Mr. Hastings "his patron, and declared he would never do anything +without his consent and approbation," perfectly understood this kind of +signification. For the second time the Nabob recovered from his trance +of pageantry and insignificance, and collected courage enough to write +to the Council in these terms: "I administer the affairs of the Nizamut, +(the government,) which are the affairs of <i>my own family</i>, by <i>my own +authority</i>, and shall do so; and I never can <i>on any account agree</i> to +the appointment of the Nabob Mahomed Reza Khân to the Naib Subahship." +Here was a second independent power in Bengal. This answer from that +power proved as satisfactory as it was resolute. No further notice was +taken of the orders of the Court of Directors, and Mahomed Reza Khân +found their protection much more of a shadow than the pageant of power +of which he aspired to be the representative.</p> + +<p>This act of disobedience differs from the others in one particular +which, in the opinion of your Committee, rather aggravates than +extenuates the offence. In the others, Messrs. Hastings and Barwell took +the responsibility on themselves; here they held up the pretext of the +country government. However, they obtained thereby one of the objects +which they appear to have systematically pursued. As they had in the +other instances shown to the British servants of the Company that the +Directors were not able to protect them, here the same lesson was taught +to the natives. Whilst the matter lay between the native power and <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" title="199" class="pagenum"></a>the +servants, the former was considered by Mr. Hastings in the most +contemptible light. When the question was between the servants and the +Court of Directors, the native power was asserted to be a self-derived, +hereditary, uncontrollable authority, and encouraged to act as such.</p> + +<p>In this manner the authority of the British legislature was at that time +treated with every mark of reprobation and contempt. But soon after a +most unexpected change took place, by which the persons in whose favor +the Court of Directors had in vain interposed obtained specific objects +which had been refused to them; things were, however, so well contrived, +that legal authority was nearly as much affronted by the apparent +compliance with their orders as by the real resistance they had before +met with. After long and violent controversies, an agreement took place +between Mr. Hastings and Mr. Francis. It appears that Mr. Hastings, +embarrassed with the complicated wars and ruinous expenses into which +his measures had brought him, began to think of procuring peace at home. +The agreement originated in a conversation held on Christmas-Day, 1779, +between Major Scott, then aide-de-camp, and now agent, to Mr. Hastings, +and Mr. Ducarrel, a gentleman high in the Company's service at Calcutta. +Mr. Scott, in consequence of this conversation, was authorized to make +overtures to Mr. Francis through Mr. Ducarrel: to declare Mr. Hastings +tired of controversy; expressing his wish to have the Mahratta war +entirely left to him; that there were certain points <i>he could not give +up</i>; that he could <i>not</i> (for reasons he then assigned) <i>submit</i> to the +restoration of Mr. Fowke, Mahomed Reza Khân, and Mr. Bristow; that <i>he +had not the <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" title="200" class="pagenum"></a>smallest personal objection to them</i>, and would willingly +provide for them in any other line. Mr. Francis in this treaty insisted +on those very points which Mr. Hastings declared he could never give up, +and that his conditions were the Company's orders,—that is, the +restoration of the persons whom they had directed to be restored. The +event of this negotiation was, that Mr. Hastings at length submitted to +Mr. Francis, and that Mr. Fowke and Mahomed Reza Khân were reinstated in +their situations.</p> + +<p>Your Committee observe on this part of the transaction of Mr. Hastings, +that as long as the question stood upon his obedience to his lawful +superiors, so long he considered the restoration of these persons as a +gross indignity, the submitting to which would destroy all his credit +and influence in the country; but when it was to accommodate his own +occasions in a treaty with a fellow-servant, all these difficulties +instantly vanish, and he finds it perfectly consistent with his dignity, +credit, and influence, to do for Mr. Francis what he had refused to the +strict and reiterated injunctions of the Court of Directors. +Tranquillity was, however, for a time restored by this measure, though +it did not continue long. In about three months an occasion occurred in +which Mr. Francis gave some opposition to a measure proposed by Mr. +Hastings, which brought on a duel, upon the mischievous effects of which +your Committee have already made their observations.</p> + +<p>The departure of Mr. Francis soon after for Europe opened a new scene, +and gave rise to a third revolution. Lest the arrangement with the +servants of the Company should have the least appearance of being +mistaken for obedience to their superiors, Mr.<a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" title="201" class="pagenum"></a> Francis was little more +than a month gone, when Mr. Fowke was again recalled from Benares, <i>and +Mr. Bristow soon after from Oude</i>. In these measures Mr. Hastings has +combined the principles of disobedience which he had used in all the +cases hitherto stated. In his Minute of Consultation on this recall he +refers to his former Minutes; and he adds, that he has "a recent motive +in the necessity of removing any circumstance which may contribute to +lessen his <i>influence</i> in the effect of any negotiations in which he may +be engaged in the prosecution of his intended visit to Lucknow." He here +reverts to his old plea of preserving his influence; not content with +this, as in the case of Mahomed Reza Khân he had called in the aid of +the Nabob of Bengal, he here calls in the aid of the Nabob of Oude, who, +on reasons exactly tallying with those given by Mr. Hastings, desires +that Mr. Bristow may be removed. The true weight of these requisitions +will appear, if not sufficiently apparent from the known situation of +the parties, by the following extract of a letter from this Nabob of +Oude to his agent at Calcutta, desiring him to acquaint Mr. Hastings, +that, "if it is proper, I will write to the king [of Great Britain], and +the vizier [one of his Majesty's ministers], and the chief of the +Company, <i>in such a manner as he shall direct, and in the words that he +shall order</i>, that Mr. Bristow's views may be thwarted there." There is +no doubt of the entire coöperation of the Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah in all +the designs of Mr. Hastings, and in thwarting the views of any persons +who place their reliance on the authority of this kingdom.</p> + +<p>As usual, the Court of Directors appear in their proper order in the +procession. After this third act <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" title="202" class="pagenum"></a>of disobedience with regard to the +same person and the same office, and after calling the proceedings +unwarrantable, "<i>in order to vindicate and uphold their own authority, +and thinking it a duty incumbent on them to maintain the authority of +the Court of Directors</i>," they again order Mr. Bristow to be reinstated, +and Mr. Middleton to be recalled: in this circle the whole moves with +great regularity.</p> + +<p>The extraordinary operations of Mr. Hastings, that soon after followed +in every department which was the subject of all these acts of +disobedience, have made them appear in a light peculiarly unpropitious +to his cause. It is but too probable, from his own accounts, that he +meditated some strong measure, both at Benares and at Oude, at the very +time of the removal of those officers. He declares he knew that his +conduct in those places was such as to lie very open to malicious +representations; he must have been sensible that he was open to such +representations from the beginning; he was therefore impelled by every +motive which ought to influence a man of sense by no means to disturb +the order which he had last established.</p> + +<p>Of this, however, he took no care; but he was not so inattentive to the +satisfaction of the sufferers, either in point of honor or of interest. +This was most strongly marked in the case of Mr. Fowke. His reparation +to that gentleman, in point of honor, is as full as possible. Mr. +Hastings "declared, that he approved his character and his conduct in +office, and believed that he might <i>depend</i> upon <i>his exact and literal +obedience and fidelity</i> in the execution of the functions annexed to +it." Such is the character of the man whom Mr. Hastings a second time +removed from <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" title="203" class="pagenum"></a>the office to which he told the Court of Directors, in his +letter of the 3rd of March, 1780, he had appointed him in conformity to +their orders. On the 14th of January, 1781, he again finds it an +indispensable obligation in him to exercise powers "<i>inherent</i> in the +constitution of his government." On this principle he claimed "the right +of nominating the agent of his own choice to the Residence of Benares; +that it is a representative situation: that, speaking for myself +<i>alone</i>, it may be <i>sufficient</i> to say, that Mr. Francis Fowke is not +<i>my</i> agent; <i>that I cannot give him my confidence</i>; that, while he +continues at Benares, he stands as a screen between the Rajah and this +government, instead of an instrument of control; that the Rajah himself, +and every chief in Hindostan, will regard it as the pledge and +foundation of his independence." Here Mr. Hastings has got back to his +old principles, where he takes post as on strong ground. This he +declares "to be his objection to Mr. Fowke, and that it is insuperable." +The very line before this paragraph he writes of this person, to whom he +<i>could</i> not give his <i>confidence</i>, that "he believed he might <i>depend</i> +upon <i>his fidelity</i>, and his exact and literal obedience." Mr. Scott, +who is authorized to defend Mr. Hastings, supported the same principles +before your Committee by a comparison that avowedly reduces the Court of +Directors to the state of a party against their servants. He declared, +that, in his opinion, "it would be just as <i>absurd</i> to <i>deprive him</i> of +the power of nominating his ambassador at Benares as it would be to +force on <i>the ministry</i> of this country an ambassador from <i>the +opposition</i>." Such is the opinion entertained in Bengal, and that but +too effectually realized, of the relation between the principal servants +of the Company and the Court of Directors.</p><p><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" title="204" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>So far the reparation, in point of honor, to Mr. Fowke was complete. The +reparation in point of interest your Committee do not find to have been +equally satisfactory; but they do find it to be of the most +extraordinary nature, and of the most mischievous example. Mr. Fowke had +been deprived of a place of rank and honor,—the place of a public +<i>Vackeel</i>, or representative. The recompense provided for him is a +succession to a contract. Mr. Hastings moved, that, on the expiration of +Colonel Morgan's contract, he should be appointed agent to all the boats +employed for the military service of that establishment, with a +commission of <i>fifteen per cent on all disbursements in that +office</i>,—permitting Mr. Fowke, at the same time, to draw his allowance +of an hundred pounds a month, as Resident, until the expiration of the +contract, and for three months after.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings is himself struck, as every one must be, with so +extraordinary a proceeding, the principle of which, he observes, "is +liable to <i>one</i> material objection." That one is material indeed; for, +no limit being laid down for the expense in which the percentage is to +arise, it is the direct interest of the person employed to make his +department as expensive as possible. To this Mr. Hastings answers, that +"he is convinced by experience it will be better performed"; and yet he +immediately after subjoins, "This <i>defect</i> can <i>only</i> be corrected by +the probity of the person intrusted with so important a charge; and I am +willing to have it understood, as a proof of <i>the confidence I repose in +Mr. Fowke</i>, that I have proposed his appointment, in opposition <i>to a +general principle</i>, to a trust so constituted."</p> + +<p>In the beginning of this very Minute of Consulta<a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" title="205" class="pagenum"></a>tion, Mr. Hastings +removes Mr. Fowke from the Residency of Benares because "he cannot give +him his confidence"; and yet, before the pen is out of his hand, he +violates one of the soundest general principles in the whole system of +dealing, in order to give a proof of the confidence he reposes in that +gentleman. This apparent gross contradiction is to be reconciled but by +one way,—which is, that confidence with Mr. Hastings comes and goes +with his opposition to legal authority. Where that authority recommends +any person, his confidence in him vanishes; but to show that it is the +authority, and not the person, he opposes, when that is out of sight, +there is no rule so sacred which is not to be violated to manifest his +real esteem and perfect trust in the person whom he has rejected. +However, by overturning general principles to compliment Mr. Fowke's +integrity, he does all in his power to corrupt it; at the same time he +establishes an example that must either subject all future dealings to +the same pernicious clause, or which, being omitted, must become a +strong implied charge on the integrity of those who shall hereafter be +excluded from a trust so constituted.</p> + +<p>It is not foreign to the object of your Committee, in this part of their +observations, which relates to the obedience to orders, to remark upon +the manner in which the orders of the Court of Directors with regard to +this kind of dealing in contracts are observed. These orders relate to +contracts; and they contain two standing regulations.</p> + +<p>1st, That all contracts shall be publicly advertised, and that the most +reasonable proposals shall be accepted.</p> + +<p>2ndly, That two contracts, those of provisions and for carriage +bullocks, shall be only annual.</p><p><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" title="206" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>These orders are undoubtedly some correctives to the abuses which may +arise in this very critical article of public dealing. But the House +will remark, that, if the business usually carried on by contracts can +be converted at pleasure into agencies, like that of Mr. Fowke, all +these regulations perish of course, and there is no direction whatsoever +for restraining the most prodigal and corrupt bargains for the public.</p> + +<p>Your Committee have inquired into the observance of these necessary +regulations, and they find that they have, like the rest, been entirely +contemned, and contemned with entire impunity. After the period of +Colonel Monson's death, and Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell obtaining the +lead in the Council, the contracts were disposed of without at all +advertising for proposals. Those in 1777 were given for three years; and +the gentlemen in question growing by habit and encouragement into more +boldness, in 1779 the contracts were disposed of for five years: and +this they did at the eve of the expiration of their own appointment to +the government. This increase in the length of the contracts, though +contrary to orders, might have admitted some excuse, if it had been +made, even in appearance, the means of lessening the expense. But the +advantages allowed to the contractors, instead of being diminished, were +enlarged, and in a manner far beyond the proportion of the enlargement +of terms. Of this abuse and contempt of orders a judgment may be formed +by the single contract for supplying the army with draught and carriage +bullocks. As it stood at the expiration of the contract in 1779, the +expense of that service was about one thousand three hundred pounds a +<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" title="207" class="pagenum"></a>month. By the new contract, given away in September of that year, the +service was raised to the enormous sum of near six thousand pounds a +month. The monthly increase, therefore, being four thousand seven +hundred pounds, it constitutes a total increase of charges for the +Company, in the five years of the contract, of no less a sum than two +hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds. Now, as the former contract +was, without doubt, sufficiently advantageous, a judgment may be formed +of the extravagance of the present. The terms, indeed, pass the bounds +of all allowance for negligence and ignorance of office.</p> + +<p>The case of Mr. Belli's contract for supplying provisions to the Fort is +of the same description; and what exceedingly increases the suspicion +against this profusion, in contracts made in direct violation of orders, +is, that they are always found to be given in favor of persons closely +connected with Mr. Hastings in his family, or even in his actual +service.</p> + +<p>The principles upon which Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell justify this +disobedience, if admitted, reduce the Company's government, so far as it +regards the Supreme Council, to a mere patronage,—to a mere power of +nominating persons to or removing them from an authority which, is not +only despotic with regard to those who are subordinate to it, but in all +its acts entirely independent of the legal power which is nominally +superior. These are principles directly leading to the destruction of +the Company's government. A correspondent practice being established, +(as in this case of contracts, as well as others, it has been,) the +means are furnished of effectuating this purpose: for the common +superior, the Company, <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" title="208" class="pagenum"></a>having no power to regulate or to support their +own appointments, nor to remove those whom they wish to remove, nor to +prevent the contracts from being made use of against their interest, all +the English in Bengal must naturally look to the next in authority; they +must depend upon, follow, and attach themselves to him solely; and thus +a party may be formed of the whole system of civil and military servants +for the support of the subordinate, and defiance of the supreme power.</p> + +<p>Your Committee being led to attend to the abuse of contracts, which are +given upon principles fatal to the subordination of the service, and in +defiance of orders, revert to the disobedience of orders in the case of +Mahomed Reza Khân.</p> + +<p>This transaction is of a piece with those that preceded it. On the 6th +of July, 1781, Mr. Hastings announced to the board the arrival of a +messenger and introduced a requisition from the young Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah, "that he might be <i>permitted to dispose of his own stipend, +without being made to depend on the will of another</i>." In favor of this +requisition Mr. Hastings urged various arguments:—that the Nabob could +no longer be deemed a minor;—that he was twenty-six years of age, and +father of many children;—that his understanding was much improved <i>of +late</i> by an attention to his education;—that these circumstances gave +him a claim to the uncontrolled exercise of domestic authority; and it +might reasonably be supposed that he would pay a greater regard to a +just economy in his own family than had been observed by those who were +aliens to it. For these reasons Mr. Hastings recommended to the board +that Mahomed Reza Khân should be im<a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" title="209" class="pagenum"></a>mediately divested of the office of +superintendent of the Nabob's household, <i>and that the Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah should be intrusted with the exclusive and entire receipts and +disbursements of his stipend, and the uncontrolled management and +regulation of his household</i>. Thus far your Committee are of opinion, +that the conclusion corresponds with the premises; for, supposing the +fact to be established or admitted, that the Nabob, in point of age, +capacity, and judgment, was qualified to act for himself, it seems +reasonable that the management of his domestic affairs should not be +withheld from him. On this part of the proceeding your Committee will +only observe, that, if it were strictly true that the Nabob's +understanding had been much improved <i>of late</i> by an attention to his +education, (which seems an extraordinary way of describing the +qualifications of a man of six-and-twenty, the father of many children,) +the merit of such improvement must be attributed to Mahomed Reza Khân, +who was the only person of rank and character connected with him, or who +could be supposed to have any influence over him. Mr. Hastings himself +reproaches the Nabob with <i>raising mean men to be his companions</i>, and +tells him plainly, <i>that some persons, both of bad character and base +origin, had found the means of insinuating themselves into his company +and constant fellowship</i>. In such society it is not likely that either +the Nabob's morals or his understanding could have been <i>much improved</i>; +nor could it be deemed prudent to leave him without any check upon his +conduct. Mr. Hastings's opinion on this point may be collected from what +he did, but by no means from what he said, on the occasion.</p> + +<p>The House will naturally expect to find that the<a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" title="210" class="pagenum"></a> Nabob's request was +granted, and that the resolution of the board was conformable to the +terms of Mr. Hastings's recommendation. Yet the fact is directly the +reverse. Mr. Hastings, after advising <i>that the Nabob should be +intrusted with the exclusive and entire receipts and disbursements of +his stipend</i>, immediately corrects that advice, <i>being aware that so +sudden and unlimited a disposal of a large revenue might at first +encourage a spirit of dissipation in the Nabob</i>,—and reserves to +<i>himself</i> a power of establishing, <i>with the Nabob's consent</i>, such a +plan for the regulation and equal distribution of the Nabob's expenses +<i>as should be adapted to the dissimilar appearances of preserving his +interests and his independence at the same time</i>. On the same +complicated principles the subsequent resolution of the board professes +to allow the Nabob the management of his stipend and expenses,—with <i>an +hope</i>, however, (which, considering the relative situation of the +parties, could be nothing less than an injunction,) that he would submit +to such a plan <i>as should be agreed on between him</i> and the +Governor-General.</p> + +<p>The drift of these contradictions is sufficiently apparent. Mahomed Reza +Khân was to be divested of his office at all events, and the management +of the Nabob's stipend committed to other hands. To accomplish the +first, the Nabob is said to be "now arrived at that time of life when a +man may be supposed capable, <i>if ever</i>, of managing his own concerns." +When this principle has answered the momentary purpose for which it was +produced, we find it immediately discarded, and an opposite resolution +formed on an opposite principle, viz., that he shall <i>not</i> have the +management of his own concerns, <i>in consideration of his want of +experience</i>.</p><p><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" title="211" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, on his arrival at Moorshedabad, gives Mr. Wheler an +account of his interview with the Nabob, and of the Nabob's implicit +submission to his advice. The principal, if not the sole, object of the +whole operation appears from the result of it. Sir John D'Oyly, a +gentleman in whom Mr. Hastings places particular confidence, succeeds to +the office of Mahomed Reza Khân, and to the same control over the +Nabob's expenses. Into the hands of this gentleman the Nabob's stipend +was <i>to be immediately paid, as every intermediate channel would be an +unavoidable cause of delay</i>; and to <i>his</i> advice the Nabob was required +to give the same attention as if it were given by Mr. Hastings himself. +One of the conditions prescribed to the Nabob was, that he should admit +no Englishman to his presence without previously consulting Sir John +D'Oyly; <i>and he must forbid any person of that nation to be intruded +without his introduction</i>. On these arrangements it need only be +observed, that a measure which sets out with professing to relieve the +Nabob from a state of <i>perpetual pupilage</i> concludes with delivering not +only his fortune, but his person, to the custody of a particular friend +of Mr. Hastings.</p> + +<p>The instructions given to the Nabob contain other passages that merit +attention. In one place Mr. Hastings tells him, "You have offered to +give up the sum of four lacs of rupees to be allowed the free use of the +remainder; but this we have refused." In another he says, that, "<i>as +many matters will occur which cannot be so easily explained by letter as +by conversation</i>, I desire that you will on such occasions give your +orders to Sir John D'Oyly respecting such points as you may desire to +have imparted to <i>me</i>." The <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" title="212" class="pagenum"></a>offer alluded to in the first passage does +not appear in the Nabob's letters, therefore must have been in +conversation, and declined by Mr. Hastings without consulting his +colleague. A refusal of it might have been proper; but it supposes a +degree of incapacity in the Nabob not to be reconciled to the principles +on which Mahomed Reza Khân was removed from the management of his +affairs. Of the matters alluded to in the second, and which, it is said, +<i>could not be so easily explained by letters as in conversation</i>, no +explanation is given. Your Committee will therefore leave them, as Mr. +Hastings has done, to the opinion of the House.</p> + +<p>As soon as the Nabob's requisition was communicated to the board, it was +moved and resolved that Mahomed Reza Khân should be divested of his +office; and the House have seen in what manner it was disposed of. The +Nabob had stated various complaints against him:—that he had dismissed +the old established servants of the Nizamut, and filled their places +with his own dependants;—that he had <i>regularly received</i> the stipend +of the Nizamut from the Company, yet had kept the Nabob involved in debt +and distress, and exposed to the clamors of his creditors, and sometimes +even in want of a dinner. All these complaints were recorded at large in +the proceedings of the Council; but it does not appear that they were +ever communicated to Mahomed Reza Khân, or that he was ever called upon, +in any shape, to answer them. This circumstance inclines your Committee +to believe that all of these charges were groundless,—especially as it +appears on the face of the proceedings, that the chief of them were not +well founded. Mr. Hastings, in his letter to Mr. Wheler, urges the +<a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" title="213" class="pagenum"></a>absolute necessity of the monthly payment of the Nabob's stipend <i>being +regularly made</i>, and says, that, to relieve the Nabob's present wants, +he had directed the Resident to raise an immediate supply on the credit +of the Company, to be repaid from the first receipts. From hence your +Committee conclude that the monthly payments had <i>not</i> been regularly +made, and that whatever distresses the Nabob might have suffered must +have been owing to the Governor-General and Council, not to Mahomed Reza +Khân, who, for aught that appears to the contrary, paid away the stipend +as fast as he received it. Had it been otherwise, that is, if Mahomed +Reza Khân had reserved a balance of the Nabob's money in his hands, he +should, and undoubtedly he would, have been called upon to pay it in; +and then there would have been no necessity for raising an immediate +supply by other means.</p> + +<p>The transaction, on the whole, speaks very sufficiently for itself. It +is a gross instance of repeated disobedience to repeated orders; and it +is rendered particularly offensive to the authority of the Court of +Directors by the frivolous and contradictory reasons assigned for it. +But whether the Nabob's requisition was reasonable or not, the +Governor-General and Council were precluded by a special instruction +from complying with it. The Directors, in their letter of the 14th of +February, 1779, declare, that a resolution of Council, (taken by Mr. +Francis and Mr. Wheler, in the absence of Mr. Barwell,) viz., "that the +Nabob's letter should be referred to <i>them</i> for <i>their</i> decision, and +that no resolution should be taken in Bengal on his requisitions without +their special orders and instructions," was very proper. They prudently +reserved to themselves the right of <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" title="214" class="pagenum"></a>deciding on such questions; but +they reserved it to no purpose. In England the authority is purely +formal. In Bengal the power is positive and real. When they clash, their +opposition serves only to degrade the authority that ought to +predominate, and to exalt the power that ought to be dependent.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Since the closing of the above Report, many material papers have arrived +from India, and have been laid before your Committee. That which they +think it most immediately necessary to annex to the Appendix to this +Report is the resolution of the Council-General to allow to the members +of the Board of Trade resident in Calcutta a charge of five per cent on +the sale in England of the investment formed upon their second plan, +namely, that plan which had been communicated to Lord Macartney. The +investment on this plan is stated to be raised from 800,000<i>l.</i> to +1,000,000<i>l.</i> sterling.</p> + +<p>It is on all accounts a very memorable transaction, and tends to bring +on a heavy burden, operating in the nature of a tax laid by their own +authority on the goods of their masters in England. If such a +compensation to the Board of Trade was necessary on account of their +engagement to take no further (that is to say, no unlawful) emolument, +it implies that the practice of making such unlawful emolument had +formerly existed; and your Committee think it very extraordinary that +the first notice the Company had received of such a practice should be +in taxing them for a compensation for a partial abolition of it, secured +on the parole of honor of those very persons who are supposed to have +been guilty of this unjustifiable conduct. Your Committee consider this +<a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" title="215" class="pagenum"></a>engagement, if kept, as only a partial abolition of the implied corrupt +practice: because no part of the compensation is given to the members of +the Board of Trade who reside at the several factories, though their +means of abuse are without all comparison greater; and if the corruption +was supposed so extensive as to be bought off at that price where the +means were fewer, the House will judge how far the tax has purchased off +the evil.</p><p><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" title="216" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See the Secret Committee's Reports on the Mahratta War.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Vide Secret Committee Reports.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Vide Select Committee Reports, 1781</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The sale, to the amount of about one hundred thousand +pounds annually, of the export from Great Britain ought to be deducted +from this million.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Estimate of the Sale Amount and Net Proceeds in England of +the Cargoes to be sent from Bengal, agreeable to the Plan received by +Letter dated the 8th April, 1782. +</p><p> +This calculation supposes the eighty lac investments will be equal to +the tonnage of five ships. +</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><a name="FNanchor_B_7" id="FNanchor_B_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_7" class="fnanchor">[B]</a>2.</td><td align='left'>To custom</td><td class='br' align='right'>£320,000</td><td align='left'><a name="FNanchor_A_6" id="FNanchor_A_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_6" class="fnanchor">[A]</a>1.</td><td align='left'>By sale amount of piece-goods and raw silk</td><td align='left'>£1,300,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a name="FNanchor_C_8" id="FNanchor_C_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_8" class="fnanchor">[C]</a>3.</td><td align='left'>" freight</td><td class='br' align='right'>200,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a name="FNanchor_D_9" id="FNanchor_D_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_9" class="fnanchor">[D]</a>4.</td><td align='left'>" 5 per cent duty on £1,300,000</td><td class='br' align='right'>65,000</td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Discount 6½ per cent allowed the buyers</td><td align='left'>84,500</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a name="FNanchor_E_10" id="FNanchor_E_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_10" class="fnanchor">[E]</a>5.</td><td align='left'>" 2 do. warehouse room do.</td><td class='br' align='right'>26,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>7 do. commission on £604,500</td><td class='br' align='right'>42,315</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td class="bt br" align='right'>£653,315</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a name="FNanchor_F_11" id="FNanchor_F_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_11" class="fnanchor">[F]</a>6.</td><td align='left'>" Balance</td><td class='br' align='right'>562,185</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='right' class="bt br">£1,215,500</td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td class="bt" align='right'>£1,215,500</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_6" id="Footnote_A_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_6"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> 1. The sale amount is computed on an average of the sales +of the two last years' imports.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_7" id="Footnote_B_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_7"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> 2. The custom is computed on an average of what was paid on +piece-goods and raw silk of said imports, adding additional imposts.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_8" id="Footnote_C_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_8"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> 3. The ships going out of this season, (1782,) by which the +above investment is expected to be sent home, are taken up at 47<i>l.</i> +5<i>s.</i> per ton, for the homeward cargo; this charge amounts to 35,815<i>l.</i> +each ship; the additional wages to the men, which the Company pay, and a +very small charge for demurrage, will increase the freight, &c., to +40,000<i>l.</i> per ship, agreeable to above estimate.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_9" id="Footnote_D_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_9"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> 4. The duty of five per cent is charged by the Company on +the gross sale amount of all private trade licensed to be brought from +India: the amount of this duty is the only benefit the Company are +likely to receive from the subscription investment.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_10" id="Footnote_E_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_10"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> 5. This charge is likewise made on private trade goods, and +is little, if anything, more than the real expense the Company are at on +account of the same; therefore no benefit will probably arise to the +Company from it on the sale of the said investment.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_11" id="Footnote_F_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_11"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> 6. This is the sum which will probably be realized in +England, and is only equal to 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per rupee, on the eighty lacs +subscribed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_12" id="Footnote_6_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_12"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Vide Mr. Francis's plan in Appendix, No. 14, to the Select +Committee's Sixth Report.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_13" id="Footnote_7_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_13"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The whole sum has not been actually raised; but the +deficiency is not very considerable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_14" id="Footnote_8_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_14"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Fourth Report, page 106.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_15" id="Footnote_9_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_15"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Par. 36. Vide Fourth Report from Com. of Secrecy in 1773, +Appendix, No. 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_16" id="Footnote_10_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_16"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Vide Sel. Letter to Bengal, 17 May, 1766, Par. 36, in +Fourth Report from Com. of Secrecy, in 1773, Appendix, No. 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_17" id="Footnote_11_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_17"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Ibid. Par. 37.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_18" id="Footnote_12_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_18"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Vide Committee's Fifth Report, page 21, and Appendix to +that Report, No. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_19" id="Footnote_13_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_19"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> 1st and 5th April, 1779.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" title="217" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ELEVENTH_REPORT" id="ELEVENTH_REPORT"></a>ELEVENTH REPORT<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">OF THE</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">ON</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%;">THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE APPENDIX.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">November 18, 1783.</span></h2> + +<p><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" title="218" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" title="219" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ELEVENTH REPORT</h2> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>From the SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to take into +consideration the state of the administration of justice in +the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and to report the +same, as it shall appear to them, to the House, with their +observations thereupon; and who were instructed to consider +how the British possessions in the East Indies may be held +and governed with the greatest security and advantage to this +country, and by what means the happiness of the native +inhabitants may be best protected.</p></div> + +<p>Your Committee, in the course of their inquiry into the obedience +yielded by the Company's Servants to the orders of the Court of +Directors, (the authority of which orders had been strengthened by the +Regulating Act of 1773,) could not overlook one of the most essential +objects of that act and of those orders, namely, <i>the taking of gifts +and presents</i>. These pretended free gifts from the natives to the +Company's servants in power had never been authorized by law; they are +contrary to the covenants formerly entered into by the President and +Council, they are strictly forbidden by the act of Parliament, and +forbidden upon grounds of the most substantial policy.</p> + +<p>Before the Regulating Act of 1773, the allowances made by the Company to +the Presidents of Bengal were abundantly sufficient to guaranty them +against <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" title="220" class="pagenum"></a>anything like a necessity for giving into that pernicious +practice. The act of Parliament which appointed a Governor-General in +the place of a President, as it was extremely particular in enforcing +the prohibition of those presents, so it was equally careful in making +an ample provision for supporting the dignity of the office, in order to +remove all excuse for a corrupt increase of its emoluments.</p> + +<p>Although evidence on record, as well as verbal testimony, has appeared +before your Committee of presents to a large amount having been received +by Mr. Hastings and others before the year 1775, they were not able to +find distinct traces of that practice in him or any one else for a few +years.</p> + +<p>The inquiries set on foot in Bengal, by order of the Court of Directors, +in 1775, with regard to all corrupt practices, and the vigor with which +they were for some time pursued, might have given a temporary check to +the receipt of presents, or might have produced a more effectual +concealment of them, and afterwards the calamities which befell almost +all who were concerned in the first discoveries did probably prevent any +further complaint upon the subject; but towards the close of the last +session your Committee have received much of new and alarming +information concerning that abuse.</p> + +<p>The first traces appeared, though faintly and obscurely, in a letter to +the Court of Directors from the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, written +on the 29th of November, 1780.<a name="FNanchor_14_20" id="FNanchor_14_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_20" class="fnanchor" title=" Appendix B. No. 1.">[14]</a> It has been stated in a former Report +of your Committee,<a name="FNanchor_15_21" id="FNanchor_15_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_21" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Supplement to the Second Report, page 7.">[15]</a> that on the 26th of June, 1780, Mr. Hastings +being very earnest in the prose<a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" title="221" class="pagenum"></a>cution of a particular operation in the +Mahratta war, in order to remove objections to that measure, which were +made on account of the expense of the contingencies, he offered to +<i>exonerate</i> the Company from that "charge." Continuing his Minute of +Council, he says, "That sum" (a sum of about 23,000<i>l.</i>) "I have already +deposited, within a small amount, in the hands of the sub-treasurer; and +I <i>beg</i> that the board will <i>permit</i> it to be accepted for that +service." Here he offers in his own person; he deposits, or pretends +that he deposits, in his own person; and, with the zeal of a man eager +to pledge his private fortune in support of his measures, he prays that +his offer may be accepted. Not the least hint that he was delivering +back to the Company money of their own, which he had secreted from them. +Indeed, no man ever made it a request, much less earnestly entreated, +"begged to be permitted," to pay to any persons, public or private, +money that was their own.</p> + +<p>It appeared to your Committee that the money offered for that service, +which was to forward the operations of a detachment under Colonel Camac +in an expedition against one of the Mahratta chiefs, was not accepted. +And your Committee, having directed search to be made for any sums of +money paid into the Treasury by Mr. Hastings for this service, found, +that, notwithstanding his assertion of having deposited "two lacs of +rupees, or within a trifle of that sum, in the hands of the +sub-treasurer," no entry whatsoever of that or any other payment by the +Governor-General was made in the Treasury accounts at or about that +time.<a name="FNanchor_16_22" id="FNanchor_16_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_22" class="fnanchor" title=" Appendix. B. No. 2.">[16]</a> This circumstance appeared very striking to your Committee, as +the non-appear<a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" title="222" class="pagenum"></a>ance in the Company's books of the article in question +must be owing to one or other of these four causes:—That the assertion +of Mr. Hastings, of his having paid in near two lacs of rupees at that +time, was not true; or that the sub-treasurer may receive great sums in +deposit without entering them in the Company's Treasury accounts; or +that the Treasury books themselves are records not to be depended on; +or, lastly, that faithful copies of these books of accounts are not +transmitted to Europe. The defect of an entry corresponding with Mr. +Hastings's declaration in Council can be attributed only to one of these +four causes,—of which the want of foundation in his recorded assertion, +though very blamable, is the least alarming.</p> + +<p>On the 29th of November following, Mr. Hastings communicated to the +Court of Directors some sort of notice of this transaction.<a name="FNanchor_17_23" id="FNanchor_17_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_23" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 1.">[17]</a> In his +letter of that date he varies in no small degree the aspect under which +the business appeared in his Minute of Consultation of the 26th of June. +In his letter he says to the Directors, "The subject is now become +obsolete; the fair hopes which I had built upon the prosecution of the +Mahratta war have been blasted by the dreadful calamities which have +befallen your Presidency of Fort St. George, and changed the object of +our pursuit from the <i>aggrandizement</i> of your power to its +preservation." After thus confessing, or rather boasting, of his motives +to the Mahratta war, he proceeds: "My present reason for reverting to my +own conduct on the occasion which I have mentioned" (namely, his +offering a sum of money for the Company's service) "is to obviate <i>the +false conclusions or purposed <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" title="223" class="pagenum"></a>misrepresentations</i> which may be made of +it, either as an artifice of <i>ostentation</i> or the effect of <i>corrupt +influence</i>, by assuring you that the money, <i>by whatever means it came +into my possession, was not my own</i>, that I had myself <i>no right</i> to it, +nor would or could have received it but for the occasion which prompted +me to avail myself <i>of the accidental means</i> which were at that instant +afforded me of accepting and converting it to the property and use of +the Company: and with this brief apology I shall dismiss the subject."</p> + +<p>The apology is brief indeed, considering the nature of the transaction; +and what is more material than its length or its shortness, it is in all +points unsatisfactory. The matter becomes, if possible, more obscure by +his explanation. Here was money received by Mr. Hastings, which, +according to his own judgment, he had no right to receive; it was money +which, "but for the occasion that prompted him, he could not have +accepted"; it was money which came into his, and from his into the +Company's hands, by ways and means undescribed, and from persons +unnamed: yet, though apprehensive of false conclusions and purposed +misrepresentations, he gives his employers no insight whatsoever into a +matter which of all others stood in the greatest need of a full and +clear elucidation.</p> + +<p>Although he chooses to omit this essential point, he expresses the most +anxious solicitude to clear himself of the charges that might be made +against him, of the artifices of ostentation, and of corrupt influence. +To discover, if possible, the ground for apprehending such imputations, +your Committee adverted to the circumstances in which he stood at the +<a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" title="224" class="pagenum"></a>time: they found that this letter was dispatched about the time that +Mr. Francis took his passage for England; his fear of misrepresentation +may therefore allude to something which passed in conversation between +him and that gentleman at the time the offer was made.</p> + +<p>It was not easy, on the mere face of his offer, to give an ill turn to +it. The act, as it stands on the Minute, is not only disinterested, but +generous and public-spirited. If Mr. Hastings apprehended +misrepresentation from Mr. Francis, or from any other person, your +Committee conceive that he did not employ proper means for defeating the +ill designs of his adversaries. On the contrary, the course he has taken +in his letter to the Court of Directors is calculated to excite doubts +and suspicions in minds the most favorably disposed to him. Some degree +of ostentation is not extremely blamable at a time when a man advances +largely from his private fortune towards the public service. It is human +infirmity at the worst, and only detracts something from the lustre of +an action in itself meritorious. The kind of ostentation which is +criminal, and criminal only because it is fraudulent, is where a person +makes a show of giving when in reality he does not give. This imposition +is criminal more or less according to the circumstances. But if the +money received to furnish such a pretended gift is taken from any third +person without right to take it, a new guilt, and guilt of a much worse +quality and description, is incurred. The Governor-General, in order to +keep clear of ostentation, on the 29th of November, 1780, declares, that +the sum of money which he offered on the 26th of the preceding June as +his own was not his own, and that he had no right <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" title="225" class="pagenum"></a>to it. Clearing +himself of vanity, he convicts himself of deceit, and of injustice.</p> + +<p>The other object of this brief apology was to clear himself of <i>corrupt +influence</i>. Of all ostentation he stands completely acquitted in the +month of November, however he might have been faulty in that respect in +the month of June; but with regard to the other part of the apprehended +charge, namely, <i>corrupt influence</i>, he gives no satisfactory solution. +A great sum of money "not his own,"—money to which "he had no +right,"—money which came into his possession "by whatever means":—if +this be not money obtained by corrupt influence, or by something worse, +that is, by violence or terror, it will be difficult to fix upon +circumstances which can furnish a presumption of unjustifiable use of +power and influence in the acquisition of profit. The last part of the +apology, that he had converted this money ("which he had no right to +receive") to the Company's use, so far as your Committee can discover, +<i>does nowhere appear</i>. He speaks, in the Minute of the 26th of June, as +having <i>then</i> actually deposited it for the Company's service; in the +letter of November he says that he converted it to the Company's +property: but there is no trace in the Company's books of its being ever +brought to their credit in the expenditure for any specific service, +even if any such entry and expenditure could justify him in taking money +which he had by his own confession, "no right to receive."</p> + +<p>The Directors appear to have been deceived by this representation, and +in their letter of January, 1782,<a name="FNanchor_18_24" id="FNanchor_18_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_24" class="fnanchor" title=" Appendix B. No. 7.">[18]</a> consider the money as actually +paid into their Treasury. Even under their error concerning the +appli<a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" title="226" class="pagenum"></a>cation of the money, they appear rather alarmed than satisfied +with the brief apology of the Governor-General. They consider the whole +proceeding as <i>extraordinary and mysterious</i>. They, however, do not +condemn it with any remarkable asperity; after admitting that he might +be induced to a temporary secrecy <i>respecting the members of the board</i>, +from a fear of their resisting the proposed application, or any +application of this money to the Company's use, yet they write to the +Governor-General and Council as follows:—"It does not appear to us that +there could be any real necessity for delaying to communicate to <i>us</i> +immediate information of the <i>channel</i> by which the money came into Mr. +Hastings's possession, with a complete illustration of the cause or +causes of so <i>extraordinary</i> an event." And again: "The means proposed +of defraying the extra expenses are very <i>extraordinary</i>; and the money, +we conceive, must have come into his hands by an <i>unusual</i> channel; and +when more complete information comes before us, we shall give our +sentiments fully on the transaction." And speaking of this and other +moneys under a similar description, they say, "We shall suspend our +judgment, without approving it in the least degree, or proceeding to +censure our Governor-General for this transaction." The expectations +entertained by the Directors of a more complete explanation were +natural, and their expression tender and temperate. But the more +complete information which they naturally expected they never have to +this day received.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings wrote two more letters to the Secret Committee of the Court +of Directors, in which he mentions this transaction: the first dated (as +he asserts, <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" title="227" class="pagenum"></a>and a Mr. Larkins swears) on the 22d of May, 1782;<a name="FNanchor_19_25" id="FNanchor_19_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_25" class="fnanchor" title=" Appendix B. No. 3 and No. 5.">[19]</a> the +last, which accompanied it, so late as the 16th of December in the same +year.<a name="FNanchor_20_26" id="FNanchor_20_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_26" class="fnanchor" title=" Appendix B. No 6.">[20]</a> Though so long an interval lay between the transaction of the +26th of June, 1780, and the middle of December, 1782, (upwards of two +years,) no further satisfaction is given. He has written, since the +receipt of the above letter of the Court of Directors, (which demanded, +what they had a right to demand, a clear explanation of the particulars +of this sum of money which he had no right to receive,) without giving +them any further satisfaction. Instead of explanation or apology, he +assumes a tone of complaint and reproach, to the Directors: he lays +before them a kind of an account of presents received, to the amount of +upwards of 200,000<i>l.</i>,—some at a considerable distance of time, and +which had not been hitherto communicated to the Company.</p> + +<p>In the letter which accompanied that very extraordinary account, which +then for the first time appeared, he discovers no small solicitude to +clear himself from the imputation of having these discoveries drawn from +him by the terrors of the Parliamentary inquiries then on foot. To +remove all suspicion of such a motive for making these discoveries, Mr. +Larkins swears, in an affidavit made before Mr. Justice Hyde, bearing +even date with the letter which accompanies the account, that is, of the +16th of December, 1782, that this letter had been written by him on the +22d of May, several months before it was dispatched.<a name="FNanchor_21_27" id="FNanchor_21_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_27" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Larkins's Affidavit, Appendix B. No. 5.">[21]</a> It appears that +Mr. Larkins, who makes this voluntary affidavit, is neither secretary to +the board, nor<a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" title="228" class="pagenum"></a> Mr. Hastings's private secretary, but an officer of the +Treasury of Bengal.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings was conscious that a question would inevitably arise, how +he came to delay the sending intelligence of so very interesting a +nature from May to December. He therefore thinks it necessary to account +for so suspicious a circumstance. He tells the Directors, "that the +dispatch of the 'Lively' having been protracted from time to time, the +accompanying address, which was originally designed and prepared for +that dispatch, <i>and no other since occurring</i>, has of course been thus +long delayed."</p> + +<p>The Governor-General's letter is dated the 22d May, and the "Resolution" +was the last ship of the season dispatched for Europe. The public +letters to the Directors are dated the 9th May; but it appears by the +letter of the commander of the ship that he did not receive his +dispatches from Mr. Lloyd, then at Kedgeree, until the 26th May, and +also that the pilot was not discharged from the ship until the 11th +June. Some of these presents (now for the first time acknowledged) had +been received eighteen months preceding the date of this letter,—none +less than four months; so that, in fact, he might have sent this account +by all the ships of that season; but the Governor-General chose to write +this letter thirteen days after the determination in Council for the +dispatch of the last ship.</p> + +<p>It does not appear that he has given any communication whatsoever to his +colleagues in office of those extraordinary transactions. Nothing +appears on the records of the Council of the receipt of the presents; +nor is the transmission of this account mentioned in the general letter +to the Court of Directors, but in a <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" title="229" class="pagenum"></a>letter from himself to their Secret +Committee, consisting generally of two persons, but at most of three. It +is to be observed that the Governor-General states, "that the dispatch +of the 'Lively' had been protracted from time to time; that this delay +was of no public consequence; but that it produced a situation which +with respect to himself he regarded as unfortunate, because it exposed +him to the meanest imputations, from the occasion which the late +Parliamentary inquiries have since furnished, but which were unknown +when his letter was written." If the Governor-General thought his +silence exposed him to the <i>meanest imputations</i>, he had the means in +his own power of avoiding those imputations: he might have sent this +letter, dated the 22d May, by the Resolution. For we find, that, in a +letter from Captain Poynting, of the 26th May, he states it not possible +for him to proceed to sea with the smallest degree of safety without a +supply of anchors and cables, and most earnestly requests they may be +supplied from Calcutta; and on the 28th May we find a minute from the +Secretary of the Council, Mr. Auriol, requesting an order of Council to +the master-attendant to furnish a sloop to carry down those cables; +which order was accordingly issued on the 30th May. There requires no +other proof to show that the Governor-General had the means of sending +this letter seven days after he wrote it, instead of delaying it for +near seven months, and because no conveyance had offered. Your Committee +must also remark, that the conveyance by land to Madras was certain; and +whilst such important operations were carrying on, both by sea and land, +upon the coast, that dispatches would be sent to the Admiralty or to the +Company was highly probable.</p><p><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" title="230" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>If the letter of the 22d May had been found in the list of packets sent +by the Resolution, the Governor General would have established in a +satisfactory manner, and far beyond the effect of any affidavit, that +the letter had been written at the time of the date. It appears that the +Resolution, being on her voyage to England, met with so severe a gale of +wind as to be obliged to put back to Bengal, and to unload her cargo. +This event makes no difference in the state of the transaction. Whatever +the cause of these new discoveries might have been, at the time of +sending them the fact of the Parliamentary inquiry was publicly known.</p> + +<p>In the letter of the above date Mr. Hastings laments the mortification +of being reduced to take precautions "to guard his reputation from +dishonor."—"If I had," says he, "<i>at any time</i> possessed that degree of +confidence from my <i>immediate</i> employers which they have never withheld +from the <i>meanest</i> of my predecessors, I should have disdained to use +these attentions."</p> + +<p>Who the <i>meanest</i> of Mr. Hastings's predecessors were does not appear to +your Committee; nor are they able to discern the ground of propriety or +decency for his assuming to himself a right to call any of them mean +persons. But if such mean persons have possessed that degree of +confidence from his immediate employers which for so many years he had +not possessed "<i>at any time</i>," inferences must be drawn from thence very +unfavorable to one or the other of the parties, or perhaps to both. The +attentions which he practises and disdains can in this case be of no +service to himself, his employers, or the public; the only attention at +all effectual towards extenuating, <a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" title="231" class="pagenum"></a>or in some degree atoning for, the +guilt of having taken money from individuals illegally was to be full +and fair in his confession of all the particulars of his offence. This +might not obtain that confidence which at no time he has enjoyed, but +still the Company and the nation might derive essential benefit from it; +the Directors might be able to afford redress to the sufferers; and by +his laying open the concealed channels of abuse, means might be +furnished for the better discovery, and possibly for the prevention, or +at least for the restraint, of a practice of the most dangerous +nature,—a practice of which the mere prohibition, without the means of +detection, must ever prove, as hitherto it had proved, altogether +frivolous.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, considering that so long a time had elapsed without any +of that information which the Directors expected, and perceiving that +this receipt of sums of money under color of gift seemed a growing evil, +ordered the attendance of Mr. Hastings's agent, Major Scott. They had +found, on former occasions, that this gentleman was furnished with much +more early and more complete intelligence of the Company's affairs in +India than was thought proper for the Court of Directors; they therefore +examined him concerning every particular sum of money the receipt of +which Mr. Hastings had confessed in his account. It was to their +surprise that Mr. Scott professed himself perfectly uninstructed upon +almost every part of the subject, though the express object of his +mission to England was to clear up such matters as might be objected to +Mr. Hastings; and for that purpose he had early qualified himself by the +production to your Committee of his powers of agency. The ignorance in +which Mr. Hastings had left <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" title="232" class="pagenum"></a>his agent was the more striking, because he +must have been morally certain, that, if his conduct in these points +should have escaped animadversion from the Court of Directors, it must +become an object of Parliamentary inquiry; for, in his letter of the +15th [16th?] of December, 1782, to the Court of Directors, he expressly +mentions his fears that those Parliamentary inquiries might be thought +to have extorted from him the confessions which he had made.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, however, entering on a more strict examination +concerning the two lacs of rupees, which Mr. Hastings declares he had no +right to take, but had taken from some person then unknown, Major Scott +recollected that Mr. Hastings had, in a letter of the 7th of December, +1782, (in which he refers to some former letter,) acquainted him with +the name of the person from whom he had received these two lacs of +rupees, mentioned in the minute of June, 1780. It turned out to be the +Rajah of Benares, the unfortunate Cheyt Sing.</p> + +<p>In the single instance in which Mr. Scott seemed to possess intelligence +in this matter, he is preferred to the Court of Directors. Under their +censure as Mr. Hastings was, and as he felt himself to be, for not +informing them of the channel in which he received that money, he +perseveres obstinately and contemptuously to conceal it from them; +though he thought fit to intrust his agent with the secret.</p> + +<p>Your Committee were extremely struck with this intelligence. They were +totally unacquainted with it, when they presented to the House the +Supplement to their Second Report, on the affairs of Cheyt Sing. A gift +received by Mr. Hastings from the<a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" title="233" class="pagenum"></a> Rajah of Benares gave rise in their +minds to serious reflections on the condition of the princes of India +subjected to the British authority. Mr. Hastings was, at the very time +of his receiving this gift, in the course of making on the Rajah of +Benares a series of demands, unfounded and unjustifiable, and constantly +growing in proportion as they were submitted to. To these demands the +Rajah of Benares, besides his objections in point of right, constantly +sat up a plea of poverty. Presents from persons who hold up poverty as a +shield against extortion can scarcely in any case be considered as +gratuitous, whether the plea of poverty be true or false. In this case +the presents might have been bestowed; if not with an assurance, at +least with a rational hope, of some mitigation in the oppressive +requisitions that were made by Mr. Hastings; for to give much +voluntarily, when it is known that much will be taken away forcibly, is +a thing absurd and impossible. On the other [one?] hand, the acceptance +of that gift by Mr. Hastings must have pledged a tacit faith for some +degree of indulgence towards the donor: if it was a free gift, +gratitude, if it was a bargain, justice obliged him to do it. If, on the +other hand, Mr. Hastings originally destined (as he says he did) this +money, given to himself secretly and for his private emolument, to the +use of the Company, the Company's favor, to whom he acted as trustee, +ought to have been purchased by it. In honor and justice he bound and +pledged himself for that power which was to profit by the gift, and to +profit, too, in the success of an expedition which Mr. Hastings thought +so necessary to their aggrandizement. The unhappy man found his <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" title="234" class="pagenum"></a>money +accepted, but no favor acquired on the part either of the Company or of +Mr. Hastings.</p> + +<p>Your Committee have, in another Report, stated to the House that Mr. +Hastings attributed the extremity of distress which the detachments +under Colonel Camac had suffered, and the great desertions which ensued +on that expedition, to the want of punctuality of the Rajah in making +payment of one of the sums which had been extorted from him; and this +want of punctual payment was afterwards assigned as a principal reason +for the ruin of this prince. Your Committee have shown to the House, by +a comparison of facts and dates, that this charge is wholly without +foundation. But if the cause of Colonel Camac's failure had been true as +to the sum which was the object of the public demand, the failure could +not be attributed to the Rajah, when he had on the <i>instant</i> privately +furnished at least 23,000<i>l.</i> to Mr. Hastings,—that is, furnished the +identical money which he tells us (but carefully concealing the name of +the giver) he had from the beginning destined, as he afterwards publicly +offered, for this very expedition of Colonel Camac's. The complication +of fraud and cruelty in the transaction admits of few parallels. Mr. +Hastings at the Council Board of Bengal displays himself as a zealous +servant of the Company, bountifully giving from his own fortune, and in +his letter to the Directors (as he says himself) as going out of the +ordinary roads for their advantage;<a name="FNanchor_22_28" id="FNanchor_22_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_28" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 1.">[22]</a> and all this on the credit of +supplies derived from the gift of a man whom he treats with the utmost +severity, and whom he accuses, in this particular, of disaffection to +the Company's cause and interests.</p><p><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" title="235" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>With 23,000<i>l.</i> of the Rajah's money in his pocket, he persecutes him to +his destruction,—assigning for a reason, that his reliance on the +Rajah's faith, and his breach of it, were the principal causes that <i>no +other</i> provision was made for the detachment on the specific expedition +to which the Rajah's specific money was to be applied. The Rajah had +given it to be disposed of by Mr. Hastings; and if it was not disposed +of in the best manner for the accomplishing his objects, the accuser +himself is the criminal.</p> + +<p>To take money for the forbearance of a just demand would have been +corrupt only; but to urge unjust public demands,—to accept private +pecuniary favors in the course of those demands,—and, on the pretence +of delay or refusal, without mercy to persecute a benefactor,—to refuse +to hear his remonstrances,—to arrest him in his capital, in his palace, +in the face of all the people,—thus to give occasion to an +insurrection, and, on pretext of that insurrection, to refuse all treaty +or explanation,—to drive him from his government and his country,—to +proscribe him in a general amnesty,—and to send him all over India a +fugitive, to publish the shame of British government in all the nations +to whom he successively fled for refuge,—these are proceedings to +which, for the honor of human nature, it is hoped few parallels are to +be found in history, and in which the illegality and corruption of the +acts form the smallest part of the mischief.</p> + +<p>Such is the account of the first sum <i>confessed</i> to be taken as a +present by Mr. Hastings, since the year 1775; and such are its +consequences. Mr. Hastings apologizes for this action by declaring "that +he would not have received the money but for the <i>occasion</i>, <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" title="236" class="pagenum"></a>which +prompted him to avail himself of the accidental means which were at that +instant afforded him of accepting and converting it to the use of the +Company."<a name="FNanchor_23_29" id="FNanchor_23_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_29" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 1.">[23]</a> By this account, he considers the act as excusable only by +the particular occasion, by the temptation of accidental means, and by +the suggestion of the <i>instant</i>. How far this is the case appears by the +very next paragraph of this letter in which the account is given and in +which the apology is made. If these were his sentiments in June, 1780, +they lasted but a very short time: his accidental means appear to be +growing habitual.</p> + +<p>To point out in a clear manner the spirit of the second money +transaction to which your Committee adverted, which is represented by +Mr. Hastings as having some "affinity with the former <i>anecdote</i>,"<a name="FNanchor_24_30" id="FNanchor_24_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_30" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid.">[24]</a> +(for in this light kind of phrase he chooses to express himself to his +masters,) your Committee think it necessary to state to the House, that +the business, namely, this business, which was the second object of +their inquiry, appears in three different papers and in three different +lights: on comparing of these authorities, in every one of which Mr. +Hastings is himself the voucher, if one of the three be true, the other +two must necessarily be false.</p> + +<p>These three authorities, which your Committee has accurately compared, +are, first, his minutes on the Consultations;<a name="FNanchor_25_31" id="FNanchor_25_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_31" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid., No. 8.">[25]</a> secondly, his letter +to the Court of Directors on the 29th of November, 1780;<a name="FNanchor_26_32" id="FNanchor_26_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_32" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid., No. 1.">[26]</a> thirdly, +his account, transmitted on the 16th of December, 1782.<a name="FNanchor_27_33" id="FNanchor_27_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_33" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid., No. 4.">[27]</a></p> + +<p>About eight months after the first transaction rela<a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" title="237" class="pagenum"></a>tive to Cheyt Sing, +and which is just reported, that is, on the 5th of January, 1781, Mr. +Hastings produced a demand to the Council for money of his own expended +for the Company's service.<a name="FNanchor_28_34" id="FNanchor_28_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_34" class="fnanchor" title=" Appendix B. No. 8.">[28]</a> Here was no occasion for secrecy. Mr. +Francis was on his passage to Europe; Mr. Wheler was alone left, who no +longer dissented from anything; Mr. Hastings was in effect himself the +whole Council. He declared that <i>he</i> had disbursed three lacs of rupees, +that is, thirty-four thousand five hundred pounds, in secret +services,—which having, he says, "been advanced from <i>my own private +cash</i>, I request that the same may be repaid to me in the following +manner." He accordingly desires three bonds, for a lac of Sicca rupees +each, to be given to him in two of the Company's subscriptions,—one to +bear interest on the eight per cent loan, the other two in the four per +cent: the bonds were antedated to the beginning of the preceding +October. On the 9th of the same month, that is, on the 9th of January, +1781, the three bonds were accordingly ordered.<a name="FNanchor_29_35" id="FNanchor_29_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_35" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid.">[29]</a> So far the whole +transaction appears clear, and of a piece. Private money is subscribed, +and a public security is taken for it. When the Company's Treasury +accounts<a name="FNanchor_30_36" id="FNanchor_30_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_36" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid., No. 9.">[30]</a> are compared with the proceedings of their Council-General, +a perfect correspondence also appears. The three bonds are then [there?] +entered to Mr. Hastings, and he is credited for principal and interest +on them, in the exact terms of the order. So far the official +accounts,—which, because of their perfect harmony, are considered as +clear and consistent evidence to one body of fact.</p> + +<p>The second sort of document relative to these bonds (though the first in +order of time) is Mr. Hastings's <a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" title="238" class="pagenum"></a>letter of the 29th of November, +1780.<a name="FNanchor_31_37" id="FNanchor_31_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_37" class="fnanchor" title=" Appendix B. No. 1.">[31]</a> It is written between the time of the expenditure of the money +for the Company's use and the taking of the bonds. Here, for the first +time, a very material difference appears; and the difference is the more +striking, because Mr. Hastings claimed the <i>whole</i> money as his own, and +took bonds for it as such, <i>after</i> this representation. The letter to +the Company discovers that part of the money (the whole of which he had +declared on record to be his own, and for which he had taken bonds) was +not his, but the property of his masters, from whom he had taken the +security. It is no less remarkable that the letter which represents the +money as belonging to the Company was written about six weeks before the +Minute of Council in which he claims that money as his own. It is this +letter on which your Committee is to remark.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, after giving his reasons for the application of the three +lacs of rupees, and for his having for some time concealed the fact, +says, "Two thirds of that sum I have raised <i>by my own credit</i>, and +shall charge it in my official account; <i>the other third</i> I have +supplied from the cash in my hands belonging to the Honorable +Company."<a name="FNanchor_32_38" id="FNanchor_32_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_38" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid.">[32]</a></p> + +<p>The House will observe, that in November he tells the Directors that he +shall charge only <i>two thirds</i> in his official accounts; in the +following January he charges the <i>whole</i>.<a name="FNanchor_33_39" id="FNanchor_33_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_39" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid., No. 8.">[33]</a> For the other third, +although he admitted that to belong to the Company, we have seen that he +takes a bond to <i>himself</i>.</p> + +<p>It is material that he tells the Company in his letter that these two +lacs of rupees were <i>raised on his credit</i>. His letter to the Council +says that they were <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" title="239" class="pagenum"></a>advanced from his <i>private cash</i>. What he raises on +his credit may, on a fair construction, be considered as his own: but in +this, too, he fails; for it is certain he has never transferred these +bonds to any creditor; nor has he stated any sum he has paid, or for +which he stands indebted, on that account, to any specific person. +Indeed, it was out of his power; for the first two thirds of the money, +which he formerly stated as raised upon his credit, he now confesses to +have been from the beginning the Company's property, and therefore could +not have been raised on his private credit, or borrowed from any person +whatsoever.</p> + +<p>To these two accounts, thus essentially varying, he has added a +third,<a name="FNanchor_34_40" id="FNanchor_34_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_40" class="fnanchor" title=" Appendix B. No. 4: The Governor-General's Account of +Moneys received, dated 22d May, 1782. Also, Appendix B. No. 9: The +Auditor's Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General.">[34]</a> varying at least as essentially from both. In his last or +third account, which is a statement of all the sums he has received in +an extraordinary manner, and confessed to be the Company's property, he +reverses the items of his first account, and, instead of allowing the +Company but one third and claiming two thirds for himself, he enters two +of the bonds, each for a lac of rupees, as belonging to the Company: of +the third bond, which appears so distinctly in the Consultations and in +the Treasury accounts, not one word is said; ten thousand pounds is +absorbed, sinks, and disappears at once, and no explanation whatsoever +concerning it is given; Mr. Hastings seems not yet to have decided to +whose account it ought to be placed. In this manner his debt to the +Company, or the Company's to him, is just what he thinks fit. In a +single article he has varied three times. In one account he states the +whole to <a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" title="240" class="pagenum"></a>be his own; in another he claims two thirds; in the last he +gives up the claim of the two thirds, and says nothing to the remaining +portion.</p> + +<p>To make amends, however, for the suppression of this third bond, given +with the two others in January, 1781, and antedated to the beginning of +October, Mr. Hastings, in the above-mentioned general account subjoined +to his letter of the 22d May, 1782, has brought to the Company's credit +a new bond.<a name="FNanchor_35_41" id="FNanchor_35_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_41" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 4.">[35]</a></p> + +<p>This bond is for 17,000<i>l.</i> It was taken from the Company (and so it +appears on their Treasury accounts) on the 23d of November, 1780. He +took no notice of this, when, in January following, he called upon his +own Council for the three others. What is more extraordinary, he was +equally silent with regard to it, when, only six days after its date, he +wrote concerning the subject of the three other bonds to the Court of +Directors; yet now it comes out, that that bond also was taken by Mr. +Hastings from the Company for money which he declares he had received on +the Company's account, and that he entered himself as creditor when he +ought to have made himself debtor.</p> + +<p>Your Committee examined Major Scott concerning this money, which Mr. +Hastings must have obtained in some clandestine and irregular mode; but +they could obtain no information of the persons from whom it was taken, +nor of the occasion or pretence of taking this large sum; nor does any +Minute of Council appear for its application to any service. The whole +of the transaction, whatever it was, relative to this bond, is covered +with the thickest obscurity.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, to palliate the blame of his conduct, <a name="Page_241" id="Page_241" title="241" class="pagenum"></a>declares that he +has not received any interest on these bonds,—and that he has indorsed +them as not belonging to himself, but to the Company.<a name="FNanchor_36_42" id="FNanchor_36_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_42" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Mr. Hastings's Account, in Appendix B. No. 4.">[36]</a> As to the +first part of this allegation, whether he received the interest or let +it remain in arrear is a matter of indifference, as he entitled himself +to it; and so far as the legal security he has taken goes, he may, +whenever he pleases, dispose both of principal and interest. What he has +indorsed on the bonds, or when he made the indorsement, or whether in +fact he has made it at all, are matters known only to himself; for the +bonds must be in his possession, and are nowhere by him stated to be +given up or cancelled,—which is a thing very remarkable, when he +confesses that he had no right to receive them.</p> + +<p>These bonds make but a part of the account of private receipts of money +by Mr. Hastings, formerly paid into the Treasury as his own property, +and now allowed not to be so. This account brings into view other very +remarkable matters of a similar nature and description.<a name="FNanchor_37_43" id="FNanchor_37_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_43" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Hastings's Account, dated 22d May, 1782, in Appendix +B. No. 4.">[37]</a></p> + +<p>In the public records, a sum of not less than 23,871<i>l.</i> is set to his +credit as a <i>deposit</i> for his private account, paid in by him into the +Treasury in gold, and coined at the Company's mint.<a name="FNanchor_38_44" id="FNanchor_38_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_44" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide above Appendix, and B. No. 2.">[38]</a> This appears in +the account furnished to the Directors, under the date of May, 1782, not +to be lawfully his money, and he therefore transfers it to the Company's +credit: it still remains as a deposit.<a name="FNanchor_39_45" id="FNanchor_39_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_45" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide above Appendix.">[39]</a></p> + +<p>That the House may be apprised of the nature of <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" title="242" class="pagenum"></a>this article of +deposit, it may not be improper to state that the Company receive into +their treasury the cash of private persons, placed there as in a bank. +On this no interest is paid, and the party depositing has a right to +receive it upon demand. Under this head of account no public money is +ever entered. Mr. Hastings, neither at making the deposit as his own, +nor at the time of his disclosure of the real proprietor, (which he +makes to be the Company,) has given any information of the persons from +whom this money had been received. Mr. Scott was applied to by your +Committee, but could not give any more satisfaction in this particular +than in those relative to the bonds.</p> + +<p>The title of the account of the 22d of May purports not only that those +sums were paid into the Company's treasury by Mr. Hastings's order, but +that they were applied to the Company's service. No service is +specified, directly or by any reference, to which this great sum of +money has been applied.</p> + +<p>Two extraordinary articles follow this, in the May account, amounting to +about 29,000<i>l.</i><a name="FNanchor_40_46" id="FNanchor_40_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_46" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 4.">[40]</a> These articles are called Receipts for Durbar +Charges. The general head of Durbar Charges, made by persons in office, +when analyzed into the particulars, contains various expenses, including +bounties and presents made by government, chiefly in the foreign +department. But in the last account he confesses that this sum also is +not his, but the Company's property; but as in all the rest, so in this, +he carefully conceals the means by which he acquired the money, the time +of his taking it, and the persons from whom it was taken. This is the +more extraordinary, because, in <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243" title="243" class="pagenum"></a>looking over the journals and ledgers +of the Treasury, the presents received and carried to the account of the +Company (which were generally small and complimental) were precisely +entered, with the name of the giver.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, on turning to the account of Durbar charges in the +ledger of that month, find the sum, as stated in the account of May 22d, +to be indeed paid in; but there is no specific application whatsoever +entered.</p> + +<p>The account of the whole money thus clandestinely received, as stated on +the 22d of May, 1782, (and for a great part of which Mr. Hastings to +that time took credit for, and for the rest has accounted in an +extraordinary manner as his own,) amounts in the whole to upwards of +ninety-three thousand pounds sterling: a vast sum to be so obtained, and +so loosely accounted for! If the money taken from the Rajah of Benares +be added, (as it ought,) it will raise the sum to upwards of +116,000<i>l.</i>; if the 11,600<i>l.</i> bond in October be added, it will be +upwards of 128,000<i>l.</i> received in a secret manner by Mr. Hastings in +about one year and five months. To all these he adds another sum of one +hundred thousand pounds, received as a present from the Subah of Oude. +Total, upwards of 228,000<i>l.</i></p> + +<p>Your Committee find that this last is the only sum the giver of which +Mr. Hastings has thought proper to declare. It is to be observed, that +he did not receive this 100,000<i>l.</i> in money, but in bills on a great +native money-dealer resident at Benares, and who has also an house at +Calcutta: he is called Gopâl Dâs. The negotiation of these bills tended +to make a discovery not so difficult as it would have been in other +cases.</p><p><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" title="244" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>With regard to the application of this last sum of money, which is said +to be carried to the Durbar charges of April, 1782, your Committee are +not enabled to make any observations on it, as the account of that +period has not yet arrived.</p> + +<p>Your Committee have, in another Report, remarked fully upon most of the +circumstances of this extraordinary transaction. Here they only bring so +much of these circumstances again into view as may serve to throw light +upon the true nature of the sums of money taken by British subjects in +power, under the name of <i>presents</i>, and to show how far they are +entitled to that description in any sense which can fairly imply in the +pretended donors either willingness or ability to give. The condition of +the bountiful parties who are not yet discovered may be conjectured from +the state of those who have been made known: as far as that state +anywhere appears, their generosity is found in proportion, not to the +opulence they possess or to the favors they receive, but to the +indigence they feel and the insults they are exposed to. The House will +particularly attend to the situation of the principal giver, the Subah +of Oude.</p> + +<p>"When the knife," says he, "had penetrated to the bone, and I was +surrounded with such heavy distresses that I could no longer live in +expectations, I wrote you an account of my difficulties.</p> + +<p>"The answer which I have received to it is such that it has given me +inexpressible grief and affliction. I never had the least idea or +expectation from you and the Council that you would ever have given your +orders in so afflicting a manner, in which you never before wrote, and +which I could not have imagined. As I am resolved to <i>obey</i> your orders, +and directions <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" title="245" class="pagenum"></a>of the Council, without any delay, as long as I live, I +have, agreeably to those <i>orders</i>, delivered up <i>all my private papers</i> +to him [the Resident], that, when he shall have examined my receipts and +expenses, <i>he may take whatever remains</i>. As I know it to be my duty to +satisfy you, the Company, and Council, I have not failed to <i>obey</i> in +any instance, but requested of him that it might be done so as not to +<i>distress me in my necessary expenses</i>: there being no other funds but +those for the expenses of my mutseddies, household expenses, and +servants, &c. He demanded these in such a manner, that, being +<i>remediless</i>, I was obliged to comply with what he required. He has +accordingly <i>stopped the pensions of my old servants for thirty years, +whether sepoys, mutseddies, or household servants, and the expenses of +my family and kitchen, together with the jaghires of my grandmother, +mother, and aunts, and of my brothers and dependants, which were for +their support</i>. I had raised thirteen hundred horse and three battalions +of sepoys to attend upon me; but as I have no resources to support them, +I have been obliged to remove the people stationed in the mahals +[districts] and to send his people [the Resident's people] into the +mahals, so that I have not now one single servant about me. Should I +mention to what further difficulties I have been reduced, it would lay +me open to contempt."</p> + +<p>In other parts of this long remonstrance, as well as in other +remonstrances no less serious, he says, "that it is difficult for him to +save himself alive; that in all his affairs <i>Mr. Hastings had given full +powers to the gentlemen here</i>," (meaning the English Resident and +Assistants,) "<i>who have done whatever they chose, and still continue to +do it</i>. I never expected that <i>you</i> would <a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" title="246" class="pagenum"></a>have brought me into such +apprehension, and into so weak a state, without <i>writing to me on any +one of those subjects</i>; since I have not the smallest connection with +anybody except yourself. I am in such distress, both day and night, that +I see not the smallest prospect of deliverance from it, since you are so +displeased with me <i>as not to honor me with a single letter</i>."</p> + +<p>In another remonstrance he thus expresses himself. "The affairs of this +world are unstable, and soon pass away: it would therefore be incumbent +on the <i>English</i> gentlemen to show <i>some</i> friendship for me in my +<i>necessities</i>,—I, who have always exerted my very life in the service +of the English, <i>assigned over to them all the resources left in my +country</i>, stopped my very household expenses, together with the jaghires +of my servants and dependants, to the amount of 98,98,375 rupees. +Besides this, as to the jaghires of my grandmother, mother, and uncle, +which were granted to them for their support, <i>agreeable to +engagements</i>, you are the <i>masters</i>,—if the Council have sent orders +for the stopping their jaghires also, stop them. I have no resources +left in my country, and have no friends by me, being even distressed in +my daily subsistence. I have some elephants, horses, and the houses +which I inhabit: if they can be of any service to my friends, they are +ready. Whenever you can discover any resources, seize upon them: I shall +not interfere to prevent you. In my present distress for my daily +expenses, I was in hopes that they would have excused some part of my +debt. Of what use is it for me to relate my situation, which is known to +the whole world? This much is sufficient."</p> + +<p>The truth of all these representations is nowhere contested by Mr. +Hastings. It is, indeed, admitted in <a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" title="247" class="pagenum"></a>something stronger than words; +for, upon account of the Nabob's condition, and the no less distressed +condition of his dominions, he thought it fit to withdraw from him and +them a large body of the Company's troops, together with all the English +of a civil description, who were found no less burdensome than the +military. This was done on the declared inability of the country any +longer to support them,—a country not much inferior to England in +extent and fertility, and, till lately at least, its equal in population +and culture.</p> + +<p>It was to a prince, in a state so far remote from freedom, authority, +and opulence, so penetrated with the treatment he had received, and the +behavior he had met with from Mr. Hastings, that Mr. Hastings has chosen +to attribute a disposition so very generous and munificent as, of his +own free grace and mere motion, to make him a present, at one donation, +of upwards of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. This vast private +donation was given at the moment of vast instant demands severely +exacted on account of the Company, and accumulated on immense debts to +the same body,—and all taken from a ruined prince and almost desolated +territory.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings has had the firmness, with all possible ease and apparent +unconcern, to request permission from the Directors to legalize this +forbidden present for his own use. This he has had the courage to do at +a time when he had abundant reason to look for what he has since +received,—their censure for many material parts of his conduct towards +the people from whose wasted substance this pretended free gift was +drawn. He does not pretend that he has reason to expect the smallest +degree of partiality, in this or any <a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" title="248" class="pagenum"></a>other point, from the Court of +Directors. For, besides his complaint, first stated, of having never +possessed their confidence, in a late letter<a name="FNanchor_41_47" id="FNanchor_41_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_47" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 6.">[41]</a> (in which, +notwithstanding the censures of Parliament, he magnifies his own +conduct) he says, that, in all the long period of his service, "he has +almost unremittedly wanted the support which all his predecessors had +enjoyed from their constituents. From mine," says he, "I have received +<i>nothing but reproach, hard</i> epithets, <i>and indignities</i>, instead of +rewards and encouragement." It must therefore have been from some other +source of protection than that which the law had placed over him that he +looked for countenance and reward in violating an act of Parliament +which forbid him from <i>taking gifts or presents on any account +whatsoever</i>,—much less a gift of this magnitude, which, from the +distress of the giver, must be supposed the effect of the most cruel +extortion.</p> + +<p>The Directors did wrong in their orders to appropriate money, which they +must know could not have been acquired by the consent of the pretended +donor, to their own use.<a name="FNanchor_42_48" id="FNanchor_42_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_48" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid., No. 7.">[42]</a> They acted more properly in refusing to +confirm this grant to Mr. Hastings, and in choosing rather to refer him +to the law which he had violated than to his own sense of what he +thought he was entitled to take from the natives: putting him in mind +that the Regulating Act had expressly declared "that no +Governor-General, or any of the Council, shall, directly or indirectly, +accept, receive, or take, of or from any person or persons, or on any +account whatsoever, any present, gift, donation, gratuity, or reward, +pecuniary or otherwise, or any promise or engagement for any of the +aforesaid."<a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" title="249" class="pagenum"></a> Here is no reserve for the case of a disclosure to the +Directors, and for the legalizing the breach of an act of Parliament by +their subsequent consent. The illegality attached to the action at its +very commencement, and it could never be afterwards legalized: the +Directors had no such power reserved to them. Words cannot be devised of +a stronger import or studied with more care. To these words of the act +are opposed the declaration and conduct of Mr. Hastings, who, in his +letter of January, 1782, thinks fit to declare, that "an offer of a very +considerable sum of money was made to him, both on the part of the Nabob +and his ministers, as <i>a present</i>, which he <i>accepted without +hesitation</i>." The plea of his pretended necessity is of no avail. The +present was not in ready money, nor, as your Committee conceive, +applicable to his immediate necessities. Even his credit was not +bettered by bills at long periods; he does not pretend that he raised +any money upon them; nor is it conceivable that a banker at Benares +would be more willing to honor the drafts of so miserable, undone, and +dependent a person as the Nabob of Oude than those of the +Governor-General of Bengal, which might be paid either on the receipt of +the Benares revenue, or at the seat of his power, and of the Company's +exchequer. Besides, it is not explicable, upon any grounds that can be +avowed, why the Nabob, who could afford to give these bills as <i>a +present</i> to Mr. Hastings, could not have equally given them in discharge +of the debt which he owed to the Company. It is, indeed, very much to be +feared that the people of India find it sometimes turn more to their +account to give presents to the English in authority than to pay their +debts to the public; and this is a matter of a very serious +consideration.</p><p><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" title="250" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>No small merit is made by Mr. Hastings, and that, too, in a high and +upbraiding style, of his having come to a voluntary discovery of this +and other unlawful practices of the same kind. "That honorable court," +says Mr. Hastings, addressing himself to his masters, in his letter of +December, 1782, "ought to know whether I possess the integrity and honor +which are the first requisites of such a station. If I wanted these, +they have afforded me too powerful incentives to suppress the +information which I now convey to them through you, and to appropriate +to my own use the sums which I have already passed to their credit, by +their <i>unworthy</i>, and pardon me if I add <i>dangerous reflections</i>, which +they have passed upon me for the first communication of this kind"; and +he immediately adds, what is singular and striking, and savors of a +recriminatory insinuation, "<i>and your own experience</i> will suggest to +you that there are persons who would profit by such a warning."<a name="FNanchor_43_49" id="FNanchor_43_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_49" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 6.">[43]</a> To +what Directors in particular this imputation of experience is applied, +and what other persons they are in whom <i>experience</i> has shown a +disposition to profit of such a warning, is a matter highly proper to be +inquired into. What Mr. Hastings says further on this subject is no less +worthy of attention:—"<i>that he could have concealed these transactions, +if he had a wrong motive, from theirs and the public eye forever</i>."<a name="FNanchor_44_50" id="FNanchor_44_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_50" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid.">[44]</a> +It is undoubtedly true, that, whether the observation be applicable to +the particular case or not, practices of this corrupt nature are +extremely difficult of detection anywhere, but especially in India; but +all restraint upon that grand fundamental abuse of presents is gone +forever, if the servants of the Company <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" title="251" class="pagenum"></a>can derive safety from a +defiance of the law, when they can no longer hope to screen themselves +by an evasion of it. All hope of reformation is at an end, if, confiding +in the force of a faction among Directors or proprietors to bear them +out, and possibly to vote them the fruit of their crimes as a reward of +their discovery, they find that their bold avowal of their offences is +not only to produce indemnity, but to be rated for merit. If once a +presumption is admitted, that, wherever something is divulged, nothing +is hid, the discovering of one offence may become the certain means of +concealing a multitude of others. The contrivance is easy and trivial, +and lies open to the meanest proficient in this kind of art; it will not +only become an effectual cover to such practices, but will tend +infinitely to increase them. In that case, sums of money will be taken +for the purpose of discovery and making merit with the Company, and +other sums will be taken for the private advantage of the receiver.</p> + +<p>It must certainly be impossible for the natives to know what presents +are for one purpose, or what for the other. It is not for a Gentoo or a +Mahometan landholder at the foot of the remotest mountains in India, who +has no access to our records and knows nothing of our language, to +distinguish what lacs of rupees, which he has given <i>eo nomine</i> as a +present to a Company's servant, are to be authorized by his masters in +Leadenhall Street as proper and legal, or carried to their public +account at their pleasure, and what are laid up for his own emolument.</p> + +<p>The legislature, in declaring all presents to be the property of the +Company, could not consider corruption, extortion, and fraud as any part +of their re<a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" title="252" class="pagenum"></a>sources. The property in such presents was declared to be +theirs, not as a fund for their benefit, but in order to found a legal +title to a civil suit. It was declared theirs, to facilitate the +recovery out of corrupt and oppressive hands of money illegally taken; +but this legal fiction of property could not nor ought by the +legislature to be considered in any other light than as a trust held by +them for those who suffered the injury. Upon any other construction, the +Company would have a right, first, to extract money from the subjects or +dependants of this kingdom committed to their care, by means of +particular conventions, or by taxes, by rents, and by monopolies; and +when they had exhausted every contrivance of public imposition, then +they were to be at liberty to let loose upon the people all their +servants, from the highest rank to the lowest, to prey upon them at +pleasure, and to draw, by personal and official authority, by influence, +venality, and terror, whatever was left to them,—and that all this was +justified, provided the product was paid into the Company's exchequer.</p> + +<p>This prohibition and permission of presents, with this declaration of +property in the Company, would leave no property to any man in India. +If, however, it should be thought that this clause in the act<a name="FNanchor_45_51" id="FNanchor_45_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_51" class="fnanchor" title=" Act 13 Geo. III. cap 63.">[45]</a> should +be capable, by construction and retrospect, of so legalizing and thus +appropriating these presents, (which your Committee conceive +impossible,) it is absolutely necessary that it should be very fully +explained.</p> + +<p>The provision in the act was made in favor of the natives. If such +construction prevails, the provision made as their screen from +oppression will become <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" title="253" class="pagenum"></a>the means of increasing and aggravating it +without bounds and beyond remedy. If presents, which when they are given +were unlawful, can afterwards be legalized by an application of them to +the Company's service, no sufferer can even resort to a remedial process +at law for his own relief. The moment he attempts to sue, the money may +be paid into the Company's treasury; it is then lawfully taken, and the +party is non-suited.</p> + +<p>The Company itself must suffer extremely in the whole order and +regularity of their public accounts, if the idea upon which Mr. Hastings +justifies the taking of these presents receives the smallest +countenance. On his principles, the same sum may become private property +or public, at the pleasure of the receiver; it is in his power, Mr. +Hastings says, to conceal it forever.<a name="FNanchor_46_52" id="FNanchor_46_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_52" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Mr. Hastings's Letter of 16 December, 1782, in +Appendix B. No. 6.">[46]</a> He certainly has it in his +power not only to keep it back and bring it forward at his own times, +but even to shift and reverse the relations in the accounts (as Mr. +Hastings has done) in what manner and proportion seems good to him, and +to make himself alternately debtor or creditor for the same sums.</p> + +<p>Of this irregularity Mr. Hastings himself appears in some degree +sensible. He conceives it possible that his transactions of this nature +may to the Court of Directors seem unsatisfactory. He, however, puts it +hypothetically: "If to you," says he, "who are accustomed to view +business in an <i>official and regular light, they should appear +unprecedented, if not improper</i>."<a name="FNanchor_47_53" id="FNanchor_47_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_53" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 6.">[47]</a> He just conceives it possible that +in an <a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" title="254" class="pagenum"></a>official money transaction the Directors may expect a proceeding +official and regular. In what other lights than those which are official +and regular matters of public account ought to be regarded by those who +have the charge of them, either in Bengal or in England, does not appear +to your Committee. Any other is certainly "unprecedented and improper," +and can only serve to cover fraud both in the receipt and in the +expenditure. The acquisition of 58,000 rupees, or near 6000<i>l.</i>, which +appears in the sort of <i>unofficial and irregular account</i> that he +furnishes of his presents, in his letter of May, 1782,<a name="FNanchor_48_54" id="FNanchor_48_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_54" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 3.">[48]</a> must appear +extraordinary indeed to those who expect from men in office something +official and something regular. "This sum," says he, "I received while I +was on my journey to Benares."<a name="FNanchor_49_55" id="FNanchor_49_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_55" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid.">[49]</a> He tells it with the same careless +indifference as if things of this kind were found by accident on the +high-road.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings did not, indeed he could not, doubt that this unprecedented +and improper account would produce much discussion. He says, "Why these +sums were taken by me, why they were (except the second) <i>quietly</i> +transferred to the Company's account, why bonds were taken for the first +and not for the rest, might, were this matter to be exposed to the view +of the public, <i>furnish a variety of conjectures</i>."<a name="FNanchor_50_56" id="FNanchor_50_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_56" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid.">[50]</a></p> + +<p>This matter has appeared, and has furnished, as it ought to do, +something more serious than conjectures. It would in any other case be +supposed that Mr. Hastings, expecting such inquiries, and considering +that the questions are (even as they are imperfectly stated by himself) +far from frivolous, would <a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" title="255" class="pagenum"></a>condescend to give some information upon +them; but the conclusion of a sentence so importantly begun, and which +leads to such expectations, is, "that to these conjectures it would be +of little use to reply." This is all he says to public conjecture.</p> + +<p>To the Court of Directors he is very little more complaisant, and not at +all more satisfactory; he states merely as a supposition their inquiry +concerning matters of which he positively knew that they had called for +an explanation. He knew it, because he presumed to censure them for +doing so. To the hypothesis of a further inquiry he gives a conjectural +answer of such a kind as probably, in an account of a doubtful +transaction, and to a superior, was never done before.</p> + +<p>"<i>Were</i> your Honorable Court to question me upon these points, I <i>would</i> +answer, that the sums were taken for the Company's benefit, at times in +which the Company very much stood in need of them; that I <i>either</i> chose +to conceal the first receipts from public curiosity by receiving bonds +for the amount, or <i>possibly acted without any studied design</i> which my +memory could at this distance of time verify."<a name="FNanchor_51_57" id="FNanchor_51_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_57" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 3.">[51]</a></p> + +<p>He here professes not to be certain of the motives by which he was +himself actuated in so extraordinary a concealment, and in the use of +such extraordinary means to effect it; and as if the acts in question +were those of an absolute stranger, and not his own, he gives various +loose conjectures concerning the motive to them. He even supposes, in +taking presents contrary to law, and in taking bonds for them as his +own, contrary to what he admits to be truth and fact, that he might have +acted without <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" title="256" class="pagenum"></a>any distinct motive at all, or at least such as his +memory could reach at that distance of time. That immense distance, in +the faintness of which his recollection is so completely lost as to set +him guessing at his motives for his own conduct, was from the 15th of +January, 1781, when the bonds at his own request were given, to the date +of this letter, which is the 22d of May, 1782,—that is to say, about +one year and four months.</p> + +<p>As to the other sums, for which no bond was taken, the ground for the +difference in his explanation is still more extraordinary: he says, "I +did not think it worth my care to observe the same means with <i>the +rest</i>."<a name="FNanchor_52_58" id="FNanchor_52_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_58" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 3.">[52]</a> The rest of these sums, which were not worth his care, are +stated in his account to be greater than those he was so solicitous (for +some reason which he cannot guess) to cover under bonds: these sums +amount to near 53,000<i>l.</i>; whereas the others did not much exceed +40,000<i>l.</i> For these actions, attended with these explanations, he +ventures to appeal to their (the Directors') breasts for a candid +interpretation, and "he assumes the freedom to add, that he thinks +himself, on <i>such</i> a subject, and on <i>such</i> an occasion, entitled to +it";<a name="FNanchor_53_59" id="FNanchor_53_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_59" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid.">[53]</a> and then, as if he had performed some laudable exploit, in the +accompanying letter he glories in the integrity of his conduct; and +anticipating his triumph over injustice, and the applauses which at a +future time he seems confident he shall receive, says he, "The applause +of my own breast is my surest reward: your applause and that of my +country is my next wish in life."<a name="FNanchor_54_60" id="FNanchor_54_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_60" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid., No. 6.">[54]</a> He declares in that very letter +that he had not <i>at any time</i> possessed the confi<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" title="257" class="pagenum"></a>dence with them which +they never withheld from the meanest of his predecessors. With wishes so +near his heart perpetually disappointed, and, instead of applauses, (as +he tells us,) receiving nothing but reproaches and disgraceful epithets, +his steady continuance for so many years in their service, in a place +obnoxious in the highest degree to suspicion and censure, is a thing +altogether singular.</p> + +<p>It appears very necessary to your Committee to observe upon the great +leading principles which Mr. Hastings assumes, to justify the irregular +taking of these vast sums of money, and all the irregular means he had +employed to cover the greater part of it. These principles are the more +necessary to be inquired into, because, if admitted, they will serve to +justify every species of improper conduct. His words are, "that the +sources from which these reliefs to the public service have come would +never have yielded them to the Company <i>publicly</i>; and that the +exigencies of their service (exigencies created by the exposition of +their affairs, and faction in their divided councils) required those +supplies."<a name="FNanchor_55_61" id="FNanchor_55_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_61" class="fnanchor" title=" Vide Appendix B. No. 6.">[55]</a></p> + +<p>As to the first of these extraordinary positions, your Committee cannot +conceive what motive could actuate any native of India dependent on the +Company, in assisting them privately, and in refusing to assist them +publicly. If the transaction was fair and honest, every native must have +been desirous of making merit with the great governing power. If he gave +his money as a free gift, he might value himself upon very honorable and +very acceptable service; if he lent it on the Company's bonds, it would +still have been of service, and he might also receive eight per <a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" title="258" class="pagenum"></a>cent +for his money. No native could, without some interested view, give to +the Governor-General what he would refuse to the Company as a grant, or +even as a loan. It is plain that the powers of government must, in some +way or other, be understood by the natives to be at sale. The +Governor-General says that he took the money with an original +destination to the purposes to which he asserts he has since applied it. +But this original destination was in his own mind only,—not declared, +nor by him pretended to be declared, to the party who gave the presents, +and who could perceive nothing in it but money paid to the supreme +magistrate for his private emolument. All that the natives could +possibly perceive in such a transaction must be highly dishonorable to +the Company's government; for they must conceive, when they gave money +to Mr. Hastings, that they bought from Mr. Hastings either what was +their own right or something that was not so, or that they redeemed +themselves from some acts of rigor inflicted, threatened, or +apprehended. If, in the first case, Mr. Hastings gave them the object +for which they bargained, his act, however proper, was corrupt,—if he +did not, it was both corrupt and fraudulent; if the money was extorted +by force or threats, it was oppressive and tyrannical. The very nature +of such transactions has a tendency to teach the natives to pay a +corrupt court to the servants of the Company; and they must thereby be +rendered less willing, or less able, or perhaps both, to fulfil their +engagements to the state. Mr. Scott's evidence asserts that they would +rather give to Mr. Hastings than lend to the Company. It is very +probable; but it is a demonstration of their opinion of his power and +corruption, and of the weak and precarious state of the Company's +authority.</p><p><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" title="259" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The second principle assumed by Mr. Hastings for his justification, +namely, that factious opposition and a divided government might create +exigencies requiring such supplies, is full as dangerous as the first; +for, if, in the divisions which must arise in all councils, one member +of government, when he thinks others factiously disposed, shall be +entitled to take money privately from the subject for the purposes of +his politics, and thereby to dispense with an act of Parliament, +pretences for that end cannot be wanting. A dispute may always be raised +in council in order to cover oppression and peculation elsewhere. But +these principles of Mr. Hastings tend entirely to destroy the character +and functions of a council, and to vest them in one of the dissentient +members. The law has placed the sense of the whole in the majority; and +it is not a thing to be suffered, that any of the members should +privately raise money for the avowed purpose of defeating that sense, or +for promoting designs that are contrary to it: a more alarming +assumption of power in an individual member of any deliberative or +executive body cannot be imagined. Mr. Hastings had no right, in order +to clear himself of peculation, to criminate the majority with faction. +No member of any body, outvoted on a question, has, or can have, a right +to direct any part of his public conduct by that principle. The members +of the Council had a common superior, to whom they might appeal in their +mutual charges of faction: they did so frequently; and the imputation of +faction has almost always been laid on Mr. Hastings himself.</p> + +<p>But there were periods, very distinguished periods too, in the records +of the Company, in which the clandestine taking of money could not be +supported <a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" title="260" class="pagenum"></a>even by this pretence. Mr. Hastings has been charged with +various acts of peculation, perpetrated at a time he could not excuse +himself by the plea of any public purpose to be carried on, or of any +faction in council by which it was traversed. It may be necessary here +to recall to the recollection of the House, that, on the cry which +prevailed of the ill practices of the Company's servants in India, +(which general cry in a great measure produced the Regulating Act of +1773,) the Court of Directors, in their instructions of the 29th of +March, 1774, gave it as an injunction to the Council-General, that "they +<i>immediately</i> cause the <i>strictest</i> inquiry to be made into <i>all</i> +oppressions which may have been committed either against natives or +Europeans, and into <i>all</i> abuses which may have prevailed in the +collection of the revenues or <i>any part of the civil government</i> of the +Presidency; and that you communicate to us <i>all information</i> which you +may be able to obtain relative thereto, or any embezzlement or +dissipation of the Company's money."</p> + +<p>In this inquiry, by far the most important abuse which appeared on any +of the above heads was that which was charged relative to the sale in +gross by Mr. Hastings of nothing less than the whole authority of the +country government in the disposal of the guardianship of the Nabob of +Bengal.</p> + +<p>The present Nabob, Mobarek ul Dowlah, was a minor when he succeeded to +the title and office of Subahdar of the three provinces in 1770. +Although in a state approaching to subjection, still his rank and +character were important. Much was necessarily to depend upon a person +who was to preserve the moderation of a sovereign not supported by +intrinsic power, and yet to maintain the dignity necessary to carry <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" title="261" class="pagenum"></a>on +the representation of political government, as well as the substance of +the whole criminal justice of a great country. A good education, +conformably to the maxims of his religion and the manners of his people, +was necessary to enable him to fill that delicate place with reputation +either to the Mahometan government or to ours. He had still to manage a +revenue not inconsiderable, which remained as the sole resource for the +languishing dignity of persons any way distinguished in rank among +Mussulmen, who were all attached and clung to him. These considerations +rendered it necessary to put his person and affairs into proper hands. +They ought to have been men who were able by the gravity of their rank +and character to preserve his morals from the contagion of low and +vicious company,—men who by their integrity and firmness might be +enabled to resist in some degree the rapacity of Europeans, as well as +to secure the remaining fragments of his property from the attempts of +the natives themselves, who must lie under strong temptation of taking +their share in the last pillage of a decaying house.</p> + +<p>The Directors were fully impressed with the necessity of such an +arrangement. Your Committee find, that, on the 26th of August, 1771, +they gave instructions to the President and Council to appoint "a +minister to transact the political affairs of the circar +[government],—and to select for that purpose some person well qualified +for the affairs of government to be the minister of the government, and +guardian of the Nabob's minority."</p> + +<p>The order was so distinct as not to admit of a mistake; it was (for its +matter) provident and well considered; and the trust which devolved on +Mr. Hast<a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" title="262" class="pagenum"></a>ings was of such a nature as might well stimulate a man +sensible to reputation to fulfil it in a manner agreeably to the +directions he had received, and not only above just cause of exception, +but out of the reach of suspicion and malice. In that situation it was +natural to suppose he would cast his eyes upon men of the first repute +and consideration among the Mussulmen of high rank.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, instead of directing his eyes to the durbar, employed his +researches in the seraglio. In the inmost recesses of that place he +discovered a woman secluded from the intercourse and shut up from the +eyes of men, whom he found to correspond with the orders he had received +from the Directors, as a person well "qualified for the affairs of +government, fit to be a minister of government and the guardian of the +Nabob's minority." This woman he solemnly invests with these functions. +He appoints Rajah Gourdas, whom some time after he himself qualified +with a description of a young man of mean abilities, to be her duan, or +steward of the household. The rest of the arrangement was correspondent +to this disposition of the principal offices.</p> + +<p>It seems not to have been lawful or warrantable in Mr. Hastings to set +aside the arrangement positively prescribed by the Court of Directors, +which evidently pointed to a man, not to any woman whatever. As a woman +confined in the female apartment, the lady he appointed could not be +competent to hold or qualified to exercise any active employment: she +stood in need of guardians for herself, and had not the ability for the +guardianship of a person circumstanced as the Subah was. General<a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" title="263" class="pagenum"></a> +Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis declare in their minute, +"that they believe there never was an instance in India of such a trust +so disposed of." Mr. Hastings has produced no precedent in answer to +this objection.</p> + +<p>It will be proper to state to the House the situation and circumstances +of the women principally concerned, who were in the seraglio of Jaffier +Ali Khân at his death. The first of these was called Munny Begum, a +person originally born of poor and obscure parents, who delivered her +over to the conductress of a company of dancing girls; in which +profession being called to exhibit at a festival, the late Nabob took a +liking to her, and, after some cohabitation, she obtained such influence +over him that he took her for one of his wives and (she seems to have +been the favorite) put her at the head of his harem; and having a son by +her, this son succeeded to his authority and estate,—Munny Begum, the +mother, being by his will a devisee of considerable sums of money, and +other effects, on which he left a charge, which has since been applied +to the service of the East India Company. The son of this lady dying, +and a son by another wife succeeding, and dying also, the present Nabob, +Mobarek ul Dowlah, son by a third wife, succeeded. This woman was then +alive, and in the seraglio.</p> + +<p>It was Munny Begum that Mr. Hastings chose, and not the natural mother +of the Nabob. Whether, having chosen a woman in defiance of the +Company's orders, and in passing by the natural parent of the minor +prince, he was influenced by respect for the disposition made by the +deceased Nabob during his life, or by other motives, the House will +deter<a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" title="264" class="pagenum"></a>mine upon a view of the facts which follow. It will be matter of +inquiry, when the question is stated upon the appointment of a +stepmother in exclusion of the parent, whether the usage of the East +constantly authorizes the continuance of that same distribution of rank +and power which was settled in the seraglio during the life of a +deceased prince, and which was found so settled at his death, and +afterwards, to the exclusion of the mother of the successor. In case of +female guardianship, her claim seems to be a right of Nature, and which +nothing but a very clear positive law will (if that can) authorize the +departure from. The history of Munny Begum is stated on the records of +the Council-General, and no attempt made by Mr. Hastings to controvert +the truth of it.</p> + +<p>That was charged by the majority of Council to have happened which might +be expected inevitably to happen: the care of the Nabob's education was +grossly neglected, and his fortune as grossly mismanaged and embezzled. +What connection this waste and embezzlement had with the subsequent +events the House will judge.</p> + +<p>On the 2d of May, 1775, Mr. James Grant, accountant to the Provincial +Council of Moorshedabad, produced to the Governor-General and Council +certain Persian papers which stated nine lacs of rupees (upwards of +ninety thousand pounds sterling) received by Munny Begum, on her +appointment to the management of the Nabob's household, over and above +the balance due at that time, and not accounted for by her. These Grant +had received from Nuned Roy, who had been a writer in the Begum's +Treasury Office. Both Mr. Grant and Nuned Roy <a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" title="265" class="pagenum"></a>were called before the +board, and examined respecting the authenticity of the papers. Among +other circumstances tending to establish the credit of these papers, it +appears that Mr. Grant offered to make oath that the chief eunuch of the +Begum had come to him on purpose to prevail on him not to send the +papers, and had declared <i>that the accounts were not to be disputed</i>.</p> + +<p>On the 9th of May it was resolved by a majority of the board, against +the opinion and solemn protest of the Governor-General, that a gentleman +should be sent up to the city of Moorshedabad to demand of Munny Begum +the accounts of the nizamut and household, from April, 1764, to the +latest period to which they could be closed, and to divest the Begum of +the office of guardian to the Nabob; and Mr. Charles Goring was +appointed for this purpose.</p> + +<p>The preceding facts are stated to the House, not as the foundation of an +inquiry into the conduct of the Begum, but as they lead to and are +therefore necessary to explain by what means a discovery was made of a +sum of money given by her to Mr. Hastings.</p> + +<p>Mr. Goring's first letter from the city, dated 17th May, 1775, mentions, +among other particulars, the young Nabob's joy at being delivered out of +the hands of Munny Begum, of the mean and indigent state of confinement +in which he was kept by her, of the distress of his mother, and that he +had told Mr. Goring that the "Begum's eunuch had instructed the servants +not to suffer him to learn anything by which he might make himself +acquainted with business": and he adds, "Indeed, I believe there is +great truth in it, as his Excellency seems to be ignorant of almost +everything a man of his rank ought to know,—not <a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" title="266" class="pagenum"></a>from a want of +understanding, but of being properly educated."</p> + +<p>On the 21st of May, Mr. Goring transmitted to the Governor-General and +Council an account of sums given by the Begum under her seal, delivered +to Mr. Goring by the Nabob in her apartments. The account is as follows.</p> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Memorandum of Disbursements to English Gentlemen, from the +Nabob's Sircar, in the Bengal Year 1179.</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='right' class="bbox" colspan="2">Seal of Munny Begum, Mother of the Nabob Nudjuf ul Dowlah, deceased.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>To the Governor, Mr. Hastings, for an entertainment</td><td align='right'>1,50,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>To Mr. Middleton, on account of an agreement entered into by Baboo Begum</td><td align='right'>1,50,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>Rupees</td><td class="bt" align='right'>3,00,000</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p>When this paper was delivered, the Governor-General moved that Mr. +Goring might be asked <i>how he came by it</i>, and <i>on what account this +partial selection was made by him</i>; also, that the Begum should be +desired <i>to explain the sum laid to his charge</i>, and that he should ask +<i>the Nabob or the Begum their reasons for delivering this separate +account</i>.</p> + +<p>The substance of the Governor's proposal was agreed to.</p> + +<p>Mr. Goring's answer to this requisition of the board is as follows.</p> + +<p>"In compliance with your orders to explain the delivery of the paper +containing an account of three lacs of rupees, I am to inform you, it +took its rise <a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" title="267" class="pagenum"></a>from a message sent me by the Begum, requesting I would +interest myself with the Nabob to have Akbar Ali Khân released to her +for a few hours, having something of importance to communicate to me, on +which she wished to consult him. Thinking the service might be benefited +by it, I accordingly desired the Nabob would be pleased to deliver him +to my charge, engaging to return him the same night,—which I did. I +heard no more till next day, when the Begum requested to see his +Excellency and myself, desiring Akbar Ali might attend.</p> + +<p>"On our first meeting, she entered into a long detail of her +administration, endeavoring to represent it in the fairest light; at +last she came to the point, and told me, my urgent and repeated +remonstrances to her to be informed how the balance arose of which I was +to inquire induced her from memory to say what she had herself +given,—then mentioning the sum of a lac and a half to the Governor to +feast him whilst he stayed there, and a lac and a half to Mr. Middleton +by the hands of Baboo Begum. As I looked on this no more than a matter +of conversation, I arose to depart, but was detained by the Begum's +requesting the Nabob to come to her. A scene of weeping and complaint +then began, which made me still more impatient to be gone, and I +repeatedly sent to his Excellency for that purpose: he at last came out +and delivered me the paper I sent you, declaring it was given him by the +Begum to be delivered me."</p> + +<p>Munny Begum also wrote a letter to General Clavering, in which she +directly asserts the same. "Mr. Goring has pressed me on the subject of +the balances; in answer to which I informed him, that all the +par<a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" title="268" class="pagenum"></a>ticulars, being on record, would in the course of the inquiry appear +from the papers. He accordingly received from the Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah a list of three lacs of rupees given to the Governor and Mr. +Middleton. I now send you inclosed a list of the dates when it was +presented, and through whose means, which you will receive."</p> + +<p>The Governor-General then desired that the following questions might be +proposed to the Begum by Mr. Martin, then Resident at the Durbar.</p> + +<p>1st. Was any application made to you for the account which you have +delivered, of three lacs of rupees said to have been paid to the +Governor and Mr. Middleton, or did you deliver the account of your own +free will, and unsolicited?</p> + +<p>2d. In what manner was the application made to you, and by whom?</p> + +<p>3d. On what account was the sum of one and half lacs given to the +Governor-General, which you have laid to his account? Was it in +consequence of any requisition from him, or of any previous agreement, +or of any established usage?</p> + +<p>The Governor-General objected strongly to Mr. Goring's being present +when the questions were put to the Begum; but it was insisted on by the +majority, and it was resolved accordingly, that he ought to be present. +The reasons on both sides will best appear by the copy of the debate, +inserted in the Appendix.</p> + +<p>The Begum's answer to the preceding questions, addressed to the +Governor-General and Council, where it touched the substance, was as +follows.</p> + +<p>"The case is this. Mr. Goring, on his arrival here, <i>seized all the +papers, and secured them under his seal; <a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" title="269" class="pagenum"></a>and all the mutsuddies [clerks +or accountants] attended him, and explained to him all the particulars +of them</i>. Mr. Goring inquired of me concerning the arrears due to the +sepoys, &c., observing, that the nizamut and bhela money [Nabob's +allowance] was received from the Company; from whence, then, could the +balance arise? I made answer, that the sum was not adequate to the +expenses. Mr. Goring then asked, What are those expenses which exceed +the sum received from the Company? I replied, <i>All the particulars will +be found in the papers</i>. The affair of the three lacs of rupees, <i>on +account of entertainment for the Governor and Mr. Middleton</i>, has been, +I am told, related to you by Rajah Gourdas; besides which there are many +other expenses, which will appear from the papers. As the custom of +entertainment is of long standing, and accordingly every Governor of +Calcutta who came to Moorshedabad received a daily sum of two thousand +rupees for entertainment, which, was in fact instead of provisions; and +the lac and an half of rupees laid to Mr. Middleton's charge was <i>a +present on account of an agreement entered into by the Bhow Begum</i>. I +therefore affixed my seal to the account, and forwarded it to Mr. Goring +by means of the Nabob."</p> + +<p>In this answer, the accounts given to Mr. Goring she asserts to be +genuine. They are explained, in all the particulars, by all the +secretaries and clerks in office. They are secured under Mr. Goring's +seal. To them she refers for everything; to them she refers for the +three lacs of rupees given to Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton. It is +impossible to combine together a clearer body of proof, composed of +record of office and verbal testimony mutually supporting and +illustrating each other.</p><p><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" title="270" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The House will observe that the receipt of the money is indirectly +admitted by one of the Governor's own questions to Munny Begum.</p> + +<p>If the money was not received, it would have been absurd to ask <i>on what +account it was given</i>. Both the question and the answer relate to some +established usage, the appeal to which might possibly be used to justify +the acceptance of the money, if it was accepted, but would be +superfluous, and no way applicable to the charge, if the money was never +given.</p> + +<p>On this point your Committee will only add, that, in all the controversy +between Mr. Hastings and the majority of the Council, he <i>nowhere denies +the receipt of this money</i>. In his letter to the Court of Directors of +the 31st of July, 1775, he says that the Begum was compelled by the ill +treatment of one of her servants, which he calls <i>a species of torture</i>, +to deliver the paper to Mr. Goring; but he nowhere affirms that the +contents of the paper were false.</p> + +<p>On this conduct the majority remark, "We confess it appears very +extraordinary that Mr. Hastings should employ so much time and labor to +show that the discoveries against him have been obtained by improper +means, but that he should take no step whatsoever <i>to invalidate the +truth of them</i>. He does not deny the receipt of the money: the Begum's +answers to the questions put to her at his own desire make it impossible +that he should deny it. It seems, he has formed some plan of defence +against this and similar charges, which he thinks will avail him in a +court of justice, and which it would be imprudent in him to anticipate +at this time. If he has not received the money, we see no reason for +such a guarded and cautious method of proceeding. An innocent man would +<a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" title="271" class="pagenum"></a>take a shorter and easier course. He would voluntarily exculpate +himself by his oath."</p> + +<p>Your Committee entertain doubts whether the refusal to exculpate by oath +can be used as a circumstance to infer any presumption of guilt. But +where the charge is direct, specific, circumstantial, supported by +papers and verbal testimony, made before his lawful superiors, to whom +he was accountable, by persons competent to charge, if innocent, he was +obliged at least to oppose to it a clear and formal denial of the fact, +and to make a demand for inquiry. But if he does not deny the fact, and +eludes inquiry, just presumptions will be raised against him.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, willing to go to the bottom of a mode of corruption deep +and dangerous in the act and the example, being informed that Mr. Goring +was in London, resolved to examine him upon the subject. Mr. Goring not +only agreed with all the foregoing particulars, but even produced to +your Committee what he declared to be the original Persian papers in his +hands, delivered from behind the curtain through the Nabob himself, who, +having privilege, as a son-in-law, to enter the women's apartment, +received them from Munny Begum as authentic,—the woman all the while +lamenting the loss of her power with many tears and much vociferation. +She appears to have been induced to make discovery of the above +practices in order to clear herself of the notorious embezzlement of the +Nabob's effects.</p> + +<p>Your Committee examining Mr. Scott and Mr. Baber on this subject, they +also produced a Persian paper, which Mr. Baber said he had received from +the hands of a servant of Munny Begum,—and along with it a paper +purporting to be a translation into<a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" title="272" class="pagenum"></a> English of the Persian original. In +the paper given as the translation, Munny Begum is made to allege many +matters of hardship and cruelty against Mr. Goring, and an attempt to +compel her to make out a false account, but does not at all deny the +giving the money: very far from it. She is made to assert, indeed, "that +Mr. Goring desired her to put down three lacs of rupees, as divided +between Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton. I begged to be excused, +observing to him that this money had neither been tendered or <i>accepted</i> +with any criminal or improper view." After some lively expressions in +the European manner, she says, "that it had been customary to furnish a +table for the Governor and his attendants, during their stay at court. +With respect to the sum mentioned to Mr. Middleton, it was a <i>free gift</i> +from my own <i>privy purse</i>. Purburam replied, he understood this money to +be paid to these gentlemen as a gratuity for <i>secret services</i>; and as +such he should assuredly represent it." Here the payments to Mr. +Hastings are fully admitted, and excused as agreeable to usage, and for +keeping a table. The present to Mr. Middleton is justified as a free +gift. The paper produced by Mr. Scott is not referred to by your +Committee as of any weight, but to show that it does not prove what it +is produced to prove.</p> + +<p>Your Committee, on reading the paper delivered in by Mr. Scott as a +translation, perceive it to be written in a style which they conceived +was little to be expected in a faithful translation from a Persian +original, being full of quaint terms and idiomatic phrases, which +strongly bespeak English habits in the way of thinking, and of English +peculiarities and affectations in the expression. Struck with these +strong <a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" title="273" class="pagenum"></a>internal marks of a suspicious piece, they turned to the Persian +manuscript produced by Mr. Scott and Mr. Baber, and comparing it with +Mr. Goring's papers, they found the latter carefully sealed upon every +leaf, as they believe is the practice universal in all authentic pieces. +They found on the former no seal or signature whatsoever, either at the +top or bottom of the scroll. This circumstance of a want of signature +not only takes away all authority from the piece as evidence, but +strongly confirmed the suspicions entertained by your Committee, on +reading the translation, of unwarrantable practices in the whole conduct +of this business, even if the translation should be found substantially +to agree with the original, such an original as it is. The Persian roll +is in the custody of the clerk of your Committee for further +examination.</p> + +<p>Mr. Baber and Mr. Scott, being examined on these material defects in the +authentication of a paper produced by them as authentic, could give no +sort of account how it happened to be without a signature; nor did Mr. +Baber explain how he came to accept and use it in that condition.</p> + +<p>On the whole, your Committee conceive that all the parts of the +transaction, as they appear in the Company's records, are consistent, +and mutually throw light on each other.</p> + +<p>The Court of Directors order the President and Council to appoint a +<i>minister</i> to transact the <i>political</i> affairs of the government, and to +<i>select</i> for that purpose some person well qualified for the <i>affairs of +government</i>, and to be the <i>minister of government</i>. Mr. Hastings +selects for the minister so described and so qualified a woman locked up +in a seraglio. He is or<a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" title="274" class="pagenum"></a>dered to appoint a guardian to the Nabob's +minority. Mr. Hastings passes by his natural parent, and appoints +another woman. These acts would of themselves have been liable to +suspicion. But a great deficiency or embezzlement soon appears in this +woman's account. To exculpate herself, she voluntarily declares that she +gave a considerable sum to Mr. Hastings, who never once denies the +receipt. The account given by the principal living witness of the +transaction in his evidence is perfectly coherent, and consistent with +the recorded part. The original accounts, alleged to be delivered by the +lady in question, were produced by him, properly sealed and +authenticated. Nothing is opposed to all this but a paper without +signature, and therefore of no authority, attended with a translation of +a very extraordinary appearance; and this paper, in apologizing for it, +confirms the facts beyond a doubt.</p> + +<p>Finally, your Committee examined the principal living witness of the +transaction, and find his evidence consistent with the record. Your +Committee received the original accounts, alleged to be delivered by the +lady in question, properly sealed and authenticated, and find opposed to +them nothing but a paper without signature, and therefore of no +authority, attended with a translation of a very extraordinary +appearance.</p> + +<p>In Europe the Directors ordered opinions to be taken on a prosecution: +they received one doubtful, and three positively for it.</p> + +<p>They write, in their letter of 5th February, 1777, paragraphs 32 and +33:—</p> + +<p>"Although it is rather our wish to prevent evils in future than to enter +into a severe retrospection of the <a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" title="275" class="pagenum"></a>past, and, where facts are doubtful, +or attended with alleviating circumstances, to proceed with lenity, +rather than to prosecute with rigor,—yet some of the cases are so +flagrantly corrupt, and others attended with circumstances so oppressive +to the inhabitants, that it would be unjust to suffer the delinquents to +go unpunished. The principal facts<a name="FNanchor_56_62" id="FNanchor_56_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_62" class="fnanchor" title=" Relative to salt farms, charges of the Ranny of Burdwan, +and the charges of Nundcomar and Munny Begum.">[56]</a> have been communicated to our +solicitor, whose report, confirmed by our standing counsel, we send you +by the present conveyance,—authorizing you, at the same time, to take +such steps as shall appear proper to be pursued.</p> + +<p>"If we find it necessary, we shall return you the original covenants of +such of our servants as remain in India, and have been anyways concerned +in the undue receipt of money, in order to enable you to recover the +same for the use of the Company by a suit or suits at law, to be +instituted in the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal."</p> + +<p>Your Committee do not find that the covenants have been sent, or that +any prosecution has been begun.</p> + +<p>A vast scene of further peculation and corruption, as well in this +business as in several other instances, appears in the evidence of the +Rajah Nundcomar. That evidence, and all the proceedings relating to it, +are entered in the Appendix. It was the last evidence of the kind. The +informant was hanged. An attempt was made by Mr. Hastings to indict him +for a conspiracy; this failing of effect, another prosecutor appeared +for an offence not connected with these charges. Nundcomar, the object +of that charge, was executed, at the very crisis of the inquiry, for an +<a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" title="276" class="pagenum"></a>offence of another nature, not capital by the laws of the country. As +long as it appeared safe, several charges were made (which are inserted +at large in the Appendix); and Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell seemed +apprehensive of many more. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. +Francis declared, in a minute entered on the Consultations of the 5th +May, 1775, that, "in the late proceedings of the Revenue Board, it will +appear that there is no species of peculation from which the Honorable +Governor-General has thought proper to abstain." A charge of offences of +so heinous a nature, so very extensive, so very deliberate, made on +record by persons of great weight, appointed by act of Parliament his +associates in the highest trust,—a charge made at his own board, to his +own face, and transmitted to their common superiors, to whom they were +jointly and severally accountable, this was not a thing to be passed +over by Mr. Hastings; still less ought it to have perished in other +hands. It ought to have been brought to an immediate and strict +discussion. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis ought to +have been punished for a groundless accusation, if such it had been. If +the accusation were founded, Mr. Hastings was very unfit for the high +office of Governor-General, or for any office.</p> + +<p>After this comprehensive account by his colleagues of the +Governor-General's conduct, these gentlemen proceeded to the +particulars, and they produced the case of a corrupt bargain of Mr. +Hastings concerning the disposition of office. This transaction is here +stated by your Committee in a very concise manner, being on this +occasion merely intended to point out to the House the absolute +necessity which, in their <a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" title="277" class="pagenum"></a>opinion, exists for another sort of inquiry +into the corruptions of men in power in India than hitherto has been +pursued. The proceedings may be found at large in the Appendix.</p> + +<p>A complaint was made that Mr. Hastings had sold the office of Phousdar +of Hoogly to a person called Khân Jehan Khân on a corrupt agreement,—which +was, that from his emoluments of seventy-two thousand rupees a +year he was to pay to the Governor-General thirty-six thousand rupees +annually, and to his banian, Cantoo Baboo, four thousand more. The +complainant offers to pay to the Company the forty thousand rupees which +were corruptly paid to these gentlemen, and to content himself with the +allowance of thirty-two thousand. Mr. Hastings was, if on any occasion +of his life, strongly called upon to bring this matter to the most +distinct issue; and Mr. Barwell, who supported his administration, and +as such ought to have been tender for his honor, was bound to help him +to get to the bottom of it, if his enemies should be ungenerous enough +to countenance such an accusation, without permitting it to be detected +and exposed. But the course they held was directly contrary. They began +by an objection to receive the complaint, in which they obstinately +persevered as far as their power went. Mr. Barwell was of opinion that +the Company's instructions to inquire into peculation were intended for +the public interests,—that it could not forward the public interests to +enter into these inquiries,—and that "he never would be a channel of +aspersing any character, while it cannot conduce to the good of +government." Here was a new mode of reasoning found out by Mr. Barwell, +which might subject all inquiry into peculation <a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" title="278" class="pagenum"></a>to the discretion of +the very persons charged with it. By that reasoning all orders of his +superiors were at his mercy; and he actually undertook to set aside +those commands which by an express act of Parliament he was bound to +obey, on his opinion of what would or would not conduce to the good of +government. On his principles, he either totally annihilates the +authority of the act of Parliament, or he entertains so extravagant a +supposition as that the Court of Directors possessed a more absolute +authority, when their orders were not intended for the public good, than +when they were.</p> + +<p>General Clavering was of a different opinion. He thought "he should be +wanting to the legislature, and to the Court of Directors, if he was not +to receive the complaints of the inhabitants, when properly +authenticated, and to prefer them to the board for investigation, as the +only means by which these grievances can be redressed, and the Company +informed of the conduct of their servants."</p> + +<p>To these sentiments Colonel Monson and Mr. Francis adhered. Mr. Hastings +thought it more safe, on principles similar to those assumed by Mr. +Barwell, to refuse to hear the charge; but he reserved his remarks on +this transaction, because they will be equally applicable to <i>many +others which in the course of this business are likely to be brought +before the board</i>. There appeared, therefore, to him a probability that +the charge about the corrupt bargain was no more than the commencement +of a whole class of such accusations; since he was of opinion (and what +is very extraordinary, previous to any examination) that the same +remarks would be applicable to several of those which were to follow. He +must suppose this class of charges very uniform, as well as very +extensive.</p><p><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279" title="279" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The majority, however, pressed their point; and notwithstanding his +opposition to all inquiry, as he was supported only by Mr. Barwell, the +question for it was carried. He was then desired to name a day for the +appearance of the accuser, and the institution of the inquiry. Though +baffled in his attempt to stop the inquiry in the first stage, Mr. +Hastings made a second stand. He seems here to have recollected +something inherent in his own office, that put the matter more in his +power than at first he had imagined; for he speaks in a positive and +commanding tone: "I will not," says his minute, "name a day for Mir Zin +ul ab Dien to appear before the board; <i>nor will I suffer him to appear +before the board</i>."</p> + +<p>The question for the inquiry had been carried; it was declared fit to +inquire; but there was, according to him, a power which might prevent +the appearance of witnesses. On the general policy of obstructing such +inquiries, Mr. Francis, on a motion to that effect, made a sound remark, +which cannot fail of giving rise to very serious thoughts: "That, +supposing it agreed among ourselves that the board shall not hear any +charges or complaints against a member of it, a case or cases may +hereafter happen, in which, by a reciprocal complaisance to each other, +our respective misconduct may be effectually screened from inquiry; and +the Company, whose interest is concerned, or the parties who may have +reason to complain of any one member individually, may be left without +remedy."</p> + +<p>Mr. Barwell was not of the opinion of that gentleman, nor of the maker +of the motion, General Clavering, nor of Mr. Monson, who supported it. +He entertains sentiments with regard to the orders of <a name="Page_280" id="Page_280" title="280" class="pagenum"></a>the Directors in +this particular perfectly correspondent with those which he had given +against the original inquiry. He says, "Though it may in some little +degree save the Governor-General from personal insult, where there is no +judicial power lodged, that of inquisition can never answer any good +purpose." This is doctrine of a most extraordinary nature and tendency, +and, as your Committee conceive, contrary to every sound principle to be +observed in the constitution of judicatures and inquisitions. The power +of inquisition ought rather to be wholly separated from the judicial, +the former being a previous step to the latter, which requires other +rules and methods, and ought not, if possible, to be lodged in the same +hands. The rest of his minute (contained in the Appendix) is filled with +a censure on the native inhabitants, with reflections on the ill +consequences which would arise from an attention to their complaints, +and with an assertion of the authority of the Supreme Court, as +superseding the necessity and propriety of such inquiries in Council. +With regard to his principles relative to the natives and their +complaints, if they are admitted, they are of a tendency to cut off the +very principle of redress. The existence of the Supreme Court, as a +means of relief to the natives under all oppressions, is held out to +qualify a refusal to hear in the Council. On the same pretence, Mr. +Hastings holds up the authority of the same tribunal. But this and other +proceedings show abundantly of what efficacy that court has been for the +relief of the unhappy people of Bengal. A person in delegated authority +refuses a satisfaction to his superiors, throwing himself on a court of +justice, and supposes that nothing but what judicially appears against +him <a name="Page_281" id="Page_281" title="281" class="pagenum"></a>is a fit subject of inquiry. But even in this Mr. Hastings fails in +his application of his principle; for the majority of the Council were +undoubtedly competent to order a prosecution against him in the Supreme +Court, which they had no ground for without a previous inquiry. But +their inquiry had other objects. No private accuser might choose to +appear. The party who was the subject of the peculation might be (as +here is stated) the accomplice in it. No popular action or popular suit +was provided by the charter under whose authority the court was +instituted. In any event, a suit might fail in the court for the +punishment of an actor in an abuse for want of the strictest legal +proof, which might yet furnish matter for the correction of the abuse, +and even reasons strong enough not only to justify, but to require, the +Directors instantly to address for the removal of a +Governor-General.—The opposition of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell proved +as ineffectual in this stage as the former; and a day was named by the +majority for the attendance of the party.</p> + +<p>The day following this deliberation, on the assembling of the Council, +the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, said, "he would not sit to be +confronted by such accusers, nor to <i>suffer</i> a judicial inquiry into his +conduct at the board of which he is the president." As on the former +occasions, he declares the board dissolved. As on the former occasions, +the majority did not admit his claim to this power; they proceeded in +his absence to examine the accuser and witnesses. Their proceedings are +in Appendix K.</p> + +<p>It is remarkable, that, during this transaction, Khân Jehan Khân, the +party with whom the corrupt agreement was made, declined an attendance +under ex<a name="Page_282" id="Page_282" title="282" class="pagenum"></a>cuses which the majority thought pretences for delay, though +they used no compulsory methods towards his appearance. At length, +however, he did appear, and then a step was taken by Mr. Hastings of a +very extraordinary nature, after the steps which he had taken before, +and the declarations with which those steps had been accompanied. Mr. +Hastings, who had absolutely refused to be present in the foregoing part +of the proceeding, appeared with Khân Jehan Khân. And now the affair +took another turn; other obstructions were raised. General Clavering +said that the informations hitherto taken had proceeded upon oath. Khân +Jehan Khân had previously declared to General Clavering his readiness to +be so examined; but when called upon by the board, he changed his mind, +and alleged a delicacy, relative to his rank, with regard to the oath. +In this scruple he was strongly supported by Mr. Hastings. He and Mr. +Barwell went further: they contended that the Council had no right to +administer an oath. They must have been very clear in that opinion, when +they resisted the examination on oath of the very person who, if he +could safely swear to Mr. Hastings's innocence, owed it as a debt to his +patron not to refuse it; and of the payment of this debt it was +extraordinary in the patron not only to enforce, but to support, the +absolute refusal.</p> + +<p>Although the majority did not acquiesce in this doctrine, they appeared +to have doubts of the prudence of enforcing it by violent means; but, +construing his refusal into a disposition to screen the peculations of +the Governor-General, they treated him as guilty of a contempt of their +board, dismissed him from the service, and recommended another (not the +accuser) to his office.</p><p><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283" title="283" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The reasons on both sides appear in the Appendix. Mr. Hastings accuses +them bitterly of injustice to himself in considering the refusal of this +person to swear as a charge proved. How far they did so, and under what +qualifications, will appear by reference to the papers in the Appendix. +But Mr. Hastings "thanks God that they are not his judges." His great +hold, and not without reason, is the Supreme Court; and he "blesses the +wisdom of Parliament, that constituted a court of judicature at so +seasonable a time, to check the despotism of the new Council." It was +thought in England that the court had other objects than the protection +of the Governor-General against the examinations of those sent out with +instructions to inquire into the peculations of men in power.</p> + +<p>Though Mr. Hastings did at that time, and avowedly did, everything to +prevent any inquiry that was instituted merely for the information of +the Court of Directors, yet he did not feel himself thoroughly satisfied +with his own proceedings. It was evident that to them his and Mr. +Barwell's reasonings would not appear very respectful or satisfactory; +he therefore promises to give them full satisfaction at some future +time. In his letter of the 14th of September, 1775, he reiterates a +former declaration, and assures them of his resolution to this purpose +in the strongest terms. "I now <i>again</i> recur to the declaration which I +have before made, that it is my fixed determination to carry <i>literally</i> +into execution, and <i>most fully and liberally explain every circumstance +of my conduct on the points upon which I have been injuriously +arraigned</i>,—and to afford you the clearest conviction of my own +integrity, and of the propriety of my motives for my declining a present +defence of it."</p><p><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284" title="284" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>These motives, as far as they can be discovered, were the violence of +his adversaries, the interested character and views of the accuser, and +the danger of a prosecution in the Supreme Court, which made it prudent +to reserve his defence. These arguments are applicable to any charge. +Notwithstanding these reasons, it is plain by the above letter that he +thought himself bound at some time or other to give satisfaction to his +masters: till he should do this, in his own opinion, he remained in an +unpleasant situation. But he bore his misfortune, it seems, patiently, +with a confidence in their justice for his future relief. He says, +"Whatever evil may fill the <i>long interval</i> which may precede it." That +interval he has taken care to make long enough; for near eight years are +now elapsed, and he has not yet taken the smallest step towards giving +to the Court of Directors any explanation whatever, much less that full +and liberal explanation which he had so repeatedly and solemnly +promised.</p> + +<p>It is to be observed, that, though Mr. Hastings talks in these letters +much of his integrity, and of the purity of his motives, and of full +explanations, he nowhere denies the fact of this corrupt traffic of +office. Though he had adjourned his defence, with so much pain to +himself, to so very long a day, he was not so inattentive to the ease of +Khân Jehan Khân as he has shown himself to his own. He had been accused +of corruptly reserving to himself a part of the emoluments of this man's +office; it was a delicate business to handle, whilst his defence stood +adjourned; yet, in a very short time after a majority came into his +hands, he turned out the person appointed by General Clavering, &c., and +replaced the very man with whom he stood accused of the corrupt bargain; +<a name="Page_285" id="Page_285" title="285" class="pagenum"></a>what was worse, he had been charged with originally turning out +another, to make room for this man. The whole is put in strong terms by +the then majority of the Council, where, after charging him with every +species of peculation, they add, "We believe the proofs of his +appropriating four parts in seven of the salary with which the Company +is charged for the Phousdar of Hoogly are such as, whether sufficient or +not to convict him in a court of justice, will not leave the shadow of a +doubt concerning his guilt in the mind of any unprejudiced person. The +salary is seventy-two thousand rupees a year; the Governor takes +thirty-six thousand, and allows Cantoo Baboo four thousand more for the +trouble he submits to in conducting the negotiation with the Phousdar. +This also is the common subject of conversation and derision through the +whole settlement. It is our firm opinion and belief, that the late +Phousdar of Hoogly, a relation of Mahomed Reza Khân, was turned out of +this office merely because his terms were not so favorable as those +which the Honorable Governor-General has obtained from the present +Phousdar. The Honorable Governor-General is pleased to assert, with a +confidential spirit peculiar to himself, that his measures hitherto +stand unimpeached, except by us. We know not how this assertion is to be +made good, unless <i>the most daring and flagrant prostitution in every +branch</i> be deemed an honor to his administration."</p> + +<p>The whole style and tenor of these accusations, as well as the nature of +them, rendered Mr. Hastings's first postponing, and afterwards totally +declining, all denial, or even defence or explanation, very +extraordinary. No Governor ought to hear in silence such <a name="Page_286" id="Page_286" title="286" class="pagenum"></a>charges; and +no Court of Directors ought to have slept upon them.</p> + +<p>The Court of Directors were not wholly inattentive to this business. +They condemned his act as it deserved, and they went into the business +of his legal right to dissolve the Council. Their opinions seemed +against it, and they gave precise orders against the use of any such +power in future. On consulting Mr. Sayer, the Company's counsel, he was +of a different opinion with regard to the legal right; but he thought, +very properly, that the use of a right, and the manner and purposes for +which it was used, ought not to have been separated. What he thought on +this occasion appears in his opinion transmitted by the Court of +Directors to Mr. Hastings and the Council-General. "But it was as great +a <i>crime</i> to dissolve the Council upon <i>base and sinister motives</i> as it +would be to assume the power of dissolving, if he had it not. I believe +he is <i>the first governor that ever</i> dissolved a council inquiring into +his behavior, when he was innocent. Before he could summon three +councils and dissolve them, he had time fully to consider what would be +the result of such conduct, <i>to convince everybody, beyond a doubt, of +his conscious guilt</i>."</p> + +<p>It was a matter but of small consolation to Mr. Hastings, during the +painful interval he describes, to find that the Company's learned +counsel admitted that he had legal powers of which he made an use that +raised an universal presumption of his guilt.</p> + +<p>Other counsel did not think so favorably of the powers themselves. But +this matter was of less consequence, because a great difference of +opinion may arise concerning the extent of official powers, even among +men professionally educated, (as in this case <a name="Page_287" id="Page_287" title="287" class="pagenum"></a>such a difference did +arise,) and well-intentioned men may take either part. But the use that +was made of it, in systematical contradiction to the Company's orders, +has been stated in the Ninth Report, as well as in many of the others +made by two of your committees.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_20" id="Footnote_14_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_20"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_1">No. 1</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_21" id="Footnote_15_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_21"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Vide Supplement to the Second Report, page 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_22" id="Footnote_16_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_22"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Appendix. B. <a href="#B_No_2">No. 2</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_23" id="Footnote_17_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_23"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_1">No. 1</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_24" id="Footnote_18_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_24"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_7">No. 7</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_25" id="Footnote_19_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_25"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_3">No. 3</a> and <a href="#B_No_5">No. 5</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_26" id="Footnote_20_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_26"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_6">No 6</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_27" id="Footnote_21_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_27"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Vide Larkins's Affidavit, Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_5">No. 5</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_28" id="Footnote_22_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_28"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_1">No. 1</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_29" id="Footnote_23_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_29"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_1">No. 1</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_30" id="Footnote_24_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_30"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <a href="#B_No_1">Ibid.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_31" id="Footnote_25_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_31"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Ibid., <a href="#B_No_8">No. 8</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_32" id="Footnote_26_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_32"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Ibid., <a href="#B_No_1">No. 1</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_33" id="Footnote_27_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_33"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Ibid., <a href="#B_No_4">No. 4</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_34" id="Footnote_28_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_34"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_8">No. 8</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_35" id="Footnote_29_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_35"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <a href="#B_No_8">Ibid.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_36" id="Footnote_30_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_36"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Ibid., <a href="#B_No_9">No. 9</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_37" id="Footnote_31_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_37"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_1">No. 1</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_38" id="Footnote_32_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_38"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <a href="#B_No_1">Ibid.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_39" id="Footnote_33_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_39"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Ibid., <a href="#B_No_8">No. 8</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_40" id="Footnote_34_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_40"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_4">No. 4</a>: The Governor-General's Account of +Moneys received, dated 22d May, 1782. Also, Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_9">No. 9</a>: The +Auditor's Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_41" id="Footnote_35_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_41"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_4">No. 4</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_42" id="Footnote_36_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_42"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Vide Mr. Hastings's Account, in Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_4">No. 4</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_43" id="Footnote_37_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_43"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Vide Hastings's Account, dated 22d May, 1782, in Appendix +B. <a href="#B_No_4">No. 4</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_44" id="Footnote_38_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_44"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Vide <a href="#B_No_4">above Appendix</a>, and B. <a href="#B_No_2">No. 2</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_45" id="Footnote_39_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_45"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Vide <a href="#B_No_2">above Appendix</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_46" id="Footnote_40_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_46"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_4">No. 4</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_47" id="Footnote_41_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_47"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_6">No. 6</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_48" id="Footnote_42_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_48"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Ibid., <a href="#B_No_7">No. 7</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_49" id="Footnote_43_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_49"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_6">No. 6</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_50" id="Footnote_44_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_50"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <a href="#B_No_6">Ibid.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_51" id="Footnote_45_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_51"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Act 13 Geo. III. cap 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_52" id="Footnote_46_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_52"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Vide Mr. Hastings's Letter of 16 December, 1782, in +Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_6">No. 6</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_53" id="Footnote_47_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_53"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_6">No. 6</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_54" id="Footnote_48_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_54"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_3">No. 3</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_55" id="Footnote_49_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_55"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <a href="#B_No_3">Ibid.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_56" id="Footnote_50_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_56"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <a href="#B_No_3">Ibid.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_57" id="Footnote_51_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_57"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_3">No. 3</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_58" id="Footnote_52_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_58"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_3">No. 3</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_59" id="Footnote_53_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_59"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <a href="#B_No_3">Ibid.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_60" id="Footnote_54_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_60"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Ibid., <a href="#B_No_6">No. 6</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_61" id="Footnote_55_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_61"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Vide Appendix B. <a href="#B_No_6">No. 6</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_62" id="Footnote_56_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_62"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Relative to salt farms, charges of the Ranny of Burdwan, +and the charges of Nundcomar and Munny Begum.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288" title="288" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX.</h2> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_1" id="B_No_1"></a>B. No. 1.<a name="FNanchor_57_63" id="FNanchor_57_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_63" class="fnanchor" title=" As the Appendixes originally printed with the foregoing +Reports, and which consist chiefly of official documents, would have +swelled this volume to an enormous size, it has been thought proper to +omit them, with the exception of the first nine numbers of the Appendix +B. to the Eleventh Report, the insertion of which has been judged +necessary for the elucidation of the subject-matter of that Report.">[57]</a></h3> + +<p class="center"><i>Copy of a Letter from the Governor-General to the Court of Directors</i>.</p> + +<p class="center">To the Honorable the Court of Directors of the Honorable United East +India Company.</p> + +<p class="quotdate">FORT WILLIAM, 29th November, 1780.</p> + +<p>HONORABLE SIRS,—</p> + +<p>You will be informed by our Consultations of the 26th of June of a very +unusual tender which was made by me to the board on that day, for the +purpose of indemnifying the Company for the extraordinary expense which +might be incurred by supplying the detachment under the command of Major +Camac in the invasion of the Mahratta dominions, which lay beyond the +district of Gohud, and drawing the attention of Mahdajee Sindia, to whom +that country immediately appertained, from General Goddard, while his +was employed in the reduction of Bassein, and in securing the conquests +made by your arms in Guzerat. I was desirous to remove the only +objection which has been or could be ostensibly made to the <a name="Page_289" id="Page_289" title="289" class="pagenum"></a>measure, +which I had very much at heart, as may be easily conceived from the +means which I took to effect it. For the reasons at large which induced +me to propose that diversion, it will be sufficient to refer to my +minute recommending it, and to the letters received from General Goddard +near the same period of time. The subject is now become obsolete, and +all the fair hopes which I had built upon the prosecution of the +Mahratta war, of its termination in a speedy, honorable, and +advantageous peace, have been blasted by the dreadful calamities which +have befallen your arms in the dependencies of your Presidency of Fort +St. George, and changed the object of our pursuit from the +aggrandizement of your power to its preservation. My present reason for +reverting to my own conduct on the occasion which I have mentioned is to +obviate the false conclusions or purposed misrepresentations which may +be made of it, either as an artifice of ostentation or as the effect of +corrupt influence, by assuring you that the money, <i>by whatever means it +came into your possession</i>, was not my own,—that I had myself no right +to it, nor would or could have received it, but for the occasion which +prompted me to avail myself of the accidental means which were at that +instant afforded me of accepting and converting it to the property and +use of the Company; and with this brief apology I shall dismiss the +subject.</p> + +<p>Something of affinity to this anecdote may appear in the first aspect of +<i>another</i> transaction, which I shall proceed to relate, and of which it +is more immediately my duty to inform you.</p> + +<p>You will have been advised, by repeated addresses of this government, of +the arrival of an army at Cut<a name="Page_290" id="Page_290" title="290" class="pagenum"></a>tack, under the command of Chimnajee +Boosla, the second son of Moodajee Boosla, the Rajah of Berar. The +origin and destination of this force have been largely explained and +detailed in the correspondence of the government of Berar, and in +various parts of our Consultations. The minute relation of these would +exceed the bounds of a letter; I shall therefore confine myself to the +principal fact.</p> + +<p>About the middle of the last year, a plan of confederacy was formed by +the Nabob Nizam Ali Khân, by which it was proposed, that, while the army +of the Mahrattas, under the command of Mahdajee Sindia and Tuckoojee +Hoolkar, was employed to check the operations of General Goddard in the +West of India, Hyder Ali Khân should invade the Carnatic, Moodajee +Boosla the provinces of Bengal, and he himself the Circars of Rajamundry +and Chicacole.</p> + +<p>The government of Berar was required to accept the part assigned it in +this combination, and to march a large body of troops immediately into +Bengal. To enforce the request on the part of the ruling member of the +Mahratta state, menaces of instant hostility by the combined forces were +added by Mahdajee Sindia, Tuckoojee Hoolkar, and Nizam Ali Khân, in +letters written by them to Moodajee Boosla on the occasion. He was not +in a state to sustain the brunt of so formidable a league, and +ostensibly yielded. Such at least was the turn which he gave to his +acquiescence, in his letters to me; and his subsequent conduct has +justified his professions. I was early and progressively acquainted by +him with the requisition, and with the measures which were intended to +be taken, and which were taken, by him upon it. The army professedly +destined for Ben<a name="Page_291" id="Page_291" title="291" class="pagenum"></a>gal marched on the Dusserra of the last year, +corresponding with the 7th of October. Instead of taking the direct +course to Bahar, which had been prescribed, it proceeded by varied +deviations and studied delays to Cuttack, where it arrived late in May +last, having performed a practicable journey of three mouths in seven, +and concluded it at the instant commencement of the rains, which of +course would preclude its operations, and afford the government of Berar +a further interval of five months to provide for the part which it would +then be compelled to choose.</p> + +<p>In the mean time letters were continually written by the Rajah and his +minister to this government, explanatory of their situation and motives, +proposing their mediation and guaranty for a peace and alliance with the +Peshwa, and professing, without solicitation on our part, the most +friendly disposition towards us, and the most determined resolution to +maintain it. Conformably to these assurances, and the acceptance of a +proposal made by Moodajee Boosla to depute his minister to Bengal for +the purpose of negotiating and concluding the proposed treaty of peace, +application had been made to the Peshwa for credentials to the same +effect.</p> + +<p>In the mean time the fatal news arrived of the defeat of your army at +Conjeveram. It now became necessary that every other object should give +place or be made subservient to the preservation of the Carnatic; nor +would the measures requisite for that end admit an instant of delay. +Peace with the Mahrattas was the first object; to conciliate their +alliance, and that of every other power in natural enmity with Hyder +Ali, the next. Instant measures were taken (as our general advices will +inform you) to se<a name="Page_292" id="Page_292" title="292" class="pagenum"></a>cure both these points, and to employ the government +of Berar as the channel and instrument of accomplishing them. Its army +still lay on our borders, and in distress for a long arrear of pay, not +less occasioned by the want of pecuniary funds than a stoppage of +communication. An application had been made to us for a supply of money; +and the sum specified for the complete relief of the army was sixteen +lacs. We had neither money to spare, nor, in the apparent state of that +government in its relation to ours, would it have been either prudent or +consistent with our public credit to have afforded it. It was +nevertheless my decided opinion that some aid should be given,—not less +as a necessary relief than as an indication of confidence, and a return +for the many instances of substantial kindness which we had within the +course of the last two years experienced from the government of Berar. I +had an assurance that such a proposal would receive the acquiescence of +the board; but I knew that it would not pass without opposition, and it +would have become public, which might have defeated its purpose. +Convinced of the necessity of the expedient, and assured of the +sincerity of the government of Berar, from evidences of stronger proof +to me than I could make them appear to the other members of the board, I +resolved to adopt it, and take the entire responsibility of it upon +myself. In this mode a less considerable sum would suffice. I +accordingly caused three lacs of rupees to be delivered to the minister +of the Rajah of Berar, resident in Calcutta: he has transmitted it to +Cuttack. Two thirds of this sum I have raised by my own credit, and +shall charge it in my official accounts; the other third I have supplied +from the cash in my <a name="Page_293" id="Page_293" title="293" class="pagenum"></a>hands belonging to the Honorable Company. I have +given due notice to Moodajee Boosla of this transaction, and explained +it to have been a private act of my own, unknown to the other members of +the Council. I have given him expectations of the remainder of the +amount required for the arrears of his army, proportioned to the extent +to which he may put it in my power to propose it as a public gratuity by +his effectual orders for the recall of these troops, or for their +junction with ours.</p> + +<p>I hope I shall receive your approbation of what I have done for your +service, and your indulgence for the length of this narrative, which I +could not comprise within a narrower compass.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Your most faithful, obedient,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">and humble servant,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">WARREN HASTINGS.<br /></span> +</p><p><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294" title="294" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_2" id="B_No_2"></a>B. No. 2.</h3> + +<h3><i>An Account of Money paid into the Company's Treasury by the +Governor-General, since the Year 1773.</i></h3> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='right'>May</td><td></td><td align='right'>April</td><td align='right' colspan='3'></td><td align='right' class="br">CRs.</td><td align='right'>CRs.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>1774</td><td align='right'>to</td><td align='right'>1775.</td><td align='left' colspan='3'>For interest bonds</td><td align='right' class="br">2,175<a name="FNanchor_58_64" id="FNanchor_58_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_64" class="fnanchor" title="{Received 19th May, +{Cancelled 30th July, 1774.">[58]</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align='left' colspan='3'>For bills of exchange on the Court</td><td align='right' class="br">1,43,937</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align='left' colspan='3'>For money refunded by order of Court, account General Coote's commission</td><td align='right' class="br bb">8,418</td><td align='right'>1,54,530</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>1775</td><td align='right'>-</td><td align='right'>1776.</td><td align='left' colspan='4' class="br">For bills of exchange on the Court</td><td align='right'>1,80,480</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>1776</td><td align='right'>-</td><td align='right'>1777.</td><td align='left'>Do.</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td class="br"></td><td align='right'>1,96,800</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>1777</td><td align='right'>-</td><td align='right'>1778.</td><td align='left'>Do.</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td class="br"></td><td align='right'>1,08,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>1778</td><td align='right'>-</td><td align='right'>1779.</td><td align='left'>Do.</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td class="br"></td><td align='right'>1,43,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>1779</td><td align='right'>-</td><td align='right'>1780.</td><td align='left'>Do.</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td class="br"></td><td align='right'>1,21,600</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>1780</td><td align='right'>-</td><td align='right'>1781.</td><td align='left' colspan='3'>For bills of exchange</td><td align='right' class="br">43,000</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align='left' colspan='3'>For deposits</td><td align='right' class="br">2,38,715</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align='left' colspan='3'>For interest bonds, at 8 per cent</td><td align='right' class="br">4,75,600</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align='left'>For</td><td align='left'>do.</td><td align='left'>4 per cent</td><td align='right' class="br">1,66,000</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td align='left' colspan='3'>For Durbar charges</td><td align='right' class="br bb">2,32,000</td><td align='right'>11,55,315</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='3'>May, 1782.</td><td align='left' colspan='4' class="br">For interest bonds</td><td align='right' class="bb">35,000</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td colspan='4'></td><td class='br'></td><td align='right'>20,94,725</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p class='center'>(Errors excepted.)</p> + + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">JOHN ANNIS,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><i>Auditor of Indian Accounts.</i><br /></span> +EAST INDIA HOUSE, 11th June, 1783.<br /> +</p><p><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295" title="295" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_3" id="B_No_3"></a>B. No. 3.</h3> + +<p class="center">To the Honorable the Secret Committee of the Honorable Court of +Directors.</p> + +<p class="quotdate">FORT WILLIAM, 22d May, 1782.</p> + +<p>HONORABLE SIRS,—</p> + +<p>In a letter which I have had the honor to address you in duplicate, and +of which a triplicate accompanies this, dated 20th January, 1782, I +informed you that I had received the offer of a sum of money from the +Nabob Vizier and his ministers to the nominal amount of ten lacs of +Lucknow siccas, and that bills on the house of Gopaul Doss had been +actually given me for the amount, which I had accepted for the use of +the Honorable Company; and I promised to account with you for the same +as soon as it should be in my power, after the whole sum had come into +my possession. This promise I now perform; and deeming it consistent +with the spirit of it, I have added such <i>other</i> sums as have been +occasionally converted to the Company's property through my means, and +in consequence of the like original destination. Of the second of these +you have been already advised in a letter which I had the honor to +address the Honorable Court of Directors, dated 29th November, 1780. +Both this and the third article were paid immediately to the Treasury, +by my order to the sub-treasurer to receive them on the Company's +account, but never passed through my hands. The three sums for which +bonds were granted were in like manner paid to the Company's Treasury +without passing through my hands; but their appropriation was not +specified. The sum of 58,000 current ru<a name="Page_296" id="Page_296" title="296" class="pagenum"></a>pees was received while I was on +my journey to Benares, and applied as expressed in the account.</p> + +<p>As to the manner in which these sums have been expended, the reference +which I have made of it, in the accompanying account, to the several +accounts in which they are credited, renders any other specification of +it unnecessary; besides that those accounts either have or will have +received a much stronger authentication than any that I could give to +mine.</p> + +<p>Why these sums were taken by me,—why they were, except the second, +quietly transferred to the Company's use,—why bonds were taken for the +first, and not for the rest,—might, were this matter to be exposed to +the view of the public, furnish a variety of conjectures, to which it +would be of little use to reply. Were your Honorable Court to question +me upon these points, I would answer, that the sums were taken for the +Company's benefit at times in which the Company very much needed +them,—that I either chose to conceal the first receipts from public +curiosity by receiving bonds for the amount, or possibly acted without +any studied design which my memory could at this distance of time +verify, and that I did not think it worth my care to observe the same +means with the rest. I trust, Honorable Sirs, to your breasts for a +candid interpretation of my actions, and assume the freedom to add, that +I think myself, on such a subject, and on such an occasion, entitled to +it.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Your most faithful, most obedient,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">and most humble servant,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">WARREN HASTINGS.<br /></span> +</p><p><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297" title="297" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_4" id="B_No_4"></a>B. No. 4.</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>An Account of Sums received on the Account of the Honorable Company of +the Governor-General, or paid to their Treasury by his Order, and +applied to their Service.</i></p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class="br">1780.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class="br">October.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class="br">The following sums were paid into +the Treasury, and bonds granted for the same, +in the name of the Governor General, in +whose possession the bonds remain, with a +declaration upon each indorsed and signed by +him, that he has no claim on the Company for +the amount either of principal or interest, no +part of the latter having been received:</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One bond, dated the 1st October, +1780, No. 1539</td><td align='right' class="br">1,16,000 0 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One bond, dated the 2d October, +1780, No. 1540</td><td align='right' class="br">1,16,000 0 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One bond, dated the 23d November, +1780, No. 1354</td><td align='right' class="br bb">1,74,000 0 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class="br"></td><td align='right'>4,06,000 0 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class="br">November.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class="br">Paid into the Treasury, and carried +to the Governor General's credit in the +12th page of the Deposits Journal of 1780-81, +mohurs of sorts which had been coined in the +Mint, and produced, as per 358 and 359 +pages of the Company's General Journal of 1780-81:</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class='br'>Gold mohurs, 12,861 12 11, or</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Calcutta siccas</td><td align='right' class='br'>2,05,788 14 9</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Batta, 16 per cent</td><td align='right' class='br bb'>32,926 3 6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='br'></td><td align='right'>2,38,715 2 3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class="br">1781.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class="br">30 April.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class="br">Paid into the Treasury, and credited +in the 637th page of the Company's General +Journal, as money received from the +Governor General on account of Durbar charges:</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sicca rupees</td><td align='right' class="br">2,00,000 0 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Batta, 16 per cent</td><td align='right' class='br bb'>32,000 0 0</td><td align='right' class="bb">2,32,000 0 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2' class='br'>Carried forward</td><td align='right'>8,76,715 2 3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2' class='br'>Brought forward</td><td align='right'>8,76,715 2 3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class='br'>August.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class='br'>Received in cash, and employed in +defraying my public disbursements, and credited +in the Governor General's account of +Durbar charges for April, 1782</td><td align='right'>58,000 0 0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2' class='br'>Produce of the sum mentioned in the +Governor General's letter to the Honorable +Secret Committee, dated 20th January, 1782, +and credited in the Governor General's account +of Durbar charges for April, 1782</td><td align='left' class='bb'>10,30,275 1 3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2' class='br'>Current rupees</td><td align='left'>19,64,990 3 6</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p class='center'>(Errors excepted.)</p> + + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">WARREN HASTINGS.<br /></span> +FORT WILLIAM, 22d May, 1782.<br /> +</p> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_5" id="B_No_5"></a>B. No. 5.</h3> + +<p>I, William Larkins, do make oath and say, that the letter and account to +which this affidavit is affixed were written by me at the request of the +Honorable Warren Hastings, Esquire, on the 22d May, 1782, from rough +draughts written by himself in my presence; that the cover of the letter +was sealed up by him in my presence, and was then intended to have been +transmitted to England by the "Lively," when that vessel was first +ordered for dispatch; and that it has remained closed until this day, +when it was opened for the express purpose of being accompanied by this +affidavit.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">So help me God.<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">WILLIAM LARKINS.<br /></span> +CALCUTTA, 16th December 1782.<br /> +<br /> +Sworn this 16th day of December, 1782, before me,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">J. HYDE.<br /></span> +</p><p><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299" title="299" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_6" id="B_No_6"></a>B. No. 6.</h3> + +<p class="center">To the Honorable the Secret Committee of the Honorable Court of +Directors.</p> + +<p class="quotdate">FORT WILLIAM, 16 December, 1782.</p> +<p>HONORABLE SIRS,—</p> + +<p>The dispatch of the "Lively" having been protracted by various causes +from time to time, the accompanying address, which was originally +designed and prepared for that dispatch, (no other conveyance since +occurring,) has of course been thus long detained. The delay is of no +public consequence; but it has produced a situation which with respect +to myself I regard as unfortunate, because it exposes me to the meanest +imputation from the occasion which the late Parliamentary Inquiries have +since furnished, but which were unknown when my letter was written, and +written in the necessary consequence of a promise made to that effect in +a former letter to your Honorable Committee, dated 20th January last. +However, to preclude the possibility of such reflections from affecting +me, I have desired Mr. Larkins, who was privy to the whole transaction, +to affix to the letter his affidavit of the date in which it was +written. I own I feel most sensibly the mortification of being reduced +to the necessity of using such precautions to guard my reputation from +dishonor. If I had at any time possessed that degree of confidence from +my immediate employers which they never withheld from the meanest of my +predecessors, I should have disdained to use these attentions. How I +have drawn on me a different treatment I know not; it is sufficient that +I have not <a name="Page_300" id="Page_300" title="300" class="pagenum"></a>merited it: and in the course of a service of thirty-two +years, and ten of these employed in maintaining the powers and +discharging the duties of the first office of the British government in +India, that Honorable Court ought to know whether I possess the +integrity and honor which are the first requisites of such a station. If +I wanted these, they have afforded me but too powerful incentives to +suppress the information which I now convey to them through you, and to +appropriate to my own use the sums which I have already passed to their +credit, by the unworthy, and, pardon me if I add, dangerous, reflections +which they have passed upon me for the first communication of this kind: +and your own experience will suggest to you, that there are persons who +would profit by such a warning.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole of these transactions, which to you, who are accustomed +to view business in an official and regular light, may appear +unprecedented, if not improper, I have but a few short remarks to +suggest to your consideration.</p> + +<p>If I appear in any unfavorable light by these transactions, I resign the +common and legal security of those who commit crimes or errors. I am +ready to answer every particular question that may be put against +myself, upon honor or upon oath.</p> + +<p>The sources from which these reliefs to the public service have come +would never have yielded them to the Company publicly; and the +exigencies of your service (exigencies created by the exposition of your +affairs, and faction in your councils) required those supplies.</p> + +<p>I could have concealed them, had I had a wrong motive, from yours and +the public eye forever; and I <a name="Page_301" id="Page_301" title="301" class="pagenum"></a>know that the difficulties to which a +spirit of injustice may subject me for my candor and avowal are greater +than any possible inconvenience that could have attended the +concealment, except the dissatisfaction of my own mind. These +difficulties are but a few of those which I have suffered in your +service. The applause of my own breast is my surest reward, and was the +support of my mind in meeting them: your applause, and that of my +country, are my next wish in life.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Your most faithful, most obedient,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">and most humble servant,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">WARREN HASTINGS.<br /></span> +</p> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_7" id="B_No_7"></a>B. No. 7.</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>Extract of the Company's General Letter to Bengal, dated the 25th +January, 1782.</i></p> + +<p>Par. 127. We have received a letter from our Governor-General, +dated the 29th of November, 1780, relative to an unusual tender and +advance of money made by him to the Council, as entered on your +Consultation of the 26th of June, for the purpose of indemnifying the +Company from the extraordinary charge which might be incurred by +supplying the detachment under the command of Major Camac in the +invasion of the Mahratta dominions, which lay beyond the district of +Gohud, and thereby drawing the attention of Mahdajee Sindia (to whom the +country appertained) from General Goddard, while the General was +employed in the reduction of Bassein, and in se<a name="Page_302" id="Page_302" title="302" class="pagenum"></a>curing the conquests +made in the Guzerat country; and also respecting the sum of three lacs +of rupees advanced by the Governor-General for the use of the army under +the command of Chimnajee Boosla without the authority or knowledge of +the Council; with the reasons for taking these extraordinary steps under +the circumstances stated in his letter.</p> + +<p>128. In regard to the first of these transactions, we readily conceive, +that, in the then state of the Council, the Governor-General might be +induced to temporary secrecy respecting the members of the board, not +only because he might be apprehensive of opposition to the proposed +application of the money, but, perhaps, because doubts might have arisen +concerning the propriety of appropriating it to the Company's use on any +account; but it does <i>not appear to us</i> that there could be any real +necessity for delaying to communicate to us immediate information of the +channel by which the money came into his possession, with a complete +illustration of the cause or causes of so extraordinary an event.</p> + +<p>129. Circumstanced as affairs were at the moment, it appears that the +Governor-General had the measure much at heart, and judged it absolutely +necessary. The means proposed of defraying the extra expense were very +extraordinary; and the money, as we conceive, must have come into his +hands by an unusual channel: and when more complete information comes +before us, we shall give our sentiments fully upon the whole +transaction.</p> + +<p>130. In regard to the application of the Company's money to the army of +Chimnajee Boosla by the sole authority of the Governor-General, he knew +that it was entirely at his own risk, and he has taken the +re<a name="Page_303" id="Page_303" title="303" class="pagenum"></a>sponsibility upon himself; nothing but the most urgent necessity +could warrant the measure; nor can anything short of full proof of such +necessity, and of the propriety and utility of the extraordinary step +taken on the occasion, entitle the Governor-General to the approbation +of the Court of Directors; and therefore, as in the former instance +relative to the sum advanced and paid into our Treasury, we must also +for the present <i>suspend</i> our judgment respecting the money sent to the +Berar army, without approving it in the least degree, or proceeding to +censure our Governor-General for this transaction.</p> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_8" id="B_No_8"></a>B. No. 8.</h3> + +<p class='center'><i>Extract of Bengal Secret Consultations, the 9th January, 1781.</i></p> + +<p>The following letter from the Governor-General having been circulated, +and the request therein made complied with, an order on the Treasury +passed accordingly.</p> + +<p> +HONORABLE SIR AND SIRS,—<br /> +</p> + +<p>Having had occasion to disburse the sum of three lacs of sicca rupees on +account of secret services, which having been advanced from my own +private cash, I request that the same may be repaid to me in the +following manner:—A bond to be granted me upon the terms of the second +loan, bearing date from the 1st October, for one lac of sicca rupees; a +bond to be granted me upon the terms of the first loan, bearing date +from the 1st October, for one lac of sicca rupees; <a name="Page_304" id="Page_304" title="304" class="pagenum"></a>a bond to be granted +me upon the terms of the first loan, bearing date from the 2d October, +for one lac of sicca rupees.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I have the honor to be, &c., &c.,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">(Signed) WARREN HASTINGS.<br /></span> +<br /> +FORT WILLIAM, 5th January, 1781.<br /> +</p> + + +<h3><a name="B_No_9" id="B_No_9"></a>B. No. 9.</h3> + +<p class='center'><i>An Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General, from 1st January, +1779, to 31st May, 1782, with Interest paid or credited thereon.</i></p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='center' class="bb bt br">When paid into the Treasury.</td><td align='center' class="bb bt br">Sum.</td><td align='center' class="bb bt br">Date of Bond.</td><td align='center' class="bb bt">Rate of Interest.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'></td><td align='center' class='br'>CRs.</td><td class='br'></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'>23d Nov., 1780</td><td align='right' class='br'>1,74,000</td><td align='center' class='br'>23d Nov., 1780</td><td align='center'>at 8 per cent.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'>15th Dec.</td><td align='right' class='br'>69,600</td><td align='center' class='br'>15th Dec.</td><td align='center'>Do.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'>15th Jan., 1781</td><td align='right' class='br'>1,16,000</td><td align='center' class='br'>1st Oct., 1780</td><td align='center'>Do.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'>Do.</td><td align='right' class='br'>1,16,000</td><td align='center' class='br'>2d Do.</td><td align='center'>Do.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'>Do.</td><td align='right' class='br'>1,16,000</td><td align='center' class='br'>1st Do.</td><td align='center'>4 per cent.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'>17th March</td><td align='right' class='br'>50,000</td><td align='center' class='br'>17th Mar., 1781</td><td align='center'>Do.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'>8th May, 1782</td><td align='right' class='br'>20,000</td><td align='center' class='br'>15th Sept., 1781</td><td align='center'>8 per cent.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'>Do.</td><td align='right' class='br'>15,000</td><td align='center' class='br'>8th Dec., 1781</td><td align='center'>Do.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' class='br'></td><td align='right' class='br bt'>6,76,600</td><td class='br'></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>There does not appear to have been any interest paid on the above bonds +to 31st May, 1782, the last accounts received. In the Interest Books, +1780-81, the last received, the Governor-General has credit for interest +on the first six to April, 1781, to the amount of CRs. 21,964 12 8.</p> + +<p class="center">(Errors excepted.)</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 6em;">JOHN ANNIS,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Auditor of Indian Accounts.</i><br /></span> +EAST INDIA HOUSE, 5th June, 1783.<br /> +</p><p><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305" title="305" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_63" id="Footnote_57_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_63"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> As the Appendixes originally printed with the foregoing +Reports, and which consist chiefly of official documents, would have +swelled this volume to an enormous size, it has been thought proper to +omit them, with the exception of the first nine numbers of the Appendix +B. to the Eleventh Report, the insertion of which has been judged +necessary for the elucidation of the subject-matter of that Report.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_64" id="Footnote_58_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_64"><span class="label">[58]</span></a></p><p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">{Received 19th May,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">{Cancelled 30th July, 1774.</span><br /></p> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ARTICLES_OF_CHARGE" id="ARTICLES_OF_CHARGE"></a>ARTICLES OF CHARGE<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">OF</span><br /> +<br /> +HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">AGAINST</span><br /> +<br /> +WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL:</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%;">PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">IN APRIL AND MAY, 1786.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 85%;">ARTICLES I.-VI.</span></h2> + + +<p><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306" title="306" class="pagenum"></a></p><p><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307" title="307" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ARTICLES OF CHARGE<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">AGAINST</span><br /> +<br /> +WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ.,<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%;">LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL.</span></h2> + + +<h3><a name="I_ROHILLA_WAR" id="I_ROHILLA_WAR"></a>I.—ROHILLA WAR.</h3> + +<p>That the Court of Directors of the East India Company, from a just sense +of the danger and odium incident to the extension of their conquests in +the East Indies, and from an experience of the disorders and corrupt +practices which intrigues and negotiations to bring about revolutions +among the country powers had produced, did positively and repeatedly +direct their servants in Bengal not to engage in any offensive war +whatsoever. That the said Court laid it down as <i>an invariable maxim, +which ought ever to be maintained, that they were to avoid taking part +in the political schemes of any of the country princes</i>,—and did, in +particular, order and direct that they should not engage with a certain +prince called Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, and Vizier of the Empire, +in any operations beyond certain limits in the said orders specially +described.</p> + +<p>That Warren Hastings, Esquire, then Governor of Fort William in Bengal, +did, with other members of the Council, declare his clear understanding +of the true intent and meaning of the said positive and repeated orders +and injunctions,—did express to the Court of Directors his approbation +of the policy there<a name="Page_308" id="Page_308" title="308" class="pagenum"></a>of,—did declare that he adopted the same <i>with +sincerity and satisfaction</i>, and that he was <i>too well aware of the +ruinous tendency of all schemes of conquest ever to adopt them, or ever +to depart from the absolute line of self-defence, unless impelled to it +by the most obvious necessity</i>,—did signify to the Nabob of Oude the +said orders, and his obligation to yield punctual obedience +thereto,—and did solemnly engage and promise to the Court of Directors, +with the <i>unanimous concurrence</i> of the whole Council, "that no object +or consideration should either tempt or compel him to pass the political +line which they [the Directors] had laid down for his operations with +the Vizier," assuring the Court of Directors that he "scarce saw a +possible advantage which could compensate the hazard and expense to be +incurred by a contrary conduct,"—that he did frequently repeat the same +declarations, or declarations to the same effect, particularly in a +letter to the Nabob himself, of the 22d of November, 1773, in the +following words: "The commands of my superiors are, as I have repeatedly +informed you, peremptory, that I shall not suffer their arms to be +carried beyond the line of their own boundaries, and those of your +Excellency, their ally."</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, in direct contradiction to the said +orders, and to his own sense of their propriety and coercive authority, +and in breach of his express promises and engagements, did, in +September, 1773, enter into a private engagement with the said Nabob of +Oude, who was the special object of the prohibition, to furnish him, for +a stipulated sum of money to be paid to the East India Company, with a +body of troops for the declared purpose of "thoroughly extirpating the +nation of the Rohillas": a na<a name="Page_309" id="Page_309" title="309" class="pagenum"></a>tion from whom the Company had never +received, or pretended to receive or apprehend, any injury whatsoever; +whose country, in the month of February, 1773, by an unanimous +resolution of the said Warren Hastings and his Council, was included in +the line of defence against the Mahrattas; and from whom the Nabob never +complained of an aggression or act of hostility, nor pretended a +distinct cause of quarrel, other than the non-payment of a sum of money +in dispute between him and that people.</p> + +<p>That, supposing the sum of money in question to have been strictly due +to the said Nabob by virtue of any engagement between him and the +Rohilla chiefs, the East India Company, or their representatives, were +not parties to that engagement, or guaranties thereof, nor bound by any +obligation whatever to enforce the execution of it.</p> + +<p>That, previous to the said Warren Hastings's entering into the agreement +or bargain aforesaid to extirpate the said nation, he did not make, or +cause to be made, a due inquiry into the validity of the sole pretext +used by the said Nabob; nor did he give notice of the said claims of +debt to the nation of the Rohillas, in order to receive an explanation +on their part of the matter in litigation; nor did he offer any +mediation, nor propose, nor afford an opportunity of proposing, an +agreement or submission by which the calamities of war might be avoided, +as, by the high state in which the East India Company stood as a +sovereign power in the East, and the honor and character it ought to +maintain, as well as by the principles of equity and humanity, and by +the true and obvious policy of uniting the power of the Mahometan +princes against the Mahrattas, he was bound to do. That, <a name="Page_310" id="Page_310" title="310" class="pagenum"></a>instead of +such previous inquiry, or tender of good offices, the said Warren +Hastings did stimulate the ambition and ferocity of the Nabob of Oude to +the full completion of the inhuman end of the said unjustifiable +enterprise, by informing him "that it would be absolutely necessary to +persevere in it until it should be accomplished"; pretending that a fear +of the Company's displeasure was his motive for annexing the +accomplishment of the enterprise as a condition of his assistance, and +asserting "that he could not hazard or answer for the displeasure of the +Company, his masters, if they should find themselves involved in a +<i>fruitless</i> war, or in an expense for prosecuting it,"—a pretence +tending to the high dishonor of the East India Company, as if the gain +to be acquired was to reconcile that body to the breach of their own +orders prohibiting all such enterprises;—and in order further to +involve the said Nabob beyond the power of retreating, he did, in the +course of the proceeding, purposely put the said Nabob under +difficulties in case he should decline that war, and did oblige him to +accept even the permission to relinquish the execution of this unjust +project as a favor, and <i>to make concessions for it</i>; thereby acting as +if the Company were principals in the hostility; and employing for this +purpose much double dealing and divers unworthy artifices to entangle +and perplex the said Nabob, but by means of which he found himself (as +he has entered it on record) <i>hampered and embarrassed in a particular +manner</i>.</p> + +<p>That the said compact for offensive alliance in favor of a great prince +against a considerable nation was not carried on by projects and +counter-projects in writing; nor were the articles and conditions +thereof <a name="Page_311" id="Page_311" title="311" class="pagenum"></a>formed into any regular written instrument, signed and sealed +by the parties; but the whole (both the negotiation and the compact of +offensive alliance against the Rohillas) was a mere verbal engagement, +the purport and conventions whereof nowhere appeared, except in +subsequent correspondence, in which certain of the articles, as they +were stated by the several parties, did materially differ: a proceeding +new and unprecedented, and directly leading to mutual misconstruction, +evasion, and ill faith, and tending to encourage and protect every +species of corrupt, clandestine practice. That, at the time when this +private verbal agreement was made by the said Warren Hastings with the +Nabob of Oude, a public ostensible treaty was concluded by him with the +said Nabob, in which there is no mention whatever of such agreement, or +reference whatever to it: in defence of which omission, it is asserted +by the said Warren Hastings, that <i>the multiplication of treaties +weakens their efficacy, and therefore they should be reserved only for +very important and permanent obligations</i>; notwithstanding he had +previously declared to the said Nabob, "that the points which he had +proposed required much consideration, and the previous ratification of a +formal agreement, before he could consent to them." That the whole of +the said verbal agreement with the Nabob of Oude in his own person, +without any assistance on his part, was carried on and concluded by the +said Warren Hastings alone, without any person who might witness the +same, without the intervention even of an interpreter, though he +confesses that he spoke the Hindostan language <i>imperfectly</i>, and +although he had with him at that time and place several persons high in +<a name="Page_312" id="Page_312" title="312" class="pagenum"></a>the Company's service and confidence, namely, the commander-in-chief of +their forces, two members of their Council, and the Secretary to the +Council, who were not otherwise acquainted with the proceedings between +him and the said Nabob than by such communications as he thought fit to +make to them.</p> + +<p>That the object avowed by the said Warren Hastings, and the motives +urged by him for employing the British arms in the utter extirpation of +the Rohilla nation, are stated by himself in the following terms:—"The +acquisition of forty lacs of rupees to the Company, and of so much +specie added to the exhausted currency of our provinces;—that it would +give wealth to the Nabob of Oude, of which we should participate;—that +the said Warren Hastings <i>should</i> always be ready to profess that he did +reckon the probable acquisition of wealth among his reasons for taking +up arms against his <i>neighbors</i>;—that it would ease the Company of a +considerable part of their military expense, and preserve their troops +from inaction and relaxation of discipline;—that the weak state of the +Rohillas promised an easy conquest of them;—and, finally, that such was +his idea of the Company's distress at home, added to his knowledge of +their wants abroad, that he should have been glad of <i>any</i> occasion to +employ their forces which saved so much of their pay and expenses."</p> + +<p>That, in the private verbal agreement aforesaid for offensive war, the +said Warren Hastings did transgress the bounds of the authority given +him by his instructions from the Council of Fort William, which had +limited his powers to such compacts "as were consistent with the spirit +of the Company's orders"; which Council he afterwards persuaded, and +with dif<a name="Page_313" id="Page_313" title="313" class="pagenum"></a>ficulty drew into an acquiescence in what he had done.</p> + +<p>That the agreement to the effect aforesaid was settled in the said +secret conferences before the 10th of September, 1773; but the said +Warren Hastings, concealing from the Court of Directors a matter of +which it was his duty to afford them the earliest and fullest +information, did, on the said 10th of September, 1773, write to the +Directors, and dispatched his letter over land, giving them an account +of the public treaty, but taking not the least notice of his agreement +for a mercenary war against the nation of the Rohillas.</p> + +<p>That, in order to conceal the true purport of the said clandestine +agreement the more effectually, and until he should find means of +gaining over the rest of the Council to a concurrence in his +disobedience of orders, he entered a minute in the Council books, giving +a false account of the transaction; in which minute he represented that +the Nabob had indeed <i>proposed</i> the design aforesaid, and that he, the +said Warren Hastings, <i>was pleased that he urged the scheme of this +expedition no further</i>, when in reality and truth he had absolutely +consented to the said enterprise, and had engaged to assist him in it, +which he afterwards admitted, and confessed that he did act in +consequence of the same.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings and his Council were sensible of the true +nature of the enterprise in which they had engaged the Company's arms, +and of the heavy responsibility to which it would subject himself and +the Council,—"the personal hazard they, the Council, run, in +undertaking so <i>uncommon</i> a measure without <i>positive</i> instructions, at +their own risk, <a name="Page_314" id="Page_314" title="314" class="pagenum"></a>with the eyes of the whole nation on the affairs of the +Company, and the passions and prejudices of almost every man in England +inflamed against the conduct of the Company and the character of its +servants"; yet they engaged in the very practice which had brought such +odium on the Company, and on the character of its servants, though they +further say that they had continually before <i>their eyes the dread of +forfeiting the favor of their employers</i>, and becoming the "objects of +<i>popular</i> invectives." The said Warren Hastings himself says, at the +very time when he proposed the measure, "I must confess I entertain some +doubts as to its expediency at this time, from the circumstances of the +<i>Company</i> at home, exposed to <i>popular</i> clamor, and all its measures +liable to be canvassed in <i>Parliament</i>, their charter drawing to a +close, and his Majesty's ministers unquestionably ready to take +advantage of every unfavorable circumstance in the negotiations of its +renewal." All these considerations did not prevent the said Warren +Hastings from making and carrying into execution the said mercenary +agreement for a sum of money, the payment of which the Nabob endeavored +to evade on a construction of the verbal treaty, and was so far from +being insisted on, as it ought to have been, by the said Warren +Hastings, that, when, after the completion of the service, the +commander-in-chief was directed to make a demand of the money, the agent +of the said Warren Hastings at the same time assured the Nabob "that the +demand was nothing more than matter of form, common, and even necessary, +in all public transactions, and that, although the board considered the +claim of the government literally due, it was not the intention of +administration to prescribe to his Excel<a name="Page_315" id="Page_315" title="315" class="pagenum"></a>lency <i>the mode, or even +limits, of payment</i>." Nor was any part of the money recovered, until the +establishment of the Governor-General and Council by act of Parliament, +and their determination to withdraw the brigade from the Nabob's +service,—the Resident at his court, appointed by the said Warren +Hastings, having written, <i>that he had experienced much duplicity and +deceit in most of his transactions with his Excellency</i>; and the said +Nabob and his successors falling back in other payments in the same or +greater proportion as he advanced in the payment of this debt, the +consideration of lucre to the Company, the declared motive to this +shameful transaction, totally failed, and no money in effect and +substance (as far as by any account to be depended on appears) has been +obtained.</p> + +<p>That the said Nabob of Oude did, in consequence of the said agreement, +and with the assistance of British troops, which were ordered to march +and subjected to his disposal by the said Warren Hastings and the +Council, unjustly enter into and invade the country of the Rohillas, and +did there make war in a barbarous and inhuman manner, "by an abuse of +victory," "by the unnecessary destruction of the country," "by a wanton +display of violence and oppression, of inhumanity and cruelty," and "by +the sudden expulsion and casting down of an whole race of people, to +whom the slightest benevolence was denied." When prayer was made not to +dishonor the Begum (a princess of great rank, whose husband had been +killed in battle) and other women, by <i>dragging them about the country, +to be loaded with the scoffs of the Nabob's rabble, and otherwise still +worse used</i>, the Nabob refused to listen to the entreaties of a British +commander-in-chief in their favor; and the said <a name="Page_316" id="Page_316" title="316" class="pagenum"></a>women of high rank were +exposed not only to the vilest personal indignities, but even to +absolute want: and these transactions being by Colonel Champion +communicated to the said Warren Hastings, instead of commendations for +his intelligence, and orders to redress the said evils, and to prevent +the like in future, by means which were suggested, and which appear to +have been proper and feasible, he received a reprimand from the said +Warren Hastings, who declared that we had no authority to control the +conduct of the Vizier in the treatment of his subjects; and that Colonel +Champion desisted from making further representations on this subject to +the said Warren Hastings, being apprehensive of having already run some +risk of displeasing by perhaps a too free communication of sentiments. +That, in consequence of the said proceedings, not only the eminent +families of the chiefs of the Rohilla nation were either cut off or +banished, and their wives and offspring reduced to utter ruin, but the +country itself, heretofore distinguished above all others for the extent +of its cultivation as a <i>garden</i>, not having <i>one spot</i> in it of +<i>uncultivated</i> ground, and from being <i>in the most flourishing state +that a country could be</i>, was by the inhuman mode of carrying on the +war, and the ill government during the consequent usurpation, reduced to +a state of great decay and depopulation, in which it still remains.</p> + +<p>That the East India Company, having had reason to conceive, that, for +the purpose of concealing corrupt transactions, their servants in India +had made unfair, mutilated, and garbled communications of +correspondence, and sometimes had wholly withheld the same, made an +order in their letter of the 23d of March, 1770, in the following +tenor:—"The Gov<a name="Page_317" id="Page_317" title="317" class="pagenum"></a>ernor singly shall correspond with the country powers; +but <i>all</i> letters, before they shall be by him sent, must be +communicated to the other members of the Select Committee, and receive +their approbation; and also <i>all</i> letters <i>whatsoever</i> which may be +received by the Governor, in answer to or in course of correspondence, +shall likewise be laid before the said Select Committee for their +information and consideration"; and that in their instructions to their +Governor-General and Council, dated 30th March, 1774, they did repeat +their orders to the same purpose and effect.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings did not obey, as in duty he was bound to +do, the said standing orders; nor did communicate all his correspondence +with Mr. Middleton, the Company's agent at the court of the Subah of +Oude, or with Colonel Champion, the commander-in-chief of the Company's +forces in the Rohilla war, to the Select Committee: and when afterwards, +that is to say, on the 25th of October, 1774, he was required by the +majority of the Council appointed by the act of Parliament of 1773, +whose opinion was by the said act directed to be taken as the act of the +whole Council, to produce <i>all</i> his correspondence with Mr. Middleton +and Colonel Champion for the direction of their future proceedings +relative to the obscure, intricate, and critical transaction aforesaid, +he did positively and pertinaciously refuse to deliver any other than +such parts of the said correspondence as he thought convenient, covering +his said illegal refusal under general vague pretences of secrecy and +danger from the communication, although the said order and instruction +of the Court of Directors above mentioned was urged to him, and although +it was represented to him by the said Council, <a name="Page_318" id="Page_318" title="318" class="pagenum"></a>that they, as well as +he, were bound by an oath of secrecy: which refusal to obey the orders +of the Court of Directors (orders specially, and on weighty grounds of +experience, pointed to cases of this very nature) gave rise to much +jealousy, and excited great suspicions relative to the motives and +grounds on which the Rohilla war had been undertaken.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, in the grounds alleged in his +justification of his refusal to communicate to his colleagues in the +Superior Council his correspondence with Mr. Middleton, the Company's +Resident at Oude, was guilty of a new offence, arrogating to himself +unprecedented and dangerous powers, on principles utterly subversive of +all order and discipline in service, and introductory to corrupt +confederacies and disobedience among the Company's servants; the said +Warren Hastings insisting that Mr. Middleton, the Company's covenanted +servant, the public Resident for transacting the Company's affairs at +the court of the Subah of Oude, and as such receiving from the Company a +salary for his service, was no other than the <i>official agent</i> of him, +the said Warren Hastings, and that, being such, he was not obliged to +communicate his correspondence.</p> + +<p>That the Court of Directors, and afterwards a General Court of the +Proprietors of the East India Company, (although the latter showed +favorable dispositions towards the said Warren Hastings, and expressed, +but without assigning any ground or reason, the highest opinion of his +services and integrity,) did unanimously condemn, along with his conduct +relative to the Rohilla treaty and war, his refusal to communicate his +whole correspondence with Mr. Middleton to the Superior Council: yet the +said Warren<a name="Page_319" id="Page_319" title="319" class="pagenum"></a> Hastings, in defiance of the opinion of the Directors, and +the unanimous opinion of the General Court of the said East India +Company, as well as the precedent positive orders of the Court of +Directors, and the injunctions of an act of Parliament, has, from that +time to the present, never made any communication of the whole of his +correspondence to the Governor-General and Council, or to the Court of +Directors.</p> + + +<h3><a name="II_SHAH_ALLUM" id="II_SHAH_ALLUM"></a>II.—SHAH ALLUM.</h3> + +<p>That, in a solemn treaty of peace, concluded the 16th of August, 1765, +between the East India Company and the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah ul +Dowlah, and highly approved of, confirmed, and ratified by the said +Company, it is agreed, "that the King Shah Allum shall remain in full +possession of Corah, and such part of the province of Allahabad as he +now possesses, which are ceded to his Majesty as a royal demesne for the +support of his dignity and expenses." That, in a separate agreement, +concluded at the same time, between the King Shah Allum and the then +Subahdar of Bengal, under the immediate security and guaranty of the +English Company, the faith of the Company was pledged to the said King +for the annual payment of twenty-six lac of rupees for his support out +of the revenues of Bengal; and that the said Company did then receive +from the said King a grant of the duanné of the provinces of Bengal, +Bahar, and Orissa, on the express condition of their being security for +the annual payment above mentioned. That the East India Company have +held, and continue to hold, the duanné so granted, and <a name="Page_320" id="Page_320" title="320" class="pagenum"></a>for some years +have complied with the conditions on which they accepted of the grant +thereof, and have at all times acknowledged that they held the duanné +<i>in virtue of the Mogul's grants</i>. That the said Court of Directors, in +their letter of the 30th June, 1769, to Bengal, declared, "that they +esteemed themselves bound by treaty to protect the King's person, and to +secure him the possession of the Corah and Allahabad districts"; and +supposing an agreement should be made respecting these provinces between +the King and Sujah ul Dowlah, the Directors then said, "that they should +be subject to no further claim or requisition from the King, excepting +for the stipulated tribute for Bengal, which they [the Governor and +Council] were to pay to his agent, or remit to him in such manner as he +might direct."</p> + +<p>That, in the year 1772, the King Shah Allum, who had hitherto resided at +Allahabad, trusting to engagements which he had entered into with the +Mahrattas, quitted that place, and removed to Delhi; but, having soon +quarrelled with those people, and afterwards being taken prisoner, had +been treated by them with very great disrespect and cruelty. That, among +other instances of their abuse of their immediate power over him, the +Governor and Council of Bengal, in their letter of the 16th of August, +1773, inform the Court of Directors that he had been <i>compelled, while a +prisoner in their hands, to grant sunnuds for the surrender of Corah and +Allahabad to them</i>; and it appears from sundry other minutes of their +own that the said Governor and Council did at all times consider the +surrender above mentioned as <i>extorted</i> from the King, and +<i>unquestionably an act of violence</i>, which could not alienate or impair +his right <a name="Page_321" id="Page_321" title="321" class="pagenum"></a>to those provinces, and that, when they took possession +thereof, it was at the request of the King's Naib, or viceroy, who put +them under the Council's <i>protection</i>. That on this footing they were +accepted by the said Warren Hastings and his Council, and for some time +considered by them as a deposit committed to their care by a prince to +whom the possession thereof was particularly guarantied by the East +India Company. In their letter of the 1st of March, 1773, they (the said +Warren Hastings and his Council) say, "In no shape can this compulsatory +cession by the King release us from the obligation we are under to +defend the provinces which we have so particularly guarantied to him." +But it appears that they soon adopted other ideas and assumed other +principles concerning this object. In the instructions, dated the 23d of +June, 1773, which the Council of Fort William gave to the said Warren +Hastings, previous to his interview with the Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah at +Benares, they say, that, "while the King continued at Delhi, whither he +proceeded in opposition to their most strenuous remonstrances, they +should certainly consider the engagements between him and the Company as +dissolved by his alienation from them and their interest; that the +possession of so remote a country could never be expected to yield any +profit to the Company, and the defence of it must require a perpetual +aid of their forces": yet in the same instructions they declare their +opinion, that, "if the King should make overtures to renew his former +connection, <i>his right to reclaim the districts of Corah and Allahabad +could not with propriety be disputed</i>," and they authorize the said +Warren Hastings to restore them to him <i>on condition that he should +renounce his <a name="Page_322" id="Page_322" title="322" class="pagenum"></a>claim to the annual tribute of twenty-six lac of rupees</i>, +herein before mentioned, <i>and to the arrears which might be due</i>, +thereby acknowledging the justice of a claim which they determined not +to comply with but in return for the surrender of another equally +valid;—that, nevertheless, in the treaty concluded by the said Warren +Hastings with Sujah ul Dowlah on the 7th of September, 1773, it is +asserted, that his Majesty, (meaning the King Shah Allum,) "having +abandoned the districts of Corah and Allahabad, and given a sunnud for +Corah and Currah to the Mahrattas, had thereby forfeited his right to +the said districts," although it was well known to the said Warren +Hastings, and had been so stated by him to the Court of Directors, that +this surrender on the part of the King had been extorted from him by +violence, while he was a prisoner in the hands of the Mahrattas, and +although it was equally well known to the said Warren Hastings that +there was nothing in the original treaty of 1765 which could restrain +the King from changing the place of his residence, consequently that his +removal to Delhi could not occasion a forfeiture of his right to the +provinces secured to him by that treaty.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, in the report which he made of his +interview and negotiations with Sujah ul Dowlah, dated the 4th of +October, 1773, declared, "that the administration would have been +culpable in the highest degree in retaining possession of Corah and +Allahabad <i>for any other purpose than that of making an advantage by the +disposal of them</i>," and therefore he had ceded them to the Vizier for +fifty lac of rupees: a measure for which he had no authority whatever +from the King Shah Allum, and in <a name="Page_323" id="Page_323" title="323" class="pagenum"></a>the execution of which no reserve +whatever was made in favor of the rights of that prince, nor any care +taken of his interests.</p> + +<p>That the sale of these provinces to Sujah Dowlah involved the East India +Company in a triple breach of justice; since by the same act they +violated a treaty, they sold the property of another, and they alienated +a deposit committed to their friendship and good faith, and as such +accepted by them. That a measure of this nature is not to be defended on +motives of policy and convenience, supposing such motives to have +existed, without a total loss of public honor, and shaking all security +in the faith of treaties; but that in reality the pretences urged by the +said Warren Hastings for selling the King's country to Sujah Dowlah were +false and invalid. It could not strengthen our alliance with Sujah ul +Dowlah; since, paying a price for a purchase, he received no favor and +incurred no obligation. It did not free the Company from all the dangers +attending either a remote property or a remote connection; since, the +moment the country in question became part of Sujah Dowlah's dominions, +it was included in the Company's former guaranty of those dominions, and +in case of invasion the Company were obliged to send part of their army +to defend it at the requisition of the said Sujah Dowlah; and if the +remote situation of those provinces made the defence of them difficult +and dangerous, much more was it a difficult and dangerous enterprise to +engage the Company's force in an attack and invasion of the Rohillas, +whose country lay at a much greater distance from the Company's +frontier,—which, nevertheless, the said Warren Hastings agreed to and +undertook at the very time when, under pre<a name="Page_324" id="Page_324" title="324" class="pagenum"></a>tence of the difficulty of +defending Corah and Allahabad, he sold those provinces to Sujah Dowlah. +It did not relieve the Company from the <i>expense</i> of defending the +country; since the revenues thereof far exceeded the subsidy to be paid +by Sujah Dowlah, and these revenues justly belonged to the Company as +long as the country continued under their protection, and would have +answered the expense of defending it. Finally, that the sum of fifty lac +of rupees, stipulated with the said Sujah Dowlah, was inadequate to the +value of the country, the annual revenues of which were stated at +twenty-five lac of rupees, which General Sir Robert Barker, then +commander-in-chief of the Company's forces, affirms <i>was certain, and +too generally known to admit of a doubt</i>.</p> + +<p>That the King Shah Allum received for some years the annual tribute of +twenty-six lac of rupees above mentioned, and was entitled to continue +to receive it by virtue of an engagement deliberately, and for an +adequate consideration, entered into with him by the Company's servants, +and approved of and ratified by the Company themselves;—that this +engagement was absolute and unconditional, and did neither express nor +suppose any case in which the said King should forfeit or the Company +should have a right to resume the tribute;—that, nevertheless, the said +Warren Hastings and his Council, immediately after selling the King's +country to Sujah Dowlah, resolved to withhold, and actually withheld, +the payment of the said tribute, of which the King Shah Allum has never +since received any part;—that this resolution of the Council is not +justified even by themselves on principles of right and justice, but by +arguments of policy and convenience, by which the best founded <a name="Page_325" id="Page_325" title="325" class="pagenum"></a>claims +of right and justice may at all times be set aside and defeated. "They +judged it highly impolitic and unsafe to answer the drafts of the King, +until they were satisfied of his amicable intentions, and those of his +new allies." But neither had they any reason to question the King's +amicable intentions, nor was he pledged to answer for those of the +Mahrattas; his trusting to the good faith of that people, and relying on +their assistance to reinstate him in the possession of his capital, +might have been imprudent and impolitic, but these measures, however +ruinous to himself, indicated no enmity to the English, nor were they +productive of any effects injurious to the English interests. And it is +plain that the said Warren Hastings and his Council were perfectly aware +that their motives or pretences for withholding the tribute were too +weak to justify their conduct, having principally insisted on the +reduced state of their treasury, which, as they said, <i>rendered it +impracticable to comply with those payments</i>. The <i>right</i> of a creditor +does not depend on the circumstances of the debtor: on the contrary, the +plea of inability includes a virtual acknowledgment of the debt; since, +if the creditor's right were denied, the plea would be superfluous.</p> + +<p>That the East India Company, having on their part violated the +engagements and renounced the conditions on which they received and have +hitherto held and enjoyed the duanné of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa from +the King Shah Allum, have thereby forfeited all right and title to the +said duanné arising from the said grant, and that it is free and open to +the said King to resume such grant, and to transfer it to any other +prince or state;—that, notwithstanding any dis<a name="Page_326" id="Page_326" title="326" class="pagenum"></a>tress or weakness to +which he may be actually reduced, his lawful authority, as sovereign of +the Mogul Empire, is still acknowledged in India, and that his grant of +the duanné would sufficiently authorize and materially assist any prince +or state that might attempt to dispossess the East India Company +thereof, since it would convey a right which could not be disputed, and +to which nothing but force could be opposed. Nor can these opinions be +more strongly expressed than they have been lately by the said Warren +Hastings himself, who, in a minute recorded the 1st of December, 1784, +has declared, that, "fallen as the House of Timur is, it is yet the +relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern world; that <i>its +sovereignty is universally acknowledged</i>, though the substance of it no +longer exists; and that the Company itself derives its constitutional +dominion from its ostensible bounty."</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings by this declaration has renounced and +condemned the principle on which he avowedly acted towards the Mogul in +the year 1773, when he denied that the sunnuds or grants of the Mogul, +if they were in the hands of another nation, would avail them +anything,—and when he declared "that the sword which gave us the +dominion of Bengal must be the instrument of its preservation, and that, +if it should ever cease to be ours, the next proprietor would derive his +<i>right</i> and possession from the same <i>natural charter</i>." That the said +Warren Hastings, to answer any immediate purpose, adopts any principle +of policy, however false or dangerous, without any regard to former +declarations made, or to principles avowed on other occasions by +himself; and particularly, that in his conduct to Shah Allum <a name="Page_327" id="Page_327" title="327" class="pagenum"></a>he first +maintained that the grants of that prince were of no avail,—that we +held the dominion of Bengal by the sword, which he has falsely declared +the source of <i>right</i>, and the <i>natural charter</i> of dominion,—whereas +at a later period he has declared that the sovereignty of the family of +Shah Allum is universally acknowledged, and that the Company itself +derives its constitutional dominion from their ostensible bounty.</p> + + +<h3><a name="III_BENARES" id="III_BENARES"></a>III.—BENARES.<br /> +<br /> +PART I.<br /> +<br /> +<a name="RIGHTS_AND_TITLES_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES" id="RIGHTS_AND_TITLES_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES"></a>RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES.</h3> + +<p>I. That the territory of Benares is a fruitful, and has been, not long +since, an orderly, well-cultivated, and improved province, of great +extent; and its capital city, as Warren Hastings, Esquire, has informed +the Court of Directors, in his letter of the 21st of November, 1781, "is +highly revered by the natives of the Hindoo persuasion, so that many who +have acquired independent fortunes retire to close their days in a place +so eminently distinguished for its sanctity"; and he further acquaints +the Directors, "that it may rather be considered as the seat of the +Hindoo religion than as the capital of a province. But as its +inhabitants are not composed of Hindoos only, the <i>former</i> wealth which +flowed into it from the offerings of pilgrims, as well as from the +transactions of exchange, for which its central situation is adapted, +has attracted numbers of Mahomedans, who still continue to reside in it +with their families." And these circumstances of the city of Benares, +which not only at<a name="Page_328" id="Page_328" title="328" class="pagenum"></a>tracted the attention of all the different +descriptions of men who inhabit Hindostan, but interested them warmly in +whatever it might suffer, did in a peculiar manner require that the +Governor-General and Council of Calcutta should conduct themselves with +regard to its rulers and inhabitants, when it became dependent on the +Company, on the most distinguished principles of good faith, equity, +moderation, and mildness.</p> + +<p>II. That the Rajah Bulwant Sing, late prince or Zemindar of the province +aforesaid, was a great lord of the Mogul Empire, dependent on the same, +through the Vizier of the Empire, the late Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of +Oude; and the said Bulwant Sing, in the commencement of the English +power, did attach himself to the cause of the English Company; and the +Court of Directors of the said Company did acknowledge, in their letter +of the 26th of May, 1768, that "Bulwant Sing's joining us at the time he +did was of <i>signal service</i>, and the stipulation in his favor was what +he was justly entitled to"; and they did commend "the care that had been +taken [by the then Presidency] of those that had shown their attachment +to them [the Company] during the war"; and they did finally express +their hope and expectation in the words following: "The moderation and +attention paid to those who have espoused our interests in this war will +<i>restore</i> our reputation in Hindostan, and that the Indian powers will +be convinced <i>NO breach of treaty will ever have our sanction</i>."</p> + +<p>III. That the Rajah Bulwant Sing died on the 23d of August, 1770, and +his son, Cheyt Sing, <a name="Page_329" id="Page_329" title="329" class="pagenum"></a>succeeding to his rights and pretensions, the +Presidency of Calcutta (John Cartier, Esquire, being then President) did +instruct Captain Gabriel Harper to procure a confirmation of the +succession to his son Cheyt Sing, "as it was of the utmost political +import to the Company's affairs; and that the young man ought not to +consider the price to be paid to satisfy <i>the Vizier's jealousy and +avarice</i>." And they did further declare as follows: "The strong and +inviolable attachment which subsisted betwixt the Company and the father +makes us most readily interpose our good offices for the son." And the +young Rajah aforesaid having agreed, under the mediation of Captain +Harper, to pay near two hundred thousand pounds as a gift to the said +Vizier, and to increase his tribute by near thirty thousand pounds +annually, a deed of confirmation was passed by the said Vizier to the +said Rajah and his heirs, by which he became a purchaser, for valuable +considerations, of his right and inheritance in the zemindary aforesaid. +In consequence of this grant, so by him purchased, the Rajah was +solemnly invested with the government in the city of Benares, "amidst +the acclamations of a numerous people, and to the great satisfaction of +all parties." And the said Harper, in his letter of the 8th October, +1770, giving an account of the investiture aforesaid, did express +himself in these words: "I will leave the young Rajah and others to +acquaint you how I have conducted myself; only thus much let me say, +that I have kept a strict eye not to diminish our national honor, +disinterestedness, and justice, which I will conclude has had a greater +effect in securing to the Company their vast possessions than even the +force of arms, however formidable, could do." The Pres<a name="Page_330" id="Page_330" title="330" class="pagenum"></a>ident of Calcutta +testified his approbation of the said Harper's conduct in the strongest +terms, that is, in the following: "Your disinterestedness has been +equally distinguishable as your abilities, and both do you the greatest +honor."</p> + +<p>IV. That the agreement between the Rajah and Nabob aforesaid continued +on both sides without any violation, under the sanction and guaranty of +the East India Company, for three years, when Warren Hastings, Esquire, +being then President, did propose a further confirmation of the said +grant, and did, on the 12th of October, 1773, obtain a delegation for +himself to be the person to negotiate the same: it being his opinion, as +expressed in his report of October 4th, 1773, that the Rajah was not +only entitled to the inheritance of his zemindary by the grants through +Captain Harper, but that the preceding treaty of Allahabad, though +literally expressing no more than a security personal to Bulwant Sing, +did, notwithstanding, in the true sense and import thereof, extend to +his posterity; "and that it had been differently understood" (that is, +not literally) "by the Company, and by this administration; and the +Vizier had <i>before</i> put it out of all dispute by the solemn act passed +in the Rajah's favor on his succession to the zemindary."</p> + +<p>V. That the Council, in their instructions to the said Governor +Hastings, did empower him "to <i>renew</i>, in behalf of the Rajah Cheyt +Sing, the stipulation which was formerly made with the Vizier in +consideration of his services in 1764"; and the government was +accordingly settled on the Rajah and his poster<a name="Page_331" id="Page_331" title="331" class="pagenum"></a>ity, or to his heirs, on +the same footing on which it was granted to his said father, excepting +the addition aforesaid to the tribute, with an express provision "that +<i>no increase</i> shall ever hereafter be demanded." And the grant and +stipulation aforesaid was further confirmed by the said Sujah ul Dowlah, +under the Company's guaranty, by the most solemn and awful form of oath +known in the Mahomedan religion, inserted in the body of the deed or +grant; and the said Warren Hastings, strongly impressed with the opinion +of the propriety of protecting the Rajah, and of the injustice, malice, +and avarice of the said Sujah Dowlah, and the known family enmity +subsisting between him and the Rajah, did declare, in his report to the +Council, as follows: "I am well convinced that the Rajah's inheritance, +and perhaps his life, are no longer safe than while he enjoys the +Company's protection, which is his due by the ties of justice and the +obligations of public faith."</p> + +<p>VI. That some time after the new confirmation aforesaid, that is to say, +in the year 1774, the Governor-General and Council, which had been +formed and the members thereof appointed by act of Parliament, did +obtain the assignment of the sovereignty paramount of the said +government by treaty with the Nabob of Oude, by which, although the +supreme dominion was changed, the terms and the conditions of the tenure +of the Rajah of Benares remained; as the said Nabob of Oude could +transfer to the East India Company no other or greater estate than he +himself possessed in or over the said zemindary. But to obviate any +misconstruction on the subject, the said Warren Hastings did propose to +the board, that, what<a name="Page_332" id="Page_332" title="332" class="pagenum"></a>ever provision might in the said treaty be made +for the interest of the Company, the same should be "without an +encroachment on the just rights of the Rajah, or <i>the engagements +actually subsisting with him</i>."</p> + +<p>VII. That the said Warren Hastings, then having, or pretending to have, +an extraordinary care of the interest of the Rajah of Benares, did, on +his transfer of the sovereignty, propose a new grant, to be conveyed in +new instruments to the said Rajah, conferring upon him further +privileges, namely, the addition of the sovereign rights of the mint, +and of the right of criminal justice of life and death. And he, the said +Warren Hastings, as Governor-General, did himself propose the resolution +for that purpose in Council, in the following words, with remarks +explanatory of the principles upon which the grants aforesaid were made, +namely:—</p> + +<p class="noindent">MINUTE.</p> + +<p>VIII. "That the perpetual and <i>independent</i> possession of the zemindary +of Benares and its dependencies be <i>confirmed</i> and guarantied to the +Rajah Cheyt Sing and his heirs forever, <i>subject only to the annual +payment of the revenues hitherto paid to the late Vizier</i>, amounting to +Benares Sicca Rupees 23,71,656.12, to be disposed of as is expressed in +the following article: <i>That no other demand be made on him either by +the Nabob of Oude or this government; nor any kind of authority or +jurisdiction be exercised by either within the districts assigned him</i>." +To which minute he, the said Warren Hastings, did subjoin the following +observation in writing, and recorded therewith in the Council books, +that is to say: "<i>The Ra<a name="Page_333" id="Page_333" title="333" class="pagenum"></a>jah of Benares, from the situation of his +country, which is a frontier to the provinces of Oude and Bahar, may be +made a serviceable ally to the Company, whenever their affairs shall +require it. He has always been considered in this light both by the +Company and the successive members of the late Council; but to insure +his attachment to the Company, his interest must be connected with it, +which cannot be better effected than by freeing him totally from the +REMAINS of his present vassalage under the guaranty and protection of +the Company, and at the same time guarding him against any apprehensions +from this government, by thus pledging its faith that no encroachment +shall ever be made on his rights by the Company.</i>" And the said Warren +Hastings, on the 5th of July, 1775, did himself propose, among other +articles of the treaty relative to this object, one of the following +tenor: "That, whilst the Rajah shall continue faithful to these +engagements and punctual in his payments, and shall pay due obedience to +the authority of this government, <i>no more demands</i> shall be made upon +him by the Honorable Company of ANY KIND, or, on any pretence +whatsoever, shall any person be allowed to interfere with his authority, +or to disturb the peace of his country." And the said article was by the +other members of the Council assented to without debate.</p> + +<p>IX. On transferring the Rajah's tribute from the Nabob to the Company, +the stipulation with the Nabob was renewed on the proposition of the +said Warren Hastings himself, and expressed in a yet more distinct +manner, namely: "That no more demands shall be made upon him by the +Honorable Company of any kind." And the said Warren Hastings, in +<a name="Page_334" id="Page_334" title="334" class="pagenum"></a>justification of his proposal of giving the Rajah "a complete and +uncontrolled authority over his zemindary," did enter on the Council +book the following reasons for investing him with the same, strongly +indicating the situation in which he must be left under any other +circumstances, whether under the Nabob of Oude, or under the English, or +under the double influence of both: "That the security of his person and +possessions from the Company's protection may be rated equal to many +lacs of rupees, <i>which, though saved to him, are no loss to the +government on which he depends, being all articles of invisible +expense</i>: in fees to the ministers and officers of the Nabob; in the +charges of a double establishment of vackeels to both governments; in +presents and charges of accommodation to the Nabob, during his residence +at any place within the boundaries of his zemindary; in <i>the frauds, +embezzlements, and oppressions exercised in the mint and cutwally</i>; +besides the allowed profits of those officers, and the advantages which +every man <i>in occasional power, or in the credit of it, might make of +the Rajah's known weakness</i>, and the dread he stood in both of the +displeasure of the Nabob <i>and the ill-will of individuals among the +English, who were all considered, either in their present stations or +connections, or the right of succession, as members of the state of +Bengal</i>. It would be scarce possible to enumerate all the inconveniences +to which the Rajah was liable <i>in his former situation</i>, or to estimate +the precise effect which they produced on his revenue and on the gross +amount of his expense; but it may be easily conceived that both were +enormous, and of a nature the most likely to lessen the profits of +government, instead of adding to them." And in justification of his +pro<a name="Page_335" id="Page_335" title="335" class="pagenum"></a>posal of giving the Rajah the symbols of sovereignty in the power of +life and death, and in the coining of money, as pledges of his +<i>independence</i>, he states the deplorable situation of princes reduced to +dependence on the Vizier or the Company, and obliged to entertain an +English Resident at their court, in the following words: "It is proposed +to receive the payment of his [the Rajah's] rents at Patna, because that +is the nearest provincial station, and because it would not frustrate +<i>the intention of rendering the Rajah independent</i>. If a Resident was +appointed to receive the money, as it became due, at Benares, <i>such a +Resident</i> would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and +over his country, <i>which would in effect render him the master of both</i>. +This consequence might not perhaps be brought completely to pass without +<i>a struggle and many appeals to the Council</i>, which, in a government +constituted like this, <i>cannot fail to terminate against the Rajah, and, +by the construction to which his opposition to the agent would be +liable, might eventually draw on him severe restrictions, and end in +reducing him to the mean and depraved state of a mere zemindar</i>."</p> + +<p>X. That, in order to satisfy the said Rajah of the intentions of the +Company towards him, and of the true sense and construction of the +grants to him, the said Rajah, to be made, the Governor-General (he, the +said Warren Hastings) and Council did, on the 24th August, 1775, +instruct Mr. Fowke, the Resident at the Rajah's court, in the following +words: "It is proper to assure the Rajah, we do not mean to increase his +tribute, but to require from him an exact sum; that, under the +sovereignty of the Company, we are determined to leave him the free and +uncon<a name="Page_336" id="Page_336" title="336" class="pagenum"></a>trolled management of the internal government of his country, and +the collection and regulation of the revenues, so long as he adheres to +the terms of his engagement; and will <i>never</i> demand <i>any</i> augmentation +of the annual tribute which may be fixed."</p> + +<p>XI. That the said Warren Hastings and the Council-General, not being +satisfied with having instructed the Resident to make the representation +aforesaid, to remove all suspicion that by the new grants any attempt +should insidiously be made to change his former tenure, did resolve that +a letter should be written by the Governor-General himself to the Rajah +of Benares, to be delivered to Mr. Fowke, the Resident, together with +his credentials; in which letter they declare "the board willing to +continue the grant of the zemindary to him <i>in as full and ample a +manner as he possessed it from former sovereigns</i>; and on his paying the +annual tribute," &c;—and in explaining the reasons for granting to him +the mint and criminal justice, they inform him that this is done in +order "that he may possess an <i>uncontrolled and free authority</i> in the +regulation and government of his zemindary."</p> + +<p>XII. That on the 26th February, 1776, the Board and Council did order +that the proper instruments should be prepared for conveying to the +Rajah aforesaid the government and criminal justice and mint of Benares, +with its dependencies, "in the usual form, <i>expressing the conditions +already resolved on in the several proceedings of the board</i>." And on +the same day a letter was written to the Resident at Benares, signifying +that they had ordered the proper instruments to be prepared, specifying +the terms concerning <a name="Page_337" id="Page_337" title="337" class="pagenum"></a>the remittance of the Rajah's tribute to Calcutta, +as well as "<i>the several other conditions which had been already agreed +to</i>,—and that they should forward it to him, to be delivered to the +Rajah." And on the 20th of March following, the board did again explain +the terms of the said tribute, in a letter to the Court of Directors, +and did add, "that a <i>sunnud</i> [grant or patent] for his [Cheyt Sing's] +zemindary should be furnished him <i>on these and the conditions before +agreed on</i>."</p> + +<p>XIII. That during the course of the transactions aforesaid in Council, +and the various assurances given to the Rajah and the Court of +Directors, certain improper and fraudulent practices were used with +regard to the symbols of investiture which ought to have been given, and +the form of the deeds by which the said zemindary ought to have been +granted. For it appears that the original deeds were signed by the board +on the 4th September, 1775, and transmitted to Mr. Fowke, the Resident +at the Rajah's court, and that on the 20th of November following the +Court of Directors were acquainted by the said Warren Hastings and the +Council that Rajah Cheyt Sing had been invested with the <i>sunnud</i> +(charters or patents) for his zemindary, and the <i>kellaut</i>, (or robes of +investiture,) in all the proper forms; but on the 1st of October, 1775, +the Rajah did complain to the Governor-General and Council, that the +<i>kellaut</i>, (or robes,) with which he was to be invested according to +their order, "<i>is not of the same kind</i> as that which he received from +the late Vizier on the like occasion." In consequence of the said +complaint, the board did, in their letter to the Resident of the 11th of +the same month, desire <a name="Page_338" id="Page_338" title="338" class="pagenum"></a>him "to make inquiry respecting the nature of +the kellaut, and invest him with <i>one of the same sort</i>, on the part of +this government, instead of that which they formerly described to him." +And it appears highly probable that the instruments which accompanied +the said robes of investiture were made in a manner conformable to the +orders and directions of the board, and the conditions by them agreed +to; as the Rajah, who complained of the insufficiency of the robes, did +make no complaint of the insufficiency of the instruments, or of any +deviation in them from those he had formerly received from the Vizier. +<i>But a copy or duplicate of the said deeds or instruments were in some +manner surreptitiously disposed of, and withheld from the records of the +Company, and never were transmitted to the Court of Directors.</i></p> + +<p>XIV. That several months after the said settlement and investiture, +namely, on the 15th of April, 1776, the Secretary informed the Court +that he had prepared a <i>sunnud</i>, <i>cabbolut</i>, and <i>pottah</i> (that is, a +patent, an agreement, and a rent-roll) for Cheyt Sing's zemindary, and +the board ordered the same to be executed; but the Resident, on +receiving the same, did transmit the several objections made by the +Rajah thereto, and particularly to a clause in the patent, made in +direct contradiction to the engagements of the Council so solemnly and +repeatedly given, by which clause the former patents <i>are declared to be +null</i>. That, on the representation aforesaid, on the 29th July, the +Secretary was ordered to prepare new and proper instruments, <i>omitting +the clause declaring the former patents to be null</i>, and the said new +patents were delivered to the Rajah; and the others, <a name="Page_339" id="Page_339" title="339" class="pagenum"></a>which he objected +to, as well as those which had been delivered to him originally, were +returned to the Presidency. But neither the first set of deeds, nor the +fraudulent patent aforesaid, nor the new instruments made out on the +complaint of the Rajah, omitting the exceptionable words, have been +inserted in the records, although it was the particular duty of the said +Warren Hastings that all transactions with the country powers should be +faithfully entered, as well as to take care that all instruments +transmitted to them on the faith of the Company should be honestly, +candidly, and fairly executed, according to the true intent and meaning +of the engagements entered into on the part of the Company,—giving by +the said complicated, artificial, and fraudulent management, as well as +by his said omitting to record the said material document, strong reason +to presume that he did even then meditate to make some evil use of the +deeds which he thus withheld from the Company, and which he did +afterwards in reality make, when he found means and opportunity to +effect his evil purpose.</p> + + +<h3>PART II.<br /> +<br /> +<a name="DESIGNS_OF_MR_HASTINGS_TO_RUIN_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES" id="DESIGNS_OF_MR_HASTINGS_TO_RUIN_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES"></a>DESIGNS OF MR. HASTINGS TO RUIN THE RAJAH OF BENARES.</h3> + +<p>I. That the tribute transferred to the Company by the treaty with the +Nabob of Oude, being 250,000<i>l.</i> a year sterling, and upwards, without +any deductions whatsoever, was paid monthly, with such punctual +exactness as had no parallel in the Company's dealings with any of the +native princes or with any subject zemindar, being the only one who +never was in arrears; and according to all appearance, a perfect +<a name="Page_340" id="Page_340" title="340" class="pagenum"></a>harmony did prevail between the Supreme Council at Calcutta and the +Rajah. But though the Rajah of Benares furnished no occasion of +displeasure to the board, yet it since appears that the said Warren +Hastings did, at some time in the year 1777, conceive displeasure +against him. In that year, he, the said Warren Hastings, retracted his +own act of resignation of his office, made to the Court of Directors +through his agent, Mr. Macleane, and, calling in the aid of the military +to support him in his authority, brought the divisions of the +government, according to his own expression, "to an extremity bordering +on civil violence." This extremity he attributes, in a narrative by him +transmitted to the Court of Directors, and printed, not to his own fraud +and prevarication, but to what he calls "an attempt to wrest from him +his authority"; and in the said narrative he pretends that the Rajah of +Benares had deputed an agent with an express commission to his opponent, +Sir John Clavering. This fact, if it had been true, (which is not +proved,) was in no sort criminal or offensive to the Company's +government, but was at first sight nothing more than a proper mark of +duty and respect to the supposed succession of office. Nor is it +possible to conceive in what manner it could offend the said Hastings, +if he did not imagine that the express commission to which in the said +narrative he refers might relate to the discovery to Sir John Clavering +of some practice which he might wish to conceal,—the said Clavering, +whom he styles "<i>his opponent</i>," having been engaged, in obedience to +the Company's express orders, in the discovery of sundry peculations and +other evil practices charged upon the said Hastings. But although, at +the time of the said pre<a name="Page_341" id="Page_341" title="341" class="pagenum"></a>tended deputation, he dissembled his +resentment, it appears to have rankled in his mind, and that he never +forgave it, of whatever nature it might have been (the same never having +been by him explained); and some years after, he recorded it in his +justification of his oppressive conduct towards the Rajah, urging the +same with great virulence and asperity, as a proof or presumption of +his, the said Rajah's, disaffection to the Company's government; and by +his subsequent acts, he seems from the first to have resolved, when +opportunity should occur, on a severe revenge.</p> + +<p>II. That, having obtained, in his casting vote, a majority in Council on +the death of Sir John Clavering and Mr. Monson, he did suddenly, and +without any previous general communication with the members of the +board, by a Minute of Consultation of the 9th of July, 1778, make an +extraordinary demand, namely: "That the Rajah of Benares should +<i>consent</i> to the establishment of three regular battalions of sepoys, +<i>to be raised and maintained at his own expense</i>"; and the said expense +was estimated at between fifty and sixty thousand pounds sterling.</p> + +<p>III. That the said requisition did suppose the <i>consent</i> of the +Rajah,—the very word being inserted in the body of his, the said Warren +Hastings's, minute; and the same was agreed to, though with some doubts +on the parts of two of his colleagues, Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler, +concerning the right of making the same, even worded as it was. But Mr. +Francis and Mr. Wheler, soon after, finding that the Rajah was much +alarmed by this departure from the treaty, the requisition aforesaid was +strenuously opposed by <a name="Page_342" id="Page_342" title="342" class="pagenum"></a>them. The said Hastings did, notwithstanding +this opposition, persevere, and by his casting vote alone did carry the +said unjust and oppressive demand. The Rajah submitted, after some +murmuring and remonstrance, to pay the sum required,—but on the express +condition (as has been frequently asserted by him to the said Warren +Hastings without any contradiction) that the exaction should continue +<i>but for one year, and should not be drawn into precedent</i>. He also +requested that the extraordinary demand should be paid along with the +instalments of his monthly tribute: but although the said Warren +Hastings did not so much as pretend that the instant payment was at all +necessary, and though he was urged by his before-mentioned colleagues to +moderate his proceedings, he did insist upon immediate payment of the +whole; and did deliver his demand in proud and insulting language, +wholly unfit for a governor of a civilized nation to use towards eminent +persons in alliance with and in honorable and free dependence upon its +government; and did support the same with arguments full of +unwarrantable passion, and with references to reports affecting merely +his own personal power and consideration, which reports were not proved, +nor attempted to be proved, and, if proved, furnishing reasons +insufficient for his purpose, and indecent in any public proceedings. +That the said Hastings did cause the said sums of money to be rigorously +exacted, although no such regular battalions as he pretended to +establish, as a color for his demand on the Rajah, were then raised, or +any steps taken towards raising them; and when the said Rajah pleaded +his inability to pay the whole sum at once, he, the said Hastings, +persevering in his <a name="Page_343" id="Page_343" title="343" class="pagenum"></a>said outrageous and violent demeanor, did order the +Resident to wait on the Rajah forthwith, and "demand of him in person, +and by writing, the full payment in specie to be made to him within five +days of such demand, and to declare to him, in the name of this +government, that his evading or neglecting to accomplish the payment +thereof within that space of time should be deemed <i>equivalent to an +absolute refusal</i>; and in case of non-compliance with this [the +Resident's] demand, <i>we peremptorily enjoin you to refrain from all +further intercourse with him</i>": the said Hastings appearing by all his +proceedings to be more disposed to bring on a quarrel with the Prince of +Benares, than to provide money for any public service.</p> + +<p>IV. That the said demand was complied with, and the whole thereof paid +on the 10th of October that year. And the said Rajah did write to the +said Hastings a letter, in order to mitigate and mollify him, declaring +to the said Hastings that his sole reliance was on him, "and that in +every instance he depended on his faith, religion, promises, and +actions." But he, the said Warren Hastings, as if the being reminded of +his faith and promises were an incentive to him to violate the same, +although he had agreed that his demand should not be drawn into +precedent, and the payment of the fifty thousand pounds aforesaid should +continue only for one year, did, the very day after he had received the +letter aforesaid, renew a demand of the same nature and on the same +pretence, this year even less plausible than the former, of three +battalions <i>to be</i> raised. The said Rajah, on being informed of this +requisition, did remind the said Warren Hastings<a name="Page_344" id="Page_344" title="344" class="pagenum"></a> that he engaged in the +last year that but one payment should be made, and that he should not be +called upon in future, and, pleading inability to discharge the new +demand, declared himself in the following words to the said Warren +Hastings: "I am therefore hopeful you will be kindly pleased to excuse +me the five lacs now demanded, and that nothing may be demanded of me +beyond the amount expressed in the pottah."</p> + +<p>V. That on the day after the receipt of this letter, that is, on the +28th August, 1779, he, the said Warren Hastings, made a reply to the +said letter; and without any remark whatsoever on the allegation of the +Rajah, stating to him his engagement, that he, the said Rajah, should +not be called upon in future, he says, "I now repeat my demand, that you +do, on the receipt of this, without evasion or delay, pay the five lac +of rupees into the hands of Mr. Thomas Graham, who has orders to receive +it from you, and, in case of your refusal, to summon the two battalions +of sepoys under the command of Major Camac to Benares, that measures may +be taken to oblige you to a compliance; and in this case, the whole +expense of the corps, from the time of its march, will fall on you."</p> + +<p>VI. That the said Rajah did a second and third time represent to the +said Warren Hastings that he had broke his promise, and the said +Hastings did in no manner deny the same, but did, in contempt thereof, +as well as of the original treaty between the Company and the Rajah, +order two battalions of troops to march into his territories, and in a +<a name="Page_345" id="Page_345" title="345" class="pagenum"></a>manner the most harsh, insulting, and despotic, as if to provoke that +prince to some act of resistance, did compel him to the payment of the +said second unjust demand; and did extort also the sum of two thousand +pounds, on pretence of the charge of the troops employed to coerce him.</p> + +<p>VII. That the third year, that is to say, in the year 1780, the same +demand was, with the same menaces, renewed, and did, as before, produce +several humble remonstrances and submissive complaints, which the said +Hastings did always treat as crimes and offences of the highest order; +and although in the regular subsidy or tribute, which was monthly +payable by treaty, fifty days of grace were allowed on each payment, and +after the expiration of the said fifty days one quarter par cent only +was provided as a penalty, he, the said Warren Hastings, on some short +delay of payment of his third arbitrary and illegal demand, did presume +of his own authority to impose a fine or mulct of ten thousand pounds on +the said Rajah; and though it does not appear whether or no the same was +actually levied, the said threat was soon after followed by an order +from the said Hastings for the march of troops into the country of +Benares, as in the preceding year.</p> + +<p>VIII. That, these violent and insulting measures failing to provoke the +Rajah, and he having paid up the whole demand, the said Warren Hastings, +being resolved to drive him to extremities, did make on the said Rajah a +sudden demand, over and above the ordinary tribute or subsidy of +260,000<i>l.</i> per annum, and over and above the 50,000<i>l.</i> extraordinary, +to <a name="Page_346" id="Page_346" title="346" class="pagenum"></a>provide a body of cavalry for the service of the Bengal government.</p> + +<p>IX. The demand, as expressed in the Minute of Consultation, and in the +public instructions of the board to the Resident to make the +requisition, is "for such part of the cavalry entertained in his service +as he can spare"; and the demand is in this and in no other manner +described by the Governor-General and Council in their letter to the +Court of Directors. But in a Narrative of the said Warren Hastings's, +addressed to Edward Wheler, Esquire, it appears, that, upon the Rajah's +making difficulties, according to the representation of the said +Hastings, relative to the said requisition, the correspondence +concerning which the said Hastings hath fraudulently suppressed, he, the +said Hastings, instead of adhering to the requisition of such cavalry +<i>as the Rajah could spare</i>, and which was all that by the order of +Council he was authorized to make, did, of his own private and arbitrary +authority, in some letter which he hath suppressed, instruct the +Resident, Markham, to make a peremptory demand for two thousand cavalry, +which he well knew to be more than the Rajah's finances could support, +estimating the provision for the same at 96,000<i>l.</i> a year at the +lowest, though the expense of the same would probably have been much +more: which extravagant demand the said Hastings could only have made in +hopes of provoking the Rajah to some imprudent measure or passionate +remonstrance. And this arbitrary demand of cavalry was made, and +peremptorily insisted on, although in the original treaty with the said +Rajah it was left entirely optional whether or not he should keep up any +cav<a name="Page_347" id="Page_347" title="347" class="pagenum"></a>alry at all, and in the Minute of Consultation it was expressly +mentioned to be thus optional, and that for whatsoever cavalry he, the +said Rajah, should furnish, he should be paid fifteen rupees per month +for each private, and so in proportion for officers: yet the demand +aforesaid was made without any offer whatsoever of providing the said +payment according to treaty.</p> + +<p>X. That the said Hastings did soon after, but upon what grounds does not +appear by any Minute of Council, or from any correspondence contained in +his Narrative, reduce the demand to fifteen hundred, and afterwards to +one thousand: by which he showed himself to be sensible of the +extravagance of his first requisition.</p> + +<p>XI. That, in consequence of these requisitions, as he asserts in his +Narrative aforesaid, the Rajah "did offer two hundred and fifty horse, +but sent none." But the said Hastings doth not accompany his said +Narrative with any voucher or document whatever; and therefore the +account given by the Rajah, and delivered to the said Warren Hastings +himself, inserted by the said Warren Hastings himself in his Narrative, +and in no part thereof attempted to be impeached, is more worthy of +credit: that is to say,—</p> + +<p>"With respect to the horse, you desired me in your letter to inform you +of what number I could afford to station with you. I sent you a +particular account of all that were in my service, amounting to one +thousand three hundred horse, of which several were stationed at distant +places; but I received no answer to this. Mr. Markham delivered me an +order <a name="Page_348" id="Page_348" title="348" class="pagenum"></a>to prepare a thousand horse. In compliance with your wishes I +collected five hundred horse, and a substitute for the remainder, five +hundred <i>burkundasses</i> [matchlock-men], of which I sent you information; +and I told Mr. Markham that they were ready to go to whatever place they +should be sent. No answer, however, came from you on this head, and I +remained astonished at the cause of it. Repeatedly I asked Mr. Markham +about an answer to my letter about the horse; but he told me that he did +not know the reason of no answer having been sent. I remained +astonished."</p> + +<p>XII. That the said Hastings is guilty of an high offence in not giving +an answer to letters of such importance, and in concealing the said +letters from the Court of Directors, as well as much of his +correspondence with the Residents,—and more particularly in not +directing to what place the cavalry and matchlock-men aforesaid should +be sent, when the Rajah had declared they were ready to go to whatever +service should be destined for them, and afterwards in maliciously +accusing the Rajah for not having sent the same.</p> + +<p>XIII. That, on the 3d of February, 1781, a new demand for the support of +the three fictitious battalions of sepoys aforesaid was made by the said +Warren Hastings; but whilst the Rajah was paying by instalments the said +arbitrary demand, the said Rajah was alarmed with some intelligence of +secret projects on foot for his ruin, and, being well apprised of the +malicious and revengeful temper of the said Hastings, in order to pacify +him, if possible, offered to redeem <a name="Page_349" id="Page_349" title="349" class="pagenum"></a>himself by a large ransom, to the +amount of two hundred thousand pounds sterling, to be paid for the use +of the Company. And it appears that the said alarm was far from +groundless; for Major Palmer, one of the secret and confidential agents +of the said Hastings, hath sworn, on the 4th of December, 1781, at the +desire of the said Warren Hastings, before Sir Elijah Impey, to the +following effect, that is to say: "That the said Warren Hastings had +told him, the said Palmer, that he, the said Hastings, had rejected the +offer of two hundred thousand pounds made by the Rajah of Benares for +the public service, and that he was resolved <i>to convert the faults +committed by the Rajah into a public benefit</i>, and would exact the sum +of five hundred thousand pounds, as a punishment for his breach of +engagements with the government of Bengal, and acts of misconduct in his +zemindary; and if the Rajah should absolutely refuse the demand, that he +would deprive him of his zemindary, or transfer the sovereignty thereof +to the Nabob of Oude."</p> + +<p>XIV. And Mr. Anderson, in his declaration from Sindia's camp, of the 4th +of January, 1782, did also, at the desire of Mr. Hastings, depose +(though not on oath) concerning a conversation between him and the said +Hastings (but mentioning neither the time nor place where the same was +held); in which conversation, after reciting the allegations of the said +Hastings relative to several particulars of the delay and backwardness +of the Rajah in paying the aforesaid extra demand, and his resolution to +exact from the Rajah "a considerable sum of money to the relief of the +Company's exigencies," he proceeds in the following words: "That, if he +[the Rajah] consented, <a name="Page_350" id="Page_350" title="350" class="pagenum"></a>you [the said Warren Hastings] were desirous of +<i>establishing his possessions on the most permanent and eligible +footing</i>; but if he refused, you had it in your power to <i>raise a large +sum</i> for the Company by accepting an offer which had been made for his +districts by the Vizier." And the said Anderson, in the declaration +aforesaid, made at the request of the said Hastings, and addressed to +him, expressed himself as follows: "That you told me you had +communicated our designs to Mr. Wheler [his only remaining colleague]; +and I believe, but I do not positively recollect, you said he concurred +in them." But no trace of any such communication or concurrence did, at +the time referred to, or at any time ever after, appear on the +Consultations, as it ought to have done; and the said Hastings is +criminal for having omitted to enter and record the proceeding. That the +said Wheler did also declare, but a considerable time after the date of +the conversations aforesaid, that, "on the eve of the Governor-General's +departure, the said Hastings had told him that the Rajah's offences (not +stating what offences, he having paid up all the demands, ordinary and +extraordinary) <i>were declared</i> to require early punishment; and as <i>his +wealth was great, and the Company's exigencies pressing</i>, it was thought +a measure of policy and of justice to exact from him a large pecuniary +mulct for their relief. The sum to which the Governor declared his +resolution to extend the fine was forty <i>or</i> fifty lacs; his ability to +pay it was stated as a fact that could not admit of a doubt; and the two +alternatives on which the Governor declared himself to have resolved +were, to the best of my recollection, either a removal from his +zemindary entirely, or, by <a name="Page_351" id="Page_351" title="351" class="pagenum"></a>taking immediate possession of all his +forts, to obtain out of the treasure deposited in them the above sum for +the Company."</p> + +<p>XV. That in the declaration of the said Wheler the time of the +conversation aforesaid is stated to be on the eve of the Governor's +departure, and then said to be confidential; nor is it said or +insinuated that he knew or ever heard thereof at a more early period, +though it appears by Major Palmer's affidavit that the design of taking, +not four <i>or</i> five, but absolutely five, hundred thousand pounds from +the Rajah, was communicated to him as early as the month of June. And it +does not appear by the declarations of the said Wheler he did ever +casually or officially approve of the measure; which long concealment +and late communication, time not being allowed to his colleague to +consider the nature and consequences of such a project, or to advise any +precaution concerning the same, is a high misdemeanor.</p> + +<p>XVI. That the said Hastings, having formed a resolution to execute one +of the three violent and arbitrary resolutions aforesaid,—namely, to +sell the Company's sovereignty over Benares to the Nabob of Oude, or to +dispossess the Rajah of his territories, or to seize upon his forts, and +to plunder them of the treasure therein contained, to the amount of four +or five hundred thousand pounds,—did reject the offer of two hundred +thousand pounds, tendered by the said Rajah for his redemption from the +injuries which he had discovered that the said Hastings had +clandestinely meditated against him, although the sum aforesaid would +have been a considerable and seasonable<a name="Page_352" id="Page_352" title="352" class="pagenum"></a> acquisition at that time: the +said Hastings being determined, at a critical period, to risk the +existence of the British empire, rather than fail in the gratification +of his revenge against the said Rajah.</p> + +<p>XVII. That the first of his three instituted projects, namely, the +depriving the Rajah of his territories, was by himself considered as a +measure likely to be productive of much odium to the British government: +he having declared, whatever opinions he might entertain of its justice, +"that it would have an appearance of <i>severity</i>, and might furnish +grounds <i>unfavorable to the credit of our government, and to his own +reputation</i>, from the natural influence which every <i>act of rigor</i>, +exercised in the persons of men in <i>elevated situations</i>, is apt to +impress on those who are too remote from the scene of action to judge, +by any evidence of the facts themselves, of their motives or propriety." +And the second attempt, the sum of money which he aimed at by attacking +the fortresses of the Rajah, and plundering them of the treasure +supposed to be there secured, besides the obvious uncertainty of +acquiring what was thus sought, would be liable to the same imputations +with the former. And with regard to the third project, namely, the sale +of the Company's sovereignty to the Nabob of Oude, and his having +actually received proposals for the same, it was an high offence to the +Company, as presuming, without their authority or consent, to put up to +sale their sovereign rights, and particularly to put them up to sale to +that very person against whom the independence of the said province had +been declared by the Governor-General and Council to be necessary, as a +barrier for the security of the <a name="Page_353" id="Page_353" title="353" class="pagenum"></a>other provinces, in case of a future +rupture with him.<a name="FNanchor_59_65" id="FNanchor_59_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_65" class="fnanchor" title=" See Hastings's Letter.">[59]</a> It was an heinous injury to the said Rajah to +attempt to change his relation without his consent, especially on +account of the person to whom he was to be made over for money, by +reason of the known enmity subsisting between his family and that of the +Nabob, who was to be the purchaser; and it was a grievous outrage on the +innocent inhabitants of the zemindary of Benares to propose putting them +under a person long before described by himself to the Court of +Directors "to want the qualities of the head and heart requisite for his +station"; and a letter from the British Resident at Oude, transmitted to +the said Court, represents him "to have wholly lost, by his +<i>oppressions</i>, the confidence and affections of his own subjects"; and +whose distresses, and the known disorders in his government, he, the +said Hastings, did attribute solely to his own bad conduct and evil +character; admitting also, in a letter written to Edward Wheler, +Esquire, and transmitted to the Court of Directors, "that many +circumstances did favor suspicion of his [the said Nabob's] fidelity to +the English interest, the Nabob being surrounded by men base in their +characters and improvident in their understandings, his favorites, and +his companions of his looser hours. These had every cause to dread the +effect of my influence on theirs; and both these, and the relations of +the family, whose views of consequence and power were intercepted by our +participation in the administration of his affairs, entertained a mortal +hatred to our nation, and openly avowed it." And the said Hastings was +well aware, that, in case the Nabob, by him described in the manner +aforesaid, <a name="Page_354" id="Page_354" title="354" class="pagenum"></a>on making such purchase, should continue to observe the +terms of his father's original covenants and engagements with the Rajah, +and should pay the Company the only tribute which he could lawfully +exact from the said Rajah, it was impossible that he could, for the mere +naked and unprofitable rights of a sovereignty paramount, afford to +offer so great a sum as the Rajah did offer to the said Hastings for his +redemption from oppression; such an acquisition to the Nabob (while he +kept his faith) could not possibly be of any advantage whatever to him; +and that therefore, if a great sum was to be paid by the Nabob of Oude, +it must be for the purpose of oppression and violation of public faith, +to be perpetrated in the person of the said Nabob, to an extent and in a +manner which the said Hastings was then apprehensive he could not +justify to the Court of Directors as his own personal act.</p> + + +<h3>PART III.<br /> +<br /> +<a name="EXPULSION_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES" id="EXPULSION_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_BENARES"></a>EXPULSION OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES.</h3> + +<p>I. That the said Warren Hastings, being resolved on the ruin of the +Rajah aforesaid, as a preliminary step thereto, did, against the express +orders of the Court of Directors, remove Francis Fowke, Esquire, the +Company's Resident at the city of Benares, without any complaint or +pretence of complaint whatsoever, but merely on his own declaration that +he must have as a Resident at Benares a person of his own special and +personal nomination and confidence, and not a man of the Company's +nomination,—and in the place of the said Francis Fowke, thus illegally +divested of his office, did appoint thereto another servant of the +Company of his own choice.</p><p><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355" title="355" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>II. That, soon after he had removed the Company's Resident, he prepared +for a journey to the upper provinces, and particularly to Benares, in +order to execute the wicked and perfidious designs by him before +meditated and contrived: and although he did communicate his purpose +privately to such persons as he thought fit to intrust therewith, he did +not enter anything on the Consultations to that purpose, or record the +principles, real or pretended, on which he had resolved to act, nor did +he state any guilt in the Rajah which he intended to punish, or charge +him, the said Rajah, with entertaining any hostile intentions, the +effects of which were to be prevented by any strong measure; but, on the +contrary, he did industriously conceal his real designs from the Court +of Directors, and did fallaciously enter on the Consultations a minute +declaratory of purposes wholly different therefrom, and which supposed +nothing more than an amicable adjustment, founded on the treaties +between the Company and the Rajah, investing himself by his said minute +with "full power and authority to form <i>such</i> arrangements <i>with</i> the +Rajah of Benares for the <i>better</i> government and management of his +zemindary, and to perform such acts for the improvement of the interest +which the Company possesses in it, as he shall think <i>fit and consonant +to the mutual engagements subsisting between the Company and the +Rajah</i>"; and for this and other purposes he did invest himself with the +whole power of the Council, giving to himself an authority as if his +acts had been the acts of the Council itself: which, though a power of a +dangerous, unwarrantable, and illegal extent, yet does plainly imply the +following limits, namely, that the acts done should be <i>arranged with</i> +the Rajah, <a name="Page_356" id="Page_356" title="356" class="pagenum"></a>that is, <i>with his consent</i>; and, secondly, that they should +be consonant to the actual engagements between the parties; and nothing +appears in the minute conferring the said power, which did express or +imply any authority for depriving the Rajah of his government, or +selling the sovereignty thereof to his hereditary enemy, or for the +plunder of his fort-treasures.</p> + +<p>III. That the said Warren Hastings, having formed the plans aforesaid +for the ruin of the Rajah, did set out on a journey to the city of +Benares with a great train, but with a very small force, not much +exceeding six companies of regular black soldiers, to perpetrate some of +the unjust and violent acts by him meditated and resolved on; and the +said Hastings was met, according to the usage of distinguished persons +in that country, by the Rajah of Benares with a very great attendance, +both in boats and on shore, which attendance he did apparently intend as +a mark of honor and observance to the place and person of the said +Hastings, but which the said Hastings did afterwards groundlessly and +maliciously represent as an indication of a design upon his life; and +the said Rajah came into the pinnace in which the said Hastings was +carried, and in a lowly and suppliant manner, alone, and without any +guard or attendance whatsoever, entreated his favor; and being received +with great sternness and arrogance, he did put his turban in the lap of +the said Hastings, thereby signifying that he abandoned his life and +fortune to his disposal, and then departed, the said Hastings not +apprehending, nor having any reason to apprehend, any violence +whatsoever to his person.</p><p><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357" title="357" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>IV. That the said Hastings, in the utmost security and freedom from +apprehension, did pursue his journey, and did arrive at the city of +Benares on the 14th of August, 1781, some hours before the Rajah, who, +soon after his arrival, intended to pay him a visit of honor and respect +at his quarters, but was by the said Hastings rudely and insolently +forbid, until he should receive his permission. And the said Hastings, +although he had previously determined on the ruin of the said Rajah, in +order to afford some color of regularity and justice to his proceedings, +did, on the day after his arrival, that is, on the 15th day of August, +1781, send to the Rajah a charge in writing, which, though informal and +irregular, may be reduced to four articles, two general, and two more +particular: the first of the general being, "That he [the Rajah] had, by +the means of his secret agents, endeavored to excite disorders in the +government on which he depended"; the second, "That he had suffered the +<i>daily</i> perpetration of robberies and murders, even in the streets of +Benares, to the great and public scandal of the English name."</p> + +<p>V. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings is guilty of an high +offence, contrary to the fundamental principles of justice, in the said +mode of charging misdemeanors, without any specification of person or +place or time or act, or any offer of specification or proofs by which +the party charged may be enabled to refute the same, in order to +unjustly load his reputation, and to prejudice him with regard to the +articles more clearly specified.</p> + +<p>VI. That the two specified articles relate to cer<a name="Page_358" id="Page_358" title="358" class="pagenum"></a>tain delays: the +first, with regard to the payment of the sums of money unjustly extorted +as aforesaid; and the second, the non-compliance with a requisition of +cavalry,—which non-compliance the said Hastings (even if the said +charges had been founded) did falsely, and in contradiction to all law, +affirm and maintain (in his accusation against the Rajah, and addressing +himself to him) "to amount to a <i>direct</i> charge of disaffection and +<i>infidelity</i> to the government on which you depend": and further +proceeded as follows: "I therefore judged it proper to state them [the +said charges] thus fully to you in writing, and to <i>require</i> your +answer; and this I expect <i>immediately</i>." That the said Hastings, +stating his pretended facts to amount to a charge of the nature (as he +would have it understood) of high treason, and <i>therefore</i> calling for +an <i>immediate</i> answer, did wilfully act against the rules of natural +justice, which requires that a convenient time should be given to +answer, proportioned to the greatness of the offence alleged, and the +heavy penalties which attend it; and when he did arrogate to himself a +right both to charge and to judge in his own person, he ought to have +allowed the Rajah full opportunity for conferring with his ministers, +his doctors of law, and his accountants, on the facts charged, and on +the criminality inferred in the said accusation of disloyalty and +disaffection, or offences of that quality.</p> + +<p>VII. That the said Rajah did, under the pressure of the disadvantages +aforesaid, deliver in, upon the very evening of the day of the charge, a +full, complete, and specific answer to the two articles therein +specified; and did allege and offer proof that the whole of <a name="Page_359" id="Page_359" title="359" class="pagenum"></a>the +extraordinary demands of the said Hastings had been actually long before +paid and discharged; and did state a proper defence, with regard to the +cavalry, even supposing him bound (when he was not bound) to furnish +any. And the said Rajah did make a direct denial of the truth, of the +two <i>general</i> articles, and did explain himself on the same in as +satisfactory a manner and as fully as their nature could permit, +offering to enter into immediate trial of the points in issue between +him and the said Hastings, in the remarkable words following. "My +enemies, with a view to my ruin, have made false representations to you. +Now that, <i>happily for me</i>, you have yourself arrived at this place, you +will be able to ascertain all the circumstances: first, relative to the +horse; secondly, to my people going to Calcutta; and thirdly, the dates +of the receipts of the particular sums above mentioned. You will then +know whether I have amused you with a false representation, or made a +just report to you." And in the said answer the said Rajah complained, +but in the most modest terms, of an injury to him of the most dangerous +and criminal nature in transactions of such moment, namely, his not +receiving any answer to his letters and petitions, and concluded in the +following words. "I have never swerved in the smallest degree from my +duty to you. It remains with you to decide on all these matters. I am in +every case your slave. What is just I have represented to you. May your +prosperity increase!"</p> + +<p>VIII. That the said Warren Hastings was bound by the essential +principles of natural justice to attend to the claim made by the Rajah +to a fair and impartial trial and inquiry into the matter of accusation +<a name="Page_360" id="Page_360" title="360" class="pagenum"></a>brought against him by the said Hastings, at a time and place which +furnished all proper materials and the presence of all necessary +witnesses; but the said Hastings, instead of instituting the said +inquiry and granting trial, did receive an humble request for justice +from a great prince as a fresh offence, and as a personal insult to +himself, and did conceive a violent passion of anger and a strong +resentment thereat, declaring that he did consider the said answer as +not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style. "This +answer you will perceive to be not only unsatisfactory in substance, but +offensive in style, and less a vindication of himself than a +recrimination on me. It expresses no concern for the causes of complaint +contained in my letter, or desire to atone for them, nor the smallest +intention to pursue a different line of conduct. An answer couched +nearly <i>in terms of defiance</i> to requisitions of so serious a nature I +could not but consider as <i>a strong indication of that spirit of +independency</i> which the Rajah has for some years past assumed, and of +which indeed I had early observed other manifest symptoms, both before +and from the instant of my arrival." Which representation is altogether +and in all parts thereof groundless and injurious; as the substance of +the answer is a justification proper to be pleaded, and the style, if in +anything exceptionable, it is in its extreme humility, resulting rather +from an unmanly and abject spirit than from anything of an offensive +liberty; but being received as disrespectful by the said Hastings, it +abundantly indicates the tyrannical arrogance of the said Hastings, and +the depression into which the natives are sunk under the British +government.</p><p><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361" title="361" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>IX. That the said Warren Hastings, pretending to have been much alarmed +at the offensive language of the said Rajah's defence, and at certain +appearances of independency which he had observed, not only on former +occasions, but since his arrival at Benares, (where he had been but +little more than one day,) and which appearances he never has specified +in any one instance, did assert that he conceived himself indispensably +obliged to adopt some decisive plan; and without any farther inquiry or +consultation (which appears) with any person, did, at ten o'clock of the +very night on which he received the before-mentioned full and +satisfactory as well as submissive answer, send an order to the British +Resident (then being a public minister representing the British +government at the court of the said Rajah, and as such bound by the law +of nations to respect the prince at whose court he was Resident, and not +to attempt anything against his person or state, and who ought not, +therefore, to have been chosen by the said Hastings, and compelled to +serve in that business) that he should on the next morning arrest the +said prince in his palace, and keep him in his custody until further +orders; which said order being conceived in the most peremptory terms, +the Rajah was put under arrest, with a guard of about thirty orderly +sepoys, with their swords drawn; and the particulars thereof were +reported to him as follows.</p> + +<p>"HONORABLE SIR,—I this morning, in obedience to your orders of +last night, proceeded with a few of my orderlies, accompanied by +Lieutenant Stalker, to Shewalla Ghaut, the present residence of Rajah +Cheyt Sing, and acquainted him it was your pleasure he <a name="Page_362" id="Page_362" title="362" class="pagenum"></a>should consider +himself in arrest; that he should order his people to behave in a quiet +and orderly manner, for that any attempt <i>to rescue him would be +attended with his own destruction. The Rajah submitted quietly to the +arrest</i>, and assured me, that, whatever were your orders, he was ready +implicitly to obey; he hoped that you would allow him a <i>subsistence</i>, +but as for <i>his zemindary, his forts, and his treasure, he was ready to +lay them at your feet, and his life, if required</i>. He expressed himself +much hurt at the ignominy which he affirmed must be the consequence of +his confinement, and entreated me to return to you with the foregoing +submission, hoping that you would make allowances for his youth and +inexperience, and in consideration of his father's name release him from +his confinement, as soon as he should prove the sincerity of his offers, +and himself deserving of your compassion and forgiveness."</p> + +<p>X. That a further order was given, that every servant of the Rajah's +should be disarmed, and a certain number only left to attend him under a +strict watch. In a quarter of an hour after this conversation, two +companies of grenadier sepoys were sent to the Rajah's palace by the +said Hastings; and the Rajah, being dismayed by this unexpected and +unprovoked treatment, wrote two short letters or petitions to the said +Hastings, under the greatest apparent dejection at the outrage and +dishonor he had suffered in the eyes of his subjects, (all imprisonment +of persons of rank being held in that country as a mark of indelible +infamy, and he also, in all probability, considering his imprisonment as +a prelude to the taking away his life,) and in the first of the said +petitions he did ex<a name="Page_363" id="Page_363" title="363" class="pagenum"></a>press himself in this manner: "Whatever may be your +pleasure, do it with your own hands; I am your slave. What occasion can +there be for a guard?" And in the other: "My honor was bestowed upon me +by your Highness. It depends on you alone to take away or not to take +away the country out of my hands. In case my honor is not left to me, +how shall I be equal to the business of the government? Whoever, with +his hands in a supplicating posture, is ready with his life and +property, what necessity can there be for him to be dealt with in this +way?"</p> + +<p>XI. That, according to the said Hastings's narrative of this +transaction, he, the said Hastings, on account of the apparent +despondency in which these letters were written, "thought it <i>necessary</i> +to give him <i>some</i> encouragement," and therefore wrote him a note of a +few lines, carelessly and haughtily expressed, and little calculated to +relieve him from his uneasiness, promising to send to him a person to +explain particulars, and desiring him "to set his mind at rest, and not +to conceive any terror or apprehension." To which an answer of great +humility and dejection was received.</p> + +<p>XII. That the report of the Rajah's arrest did cause a great alarm in +the city, in the suburbs of which the Rajah's palace is situated, and in +the adjacent country. The people were filled with dismay and anger at +the outrage and indignity offered to a prince under whose government +they enjoyed much ease and happiness. Under these circumstances the +Rajah desired leave to perform his ablutions; which was refused, unless +he sent for water, and performed <a name="Page_364" id="Page_364" title="364" class="pagenum"></a>that ceremony on the spot. This he +did. And soon after some of the people, who now began to surround the +palace in considerable numbers, attempting to force their way into the +palace, a British officer, commanding the guard upon the Rajah, struck +one of them with his sword. The people grew more and more irritated; but +a message being sent from the Rajah to appease them, they continued, on +this interposition, for a while quiet. Then the Rajah retired to a sort +of stone pavilion, or bastion, to perform his devotions, the guard of +sepoys attending him in this act of religion. In the mean time a person +of the meanest station, called a <i>chubdar</i>, at best answering to our +common beadle or tipstaff, was sent with a message (of what nature does +not appear) from Mr. Hastings, or the Resident, to the prince under +arrest: and this base person, without regard to the rank of the +prisoner, or to his then occupation, addressed him in a rude, boisterous +manner, "passionately and insultingly," (as the said Rajah has without +contradiction asserted,) "and, reviling him with a loud voice, gave both +him and his people the vilest abuse"; and the manner and matter being +observable and audible to the multitude, divided only by an open stone +lattice from the scene within, a firing commenced from without the +palace; on which the Rajah again interposed, and did what in him lay to +suppress the tumult, until, an English officer striking him with a +sword, and wounding him on the hand, the people no longer kept any +measures, but broke through the inclosure of the palace. The insolent +tipstaff was first cut down, and the multitude falling upon the sepoys +and the English officers, the whole, or nearly the whole, were cut to +pieces: the soldiers <a name="Page_365" id="Page_365" title="365" class="pagenum"></a>having been ordered to that service without any +charges for their pieces. And in this tumult, the Rajah, being justly +fearful of falling into the hands of the said Hastings, did make his +escape over the walls of his palace, by means of a rope formed of his +turban tied together, into a boat upon the river, and from thence into a +place of security; abandoning many of his family to the discretion of +the said Hastings, who did cause the said palace to be occupied by a +company of soldiers after the flight of the Rajah.</p> + +<p>XIII. That the Rajah, as soon as he had arrived at a place of refuge, +did, on the very day of his flight, send a suppliant letter to the said +Hastings, filled with expressions of concern (affirmed by the said +Hastings to be slight expressions) for what had happened, and +professions (said by the said Hastings to be indefinite and unapplied) +of fidelity: but the said Warren Hastings, though bound by his duty to +hear the said Rajah, and to prevent extremities, if possible, being +filled with insolence and malice, did not think it "<i>becoming</i> of him to +make any reply to it; and that he <i>thought</i> he ordered the bearer of the +letter to be told that <i>it required none</i>."</p> + +<p>XIV. That this letter of submission having been received, the said +Rajah, not discouraged or provoked from using every attempt towards +peace and reconciliation, did again apply, on the very morning +following, to Richard Johnson, Esquire, for his interposition, but to no +purpose; and did likewise, with as little effect, send a message to +Cantoo Baboo, native steward and confidential agent of the said +Hastings, which was afterwards reduced into writing, "to ex<a name="Page_366" id="Page_366" title="366" class="pagenum"></a>culpate +himself from any concern in what had passed, and to profess his +obedience to his <i>will</i> [Hastings's] <i>in whatever</i> way he should +dictate." But the said Hastings, for several false and contradictory +reasons by him assigned, did not take any advantage of the said opening, +attributing the same to artifice in order to gain time; but instead of +accepting the said submissions, he did resolve upon flight from the city +of Benares, and did suddenly fly therefrom in great confusion.</p> + +<p>XV. That the said Hastings did persevere in his resolutions not to +listen to any submission or offer of accommodation whatsoever, though +several were afterwards made through almost every person who might be +supposed to have influence with him, but did cause the Rajah's troops to +be attacked and fallen upon, though they only acted on the defensive, +(as the Rajah has without contradiction asserted,) and thereby, and by +his preceding refusal of propositions of the same nature, and by other +his perfidious, unjust, and tyrannical acts by him perpetrated and done, +and by his total improvidence in not taking any one rational security +whatsoever against the inevitable consequences of those acts, did make +himself guilty of all the mutual slaughter and devastation which ensued, +as well as, in his opinion, of the imminent danger of the total +subversion of the British power in India by the risk of his own person, +which he asserts that it did run,—as also "that it ought not to be +thought that he attributed too much consequence to his personal safety, +when he supposed <i>the fate of the British empire in India connected with +it</i>, and that, mean as its substance may be, its accidental qualities +<a name="Page_367" id="Page_367" title="367" class="pagenum"></a>were equivalent to those which, like the characters of a talisman in +the Arabian mythology, formed the <i>essence</i> of the state itself, +representation, title, and the <i>estimate</i> of the public opinion; that, +had he fallen, such a stroke would be universally considered as decisive +of the national fate; every state round it would have started into arms +against it, and <i>every subject of its own dominion would, according to +their several abilities, have become its enemy</i>": and that he knew and +has declared, that, though the said stroke was not struck, that great +convulsions did actually ensue from his proceedings, "that half the +province of Oude was in a state of as complete rebellion as that of +Benares," and that invasions, tumults, and insurrections were occasioned +thereby in various other parts.</p> + +<p>XVI. That the said Warren Hastings, after he had collected his forces +from all parts, did, with little difficulty or bloodshed, subsequent to +that time, on the part of his troops, and in a few days, entirely reduce +the said province of Benares; and did, after the said short and little +resisted hostility, in cold blood, issue an order for burning a certain +town, in which he accused the people at large of having killed, "upon +what provocation he knows not," certain wounded sepoys, who were +prisoners: which order, being <i>generally</i> given, when it was his duty to +have made some inquiry concerning the particular offenders, but which he +did never make, or cause to be made, was cruel, inhuman, and tended to +the destruction of the revenues of the Company; and that this, and other +acts of devastation, did cause the loss of two months of the +collections.</p><p><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368" title="368" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>XVII. That the said Warren Hastings did not only refuse the submissions +of the said Rajah, which were frequently repeated through various +persons after he had left Benares, and even after the defeat of certain +of the Company's forces, but did proscribe and except him from the +pardons which he issued after he had satisfied his vengeance on the +province of Benares.</p> + +<p>XVIII. That the said Warren Hastings did send to a certain castle, +called Bidzigur, the residence of a person of high rank, called Panna, +the mother of the Rajah of Benares, with whom his wife, a woman +described by the said Hastings "to be of an amiable character," and all +the other women of the Rajah's family, and the survivors of the family +of his father, Bulwant Sing, did then reside, a body of troops to +dispossess them of her said residence, and to seize upon her money and +effects, although she did not stand, even by himself, accused of any +offence whatsoever,—pretending, but not proving, and not attempting to +prove, then nor since, that the treasures therein contained were the +property of the Rajah, and not her own; and did, in order to stimulate +the British soldiery to rapine and outrage, issue to them several +barbarous orders, contrary to the practice of civilized nations, +relative to their property, movable and immovable, attended with +unworthy and unbecoming menaces, highly offensive to the manners of the +East and the particular respect there paid to the female sex,—which +letters and orders, as well as the letters which he had received from +the officers concerned, the said Hastings did unlawfully suppress, until +forced by the disputes between him and the said <a name="Page_369" id="Page_369" title="369" class="pagenum"></a>officers to discover +the same: and the said orders are as follow.</p> + +<p>"I am this instant favored with yours of yesterday. Mine of the same +date [22d October, 1781] has before this time acquainted you with my +resolutions and sentiments respecting the Rannee [the mother of the +Rajah Cheyt Sing]. I think every demand she has made to you, except that +of safety and respect for her person, is unreasonable. If the reports +brought to me are true, <i>your rejecting her offers, or any negotiations +with her</i>, would soon obtain you possession of the fort upon your own +terms. I apprehend that she will contrive <i>to defraud the captors of a +considerable part of the booty by being suffered to retire without +examination. But this is your consideration, and 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</i>; but I cannot make any objection, as +you must be the best judge of the expediency of the <i>promised</i> +indulgence to the Rannee. What you have engaged for I will certainly +ratify; but as to permitting the Rannee to hold the purgunnah of Hurluk, +or any other in the zemindary, without being subject to the authority of +the zemindar, or any lands whatever, <i>or indeed making any conditions +with her for a provision, I will never consent to it</i>." And in another +letter to the same person, dated Benares, 3d of November, 1781, in which +he, the said Hastings, consents that the said woman of distinction +should be allowed to evacuate the place and to receive protection, he +did express himself as follows. "I am willing to grant her now the same +conditions to which I at first consented, provided that she delivers +into your possession, within twenty-four hours from the time of +re<a name="Page_370" id="Page_370" title="370" class="pagenum"></a>ceiving your message, the fort of Bidzigur, with the treasure and +effects lodged therein by Cheyt Sing or any of his adherents, with the +reserve only, as above mentioned, of such articles <i>as you shall think +necessary to her sex and condition</i>, or as you shall be disposed <i>of +yourself to indulge her with</i>. If she complies, as I expect she will, it +will be your part to secure the fort and the property it contains <i>for +the benefit of yourself and detachment</i>. I have only further to request +that you will grant an escort, if Panna should require it, to conduct +her here, or wherever she may choose to retire to. But should she refuse +to execute the promise she has made, <i>or delay it beyond the term of +twenty-four hours</i>, it is my <i>positive</i> injunction that you immediately +put a stop to any further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on no +pretext renew it. If she disappoints <i>or trifles</i> 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 <i>wanton affront and +indignity which I can never forgive</i>, nor will I grant her any +conditions whatever, but leave her exposed to <i>those dangers</i> which she +has chosen to risk rather than trust to the clemency and generosity of +our government. I think <i>she cannot be ignorant of these consequences, +and will not venture to incur them</i>; and it is for this reason I place a +dependence on her offers, and have consented to send my duan to her."</p> + +<p>XIX. That the castle aforesaid being surrendered upon terms of safety, +and on express condition of not attempting to search their persons, the +woman of rank aforesaid, her female relations and female dependants, to +the number of three hundred, besides children, <a name="Page_371" id="Page_371" title="371" class="pagenum"></a>evacuated the said +castle; but the spirit of rapacity being excited by the letters and +other proceedings of the said Hastings, the capitulation was shamefully +and outrageously broken, and, in despite of the endeavors of the +commanding officer, the said woman of high condition, and her female +dependants, friends, and servants, were plundered of the effects they +carried with them, and which were reserved to them in the capitulation +of their fortress, and in their persons were otherwise rudely and +inhumanly dealt with by the licentious followers of the camp: for which +outrages, represented to the said Hastings with great concern by the +commanding officer, Major Popham, he, the said Hastings, did afterwards +recommend a late and fruitless redress.</p> + +<p>XX. That the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, in exciting the hopes of +the military by declaring them <i>well entitled to the plunder</i> of the +fortress aforesaid, the residence of the mother and other women of the +Rajah of Benares, and by wishing the troops to secure the same for their +own benefit, did advise and act in direct contradiction to the orders of +the Court of Directors, and to his own opinion of his public duty, as +well as to the truth and reality thereof,—he having some years before +entered in writing the declaration which follows.</p> + +<p>"The very idea of <i>prize-money</i> suggests to my remembrance <i>the former +disorders which arose in our army from this source, and had almost +proved fatal to it</i>. Of this circumstance you must be sufficiently +apprised, and of the necessity for discouraging every expectation of +this kind amongst the troops. <i>It is to be avoided like poison.</i> The bad +effects of a similar <a name="Page_372" id="Page_372" title="372" class="pagenum"></a>measure were but too plainly felt in a former +period, and our honorable masters did not fail on that occasion to +reprobate with their censure, in the most severe terms, a practice which +they regarded as the source of infinite evils, and which, if +established, would in their judgment necessarily bring corruption and +ruin on their army."</p> + +<p>XXI. That the said Hastings, after he had given the license aforesaid, +and that in consequence thereof the booty found in the castle, to the +amount of 23,27,813 current rupees, was distributed among the soldiers +employed in its reduction, the said Hastings did retract his declaration +of right, and his permission to the soldiers to appropriate to +themselves the plunder, and endeavored, by various devices and +artifices, to explain the same away, and to recover the spoil aforesaid +for the use of the Company; and wholly failing in his attempts to resume +by a breach of faith with the soldiers what he had unlawfully disposed +of by a breach of duty to his constituents, he attempted to obtain the +same as a loan, in which attempt he also failed; and the aforesaid money +being the only part of the treasures belonging to the Rajah, or any of +his family, that had been found, he was altogether frustrated in the +acquisition of every part of that dishonorable object which alone he +pretended to, and pursued through a long series of acts of injustice, +inhumanity, oppression, violence, and bloodshed, at the hazard of his +person and reputation, and, in his own opinion, at the risk of the total +subversion of the British empire.</p> + +<p>XXI. That the said Warren Hastings, after the <a name="Page_373" id="Page_373" title="373" class="pagenum"></a>commission of the +offences aforesaid, being well aware that he should be called to an +account for the same, did, by the evil counsel and agency of Sir Elijah +Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, who was then out of the +limits of his jurisdiction, cause to be taken at Benares, before or by +the said Sir Elijah Impey, and through the intervention, not of the +Company's interpreter, but of a certain private interpreter of his, the +said Hastings's, own appointment, and a dependant on him, called Major +Davy, several declarations and depositions by natives of Hindostan,—and +did also cause to be taken before the said Sir Elijah Impey several +attestations in English, made by British subjects, and which were +afterwards transmitted to Calcutta, and laid before the +Council-General,—some of which depositions were upon oath, some upon +honor, and others neither upon <i>oath</i> nor <i>honor</i>, but all or most of +which were of an irregular and irrelevant nature, and not fit or decent +to be taken by a British magistrate, or to be transmitted to a British +government.</p> + +<p>XXIII. That one of the said attestations (but not on oath) was made by a +principal minister of the Nabob of Oude, to whom the said Hastings had +some time before proposed to sell the sovereignty of that very territory +of Benares; and that one other attestation (not upon oath) was made by a +native woman of distinction, whose son he, the said Hastings, did +actually promote to the government of Benares, vacated by the unjust +expulsion of the Rajah aforesaid, and who in her deposition did declare +that she considered the expelled Rajah as her enemy, and that he never +did confer with her, or suffer her to be acquainted with any of his +designs.</p><p><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374" title="374" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>XXIV. That, besides the depositions of persons interested in the ruin of +the Rajah, others were made by persons who then received pensions from +him, the said Hastings; and several of the affidavits were made by +persons of mean condition, and so wholly illiterate as not to be able to +write their names.</p> + +<p>XXV. That he, the said Hastings, did also cause to be examined by +various proofs and essays, the result of which was delivered in upon +honor, the quality of certain military stores taken by the British +troops from the said Rajah of Benares; and upon the report that the same +were of a good quality, and executed by persons conversant in the making +of good military stores, although the cannon was stated by the same +authority to be bad, he, the said Warren Hastings, from the report +aforesaid, did maliciously, and contrary to the principles of natural +and legal reason, infer that the insurrection which had been raised by +his own violence and oppression, and rendered for a time successful by +his own improvidence, was the consequence of a premeditated design to +overturn the British empire in India, and to exterminate therefrom the +British nation; which design, if it had been true, the said Hastings +might have known, or rationally conjectured, and ought to have provided +against. And if the said Hastings had received any credible information +of such design, it was his duty to lay the same before the Council +Board, and to state the same to the Rajah, when he was in a condition to +have given an answer thereto or to observe thereon, and not, after he +had proscribed and driven him from his dominions, to have inquired into +offences to justify the previous infliction of punishment.</p><p><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375" title="375" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>XXVI. That it does not appear, that, in taking the said depositions, +there was any person present on the part of the Rajah to object to the +competence or credibility or relevancy of any of the said affidavits or +other attestations, or to account, otherwise than as the said deponents +did account, for any of the facts therein stated; nor were any copies +thereof sent to the said Rajah, although the Company had a minister at +the place of his residence, namely, in the camp of the Mahratta chief +Sindia, so as to enable him to transmit to the Company any matters which +might induce or enable them to do justice to the injured prince +aforesaid. And it does not appear that the said Hastings has ever +produced any witness, letter, or other document, tending to prove that +the said Rajah ever did carry on any hostile negotiation whatever with +any of those powers with whom he was charged with a conspiracy against +the Company, previous to the period of the said Hastings's having +arrested him in his palace, although he, the said Hastings, had various +agents at the courts of all those princes,—and that a late principal +agent and near relation of a minister of one them, the Rajah of Berar, +called Benaram Pundit, was, at the time of the tumult at Benares, +actually with the said Hastings, and the said Benaram Pundit was by him +highly applauded for his zeal and fidelity, and was therefore by him +rewarded with a large pension on those very revenues which he had taken +from the Rajah Cheyt Sing, and if such a conspiracy had previously +existed, the Mahratta minister aforesaid must have known, and would have +attested it.</p> + +<p>XXVII. That it appears that the said Warren<a name="Page_376" id="Page_376" title="376" class="pagenum"></a> Hastings, at the time that +he formed his design of seizing upon the treasures of the Rajah of +Benares, and of deposing him, did not believe him guilty of that +premeditated project for driving the English out of India with which he +afterwards thought fit to charge him, or that he was really guilty of +any other great offence: because he has caused it to be deposed, that, +if the said Rajah should pay the sum of money by him exacted, "he would +settle his zemindary upon him on the most eligible footing"; whereas, if +he had conceived him to have entertained traitorous designs against the +Company, from whom he held his tributary estate, or had been otherwise +guilty of such enormous offences as to make it necessary to take +extraordinary methods for coercing him, it would not have been proper +for him to settle upon such a traitor and criminal the zemindary of +Benares, or any other territory, upon the most eligible, or upon any +other footing whatever: whereby the said Hastings has by his own stating +demonstrated that the money intended to have been exacted was not as a +punishment for crimes, but that the crimes were pretended for the +purpose of exacting money.</p> + +<p>XXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to justify the acts of +violence aforesaid to the Court of Directors, did assert certain false +facts, known by him to be such, and did draw from them certain false and +dangerous inferences, utterly subversive of the rights of the princes +and subjects dependent on the British nation in India, contrary to the +principles of all just government, and highly dishonorable to that of +Great Britain: namely, that the "Rajah of Benares was not a vassal or +tributary <a name="Page_377" id="Page_377" title="377" class="pagenum"></a>prince, and that the deeds which passed between him and the +board, upon the transfer of the zemindary in 1775, were not to be +understood to bear the quality and force of a treaty upon optional +conditions between equal states; that the payments to be made by him +were not a tribute, but a rent; and that the instruments by which his +territories were conveyed to him did not differ from common grants to +zemindars who were merely subjects; but that, being nothing more than a +common zemindar and mere subject, and the Company holding the +acknowledged rights of his former sovereign, held an absolute authority +over him; that, in the known relations of zemindar to the sovereign +authority, or power delegated by it, he owed a personal allegiance and +an implicit and unreserved obedience to that authority, at the +forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property." Whereas +the said Hastings did well know, that, whether the payments from the +Rajah were called <i>rent</i> or <i>tribute</i>, having been frequently by himself +called the one and the other, and that of whatever nature the +instruments by which he held might have been, he did not consider him as +a common zemindar or landholder, but as far independent as a tributary +prince could be: for he did assign as a reason for receiving his rent +rather within the Company's province than in his own capital, that it +would not "frustrate the intention of rendering the Rajah <i>independent</i>; +that, if a Resident was appointed to receive the money as it became due +at Benares, such a Resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over +the Rajah, and over his country, which would in effect render him the +master of both; that this consequence might not, perhaps, be brought +completely to pass without a <a name="Page_378" id="Page_378" title="378" class="pagenum"></a>struggle, and many appeals to the Council, +which, in a government constituted like this, cannot fail to terminate +against the Rajah, and, by the construction to which his opposition to +the agent would be liable, might eventually draw on him severe +restrictions, and end <i>in reducing him to the mean and depraved state of +a zemindar</i>."</p> + +<p>XXIX. And the said Hastings, in the said Minute of Consultation, having +enumerated the frauds, embezzlements, and oppressions which would ensue +from the Rajah's being in the dependent state aforesaid, and having +obviated all apprehensions from giving to him the implied symbols of +dominion, did assert, "that, without such appearance, he would expect +from every change of government additional demands to be made upon him, +and would of course descend to all the arts of intrigue and concealment +practised by other dependent Rajahs, which would keep him indigent and +weak, and eventually prove hurtful to the Company; but that, by proper +encouragement and protection, he might prove a profitable dependant, an +useful barrier, and even a powerful ally to the Company; but that he +would be neither, if the conditions of his connection with the Company +were left open to future variations."</p> + +<p>XXX. That, if the fact had been true that the Rajah of Benares was +merely an eminent landholder or any other subject, the wicked and +dangerous doctrine aforesaid, namely, that he owed a personal allegiance +and an implicit and unreserved obedience to the sovereign authority, at +the forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property, at +the dis<a name="Page_379" id="Page_379" title="379" class="pagenum"></a>cretion of those who held or fully represented the sovereign +authority, doth leave security neither for life nor property to any +persons residing under the Company's protection; and that no such +powers, nor any powers of that nature, had been delegated to the said +Warren Hastings by any provisions of the act of Parliament appointing a +Governor-General and Council at Fort William in Bengal.</p> + +<p>XXXI. That the said Warren Hastings did also advance another dangerous +and pernicious principle in justification of his violent, arbitrary, and +iniquitous actings aforesaid: namely, "that, if he had acted with an +unwarrantable rigor, and even injustice, towards Cheyt Sing, yet, first, +if he did <i>believe</i> that extraordinary means were necessary, and those +exerted with a strong hand, to preserve the Company's interests from +sinking under the accumulated weight that oppressed them, or, secondly, +if he saw a <i>political necessity</i> for curbing the <i>overgrown</i> power of a +great member of their dominion, and to make it contribute to the relief +of their pressing exigencies, that his error would be excusable, as +prompted by an excess of zeal for their [the Company's] interest, +operating with too strong a bias on his judgment; but that much stronger +is the presumption, that such acts are founded on just principles than +that they are the result of a misguided judgment." That the said +doctrines are, in both the members thereof, subversive of all the +principles of just government, by empowering a governor with delegated +authority, in the first case, on his own private <i>belief</i> concerning the +necessities of the state, not to levy an impartial and equal rate of +taxation suitable to the circumstances of the several members <a name="Page_380" id="Page_380" title="380" class="pagenum"></a>of the +community, but to select any individual from the same as an object of +arbitrary and unmeasured imposition,—and, in the second case, enabling +the same governor, on the same arbitrary principles, to determine whose +property should be considered as overgrown, and to reduce the same at +his pleasure.</p> + + +<h3>PART IV.<br /> +<br /> +<a name="SECOND_REVOLUTION_IN_BENARES" id="SECOND_REVOLUTION_IN_BENARES"></a>SECOND REVOLUTION IN BENARES.</h3> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, after he had, in the manner aforesaid, +unjustly and violently expelled the Rajah Cheyt Sing, the lord or +zemindar of Benares, from his said lordship or zemindary, did, of his +own mere usurped authority, and without any communication with the other +members of the Council of Calcutta, appoint another person, of the name +of Mehip Narrain, a descendant by the mother from the late Rajah, +Bulwant Sing, to the government of Benares; and on account or pretence +of his youth and inexperience (the said Mehip Narrain not being above +twenty years old) did appoint his father, Durbege Sing, to act as his +representative or administrator of his affairs; but did give a +controlling authority to the British Resident over both, notwithstanding +his declarations before mentioned of the mischiefs likely to happen to +the said country from the establishment of a Resident, and his opinion +since declared in a letter to the Court of Directors, dated from this +very place (Benares) the 1st of October, 1784, to the same or stronger +effect, in case "agents are sent into the country, and armed with +authority for the purposes of vengeance and corruption,—<i>for to no +other will they be applied</i>."</p><p><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381" title="381" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings did, by the same usurped authority, +entirely set aside all the agreements made between the late Rajah and +the Company (which were real agreements with the state of Benares, in +the person of the lord or prince thereof, and his heirs); and without +any form of trial, inquisition, or other legal process, for forfeiture +of the privileges of the people to be governed by magistrates of their +own, and according to their natural laws, customs, and usages, did, +contrary to the said agreement, separate the mint and the criminal +justice from the said government, and did vest the mint in the British +Resident, and the criminal justice in a Mahomedan native of his own +appointment; and did enhance the tribute to be paid from the province, +from two hundred and fifty thousand pounds annually, limited by treaty, +or thereabouts, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the +first year, and to four hundred thousand for every year after; and did +compel the administrator aforesaid (father to the Rajah) to agree to the +same; and did, by the same usurped authority, illegally impose, and +cause to be levied, sundry injudicious and oppressive duties on goods +and merchandise, which did greatly impair the trade of the province, and +threaten the utter ruin thereof; and did charge several pensions on the +said revenues, of his own mere authority; and did send and keep up +various bodies of the Company's troops in the said country; and did +perform sundry other acts with regard to the said territory, in total +subversion of the rights of the sovereign and the people, and in +violation of the treaties and agreements aforesaid.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, being absent, on <a name="Page_382" id="Page_382" title="382" class="pagenum"></a>account of ill health, +from the Presidency of Calcutta, at a place called Nia Serai, about +forty miles distant therefrom, did carry on a secret correspondence with +the Resident at Benares, and, under color that the instalments for the +new rent or tribute were in arrear, did of his own authority make, in +about one year, a second revolution in the government of the territory +aforesaid, and did order and direct that Durbege Sing aforesaid, father +of the Rajah, and administrator of his authority, should be deprived of +his office and of his lands, and thrown into prison, and did threaten +him with death: although he, the said Warren Hastings, had, at the time +of the making his new arrangement, declared himself sensible that the +rent aforesaid might require abatement; although he was well apprised +that the administrator had been for two months of his administration in +a weak and languid state of body, and wholly incapable of attending to +the business of the collections; though a considerable drought had +prevailed in the said province, and did consequently affect the +regularity and produce of the collections; and though he had other +sufficient reason to believe that the said administrator had not himself +received from the collectors of government and the cultivators of the +soil the rent in arrear: yet he, the said Warren Hastings, without any +known process, or recording any answer, defence, plea, exculpation, or +apology from the party, or recording any other grounds of rigor against +him, except the following paragraph of a letter from the Resident, not +only gave the order as aforesaid, but did afterwards, without laying any +other or better ground before the Council-General, persuade them to, and +did procure from them, a confirmation of the afore<a name="Page_383" id="Page_383" title="383" class="pagenum"></a>said cruel and +illegal proceedings, the correspondence concerning which had not been +before communicated: he pleading his illness for not communicating the +same, though that illness did not prevent him from carrying on +correspondence concerning the deposition of the said administrator, and +other important affairs in various places.</p> + +<p>That in the letter to the Council requiring the confirmation of his acts +aforesaid the said Warren Hastings did not only propose the confinement +of the said administrator at Benares, although by his imprisonment he +must have been in a great measure disabled from recovering the balances +due to him, and for the non-payment of which he was thus imprisoned, but +did propose, as an alternative, his imprisonment at a remote fortress, +out of the said territory, and in the Company's provinces, called +Chunar: desiring them to direct the Resident at Benares "to exact from +Baboo Durbege Sing every rupee of the collections which it shall appear +that he has made and not brought to account, and either to confine him +at Benares, or to send him a prisoner to Chunar, and to keep him in +confinement until he shall have discharged the whole of the amount due +from him." And the said Warren Hastings did assign motives of passion +and personal resentment for the said unjust and rigorous proceedings, as +follows: "I feel myself, and may be allowed on such an occasion to +acknowledge it, personally hurt at the ingratitude of this man, and at +the discredit which his ill conduct has thrown on my appointment of him. +He has deceived me; he has offended against the government which I then +represented." And as a further reason for depriving him of his jaghire, +(or salary out of land,) he did <a name="Page_384" id="Page_384" title="384" class="pagenum"></a>insinuate in the said letter, but +without giving or offering any proof, "that the said Rajah had been +guilty of <i>little and mean peculations</i>, although the appointments +assigned to him had been sufficient to free him from the temptations +thereto."</p> + +<p>That it appears, as it might naturally have been expected, that the wife +of the said administrator, the daughter of Bulwant Sing, the late Rajah +of Benares, and her son, the reigning Rajah, did oppose to the best of +their power, but by what remonstrances or upon what plea the said Warren +Hastings did never inform the Court of Directors, the deposition, +imprisonment, and confiscation of the estates of the husband of the one +and the father of the other; but that the said Hastings, persisting in +his malice, did declare to the said Council as follows: "The opposition +made by the Rajah and the old Rannee, both equally incapable of judging +for <i>themselves</i>, does certainly originate from some secret influence, +which ought to be checked by a decided and peremptory declaration of the +authority of the board, and a denunciation of their displeasure at +<i>their presumption</i>."</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, not satisfied with the injuries done and +the insults and disgraces offered to the family aforesaid, did, in a +manner unparalleled, except by an act of his own on another occasion, +fraudulently and inhumanly endeavor to make the wife and son of the said +administrator, contrary to the sentiments and the law of Nature, the +instruments of his oppressions: directing, "that, if they" (the mother +and son aforesaid) "could be <i>induced</i> to yield <i>the appearance of a +cheerful acquiescence</i> in the new arrangement, and to adopt it as <i>a +measure formed with their participation</i>, it would be better than that +it <a name="Page_385" id="Page_385" title="385" class="pagenum"></a>should be done by a declared act of compulsion; but that at all +events it ought to be done."</p> + +<p>That, in consequence of the pressing declarations aforesaid, the said +Warren Hastings did on his special recommendation appoint, in opposition +to the wishes and desires of the Rajah and his mother, another person to +the administration of his affairs, called Jagher Deo Seo.</p> + +<p>That, the Company having sent express orders for the sending the +Resident by them before appointed to Benares, the said Warren Hastings +did strongly oppose himself to the same, and did throw upon the person +appointed by the Company (Francis Fowke, Esquire) several strong, but +unspecified, reflections and aspersions, contrary to the duty he owed to +the Company, and to the justice he owed to all its servants.</p> + +<p>That the said Resident, being appointed by the votes of the rest of the +Council, in obedience to the reiterated orders of the Company, and in +despite of the opposition of the said Hastings, did proceed to Benares, +and, on the representation of the parties, and the submission of the +accounts of the aforesaid Durbege Sing to an arbitrator, did find him, +the said Durbege Sing, in debt to the Company for a sum not considerable +enough to justify the severe treatment of the said Durbege Sing: his +wife and son complaining, at or about the same time, that the balances +due to him from the <i>aumils</i>, or sub-collectors, had been received by +the new administrator, and carried to his own credit, in prejudice and +wrong to the said Durbege Sing; which representation, the only one that +has been transmitted on the part of the said sufferers, has not been +contradicted.</p><p><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386" title="386" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>That it appears that the said Durbege Sing did afterwards go to Calcutta +for the redress of his grievances, and that it does not appear that the +same were redressed, or even his complaints heard, but he received two +peremptory orders from the Supreme Council to leave the said city and to +return to Benares; that, on his return to Benares, and being there met +by Warren Hastings aforesaid, he, the said Warren Hastings, although he +had reason to be well assured that the said Durbege Sing was in +possession of small or no substance, did again cruelly and inhumanly, +and without any legal authority, order the said Durbege Sing to be +strictly imprisoned; and the said Durbege Sing, in consequence of the +vexations, hardships, and oppressions aforesaid, died in a short time +after, insolvent, but whether in prison or not does not appear.</p> + + +<h3>PART V.<br /> +<br /> +<a name="THIRD_REVOLUTION_IN_BENARES" id="THIRD_REVOLUTION_IN_BENARES"></a>THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES.</h3> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, having, in the manner before recited, +divested Durbege Sing of the administration of the province of Benares, +did, of his own arbitrary will and pleasure, and against the +remonstrances of the Rajah and his mother, (in whose name and in whose +right the said Durbege Sing, father of the one, and husband of the +other, had administered the affairs of the government,) appoint a person +called Jagher Deo Seo to administer the same.</p> + +<p>That the new administrator, warned by the severe example made of his +predecessor, is represented by the said Warren Hastings as having made +it his<a name="Page_387" id="Page_387" title="387" class="pagenum"></a> "avowed principle" (as it might be expected it should be) "that +the sum fixed for the revenue <i>must</i> be collected." And he did, upon the +principle aforesaid, and by the means suggested by a principle of that +sort, accordingly levy from the country, and did regularly discharge to +the British Resident at Benares, by monthly payments, the sums imposed +by the said Warren Hastings, as it is asserted by the Resident, Fowke; +but the said Warren Hastings did assert that his annual collections did +not amount to more than Lac 37,37,600, or thereabouts, which he says is +much short of the revenues of the province, and is by about twenty-four +thousand pounds short of his agreement.</p> + +<p>That it further appears, that, notwithstanding the new administrator +aforesaid was appointed two months, or thereabouts, after the beginning +of the Fusseli year, that is to say, about the middle of November, 1782, +and the former administrator had collected a certain portion of the +revenues of that year, amounting to 17,000<i>l.</i> and upwards, yet he, the +said new administrator, upon the unjust and destructive principle +aforesaid, suggested by the cruel and violent proceedings of the said +Warren Hastings towards his predecessor, did levy on the province, +within the said year, the whole amount of the revenues to be collected, +in addition to the sum collected by his predecessor aforesaid.</p> + +<p>That, on account of a great drought which prevailed in the province +aforesaid, a remission of certain duties in grain was proposed by the +chief criminal judge at Benares; but the administrator aforesaid, being +fearful that the revenue should fall short in his hands, did strenuously +oppose himself to the necessary relief to the inhabitants of the said +city.</p><p><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388" title="388" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>That, notwithstanding the cantonment of several bodies of the Company's +troops within the province, since the abolition of the native +government, it became subject in a particular manner to the depredations +of the Rajahs upon the borders; insomuch that in one quarter no fewer +than thirty villages had been sacked and burned, and the inhabitants +reduced to the most extreme distress.</p> + +<p>That the Resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent +that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult, and, +besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty +the following. "That there is also one fund which in former years was +often applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the +revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This was the +private fortunes of merchants and <i>shroffs</i> [bankers] resident in +Benares, from whom <i>aumils</i> [collectors] of credit could obtain +temporary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of the Rajah. These sums, +which used to circulate between the aumil and the merchant, have been +turned into a different channel, by bills of exchange to defray the +expenses of government, both on the west coast of India, and also at +Madras." To which representation it does not appear that any answer was +given, or that any mode of redress was adopted in consequence thereof.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, having passed through the province of +Benares (Gazipore) in his progress towards Oude, did, in a letter dated +from the city of Lucknow, the 2d of April, 1784, give to the Council +Board at Calcutta an account, highly dishonorable to the British +government, of the effect of the arrangements made by himself in the +years 1781 <a name="Page_389" id="Page_389" title="389" class="pagenum"></a>and 1782, in the words following. "Having contrived, by +making forced stages, while the troops of my escort marched at the +ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at Benares, I was thereby +furnished with the means of acquiring some knowledge of the state of the +province, which I am anxious to communicate to you. Indeed, the inquiry, +which was <i>in a great degree obtruded upon me</i>, affected me with very +mortifying reflections on my inability to apply it to any useful +purpose. From the confines of Buxar to Benares I was followed and +<i>fatigued</i> by the clamors of the discontented inhabitants. It was what I +expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority +should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it. The +distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably +tended to heighten the general discontent; <i>yet I have reason to fear +that the cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and +oppressive administration</i>. Of a multitude of petitions which were +presented to me, and of which I took minutes, every one that did not +relate to a personal grievance contained the representation of one and +the same species of oppression, which is in its nature of an influence +most fatal to the future cultivation. The practice to which I allude is +this. It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the +proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in kind on their +stipulated rent: that is, from those who hold their <i>pottah</i> by the +tenure of paying <i>one half</i> of the produce of their crops, either <i>the +whole</i> without subterfuge, or a <i>large</i> proportion of it by a <i>false +measurement</i> or other pretexts; and from those whose engagements are for +a fixed rent <i>in money</i>, the half, or a greater proportion, is taken <i>in +kind</i>.<a name="Page_390" id="Page_390" title="390" class="pagenum"></a> This is in effect a tax upon the industry of the inhabitants: +since there is scarce a field of grain in the province, <i>I might say not +one</i>, which has not been preserved by the incessant labor of the +cultivator, by digging wells for their supply, or watering them from the +wells of masonry with which their country abounds, or from the +neighboring tanks, rivers, and nullahs. The people who imposed on +themselves this voluntary and extraordinary labor, and not unattended +with expense, did it on the expectation of reaping the profits of it; +and it is certain they would not have done it, if they had known that +their rulers, <i>from whom they were entitled to an indemnification</i>, +would take from them what they had so hardly earned. If the same +administration continues, and the country shall again labor under a want +of rain, <i>every field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands +perish through want of subsistence</i>: for who will labor for the <i>sole</i> +benefit of others, and to make himself the subject of exaction? These +practices are to be imputed to the Naib himself" (the administrator +forced by the said Warren Hastings on the present Rajah of Benares). +"The avowed principle on which he acts, and which he acknowledged to +myself, is, that the <i>whole</i> sum fixed for the revenue of the province +<i>must</i> be collected,—and that, for this purpose, the deficiency arising +in places where the crops have failed, or which have been left +uncultivated, must be supplied from the resources of others, where the +soil has been better suited to the season, or the industry of the +cultivators hath been more successfully exerted: a principle which, +however specious and plausible it may at first appear, <i>certainly tends +to the most pernicious and destructive consequences</i>. If <a name="Page_391" id="Page_391" title="391" class="pagenum"></a>this +declaration of the Naib had been made only to myself, I might have +doubted my construction of it; but it was repeated by him to Mr. +Anderson, who understood it exactly in the same sense. In the management +of the customs, the conduct of the Naib, or of the officer under him, +was forced also upon my attention. <i>The exorbitant rates exacted by an +arbitrary valuation of the goods</i>, the practice of exacting duties +<i>twice</i> on the same goods, (first from the seller, and afterwards from +the buyer,) and the vexations, disputes, and delays drawn on the +merchants by these oppressions, were loudly complained of; and some +instances of this kind were said to exist at the very time I was at +Benares. Under such circumstances, we are not to wonder, if the +merchants of foreign countries are discouraged from resorting to +Benares, and if the commerce of that province should annually decay. +<i>Other</i> evils, or imputed evils, have accidentally come to my knowledge, +which I will not now particularize, as I hope, that, with the +assistance of the Resident, they may be <i>in part</i> corrected. One evil I +must mention, because it has been verified by my own observation, and is +of that kind which reflects an unmerited reproach on our general and +national character. When I was at Buxar, the Resident, at my desire, +enjoined the Naib to appoint creditable people to every town through +which our route lay, to persuade and encourage the inhabitants to remain +in their houses, promising to give them guards as I approached, and they +required it for their protection; and that he might perceive how earnest +I was for his observation of this precaution, I repeated it to him in +person, and dismissed him that he might precede me for that purpose. +But, to my great disappointment,<a name="Page_392" id="Page_392" title="392" class="pagenum"></a> <i>I found every place through which I +passed abandoned; nor had there been a man left in any of them for their +protection</i>. I am sorry to add, <i>that, from Buxar to the opposite +boundary, I have seen nothing but traces of complete devastation in +every village: whether caused by the followers of the troops which have +lately passed, for their natural relief, (and I know not whether my own +may not have had their share,)</i> or from the apprehensions of the +inhabitants left to themselves, and of themselves deserting their +houses. I wish to acquit my own countrymen of the blame of these +unfavorable appearances, and in my own heart I do acquit them; for at +one encampment a crowd of people came to me complaining that <i>their new +aumil (collector), on the approach of any military detachment, himself +first fled from the place; and the inhabitants, having no one to whom +they could apply for redress, or for the representation of their +grievances, and being thus remediless, fled also; so that their houses +and effects became a prey to any person who chose to plunder them</i>. The +general conclusion appeared to me an inevitable consequence from such a +state of facts; and my own senses bore testimony to it in this specific +instance: nor do I know how it is possible for any officer commanding a +military party, how attentive soever he may be to the discipline and +forbearance of his people, to prevent disorders, <i>when there is neither +opposition to hinder nor evidence to detect them</i>. These and many other +irregularities I impute <i>solely</i> to the Naib, and recommend his instant +removal. I cannot help remarking, that, except the city of Benares, <i>the +province is in effect without a government. The administration of the +province is misconducted, and the people oppressed, trade discouraged, +and the revenue in danger of a rapid decline, from the violent +appropriation of its means.</i>"</p><p><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393" title="393" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings did recommend to the Council, for a remedy +of the disorders and calamities which had arisen from his own acts, +dispositions, and appointments, that the administrator aforesaid should +be instantly removed from his office,—attributing the aforesaid +"irregularities, <i>and many others, solely</i> to him," although, on his own +representation, it does appear that he was the sole cause of the +irregularities therein described. Neither does it appear that the +administrator, so by the said Hastings nominated and removed, was +properly charged and called to answer for the said recited +irregularities, or for the <i>many others</i> not recited, but <i>attributed +solely</i> to him; nor has any plea or excuse from him been transmitted to +the board, or to the Court of Directors; but he was, at the instance of +the said Hastings, deprived of his said office, contrary to the +principles of natural justice, in a violent and arbitrary manner; which +proceeding, combined with the example made of his predecessor, must +necessarily leave to the person who should succeed to the said office no +distinct principle upon which he might act with safety. But in comparing +the consequences of the two delinquencies charged, the failure of the +payment of the revenues (from whatever cause it may arise) is more +likely to be avoided than any severe course towards the inhabitants: as +the former fault was, besides the deprivation of office, attended with +two imprisonments, with a menace of death, and an actual death, in +disgrace, poverty, and insolvency; whereas the latter, namely, the +oppression, and thereby the total ruin, of the country, charged on the +second administrator, was only followed by loss of office,—although, +he, the said Warren Hastings, did farther assert (but with <a name="Page_394" id="Page_394" title="394" class="pagenum"></a>what truth +does not appear) that the collection of the last administrator had +fallen much short of the revenue of the province.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings himself was sensible that the frequent +changes by him made would much disorder the management of the revenues, +and seemed desirous of concealing his intentions concerning the last +change until the time of its execution. Yet it appears, by a letter from +the British Resident, dated the 23d of June, 1784, "that a very strong +report prevailed at Benares of his [the said Hastings's] intentions of +appointing a new Naib for the approaching year, and that the effect is +evident which the prevalence of such an idea amongst the aumils would +probably have on the cultivation at this particular time. The heavy +mofussil kists [harvest instalments] have now been collected by the +aumils; the season of tillage is arrived; the ryots [country farmers] +must be indulged, and even assisted by advances; and the aumil must look +for his returns in the abundance of the crop, <i>the consequence of this +early attention to the cultivation</i>. The effect is evident <i>which the +report of a change in the first officer of the revenue must have on the +minds of the aumils, by leaving them at an uncertainty of what they have +in future to expect</i>; and in proportion to the degree of this +uncertainty, their efforts and expenses in promoting the cultivation +will be languid and sparing. In compliance with the Naib's request, I +have written to all the aumils, encouraging and ordering them to attend +to the cultivation of their respective districts; but I conceive I +should be able to promote this very desirable intention much more +effectually, if you will honor me with the communication of your +intentions on this subject. At the <a name="Page_395" id="Page_395" title="395" class="pagenum"></a>same time I cannot help just +remarking, that, if a change is intended, the sooner it takes place, the +more <i>the bad effects</i> I have described will be obviated."</p> + +<p>That the Council, having received the proposition for the removal of the +administrator aforesaid, did also, in a letter to him, the said +Hastings, condemn the frequent changes by him made in the administration +of the collections of Benares,—but did consent to such alterations as +might be made without encroaching on the rights established by his, the +said Hastings's, agreement in the year 1781, and did desire him to +transmit to them his plan for a new administration.</p> + +<p>That the said Hastings did transmit a plan, which, notwithstanding the +evils which had happened from the former frequent changes, he did +propose <i>as a temporary expedient</i> for the administration of the +revenues of the said province,—in which no provision was made for the +reduction or remission of revenue as exigences might require, or for the +extraction of the circulating specie from the said province, or for the +supply of the necessary advances for cultivation, nor for the removal or +prevention of any of the grievances by him before complained of, other +than an inspection by the Resident and the chief criminal magistrate of +Benares, and other regulations equally void of effect and +authority,—and which plan Mr. Stables, one of the Supreme Council, did +altogether reject; but the same was approved of <i>as a temporary +expedient</i>, with some exceptions, by two other members of the board, Mr. +Wheler and Mr. Macpherson, declaring <i>the said Warren Hastings +responsible for the temporary expediency of the same</i>.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, in the plan aforesaid, having strongly +objected to the appointment of <a name="Page_396" id="Page_396" title="396" class="pagenum"></a>any European collectors, that is to say, +of any European servants of the Company being concerned in the same, +declaring that there had been sufficient experience of the ill effects +of their being so employed in the province of Bengal,—by which the said +Hastings did either in loose and general terms convey a false imputation +upon the conduct of the Company's servants employed in the collection of +the revenues of Bengal, or he was guilty of a criminal neglect of duty +in not bringing to punishment the particular persons whose evil +practices had given rise to such a general imputation on British +subjects and servants of the Company as to render them unfit for service +in other places.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, having in the course of three years made +three complete revolutions in the state of Benares, by expelling, in the +first instance, the lawful and rightful governor of the same, under +whose care and superintendence a large and certain revenue, suitable to +the abilities of the country, and consistent with its prosperity, was +paid with the greatest punctuality, and by afterwards displacing two +effective governors or administrators of the province, appointed in +succession by himself, and, in consequence of the said appointments and +violent and arbitrary removals, the said province "being left in effect +without a government," except in one city only, and having, after all, +settled no more than a temporary arrangement, is guilty of an high crime +and misdemeanor in the destruction of the country aforesaid.</p><p><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397" title="397" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<h3><a name="IV_PRINCESSES_OF_OUDE" id="IV_PRINCESSES_OF_OUDE"></a>IV.—PRINCESSES OF OUDE.</h3> + +<p>I. That the reigning Nabob of Oude, commonly called Asoph ul Dowlah, +(son and successor to Sujah ul Dowlah,) by taking into or continuing in +his pay certain bodies of regular British troops, and by having +afterwards admitted the British Resident at his court into the +management of all his affairs, foreign and domestic, and particularly +into the administration of his finances, did gradually become in +substance and effect, as well as in general repute and estimation, a +dependant on, or vassal of, the East India Company, and was, and is, so +much under the control of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal, +that, in the opinion of all the native powers, the English name and +character is concerned in every act of his government.</p> + +<p>II. That Warren Hastings, Esquire, contrary to law and to his duty, and +in disobedience to the orders of the East India Company, arrogating to +himself the nomination of the Resident at the court of Oude, as his +particular agent and representative, and rejecting the Resident +appointed by the Company, and obtruding upon them a person of his own +choice, did from that time render himself in a particular manner +responsible for the good government of the provinces composing the +dominions of the Nabob of Oude.</p> + +<p>III. That the provinces aforesaid, having been at the time of their +first connection with the Company in an improved and flourishing +condition, and yielding a revenue of more than three millions of pounds +sterling, or thereabouts, did soon after that period begin sensibly to +decline, and the subsidy of the British <a name="Page_398" id="Page_398" title="398" class="pagenum"></a>troops stationed in that +province, as well as other sums of money due to the Company by treaty, +ran considerably in arrear; although the prince of the country, during +the time these arrears accrued, was otherwise in distress, and had been +obliged to reduce all his establishments.</p> + +<p>IV. That the prince aforesaid, or Nabob of Oude, did, in humble and +submissive terms, supplicate the said Warren Hastings to be relieved +from a body of troops whose licentious behavior he complained of, and +who were stationed in his country without any obligation by treaty to +maintain them,—pleading the failure of harvest and the prevalence of +famine in his country: a compliance with which request by the said +Warren Hastings was refused in unbecoming, offensive, and insulting +language.</p> + +<p>V. That the said Nabob, laboring under the aforesaid and other burdens, +and being continually urged for payment, was advised to extort, and did +extort, from his mother and grandmother, under the pretext of loans, +(and sometimes without that appearance,) various great sums of money, +amounting in the whole to six hundred and thirty thousand pounds +sterling, or thereabouts: alleging in excuse the rigorous demands of the +East India Company, for whose use the said extorted money had been +demanded, and to which a considerable part of it had been applied.</p> + +<p>VI. That the two female parents of the Nabob aforesaid were among the +women of the greatest rank, family, and distinction in Asia, and were +left by the deceased Nabob, the son of the one and the <a name="Page_399" id="Page_399" title="399" class="pagenum"></a>husband of the +other, in charge of certain considerable part of his treasures, in money +and other valuable movables, as well as certain landed estates, called +jaghires, in order to the support of their own dignity, and the +honorable maintenance of his women, and a numerous offspring, and their +dependants: the said family amounting in the whole to two thousand +persons, who were by the said Nabob, at his death, recommended in a +particular manner to the care and protection of the said Warren +Hastings.</p> + +<p>VII. That, on the demand of the Nabob of Oude on his parents for the +last of the sums which completed the six hundred and thirty thousand +pounds aforesaid, they, the said parents, did positively refuse to pay +any part of the same to their son for the use of the Company, until he +should agree to certain terms to be stipulated in a regular treaty, and +among other particulars to secure them in the remainder of their +possessions, and also on no account or pretence to make any further +demands or claims on them; and well knowing from whence all his claims +and exactions had arisen, they demanded that the said treaty, or family +compact, should be guarantied by the Governor-General and Council of +Bengal: and a treaty was accordingly agreed to, executed by the Nabob, +and guarantied by John Bristow, Esquire, the Resident at Oude, under the +authority and with the express consent of the said Warren Hastings and +the Council-General, and in consequence thereof the sum last required +was paid, and discharges given to the Nabob for all the money which he +had borrowed from his own mother and the mother of his father.</p> + +<p>That, the distresses and disorders in the Nabob's <a name="Page_400" id="Page_400" title="400" class="pagenum"></a>government and his +debt to the Company continuing to increase, notwithstanding the violent +methods before mentioned taken to augment his resources, the said Warren +Hastings, on the 21st of May, and on the 31st July, 1781, (he and Mr. +Wheler being the only remaining members of the Council-General, and he +having the conclusive and casting voice, and thereby being in effect the +whole Council,) did, in the name and under the authority of the board, +resolve on a journey to the upper provinces, in order to a personal +interview with the Nabob of Oude, towards the settlement of his +distressed affairs, and did give to himself a delegation of the powers +of the said Council, in direct violation of the Company's orders +forbidding such delegation.</p> + +<p>VIII. That the said Warren Hastings having by his appointment met the +Nabob of Oude near a place called Chunar, and possessing an entire and +absolute command over the said prince, he did, contrary to justice and +equity and the security of property, as well as to public faith and the +sanction of the Company's guaranty, under the color of a treaty, which +treaty was conducted secretly, without a written document of any part of +the proceeding except the pretended treaty itself, authorize the said +Nabob to seize upon, and confiscate to his own profit, the landed +estates, called jaghires, of his parents, kindred, and principal +nobility: only stipulating a pension to the net amount of the rent of +the said lands as an equivalent, and that equivalent to such only whose +lands had been guarantied to them by the Company; but provided neither +in the said pretended treaty nor in any subsequent act the least +security for the payment of the said pen<a name="Page_401" id="Page_401" title="401" class="pagenum"></a>sion to those for whom such +pension was ostensibly reserved, and for the others not so much as a +show of indemnity;—to the extreme scandal of the British government, +which, valuing itself upon a strict regard to property, did expressly +authorize, if it did not command, an attack upon that right, +unprecedented in the despotic governments of India.</p> + +<p>IX. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to cover the violent and +unjust proceedings aforesaid, did assert a claim of right in the same +Nabob to all the possessions of his said mother and grandmother, as +belonging to him by the Mahomedan law; and this pretended claim was set +up by the said Warren Hastings, after the Nabob had, by a regular treaty +ratified and guarantied by the said Hastings as Governor-General, +renounced and released all demands on them. And this false pretence of a +legal demand was taken up and acted upon by the said Warren Hastings, +without laying the said question on record before the Council-General, +or giving notice to the persons to be affected thereby to support their +rights before any of the principal magistrates and expounders of the +Mahomedan law, or taking publicly the opinions of any person conversant +therein.</p> + +<p>X. That, in order to give further color to the acts of ill faith and +violence aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did cause to be taken at +Lucknow and other places, before divers persons, and particularly before +Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, acting +extra-judicially, and not within the limits of his jurisdiction, several +passionate, careless, irrelevant, and irregular affidavits, consisting +of matter not fit <a name="Page_402" id="Page_402" title="402" class="pagenum"></a>to be deposed on oath,—of reports, conjectures, and +hearsays; some of the persons swearing to the said hearsays having +declined to declare from whom they heard the accounts at second hand +sworn to; the said affidavits in general tending to support the +calumnious charge of the said Warren Hastings, namely, that the aged +women before mentioned had formed or engaged in a plan for the +deposition of their son and sovereign, and the <i>utter extirpation</i> of +the English nation: and neither the said charge against persons whose +dependence was principally, if not wholly, on the good faith of this +nation, and highly affecting the honor, property, and even lives, of +women of the highest condition, nor the affidavits intended to support +the same, extra-judicially taken, <i>ex parte</i>, and without notice, by the +said Sir Elijah Impey and others, were at any time communicated to the +parties charged, or to any agent for them; nor were they called upon to +answer, nor any explanation demanded of them.</p> + +<p>XI. That the article affecting private property secured by public acts, +in the said pretended treaty, contains nothing more than a general +permission, given by the said Warren Hastings, for confiscating such +jaghires, or landed estates, with the modifications therein contained, +"as <i>he</i> [the Nabob] may find necessary," but does not directly point +at, or express by name, any of the landed possessions of the Nabob's +mother. But soon after the signing of the said pretended treaty, (that +is, on the 29th November, 1781,) it did appear that a principal object +thereof was to enable the Nabob to seize upon the estates of his female +parents aforesaid, which had been guarantied to them by the East India +Company. And al<a name="Page_403" id="Page_403" title="403" class="pagenum"></a>though in the treaty, or pretended treaty, aforesaid, +nothing more is purported than to give a simple permission to the Nabob +to seize upon and confiscate the estates, leaving the execution or +non-execution of the same wholly to his discretion, yet it appears, by +several letters from Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, the Resident at the +Court of Oude, of the 6th, 7th, and 9th of December, 1781, that no such +discretion as expressed in the treaty was left, or intended to be left, +with him, the said Nabob, but that the said article ought practically to +have a construction of a directly contrary tendency: that, instead of +considering the article as originating from the Nabob, and containing a +power provided in his favor which he did not possess before, the +confiscation of the jaghires aforesaid was to be considered as a measure +originating from the English, and to be intended for their benefit, and, +as such, that the execution was to be forced upon him; and the execution +thereof was accordingly forced upon him. And the Resident, Middleton, on +the Nabob's refusal to act in contradiction to his sworn engagement +guarantied by the East India Company, and in the undutiful and unnatural +manner required, did totally supersede his authority in his own +dominions, considering himself as empowered so to act by the +instructions of the said Hastings, although he had reason to apprehend a +general insurrection in consequence thereof, and that he found it +necessary to remove his family, "which he did not wish to retain there, +in case of a rupture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing the +British forces in the reduction of <i>his</i> aumils and troops"; and he did +accordingly, as sovereign, issue his own edicts and warrants, in +defiance of the resistance of the Nabob, <a name="Page_404" id="Page_404" title="404" class="pagenum"></a>in the manner by him described +in the letters aforesaid,—in a letter of 6th December, 1781, that is to +say: "<i>Finding the Nabob wavering in his determination about the +resumption of the jaghires</i>, I this day, in presence of and with the +minister's concurrence, ordered the necessary purwannahs to be written +to the several aumils for that purpose; and it was my firm resolution to +have dispatched them this evening, with proper people to see them +punctually and implicitly carried into execution; but before they were +all transcribed, I received a message from the Nabob, who had been +informed by the minister of the resolution I had taken, entreating that +I would withhold the purwannahs until to-morrow morning, when he would +attend me, and afford me satisfaction on this point. As the loss of a +few hours in the dispatch of the purwannahs appeared of little moment, +and as it is possible the Nabob, <i>seeing that the business will at all +events be done, may make it an act of his own, I have consented to +indulge him in his request; but, be the remit of our interview whatever +it may, nothing shall prevent the orders being issued to-morrow, either +by him or myself, with the concurrence of the ministers</i>. Your pleasure +respecting the Begums I have learnt from Sir Elijah, and the measure +heretofore proposed will soon follow the resumption of the jaghires. +From both, or indeed from the former alone, I have no doubt of the +complete liquidation of the Company's balance." And also in another +letter, of the 7th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you +yesterday, informing you of the steps I had taken in regard to the +resumption of <i>the jaghires. This morning the Vizier came to me +according to his agreement, but seemingly without any intention or +desire to yield me satisfaction on the <a name="Page_405" id="Page_405" title="405" class="pagenum"></a>subject under discussion; for, +after a great deal of conversation, consisting on his part of trifling +evasion and puerile excuses for withholding his assent to the measure, +though at the same time professing the most implicit submission to your +wishes, I found myself without any other resource than the one of +employing that exclusive authority with which I consider your +instructions to vest me: I therefore declared to the Nabob, in presence +of the minister and Mr. Johnson, who I desired might bear witness of the +conversation, that I construed his rejection of the measure proposed as +a breach of his solemn promise to you, and an unwillingness to yield +that assistance which was evidently in his power towards liquidating his +heavy accumulating debt to the Company</i>, and that I must in consequence +determine, in my own justification, <i>to issue immediately the +purwannahs</i>, which had only been withheld in the sanguine hope that he +would be prevailed upon <i>to make that his own act</i> which nothing but the +most urgent necessity could force <i>me to make mine</i>. He left me without +any reply, but afterwards sent for his minister and authorized him to +give me hopes that my requisition would be complied with; on which I +expressed my satisfaction, but declared that I could admit of no further +delays, and, unless I received his Excellency's formal acquiescence +before the evening, I should then most assuredly issue <i>my</i> purwannahs; +which <i>I have accordingly done</i>, not having had any assurances from his +Excellency that could justify a further suspension. I shall, as soon as +possible, inform you of the effect of the purwannahs, which, in many +parts, I am apprehensive it will be found necessary <i>to enforce with +military aid</i>. I am not, however, entirely without hopes that the Nabob, +<i>when he sees the inefficacy of further opposition</i>, may <a name="Page_406" id="Page_406" title="406" class="pagenum"></a>alter his +conduct, and prevent <i>the confusion and disagreeable consequences which +would be too likely to result from the prosecution of a measure of such +importance without his concurrence</i>. His Excellency talks of going to +Fyzabad, for the purpose heretofore mentioned, in three or four days: <i>I +wish he may be serious in his intention</i>, and you may rest assured <i>I +shall spare no pains to keep him to it</i>." And further, in a letter of +the 9th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you on the 7th +instant, informing you of the conversation which had passed between the +Nabob and me on the subject of resuming the jaghires, and the step I had +taken in consequence. <i>His Excellency appeared to be very much hurt and +incensed at the measure, and loudly complains of the treachery of his +ministers,—first, in giving you any hopes that such a measure would be +adopted, and, secondly, in their promising me their whole support in +carrying it through; but, as I apprehended, rather than suffer it to +appear that the point had been carried in opposition to his will</i>, he at +length yielded a <i>nominal</i> acquiescence, and has this day issued his own +purwannahs to that effect,—<i>declaring, however, at the same time, both +to me and his ministers, that it is an act of compulsion</i>. I hope to be +able in a few days, in consequence of this measure, to transmit you an +account of the actual value and produce of the jaghires, opposed to the +nominal amount at which they stand rated on the books of the circar."</p> + +<p>XII. That the said Warren Hastings, instead of expressing any +disapprobation of the proceedings aforesaid, in violation of the rights +secured by treaty with the mother and grandmother of the reigning prince +of Oude, and not less in violation of the sov<a name="Page_407" id="Page_407" title="407" class="pagenum"></a>ereign rights of the Nabob +himself, did by frequent messages stimulate the said Middleton to a +perseverance in and to a rigorous execution of the same,—and in his +letter from Benares of the 25th December, 1781, did "express doubts of +his firmness and activity, and, above all, of his recollection of his +instructions and their importance; and that, if he could not rely on his +own [power] and the means he possessed for performing those services, he +<i>would free him</i> [the said Middleton] <i>from the charges</i>, and would +proceed <i>himself</i> to Lucknow, and would <i>himself</i> undertake them."</p> + +<p>XIII. That very doubtful credit is to be given to any letters written by +the said Middleton to the said Warren Hastings, when they answer the +purposes which the said Warren Hastings had evidently in view: the said +Middleton having written to him in the following manner from Lucknow, +30th December, 1781.</p> + +<p>XIV. "MY DEAR SIR,—I have this day answered your <i>public</i> +letter in the form <i>you seem to expect</i>. I hope there is nothing in it +that may appear to you too pointed. <i>If you wish the matter to be +otherwise understood than I have taken up and stated it, I need not say +I shall be ready to conform to whatever you may prescribe, and to take +upon myself any share of the blame of the (hitherto) non-performance of +the stipulations made on behalf of the Nabob</i>: though I do assure you I +myself represented to his Excellency and the ministers, (conceiving it +to be your desire,) that <i>the apparent assumption of the reins of his +government</i>, (for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at the +first <a name="Page_408" id="Page_408" title="408" class="pagenum"></a>view,) as specified in the agreement executed by him, was not +meant to be <i>fully</i> and <i>literally</i> enforced, but that it was necessary +<i>you should have something to show on your side, as the Company were +deprived of a benefit without a requital; and upon the faith of this +assurance alone</i>, I believe I may safely affirm, his Excellency's +objections to signing the treaty were given up. If I have understood the +matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am truly sorry for it: +<i>however, it is not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to +undertake, and, God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on +receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final resolve</i>."</p> + +<p>XV. That it appears, but on his, the said Middleton's, sole authority, +in a letter from the said Middleton, dated Lucknow, 2d December, 1781, +that the Nabob of Oude, wishing to evade the measure of resuming the +jaghires aforesaid, did send a message to him, purporting, "that, if the +measure proposed was intended to procure the payment of the balance due +to the Company, he could better and more expeditiously effect that +object by taking from his mother the treasures of his father, which he +did assert to be in her hands, and to which he did claim a right; and +that it would be sufficient that he, the said Hastings, <i>would hint his +opinion upon it, without giving a formal sanction to the measure +proposed</i>; and that, whatever his resolution upon the subject should be, +it would be expedient to keep it secret": adding, "<i>The resumption of +the jaghires it is necessary to suspend till I have your answer to this +letter</i>."</p> + +<p>XVI. That it does not appear that the said Hast<a name="Page_409" id="Page_409" title="409" class="pagenum"></a>ings did write any +letter in answer to the proposal of the said Middleton, but he, the said +Hastings, did communicate his pleasure thereon, to Sir Elijah Impey, +being then at Lucknow, for his, the said Middleton's, information; and +it does appear that the seizing of the treasures of the mother of the +Nabob, said to have been proposed as <i>an alternative</i> by the said Nabob +to prevent the resumption of the jaghires, was determined upon and +ordered by the said Hastings,—and that the resumption of the said +jaghires, for the ransom of which the seizing of the treasures was +proposed, was also directed: not one only, but both sides of the +alternative, being enforced upon the female parents of the Nabob +aforesaid, although both the one and the other had been secured to them +by a treaty with the East India Company.</p> + +<p>XVIII.<a name="FNanchor_60_66" id="FNanchor_60_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_66" class="fnanchor" title=" Sic orig.">[60]</a> That Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice at +Port William, did undertake a journey of nine hundred miles, from +Calcutta to Lucknow, on pretence of health and pleasure, but was in +reality in the secret of these and other irregular transactions, and +employed as a channel of confidential communication therein. And the +said Warren Hastings, by presuming to employ the said chief-justice, a +person particularly unfit for an agent, in the transaction of affairs +<i>primâ facie</i> at least unjust, violent, and oppressive, contrary to +public faith, and to the sentiments and law of Nature, and which he, the +said Hastings, was sensible "could not fail to draw obloquy on himself +by his participation," did disgrace the king's commission, and render +odious to the natives of Hindostan the justice of the crown of Great +Britain.</p><p><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410" title="410" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>XIX. That, although the said Warren Hastings was from the beginning duly +informed of the violence offered to the personal inclinations of the +Nabob, and the "apparent assumption of the reins of his government," for +the purposes aforesaid, yet more than two years after he did write to +his private agent, Major Palmer, that is to say, in his letter of the +6th of May, 1783, "that it has been a matter of <i>equal surprise and +concern</i> to him to learn from the letters of the Resident that the Nabob +Vizier was with difficulty and almost unconquerable reluctance induced +to give his consent to the attachment of the treasure deposited by his +father under the charge of the Begum, his mother, and to the resumption +of her jaghire, and the other jaghires of the individuals of his +family": which pretence of ignorance of the Nabob's inclinations is +fictitious and groundless. But whatever deception he might pretend to be +in concerning the original intention of the Nabob, he was not, nor did +he pretend to be, ignorant of his, the Nabob's, reluctance to <i>proceed</i> +in the said measures; but did admit his knowledge of the Nabob's +reluctance to their full execution, and yet did justify the same as +follows.</p> + +<p>XX. "I desire that you will inform him [the Nabob], that, in these and +the other measures which were either proposed by him or received his +concurrence in the agreement passed between us at Chunar, I neither had +nor could have any object <i>but his relief, and the strengthening of his +connection with the Company</i>; and that I should not on any other ground +have exposed myself to <i>the personal obloquy which they could not fail +to draw upon me by my participation in them</i>, but left him to regulate +by his own discretion <a name="Page_411" id="Page_411" title="411" class="pagenum"></a>and by his own means the economy of his own +finances, and, <i>with much more cause, the assertion of his domestic +right. In these he had no regular claim to my interference</i>; nor had I, +in my public character, any claim upon him, but for the payment of the +debt then due from him to the Company, although I was under the +strongest obligations to require it for the relief of the pressing +exigencies of their affairs. He will well remember the manner in which, +at a visit to him in his own tent, I declared my acquiescence freely, +and without hesitation, to each proposition, which afterwards formed the +substance of a written agreement, as he severally made them; and he can +want no other evidence of my motives for <i>so cheerful a consent</i>, nor +for the requests which I added as the means of fulfilling his purposes +in them. Had he not made these measures his own option, I should not +have proposed them; <i>but having once adopted them, and made them the +conditions of a formal and sacred agreement, I had no longer an option +to dispense with them, but was bound to the complete performance and +execution of them, as points of public duty and of national faith, for +which I was responsible to my king, and the Company my immediate +superiors: and this was the reason for my insisting on their performance +and execution, when I was told that the Nabob himself had relaxed from +his original purpose, and expressed a reluctance to proceed in it</i>."</p> + +<p>XXI. That the said Warren Hastings does admit that the Nabob <i>had</i> +originally no regular claim upon him for his interference, or he any +claim on the Nabob, which, might entitle him to interfere in the Nabob's +domestic concerns; yet, in order to justify <a name="Page_412" id="Page_412" title="412" class="pagenum"></a>his so invidious an +interference, he did, in the letter aforesaid, give a false account of +the said treaty, which (as before mentioned) did nothing more than give +a <i>permission</i> to the Nabob to resume the jaghires, <i>if HE should judge +the same to be necessary</i>, and did therefore leave the right of +dispensing with the whole, or any part thereof, as much in his option +after the treaty as it was before: the declared intent of the article +being only to remove the restraint of the Company's guaranty forbidding +such resumption, but furnishing nothing which could authorize putting +that resumption into the hands and power of the Company, to be enforced +at their discretion. And with regard to the other part of the spoil made +by order of the said Hastings, and by him in the letter aforesaid stated +to be made equally against the will of the Nabob, namely, that which was +committed on the personal and movable property of the female parents of +the Nabob, nothing whatsoever in relation to the same is stipulated in +the said pretended treaty.</p> + +<p>XXII. That the said Hastings, in asserting that he was bound to the acts +aforesaid by public duty, and even by national faith, in the very +instance in which that national faith was by him grossly violated, and +in justifying himself by alleging that he was bound to the <i>complete</i> +execution by a responsibility to the Company which he immediately +served, and by asserting that these violent and rapacious proceedings, +subjecting all persons concerned in them to obloquy, would be the means +of strengthening the connection of the Nabob with the British United +Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, did disgrace the +authority under which he immedi<a name="Page_413" id="Page_413" title="413" class="pagenum"></a>ately acted. And that the said Hastings, +in justifying his obligations to the said acts by a responsibility to +the <i>king</i>, namely, to the King of Great Britain, did endeavor to throw +upon his Majesty, his lawful sovereign, (whose name and character he was +bound to respect, and to preserve in estimation with all persons, and +particularly with the sovereign princes, the allies of his government,) +the disgrace and odium of the aforesaid acts, in which a sovereign +prince was by him, the said Hastings, made an instrument of perfidy, +wrong, and outrage to two mothers and wives of sovereign princes, and in +which he did exhibit to all Asia (a country remarkable for the utmost +devotion to parental authority) the spectacle of a Christian governor, +representing a Christian sovereign, compelling a son to become the +instrument of such violence and extortion against his own mother.</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings, by repeated messages and injunctions, and +under menaces of "a dreadful responsibility," did urge the Resident to a +completion of this barbarous act; and well knowing that such an act +would probably be resisted, did order him, the said Resident, to use the +British troops under his direction for that purpose; and did offer the +assistance of further forces, urging the execution in the following +peremptory terms: "You <i>yourself</i> must be <i>personally present</i>; you must +not allow <i>any</i> negotiation or forbearance, but must prosecute both +services, until the Begums [princesses] are at the entire mercy of the +Nabob."<a name="FNanchor_61_67" id="FNanchor_61_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_67" class="fnanchor" title=" 26th Dec., 1781.">[61]</a></p> + +<p>XXIII. That, in conformity to the said peremptory orders, a party of +British and other troops, with <a name="Page_414" id="Page_414" title="414" class="pagenum"></a>the Nabob in the ostensible, and the +British Resident in the real command, were drawn towards the city of +Fyzabad, in the castle of which city the mother and grandmother of the +Nabob had their residence; and after expending two days in negotiation, +(the particulars of which do not appear,) the Resident not receiving the +satisfaction he looked for, the town was first stormed, and afterwards +the castle; and little or no resistance being made, and no blood being +shed on either side, the British troops occupied all the outer inclosure +of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.<a name="FNanchor_62_68" id="FNanchor_62_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_68" class="fnanchor" title=" 13th Jan., 1782.">[62]</a></p> + +<p>XXIV. That this violent assault, and forcible occupation of their +houses, and the further extremities they had to apprehend, did not +prevail on the female parents of the Nabob to consent to any submission, +until the Resident sent in unto them a letter from the said Warren +Hastings,<a name="FNanchor_63_69" id="FNanchor_63_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_69" class="fnanchor" title=" 18th Jan., 1782.">[63]</a> (no copy of which appears,) declaring himself no longer +bound by the guaranty, and containing such other matter as tended to +remove all their hopes, which seemed to be centred in British faith.</p> + +<p>XXV. That the chief officers of their household, who were their +treasurers and confidential agents, the eunuchs Jewar Ali Khân and Behar +Ali Khân, persons of great eminence, rank, and distinction, who had been +in high trust and favor with the late Nabob, were ignominiously put into +confinement under an inferior officer, in order to extort the discovery +of the treasures and effects committed to their care and fidelity. And +the said Middleton did soon after, that <a name="Page_415" id="Page_415" title="415" class="pagenum"></a>is to say, on the 12th of +January, 1782, deliver them over for the same purpose into the custody +of Captain Neal Stuart, commanding the eighth regiment, by his order +given in the following words: "To be kept in close and secure +confinement, admitting of no intercourse with them, excepting by their +four menial servants, who are authorized to attend them until further +orders. You will allow them to have any necessary and convenience which +may be consistent with a strict guard over them."</p> + +<p>XXVI. That, in consequence of these severities upon herself, and on +those whom she most regarded and trusted, the mother of the said Nabob +did at length consent to the delivering up of her treasures, and the +same were paid to the Resident, to the amount of the bond given by the +Nabob to the Company for his balance of the year 1779-80; and the said +treasure "was taken from the most secret recesses in the houses of the +two eunuchs."</p> + +<p>XXVII. That the Nabob continuing still under the pressure of a further +pretended debt to the Company for his balance of the year 1780-81, the +Resident, not satisfied with the seizure of the estates and treasures of +his parents aforesaid, although he, the said Resident, did confess that +the princess mother "had declared, <i>with apparent truth</i>, that she had +delivered up <i>the whole of the property in her hands</i>, excepting goods +which from the experience which he, the Resident, had of the <i>small +produce</i> of the sales of a former payment made by her in that mode he +did refuse, and that in his opinion it certainly would have amounted to +little or nothing," did proceed to extort <a name="Page_416" id="Page_416" title="416" class="pagenum"></a>another great sum of money, +that is to say, the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds +sterling, on account of the last pretended balance aforesaid: in order, +therefore, to compel the said ministers and treasurers either to +distress their principals by extorting whatever valuable substance might +by any possibility remain concealed, or to furnish the said sum from +their own estates or from their credit with their friends, did order +their imprisonment to be aggravated with circumstances of great cruelty, +giving an order to Lieutenant Francis Rutledge, dated 20th January, +1782, in the following words.</p> + +<p>XXVIII. "SIR,—When this note is delivered to you by Hoolas +Roy, I have to desire that you order the two prisoners to be put <i>in +irons, keeping them from all food, &c., agreeable to my instructions of +yesterday</i>.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">(Signed) "NATH<sup>L</sup> MIDDLETON."<br /></span> +</p> + +<p>XXIX. That by the said unjust and rigorous proceeding the said eunuchs +were compelled to give their engagement for the payment of one hundred +and twenty thousand pounds sterling aforesaid, to be completed within +the period of one month; but after they had entered into the said +compulsory engagement, they were still kept in close imprisonment, and +the mother and grandmother of the Nabob were themselves held under a +strict guard,—although, at the same time, the confiscated estates were +actually in the Company's possession, and found to exceed the amount of +what they were rated at in the general list of confiscated estates,<a name="FNanchor_64_70" id="FNanchor_64_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_70" class="fnanchor" title=" Letter from Mr. Middleton, 2d Feb., 1782.">[64]</a> +and although the Assistant Resident, Johnson, did confess, "that the +object of distressing the<a name="Page_417" id="Page_417" title="417" class="pagenum"></a> Bhow Begum was merely to obtain a +<i>ready-money</i> instead of a <i>dilatory payment</i>, and that this ready-money +payment, if not paid, was recoverable in the course of a few months upon +the jaghires in his possession, and that therefore it was not worth +proceeding to any extremities, beyond the one described," (namely, the +confinement of the princesses, and the imprisonment and fettering of +their ministers,) "upon so respectable a family."<a name="FNanchor_65_71" id="FNanchor_65_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_71" class="fnanchor" title=" Lucknow, 22d July, 1782.">[65]</a></p> + +<p>XXX. That, after the surrender of the treasure, and the passing the +bonds and obligations given as aforesaid, the Resident having been +strictly ordered by the said Warren Hastings not to make any settlement +whatsoever with the said women of high rank, the Nabob was induced to +leave the city of Fyzabad without taking leave of his mother, or showing +her any mark of duty or civility. And on the same day the Resident left +the city aforesaid; and after his return to Lucknow, in order to pacify +the said Hastings, who appeared to resent that the Nabob was not urged +to greater degrees of rigor than those hitherto used towards his mother, +he, the said Resident, did, in his letter of the 6th February, give him +an assurance in the following words:—"I shall, as you direct, use my +influence to dissuade his Excellency from concluding <i>any settlement</i> +until I have your further commands."</p> + + +<p>XXXI. That the payment of the bond last extorted from the eunuchs was +soon after commenced, and the grandmother, as well as the mother, were +now compelled to deliver what they declared was <i>the extent <a name="Page_418" id="Page_418" title="418" class="pagenum"></a>of the +whole</i> of both their possessions, including down to their <i>table +utensils</i>; which, as the Resident admitted, "they had been and were +still delivering, and that no proof had yet been obtained of their +having more."</p> + +<p>XXXII. That bullion, jewels, and goods, to the amount of five hundred +thousand pounds and upwards, were actually received by the Resident for +the use of the Company before the 23d of February, 1782; and there +remained on the said extorted bond no more than about twenty-five +thousand pounds, according to the statement of the eunuchs, and not +above fifty thousand according to that made by the Resident.</p> + +<p>XXXIII. That, in this advanced state of the delivery of the extorted +treasure, the ministers of the women aforesaid of the reigning family +did apply to Captain Leonard Jaques, under whose custody they were +confined, to be informed of the deficiency with which they stood +charged, that they might endeavor, with the assistance of their friends, +to provide for the same, and praying that they might through his +mediation be freed from the hardships they suffered under their +confinement: to which application they received an insolent answer from +the said Richard Johnson, dated February 27th, 1782, declaring that part +of what he had received in payment was in jewels and bullion, and that +more than a month, the time fixed for the final payment, would elapse +before he could dispose of the same,—insisting upon a ready-money +payment, and assuring them "that the day on which their agreement +expired he should be indispensably obliged to recommence severities upon +them, until the last <a name="Page_419" id="Page_419" title="419" class="pagenum"></a>farthing was fully paid." And in order to add to +their terrors and hardships, as well as to find some pretext for the +further cruel and inhuman acts intended, an apparently groundless and +injurious charge was suggested to the imprisoned ministers aforesaid in +the following words. "You may also mention to them, that I have reason +to <i>suspect</i> that the commotions raised by Bulbudder have not been +without their <i>suggestion and abetment</i>, which, if proved upon them, in +addition to the <i>probable</i> breach of their agreement, will make their +situation <i>very desperate</i>."</p> + +<p>XXXIV. That on the receipt of the said letter, that is, on the 2d March, +the ministers aforesaid did aver, that they were not able to obtain +cash, in lieu of the jewels and other effects, but that, if the goods +were sold, and they released from their confinement, and permitted (as +they have before requested) to go abroad among their friends, they could +soon make good the deficiency; and they did absolutely deny "that they +had any hand in the commotions raised by Bulbudder, or any kind of +correspondence with him or his adherents."</p> + +<p>XXXV. That the prisoners aforesaid did shortly after, that is to say, on +the 13th March, a third time renew their application to Nathaniel +Middleton, Esquire, the Resident, and did request that the jewels +remaining in his, the said Resident's, hands, towards the payment of the +balance remaining, "might be valued by four or five eminent merchants, +Mussulmen and Hindoos, upon oath," and that, if any balance should +afterwards appear, they would upon their release get their friends to +advance the same; and they <a name="Page_420" id="Page_420" title="420" class="pagenum"></a>did again represent the hardship of their +imprisonment, and pray for relief; and did again assert that the +imputations thrown upon them by the said Richard Johnson were false and +groundless,—"that they had no kind of intercourse, either directly or +indirectly, with the authors of the commotions alluded to, and that they +did stake their lives upon the smallest proof thereof being brought."</p> + +<p>XXXVI. That, instead of their receiving any answer to any of the +aforesaid reasonable propositions, concerning either the account stated, +or the crimes imputed to them, or any relief from the hardships they +suffered, he, the Resident, Middleton, did, on the 18th of the said +month, give to the officer who had supplicated in favor of the said +prisoners an order in which he declared himself "under the disagreeable +necessity of recurring to severities to enforce the said payment, and +that this is therefore to desire that you immediately cause them <i>to be +put in irons</i>, and keep them so until I shall arrive at Fyzabad to take +further measures as may be necessary": which order being received at +Fyzabad the day after it was given, the said eunuchs were a second time +thrown into irons. And it appears that (probably in resentment for the +humane representations of the said Captain Jaques) the Resident did +refuse to pay for the fetters, and other contingent charges of the +imprisonment of the said ministers of the Nabob's mother, when at the +same time very liberal contingent allowances were made to other +officers; and the said Jaques did strongly remonstrate against the same +as follows. "You have also ordered me to put the prisoners in irons: +this I have done; yet, as I have no business <a name="Page_421" id="Page_421" title="421" class="pagenum"></a>to purchase fetters, or +supply them any other way, it is but reasonable that you should order me +to be reimbursed. And why should I add anything more? A late commander +at this place, I am told, draws near as many thousands monthly +contingencies as my trifling letter for hundreds. However, if you cannot +get my bill paid, be so obliging as to return it, and give me an +opportunity of declaring to the world that I believe I am the first +officer in the Company's service who has suffered in his property by an +independent command."</p> + +<p>XXXVI. That, in about two months after the said prisoners had continued +in irons in the manner aforesaid, the officer on guard, in a letter of +the 18th May, did represent to the Resident as follows. "The prisoners, +Behar and Jewar Ali Khân, who seem to be very sickly, have requested +their irons might be taken off for a few days, that they might take +medicine, and walk about the garden of the place where they are +confined. Now, as I am sure <i>they will be equally secure without their +irons as with them</i>, I think it my duty to inform you of this request: I +desire to know your pleasure concerning it." To which letter the said +officer did receive a direct refusal, dated 22d May, 1782, in the +following words. "I am sorry it is not in my power to comply with your +proposal of easing the prisoners for a few days of their fetters. Much +as my humanity may be touched by their sufferings, I should think it +inexpedient to afford them any alleviation while they persist in a +breach of their contract with me: and, indeed, no indulgence can be +shown them without the authority of the Nabob, who, instead of +consenting to moderate the rigors <a name="Page_422" id="Page_422" title="422" class="pagenum"></a>of their situation, would be most +willing to multiply them":—endeavoring to join the Nabob, whom he well +knew to be reluctant in the whole proceeding, as a party in the +cruelties by which, through the medium of her servants, it was intended +to coerce his mother.</p> + +<p>XXXVIII. That the said Resident, in a few days after, that is to say, on +the 1st June, 1782, in a letter to Major Gilpin, in command at Fyzabad, +did order the account, as by himself stated, to be read to the +prisoners, and, without taking any notice of their proposal concerning +the valuation of the effects, or their denial of the offences imputed to +them, to demand a positive answer relative to the payment, and, "upon +receiving from them a negative or unsatisfactory reply, to inform them, +that, all further negotiation being at an end, they must prepare for +their removal to Lucknow, where they would be called upon to answer not +only their recent breach of faith and solemn engagement, but also to +atone for other heavy offences, the punishment of which, as had +frequently been signified to them, it was in their power to have +mitigated by a proper acquittal of themselves in this transaction." By +which insinuations concerning the pretended offences of the said unhappy +persons, and the manner by which they were to atone for the same, and by +their never having been specifically and directly made, it doth appear +that the said crimes and offences were charged for the purpose of +extorting money, and not upon principles or for the ends of justice.</p> + +<p>XXXIX. That, after some ineffectual negotiations to make the prisoners +pay the money, which it does <a name="Page_423" id="Page_423" title="423" class="pagenum"></a>not appear to have been in their power to +pay, they were again threatened by the Resident, in a letter to Major +Gilpin, dated 9th June, 1782, in the following terms. "I wish you to +explain once more to the prisoners the imprudence and folly of their +conduct in forcing me to a measure which must be attended with +consequences so very serious to them, and that, when once they are +removed to Lucknow, it will not be in my power to show them mercy, or to +stand between them and the vengeance of the Nabob. Advise them to +reflect seriously upon the unhappy situation in which they will be +involved in one case, and the relief it will be in my power to procure +them in the other; and let them make their option."</p> + +<p>XL. That he, the said Resident, did also, at the same time, receive a +letter from the princess mother, which letter does not appear, but to +which only the following insolent return was made,—that is to say: "The +letter from the Bhow Begum is no ways satisfactory, and I cannot think +of returning an answer to it. Indeed, all correspondence between the +Begum and me has long been stopped; and I request you will be pleased to +inform her that I by no means wish to resume it, or to maintain any +friendly intercourse with her, until she has made good my claim upon her +for the balance due."</p> + +<p>XLI. That, in consequence of these threats, and to prevent a separation +of the ministers from their mistresses, several plans for the payment of +the balance were offered, both by the mother of the Nabob and the +prisoners, to which no other objection appears to have been made than +the length of time required <a name="Page_424" id="Page_424" title="424" class="pagenum"></a>by the parties to discharge the +comparatively small remainder of the extorted bond: the officer on +command declaring, that, conformable to his instructions, he could not +receive the same.<a name="FNanchor_66_72" id="FNanchor_66_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_72" class="fnanchor" title=" Major Gilpin's Letter, 15th June, 1782.">[66]</a></p> + +<p>XLII. That the prisoners were actually removed from the city of their +residence to the city of Lucknow, where they arrived on the 24th of +June, 1782, and were on the next day threatened with severities, "to +make them discover where the balance might be procurable." And on the +28th, it should seem, that the severities for the purpose aforesaid were +inflicted, at least upon one of them; for the Assistant Resident, +Johnson, did on that day write to Captain Waugh, the officer commanding +the guard, the letter following, full of disgrace to the honor, justice, +and humanity of the British nation.</p> + +<p>XLIII. "SIR,—The Nabob having determined <i>to inflict corporal +punishment upon the prisoners</i> under your guard, this is to desire that +his officers, when they shall come, may have free access to the +prisoners, and <i>be permitted to do with them as they shall see proper</i>, +only taking care that they leave them always under your charge."</p> + +<p>XLIV. That the said Richard Johnson did, further to terrify the +prisoners, and to extort by all ways the remainder of the said unjust, +oppressive, and rapacious demand, threaten to remove them out of the +Nabob's dominions into the castle of Churnagur, in order forever to +separate them from their principals, and deprive both of their +reciprocal protection and <a name="Page_425" id="Page_425" title="425" class="pagenum"></a>services,<a name="FNanchor_67_73" id="FNanchor_67_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_73" class="fnanchor" title=" Mr. Johnson's letter, 9th July, 1782.">[67]</a>—and did order a further guard +to be put on the palace of the grandmother of the Nabob, an ally of the +Company, and to prevent the entrance of the provisions to her, (which +order relative to the guard only was executed,) and did use sundry +unworthy and insulting menaces both with regard to herself and to her +principal ministers.<a name="FNanchor_68_74" id="FNanchor_68_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_74" class="fnanchor" title=" Ibid., 4th July, 1782.">[68]</a></p> + +<p>XLV. That a proposal was soon after made by the said princess and her +daughter-in-law, praying that their ministers aforesaid should be +returned to Fyzabad, and offering to raise a sum of money on that +condition;<a name="FNanchor_69_75" id="FNanchor_69_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_75" class="fnanchor" title=" Major Gilpin's Letter, 6th July, 1782.">[69]</a> as also that they would remove from one of their palaces, +whilst the English were to be permitted to search the other.<a name="FNanchor_70_76" id="FNanchor_70_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_76" class="fnanchor" title=" Mr. Johnson's Letter, 22d July, 1782.">[70]</a> But the +Assistant Resident, Johnson, did, instead of a compliance with the +former of these propositions, send the following orders, dated 23d July, +1782, to the officer commanding the guard on the ministers aforesaid: +"Some violent demands having been made for the release of the prisoners, +it is necessary that every possible precaution be taken for their +security; you will therefore be pleased to be very strict in guarding +them; and I herewith send <i>another pair of fetters to be added to those +now upon the prisoners</i>." And in answer to the second proposition, the +said Resident did reply in the following terms: "The proposal of +evacuating one palace, that it may be searched, and then evacuating the +next, upon the same principle, is apparently fair; but it is well known, +in the first place, that such bricked-up or otherwise hidden treas<a name="Page_426" id="Page_426" title="426" class="pagenum"></a>ure +is not to be hit upon in a day without a guide. I have therefore +informed the Nabob of this proposal, and, if the matter is to be reduced +to a search, he will go himself, with such people as he may possess for +information, together with the prisoners; and when in possession of the +ground, by <i>punishing the prisoners</i>, or by such <i>other means as he may +find most effectual</i> to forward a successful search upon the spot, he +will avail himself of the proposal made by the Bhow Begum."</p> + +<p>XLVI. That, probably from the Nabob's known and avowed reluctance to +lend himself to the perpetration of the oppressive and iniquitous +proceedings of the representative of the British government, the +scandalous plan aforesaid was not carried into execution; and all the +rigors practised upon the chief ministers of the ladies aforesaid at +Lucknow being found ineffectual, and the princess mother having declared +herself ready to deliver up everything valuable in her possession, which +Behar Ali Khân, one of her confidential ministers aforesaid, only could +come at, the said change of prison was agreed to,—but not until the +Nabob's mother aforesaid had engaged to pay for the said change of +prison a sum of ten thousand pounds, (one half of which was paid on the +return of the eunuchs,) and that "she would ransack the <i>zenanah</i> +[women's apartments] for kincobs, muslins, clothes, &c., &c., &c., and +that she would even allow a deduction from the annual allowance made to +her for her subsistence in lieu of her jaghire."<a name="FNanchor_71_77" id="FNanchor_71_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_77" class="fnanchor" title=" Major Gilpin's Letters, 16th June and 15th Sept., 1782.">[71]</a></p> + +<p>XLVII. That, soon after the return of the aforesaid <a name="Page_427" id="Page_427" title="427" class="pagenum"></a>ministers to the +place of their imprisonment at Fyzabad, bonds for the five thousand +pounds aforesaid, and goods, estimated, according to the valuation of a +merchant appointed to value the same, at the sum of forty thousand +pounds, even allowing them to sell greatly under their value, were +delivered to the commanding officer at Fyzabad; and the said commanding +officer did promise to the Begum to visit Lucknow with such proposals as +he hoped would secure the <i>small balance</i> of fifteen thousand pounds +remaining of the unjust exaction aforesaid.<a name="FNanchor_72_78" id="FNanchor_72_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_78" class="fnanchor" title=" Major Gilpin's letter, 15th Sept., 1782.">[72]</a> But the said Resident, +Middleton, did, in his letter of the 17th of the said month, positively +refuse to listen to any terms before the final discharge of the whole of +the demand, and did positively forbid the commanding officer to come to +Lucknow to make the proposal aforesaid in the terms following. "As it is +not possible to listen to <i>any</i> terms from the Begums before the final +discharge of their conditional agreement for fifty-five lacs, your +coming here upon such an agency can only be <i>loss of time</i> in completing +the recovery of the balance of 6,55,000, for which your regiment was +sent to Fyzabad. I must therefore desire you will leave <i>no efforts, +gentle or harsh</i>, unattempted to complete this, before you move from +Fyzabad; and I am very anxious that this should be as soon as possible, +<i>as I want to employ your regiment upon other emergent service, now +suffering by every delay</i>."</p> + +<p>XLVIII. That the goods aforesaid were sent to Lucknow, and disposed of +in a manner unknown; and the harsh and oppressive measures aforesaid +being still continued, the Begum did, about the middle of<a name="Page_428" id="Page_428" title="428" class="pagenum"></a> October, +1782, cause to be represented to the said Middleton as follows. "That +her situation was truly pitiable,—her estate sequestered, her treasury +ransacked, her cojahs prisoners, and her servants deserting daily from +want of subsistence. That she had solicited the loan of money, to +satisfy the demands of the Company, from every person that she imagined +would or could assist her with any; but that the opulent would not +listen to her adversity. She had hoped that the wardrobe sent to Lucknow +might have sold for at least one half of the Company's demands on her; +but even jewelry and goods, she finds from woful experience, lose their +value the moment it is known they come from her. That she had now +solicited the loan of cash from Almas Ali Khân, and if she failed in +that application, she had no hopes of ever borrowing a sum equal to the +demand":<a name="FNanchor_73_79" id="FNanchor_73_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_79" class="fnanchor" title=" Major Gilpin's letter, 19th Oct., 1782.">[73]</a>—an hope not likely to be realized, as the said Almas Ali +was then engaged for a sum of money to be raised for the Company's use +on the security of their confiscated lands, the restoration of which +could form the only apparent security for a loan.</p> + +<p>XLIX. That this remonstrance produced no effect on the mind of the +aforesaid Resident,—who, being about this time removed from his +Residency, did, in a letter to his successor, Mr. Bristow, dated 23d +October, 1782, in effect recommend a perseverance in the cruel and +oppressive restraints aforesaid as a certain means of recovering the +remainder of the extorted bond, and that the lands with which the +princesses aforesaid had been endowed should not be restored to them.</p><p><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429" title="429" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>L. That the said Warren Hastings was duly apprised of all the material +circumstances in the unjust proceedings aforesaid, but did nothing to +stop the course they were in, or to prevent, relieve, or mitigate the +sufferings of the parties affected by them: on the contrary, he did, in +his letter of the 25th of January, 1782, to the Resident, Middleton, +declare, that the Nabob having consented to the "resumption of the +jaghires held by the Begums, and to the confiscation of their treasures, +and thereby involved my own name and the credit of the Company in a +participation of both measures, I have a right to <i>require and insist on +the complete execution of them</i>; and I look to you for their execution, +declaring that I shall hold you accountable for it." And it appears that +he did write to the Nabob a letter in the same peremptory manner; but +the said letter has been suppressed.</p> + +<p>LI. That he, the said Hastings, farther did manifest the concern he took +in, and the encouragement which he gave to the proceedings aforesaid, by +conferring honors and distinctions upon the ministers of the Nabob, whom +he, the Nabob, did consider as having in the said proceedings disobeyed +him and betrayed him, and as instruments in the dishonor of his family +and the usurpation of his authority. That the said ministers did make +addresses to the said Hastings for that purpose (which addresses the +said Hastings hath suppressed); and the Resident, Middleton, did, with +his letter of the 11th of February, 1782, transmit the same, and did in +the said letter acquaint the said Hastings "that the ministers of the +Nabob had incurred much odium on account of their participation in his +measures, and that they were not only consid<a name="Page_430" id="Page_430" title="430" class="pagenum"></a>ered by the party of the +dispossessed jaghiredars, and the mother and uncle of the Nabob, but <i>by +the Nabob himself</i>, as the <i>dependants of the English government, which +they certainly are, and it is by its declared and most obvious support +alone</i> that they can maintain the authority and influence which is +indispensably necessary." And the said Middleton did therefore recommend +"that they should be honored with some testimony of his [the said +Hastings's] approbation and favor." And he, the said Warren Hastings, +did send <i>kellauts</i>, or robes of honor, (the most public and +distinguished mode of acknowledging merit known in India,) to the said +ministers, in testimony of his approbation of their late services.</p> + +<p>LII. That the said Hastings did not only give the aforesaid public +encouragement to the ministers of the Nabob to betray and insult their +master and his family in the manner aforesaid, but, when the said Nabob +did write several letters to him, the said Hastings, expressive of his +dislike of being used as an instrument in the dishonorable acts +aforesaid, and refusing to be further concerned therein, he, the said +Warren Hastings, did not only suppress and hide the said letters from +the view of the Court of Directors, but in his instructions to the +Resident, Bristow, did attribute them to Hyder Beg Khân, minister to the +Nabob, (whom in other respects he did before and ever since support +against his master,) and did express himself with great scorn and +contempt of the said Nabob, and with much asperity against the said +minister: affirming, in proud and insolent terms, that he had, "by an +abuse of his influence over the Nabob,—he, the Nabob himself, being +(<i>as he ever must be in the hands of <a name="Page_431" id="Page_431" title="431" class="pagenum"></a>some person</i>) <i>a mere cipher in +his [the said minister's],—dared</i> to make him [the Nabob] <i>assume</i> a +very <i>unbecoming</i> tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, in +opposition to <i>measures recommended by ME</i>, and even to <i>acts done by MY +authority</i>": the said Hastings, in the instruction aforesaid, +particularizing the resumption of the jaghires, and the confiscation of +the treasures that had been so long suffered to remain in the hands of +his, the Nabob's, mother. But the letters of the Nabob, which in the +said instructions he refers to as containing an opposition to the +measures recommended by him, and which he asserts was conveyed in a very +unbecoming tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, he, the said +Hastings, hath criminally withheld from the Company, contrary to their +orders, and to his duty,—and the more, as the said letters must tend to +show in what manner the said Nabob did feel the indignities offered to +his mother, and the manner in which the said ministers, notwithstanding +their known dependence on the English government, did express their +sense of the part which their sovereign was compelled to act in the said +disgraceful measures. And in farther instructions to him, the said new +Resident, he did declare his approbation of the evil acts aforesaid, as +well as his resolution of compelling the Nabob to those rigorous +proceedings against his parent from which he had long shown himself so +very averse, in the following words. "The severities which have been +increased towards the Begums were most justly merited by the advantage +which they took of the troubles in which I was personally involved last +year, to create a rebellion in the Nabob's government, and to complete +the ruin which they thought was impending on ours. If it is <a name="Page_432" id="Page_432" title="432" class="pagenum"></a>the Nabob's +desire to forget and to forgive their past offence, I have no objection +to his allowing them, in pension, the nominal amount of their jaghires; +but if he shall <i>ever offer</i> to restore their jaghires to them, or to +give them any property in land, after the warning which they have given +him by the dangerous abuse which they formerly made of his indulgence, +you must remonstrate in the strongest terms against it; <i>you must not +permit such an event to take place</i>, until this government shall have +received information of it, and shall have had time to interpose its +influence for the prevention of it." And the said Warren Hastings, who +did in the manner aforesaid positively refuse to admit the Nabob to +restore to his mother and grandmother any part of their landed estates +for their maintenance, did well know that the revenues of the said Nabob +were at that time so far applied to the demands of the Company, (by him, +the said Warren Hastings, aggravated beyond the whole of what they did +produce,) or were otherwise so far applied to the purposes of several of +the servants of the Company, and others, the dependants of him, the said +Hastings, that none of the pensions or allowances, assigned by the said +Nabob in lieu of the estates confiscated, were paid, or were likely to +be discharged, with that punctuality which was necessary even to the +scanty subsistence of the persons to which they were in name and +appearance applied. For,</p> + +<p>LIII. That, so early as the 6th March, 1782, Captain Leonard Jaques, who +commanded the forces on duty for the purpose of distressing the several +women in the palaces at Fyzabad, did complain to the Resident, Richard +Johnson, in the following words.<a name="Page_433" id="Page_433" title="433" class="pagenum"></a> "The women belonging to the Khord +Mohul (or lesser palace) complain of their being in want of every +necessary of life, and are at last driven to that desperation that they +at night get on the top of the zenanah, make a great disturbance, and +last night not only alarmed the sentinels posted in the garden, but +threw dirt at them; they threaten to throw themselves from the walls of +the zenanah, and also to break out of it. Humanity obliges me to +acquaint you of this matter, and to request to know if you have any +directions to give me concerning it. I also beg leave to acquaint you I +sent for Letafit Ali Khân, the cojah who has the charge of them, and who +informs me it is well grounded,—that they <i>have sold everything they +had, even to the clothes from their backs, and now have no means of +subsisting</i>."</p> + +<p>LIV. That the distresses of the said women grew so urgent on the night +of the said 6th of March, the day when the letter above recited was +written, that Captain Leonard Jaques aforesaid did think it necessary to +write again, on the day following, to the British Resident in the +following words. "I beg leave to address you again concerning the women +in the Khord Mohul [the lesser palace]. Their behavior last night was so +furious, that there seemed the greatest probability of their proceeding +to the uttermost extremities, and that they would either <i>throw +themselves from the walls or force open the doors of the zenanah</i>. I +have made every inquiry concerning the cause of their complaints, and +find from Letafit Ali Khân that they are in <i>a starving condition, +having sold all their clothes and necessaries, and now have not +wherewithal to support nature</i>; and as my instructions are <a name="Page_434" id="Page_434" title="434" class="pagenum"></a>quite silent +on this head, I should be glad to know how to proceed, in case they were +to force the doors of the zenanah, as I suspect it will happen, should +no subsistence be very quickly sent to them."</p> + +<p>LV. That, in consequence of these representations, it appears that the +said Resident, Richard Johnson, did promise that an application should +be made to certain of the servants of the Nabob Vizier to provide for +their subsistence.</p> + +<p>LVI. That Captain Jaques being relieved from the duty of imprisoning the +women of Sujah ul Dowlah, the late sovereign of Oude, an ally of the +Company, who dwelt in the said lesser palace, and Major Gilpin being +appointed to succeed, the same malicious design of destroying the said +women, or the same scandalous neglect of their preservation and +subsistence, did still continue; and Major Gilpin found it necessary to +apply to the new Resident, Bristow, in a letter of the 30th of October, +1782, as follows.</p> + +<p>LVII. "SIR,—Last night, about eight o'clock, the women in the +Khord Mohul [lesser palace] or zenanah [women's apartment] under the +charge of Letafit Ali Khân, assembled on the tops of the buildings, +<i>crying in a most lamentable manner for food,—that for the last four +days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they +had got none</i>.</p> + +<p>LVIII. "<i>The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than +described</i>; and from their representation I fear the Nabob's agents for +that business are very inattentive. I therefore think it requisite to +<a name="Page_435" id="Page_435" title="435" class="pagenum"></a>make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency, the +Nabob, may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct +towards these poor unhappy women."</p> + +<p>LIX. That, although the Resident, Bristol, did not then think himself +authorized to remove the guard, he did apply to the minister of the +Nabob, who did promise some relief to the women of the late Nabob, +confined in the lesser palace; but apprehending, with reason, that the +minister aforesaid might not be more ready or active in making the +necessary provision for them than on former occasions, he did render +himself personally responsible to Major Gilpin for the repayment of any +sum, equal to one thousand pounds sterling, which he might procure for +the subsistence of the sufferers. But whatever relief was given, (the +amount thereof not appearing,) the same was soon exhausted; and the +number of persons to be maintained in the said lesser palace being eight +hundred women, the women of the late sovereign, Sujah ul Dowlah, and +several of the younger children of the said sovereign prince, besides +their attendants, Major Gilpin was obliged, on the 15th of November +following, again to address the Resident by a representation of this +tenor.</p> + +<p>"SIR,—The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul +Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy.</p> + +<p>LX. "<i>They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their +daily bread by laborious servitude, or to be relieved from their misery +by immediate death.</i></p><p><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436" title="436" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>LXI. "In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken +the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain, at ten days' sight, +for twenty Son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah +Letafit Ali Khân, under whose charge that zenanah is."</p> + +<p>LXII. That, notwithstanding all the promises and reiterated engagements +of the minister, Hyder Beg Khân, the ladies of the palace aforesaid fell +again into extreme distress; and the Resident did again complain to the +said minister, who was considered to be, and really and substantially +was, the minister of the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, aforesaid, +and not of the Nabob, (the said Nabob being, according to the said +Hastings's own account, "a cipher in his [the said minister's] hands,") +that the funds allowed for their subsistence were not applied to their +support. But notwithstanding all these repeated complaints and +remonstrances, and the constant promise of amendment on the part of his, +the said Hastings's, minister, the supply was not more plentiful or more +regular than before.</p> + +<p>LXIII. That the said Resident, Bristow, finding by experience the +inefficacy of the courses which had been pursued with regard to the +mother and grandmother of the reigning prince of Oude, and having +received a report from Major Gilpin, informing him that all which could +be done by force had been done, and that the only hope which remained +for realizing the remainder of the money, unjustly exacted as aforesaid, +lay in more lenient methods,<a name="FNanchor_74_80" id="FNanchor_74_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_80" class="fnanchor" title=" Major Gilpin's Letter, 18 Nov., 1782.">[74]</a> he, the said<a name="Page_437" id="Page_437" title="437" class="pagenum"></a> Resident, did, of his own +authority, order the removal of the guard from the palaces, the troops +being long and much wanted for the defence of the frontier, and other +material services,—and did release the said ministers of the said women +of rank, who had been confined and put in irons, and variously +distressed and persecuted, as aforerecited, for near twelve months.<a name="FNanchor_75_81" id="FNanchor_75_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_81" class="fnanchor" title=" Mr. Bristow's Letter, 2d Dec., 1782.">[75]</a></p> + +<p>LXIV. That the manner in which the said inhuman acts of rapacity and +violence were felt, both by the women of high rank concerned, and by all +the people, strongly appears in the joy expressed on their release, +which took place on the 5th of December, 1782, and is stated in two +letters of that date from Major Gilpin to the Resident, in the words +following.</p> + +<p>LXV. "I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d +instant, and in consequence immediately enlarged the prisoners Behar Ali +Khân and Jewar Ali Khân from their confinement: a circumstance that gave +the Begums, and the city of Fyzabad in general, the greatest +satisfaction.</p> + +<p>LXVI. "In tears of joy Behar and Jewar Ali Khân expressed their sincere +acknowledgments to the Governor-General, his Excellency the Nabob +Vizier, and to you, Sir, for restoring them to that invaluable blessing, +liberty, for which they would ever retain the most grateful remembrance; +and at their request I transmit you the inclosed letters.</p> + +<p>LXVII. "I wish you had been present at the en<a name="Page_438" id="Page_438" title="438" class="pagenum"></a>largement of the +prisoners. The quivering lips, with the tears of joy stealing down the +poor men's cheeks, was a scene truly affecting.</p> + +<p>LXVIII. "If the prayers of these poor men will avail, you will, at the +LAST TRUMP, be translated to the happiest regions in heaven."</p> + +<p>LXIX. And the Resident, Bristow, knowing how acceptable the said +proceeding would be to all the people of Oude, and the neighboring +independent countries, did generously and politically, (though not +truly,) in his letter to the princess mother attribute the said relief +given to herself, and the release of her ministers, to the humanity of +the said Warren Hastings, agreeably to whose orders he pretended to act: +asserting, that he, the said Hastings, "was the spring from whence she +was restored to her dignity and consequence."<a name="FNanchor_76_82" id="FNanchor_76_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_82" class="fnanchor" title=" Mr. Bristow's Letter, 12 Dec., 1782.">[76]</a> And the account of the +proceedings aforesaid was regularly transmitted to the said Warren +Hastings on the 30th of December, 1782, with the reasons and motives +thereto, and a copy of the report of the officer concerning the +inutility of further force, attended with sundry documents concerning +the famishing, and other treatment, of the women and children of the +late sovereign: but the same appear to have made no proper impression on +the mind of the said Warren Hastings; for no answer whatsoever was given +to the said letter until the 3d of March, 1783, when the said Hastings, +writing in his own character and that of the Council, did entirely pass +by all the circumstances before recited, but did give directions for the +renewal of measures of the like nature and <a name="Page_439" id="Page_439" title="439" class="pagenum"></a>tendency with those which +(for several of the last months at least of the said proceeding) had +been employed with so little advantage to the interest and with so much +injury to the reputation of the Company, his masters, in whose name he +acted,—expressing himself in the said letter of the 3d of March, 1783, +as follows: "We desire you will inform us what means have been taken for +recovering the balance [the pretended balance of the extorted money] due +from the Begums [princesses] at Fyzabad; and if necessary, you must +recommend it to the Vizier <i>to enforce the most effectual means</i> for +that purpose." And the Resident did, in his answer to the board, dated +31st March, 1783, on this peremptory order, again detail the particulars +aforesaid to the said Warren Hastings, referring him to his former +correspondence, stating the utter impossibility of proceeding further by +force, and mentioning certain other disgraceful and oppressive +circumstances, and in particular, that the Company did not, in +plundering the mother of the reigning prince of her wearing apparel and +beasts of carriage, receive a value in the least equal to the loss she +suffered: the elephants having no buyer but the Nabob, and the clothes, +which had last been delivered to Middleton at a valuation of thirty +thousand pounds, were so damaged by ill keeping in warehouses, that they +could not be sold, even for six months' credit, at much more than about +eight thousand pounds; by which a loss in a single article was incurred +of twenty-two thousand pounds out of the fifty, for the recovery of +which (supposing it had been a just debt) such rigorous means had been +employed, after having actually received upwards of five hundred +thousand pounds in value to the Company, and extorted much more in <a name="Page_440" id="Page_440" title="440" class="pagenum"></a>loss +to the suffering individuals. And the said Bristow, being well +acquainted with the unmerciful temper of the said Hastings, in order to +leave no means untried to appease him, not contented with the letter to +the Governor-General and Council, did on the same day write another +letter <i>to him particularly</i>, in which he did urge several arguments, +the necessity of using of which to the said Hastings did reflect great +dishonor on this nation, and on the Christian religion therein +professed, namely: "That he had experienced great embarrassment in +treating with her [the mother of the reigning prince]; for, as the +mother of the Vizier, the people look up to her with respect, and any +hard measures practised against women of her high rank create +discontent, and affect our national character." And the said Resident, +after condemning very unjustly her conduct, added, "Still she is the +mother of the prince of the country, and the religious prejudices of +Mussulmen prevail too strongly in their minds to forget her situation."</p> + +<p>LXX. That the said Warren Hastings did not make any answer to the said +letter. But the mother of the prince aforesaid, as well as the mother of +his father, being, in consequence of his, the said Hastings's, +directions, incessantly and rudely pressed by their descendant, in the +name of the Company, to pay to the last farthing of the demand, they did +both positively refuse to pay any part of the pretended balances +aforesaid, until their landed estates were restored to them; on the +security of which alone they alleged themselves to be in a condition to +borrow any money, or even to provide for the subsistence of themselves +and their numerous dependants. And in order to <a name="Page_441" id="Page_441" title="441" class="pagenum"></a>put some end to these +differences, the Vizier did himself, about the beginning of August, +1783, go to Fyzabad, and did hold divers conferences with his parents, +and did consent and engage to restore to them their landed estates +aforesaid, and did issue an order that they should be restored +accordingly; but his minister aforesaid, having before his eyes the +peremptory orders of him, the said Warren Hastings, did persuade his +master to dishonor himself in breaking his faith and engagement with his +mother and the mother of his father, by first evading the execution, and +afterwards totally revoking his said public and solemn act, on pretence +that he had agreed to the grant "from shame, being in their presence +[the presence of his mother and grandmother], and that it was +unavoidable at the time";<a name="FNanchor_77_83" id="FNanchor_77_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_83" class="fnanchor" title=" Shoka from the Vizier to Hyder Beg Khân, 2d Ramsur, 1197">[77]</a>—the said minister declaring to him, that +it would be sufficient, if he allowed them "money for their <i>necessary</i> +expenses, and that would be <i>doing enough</i>."</p> + +<p>LXXI. That the faith given for the restoration of their landed estates +being thus violated, and the money for necessary expenses being as ill +supplied as before, the women and children of the late sovereign, father +of the reigning prince, continued exposed to frequent want of the common +necessaries of life;<a name="FNanchor_78_84" id="FNanchor_78_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_84" class="fnanchor" title=" Bristow's Letter, 29th Jan., 1784, with inclosures.">[78]</a> and being sorely pressed by famine, they were +compelled to break through all the principles of local decorum and +reserve which constitute the dignity of the female sex in that part of +the world, and, after great clamor and violent attempts for one whole +day to break the inclosure of the palace, and to force their <a name="Page_442" id="Page_442" title="442" class="pagenum"></a>way into +the public market, in order to move the compassion of the people, and to +beg their bread, they did, on the next day, actually proceed to the +extremity of exposing themselves to public view,—an extremity implying +the lowest state of disgrace and degradation, to avoid which many women +in India have laid violent hands upon themselves,—and they did proceed +to the public market-place with the starving children of the late +sovereign, and the brothers and sisters of the reigning prince! A minute +account of the transaction aforesaid was written to the British Resident +at Lucknow by the person appointed to convey intelligence to him from +Fyzabad, in the following particulars, highly disgraceful to the honor, +justice, and humanity of this nation.</p> + +<p>LXXII. "The ladies, their attendants and servants, were still as +clamorous as last night. Letafit, the <i>darogah</i>, went to them and +remonstrated with them on the impropriety of their conduct, at the same +time assuring them that in a few days all their allowances would be +paid, and should not that be the case, he would advance them ten days' +subsistence, upon condition that they returned to their habitation. None +of them, however, consented to his proposals, but were still intent upon +making their escape through the <i>bazar</i> [market-place], and in +consequence formed themselves into a line, arranging themselves in the +following order: the children in the front; behind them the ladies of +the seraglio; and behind them again their attendants: but their +intentions were frustrated by the opposition which they met from +Letafit's sepoys.</p><p><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443" title="443" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>LXXIII. "The next day Letafit went twice to the women, and used his +endeavors to make them return into the zenanah, promising to advance +them ten thousand rupees; which, upon the money being paid down, they +agreed to comply with: but night coming on, nothing transpired.</p> + +<p>LXXIV. "On the day following their clamors were more violent than usual. +Letafit went to confer with them, upon the business of yesterday; +offering the same terms. Depending upon the fidelity of his promises, +they consented to return to their apartments, which they accordingly +did, except two or three of the ladies, and most of their attendants. +Letafit then went to Hossmund Ali Khân, to consult with him upon what +means they should take. They came to a resolution of driving them in by +force, and gave orders to their sepoys to beat any one of the women who +should attempt to move forward. The sepoys consequently assembled; and +each one being provided with a bludgeon, they drove them by dint of +beating into the zenanah. The women, seeing the treachery of Letafit, +proceeded to throw stones and bricks at the sepoys, and again attempted +to get out; but finding that impossible, from the gates being shut, they +kept up a continual discharge of stones and bricks till about ten, when, +finding their situation desperate, they retired into the Kung Mohul, and +forced their way from thence into the palace, and dispersed themselves +about the house and garden; after this they were desirous of getting +into the Begum's apartment, but she, being apprised of their intention, +ordered her doors to be shut. In the mean time Letafit and Hossmund Ali +Khân <a name="Page_444" id="Page_444" title="444" class="pagenum"></a>posted sentries to secure the gates of the lesser Mohul. During +the whole of this conflict, all the ladies and women remained exposed to +the view of the sepoys. The Begum then sent for Letafit and Hossmund Ali +Khân, whom she severely reprimanded, and insisted upon knowing the +causes of this infamous behavior. They pleaded in their defence the +impossibility of helping it, as the treatment the women had met with had +been conformable to his Excellency the Vizier's orders. The Begum +alleged, that, even admitting that the Nabob had given those orders, +they were by no means authorized in this manner to disgrace the family +of Sujah Dowlah; and should they not receive their allowance for a day +or two, it could be of no great moment: what was passed was now at an +end; but that the Vizier should certainly be acquainted with the whole +of the affair, and that whatever he desired she should implicitly comply +with. The Begum then sent for five of the children, who were wounded in +the affray of last night, and, after endeavoring to soothe them, she +sent again for Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khân, and in the presence of the +children expressed her disapprobation of their conduct, and the +improbability of Asoph ul Dowlah's suffering the ladies and children of +Sujah Dowlah to be disgraced by being exposed to the view of the rabble. +Upon which Letafit produced the letter from the Nabob, at the same time +representing that he was amenable only to the orders of his Excellency, +and that whatever he ordered it was his duty to obey, and that, had the +ladies thought proper to have retired into their apartments quietly, he +would not have used the means he had taken to compel them. The Begum +again observed, that what <a name="Page_445" id="Page_445" title="445" class="pagenum"></a>had happened was now over. She then gave the +children four hundred rupees, and dismissed them, and sent word by +Jumrud and the other eunuchs, that, if the ladies would peaceably retire +to their apartments, Letafit would supply them with three or four +thousand rupees for their personal expenses, and recommended to them not +to incur any further disgrace, and that, if they did not think proper to +act agreeable to her directions, they would do wrong. The ladies +followed her advice, and about ten at night went back into the zenanah. +The nest morning the Begum waited upon the mother of Sujah Dowlah, and +related to her all the circumstances of the disturbances. The mother of +Sujah Dowlah returned for answer, that, after there being no accounts +kept of crores of revenues, she was not surprised that the family of +Sujah Dowlah, in their endeavors to procure a subsistence, should be +obliged to expose themselves to the meanest of the people. After +bewailing their misfortunes, and shedding many tears, the Begum took her +leave, and returned home."</p> + +<p>That the said affecting narrative being sent, with others of the same +nature, on the 29th of January, 1784, to the said Warren Hastings, he +did not order any relief in consequence thereof, or take any sort of +notice whatsoever of the said intelligence.</p> + +<p>LXXV. That the Court of Directors did express strong doubts of the +propriety of seizing the estates aforesaid, and did declare to him, the +said Hastings, "that the only consolation they felt on the occasion is, +that the amount of those jaghires <i>for which the Company were +guaranties</i> is to be paid <i>through our Resident at the court of the +Vizier</i>; and it very materially <a name="Page_446" id="Page_446" title="446" class="pagenum"></a>concerns the credit of your Governor on +no account to <i>suffer such payments to be evaded</i>." But the said Warren +Hastings did never make the arrangement supposed in the said letter to +be actually made, nor did he cause the Resident to pay them the amount +of their jaghires, or to make any payment to them.</p> + +<p>And the said Hastings being expressly ordered by the Court of Directors +to restore to them their estates, in case the charges made upon them +should not be found true, he, the said Hastings, did contumaciously and +cruelly decline any compliance with the said orders until his journey to +Lucknow, in ——, when he did, as he says, "conformably to the orders of +the Court of Directors, and more to the inclination of the Nabob Vizier, +restore to them their jaghires, but with the defalcation, according to +his own account, of <i>a large portion</i> of their respective shares": +pretending, without the least probability, that the said defalcation was +a "voluntary concession on their part." But what he has left to them for +their support, or in what proportion to that which he has taken away, he +has nowhere stated to the Court of Directors, whose faith he has broken, +and whose orders he has thus eluded, whilst he pretended to yield <i>some</i> +obedience to them.</p> + +<p>LXXVI. That the said Warren Hastings having made a malicious, loose, and +ill-supported charge, backed by certain unsatisfactory affidavits, as a +ground for his seizing on the jaghires and the treasures of the Vizier's +mother, solemnly guarantied to them, the Court of Directors did, in +their letter of the 14th of February, 1783, express themselves as +follows concerning that measure,—"which the Governor-General, [he, the +said Warren Hastings,] in his letter to your <a name="Page_447" id="Page_447" title="447" class="pagenum"></a>board, the 23d of January, +1782, has declared <i>he strenuously encouraged and supported</i>: we hope +and trust, for the honor of the British nation, that the measure +appeared fully justified in the eyes of all Hindostan. The +Governor-General has informed us that it can be well attested that the +Begums [the mother and grandmother of the Nabob aforesaid] <i>principally</i> +excited and supported the late commotions, and that they carried their +inveteracy to the English nation so far <i>as to aim at our utter +extirpation</i>." And the Court of Directors did farther declare as +follows: "That it nowhere appears from the papers at present in our +possession, that they [the mother and grandmother of the Nabob of Oude] +excited any commotions previous to the imprisonment of Rajah Cheyt Sing, +and only armed themselves in consequence of that transaction; and, as it +is probable, that such a conduct proceeded from motives of +self-defence, under an apprehension that they themselves might likewise +be laid under unwarrantable contributions." And the said Court of +Directors, in giving their orders for the restoration of the jaghires, +or for the payment of an equivalent through the Resident, did give this +order for the restoration of their estates as aforesaid on condition +that it should appear from inquiry that they were not guilty of the +practices charged upon them by the said Hastings. Mr. Stables, one of +the Council-General, did, in execution of the said conditional order, +propose an inquiry leading to the ascertainment of the condition, and +did enter a minute as follows: "That the Court of Directors, by their +letters of the 14th of February, 1783, seem not to be satisfied that the +disaffection of the Begums to this government is sufficiently proved by +the <a name="Page_448" id="Page_448" title="448" class="pagenum"></a>evidence before them; I therefore think that the late and present +Resident, and commanding officer in the Vizier's country at the time, +should be called on to collect what further information they can on this +subject, in which the honor and dignity of this government is so +<i>materially concerned</i>, and that such information may be transmitted to +the Court of Directors." And he did further propose heads and modes of +inquiry suitable to the doubts expressed by the Court of Directors. But +the said Warren Hastings, who ought long before, on principles of +natural justice, to have instituted a diligent inquiry in support of his +so improbable a charge, and was bound, even for his own honor, as well +as for the satisfaction of the Court of Directors, to take a strong part +in the said inquiry, did set himself in opposition to the same, and did +carry with him a majority of Council against the said inquiry into the +justice of the cause, or any proposition for the relief of the +sufferers: asserting, "that the reasons of the Court of Directors, if +transmitted with the orders for the inquiry, will prove in effect an +order for collecting evidence <i>to the justification and acquittal of the +Begums, and not for the investigation of the truth of the charges which +have been preferred against them</i>." That Mr. Stables did not propose (as +in the said Hastings's minute is groundlessly supposed) that the reasons +of the Court of Directors should be transmitted with the orders for an +inquiry. But the apprehension of the said Warren Hastings of the +probable result of the inquiry proposed did strongly indicate his sense +of his own guilt and the innocence of the parties accused by him; and +if, by his construction, Mr. Stables's minute did indicate an inquiry +merely for the justification of the parties by <a name="Page_449" id="Page_449" title="449" class="pagenum"></a>him accused, (which +construction the motion did not bear,) it was no more than what the +obvious rules of justice would well support, his own proceedings having +been <i>ex parte</i>,—he having employed Sir Elijah Impey to take affidavits +against the women of high rank aforesaid, not only without any inquiry +made on their part, but without any communication to them of his +practice and proceeding against them; and equity did at least require +that they, with his own knowledge and by the subordinates of his own +government, should be allowed a public inquiry to acquit themselves of +the heavy offences with which they had been by him clandestinely +charged.</p> + +<p>LXXVII. That he, the said Hastings, in order to effectually stifle the +said inquiry, did enter on record a further minute, asserting that the +said inquiry would be productive "of evils greater than any which exist +in the consequences which have already taken place, <i>and which time has +almost obliterated</i>"; as also the following: "If I am rightly informed, +the Nabob Vizier and the Begums are on terms of mutual goodwill. It +would ill become this government to interpose its influence by any act +which might tend to revive their animosities,—and a very slight +occasion would be sufficient to effect it. They will instantly take fire +on such a declaration, proclaim the judgment of the Company in their +favor, demand a reparation of the acts which they will construe wrongs +with such a sentence warranting that construction, and either accept the +invitation to the proclaimed scandal of the Nabob Vizier, which <i>will +not add to the credit of our government</i>, or remain in his dominions, +but not under his authority, to add to his vexations <a name="Page_450" id="Page_450" title="450" class="pagenum"></a>and the disorders +of the country by continual intrigues and seditions. Enough already +exists to affect his peace and the quiet of his people. If we cannot +heal, let us not inflame the wounds <i>which have been inflicted</i>."—"If +the Begums think themselves aggrieved to such a degree as to justify +them in <i>an appeal to a foreign jurisdiction</i>, to appeal to it against a +man standing in the relation of son and grandson to them, <i>to appeal to +the justice of those who have been the abettors and instruments of their +imputed wrongs</i>, let us at least permit them to be the judges of their +own feelings, and prefer their complaints before we offer to redress +them. They will not need to be prompted. I hope I shall not depart from +the simplicity of official language in saying, the majesty of justice +ought to be approached with solicitation, not descend to provoke or +invite it, much less to debase itself by the suggestion of wrongs and +the promise of redress, with the denunciation of punishments before +trial, and even before accusation."</p> + +<p>LXXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in attempting to pass an act of +indemnity for his own crimes, and of oblivion for the sufferings of +others, supposing the latter <i>almost obliterated</i> by time, did not only +mock and insult over the sufferings of the allies of the Company, but +did show an indecent contempt of the understandings of the Court of +Directors: because his violent attempts on the property and liberty of +the mother and grandmother of the ally aforesaid had not their first +commencement much above two years before that time, and had been +continued, without abatement or relaxation on his part, to the very time +of his minute; the Nabob having, by the insti<a name="Page_451" id="Page_451" title="451" class="pagenum"></a>gation of his, the said +Hastings's, instrument, Hyder Beg Khân, not two months before the date +of the Consultation, been obliged a second time to break his faith with +relation to the estates of his mother, in the manner hereinbefore +recited. And the said Hastings did not and could not conceive that the +clearing the mother could revive any animosity between her and her son, +by whom she never had been accused. The said Hastings was also sensible +that the restoration of her landed estates, recommended by the Court of +Directors, could not produce any ill effect on the mind of the said son, +as it was "with almost unconquerable reluctance he had been persuaded to +deprive her of them," and at the time of his submitting to become an +instrument in this injustice, did "declare," both, to the Resident and +his ministers, "that it was an act of compulsion."</p> + +<p>LXXIX. That the said Hastings further, by insinuating that the women in +question would act amiss in appealing to <i>a foreign jurisdiction</i> +against a son and grandson, could not forget that he himself, being that +foreign jurisdiction, (if any jurisdiction there was,) did himself +direct and order the injuries, did himself urge the calumnies, and did +himself cause to be taken and produced the unsatisfactory evidence by +which the women in question had suffered,—and that it was against him, +the said Hastings, and not against their son, that they had reason to +appeal. But the truth is, that the inquiry was moved for by Mr. Stables, +not on the prayer or appeal of the sufferers, but upon the ill +impression which the said Hastings's own conduct, merely and solely on +his own state of it, and on his own evidence in support of it, had <a name="Page_452" id="Page_452" title="452" class="pagenum"></a>made +on the Court of Directors, who were his lawful masters, and not suitors +in his court. And his arrogating to himself and his colleagues to be a +tribunal, and a tribunal not for the purpose of doing justice, but of +refusing inquiry, was an high offence and misdemeanor (particularly as +the due obedience to the Company's orders was eluded on the insolent +pretence "that the majesty of justice ought to be approached with +solicitation, and that it would debase itself by the suggestion of +wrongs and the promise of redress") in a Governor, whose business it is, +even of himself, and unsolicited, not only to promise, but to afford, +redress to all those who should suffer under the power of the Company, +even if their ignorance, or want of protection, or the imbecility of +their sex, or the fear of irritating persons in rank and station, should +prevent them from seeking it by formal solicitation.</p> + +<p>LXXX. That the said Warren Hastings, at the time when he pretended +ignorance of all solicitation for justice on the part of the women +aforesaid, and on that pretence did refuse the inquiry moved by his +colleague, Mr. Stables, had in all probability received from the +Resident, Middleton, or, if he had made the slightest inquiry from the +said Middleton, then at Calcutta, might immediately receive, an account +that <i>they did actually solicit</i> the said Resident, through Major +Gilpin, for redress against his, the said Hastings's, calumnious +accusation, and the false testimony by which it was supported, and did +send the said complaint to the Resident, Middleton, by the said Gilpin, +to be transmitted to him, the said Hastings, and the Council, so early +as the 19th of October, 1782; <a name="Page_453" id="Page_453" title="453" class="pagenum"></a>and that she, the mother of the Nabob, +did afterwards send the same to the Resident, Bristow, asserting their +innocence, and accompanying the same with the copies of letters (the +originals of which they asserted were in their hands) from the chief +witnesses against them, Hannay and Gordon, which letters did directly +overturn the charges or insinuations in the affidavits made by them, and +that, instead of any accusation of an attempt upon them and their +parties by the instigation of the mother of the Nabob, or by her +ministers, they, the said Hannay and Gordon, did attribute their +preservation to them and to their services, and did, with strong +expressions of gratitude both to the mother of the Nabob and to her +ministers, fully acknowledge the same: which remonstrance of the mother +of the Nabob, and the letters of the said Hannay and Gordon, are annexed +to this charge; and the said Hastings is highly criminal for not having +examined into the facts alleged in the said remonstrance.</p> + +<p>LXXXI. That the violent proceedings of the said Warren Hastings did tend +to impress all the neighboring princes, some of whom were allied in +blood to the oppressed women of rank aforesaid, with an ill opinion of +the faith, honor, and decency of the British nation; and accordingly, on +the journey aforesaid made by the Nabob from Lucknow to Fyzabad, in +which the said Nabob did restore, in the manner before mentioned, the +confiscated estates of his mother and grandmother, and did afterwards +revoke his said grant, it appears that the said journey did cause a +general alarm (the worst motives obtaining the most easy credit with +regard to any future proceeding, on <a name="Page_454" id="Page_454" title="454" class="pagenum"></a>account of the foregone acts) and +excited great indignation among the ruling persons of the adjacent +country, insomuch that Major Brown, agent to the said Warren Hastings at +the court of the King Shah Allum at Delhi, did write a remonstrance +therein to Mr. Bristow, Resident at Oude, as follows.</p> + +<p>"The evening of the 7th, at a conference I had with Mirza Shaffee Khân, +he introduced a subject, respecting the Nabob Vizier, which, however it +may be disagreeable for you to know, and consequently for me to +communicate, I am under a necessity of laying before you. He told me he +had received information from Lucknow, that, by the advice of Hyder Beg +Khân, the Vizier had determined to bring his grandmother, the widow of +Sufdar Jung, from Fyzabad to Lucknow, with a view of getting a further +sum of money from her, by seizing on her eunuchs, digging up the +apartments of her house at Fyzabad, and putting her own person under +restraint. This, he said, he knew was not an act of our government, but +the mere advice of Hyder Beg Khân, to which the Vizier had been induced +to attend. He added, that the old Begum had resolved rather to put +herself to death than submit to the disgrace intended to be put upon +her; that, if such a circumstance should happen, there is <i>not a man in +Hindostan who will attribute the act to the Vizier [Nabob of Oude], but +every one will fix the odium on the English, who might easily, by the +influence they so largely exercise in their own concerns there</i>, have +prevented such unnatural conduct in the Vizier. He therefore called upon +me, as the English representative in this quarter, to inform you of +this, that you may prevent a step which will destroy all confidence in +the English nation throughout Hin<a name="Page_455" id="Page_455" title="455" class="pagenum"></a>dostan, and excite the bitterest +resentment in all those who by blood are connected with the house of +Sufdar Jung. He concluded by saying, that, 'if the Vizier so little +regarded his family and personal honor, or his natural duty, as to wish +to disgrace his father's mother for a sum of money, let him plunder her +of all she has, but let him send her safe up to Delhi or Agra, and, poor +as I am, I will furnish subsistence for her, which she shall possess +with safety and honor, though it cannot be adequate to her rank.'</p> + +<p>"This, Sir, is a most exact detail of the conversation (as far as +related to that affair) on the part of Mirza Shaffee Khân. On my part I +could only say, that I imagined the affair was misrepresented, and that +I should write as he requested. Let me therefore request that you will +enable me to answer in a more effectual manner any further questions on +this subject.</p> + +<p>LXXXII. "As Mirza Shaffee's grandfather was brother to Sufdar Jung, +there can be no doubt of what his declaration means; and if this measure +of dismissing the old Begum should be persisted in, I should not, from +the state of affairs, and the character of the Amir ul Omrah, be +surprised at some immediate and violent resolution being adopted by +him."</p> + +<p>LXXXIII. That Mirza Shaffee, mentioned in this correspondence, (who has +since been murdered,) was of near kindred to the lady in question, +(grandmother to the Nabob,) was resident in a province immediately +adjoining to the province of Oude, and, from proximity of situation and +nearness of connection, was likely to have any intelligence concerning +his female relations from the best authority.</p><p><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456" title="456" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>LXXXIV. That the Resident, Bristow, on receiving this letter, did apply +to the said Hyder Beg Khân for an explanation of the Nabob's intentions, +who denied that the Nabob intended more than a visit of duty and +ceremony: which, whatever his dispositions might have been, and probably +were, towards his own mother, was not altogether probable, as it was +well known that he was on very bad terms with the mother of his father, +and it appears that intentions of a similar nature had been before +manifested even with regard to his own mother, and therefore obtained +the more easy credit concerning the other woman of high rank aforesaid, +especially as the evil designs of the said Hyder Beg were abundantly +known, and that the said Hastings, upon whom he did wholly depend, +continued to recommend "the most effectual, that is, the most violent, +means for the recovery of the small remains of his extorted demand." But +although it does not appear that the Resident did give credit to the +said report, yet the effect of the same on the minds of the neighboring +princes did make it proper and necessary to direct a strict inquiry into +the same, which was not done; and it does not appear that any further +inquiry was made into the true motives for this projected journey to +Fyzabad, nor into the proceedings of Hyder Beg Khân, although the said +Warren Hastings well knew that all the acts of the Nabob and his +principal ministers were constantly attributed to him, and that it was +known that secret agents, as well as the Company's regular agent, were +employed by him at Lucknow and other places.</p> + +<p>LXXXV. That the said Hastings, who did, on pretence of the majesty of +justice, refuse to inquire <a name="Page_457" id="Page_457" title="457" class="pagenum"></a>into the charges made upon the female +parents of the Nabob of Oude, in justification of the violence offered +to them, did voluntarily and of his own accord make himself an accuser +of the Resident, Middleton, for the want of a literal execution of his +orders in the plans of extortion and rapine aforesaid: the criminal +nature, spirit, and tendency of the said proceedings, for the defective +execution of which he brought the said charge, appearing in the defence +or apology made by Mr. Middleton, the Resident, for his temporary and +short forbearances.</p> + +<p>LXXXVI. "It could not, I flatter myself, be termed a long or +unwarrantable delay [two days], when the importance of the business, and +the peculiar embarrassments attending the prosecution of it to its +desired end, are considered. The Nabob was <i>son</i> to the Begum whom we +were to proceed against: a son against a mother must at least <i>save +appearances in his mode of proceeding</i>. The produce of his negotiation +was to be received by the Company. Receiving a benefit, accompanying the +Nabob, withdrawing their protection, were circumstances sufficient to +<i>mark the English as the principal movers in this business</i>. At a court +where no opportunity is lost to throw odium on us, so favorable an +occasion was not missed to persuade the Nabob that we instigated him to +dishonor his family for our benefit. The impressions made by these +suggestions constantly retarded the progress, and more than once +actually broke off the business: which rendered the utmost caution on my +part necessary, especially as I had no assistance to expect from the +ministers, who could not openly move in the business. In the East, it is +well known that no man <a name="Page_458" id="Page_458" title="458" class="pagenum"></a>either by himself or his troops, can enter the +walls of a zenanah, scarcely in the case of acting against an open +enemy, much less of <i>an ally,—an ally acting against his own mother</i>. +The outer walls, and the Begum's agents, were all that were liable to +immediate attack: they were dealt with, and successfully, as the event +proved."—He had before observed to Mr. Hastings, in his correspondence, +what Mr. Hastings well knew to be true, "that no farther rigor than that +he had exerted could be used against females in that country; where +force could be employed, it was not spared;—that the place of +concealment was only known to the chief eunuchs, who could not be drawn +out of the women's apartments, where they had taken refuge, and from +which, if an attempt had been made to storm them, they might escape; and +the secret of the money being known only to them, it was necessary to +get their persons into his hands, which could be obtained by negotiation +only."—The Resident concluded his defence by declaring his "hope, that, +if the main object of his orders was fulfilled, he should be no longer +held criminal for a deviation from the precise letter of them."</p> + +<p>LXXXVII. That the said Warren Hastings did enter a reply to this answer, +in support of his criminal charge, continuing to insist "that his orders +ought to have been literally obeyed," although he did not deny that the +above difficulties occurred, and the above consequences must have been +the result,—and though the reports of the military officers charged +with the execution of his commission confirmed the moral impossibility, +as well as inutility in point of profit, of forcing a son to greater +violence and rigor against his mother.</p><p><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459" title="459" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>LXXXVIII. That the said Hastings, after all the acts aforesaid, did +presume to declare on record, in his minute of the 23d September, 1788, +"that, whatever may happen of the events which he dreads in the train of +affairs now subsisting, he shall at least receive this consolation under +them, that he used his utmost exertions to prevent them, and that in the +annals of the nations of India which have been subjected to the British +dominions <i>HE shall not be remembered among their oppressors</i>." And +speaking of certain alleged indignities offered to the Nabob of Oude, +and certain alleged suspicions of his authority with regard to the +management of his household, he, the said Hastings, did, in the said +minute, endeavor to excite the spirit of the British nation, severely +animadverting on such offences, making use of the following terms: "If +there be a spark of generous virtue in the breasts of any of my +countrymen who shall be the readers of this compilation, this letter" (a +letter of complaint from the Nabob) "shall stand for an instrument to +awaken it to the call of vengeance against so flagitious an abuse of +authority and reproach to the British name."</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>From her Excellency the Bhow Begum to Mr. Bristow, Resident at the +Vizier's Court.</i></p> + +<p>There is no necessity to write to you by way of information a detail of +my sufferings. From common report, and the intelligence of those who are +about you, the account of them will have reached your ears. I will here +relate a part of them.</p> + +<p>After the death of Sujah Dowlah, most of his ungrateful servants were +constantly laboring to gratify <a name="Page_460" id="Page_460" title="460" class="pagenum"></a>their enmity; but finding, from the firm +and sincere friendship which subsisted between me and the English, that +the accomplishment of their purposes was frustrated, they formed the +design of occasioning a breach in that alliance, to insure their own +success. I must acquaint you that my son Asoph ul Dowlah had formerly +threatened to seize my jaghire; but, upon producing the treaty signed by +you, and showing it to Mr. Middleton, he interfered, and prevented the +impending evil. The conspiration now framed an accusation against me of +a conduct which I had never conceived even in idea, of rendering +assistance to Rajah Cheyt Sing. The particulars are as follow. My son +Asoph ul Dowlah and his ministers, with troops and a train of artillery, +accompanied by Mr. Middleton, on the 16th of the month of Mohurum, +arrived at Fyzabad, and made a demand of a crore of rupees. As my +inability to pay so vast a sum was manifest, I produced the treaty <i>you</i> +signed and gave me, but to no effect: their hearts were determined upon +violence. I offered my son Asoph ul Dowlah, whose will is dearer to me +than all my riches, or even life itself, whatever money and goods I was +possessed of: but an amicable adjustment seemed not worth accepting: he +demanded the delivering up the fort, and the recall of the troops that +were stationed for the preserving the peace of the city. To me tumult +and discord appeared unnecessary. I gave up these points, upon which +they seized my head eunuchs, Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, and sent +them to Mr. Middleton, after having obliged them to sign a bond for +sixty lacs of rupees; they were thrown into prison, with fetters about +their feet, and denied food and water. I, who had never, even in my +dreams, expe<a name="Page_461" id="Page_461" title="461" class="pagenum"></a>rienced such an oppression, gave up all I had to preserve +my honor and dignity: but this would not satisfy their demands: they +charged me with a rupee and a half batta upon each mohur, and on this +account laid claims upon me to the amount of six lacs some thousand +rupees, and sent Major Gilpin to exact the payment. Major Gilpin, +according to orders, at first was importunate; but being a man of +experience, and of a benevolent disposition, when he was convinced of my +want of means, he changed his conduct, and was willing to apply to the +shroffs and bankers to lend me the money. But with the loss of my +jaghire my credit was sunk; I could not raise the sum. At last, feeling +my helpless situation, I collected my wardrobe and furniture, to the +amount of about three lacs of rupees, besides fifty thousand rupees +which I borrowed from one place or other, and sent Major Gilpin with it +to Lucknow. My sufferings did not terminate here. The disturbances of +Colonel Hannay and Mr. Gordon were made a pretence for seizing my +jaghire. The state of the matter is this. When Colonel Hannay was by Mr. +Hastings ordered to march to Benares, during the troubles of Cheyt Sing, +the Colonel, <i>who had plundered the whole country, was incapable of +proceeding, from the union of thousands of zemindars, who had seized +this favorable opportunity</i>: they harassed Mr. Gordon near Junivard +[Juanpore?], and the zemindars of that place and Acberpore opposed his +march from thence, till he arrived near Taunda. As the Taunda nullah, +from its overflowing, was difficult to cross without a boat, Mr. Gordon +sent to the Phousdar to supply him. He replied, the boats were all in +the river, but would, according to orders, assist him as soon as +possible. Mr. Gordon's <a name="Page_462" id="Page_462" title="462" class="pagenum"></a>situation would not admit of his waiting: he +forded the nullah upon his elephant, and was hospitably entertained and +protected by the Phousdar for six days. In the mean time a letter was +received by me from Colonel Hannay, desiring me to escort Mr. Gordon to +Fyzabad. As my friendship for the English was always sincere, I readily +complied, and sent some companies of nejeebs to escort Mr. Gordon, and +all his effects, to Fyzabad, where, having provided for his +entertainment, I effected his junction with Colonel Hannay. The letters +of thanks I received from both these gentlemen upon this occasion are +still in my possession, copies of which I gave in charge to Major +Gilpin, to be delivered to Mr. Middleton, that he might forward them to +the Governor-General. To be brief, those who have loaded me with +accusations are now clearly convicted of falsehood. But is it not +extraordinary, notwithstanding the justness of my cause, that nobody +relieves my misfortunes? Why did Major Gilpin return without effect?</p> + +<p>My prayers have been constantly offered to Heaven for your arrival; +report has announced it; for which reason I have taken up the pen, and +request you will not place implicit confidence in my accusers, but, +weighing in the scale of justice their falsehoods and my +representations, you will exert your influence in putting a period to +the misfortunes with which I am overwhelmed.</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali +Khân.</i></p> + +<p>I had the pleasure to receive your friendly letter, fraught with +benevolence; and whatever favors you, <a name="Page_463" id="Page_463" title="463" class="pagenum"></a>my friends, have been pleased to +confer respecting Mr. Gordon afforded me the greatest pleasure.</p> + +<p>Placing a firm reliance on your friendship, I am in expectation that the +aforesaid gentleman, with his baggage, will arrive at Fyzabad in safety, +that the same may oblige and afford satisfaction to me.</p> + +<p>A letter from Mr. Gordon is inclosed to you. I am in expectation of its +being inclosed in a cover to the Aumil of Taunda, to the end that the +Aumil may forward it to the above-mentioned gentleman, and procure his +reply. Whenever the answer arrives, let it be delivered to Hoolas Roy, +who will forward it to me.</p> + +<p>Always rejoice me by a few lines respecting your health. [Continue to +honor me with your correspondence.]</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar and Behar Ali Khân.</i></p> + +<p>Khân Saib, my indulgent friends, remain under the protection of God!</p> + +<p>Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, accompanied by an honorary +letter from the Begum Saib, of exalted dignity, and inclosing a letter +from Mr. Gordon, sent through your hircarrahs, obliged and rejoiced me.</p> + +<p>With respect to what you communicate regarding your not having received +an answer to your friendly epistle, I became perfectly astonished, as a +reply was written from Mohadree. It may be owing to the danger of the +road that it never arrived,—not to the smallest neglect on my side [or +of mine].</p> + +<p>I now send two letters to you,—one by the Dawk people, and the second +by one of my hircarrahs, (who <a name="Page_464" id="Page_464" title="464" class="pagenum"></a>will present them to you,) which you +certainly will receive.</p> + +<p>I am extremely well contented and pleased with the friendship you have +shown.</p> + +<p>You wrote me to remain perfectly easy concerning Mr. Gordon. Verily, +from the kindness of you, my indulgent friends, my heart is quite easy. +You also observed and mentioned, that, as Mr. Gordon's coming with those +attached to him [probably his sepoys and others] might be attended with +difficulty, if I approved, he should be invited alone to Fyzabad. My +friends, I place my expectation entirely upon your friendships, and +leave it to you to adopt the manner in which the said gentleman may +arrive in security, without molestation, at Fyzabad; but at the same +time let the plan be so managed that it may not come to the knowledge of +any zemindars: in this case you are men of discernment. However, he is +to come to Fyzabad: extend your assistance and endeavors.</p> + +<p>It is probable that the Begum Saib, of high dignity, has received +authentic intelligence from the camp at Benares. Favor me with the +contents or purport.</p> + +<p>From Mr. Gordon's letter I understand that Mirza Imaum Buksh, whom you +dispatched thither [Taunda], has and still continues to pay great +attention to that gentleman, which affords me great pleasure.</p> + +<p>An answer to the Begum's letter is to be presented. I also send a letter +for Mr. Gordon, which please to forward.</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>An Address from Colonel Hannay to the Begum.</i></p> + +<p>Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, &c., whom God preserve!</p><p><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465" title="465" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Your exalting letter, fraught with grace and benevolence, that through +your unbounded generosity and goodness was sent through grace and favor, +I had the honor to receive in a fortunate moment, and whatever you were +pleased to write respecting Mr. Gordon,—"that, as at this time the +short-sighted and deluded ryots had carried their disturbances and +ravages beyond all bounds, Mr. Gordon's coming with his whole people [or +adherents] might be attended with difficulty, and therefore, if I chose, +he should be invited to come alone." Now, as your Highness is the best +judge, your faithful servant reposeth his most unbounded hopes and +expectation upon your Highness, that the aforesaid Mr. Gordon may arrive +at Fyzabad without any apprehension or danger. I shall be then extremely +honored and obliged.</p> + +<p>Considering me in the light of a firm and faithful servant, continue to +honor and exalt me by your letters.</p> + +<p>What further can I say?</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>A Copy of an Address from Mr. Gordon to the Begum.</i></p> + +<p>Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, whom God preserve!</p> + +<p>After presenting the usual professions of servitude, &c., in the +customary manner, my address is presented.</p> + +<p>Your gracious letter, in answer to the petition of your servant from +Goondah, exalted me. From the contents I became unspeakably impressed +with the honor it conferred. May the Almighty protect that royal purity, +and bestow happiness, increase of wealth, and prosperity!</p><p><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466" title="466" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The welfare of your servant is entirely owing to your favor and +benevolence. A few days have elapsed since I arrived at Goondah with the +Colonel Saib.</p> + +<p>This is presented for your Highness's information. I cherish hopes from +your generosity, that, considering me in the light of one of your +servants, you will always continue to exalt and honor me with your +gracious letters.</p> + +<p>May the sun of prosperity continually shine!</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>Copy of a Letter to Mahomed Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, from Mr. +Gordon.</i></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Sirs, my indulgent friends,<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Remain under, &c., &c.<br /></span> +</p> + +<p>After compliments. I have the pleasure to acquaint you that yesterday +having taken leave of you, I passed the night at Noorgunge, and next +morning, about ten or eleven o'clock, through your favor and +benevolence, arrived safe at Goondah. Mir Aboo Buksh, zemindar, and Mir +Rustum Ali, accompanied me.</p> + +<p>To what extent can I prolong the praises of you, my beneficent friends? +May the Supreme Being, for this benign, compassionate, humane action, +have you in His keeping, and increase your prosperity, and speedily +grant me the pleasure of an interview! Until which time continue to +favor me with friendly letters, and oblige me by any commands in my +power to execute.</p> + +<p>May your wishes be ever crowned with success!</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">My compliments, &c., &c., &c.<br /></span> +</p><p><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467" title="467" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<p class="center"><i>Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali +Khân.</i></p> + +<p> +Khân Saib, my indulgent friends,<br /> +</p> + +<p>Remain under the protection of the Supreme Being!</p> + +<p>After compliments, and signifying my earnest desire of an interview, I +address you.</p> + +<p>Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, I had the pleasure to +receive in a propitious hour, and your inexpressible kindness in sending +for Mir Nassar Ali with a force to Taunda, for the purpose of conducting +Mr. Gordon, with all his baggage, who is now arrived at Fyzabad.</p> + +<p>This event has afforded me the most excessive pleasure and satisfaction. +May the Omnipotence preserve you, my steadfast, firm friends! The pen of +friendship itself cannot sufficiently express your generosity and +benevolence, and that of the Begum of high dignity, who so graciously +has interested herself in this matter. Inclosed is an address for her, +which please to forward. I hope from your friendship, until we meet, you +will continue to honor me with an account of your health and welfare. +What further can I write?</p> + + +<h3><a name="V_REVOLUTIONS_IN_FURRUCKABAD" id="V_REVOLUTIONS_IN_FURRUCKABAD"></a>V.—REVOLUTIONS IN FURRUCKABAD.</h3> + +<p>I. That a prince called Ahmed Khân was of a family amongst the most +distinguished in Hindostan, and of a nation famous through that empire +for its valor in acquiring, and its policy and prudence in well +governing the territories it had acquired, called the Patans, or +Afghans, of which the Rohillas were a branch. The said Ahmed Khân had +fixed his residence in the <a name="Page_468" id="Page_468" title="468" class="pagenum"></a>city of Furruckabad, and in the first wars +of this nation in India the said Ahmed Khân attached himself to the +Company against Sujah Dowlah, then an enemy, now a dependant on that +Company. Ahmed Khân, towards the close of his life, was dispossessed of +a large part of his dominions by the prevalence of the Mahratta power; +but his son, a minor, succeeded to his pretensions, and to the remainder +of his dominions. The Mahrattas were expelled by Sujah ul Dowlah, the +late Vizier, who, finding a want of the services of the son and +successor of Ahmed Khân, called Muzuffer Jung, did not only guaranty him +in the possession of what he then actually held, but engaged to restore +all the other territories which had been occupied by the Mahrattas; and +this was confirmed by repeated treaties and solemn oaths, by the late +Vizier and by the present. But neither the late nor the present Vizier +fulfilled their engagements, or observed their oaths: the former having +withheld what he had stipulated to restore; and the latter not only +subjecting him to a tribute, instead of restoring him to what his father +had unjustly withheld, but having made a further invasion by depriving +him of fifteen of his districts, levying the tribute of the whole on the +little that remained, and putting the small remains of his territory +under a sequestrator or collector appointed by Almas Ali Khân, who did +grievously afflict and oppress the prince and territory aforesaid.</p> + +<p>That the hardships of his case being frequently represented to Warren +Hastings, Esquire, he did suggest a doubt whether "that little ought to +be still subject to tribute," indicating that the said tribute might be +hard and inequitable,—but, whatever its justice might have been, that, +"from the <i>earliest period</i> of our con<a name="Page_469" id="Page_469" title="469" class="pagenum"></a>nection with the present Nabob of +Oude, it had invariably continued a part of the funds assigned by his +Excellency as a provision for the liquidation of the several public +demands of <i>this government</i> [Calcutta] upon him; and in consequence of +the powers the board deemed it expedient to vest in the Resident at his +court for the collection of the Company's assignments, a <i>sezauwil</i> [a +sequestrator] has always been stationed to enforce by every means in his +power the payment of the tribute." And the said tribute was, in +consequence of this arrangement, not paid to the Nabob, but to the +British Resident at Oude; and the same being therefore under the +direction and for the sole use of the Company, and indeed the prince +himself wholly dependent, the representatives of the said Company were +responsible for the protection of the prince, and for the good +government of the country.</p> + +<p>II. That the said "Warren Hastings did, on the 22d of May, 1780, +represent to the board of Calcutta the condition of the said country in +the following manner.</p> + +<p>"To the total want of all order, regularity, or <i>authority</i> in his +government [the Furruckabad government], among <i>other obvious causes</i>, +it may, no doubt, be owing, that the country of Furruckabad is become +<i>an almost entire waste, without cultivation or inhabitants</i>; that the +capital, which but a very short time ago was distinguished as one of the +most <i>populous and opulent</i> commercial cities in Hindostan, at present +exhibits nothing <i>but</i> scenes of the most wretched poverty, desolation, +and misery; and the Nabob himself, though in possession of a tract of +country which with only common care is notoriously capable of yielding +<a name="Page_470" id="Page_470" title="470" class="pagenum"></a>an annual revenue of between thirty and forty lacs [three or four +hundred thousand pounds], with <i>no military establishment to maintain, +scarcely commanding the means of bare subsistence</i>." And the said Warren +Hastings, taking into consideration the said state of the country and +its prince, and that the latter had "<i>preferred frequent complaints</i>" +(which complaints the said Hastings to that time did not lay before the +board, as his duty required) "<i>of the hardships and indignities</i> to +which he is subjected by the conduct of the sezauwil [sequestrator] +stationed in the country for the purpose of levying the annual tribute +which he is bound by treaty to pay to the Subah of Oude," he, the said +Warren Hastings, did declare himself "extremely desirous, as well from +motives of <i>common justice</i> as <i>due</i> regard to <i>the rank which that +chief holds among the princes of Hindostan</i>, of affording him relief." +And he, the said Warren Hastings, as the means of the said relief, did, +with the consent of the board, order the said native sequestrator to be +removed, and an English Resident, a servant of the Company, to be +appointed in his room, declaring "he understood a local interference to +be <i>indispensably necessary</i> for realizing the Vizier's just demands."</p> + +<p>III. That the said native sequestrator being withdrawn, and a Resident +appointed, no complaint whatever concerning the collection of the +revenue, or of any indignities offered to the prince of the country or +oppression of his subjects by the said Resident, was made to the +Superior Council at Calcutta; yet the said Warren Hastings did, +nevertheless, in a certain paper, purporting to be a treaty made at +Chunar with the Nabob of Oude, on the 19th September, 1781, at <a name="Page_471" id="Page_471" title="471" class="pagenum"></a>the +request of the said Nabob, consent to an article therein, "That no +English Resident be appointed to Furruckabad, and that the present be +recalled." And the said Warren Hastings, knowing that the Nabob of Oude +was ill-affected towards the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and that he was +already supposed to have oppressed him, did justify his conduct on the +principles and in the words following: "That, if the Nabob Muzuffer Jung +<i>must</i> endure oppression, (<i>and I dare not at this time propose his +total relief</i>,) it concerns the reputation of our government to remove +<i>our participation in it</i>." And the said Warren Hastings making, +recording, and acting upon the first of the said false and inhuman +suppositions, most scandalous to this nation, namely, that princes +paying money wholly for the use of the Company, and directly to its +agent, for the maintenance of British troops, by whose force and power +the said revenue was in effect collected, must of necessity endure +oppression, and that our government at any time <i>dare</i> not propose their +<i>total</i> relief, was an high offence and misdemeanor in the said Warren +Hastings, and the rather, because in the said treaty, as well as before +and after, the said Hastings, who pretended not to dare to relieve those +oppressed by the Nabob of Oude, did assume a complete authority over the +said Nabob himself, and did dare to oppress him.</p> + +<p>IV. That the second principle assumed by the said Warren Hastings, as +ground for voluntarily abandoning the protection of those whom he had +before undertaken to relieve, <i>on the sole strength of his own +authority</i>, and in full confidence of the lawful foundation thereof, and +for delivering over the persons so <a name="Page_472" id="Page_472" title="472" class="pagenum"></a>taken into protection, under false +names and pretended descriptions, to known oppression, asserting that +the reputation of the Company was saved by removing this apparent +participation, when the new as well as the old arrangements were truly +and substantially acts of the British government, was disingenuous, +deceitful, and used to cover unjustifiable designs: since the said +Warren Hastings well knew that all oppressions exercised by the Nabob of +Oude were solely, and in this instance particularly, upheld by British +force, and were imputed to this nation; and because he himself, in not +more than three days after the execution of this treaty, and in virtue +thereof, did direct the British Resident at Oude, in orders <i>to which he +required his most implicit obedience</i>, "that the ministers [the Nabob of +Oude's ministers] are to choose <i>all</i> aumils and collectors of revenue +with your concurrence." And the dishonor to the Company, in thus +deceitfully concurring in oppression, which they were able and were +bound to prevent, is much aggravated by the said Warren Hastings's +receiving from the person to whose oppression he had delivered the said +prince, as a private gift or donation to himself and for his own use, a +sum of money amounting to one hundred thousand pounds and upwards, which +might give just ground of suspicion that the said gift from the +oppressor to the person surrendering the person injured to his mercy +might have had some share in the said criminal transaction.</p> + +<p>V. That the said Warren Hastings did (in the paper justifying the said +surrender of the prince put by himself under the protection of the East +India Company) assert, "that it was a fact, that the <a name="Page_473" id="Page_473" title="473" class="pagenum"></a>Nabob Muzuffer +Jung [the Nabob of Furruckabad] is equally urgent with the Nabob Vizier +for the removal of a Resident," without producing, as he ought to have +done, any document to prove his improbable assertion, namely, his +assertion that the oppressed prince did apply to his known enemy and +oppressor, the Nabob of Oude, (who, if he would, was not able to relieve +him against the will of the English government,) rather than to that +English government, which he must have conceived to be more impartial, +to which he had made his former complaint, and which was alone able to +relieve him.</p> + +<p>VI. That the said Warren Hastings, in the said writing, did further +convey an insinuation of an ambiguous, but, on any construction, of a +suspicious and dangerous import, viz.: "It is a fact, that Mr. Shee's +[the Resident's] authority over the territory of Furruckabad is in +itself as much subversive of that [<i>of the lawful rulers</i>] as that of +the Vizier's aumil [collector] ever was, and is the more <i>oppressive</i> as +the power from whence it is derived is greater." The said assertion +proceeds upon a supposition of the illegality both of the Nabob's and +the Company's government; all consideration of the <i>title</i> to authority +being, therefore, on that supposition, put out of the question, and the +whole turning only upon the <i>exercise</i> of authority, the said Hastings's +suggestion, that the oppression of government must be in proportion to +its power, is the result of a false and dangerous principle, and such as +it is criminal for any person intrusted with the lives and fortunes of +men to entertain, much more, publicly to profess as a rule of action, as +the same hath a direct tendency to make <a name="Page_474" id="Page_474" title="474" class="pagenum"></a>the new and powerful government +of this kingdom in India dreadful to the natives and odious to the +world. But if the said Warren Hastings did mean thereby indirectly to +insinuate that oppressions had been actually exercised under the British +authority, he was bound to inquire into these oppressions, and to +animadvert on the person guilty of the same, if proof thereof could be +had,—and the more, as the authority was given by <i>himself</i>, and the +person exercising it was by himself also named. And the said Warren +Hastings did on another occasion assert that "whether they were well or +ill-founded he never had an opportunity to ascertain." But it is not +true that the said Hastings did or could want such opportunity: the fact +being, that the said Warren Hastings did never cause any inquiry to be +made into any supposed abuses during the said Residency, but did give a +pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year to the said late Resident as a +compensation to him for an injury received, and did afterwards promote +the Resident, as a faithful servant of the Company, (and nothing appears +to show him otherwise,) to a judicial office of high trust,—thereby +taking away all credit from any grounds asserted or insinuated by the +said Hastings for delivering the said Nabob of Furruckabad to the hand +of a known enemy and oppressor, who had already, contrary to repeated +treaties, deprived him of a large part of his territories.</p> + +<p>VII. That, on the said Warren Hastings's representation of the +transaction aforesaid to the Court of Directors, they did heavily and +justly censure the said Warren Hastings for the same, and did convey +their censure to him, recommending relief to the suf<a name="Page_475" id="Page_475" title="475" class="pagenum"></a>fering prince, but +without any order for sending a new Resident: being, as it may be +supposed, prevented from taking that step by the faith of the treaty +made at Chunar.</p> + +<p>VIII. That all the oppressions foreseen by him, the said Warren +Hastings, when he made the article aforesaid in the treaty of Chunar, +did actually happen: for, immediately on the removal of the British +Resident, the country of Furruckabad was subjected to the discretion of +a certain native manager of revenue, called Almas Ali Khân, who did +impoverish and oppress the country and insult the prince, and did +deprive him of all subsistence from his own estates,—taking from him +even his gardens and the tombs of his ancestors, and the funds for +maintaining the same.</p> + +<p>IX. That, on complaint of those proceedings, the said Hastings did of +his own authority, and without communicating with his Council, direct +the native collector aforesaid to be removed, and the territory of +Furruckabad to be left to the sole management of its natural prince. But +in a short time the said Hastings, pretending to receive many complaints +purporting that the tribute to the Nabob remained wholly unpaid, and the +agent to the prince of Furruckabad at the Presidency, and afterwards +chief manager to the prince aforesaid, having, as the said Warren +Hastings saith, "had the insolence to propagate a report that the +<i>interference</i> to which his master owed the power he then enjoyed was +<i>purchased</i> through him," he, the said Hastings, did again (but, as +before, without the Council) "withdraw his protection and inter<a name="Page_476" id="Page_476" title="476" class="pagenum"></a>ference +altogether," on or about the month of August, 1782, and did signify his +resolution, through the Resident, Middleton, to the Nabob Vizier. But +the said Hastings asserts that "the consequence of this his own second +dereliction of the prince of Furruckabad was <i>an aggravated renewal of +the severities</i> exercised against his government, and the reappointment +of a sezauwil, with powers delegated or assumed, to the <i>utter +extinction</i> of the rights of Muzuffer Jung, and actually depriving him +of the means of subsistence." And the said Hastings did receive, on the +16th of February, 1783, from the prince aforesaid, a bitter complaint of +the same to the following tenor.</p> + +<p>"The miseries which have fallen upon my country, and the poverty and +distress which have been heaped upon me by the reappointment of the +sezauwil, are such, that a relation of them would, I am convinced, +excite the strongest feelings of compassion in your breast. But it is +impossible to relate them: on one side, my country ruined and +uncultivated to a degree of desolation which exceeds all description; on +the other, my domestic concerns and connections involved <i>in such a +state of distress and horror, that even the relations, the children, and +the wives of my father are starving in want of daily bread, and are on +the point of flying voluntary exiles from their country and from each +other</i>."</p> + +<p>But although the said Hastings did, on the 16th of February, receive and +admit the justice of the said complaint, and did not deny the urgent +necessity of redress, the said letter containing the following sentence, +"If there should be <i>any delay</i> in your acceptance of this proposal, <i>my +existence and the existence of my family will become difficult and +doubtful</i>,"—and <a name="Page_477" id="Page_477" title="477" class="pagenum"></a>although he did admit the interference to be the more +urgently demanded, "as the services of the English troops have been +added to enforce the authority of the sezauwil,"—and although he admits +also, that, even before that time, similar complaints and applications +had been made,—yet he did withhold the said letter of complaint, a +minute of which he asserts he had, at or about that time, prepared for +the relief of the sufferer, from the Board of Council, and did not so +much as propose anything relative to the same for seven months after, +viz., until the 6th of October, 1783: the said letter and minute being, +as he asserts, "<i>withheld</i>, from causes <i>not necessary to mention</i>, from +presentation." By which means the said country and prince did suffer a +long continuance of unnecessary hardship, from which the said Hastings +confessed it was his duty to relieve them, and that a British Resident +was necessary at Furruckabad, "from a sense of submission to the +<i>implied</i> orders of the Court of Directors in their letter of 1783, +lately received, added to <i>the conviction I have LONG SINCE</i> entertained +<i>of the necessity of such an appointment for the preservation of our +national credit</i>, and the means of rescuing an ancient and respectable +family from ruin."</p> + +<p>And the said Warren Hastings did at length perform what he thought had +<i>long since</i> been necessary; and in contradiction to his engagements +with the Nabob in the treaty of Chunar, and against his strong +remonstrances, urging his humiliation from this measure, and the faith +of the agreement, and against his own former declaration that it +concerned the reputation of our government to remove our participation +in the oppressions which he, the said Hast<a name="Page_478" id="Page_478" title="478" class="pagenum"></a>ings, supposed the prince of +Furruckabad must undergo, did once more recommend to the Council a +British Resident at Furruckabad, and the withdrawing the native +sezauwil: no course being left to the said Hastings to take which was +not a violation of some engagement, and a contradiction to some +principle of justice and policy by him deliberately advanced and entered +on record.</p> + +<p>That Mr. Willes being appointed Resident, and having arrived at +Furruckabad on the 25th of February, 1784, with instructions to inquire +minutely into the state of the country and the ruling family, he, the +said Resident, Willes, in obedience thereto, did fully explain to him, +the Governor-General, the said Warren Hastings, (he being then out of +the Company's provinces, at Lucknow, on a delegation which respected +this very country, as part of the dependencies of Oude,) the situation +of the province of Furruckabad; but the said Warren Hastings did not +take or recommend any measure whatsoever for the relief thereof in +consequence of the said representation, nor even communicate to the +Council-General the said representation; and it was not until the 28th +of June, 1783 [1785?], that is, sixteen months from the arrival of the +Resident at his station, that anything was laid before the board +relative to the regulation or relief of the distressed country +aforesaid, and that not from the said Warren Hastings, but from other +members of the Council: which purposed neglect of duty, joined to the +preceding wilful delay of seven months in proposing the said relief +originally, caused near two years' delay. And the said Warren Hastings +is further culpable in not communicating to the Council Board the order +which he had, of his own authority, <a name="Page_479" id="Page_479" title="479" class="pagenum"></a>and without any powers from them, +given to the said Resident, Willes, and did thereby prevent them from +taking such steps as might counteract the ill effects of the said order; +which order purported, that the said Willes was not to interfere with +the Nabob of Furruckabad's government, for the regulation of which he +was in effect appointed to the Residency,—declaring as follows: "I rely +much on your moderation and good judgment, which I hope will enable you +to regulate your conduct towards the Nabob and his <i>servants</i> in such a +manner, that, <i>without interfering in the executive part of his +government</i>, you may render him essential service by <i>your council and +advice</i>." And this restriction the said Hastings did impose, which +totally frustrated the purpose of the Resident's mission, though he well +knew, and had frequently stated, the extreme imbecility and weakness of +the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and his subjection to unworthy servants; +and in the Minute of Consultation upon which he founded the appointment +did state the Nabob of Furruckabad "as a weak and unexperienced young +man, who had abandoned himself entirely to the discretion of his +servants, and the restoration of his independence was followed by a +<i>total</i> breach of the engagements he had promised to fulfil, attended by +pointed instances of contumacy and disrespect"; and in the said minute +the said Hastings adds, (as before mentioned,) his principal servant and +manager had propagated a report that the "<i>interference</i>" (namely, his, +the said Hastings's, interference) "to which his master owed the power +he then enjoyed was purchased by him," the principal servant aforesaid: +yet he, the said Hastings, who had assigned on record the character of +the said Nabob, and the con<a name="Page_480" id="Page_480" title="480" class="pagenum"></a>duct of his servants, and the aforesaid +report of his principal servant, so highly dishonorable to him, the said +Hastings, as reasons for taking away the independency of the Nabob of +Furruckabad, and the subjecting him to the oppression of the Nabob of +Oude's officer, Almas Ali, did again himself establish the pretended +independence of the said prince of Furruckabad, and the real +independence of his corrupt and perfidious servants, not against the +Nabob of Oude, but against a British Resident appointed by himself ("as +a character eminently qualified for such a charge") for the correction +of those evils, and for rendering the prince aforesaid an useful ally to +the Company, and restoring his dominions to order and plenty.</p> + +<p>That the said Hastings did not only disable the Resident at Furruckabad +by his said prohibitory letter, but did render his very remaining at all +in that station perfectly precarious by a subsequent letter, rendering +him liable to dismission by the Vizier,—thereby changing the tenure of +the Resident's office, and changing him from a minister of the Company, +dependent on the Governor-General and Council, to a dependant upon an +unresponsible power,—in this also acting without the Council, and by +his own usurped authority: and accordingly the said Resident did +declare, in his letter of the 24th of April, 1785, "that the situation +of the country was <i>more</i> distressful than when he [the prince of +Furruckabad] addressed himself for relief in 1783, and that he was sorry +to say that his appointment at Furruckabad was of no use"; that, though +the old tribute could not be paid, owing to famine and other causes, it +was increased by a new imposition, making the whole equal the entire +<i>gross</i> produce of the revenue; that <a name="Page_481" id="Page_481" title="481" class="pagenum"></a>therefore there will not be +"<i>anything for the subsistence of the Nabob and family</i>." And the uncles +of the said Nabob of Furruckabad, the brethren of the late Ahmed Khân, +(who had rendered important services to the Company,) and their +children, in a petition to the Resident, represented that soon after the +succession of Muzuffer Jung "their misery commenced. The jaghires [lands +and estates] on which they subsisted were disallowed. Our distress is +great: we have neither clothes nor food. Though we felt hurt at the idea +of explaining our situation, yet, could we have found a mode of +conveyance, we would have proceeded to Calcutta for redress. The +scarcity of grain this season is an additional misfortune. With +difficulty we support life. From your presence without the provinces we +expect relief. It is not the custom of the Company to deprive the +zemindars and jaghiredars of the means of subsistence. To your justice +we look up."</p> + +<p>This being the situation of the person and family of the Nabob of +Furruckabad and his nearest relations, the state of the country and its +capital, prevented from all relief by the said Warren Hastings, is +described in the following words by the Resident, Willes.</p> + +<p>"Almas Ali has taken the purgunnah of Marara at a very inadequate rent, +and his aumils have seized many adjacent villages: the purgunnahs of +Cocutmow and Souje are constantly plundered by his people. The +collection of the ghauts near Futtyghur has been seized by the Vizier's +<i>cutwal</i>, and the zemindars in four purgunnahs are so refractory as to +have fortified themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments +of revenue. This is the state of the purgunnahs.<a name="Page_482" id="Page_482" title="482" class="pagenum"></a> <i>And Furruckabad, +which was once the seat of great opulence and trade, is now daily +deserted by its inhabitants, its walls mouldering away, without police, +without protection, exposed to the depredations of a banditti of two or +three hundred robbers, who, night after night, enter it for plunder, +murdering all who oppose them. The ruin that has overtaken this country +is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that there has been no +state, no stable government, for many years.</i> There has been the Nabob +Vizier's authority, his ministers', the Residents' at Lucknow, the +sezauwils', the camp authority, the Nabob Muzuffer Jung's, and that of +twenty duans or advisers: no authority sufficiently predominant to +establish any regulations for the benefit of the country, whilst each +authority has been exerted, as opportunity offered, for temporary +purposes.</p> + +<p>"Such being the present <i>deplorable</i> state of Furruckabad and its +districts, in the ensuing year it will be in vain to look for revenue, +if some regulations equal to the exigency be not adopted. The whole +country will be divided between the neighboring powerful aumils, the +refractory zemindars, and banditti of robbers; and the Patans, who might +be made useful subjects, will fly from the scene of anarchy. The crisis +appears now come, that either some plan of government should be resolved +on, so as to form faithful subjects on the frontier, or the country be +given up to its fate: and if it be abandoned, there can be little doubt +but that the Mahrattas will gladly seize on a station so favorable to +incursions into the Vizier's dominions, will attach to their interests +the Hindoo zemindars, and possess themselves of forts, which, with +little expense being made formidable, would give employment perhaps to +the whole of our force, should it be ever necessary to recover them."</p><p><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483" title="483" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>That the Council at Calcutta, on the representation aforesaid made by +the Resident at Furruckabad, did propose and record a plan for the +better government of the said country, but did delay the execution of +the same until the arrangements made by the said Hastings with the Nabob +Vizier should be known; but the said Hastings, as far as in him lay, did +entirely set aside any plan that could be formed for that purpose upon +the basis of a British Resident at Furruckabad, by engaging with the +said Nabob Vizier that no British influence shall be employed within his +dominions, and he has engaged to that prince not to abandon him to any +other mode of relation; and he has informed the Court of Directors that +the territories of the Nabob of Oude will be ruined, if Residents are +sent into them, observing, that "Residents never will be sent for any +other purposes than those of vengeance and corruption."</p> + +<p>That the said Warren Hastings did declare to the Court of Directors, +that in his opinion the mode of relief most effectual, and most lenient +with regard to Furruckabad, would be to nominate one of the family of +the prince to superintend his affairs and to secure the payments; but +this plan, which appears to be most connected with the rights of the +ruling family, whilst it provides against the imbecility of the natural +lord, and is free from his objection to a Resident, is the only one +which the said Hastings never has executed, or even proposed to execute.</p> + +<p>That the said Hastings, by the agreements aforesaid, has left the +Company in such an alternative, that they can neither relieve the said +prince of Furruckabad from oppression without a breach of the +engagements entered into by him, the said Hastings, <a name="Page_484" id="Page_484" title="484" class="pagenum"></a>with the Nabob +Vizier in the name of the Company, nor suffer him to remain under the +said oppression without violating all faith and all the rules of justice +with regard to him. And the said Hastings hath directly made or +authorized no less than six revolutions in less than five years in the +aforesaid harassed province; by which frequent and rapid changes of +government, all of them made in contradiction to all his own declared +motives and reasons for the several acts successively done and undone in +this transaction, the distresses of the country and the disorders in its +administration have been highly aggravated; and in the said irregular +proceedings, and in the gross and complicated violations of faith with +all parties, the said Hastings is guilty of high crimes and +misdemeanors.</p> + + +<h3><a name="VI_DESTRUCTION_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_SAHLONE" id="VI_DESTRUCTION_OF_THE_RAJAH_OF_SAHLONE"></a>VI.—DESTRUCTION OF THE RAJAH OF SAHLONE.</h3> + +<p>I. That the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah ul Dowlah, did (on what reasons of +policy or pretences of justice is unknown) dispossess a certain native +person of distinction, or eminent Rajah, residing in the country of +Sahlone, "the lineal descendant of the most powerful Hindoo family in +that part of Hindostan," of his patrimonial estate, and conferred the +same, or part of the same, on his, the Nabob's, mother, as a jaghire, or +estate, for the term of her life: and the mother of the Nabob, in order +to quiet the country, and to satisfy in some measure the principal and +other inhabitants, did allow and pay a certain pension to the said +Rajah; which pension, on the general confiscation of jaghires, made at +the instigation of the said<a name="Page_485" id="Page_485" title="485" class="pagenum"></a> Warren Hastings, and by the letting the +lands so confiscated to farmers at rack-rents, was discontinued and +refused to be paid; and the discontinuance of the said pension, "on +account of the personal respect borne to the Rajah, (as connections with +him are sought for, and thought <i>to confer honor</i>,)" did cause an +universal discontent and violent commotions in the district of Sahlone, +and other parts of the province of Oude, with great consequent effusion +of blood, and interruption, if not total discontinuance, to the +collection of the revenues in those parts, other than as the same was +irregularly, and with great damage to the country, enforced by British +troops.</p> + +<p>II. That Mr. Lumsdaine, the officer employed to reduce those disordered +parts of the province to submission, after several advantages gained +over the Rajah and his adherents, and expelling him from the country, +did represent the utter impossibility of bringing it to a permanent +settlement "merely by forcible methods; as in any of his [the Rajah's] +incursions it would not be necessary to bring even a force with him, as +the zemindars [landed proprietors and freeholders] are much attached to +the Rajah, whom they consider as their hereditary prince, and never fail +to assist him, and that his rebellion against government is not looked +on as a crime": and Mr. Lumsdaine declared it "as his clear opinion, +that the allowing the said Rajah a pension suitable to his rank and +influence in the country would be the most certain mode of obtaining a +permanent peace,"—alleging, among other cogent reasons, "that the +expense of the force necessary to be employed to subdue the country +might be spared, and employed elsewhere, and that the <a name="Page_486" id="Page_486" title="486" class="pagenum"></a>people would +return to their villages with their cattle and effects, and of course +government have some security for the revenue, whereas at present they +have none." And the representation containing that prudent and temperate +counsel, given by a military man of undoubted information and perfect +experience in the local circumstances of the country, was transmitted by +the Resident, Bristow, to the said Warren Hastings, who did wilfully and +criminally omit to order any relief to the said Rajah in conformity to +the general sense and wishes of the inhabitants, a compliance with whose +so reasonable an expectation his duty in restoring the tranquillity of +the country and in retrieving the honor of the English government did +absolutely require; but instead of making such provision, a price was +set upon his head, and several bodies of British troops being employed +to pursue him, after many skirmishes and much bloodshed and mutual waste +of the country, the said Rajah, honored and respected by the natives, +was hunted down, and at length killed in a thicket.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_65" id="Footnote_59_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_65"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> See Hastings's Letter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_66" id="Footnote_60_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_66"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Sic orig.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_67" id="Footnote_61_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_67"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> 26th Dec., 1781.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_68" id="Footnote_62_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_68"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> 13th Jan., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_69" id="Footnote_63_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_69"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> 18th Jan., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_70" id="Footnote_64_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_70"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Letter from Mr. Middleton, 2d Feb., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_71" id="Footnote_65_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_71"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Lucknow, 22d July, 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_72" id="Footnote_66_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_72"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Major Gilpin's Letter, 15th June, 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_73" id="Footnote_67_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_73"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Mr. Johnson's letter, 9th July, 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_74" id="Footnote_68_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_74"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Ibid., 4th July, 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_75" id="Footnote_69_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_75"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Major Gilpin's Letter, 6th July, 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_76" id="Footnote_70_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_76"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Mr. Johnson's Letter, 22d July, 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_77" id="Footnote_71_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_77"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Major Gilpin's Letters, 16th June and 15th Sept., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_78" id="Footnote_72_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_78"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Major Gilpin's letter, 15th Sept., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_79" id="Footnote_73_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_79"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Major Gilpin's letter, 19th Oct., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_80" id="Footnote_74_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_80"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Major Gilpin's Letter, 18 Nov., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_81" id="Footnote_75_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_81"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Mr. Bristow's Letter, 2d Dec., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_82" id="Footnote_76_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_82"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Mr. Bristow's Letter, 12 Dec., 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_83" id="Footnote_77_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_83"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Shoka from the Vizier to Hyder Beg Khân, 2d Ramsur, 1197</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_84" id="Footnote_78_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_84"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Bristow's Letter, 29th Jan., 1784, with inclosures.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>END OF VOL. VIII.</h3> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable +Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. 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(of 12), by Edmund Burke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12) + +Author: Edmund Burke + +Release Date: April 13, 2006 [EBook #18161] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF THE RIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + + + + + + +THE WORKS + +OF + +THE RIGHT HONOURABLE + +EDMUND BURKE + + +IN TWELVE VOLUMES + +VOLUME THE EIGHTH + + +[Illustration: Burke Coat of Arms.] + + +LONDON +JOHN C. NIMMO +14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. +MDCCCLXXXVII + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. VIII. + + +NINTH REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON + THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. JUNE 25, 1783. + + OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF THE COMPANY'S AFFAIRS IN INDIA 3 + + CONNECTION OF GREAT BRITAIN WITH INDIA 41 + + EFFECT OF THE REVENUE INVESTMENT ON THE COMPANY 56 + + INTERNAL TRADE OF BENGAL 75 + SILK 83 + RAW SILK 88 + CLOTHS, OR PIECE-GOODS 99 + OPIUM 116 + SALT 142 + SALTPETRE 170 + + BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 173 + + +ELEVENTH REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON + THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE APPENDIX. + NOVEMBER 18, 1783 217 + + +ARTICLES OF CHARGE OF HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS AGAINST WARREN + HASTINGS, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL: PRESENTED TO + THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN APRIL AND MAY, 1786.--ARTICLES I.-VI. + + I. ROHILLA WAR 307 + + II. SHAH ALLUM 319 + + III. BENARES + + PART I. RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES 327 + + PART II. DESIGNS OF MR. HASTINGS TO RUIN THE RAJAH OF + BENARES 339 + + PART III. EXPULSION OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES 354 + + PART IV. SECOND REVOLUTION IN BENARES 380 + + PART V. THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES 386 + + IV. PRINCESSES OF OUDE 397 + + V. REVOLUTIONS IN FURRUCKABAD 467 + + VI. DESTRUCTION OF THE RAJAH OF SAHLONE 484 + + + + +NINTH REPORT + +OF THE + +SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS + +ON + +THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. + +June 25, 1783. + + + + +NINTH REPORT + + From the SELECT COMMITTEE [of the House of Commons] appointed + to take into consideration the state of the administration of + justice in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and to + report the same, as it shall appear to them, to the House, + with their observations thereupon; and who were instructed to + consider how the British possessions in the East Indies may + be held and governed with the greatest security and advantage + to this country, and by what means the happiness of the + native inhabitants may be best promoted. + + +I.--OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF THE COMPANY'S AFFAIRS IN INDIA. + + +In order to enable the House to adopt the most proper means for +regulating the British government in India, and for promoting the +happiness of the natives who live under its authority or influence, your +Committee hold it expedient to collect into distinct points of view the +circumstances by which that government appears to them to be most +essentially disordered, and to explain fully the principles of policy +and the course of conduct by which the natives of all ranks and orders +have been reduced to their present state of depression and misery. + +Your Committee have endeavored to perform this task in plain and popular +language, knowing that nothing has alienated the House from inquiries +absolutely necessary for the performance of one of the most essential +of all its duties so much as the technical language of the Company's +records, as the Indian names of persons, of offices, of the tenure and +qualities of estates, and of all the varied branches of their intricate +revenue. This language is, indeed, of necessary use in the executive +departments of the Company's affairs; but it is not necessary to +Parliament. A language so foreign from all the ideas and habits of the +far greater part of the members of this House has a tendency to disgust +them with all sorts of inquiry concerning this subject. They are +fatigued into such a despair of ever obtaining a competent knowledge of +the transactions in India, that they are easily persuaded to remand them +back to that obscurity, mystery, and intrigue out of which they have +been forced upon public notice by the calamities arising from their +extreme mismanagement. This mismanagement has itself, as your Committee +conceive, in a great measure arisen from dark cabals, and secret +suggestions to persons in power, without a regular public inquiry into +the good or evil tendency of any measure, or into the merit or demerit +of any person intrusted with the Company's concerns. + +[Sidenote: Present laws relating to the East India Company, and internal +and external policy.] + +The plan adopted by your Committee is, first, to consider the law +regulating the East India Company, as it now stands,--and, secondly, to +inquire into the circumstances of the two great links of connection by +which the territorial possessions in India are united to this kingdom, +namely, the Company's commerce, and the government exercised under the +charter and under acts of Parliament. The last [first] of these objects, +the commerce, is taken in two points of view: the _external_, or the +direct trade between India and Europe, and the _internal_, that is to +say, the trade of Bengal, in all the articles of produce and manufacture +which furnish the Company's investment. + +The government is considered by your Committee under the like +descriptions of internal and external. The internal regards the +communication between the Court of Directors and their servants in +India, the management of the revenue, the expenditure of public money, +the civil administration, the administration of justice, and the state +of the army. The external regards, first, the conduct and maxims of the +Company's government with respect to the native princes and people +dependent on the British authority,--and, next, the proceedings with +regard to those native powers which are wholly independent of the +Company. But your Committee's observations on the last division extend +to those matters only which are not comprehended in the Report of the +Committee of Secrecy. Under these heads, your Committee refer to the +most leading particulars of abuse which prevail in the administration of +India,--deviating only from this order where the abuses are of a +complicated nature, and where one cannot be well considered +independently of several others. + +[Sidenote: Second attempt made by Parliament for a reformation.] + +Your Committee observe, that this is the second attempt made by +Parliament for the reformation of abuses in the Company's government. It +appears, therefore, to them a necessary preliminary to this second +undertaking, _to consider the causes which, in their opinion_, have +produced the failure of the first,--that the defects of the original +plan may be supplied, its errors corrected, and such useful regulations +as were then adopted may be further explained, enlarged, and enforced. + +[Sidenote: Proceedings of session 1773.] + +The first design of this kind was formed in the session of the year +1773. In that year, Parliament, taking up the consideration of the +affairs of India, through two of its committees collected a very great +body of details concerning the interior economy of the Company's +possessions, and concerning many particulars of abuse which prevailed at +the time when those committees made their ample and instructive reports. +But it does not appear that the body of regulations enacted in that +year, that is, in the East India Act of the thirteenth of his Majesty's +reign, were altogether grounded on that information, but were adopted +rather on probable speculations and general ideas of good policy and +good government. New establishments, civil and judicial, were therefore +formed at a very great expense, and with much complexity of +constitution. Checks and counter-checks of all kinds were contrived in +the execution, as well as in the formation of this system, in which all +the existing authorities of this kingdom had a share: for Parliament +appointed the members of the presiding part of the new establishment, +the Crown appointed the judicial, and the Company preserved the +nomination of the other officers. So that, if the act has not fully +answered its purposes, the failure cannot be attributed to any want of +officers of every description, or to the deficiency of any mode of +patronage in their appointment. The cause must be sought elsewhere. + +[Sidenote: Powers and objects of act of 1773, and the effects thereof.] + +The act had in its view (independently of several detached regulations) +five fundamental objects. + +1st. The reformation of the Court of Proprietors of the East India +Company. + +2ndly. A new model of the Court of Directors, and an enforcement of +their authority over the servants abroad. + +3rdly. The establishment of a court of justice capable of protecting the +natives from the oppressions of British subjects. + +4thly. The establishment of a general council, to be seated in Bengal, +whose authority should, in many particulars, extend over all the British +settlements in India. + +5thly. To furnish the ministers of the crown with constant information +concerning the whole of the Company's correspondence with India, in +order that they might be enabled to inspect the conduct of the Directors +and servants, and to watch over the execution of all parts of the act; +that they might be furnished with matter to lay before Parliament from +time to time, according as the state of things should render regulation +or animadversion necessary. + +[Sidenote: Court of Proprietors.] + +[Sidenote: New qualification.] + +The first object of the policy of this act was to improve the +constitution of the Court of Proprietors. In this case, as in almost all +the rest, the remedy was not applied directly to the disease. The +complaint was, that factions in the Court of Proprietors had shown, in +several instances, a disposition to support the servants of the Company +against the just coercion and legal prosecution of the Directors. +Instead of applying a corrective to the distemper, a change was proposed +in the constitution. By this reform, it was presumed that an interest +would arise in the General Court more independent in itself, and more +connected with the commercial prosperity of the Company. Under the new +constitution, no proprietor, not possessed of a thousand pounds capital +stock, was permitted to vote in the General Court: before the act, five +hundred pounds was a sufficient qualification for one vote; and no value +gave more. But as the lower classes were disabled, the power was +increased in the higher: proprietors of three thousand pounds were +allowed two votes; those of six thousand were entitled to three; ten +thousand pounds was made the qualification for four. The votes were thus +regulated in the scale and gradation of property. On this scale, and on +some provisions to prevent occasional qualifications and splitting of +votes, the whole reformation rested. + +[Sidenote: The ballot.] + +[Sidenote: Indian interest.] + +Several essential points, however, seem to have been omitted or +misunderstood. No regulation was made to abolish the pernicious custom +of voting by _ballot_, by means of which acts of the highest concern to +the Company and to the state might be done by individuals with perfect +impunity; and even the body itself might be subjected to a forfeiture of +all its privileges for defaults of persons who, so far from being under +control, could not be so much as known in any mode of legal cognizance. +Nothing was done or attempted to prevent the operation of the interest +of delinquent servants of the Company in the General Court, by which +they might even come to be their own judges, and, in effect, under +another description, to become the masters in that body which ought to +govern them. Nor was anything provided to secure the independency of the +proprietary body from the various exterior interests by which it might +be disturbed, and diverted from the conservation of that pecuniary +concern which the act laid down as the sole security for preventing a +collusion between the General Court and the powerful delinquent servants +in India. The whole of the regulations concerning the Court of +Proprietors relied upon two principles, which have often proved +fallacious: namely, that small numbers were a security against faction +and disorder; and that integrity of conduct would follow the greater +property. In no case could these principles be less depended upon than +in the affairs of the East India Company. However, by wholly cutting off +the lower, and adding to the power of the higher classes, it was +supposed that the higher would keep their money in that fund to make +profit,--that the vote would be a secondary consideration, and no more +than a guard to the property,--and that therefore any abuse which tended +to depreciate the value of their stock would be warmly resented by such +proprietors. + +If the ill effects of every misdemeanor in the Company's servants were +to be _immediate_, and had a tendency to lower the value of the stock, +something might justly be expected from the pecuniary security taken by +the act. But from the then state of things, it was more than probable +that proceedings ruinous to the permanent interest of the Company might +commence in great lucrative advantages. Against this evil large +pecuniary interests were rather the reverse of a remedy. Accordingly, +the Company's servants have ever since covered over the worst +oppressions of the people under their government, and the most cruel and +wanton ravages of all the neighboring countries, by holding out, and for +a time actually realizing, additions of revenue to the territorial funds +of the Company, and great quantities of valuable goods to their +investment. + +[Sidenote: Proprietors.] + +But this consideration of mere income, whatever weight it might have, +could not be the first object of a proprietor, in a body so +circumstanced. The East India Company is not, like the Bank of England, +a mere moneyed society for the sole purpose of the preservation or +improvement of their capital; and therefore every attempt to regulate it +upon the same principles must inevitably fail. When it is considered +that a certain share in the stock gives a share in the government of so +vast an empire, with such a boundless patronage, civil, military, +marine, commercial, and financial, in every department of which such +fortunes have been made as could be made nowhere else, it is impossible +not to perceive that capitals far superior to any qualifications +appointed to proprietors, or even to Directors, would readily be laid +out for a participation in that power. The India proprietor, therefore, +will always be, in the first instance, a politician; and the bolder his +enterprise, and the more corrupt his views, the less will be his +consideration of the price to be paid for compassing them. The new +regulations did not reduce the number so low as not to leave the +assembly still liable to all the disorder which might be supposed to +arise from multitude. But if the principle had been well established and +well executed, a much greater inconveniency grew out of the reform than +that which had attended the old abuse: for if tumult and disorder be +lessened by reducing the number of proprietors, private cabal and +intrigue are facilitated at least in an equal degree; and it is cabal +and corruption, rather than disorder and confusion, that was most to be +dreaded in transacting the affairs of India. Whilst the votes of the +smaller proprietors continued, a door was left open for the public sense +to enter into that society: since that door has been closed, the +proprietary has become, even more than formerly, an aggregate of private +interests, which subsist at the expense of the collective body. At the +moment of this revolution in the proprietary, as it might naturally be +expected, those who had either no very particular interest in their vote +or but a petty object to pursue immediately disqualified; but those who +were deeply interested in the Company's patronage, those who were +concerned in the supply of ships and of the other innumerable objects +required for their immense establishments, those who were engaged in +contracts with the Treasury, Admiralty, and Ordnance, together with the +clerks in public offices, found means of securing qualifications at the +enlarged standard. All these composed a much greater proportion than +formerly they had done of the proprietary body. + +Against the great, predominant, radical corruption of the Court of +Proprietors the raising the qualification proved no sort of remedy. The +return of the Company's servants into Europe poured in a constant supply +of proprietors, whose ability to purchase the highest qualifications for +themselves, their agents, and dependants could not be dubious. And this +latter description form a very considerable, and by far the most active +and efficient part of that body. To add to the votes, which is adding to +the power in proportion to the wealth, of men whose very offences were +supposed to consist in acts which lead to the acquisition of enormous +riches, appears by no means a well-considered method of checking +rapacity and oppression. In proportion as these interests prevailed, the +means of cabal, of concealment, and of corrupt confederacy became far +more easy than before. Accordingly, there was no fault with respect to +the Company's government over its servants, charged or chargeable on the +General Court as it originally stood, of which since the reform it has +not been notoriously guilty. It was not, therefore, a matter of surprise +to your Committee, that the General Court, so composed, has at length +grown to such a degree of contempt both of its duty and of the permanent +interest of the whole corporation as to put itself into open defiance of +the salutary admonitions of this House, given for the purpose of +asserting and enforcing the legal authority of their own body over their +own servants. + +The failure in this part of the reform of 1773 is not stated by your +Committee as recommending a return to the ancient constitution of the +Company, which was nearly as far as the new from containing any +principle tending to the prevention or remedy of abuses,--but to point +out the probable failure of any future regulations which do not apply +directly to the grievance, but which may be taken up as experiments to +ascertain theories of the operation of councils formed of greater or +lesser numbers, or such as shall be composed of men of more or less +opulence, or of interests of newer or longer standing, or concerning the +distribution of power to various descriptions or professions of men, or +of the election to office by one authority rather than another. + +[Sidenote: Court of Directors.] + +The second object of the act was the Court of Directors. Under the +arrangement of the year 1773 that court appeared to have its authority +much strengthened. It was made less dependent than formerly upon its +constituents, the proprietary. The duration of the Directors in office +was rendered more permanent, and the tenure itself diversified by a +varied and intricate rotation. At the same time their authority was held +high over their servants of all descriptions; and the only rule +prescribed to the Council-General of Bengal, in the exercise of the +large and ill-defined powers given to them, was that they were to yield +obedience to the orders of the Court of Directors. As to the Court of +Directors itself, it was left with very little regulation. The custom of +ballot, infinitely the most mischievous in a body possessed of all the +ordinary executive powers, was still left; and your Committee have found +the ill effects of this practice in the course of their inquiries. +Nothing was done to oblige the Directors to attend to the promotion of +their servants according to their rank and merits. In judging of those +merits nothing was done to bind them to any observation of what appeared +on their records. Nothing was done to compel them to prosecution or +complaint where delinquency became visible. The act, indeed, prescribed +that no servant of the Company abroad should be eligible into the +direction until two years after his return to England. But as this +regulation rather presumes than provides for an inquiry into their +conduct, a very ordinary neglect in the Court of Directors might easily +defeat it, and a short remission might in this particular operate as a +total indemnity. In fact, however, the servants have of late seldom +attempted a seat in the direction,--an attempt which might possibly +rouse a dormant spirit of inquiry; but, satisfied with an interest in +the proprietary, they have, through that name, brought the direction +very much under their own control. + +As to the general authority of the Court of Directors, there is reason +to apprehend that on the whole it was somewhat degraded by the act whose +professed purpose was to exalt it, and that the only effect of the +Parliamentary sanction to their orders has been, that along with those +orders the law of the land has been despised and trampled under foot. +The Directors were not suffered either to nominate or to remove those +whom they were empowered to instruct; from masters they were reduced to +the situation of complainants,--a situation the imbecility of which no +laws or regulations could wholly alter; and when the Directors were +afterwards restored in some degree to their ancient power, on the +expiration of the lease given to their principal servants, it became +impossible for them to recover any degree of their ancient respect, even +if they had not in the mean time been so modelled as to be entirely free +from all ambition of that sort. + +From that period the orders of the Court of Directors became to be so +habitually despised by their servants abroad, and at length to be so +little regarded even by themselves, that this contempt of orders forms +almost the whole subject-matter of the voluminous reports of two of your +committees. If any doubt, however, remains concerning the cause of this +fatal decline of the authority of the Court of Directors, no doubt +whatsoever can remain of the fact itself, nor of the total failure of +one of the great leading regulations of the act of 1773. + +[Sidenote: Supreme Court of Judicature.] + +The third object was a new judicial arrangement, the chief purpose of +which was to form a strong and solid security for the natives against +the wrongs and oppressions of British subjects resident in Bengal. An +operose and expensive establishment of a Supreme Court was made, and +charged upon the revenues of the country. The charter of justice was by +the act left to the crown, as well as the appointment of the +magistrates. The defect in the institution seemed to be this,--that no +rule was laid down, either in the act or the charter, by which the court +was to judge. No descriptions of offenders or species of delinquency +were properly ascertained, according to the nature of the place, or to +the prevalent mode of abuse. Provision was made for the administration +of justice in the remotest part of Hindostan as if it were a province in +Great Britain. Your Committee have long had the constitution and conduct +of this court before them, and they have not yet been able to discover +very few instances (not one that appears to them of leading importance) +of relief given to the natives against the corruptions or oppressions of +British subjects in power,--though they do find one very strong and +marked instance of the judges having employed an unwarrantable extension +or application of the municipal law of England, to destroy a person of +the highest rank among those natives whom they were sent to protect. One +circumstance rendered the proceeding in this case fatal to all the good +purposes for which the court had been established. The sufferer (the +Rajah Nundcomar) appears, at the very time of this extraordinary +prosecution, a discoverer of some particulars of illicit gain then +charged upon Mr. Hastings, the Governor-General. Although in ordinary +cases, and in some lesser instances of grievance, it is very probable +that this court has done its duty, and has been, as every court must be, +of some service, yet one example of this kind must do more towards +deterring the natives from complaint, and consequently from the means +of redress, than many decisions favorable to them, in the ordinary +course of proceeding, can do for their encouragement and relief. So far +as your Committee has been able to discover, the court has been +generally terrible to the natives, and has distracted the government of +the Company without substantially reforming any one of its abuses. + +This court, which in its constitution seems not to have had sufficiently +in view the necessities of the people for whose relief it was intended, +and was, or thought itself, bound in some instances to too strict an +adherence to the forms and rules of English practice, in others was +framed upon principles perhaps too remote from the constitution of +English tribunals. By the usual course of English practice, the far +greater part of the redress to be obtained against oppressions of power +is by process in the nature of civil actions. In these a trial by jury +is a necessary part, with regard to the finding the offence and to the +assessment of the damages. Both these were in the charter of justice +left entirely to the judges. It was presumed, and not wholly without +reason, that the British subjects were liable to fall into factions and +combinations, in order to support themselves in the abuses of an +authority of which every man might in his turn become a sharer. And with +regard to the natives, it was presumed (perhaps a little too hastily) +that they were not capable of sharing in the functions of jurors. But it +was not foreseen that the judges were also liable to be engaged in the +factions of the settlement,--and if they should ever happen to be so +engaged, that the native people were then without that remedy which +obviously lay in the chance that the court and jury, though both liable +to bias, might not easily unite in the same identical act of injustice. +Your Committee, on full inquiry, are of opinion _that the use of juries +is neither impracticable nor dangerous in Bengal_. + +Your Committee refer to their report made in the year 1781, for the +manner in which this court, attempting to extend its jurisdiction, and +falling with extreme severity on the native magistrates, a violent +contest arose between the English judges and the English civil +authority. This authority, calling in the military arm, (by a most +dangerous example,) overpowered, and for a while suspended, the +functions of the court; but at length those functions, which were +suspended by the quarrel of the parties, were destroyed by their +reconciliation, and by the arrangements made in consequence of it. By +these the court was virtually annihilated; or if substantially it +exists, it is to be apprehended it exists only for purposes very +different from those of its institution. + +The fourth object of the act of 1773 was the Council-General. This +institution was intended to produce uniformity, consistency, and the +effective cooeperation of all the settlements in their common defence. By +the ancient constitution of the Company's foreign settlements, they were +each of them under the orders of a President or Chief, and a Council, +more or fewer, according to the discretion of the Company. Among those, +Parliament (probably on account of the largeness of the territorial +acquisitions, rather than the conveniency of the situation) chose Bengal +for the residence of the controlling power, and, dissolving the +Presidency, appointed a new establishment, upon a plan somewhat similar +to that which had prevailed before; but the number was smaller. This +establishment was composed of a Governor-General and four Counsellors, +all named in the act of Parliament. They were to hold their offices for +five years, after which term the patronage was to revert to the Court of +Directors. In the mean time such vacancies as should happen were to be +filled by that court, with the concurrence of the crown. The first +Governor-General and one of the Counsellors had been old servants of the +Company; the others were new men. + +On this new arrangement the Courts of Proprietors and Directors +considered the details of commerce as not perfectly consistent with the +enlarged sphere of duty and the reduced number of the Council. +Therefore, to relieve them from this burden, they instituted a new +office, called the Board of Trade, for the subordinate management of +their commercial concerns, and appointed eleven of the senior servants +to fill the commission. + +[Sidenote: Object of powers to Governor-General and Council.] + +The powers given by the act to the new Governor-General and Council had +for their direct object the kingdom of Bengal and its dependencies. +Within that sphere (and it is not a small one) their authority extended +over all the Company's concerns of whatever description. In matters of +peace and war it seems to have been meant that the other Presidencies +should be subordinate to their board. But the law is loose and +defective, where it professes to restrain the subordinate Presidencies +from making war without the consent and approbation of the Supreme +Council. They are left free to act without it _in cases of imminent +necessity_, or _where they shall have received special orders from the +Company_. The first exception leaves it open to the subordinate to judge +of the necessity of measures which, when taken, bind or involve the +superior: the second refers a question of peace or war to two +jurisdictions, which may give different judgments. In both instances +cases in point have occurred.[1] With regard to their local +administration, their powers were exceedingly and dangerously loose and +undetermined. Their powers were not given directly, but in words of +reference, in which neither the objects related to nor the mode of the +relation were sufficiently expressed. Their legislative and executive +capacities were not so accurately drawn, and marked by such strong and +penal lines of distinction, as to keep these capacities separate. Where +legislative and merely executive powers were lodged in the same hands, +the legislative, which is the larger and the more ready for all +occasions, was constantly resorted to. The Governor-General and Council, +therefore, immediately gave constructions to their ill-defined authority +which rendered it perfectly despotic,--constructions which if they were +allowed, no action of theirs ought to be regarded as criminal. + +Armed as they were with an authority in itself so ample, and by abuse so +capable of an unlimited extent, very few, and these very insufficient +correctives, were administered. Ample salaries were provided for them, +which indeed removed the necessity, but by no means the inducements to +corruption and oppression. Nor was any barrier whatsoever opposed on the +part of the natives against their injustice, except the Supreme Court +of Judicature, which never could be capable of controlling a government +with such powers, without becoming such a government itself. + +There was, indeed, a prohibition against all concerns in trade to the +whole Council, and against all taking of presents by any in authority. A +right of prosecution in the King's Bench was also established; but it +was a right the exercise of which is difficult, and in many, and those +the most weighty cases, impracticable. No considerable facilities were +given to prosecution in Parliament; nothing was done to prevent +complaint from being far more dangerous to the sufferer than injustice +to the oppressor. No overt acts were fixed, upon which corruption should +be presumed in transactions of which secrecy and collusion formed the +very basis; no rules of evidence nor authentic mode of transmission were +settled in conformity to the unalterable circumstances of the country +and the people. + +[Sidenote: Removal of servants.] + +One provision, indeed, was made for restraining the servants, in itself +very wise and substantial: a delinquent once dismissed, could not be +restored, but by the votes of three fourths of the Directors and three +fourths of the proprietors: this was well aimed. But no method was +settled for bringing delinquents to the question of removal: and if they +should be brought to it, a door lay wide open for evasion of the law, +and for a return into the service, in defiance of its plain +intention,--that is, by resigning to avoid removal; by which measure +this provision of the act has proved as unoperative as all the rest. By +this management a mere majority may bring in the greater delinquent, +whilst the person removed for offences comparatively trivial may remain +excluded forever. + +[Sidenote: Council-General] + +The new Council nominated in the act was composed of two totally +discordant elements, which soon distinguished themselves into permanent +parties. One of the principal instructions which the three members of +the Council sent immediately from England, namely, General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, carried out with them was, to "_cause +the strictest inquiry to be made into all oppressions and abuses_," +among which _the practice of receiving presents from the natives_, at +that time generally charged upon men in power, was principally aimed at. + +Presents to any considerable value were justly reputed by the +legislature, not as marks of attention and respect, but as bribes or +extortions, for which either the beneficial and gratuitous duties of +government were sold, or they were the price paid for acts of +partiality, or, finally, they were sums of money extorted from the +givers by the terrors of power. Against the system of presents, +therefore, the new commission was in general opinion particularly +pointed. In the commencement of reformation, at a period when a +rapacious conquest had overpowered and succeeded to a corrupt +government, an act of indemnity might have been thought advisable; +perhaps a new account ought to have been opened; all retrospect ought to +have been forbidden, at least to certain periods. If this had not been +thought advisable, none in the higher departments of a suspected and +decried government ought to have been kept in their posts, until an +examination had rendered their proceedings clear, or until length of +time had obliterated, by an even course of irreproachable conduct, the +errors which so naturally grow out of a new power. But the policy +adopted was different: it was to begin with _examples_. The cry against +the abuses was strong and vehement throughout the whole nation, and the +practice of presents was represented to be as general as it was +mischievous. In such a case, indeed in any case, it seemed not to be a +measure the most provident, without a great deal of previous inquiry, to +place two persons, who from their situation must be the most exposed to +such imputations, in the commission which was to inquire into their own +conduct,--much less to place one of them at the head of that commission, +and with a casting vote in case of an equality. The persons who could +not be liable to that charge were, indeed, three to two; but any +accidental difference of opinion, the death of any one of them or his +occasional absence or sickness, threw the whole power into the hands of +the other two, who were Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, one the President, +and the other high in the Council of that establishment on which the +reform was to operate. Thus those who were liable to process as +delinquents were in effect set over the reformers; and that did actually +happen which might be expected to happen from so preposterous an +arrangement: a stop was soon put to all inquiries into the capital +abuses. + +Nor was the great political end proposed in the formation of a +superintending Council over all the Presidencies better answered than +that of an inquiry into corruptions and abuses. The several Presidencies +have acted in a great degree upon their own separate authority; and as +little of unity, concert, or regular system has appeared in their +conduct as was ever known before this institution. India is, indeed, so +vast a country, and the settlements are so divided, that their +intercourse with each other is liable to as many delays and difficulties +as the intercourse between distant and separate states. But one evil may +possibly have arisen from an attempt to produce an union, which, though +undoubtedly to be aimed at, is opposed in some degree by the unalterable +nature of their situation,--that it has taught the servants rather to +look to a superior among themselves than to their common superiors. This +evil, growing out of the abuse of the principle of subordination, can +only be corrected by a very strict enforcement of authority over that +part of the chain of dependence which is next to the original power. + +[Sidenote: Powers given to the ministers of the crown.] + +That which your Committee considers as the fifth and last of the capital +objects of the act, and as the binding regulation of the whole, is the +introduction (then for the first time) of the ministers of the crown +into the affairs of the Company. The state claiming a concern and share +of property in the Company's profits, the servants of the crown were +presumed the more likely to preserve with a scrupulous attention the +sources of the great revenues which they were to administer, and for the +rise and fall of which they were to render an account. + +The interference of government was introduced by this act in two ways: +one by a control, in effect by a share, in the appointment to vacancies +in the Supreme Council. The act provided that his Majesty's approbation +should be had to the persons named to that duty. Partaking thus in the +patronage of the Company, administration was bound to an attention to +the characters and capacities of the persons employed in that high +trust. The other part of their interference was by way of inspection. By +this right of inspection, everything in the Company's correspondence +from India, which related to the civil or military affairs and +government of the Company, was directed by the act to be within fourteen +days after the receipt laid before the Secretary of State, and +everything that related to the management of the revenues was to be laid +before the Commissioners of the Treasury. In fact, both description of +these papers have been generally communicated to that board. + +[Sidenote: Defects in the plan.] + +It appears to your Committee that there were great and material defects +in both parts of the plan. With regard to the approbation of persons +nominated to the Supreme Council by the Court of Directors, no +sufficient means were provided for carrying to his Majesty, along with +the nomination, the particulars in the conduct of those who had been in +the service before, which might render them proper objects of +approbation or rejection. The India House possesses an office of record +capable of furnishing, in almost all cases, materials for judging on the +behavior of the servants in their progress from the lowest to the +highest stations; and the whole discipline of the service, civil and +military, must depend upon an examination of these records inseparably +attending every application for an appointment to the highest stations. +But in the present state of the nomination the ministers of the crown +are not furnished with the proper means of exercising the power of +control intended by the law, even if they were scrupulously attentive to +the use of it. There are modes of proceeding favorable to neglect. +Others excite inquiry and stimulate to vigilance. + +[Sidenote: Proposition to remedy them.] + +Your Committee, therefore, are of opinion, that for the future +prevention of cabal, and of private and partial representation, whether +above or below, that, whenever any person who has been in the service +shall be recommended to the King's ministers to fill a vacancy in the +Council-General, the Secretary of the Court of Directors shall be +ordered to make a strict search into the records of the Company, and +shall annex to the recommendation the reasons of the Court of Directors +for their choice, together with a faithful copy of whatever shall be +found (if anything can be found) relative to his character and +conduct,--as also an account of his standing in the Company's service, +the time of his abode in India, the reasons for his return, and the +stations, whether civil or military, in which he has been successively +placed. + +With this account ought to be transmitted the names of those who were +proposed as candidates for the same office, with the correspondent +particulars relative to their conduct and situation: for not only the +separate, but the comparative merit, probably would, and certainly +ought, to have great influence in the approbation or rejection of the +party presented to the ministers of the crown. These papers should be +laid before the Commissioners of the Treasury and one of the Secretaries +of State, and entered in books to be kept in the Treasury and the +Secretary's office. + +[Sidenote: Appointment of Counsellors, &c.] + +[Sidenote: Macpherson's appointment.] + +[Sidenote: Stables's.] + +These precautions, in case of the nomination of any who have served the +Company, appear to be necessary from the improper nomination and +approbation of Mr. John Macpherson, notwithstanding the objections +which stood against him on the Company's records. The choice of Mr. John +Stables, from an inferior military to the highest civil capacity, was by +no means proper, nor an encouraging example to either service. His +conduct, indeed, in the subaltern military situation, had received, and +seems to have deserved, commendation; but no sufficient ground was +furnished for confounding the lines and gradations of service. This +measure was, however, far less exceptionable than the former; because an +irregular choice of a less competent person, and the preference given to +proved delinquency in prejudice to uncensured service, are very +different things. But even this latter appointment would in all +likelihood have been avoided, if rules of promotion had been +established. If such rules were settled, candidates qualified from +ability, knowledge, and service would not be discouraged by finding that +everything was open to every man, and that favor alone stood in the +place of civil or military experience. The elevation from the lowest +stations unfaithfully and negligently filled to the highest trusts, the +total inattention to rank and seniority, and, much more, the combination +of this neglect of rank with a confusion (unaccompanied with strong and +evident reasons) of the lines of service, cannot operate as useful +examples on those who serve the public in India. These servants, +beholding men who have been condemned for improper behavior to the +Company in inferior civil stations elevated above them, or (what is less +blamable, but still mischievous) persons without any distinguished civil +talents taken from the subordinate situations of another line to their +prejudice, will despair by any good behavior of ascending to the +dignities of their own: they will be led to improve, to the utmost +advantage of their fortune, the lower stages of power, and will endeavor +to make up in lucre what they can never hope to acquire in station. + +The temporary appointment by Parliament of the Supreme Council of India +arose from an opinion that the Company, at that time at least, was not +in a condition or not disposed to a proper exercise of the privileges +which they held under their charter. It therefore behoved the Directors +to be particularly attentive to their choice of Counsellors, on the +expiration of the period during which their patronage had been +suspended. The duties of the Supreme Council had been reputed of so +arduous a nature as to require even a legislative interposition. They +were called upon, by all possible care and impartiality, to justify +Parliament at least as fully in the restoration of their privileges as +the circumstances of the time had done in their suspension. + +But interests have lately prevailed in the Court of Directors, which, by +the violation of every rule, seemed to be resolved on the destruction of +those privileges of which they were the natural guardians. Every new +power given has been made the source of a new abuse; and the acts of +Parliament themselves, which provide but imperfectly for the prevention +of the mischief, have, it is to be feared, made provisions (contrary, +without doubt, to the intention of the legislature) which operate +against the possibility of any cure in the ordinary course. + +In the original institution of the Supreme Council, reasons may have +existed against rendering the tenure of the Counsellors in their office +precarious. A plan of reform might have required the permanence of the +persons who were just appointed by Parliament to execute it. But the act +of 1780 gave a duration coexistent with the statute itself to a Council +not appointed by act of Parliament, nor chosen for any temporary or +special purpose; by which means the servants in the highest situation, +let their conduct be never so grossly criminal, cannot be removed, +unless the Court of Directors and ministers of the crown can be found to +concur in the same opinion of it. The prevalence of the Indian factions +in the Court of Directors and Court of Proprietors, and sometimes in the +state itself, renders this agreement extremely difficult: if the +principal members of the Direction should be in a conspiracy with any +principal servant under censure, it will be impracticable; because the +first act must originate there. The reduced state of the authority of +this kingdom in Bengal may be traced in a great measure to that very +natural source of independence. In many cases the instant removal of an +offender from his power of doing mischief is the only mode of preventing +the utter and perhaps irretrievable ruin of public affairs. In such a +case the process ought to be simple, and the power absolute in one or in +either hand separately. By contriving the balance of interests formed in +the act, notorious offence, gross error, or palpable insufficiency have +many chances of retaining and abusing authority, whilst the variety of +representations, hearings, and conferences, and possibly the mere +jealousy and competition between rival powers, may prevent any decision, +and at length give time and means for settlements and compromises among +parties, made at the expense of justice and true policy. But this act of +1780, not properly distinguishing judicial process from executive +arrangements, requires in effect nearly the same degree of solemnity, +delay, and detail for removing a political inconvenience which attends a +criminal proceeding for the punishment of offences. It goes further, and +gives the same tenure to all who shall succeed to vacancies which was +given to those whom the act found in office. + +[Sidenote: Provisional appointment for vacancies.] + +Another regulation was made in the act, which has a tendency to render +the control of delinquency or the removal of incapacity in the +Council-General extremely difficult, as well as to introduce many other +abuses into the original appointment of Counsellors. The inconveniences +of a vacancy in that important office, at a great distance from the +authority that is to fill it, were visible; but your Committee have +doubts whether they balance the mischief which may arise from the power +given in this act, of a provisional appointment to vacancies, not on the +event, but on foresight. This mode of providing for the succession has a +tendency to promote cabal, and to prevent inquiry into the +qualifications of the persons to be appointed. An attempt has been +actually made, in consequence of this power, in a very marked manner, to +confound the whole order and discipline of the Company's service. Means +are furnished thereby for perpetuating the powers of some given Court of +Directors. They may forestall the patronage of their successors, on whom +they entail a line of Supreme Counsellors and Governors-General. And if +the exercise of this power should happen in its outset to fall into bad +hands, the ordinary chances for mending an ill choice upon death or +resignation are cut off. + +In these provisional arrangements it is to be considered that the +appointment is not in consequence of any marked event which calls +strongly on the attention of the public, but is made at the discretion +of those who lead in the Court of Directors, and may therefore be +brought forward at times the most favorable to the views of partiality +and corruption. Candidates have not, therefore, the notice that may be +necessary for their claims; and as the possession of the office to which +the survivors are to succeed seems remote, all inquiry into the +qualifications and character of those who are to fill it will naturally +be dull and languid. + +Your Committee are not also without a grounded apprehension of the ill +effect on any existing Council-General of all strong marks of influence +and favor which appear in the subordinates of Bengal. This previous +designation to a great and arduous trust, (the greatest that can be +reposed in subjects,) when made out of any regular course of succession, +marks that degree of countenance and support at home which may +overshadow the existing government. That government may thereby be +disturbed by factions, and led to corrupt and dangerous compliances. At +best, when these Counsellors elect are engaged in no fixed employment, +and have no lawful intermediate emolument, the natural impatience for +their situations may bring on a traffic for resignations between them +and the persons in possession, very unfavorable to the interests of the +public and to the duty of their situations. + +Since the act two persons have been nominated to the ministers of the +crown by the Court of Directors for this succession. Neither has yet +been approved. But by the description of the persons a judgment may be +formed of the principles on which this power is likely to be exercised. + +[Sidenote: Stuart and Sulivan's appointment to succeed to vacancies.] + +Your Committee find, that, in consequence of the above-mentioned act, +the Honorable Charles Stuart and Mr. Sulivan were appointed to succeed +to the first vacancies in the Supreme Council. Mr. Stuart's first +appointment in the Company's service was in the year 1761. He returned +to England in 1775, and was permitted to go back to India in 1780. In +August, 1781, he was nominated by the Court of Directors (Mr. Sulivan +and Sir William James were Chairman and Deputy-Chairman) to succeed to +the first vacancy in the Supreme Council, and on the 19th of September +following his Majesty's approval of such nomination was requested. + +[Sidenote: Mr. Stuart's situation at the time of his appointment.] + +In the nomination of Mr. Stuart, the consideration of rank in the +service was not neglected; but if the Court of Directors had thought fit +to examine their records, they would have found matter at least strongly +urging them to a suspension of this appointment, until the charges +against Mr. Stuart should be fully cleared up. That matter remained (as +it still remains) unexplained from the month of May, 1775, where, on the +Bengal Revenue Consultations of the 12th of that month, peculations to a +large amount are charged upon oath against Mr. Stuart under the +following title: "_The Particulars of the Money unjustly taken by Mr. +Stuart, during the Time he was at Burdwan._" The sum charged against him +in this account is 2,17,684 Sicca rupees (that is, 25,253_l._ sterling); +besides which there is another account with the following title: "_The +Particulars of the Money unjustly taken by Callypersaud Bose, Banian to +the Honorable Charles Stuart, Esquire, at Burdwan, and amounting to +Sicca Rupees 1,01,675_" (that is, 11,785_l._),--a large sum to be +received by a person in that subordinate situation. + +The minuteness with which these accounts appear to have been kept, and +the precision with which the date of each particular, sometimes of very +small sums, is stated, give them the appearance of authenticity, as far +as it can be conveyed on the face or in the construction of such +accounts, and, if they were forgeries, laid them open to an easy +detection. But no detection is easy, when no inquiry is made. It appears +an offence of the highest order in the Directors concerned in this +business, when, not satisfied with leaving such charges so long +unexamined, they should venture to present to the king's servants the +object of them for the highest trust which they have to bestow. If Mr. +Stuart was really guilty, the possession of this post must furnish him +not only with the means of renewing the former evil practices charged +upon him, and of executing them upon a still larger scale, but of +oppressing those unhappy persons who, under the supposed protection of +the faith of the Company, had appeared to give evidence concerning his +former misdemeanors. + +This attempt in the Directors was the more surprising, when it is +considered that two committees of this House were at that very time +sitting upon an inquiry that related directly to their conduct, and that +of their servants in India. + +[Sidenote: Mr. Sulivan's situation at the time of his appointment.] + +It was in the same spirit of defiance of Parliament, that at the same +time they nominated Mr. Sulivan, son to the then Chairman of the Court +of Directors, to the succession to the same high trust in India. On +these appointments, your Committee thought it proper to make those +inquiries which the Court of Directors thought proper to omit. They +first conceived it fitting to inquire what rank Mr. Sulivan bore in the +service; and they thought it not unnecessary here to state the +gradations in the service, according to the established usage of the +Company. + +The Company's civil servants generally go to India as _writers_, in +which capacity they serve the Company _five years_. The next step, in +point of rank, is to be a _factor_, and next to that a _junior +merchant_; in each of which capacities they serve the Company _three +years_. They then rise to the rank of _senior merchant_, in which +situation they remain till called by rotation to the _Board of Trade_. +Until the passing of the Regulation Act, in 1773, seniority entitled +them to succeed to the _Council_, and finally gave them pretensions to +the _government of the Presidency_. + +The above gradation of the service, your Committee conceive, ought never +to be superseded by the Court of Directors, without evident reason, in +persons or circumstances, to justify the breach of an ancient order. The +names, whether taken from civil or commercial gradation, are of no +moment. The order itself is wisely established, and tends to provide a +natural guard against partiality, precipitancy, and corruption in +patronage. It affords means and opportunities for an examination into +character; and among the servants it secures a strong motive to preserve +a fair reputation. Your Committee find that no respect whatsoever was +paid to this gradation in the instance of Mr. Sulivan, nor is there any +reason assigned for departing from it. They do not find that Mr. Sulivan +had ever served the Company in any one of the above capacities, but was, +in the year 1777, abruptly brought into the service, and sent to Madras +to succeed as Persian Translator and Secretary to the Council. + +Your Committee have found a letter from Mr. Sulivan to George Wombwell +and William Devaynes, Esquires, Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of the +Court of Directors, stating that he trusted _his applications_ would +have a place in their deliberations when Madras affairs were taken up. +Of what nature those applications were your Committee cannot discover, +as no traces of them appear on the Company's records,--nor whether any +proofs of his ability, even as Persian Translator, which might entitle +him to a preference to the many servants in India whose study and +opportunities afforded them the means of becoming perfect masters of +that language. + +On the above letter your Committee find that the Committee of +Correspondence proceeded; and on their recommendation the Court of +Directors unanimously approved of Mr. Sulivan to be appointed to succeed +to the posts of Secretary and Persian Translator. + +[Sidenote: Mr. Sulivan's succession of offices.] + +Conformably to the orders of the court, Mr. Sulivan succeeded to those +posts; and the President and Council acquainted the Court of Directors +that they had been obeyed. About five months after, it appears that Mr. +Sulivan thought fit to resign the office of Persian Translator, to which +he had been appointed by the Directors. In April, 1780, Mr. Sulivan is +commended for his _great diligence as Secretary_; in August following +he obtains leave to accompany Mrs. Sulivan to Bengal, whence she is to +proceed to Europe on account of her health; and he is charged with a +commission from the President and Council of Fort St. George to obtain +for that settlement supplies of grain, troops, and money, from the +Governor-General and Council of Bengal. In October the Governor-General +requests permission of the Council there to employ Mr. Sulivan as his +_Assistant_, for that he had experienced (between his arrival in Bengal +and that time) the abilities of Mr. Sulivan, and made choice of him as +_completely qualified for that trust_; also requests the board to +appoint him Judge-Advocate-General, and likewise to apply to the +Presidency of Madras for him to remain in Bengal without prejudice to +his rank on their establishment: which several requests the board at +Madras readily complied with, notwithstanding their natural sensibility +to the loss of a Secretary of such ability and diligence as they had +described Mr. Sulivan to be. + +On the 5th of December following, the President and Council received a +letter from Bengal, requesting that Mr. Sulivan might be allowed to keep +his rank. This request brought on some discussion. A Mr. Freeman, it +seems, who had acted under Mr. Sulivan as Sub-Secretary whilst his +principal obtained so much praise for his diligence, addressed the board +on the same day, and observed, "that, since Mr. Sulivan's arrival, _he_ +[Mr. Freeman] had, _without intermission_, done almost the _whole_ of +the duty allotted to the post of Secretary, _which it was notorious Mr. +Sulivan had paid but little attention to_; and neither his inclination +or duty led him to act any longer as Mr. Sulivan's deputy." + +Here your Committee cannot avoid remarking the direct contradiction +which this address of Mr. Freeman's gives to the letter from the +President and Council to the Court of Directors in April, 1780, wherein +Mr. Sulivan is praised for his "diligence and attention in his office of +Secretary." + +The President and Council do not show any displeasure at Mr. Freeman's +representation, (so contrary to their own,) the truth of which they thus +tacitly admit, but agree to write to the Governor-General and Council, +"that it could not be supposed that they could carry on the public +business for any length of time without _the services of a Secretary_ +and Clerk of Appeals, two offices that required personal attendance, and +which would be a general injury to the servants on their establishment, +and in particular to the person who acted in those capacities, as they +learnt that Mr. Sulivan had been appointed Judge-Advocate-General in +Bengal,--and to request the Governor-General and Council to inform Mr. +Sulivan of their sentiments, and to desire him to inform them whether he +meant to return to his station or to remain in Bengal." + +On the 5th December, as a mark of their approbation of Mr. Freeman, who +had so plainly contradicted their opinion of Mr. Sulivan, the President +and Council agree to appoint him to act as Secretary and Clerk of +Appeals, till Mr. Sulivan's answer should arrive, with the emoluments, +and to confirm him therein, if Mr. Sulivan should remain in Bengal. + +On the 14th February, 1781, the President and Council received a letter +from Bengal in reply, and stating their request that Mr. Sulivan might +reserve the right of returning to his original situation on the Madras +establishment, if the Court of Directors should disapprove of his being +transferred to Bengal. To this request the board at Madras declare they +have no objection: and here the matter rests; the Court of Directors not +having given any tokens of approbation or disapprobation of the +transaction. + +Such is the history of Mr. Sulivan's service from the time of his +appointment; such were the qualifications, and such the proofs of +assiduity and diligence given by him in holding so many incompatible +offices, (as well as being engaged in other dealings, which will appear +in their place,) when, after three years' desultory residence in India, +he was thought worthy to be nominated to the succession to the Supreme +Council. No proof whatsoever of distinguished capacity in any line +preceded his original appointment to the service: so that the whole of +his fitness for the Supreme Council rested upon his conduct and +character since his appointment as Persian Translator. + +Your Committee find that his Majesty has not yet given his approbation +to the nomination, made by the Court of Directors on the 30th of August, +1781, of Messrs. Stuart and Sulivan to succeed to the Supreme Council on +the first vacancies, though the Court applied for the royal approbation +so long ago as the 19th of September, 1781; and in these instances the +king's ministers performed their duty, in withholding their countenance +from a proceeding so exceptionable and of so dangerous an example. + +Your Committee, from a full view of the situation and duties of the +Court of Directors, are of opinion that effectual means ought to be +taken for regulating that court in such a manner as to prevent either +rivalship with or subserviency to their servants. It might, therefore, +be proper for the House to consider whether it is fit that those who +are, or have been within some given time, Directors of the Company, +should be capable of an appointment to any offices in India. Directors +can never properly govern those for whose employments they are or may be +themselves candidates; they can neither protect nor coerce them with due +impartiality or due authority. + +If such rules as are stated by your Committee under this head were +observed in the regular service at home and abroad, the necessity of +superseding the regular service by strangers would be more rare; and +whenever the servants were so superseded, those who put forward other +candidates would be obliged to produce a strong plea of merit and +ability, which, in the judgment of mankind, ought to overpower +pretensions so authentically established, and so rigorously guarded from +abuse. + +[Sidenote: Deficiency of powers to ministers of government.] + +The second object, in this part of the plan, of the act of 1773, namely, +that of inspection by the ministers of the crown, appears not to have +been provided for, so as to draw the timely and productive attention of +the state on the grievances of the people of India, and on the abuses of +its government. By the Regulating Act, the ministers were enabled to +inspect one part of the correspondence, that which was received in +England, but not that which went outward. They might know something, but +that very imperfectly and unsystematically, of the state of affairs; but +they were neither authorized to advance nor to retard any measure taken +by the Directors in consequence of that state: they were not provided +even with sufficient means of knowing what any of these measures were. +And this imperfect information, together with the want of a direct call +to any specific duty, might have, in some degree, occasioned that +remissness which rendered even the imperfect powers originally given by +the act of 1773 the less efficient. This defect was in a great measure +remedied by a subsequent act; but that act was not passed until the year +1780. + +[Sidenote: Disorders increased since 1773.] + +Your Committee find that during the whole period which elapsed from 1773 +to the commencement of 1782 disorders and abuses of every kind +multiplied. Wars contrary to policy and contrary to public faith were +carrying on in various parts of India. The allies, dependants, and +subjects of the Company were everywhere oppressed;[2] dissensions in the +Supreme Council prevailed, and continued for the greater part of that +time; the contests between the civil and judicial powers threatened that +issue to which they came at last, an armed resistance to the authority +of the king's court of justice; the orders which by an act of Parliament +the servants were bound to obey were avowedly and on principle +contemned; until at length the fatal effects of accumulated misdemeanors +abroad and neglects at home broke out in the alarming manner which your +Committee have so fully reported to this House.[3] + +[Sidenote: Proceedings in India not known to Parliament.] + +In all this time the true state of the several Presidencies, and the +real conduct of the British government towards the natives, was not at +all known to Parliament: it seems to have been very imperfectly known +even to ministers. Indeed, it required an unbroken attention, and much +comparison of facts and reasonings, to form a true judgment on that +difficult and complicated system of politics, revenue, and commerce, +whilst affairs were only in their progress to that state which produced +the present inquiries. Therefore, whilst the causes of their ruin were +in the height of their operation, both the Company and the natives were +understood by the public as in circumstances the most assured and most +flourishing; insomuch that, whenever the affairs of India were brought +before Parliament, as they were two or three times during that period, +the only subject-matter of discussion anywise important was concerning +the sums which might be taken out of the Company's surplus profits for +the advantage of the state. Little was thought of but the disengagement +of the Company from their debts in _England_, and to prevent the +servants abroad from drawing upon them, so as that body might be +enabled, without exciting clamors here, to afford the contribution that +was demanded. All descriptions of persons, either here or in India, +looking solely to appearances at home, the reputation of the Directors +depended on the keeping the Company's sales in a situation to support +the dividend, that of the ministers depended on the most lucrative +bargains for the Exchequer, and that of the servants abroad on the +largest investments; until at length there is great reason to apprehend, +that, unless some very substantial reform takes place in the management +of the Company's affairs, nothing will be left for investment, for +dividend, or for bargain, and India, instead of a resource to the +public, may itself come, in no great length of time, to be reckoned +amongst the public burdens. + +[Sidenote: Inspection of ministers has failed in effect.] + +In this manner the inspection of the ministers of the crown, the great +cementing regulation of the whole act of 1773, has, along with all the +others, entirely failed in its effect. + +[Sidenote: Failure in the act.] + +Your Committee, in observing on the failure of this act, do not consider +the intrinsic defects or mistakes in the law itself as the sole cause of +its miscarriage. The general policy of the nation with regard to this +object has been, they conceive, erroneous; and no remedy by laws, under +the prevalence of that policy, can be effectual. Before any remedial law +can have its just operation, the affairs of India must be restored to +their natural order. The prosperity of the natives must be previously +secured, before any profit from them whatsoever is attempted. For as +long as a system prevails which regards the transmission of great wealth +to this country, either for the Company or the state, as its principal +end, so long will it be impossible that those who are the instruments of +that scheme should not be actuated by the same spirit for their own +private purposes. It will be worse: they will support the injuries done +to the natives for their selfish ends by new injuries done in favor of +those before whom they are to account. It is not reasonably to be +expected that a public rapacious and improvident should be served by any +of its subordinates with disinterestedness or foresight. + + +II.--CONNECTION OF GREAT BRITAIN WITH INDIA. + +In order to open more fully the tendency of the policy which has +hitherto prevailed, and that the House may be enabled, in any +regulations which may be made, to follow the tracks of the abuse, and +to apply an appropriated remedy to a particular distemper, your +Committee think it expedient to consider in some detail the manner in +which India is connected with this kingdom,--which is the second head of +their plan. + +The two great links by which this connection is maintained are, first, +the East India Company's commerce, and, next, the government set over +the natives by that company and by the crown. The first of these +principles of connection, namely, the East India Company's trade, is to +be first considered, not only as it operates by itself, but as having a +powerful influence over the general policy and the particular measures +of the Company's government. Your Committee apprehend that the present +state, nature, and tendency of this trade are not generally understood. + +[Sidenote: Trade to India formerly carried on chiefly in silver.] + +Until the acquisition of great territorial revenues by the East India +Company, the trade with India was carried on upon the common principles +of commerce,--namely, by sending out such commodities as found a demand +in the India market, and, where that demand was not adequate to the +reciprocal call of the European market for Indian goods, by a large +annual exportation of treasure, chiefly in silver. In some years that +export has been as high as six hundred and eighty thousand pounds +sterling. The other European companies trading to India traded thither +on the same footing. Their export of bullion was probably larger in +proportion to the total of their commerce, as their commerce itself bore +a much larger proportion to the British than it does at this time or has +done for many years past. But stating it to be equal to the British, +the whole of the silver sent annually from Europe into Hindostan could +not fall very short of twelve or thirteen hundred thousand pounds a +year. This influx of money, poured into India by an emulation of all the +commercial nations of Europe, encouraged industry and promoted +cultivation in a high degree, notwithstanding the frequent wars with +which that country was harassed, and the vices which existed in its +internal government. On the other hand, the export of so much silver was +sometimes a subject of grudging and uneasiness in Europe, and a commerce +carried on through such a medium to many appeared in speculation of +doubtful advantage. But the practical demands of commerce bore down +those speculative objections. The East India commodities were so +essential for animating all other branches of trade, and for completing +the commercial circle, that all nations contended for it with the +greatest avidity. The English company flourished under this exportation +for a very long series of years. The nation was considerably benefited +both in trade and in revenue; and the dividends of the proprietors were +often high, and always sufficient to keep up the credit of the Company's +stock in heart and vigor. + +[Sidenote: How trade carried on since.] + +But at or very soon after the acquisition of the territorial revenues to +the English company, the period of which may be reckoned as completed +about the year 1765, a very great revolution took place in commerce as +well as in dominion; and it was a revolution which affected the trade of +Hindostan with all other European nations, as well as with that in whose +favor and by whose power it was accomplished. From that time bullion was +no longer regularly exported by the English East India Company to +Bengal, or any part of Hindostan; and it was soon exported in much +smaller quantities by any other nation. A new way of supplying the +market of Europe, by means of the British power and influence, was +invented: a species of trade (if such it may be called) by which it is +absolutely impossible that India should not be radically and +irretrievably ruined, although our possessions there were to be ordered +and governed upon principles diametrically opposite to those which now +prevail in the system and practice of the British company's +administration. + +[Sidenote: Investments.] + +A certain portion of the revenues of Bengal has been for many years set +apart to be employed in the purchase of goods for exportation to +England, and this is called the _Investment_. The greatness of this +investment has been the standard by which the merit of the Company's +principal servants has been too generally estimated; and this main cause +of the impoverishment of India has been generally taken as a measure of +its wealth and prosperity. Numerous fleets of large ships, loaded with +the most valuable commodities of the East, annually arriving in England, +in a constant and increasing succession, imposed upon the public eye, +and naturally gave rise to an opinion of the happy condition and growing +opulence of a country whose surplus productions occupied so vast a space +in the commercial world. This export from India seemed to imply also a +reciprocal supply, by which the trading capital employed in those +productions was continually strengthened and enlarged. But the payment +of a tribute, and not a beneficial commerce to that country, wore this +specious and delusive appearance. + +[Sidenote: Increase of expenses.] + +The fame of a great territorial revenue, exaggerated, as is usual in +such cases, beyond even its value, and the abundant fortunes of the +Company's officers, military and civil, which flowed into Europe with a +full tide, raised in the proprietors of East India stock a premature +desire of partaking with their servants in the fruits of that splendid +adventure. Government also thought they could not be too early in their +claims for a share of what they considered themselves as entitled to in +every foreign acquisition made by the power of this kingdom, through +whatever hands or by whatever means it was made. These two parties, +after some struggle, came to an agreement to divide between them the +profits which their speculation proposed to realize in England from the +territorial revenue in Bengal. About two hundred thousand pounds was +added to the annual dividends of the proprietors. Four hundred thousand +was given to the state, which, added to the old dividend, brought a +constant charge upon the mixed interest of Indian trade and revenue of +eight hundred thousand pounds a year. This was to be provided for at all +events. + +By that vast demand on the territorial fund, the correctives and +qualifications which might have been gradually applied to the abuses in +Indian commerce and government were rendered extremely difficult. + +[Sidenote: Progress of investments.] + +The practice of an investment from the revenue began in the year 1766, +before arrangements were made for securing and appropriating an assured +fund for that purpose in the treasury, and for diffusing it from thence +upon the manufactures of the country in a just proportion and in the +proper season. There was, indeed, for a short time, a surplus of cash in +the treasury. It was in some shape to be sent home to its owners. To +send it out in silver was subject to two manifest inconveniences. First, +the country would be exhausted of its circulating medium. A scarcity of +coin was already felt in Bengal. Cossim Ali Khan, (the Nabob whom the +Company's servants had lately set up, and newly expelled,) during the +short period of his power, had exhausted the country by every mode of +extortion; in his flight he carried off an immense treasure, which has +been variously computed, but by none at less than three millions +sterling. A country so exhausted of its coin, and harassed by three +revolutions rapidly succeeding each other, was rather an object that +stood in need of every kind of refreshment and recruit than one which +could subsist under new evacuations. The next, and equally obvious +inconvenience, was to the Company itself. To send silver into Europe +would be to send it from the best to the worst market. When arrived, the +most profitable use which could be made of it would be to send it back +to Bengal for the purchase of Indian merchandise. It was necessary, +therefore, to turn the Company's revenue into its commerce. The first +investment was about five hundred thousand pounds, and care was taken +afterwards to enlarge it. In the years 1767 and 1768 it arose to seven +hundred thousand. + +[Sidenote: Consequences of them.] + +This new system of trade, carried on through the medium of power and +public revenue, very soon produced its natural effects. The loudest +complaints arose among the natives, and among all the foreigners who +traded to Bengal. It must unquestionably have thrown the whole +mercantile system of the country into the greatest confusion. With +regard to the natives, no expedient was proposed for their relief. The +case was serious with respect to European powers. The Presidency plainly +represented to the Directors, that some agreement should be made with +foreign nations for providing their investment to a certain amount, or +that the deficiencies then subsisting must terminate in an open rupture +with France. The Directors, pressed by the large payments in England, +were not free to abandon their system; and all possible means of +diverting the manufactures into the Company's investment were still +anxiously sought and pursued, until the difficulties of the foreign +companies were at length removed by the natural flow of the fortunes of +the Company's servants into Europe, in the manner which will be stated +hereafter. + +But, with all these endeavors of the Presidency, the investment sunk in +1769, and they were even obliged to pay for a part of the goods to +private merchants in the Company's bonds, bearing interest. It was plain +that this course of business could not hold. The manufacturers of +Bengal, far from being generally in a condition to give credit, have +always required advances to be made to them; so have the merchants very +generally,--at least, since the prevalence of the English power in +India. It was necessary, therefore, and so the Presidency of Calcutta +represented the matter, to provide beforehand a year's advance. This +required great efforts; and they were made. Notwithstanding the famine +in 1770, which wasted Bengal in a manner dreadful beyond all example, +the investment, by a variety of successive expedients, many of them of +the most dangerous nature and tendency, was forcibly kept up; and even +in that forced and unnatural state it gathered strength almost every +year. The debts contracted in the infancy of the system were gradually +reduced, and the advances to contractors and manufacturers were +regularly made; so that the goods from Bengal, purchased from the +territorial revenues, from the sale of European goods, and from the +produce of the monopolies, for the four years which ended with 1780, +when the investment from the surplus revenues finally closed, were never +less than a million sterling, and commonly nearer twelve hundred +thousand pounds. This million is the lowest value of the goods sent to +Europe for which no satisfaction is made.[4] + +[Sidenote: Remittances from Bengal to China and the Presidencies.] + +About an hundred thousand pounds a year is also remitted from Bengal, on +the Company's account, to China; and the whole of the product of that +money flows into the direct trade from China to Europe. Besides this, +Bengal sends a regular supply in time of peace to those Presidencies +which are unequal to their own establishment. To Bombay the remittance +in money, bills, or goods, for none of which there is a return, amounts +to one hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year at a medium. + +[Sidenote: Exports from England to India.] + +The goods which are exported from Europe to India consist chiefly of +military and naval stores, of clothing for troops, and of other objects +for the consumption of the Europeans residing there; and, excepting some +lead, copper utensils and sheet copper, woollen cloth, and other +commodities of little comparative value, no sort of merchandise is sent +from England that is in demand for the wants or desires of the native +inhabitants. + +[Sidenote: Bad effects of investment.] + +When an account is taken of the intercourse (for it is not commerce) +which is carried on between Bengal and England, the pernicious effects +of the system of investment from revenue will appear in the strongest +point of view. In that view, the whole exported produce of the country, +so far as the Company is concerned, is not exchanged in the course of +barter, but is taken away without any return or payment whatsoever. In a +commercial light, therefore, England becomes annually bankrupt to Bengal +to the amount nearly of its whole dealing; or rather, the country has +suffered what is tantamount to an annual plunder of its manufactures and +its produce to the value of twelve hundred thousand pounds. + +[Sidenote: Foreign companies.] + +[Sidenote: Consequences of their trade.] + +In time of peace, three foreign companies appear at first sight to bring +their contribution of trade to the supply of this continual drain. These +are the companies of France, Holland, and Denmark. But when the object +is considered more nearly, instead of relief, these companies, who from +their want of authority in the country might seem to trade upon a +principle merely commercial, will be found to add their full proportion +to the calamity brought upon Bengal by the destructive system of the +ruling power; because the greater part of the capital of all these +companies, and perhaps the whole capital of some of them, is furnished +exactly as the British is, out of the revenues of the country. The civil +and military servants of the English East India Company being +restricted in drawing bills upon Europe, and none of them ever making or +proposing an establishment in India, a very great part of their +fortunes, well or ill gotten, is in all probability thrown, as fast as +required, into the cash of these companies. + +In all other countries, the revenue, following the natural course and +order of things, arises out of their commerce. Here, by a mischievous +inversion of that order, the whole foreign maritime trade, whether +English, French, Dutch, or Danish, arises from the revenues; and these +are carried out of the country without producing anything to compensate +so heavy a loss. + +[Sidenote: Foreign companies' investments.] + +Your Committee have not been able to discover the entire value of the +investment made by foreign companies. But, as the investment which the +English East India Company derived from its revenues, and even from its +public credit, is for the year 1783 to be wholly stopped, it has been +proposed to private persons to make a subscription for an investment on +their own account. This investment is to be equal to the sum of +800,000_l._ Another loan has been also made for an investment on the +Company's account to China of 200,000_l._ This makes a million; and +there is no question that much more could be readily had for bills upon +Europe. Now, as there is no doubt that the whole of the money remitted +is the property of British subjects, (none else having any interest in +remitting to Europe,) it is not unfair to suppose that a very great +part, if not the whole, of what may find its way into this new channel +is not newly created, but only diverted from those channels in which it +formerly ran, that is, the cash of the foreign trading companies. + +[Sidenote: Of the silver sent to China.] + +Besides the investment made in goods by foreign companies from the funds +of British subjects, these subjects have been for some time in the +practice of sending very great sums in gold and silver directly to China +on their own account. In a memorial presented to the Governor-General +and Council, in March, 1782, it appears that the principal money lent by +British subjects to one company of merchants in China then amounted to +seven millions of dollars, about one million seven hundred thousand +pounds sterling; and not the smallest particle of silver sent to China +ever returns to India. It is not easy to determine in what proportions +this enormous sum of money has been sent from Madras or from Bengal; but +it equally exhausts a country belonging to this kingdom, whether it +comes from the one or from the other. + +[Sidenote: Revenue above the investment, how applied.] + +[Sidenote: Allowance to Nabob of Bengal.] + +[Sidenote: How reduced.] + +But that the greatness of all these drains, and their effects, may be +rendered more visible, your Committee have turned their consideration to +the employment of those parts of the Bengal revenue which are not +employed in the Company's own investments for China and for Europe. What +is taken over and above the investment (when any investment can be made) +from the gross revenue, either for the charge of collection or for civil +and military establishments, is in time of peace two millions at the +least. From the portion of that sum which goes to the support of civil +government the natives are almost wholly excluded, as they are from the +principal collections of revenue. With very few exceptions, they are +only employed as servants and agents to Europeans, or in the inferior +departments of collection, when it is absolutely impossible to proceed +a step without their assistance. For some time after the acquisition of +the territorial revenue, the sum of 420,000_l._ a year was paid, +according to the stipulation of a treaty, to the Nabob of Bengal, for +the support of his government. This sum, however inconsiderable, +compared to the revenues of the province, yet, distributed through the +various departments of civil administration, served in some degree to +preserve the natives of the better sort, particularly those of the +Mahomedan profession, from being utterly ruined. The people of that +persuasion, not being so generally engaged in trade, and not having on +their conquest of Bengal divested the ancient Gentoo proprietors of +their lands of inheritance, had for their chief, if not their sole +support, the share of a moderate conqueror in all offices, civil and +military. But your Committee find that this arrangement was of a short +duration. Without the least regard to the subsistence of this innocent +people, or to the faith of the agreement on which they were brought +under the British government, this sum was reduced by a new treaty to +320,000_l._, and soon after, (upon a pretence of the present Nabob's +minority, and a temporary sequestration for the discharge of his debts,) +to 160,000_l._: but when he arrived at his majority, and when the debts +were paid, (if ever they were paid,) the sequestration still continued; +and so far as the late advices may be understood, the allowance to the +Nabob appears still to stand at the reduced sum of 160,000_l._ + +[Sidenote: Native officers.] + +The other resource of the Mahomedans, and of the Gentoos of certain of +the higher castes, was the army. In this army, nine tenths of which +consists of natives, no native, of whatever description, holds any rank +higher than that of a _Subahdar Commandant_, that is, of an officer +below the rank of an English subaltern, who is appointed to each company +of the native soldiery. + +[Sidenote: All lucrative employments in the hands of the English.] + +Your Committee here would be understood to state the ordinary +establishment: for the war may have made some alteration. All the +honorable, all the lucrative situations of the army, all the supplies +and contracts of whatever species that belong to it, are solely in the +hands of the English; so that whatever is beyond the mere subsistence of +a common soldier and some officers of a lower rank, together with the +immediate expenses of the English officers at their table, is sooner or +later, in one shape or another, sent out of the country. + +Such was the state of Bengal even in time of profound peace, and before +the whole weight of the public charge fell upon that unhappy country for +the support of other parts of India, which have been desolated in such a +manner as to contribute little or nothing to their own protection. + +[Sidenote: Former state of trade.] + +Your Committee have given this short comparative account of the effects +of the maritime traffic of Bengal, when in its natural state, and as it +has stood since the prevalence of the system of an investment from the +revenues. But before the formation of that system Bengal did by no means +depend for its resources on its maritime commerce. The inland trade, +from whence it derived a very great supply of silver and gold and many +kinds of merchantable goods, was very considerable. The higher provinces +of the Mogul Empire were then populous and opulent, and intercourse to +an immense amount was carried on between them and Bengal. A great trade +also passed through these provinces from all the countries on the +frontier of Persia, and the frontier provinces of Tartary, as well as +from Surat and Baroach on the western side of India. These parts opened +to Bengal a communication with the Persian Gulf and with the Red Sea, +and through them with the whole Turkish and the maritime parts of the +Persian Empire, besides the commercial intercourse which it maintained +with those and many other countries through its own seaports. + +[Sidenote: And the trade to Turkey.] + +During that period the remittances to the Mogul's treasury from Bengal +were never very large, at least for any considerable time, nor very +regularly sent; and the impositions of the state were soon repaid with +interest through the medium of a lucrative commerce. But the disorders +of Persia, since the death of Kouli Khan, have wholly destroyed the +trade of that country; and the trade to Turkey, by Jidda and Bussorah, +which was the greatest and perhaps best branch of the Indian trade, is +very much diminished. The fall of the throne of the Mogul emperors has +drawn with it that of the great marts of Agra and Delhi. The utmost +confusion of the northwestern provinces followed this revolution, which +was not absolutely complete until it received the last hand from Great +Britain. Still greater calamities have fallen upon the fine provinces of +Rohilcund and Oude, and on the countries of Corah and Allahabad. By the +operations of the British arms and influence, they are in many places +turned to mere deserts, or so reduced and decayed as to afford very few +materials or means of commerce. + +[Sidenote: State of trade in the Carnatic.] + +Such is the actual condition of the trade of Bengal since the +establishment of the British power there. The commerce of the Carnatic, +as far as the inquiries of your Committee have extended, did not appear +with a better aspect, even before the invasion of Hyder Ali Khan, and +the consequent desolation, which for many years to come must exclude it +from any considerable part of the trading system. + +It appears, on the examination of an intelligent person concerned in +trade, and who resided at Madras for several years, that on his arrival +there, which was in the year 1767, that city was in a flourishing +condition, and one of the first marts in India; but when he left it, in +1779, there was little or no trade remaining, and but one ship belonging +to the whole place. The evidence of this gentleman purports, that at his +first acquaintance with the Carnatic it was a well-cultivated and +populous country, and as such consumed many articles of merchandise; +that at his departure he left it much circumscribed in trade, greatly in +the decline as to population and culture, and with a correspondent decay +of the territorial revenue. + +Your Committee find that there has also been from Madras an investment +on the Company's account, taking one year with another, very nearly on +the same principles and with the same effects as that from Bengal; and +they think it is highly probable, that, besides the large sums remitted +directly from Madras to China, there has likewise been a great deal on a +private account, for that and other countries, invested in the cash of +foreign European powers trading on the coast of Coromandel. But your +Committee have not extended their inquiries relative to the commerce of +the countries dependent on Madras so far as they have done with regard +to Bengal. They have reason to apprehend that the condition is rather +worse; but if the House requires a more minute examination of this +important subject, your Committee is willing to enter into it without +delay. + + +III.--EFFECT OF THE REVENUE INVESTMENT ON THE COMPANY. + +Hitherto your Committee has considered this system of revenue +investment, substituted in the place of a commercial link between India +and Europe, so far as it affects India only: they are now to consider it +as it affects the Company. So long as that corporation continued to +receive a vast quantity of merchantable goods without any disbursement +for the purchase, so long it possessed wherewithal to continue a +dividend to pay debts, and to contribute to the state. But it must have +been always evident to considerate persons, that this vast extraction of +wealth from a country lessening in its resources in proportion to the +increase of its burdens was not calculated for a very long duration. For +a while the Company's servants kept up this investment, not by improving +commerce, manufacture, or agriculture, but by forcibly raising the +land-rents, on the principles and in the manner hereafter to be +described. When these extortions disappointed or threatened to +disappoint expectation, in order to purvey for the avarice which raged +in England, they sought for expedients in breaches of all the agreements +by which they were bound by any payment to the country powers, and in +exciting disturbances among all the neighboring princes. Stimulating +their ambition, and fomenting their mutual animosities, they sold to +them reciprocally their common servitude and ruin. + +The Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, and the Council, tell the Directors, +"that the supply for the investment has arisen from _casual_ and +_extraordinary_ resources, which they could not expect _always_ to +command." In an earlier minute he expresses himself still more +distinctly: he says, "If the internal resources of a state fail it, or +are not equal to its _occasional_ wants, whence can it obtain immediate +relief but from _external_ means?" Indeed, the investment has not been +for any long time the natural product of the revenue of Bengal. When, by +the vast charge and by the ill return of an evil political and military +traffic, and by a prodigal increase of establishments, and a profuse +conduct in distributing agencies and contracts, they found themselves +under difficulties, instead of being cured of their immoral and +impolitic delusion, they plunged deeper into it, and were drawn from +expedient to expedient for the supply of the investment into that +endless chain of wars which this House by its resolutions has so justly +condemned. At home these measures were sometimes countenanced, sometimes +winked at, sometimes censured, but always with an acceptance of whatever +profit they afforded. + +At length, the funds for the investment and for these wars together +could no longer be supplied. In the year 1778 the provision for the +investment from the revenues and from the monopolies stood very high. It +was estimated at a million four hundred thousand pounds; and of this it +appears that a great deal was realized. But this was the high flood-tide +of the investment; for in that year they announce its probable decline, +and that such extensive supplies could not be continued. The advances to +the Board of Trade became less punctual, and many disputes arose about +the time of making them. However, knowing that all their credit at home +depended on the investment, or upon an opinion of its magnitude, whilst +they repeat their warning of a probable deficiency, and that their +"finances bore an unfavorable aspect," in the year 1779 they rate their +investment still higher. But their payments becoming less and less +regular, and the war carrying away all the supplies, at length Mr. +Hastings, in December, 1780, denounced sentence of approaching +dissolution to this system, and tells the Directors that "he bore too +high a respect for their characters to treat them with the management of +a preparatory and gradual introduction to an unpleasing report: that it +is the _only substantial_ information he shall have to convey in that +letter." In confidence, therefore, of their fortitude, he tells them +without ceremony, "that there will be a necessity of making a large +reduction, or possibly a _total suspension_, of their investment;--that +they had already been reduced to borrow near 700,000_l._ This resource," +says he, "cannot last; it must cease at a certain period, and that +perhaps not far _distant_." + +He was not mistaken in his prognostic. Loans now becoming the regular +resource for retrieving the investment, whose ruin was inevitable, the +Council enable the Board of Trade, in April, 1781, to grant certificates +for government bonds at eight per cent interest for about 650,000_l._ +The investment was fixed at 900,000_l._ + +But now another alarming system appeared. These new bonds overloaded +the market. Those which had been formerly issued were at a discount; the +Board of Trade was obliged to advance, therefore, a fourth more than +usual to the contractors. This seemed to satisfy that description of +dealers. But as those who bought on agency were limited to no terms of +mutual advantage, and the bonds on the new issue falling from three to +eight, nine, and ten per cent discount, the agents were unable to +furnish at the usual prices. Accordingly a discount was settled on such +terms as could be made: the lowest discount, and that at two places +only, was at four per cent; which, with the interest on the bonds, made +(besides the earlier advance) at the least twelve per cent additional +charge upon all goods. It was evident, that, as the investment, instead +of being supported by the revenues, was sunk by the fall of their +credit, so the net revenues were diminished by the daily accumulation of +an interest accruing on account of the investment. What was done to +alleviate one complaint thus aggravating the other, and at length +proving pernicious to both, this trade on bonds likewise came to its +period. + +Your Committee has reason to think that the bonds have since that time +sunk to a discount much greater even than what is now stated. The Board +of Trade justly denominates their resource for that year "the sinking +credit of a paper currency, laboring, from the uncommon scarcity of +specie, under disadvantages scarcely surmountable." From this they value +themselves "on having effected an _ostensible_ provision, at least for +that investment." For 1783 nothing appears even ostensible. + +By this failure a total revolution ensued, of the most extraordinary +nature, and to which your Committee wish to call the particular +attention of the House. For the Council-General, in their letter of the +8th of April, 1782, after stating that they were disappointed in their +expectations, (how grounded it does not appear,) "thought that they +should be able to spare a sum to the Board of Trade,"--tell the Court of +Directors, "that they had adopted a _new_ method of keeping up the +investment, by private subscribers for eighty lacs of rupees, which will +find _cargoes for their ships_ on the usual terms of privilege, _at the +risk of the individuals_, and is to be repaid to them _according to the +produce of the sales in England_,"--and they tell the Directors, that "a +copy of the plan makes a number in their separate dispatches over land." + +It is impossible, in reporting this revolution to the House, to avoid +remarking with what fidelity Mr. Hastings and his Council have adhered +to the mode of transmitting their accounts which your Committee found it +necessary to mark and censure in their First Report. Its pernicious +tendency is there fully set forth. They were peculiarly called on for a +most accurate state of their affairs, in order to explain the necessity +of having recourse to such a scheme, as well as for a full and correct +account of the scheme itself. But they send only the above short minute +by one dispatch over land, whilst the copy of the plan itself, on which +the Directors must form their judgment, is sent separately in another +dispatch over land, which has never arrived. A third dispatch, which +also contained the plan, was sent by a sea conveyance, and arrived late. +The Directors have, for very obvious reasons, ordered, by a strict +injunction, that they should send _duplicates of all_ their dispatches +by _every ship_. The spirit of this rule, perhaps, ought to extend to +every mode of conveyance. In this case, so far from sending a duplicate, +they do not send even one perfect account. They announce a plan by one +conveyance, and they send it by another conveyance, with other delays +and other risks. + +At length, at nearly four months' distance, the plan has been received, +and appears to be substantially that which had been announced, but +developing in the particulars many new circumstances of the greatest +importance. By this plan it appears that the subscription, even in idea +or pretence, is not for the use of the Company, but that the subscribers +are united into a sort of society for the remitting their _private +fortunes_: the goods, indeed, are said to be _shipped on the Company's +account_, and they are directed to be sold on the same account, and at +the usual periods of sales; but, after the payment of duties, and such +other allowances as they choose to make, in the eleventh article they +provide "that _the remainder of the sales shall revert to the +subscribers_, and be declared to be _their property_, and divided in +proportion to _their_ respective shares." The compensation which they +allow in this plan to their masters for their brokerage is, that, if, +after deducting all the charges which they impose, "the amount of the +sales _should be found_ to exceed two shillings and twopence for the +current rupee of the invoice account, it shall be taken by the Company." +For the management of this concern in Bengal they choose commissioners +by their own authority. By the same authority they form them into a +body, they put them under rules and regulations, and they empower them +also to make regulations of their own. They remit, by the like +authority, the duties to which all private trade is subject; and they +charge the whole concern with seven per cent, to be paid from the net +produce of the sales in England, as a recompense to the commissioners: +for this the commissioners contract to bear all the charges on the goods +to the time of shipping. + +The servants having formed this plan of trade, and a new commission for +the conduct of it, on their private account, it is a matter of +consideration to know who the commissioners are. They turn out to be the +three senior servants of the Company's Board of Trade, who choose to +take upon them to be the factors of others for large emoluments, whilst +they receive salaries of two thousand pounds and fifteen hundred pounds +a year from the Company. As the Company have no other fund than the new +investment from whence they are to be paid for the care of their +servants' property, this commission and those salaries being to take +place of their brokerage, they in effect render it very difficult, if +not impossible, for them to derive advantage from their new occupation. + +As to the benefit of this _plan_: besides preventing the loss which must +happen from the Company's ships returning empty to Europe, and the +stopping of all trade between India and England, the authors of it +state, that it will "_open a new channel_ of remittance, and abolish the +practice, by precluding the necessity, of remitting _private fortunes_ +by _foreign bottoms_, and that it may lead to some _permanent mode_ for +remittance of private fortunes, and of combining it with the regular +provision of the Company's investment,--that it will yield _some_ profit +to the Company without risk, and the national gain will be the same as +upon the regular trade." + +As to the combination of this mode of remittance with the Company's +investment, nothing can be affirmed concerning it until some +satisfactory assurance can be held out that such an investment can ever +be realized. Mr. Hastings and the gentlemen of the Council have not +afforded any ground for such an expectation. That the Indian trade may +become a permanent vehicle of the private fortunes of the Company's +servants is very probable,--that is, as permanent as the means of +acquiring fortunes in India; but that _some profit_ will accrue to the +Company is absolutely impossible. The Company are to bear all the charge +outwards, and a very great part of that homewards; and their only +compensation is the surplus commission on the sale of other people's +goods. The nation will undoubtedly avoid great loss and detriment, which +would be the inevitable consequence of the total cessation of the trade +with Bengal and the ships returning without cargoes. But if this +temporary expedient should be improved into a system, no occasional +advantages to be derived from it would be sufficient to balance the +mischiefs of finding a great Parliamentary corporation turned into a +vehicle for remitting to England the private fortunes of those for whose +benefit the territorial possessions in India are in effect and substance +under this project to be _solely_ held. + +By this extraordinary scheme the Company is totally overturned, and all +its relations inverted. From being a body concerned in trade on their +own account, and employing their servants as factors, the servants have +at one stroke taken the whole trade into their own hands, on their own +capital of 800,000_l._, at their own risk, and the Company are become +agents and factors to them, to sell by commission _their_ goods for +_their_ profit. + +To enable your Committee to form some judgment upon the profit which may +accrue to the Company from its new relation and employment, they +directed that an estimate should be made of the probable proceeds of an +investment conducted on the principles of that intended to be realized +for 1783. By this estimate, which is subjoined,[5] it appears to your +Committee, that, so far from any surplus profit from this transaction, +the Bengal adventurers themselves, instead of realizing 2_s._ 2_d._ the +rupee, (the standard they fix for their payment,) will not receive the +1_s._ 9_d._ which is its utmost value in silver at the Mint, nor +probably above 1_s._ 5_d._ With this certain loss before their eyes, it +is impossible that they can ever complete their subscription, unless, by +management among themselves, they should be able to procure the goods +for their own account upon other terms than those on which they +purchased them for their masters, or unless they have for the supply of +the Company on their hands a quantity of goods which they cannot +otherwise dispose of. This latter case is not very improbable, from +their proposing to send ten sixteenths of the whole investment in +silk,--which, as will be seen hereafter, the Company has prohibited to +be sent on their account, as a disadvantageous article. Nothing but the +servants being overloaded can rationally account for their choice of so +great a proportion of so dubious a commodity. + +On the state made by two reports of a committee of the General Court in +1782, their affairs were even then reduced to a low ebb. But under the +arrangement announced by Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, it does not +appear, after this period of the servants' investment, from what fund +the proprietors are to make any dividend at all. The objects of the sale +from whence the dividend is to arise are not _their_ goods: they stand +accountable to others for the whole probable produce. The state of the +Company's commerce will therefore become an object of serious +consideration: an affair, as your Committee apprehends, of as much +difficulty as ever tried the faculties of this House. For, on the one +hand, it is plain that the system of providing the Company's import into +Europe, resting almost wholly by an investment from its territorial +revenues, has failed: during its continuance it was supported on +principles fatal to the prosperity of that country. On the other hand, +if the nominal commerce of the Company is suffered to be carried on for +the account of the servants abroad, by investing the emoluments made in +their stations, these emoluments are therefore inclusively authorized, +and with them the practices from which they accrue. All Parliamentary +attempts to reform this system will be contradictory to its institution. +If, for instance, five hundred thousand pounds sterling annually be +necessary for this kind of investment, any regulation which may prevent +the acquisition of that sum operates against the investment which is the +end proposed by the plan. + +On this new scheme, (which is neither calculated for a future security +nor for a present relief to the Company,) it is not visible in what +manner the settlements in India can be at all upheld. The gentlemen in +employments abroad call for the whole produce of the year's investment +from Bengal; but for the payment of the counter-investment from Europe, +which is for the far greater part sent out for the support of their +power, no provision at all is made: they have not, it seems, agreed that +it should be charged to their account, or that any deduction should be +made for it from the produce of their sales in Leadenhall Street. How +far such a scheme is preferable to the total suspension of trade your +Committee cannot positively determine. In all likelihood, extraordinary +expedients were necessary; but the causes which induced this necessity +ought to be more fully inquired into; for the last step in a series of +conduct may be justifiable upon principles that suppose great blame in +those which preceded it. + +After your Committee had made the foregoing observations upon the plan +of Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, transmitted to the Court of +Directors, an extract of the Madras Consultations was a few days ago +laid before us. This extract contains a letter from the Governor-General +and Council of Bengal to the Presidency of Fort St. George, which +affords a very striking, though to your Committee by no means an +unexpected, picture of the instability of their opinions and conduct. On +the 8th of April the servants had regularly formed and digested the +above-mentioned plan, which was to form the basis for the investment of +their own fortunes, and to furnish the sole means of the commercial +existence of their masters. Before the 10th of the following May, which +is the date of their letter to Madras, they inform Lord Macartney that +they had fundamentally altered the whole scheme. "Instead," say they, +"of allowing the subscribers to retain an interest in the goods, they +are to be provided entirely on account of the Company, and transported +_at their risk_; and the subscribers, instead of receiving certificates +payable out of the produce of the sales in Europe, are to be granted +receipts, on the payment of their advances, bearing an interest of eight +per cent per annum, until exchanged for drafts on the Court of +Directors, payable 365 days after sight, at the rate of two shillings +per current rupee,--which drafts shall be granted in the proper time, of +three eighths of the amount subscribed, on the 31st of December next, +and the remaining five eighths on the 31st of December, 1783." + +The plan of April divests the Company of all property in Bengal goods +transported to Europe: but in recompense they are freed from all the +risk and expense, they are not loaded with interest, and they are not +embarrassed with bills. The plan of May reinstates them in their old +relation: but in return, their revenues in Bengal are charged with an +interest of eight per cent on the sum subscribed, until bills shall be +drawn; they are made proprietors of cargoes purchased, under the +disadvantage of that interest, at their own hazard; they are subjected +to all losses; and they are involved in Europe for payments of bills to +the amount of eighty lacs of rupees, at two shillings the rupee,--that +is, in bills for eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. It is probably +on account of the previous interest of eight per cent that the value of +the rupee on this scheme is reduced. Mr. Hastings and his colleagues +announce to Lord Macartney no other than the foregoing alteration in +their plan. + +It is discouraging to attempt any sort of observation on plans thus +shifting their principle whilst their merits are under examination. The +judgment formed on the scheme of April has nothing to do with the +project of May. Your Committee has not suppressed any part of the +reflections which occurred to them on the former of these plans: first, +because the Company knows of no other by any regular transmissions; +secondly, because it is by no means certain that before the expiration +of June the Governor-General and Council may not revert to the plan of +April. They speak of that plan as likely to be, or make a part of one +that shall be, _permanent_. Many reasons are alleged by its authors in +its favor, grounded on the state of their affairs; none whatever are +assigned for the alteration. It is, indeed, morally certain that +persons who had money to remit must have made the same calculation which +has been made by the directions of your Committee, and the result must +have been equally clear to them,--which is, that, instead of realizing +two shillings and twopence the rupee on their subscription, as they +proposed, they could never hope to see more than one shilling and +ninepence. This calculation probably shook the main pillar of the +project of April. But, on the other hand, as the subscribers to the +second scheme can have no certain assurance that the Company will accept +bills so far exceeding their allowance in this particular, the necessity +of remitting their fortunes may beat them back to their old ground. The +Danish Company was the only means of remitting which remained. Attempts +have been made with success to revive a Portuguese trade for that +purpose. It is by no means clear whether Mr. Hastings and his colleagues +will adhere to either of the foregoing plans, or, indeed, whether any +investment at all to that amount can be realized; because nothing but +the convenience of remitting the gains of British subjects to London can +support any of these projects. + +The situation of the Company, under this perpetual variation in the +system of their investment, is truly perplexing. The manner in which +they arrive at any knowledge of it is no less so. The letter to Lord +Macartney, by which the variation is discovered, was not intended for +transmission to the Directors. It was merely for the information of +those who were admitted to a share of the subscription at Madras. When +Mr. Hastings sent this information to those subscribers, he might well +enough have presumed an event to happen which did happen,--that is, +that a vessel might be dispatched from Madras to Europe: and indeed, by +that, and by every devisable means, he ought not only to have apprised +the Directors of this most material change in the plan of the +investment, but to have entered fully into the grounds and reasons of +his making it. + +It appears to your Committee that the ships which brought to England the +plan of the 8th of April did not sail from Bengal until the 1st of May. +If the change had been in contemplation for any time before the 30th of +April, two days would have sufficed to send an account of it, and it +might have arrived along with the plan which it affected. If, therefore, +such a change was in agitation before the sailing of the ships, and yet +was concealed when it might have been communicated, the concealment is +censurable. It is not improbable that some change of the kind was made +or meditated before the sailing of the ships for Europe: for it is +hardly to be imagined that reasons wholly unlooked-for should appear for +setting aside a plan concerning the success of which the Council-General +seemed so very confident, that a new one should be proposed, that its +merits should be discussed among the moneyed men, that it should be +adopted in Council, and officially ready for transmission to Madras, in +twelve or thirteen days. In this perplexity of plan and of transmission, +the Court of Directors may have made an arrangement of their affairs on +the groundwork of the first scheme, which was officially and +authentically conveyed to them. The fundamental alteration of that plan +in India might require another of a very different kind in England, +which the arrangements taken in consequence of the first might make it +difficult, if not impossible, to execute. What must add to the confusion +is, that the alteration has not the regular and official authority of +the original plan, and may be presumed to indicate with certainty +nothing more than that the business is _again_ afloat, and that no +scheme is finally determined on. Thus the Company is left without any +fixed data upon which they can make a rational disposition of their +affairs. + +The fact is, that the principles and economy of the Company's trade have +been so completely corrupted by turning it into a vehicle for tribute, +that, whenever circumstances require it to be replaced again upon a +bottom truly commercial, hardly anything but confusion and disasters can +be expected as the first results. Even before the acquisition of the +territorial revenues, the system of the Company's commerce was not +formed upon principles the most favorable to its prosperity; for, +whilst, on the one hand, that body received encouragement by royal and +Parliamentary charters, was invested with several ample privileges, and +even with a delegation of the most essential prerogatives of the +crown,--on the other, its commerce was watched with an insidious +jealousy, as a species of dealing dangerous to the national interests. +In that light, with regard to the Company's imports, there was a total +prohibition from domestic use of the most considerable articles of their +trade,--that is, of all silk stuffs, and stained and painted cottons. +The British market was in a great measure interdicted to the British +trader. Whatever advantages might arise to the general trading interests +of the kingdom by this restraint, its East India interest was +undoubtedly injured by it. The Company is also, and has been from a +very early period, obliged to furnish the Ordnance with a quantity of +saltpetre at a certain price, without any reference to the standard of +the markets either of purchase or of sale. With regard to their export, +they were put also under difficulties upon very mistaken notions; for +they were obliged to export annually a certain proportion of British +manufactures, even though they should find for them in India none or but +an unprofitable want. This compulsory export might operate, and in some +instances has operated, in a manner more grievous than a tax to the +amount of the loss in trade: for the payment of a tax is in general +divided in unequal portions between the vender and consumer, the largest +part falling upon the latter; in the case before us the tax may be as a +dead charge on the trading capital of the Company. + +The spirit of all these regulations naturally tended to weaken, in the +very original constitution of the Company, the main-spring of the +commercial machine, _the principles of profit and loss_. And the +mischief arising from an inattention to those principles has constantly +increased with the increase of its power. For when the Company had +acquired the rights of sovereignty in India, it was not to be expected +that the attention to profit and loss would have increased. The idea of +remitting tribute in goods naturally produced an indifference to their +price and quality,--the goods themselves appearing little else than a +sort of package to the tribute. Merchandise taken as tribute, or bought +in lieu of it, can never long be of a kind or of a price fitted to a +market which stands solely on its commercial reputation. The +indifference of the mercantile sovereign to his trading advantages +naturally relaxed the diligence of his subordinate factor-magistrates +through all their gradations and in all their functions; it gave rise, +at least so far as the principal was concerned, to much neglect of price +and of goodness in their purchases. If ever they showed any +extraordinary degrees of accuracy and selection, it would naturally be +in favor of that interest to which they could not be indifferent. The +Company might suffer above, the natives might suffer below; the +intermediate party must profit to the prejudice of both. + +Your Committee are of opinion that the Company is now arrived at that +point, when, the investment from surplus revenue or from the spoil of +war ceasing, it is become much more necessary to fix its commerce upon a +commercial basis. And this opinion led your Committee to a detailed +review of all the articles of the Indian traffic upon which the profit +and loss was steady; and we have chosen a period of four years, during +the continuance of the revenue investment, and prior to any borrowing or +any extraordinary drawing of bills, in order to find out how far the +trade, under circumstances when it will be necessary to carry it on by +borrowing, or by bills, or by exportation of bullion, can be sustained +in the former course, so as to secure the capital and to afford a +reasonable dividend. And your Committee find that in the first four +years the investment from Bengal amounted to 4,176,525_l._; upon +2,260,277_l._ there was a gain of 186,337_l._, and upon 1,916,248_l._ a +loss of 705,566_l._: so that the excess of loss above gain, upon the +whole of the foregoing capital, was in the four years no less than +519,229_l._ + +If the trade were confined to Bengal, and the Company were to trade on +those terms upon a capital borrowed at eight per cent Indian interest, +their revenues in that province would be soon so overpowered with debt, +that those revenues, instead of supporting the trade, would be totally +destroyed by it. If, on the other hand, the Company traded upon bills +with every advantage, far from being in a condition to divide the +smallest percentage, their bankruptcy here would be inevitable. + +Your Committee then turned to the trade of the other factories and +Presidencies, and they constantly found, that, as the power and dominion +of the Company was less, their profit on the goods was greater. The +investments of Madras, Bombay, and Bencoolen have, in the foregoing four +years, upon a capital of 1,151,176_l._, had a gain upon the whole of +329,622_l._ The greatest of all is that of Bencoolen, which, on a +capital of 76,571_l._, produced a profit of 107,760_l._ This, however, +is but a small branch of the Company's trade. The trade to China, on a +capital of 1,717,463_l._, produced an excess of gain amounting to +874,096_l._, which is about fifty per cent. But such was the evil +influence of the Bengal investment, that not only the profits of the +Chinese trade, but of all the lucrative branches taken together, were so +sunk and ingulfed in it, that the whole profit on a capital of +7,045,164_l._ reached to no more than 684,489_l._, that is, to +189,607_l._ less than the profit on the Chinese trade alone,--less than +the total profits on the gainful trades taken together, 520,727_l._ + +It is very remarkable, that in the year 1778, when the Bengal investment +stood at the highest, that is, so high as 1,223,316_l._, though the +Chinese trade produced an excess of gain in that year of 209,243_l._, +and that no loss of moment could be added to that of Bengal, (except +about 45,000_l._ on the Bombay trade,) the whole profit of a capital of +2,040,787_l._ amounted only to the sum of 9,480_l._ + +The detail of the articles in which loss was incurred or gain made will +be found in the Appendix, No. 24. The circumstances of the time have +rendered it necessary to call up a vigorous attention to this state of +the trade of the Company between Europe and India. + + +INTERNAL TRADE OF BENGAL. + +The internal trade of Bengal has next attracted the inquiries of your +Committee. + +The great and valuable articles of the Company's investment, drawn from +the articles of internal trade, are raw silk, and various descriptions +of piece-goods made of silk and cotton. These articles are not under any +formal monopoly; nor does the Company at present exercise a _declared_ +right of preemption with regard to them. But it does not appear that the +trade in these particulars is or can be perfectly free,--not so much on +account of any direct measures taken to prevent it as from the +circumstances of the country, and the manner of carrying on business +there: for the present trade, even in these articles, is built from the +ruins of old monopolies and preemptions, and necessarily partakes of the +nature of its materials. + +In order to show in what manner manufactures and trade so constituted +contribute to the prosperity of the natives, your Committee conceives it +proper to take, in this place, a short general view of the progress of +the English policy with relation to the commerce of Bengal, and the +several stages and gradations by which it has been brought into its +actual state. The modes of abuse, and the means by which commerce has +suffered, will be considered in greater detail under the distinct heads +of those objects which have chiefly suffered by them. + +During the time of the Mogul government, the princes of that race, who +omitted nothing for the encouragement of commerce in their dominions, +bestowed very large privileges and immunities on the English East India +Company, exempting them from several duties to which their natural-born +subjects were liable. The Company's _dustuck_, or passport, secured to +them this exemption at all the custom-houses and toll-bars of the +country. The Company, not being able or not choosing to make use of +their privilege to the full extent to which it might be carried, +indulged their servants with a qualified use of their passport, under +which, and in the name of the Company, they carried on a private trade, +either by themselves or in society with natives, and thus found a +compensation for the scanty allowances made to them by their masters in +England. As the country government was at that time in the fulness of +its strength, and that this immunity existed by a double connivance, it +was naturally kept within tolerable limits. + +But by the revolution in 1757 the Company's servants obtained a mighty +ascendant over the native princes of Bengal, who owed their elevation to +the British arms. The Company, which was new to that kind of power, and +not yet thoroughly apprised of its real character and situation, +considered itself still as a trader in the territories of a foreign +potentate, in the prosperity of whose country it had neither interest +nor duty. The servants, with the same ideas, followed their fortune in +the channels in which it had hitherto ran, only enlarging them with the +enlargement of their power. For their first ideas of profit were not +official; nor were their oppressions those of ordinary despotism. The +first instruments of their power were formed out of evasions of their +ancient subjection. The passport of the Company in the hands of its +servants was no longer under any restraint; and in a very short time +their immunity began to cover all the merchandise of the country. Cossim +Ali Khan, the second of the Nabobs whom they had set up, was but ill +disposed to the instruments of his greatness. He bore the yoke of this +imperious commerce with the utmost impatience: he saw his subjects +excluded as aliens from their own trade, and the revenues of the prince +overwhelmed in the ruin of the commerce of his dominions. Finding his +reiterated remonstrances on the extent and abuse of the passport +ineffectual, he had recourse to an unexpected expedient, which was, to +declare his resolution at once to annul all the duties on trade, setting +it equally free to subjects and to foreigners. + +Never was a method of defeating the oppressions of monopoly more +forcible, more simple, or more equitable: no sort of plausible objection +could be made; and it was in vain to think of evading it. It was +therefore met with the confidence of avowed and determined injustice. +The Presidency of Calcutta openly denied to the prince the power of +protecting the trade of his subjects by the remission of his own duties. +It was evident that his authority drew to its period: many reasons and +motives concurred, and his fall was hastened by the odium of the +oppressions which he exercised voluntarily, as well as of those to which +he was obliged to submit. + +When this example was made, Jaffier Ali Khan, who had been deposed to +make room for the last actor, was brought from penury and exile to a +station the terms of which he could not misunderstand. During his life, +and in the time of his children who succeeded to him, parts of the +territorial revenue were assigned to the Company; and the whole, under +the name of residency at the Nabob's court, was brought, directly or +indirectly, under the control of British subjects. The Company's +servants, armed with authorities delegated from the nominal government, +or attended with what was a stronger guard, the fame of their own power, +appeared as magistrates in the markets in which they dealt as traders. +It was impossible for the natives in general to distinguish, in the +proceedings of the same persons, what was transacted on the Company's +account from what was done on their own; and it will ever be so +difficult to draw this line of distinction, that as long as the Company +does, directly or indirectly, aim at any advantage to itself in the +purchase of any commodity whatever, so long will it be impracticable to +prevent the servants availing themselves of the same privilege. + +The servants, therefore, for themselves or for their employers, +monopolized every article of trade, foreign and domestic: not only the +raw merchantable commodities, but the manufactures; and not only these, +but the necessaries of life, or what in these countries habit has +confounded with them,--not only silk, cotton, piece-goods, opium, +saltpetre, but not unfrequently salt, tobacco, betel-nut, and the grain +of most ordinary consumption. In the name of the country government +they laid on or took off, and at their pleasure heightened or lowered, +all duties upon goods: the whole trade of the country was either +destroyed or in shackles. The acquisition of the Duanne, in 1765, +bringing the English into the immediate government of the country in its +most essential branches, extended and confirmed all the former means of +monopoly. + +In the progress of these ruinous measures through all their details, +innumerable grievances were suffered by the native inhabitants, which +were represented in the strongest, that is, their true colors, in +England. Whilst the far greater part of the British in India were in +eager pursuit of the forced and exorbitant gains of a trade carried on +by power, contests naturally arose among the competitors: those who were +overpowered by their rivals became loud in their complaints to the Court +of Directors, and were very capable, from experience, of pointing out +every mode of abuse. + +The Court of Directors, on their part, began, though very slowly, to +perceive that the country which was ravaged by this sort of commerce was +their own. These complaints obliged the Directors to a strict +examination into the real sources of the mismanagement of their concerns +in India, and to lay the foundations of a system of restraint on the +exorbitancies of their servants. Accordingly, so early as the year 1765, +they confine them to a trade only in articles of export and import, and +strictly prohibit them from all dealing in objects of internal +consumption. About the same time the Presidency of Calcutta found it +necessary to put a restraint upon themselves, or at least to make show +of a disposition (with which the Directors appear much satisfied) to +keep their own enormous power within bounds. + +But whatever might have been the intentions either of the Directors or +the Presidency, both found themselves unequal to the execution of a plan +which went to defeat the projects of almost all the English in +India,--possibly comprehending some who were makers of the regulations. +For, as the complaint of the country or as their own interest +predominated with the Presidency, they were always shifting from one +course to the other; so that it became as impossible for the natives to +know upon what principle to ground any commercial speculation, from the +uncertainty of the law under which they acted, as it was when they were +oppressed by power without any color of law at all: for the Directors, +in a few months after they had given these tokens of approbation to the +above regulations in favor of the country trade, tell the Presidency, +"It is with concern we see in _every page_ of your Consultations +_restrictions, limitations, prohibitions, affecting various articles of +trade_." On their side, the Presidency freely confess that these +monopolies of inland trade "were the foundation of all the bloodsheds, +massacres, and confusions which have happened of late in Bengal." + +Pressed in this urgent manner, the Directors came more specifically to +the grievance, and at once annul all the passports with which their +servants traded without duties, holding out means of compensation, of +which it does not appear that any advantage was taken. In order that the +duties which existed should no longer continue to burden the trade +either of the servants or natives, they ordered that a number of +oppressive toll-bars should be taken away, and the whole number reduced +to nine of the most considerable. + +When Lord Clive was sent to Bengal to effect a reformation of the many +abuses which prevailed there, he considered monopoly to be so inveterate +and deeply rooted, and the just rewards of the Company's servants to be +so complicated with that injustice to the country, that the latter could +not easily be removed without taking away the former. He adopted, +therefore, a plan for dealing in certain articles, which, as he +conceived, rather ought to be called "a regulated and restricted trade" +than a formal monopoly. By this plan he intended that the profits should +be distributed in an orderly and proportioned manner for the reward of +services, and not seized by each individual according to the measure of +his boldness, dexterity, or influence. + +But this scheme of monopoly did not subsist long, at least in that mode +and for those purposes. Three of the grand monopolies, those of opium, +salt, and saltpetre, were successively by the Company taken into their +own hands. The produce of the sale of the two former articles was +applied to the purchase of goods for their investment; the latter was +exported in kind for their sales in Europe. The senior servants had a +certain share of emolument allotted to them from a commission on the +revenues. The junior servants were rigorously confined to salaries, on +which they were unable to subsist according to their rank. They were +strictly ordered to abstain from all dealing in objects of internal +commerce. Those of export and import were left open to young men without +mercantile experience, and wholly unprovided with mercantile capitals, +but abundantly furnished with large trusts of the public money, and with +all the powers of an absolute government. In this situation, a religious +abstinence from all illicit game was prescribed to men at nine thousand +miles' distance from the seat of the supreme authority. + +Your Committee is far from meaning to justify, or even to excuse, the +oppressions and cruelties used by many in supplying the deficiencies of +their regular allowances by all manner of extortion; but many smaller +irregularities may admit some alleviation from thence. Nor does your +Committee mean to express any desire of reverting to the mode (contrived +in India, but condemned by the Directors) of rewarding the servants of +an higher class by a regulated monopoly. Their object is to point out +the deficiencies in the system, by which restrictions were laid that +could have little or no effect whilst want and power were suffered to be +united. + +But the proceedings of the Directors at that time, though not altogether +judicious, were in many respects honorable to them, and favorable, in +the intention at least, to the country they governed. For, finding their +trading capital employed against themselves and against the natives, and +struggling in vain against abuses which were inseparably connected with +the system of their own preference in trade, in the year 1773 they came +to the manly resolution of setting an example to their servants, and +gave up all use of power and influence in the two grand articles of +their investment, silk and piece-goods. They directed that the articles +should be bought at an equal and public market from the native +merchants; and this order they directed to be published in all the +principal marts of Bengal. + +Your Committee are clearly of opinion that no better method of purchase +could be adopted. But it soon appeared that in deep-rooted and +inveterate abuses the wisest principles of reform may be made to operate +so destructively as wholly to discredit the design, and to dishearten +all persons from the prosecution of it. The Presidency, who seemed to +yield with the utmost reluctance to the execution of these orders, soon +made the Directors feel their evil influence upon their own investment; +for they found the silk and cotton cloths rose twenty-five per cent +above their former price, and a further rise of forty per cent was +announced to them. + + +SILK. + +What happened with regard to raw silk is still more remarkable, and +tends still more clearly to illustrate the effects of commercial +servitude during its unchecked existence, and the consequences which may +be made to arise from its sudden reformation. On laying open the trade, +the article of raw silk was instantly enhanced to the Company full +eighty per cent. The contract made for that commodity, wound off in the +Bengal method, which used to sell for less than six rupees, or thirteen +shillings, for two pounds' weight, arose to nine rupees, or near twenty +shillings, and the filature silk was very soon after contracted for at +fourteen. + +The Presidency accounted for this rise by observing that the price had +before been _arbitrary_, and that the persons who purveyed for the +Company paid no more than "what was _judged_ sufficient for the +maintenance of the first providers." This fact explains more fully than +the most labored description can do the dreadful effects of the monopoly +on the cultivators. They had the _sufficiency_ of their maintenance +measured out by the judgment of those who were to profit by their labor; +and this measure was not a great deal more, by their own account, than +about two thirds of the value of that labor. In all probability it was +much less, as these dealings rarely passed through intermediate hands +without leaving a considerable profit. These oppressions, it will be +observed, were not confined to the Company's share, which, however, +covered a great part of the trade; but as this was an article permitted +to the servants, the same power of arbitrary valuation must have been +extended over the whole, as the market must be equalized, if any +authority at all is extended over it by those who have an interest in +the restraint. The price was not only raised, but in the manufactures +the quality was debased nearly in an equal proportion. The Directors +conceived, with great reason, that this rise of price and debasement of +quality arose, not from the effect of a free market, but from the +servants having taken that opportunity of throwing upon the market of +their masters the refuse goods of their own private trade at such +exorbitant prices as by mutual connivance they were pleased to settle. +The mischief was greatly aggravated by its happening at a time when the +Company were obliged to pay for their goods with bonds bearing an high +interest. + +The perplexed system of the Company's concerns, composed of so many +opposite movements and contradictory principles, appears nowhere in a +more clear light. If trade continued under restraint, their territorial +revenues must suffer by checking the general prosperity of the country: +if they set it free, means were taken to raise the price and debase the +quality of the goods; and this again fell upon the revenues, out of +which the payment for the goods was to arise. The observations of the +Company on that occasion are just and sagacious; and they will not +permit the least doubt concerning the policy of these unnatural trades. +"The amount of our Bengal cargoes, from 1769 to 1773, is 2,901,194_l._ +sterling; and if the average increase of price be estimated at +twenty-five per cent only, the amount of such increase is 725,298_l._ +sterling. The above circumstances are exceedingly alarming to us; but +what must be our concern, to find by the advices of our President and +Council of 1773, that a further advance of forty per cent on Bengal +goods was expected, and allowed to be the consequence of advertisements +then published, authorizing a free trade in the service? We find the +Duanne revenues are in general farmed for five years, and the aggregate +increase estimated at only 183,170_l._ sterling (on a supposition that +such increase will be realized); yet if the annual investment be sixty +lacs, and the advance of price thirty per cent only, such advance will +_exceed the increase of the revenue by no less than 829,330l. +sterling_." + +The indignation which the Directors felt at being reduced to this +distressing situation was expressed to their servants in very strong +terms. They attributed the whole to their practices, and say, "We are +far from being convinced that the competition which tends to raise the +price of goods in Bengal is wholly between public European companies, or +between merchants in general who export to foreign markets: we are +rather of opinion that the sources of this grand evil have been the +extraordinary privileges granted to individuals in our service or under +our license to trade without restriction throughout the provinces of +Bengal, and the encouragement they have had to extend their trade to the +uttermost, even in such goods as were proper for our investment, by +observing the success of those persons who have from time to time _found +means to dispose of their merchandise to our Governor and Council_, +though of so bad a quality as to be sold here with great difficulty, +after having been frequently refused, and put up at the next sale +without price, to the very great discredit and disadvantage of the +Company." In all probability the Directors were not mistaken; for, upon +an inquiry instituted soon after, it was found that Cantu Babu, the +banian or native steward and manager to Mr. Hastings, (late President,) +held two of these contracts in his own name and that of his son for +considerably more than 150,000_l._ This discovery brought on a +prohibition from the Court of Directors of that suspicious and dangerous +dealing in the stewards of persons in high office. The same man held +likewise farms to the amount of 140,000_l._ a year of the landed +revenue, with the same suspicious appearance, contrary to the +regulations made under Mr. Hastings's own administration. + +In the mortifying dilemma to which the Directors found themselves +reduced, whereby the ruin of the revenues either by the freedom or the +restraint of trade was evident, they considered the first as most rapid +and urgent, and therefore once more revert to the system of their +ancient preemption, and destroy that freedom which they had so lately +and with so much solemnity proclaimed, and that before it could be +abused or even enjoyed. They declare, that, "unwilling as we are to +return to _the former coercive system_ of providing an investment, or to +abridge that freedom of commerce which has been so lately established in +Bengal, yet at the same time finding it our indispensable duty to strike +at the _root_ of an evil which has been so severely felt by the Company, +and which can no longer be supported, we hereby direct that all persons +whatever in the Company's service, _or under our protection_, be +absolutely prohibited, by public advertisement, from trading in any of +those articles which compose our investment, directly or indirectly, +except on account of and for the East India Company, until their +investment is completed." + +As soon as this order was received in Bengal, it was construed, as +indeed the words seemed directly to warrant, to exclude all natives as +well as servants from the trade, until the Company was supplied. The +Company's preemption was now authoritatively reestablished, and some +feeble and ostensible regulations were made to relieve the weavers who +might suffer by it. The Directors imagined that the reestablishment of +their coercive system would remove the evil which fraud and artifice had +grafted upon one more rational and liberal. But they were mistaken; for +it only varied, if it did so much as vary, the abuse. The servants might +as essentially injure their interest by a direct exercise of their power +as by pretexts drawn from the freedom of the natives,--but with this +fatal difference, that the frauds upon the Company must be of shorter +duration under a scheme of freedom. That state admitted, and indeed led +to, means of discovery and correction; whereas the system of coercion +was likely to be permanent. It carried force further than served the +purposes of those who authorized it: it tended to cover all frauds with +obscurity, and to bury all complaint in despair. The next year, +therefore, that is, in the year 1776, the Company, who complained that +their orders had been extended beyond their intentions, made a third +revolution in the trade of Bengal. It was set free again,--so far, at +least, as regarded the native merchants,--but in so imperfect a manner +as evidently to leave the roots of old abuses in the ground. The Supreme +Court of Judicature about this time (1776) also fulminated a charge +against monopolies, without any exception of those authorized by the +Company: but it does not appear that anything very material was done in +consequence of it. + +The trade became nominally free; but the course of business established +in consequence of coercive monopoly was not easily altered. In order to +render more distinct the principles which led to the establishment of a +course and habit of business so very difficult to change as long as +those principles exist, your Committee think it will not be useless here +to enter into the history of the regulations made in the first and +favorite matter of the Company's investment, the trade in _raw silk_, +from the commencement of these regulations to the Company's perhaps +finally abandoning all share in the trade which was their object. + + +RAW SILK + +The trade in _raw silk_ was at all times more popular in England than +really advantageous to the Company. In addition to the old jealousy +which prevailed between the Company and the manufactory interest of +England, they came to labor under no small odium on account of the +distresses of India. The public in England perceived, and felt with a +proper sympathy, the sufferings of the Eastern provinces in all cases in +which they might be attributed to the abuses of power exercised under +the Company's authority. But they were not equally sensible to the evils +which arose from a system of sacrificing the being of that country to +the advantage of this. They entered very readily into the former, but +with regard to the latter were slow and incredulous. It is not, +therefore, extraordinary that the Company should endeavor to ingratiate +themselves with the public by falling in with its prejudices. Thus they +were led to increase the grievance in order to allay the clamor. They +continued still, upon a larger scale, and still more systematically, +that plan of conduct which was the principal, though not the most +blamed, cause of the decay and depopulation of the country committed to +their care. + +With that view, and to furnish a cheap supply of materials to the +manufactures of England, they formed a scheme which tended to destroy, +or at least essentially to impair, the whole manufacturing interest of +Bengal. A policy of that sort could not fail of being highly popular, +when the Company submitted itself as an instrument for the improvement +of British manufactures, instead of being their most dangerous rival, as +heretofore they had been always represented. + +They accordingly notified to their Presidency in Bengal, in their letter +of the 17th of March, 1769, that "there was no branch of their trade +they more ardently wish to extend than that of raw silk." They +disclaim, however, all desire of employing compulsory measures for that +purpose, but recommended every mode of encouragement, and particularly +by augmented wages, "_in order to induce manufacturers of wrought silk +to quit that branch and take to the winding of raw silk_." + +Having thus found means to draw hands from the manufacture, and +confiding in the strength of a capital drawn from the public revenues, +they pursue their ideas from the purchase of their manufacture to the +purchase of the material in its crudest state. "We recommend you to give +an _increased price_, if necessary, _so as to take that trade out of the +hands of other merchants and rival nations_." A double bounty was thus +given against the manufactures, both in the labor and in the materials. + +It is very remarkable in what manner their vehement pursuit of this +object led the Directors to a speedy oblivion of those equitable +correctives before interposed by them, in order to prevent the mischiefs +which were apparent in the scheme, if left to itself. They could venture +so little to trust to the bounties given from the revenues a trade which +had a tendency to dry up their source, that, by the time they had +proceeded to the thirty-third paragraph of their letter, they revert to +those very compulsory means which they had disclaimed but three +paragraphs before. To prevent silk-winders from working in their private +houses, where they might work for private traders, and to confine them +to the Company's factories, where they could only be employed for the +Company's benefit, they desire that the newly acquired power of +government should be effectually employed. "Should," say they, "this +practice, through _inattention_, have been suffered to take place again, +it will be proper to put a stop to it, which may _now be more +effectually done by an absolute prohibition, under severe penalties, by +the authority of government_." + +This letter contains a perfect plan of policy, both of compulsion and +encouragement, which must in a very considerable degree operate +destructively to the manufactures of Bengal. Its effect must be (so far +as it could operate without being eluded) to change the whole face of +that industrious country, in order to render it a field for the produce +of crude materials subservient to the manufactures of Great Britain. The +manufacturing hands were to be seduced from their looms by high wages, +in order to prepare a raw produce for our market; they were to be locked +up in the factories; and the commodity acquired by these operations was, +in this immature state, carried out of the country, whilst its looms +would be left without any material but the debased refuse of a market +enhanced in its price and scanted in its supply. By the increase of the +price of this and other materials, manufactures formerly the most +flourishing gradually disappeared under the protection of Great Britain, +and were seen to rise again and flourish on the opposite coast of India, +under the dominion of the Mahrattas. + +These restraints and encouragements seem to have had the desired effect +in Bengal with regard to the diversion of labor from manufacture to +materials. The trade of raw silk increased rapidly. But the Company very +soon felt, in the increase of price and debasement of quality of the +wrought goods, a loss to themselves which fully counterbalanced all the +advantages to be derived to the nation from the increase of the raw +commodity. The necessary effect on the revenue was also foretold very +early: for their servants in the principal silk-factories declared that +the obstruction to the private trade in silk must in the end prove +detrimental to the revenues, and that the investment clashes with the +collection of these revenues. Whatsoever by bounties or immunities is +encouraged out of a landed revenue has certainly some tendency to lessen +the net amount of that revenue, and to forward a produce which does not +yield to the gross collection, rather than one that does. + +The Directors declare themselves unable to understand how this could be. +Perhaps it was not so difficult. But, pressed as they were by the +greatness of the payments which they were compelled to make to +government in England, the cries of Bengal could not be heard among the +contending claims of the General Court, of the Treasury, and of +Spitalfields. The speculation of the Directors was originally fair and +plausible,--so far as the mere encouragement of the commodity extended. +Situated as they were, it was hardly in their power to stop themselves +in the course they had begun. They were obliged to continue their +resolution, at any hazard, increasing the investment. "The state of our +affairs," say they, "requires the utmost extension of your investments. +You are not to forbear sending even those sorts _which are attended with +loss_, in case such should be necessary to supply an investment to as +great an amount as _you can provide from your own resources_; and we +have not the least doubt of your being thereby enabled to increase your +consignments of this valuable branch of national commerce, even to the +utmost of your wishes. But it is our positive order that no part of +such investment be provided with borrowed money which is to be repaid by +_drafts upon our treasury in London_; since the license which has +already been taken in this respect has involved us in difficulties which +we yet know not how we shall surmount." + +This very instructive paragraph lays open the true origin of the +internal decay of Bengal. The trade and revenues of that country were +(as the then system must necessarily have been) of secondary +consideration at best. Present supplies were to be obtained, and present +demands in England were to be avoided, at every expense to Bengal. + +The spirit of increasing the investment from revenue at any rate, and +the resolution of driving all competitors, Europeans or natives, out of +the market, prevailed at a period still more early, and prevailed not +only in Bengal, but seems, more or less, to have diffused itself through +the whole sphere of the Company's influence. In 1768 they gave to the +Presidency of Madras the following memorable instruction, strongly +declaratory of their general system of policy. + +"We shall depend upon your prudence," say they, "to discourage +foreigners; and being intent, as you have been repeatedly acquainted, on +bringing home as great a part of the revenues as possible in your +manufactures, the outbidding them in those parts where they interfere +with you would certainly prove an effectual step for answering that end. +We therefore recommend it to you to offer such increase of price as you +shall deem may be consistently given,--that, by beating them out of the +market, the quantities by you to be provided may be proportionally +enlarged; and if you take this method, it is to be so cautiously +practised as not to enhance the prices in the places immediately under +your control. On this subject we must not omit the approval of your +prohibiting the weavers of Cuddalore from making up any cloth of the +same sortments that are provided for us; and if such prohibition is not +now, it should by all means be in future, _made general, and strictly +maintained_." + +This system must have an immediate tendency towards disordering the +trade of India, and must finally end in great detriment to the Company +itself. The effect of the restrictive system on the weaver is evident. +The authority given to the servants to buy at an advanced price did of +necessity furnish means and excuses for every sort of fraud in their +purchases. The instant the servant of a merchant is admitted on his own +judgment to overbid the market, or to send goods to his master which +shall sell at loss, there is no longer any standard upon which his +unfair practices can be estimated, or any effectual means by which they +can be restrained. The hope entertained by the Directors, of confining +this destructive practice of giving an enhanced price to a particular +spot, must ever be found totally delusive. Speculations will be affected +by this artificial price in every quarter in which markets can have the +least communication with each other. + +In a very few years the Court of Directors began to feel, even in +Leadenhall Street, _the effects of trading to loss_ upon the revenues, +especially on those of Bengal. In the letter of February, 1774, they +observe, that, "looking back to their accounts for the four preceding +years, on several of the descriptions of silk there has been an +_increasing loss_, instead of any alteration for the better in the last +year's productions. This," they say, "threatens the destruction of that +valuable branch of national commerce." And then they recommend _such +regulations_ (as if regulations in that state of things could be of any +service) as may obtain "a profit in future, instead of so considerable a +loss, which _we can no longer sustain_." + +Your Committee thought it necessary to inquire into the losses which had +actually been suffered by this unnatural forced trade, and find the loss +so early as the season of 1776 to be 77,650_l._, that in the year 1777 +it arose to 168,205_l._ This was so great that worse could hardly be +apprehended: however, in the season of 1778 it amounted to 255,070_l._ +In 1779 it was not so ruinously great, because the whole import was not +so considerable; but it still stood enormously high,--so high as +141,800_l._ In the whole four years it came to 642,725_l._ The +observations of the Directors were found to be fully verified. It is +remarkable that the same article in the China trade produced a +considerable and uniform profit. On this circumstance little observation +is necessary. + +During the time of their struggles for enlarging this losing trade, +which they considered as a national object,--what in one point of view +it was, and, if it had not been grossly mismanaged, might have been in +more than one,--in this part it is impossible to refuse to the Directors +a very great share of merit. No degree of thought, of trouble, or of +reasonable expense was spared by them for the improvement of the +commodity. They framed with diligence, and apparently on very good +information, a code of manufacturing regulations for that purpose; and +several persons were sent out, conversant in the Italian method of +preparing and winding silk, aided by proper machines for facilitating +and perfecting the work. This, under proper care, and in course of time, +might have produced a real improvement to Bengal; but in the first +instance it naturally drew the business from native management, and it +caused a revulsion from the trade and manufactures of India which led as +naturally and inevitably to an European monopoly, in some hands or +other, as any of the modes of coercion which were or could be employed. +The evil was present and inherent in the act. The means of letting the +natives into the benefit of the improved system of produce was likely to +be counteracted by the general ill conduct of the Company's concerns +abroad. For a while, at least, it had an effect still worse: for the +Company purchasing the raw cocoon or silk-pod at a fixed rate, the first +producer, who, whilst he could wind at his own house, employed his +family in this labor, and could procure a reasonable livelihood by +buying up the cocoons for the Italian filature, now incurred the +enormous and ruinous loss of fifty per cent. This appears in a letter to +the Presidency, written by Mr. Boughton Rouse, now a member of your +Committee. But for a long time a considerable quantity of that in the +old Bengal mode of winding was bought for the Company from contractors, +and it continues to be so bought to the present time: but the Directors +complain, in their letter of the 12th of May, 1780, that both species, +and particularly the latter, had risen so extravagantly that it was +become more than forty per cent dearer than it had been fifteen years +ago. In that state of price, they condemn their servants, very justly, +for entering into contracts for three years,--and that for several +kinds of silk, of very different goodness, upon averages unfairly +formed, where the commodities averaged at an equal price differed from +twenty to thirty per cent on the sale. Soon after, they formed a regular +scale of fixed prices, above which they found they could not trade +without loss. + +Whilst they were continuing these methods to secure themselves against +future losses, the Bengal ships which arrived in that year announced +nothing but their continuance. Some articles by the high price, and +others from their ill quality, were such "as never could answer to be +sent to Europe at any price." The Directors renew their prohibition of +making fresh contracts, the present being generally to expire in the +year 1781. But this trade, whose fundamental policy might have admitted +of a doubt, as applied to Bengal, (whatever it might have been with +regard to England,) was now itself expiring in the hands of the Company, +so that they were obliged to apply to government for power to enlarge +their capacity of receiving bills upon Europe. The purchase by these +bills they entirely divert from raw silk, and order to be laid out +wholly in piece-goods. + +Thus, having found by experience that this trade, whilst carried on upon +the old principles, of whatever advantage it might have been to the +British manufacturers, or to the individuals who were concerned in it in +Bengal, had proved highly detrimental to the Company, the Directors +resolved to expunge the raw silk from their investment. They gave up the +whole to private traders, on condition of paying the freight, charges, +and duties,--permitting them to send it to Europe in the Company's ships +upon their own account. + +The whole of this history will serve to demonstrate that all attempts, +which in their original system or in their necessary consequences tend +to the distress of India, must, and in a very short time will, make +themselves felt even by those in whose favor such attempts have been +made. India may possibly in some future time bear and support itself +under an extraction of measure [treasure?] or of goods; but much care +ought to be taken that the influx of wealth shall be greater in quantity +and prior in time to the waste. + +On abandoning the trade in silk to private hands, the Directors issued +some prohibitions to prevent monopoly, and they gave some directions +about the improvement of the trade. The prohibitions were proper, and +the directions prudent; but it is much to be feared, that, whilst all +the means, instruments, and powers remain, by which monopolies were +made, and through which abuses formerly prevailed, all verbal orders +will be fruitless. + +This branch of trade, being so long principally managed by the Company's +servants for the Company and under its authority, cannot be easily taken +out of their hands and pass to the natives, especially when it is to be +carried on without the control naturally inherent in all participation. +It is not difficult to conceive how this forced preference of traffic in +a raw commodity must have injured the manufactures, while it was the +policy of the Company to continue the trade on their own account. The +servants, so far from deviating from their course, since they have taken +the trade into their own management, have gone much further into it. The +proportion of raw silk in the investment is to be augmented. The +proportion of the whole cargoes for the year 1783, divided into sixteen +parts, is ten of raw silk, and six only of manufactured goods. Such is +the proportion of this losing article in the scheme for the investment +of private fortunes. + +In the reformed scheme of sending the investment on account of the +Company, to be paid in bills upon Europe, no mention is made of any +change of these proportions. Indeed, some limits are attempted on the +article of silk, with regard to its price; and it is not improbable that +the price to the master and the servant will be very different: but they +cannot make profitable purchases of this article without strongly +condemning all the former purchases of the Board of Trade. + + +CLOTHS, OR PIECE-GOODS. + +The general system above stated, relative to the silk trade, must +materially have affected the manufactures of Bengal, merely as it was a +system of preference. It does by no means satisfactorily appear to your +Committee that the freedom held out by the Company's various orders has +been ever fully enjoyed, or that the grievances of the native merchants +and manufacturers have been redressed; for we find, on good authority, +that, at that very period at which it might be supposed that these +orders had their operation, the oppressions were in full vigor. They +appear to have fallen heaviest on the city of Dacca, formerly the great +staple for the finest goods in India,--a place once full of opulent +merchants and dealers of all descriptions. + +The city and district of Dacca, before the prevalence of the East India +Company's influence and authority, manufactured annually to about three +hundred thousand pounds' value in cloths. In the year 1776 it had +fallen to about two hundred thousand, or two thirds of its former +produce. Of this the Company's demand amounted only to a fourth part, +that is, about fifty thousand pounds yearly. This was at that time +provided by agents for the Company, under the inspection of their +commercial servants. On pretence of securing an advantage for this +fourth part for their masters, they exerted a most violent and arbitrary +power over the whole. It was asserted, that they fixed the Company's +mark to such goods as they thought fit, (to all goods, as stated in one +complaint,) and disposed of them as they thought proper, excluding not +only all the native dealers, but the Dutch Company, and private English +merchants,--that they made advances to the weavers often beyond their +known ability to repay in goods within the year, and by this means, +having got them in debt, held them in perpetual servitude. Their +inability to keep accounts left them at the discretion of the agents of +the supreme power to make their balances what they pleased, and they +recovered them, not by legal process, but by seizure of their goods and +arbitrary imprisonment of their persons. One and the same dealer made +the advance, valued the return, stated the account, passed the judgment, +and executed the process. + +Mr. Rouse, Chief of the Dacca Province, who struggled against those +evils, says, that in the year 1773 there were no balances due, as the +trade was then carried on by the native brokers. In less than three +years these balances amounted to an immense sum,--a sum lost to the +Company, but existing in full force for every purpose of oppression. In +the amount of these balances almost every weaver in the country bore a +part, and consequently they were almost all caught in this snare. "They +are in general," says Mr. Rouse, in a letter to General Clavering, +delivered to your Committee, "a timid, helpless people; many of them +poor to the utmost degree of wretchedness; incapable of keeping +accounts; industrious as it were by instinct; unable to defend +themselves, if oppressed; and satisfied, if with continual labor they +derive from the fair dealing and humanity of their employer a moderate +subsistence for their families." + +Such were the people who stood accused by the Company's agents as +_pretending_ grievances, in order to be excused the payment of their +balances. As to the commercial state of the province in general, Mr. +Rouse represents it "to be for those two years a perpetual scene of +complaint and disputation;--the Company's agents professing to pay +higher rates to weavers, whilst the Leadenhall sales showed an heavy +loss to the Company; the weavers have even travelled in multitudes to +prefer their complaints at the Presidency; the amount of the investment +comparatively small, with balances comparatively large, and, as I +understand, generally contested by the weavers; the native merchants, +called _delals_, removed from their influence, as prejudicial to the +Company's concerns; and European merchants complaining against undue +influence of the Company's commercial agents, in preventing the free +purchase even of those goods which the Company never takes." + +The spirit of those agents will be fully comprehended from a state of +the proceedings before Mr. Rouse and Council, on the complaint of a Mr. +Cree, an English free merchant at Dacca, who had been twice treated in +the same injurious manner by the agents of Mr. Hurst, the Commercial +Chief at that place. On his complaint to the board of the seizure of the +goods, and imprisonment of his agents, Mr. Hurst was called upon for an +explanation. In return he informed them that he had sent to one of the +villages to inquire concerning the matter of fact alleged. The impartial +person sent to make this inquiry was the very man accused of the +oppressions into which he was sent to examine. The answer of Mr. Hurst +is in an high and determined tone. He does not deny that there are some +instances of abuse of power. "But I ask," says he, "what _authority_ can +guard against the conduct of individuals? but that a _single_ instance +cannot be brought of a general depravity." Your Committee have reason to +believe these coercive measures to have been very general, though +employed according to the degree of resistance opposed to the monopoly; +for we find at one time the whole trade of the Dutch involved in the +general servitude. But it appears very extraordinary that nothing but +the actual proof of a _general_ abuse could affect a practice the very +principle of which tends to make the coercion as general as the trade. +Mr. Hurst's reflection concerning the abuse of _authority_ is just, but +in this case it is altogether inapplicable; because the complaint was +not of the abuse, but of the use of authority in matters of trade, which +ought to have been free. He throws out a variety of invidious +reflections against the Council, as if they wanted zeal for the +Company's service; his justification of his practices, and his +declaration of his resolution to persevere in them, are firm and +determined,--asserting the right and policy of such restraints, and +laying down a rule for his conduct at the factory, which, he says, will +give no cause of just complaint to private traders. He adds, "I have no +doubt but that they have hitherto provided investments, and it cannot +turn to my interest to preclude them _now_, though I must ever think it +my duty to combat the private views of individuals who _set themselves +up as competitors_ under that very body under whose license and +indulgence only they can derive their privilege of trade: all I contend +for is the _same influence_ my employers have ever had." He ends by +declining any reply to any of their future references of this nature. + +The whole of this extraordinary letter is inserted in the Appendix, No. +51,--and Mr. Rouse's minute of observations upon it in Appendix, No. 52, +fully refuting the few pretexts alleged in that extraordinary +performance in support of the trade by influence and authority. Mr. +Hollond, one of the Council, joined Mr. Rouse in opinion that a letter +to the purport of that minute should be written; but they were overruled +by Messrs. Purling, Hogarth, and Shakespeare, who passed a resolution to +defer sending any reply to Mr. Hurst: and none was ever sent. Thus they +gave countenance to the doctrine contained in that letter, as well as to +the mischievous practices which must inevitably arise from the exercise +of such power. Some temporary and partial relief was given by the +vigorous exertions of Mr. Rouse; but he shortly after removing from that +government, all complaints were dropped. + +It is remarkable, that, during the long and warm contest between the +Company's agents and the dealers of Dacca, the Board of Trade seem to +have taken a decided part against the latter. They allow some sort of +justice in the complaints of the manufacturers with regard to low +valuation, and other particulars; but they say, that, "although" (during +the time of preemption) "it appears that the weavers _were not allowed +the same liberty of selling to individuals they before enjoyed_, our +opinion on the whole is, that these complaints have originated upon the +premeditated designs of the delals [factors or brokers] _to thwart the +new mode_ of carrying on the Company's business, _and to render +themselves necessary_." They say, in another place, that there is no +ground for the dissatisfactions and difficulties of the weavers: "that +they are owing to the delals, _whose aim it is to be employed_." + +This desire of being employed, and of rendering themselves necessary, in +men whose only business it is to be employed in trade, is considered by +the gentlemen of the board as no trivial offence; and accordingly they +declare, "they have established it as _an invariable rule_, that, +_whatever deficiency_ there might be in the Dacca investment, no +purchase of the manufactures of _that quarter_ shall be made for account +of the Company from private merchants. We have passed this resolution, +which we deem of importance, from a persuasion that private merchants +are often _induced_ to make advances for Dacca goods, not by the +ordinary chance of sale, but merely from an expectation of disposing of +them at an enhanced price to the Company, against _whom a rivalship_ is +by this manner encouraged"; and they say, "that they intend to observe +the _same_ rule with respect to the investment of other of the factories +from whence similar complaints may come." + +This positive rule is opposed to the positive directions of the Company +to employ those obnoxious persons by preference. How far this violent +use of authority for the purpose of destroying rivalship has succeeded +in reducing the price of goods to the Company has been made manifest by +the facts before stated in their place. + +The recriminatory charges of the Company's agents on the native +merchants have made very little impression on your Committee. We have +nothing in favor of them, but the assertion of a party powerful and +interested. In such cases of mutual assertion and denial, your Committee +are led irresistibly to attach abuse to power, and to presume that +suffering and hardship are more likely to attend on weakness than that +any combination of unprotected individuals is of force to prevail over +influence, power, wealth, and authority. The complaints of the native +merchants ought not to have been treated in any of those modes in which +they were then treated. And when men are in the situation of +complainants against unbounded power, their abandoning their suit is far +from a full and clear proof of their complaints being groundless. It is +not because redress has been rendered impracticable that oppression does +not exist; nor is the despair of sufferers any alleviation of their +afflictions. A review of some of the most remarkable of the complaints +made by the native merchants in that province is so essential for laying +open the true spirit of the commercial administration, and the real +condition of those concerned in trade there, that your Committee +observing the records on this subject and at this period full of them, +they could not think themselves justifiable in not stating them to the +House. + +Your Committee have found many heavy charges of oppression against Mr. +Barwell, whilst Factory Chief at Dacca; which oppressions are stated to +have continued, and even to have been aggravated, on complaint at +Calcutta. These complaints appear in several memorials presented to the +Supreme Council of Calcutta, of which Mr. Barwell was a member. They +appeared yet more fully and more strongly in a bill in Chancery filed in +the Supreme Court, which was afterwards recorded before the +Governor-General and Council, and transmitted to the Court of Directors. + +Your Committee, struck with the magnitude and importance of these +charges, and finding that with regard to those before the Council no +regular investigation has ever taken place, and finding also that Mr. +Barwell had asserted in a Minute of Council that he had given a full +answer to the allegations in that bill, ordered a copy of the answer to +be laid before your Committee, that they might be enabled to state to +the House how far it appeared to them to be full, how far the charges +were denied as to the fact, or, where the facts might be admitted, what +justification was set up. It appeared necessary, in order to determine +on the true situation of the trade and the merchants of that great city +and district. + +The Secretary to the Court of Directors has informed your Committee that +no copy of the answer is to be found in the India House; nor has your +Committee been able to discover that any has been transmitted. On this +failure, your Committee ordered an application to be made to Mr. Barwell +for a copy of his answer to the bill, and any other information with +which he might be furnished with regard to that subject. + +Mr. Barwell, after reciting the above letter, returned in answer what +follows. + +"Whether the records of the Supreme Court of Judicature are lodged at +the India House I am ignorant, but on those records my answer is +certainly to be found. At this distance of time I am sorry I cannot from +memory recover the circumstances of this affair; but this I know, that +the bill did receive a complete answer, and the people the fullest +satisfaction: nor is it necessary for me to remark, that [in?] the state +of parties at that time in Bengal, could party have brought forward any +particle of that bill supported by any verified fact, the principle that +introduced it in the proceedings of the Governor-General and Council +would likewise have given the verification of that one circumstance, +whatever that might have been. As I generally attend in my place in the +House, I shall with pleasure answer any invitation of the gentlemen of +the Committee to attend their investigations up stairs with every +information and light in my power to give them. + +"St. James's Square, 15th April, 1783." + +Your Committee considered, that, with regard to the matter charged in +the several petitions to the board, no sort of specific answer had been +given at the time and place where they were made, and when and where the +parties might be examined and confronted. It was considered also, that +the bill had been transmitted, with other papers relating to the same +matter, to the Court of Directors, with the knowledge and consent of Mr. +Barwell,--and that he states that his answer had been filed, and no +proceedings had upon it for eighteen months. In that situation it was +thought something extraordinary that no care was taken by him to +transmit so essential a paper as his answer, and that he had no copy of +it in his hands. + +Your Committee, in this difficulty, thought themselves obliged to +decline any verbal explanation from the person who is defendant in the +suit, relative to matters which on the part of the complainant appear +upon record, and to leave the whole matter, as it is charged, to the +judgment of the House to determine how far it may be worthy of a further +inquiry, or how far they may admit such allegations as your Committee +could not think themselves justified in receiving. To this effect your +Committee ordered a letter to be written Mr. Barwell; from whom they +received the following answer. + +"Sir,--In consequence of your letter of the 17th, I must request the +favor of you to inform the Select Committee that I expect from their +justice, on any matter of public record in which I am personally to be +brought forward to the notice of the House, that they will at the same +time point out to the House what part of such matter has been verified, +and what parts have not nor ever were attempted to be verified, though +introduced in debate and entered on the records of the Governor-General +and Council of Bengal. I am anxious the information should be complete, +or the House will not be competent to judge; and if it is complete, it +will preclude all explanation as unnecessary. + + "I am, Sir, + "Your most obedient humble servant, + "RICHARD BARWELL. + + "St. James's Square, 22nd April, 1783. + +"P.S. As I am this moment returned from the country, I had it not in my +power to be earlier in acknowledging your letter of the 17th." + +Your Committee applied to Mr. Barwell to communicate any papers which +might tend to the elucidation of matters before them in which he was +concerned. This he has declined to do. Your Committee conceive that +under the orders of the House they are by no means obliged to make a +complete state of all the evidence which may tend to criminate or +exculpate every person whose transactions they may find it expedient to +report: this, if not specially ordered, has not hitherto been, as they +apprehend, the usage of any committee of this House. It is not for your +Committee, but for the discretion of the party, to call for, and for the +wisdom of the House to institute, such proceedings as may tend finally +to condemn or acquit. The Reports of your Committee are no charges, +though they may possibly furnish _matter_ for charge; and no +representations or observations of theirs can either clear or convict on +any proceeding which may hereafter be grounded on the facts which they +produce to the House. Their opinions are not of a judicial nature. Your +Committee has taken abundant care that every important fact in their +Report should be attended with the authority for it, either in the +course of their reflections or in the Appendix: to report everything +upon every subject before them which is to be found on the records of +the Company would be to transcribe, and in the event to print, almost +the whole of those voluminous papers. The matter which appears before +them is in a summary manner this. + +The Dacca merchants begin by complaining that in November, 1773, Mr. +Richard Barwell, then Chief of Dacca, had deprived them of their +employment and means of subsistence; that he had extorted from them +44,224 Arcot rupees (4,731_l._) by the terror of his threats, by long +imprisonment, and cruel confinement in the stocks; that afterwards they +were confined in a small room near the factory-gate, under a guard of +sepoys; that their food was stopped, and they remained starving a whole +day; that they were not permitted to take their food till next day at +noon, and were again brought back to the same confinement, in which they +were continued for six days, and were not set at liberty until they had +given Mr. Barwell's banian a certificate for forty thousand rupees; that +in July, 1774, when Mr. Barwell had left Dacca, they went to Calcutta to +seek justice; that Mr. Barwell confined them in his house at Calcutta, +and sent them back under a guard of peons to Dacca; that in December, +1774, on the arrival of the gentlemen from Europe, they returned to +Calcutta, and preferred their complaint to the Supreme Court of +Judicature. + +The bill in Chancery filed against Richard Barwell, John Shakespeare, +and others, contains a minute specification of the various acts of +personal cruelty said to be practised by Mr. Barwell's orders, to extort +money from these people. Among other acts of a similar nature he is +charged with having ordered the appraiser of the Company's cloths, who +was an old man, and who asserts that he had faithfully served the +Company above sixteen years without the least censure on his conduct, to +be severely flogged without reason. + +In the _manner_ of confining the delals, with ten of their servants, it +is charged on him, that, "when he first ordered them to be put into the +stocks, it was at a time when the weather was exceedingly bad and the +rain very heavy, without allowing them the least covering for their +heads or any part of their body, or anything to raise them from the wet +ground; in which condition they were continued for many hours, until the +said Richard Barwell thought proper to remove them into a far worse +state, if possible, as if studying to exercise the most cruel acts of +barbarity on them, &c.; and that during their imprisonment they were +frequently carried to and tortured in the stocks in the middle of the +day, when the scorching heat of the sun was insupportable, +notwithstanding which they were denied the least covering." These men +assert that they had served the Company without blame for thirty +years,--a period commencing long before the power of the Company in +India. + +It was no slight aggravation of this severity, that the objects were not +young, nor of the lowest of the people, who might, by the vigor of their +constitutions, or by the habits of hardship, be enabled to bear up +against treatment so full of rigor. They were aged persons; they were +men of a reputable profession. + +The account given by these merchants of their first journey to Calcutta, +in July, 1774, is circumstantial and remarkable. They say, "that, on +their arrival, _to their astonishment, they soon learned that the +Governor, who had formerly been violently enraged against the said +Richard Barwell for different improprieties in his conduct, was now +reconciled to him; and that ever since there was a certainty of his +Majesty's appointments taking place in India, from being the most +inveterate enemies they were now become the most intimate friends; and +that this account soon taught them to believe they were not any nearer +justice from their journey to Calcutta than they had been before at +Dacca_." + +When this bill of complaint was, in 1776, laid before the Council, to be +transmitted to the Court of Directors, Mr. Barwell complained of the +introduction of such a paper, and asserted, _that he had answered to +every particular of it on oath about eighteen months, and that during +this long period no attempt had been made to controvert, refute, or even +to reply to it_. + +He did not, however, think it proper to enter his answer on the records +along with the bill of whose introduction he complained. + +On the declarations made by Mr. Barwell in his minute (September, 1776) +your Committee observe, that, considering him only as an individual +under prosecution in a court of justice, it might be sufficient for him +to exhibit his defence in the court where he was accused; but that, as a +member of government, specifically charged before that very government +with abusing the powers of his office in a very extraordinary manner, +and for purposes (as they allege) highly corrupt and criminal, it +appears to your Committee hardly sufficient to say that he had answered +elsewhere. The matter was to go before the Court of Directors, to whom +the question of his conduct in that situation, a situation of the +highest power and trust, was as much at least a question of state as a +matter of redress to be solely left to the discretion, capacity, or +perseverance of individuals. Mr. Barwell might possibly be generous +enough to take no advantage of his eminent situation; but these +unfortunate people would rather look to his power than his disposition. +In general, a man so circumstanced and so charged (though we do not know +this to be the case with Mr. Barwell) might easily contrive by legal +advantages to escape. The plaintiffs being at a great distance from the +seat of government, and possibly affected by fear or fatigue, or seeing +the impossibility of sustaining with the ruins of fortunes never perhaps +very opulent a suit against wealth, power, and influence, a compromise +might even take place, in which circumstances might make the +complainants gladly acquiesce. But the public injury is not in the least +repaired by the acquiescence of individuals, as it touched the honor of +the very highest parts of government. In the opinion of your Committee +some means ought to have been taken to bring the bill to a discussion on +the merits; or supposing that such decree could not be obtained by +reason of any failure of proceeding on the part of the plaintiffs, that +some process official or juridical ought to have been instituted against +them which might prove them guilty of slander and defamation in as +authentic a manner as they had made their charge, before the Council as +well as the Court. + +By the determination of Mr. Hurst, and the resolutions of the Board of +Trade, it is much to be apprehended that the native mercantile interest +must be exceedingly reduced. The above-mentioned resolutions of the +Board of Trade, if executed in their rigor, must almost inevitably +accomplish its ruin. The subsequent transactions are covered with an +obscurity which your Committee have not been able to dispel. All which +they can collect, but that by no means distinctly, is, that, as those +who trade for the Company in the articles of investment may also trade +for themselves in the same articles, the old opportunities of +confounding the capacities must remain, and all the oppressions by which +this confusion has been attended. The Company's investments, as the +General Letter from Bengal of the 20th of November, 1775, par. 28, +states the matter, "are never at a stand; advances are made and goods +are received all the year round." Balances, the grand instrument of +oppression, naturally accumulate on poor manufacturers who are intrusted +with money. Where there is not a vigorous rivalship, not only tolerated, +but encouraged, it is impossible ever to redeem the manufacturers from +the servitude induced by those unpaid balances. + +No such rivalship does exist: the policy practised and avowed is +directly against it. The reason assigned in the Board of Trade's letter +of the 28th of November, 1778, for its making their advances early in +the season is, to prevent the foreign merchants and private traders +_interfering_ with the purchase of their (the Company's) assortments. +"They also refer to the means taken to prevent this interference in +their letter of 26th January, 1779." It is impossible that the small +part of the trade should not fall into the hands of those who, with the +name and authority of the governing persons, have such extensive +contracts in their hands. It appears in evidence that natives can hardly +trade to the best advantage, (your Committee doubt whether they can +trade to any advantage at all,) if not joined with or countenanced by +British subjects. The Directors were in 1775 so strongly impressed with +this notion, and conceived the native merchants to have been even then +reduced to so low a state, that, notwithstanding the Company's earnest +desire of giving them a preference, they "doubt whether there are at +this time in Bengal native merchants possessed of property adequate to +such undertaking, or of credit and responsibility sufficient to make it +safe and prudent to trust them with such sums as might be necessary to +enable them to fulfil their engagements with the Company." + +The effect which so long continued a monopoly, followed by a preemption, +and then by partial preferences supported by power, must necessarily +have in weakening the mercantile capital, and disabling the merchants +from all undertakings of magnitude, is but too visible. However, a +witness of understanding and credit does not believe the capitals of the +natives to be yet so reduced as to disable them from partaking in the +trade, if they were otherwise able to put themselves on an equal footing +with Europeans. + +The difficulties at the outset will, however, be considerable. For the +long continuance of abuse has in some measure conformed the whole trade +of the country to its false principle. To make a sudden change, +therefore, might destroy the few advantages which attend any trade, +without securing those which must flow from one established upon sound +mercantile principles, whenever such a trade can be established. The +fact is, that the forcible direction which the trade of India has had +towards Europe, to the neglect, or rather to the total abandoning, of +the Asiatic, has of itself tended to carry even the internal business +from the native merchant. The revival of trade in the native hands is of +absolute necessity; but your Committee is of opinion that it will +rather be the effect of a regular progressive course of endeavors for +that purpose than of any one regulation, however wisely conceived. + +After this examination into the condition of the trade and traders in +the principal articles provided for the investment to Europe, your +Committee proceeded to take into consideration those articles the +produce of which, after sale in Bengal, is to form a part of the fund +for the purchase of other articles of investment, or to make a part of +it in kind. These are, 1st, Opium,--2ndly, Saltpetre,--and, 3rdly, Salt. +These are all monopolized. + + +OPIUM. + +The first of the internal authorized monopolies is that of opium. This +drug, extracted from a species of the poppy, is of extensive consumption +in most of the Eastern markets. The best is produced in the province of +Bahar: in Bengal it is of an inferior sort, though of late it has been +improved. This monopoly is to be traced to the very origin of our +influence in Bengal. It is stated to have begun at Patna so early as the +year 1761, but it received no considerable degree of strength or +consistence until the year 1765, when the acquisition of the Duanne +opened a wide field for all projects of this nature. It was then adopted +and owned as a resource for persons in office,--was managed chiefly by +the civil servants of the Patna factory, and for their own benefit. The +policy was justified on the usual principles on which monopolies are +supported, and on some peculiar to the commodity, to the nature of the +trade, and to the state of the country: the security against +adulteration; the prevention of the excessive home consumption of a +pernicious drug; the stopping an excessive competition, which by an +over-proportioned supply would at length destroy the market abroad; the +inability of the cultivator to proceed in an expensive and precarious +culture without a large advance of capital; and, lastly, the incapacity +of private merchants to supply that capital on the feeble security of +wretched farmers. + +These were the principal topics on which the monopoly was supported. The +last topic leads to a serious consideration on the state of the country; +for, in pushing it, the gentlemen argued, that, in case such private +merchants should advance the necessary capital, the lower cultivators +"_would get money in abundance_." Admitting this fact, it seems to be a +part of the policy of this monopoly to prevent the cultivator from +obtaining the natural fruits of his labor. Dealing with a private +merchant, he could not get _money in abundance_, unless his commodity +could produce an _abundant_ profit. Further reasons, relative to the +peace and good order of the province, were assigned for thus preventing +the course of trade from the equitable distribution of the advantages of +the produce, in which the first, the poorest, and the most laborious +producer ought to have his first share. The cultivators, they add, would +squander part of the money, and not be able to complete their +engagements to the full; lawsuits, and even battles, would ensue between +the factors, contending for a deficient produce; and the farmers would +discourage the culture of an object which brought so much disturbance +into their districts. This competition, the operation of which they +endeavor to prevent, is the natural corrective of the abuse, and the +best remedy which could be applied to the disorder, even supposing its +probable existence. + +Upon whatever reasons or pretences the monopoly of opium was supported, +the real motive appears to be the profit of those who were in hopes to +be concerned in it. As these profits promised to be very considerable, +at length it engaged the attention of the Company; and after many +discussions, and various plans of application, it was at length taken +for their benefit, and the produce of the sale ordered to be employed in +the purchase of goods for their investment. + +In the year 1773 it had been taken out of the hands of the Council of +Patna, and leased to two of the natives,--but for a year only. The +contractors were to supply a certain quantity of opium at a given price. +Half the value was to be paid to those contractors in advance, and the +other half on the delivery. + +The proceedings on this contract demonstrated the futility of all the +principles on which the monopoly was founded. The Council, as a part of +their plan, were obliged, by heavy duties, and by a limitation of the +right of emption of foreign opium to the contractors for the home +produce, to check the influx of that commodity from the territories of +the Nabob of Oude and the Rajah of Benares. In these countries no +monopoly existed; and yet there the commodity was of such a quality and +so abundant as to bear the duty, and even with the duty in some degree +to rival the monopolist even in his own market. There was no complaint +in those countries of want of advances to cultivators, or of lawsuits +and tumults among the factors; nor was there any appearance of the +multitude of other evils which had been so much dreaded from the +vivacity of competition. + +On the other hand, several of the precautions inserted in this contract, +and repeated in all the subsequent, strongly indicated the evils against +which it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to guard a monopoly +of this nature and in that country. For in the first contract entered +into with the two natives it was strictly forbidden to compel the +tenants to the cultivation of this drug. Indeed, very shocking rumors +had gone abroad, and they were aggravated by an opinion universally +prevalent, that, even in the season immediately following that dreadful +famine which swept off one third of the inhabitants of Bengal, several +of the poorer farmers were compelled to plough up the fields they had +sown with grain in order to plant them with poppies for the benefit of +the engrossers of opium. This opinion grew into a strong presumption, +when it was seen that in the next year the produce of opium (contrary to +what might be naturally expected in a year following such a dearth) was +nearly doubled. It is true, that, when the quantity of land necessary +for the production of the largest quantity of opium is considered, it is +not just to attribute that famine to these practices, nor to any that +were or could be used; yet, where such practices did prevail, they must +have been very oppressive to individuals, extremely insulting to the +feelings of the people, and must tend to bring great and deserved +discredit on the British government. The English are a people who +appear in India as a conquering nation; all dealing with them is +therefore, more or less, a dealing with power. It is such when they +trade on a private account; and it is much more so in any authorized +monopoly, where the hand of government, which ought never to appear but +to protect, is felt as the instrument in every act of oppression. Abuses +must exist in a trade and a revenue so constituted, and there is no +effectual cure for them but to entirely cut off their cause. + +Things continued in this train, until the great revolution in the +Company's government was wrought by the Regulating Act of the thirteenth +of the king. In 1775 the new Council-General appointed by the act took +this troublesome business again into consideration. General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis expressed such strong doubts of the +propriety of this and of all other monopolies, that the Directors, in +their letter of the year following, left the Council at liberty to throw +the trade open, under a duty, if they should find it practicable. But +General Clavering, who most severely censured monopoly in general, +thought that this monopoly ought to be retained,--but for a reason which +shows his opinion of the wretched state of the country: for he supposed +it impossible, with the power and influence which must attend British +subjects in all their transactions, that monopoly could be avoided; and +he preferred an avowed monopoly, which brought benefit to government, to +a virtual engrossing, attended with profit only to individuals. But in +this opinion he did not seem to be joined by Mr. Francis, who thought +the suppression of this and of all monopolies to be practicable, and +strongly recommended their abolition in a plan sent to the Court of +Directors the year following.[6] + +The Council, however, submitting to the opinion of this necessity, +endeavored to render that dubious engagement as beneficial as possible +to the Company. They began by putting up the contract to the highest +bidder. The proposals were to be sealed. When the seals came to be +opened, a very extraordinary scene appeared. Every step in this business +develops more and more the effect of this junction of public monopoly +and private influence. Four English and eight natives were candidates +for the contract; three of the English far overbid the eight natives. +They who consider that the natives, from their superior dexterity, from +their knowledge of the country and of business, and from their extreme +industry, vigilance, and parsimony, are generally an over-match for +Europeans, and indeed are, and must ultimately be, employed by them in +all transactions whatsoever, will find it very extraordinary that they +did not by the best offers secure this dealing to themselves. It can be +attributed to this cause, and this only,--that they were conscious, +that, without power and influence to subdue the cultivators of the land +to their own purposes, they never could afford to engage on the lowest +possible terms. Those whose power entered into the calculation of their +profits could offer, as they did offer, terms without comparison better; +and therefore one of the English bidders, without partiality, secured +the preference. + +The contract to this first bidder, Mr. Griffiths, was prolonged from +year to year; and as during that time frequent complaints were made by +him to the Council Board, on the principle that the years answered very +differently, and that the business of one year ran into the other, +reasons or excuses were furnished for giving the next contract to Mr. +Mackenzie for three years. This third contract was not put up to +auction, as the second had been, and as this ought to have been. The +terms were, indeed, something better for the Company; and the engagement +was subject to qualifications, which, though they did not remove the +objection to the breach of the Company's orders, prevented the hands of +the Directors from being tied up. A proviso was inserted in the +contract, that it should not be anyways binding, if the Company by +orders from home should alter the existing practice with regard to such +dealing. + +Whilst these things were going on, the evils which this monopoly was in +show and pretence formed to prevent still existed, and those which were +naturally to be expected from a monopoly existed too. Complaints were +made of the bad quality of the opium; trials were made, and on those +trials the opium was found faulty. An office of inspection at Calcutta, +to ascertain its goodness, was established, and directions given to the +Provincial Councils at the places of growth to certify the quantity and +quality of the commodity transmitted to the Presidency. + +In 1776, notwithstanding an engagement in the contract strictly +prohibiting all compulsory culture of the poppy, information was given +to a member of the Council-General, that fields green with rice had been +forcibly ploughed up to make way for that plant,--and that this was done +in the presence of several English gentlemen, who beheld the spectacle +with a just and natural indignation. The board, struck with this +representation, ordered the Council of Patna to make an inquiry into the +fact; but your Committee can find no return whatsoever to this order. +The complaints were not solely on the part of the cultivators against +the contractor. The contractor for opium made loud complaints against +the inferior collectors of the landed revenue, stating their undue and +vexatious exactions from the cultivators of opium,--their throwing these +unfortunate people into prison upon frivolous pretences, by which the +tenants were ruined, and the contractor's advances lost. He stated, +that, if the contractor should interfere in favor of the cultivator, +then a deficiency would be caused to appear in the landed revenues, and +that deficiency would be charged on his interposition; he desired, +therefore, that the cultivators of opium should be taken out of the +general system of the landed revenue, and put under "his _protection_." +Here the effect naturally to be expected from the clashing of +inconsistent revenues appeared in its full light, as well as the state +of the unfortunate peasants of Bengal between such rival protectors, +where the ploughman, flying from the tax-gatherer, is obliged to take +refuge under the wings of the monopolist. No dispute arises amongst the +English subjects which does not divulge the misery of the natives; when +the former are in harmony, all is well with the latter. + +This monopoly continuing and gathering strength through a succession of +contractors, and being probably a most lucrative dealing, it grew to be +every day a greater object of competition. The Council of Patna +endeavored to recover the contract, or at least the agency, by the most +inviting terms; and in this eager state of mutual complaint and +competition between private men and public bodies things continued until +the arrival in Bengal of Mr. Stephen Sulivan, son of Mr. Sulivan, +Chairman of the East India Company, which soon put an end to all strife +and emulation. + +To form a clear judgment on the decisive step taken at this period, it +is proper to keep in view the opinion of the Court of Directors +concerning monopolies, against which they had uniformly declared in the +most precise terms. They never submitted to them, but as to a present +necessity; it was therefore not necessary for them to express any +particular approbation of a clause in Mr. Mackenzie's contract which was +made in favor of their own liberty. Every motive led them to preserve +it. On the security of that clause they could alone have suffered to +pass over in silence (for they never approved) the grant of the contract +which contained it for three years. It must also be remembered that they +had from the beginning positively directed that the contract should be +put up to public auction; and this not having been done in Mr. +Mackenzie's case, they severely reprimanded the Governor-General and +Council in their letter of the 23rd December, 1778. + +The Court of Directors were perfectly right in showing themselves +tenacious of this regulation,--not so much to secure the best +practicable revenue from their monopoly whilst it existed, but for a +much more essential reason, that is, from the corrective which this +method administered to that monopoly itself: it prevented the British +contractor from becoming doubly terrible to the natives, when they +should see that his contract was in effect _a grant_, and therefore +indicated particular favor and private influence with the ruling members +of an absolute government. + +On the expiration of Mr. Mackenzie's term, and but a few months after +Mr. Sulivan's arrival, the Governor-General, as if the contract was a +matter of patronage, and not of dealing, pitched upon Mr. Sulivan as the +most proper person for the management of this critical concern. Mr. +Sulivan, though a perfect stranger to Bengal, and to that sort and to +all sorts of local commerce, made no difficulty of accepting it. The +Governor-General was so fearful that his true motives in this business +should be mistaken, or that the smallest suspicion should arise of his +attending to the Company's orders, that, far from putting up the +contract (which, on account of its known profits, had become the object +of such pursuit) to _public auction_, he did not wait for receiving so +much as a _private proposal_ from Mr. Sulivan. The Secretary perceived +that in the rough draught of the contract the old recital of a proposal +to the board was inserted as a matter of course, but was contrary to the +fact; he therefore remarked it to Mr. Hastings. Mr. Hastings, with great +indifference, ordered that recital to be _omitted_; and the omission, +with the remark that led to it, has, with the same easy indifference, +been sent over to his masters. + +The Governor-General and Council declare themselves apprehensive that +Mr. Sulivan might be a loser by his bargain, upon account of troubles +which they supposed existing in the country which was the object of it. +This was the more indulgent, because the contractor was tolerably +secured against all losses. He received a certain price for his +commodity; but he was not obliged to pay any certain price to the +cultivator, who, having no other market than his, must sell it to him at +his own terms. He was to receive half the yearly payment by _advance_, +and he was not obliged to advance to the cultivator more than what he +thought expedient; but if this should not be enough, he might, if he +pleased, draw the _whole_ payment before the total delivery: such were +the terms of the engagement with him. He is a contractor of a new +species, who employs no capital whatsoever of his own, and has the +market of compulsion at his entire command. But all these securities +were not sufficient for the anxious attention of the Supreme Council to +Mr. Sulivan's welfare: Mr. Hastings had before given him the contract +without any proposal on his part; and to make their gift perfect, in a +second instance they proceed a step beyond their former ill precedent, +and they contract with Mr. Sulivan for _four_ years. + +Nothing appears to have been considered but the benefit of the +contractor, and for this purpose the solicitude shown in all the +provisions could not be exceeded. One of the first things that struck +Mr. Hastings as a blemish on his gift was the largeness of the penalty +which he had on former occasions settled as the sanction of the +contract: this he now discovered to be so great as to be likely to +frustrate its end by the impossibility of recovering so large a sum. How +a large penalty can prevent the recovery of any, even the smallest part +of it, is not quite apparent. In so vast a concern as that of opium, a +fraud which at first view may not appear of much importance, and which +may be very difficult in the discovery, may easily counterbalance the +reduced penalty in this contract, which was settled in favor of Mr. +Sulivan at about 20,000_l._ + +Monopolies were (as the House has observed) only tolerated evils, and at +best upon trial; a clause, therefore, was inserted in the contracts to +Mackenzie, annulling the obligation, if the Court of Directors should +resolve to abolish the monopoly; but at the request of Mr. Sulivan the +contract was without difficulty purged of this obnoxious clause. The +term was made absolute, the monopoly rendered irrevocable, and the +discretion of the Directors wholly excluded. Mr. Hastings declared the +reserved condition to be no longer necessary, "because the Directors had +approved the monopoly." + +The Chiefs and Councils at the principal factories had been obliged to +certify the quantity and quality of the opium before its transport to +Calcutta; and their control over the contractor had been assigned as the +reason for not leaving to those factories the management of this +monopoly. Now things were changed. Orders were sent to discontinue this +measure of invidious precaution, and the opium was sent to Calcutta +without anything done to ascertain its quality or even its quantity. + +An office of inspection had been also appointed to examine the quality +of the opium on its delivery at the capital settlement. In order to ease +Mr. Sulivan from this troublesome formality, Mr. Hastings abolished the +office; so that Mr. Sulivan was then totally freed from all examination, +or control whatsoever, either first or last. + +These extraordinary changes in favor of Mr. Sulivan were attended with +losses to others, and seem to have excited much discontent. This +discontent it was necessary in some manner to appease. The +vendue-master, who was deprived of his accustomed dues on the public +sales of the opium by the private dealing, made a formal complaint to +the board against this, as well as other proceedings relative to the +same business. He attributed the private sale to "_reasons of state_"; +and this strong reflection both on the Board of Trade and the Council +Board was passed over without observation. He was quieted by appointing +him to the duty of these very inspectors whose office had been just +abolished as useless. The House will judge of the efficacy of the +revival of this office by the motives to it, and by Mr. Hastings giving +that to _one_ as _a compensation_ which had been executed by several as +_a duty_. However, the orders for taking away the precautionary +inspection at Patna still remained in force. + +Some benefits, which had been given to former contractors at the +discretion of the board, were no longer held under that loose +indulgence, but were secured to Mr. Sulivan by his contract. Other +indulgences, of a lesser nature, and to which no considerable objection +could be made, were on the application of a Mr. Benn, calling himself +his attorney, granted. + +Your Committee, examining Mr. Higginson, late a member of the Board of +Trade, on that subject, were informed, that this contract, very soon +after the making, was generally understood at Calcutta to have been sold +to this Mr. Benn, but he could not particularize the sum for which it +had been assigned,--and that Mr. Benn had afterwards sold it to a Mr. +Young. By this transaction it appears clearly that the contract was +given to Mr. Sulivan for no other purpose than to supply him with a sum +of money; and the sale and re-sale seem strongly to indicate that the +reduction of the penalty, and the other favorable conditions, were not +granted for his ease in a business which he never was to execute, but to +heighten the value of the object which he was to sell. Mr. Sulivan was +at the time in Mr. Hastings's family, accompanied him in his progresses, +and held the office of Judge-Advocate. + +The monopoly given for these purposes thus permanently secured, all +power of reformation cut off, and almost every precaution against fraud +and oppression removed, the Supreme Council found, or pretended to find, +that the commodity for which they had just made such a contract was not +a salable article,--and in consequence of this opinion, or pretence, +entered upon a daring speculation hitherto unthought of, that of sending +the commodity on the Company's account to the market of Canton. The +Council alleged, that, the Dutch being driven from Bengal, and the seas +being infested with privateers, this commodity had none, or a very dull +and depreciated demand. + +Had this been true, Mr. Hastings's conduct could admit of no excuse. He +ought not to burden a falling market by long and heavy engagements. He +ought studiously to have kept in his power the means of proportioning +the supply to the demand. But his arguments, and those of the Council on +that occasion, do not deserve the smallest attention. Facts, to which +there is no testimony but the assertion of those who produce them in +apology for the ill consequences of their own irregular actions, cannot +be admitted. Mr. Hastings and the Council had nothing at all to do with +that business: the Court of Directors had wholly taken the management of +opium out of his and their hands, and by a solemn adjudication fixed it +in the Board of Trade. But after it had continued there some years, Mr. +Hastings, a little before his grant of the monopoly to Mr. Sulivan, +thought proper to reverse the decree of his masters, and by his own +authority to recall it to the Council. By this step he became +responsible for all the consequences. + +The Board of Trade appear, indeed, to merit reprehension for disposing +of the opium by private contract, as by that means the unerring standard +of the public market cannot be applied to it. But they justified +themselves by their success; and one of their members informed your +Committee that their last sale had been a good one: and though he +apprehended a fall in the next, it was not such as in the opinion of +your Committee could justify the Council-General in having recourse to +untried and hazardous speculations of commerce. It appears that there +must have been a market, and one sufficiently lively. They assign as a +reason of this assigned [alleged?] dulness of demand, that the Dutch had +been expelled from Bengal, and could not carry the usual quantity to +Batavia. But the Danes were not expelled from Bengal, and Portuguese +ships traded there: neither of them were interdicted at Batavia, and the +trade to the eastern ports was free to them. The Danes actually applied +for and obtained an increase of the quantity to which their purchases +had been limited; and as they asked, so they received this indulgence as +a great favor. It does not appear that they were not very ready to +supply the place of the Dutch. On the other hand, there is no doubt that +the Dutch would most gladly receive an article, convenient, if not +necessary, to the circulation of their commerce, from the Danes, or +under any name; nor was it fit that the Company should use an extreme +strictness in any inquiry concerning the necessary disposal of one of +their own staple commodities. + +The supply of the Canton treasury with funds for the provision of the +next year's China investment was the ground of this plan. But the +Council-General appear still to have the particular advantage of Mr. +Sulivan in view,--and, not satisfied with breaking so many of the +Company's orders for that purpose, to make the contract an object +salable to the greatest advantage, were obliged to transfer their +personal partiality from Mr. Sulivan to the contract itself, and to hand +it over to the assignees through all their successions. When the opium +was delivered, the duties and emoluments of the contractor ended; but +(it appears from Mr. Williamson's letter, 18th October, 1781, and it is +not denied by the Council-General) this new scheme _furnished them with +a pretext of making him broker for the China investment, with the profit +of a new commission_,--to what amount does not appear. But here their +constant and vigilant observer, the vendue-master, met them again:--they +seemed to live in no small terror of this gentleman. To satisfy him for +the loss of his fee to which he was entitled upon the public sale, they +gave _him_ also a commission of one per cent on the investment. Thus was +this object loaded with a double commission; and every act of partiality +to one person produced a chargeable compensation to some other for the +injustice that such partiality produced. Nor was this the whole. The +discontent and envy excited by this act went infinitely further than to +those immediately affected, and something or other was to be found out +to satisfy as many as possible. + +As soon as it was discovered that the Council entertained a design of +opening a trade on those principles, it immediately engaged the +attention of such as had an interest in speculations of freight. + +A memorial seems to have been drawn early, as it is dated on the 29th of +March, though it was not the first publicly presented to the board. This +memorial was presented on the 17th of September, 1781, by Mr. Wheler, +conformably (as he says) to the desire of the Governor-General; and it +contained a long and elaborate dissertation on the trade to China, +tending to prove the advantage of extending the sale of English +manufactures and other goods to the North of that country, beyond the +usual emporium of European nations. This ample and not ill-reasoned +theoretical performance (though not altogether new either in speculation +or attempt) ended by a practical proposition, very short, indeed, of the +ideas opened in the preliminary discourse, but better adapted to the +immediate effect. It was, that the Company should undertake the sale of +its own opium in China, and commit the management of the business to the +memorialist, who offered to furnish them with a strong armed ship for +that purpose. The offer was accepted, and the agreement made with him +for the transport of two thousand chests. + +A proposal by another person was made the July following the date of +this project: it appears to have been early in the formal delivery at +the board: this was for the export of one thousand four hundred and +eighty chests. This, too, was accepted, but with new conditions and +restrictions: for in so vast and so new an undertaking great +difficulties occurred. In the first place, all importation of that +commodity is rigorously forbidden by the laws of China. The impropriety +of a political trader, who is lord over a great empire, being concerned +in a contraband trade upon his own account, did not seem in the least to +affect them; but they were struck with the obvious danger of subjecting +their goods to seizure by the vastness of the prohibited import. To +secure the larger adventure, they require of the China factory that +Colonel Watson's ship should enter the port of Canton as an _armed +ship_, (they would not say a ship of war, though that must be meant,) +that her cargo should not be reported; they also ordered that other +measures should be adopted to secure this prohibited article from +seizure. If the cargo should get in safe, another danger was in +view,--the overloading the Chinese market by a supply beyond the demand; +for it is obvious that contraband trade must exist by small quantities +of goods poured in by intervals, and not by great importations at one +time. To guard against this inconvenience, they divide their second, +though the smaller adventure, into two parts; one of which was to go to +the markets of the barbarous natives which inhabit the coast of Malacca, +where the chances of its being disposed of by robbery or sale were at +least equal. If the opium should be disposed of there, the produce was +to be invested in merchandise salable in China, or in dollars, if to be +had. The other part (about one half) was to go in kind directly to the +port of Canton. + +The dealing at this time seemed closed; but the gentlemen who chartered +the ships, always recollecting something, applied anew to the board to +be furnished with cannon from the Company's ordnance. Some was +delivered to them; but the Office of Ordnance (so heavily expensive to +the Company) was not sufficient to spare a few iron guns for a merchant +ship. Orders were given to cast a few cannon, and an application made to +Madras, at a thousand miles' distance, for the rest. Madras answers, +that they cannot exactly comply with the requisition; but still the +board at Bengal _hopes_ better things from them than they promise, and +flatter themselves that with their assistance they shall properly arm a +ship of thirty-two guns. + +Whilst these dispositions were making, the first proposer, perceiving +advantages from the circuitous voyage of the second which had escaped +his observation, to make amends for his first omission, improved both on +his own proposal and on that of the person who had improved on him. He +therefore applied for leave to take two hundred and fifty chests on his +own account, which he said could "be _readily disposed of_ at the +several places where it was necessary for the ship to touch for wood and +water, or intelligence, during her intended voyage through _the Eastern +Islands_." As a corrective to this extraordinary request, he assured the +board, that, if he should meet with any unexpected delay at these +markets, he would send their cargo to its destination, having secured a +_swift-sailing_ sloop for the _protection_ of his ship; and this sloop +he proposed, in such a case, to leave behind. Such an extraordinary +eagerness to deal in opium lets in another view of the merits of the +alleged dulness of the market, on which this trade was undertaken for +the Company's account. + +The Council, who had with great condescension and official facility +consented to every demand hitherto made, were not reluctant with regard +to this last. The quantity of opium required by the freighters, and the +permission of a trading voyage, were granted without hesitation. The +cargo having become far more valuable by this small infusion of private +interest, the armament which was deemed sufficient to defend the +Company's large share of the adventure was now discovered to be unequal +to the protection of the whole. For the convoy of these two ships the +Council hire and arm another. How they were armed, or whether in fact +they were properly armed at all, does not appear. It is true that the +Supreme Council proposed that these ships should also convey supplies to +Madras; but this was a secondary consideration: their primary object was +the adventure of opium. To this they were permanently attached, and were +obliged to attend to its final destination. + +The difficulty of disposing of the opium according to this project being +thus got over, a material preliminary difficulty still stood in the way +of the whole scheme. The contractor, or his assignees, were to be paid. +The Company's treasure was wholly exhausted, and even its credit was +exceedingly strained. The latter, however, was the better resource, and +to this they resolved to apply. They therefore, at different times, +opened two loans of one hundred thousand pounds each. The first was +reserved for the Company's servants, civil and military, to be +distributed in shares according to their rank; the other was more +general. The terms of both loans were, that the risk of the voyage was +to be on account of _the Company_. The payment was to be in bills (at a +rate of exchange settled from the supercargoes at Canton) upon the same +Company. In whatever proportion the adventure should fail, either in the +ships not safely arriving in China or otherwise, in that proportion the +subscribers were to content themselves with the Company's bonds for +their money, bearing eight per cent interest. A share in this +subscription was thought exceeding desirable; for Mr. Hastings writes +from Benares, where he was employed in the manner already reported and +hereafter to be observed upon, requesting that the subscription should +be left open to his officers who were employed in the military +operations against Cheyt Sing; and accordingly three majors, seven +captains, twenty-three lieutenants, the surgeon belonging to the +detachment, and two civil servants of high rank who attended him, were +admitted to subscribe. + +Bills upon Europe without interest are always preferred to the Company's +bonds, even at the high interest allowed in India. They are, indeed, so +greedily sought there, and (because they tend to bring an immediate and +visible distress in Leadenhall Street) so much dreaded here, that by an +act of Parliament the Company's servants are restricted from drawing +bills beyond a certain amount upon the Company in England. In Bengal +they have been restrained to about one hundred and eighty thousand +pounds annually. The legislature, influenced more strongly with the same +apprehensions, has restrained the Directors, as the Directors have +restrained their servants, and have gone so far as to call in the power +of the Lords of the Treasury to authorize the acceptance of any bills +beyond an amount prescribed in the act. + +The false principles of this unmercantile transaction (to speak of it in +the mildest terms) were too gross not to be visible to those who +contrived it. That the Company should be made to borrow such a sum as +two hundred thousand pounds[7] at eight per cent, (or terms deemed by +the Company to be worse,) in order first to buy a commodity represented +by themselves as depreciated in its ordinary market, in order afterwards +to carry one half of it through a circuitous trading voyage, depending +for its ultimate success on the prudent and fortunate management of two +or three sales, and purchases and re-sales of goods, and the chance of +two or three markets, with all the risks of sea and enemy, was plainly +no undertaking for such a body. The activity, private interest, and the +sharp eye of personal superintendency may now and then succeed in such +projects; but the remote inspection and unwieldy movements of great +public bodies can find nothing but loss in them. Their gains, +comparatively small, ought to be upon sure grounds; but here (as the +Council states the matter) the private trader actually declines to deal, +which is a proof more than necessary to demonstrate the extreme +imprudence of such an undertaking on the Company's account. Still +stronger and equally obvious objections lay to that member of the +project which regards the introduction of a contraband commodity into +China, sent at such a risk of seizure not only of the immediate object +to be smuggled in, but of all the Company's property in Canton, and +possibly at a hazard to the existence of the British factory at that +port. + +It is stated, indeed, that a monopolizing company in Canton, called the +Cohong, had reduced commerce there to a deplorable state, and had +rendered the gains of private merchants, either in opium or anything +else, so small and so precarious that they were no longer able by +purchasing that article to furnish the Company with money for a China +investment. For this purpose the person whose proposal is accepted +declares his project to be to set up a monopoly on the part of the +Company against the monopoly of the Chinese merchants: but as the +Chinese monopoly is at home, and supported (as the minute referred to +asserts) by the country magistrates, it is plain it is the Chinese +company, not the English, which must prescribe the terms,--particularly +in a commodity which, if withheld from them at their market price, they +can, whenever they please, be certain of purchasing as a condemned +contraband. + +There are two further circumstances in this transaction which strongly +mark its character. The first is, that this adventure to China was not +recommended to them by the factory of Canton; it was dangerous to +attempt it without their previous advice, and an assurance, grounded on +the state of the market and the dispositions of the government, that the +measure, in a commercial light, would be profitable, or at least safe. +Neither was that factory applied to on the state of the bills which, +upon their own account, they might be obliged to draw upon Europe, at a +time when the Council of Bengal direct them to draw bills to so enormous +an amount. + +The second remarkable circumstance is, that the Board of Trade in +Calcutta (the proper administrator of all that relates to the Company's +investment) does not seem to have given its approbation to the project, +or to have been at all consulted upon it. The sale of opium had been +adjudged to the Board of Trade for the express purpose of selling it in +Bengal, not in China,--and of employing the produce of such sale in the +manufactures of the country in which the original commodity was +produced. On the whole, it appears a mere trading speculation of the +Council, invading the department of others, without lights of its own, +without authority or information from any other quarter. In a commercial +view, it straitened the Company's investment to which it was destined; +as a measure of finance, it is a contrivance by which a monopoly formed +for the increase of revenue, instead of becoming one of its resources, +involves the treasury, in the first instance, in a debt of two hundred +thousand pounds. + +If Mr. Hastings, on the expiration of Mr. Mackenzie's contract, the +advantages of which to the Company had been long doubtful, had put +himself in a situation to do his duty, some immediate loss to the +revenue would have been the worst consequence of the alleged +depreciation; probably it would not have been considerable. Mr. +Mackenzie's contract, which at first was for three years, had been only +renewed for a year. Had the same course been pursued with Mr. Sulivan, +they would have had it in their power to adopt some plan which might +have secured them from any loss at all. But they pursued another plan: +they carefully put all remedy still longer out of their reach by giving +their contract for four years. To cover all these irregularities, they +interest the settlement in their favor by holding out to them the most +tempting of all baits in a chance of bills upon Europe. + +In this manner the servants abroad have conducted themselves with regard +to Mr. Sulivan's contract for opium, and the disposal of the commodity. +In England the Court of Directors took it into consideration. First, as +to the contract, in a letter dated 12th July, 1782, they say, that, +"having condemned the contract entered into with Mr. Mackenzie for the +provision of opium, they cannot but be _surprised_ at your having +concluded a new contract for _four_ years relative to that article with +Mr. Stephen Sulivan, without leaving the decision of it to the Court of +Directors." + +The sentiments of the Directors are proper, and worthy of persons in +public trust. Their _surprise_, indeed, at the disobedience to their +orders is not perfectly natural in those who for many years have +scarcely been obeyed in a single instance. They probably asserted their +authority at this time with as much vigor as their condition admitted. + +They proceed: "We do not mean," say they, "to convey any censure on Mr. +Sulivan respecting the transaction; but we cannot withhold our +displeasure from the Governor-General and Council at such an instance of +_contempt_ of our authority." They then proceed justly to censure the +removal of the inspection, and some other particulars of this gross +proceeding. As to the criminality of the parties, it is undoubtedly true +that a breach of duty in servants is highly aggravated by the rank, +station, and trust of the offending party; but no party, in such +conspiracy to break orders, appear to us wholly free from fault. + +The Directors did their duty in reprobating this contract; but it is the +opinion of your Committee that further steps ought to be taken to +inquire into the legal validity of a transaction which manifestly +attempts to prevent the Court of Directors from applying any remedy to +a grievance which has been for years the constant subject of complaints. + +Both Mr. Sulivan and Mr. Hastings are the Company's servants, bound by +their covenants and their oaths to promote the interest of their +masters, and both equally bound to be obedient to their orders. If the +Governor-General had contracted with a stranger, not apprised of the +Company's orders, and not bound by any previous engagement, the contract +might have been good; but whether a contract made between two servants, +contrary to the orders of their common master, and to the prejudice of +his known interest, be a breach of trust on both sides, and whether the +contract can in equity have force to bind the Company, whenever they +shall be inclined to free themselves and the country they govern from +this mischievous monopoly, your Committee think a subject worthy of +further inquiry. + +With regard to the disposal of the opium, the Directors very properly +condemn the direct contraband, but they approve the trading voyage. The +Directors have observed nothing concerning the loans: they probably +reserved that matter for future consideration. + +In no affair has the connection between servants abroad and persons in +power among the proprietors of the India Company been more discernible +than in this. But if such confederacies, cemented by such means, are +suffered to pass without due animadversion, the authority of Parliament +must become as inefficacious as all other authorities have proved to +restrain the growth of disorders either in India or in Europe. + + +SALT. + +The reports made by the two committees of the House which sat in the +years 1772 and 1773 of the state and conduct of the inland trade of +Bengal up to that period have assisted the inquiries of your Committee +with respect to the third and last article of monopoly, viz., that of +salt, and made it unnecessary for them to enter into so minute a detail +on that subject as they have done on some others. + +Your Committee find that the late Lord Clive constantly asserted that +the salt trade in Bengal had been a monopoly time immemorial,--that it +ever was and ever must be a monopoly,--and that Coja Wazid, and other +merchants long before him, had given to the Nabob and his ministers two +hundred thousand pounds per annum for the exclusive privilege. The +Directors, in their letter of the 24th December, 1776, paragraph 76, +say, "that it has ever been in a great measure an exclusive trade." + +The Secret Committee report,[8] that under the government of the Nabobs +the duty on salt made in Bengal was two and an half per cent paid by +Mussulmen, and five per cent paid by Gentoos. On the accession of Mir +Cassim, in 1760, the claim of the Company's servants to trade in salt +duty-free was first avowed. Mr. Vansittart made an agreement with him by +which the duties should be fixed at nine per cent. The Council annulled +the agreement, and reduced the duty to two and an half per cent. On this +Mir Cassim ordered that no customs or duties whatsoever should be +collected for the future. But a majority of the Council (22nd March, +1763) resolved, that the making the exemption general was a breach of +the Company's privileges, and that the Nabob should be positively +required to recall it, and collect duties as before from the country +merchants, and all other persons who had not the protection of the +Company's _dustuck_. The Directors, as the evident reason of the thing +and as their duty required, disapproved highly of these transactions, +and ordered (8th February, 1764) _a final and effectual stop to be put +to the inland trade in salt_, and several other articles of commerce. +But other politics and other interests prevailed, so that in the May +following a General Court resolved, that it should be recommended to the +Court of Directors to reconsider the preceding orders; in consequence of +which the Directors ordered the Governor and Council to form a plan, in +concert with the Nabob, for regulating the inland trade. + +On these last orders Lord Clive's plan was formed, in 1765, for +engrossing the sole purchase of salt, and dividing the profits among the +Company's senior servants. The Directors, who had hitherto reluctantly +given way to a monopoly under any ideas or for any purposes, disapproved +of this plan, and on the 17th May, 1766, ordered it to be abolished; but +they substituted no other in its room.[9] In this manner things +continued until November, 1767, when the Directors repeated their orders +for excluding all persons whatever, excepting the natives only, from +being concerned in the inland trade in salt; and they declared that +(vide par. 90) "_such trade is hereby abolished and put a final end +to_." In the same letter (par. 92) they ordered that the salt trade +should be laid open to the natives in general, subject to such a duty +as might produce one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a year. This +policy was adopted by the legislature. In the act of 1773 it was +expressly provided, that it should not be lawful for any of his +Majesty's subjects to engage, intermeddle, or be any way concerned, +directly or indirectly, in the inland trade in salt, except on the India +Company's account. + +Under the positive orders of the Company, the salt trade appears to have +continued open from 1768 to 1772. The act, indeed, contained an +exception in favor of the Company, and left them a liberty of dealing in +salt upon their own account. But still this policy remained unchanged, +and their orders unrevoked. But in the year 1772, without any +instruction from the Court of Directors indicating a change of opinion +or system, the whole produce was again monopolized, professedly for the +use of the Company, by Mr. Hastings. Speaking of this plan, he says +(letter to the Directors, 22d February, 1775): "No new hardship has been +imposed upon the salt manufacturers by taking the management of that +article into the hands of government; the only difference is, that the +profit which was before reaped by English gentlemen and by banians is +now acquired by the Company." In May, 1766, the Directors had condemned +the monopoly _on any conditions whatsoever_. "At that time they thought +it neither consistent with their honor nor their dignity to promote such +an exclusive trade."[10] "They considered it, too, as disgraceful, _and +below the dignity of their present situation_, to allow of such a +monopoly, and that, were they to allow it under any restrictions, they +should consider themselves as assenting and subscribing to all the +mischiefs which Bengal had presented to them for four years past."[11] + +Notwithstanding this solemn declaration, in their letter of 24th +December, 1776, they approve the plan of Mr. Hastings, and say, "that +the monopoly, _on its present footing_, can be no considerable grievance +to the country," &c. + +This, however, was a rigorous monopoly. The account given of it by +General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, in their minute of +11th January, 1775, in which the situation of the _molungees_, or +persons employed in the salt manufacture, is particularly described, is +stated at length in the Appendix. Mr. Hastings himself says, "The power +of obliging molungees to work has been customary from time immemorial." + +Nothing but great and clear advantage to government could account for, +and nothing at all perhaps could justify, the revival of a monopoly thus +circumstanced. The advantage proposed by its revival was the +transferring the profit, which was before reaped by English gentlemen +and banians, to the Company. The profits of the former were not +problematical. It was to be seen what the effect would be of a scheme to +transfer them to the latter, even under the management of the projector +himself. In the Revenue Consultations of September, 1776, Mr. Hastings +said, "Many causes have since combined to reduce this article of revenue +_almost to nothing_. The plan which I am _now_ inclined to recommend for +the future management of the salt revenue differs widely from that +which I adopted under different circumstances." + +It appears that the ill success of his former scheme did not deter him +from recommending another. Accordingly, in July, 1777, Mr. Hastings +proposed, and it was resolved, that the salt mahls should be let, _with_ +the lands, to the farmers and zemindars for a ready-money rent, +including duties,--the salt to be left to their disposal. After some +trial of this method, Mr. Hastings thought fit to abandon it. In +September, 1780, he changed his plan a third time, and proposed the +institution of a _salt office_; the salt was to be again engrossed for +the benefit of the Company, and the management conducted by a number of +salt agents. + +From the preceding facts it appears that in this branch of the Company's +government little regard has been paid to the ease and welfare of the +natives, and that the Directors have nowhere shown greater inconsistency +than in their orders on this subject. Yet salt, considering it as a +necessary of life, was by no means a safe and proper subject for so many +experiments and innovations. For ten years together the Directors +reprobated the idea of suffering this necessary of life to be engrossed +on _any condition whatsoever_, and strictly prohibited all Europeans +from trading in it. Yet, as soon as they were made to expect from Mr. +Hastings that the profits of the monopoly should be converted to their +own use, they immediately declared that it "could be no considerable +grievance to the country," and authorized its continuance, until he +himself, finding it produced little or nothing, renounced it of his own +accord. Your Committee are apprehensive that this will at all times, +whatever flattering appearance it may wear for a time, be the fate of +any attempt to monopolize the salt for the profit of government. In the +first instance it will raise the price on the consumer beyond its just +level; but that evil will soon be corrected by means ruinous to the +Company as monopolists, viz., by the embezzlement of their own salt, and +by the importation of foreign salt, neither of which the government of +Bengal may have power for any long time to prevent. In the end +government will probably be undersold and beaten down to a losing price. +Or, if they should attempt to force all the advantages from this article +of which by every exertion it may be made capable, it may distress some +other part of their possessions in India, and destroy, or at least +impair, the natural intercourse between them. Ultimately it may hurt +Bengal itself, and the produce of its landed revenue, by destroying the +vent of that grain which it would otherwise barter for salt. + +Your Committee think it hardly necessary to observe, that the many +changes of plan which have taken place in the management of the salt +trade are far from honorable to the Company's government,--and that, +even if the monopoly of this article were a profitable concern, it +should not be permitted. Exclusive of the general effect of this and of +all monopolies, the oppressions which the manufacturers of salt, called +_molungees_, still suffer under it, though perhaps alleviated in some +particulars, deserve particular attention. There is evidence enough on +the Company's records to satisfy your Committee that these people have +been treated with great rigor, and not only defrauded of the due payment +of their labor, but delivered over, like cattle, in succession, to +different masters, who, under pretence of buying up the balances due to +their preceding employers, find means of keeping them in perpetual +slavery. For evils of this nature there can be no perfect remedy as long +as the monopoly continues. They are in the nature of the thing, and +cannot be cured, or effectually counteracted, even by a just and +vigilant administration on the spot. Many objections occur to the +farming of any branch of the public revenue in Bengal, particularly +against farming the salt lands. But the dilemma to which government by +this system is constantly reduced, of authorizing great injustice or +suffering great loss, is alone sufficient to condemn it. Either +government is expected to support the farmer or contractor in all his +pretensions by an exertion of power, which tends of necessity to the +ruin of the parties subjected to the farmer's contract, and to the +suppression of free trade,--or, if such assistance be refused him, he +complains that he is not supported, that private persons interfere with +his contract, that the manufacturers desert their labor, and that +proportionate deductions must be allowed him. + +After the result of their examination into the general nature and effect +of this monopoly, it remains only for your Committee to inquire whether +there was any valid foundation for that declaration of Mr. Hastings +which we conclude must have principally recommended the monopoly of salt +to the favor of the Court of Directors, viz., "that the profit, which +was before reaped by English gentlemen, and by banians, was now acquired +by the Company." On the contrary, it was proved and acknowledged before +the Governor-General and Council, when they inquired into this matter, +in March, 1775, that the Chiefs and Councils of those districts in which +there were salt mahls reserved particular salt farms for their _own_ +use, and divided the profits, in certain stated proportions, among +themselves and their assistants. But, unless a detail of these +transactions, and of the persons concerned in them, should be called for +by the House, it is our wish to avoid entering into it. On one example +only your Committee think it just and proper to insist, stating first to +the House on what principles they have made this selection. + +In pursuing their inquiries, your Committee have endeavored chiefly to +keep in view the conduct of persons in the highest station, particularly +of those in whom the legislature, as well as the Company, have placed a +special confidence,--judging that the conduct of such persons is not +only most important in itself, but most likely to influence the +subordinate ranks of the service. Your Committee have also examined the +proceedings of the Court of Directors on all those instances of the +behavior of their servants that seemed to deserve, and did sometimes +attract, their immediate attention. They constantly find that the +negligence of the Court of Directors has kept pace with, and must +naturally have quickened, the growth of the practices which they have +condemned. Breach of duty abroad will always go hand in hand with +neglect of it at home. In general, the Court of Directors, though +sufficiently severe in censuring offences, and sometimes in punishing +those whom they have regarded as offenders of a lower rank, appear to +have suffered the most conspicuous and therefore the most dangerous +examples of disobedience and misconduct in the first department of their +service to pass with a feeble and ineffectual condemnation. In those +cases which they have deemed too apparent and too strong to be +disregarded even with safety to themselves, and against which their +heaviest displeasure has been declared, it appears to your Committee +that their interference, such as it was, had a mischievous rather than a +useful tendency. A total neglect of duty in this respect, however +culpable, is not to be compared, either in its nature or in its +consequences, with the destructive principles on which they have acted. +It has been their practice, if not system, to inquire, to censure, and +not to punish. As long as the misconduct of persons in power in Bengal +was encouraged by nothing but the hopes of concealment, it may be +presumed that they felt some restraint upon their actions, and that they +stood in some awe of the power placed over them; whereas it is to be +apprehended that the late conduct of the Court of Directors tells them, +in effect, that they have nothing to fear from the certainty of a +discovery. + +On the same principle on which your Committee have generally limited +their researches to the persons placed by Parliament or raised or put in +nomination by the Court of Directors to the highest station in Bengal, +it was also their original wish to limit those inquiries to the period +at which Parliament interposed its authority between the Company and +their servants, and gave a new constitution to the Presidency of Fort +William. If the Company's servants had taken a new date from that +period, and if from thenceforward their conduct had corresponded with +the views of the legislature, it is probable that a review of the +transactions of remoter periods would not have been deemed necessary, +and that the remembrance of them would have been gradually effaced and +finally buried in oblivion. But the reports which your Committee have +already made have shown the House that from the year 1772, when those +proceedings commenced in Parliament on which the act of the following +year was founded, abuses of every kind have prevailed and multiplied in +Bengal to a degree unknown in former times, and are perfectly sufficient +to account for the present distress of the Company's affairs both at +home and abroad. The affair which your Committee now lays before the +House occupies too large a space in the Company's records, and is of too +much importance in every point of view, to be passed over. + +Your Committee find that in March, 1775, a petition was presented to the +Governor-General and Council by a person called Coja Kaworke, an +Armenian merchant, resident at Dacca, (of which division Mr. Richard +Barwell had lately been Chief,) setting forth in substance, that in +November, 1772, the petitioner had farmed a certain salt district, +called Savagepoor, and had entered into a contract with the Committee of +Circuit for providing and delivering to the India Company the salt +produced in that district; that in 1773 he farmed another, called +Selimabad, on similar conditions. He alleges, that in February, 1774, +when Mr. Barwell arrived at Dacca, he charged the petitioner with +1,25,500 rupees, (equal to 13,000_l._,) as a contribution, and, in order +to levy it, did the same year deduct 20,799 rupees from the amount of +the _advance money_ which was ordered to be paid to the petitioner, on +account of the India Company, for the provision of salt in the two +farms, and, after doing so, compelled the petitioner to execute and +give him four different bonds for 77,627 rupees, in the name of one +Porran Paul, for the remainder of such contribution, or unjust profit. + +Such were the allegations of the petition relative to the unjust +exaction. The harsh means of compelling the payment make another and +very material part; for the petitioner asserts, that, in order to +recover the amount of these bonds, guards were placed over him, and that +Mr. Barwell by ill usage and oppressions recovered from him at different +times 48,656 Arcot rupees, besides 283 rupees extorted by the +guard,--that, after this payment, two of the bonds, containing 36,313 +rupees, were restored to him, and he was again committed to the charge +of four _peons_, or guards, to pay the amount of the remaining two +bonds. The petition further charges, that the said gentleman and his +people had also extorted from the petitioner other sums of money, which, +taken together, amounted to 25,000 rupees. + +But the heaviest grievance alleged by him is, that, after the sums of +money had been extorted on account of the farms, the faith usual in such +transactions is allowed not to have been kept; but, after the petitioner +had been obliged to buy or compound for the farms, that they were taken +from him,--"that the said Richard Barwell, Esquire, about his departure +from Dacca, in October, 1774, for self-interest wrested from the +petitioner the aforesaid two mahls, (or districts,) and farmed them to +another person, notwithstanding he had extorted from the petitioner a +considerable sum of money on account of those purgunnahs." + +To this petition your Committee find two accounts annexed, in which the +sums said to be paid to or taken by Mr. Barwell, and the respective +dates of the several payments, are specified; and they find that the +account of particulars agrees with and makes up the gross sum charged in +the petition. + +Mr. Barwell's immediate answer to the preceding charge is contained in +two letters to the board, dated 23rd and 24th of March, 1775. The answer +is remarkable. He asserts, that "the whole of Kaworke's relation is a +gross misrepresentation of facts;--that the simple fact was, that in +January, 1774, the salt mahls of Savagepoor and Selimabad became _his_, +and were re-let by _him_ to this man, in the names of Bussunt Roy and +Kissen Deb, on condition that he should account with him [_Mr. Barwell_] +for profits to a certain sum, and that he [_Mr. Barwell_] engaged for +Savagepoor _in the persuasion of its being a very profitable farm_"; and +he concludes with saying, "If I am mistaken in my reasoning, and _the +wish to add to my fortune has warped my judgment_, in a transaction that +may appear to the board in a light different to what I view it in, it is +past,--I cannot recall it,--and I rather choose to admit an error than +deny a fact." In his second letter he says, "To the Honorable Court of +Directors I will submit all my rights in the salt contracts I engaged +in; and if in their opinion those rights vest in the Company, I will +account to them for the last shilling I have received from such +contracts, my intentions being upright; and as I never did wish to +profit myself to the prejudice of my employers, by their judgment I will +be implicitly directed." + +The majority of the board desired that Kaworke's petition should be +transmitted to England by the ship then under dispatch; and it was +accordingly sent with Mr. Barwell's replies. Mr. Barwell moved that a +committee should be appointed to take into consideration what he had to +offer on the subject of Kaworke's petition; and a committee was +accordingly appointed, consisting of all the members of the Council +except the Governor-General. + +The committee opened their proceedings with reading a second petition +from Kaworke, containing corrected accounts of cash said to be forcibly +taken, and of the extraordinary and unwarrantable profits taken or +received from him by Richard Barwell, Esquire; all which are inserted at +large in the Appendix. By these accounts Mr. Barwell is charged with a +balance or debt of 22,421 rupees to Kaworke. The principal difference +between him and Mr. Barwell arises from a different mode of stating the +accounts acknowledged to exist between them. In the account current +signed by Mr. Barwell, he gives Kaworke credit for the receipt of 98,426 +rupees, and charges him with a balance of 27,073 rupees. + +The facts stated or admitted by Mr. Barwell are as follow: that the salt +farms of Selimabad and Savagepoor were _his_, and re-let by him to the +two Armenian merchants, Michael and Kaworke, on condition of their +paying him 1,25,000 rupees, exclusive of their engagements to the +Company; that the engagement was written in the name of Bussunt Roy and +Kissen Deb Sing; and Mr. Barwell says, that the reason of its being "in +these people's names was because _it was not thought consistent with the +public regulations that the names of any Europeans should appear_." + +It is remarkable that this policy was carried to still greater length. +Means were used to remove such an obnoxious proceeding, as far as +possible, from the public eye; and they were such as will strongly +impress the House with the facility of abuse and the extreme difficulty +of detection in everything which relates to the Indian administration. +For these substituted persons were again represented by the further +substitution of another name, viz., _Rada Churn Dey_, whom Mr. Barwell +asserts to be a real person living at Dacca, and who _stood for the +factory of Dacca_; whereas the Armenian affirms that there was _no_ such +person as _Rada Churn_, and that it was a fictitious name. + +Mr. Barwell, in his justification, proceeds to affirm, that Coja Kaworke +never had the management of the salt mahls, "_but on condition of +accounting to the former Chief, and to Mr. Barwell, for a specified +advantage arising from them_,--that Mr. Barwell determined, _without he +could reconcile the interests of the public with his own private +emoluments_, that he would not engage in this concern,--and that, when +he took an interest in it, _it was for specified benefit in money_, and +every condition in the public engagement to be answered." + +Your Committee have stated the preceding facts in the same terms in +which they are stated by Mr. Barwell. The House is to judge how far they +amount to a defence against the charges contained in Kaworke's petition, +or to an admission of the truth of the principal part of it. Mr. Barwell +does not allow that compulsion was used to extort the money which he +received from the petitioner, or that the latter was dispossessed of the +farms in consequence of an offer made to Mr. Barwell by another person +(Ramsunder Paulet) to pay him a lac of rupees more for them. The truth +of _these_ charges has not been ascertained. They were declared by Mr. +Barwell to be false, but no attempt was made by him to invalidate or +confute them, though it concerned his reputation, and it was his duty, +in the station wherein he was placed, that charges of such a nature +should have been disproved,--at least, the accuser should have been +pushed to the proof of them. Nothing of this kind appears to have been +done, or even attempted. + +The transaction itself, as it stands, is clearly collusive; the form in +which it is conducted is clandestine and mysterious in an extraordinary +degree; and the acknowledged object of it a great illicit profit, to be +gained by an agent and trustee of the Company at the expense of his +employers, and of which he confesses he has received a considerable +part. + +The committee of the Governor-General and Council appear to have closed +their proceedings with several resolutions, which, with the answers +given by Mr. Barwell as a defence, are inserted in the Appendix. The +whole are referred thither together, on account of the ample extent of +the answer. These papers will be found to throw considerable light not +only on the points in question, but on the general administration of the +Company's revenues in Bengal. On some passages in Mr. Barwell's defence, +or account of his conduct, your Committee offer the following remarks to +the judgment of the House. + +In his letter of the 23rd March, 1775, he says, that he engaged for +Savagepoor _in the persuasion of its being a very profitable farm_. In +this place your Committee think it proper to state the 17th article of +the regulations of the Committee of Circuit, formed in May, 1772, by +the President and Council, of which Mr. Barwell was a member, together +with their own observations thereupon. + + 17th. "That no peshcar, banian, or other servant, of whatever + denomination, of the collector, or relation or dependant of any such + servant, be allowed to farm lands, nor directly or indirectly to + hold a concern in any farm, nor to be security for any farmer; that + the collector be strictly enjoined to prevent such practices; and + that, if it shall be discovered that any one, _under a false name, + or any kind of collusion_, hath found means to evade this order, he + shall be subject to an heavy fine, proportionate to the amount of + the farm, and the farm shall be re-let, or made _khas_: and if it + shall appear that the collector shall have countenanced, approved, + or connived at a breach of this regulation, he shall stand _ipso + facto_ dismissed from his collectorship. Neither shall any European, + directly or indirectly, be permitted to rent lands in any part of + the country." + + _Remark by the Board._ + + 17th. "If the collector, or any persons who partake of his + authority, are permitted to be the farmers of the country, no other + persons will dare to be their competitors: of course they will + obtain the farms on their own terms. _It is not fit that the + servants of the Company should be dealers with their masters._ The + collectors are checks on the farmers. If they themselves turn + farmers, what checks can be found for _them_? What security will the + Company have for their property, or where are the ryots to look for + relief against oppressions?" + +The reasons assigned for the preceding regulation seem to your Committee +to be perfectly just; but they can by no means be reconciled to those +which induced Mr. Barwell to engage in the salt farms of Selimabad and +Savagepoor. In the first place, his doing so is at length a direct and +avowed, though at first a covert, violation of the public regulation, to +which he was himself a party as a member of the government, as well as +an act of disobedience to the Company's positive orders on this subject. +In their General Letter of the 17th May, 1766, the Court of Directors +say, "We positively order, that no covenanted servant, or Englishman +residing under our protection, shall be suffered to hold any land for +his own account, directly or indirectly, in his own name or that of +others, or to be concerned in any farms or revenues whatsoever." + +Secondly, if, instead of letting the Company's lands or farms to +indifferent persons, their agent or trustee be at liberty to hold them +himself, he will always (on principles stated and adhered to in the +defence) have a sufficient reason for farming them on his own account, +since he can at all times make them as profitable as he pleases; or if +he leases them to a third person, yet reserves an intermediate profit +for himself, that profit may be as great as he thinks fit, and must be +necessarily made at the Company's expense. If at the same time he be +collector of the revenues, it will be his interest to recommend +remissions in favor of the nominal farmer, and he will have it in his +power to sink the amount of his collections. + +These principles, and the correspondent practices, leave the India +Company without any security that all the leases of the lands of Bengal +may not have been disposed of, under that administration which made the +five years' settlement in 1772, in the same manner and for the same +purpose. + +To enable the House to judge how far this apprehension may be founded, +it will be proper to state, that Mr. Nicholas Grueber, who preceded Mr. +Barwell in the Chiefship of Dacca, in a letter dated 29th of April, +1775, declares that he paid to the Committee of Circuit twelve thousand +rupees as their profit on a single salt farm,--which sum, he says, "I +paid the Committee at their request, before their departure from Dacca, +and reimbursed myself out of _the advances_ directed to be issued for +the provision of the salt." Thus one illicit and mischievous transaction +always leads to another; and the irregular farming of revenue brings on +the misapplication of the commercial advances. + +Mr. Barwell professes himself to be sensible "_that a wish to add to his +fortune may possibly have warped his judgment_, and that _he rather +chooses to admit an error than deny a fact_." But your Committee are of +opinion that the extraordinary caution and the intricate contrivances +with which his share in this transaction is wrapped up form a sufficient +proof that he was not altogether misled in his judgment; and though +there might be some merit in acknowledging an error before it was +discovered, there could be very little in a confession produced by +previous detection. + +The reasons assigned by Mr. Barwell, in defence of the clandestine part +of this transaction, seem to your Committee to be insufficient in +themselves, and not very fit to be urged by a man in his station. In one +place he says, that "_it was not thought consistent with the public +regulations that the names of any Europeans should appear_." In another +he says, "I am aware of the objection that has been made to the English +taking farms under the names of natives, as prohibited by the Company's +orders; and I must _deviate_ a little upon this. It has been generally +understood that the scope and tendency of the Honorable Company's +prohibition of farms to Europeans was meant only to exclude such as +could not possibly, in their own persons, come under the jurisdiction of +the Duanne courts of Adawlet, because, upon any failure of engagements, +upon any complaint of unjust oppression, or other cause of discontent +whatever, it was supposed an European might screen himself from the +process of the country judicature. But it was never supposed _that an +European of credit and responsibility_ was absolutely incapable from +holding certain tenures under the sanction and authority of the country +laws, or from becoming security for such native farmers, contractors, +&c., &c., as he might protect and employ." + +Your Committee have opposed this construction of Mr. Barwell's to the +positive order which the conduct it is meant to color has violated. +"Europeans of credit and responsibility," that is, Europeans armed with +wealth and power, and exercising offices of authority and trust, instead +of being excepted from the spirit of the restriction, must be supposed +the persons who are chiefly meant to be comprehended in it; for abstract +the idea of an European from the ideas of power and influence, and the +restriction is no longer rational. + +Your Committee are therefore of opinion that the nature of the evil +which was meant to be prevented by the above orders and regulations was +not altered, or the evil itself diminished, by the collusive methods +made use of to evade them,--and that, if the regulations were proper, +(as they unquestionably were,) they ought to have been punctually +complied with, particularly by the members of the government, _who +formed the plan_, and who, as trustees of the Company, were especially +answerable for their being duly carried into execution. Your Committee +have no reason to believe that it could ever have been generally +understood "that the Company's prohibition of farms to Europeans was +meant only to exclude such as could not possibly, in their own persons, +come under the jurisdiction of the Duanne courts": no such restriction +is so much as hinted at. And if it had been so understood, Mr. Barwell +was one of the persons who, from their rank, station, and influence, +must have been the principal objects of the prohibition. Since the +establishment of the Company's influence in Bengal, no Europeans, of any +rank whatever, have been subject to the process of the country +judicature; and whether they act avowedly for themselves, and take farms +in their own name, or substitute native Indians to act for them, the +difference is not material. The same influence that screened an European +from the jurisdiction of the country courts would have equally protected +his native agent and representative. For many years past the Company's +servants have presided in those courts, and in comparison with _their_ +authority the native authority is nothing. + +The earliest instructions that appear to have been given by the Court of +Directors in consequence of these transactions in Bengal are dated the +5th of February, 1777. In their letter of that date they applaud the +proceedings of the board, meaning the majority, (then consisting of +General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis,) _as highly +meritorious_, and promise them their _firmest support_. "Some of the +_cases_" they say, "_are so flagrantly corrupt, and others attended with +circumstances so oppressive to the inhabitants, that it would be unjust +to suffer the delinquents to go unpunished_." With this observation +their proceedings appear to have ended, and paused for more than a year. + +On the 4th of March, 1778, the Directors appear to have resumed the +subject. In their letter of that date they instructed the Governor and +Council forthwith to commence a prosecution in the Supreme Court of +Judicature against the persons who composed the Committee of Circuit, or +their representatives, and also against Mr. Barwell, in order to +recover, for the use of the Company, the amount of all advantages +acquired by them from their several engagements in salt contracts and +farms. Adverting, however, to the declaration made by Mr. Barwell, that +he would account to the Court of Directors for the last shilling he had +received and abide implicity by their judgment, they thought it +probable, that, on being acquainted with their peremptory orders for +commencing a prosecution, he might be desirous of paying his share of +profits into the Company's treasury; and they pointed out a precaution +to be used in accepting such a tender on his part. + +On this part of the transaction your Committee observe, that the Court +of Directors appear blamable in having delayed till February, 1777, to +take any measure in consequence of advices so interesting and important, +and on a matter concerning which they had made so strong a +declaration,--considering that early in April, 1776, they say "they had +investigated the charges, and had then come to certain resolutions +concerning them." But their delaying to send out positive orders for +commencing a prosecution against the parties concerned till March, 1778, +cannot be accounted for. In the former letter they promise, if they +should find it necessary, to return the original covenants of such of +their servants as had been any ways concerned in the undue receipt of +money, in order to enable the Governor-General and Council to recover +the same by suits in the Supreme Court. But your Committee do not find +that the covenants were ever transmitted to Bengal. To whatever cause +these instances of neglect and delay may be attributed, they could not +fail to create an opinion in Bengal that the Court of Directors were not +heartily intent upon the execution of their own orders, and to +discourage those members of government who were disposed to undertake so +invidious a duty. + +In consequence of these delays, even their first orders did not arrive +in Bengal until some time after the death of Colonel Monson, when the +whole power of the board had devolved to Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell. +When they sent what they call _their positive orders_, in March, 1778, +they had long been apprised of the death of Colonel Monson, and must +have been perfectly certain of the effect which that event would have on +the subsequent measures and proceedings of the Governor-General and +Council. Their opinion of the principles of those gentlemen appears in +their letter of the 28th of November, 1777, wherein they say "they +cannot but express their concern that the power of granting away their +property in perpetuity should have devolved upon such persons." + +But the conduct of the Court of Directors appears to be open to +objections of a nature still more serious and important. A recovery of +the amount of Mr. Barwell's profits seems to be the only purpose which +they even professed to have in view. But your Committee are of opinion +that to preserve the reputation and dignity of the government of Bengal +was a much more important object, and ought to have been their first +consideration. The prosecution was not the pursuit of mean and +subordinate persons, who might with safety to the public interest remain +in their seats during such an inquiry into their conduct. It appears +very doubtful, whether, if there were grounds for such a prosecution, a +proceeding in Great Britain were not more politic than one in Bengal. +Such a prosecution ought not to have been ordered by the Directors, but +upon grounds that would have fully authorized the recall of the +gentleman in question. This prosecution, supposing it to have been +seriously undertaken, and to have succeeded, must have tended to weaken +the government, and to degrade it in the eyes of all India. On the other +hand, to intrust a man, armed as he was with all the powers of his +station, and indeed of the government, with the conduct of a prosecution +against himself, was altogether inconsistent and absurd. The same letter +in which they give these orders exhibits an example which sets the +inconsistency of their conduct in a stronger light, because the case is +somewhat of a similar nature, but infinitely less pressing in its +circumstances. Observing that the Board of Trade had commenced a +prosecution against Mr. William Barton, a member of that board, for +various acts of peculation committed by him, they say, "We must be of +opinion, that, as _prosecutions are actually carrying on against him by +our Board of Trade_, he is, during such prosecution at least, an +improper person to hold a seat _at that board_; and therefore we direct +that he be suspended from the Company's service until our further +pleasure concerning him be known." The principle laid down in this +instruction, even before their own opinion concerning Mr. Barton's case +was declared, and merely on the prosecution of others, serves to render +their conduct not very accountable in the case of Mr. Barwell. Mr. +Barton was in a subordinate situation, and his remaining or not +remaining in it was of little or no moment to the prosecution. Mr. +Barton was but one of seven; whereas Mr. Barwell was one of four, and, +with the Governor-General, was in effect the Supreme Council. + +In the present state of power and patronage in India, and during the +relations which are permitted to subsist between the judges, the +prosecuting officers, and the Council-General, your Committee is very +doubtful whether the mode of prosecuting the highest members in the +Bengal government, before a court at Calcutta, could have been almost in +any case advisable. + +It is possible that particular persons, in high judicial and political +situations, may, by force of an unusual strain of virtue, be placed far +above the influence of those circumstances which in ordinary cases are +known to make an impression on the human mind. But your Committee, +sensible that laws and public proceedings ought to be made for general +situations, and not for personal dispositions, are not inclined to have +any confidence in the effect of criminal proceedings, where no means are +provided for preventing a mutual connection, by dependencies, agencies, +and employments, between the parties who are to prosecute and to judge +and those who are to be prosecuted and to be tried. + +Your Committee, in a former Report, have stated the consequences which +they apprehended from the dependency of the judges on the +Governor-General and Council of Bengal; and the House has entered into +their ideas upon this subject. Since that time it appears that Sir +Elijah Impey has accepted of the guardianship of Mr. Barwell's children, +and was the trustee for his affairs. There is no law to prevent this +sort of connection, and it is possible that it might not at all affect +the mind of that judge, or (upon his account) indirectly influence the +conduct of his brethren; but it must forcibly affect the minds of those +who have matter of complaint against government, and whose cause the +Court of Directors appear to espouse, in a country where the authority +of the Court of Directors has seldom been exerted but to be despised, +where the operation of laws is but very imperfectly understood, but +where men are acute, sagacious, and even suspicious of the effect of all +personal connections. Their suspicions, though perhaps not rightly +applied to every individual, will induce them to take indications from +the situations and connections of the prosecuting parties, as well as of +the judges. It cannot fail to be observed, that Mr. Naylor, the +Company's attorney, lived in Mr. Barwell's house; the late Mr. Bogle, +the Company's commissioner of lawsuits, owed his place to the patronage +of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, by whom the office was created for him; +and Sir John Day, the Company's advocate, who arrived in Bengal in +February, 1779, had not been four months in Calcutta, when Mr. Hastings, +Mr. Barwell, and Sir Eyre Coote doubled his salary, contrary to the +opinion of Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler. + +If the Directors are known to devolve the whole cognizance of the +offences charged on their servants so highly situated upon the Supreme +Court, an excuse will be furnished, if already it has not been +furnished, to the Directors for declining the use of their own proper +political power and authority in examining into and animadverting on the +conduct of their servants. Their true character, as strict masters and +vigilant governors, will merge in that of prosecutors. Their force and +energy will evaporate in tedious and intricate processes,--in lawsuits +which can never end, and which are to be carried on by the very +dependants of those who are under prosecution. On their part, these +servants will decline giving satisfaction to their masters, because they +are already before another tribunal; and thus, by shifting +responsibility from hand to hand, a confederacy to defeat the whole +spirit of the law, and to remove all real restraints on their actions, +may be in time formed between the servants, Directors, prosecutors, and +court. Of this great danger your Committee will take farther notice in +another place. + +No notice whatever appears to have been taken of the Company's orders in +Bengal till the 11th of January, 1779, when Mr. Barwell moved, _that the +claim made upon him by the Court of Directors should be submitted to the +Company's lawyers, and that they should be perfectly instructed to +prosecute upon it_. In his minute of that date he says, "_that the state +of his health had long since rendered it necessary for him to return to +Europe_." + +Your Committee observe that he continued in Bengal another year. He +says, "that he had hitherto waited for the arrival of Sir John Day, the +Company's advocate; but as the season was now far advanced, he wished to +bring the trial speedily to issue." + +In this minute he retracts his original engagement to submit himself to +the judgment of the Court of Directors, "and to account to them for the +last shilling he had received": he says, "that no merit had been given +him for the offer; that a most unjustifiable advantage had been +attempted to be made of it, by first declining it and _descending to +abuse_, and then giving orders upon it as if it had been rejected, when +called upon by him in the person of his agent to bring home the charge +of delinquency." + +Mr. Barwell's reflections on the proceedings of the Court of Directors +are not altogether clearly expressed; nor does it appear distinctly to +what facts he alludes. He asserts that a most unjustifiable advantage +had been attempted to be made of his offer. The fact is, the Court of +Directors have nowhere declined accepting it; on the contrary, they +caution the Governor-General and Council about the manner of receiving +the tender of the money which they expect him to make. They say nothing +of any call made on them by Mr. Barwell's agent in England; nor does it +appear to your Committee that they "have descended to abuse." They have +a right, and it is their duty, to express, in distinct and appropriated +terms, their sense of all blamable conduct in their servants. + +So far as may be collected from the evidence of the Company's records, +Mr. Barwell's assertions do not appear well supported; but even if they +were more plausible, your Committee apprehend that he could not be +discharged from his solemn recorded promise to abide by the judgment of +the Court of Directors. Their judgment was declared by their resolution +to prosecute, which it depended upon himself to satisfy by making good +his engagement. To excuse his not complying with the Company's claims, +he says, "_that his compliance would be urged as a confession of +delinquency, and to proceed from conviction of his having usurped on the +rights of the Company_." Considerations of this nature might properly +have induced Mr. Barwell to stand upon his right in the first instance, +"_and to appeal_" (to use his own words) "_to the laws of his country, +in order to vindicate his fame_." But his performance could not have +more weight to infer delinquency than his promise. Your Committee think +his observation comes too late. + +If he had stood a trial, when he first acknowledged the facts, and +submitted himself to the judgment of the Court of Directors, the suit +would have been carried on under the direction of General Clavering, +Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis; whereas in the year 1779 his influence +at the board gave him the conduct of it himself. In an interval of four +years it may be presumed that great alterations might have happened in +the state of the evidence against him. + +In the subsequent proceedings of the Governor-General and Council the +House will find that Mr. Barwell complained that his instances for +carrying on the prosecution were ineffectual, owing to the legal +difficulties and delays _urged by the Company's law officers_, which +your Committee do not find have yet been removed. As far as the latest +advices reach, no progress appears to have been made in the business. In +July, 1782, the Court of Directors found it necessary to order an +account of all suits against Europeans depending in the Supreme Court of +Judicature to be transmitted to them, and that no time should be lost in +bringing them to a determination. + + +SALTPETRE. + +The next article of direct monopoly subservient to the Company's export +is saltpetre. This, as well as opium, is far the greater part the +produce of the province of Bahar. The difference between the management +and destination of the two articles has been this. Until the year 1782, +the opium has been sold in the country, and the produce of the sale laid +out in country merchandise for the Company's export. A great part of the +saltpetre is sent out in kind, and never has contributed to the interior +circulation and commerce of Bengal. It is managed by agency on the +Company's account. The price paid to the manufacturer is invariable. +Some of the larger undertakers receive advances to enable them to +prosecute their work; but as they are not always equally careful or +fortunate, it happens that large balances accumulate against them. +Orders have been sent from Calcutta from time to time to recover their +balances, with little or no success, but with great vexation to all +concerned in the manufacture. Sometimes they have imprisoned the failing +contractors in their own houses,--a severity which answers no useful +purpose. Such persons are so many hands detached from the improvement +and added to the burden of the country. They are persons of skill drawn +from the future supply of that monopoly in favor of which they are +prosecuted. In case of the death of the debtor, this rigorous demand +falls upon the ruined houses of widows and orphans, and may be easily +converted into a means either of cruel oppression or a mercenary +indulgence, according to the temper of the exactors. Instead of thus +having recourse to imprisonment, the old balance is sometimes deducted +from the current produce. This, in these circumstances, is a grievous +discouragement. People must be discouraged from entering into a +business, when, the commodity being fixed to one invariable standard and +confined to one market, the best success can be attended only with a +limited advantage, whilst a defective produce can never be compensated +by an augmented price. Accordingly, very little of these advances has +been recovered, and after much vexation the pursuit has generally been +abandoned. It is plain that there can be no life and vigor in any +business under a monopoly so constituted; nor can the true productive +resources of the country, in so large an article of its commerce, ever +come to be fully known. + +The supply for the Company's demand in England has rarely fallen short +of two thousand tons, nor much exceeded two thousand five hundred. A +discretionary allowance of this commodity has been made to the French, +Dutch, and Danes, who purchase their allotted shares at some small +advance on the Company's price. The supply destined for the London +market is proportioned to the spare tonnage; and to accommodate that +tonnage, the saltpetre is sometimes sent to Madras and sometimes even to +Bombay, and that not unfrequently in vessels expressly employed for the +purpose. + +Mr. Law, Chief of Patna, being examined on the effect of that monopoly, +delivered his opinion, that with regard to the Company's _trade_ the +monopoly was advantageous, but as sovereigns of the country they must be +losers by it. These two capacities in the Company are found in perpetual +contradiction. But much doubt may arise whether this monopoly will be +found advantageous to the Company either in the one capacity or the +other. The gross commodity monopolized for sale in London is procured +from the revenues in Bengal; the certain is given for the hazardous. The +loss of interest on the advances, sometimes the loss of the +principal,--the expense of carriage from Patna to Calcutta,--the various +loadings and unloadings, and insurance (which, though borne by the +Company, is still insurance),--the engagement for the Ordnance, limited +in price, and irregular in payment,--the charge of agency and +management, through all its gradations and successions,--when all these +are taken into consideration, it may be found that the gain of the +Company as traders will be far from compensating their loss as +sovereigns. A body like the East India Company can scarcely, in any +circumstance, hope to carry on the details of such a business, from its +commencement to its conclusion, with any degree of success. In the +subjoined estimate of profit and loss, the value of the commodity is +stated at its invoice price at Calcutta. But this affords no just +estimate of the whole effect of a dealing, where the Company's charge +commences in the first rudiments of the manufacture, and not at the +purchase at the place of sale and valuation: for they [there?] may be +heavy losses on the value at which the saltpetre is estimated, when, +shipped off on their account, without any appearance in the account; and +the inquiries of your Committee to find the charges on the saltpetre +previous to the shipping have been fruitless. + + +BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA. + +The other link by which India is bound to Great Britain is the +government established there originally by the authority of the East +India Company, and afterwards modified by Parliament by the acts of 1773 +and 1780. This system of government appears to your Committee to be at +least as much disordered, and as much perverted from every good purpose +for which lawful rule is established, as the trading system has been +from every just principle of commerce. Your Committee, in tracing the +causes of this disorder through its effects, have first considered the +government as it is constituted and managed within itself, beginning +with its most essential and fundamental part, the order and discipline +by which the supreme authority of this kingdom is maintained. + +The British government in India being a subordinate and delegated power, +it ought to be considered as a fundamental principle in such a system, +that it is to be preserved in the strictest obedience to the government +at home. Administration in India, at an immense distance from the seat +of the supreme authority,--intrusted with the most extensive +powers,--liable to the greatest temptations,--possessing the amplest +means of abuse,--ruling over a people guarded by no distinct or +well-ascertained privileges, whose language, manners, and radical +prejudices render not only redress, but all complaint on their part, a +matter of extreme difficulty,--such an administration, it is evident, +never can be made subservient to the interests of Great Britain, or even +tolerable to the natives, but by the strictest rigor in exacting +obedience to the commands of the authority lawfully set over it. + +But your Committee find that this principle has been for some years very +little attended to. Before the passing the act of 1773, the professed +purpose of which was to secure a better subordination in the Company's +servants, such was the firmness with which the Court of Directors +maintained their authority, that they displaced Governor Cartier, +confessedly a meritorious servant, for disobedience of orders, although +his case was not a great deal more than a question by whom the orders +were to be obeyed.[12] Yet the Directors were so sensible of the +necessity of a punctual and literal obedience, that, conceiving their +orders went to the parties who were to obey, as well as to the act to be +done, they proceeded with a strictness that, in all cases except that of +their peculiar government, might well be considered as rigorous. But in +proportion as the necessity of enforcing obedience grew stronger and +more urgent, and in proportion to the magnitude and importance of the +objects affected by disobedience, this rigor has been relaxed. Acts of +disobedience have not only grown frequent, but systematic; and they have +appeared in such instances, and are manifested in such a manner, as to +amount, in the Company's servants, to little less than absolute +independence, against which, on the part of the Directors, there is no +struggle, and hardly so much as a protest to preserve a claim. + +Before your Committee proceed to offer to the House their remarks on the +most distinguished of these instances, the particulars of which they +have already reported, they deem it necessary to enter into some detail +of a transaction equally extraordinary and important, though not yet +brought into the view of Parliament, which appears to have laid the +foundation of the principal abuses that ensued, as well as to have given +strength and encouragement to those that existed. To this transaction, +and to the conclusions naturally deducible from it, your Committee +attribute that general spirit of disobedience and independence which has +since prevailed in the government of Bengal. + +Your Committee find that in the year 1775 Mr. Lauchlan Macleane was sent +into England as agent to the Nabob of Arcot and to Mr. Hastings. The +conduct of Mr. Hastings, in assisting to extirpate, for a sum of money +to be paid to the Company, the innocent nation of the Rohillas, had +drawn upon him the censure of the Court of Directors, and the unanimous +censure of the Court of Proprietors. The former had even resolved to +prepare an application to his Majesty for Mr. Hastings's dismission. + +Another General Court was called on this proceeding. Mr. Hastings was +then openly supported by a majority of the Court of Proprietors, who +professed to entertain a good opinion of his general ability and +rectitude of intention, notwithstanding the unanimous censure passed +upon him. In that censure they therefore seemed disposed to acquiesce, +without pushing the matter farther. But, as the offence was far from +trifling, and the condemnation of the measure recent, they did not +directly attack the resolution of the Directors to apply to his Majesty, +but voted in the ballot that it should be reconsidered. The business +therefore remained in suspense, or it rather seemed to be dropped, for +some months, when Mr. Macleane took a step of a nature not in the least +to be expected from the condition in which the cause of his principal +stood, which was apparently as favorable as the circumstances could +bear. Hitherto the support of Mr. Hastings in the General Court was only +by a majority; but if on application from the Directors he should be +removed, a mere majority would not have been sufficient for his +restoration. The door would have been barred against his return to the +Company's service by one of the strongest and most substantial clauses +in the Regulating Act of 1778. Mr. Macleane, probably to prevent the +manifest ill consequences of such a step, came forward with a letter to +the Court of Directors, declaring his provisional powers, and offering +on the part of Mr. Hastings an immediate resignation of his office. + +On this occasion the Directors showed themselves extremely punctilious +with regard to Mr. Macleane's powers. They probably dreaded the charge +of becoming accomplices to an evasion of the act by which Mr. Hastings, +resigning the service, would escape the consequences attached by law to +a dismission; they therefore demanded Mr. Macleane's written authority. +This he declared he could not give into their hands, as the letter +contained other matters, of a nature extremely confidential, but that, +if they would appoint a committee of the Directors, he would readily +communicate to them the necessary parts of the letter, and give them +perfect satisfaction with regard to his authority. A deputation was +accordingly named, who reported that they had seen Mr. Hastings's +instructions, contained in a paper in _his own handwriting_, and that +the authority for the act now done by Mr. Macleane was clear and +sufficient. Mr. Vansittart, a very particular friend of Mr. Hastings, +and Mr. John Stewart, his most attached and confidential dependant, +attended on this occasion, and proved that directions perfectly +correspondent to this written authority had been given by Mr. Hastings +in their presence. By this means the powers were fully authenticated; +but the letter remained safe in Mr. Macleane's hands. + +Nothing being now wanting to the satisfaction of the Directors, the +resignation was formally accepted. Mr. Wheler was named to fill the +vacancy, and presented for his Majesty's approbation, which was +received. The act was complete, and the office that Mr. Hastings had +resigned was legally filled. This proceeding was officially notified in +Bengal, and General Clavering, as senior in Council, was in course to +succeed to the office of Governor-General. + +Mr. Hastings, to extricate himself from the difficulties into which this +resignation had brought him, had recourse to one of those unlooked-for +and hardy measures which characterize the whole of his administration. +He came to a resolution of disowning his agent, denying his letter, and +disavowing his friends. He insisted on continuing in the execution of +his office, and supported himself by such reasons as could be furnished +in such a cause. An open schism instantly divided the Council. General +Clavering claimed the office to which he ought to succeed, and Mr. +Francis adhered to him: Mr. Barwell stuck to Mr. Hastings. The two +parties assembled separately, and everything was running fast into a +confusion which suspended government, and might very probably have ended +in a civil war, had not the judges of the Supreme Court, on a reference +to them, settled the controversy by deciding that the resignation was an +invalid act, and that Mr. Hastings was still in the legal possession of +his place, which had been actually filled up in England. It was +extraordinary that the nullity of this resignation should not have been +discovered in England, where the act authorizing the resignation then +was, where the agent was personally present, where the witnesses were +examined, and where there was and could be no want of legal advice, +either on the part of the Company or of the crown. The judges took no +light matter upon them in superseding, and thereby condemning the +legality of his Majesty's appointment: for such it became by the royal +approbation. + +On this determination, such as it was, the division in the meeting, but +not in the minds of the Council, ceased. General Clavering uniformly +opposed the conduct of Mr. Hastings to the end of his life. But Mr. +Hastings showed more temper under much greater provocations. In +disclaiming his agent, and in effect accusing him of an imposture the +most deeply injurious to his character and fortune, and of the grossest +forgery to support it, he was so very mild and indulgent as not to show +any active resentment against his unfaithful agent, nor to complain to +the Court of Directors. It was expected in Bengal that some strong +measures would have immediately been taken to preserve the just rights +of the king and of the Court of Directors; as this proceeding, +unaccompanied with the severest animadversion, manifestly struck a +decisive blow at the existence of the most essential powers of both. But +your Committee do not find that any measures whatever, such as the case +seemed to demand, were taken. The observations made by the Court of +Directors on what they call "_these extraordinary transactions_" are +just and well applied. They conclude with a declaration, "_that the +measures which it might be necessary for them to take, in order to +retrieve the honor of the Company, and to prevent the like abuse from +being practised in future, should have their most serious and earliest +consideration_"; and with this declaration they appear to have closed +the account, and to have dismissed the subject forever. + +A sanction was hereby given to all future defiance of every authority in +this kingdom. Several other matters of complaint against Mr. Hastings, +particularly the charge of peculation, fell to the ground at the same +time. Opinions of counsel had been taken relative to a prosecution at +law upon this charge, from the then Attorney and the then +Solicitor-General and Mr. Dunning, (now the Lords Thurlow, Loughborough, +and Ashburton,) together with Mr. Adair (now Recorder of London). None +of them gave a positive opinion against the grounds of the prosecution. +The Attorney-General doubted on _the prudence_ of the proceedings, and +censured (as it well deserved) the ill statement of the case. Three of +them, Mr. Wedderburn, Mr. Dunning, and Mr. Adair, were clear in favor of +the prosecution. No prosecution, however, was had, and the Directors +contented themselves with censuring and admonishing Mr. Hastings. + +With regard to the Supreme Council, the members who chose (for it was +choice only) to attend to the orders which were issued from the +languishing authority of the Directors continued to receive unprofitable +applauses and no support. Their correspondence was always filled with +complaints, the justice of which was always admitted by the Court of +Directors; but this admission of the existence of the evil showed only +the impotence of those who were to administer the remedy. The authority +of the Court of Directors, resisted with success in so capital an +instance as that of the resignation, was not likely to be respected in +any other. What influence it really had on the conduct of the Company's +servants may be collected from the facts that followed it. + +The disobedience of Mr. Hastings has of late not only become uniform and +systematical in practice, but has been in principle, also, supported by +him, and by Mr. Barwell, late a member of the Supreme Council in Bengal, +and now a member of this House. + +In the Consultation of the 20th of July, 1778, Mr. Barwell gives it as +his solemn and deliberate opinion, that, "while Mr. Hastings is in the +government, the respect and dignity of his station should be supported. +In these sentiments, I must decline an acquiescence in _any_ order which +has a _tendency_ to bring the government into disrepute. As the Company +have the means and power of forming their own administration in India, +they may at pleasure place whom they please at the head; but in my +opinion they are not authorized to treat a person in that post with +_indignity_." + +By treating them with indignity (in the particular cases wherein they +have declined obedience to orders) they must mean those orders which +imply a censure on any part of their conduct, a reversal of any of their +proceedings, or, as Mr. Barwell expresses himself in words very +significant, in any orders that have a _tendency_ to bring _their_ +government into _disrepute_. The amplitude of this latter description, +reserving to them the judgment of any orders which have so much as that +_tendency_, puts them in possession of a complete independence, an +independence including a despotic authority over the subordinates and +the country. The very means taken by the Directors for enforcing their +authority becomes, on this principle, a cause of further disobedience. +It is observable, that their principles of disobedience do not refer to +any local consideration, overlooked by the Directors, which might +supersede their orders, or to any change of circumstances, which might +render another course advisable, or even perhaps necessary,--but it +relates solely to their own interior feelings in matters relative to +themselves, and their opinion of their own dignity and reputation. It is +plain that they have wholly forgotten who they are, and what the nature +of their office is. Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell are servants of the +Company, and as such, by the duty inherent in that relation, as well as +by their special covenants, were obliged to yield obedience to the +orders of their masters. They have, as far as they were able, cancelled +all the bonds of this relation, and all the sanctions of these +covenants. + +But in thus throwing off the authority of the Court of Directors, Mr. +Hastings and Mr. Barwell have thrown off the authority of the whole +legislative power of Great Britain; for, by the Regulating Act of the +thirteenth of his Majesty, they are expressly "directed and required to +pay due obedience to _all_ such orders as they shall receive from the +Court of Directors of the said United Company." Such is the declaration +of the law. But Mr. Barwell declares that he declines obedience to _any_ +orders which he shall interpret to be indignities on a Governor-General. +To the clear injunctions of the legislature Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell +have thought proper to oppose their pretended reputation and dignity; as +if the chief honor of public ministers in every situation was not to +yield a cheerful obedience to the laws of their country. Your Committee, +to render evident to this House the general nature and tendency of this +pretended dignity, and to illustrate the real principles upon which they +appear to have acted, think it necessary to make observations on three +or four of the cases, already reported, of marked disobedience to +particular and special orders, on one of which the above extraordinary +doctrine was maintained. + +These are the cases of Mr. Fowke, Mr. Bristow, and Mahomed Reza Khan. In +a few weeks after the death of Colonel Monson, Mr. Hastings having +obtained a majority in Council by his casting vote, Mr. Fowke and Mr. +Bristow were called from their respective offices of Residents at +Benares and Oude, places which have become the scenes of other +extraordinary operations under the conduct of Mr. Hastings in person. +For the recall of Mr. Bristow no reason was assigned. The reason +assigned for the proceeding with regard to Mr. Fowke was, that "the +purposes for which he was appointed were then fully accomplished." + +An account of the removal of Mr. Fowke was communicated to the Court of +Directors in a letter of the 22d of December, 1776. On this +notification the Court had nothing to conclude, but that Mr. Hastings, +from a rigid pursuit of economy in the management of the Company's +affairs, had recalled a useless officer. But, without alleging any +variation whatsoever in the circumstances, in less than twenty days +after the order for the recall of Mr. Fowke, and _the very day after the +dispatch_ containing an account of the transaction, Mr. Hastings +recommended Mr. Graham to this very office, the end of which, he +declared to the Directors but the day before, had been fully +accomplished; and not thinking this sufficient, he appointed Mr. D. +Barwell as his assistant, at a salary of about four hundred pounds a +year. Against this extraordinary act General Clavering and Mr. Francis +entered a protest. + +So early as the 6th of the following January the appointment of these +gentlemen was communicated in a letter to the Court of Directors, +without any sort of color, apology, or explanation. That court found a +servant removed from his station without complaint, contrary to the +tenor of one of their standing injunctions. They allow, however, and +with reason, that, "if it were possible to suppose that a saving, &c, +had been his motive, they would have approved his proceeding. But that +when immediately afterwards two persons, with _two_ salaries, had been +appointed to execute the office which had been filled with reputation by +Mr. Fowke alone, and that Mr. Graham enjoys all the emoluments annexed +to the office of Mr. Fowke,"--they properly conclude that Mr. Fowke was +removed without just cause, to make way for Mr. Graham, and strictly +enjoin that the former be reinstated in his office of Resident as +Post-master of Benares. In the same letter they assert their rights in +a tone of becoming firmness, and declare, that "on no account we can +permit our orders to be disobeyed or our authority disregarded." + +It was now to be seen which of the parties was to give way. The orders +were clear and precise, and enforced by a strong declaration of the +resolution of the Court to make itself obeyed. Mr. Hastings fairly +joined issue upon this point with his masters, and, having disobeyed the +general instructions of the Company, determined to pay no obedience to +their special order. + +On the 21st July, 1778, he moved, and succeeded in his proposition, that +the execution of these orders should be suspended. The reason he +assigned for this suspension lets in great light upon the true character +of all these proceedings: "That his consent to the recall of Mr. Graham +would be adequate to his own resignation of the service, as it would +inflict such a wound on _his authority and influence_ that he could not +maintain it." + +If that had been his opinion, he ought to have resigned, and not +disobeyed: because it was not necessary that he should hold his office; +but it was necessary, that, whilst he hold it, he should obey his +superiors, and submit to the law. Much more truly was his conduct a +virtual resignation of his lawful office, and at the same time an +usurpation of a situation which did not belong to him, to hold a +subordinate office, and to refuse to act according to its duties. Had +his authority been self-originated, it would have been wounded by his +submission; but in this case the true nature of his authority was +affirmed, not injured, by his obedience, because it was a power derived +from others, and, by its essence, to be executed according to their +directions. + +In this determined disobedience he was supported by Mr. Barwell, who on +that occasion delivered the dangerous doctrine to which your Committee +have lately adverted. Mr. Fowke, who had a most material interest in +this determination, applied by letter to be informed concerning it. An +answer was sent, acquainting him coldly, and without any reason +assigned, of what had been resolved relative to his office. This +communication was soon followed by another letter from Mr. Fowke, with +great submission and remarkable decency asserting his right to his +office under the authority of the Court of Directors, and for solid +reasons, grounded on the Company's express orders, praying to be +informed of the charge against him. This letter appears to have been +received by Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell very loftily. Mr. Hastings +said, "that such applications were irregular; that they are not +accountable to Mr. Fowke for their resolution respecting him. The +reasons for suspending the execution of the orders of the Court of +Directors contain _no charge, nor the slightest imputation of a charge_, +against Mr. Fowke; _but I see no reason why the board should condescend +to tell him so_." Accordingly, the proposition of Mr. Francis and Mr. +Wheler, to inform Mr. Fowke "that they had no reason to be dissatisfied +with his conduct," on the previous question was rejected. + +By this resolution Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell discovered another +principle, and no less dangerous than the first: namely, that persons +deriving a valuable interest under the Company's orders, so far from +being heard in favor of their right, are not so much as to be informed +of the grounds on which they are deprived of it. + +The arrival soon after of Sir Eyre Coote giving another opportunity of +trial, the question for obedience to the Company's orders was again[13] +brought on by Mr. Francis, and again received a negative. Sir Eyre +Coote, though present, and declaring, that, had he been at the original +consultation, he should have voted for the immediate execution of the +Company's orders, yet he was resolved to avoid what he called _any kind +of retrospect_. His neutrality gained the question in favor of this, the +third resolution for disobedience to orders. + +The resolution in Bengal being thus decisively taken, it came to the +turn of the Court of Directors to act their part. They did act their +part exactly in their old manner: they had recourse to their old remedy +of repeating orders which had been disobeyed. The Directors declare to +Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, though without any apparent reason, that +"they have read _with astonishment their formal resolution_ to suspend +the execution of their orders; that they shall take such measures as +appear necessary for _preserving the authority of the Court of +Directors_, and for preventing _such instances of direct and wilful_ +disobedience in their servants in time to come." They then renew their +directions concerning Mr. Fowke. The event of this _sole_ measure taken +to preserve their authority, and to prevent instances of direct and +wilful disobedience, your Committee will state in its proper +place,--taking into consideration, for the present, the proceedings +relative to Mr. Bristow, and to Mahomed Reza Khan, which were +altogether in the same spirit; but as they were diversified in the +circumstances of disobedience, as well from the case of Mr. Fowke as +from one another, and as these circumstances tend to discover other +dangerous principles of abuse, and the general prostrate condition of +the authority of Parliament in Bengal, your Committee proceed first to +make some observations upon them. + +The province of Oude, enlarged by the accession of several extensive and +once flourishing territories, that is, by the country of the Rohillas, +the district of Corah and Allahabad, and other provinces betwixt the +Ganges and Jumna, is under the nominal dominion of one of the princes of +the country, called Asoph ul Dowlah. But a body of English troops is +kept up in his country; and the greatest part of his revenues are, by +one description or another, substantially under the administration of +English subjects. He is to all purposes a dependent prince. The person +to be employed in his dominions to act for the Committee [Company?] was +therefore of little consequence in his capacity of negotiator; but he +was vested with a trust, great and critical, in all pecuniary affairs. +These provinces of dependence lie out of the system of the Company's +ordinary administration, and transactions there cannot be so readily +brought under the cognizance of the Court of Directors. This renders it +the more necessary that the Residents in such places should be persons +not disapproved of by the Court of Directors. They are to manage a +permanent interest, which is not, like a matter of political +negotiation, variable, and which, from circumstances, might possibly +excuse some degree of discretionary latitude in construing their orders. +During the lifetime of General Clavering and Colonel Monson, Mr. +Bristow was appointed to this Presidency, and that appointment, being +approved and confirmed by the Court of Directors, became in effect their +own. Mr. Bristow appears to have shown himself a man of talents and +activity. He had been principally concerned in the negotiations by which +the Company's interest in the higher provinces had been established; and +those services were considered by the Presidency of Calcutta as so +meritorious, that they voted him ten thousand pounds as a reward, with +many expressions of esteem and honor. + +Mr. Bristow, however, was recalled by Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, who +had then acquired the majority, without any complaint having been +assigned as the cause of his removal, and Mr. Middleton was sent in his +stead to reside at the capital of Oude. The Court of Directors, as soon +as they could be apprised of this extraordinary step, in their letter of +the 4th of July, 1777, express their strongest disapprobation of it: +they order Mr. Middleton to be recalled, and Mr. Bristow to be +reinstated in his office. In December, 1778, they repeat their order. Of +these repeated orders no notice was taken. Mr. Bristow, fatigued with +unsuccessful private applications, which met with a constant refusal, +did at length, on the 1st of May, 1780, address a letter to the board, +making his claim of right, entitling himself to his offices [office?] +under the authority of the Court of Directors, and complaining of the +hardships which he suffered by the delay in admitting him to the +exercise of it. This letter your Committee have inserted at large in the +Fifth Report, having found nothing whatsoever exceptionable in it, +although it seems to have excited the warmest resentment in Mr. +Hastings. + +This claim of the party gave no new force to the order of the Directors, +which remained without any attention from the board from Mr. Bristow's +arrival until the 1st of May, and with as little from the 1st of May to +the 2nd of October following. On that day, Mr. Francis, after having +caused the repeated orders of the Court of Directors to be first read, +moved that Mr. Bristow should be reinstated in his office. This motion, +in itself just and proper in the highest degree, and in which no fault +could be found, but that it was not made more early, was received by Mr. +Hastings with the greatest marks of resentment and indignation. He +declares in his minute, that, "were the most determined adversary of the +British nation to possess, by whatever means, a share in the +administration, he could not devise a measure in _itself_ so pernicious, +or _time_ it so effectually for the _ruin_ of the British interests in +India." Then turning to the object of the motion, he says, "I will ask, +Who is Mr. Bristow, that a member of the administration should, at such +a time, hold him forth, as _an instrument for the degradation of the +first executive member of this government?_ What are the professed +objects of his appointment? What are the _merits_ and services, or what +the _qualifications_, which entitle him to such uncommon distinction? Is +it for his superior _integrity_, or from his eminent _abilities_, that +he is to be dignified at such hazard of every consideration that ought +to influence the members of this administration? Of the former (his +integrity) I know _no proofs_; I am sure it is not an evidence of it, +that he has been _enabled_ to make himself the principal in such a +_competition:_ and for the test of his abilities I appeal to the letter +which he has _dared_ to write to this board, and which I am ashamed to +say we have _suffered_. I desire that a copy of it may be inserted in +this day's proceedings, that it may stand before the eyes of every +member of the board, when he shall give his vote upon a question for +giving their confidence to a man, _their servant_, who has publicly +insulted _them, his masters_, and the members of the government to whom +he owes _his obedience_,--who, assuming an association with the Court of +Directors, and erecting himself into a _tribunal_, has _arraigned_ them +for _disobedience_ of orders, _passed judgment_ upon them, _and +condemned or acquitted them, as their magistrate or superior_. Let the +board consider, whether a man possessed of so _independent_ a spirit, +who has already shown a _contempt_ of their authority, who has shown +himself _so wretched an advocate for his own cause and negotiator for +his own interest_, is fit to be trusted with the guardianship of _their_ +honor, the execution of _their_ measures, and as _their_ confidential +manager and negotiator with the princes of India. As the motion has been +unaccompanied by any reasons which should induce the board to pass their +acquiescence in it, I presume the motion which preceded it, for _reading +the orders of the Court of Directors, was intended to serve as an +argument for it, as well as an introduction to it_. The last of those +was dictated the 23rd December, 1778, almost two years past. They were +dictated at a time when, I am sorry to say, the Court of Directors were +in _the habit of casting reproach upon my conduct and heaping +indignities upon my station_." + +Had the language and opinions which prevail throughout this part of the +minute, as well as in all the others to which your Committee refer, been +uttered suddenly and in a passion, however unprovoked, some sort of +apology might be made for the Governor-General. But when it was produced +five months after the supposed offence, and then delivered in writing, +which always implies the power of a greater degree of recollection and +self-command, it shows how deeply the principles of disobedience had +taken root in his mind, and of an assumption to himself of exorbitant +powers, which he chooses to distinguish by the title of "_his +prerogative_." In this also will be found an obscure hint of the cause +of his disobedience, which your Committee conceive to allude to the main +cause of the disorders in the government of India,--namely, an underhand +communication with Europe. + +Mr. Hastings, by his confidence in the support derived from this source, +or from the habits of independent power, is carried to such a length as +to consider a motion to obey the Court of Directors as a degradation of +the executive government in his person. He looks upon a claim under that +authority, and a complaint that it has produced no effect, as a piece of +daring insolence which he is ashamed that the board has suffered. The +behavior which your Committee consider as so intemperate and despotic he +regards as a culpable degree of patience and forbearance. Major Scott, +his agent, enters so much into the principles of Mr. Hastings's conduct +as to tell your Committee that in his opinion Lord Clive would have sent +home Mr. Bristow a prisoner upon such an occasion. It is worthy of +remark, that, in the very same breath that Mr. Hastings so heavily +condemns a junior officer in the Company's service (not a _servant_ of +the Council, as he hazards to call him, but _their fellow-servant_) for +merely complaining of a supposed injury and requiring redress, he so far +forgets his own subordination as to reject the orders of the Court of +Directors even as an _argument_ in favor of appointing a person to an +office, to presume to censure _his_ undoubted masters, and to accuse +them of having been "in a habit of casting reproaches upon him, and +heaping indignities on _his_ station." And it is to be observed, that +this censure was not for the purpose of seeking or obtaining redress for +any injury, but appeared rather as a reason for refusing to obey their +lawful commands. It is plainly implied in that minute, that no servant +of the Company, in Mr. Bristow's rank, would dare to act in such a +manner, if he had not by indirect means obtained a premature fortune. +This alone is sufficient to show the situation of the Company's servants +in the subordinate situations, when the mere claim of a right, derived +from the sovereign legal power, becomes fatal not only to the objects +which they pursue, but deeply wounds that reputation both for ability +and integrity by which alone they are to be qualified for any other. + +If anything could add to the disagreeable situation of those who are +submitted to an authority conducted on such principles, it is this: The +Company has ordered that no complaint shall be made in Europe against +any of the Council without being previously communicated to them: a +regulation formed upon grave reasons; and it was certainly made in +_favor_ of that board. But if a person, having ground of complaint +against the Council, by making use of the mode prescribed in favor of +that very Council, and by complaining to themselves, commits an offence +for which he may be justly punished, the Directors have not regulated +the mode of complaint, they have actually forbidden it; they have, on +that supposition, renounced their authority; and the whole system of +their officers is delivered over to the arbitrary will of a few of their +chief servants. + +During the whole day of that deliberation things wore a decided face. +Mr. Hastings stood to his principles in their full extent, and seemed +resolved upon unqualified disobedience. But as the debate was adjourned +to the day following, time was given for expedients; and such an +expedient was hit upon by Mr. Hastings as will, no doubt, be unexpected +by the House; but it serves to throw new lights upon the motives of all +his struggles with the authority of the legislature. + +The next day the Council met upon the adjournment. Then Mr. Hastings +proposed, as a compromise, a division of the object in question. One +half was to be surrendered to the authority of the Court of Directors, +the other was reserved for his dignity. But the choice he made of his +own share in this partition is very worthy of notice. He had taken his +_sole_ ground of objection against Mr. Bristow on the supposed ill +effect that such an appointment would have on the minds of the Indian +powers. He said, "that these powers could have no dependence on his +fulfilling his engagements, _or maintaining the faith of treaties_ which +he might offer for their acceptance, if they saw him treated with such +contempt." Mr. Bristow's appearing in a political character was the +_whole_ of his complaint; yet, when he comes to a voluntary distribution +of the duties of the office, he gives Mr. Bristow those very political +negotiations of which but the day before he had in such strong terms +declared him personally incapable, whose appointment he considered to be +fatal to those negotiations, and which he then spoke of as a measure in +_itself_ such as the bitterest adversary to Great Britain would have +proposed. But having thus yielded his whole ground of ostensible +objection, he reserved to his own appointment the entire management of +the pecuniary trust. Accordingly he named Mr. Bristow for the former, +and Mr. Middleton for the latter. On his own principles he ought to have +done the very reverse. On every justifiable principle he ought to have +done so; for a servant who for a long time resists the orders of his +masters, and when he reluctantly gives way obeys them by halves, ought +to be remarkably careful to make his actions correspond with his words, +and to put himself out of all suspicion with regard to the purity of his +motives. It was possible that the political reasons, which were solely +assigned against Mr. Bristow's appointment, might have been the real +motives of Mr. Hastings's opposition. But these he totally abandons, and +holds fast to the pecuniary department. Now, as it is notorious that +most of the abuses of India grow out of money-dealing, it was peculiarly +unfit for a servant, delicate with regard to his reputation, to require +a _personal_ and confidential agent in a situation merely official, in +which secrecy and personal connections could be of no possible use, and +could only serve to excite distrust. Matters of account cannot be made +too public; and it is not the most confidential agent, but the most +responsible, who is the fittest for the management of pecuniary trusts. +That man was the fittest at once to do the duty, and to remove all +suspicions from the Governor-General's character, whom, by not being of +his appointment, he could not be supposed to favor for private purposes, +who must naturally stand in awe of his inspection, and whose misconduct +could not possibly be imputable to him. Such an agency in a pecuniary +trust was the very last on which Mr. Hastings ought to have risked his +disobedience to the orders of the Direction,--or, what is even worse for +his motives, a direct contradiction to all the principles upon which he +had attempted to justify that bold measure. + +The conduct of Mr. Hastings in the affair of Mahomed Reza Khan was an +act of disobedience of the same character, but wrought by other +instruments. When the Duanne (or universal perception, and management of +the revenues) of Bengal was acquired to the Company, together with the +command of the army, the Nabob, or governor, naturally fell into the +rank rather of a subject than that even of a dependent prince. Yet the +preservation of such a power in such a degree of subordination, with the +criminal jurisdiction, and the care of the public order annexed to it, +was a wise and laudable policy. It preserved a portion of the government +in the hands of the natives; it kept them in respect; it rendered them +quiet on the change; and it prevented that vast kingdom from wearing the +dangerous appearance, and still more from sinking into the terrible +state, of a country of conquest. Your Committee has already reported the +manner in which the Company (it must be allowed, upon pretences that +will not bear the slightest examination) diverted from its purposes a +great part of the revenues appropriated to the country government; but +they were very properly anxious that what remained should be well +administered. In the lifetime of General Clavering and Colonel Monson, +Mahomed Reza Khan, a man of rank among the natives, was judged by them +the fittest person to conduct the affairs of the Nabob, as his Naib, or +deputy: an office well known in the ancient constitution of these +provinces, at a time when the principal magistrates, by nature and +situation, were more efficient. This appointment was highly approved, +and in consequence confirmed, by the Court of Directors. Mr. Hastings +and Mr. Barwell, however, thought proper to remove him. To the authority +of the Court of Directors they opposed the request of the Nabob, stating +that he was arrived at the common age of maturity, and stood _in no need +of a deputy to manage his affairs_. On former occasions Mr. Hastings +conceived a very low opinion of the condition of the person whom he thus +set up against the authority of his masters. "On a former occasion," as +the Directors tell him, "and to serve a very different purpose, he had +not scrupled to declare it as visible as the sun that the Nabob was a +mere pageant, without even _the shadow of authority_." But on this +occasion he became more substantial. Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell +yielded to his representation that a deputy was not necessary, and +accordingly Mahomed Reza Khan was removed from his office. + +However, lest any one should so far mistrust their understanding as to +conceive them the dupes of this pretext, they who had disobeyed the +Company's orders under color that _no deputy was necessary_ immediately +appoint another deputy. This independent prince, who, as Mr. Hastings +said, "had an incontestable right to his situation, and that it was his +by inheritance," suddenly shrunk into his old state of insignificance, +and was even looked upon in so low a light as to receive a severe +reprimand from Mr. Hastings for _interposing_ in the duties of his (the +deputy's) office. + +The Company's orders, censuring this transaction in the strongest terms, +and ordering Mahomed Reza Khan to be immediately restored to the office +of Naib Subahdar, were received in Calcutta in November, 1779. Mr. +Hastings acted on this with the firmness which he had shown on other +occasions; but in his principles he went further. Thinking himself +assured of some extraordinary support, suitable to the open and +determined defiance with which he was resolved to oppose the lawful +authority of his superiors, and to exercise a despotic power, he no +longer adhered to Mr. Barwell's distinction of the orders which had a +tendency to bring his government into disrepute. This distinction +afforded sufficient latitude to disobedience; but here he disdained all +sorts of colors and distinctions. He directly set up an independent +right to administer the government according to his pleasure; and he +went so far as to bottom his claim to act independently of the Court of +Directors on the very statute which commanded his obedience to them. + +He declared roundly, "that he should _not_ yield to the authority of the +Court of Directors in _any_ instance in which it should require his +concession of the rights which he held under an act of Parliament." It +is too clear to stand in need of proof, that he neither did or could +hold any authority that was not subject, in every particle of it, and in +every instance in which it could be exercised, to the orders of the +Court of Directors. + +He therefore refused to back the Company's orders with any requisition +from himself to the Nabob, but merely suffered them to be transmitted to +him, leaving it to him to do just as he thought proper. The Nabob, who +called Mr. Hastings "his patron, and declared he would never do anything +without his consent and approbation," perfectly understood this kind of +signification. For the second time the Nabob recovered from his trance +of pageantry and insignificance, and collected courage enough to write +to the Council in these terms: "I administer the affairs of the Nizamut, +(the government,) which are the affairs of _my own family_, by _my own +authority_, and shall do so; and I never can _on any account agree_ to +the appointment of the Nabob Mahomed Reza Khan to the Naib Subahship." +Here was a second independent power in Bengal. This answer from that +power proved as satisfactory as it was resolute. No further notice was +taken of the orders of the Court of Directors, and Mahomed Reza Khan +found their protection much more of a shadow than the pageant of power +of which he aspired to be the representative. + +This act of disobedience differs from the others in one particular +which, in the opinion of your Committee, rather aggravates than +extenuates the offence. In the others, Messrs. Hastings and Barwell took +the responsibility on themselves; here they held up the pretext of the +country government. However, they obtained thereby one of the objects +which they appear to have systematically pursued. As they had in the +other instances shown to the British servants of the Company that the +Directors were not able to protect them, here the same lesson was taught +to the natives. Whilst the matter lay between the native power and the +servants, the former was considered by Mr. Hastings in the most +contemptible light. When the question was between the servants and the +Court of Directors, the native power was asserted to be a self-derived, +hereditary, uncontrollable authority, and encouraged to act as such. + +In this manner the authority of the British legislature was at that time +treated with every mark of reprobation and contempt. But soon after a +most unexpected change took place, by which the persons in whose favor +the Court of Directors had in vain interposed obtained specific objects +which had been refused to them; things were, however, so well contrived, +that legal authority was nearly as much affronted by the apparent +compliance with their orders as by the real resistance they had before +met with. After long and violent controversies, an agreement took place +between Mr. Hastings and Mr. Francis. It appears that Mr. Hastings, +embarrassed with the complicated wars and ruinous expenses into which +his measures had brought him, began to think of procuring peace at home. +The agreement originated in a conversation held on Christmas-Day, 1779, +between Major Scott, then aide-de-camp, and now agent, to Mr. Hastings, +and Mr. Ducarrel, a gentleman high in the Company's service at Calcutta. +Mr. Scott, in consequence of this conversation, was authorized to make +overtures to Mr. Francis through Mr. Ducarrel: to declare Mr. Hastings +tired of controversy; expressing his wish to have the Mahratta war +entirely left to him; that there were certain points _he could not give +up_; that he could _not_ (for reasons he then assigned) _submit_ to the +restoration of Mr. Fowke, Mahomed Reza Khan, and Mr. Bristow; that _he +had not the smallest personal objection to them_, and would willingly +provide for them in any other line. Mr. Francis in this treaty insisted +on those very points which Mr. Hastings declared he could never give up, +and that his conditions were the Company's orders,--that is, the +restoration of the persons whom they had directed to be restored. The +event of this negotiation was, that Mr. Hastings at length submitted to +Mr. Francis, and that Mr. Fowke and Mahomed Reza Khan were reinstated in +their situations. + +Your Committee observe on this part of the transaction of Mr. Hastings, +that as long as the question stood upon his obedience to his lawful +superiors, so long he considered the restoration of these persons as a +gross indignity, the submitting to which would destroy all his credit +and influence in the country; but when it was to accommodate his own +occasions in a treaty with a fellow-servant, all these difficulties +instantly vanish, and he finds it perfectly consistent with his dignity, +credit, and influence, to do for Mr. Francis what he had refused to the +strict and reiterated injunctions of the Court of Directors. +Tranquillity was, however, for a time restored by this measure, though +it did not continue long. In about three months an occasion occurred in +which Mr. Francis gave some opposition to a measure proposed by Mr. +Hastings, which brought on a duel, upon the mischievous effects of which +your Committee have already made their observations. + +The departure of Mr. Francis soon after for Europe opened a new scene, +and gave rise to a third revolution. Lest the arrangement with the +servants of the Company should have the least appearance of being +mistaken for obedience to their superiors, Mr. Francis was little more +than a month gone, when Mr. Fowke was again recalled from Benares, _and +Mr. Bristow soon after from Oude_. In these measures Mr. Hastings has +combined the principles of disobedience which he had used in all the +cases hitherto stated. In his Minute of Consultation on this recall he +refers to his former Minutes; and he adds, that he has "a recent motive +in the necessity of removing any circumstance which may contribute to +lessen his _influence_ in the effect of any negotiations in which he may +be engaged in the prosecution of his intended visit to Lucknow." He here +reverts to his old plea of preserving his influence; not content with +this, as in the case of Mahomed Reza Khan he had called in the aid of +the Nabob of Bengal, he here calls in the aid of the Nabob of Oude, who, +on reasons exactly tallying with those given by Mr. Hastings, desires +that Mr. Bristow may be removed. The true weight of these requisitions +will appear, if not sufficiently apparent from the known situation of +the parties, by the following extract of a letter from this Nabob of +Oude to his agent at Calcutta, desiring him to acquaint Mr. Hastings, +that, "if it is proper, I will write to the king [of Great Britain], and +the vizier [one of his Majesty's ministers], and the chief of the +Company, _in such a manner as he shall direct, and in the words that he +shall order_, that Mr. Bristow's views may be thwarted there." There is +no doubt of the entire cooeperation of the Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah in all +the designs of Mr. Hastings, and in thwarting the views of any persons +who place their reliance on the authority of this kingdom. + +As usual, the Court of Directors appear in their proper order in the +procession. After this third act of disobedience with regard to the +same person and the same office, and after calling the proceedings +unwarrantable, "_in order to vindicate and uphold their own authority, +and thinking it a duty incumbent on them to maintain the authority of +the Court of Directors_," they again order Mr. Bristow to be reinstated, +and Mr. Middleton to be recalled: in this circle the whole moves with +great regularity. + +The extraordinary operations of Mr. Hastings, that soon after followed +in every department which was the subject of all these acts of +disobedience, have made them appear in a light peculiarly unpropitious +to his cause. It is but too probable, from his own accounts, that he +meditated some strong measure, both at Benares and at Oude, at the very +time of the removal of those officers. He declares he knew that his +conduct in those places was such as to lie very open to malicious +representations; he must have been sensible that he was open to such +representations from the beginning; he was therefore impelled by every +motive which ought to influence a man of sense by no means to disturb +the order which he had last established. + +Of this, however, he took no care; but he was not so inattentive to the +satisfaction of the sufferers, either in point of honor or of interest. +This was most strongly marked in the case of Mr. Fowke. His reparation +to that gentleman, in point of honor, is as full as possible. Mr. +Hastings "declared, that he approved his character and his conduct in +office, and believed that he might _depend_ upon _his exact and literal +obedience and fidelity_ in the execution of the functions annexed to +it." Such is the character of the man whom Mr. Hastings a second time +removed from the office to which he told the Court of Directors, in his +letter of the 3rd of March, 1780, he had appointed him in conformity to +their orders. On the 14th of January, 1781, he again finds it an +indispensable obligation in him to exercise powers "_inherent_ in the +constitution of his government." On this principle he claimed "the right +of nominating the agent of his own choice to the Residence of Benares; +that it is a representative situation: that, speaking for myself +_alone_, it may be _sufficient_ to say, that Mr. Francis Fowke is not +_my_ agent; _that I cannot give him my confidence_; that, while he +continues at Benares, he stands as a screen between the Rajah and this +government, instead of an instrument of control; that the Rajah himself, +and every chief in Hindostan, will regard it as the pledge and +foundation of his independence." Here Mr. Hastings has got back to his +old principles, where he takes post as on strong ground. This he +declares "to be his objection to Mr. Fowke, and that it is insuperable." +The very line before this paragraph he writes of this person, to whom he +_could_ not give his _confidence_, that "he believed he might _depend_ +upon _his fidelity_, and his exact and literal obedience." Mr. Scott, +who is authorized to defend Mr. Hastings, supported the same principles +before your Committee by a comparison that avowedly reduces the Court of +Directors to the state of a party against their servants. He declared, +that, in his opinion, "it would be just as _absurd_ to _deprive him_ of +the power of nominating his ambassador at Benares as it would be to +force on _the ministry_ of this country an ambassador from _the +opposition_." Such is the opinion entertained in Bengal, and that but +too effectually realized, of the relation between the principal servants +of the Company and the Court of Directors. + +So far the reparation, in point of honor, to Mr. Fowke was complete. The +reparation in point of interest your Committee do not find to have been +equally satisfactory; but they do find it to be of the most +extraordinary nature, and of the most mischievous example. Mr. Fowke had +been deprived of a place of rank and honor,--the place of a public +_Vackeel_, or representative. The recompense provided for him is a +succession to a contract. Mr. Hastings moved, that, on the expiration of +Colonel Morgan's contract, he should be appointed agent to all the boats +employed for the military service of that establishment, with a +commission of _fifteen per cent on all disbursements in that +office_,--permitting Mr. Fowke, at the same time, to draw his allowance +of an hundred pounds a month, as Resident, until the expiration of the +contract, and for three months after. + +Mr. Hastings is himself struck, as every one must be, with so +extraordinary a proceeding, the principle of which, he observes, "is +liable to _one_ material objection." That one is material indeed; for, +no limit being laid down for the expense in which the percentage is to +arise, it is the direct interest of the person employed to make his +department as expensive as possible. To this Mr. Hastings answers, that +"he is convinced by experience it will be better performed"; and yet he +immediately after subjoins, "This _defect_ can _only_ be corrected by +the probity of the person intrusted with so important a charge; and I am +willing to have it understood, as a proof of _the confidence I repose in +Mr. Fowke_, that I have proposed his appointment, in opposition _to a +general principle_, to a trust so constituted." + +In the beginning of this very Minute of Consultation, Mr. Hastings +removes Mr. Fowke from the Residency of Benares because "he cannot give +him his confidence"; and yet, before the pen is out of his hand, he +violates one of the soundest general principles in the whole system of +dealing, in order to give a proof of the confidence he reposes in that +gentleman. This apparent gross contradiction is to be reconciled but by +one way,--which is, that confidence with Mr. Hastings comes and goes +with his opposition to legal authority. Where that authority recommends +any person, his confidence in him vanishes; but to show that it is the +authority, and not the person, he opposes, when that is out of sight, +there is no rule so sacred which is not to be violated to manifest his +real esteem and perfect trust in the person whom he has rejected. +However, by overturning general principles to compliment Mr. Fowke's +integrity, he does all in his power to corrupt it; at the same time he +establishes an example that must either subject all future dealings to +the same pernicious clause, or which, being omitted, must become a +strong implied charge on the integrity of those who shall hereafter be +excluded from a trust so constituted. + +It is not foreign to the object of your Committee, in this part of their +observations, which relates to the obedience to orders, to remark upon +the manner in which the orders of the Court of Directors with regard to +this kind of dealing in contracts are observed. These orders relate to +contracts; and they contain two standing regulations. + +1st, That all contracts shall be publicly advertised, and that the most +reasonable proposals shall be accepted. + +2ndly, That two contracts, those of provisions and for carriage +bullocks, shall be only annual. + +These orders are undoubtedly some correctives to the abuses which may +arise in this very critical article of public dealing. But the House +will remark, that, if the business usually carried on by contracts can +be converted at pleasure into agencies, like that of Mr. Fowke, all +these regulations perish of course, and there is no direction whatsoever +for restraining the most prodigal and corrupt bargains for the public. + +Your Committee have inquired into the observance of these necessary +regulations, and they find that they have, like the rest, been entirely +contemned, and contemned with entire impunity. After the period of +Colonel Monson's death, and Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell obtaining the +lead in the Council, the contracts were disposed of without at all +advertising for proposals. Those in 1777 were given for three years; and +the gentlemen in question growing by habit and encouragement into more +boldness, in 1779 the contracts were disposed of for five years: and +this they did at the eve of the expiration of their own appointment to +the government. This increase in the length of the contracts, though +contrary to orders, might have admitted some excuse, if it had been +made, even in appearance, the means of lessening the expense. But the +advantages allowed to the contractors, instead of being diminished, were +enlarged, and in a manner far beyond the proportion of the enlargement +of terms. Of this abuse and contempt of orders a judgment may be formed +by the single contract for supplying the army with draught and carriage +bullocks. As it stood at the expiration of the contract in 1779, the +expense of that service was about one thousand three hundred pounds a +month. By the new contract, given away in September of that year, the +service was raised to the enormous sum of near six thousand pounds a +month. The monthly increase, therefore, being four thousand seven +hundred pounds, it constitutes a total increase of charges for the +Company, in the five years of the contract, of no less a sum than two +hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds. Now, as the former contract +was, without doubt, sufficiently advantageous, a judgment may be formed +of the extravagance of the present. The terms, indeed, pass the bounds +of all allowance for negligence and ignorance of office. + +The case of Mr. Belli's contract for supplying provisions to the Fort is +of the same description; and what exceedingly increases the suspicion +against this profusion, in contracts made in direct violation of orders, +is, that they are always found to be given in favor of persons closely +connected with Mr. Hastings in his family, or even in his actual +service. + +The principles upon which Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell justify this +disobedience, if admitted, reduce the Company's government, so far as it +regards the Supreme Council, to a mere patronage,--to a mere power of +nominating persons to or removing them from an authority which, is not +only despotic with regard to those who are subordinate to it, but in all +its acts entirely independent of the legal power which is nominally +superior. These are principles directly leading to the destruction of +the Company's government. A correspondent practice being established, +(as in this case of contracts, as well as others, it has been,) the +means are furnished of effectuating this purpose: for the common +superior, the Company, having no power to regulate or to support their +own appointments, nor to remove those whom they wish to remove, nor to +prevent the contracts from being made use of against their interest, all +the English in Bengal must naturally look to the next in authority; they +must depend upon, follow, and attach themselves to him solely; and thus +a party may be formed of the whole system of civil and military servants +for the support of the subordinate, and defiance of the supreme power. + +Your Committee being led to attend to the abuse of contracts, which are +given upon principles fatal to the subordination of the service, and in +defiance of orders, revert to the disobedience of orders in the case of +Mahomed Reza Khan. + +This transaction is of a piece with those that preceded it. On the 6th +of July, 1781, Mr. Hastings announced to the board the arrival of a +messenger and introduced a requisition from the young Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah, "that he might be _permitted to dispose of his own stipend, +without being made to depend on the will of another_." In favor of this +requisition Mr. Hastings urged various arguments:--that the Nabob could +no longer be deemed a minor;--that he was twenty-six years of age, and +father of many children;--that his understanding was much improved _of +late_ by an attention to his education;--that these circumstances gave +him a claim to the uncontrolled exercise of domestic authority; and it +might reasonably be supposed that he would pay a greater regard to a +just economy in his own family than had been observed by those who were +aliens to it. For these reasons Mr. Hastings recommended to the board +that Mahomed Reza Khan should be immediately divested of the office of +superintendent of the Nabob's household, _and that the Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah should be intrusted with the exclusive and entire receipts and +disbursements of his stipend, and the uncontrolled management and +regulation of his household_. Thus far your Committee are of opinion, +that the conclusion corresponds with the premises; for, supposing the +fact to be established or admitted, that the Nabob, in point of age, +capacity, and judgment, was qualified to act for himself, it seems +reasonable that the management of his domestic affairs should not be +withheld from him. On this part of the proceeding your Committee will +only observe, that, if it were strictly true that the Nabob's +understanding had been much improved _of late_ by an attention to his +education, (which seems an extraordinary way of describing the +qualifications of a man of six-and-twenty, the father of many children,) +the merit of such improvement must be attributed to Mahomed Reza Khan, +who was the only person of rank and character connected with him, or who +could be supposed to have any influence over him. Mr. Hastings himself +reproaches the Nabob with _raising mean men to be his companions_, and +tells him plainly, _that some persons, both of bad character and base +origin, had found the means of insinuating themselves into his company +and constant fellowship_. In such society it is not likely that either +the Nabob's morals or his understanding could have been _much improved_; +nor could it be deemed prudent to leave him without any check upon his +conduct. Mr. Hastings's opinion on this point may be collected from what +he did, but by no means from what he said, on the occasion. + +The House will naturally expect to find that the Nabob's request was +granted, and that the resolution of the board was conformable to the +terms of Mr. Hastings's recommendation. Yet the fact is directly the +reverse. Mr. Hastings, after advising _that the Nabob should be +intrusted with the exclusive and entire receipts and disbursements of +his stipend_, immediately corrects that advice, _being aware that so +sudden and unlimited a disposal of a large revenue might at first +encourage a spirit of dissipation in the Nabob_,--and reserves to +_himself_ a power of establishing, _with the Nabob's consent_, such a +plan for the regulation and equal distribution of the Nabob's expenses +_as should be adapted to the dissimilar appearances of preserving his +interests and his independence at the same time_. On the same +complicated principles the subsequent resolution of the board professes +to allow the Nabob the management of his stipend and expenses,--with _an +hope_, however, (which, considering the relative situation of the +parties, could be nothing less than an injunction,) that he would submit +to such a plan _as should be agreed on between him_ and the +Governor-General. + +The drift of these contradictions is sufficiently apparent. Mahomed Reza +Khan was to be divested of his office at all events, and the management +of the Nabob's stipend committed to other hands. To accomplish the +first, the Nabob is said to be "now arrived at that time of life when a +man may be supposed capable, _if ever_, of managing his own concerns." +When this principle has answered the momentary purpose for which it was +produced, we find it immediately discarded, and an opposite resolution +formed on an opposite principle, viz., that he shall _not_ have the +management of his own concerns, _in consideration of his want of +experience_. + +Mr. Hastings, on his arrival at Moorshedabad, gives Mr. Wheler an +account of his interview with the Nabob, and of the Nabob's implicit +submission to his advice. The principal, if not the sole, object of the +whole operation appears from the result of it. Sir John D'Oyly, a +gentleman in whom Mr. Hastings places particular confidence, succeeds to +the office of Mahomed Reza Khan, and to the same control over the +Nabob's expenses. Into the hands of this gentleman the Nabob's stipend +was _to be immediately paid, as every intermediate channel would be an +unavoidable cause of delay_; and to _his_ advice the Nabob was required +to give the same attention as if it were given by Mr. Hastings himself. +One of the conditions prescribed to the Nabob was, that he should admit +no Englishman to his presence without previously consulting Sir John +D'Oyly; _and he must forbid any person of that nation to be intruded +without his introduction_. On these arrangements it need only be +observed, that a measure which sets out with professing to relieve the +Nabob from a state of _perpetual pupilage_ concludes with delivering not +only his fortune, but his person, to the custody of a particular friend +of Mr. Hastings. + +The instructions given to the Nabob contain other passages that merit +attention. In one place Mr. Hastings tells him, "You have offered to +give up the sum of four lacs of rupees to be allowed the free use of the +remainder; but this we have refused." In another he says, that, "_as +many matters will occur which cannot be so easily explained by letter as +by conversation_, I desire that you will on such occasions give your +orders to Sir John D'Oyly respecting such points as you may desire to +have imparted to _me_." The offer alluded to in the first passage does +not appear in the Nabob's letters, therefore must have been in +conversation, and declined by Mr. Hastings without consulting his +colleague. A refusal of it might have been proper; but it supposes a +degree of incapacity in the Nabob not to be reconciled to the principles +on which Mahomed Reza Khan was removed from the management of his +affairs. Of the matters alluded to in the second, and which, it is said, +_could not be so easily explained by letters as in conversation_, no +explanation is given. Your Committee will therefore leave them, as Mr. +Hastings has done, to the opinion of the House. + +As soon as the Nabob's requisition was communicated to the board, it was +moved and resolved that Mahomed Reza Khan should be divested of his +office; and the House have seen in what manner it was disposed of. The +Nabob had stated various complaints against him:--that he had dismissed +the old established servants of the Nizamut, and filled their places +with his own dependants;--that he had _regularly received_ the stipend +of the Nizamut from the Company, yet had kept the Nabob involved in debt +and distress, and exposed to the clamors of his creditors, and sometimes +even in want of a dinner. All these complaints were recorded at large in +the proceedings of the Council; but it does not appear that they were +ever communicated to Mahomed Reza Khan, or that he was ever called upon, +in any shape, to answer them. This circumstance inclines your Committee +to believe that all of these charges were groundless,--especially as it +appears on the face of the proceedings, that the chief of them were not +well founded. Mr. Hastings, in his letter to Mr. Wheler, urges the +absolute necessity of the monthly payment of the Nabob's stipend _being +regularly made_, and says, that, to relieve the Nabob's present wants, +he had directed the Resident to raise an immediate supply on the credit +of the Company, to be repaid from the first receipts. From hence your +Committee conclude that the monthly payments had _not_ been regularly +made, and that whatever distresses the Nabob might have suffered must +have been owing to the Governor-General and Council, not to Mahomed Reza +Khan, who, for aught that appears to the contrary, paid away the stipend +as fast as he received it. Had it been otherwise, that is, if Mahomed +Reza Khan had reserved a balance of the Nabob's money in his hands, he +should, and undoubtedly he would, have been called upon to pay it in; +and then there would have been no necessity for raising an immediate +supply by other means. + +The transaction, on the whole, speaks very sufficiently for itself. It +is a gross instance of repeated disobedience to repeated orders; and it +is rendered particularly offensive to the authority of the Court of +Directors by the frivolous and contradictory reasons assigned for it. +But whether the Nabob's requisition was reasonable or not, the +Governor-General and Council were precluded by a special instruction +from complying with it. The Directors, in their letter of the 14th of +February, 1779, declare, that a resolution of Council, (taken by Mr. +Francis and Mr. Wheler, in the absence of Mr. Barwell,) viz., "that the +Nabob's letter should be referred to _them_ for _their_ decision, and +that no resolution should be taken in Bengal on his requisitions without +their special orders and instructions," was very proper. They prudently +reserved to themselves the right of deciding on such questions; but +they reserved it to no purpose. In England the authority is purely +formal. In Bengal the power is positive and real. When they clash, their +opposition serves only to degrade the authority that ought to +predominate, and to exalt the power that ought to be dependent. + + * * * * * + +Since the closing of the above Report, many material papers have arrived +from India, and have been laid before your Committee. That which they +think it most immediately necessary to annex to the Appendix to this +Report is the resolution of the Council-General to allow to the members +of the Board of Trade resident in Calcutta a charge of five per cent on +the sale in England of the investment formed upon their second plan, +namely, that plan which had been communicated to Lord Macartney. The +investment on this plan is stated to be raised from 800,000_l._ to +1,000,000_l._ sterling. + +It is on all accounts a very memorable transaction, and tends to bring +on a heavy burden, operating in the nature of a tax laid by their own +authority on the goods of their masters in England. If such a +compensation to the Board of Trade was necessary on account of their +engagement to take no further (that is to say, no unlawful) emolument, +it implies that the practice of making such unlawful emolument had +formerly existed; and your Committee think it very extraordinary that +the first notice the Company had received of such a practice should be +in taxing them for a compensation for a partial abolition of it, secured +on the parole of honor of those very persons who are supposed to have +been guilty of this unjustifiable conduct. Your Committee consider this +engagement, if kept, as only a partial abolition of the implied corrupt +practice: because no part of the compensation is given to the members of +the Board of Trade who reside at the several factories, though their +means of abuse are without all comparison greater; and if the corruption +was supposed so extensive as to be bought off at that price where the +means were fewer, the House will judge how far the tax has purchased off +the evil. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See the Secret Committee's Reports on the Mahratta War. + +[2] Vide Secret Committee Reports. + +[3] Vide Select Committee Reports, 1781 + +[4] The sale, to the amount of about one hundred thousand pounds +annually, of the export from Great Britain ought to be deducted from +this million. + +[5] Estimate of the Sale Amount and Net Proceeds in England of the +Cargoes to be sent from Bengal, agreeable to the Plan received by Letter +dated the 8th April, 1782. + +This calculation supposes the eighty lac investments will be equal to +the tonnage of five ships. + +[B] 2. To custom L320,000 |[A] 1. By sale amount of +[C] 3. " freight 200,000 | piece-goods and +[D] 4. " 5 per cent duty on | raw silk L1,300,000 + L1,300,000 65,000 | Discount 61/2 per +[E] 5. " 2 do. warehouse | cent allowed the + room do. 26,000 | buyers 84,500 + 7 do. commission | + on L604,500 42,315 | + ---------- | + L653,315 | +[F] 6. " Balance 562,185 | + ---------- | ---------- + L1,215,500 | L1,215,500 + +[A] 1. The sale amount is computed on an average of the sales of the two +last years' imports. + +[B] 2. The custom is computed on an average of what was paid on +piece-goods and raw silk of said imports, adding additional imposts. + +[C] 3. The ships going out of this season, (1782,) by which the above +investment is expected to be sent home, are taken up at 47_l._ 5_s._ per +ton, for the homeward cargo; this charge amounts to 35,815_l._ each +ship; the additional wages to the men, which the Company pay, and a very +small charge for demurrage, will increase the freight, &c., to +40,000_l._ per ship, agreeable to above estimate. + +[D] 4. The duty of five per cent is charged by the Company on the gross +sale amount of all private trade licensed to be brought from India: the +amount of this duty is the only benefit the Company are likely to +receive from the subscription investment. + +[E] 5. This charge is likewise made on private trade goods, and is +little, if anything, more than the real expense the Company are at on +account of the same; therefore no benefit will probably arise to the +Company from it on the sale of the said investment. + +[F] 6. This is the sum which will probably be realized in England, and +is only equal to 1_s._ 6_d._ per rupee, on the eighty lacs subscribed. + +[6] Vide Mr. Francis's plan in Appendix, No. 14, to the Select +Committee's Sixth Report. + +[7] The whole sum has not been actually raised; but the deficiency is +not very considerable. + +[8] Fourth Report, page 106. + +[9] Par. 36. Vide Fourth Report from Com. of Secrecy in 1773, Appendix, +No. 45. + +[10] Vide Sel. Letter to Bengal, 17 May, 1766, Par. 36, in Fourth Report +from Com. of Secrecy, in 1773, Appendix, No. 45. + +[11] Ibid. Par. 37. + +[12] Vide Committee's Fifth Report, page 21, and Appendix to that +Report, No. 12. + +[13] 1st and 5th April, 1779. + + + + +ELEVENTH REPORT + +OF THE + +SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS + +ON + +THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. + +WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE APPENDIX. + +November 18, 1783. + + + + +ELEVENTH REPORT + + From the SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to take into + consideration the state of the administration of justice in + the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and to report the + same, as it shall appear to them, to the House, with their + observations thereupon; and who were instructed to consider + how the British possessions in the East Indies may be held + and governed with the greatest security and advantage to this + country, and by what means the happiness of the native + inhabitants may be best protected. + +Your Committee, in the course of their inquiry into the obedience +yielded by the Company's Servants to the orders of the Court of +Directors, (the authority of which orders had been strengthened by the +Regulating Act of 1773,) could not overlook one of the most essential +objects of that act and of those orders, namely, _the taking of gifts +and presents_. These pretended free gifts from the natives to the +Company's servants in power had never been authorized by law; they are +contrary to the covenants formerly entered into by the President and +Council, they are strictly forbidden by the act of Parliament, and +forbidden upon grounds of the most substantial policy. + +Before the Regulating Act of 1773, the allowances made by the Company to +the Presidents of Bengal were abundantly sufficient to guaranty them +against anything like a necessity for giving into that pernicious +practice. The act of Parliament which appointed a Governor-General in +the place of a President, as it was extremely particular in enforcing +the prohibition of those presents, so it was equally careful in making +an ample provision for supporting the dignity of the office, in order to +remove all excuse for a corrupt increase of its emoluments. + +Although evidence on record, as well as verbal testimony, has appeared +before your Committee of presents to a large amount having been received +by Mr. Hastings and others before the year 1775, they were not able to +find distinct traces of that practice in him or any one else for a few +years. + +The inquiries set on foot in Bengal, by order of the Court of Directors, +in 1775, with regard to all corrupt practices, and the vigor with which +they were for some time pursued, might have given a temporary check to +the receipt of presents, or might have produced a more effectual +concealment of them, and afterwards the calamities which befell almost +all who were concerned in the first discoveries did probably prevent any +further complaint upon the subject; but towards the close of the last +session your Committee have received much of new and alarming +information concerning that abuse. + +The first traces appeared, though faintly and obscurely, in a letter to +the Court of Directors from the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, written +on the 29th of November, 1780.[14] It has been stated in a former Report +of your Committee,[15] that on the 26th of June, 1780, Mr. Hastings +being very earnest in the prosecution of a particular operation in the +Mahratta war, in order to remove objections to that measure, which were +made on account of the expense of the contingencies, he offered to +_exonerate_ the Company from that "charge." Continuing his Minute of +Council, he says, "That sum" (a sum of about 23,000_l._) "I have already +deposited, within a small amount, in the hands of the sub-treasurer; and +I _beg_ that the board will _permit_ it to be accepted for that +service." Here he offers in his own person; he deposits, or pretends +that he deposits, in his own person; and, with the zeal of a man eager +to pledge his private fortune in support of his measures, he prays that +his offer may be accepted. Not the least hint that he was delivering +back to the Company money of their own, which he had secreted from them. +Indeed, no man ever made it a request, much less earnestly entreated, +"begged to be permitted," to pay to any persons, public or private, +money that was their own. + +It appeared to your Committee that the money offered for that service, +which was to forward the operations of a detachment under Colonel Camac +in an expedition against one of the Mahratta chiefs, was not accepted. +And your Committee, having directed search to be made for any sums of +money paid into the Treasury by Mr. Hastings for this service, found, +that, notwithstanding his assertion of having deposited "two lacs of +rupees, or within a trifle of that sum, in the hands of the +sub-treasurer," no entry whatsoever of that or any other payment by the +Governor-General was made in the Treasury accounts at or about that +time.[16] This circumstance appeared very striking to your Committee, as +the non-appearance in the Company's books of the article in question +must be owing to one or other of these four causes:--That the assertion +of Mr. Hastings, of his having paid in near two lacs of rupees at that +time, was not true; or that the sub-treasurer may receive great sums in +deposit without entering them in the Company's Treasury accounts; or +that the Treasury books themselves are records not to be depended on; +or, lastly, that faithful copies of these books of accounts are not +transmitted to Europe. The defect of an entry corresponding with Mr. +Hastings's declaration in Council can be attributed only to one of these +four causes,--of which the want of foundation in his recorded assertion, +though very blamable, is the least alarming. + +On the 29th of November following, Mr. Hastings communicated to the +Court of Directors some sort of notice of this transaction.[17] In his +letter of that date he varies in no small degree the aspect under which +the business appeared in his Minute of Consultation of the 26th of June. +In his letter he says to the Directors, "The subject is now become +obsolete; the fair hopes which I had built upon the prosecution of the +Mahratta war have been blasted by the dreadful calamities which have +befallen your Presidency of Fort St. George, and changed the object of +our pursuit from the _aggrandizement_ of your power to its +preservation." After thus confessing, or rather boasting, of his motives +to the Mahratta war, he proceeds: "My present reason for reverting to my +own conduct on the occasion which I have mentioned" (namely, his +offering a sum of money for the Company's service) "is to obviate _the +false conclusions or purposed misrepresentations_ which may be made of +it, either as an artifice of _ostentation_ or the effect of _corrupt +influence_, by assuring you that the money, _by whatever means it came +into my possession, was not my own_, that I had myself _no right_ to it, +nor would or could have received it but for the occasion which prompted +me to avail myself _of the accidental means_ which were at that instant +afforded me of accepting and converting it to the property and use of +the Company: and with this brief apology I shall dismiss the subject." + +The apology is brief indeed, considering the nature of the transaction; +and what is more material than its length or its shortness, it is in all +points unsatisfactory. The matter becomes, if possible, more obscure by +his explanation. Here was money received by Mr. Hastings, which, +according to his own judgment, he had no right to receive; it was money +which, "but for the occasion that prompted him, he could not have +accepted"; it was money which came into his, and from his into the +Company's hands, by ways and means undescribed, and from persons +unnamed: yet, though apprehensive of false conclusions and purposed +misrepresentations, he gives his employers no insight whatsoever into a +matter which of all others stood in the greatest need of a full and +clear elucidation. + +Although he chooses to omit this essential point, he expresses the most +anxious solicitude to clear himself of the charges that might be made +against him, of the artifices of ostentation, and of corrupt influence. +To discover, if possible, the ground for apprehending such imputations, +your Committee adverted to the circumstances in which he stood at the +time: they found that this letter was dispatched about the time that +Mr. Francis took his passage for England; his fear of misrepresentation +may therefore allude to something which passed in conversation between +him and that gentleman at the time the offer was made. + +It was not easy, on the mere face of his offer, to give an ill turn to +it. The act, as it stands on the Minute, is not only disinterested, but +generous and public-spirited. If Mr. Hastings apprehended +misrepresentation from Mr. Francis, or from any other person, your +Committee conceive that he did not employ proper means for defeating the +ill designs of his adversaries. On the contrary, the course he has taken +in his letter to the Court of Directors is calculated to excite doubts +and suspicions in minds the most favorably disposed to him. Some degree +of ostentation is not extremely blamable at a time when a man advances +largely from his private fortune towards the public service. It is human +infirmity at the worst, and only detracts something from the lustre of +an action in itself meritorious. The kind of ostentation which is +criminal, and criminal only because it is fraudulent, is where a person +makes a show of giving when in reality he does not give. This imposition +is criminal more or less according to the circumstances. But if the +money received to furnish such a pretended gift is taken from any third +person without right to take it, a new guilt, and guilt of a much worse +quality and description, is incurred. The Governor-General, in order to +keep clear of ostentation, on the 29th of November, 1780, declares, that +the sum of money which he offered on the 26th of the preceding June as +his own was not his own, and that he had no right to it. Clearing +himself of vanity, he convicts himself of deceit, and of injustice. + +The other object of this brief apology was to clear himself of _corrupt +influence_. Of all ostentation he stands completely acquitted in the +month of November, however he might have been faulty in that respect in +the month of June; but with regard to the other part of the apprehended +charge, namely, _corrupt influence_, he gives no satisfactory solution. +A great sum of money "not his own,"--money to which "he had no +right,"--money which came into his possession "by whatever means":--if +this be not money obtained by corrupt influence, or by something worse, +that is, by violence or terror, it will be difficult to fix upon +circumstances which can furnish a presumption of unjustifiable use of +power and influence in the acquisition of profit. The last part of the +apology, that he had converted this money ("which he had no right to +receive") to the Company's use, so far as your Committee can discover, +_does nowhere appear_. He speaks, in the Minute of the 26th of June, as +having _then_ actually deposited it for the Company's service; in the +letter of November he says that he converted it to the Company's +property: but there is no trace in the Company's books of its being ever +brought to their credit in the expenditure for any specific service, +even if any such entry and expenditure could justify him in taking money +which he had by his own confession, "no right to receive." + +The Directors appear to have been deceived by this representation, and +in their letter of January, 1782,[18] consider the money as actually +paid into their Treasury. Even under their error concerning the +application of the money, they appear rather alarmed than satisfied +with the brief apology of the Governor-General. They consider the whole +proceeding as _extraordinary and mysterious_. They, however, do not +condemn it with any remarkable asperity; after admitting that he might +be induced to a temporary secrecy _respecting the members of the board_, +from a fear of their resisting the proposed application, or any +application of this money to the Company's use, yet they write to the +Governor-General and Council as follows:--"It does not appear to us that +there could be any real necessity for delaying to communicate to _us_ +immediate information of the _channel_ by which the money came into Mr. +Hastings's possession, with a complete illustration of the cause or +causes of so _extraordinary_ an event." And again: "The means proposed +of defraying the extra expenses are very _extraordinary_; and the money, +we conceive, must have come into his hands by an _unusual_ channel; and +when more complete information comes before us, we shall give our +sentiments fully on the transaction." And speaking of this and other +moneys under a similar description, they say, "We shall suspend our +judgment, without approving it in the least degree, or proceeding to +censure our Governor-General for this transaction." The expectations +entertained by the Directors of a more complete explanation were +natural, and their expression tender and temperate. But the more +complete information which they naturally expected they never have to +this day received. + +Mr. Hastings wrote two more letters to the Secret Committee of the Court +of Directors, in which he mentions this transaction: the first dated (as +he asserts, and a Mr. Larkins swears) on the 22d of May, 1782;[19] the +last, which accompanied it, so late as the 16th of December in the same +year.[20] Though so long an interval lay between the transaction of the +26th of June, 1780, and the middle of December, 1782, (upwards of two +years,) no further satisfaction is given. He has written, since the +receipt of the above letter of the Court of Directors, (which demanded, +what they had a right to demand, a clear explanation of the particulars +of this sum of money which he had no right to receive,) without giving +them any further satisfaction. Instead of explanation or apology, he +assumes a tone of complaint and reproach, to the Directors: he lays +before them a kind of an account of presents received, to the amount of +upwards of 200,000_l._,--some at a considerable distance of time, and +which had not been hitherto communicated to the Company. + +In the letter which accompanied that very extraordinary account, which +then for the first time appeared, he discovers no small solicitude to +clear himself from the imputation of having these discoveries drawn from +him by the terrors of the Parliamentary inquiries then on foot. To +remove all suspicion of such a motive for making these discoveries, Mr. +Larkins swears, in an affidavit made before Mr. Justice Hyde, bearing +even date with the letter which accompanies the account, that is, of the +16th of December, 1782, that this letter had been written by him on the +22d of May, several months before it was dispatched.[21] It appears that +Mr. Larkins, who makes this voluntary affidavit, is neither secretary to +the board, nor Mr. Hastings's private secretary, but an officer of the +Treasury of Bengal. + +Mr. Hastings was conscious that a question would inevitably arise, how +he came to delay the sending intelligence of so very interesting a +nature from May to December. He therefore thinks it necessary to account +for so suspicious a circumstance. He tells the Directors, "that the +dispatch of the 'Lively' having been protracted from time to time, the +accompanying address, which was originally designed and prepared for +that dispatch, _and no other since occurring_, has of course been thus +long delayed." + +The Governor-General's letter is dated the 22d May, and the "Resolution" +was the last ship of the season dispatched for Europe. The public +letters to the Directors are dated the 9th May; but it appears by the +letter of the commander of the ship that he did not receive his +dispatches from Mr. Lloyd, then at Kedgeree, until the 26th May, and +also that the pilot was not discharged from the ship until the 11th +June. Some of these presents (now for the first time acknowledged) had +been received eighteen months preceding the date of this letter,--none +less than four months; so that, in fact, he might have sent this account +by all the ships of that season; but the Governor-General chose to write +this letter thirteen days after the determination in Council for the +dispatch of the last ship. + +It does not appear that he has given any communication whatsoever to his +colleagues in office of those extraordinary transactions. Nothing +appears on the records of the Council of the receipt of the presents; +nor is the transmission of this account mentioned in the general letter +to the Court of Directors, but in a letter from himself to their Secret +Committee, consisting generally of two persons, but at most of three. It +is to be observed that the Governor-General states, "that the dispatch +of the 'Lively' had been protracted from time to time; that this delay +was of no public consequence; but that it produced a situation which +with respect to himself he regarded as unfortunate, because it exposed +him to the meanest imputations, from the occasion which the late +Parliamentary inquiries have since furnished, but which were unknown +when his letter was written." If the Governor-General thought his +silence exposed him to the _meanest imputations_, he had the means in +his own power of avoiding those imputations: he might have sent this +letter, dated the 22d May, by the Resolution. For we find, that, in a +letter from Captain Poynting, of the 26th May, he states it not possible +for him to proceed to sea with the smallest degree of safety without a +supply of anchors and cables, and most earnestly requests they may be +supplied from Calcutta; and on the 28th May we find a minute from the +Secretary of the Council, Mr. Auriol, requesting an order of Council to +the master-attendant to furnish a sloop to carry down those cables; +which order was accordingly issued on the 30th May. There requires no +other proof to show that the Governor-General had the means of sending +this letter seven days after he wrote it, instead of delaying it for +near seven months, and because no conveyance had offered. Your Committee +must also remark, that the conveyance by land to Madras was certain; and +whilst such important operations were carrying on, both by sea and land, +upon the coast, that dispatches would be sent to the Admiralty or to the +Company was highly probable. + +If the letter of the 22d May had been found in the list of packets sent +by the Resolution, the Governor General would have established in a +satisfactory manner, and far beyond the effect of any affidavit, that +the letter had been written at the time of the date. It appears that the +Resolution, being on her voyage to England, met with so severe a gale of +wind as to be obliged to put back to Bengal, and to unload her cargo. +This event makes no difference in the state of the transaction. Whatever +the cause of these new discoveries might have been, at the time of +sending them the fact of the Parliamentary inquiry was publicly known. + +In the letter of the above date Mr. Hastings laments the mortification +of being reduced to take precautions "to guard his reputation from +dishonor."--"If I had," says he, "_at any time_ possessed that degree of +confidence from my _immediate_ employers which they have never withheld +from the _meanest_ of my predecessors, I should have disdained to use +these attentions." + +Who the _meanest_ of Mr. Hastings's predecessors were does not appear to +your Committee; nor are they able to discern the ground of propriety or +decency for his assuming to himself a right to call any of them mean +persons. But if such mean persons have possessed that degree of +confidence from his immediate employers which for so many years he had +not possessed "_at any time_," inferences must be drawn from thence very +unfavorable to one or the other of the parties, or perhaps to both. The +attentions which he practises and disdains can in this case be of no +service to himself, his employers, or the public; the only attention at +all effectual towards extenuating, or in some degree atoning for, the +guilt of having taken money from individuals illegally was to be full +and fair in his confession of all the particulars of his offence. This +might not obtain that confidence which at no time he has enjoyed, but +still the Company and the nation might derive essential benefit from it; +the Directors might be able to afford redress to the sufferers; and by +his laying open the concealed channels of abuse, means might be +furnished for the better discovery, and possibly for the prevention, or +at least for the restraint, of a practice of the most dangerous +nature,--a practice of which the mere prohibition, without the means of +detection, must ever prove, as hitherto it had proved, altogether +frivolous. + +Your Committee, considering that so long a time had elapsed without any +of that information which the Directors expected, and perceiving that +this receipt of sums of money under color of gift seemed a growing evil, +ordered the attendance of Mr. Hastings's agent, Major Scott. They had +found, on former occasions, that this gentleman was furnished with much +more early and more complete intelligence of the Company's affairs in +India than was thought proper for the Court of Directors; they therefore +examined him concerning every particular sum of money the receipt of +which Mr. Hastings had confessed in his account. It was to their +surprise that Mr. Scott professed himself perfectly uninstructed upon +almost every part of the subject, though the express object of his +mission to England was to clear up such matters as might be objected to +Mr. Hastings; and for that purpose he had early qualified himself by the +production to your Committee of his powers of agency. The ignorance in +which Mr. Hastings had left his agent was the more striking, because he +must have been morally certain, that, if his conduct in these points +should have escaped animadversion from the Court of Directors, it must +become an object of Parliamentary inquiry; for, in his letter of the +15th [16th?] of December, 1782, to the Court of Directors, he expressly +mentions his fears that those Parliamentary inquiries might be thought +to have extorted from him the confessions which he had made. + +Your Committee, however, entering on a more strict examination +concerning the two lacs of rupees, which Mr. Hastings declares he had no +right to take, but had taken from some person then unknown, Major Scott +recollected that Mr. Hastings had, in a letter of the 7th of December, +1782, (in which he refers to some former letter,) acquainted him with +the name of the person from whom he had received these two lacs of +rupees, mentioned in the minute of June, 1780. It turned out to be the +Rajah of Benares, the unfortunate Cheyt Sing. + +In the single instance in which Mr. Scott seemed to possess intelligence +in this matter, he is preferred to the Court of Directors. Under their +censure as Mr. Hastings was, and as he felt himself to be, for not +informing them of the channel in which he received that money, he +perseveres obstinately and contemptuously to conceal it from them; +though he thought fit to intrust his agent with the secret. + +Your Committee were extremely struck with this intelligence. They were +totally unacquainted with it, when they presented to the House the +Supplement to their Second Report, on the affairs of Cheyt Sing. A gift +received by Mr. Hastings from the Rajah of Benares gave rise in their +minds to serious reflections on the condition of the princes of India +subjected to the British authority. Mr. Hastings was, at the very time +of his receiving this gift, in the course of making on the Rajah of +Benares a series of demands, unfounded and unjustifiable, and constantly +growing in proportion as they were submitted to. To these demands the +Rajah of Benares, besides his objections in point of right, constantly +sat up a plea of poverty. Presents from persons who hold up poverty as a +shield against extortion can scarcely in any case be considered as +gratuitous, whether the plea of poverty be true or false. In this case +the presents might have been bestowed; if not with an assurance, at +least with a rational hope, of some mitigation in the oppressive +requisitions that were made by Mr. Hastings; for to give much +voluntarily, when it is known that much will be taken away forcibly, is +a thing absurd and impossible. On the other [one?] hand, the acceptance +of that gift by Mr. Hastings must have pledged a tacit faith for some +degree of indulgence towards the donor: if it was a free gift, +gratitude, if it was a bargain, justice obliged him to do it. If, on the +other hand, Mr. Hastings originally destined (as he says he did) this +money, given to himself secretly and for his private emolument, to the +use of the Company, the Company's favor, to whom he acted as trustee, +ought to have been purchased by it. In honor and justice he bound and +pledged himself for that power which was to profit by the gift, and to +profit, too, in the success of an expedition which Mr. Hastings thought +so necessary to their aggrandizement. The unhappy man found his money +accepted, but no favor acquired on the part either of the Company or of +Mr. Hastings. + +Your Committee have, in another Report, stated to the House that Mr. +Hastings attributed the extremity of distress which the detachments +under Colonel Camac had suffered, and the great desertions which ensued +on that expedition, to the want of punctuality of the Rajah in making +payment of one of the sums which had been extorted from him; and this +want of punctual payment was afterwards assigned as a principal reason +for the ruin of this prince. Your Committee have shown to the House, by +a comparison of facts and dates, that this charge is wholly without +foundation. But if the cause of Colonel Camac's failure had been true as +to the sum which was the object of the public demand, the failure could +not be attributed to the Rajah, when he had on the _instant_ privately +furnished at least 23,000_l._ to Mr. Hastings,--that is, furnished the +identical money which he tells us (but carefully concealing the name of +the giver) he had from the beginning destined, as he afterwards publicly +offered, for this very expedition of Colonel Camac's. The complication +of fraud and cruelty in the transaction admits of few parallels. Mr. +Hastings at the Council Board of Bengal displays himself as a zealous +servant of the Company, bountifully giving from his own fortune, and in +his letter to the Directors (as he says himself) as going out of the +ordinary roads for their advantage;[22] and all this on the credit of +supplies derived from the gift of a man whom he treats with the utmost +severity, and whom he accuses, in this particular, of disaffection to +the Company's cause and interests. + +With 23,000_l._ of the Rajah's money in his pocket, he persecutes him to +his destruction,--assigning for a reason, that his reliance on the +Rajah's faith, and his breach of it, were the principal causes that _no +other_ provision was made for the detachment on the specific expedition +to which the Rajah's specific money was to be applied. The Rajah had +given it to be disposed of by Mr. Hastings; and if it was not disposed +of in the best manner for the accomplishing his objects, the accuser +himself is the criminal. + +To take money for the forbearance of a just demand would have been +corrupt only; but to urge unjust public demands,--to accept private +pecuniary favors in the course of those demands,--and, on the pretence +of delay or refusal, without mercy to persecute a benefactor,--to refuse +to hear his remonstrances,--to arrest him in his capital, in his palace, +in the face of all the people,--thus to give occasion to an +insurrection, and, on pretext of that insurrection, to refuse all treaty +or explanation,--to drive him from his government and his country,--to +proscribe him in a general amnesty,--and to send him all over India a +fugitive, to publish the shame of British government in all the nations +to whom he successively fled for refuge,--these are proceedings to +which, for the honor of human nature, it is hoped few parallels are to +be found in history, and in which the illegality and corruption of the +acts form the smallest part of the mischief. + +Such is the account of the first sum _confessed_ to be taken as a +present by Mr. Hastings, since the year 1775; and such are its +consequences. Mr. Hastings apologizes for this action by declaring "that +he would not have received the money but for the _occasion_, which +prompted him to avail himself of the accidental means which were at that +instant afforded him of accepting and converting it to the use of the +Company."[23] By this account, he considers the act as excusable only by +the particular occasion, by the temptation of accidental means, and by +the suggestion of the _instant_. How far this is the case appears by the +very next paragraph of this letter in which the account is given and in +which the apology is made. If these were his sentiments in June, 1780, +they lasted but a very short time: his accidental means appear to be +growing habitual. + +To point out in a clear manner the spirit of the second money +transaction to which your Committee adverted, which is represented by +Mr. Hastings as having some "affinity with the former _anecdote_,"[24] +(for in this light kind of phrase he chooses to express himself to his +masters,) your Committee think it necessary to state to the House, that +the business, namely, this business, which was the second object of +their inquiry, appears in three different papers and in three different +lights: on comparing of these authorities, in every one of which Mr. +Hastings is himself the voucher, if one of the three be true, the other +two must necessarily be false. + +These three authorities, which your Committee has accurately compared, +are, first, his minutes on the Consultations;[25] secondly, his letter +to the Court of Directors on the 29th of November, 1780;[26] thirdly, +his account, transmitted on the 16th of December, 1782.[27] + +About eight months after the first transaction relative to Cheyt Sing, +and which is just reported, that is, on the 5th of January, 1781, Mr. +Hastings produced a demand to the Council for money of his own expended +for the Company's service.[28] Here was no occasion for secrecy. Mr. +Francis was on his passage to Europe; Mr. Wheler was alone left, who no +longer dissented from anything; Mr. Hastings was in effect himself the +whole Council. He declared that _he_ had disbursed three lacs of rupees, +that is, thirty-four thousand five hundred pounds, in secret +services,--which having, he says, "been advanced from _my own private +cash_, I request that the same may be repaid to me in the following +manner." He accordingly desires three bonds, for a lac of Sicca rupees +each, to be given to him in two of the Company's subscriptions,--one to +bear interest on the eight per cent loan, the other two in the four per +cent: the bonds were antedated to the beginning of the preceding +October. On the 9th of the same month, that is, on the 9th of January, +1781, the three bonds were accordingly ordered.[29] So far the whole +transaction appears clear, and of a piece. Private money is subscribed, +and a public security is taken for it. When the Company's Treasury +accounts[30] are compared with the proceedings of their Council-General, +a perfect correspondence also appears. The three bonds are then [there?] +entered to Mr. Hastings, and he is credited for principal and interest +on them, in the exact terms of the order. So far the official +accounts,--which, because of their perfect harmony, are considered as +clear and consistent evidence to one body of fact. + +The second sort of document relative to these bonds (though the first in +order of time) is Mr. Hastings's letter of the 29th of November, +1780.[31] It is written between the time of the expenditure of the money +for the Company's use and the taking of the bonds. Here, for the first +time, a very material difference appears; and the difference is the more +striking, because Mr. Hastings claimed the _whole_ money as his own, and +took bonds for it as such, _after_ this representation. The letter to +the Company discovers that part of the money (the whole of which he had +declared on record to be his own, and for which he had taken bonds) was +not his, but the property of his masters, from whom he had taken the +security. It is no less remarkable that the letter which represents the +money as belonging to the Company was written about six weeks before the +Minute of Council in which he claims that money as his own. It is this +letter on which your Committee is to remark. + +Mr. Hastings, after giving his reasons for the application of the three +lacs of rupees, and for his having for some time concealed the fact, +says, "Two thirds of that sum I have raised _by my own credit_, and +shall charge it in my official account; _the other third_ I have +supplied from the cash in my hands belonging to the Honorable +Company."[32] + +The House will observe, that in November he tells the Directors that he +shall charge only _two thirds_ in his official accounts; in the +following January he charges the _whole_.[33] For the other third, +although he admitted that to belong to the Company, we have seen that he +takes a bond to _himself_. + +It is material that he tells the Company in his letter that these two +lacs of rupees were _raised on his credit_. His letter to the Council +says that they were advanced from his _private cash_. What he raises on +his credit may, on a fair construction, be considered as his own: but in +this, too, he fails; for it is certain he has never transferred these +bonds to any creditor; nor has he stated any sum he has paid, or for +which he stands indebted, on that account, to any specific person. +Indeed, it was out of his power; for the first two thirds of the money, +which he formerly stated as raised upon his credit, he now confesses to +have been from the beginning the Company's property, and therefore could +not have been raised on his private credit, or borrowed from any person +whatsoever. + +To these two accounts, thus essentially varying, he has added a +third,[34] varying at least as essentially from both. In his last or +third account, which is a statement of all the sums he has received in +an extraordinary manner, and confessed to be the Company's property, he +reverses the items of his first account, and, instead of allowing the +Company but one third and claiming two thirds for himself, he enters two +of the bonds, each for a lac of rupees, as belonging to the Company: of +the third bond, which appears so distinctly in the Consultations and in +the Treasury accounts, not one word is said; ten thousand pounds is +absorbed, sinks, and disappears at once, and no explanation whatsoever +concerning it is given; Mr. Hastings seems not yet to have decided to +whose account it ought to be placed. In this manner his debt to the +Company, or the Company's to him, is just what he thinks fit. In a +single article he has varied three times. In one account he states the +whole to be his own; in another he claims two thirds; in the last he +gives up the claim of the two thirds, and says nothing to the remaining +portion. + +To make amends, however, for the suppression of this third bond, given +with the two others in January, 1781, and antedated to the beginning of +October, Mr. Hastings, in the above-mentioned general account subjoined +to his letter of the 22d May, 1782, has brought to the Company's credit +a new bond.[35] + +This bond is for 17,000_l._ It was taken from the Company (and so it +appears on their Treasury accounts) on the 23d of November, 1780. He +took no notice of this, when, in January following, he called upon his +own Council for the three others. What is more extraordinary, he was +equally silent with regard to it, when, only six days after its date, he +wrote concerning the subject of the three other bonds to the Court of +Directors; yet now it comes out, that that bond also was taken by Mr. +Hastings from the Company for money which he declares he had received on +the Company's account, and that he entered himself as creditor when he +ought to have made himself debtor. + +Your Committee examined Major Scott concerning this money, which Mr. +Hastings must have obtained in some clandestine and irregular mode; but +they could obtain no information of the persons from whom it was taken, +nor of the occasion or pretence of taking this large sum; nor does any +Minute of Council appear for its application to any service. The whole +of the transaction, whatever it was, relative to this bond, is covered +with the thickest obscurity. + +Mr. Hastings, to palliate the blame of his conduct, declares that he +has not received any interest on these bonds,--and that he has indorsed +them as not belonging to himself, but to the Company.[36] As to the +first part of this allegation, whether he received the interest or let +it remain in arrear is a matter of indifference, as he entitled himself +to it; and so far as the legal security he has taken goes, he may, +whenever he pleases, dispose both of principal and interest. What he has +indorsed on the bonds, or when he made the indorsement, or whether in +fact he has made it at all, are matters known only to himself; for the +bonds must be in his possession, and are nowhere by him stated to be +given up or cancelled,--which is a thing very remarkable, when he +confesses that he had no right to receive them. + +These bonds make but a part of the account of private receipts of money +by Mr. Hastings, formerly paid into the Treasury as his own property, +and now allowed not to be so. This account brings into view other very +remarkable matters of a similar nature and description.[37] + +In the public records, a sum of not less than 23,871_l._ is set to his +credit as a _deposit_ for his private account, paid in by him into the +Treasury in gold, and coined at the Company's mint.[38] This appears in +the account furnished to the Directors, under the date of May, 1782, not +to be lawfully his money, and he therefore transfers it to the Company's +credit: it still remains as a deposit.[39] + +That the House may be apprised of the nature of this article of +deposit, it may not be improper to state that the Company receive into +their treasury the cash of private persons, placed there as in a bank. +On this no interest is paid, and the party depositing has a right to +receive it upon demand. Under this head of account no public money is +ever entered. Mr. Hastings, neither at making the deposit as his own, +nor at the time of his disclosure of the real proprietor, (which he +makes to be the Company,) has given any information of the persons from +whom this money had been received. Mr. Scott was applied to by your +Committee, but could not give any more satisfaction in this particular +than in those relative to the bonds. + +The title of the account of the 22d of May purports not only that those +sums were paid into the Company's treasury by Mr. Hastings's order, but +that they were applied to the Company's service. No service is +specified, directly or by any reference, to which this great sum of +money has been applied. + +Two extraordinary articles follow this, in the May account, amounting to +about 29,000_l._[40] These articles are called Receipts for Durbar +Charges. The general head of Durbar Charges, made by persons in office, +when analyzed into the particulars, contains various expenses, including +bounties and presents made by government, chiefly in the foreign +department. But in the last account he confesses that this sum also is +not his, but the Company's property; but as in all the rest, so in this, +he carefully conceals the means by which he acquired the money, the time +of his taking it, and the persons from whom it was taken. This is the +more extraordinary, because, in looking over the journals and ledgers +of the Treasury, the presents received and carried to the account of the +Company (which were generally small and complimental) were precisely +entered, with the name of the giver. + +Your Committee, on turning to the account of Durbar charges in the +ledger of that month, find the sum, as stated in the account of May 22d, +to be indeed paid in; but there is no specific application whatsoever +entered. + +The account of the whole money thus clandestinely received, as stated on +the 22d of May, 1782, (and for a great part of which Mr. Hastings to +that time took credit for, and for the rest has accounted in an +extraordinary manner as his own,) amounts in the whole to upwards of +ninety-three thousand pounds sterling: a vast sum to be so obtained, and +so loosely accounted for! If the money taken from the Rajah of Benares +be added, (as it ought,) it will raise the sum to upwards of +116,000_l._; if the 11,600_l._ bond in October be added, it will be +upwards of 128,000_l._ received in a secret manner by Mr. Hastings in +about one year and five months. To all these he adds another sum of one +hundred thousand pounds, received as a present from the Subah of Oude. +Total, upwards of 228,000_l._ + +Your Committee find that this last is the only sum the giver of which +Mr. Hastings has thought proper to declare. It is to be observed, that +he did not receive this 100,000_l._ in money, but in bills on a great +native money-dealer resident at Benares, and who has also an house at +Calcutta: he is called Gopal Das. The negotiation of these bills tended +to make a discovery not so difficult as it would have been in other +cases. + +With regard to the application of this last sum of money, which is said +to be carried to the Durbar charges of April, 1782, your Committee are +not enabled to make any observations on it, as the account of that +period has not yet arrived. + +Your Committee have, in another Report, remarked fully upon most of the +circumstances of this extraordinary transaction. Here they only bring so +much of these circumstances again into view as may serve to throw light +upon the true nature of the sums of money taken by British subjects in +power, under the name of _presents_, and to show how far they are +entitled to that description in any sense which can fairly imply in the +pretended donors either willingness or ability to give. The condition of +the bountiful parties who are not yet discovered may be conjectured from +the state of those who have been made known: as far as that state +anywhere appears, their generosity is found in proportion, not to the +opulence they possess or to the favors they receive, but to the +indigence they feel and the insults they are exposed to. The House will +particularly attend to the situation of the principal giver, the Subah +of Oude. + +"When the knife," says he, "had penetrated to the bone, and I was +surrounded with such heavy distresses that I could no longer live in +expectations, I wrote you an account of my difficulties. + +"The answer which I have received to it is such that it has given me +inexpressible grief and affliction. I never had the least idea or +expectation from you and the Council that you would ever have given your +orders in so afflicting a manner, in which you never before wrote, and +which I could not have imagined. As I am resolved to _obey_ your orders, +and directions of the Council, without any delay, as long as I live, I +have, agreeably to those _orders_, delivered up _all my private papers_ +to him [the Resident], that, when he shall have examined my receipts and +expenses, _he may take whatever remains_. As I know it to be my duty to +satisfy you, the Company, and Council, I have not failed to _obey_ in +any instance, but requested of him that it might be done so as not to +_distress me in my necessary expenses_: there being no other funds but +those for the expenses of my mutseddies, household expenses, and +servants, &c. He demanded these in such a manner, that, being +_remediless_, I was obliged to comply with what he required. He has +accordingly _stopped the pensions of my old servants for thirty years, +whether sepoys, mutseddies, or household servants, and the expenses of +my family and kitchen, together with the jaghires of my grandmother, +mother, and aunts, and of my brothers and dependants, which were for +their support_. I had raised thirteen hundred horse and three battalions +of sepoys to attend upon me; but as I have no resources to support them, +I have been obliged to remove the people stationed in the mahals +[districts] and to send his people [the Resident's people] into the +mahals, so that I have not now one single servant about me. Should I +mention to what further difficulties I have been reduced, it would lay +me open to contempt." + +In other parts of this long remonstrance, as well as in other +remonstrances no less serious, he says, "that it is difficult for him to +save himself alive; that in all his affairs _Mr. Hastings had given full +powers to the gentlemen here_," (meaning the English Resident and +Assistants,) "_who have done whatever they chose, and still continue to +do it_. I never expected that _you_ would have brought me into such +apprehension, and into so weak a state, without _writing to me on any +one of those subjects_; since I have not the smallest connection with +anybody except yourself. I am in such distress, both day and night, that +I see not the smallest prospect of deliverance from it, since you are so +displeased with me _as not to honor me with a single letter_." + +In another remonstrance he thus expresses himself. "The affairs of this +world are unstable, and soon pass away: it would therefore be incumbent +on the _English_ gentlemen to show _some_ friendship for me in my +_necessities_,--I, who have always exerted my very life in the service +of the English, _assigned over to them all the resources left in my +country_, stopped my very household expenses, together with the jaghires +of my servants and dependants, to the amount of 98,98,375 rupees. +Besides this, as to the jaghires of my grandmother, mother, and uncle, +which were granted to them for their support, _agreeable to +engagements_, you are the _masters_,--if the Council have sent orders +for the stopping their jaghires also, stop them. I have no resources +left in my country, and have no friends by me, being even distressed in +my daily subsistence. I have some elephants, horses, and the houses +which I inhabit: if they can be of any service to my friends, they are +ready. Whenever you can discover any resources, seize upon them: I shall +not interfere to prevent you. In my present distress for my daily +expenses, I was in hopes that they would have excused some part of my +debt. Of what use is it for me to relate my situation, which is known to +the whole world? This much is sufficient." + +The truth of all these representations is nowhere contested by Mr. +Hastings. It is, indeed, admitted in something stronger than words; +for, upon account of the Nabob's condition, and the no less distressed +condition of his dominions, he thought it fit to withdraw from him and +them a large body of the Company's troops, together with all the English +of a civil description, who were found no less burdensome than the +military. This was done on the declared inability of the country any +longer to support them,--a country not much inferior to England in +extent and fertility, and, till lately at least, its equal in population +and culture. + +It was to a prince, in a state so far remote from freedom, authority, +and opulence, so penetrated with the treatment he had received, and the +behavior he had met with from Mr. Hastings, that Mr. Hastings has chosen +to attribute a disposition so very generous and munificent as, of his +own free grace and mere motion, to make him a present, at one donation, +of upwards of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. This vast private +donation was given at the moment of vast instant demands severely +exacted on account of the Company, and accumulated on immense debts to +the same body,--and all taken from a ruined prince and almost desolated +territory. + +Mr. Hastings has had the firmness, with all possible ease and apparent +unconcern, to request permission from the Directors to legalize this +forbidden present for his own use. This he has had the courage to do at +a time when he had abundant reason to look for what he has since +received,--their censure for many material parts of his conduct towards +the people from whose wasted substance this pretended free gift was +drawn. He does not pretend that he has reason to expect the smallest +degree of partiality, in this or any other point, from the Court of +Directors. For, besides his complaint, first stated, of having never +possessed their confidence, in a late letter[41] (in which, +notwithstanding the censures of Parliament, he magnifies his own +conduct) he says, that, in all the long period of his service, "he has +almost unremittedly wanted the support which all his predecessors had +enjoyed from their constituents. From mine," says he, "I have received +_nothing but reproach, hard_ epithets, _and indignities_, instead of +rewards and encouragement." It must therefore have been from some other +source of protection than that which the law had placed over him that he +looked for countenance and reward in violating an act of Parliament +which forbid him from _taking gifts or presents on any account +whatsoever_,--much less a gift of this magnitude, which, from the +distress of the giver, must be supposed the effect of the most cruel +extortion. + +The Directors did wrong in their orders to appropriate money, which they +must know could not have been acquired by the consent of the pretended +donor, to their own use.[42] They acted more properly in refusing to +confirm this grant to Mr. Hastings, and in choosing rather to refer him +to the law which he had violated than to his own sense of what he +thought he was entitled to take from the natives: putting him in mind +that the Regulating Act had expressly declared "that no +Governor-General, or any of the Council, shall, directly or indirectly, +accept, receive, or take, of or from any person or persons, or on any +account whatsoever, any present, gift, donation, gratuity, or reward, +pecuniary or otherwise, or any promise or engagement for any of the +aforesaid." Here is no reserve for the case of a disclosure to the +Directors, and for the legalizing the breach of an act of Parliament by +their subsequent consent. The illegality attached to the action at its +very commencement, and it could never be afterwards legalized: the +Directors had no such power reserved to them. Words cannot be devised of +a stronger import or studied with more care. To these words of the act +are opposed the declaration and conduct of Mr. Hastings, who, in his +letter of January, 1782, thinks fit to declare, that "an offer of a very +considerable sum of money was made to him, both on the part of the Nabob +and his ministers, as _a present_, which he _accepted without +hesitation_." The plea of his pretended necessity is of no avail. The +present was not in ready money, nor, as your Committee conceive, +applicable to his immediate necessities. Even his credit was not +bettered by bills at long periods; he does not pretend that he raised +any money upon them; nor is it conceivable that a banker at Benares +would be more willing to honor the drafts of so miserable, undone, and +dependent a person as the Nabob of Oude than those of the +Governor-General of Bengal, which might be paid either on the receipt of +the Benares revenue, or at the seat of his power, and of the Company's +exchequer. Besides, it is not explicable, upon any grounds that can be +avowed, why the Nabob, who could afford to give these bills as _a +present_ to Mr. Hastings, could not have equally given them in discharge +of the debt which he owed to the Company. It is, indeed, very much to be +feared that the people of India find it sometimes turn more to their +account to give presents to the English in authority than to pay their +debts to the public; and this is a matter of a very serious +consideration. + +No small merit is made by Mr. Hastings, and that, too, in a high and +upbraiding style, of his having come to a voluntary discovery of this +and other unlawful practices of the same kind. "That honorable court," +says Mr. Hastings, addressing himself to his masters, in his letter of +December, 1782, "ought to know whether I possess the integrity and honor +which are the first requisites of such a station. If I wanted these, +they have afforded me too powerful incentives to suppress the +information which I now convey to them through you, and to appropriate +to my own use the sums which I have already passed to their credit, by +their _unworthy_, and pardon me if I add _dangerous reflections_, which +they have passed upon me for the first communication of this kind"; and +he immediately adds, what is singular and striking, and savors of a +recriminatory insinuation, "_and your own experience_ will suggest to +you that there are persons who would profit by such a warning."[43] To +what Directors in particular this imputation of experience is applied, +and what other persons they are in whom _experience_ has shown a +disposition to profit of such a warning, is a matter highly proper to be +inquired into. What Mr. Hastings says further on this subject is no less +worthy of attention:--"_that he could have concealed these transactions, +if he had a wrong motive, from theirs and the public eye forever_."[44] +It is undoubtedly true, that, whether the observation be applicable to +the particular case or not, practices of this corrupt nature are +extremely difficult of detection anywhere, but especially in India; but +all restraint upon that grand fundamental abuse of presents is gone +forever, if the servants of the Company can derive safety from a +defiance of the law, when they can no longer hope to screen themselves +by an evasion of it. All hope of reformation is at an end, if, confiding +in the force of a faction among Directors or proprietors to bear them +out, and possibly to vote them the fruit of their crimes as a reward of +their discovery, they find that their bold avowal of their offences is +not only to produce indemnity, but to be rated for merit. If once a +presumption is admitted, that, wherever something is divulged, nothing +is hid, the discovering of one offence may become the certain means of +concealing a multitude of others. The contrivance is easy and trivial, +and lies open to the meanest proficient in this kind of art; it will not +only become an effectual cover to such practices, but will tend +infinitely to increase them. In that case, sums of money will be taken +for the purpose of discovery and making merit with the Company, and +other sums will be taken for the private advantage of the receiver. + +It must certainly be impossible for the natives to know what presents +are for one purpose, or what for the other. It is not for a Gentoo or a +Mahometan landholder at the foot of the remotest mountains in India, who +has no access to our records and knows nothing of our language, to +distinguish what lacs of rupees, which he has given _eo nomine_ as a +present to a Company's servant, are to be authorized by his masters in +Leadenhall Street as proper and legal, or carried to their public +account at their pleasure, and what are laid up for his own emolument. + +The legislature, in declaring all presents to be the property of the +Company, could not consider corruption, extortion, and fraud as any part +of their resources. The property in such presents was declared to be +theirs, not as a fund for their benefit, but in order to found a legal +title to a civil suit. It was declared theirs, to facilitate the +recovery out of corrupt and oppressive hands of money illegally taken; +but this legal fiction of property could not nor ought by the +legislature to be considered in any other light than as a trust held by +them for those who suffered the injury. Upon any other construction, the +Company would have a right, first, to extract money from the subjects or +dependants of this kingdom committed to their care, by means of +particular conventions, or by taxes, by rents, and by monopolies; and +when they had exhausted every contrivance of public imposition, then +they were to be at liberty to let loose upon the people all their +servants, from the highest rank to the lowest, to prey upon them at +pleasure, and to draw, by personal and official authority, by influence, +venality, and terror, whatever was left to them,--and that all this was +justified, provided the product was paid into the Company's exchequer. + +This prohibition and permission of presents, with this declaration of +property in the Company, would leave no property to any man in India. +If, however, it should be thought that this clause in the act[45] should +be capable, by construction and retrospect, of so legalizing and thus +appropriating these presents, (which your Committee conceive +impossible,) it is absolutely necessary that it should be very fully +explained. + +The provision in the act was made in favor of the natives. If such +construction prevails, the provision made as their screen from +oppression will become the means of increasing and aggravating it +without bounds and beyond remedy. If presents, which when they are given +were unlawful, can afterwards be legalized by an application of them to +the Company's service, no sufferer can even resort to a remedial process +at law for his own relief. The moment he attempts to sue, the money may +be paid into the Company's treasury; it is then lawfully taken, and the +party is non-suited. + +The Company itself must suffer extremely in the whole order and +regularity of their public accounts, if the idea upon which Mr. Hastings +justifies the taking of these presents receives the smallest +countenance. On his principles, the same sum may become private property +or public, at the pleasure of the receiver; it is in his power, Mr. +Hastings says, to conceal it forever.[46] He certainly has it in his +power not only to keep it back and bring it forward at his own times, +but even to shift and reverse the relations in the accounts (as Mr. +Hastings has done) in what manner and proportion seems good to him, and +to make himself alternately debtor or creditor for the same sums. + +Of this irregularity Mr. Hastings himself appears in some degree +sensible. He conceives it possible that his transactions of this nature +may to the Court of Directors seem unsatisfactory. He, however, puts it +hypothetically: "If to you," says he, "who are accustomed to view +business in an _official and regular light, they should appear +unprecedented, if not improper_."[47] He just conceives it possible that +in an official money transaction the Directors may expect a proceeding +official and regular. In what other lights than those which are official +and regular matters of public account ought to be regarded by those who +have the charge of them, either in Bengal or in England, does not appear +to your Committee. Any other is certainly "unprecedented and improper," +and can only serve to cover fraud both in the receipt and in the +expenditure. The acquisition of 58,000 rupees, or near 6000_l._, which +appears in the sort of _unofficial and irregular account_ that he +furnishes of his presents, in his letter of May, 1782,[48] must appear +extraordinary indeed to those who expect from men in office something +official and something regular. "This sum," says he, "I received while I +was on my journey to Benares."[49] He tells it with the same careless +indifference as if things of this kind were found by accident on the +high-road. + +Mr. Hastings did not, indeed he could not, doubt that this unprecedented +and improper account would produce much discussion. He says, "Why these +sums were taken by me, why they were (except the second) _quietly_ +transferred to the Company's account, why bonds were taken for the first +and not for the rest, might, were this matter to be exposed to the view +of the public, _furnish a variety of conjectures_."[50] + +This matter has appeared, and has furnished, as it ought to do, +something more serious than conjectures. It would in any other case be +supposed that Mr. Hastings, expecting such inquiries, and considering +that the questions are (even as they are imperfectly stated by himself) +far from frivolous, would condescend to give some information upon +them; but the conclusion of a sentence so importantly begun, and which +leads to such expectations, is, "that to these conjectures it would be +of little use to reply." This is all he says to public conjecture. + +To the Court of Directors he is very little more complaisant, and not at +all more satisfactory; he states merely as a supposition their inquiry +concerning matters of which he positively knew that they had called for +an explanation. He knew it, because he presumed to censure them for +doing so. To the hypothesis of a further inquiry he gives a conjectural +answer of such a kind as probably, in an account of a doubtful +transaction, and to a superior, was never done before. + +"_Were_ your Honorable Court to question me upon these points, I _would_ +answer, that the sums were taken for the Company's benefit, at times in +which the Company very much stood in need of them; that I _either_ chose +to conceal the first receipts from public curiosity by receiving bonds +for the amount, or _possibly acted without any studied design_ which my +memory could at this distance of time verify."[51] + +He here professes not to be certain of the motives by which he was +himself actuated in so extraordinary a concealment, and in the use of +such extraordinary means to effect it; and as if the acts in question +were those of an absolute stranger, and not his own, he gives various +loose conjectures concerning the motive to them. He even supposes, in +taking presents contrary to law, and in taking bonds for them as his +own, contrary to what he admits to be truth and fact, that he might have +acted without any distinct motive at all, or at least such as his +memory could reach at that distance of time. That immense distance, in +the faintness of which his recollection is so completely lost as to set +him guessing at his motives for his own conduct, was from the 15th of +January, 1781, when the bonds at his own request were given, to the date +of this letter, which is the 22d of May, 1782,--that is to say, about +one year and four months. + +As to the other sums, for which no bond was taken, the ground for the +difference in his explanation is still more extraordinary: he says, "I +did not think it worth my care to observe the same means with _the +rest_."[52] The rest of these sums, which were not worth his care, are +stated in his account to be greater than those he was so solicitous (for +some reason which he cannot guess) to cover under bonds: these sums +amount to near 53,000_l._; whereas the others did not much exceed +40,000_l._ For these actions, attended with these explanations, he +ventures to appeal to their (the Directors') breasts for a candid +interpretation, and "he assumes the freedom to add, that he thinks +himself, on _such_ a subject, and on _such_ an occasion, entitled to +it";[53] and then, as if he had performed some laudable exploit, in the +accompanying letter he glories in the integrity of his conduct; and +anticipating his triumph over injustice, and the applauses which at a +future time he seems confident he shall receive, says he, "The applause +of my own breast is my surest reward: your applause and that of my +country is my next wish in life."[54] He declares in that very letter +that he had not _at any time_ possessed the confidence with them which +they never withheld from the meanest of his predecessors. With wishes so +near his heart perpetually disappointed, and, instead of applauses, (as +he tells us,) receiving nothing but reproaches and disgraceful epithets, +his steady continuance for so many years in their service, in a place +obnoxious in the highest degree to suspicion and censure, is a thing +altogether singular. + +It appears very necessary to your Committee to observe upon the great +leading principles which Mr. Hastings assumes, to justify the irregular +taking of these vast sums of money, and all the irregular means he had +employed to cover the greater part of it. These principles are the more +necessary to be inquired into, because, if admitted, they will serve to +justify every species of improper conduct. His words are, "that the +sources from which these reliefs to the public service have come would +never have yielded them to the Company _publicly_; and that the +exigencies of their service (exigencies created by the exposition of +their affairs, and faction in their divided councils) required those +supplies."[55] + +As to the first of these extraordinary positions, your Committee cannot +conceive what motive could actuate any native of India dependent on the +Company, in assisting them privately, and in refusing to assist them +publicly. If the transaction was fair and honest, every native must have +been desirous of making merit with the great governing power. If he gave +his money as a free gift, he might value himself upon very honorable and +very acceptable service; if he lent it on the Company's bonds, it would +still have been of service, and he might also receive eight per cent +for his money. No native could, without some interested view, give to +the Governor-General what he would refuse to the Company as a grant, or +even as a loan. It is plain that the powers of government must, in some +way or other, be understood by the natives to be at sale. The +Governor-General says that he took the money with an original +destination to the purposes to which he asserts he has since applied it. +But this original destination was in his own mind only,--not declared, +nor by him pretended to be declared, to the party who gave the presents, +and who could perceive nothing in it but money paid to the supreme +magistrate for his private emolument. All that the natives could +possibly perceive in such a transaction must be highly dishonorable to +the Company's government; for they must conceive, when they gave money +to Mr. Hastings, that they bought from Mr. Hastings either what was +their own right or something that was not so, or that they redeemed +themselves from some acts of rigor inflicted, threatened, or +apprehended. If, in the first case, Mr. Hastings gave them the object +for which they bargained, his act, however proper, was corrupt,--if he +did not, it was both corrupt and fraudulent; if the money was extorted +by force or threats, it was oppressive and tyrannical. The very nature +of such transactions has a tendency to teach the natives to pay a +corrupt court to the servants of the Company; and they must thereby be +rendered less willing, or less able, or perhaps both, to fulfil their +engagements to the state. Mr. Scott's evidence asserts that they would +rather give to Mr. Hastings than lend to the Company. It is very +probable; but it is a demonstration of their opinion of his power and +corruption, and of the weak and precarious state of the Company's +authority. + +The second principle assumed by Mr. Hastings for his justification, +namely, that factious opposition and a divided government might create +exigencies requiring such supplies, is full as dangerous as the first; +for, if, in the divisions which must arise in all councils, one member +of government, when he thinks others factiously disposed, shall be +entitled to take money privately from the subject for the purposes of +his politics, and thereby to dispense with an act of Parliament, +pretences for that end cannot be wanting. A dispute may always be raised +in council in order to cover oppression and peculation elsewhere. But +these principles of Mr. Hastings tend entirely to destroy the character +and functions of a council, and to vest them in one of the dissentient +members. The law has placed the sense of the whole in the majority; and +it is not a thing to be suffered, that any of the members should +privately raise money for the avowed purpose of defeating that sense, or +for promoting designs that are contrary to it: a more alarming +assumption of power in an individual member of any deliberative or +executive body cannot be imagined. Mr. Hastings had no right, in order +to clear himself of peculation, to criminate the majority with faction. +No member of any body, outvoted on a question, has, or can have, a right +to direct any part of his public conduct by that principle. The members +of the Council had a common superior, to whom they might appeal in their +mutual charges of faction: they did so frequently; and the imputation of +faction has almost always been laid on Mr. Hastings himself. + +But there were periods, very distinguished periods too, in the records +of the Company, in which the clandestine taking of money could not be +supported even by this pretence. Mr. Hastings has been charged with +various acts of peculation, perpetrated at a time he could not excuse +himself by the plea of any public purpose to be carried on, or of any +faction in council by which it was traversed. It may be necessary here +to recall to the recollection of the House, that, on the cry which +prevailed of the ill practices of the Company's servants in India, +(which general cry in a great measure produced the Regulating Act of +1773,) the Court of Directors, in their instructions of the 29th of +March, 1774, gave it as an injunction to the Council-General, that "they +_immediately_ cause the _strictest_ inquiry to be made into _all_ +oppressions which may have been committed either against natives or +Europeans, and into _all_ abuses which may have prevailed in the +collection of the revenues or _any part of the civil government_ of the +Presidency; and that you communicate to us _all information_ which you +may be able to obtain relative thereto, or any embezzlement or +dissipation of the Company's money." + +In this inquiry, by far the most important abuse which appeared on any +of the above heads was that which was charged relative to the sale in +gross by Mr. Hastings of nothing less than the whole authority of the +country government in the disposal of the guardianship of the Nabob of +Bengal. + +The present Nabob, Mobarek ul Dowlah, was a minor when he succeeded to +the title and office of Subahdar of the three provinces in 1770. +Although in a state approaching to subjection, still his rank and +character were important. Much was necessarily to depend upon a person +who was to preserve the moderation of a sovereign not supported by +intrinsic power, and yet to maintain the dignity necessary to carry on +the representation of political government, as well as the substance of +the whole criminal justice of a great country. A good education, +conformably to the maxims of his religion and the manners of his people, +was necessary to enable him to fill that delicate place with reputation +either to the Mahometan government or to ours. He had still to manage a +revenue not inconsiderable, which remained as the sole resource for the +languishing dignity of persons any way distinguished in rank among +Mussulmen, who were all attached and clung to him. These considerations +rendered it necessary to put his person and affairs into proper hands. +They ought to have been men who were able by the gravity of their rank +and character to preserve his morals from the contagion of low and +vicious company,--men who by their integrity and firmness might be +enabled to resist in some degree the rapacity of Europeans, as well as +to secure the remaining fragments of his property from the attempts of +the natives themselves, who must lie under strong temptation of taking +their share in the last pillage of a decaying house. + +The Directors were fully impressed with the necessity of such an +arrangement. Your Committee find, that, on the 26th of August, 1771, +they gave instructions to the President and Council to appoint "a +minister to transact the political affairs of the circar +[government],--and to select for that purpose some person well qualified +for the affairs of government to be the minister of the government, and +guardian of the Nabob's minority." + +The order was so distinct as not to admit of a mistake; it was (for its +matter) provident and well considered; and the trust which devolved on +Mr. Hastings was of such a nature as might well stimulate a man +sensible to reputation to fulfil it in a manner agreeably to the +directions he had received, and not only above just cause of exception, +but out of the reach of suspicion and malice. In that situation it was +natural to suppose he would cast his eyes upon men of the first repute +and consideration among the Mussulmen of high rank. + +Mr. Hastings, instead of directing his eyes to the durbar, employed his +researches in the seraglio. In the inmost recesses of that place he +discovered a woman secluded from the intercourse and shut up from the +eyes of men, whom he found to correspond with the orders he had received +from the Directors, as a person well "qualified for the affairs of +government, fit to be a minister of government and the guardian of the +Nabob's minority." This woman he solemnly invests with these functions. +He appoints Rajah Gourdas, whom some time after he himself qualified +with a description of a young man of mean abilities, to be her duan, or +steward of the household. The rest of the arrangement was correspondent +to this disposition of the principal offices. + +It seems not to have been lawful or warrantable in Mr. Hastings to set +aside the arrangement positively prescribed by the Court of Directors, +which evidently pointed to a man, not to any woman whatever. As a woman +confined in the female apartment, the lady he appointed could not be +competent to hold or qualified to exercise any active employment: she +stood in need of guardians for herself, and had not the ability for the +guardianship of a person circumstanced as the Subah was. General +Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis declare in their minute, +"that they believe there never was an instance in India of such a trust +so disposed of." Mr. Hastings has produced no precedent in answer to +this objection. + +It will be proper to state to the House the situation and circumstances +of the women principally concerned, who were in the seraglio of Jaffier +Ali Khan at his death. The first of these was called Munny Begum, a +person originally born of poor and obscure parents, who delivered her +over to the conductress of a company of dancing girls; in which +profession being called to exhibit at a festival, the late Nabob took a +liking to her, and, after some cohabitation, she obtained such influence +over him that he took her for one of his wives and (she seems to have +been the favorite) put her at the head of his harem; and having a son by +her, this son succeeded to his authority and estate,--Munny Begum, the +mother, being by his will a devisee of considerable sums of money, and +other effects, on which he left a charge, which has since been applied +to the service of the East India Company. The son of this lady dying, +and a son by another wife succeeding, and dying also, the present Nabob, +Mobarek ul Dowlah, son by a third wife, succeeded. This woman was then +alive, and in the seraglio. + +It was Munny Begum that Mr. Hastings chose, and not the natural mother +of the Nabob. Whether, having chosen a woman in defiance of the +Company's orders, and in passing by the natural parent of the minor +prince, he was influenced by respect for the disposition made by the +deceased Nabob during his life, or by other motives, the House will +determine upon a view of the facts which follow. It will be matter of +inquiry, when the question is stated upon the appointment of a +stepmother in exclusion of the parent, whether the usage of the East +constantly authorizes the continuance of that same distribution of rank +and power which was settled in the seraglio during the life of a +deceased prince, and which was found so settled at his death, and +afterwards, to the exclusion of the mother of the successor. In case of +female guardianship, her claim seems to be a right of Nature, and which +nothing but a very clear positive law will (if that can) authorize the +departure from. The history of Munny Begum is stated on the records of +the Council-General, and no attempt made by Mr. Hastings to controvert +the truth of it. + +That was charged by the majority of Council to have happened which might +be expected inevitably to happen: the care of the Nabob's education was +grossly neglected, and his fortune as grossly mismanaged and embezzled. +What connection this waste and embezzlement had with the subsequent +events the House will judge. + +On the 2d of May, 1775, Mr. James Grant, accountant to the Provincial +Council of Moorshedabad, produced to the Governor-General and Council +certain Persian papers which stated nine lacs of rupees (upwards of +ninety thousand pounds sterling) received by Munny Begum, on her +appointment to the management of the Nabob's household, over and above +the balance due at that time, and not accounted for by her. These Grant +had received from Nuned Roy, who had been a writer in the Begum's +Treasury Office. Both Mr. Grant and Nuned Roy were called before the +board, and examined respecting the authenticity of the papers. Among +other circumstances tending to establish the credit of these papers, it +appears that Mr. Grant offered to make oath that the chief eunuch of the +Begum had come to him on purpose to prevail on him not to send the +papers, and had declared _that the accounts were not to be disputed_. + +On the 9th of May it was resolved by a majority of the board, against +the opinion and solemn protest of the Governor-General, that a gentleman +should be sent up to the city of Moorshedabad to demand of Munny Begum +the accounts of the nizamut and household, from April, 1764, to the +latest period to which they could be closed, and to divest the Begum of +the office of guardian to the Nabob; and Mr. Charles Goring was +appointed for this purpose. + +The preceding facts are stated to the House, not as the foundation of an +inquiry into the conduct of the Begum, but as they lead to and are +therefore necessary to explain by what means a discovery was made of a +sum of money given by her to Mr. Hastings. + +Mr. Goring's first letter from the city, dated 17th May, 1775, mentions, +among other particulars, the young Nabob's joy at being delivered out of +the hands of Munny Begum, of the mean and indigent state of confinement +in which he was kept by her, of the distress of his mother, and that he +had told Mr. Goring that the "Begum's eunuch had instructed the servants +not to suffer him to learn anything by which he might make himself +acquainted with business": and he adds, "Indeed, I believe there is +great truth in it, as his Excellency seems to be ignorant of almost +everything a man of his rank ought to know,--not from a want of +understanding, but of being properly educated." + +On the 21st of May, Mr. Goring transmitted to the Governor-General and +Council an account of sums given by the Begum under her seal, delivered +to Mr. Goring by the Nabob in her apartments. The account is as follows. + + Memorandum of Disbursements to English Gentlemen, from the + Nabob's Sircar, in the Bengal Year 1179. + + +--------------------+ + |Seal of Munny Begum,| + |Mother of the Nabob | + |Nudjuf ul Dowlah, | + |deceased. | + +--------------------+ + + To the Governor, Mr. Hastings, for an + entertainment 1,50,000 + + To Mr. Middleton, on account of an agreement + entered into by Baboo Begum 1,50,000 + -------- + Rupees 3,00,000 + + + +When this paper was delivered, the Governor-General moved that Mr. +Goring might be asked _how he came by it_, and _on what account this +partial selection was made by him_; also, that the Begum should be +desired _to explain the sum laid to his charge_, and that he should ask +_the Nabob or the Begum their reasons for delivering this separate +account_. + +The substance of the Governor's proposal was agreed to. + +Mr. Goring's answer to this requisition of the board is as follows. + +"In compliance with your orders to explain the delivery of the paper +containing an account of three lacs of rupees, I am to inform you, it +took its rise from a message sent me by the Begum, requesting I would +interest myself with the Nabob to have Akbar Ali Khan released to her +for a few hours, having something of importance to communicate to me, on +which she wished to consult him. Thinking the service might be benefited +by it, I accordingly desired the Nabob would be pleased to deliver him +to my charge, engaging to return him the same night,--which I did. I +heard no more till next day, when the Begum requested to see his +Excellency and myself, desiring Akbar Ali might attend. + +"On our first meeting, she entered into a long detail of her +administration, endeavoring to represent it in the fairest light; at +last she came to the point, and told me, my urgent and repeated +remonstrances to her to be informed how the balance arose of which I was +to inquire induced her from memory to say what she had herself +given,--then mentioning the sum of a lac and a half to the Governor to +feast him whilst he stayed there, and a lac and a half to Mr. Middleton +by the hands of Baboo Begum. As I looked on this no more than a matter +of conversation, I arose to depart, but was detained by the Begum's +requesting the Nabob to come to her. A scene of weeping and complaint +then began, which made me still more impatient to be gone, and I +repeatedly sent to his Excellency for that purpose: he at last came out +and delivered me the paper I sent you, declaring it was given him by the +Begum to be delivered me." + +Munny Begum also wrote a letter to General Clavering, in which she +directly asserts the same. "Mr. Goring has pressed me on the subject of +the balances; in answer to which I informed him, that all the +particulars, being on record, would in the course of the inquiry appear +from the papers. He accordingly received from the Nabob Mobarek ul +Dowlah a list of three lacs of rupees given to the Governor and Mr. +Middleton. I now send you inclosed a list of the dates when it was +presented, and through whose means, which you will receive." + +The Governor-General then desired that the following questions might be +proposed to the Begum by Mr. Martin, then Resident at the Durbar. + +1st. Was any application made to you for the account which you have +delivered, of three lacs of rupees said to have been paid to the +Governor and Mr. Middleton, or did you deliver the account of your own +free will, and unsolicited? + +2d. In what manner was the application made to you, and by whom? + +3d. On what account was the sum of one and half lacs given to the +Governor-General, which you have laid to his account? Was it in +consequence of any requisition from him, or of any previous agreement, +or of any established usage? + +The Governor-General objected strongly to Mr. Goring's being present +when the questions were put to the Begum; but it was insisted on by the +majority, and it was resolved accordingly, that he ought to be present. +The reasons on both sides will best appear by the copy of the debate, +inserted in the Appendix. + +The Begum's answer to the preceding questions, addressed to the +Governor-General and Council, where it touched the substance, was as +follows. + +"The case is this. Mr. Goring, on his arrival here, _seized all the +papers, and secured them under his seal; and all the mutsuddies [clerks +or accountants] attended him, and explained to him all the particulars +of them_. Mr. Goring inquired of me concerning the arrears due to the +sepoys, &c., observing, that the nizamut and bhela money [Nabob's +allowance] was received from the Company; from whence, then, could the +balance arise? I made answer, that the sum was not adequate to the +expenses. Mr. Goring then asked, What are those expenses which exceed +the sum received from the Company? I replied, _All the particulars will +be found in the papers_. The affair of the three lacs of rupees, _on +account of entertainment for the Governor and Mr. Middleton_, has been, +I am told, related to you by Rajah Gourdas; besides which there are many +other expenses, which will appear from the papers. As the custom of +entertainment is of long standing, and accordingly every Governor of +Calcutta who came to Moorshedabad received a daily sum of two thousand +rupees for entertainment, which, was in fact instead of provisions; and +the lac and an half of rupees laid to Mr. Middleton's charge was _a +present on account of an agreement entered into by the Bhow Begum_. I +therefore affixed my seal to the account, and forwarded it to Mr. Goring +by means of the Nabob." + +In this answer, the accounts given to Mr. Goring she asserts to be +genuine. They are explained, in all the particulars, by all the +secretaries and clerks in office. They are secured under Mr. Goring's +seal. To them she refers for everything; to them she refers for the +three lacs of rupees given to Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton. It is +impossible to combine together a clearer body of proof, composed of +record of office and verbal testimony mutually supporting and +illustrating each other. + +The House will observe that the receipt of the money is indirectly +admitted by one of the Governor's own questions to Munny Begum. + +If the money was not received, it would have been absurd to ask _on what +account it was given_. Both the question and the answer relate to some +established usage, the appeal to which might possibly be used to justify +the acceptance of the money, if it was accepted, but would be +superfluous, and no way applicable to the charge, if the money was never +given. + +On this point your Committee will only add, that, in all the controversy +between Mr. Hastings and the majority of the Council, he _nowhere denies +the receipt of this money_. In his letter to the Court of Directors of +the 31st of July, 1775, he says that the Begum was compelled by the ill +treatment of one of her servants, which he calls _a species of torture_, +to deliver the paper to Mr. Goring; but he nowhere affirms that the +contents of the paper were false. + +On this conduct the majority remark, "We confess it appears very +extraordinary that Mr. Hastings should employ so much time and labor to +show that the discoveries against him have been obtained by improper +means, but that he should take no step whatsoever _to invalidate the +truth of them_. He does not deny the receipt of the money: the Begum's +answers to the questions put to her at his own desire make it impossible +that he should deny it. It seems, he has formed some plan of defence +against this and similar charges, which he thinks will avail him in a +court of justice, and which it would be imprudent in him to anticipate +at this time. If he has not received the money, we see no reason for +such a guarded and cautious method of proceeding. An innocent man would +take a shorter and easier course. He would voluntarily exculpate +himself by his oath." + +Your Committee entertain doubts whether the refusal to exculpate by oath +can be used as a circumstance to infer any presumption of guilt. But +where the charge is direct, specific, circumstantial, supported by +papers and verbal testimony, made before his lawful superiors, to whom +he was accountable, by persons competent to charge, if innocent, he was +obliged at least to oppose to it a clear and formal denial of the fact, +and to make a demand for inquiry. But if he does not deny the fact, and +eludes inquiry, just presumptions will be raised against him. + +Your Committee, willing to go to the bottom of a mode of corruption deep +and dangerous in the act and the example, being informed that Mr. Goring +was in London, resolved to examine him upon the subject. Mr. Goring not +only agreed with all the foregoing particulars, but even produced to +your Committee what he declared to be the original Persian papers in his +hands, delivered from behind the curtain through the Nabob himself, who, +having privilege, as a son-in-law, to enter the women's apartment, +received them from Munny Begum as authentic,--the woman all the while +lamenting the loss of her power with many tears and much vociferation. +She appears to have been induced to make discovery of the above +practices in order to clear herself of the notorious embezzlement of the +Nabob's effects. + +Your Committee examining Mr. Scott and Mr. Baber on this subject, they +also produced a Persian paper, which Mr. Baber said he had received from +the hands of a servant of Munny Begum,--and along with it a paper +purporting to be a translation into English of the Persian original. In +the paper given as the translation, Munny Begum is made to allege many +matters of hardship and cruelty against Mr. Goring, and an attempt to +compel her to make out a false account, but does not at all deny the +giving the money: very far from it. She is made to assert, indeed, "that +Mr. Goring desired her to put down three lacs of rupees, as divided +between Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton. I begged to be excused, +observing to him that this money had neither been tendered or _accepted_ +with any criminal or improper view." After some lively expressions in +the European manner, she says, "that it had been customary to furnish a +table for the Governor and his attendants, during their stay at court. +With respect to the sum mentioned to Mr. Middleton, it was a _free gift_ +from my own _privy purse_. Purburam replied, he understood this money to +be paid to these gentlemen as a gratuity for _secret services_; and as +such he should assuredly represent it." Here the payments to Mr. +Hastings are fully admitted, and excused as agreeable to usage, and for +keeping a table. The present to Mr. Middleton is justified as a free +gift. The paper produced by Mr. Scott is not referred to by your +Committee as of any weight, but to show that it does not prove what it +is produced to prove. + +Your Committee, on reading the paper delivered in by Mr. Scott as a +translation, perceive it to be written in a style which they conceived +was little to be expected in a faithful translation from a Persian +original, being full of quaint terms and idiomatic phrases, which +strongly bespeak English habits in the way of thinking, and of English +peculiarities and affectations in the expression. Struck with these +strong internal marks of a suspicious piece, they turned to the Persian +manuscript produced by Mr. Scott and Mr. Baber, and comparing it with +Mr. Goring's papers, they found the latter carefully sealed upon every +leaf, as they believe is the practice universal in all authentic pieces. +They found on the former no seal or signature whatsoever, either at the +top or bottom of the scroll. This circumstance of a want of signature +not only takes away all authority from the piece as evidence, but +strongly confirmed the suspicions entertained by your Committee, on +reading the translation, of unwarrantable practices in the whole conduct +of this business, even if the translation should be found substantially +to agree with the original, such an original as it is. The Persian roll +is in the custody of the clerk of your Committee for further +examination. + +Mr. Baber and Mr. Scott, being examined on these material defects in the +authentication of a paper produced by them as authentic, could give no +sort of account how it happened to be without a signature; nor did Mr. +Baber explain how he came to accept and use it in that condition. + +On the whole, your Committee conceive that all the parts of the +transaction, as they appear in the Company's records, are consistent, +and mutually throw light on each other. + +The Court of Directors order the President and Council to appoint a +_minister_ to transact the _political_ affairs of the government, and to +_select_ for that purpose some person well qualified for the _affairs of +government_, and to be the _minister of government_. Mr. Hastings +selects for the minister so described and so qualified a woman locked up +in a seraglio. He is ordered to appoint a guardian to the Nabob's +minority. Mr. Hastings passes by his natural parent, and appoints +another woman. These acts would of themselves have been liable to +suspicion. But a great deficiency or embezzlement soon appears in this +woman's account. To exculpate herself, she voluntarily declares that she +gave a considerable sum to Mr. Hastings, who never once denies the +receipt. The account given by the principal living witness of the +transaction in his evidence is perfectly coherent, and consistent with +the recorded part. The original accounts, alleged to be delivered by the +lady in question, were produced by him, properly sealed and +authenticated. Nothing is opposed to all this but a paper without +signature, and therefore of no authority, attended with a translation of +a very extraordinary appearance; and this paper, in apologizing for it, +confirms the facts beyond a doubt. + +Finally, your Committee examined the principal living witness of the +transaction, and find his evidence consistent with the record. Your +Committee received the original accounts, alleged to be delivered by the +lady in question, properly sealed and authenticated, and find opposed to +them nothing but a paper without signature, and therefore of no +authority, attended with a translation of a very extraordinary +appearance. + +In Europe the Directors ordered opinions to be taken on a prosecution: +they received one doubtful, and three positively for it. + +They write, in their letter of 5th February, 1777, paragraphs 32 and +33:-- + +"Although it is rather our wish to prevent evils in future than to enter +into a severe retrospection of the past, and, where facts are doubtful, +or attended with alleviating circumstances, to proceed with lenity, +rather than to prosecute with rigor,--yet some of the cases are so +flagrantly corrupt, and others attended with circumstances so oppressive +to the inhabitants, that it would be unjust to suffer the delinquents to +go unpunished. The principal facts[56] have been communicated to our +solicitor, whose report, confirmed by our standing counsel, we send you +by the present conveyance,--authorizing you, at the same time, to take +such steps as shall appear proper to be pursued. + +"If we find it necessary, we shall return you the original covenants of +such of our servants as remain in India, and have been anyways concerned +in the undue receipt of money, in order to enable you to recover the +same for the use of the Company by a suit or suits at law, to be +instituted in the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal." + +Your Committee do not find that the covenants have been sent, or that +any prosecution has been begun. + +A vast scene of further peculation and corruption, as well in this +business as in several other instances, appears in the evidence of the +Rajah Nundcomar. That evidence, and all the proceedings relating to it, +are entered in the Appendix. It was the last evidence of the kind. The +informant was hanged. An attempt was made by Mr. Hastings to indict him +for a conspiracy; this failing of effect, another prosecutor appeared +for an offence not connected with these charges. Nundcomar, the object +of that charge, was executed, at the very crisis of the inquiry, for an +offence of another nature, not capital by the laws of the country. As +long as it appeared safe, several charges were made (which are inserted +at large in the Appendix); and Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell seemed +apprehensive of many more. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. +Francis declared, in a minute entered on the Consultations of the 5th +May, 1775, that, "in the late proceedings of the Revenue Board, it will +appear that there is no species of peculation from which the Honorable +Governor-General has thought proper to abstain." A charge of offences of +so heinous a nature, so very extensive, so very deliberate, made on +record by persons of great weight, appointed by act of Parliament his +associates in the highest trust,--a charge made at his own board, to his +own face, and transmitted to their common superiors, to whom they were +jointly and severally accountable, this was not a thing to be passed +over by Mr. Hastings; still less ought it to have perished in other +hands. It ought to have been brought to an immediate and strict +discussion. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis ought to +have been punished for a groundless accusation, if such it had been. If +the accusation were founded, Mr. Hastings was very unfit for the high +office of Governor-General, or for any office. + +After this comprehensive account by his colleagues of the +Governor-General's conduct, these gentlemen proceeded to the +particulars, and they produced the case of a corrupt bargain of Mr. +Hastings concerning the disposition of office. This transaction is here +stated by your Committee in a very concise manner, being on this +occasion merely intended to point out to the House the absolute +necessity which, in their opinion, exists for another sort of inquiry +into the corruptions of men in power in India than hitherto has been +pursued. The proceedings may be found at large in the Appendix. + +A complaint was made that Mr. Hastings had sold the office of Phousdar +of Hoogly to a person called Khan Jehan Khan on a corrupt agreement,--which +was, that from his emoluments of seventy-two thousand rupees a +year he was to pay to the Governor-General thirty-six thousand rupees +annually, and to his banian, Cantoo Baboo, four thousand more. The +complainant offers to pay to the Company the forty thousand rupees which +were corruptly paid to these gentlemen, and to content himself with the +allowance of thirty-two thousand. Mr. Hastings was, if on any occasion +of his life, strongly called upon to bring this matter to the most +distinct issue; and Mr. Barwell, who supported his administration, and +as such ought to have been tender for his honor, was bound to help him +to get to the bottom of it, if his enemies should be ungenerous enough +to countenance such an accusation, without permitting it to be detected +and exposed. But the course they held was directly contrary. They began +by an objection to receive the complaint, in which they obstinately +persevered as far as their power went. Mr. Barwell was of opinion that +the Company's instructions to inquire into peculation were intended for +the public interests,--that it could not forward the public interests to +enter into these inquiries,--and that "he never would be a channel of +aspersing any character, while it cannot conduce to the good of +government." Here was a new mode of reasoning found out by Mr. Barwell, +which might subject all inquiry into peculation to the discretion of +the very persons charged with it. By that reasoning all orders of his +superiors were at his mercy; and he actually undertook to set aside +those commands which by an express act of Parliament he was bound to +obey, on his opinion of what would or would not conduce to the good of +government. On his principles, he either totally annihilates the +authority of the act of Parliament, or he entertains so extravagant a +supposition as that the Court of Directors possessed a more absolute +authority, when their orders were not intended for the public good, than +when they were. + +General Clavering was of a different opinion. He thought "he should be +wanting to the legislature, and to the Court of Directors, if he was not +to receive the complaints of the inhabitants, when properly +authenticated, and to prefer them to the board for investigation, as the +only means by which these grievances can be redressed, and the Company +informed of the conduct of their servants." + +To these sentiments Colonel Monson and Mr. Francis adhered. Mr. Hastings +thought it more safe, on principles similar to those assumed by Mr. +Barwell, to refuse to hear the charge; but he reserved his remarks on +this transaction, because they will be equally applicable to _many +others which in the course of this business are likely to be brought +before the board_. There appeared, therefore, to him a probability that +the charge about the corrupt bargain was no more than the commencement +of a whole class of such accusations; since he was of opinion (and what +is very extraordinary, previous to any examination) that the same +remarks would be applicable to several of those which were to follow. He +must suppose this class of charges very uniform, as well as very +extensive. + +The majority, however, pressed their point; and notwithstanding his +opposition to all inquiry, as he was supported only by Mr. Barwell, the +question for it was carried. He was then desired to name a day for the +appearance of the accuser, and the institution of the inquiry. Though +baffled in his attempt to stop the inquiry in the first stage, Mr. +Hastings made a second stand. He seems here to have recollected +something inherent in his own office, that put the matter more in his +power than at first he had imagined; for he speaks in a positive and +commanding tone: "I will not," says his minute, "name a day for Mir Zin +ul ab Dien to appear before the board; _nor will I suffer him to appear +before the board_." + +The question for the inquiry had been carried; it was declared fit to +inquire; but there was, according to him, a power which might prevent +the appearance of witnesses. On the general policy of obstructing such +inquiries, Mr. Francis, on a motion to that effect, made a sound remark, +which cannot fail of giving rise to very serious thoughts: "That, +supposing it agreed among ourselves that the board shall not hear any +charges or complaints against a member of it, a case or cases may +hereafter happen, in which, by a reciprocal complaisance to each other, +our respective misconduct may be effectually screened from inquiry; and +the Company, whose interest is concerned, or the parties who may have +reason to complain of any one member individually, may be left without +remedy." + +Mr. Barwell was not of the opinion of that gentleman, nor of the maker +of the motion, General Clavering, nor of Mr. Monson, who supported it. +He entertains sentiments with regard to the orders of the Directors in +this particular perfectly correspondent with those which he had given +against the original inquiry. He says, "Though it may in some little +degree save the Governor-General from personal insult, where there is no +judicial power lodged, that of inquisition can never answer any good +purpose." This is doctrine of a most extraordinary nature and tendency, +and, as your Committee conceive, contrary to every sound principle to be +observed in the constitution of judicatures and inquisitions. The power +of inquisition ought rather to be wholly separated from the judicial, +the former being a previous step to the latter, which requires other +rules and methods, and ought not, if possible, to be lodged in the same +hands. The rest of his minute (contained in the Appendix) is filled with +a censure on the native inhabitants, with reflections on the ill +consequences which would arise from an attention to their complaints, +and with an assertion of the authority of the Supreme Court, as +superseding the necessity and propriety of such inquiries in Council. +With regard to his principles relative to the natives and their +complaints, if they are admitted, they are of a tendency to cut off the +very principle of redress. The existence of the Supreme Court, as a +means of relief to the natives under all oppressions, is held out to +qualify a refusal to hear in the Council. On the same pretence, Mr. +Hastings holds up the authority of the same tribunal. But this and other +proceedings show abundantly of what efficacy that court has been for the +relief of the unhappy people of Bengal. A person in delegated authority +refuses a satisfaction to his superiors, throwing himself on a court of +justice, and supposes that nothing but what judicially appears against +him is a fit subject of inquiry. But even in this Mr. Hastings fails in +his application of his principle; for the majority of the Council were +undoubtedly competent to order a prosecution against him in the Supreme +Court, which they had no ground for without a previous inquiry. But +their inquiry had other objects. No private accuser might choose to +appear. The party who was the subject of the peculation might be (as +here is stated) the accomplice in it. No popular action or popular suit +was provided by the charter under whose authority the court was +instituted. In any event, a suit might fail in the court for the +punishment of an actor in an abuse for want of the strictest legal +proof, which might yet furnish matter for the correction of the abuse, +and even reasons strong enough not only to justify, but to require, the +Directors instantly to address for the removal of a +Governor-General.--The opposition of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell proved +as ineffectual in this stage as the former; and a day was named by the +majority for the attendance of the party. + +The day following this deliberation, on the assembling of the Council, +the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, said, "he would not sit to be +confronted by such accusers, nor to _suffer_ a judicial inquiry into his +conduct at the board of which he is the president." As on the former +occasions, he declares the board dissolved. As on the former occasions, +the majority did not admit his claim to this power; they proceeded in +his absence to examine the accuser and witnesses. Their proceedings are +in Appendix K. + +It is remarkable, that, during this transaction, Khan Jehan Khan, the +party with whom the corrupt agreement was made, declined an attendance +under excuses which the majority thought pretences for delay, though +they used no compulsory methods towards his appearance. At length, +however, he did appear, and then a step was taken by Mr. Hastings of a +very extraordinary nature, after the steps which he had taken before, +and the declarations with which those steps had been accompanied. Mr. +Hastings, who had absolutely refused to be present in the foregoing part +of the proceeding, appeared with Khan Jehan Khan. And now the affair +took another turn; other obstructions were raised. General Clavering +said that the informations hitherto taken had proceeded upon oath. Khan +Jehan Khan had previously declared to General Clavering his readiness to +be so examined; but when called upon by the board, he changed his mind, +and alleged a delicacy, relative to his rank, with regard to the oath. +In this scruple he was strongly supported by Mr. Hastings. He and Mr. +Barwell went further: they contended that the Council had no right to +administer an oath. They must have been very clear in that opinion, when +they resisted the examination on oath of the very person who, if he +could safely swear to Mr. Hastings's innocence, owed it as a debt to his +patron not to refuse it; and of the payment of this debt it was +extraordinary in the patron not only to enforce, but to support, the +absolute refusal. + +Although the majority did not acquiesce in this doctrine, they appeared +to have doubts of the prudence of enforcing it by violent means; but, +construing his refusal into a disposition to screen the peculations of +the Governor-General, they treated him as guilty of a contempt of their +board, dismissed him from the service, and recommended another (not the +accuser) to his office. + +The reasons on both sides appear in the Appendix. Mr. Hastings accuses +them bitterly of injustice to himself in considering the refusal of this +person to swear as a charge proved. How far they did so, and under what +qualifications, will appear by reference to the papers in the Appendix. +But Mr. Hastings "thanks God that they are not his judges." His great +hold, and not without reason, is the Supreme Court; and he "blesses the +wisdom of Parliament, that constituted a court of judicature at so +seasonable a time, to check the despotism of the new Council." It was +thought in England that the court had other objects than the protection +of the Governor-General against the examinations of those sent out with +instructions to inquire into the peculations of men in power. + +Though Mr. Hastings did at that time, and avowedly did, everything to +prevent any inquiry that was instituted merely for the information of +the Court of Directors, yet he did not feel himself thoroughly satisfied +with his own proceedings. It was evident that to them his and Mr. +Barwell's reasonings would not appear very respectful or satisfactory; +he therefore promises to give them full satisfaction at some future +time. In his letter of the 14th of September, 1775, he reiterates a +former declaration, and assures them of his resolution to this purpose +in the strongest terms. "I now _again_ recur to the declaration which I +have before made, that it is my fixed determination to carry _literally_ +into execution, and _most fully and liberally explain every circumstance +of my conduct on the points upon which I have been injuriously +arraigned_,--and to afford you the clearest conviction of my own +integrity, and of the propriety of my motives for my declining a present +defence of it." + +These motives, as far as they can be discovered, were the violence of +his adversaries, the interested character and views of the accuser, and +the danger of a prosecution in the Supreme Court, which made it prudent +to reserve his defence. These arguments are applicable to any charge. +Notwithstanding these reasons, it is plain by the above letter that he +thought himself bound at some time or other to give satisfaction to his +masters: till he should do this, in his own opinion, he remained in an +unpleasant situation. But he bore his misfortune, it seems, patiently, +with a confidence in their justice for his future relief. He says, +"Whatever evil may fill the _long interval_ which may precede it." That +interval he has taken care to make long enough; for near eight years are +now elapsed, and he has not yet taken the smallest step towards giving +to the Court of Directors any explanation whatever, much less that full +and liberal explanation which he had so repeatedly and solemnly +promised. + +It is to be observed, that, though Mr. Hastings talks in these letters +much of his integrity, and of the purity of his motives, and of full +explanations, he nowhere denies the fact of this corrupt traffic of +office. Though he had adjourned his defence, with so much pain to +himself, to so very long a day, he was not so inattentive to the ease of +Khan Jehan Khan as he has shown himself to his own. He had been accused +of corruptly reserving to himself a part of the emoluments of this man's +office; it was a delicate business to handle, whilst his defence stood +adjourned; yet, in a very short time after a majority came into his +hands, he turned out the person appointed by General Clavering, &c, and +replaced the very man with whom he stood accused of the corrupt bargain; +what was worse, he had been charged with originally turning out +another, to make room for this man. The whole is put in strong terms by +the then majority of the Council, where, after charging him with every +species of peculation, they add, "We believe the proofs of his +appropriating four parts in seven of the salary with which the Company +is charged for the Phousdar of Hoogly are such as, whether sufficient or +not to convict him in a court of justice, will not leave the shadow of a +doubt concerning his guilt in the mind of any unprejudiced person. The +salary is seventy-two thousand rupees a year; the Governor takes +thirty-six thousand, and allows Cantoo Baboo four thousand more for the +trouble he submits to in conducting the negotiation with the Phousdar. +This also is the common subject of conversation and derision through the +whole settlement. It is our firm opinion and belief, that the late +Phousdar of Hoogly, a relation of Mahomed Reza Khan, was turned out of +this office merely because his terms were not so favorable as those +which the Honorable Governor-General has obtained from the present +Phousdar. The Honorable Governor-General is pleased to assert, with a +confidential spirit peculiar to himself, that his measures hitherto +stand unimpeached, except by us. We know not how this assertion is to be +made good, unless _the most daring and flagrant prostitution in every +branch_ be deemed an honor to his administration." + +The whole style and tenor of these accusations, as well as the nature of +them, rendered Mr. Hastings's first postponing, and afterwards totally +declining, all denial, or even defence or explanation, very +extraordinary. No Governor ought to hear in silence such charges; and +no Court of Directors ought to have slept upon them. + +The Court of Directors were not wholly inattentive to this business. +They condemned his act as it deserved, and they went into the business +of his legal right to dissolve the Council. Their opinions seemed +against it, and they gave precise orders against the use of any such +power in future. On consulting Mr. Sayer, the Company's counsel, he was +of a different opinion with regard to the legal right; but he thought, +very properly, that the use of a right, and the manner and purposes for +which it was used, ought not to have been separated. What he thought on +this occasion appears in his opinion transmitted by the Court of +Directors to Mr. Hastings and the Council-General. "But it was as great +a _crime_ to dissolve the Council upon _base and sinister motives_ as it +would be to assume the power of dissolving, if he had it not. I believe +he is _the first governor that ever_ dissolved a council inquiring into +his behavior, when he was innocent. Before he could summon three +councils and dissolve them, he had time fully to consider what would be +the result of such conduct, _to convince everybody, beyond a doubt, of +his conscious guilt_." + +It was a matter but of small consolation to Mr. Hastings, during the +painful interval he describes, to find that the Company's learned +counsel admitted that he had legal powers of which he made an use that +raised an universal presumption of his guilt. + +Other counsel did not think so favorably of the powers themselves. But +this matter was of less consequence, because a great difference of +opinion may arise concerning the extent of official powers, even among +men professionally educated, (as in this case such a difference did +arise,) and well-intentioned men may take either part. But the use that +was made of it, in systematical contradiction to the Company's orders, +has been stated in the Ninth Report, as well as in many of the others +made by two of your committees. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] Appendix B. No. 1. + +[15] Vide Supplement to the Second Report, page 7. + +[16] Appendix. B. No. 2. + +[17] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. + +[18] Appendix B. No. 7. + +[19] Appendix B. No. 3 and No. 5. + +[20] Appendix B. No 6. + +[21] Vide Larkins's Affidavit, Appendix B. No. 5. + +[22] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. + +[23] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. + +[24] Ibid. + +[25] Ibid., No. 8. + +[26] Ibid., No. 1. + +[27] Ibid., No. 4. + +[28] Appendix B. No. 8. + +[29] Ibid. + +[30] Ibid., No. 9. + +[31] Appendix B. No. 1. + +[32] Ibid. + +[33] Ibid., No. 8. + +[34] Appendix B. No. 4: The Governor-General's Account of Moneys +received, dated 22d May, 1782. Also, Appendix B. No. 9: The Auditor's +Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General. + +[35] Vide Appendix B. No. 4. + +[36] Vide Mr. Hastings's Account, in Appendix B. No. 4. + +[37] Vide Hastings's Account, dated 22d May, 1782, in Appendix B. No. 4. + +[38] Vide above Appendix, and B. No. 2. + +[39] Vide above Appendix. + +[40] Vide Appendix B. No. 4. + +[41] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. + +[42] Ibid., No. 7. + +[43] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. + +[44] Ibid. + +[45] Act 13 Geo. III. cap 63. + +[46] Vide Mr. Hastings's Letter of 16 December, 1782, in Appendix B. No. +6. + +[47] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. + +[48] Vide Appendix B. No. 3. + +[49] Ibid. + +[50] Ibid. + +[51] Vide Appendix B. No. 3. + +[52] Vide Appendix B. No. 3. + +[53] Ibid. + +[54] Ibid., No. 6. + +[55] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. + +[56] Relative to salt farms, charges of the Ranny of Burdwan, and the +charges of Nundcomar and Munny Begum. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +B. No. 1.[57] + + +_Copy of a Letter from the Governor-General to the Court of Directors._ + +To the Honorable the Court of Directors of the Honorable United East +India Company. + +FORT WILLIAM, 29th November, 1780. + +HONORABLE SIRS,-- + +You will be informed by our Consultations of the 26th of June of a very +unusual tender which was made by me to the board on that day, for the +purpose of indemnifying the Company for the extraordinary expense which +might be incurred by supplying the detachment under the command of Major +Camac in the invasion of the Mahratta dominions, which lay beyond the +district of Gohud, and drawing the attention of Mahdajee Sindia, to whom +that country immediately appertained, from General Goddard, while his +was employed in the reduction of Bassein, and in securing the conquests +made by your arms in Guzerat. I was desirous to remove the only +objection which has been or could be ostensibly made to the measure, +which I had very much at heart, as may be easily conceived from the +means which I took to effect it. For the reasons at large which induced +me to propose that diversion, it will be sufficient to refer to my +minute recommending it, and to the letters received from General Goddard +near the same period of time. The subject is now become obsolete, and +all the fair hopes which I had built upon the prosecution of the +Mahratta war, of its termination in a speedy, honorable, and +advantageous peace, have been blasted by the dreadful calamities which +have befallen your arms in the dependencies of your Presidency of Fort +St. George, and changed the object of our pursuit from the +aggrandizement of your power to its preservation. My present reason for +reverting to my own conduct on the occasion which I have mentioned is to +obviate the false conclusions or purposed misrepresentations which may +be made of it, either as an artifice of ostentation or as the effect of +corrupt influence, by assuring you that the money, _by whatever means it +came into your possession_, was not my own,--that I had myself no right +to it, nor would or could have received it, but for the occasion which +prompted me to avail myself of the accidental means which were at that +instant afforded me of accepting and converting it to the property and +use of the Company; and with this brief apology I shall dismiss the +subject. + +Something of affinity to this anecdote may appear in the first aspect of +_another_ transaction, which I shall proceed to relate, and of which it +is more immediately my duty to inform you. + +You will have been advised, by repeated addresses of this government, of +the arrival of an army at Cuttack, under the command of Chimnajee +Boosla, the second son of Moodajee Boosla, the Rajah of Berar. The +origin and destination of this force have been largely explained and +detailed in the correspondence of the government of Berar, and in +various parts of our Consultations. The minute relation of these would +exceed the bounds of a letter; I shall therefore confine myself to the +principal fact. + +About the middle of the last year, a plan of confederacy was formed by +the Nabob Nizam Ali Khan, by which it was proposed, that, while the army +of the Mahrattas, under the command of Mahdajee Sindia and Tuckoojee +Hoolkar, was employed to check the operations of General Goddard in the +West of India, Hyder Ali Khan should invade the Carnatic, Moodajee +Boosla the provinces of Bengal, and he himself the Circars of Rajamundry +and Chicacole. + +The government of Berar was required to accept the part assigned it in +this combination, and to march a large body of troops immediately into +Bengal. To enforce the request on the part of the ruling member of the +Mahratta state, menaces of instant hostility by the combined forces were +added by Mahdajee Sindia, Tuckoojee Hoolkar, and Nizam Ali Khan, in +letters written by them to Moodajee Boosla on the occasion. He was not +in a state to sustain the brunt of so formidable a league, and +ostensibly yielded. Such at least was the turn which he gave to his +acquiescence, in his letters to me; and his subsequent conduct has +justified his professions. I was early and progressively acquainted by +him with the requisition, and with the measures which were intended to +be taken, and which were taken, by him upon it. The army professedly +destined for Bengal marched on the Dusserra of the last year, +corresponding with the 7th of October. Instead of taking the direct +course to Bahar, which had been prescribed, it proceeded by varied +deviations and studied delays to Cuttack, where it arrived late in May +last, having performed a practicable journey of three mouths in seven, +and concluded it at the instant commencement of the rains, which of +course would preclude its operations, and afford the government of Berar +a further interval of five months to provide for the part which it would +then be compelled to choose. + +In the mean time letters were continually written by the Rajah and his +minister to this government, explanatory of their situation and motives, +proposing their mediation and guaranty for a peace and alliance with the +Peshwa, and professing, without solicitation on our part, the most +friendly disposition towards us, and the most determined resolution to +maintain it. Conformably to these assurances, and the acceptance of a +proposal made by Moodajee Boosla to depute his minister to Bengal for +the purpose of negotiating and concluding the proposed treaty of peace, +application had been made to the Peshwa for credentials to the same +effect. + +In the mean time the fatal news arrived of the defeat of your army at +Conjeveram. It now became necessary that every other object should give +place or be made subservient to the preservation of the Carnatic; nor +would the measures requisite for that end admit an instant of delay. +Peace with the Mahrattas was the first object; to conciliate their +alliance, and that of every other power in natural enmity with Hyder +Ali, the next. Instant measures were taken (as our general advices will +inform you) to secure both these points, and to employ the government +of Berar as the channel and instrument of accomplishing them. Its army +still lay on our borders, and in distress for a long arrear of pay, not +less occasioned by the want of pecuniary funds than a stoppage of +communication. An application had been made to us for a supply of money; +and the sum specified for the complete relief of the army was sixteen +lacs. We had neither money to spare, nor, in the apparent state of that +government in its relation to ours, would it have been either prudent or +consistent with our public credit to have afforded it. It was +nevertheless my decided opinion that some aid should be given,--not less +as a necessary relief than as an indication of confidence, and a return +for the many instances of substantial kindness which we had within the +course of the last two years experienced from the government of Berar. I +had an assurance that such a proposal would receive the acquiescence of +the board; but I knew that it would not pass without opposition, and it +would have become public, which might have defeated its purpose. +Convinced of the necessity of the expedient, and assured of the +sincerity of the government of Berar, from evidences of stronger proof +to me than I could make them appear to the other members of the board, I +resolved to adopt it, and take the entire responsibility of it upon +myself. In this mode a less considerable sum would suffice. I +accordingly caused three lacs of rupees to be delivered to the minister +of the Rajah of Berar, resident in Calcutta: he has transmitted it to +Cuttack. Two thirds of this sum I have raised by my own credit, and +shall charge it in my official accounts; the other third I have supplied +from the cash in my hands belonging to the Honorable Company. I have +given due notice to Moodajee Boosla of this transaction, and explained +it to have been a private act of my own, unknown to the other members of +the Council. I have given him expectations of the remainder of the +amount required for the arrears of his army, proportioned to the extent +to which he may put it in my power to propose it as a public gratuity by +his effectual orders for the recall of these troops, or for their +junction with ours. + +I hope I shall receive your approbation of what I have done for your +service, and your indulgence for the length of this narrative, which I +could not comprise within a narrower compass. + + I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs, + Your most faithful, obedient, + and humble servant, + + WARREN HASTINGS. + + +B. No. 2. + +_An Account of Money paid into the Company's Treasury by the +Governor-General, since the Year 1773._ + +May April CRs. | CRs. + | +1774 to 1775. For interest bonds 2,175[58]| + For bills of exchange on the | + Court 1,43,937 | + For money refunded by | + order of Court, account | + General Coote's commission 8,418 | + -------- | 1,54,530 + | + | +1775-1776. For bills of exchange on the Court | 1,80,480 +1776-1777. Do. do. do. | 1,96,800 +1777-1778. Do. do. do. | 1,08,000 +1778-1779. Do. do. do. | 1,43,000 +1779-1780. Do. do. do. | 1,21,600 +1780-1781. For bills of exchange 43,000 | + For deposits 2,38,715 | + For interest bonds, at 8 per | + cent 4,75,600 | + For do. 4 per | + cent 1,66,000 | + For Durbar charges 2,32,000 | + -------- | 11,55,315 +May, 1782. For interest bonds | 35,000 + | --------- + | 20,94,725 + (Errors excepted.) + +JOHN ANNIS, + _Auditor of Indian Accounts._ + EAST INDIA HOUSE, 11th June, 1783. + + +B. No. 3. + +To the Honorable the Secret Committee of the Honorable Court of +Directors. + +FORT WILLIAM, 22d May, 1782. + +HONORABLE SIRS,-- + +In a letter which I have had the honor to address you in duplicate, and +of which a triplicate accompanies this, dated 20th January, 1782, I +informed you that I had received the offer of a sum of money from the +Nabob Vizier and his ministers to the nominal amount of ten lacs of +Lucknow siccas, and that bills on the house of Gopaul Doss had been +actually given me for the amount, which I had accepted for the use of +the Honorable Company; and I promised to account with you for the same +as soon as it should be in my power, after the whole sum had come into +my possession. This promise I now perform; and deeming it consistent +with the spirit of it, I have added such _other_ sums as have been +occasionally converted to the Company's property through my means, and +in consequence of the like original destination. Of the second of these +you have been already advised in a letter which I had the honor to +address the Honorable Court of Directors, dated 29th November, 1780. +Both this and the third article were paid immediately to the Treasury, +by my order to the sub-treasurer to receive them on the Company's +account, but never passed through my hands. The three sums for which +bonds were granted were in like manner paid to the Company's Treasury +without passing through my hands; but their appropriation was not +specified. The sum of 58,000 current rupees was received while I was on +my journey to Benares, and applied as expressed in the account. + +As to the manner in which these sums have been expended, the reference +which I have made of it, in the accompanying account, to the several +accounts in which they are credited, renders any other specification of +it unnecessary; besides that those accounts either have or will have +received a much stronger authentication than any that I could give to +mine. + +Why these sums were taken by me,--why they were, except the second, +quietly transferred to the Company's use,--why bonds were taken for the +first, and not for the rest,--might, were this matter to be exposed to +the view of the public, furnish a variety of conjectures, to which it +would be of little use to reply. Were your Honorable Court to question +me upon these points, I would answer, that the sums were taken for the +Company's benefit at times in which the Company very much needed +them,--that I either chose to conceal the first receipts from public +curiosity by receiving bonds for the amount, or possibly acted without +any studied design which my memory could at this distance of time +verify, and that I did not think it worth my care to observe the same +means with the rest. I trust, Honorable Sirs, to your breasts for a +candid interpretation of my actions, and assume the freedom to add, that +I think myself, on such a subject, and on such an occasion, entitled to +it. + + I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs, + Your most faithful, most obedient, + and most humble servant, + + WARREN HASTINGS. + + +B. No. 4. + +_An Account of Sums received on the Account of the Honorable Company of +the Governor-General, or paid to their Treasury by his Order, and +applied to their Service._ + +-------------------------------------------------+---------------- +1780. | +October. | + The following sums were paid into the | +Treasury, and bonds granted for the same, in the | +name of the Governor-General, in whose possession| +the bonds remain, with a declaration upon each | +indorsed and signed by him, that he has no claim | +on the Company for the amount either of principal| +or interest, no part of the latter having been | +received: | + | +One bond, dated the 1st October, | + 1780, No. 1539 1,16,000 0 0 | + | +One bond, dated the 2d October, | + 1780, No. 1540 1,16,000 0 0 | + | +One bond, dated the 23d November, | + 1780, No. 1354 1,74,000 0 0 | + -------------- | 4,06,000 0 0 +November. | + Paid into the Treasury, and carried | +to the Governor-General's credit in the | +12th page of the Deposits Journal of 1780-81, | +mohurs of sorts which had been coined in the | +Mint, and produced, as per 358 and 359 | +pages of the Company's General Journal of | +1780-81: | + Gold mohurs, 12,861 12 11, or | + Calcutta siccas 2,05,788 14 9 | + Batta, 16 per cent 32,926 3 6 | + -------------- | 2,38,715 2 3 +1781. | +30 April. | + Paid into the Treasury, and credited | +in the 637th page of the Company's General | +Journal, as money received from the | +Governor-General on account of Durbar charges: | + Sicca rupees 2,00,000 0 0 | + Batta, 16 per cent 32,000 0 0 | 2,32,000 0 0 + -------------- | -------------- + Carried forward | 8,76,715 2 3 + + Brought forward | 8,76,715 2 3 +August. | + Received in cash, and employed in | +defraying my public disbursements, and credited | +in the Governor-General's account of | +Durbar charges for April, 1782 | 58,000 0 0 + + Produce of the sum mentioned in the | +Governor-General's letter to the Honorable | +Secret Committee, dated 20th January, 1782, | +and credited in the Governor-General's account | +of Durbar charges for April, 1782 | 10,30,275 1 3 + |---------------- + Current rupees | 19,64,990 3 6 + ( Errors excepted.) + + WARREN HASTINGS. + FORT WILLIAM, 22d May, 1782. + + +B. No. 5. + +I, William Larkins, do make oath and say, that the letter and account to +which this affidavit is affixed were written by me at the request of the +Honorable Warren Hastings, Esquire, on the 22d May, 1782, from rough +draughts written by himself in my presence; that the cover of the letter +was sealed up by him in my presence, and was then intended to have been +transmitted to England by the "Lively," when that vessel was first +ordered for dispatch; and that it has remained closed until this day, +when it was opened for the express purpose of being accompanied by this +affidavit. + + So help me God. + WILLIAM LARKINS. + + CALCUTTA, 16th December 1782. + + Sworn this 16th day of December, 1782, before me, + J. HYDE. + + +B. No. 6. + +To the Honorable the Secret Committee of the Honorable Court of +Directors. + +FORT WILLIAM, 16 December, 1782. + +HONORABLE SIRS,-- + +The dispatch of the "Lively" having been protracted by various causes +from time to time, the accompanying address, which was originally +designed and prepared for that dispatch, (no other conveyance since +occurring,) has of course been thus long detained. The delay is of no +public consequence; but it has produced a situation which with respect +to myself I regard as unfortunate, because it exposes me to the meanest +imputation from the occasion which the late Parliamentary Inquiries have +since furnished, but which were unknown when my letter was written, and +written in the necessary consequence of a promise made to that effect in +a former letter to your Honorable Committee, dated 20th January last. +However, to preclude the possibility of such reflections from affecting +me, I have desired Mr. Larkins, who was privy to the whole transaction, +to affix to the letter his affidavit of the date in which it was +written. I own I feel most sensibly the mortification of being reduced +to the necessity of using such precautions to guard my reputation from +dishonor. If I had at any time possessed that degree of confidence from +my immediate employers which they never withheld from the meanest of my +predecessors, I should have disdained to use these attentions. How I +have drawn on me a different treatment I know not; it is sufficient that +I have not merited it: and in the course of a service of thirty-two +years, and ten of these employed in maintaining the powers and +discharging the duties of the first office of the British government in +India, that Honorable Court ought to know whether I possess the +integrity and honor which are the first requisites of such a station. If +I wanted these, they have afforded me but too powerful incentives to +suppress the information which I now convey to them through you, and to +appropriate to my own use the sums which I have already passed to their +credit, by the unworthy, and, pardon me if I add, dangerous, reflections +which they have passed upon me for the first communication of this kind: +and your own experience will suggest to you, that there are persons who +would profit by such a warning. + +Upon the whole of these transactions, which to you, who are accustomed +to view business in an official and regular light, may appear +unprecedented, if not improper, I have but a few short remarks to +suggest to your consideration. + +If I appear in any unfavorable light by these transactions, I resign the +common and legal security of those who commit crimes or errors. I am +ready to answer every particular question that may be put against +myself, upon honor or upon oath. + +The sources from which these reliefs to the public service have come +would never have yielded them to the Company publicly; and the +exigencies of your service (exigencies created by the exposition of your +affairs, and faction in your councils) required those supplies. + +I could have concealed them, had I had a wrong motive, from yours and +the public eye forever; and I know that the difficulties to which a +spirit of injustice may subject me for my candor and avowal are greater +than any possible inconvenience that could have attended the +concealment, except the dissatisfaction of my own mind. These +difficulties are but a few of those which I have suffered in your +service. The applause of my own breast is my surest reward, and was the +support of my mind in meeting them: your applause, and that of my +country, are my next wish in life. + + I have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs, + Your most faithful, most obedient, + and most humble servant, + + WARREN HASTINGS. + + +B. No. 7. + +_Extract of the Company's General Letter to Bengal, dated the 25th +January, 1782._ + +Par. 127. We have received a letter from our Governor-General, +dated the 29th of November, 1780, relative to an unusual tender and +advance of money made by him to the Council, as entered on your +Consultation of the 26th of June, for the purpose of indemnifying the +Company from the extraordinary charge which might be incurred by +supplying the detachment under the command of Major Camac in the +invasion of the Mahratta dominions, which lay beyond the district of +Gohud, and thereby drawing the attention of Mahdajee Sindia (to whom the +country appertained) from General Goddard, while the General was +employed in the reduction of Bassein, and in securing the conquests +made in the Guzerat country; and also respecting the sum of three lacs +of rupees advanced by the Governor-General for the use of the army under +the command of Chimnajee Boosla without the authority or knowledge of +the Council; with the reasons for taking these extraordinary steps under +the circumstances stated in his letter. + +128. In regard to the first of these transactions, we readily conceive, +that, in the then state of the Council, the Governor-General might be +induced to temporary secrecy respecting the members of the board, not +only because he might be apprehensive of opposition to the proposed +application of the money, but, perhaps, because doubts might have arisen +concerning the propriety of appropriating it to the Company's use on any +account; but it does _not appear to us_ that there could be any real +necessity for delaying to communicate to us immediate information of the +channel by which the money came into his possession, with a complete +illustration of the cause or causes of so extraordinary an event. + +129. Circumstanced as affairs were at the moment, it appears that the +Governor-General had the measure much at heart, and judged it absolutely +necessary. The means proposed of defraying the extra expense were very +extraordinary; and the money, as we conceive, must have come into his +hands by an unusual channel: and when more complete information comes +before us, we shall give our sentiments fully upon the whole +transaction. + +130. In regard to the application of the Company's money to the army of +Chimnajee Boosla by the sole authority of the Governor-General, he knew +that it was entirely at his own risk, and he has taken the +responsibility upon himself; nothing but the most urgent necessity +could warrant the measure; nor can anything short of full proof of such +necessity, and of the propriety and utility of the extraordinary step +taken on the occasion, entitle the Governor-General to the approbation +of the Court of Directors; and therefore, as in the former instance +relative to the sum advanced and paid into our Treasury, we must also +for the present _suspend_ our judgment respecting the money sent to the +Berar army, without approving it in the least degree, or proceeding to +censure our Governor-General for this transaction. + + +B. No. 8. + +_Extract of Bengal Secret Consultations, the 9th January, 1781._ + +The following letter from the Governor-General having been circulated, +and the request therein made complied with, an order on the Treasury +passed accordingly. + +HONORABLE SIR AND SIRS,-- + +Having had occasion to disburse the sum of three lacs of sicca rupees on +account of secret services, which having been advanced from my own +private cash, I request that the same may be repaid to me in the +following manner:--A bond to be granted me upon the terms of the second +loan, bearing date from the 1st October, for one lac of sicca rupees; a +bond to be granted me upon the terms of the first loan, bearing date +from the 1st October, for one lac of sicca rupees; a bond to be granted +me upon the terms of the first loan, bearing date from the 2d October, +for one lac of sicca rupees. + + I have the honor to be, &c., &c., + + (Signed) WARREN HASTINGS. + + Fort William, 5th January, 1781. + + +B. No. 9. + +_An Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General, from 1st January, +1779, to 31st May, 1782, with Interest paid or credited thereon._ + +-------------------+----------+------------------+------------------ +When paid into the | Sum. | Date of Bond. | Rate of Interest. + Treasury. | | | +-------------------+----------+------------------+------------------ + | CRs. | | +23d Nov., 1780 | 1,74,000 | 23d Nov., 1780 | at 8 per cent. +15th Dec. | 69,600 | 15th Dec. | Do. +15th Jan., 1781 | 1,16,000 | 1st Oct., 1780 | Do. + Do. | 1,16,000 | 2d Do. | Do. + Do. | 1,16,000 | 1st Do. | 4 per cent. +17th March | 50,000 | 17th Mar., 1781 | Do. +8th May, 1782 | 20,000 | 15th Sept., 1781 | 8 per cent. + Do. | 15,000 | 8th Dec., 1781 | Do. + |----------| | + | 6,76,600 | | + +There does not appear to have been any interest paid on the above bonds +to 31st May, 1782, the last accounts received. In the Interest Books, +1780-81, the last received, the Governor-General has credit for interest +on the first six to April, 1781, to the amount of CRs. 21,964 12 8. + + (Errors excepted.) + + JOHN ANNIS, + _Auditor of Indian Accounts._ + EAST INDIA HOUSE, 5th June, 1783. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[57] As the Appendixes originally printed with the foregoing Reports, +and which consist chiefly of official documents, would have swelled this +volume to an enormous size, it has been thought proper to omit them, +with the exception of the first nine numbers of the Appendix B. to the +Eleventh Report, the insertion of which has been judged necessary for +the elucidation of the subject-matter of that Report. + +[58] {Received 19th May, + {Cancelled 30th July, 1774. + + + + +ARTICLES OF CHARGE + +OF + +HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS + +AGAINST + +WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE + +LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL: + +PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS + +IN APRIL AND MAY, 1786. + + +ARTICLES I.-VI. + + + + +ARTICLES OF CHARGE + +AGAINST + +WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ., + +LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL. + + +I.--ROHILLA WAR. + +That the Court of Directors of the East India Company, from a just sense +of the danger and odium incident to the extension of their conquests in +the East Indies, and from an experience of the disorders and corrupt +practices which intrigues and negotiations to bring about revolutions +among the country powers had produced, did positively and repeatedly +direct their servants in Bengal not to engage in any offensive war +whatsoever. That the said Court laid it down as _an invariable maxim, +which ought ever to be maintained, that they were to avoid taking part +in the political schemes of any of the country princes_,--and did, in +particular, order and direct that they should not engage with a certain +prince called Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, and Vizier of the Empire, +in any operations beyond certain limits in the said orders specially +described. + +That Warren Hastings, Esquire, then Governor of Fort William in Bengal, +did, with other members of the Council, declare his clear understanding +of the true intent and meaning of the said positive and repeated orders +and injunctions,--did express to the Court of Directors his approbation +of the policy thereof,--did declare that he adopted the same _with +sincerity and satisfaction_, and that he was _too well aware of the +ruinous tendency of all schemes of conquest ever to adopt them, or ever +to depart from the absolute line of self-defence, unless impelled to it +by the most obvious necessity_,--did signify to the Nabob of Oude the +said orders, and his obligation to yield punctual obedience +thereto,--and did solemnly engage and promise to the Court of Directors, +with the _unanimous concurrence_ of the whole Council, "that no object +or consideration should either tempt or compel him to pass the political +line which they [the Directors] had laid down for his operations with +the Vizier," assuring the Court of Directors that he "scarce saw a +possible advantage which could compensate the hazard and expense to be +incurred by a contrary conduct,"--that he did frequently repeat the same +declarations, or declarations to the same effect, particularly in a +letter to the Nabob himself, of the 22d of November, 1773, in the +following words: "The commands of my superiors are, as I have repeatedly +informed you, peremptory, that I shall not suffer their arms to be +carried beyond the line of their own boundaries, and those of your +Excellency, their ally." + +That the said Warren Hastings, in direct contradiction to the said +orders, and to his own sense of their propriety and coercive authority, +and in breach of his express promises and engagements, did, in +September, 1773, enter into a private engagement with the said Nabob of +Oude, who was the special object of the prohibition, to furnish him, for +a stipulated sum of money to be paid to the East India Company, with a +body of troops for the declared purpose of "thoroughly extirpating the +nation of the Rohillas": a nation from whom the Company had never +received, or pretended to receive or apprehend, any injury whatsoever; +whose country, in the month of February, 1773, by an unanimous +resolution of the said Warren Hastings and his Council, was included in +the line of defence against the Mahrattas; and from whom the Nabob never +complained of an aggression or act of hostility, nor pretended a +distinct cause of quarrel, other than the non-payment of a sum of money +in dispute between him and that people. + +That, supposing the sum of money in question to have been strictly due +to the said Nabob by virtue of any engagement between him and the +Rohilla chiefs, the East India Company, or their representatives, were +not parties to that engagement, or guaranties thereof, nor bound by any +obligation whatever to enforce the execution of it. + +That, previous to the said Warren Hastings's entering into the agreement +or bargain aforesaid to extirpate the said nation, he did not make, or +cause to be made, a due inquiry into the validity of the sole pretext +used by the said Nabob; nor did he give notice of the said claims of +debt to the nation of the Rohillas, in order to receive an explanation +on their part of the matter in litigation; nor did he offer any +mediation, nor propose, nor afford an opportunity of proposing, an +agreement or submission by which the calamities of war might be avoided, +as, by the high state in which the East India Company stood as a +sovereign power in the East, and the honor and character it ought to +maintain, as well as by the principles of equity and humanity, and by +the true and obvious policy of uniting the power of the Mahometan +princes against the Mahrattas, he was bound to do. That, instead of +such previous inquiry, or tender of good offices, the said Warren +Hastings did stimulate the ambition and ferocity of the Nabob of Oude to +the full completion of the inhuman end of the said unjustifiable +enterprise, by informing him "that it would be absolutely necessary to +persevere in it until it should be accomplished"; pretending that a fear +of the Company's displeasure was his motive for annexing the +accomplishment of the enterprise as a condition of his assistance, and +asserting "that he could not hazard or answer for the displeasure of the +Company, his masters, if they should find themselves involved in a +_fruitless_ war, or in an expense for prosecuting it,"--a pretence +tending to the high dishonor of the East India Company, as if the gain +to be acquired was to reconcile that body to the breach of their own +orders prohibiting all such enterprises;--and in order further to +involve the said Nabob beyond the power of retreating, he did, in the +course of the proceeding, purposely put the said Nabob under +difficulties in case he should decline that war, and did oblige him to +accept even the permission to relinquish the execution of this unjust +project as a favor, and _to make concessions for it_; thereby acting as +if the Company were principals in the hostility; and employing for this +purpose much double dealing and divers unworthy artifices to entangle +and perplex the said Nabob, but by means of which he found himself (as +he has entered it on record) _hampered and embarrassed in a particular +manner_. + +That the said compact for offensive alliance in favor of a great prince +against a considerable nation was not carried on by projects and +counter-projects in writing; nor were the articles and conditions +thereof formed into any regular written instrument, signed and sealed +by the parties; but the whole (both the negotiation and the compact of +offensive alliance against the Rohillas) was a mere verbal engagement, +the purport and conventions whereof nowhere appeared, except in +subsequent correspondence, in which certain of the articles, as they +were stated by the several parties, did materially differ: a proceeding +new and unprecedented, and directly leading to mutual misconstruction, +evasion, and ill faith, and tending to encourage and protect every +species of corrupt, clandestine practice. That, at the time when this +private verbal agreement was made by the said Warren Hastings with the +Nabob of Oude, a public ostensible treaty was concluded by him with the +said Nabob, in which there is no mention whatever of such agreement, or +reference whatever to it: in defence of which omission, it is asserted +by the said Warren Hastings, that _the multiplication of treaties +weakens their efficacy, and therefore they should be reserved only for +very important and permanent obligations_; notwithstanding he had +previously declared to the said Nabob, "that the points which he had +proposed required much consideration, and the previous ratification of a +formal agreement, before he could consent to them." That the whole of +the said verbal agreement with the Nabob of Oude in his own person, +without any assistance on his part, was carried on and concluded by the +said Warren Hastings alone, without any person who might witness the +same, without the intervention even of an interpreter, though he +confesses that he spoke the Hindostan language _imperfectly_, and +although he had with him at that time and place several persons high in +the Company's service and confidence, namely, the commander-in-chief of +their forces, two members of their Council, and the Secretary to the +Council, who were not otherwise acquainted with the proceedings between +him and the said Nabob than by such communications as he thought fit to +make to them. + +That the object avowed by the said Warren Hastings, and the motives +urged by him for employing the British arms in the utter extirpation of +the Rohilla nation, are stated by himself in the following terms:--"The +acquisition of forty lacs of rupees to the Company, and of so much +specie added to the exhausted currency of our provinces;--that it would +give wealth to the Nabob of Oude, of which we should participate;--that +the said Warren Hastings _should_ always be ready to profess that he did +reckon the probable acquisition of wealth among his reasons for taking +up arms against his _neighbors_;--that it would ease the Company of a +considerable part of their military expense, and preserve their troops +from inaction and relaxation of discipline;--that the weak state of the +Rohillas promised an easy conquest of them;--and, finally, that such was +his idea of the Company's distress at home, added to his knowledge of +their wants abroad, that he should have been glad of _any_ occasion to +employ their forces which saved so much of their pay and expenses." + +That, in the private verbal agreement aforesaid for offensive war, the +said Warren Hastings did transgress the bounds of the authority given +him by his instructions from the Council of Fort William, which had +limited his powers to such compacts "as were consistent with the spirit +of the Company's orders"; which Council he afterwards persuaded, and +with difficulty drew into an acquiescence in what he had done. + +That the agreement to the effect aforesaid was settled in the said +secret conferences before the 10th of September, 1773; but the said +Warren Hastings, concealing from the Court of Directors a matter of +which it was his duty to afford them the earliest and fullest +information, did, on the said 10th of September, 1773, write to the +Directors, and dispatched his letter over land, giving them an account +of the public treaty, but taking not the least notice of his agreement +for a mercenary war against the nation of the Rohillas. + +That, in order to conceal the true purport of the said clandestine +agreement the more effectually, and until he should find means of +gaining over the rest of the Council to a concurrence in his +disobedience of orders, he entered a minute in the Council books, giving +a false account of the transaction; in which minute he represented that +the Nabob had indeed _proposed_ the design aforesaid, and that he, the +said Warren Hastings, _was pleased that he urged the scheme of this +expedition no further_, when in reality and truth he had absolutely +consented to the said enterprise, and had engaged to assist him in it, +which he afterwards admitted, and confessed that he did act in +consequence of the same. + +That the said Warren Hastings and his Council were sensible of the true +nature of the enterprise in which they had engaged the Company's arms, +and of the heavy responsibility to which it would subject himself and +the Council,--"the personal hazard they, the Council, run, in +undertaking so _uncommon_ a measure without _positive_ instructions, at +their own risk, with the eyes of the whole nation on the affairs of the +Company, and the passions and prejudices of almost every man in England +inflamed against the conduct of the Company and the character of its +servants"; yet they engaged in the very practice which had brought such +odium on the Company, and on the character of its servants, though they +further say that they had continually before _their eyes the dread of +forfeiting the favor of their employers_, and becoming the "objects of +_popular_ invectives." The said Warren Hastings himself says, at the +very time when he proposed the measure, "I must confess I entertain some +doubts as to its expediency at this time, from the circumstances of the +_Company_ at home, exposed to _popular_ clamor, and all its measures +liable to be canvassed in _Parliament_, their charter drawing to a +close, and his Majesty's ministers unquestionably ready to take +advantage of every unfavorable circumstance in the negotiations of its +renewal." All these considerations did not prevent the said Warren +Hastings from making and carrying into execution the said mercenary +agreement for a sum of money, the payment of which the Nabob endeavored +to evade on a construction of the verbal treaty, and was so far from +being insisted on, as it ought to have been, by the said Warren +Hastings, that, when, after the completion of the service, the +commander-in-chief was directed to make a demand of the money, the agent +of the said Warren Hastings at the same time assured the Nabob "that the +demand was nothing more than matter of form, common, and even necessary, +in all public transactions, and that, although the board considered the +claim of the government literally due, it was not the intention of +administration to prescribe to his Excellency _the mode, or even +limits, of payment_." Nor was any part of the money recovered, until the +establishment of the Governor-General and Council by act of Parliament, +and their determination to withdraw the brigade from the Nabob's +service,--the Resident at his court, appointed by the said Warren +Hastings, having written, _that he had experienced much duplicity and +deceit in most of his transactions with his Excellency_; and the said +Nabob and his successors falling back in other payments in the same or +greater proportion as he advanced in the payment of this debt, the +consideration of lucre to the Company, the declared motive to this +shameful transaction, totally failed, and no money in effect and +substance (as far as by any account to be depended on appears) has been +obtained. + +That the said Nabob of Oude did, in consequence of the said agreement, +and with the assistance of British troops, which were ordered to march +and subjected to his disposal by the said Warren Hastings and the +Council, unjustly enter into and invade the country of the Rohillas, and +did there make war in a barbarous and inhuman manner, "by an abuse of +victory," "by the unnecessary destruction of the country," "by a wanton +display of violence and oppression, of inhumanity and cruelty," and "by +the sudden expulsion and casting down of an whole race of people, to +whom the slightest benevolence was denied." When prayer was made not to +dishonor the Begum (a princess of great rank, whose husband had been +killed in battle) and other women, by _dragging them about the country, +to be loaded with the scoffs of the Nabob's rabble, and otherwise still +worse used_, the Nabob refused to listen to the entreaties of a British +commander-in-chief in their favor; and the said women of high rank were +exposed not only to the vilest personal indignities, but even to +absolute want: and these transactions being by Colonel Champion +communicated to the said Warren Hastings, instead of commendations for +his intelligence, and orders to redress the said evils, and to prevent +the like in future, by means which were suggested, and which appear to +have been proper and feasible, he received a reprimand from the said +Warren Hastings, who declared that we had no authority to control the +conduct of the Vizier in the treatment of his subjects; and that Colonel +Champion desisted from making further representations on this subject to +the said Warren Hastings, being apprehensive of having already run some +risk of displeasing by perhaps a too free communication of sentiments. +That, in consequence of the said proceedings, not only the eminent +families of the chiefs of the Rohilla nation were either cut off or +banished, and their wives and offspring reduced to utter ruin, but the +country itself, heretofore distinguished above all others for the extent +of its cultivation as a _garden_, not having _one spot_ in it of +_uncultivated_ ground, and from being _in the most flourishing state +that a country could be_, was by the inhuman mode of carrying on the +war, and the ill government during the consequent usurpation, reduced to +a state of great decay and depopulation, in which it still remains. + +That the East India Company, having had reason to conceive, that, for +the purpose of concealing corrupt transactions, their servants in India +had made unfair, mutilated, and garbled communications of +correspondence, and sometimes had wholly withheld the same, made an +order in their letter of the 23d of March, 1770, in the following +tenor:--"The Governor singly shall correspond with the country powers; +but _all_ letters, before they shall be by him sent, must be +communicated to the other members of the Select Committee, and receive +their approbation; and also _all_ letters _whatsoever_ which may be +received by the Governor, in answer to or in course of correspondence, +shall likewise be laid before the said Select Committee for their +information and consideration"; and that in their instructions to their +Governor-General and Council, dated 30th March, 1774, they did repeat +their orders to the same purpose and effect. + +That the said Warren Hastings did not obey, as in duty he was bound to +do, the said standing orders; nor did communicate all his correspondence +with Mr. Middleton, the Company's agent at the court of the Subah of +Oude, or with Colonel Champion, the commander-in-chief of the Company's +forces in the Rohilla war, to the Select Committee: and when afterwards, +that is to say, on the 25th of October, 1774, he was required by the +majority of the Council appointed by the act of Parliament of 1773, +whose opinion was by the said act directed to be taken as the act of the +whole Council, to produce _all_ his correspondence with Mr. Middleton +and Colonel Champion for the direction of their future proceedings +relative to the obscure, intricate, and critical transaction aforesaid, +he did positively and pertinaciously refuse to deliver any other than +such parts of the said correspondence as he thought convenient, covering +his said illegal refusal under general vague pretences of secrecy and +danger from the communication, although the said order and instruction +of the Court of Directors above mentioned was urged to him, and although +it was represented to him by the said Council, that they, as well as +he, were bound by an oath of secrecy: which refusal to obey the orders +of the Court of Directors (orders specially, and on weighty grounds of +experience, pointed to cases of this very nature) gave rise to much +jealousy, and excited great suspicions relative to the motives and +grounds on which the Rohilla war had been undertaken. + +That the said Warren Hastings, in the grounds alleged in his +justification of his refusal to communicate to his colleagues in the +Superior Council his correspondence with Mr. Middleton, the Company's +Resident at Oude, was guilty of a new offence, arrogating to himself +unprecedented and dangerous powers, on principles utterly subversive of +all order and discipline in service, and introductory to corrupt +confederacies and disobedience among the Company's servants; the said +Warren Hastings insisting that Mr. Middleton, the Company's covenanted +servant, the public Resident for transacting the Company's affairs at +the court of the Subah of Oude, and as such receiving from the Company a +salary for his service, was no other than the _official agent_ of him, +the said Warren Hastings, and that, being such, he was not obliged to +communicate his correspondence. + +That the Court of Directors, and afterwards a General Court of the +Proprietors of the East India Company, (although the latter showed +favorable dispositions towards the said Warren Hastings, and expressed, +but without assigning any ground or reason, the highest opinion of his +services and integrity,) did unanimously condemn, along with his conduct +relative to the Rohilla treaty and war, his refusal to communicate his +whole correspondence with Mr. Middleton to the Superior Council: yet the +said Warren Hastings, in defiance of the opinion of the Directors, and +the unanimous opinion of the General Court of the said East India +Company, as well as the precedent positive orders of the Court of +Directors, and the injunctions of an act of Parliament, has, from that +time to the present, never made any communication of the whole of his +correspondence to the Governor-General and Council, or to the Court of +Directors. + + +II.--SHAH ALLUM. + +That, in a solemn treaty of peace, concluded the 16th of August, 1765, +between the East India Company and the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah ul +Dowlah, and highly approved of, confirmed, and ratified by the said +Company, it is agreed, "that the King Shah Allum shall remain in full +possession of Corah, and such part of the province of Allahabad as he +now possesses, which are ceded to his Majesty as a royal demesne for the +support of his dignity and expenses." That, in a separate agreement, +concluded at the same time, between the King Shah Allum and the then +Subahdar of Bengal, under the immediate security and guaranty of the +English Company, the faith of the Company was pledged to the said King +for the annual payment of twenty-six lac of rupees for his support out +of the revenues of Bengal; and that the said Company did then receive +from the said King a grant of the duanne of the provinces of Bengal, +Bahar, and Orissa, on the express condition of their being security for +the annual payment above mentioned. That the East India Company have +held, and continue to hold, the duanne so granted, and for some years +have complied with the conditions on which they accepted of the grant +thereof, and have at all times acknowledged that they held the duanne +_in virtue of the Mogul's grants_. That the said Court of Directors, in +their letter of the 30th June, 1769, to Bengal, declared, "that they +esteemed themselves bound by treaty to protect the King's person, and to +secure him the possession of the Corah and Allahabad districts"; and +supposing an agreement should be made respecting these provinces between +the King and Sujah ul Dowlah, the Directors then said, "that they should +be subject to no further claim or requisition from the King, excepting +for the stipulated tribute for Bengal, which they [the Governor and +Council] were to pay to his agent, or remit to him in such manner as he +might direct." + +That, in the year 1772, the King Shah Allum, who had hitherto resided at +Allahabad, trusting to engagements which he had entered into with the +Mahrattas, quitted that place, and removed to Delhi; but, having soon +quarrelled with those people, and afterwards being taken prisoner, had +been treated by them with very great disrespect and cruelty. That, among +other instances of their abuse of their immediate power over him, the +Governor and Council of Bengal, in their letter of the 16th of August, +1773, inform the Court of Directors that he had been _compelled, while a +prisoner in their hands, to grant sunnuds for the surrender of Corah and +Allahabad to them_; and it appears from sundry other minutes of their +own that the said Governor and Council did at all times consider the +surrender above mentioned as _extorted_ from the King, and +_unquestionably an act of violence_, which could not alienate or impair +his right to those provinces, and that, when they took possession +thereof, it was at the request of the King's Naib, or viceroy, who put +them under the Council's _protection_. That on this footing they were +accepted by the said Warren Hastings and his Council, and for some time +considered by them as a deposit committed to their care by a prince to +whom the possession thereof was particularly guarantied by the East +India Company. In their letter of the 1st of March, 1773, they (the said +Warren Hastings and his Council) say, "In no shape can this compulsatory +cession by the King release us from the obligation we are under to +defend the provinces which we have so particularly guarantied to him." +But it appears that they soon adopted other ideas and assumed other +principles concerning this object. In the instructions, dated the 23d of +June, 1773, which the Council of Fort William gave to the said Warren +Hastings, previous to his interview with the Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah at +Benares, they say, that, "while the King continued at Delhi, whither he +proceeded in opposition to their most strenuous remonstrances, they +should certainly consider the engagements between him and the Company as +dissolved by his alienation from them and their interest; that the +possession of so remote a country could never be expected to yield any +profit to the Company, and the defence of it must require a perpetual +aid of their forces": yet in the same instructions they declare their +opinion, that, "if the King should make overtures to renew his former +connection, _his right to reclaim the districts of Corah and Allahabad +could not with propriety be disputed_," and they authorize the said +Warren Hastings to restore them to him _on condition that he should +renounce his claim to the annual tribute of twenty-six lac of rupees_, +herein before mentioned, _and to the arrears which might be due_, +thereby acknowledging the justice of a claim which they determined not +to comply with but in return for the surrender of another equally +valid;--that, nevertheless, in the treaty concluded by the said Warren +Hastings with Sujah ul Dowlah on the 7th of September, 1773, it is +asserted, that his Majesty, (meaning the King Shah Allum,) "having +abandoned the districts of Corah and Allahabad, and given a sunnud for +Corah and Currah to the Mahrattas, had thereby forfeited his right to +the said districts," although it was well known to the said Warren +Hastings, and had been so stated by him to the Court of Directors, that +this surrender on the part of the King had been extorted from him by +violence, while he was a prisoner in the hands of the Mahrattas, and +although it was equally well known to the said Warren Hastings that +there was nothing in the original treaty of 1765 which could restrain +the King from changing the place of his residence, consequently that his +removal to Delhi could not occasion a forfeiture of his right to the +provinces secured to him by that treaty. + +That the said Warren Hastings, in the report which he made of his +interview and negotiations with Sujah ul Dowlah, dated the 4th of +October, 1773, declared, "that the administration would have been +culpable in the highest degree in retaining possession of Corah and +Allahabad _for any other purpose than that of making an advantage by the +disposal of them_," and therefore he had ceded them to the Vizier for +fifty lac of rupees: a measure for which he had no authority whatever +from the King Shah Allum, and in the execution of which no reserve +whatever was made in favor of the rights of that prince, nor any care +taken of his interests. + +That the sale of these provinces to Sujah Dowlah involved the East India +Company in a triple breach of justice; since by the same act they +violated a treaty, they sold the property of another, and they alienated +a deposit committed to their friendship and good faith, and as such +accepted by them. That a measure of this nature is not to be defended on +motives of policy and convenience, supposing such motives to have +existed, without a total loss of public honor, and shaking all security +in the faith of treaties; but that in reality the pretences urged by the +said Warren Hastings for selling the King's country to Sujah Dowlah were +false and invalid. It could not strengthen our alliance with Sujah ul +Dowlah; since, paying a price for a purchase, he received no favor and +incurred no obligation. It did not free the Company from all the dangers +attending either a remote property or a remote connection; since, the +moment the country in question became part of Sujah Dowlah's dominions, +it was included in the Company's former guaranty of those dominions, and +in case of invasion the Company were obliged to send part of their army +to defend it at the requisition of the said Sujah Dowlah; and if the +remote situation of those provinces made the defence of them difficult +and dangerous, much more was it a difficult and dangerous enterprise to +engage the Company's force in an attack and invasion of the Rohillas, +whose country lay at a much greater distance from the Company's +frontier,--which, nevertheless, the said Warren Hastings agreed to and +undertook at the very time when, under pretence of the difficulty of +defending Corah and Allahabad, he sold those provinces to Sujah Dowlah. +It did not relieve the Company from the _expense_ of defending the +country; since the revenues thereof far exceeded the subsidy to be paid +by Sujah Dowlah, and these revenues justly belonged to the Company as +long as the country continued under their protection, and would have +answered the expense of defending it. Finally, that the sum of fifty lac +of rupees, stipulated with the said Sujah Dowlah, was inadequate to the +value of the country, the annual revenues of which were stated at +twenty-five lac of rupees, which General Sir Robert Barker, then +commander-in-chief of the Company's forces, affirms _was certain, and +too generally known to admit of a doubt_. + +That the King Shah Allum received for some years the annual tribute of +twenty-six lac of rupees above mentioned, and was entitled to continue +to receive it by virtue of an engagement deliberately, and for an +adequate consideration, entered into with him by the Company's servants, +and approved of and ratified by the Company themselves;--that this +engagement was absolute and unconditional, and did neither express nor +suppose any case in which the said King should forfeit or the Company +should have a right to resume the tribute;--that, nevertheless, the said +Warren Hastings and his Council, immediately after selling the King's +country to Sujah Dowlah, resolved to withhold, and actually withheld, +the payment of the said tribute, of which the King Shah Allum has never +since received any part;--that this resolution of the Council is not +justified even by themselves on principles of right and justice, but by +arguments of policy and convenience, by which the best founded claims +of right and justice may at all times be set aside and defeated. "They +judged it highly impolitic and unsafe to answer the drafts of the King, +until they were satisfied of his amicable intentions, and those of his +new allies." But neither had they any reason to question the King's +amicable intentions, nor was he pledged to answer for those of the +Mahrattas; his trusting to the good faith of that people, and relying on +their assistance to reinstate him in the possession of his capital, +might have been imprudent and impolitic, but these measures, however +ruinous to himself, indicated no enmity to the English, nor were they +productive of any effects injurious to the English interests. And it is +plain that the said Warren Hastings and his Council were perfectly aware +that their motives or pretences for withholding the tribute were too +weak to justify their conduct, having principally insisted on the +reduced state of their treasury, which, as they said, _rendered it +impracticable to comply with those payments_. The _right_ of a creditor +does not depend on the circumstances of the debtor: on the contrary, the +plea of inability includes a virtual acknowledgment of the debt; since, +if the creditor's right were denied, the plea would be superfluous. + +That the East India Company, having on their part violated the +engagements and renounced the conditions on which they received and have +hitherto held and enjoyed the duanne of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa from +the King Shah Allum, have thereby forfeited all right and title to the +said duanne arising from the said grant, and that it is free and open to +the said King to resume such grant, and to transfer it to any other +prince or state;--that, notwithstanding any distress or weakness to +which he may be actually reduced, his lawful authority, as sovereign of +the Mogul Empire, is still acknowledged in India, and that his grant of +the duanne would sufficiently authorize and materially assist any prince +or state that might attempt to dispossess the East India Company +thereof, since it would convey a right which could not be disputed, and +to which nothing but force could be opposed. Nor can these opinions be +more strongly expressed than they have been lately by the said Warren +Hastings himself, who, in a minute recorded the 1st of December, 1784, +has declared, that, "fallen as the House of Timur is, it is yet the +relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern world; that _its +sovereignty is universally acknowledged_, though the substance of it no +longer exists; and that the Company itself derives its constitutional +dominion from its ostensible bounty." + +That the said Warren Hastings by this declaration has renounced and +condemned the principle on which he avowedly acted towards the Mogul in +the year 1773, when he denied that the sunnuds or grants of the Mogul, +if they were in the hands of another nation, would avail them +anything,--and when he declared "that the sword which gave us the +dominion of Bengal must be the instrument of its preservation, and that, +if it should ever cease to be ours, the next proprietor would derive his +_right_ and possession from the same _natural charter_." That the said +Warren Hastings, to answer any immediate purpose, adopts any principle +of policy, however false or dangerous, without any regard to former +declarations made, or to principles avowed on other occasions by +himself; and particularly, that in his conduct to Shah Allum he first +maintained that the grants of that prince were of no avail,--that we +held the dominion of Bengal by the sword, which he has falsely declared +the source of _right_, and the _natural charter_ of dominion,--whereas +at a later period he has declared that the sovereignty of the family of +Shah Allum is universally acknowledged, and that the Company itself +derives its constitutional dominion from their ostensible bounty. + + +III.--BENARES. + +PART I. + +RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES. + +I. That the territory of Benares is a fruitful, and has been, not long +since, an orderly, well-cultivated, and improved province, of great +extent; and its capital city, as Warren Hastings, Esquire, has informed +the Court of Directors, in his letter of the 21st of November, 1781, "is +highly revered by the natives of the Hindoo persuasion, so that many who +have acquired independent fortunes retire to close their days in a place +so eminently distinguished for its sanctity"; and he further acquaints +the Directors, "that it may rather be considered as the seat of the +Hindoo religion than as the capital of a province. But as its +inhabitants are not composed of Hindoos only, the _former_ wealth which +flowed into it from the offerings of pilgrims, as well as from the +transactions of exchange, for which its central situation is adapted, +has attracted numbers of Mahomedans, who still continue to reside in it +with their families." And these circumstances of the city of Benares, +which not only attracted the attention of all the different +descriptions of men who inhabit Hindostan, but interested them warmly in +whatever it might suffer, did in a peculiar manner require that the +Governor-General and Council of Calcutta should conduct themselves with +regard to its rulers and inhabitants, when it became dependent on the +Company, on the most distinguished principles of good faith, equity, +moderation, and mildness. + +II. That the Rajah Bulwant Sing, late prince or Zemindar of the province +aforesaid, was a great lord of the Mogul Empire, dependent on the same, +through the Vizier of the Empire, the late Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of +Oude; and the said Bulwant Sing, in the commencement of the English +power, did attach himself to the cause of the English Company; and the +Court of Directors of the said Company did acknowledge, in their letter +of the 26th of May, 1768, that "Bulwant Sing's joining us at the time he +did was of _signal service_, and the stipulation in his favor was what +he was justly entitled to"; and they did commend "the care that had been +taken [by the then Presidency] of those that had shown their attachment +to them [the Company] during the war"; and they did finally express +their hope and expectation in the words following: "The moderation and +attention paid to those who have espoused our interests in this war will +_restore_ our reputation in Hindostan, and that the Indian powers will +be convinced _NO breach of treaty will ever have our sanction_." + +III. That the Rajah Bulwant Sing died on the 23d of August, 1770, and +his son, Cheyt Sing, succeeding to his rights and pretensions, the +Presidency of Calcutta (John Cartier, Esquire, being then President) did +instruct Captain Gabriel Harper to procure a confirmation of the +succession to his son Cheyt Sing, "as it was of the utmost political +import to the Company's affairs; and that the young man ought not to +consider the price to be paid to satisfy _the Vizier's jealousy and +avarice_." And they did further declare as follows: "The strong and +inviolable attachment which subsisted betwixt the Company and the father +makes us most readily interpose our good offices for the son." And the +young Rajah aforesaid having agreed, under the mediation of Captain +Harper, to pay near two hundred thousand pounds as a gift to the said +Vizier, and to increase his tribute by near thirty thousand pounds +annually, a deed of confirmation was passed by the said Vizier to the +said Rajah and his heirs, by which he became a purchaser, for valuable +considerations, of his right and inheritance in the zemindary aforesaid. +In consequence of this grant, so by him purchased, the Rajah was +solemnly invested with the government in the city of Benares, "amidst +the acclamations of a numerous people, and to the great satisfaction of +all parties." And the said Harper, in his letter of the 8th October, +1770, giving an account of the investiture aforesaid, did express +himself in these words: "I will leave the young Rajah and others to +acquaint you how I have conducted myself; only thus much let me say, +that I have kept a strict eye not to diminish our national honor, +disinterestedness, and justice, which I will conclude has had a greater +effect in securing to the Company their vast possessions than even the +force of arms, however formidable, could do." The President of Calcutta +testified his approbation of the said Harper's conduct in the strongest +terms, that is, in the following: "Your disinterestedness has been +equally distinguishable as your abilities, and both do you the greatest +honor." + +IV. That the agreement between the Rajah and Nabob aforesaid continued +on both sides without any violation, under the sanction and guaranty of +the East India Company, for three years, when Warren Hastings, Esquire, +being then President, did propose a further confirmation of the said +grant, and did, on the 12th of October, 1773, obtain a delegation for +himself to be the person to negotiate the same: it being his opinion, as +expressed in his report of October 4th, 1773, that the Rajah was not +only entitled to the inheritance of his zemindary by the grants through +Captain Harper, but that the preceding treaty of Allahabad, though +literally expressing no more than a security personal to Bulwant Sing, +did, notwithstanding, in the true sense and import thereof, extend to +his posterity; "and that it had been differently understood" (that is, +not literally) "by the Company, and by this administration; and the +Vizier had _before_ put it out of all dispute by the solemn act passed +in the Rajah's favor on his succession to the zemindary." + +V. That the Council, in their instructions to the said Governor +Hastings, did empower him "to _renew_, in behalf of the Rajah Cheyt +Sing, the stipulation which was formerly made with the Vizier in +consideration of his services in 1764"; and the government was +accordingly settled on the Rajah and his posterity, or to his heirs, on +the same footing on which it was granted to his said father, excepting +the addition aforesaid to the tribute, with an express provision "that +_no increase_ shall ever hereafter be demanded." And the grant and +stipulation aforesaid was further confirmed by the said Sujah ul Dowlah, +under the Company's guaranty, by the most solemn and awful form of oath +known in the Mahomedan religion, inserted in the body of the deed or +grant; and the said Warren Hastings, strongly impressed with the opinion +of the propriety of protecting the Rajah, and of the injustice, malice, +and avarice of the said Sujah Dowlah, and the known family enmity +subsisting between him and the Rajah, did declare, in his report to the +Council, as follows: "I am well convinced that the Rajah's inheritance, +and perhaps his life, are no longer safe than while he enjoys the +Company's protection, which is his due by the ties of justice and the +obligations of public faith." + +VI. That some time after the new confirmation aforesaid, that is to say, +in the year 1774, the Governor-General and Council, which had been +formed and the members thereof appointed by act of Parliament, did +obtain the assignment of the sovereignty paramount of the said +government by treaty with the Nabob of Oude, by which, although the +supreme dominion was changed, the terms and the conditions of the tenure +of the Rajah of Benares remained; as the said Nabob of Oude could +transfer to the East India Company no other or greater estate than he +himself possessed in or over the said zemindary. But to obviate any +misconstruction on the subject, the said Warren Hastings did propose to +the board, that, whatever provision might in the said treaty be made +for the interest of the Company, the same should be "without an +encroachment on the just rights of the Rajah, or _the engagements +actually subsisting with him_." + +VII. That the said Warren Hastings, then having, or pretending to have, +an extraordinary care of the interest of the Rajah of Benares, did, on +his transfer of the sovereignty, propose a new grant, to be conveyed in +new instruments to the said Rajah, conferring upon him further +privileges, namely, the addition of the sovereign rights of the mint, +and of the right of criminal justice of life and death. And he, the said +Warren Hastings, as Governor-General, did himself propose the resolution +for that purpose in Council, in the following words, with remarks +explanatory of the principles upon which the grants aforesaid were made, +namely:-- + +MINUTE. + +VIII. "That the perpetual and _independent_ possession of the zemindary +of Benares and its dependencies be _confirmed_ and guarantied to the +Rajah Cheyt Sing and his heirs forever, _subject only to the annual +payment of the revenues hitherto paid to the late Vizier_, amounting to +Benares Sicca Rupees 23,71,656.12, to be disposed of as is expressed in +the following article: _That no other demand be made on him either by +the Nabob of Oude or this government; nor any kind of authority or +jurisdiction be exercised by either within the districts assigned him_." +To which minute he, the said Warren Hastings, did subjoin the following +observation in writing, and recorded therewith in the Council books, +that is to say: "_The Rajah of Benares, from the situation of his +country, which is a frontier to the provinces of Oude and Bahar, may be +made a serviceable ally to the Company, whenever their affairs shall +require it. He has always been considered in this light both by the +Company and the successive members of the late Council; but to insure +his attachment to the Company, his interest must be connected with it, +which cannot be better effected than by freeing him totally from the +REMAINS of his present vassalage under the guaranty and protection of +the Company, and at the same time guarding him against any apprehensions +from this government, by thus pledging its faith that no encroachment +shall ever be made on his rights by the Company._" And the said Warren +Hastings, on the 5th of July, 1775, did himself propose, among other +articles of the treaty relative to this object, one of the following +tenor: "That, whilst the Rajah shall continue faithful to these +engagements and punctual in his payments, and shall pay due obedience to +the authority of this government, _no more demands_ shall be made upon +him by the Honorable Company of ANY KIND, or, on any pretence +whatsoever, shall any person be allowed to interfere with his authority, +or to disturb the peace of his country." And the said article was by the +other members of the Council assented to without debate. + +IX. On transferring the Rajah's tribute from the Nabob to the Company, +the stipulation with the Nabob was renewed on the proposition of the +said Warren Hastings himself, and expressed in a yet more distinct +manner, namely: "That no more demands shall be made upon him by the +Honorable Company of any kind." And the said Warren Hastings, in +justification of his proposal of giving the Rajah "a complete and +uncontrolled authority over his zemindary," did enter on the Council +book the following reasons for investing him with the same, strongly +indicating the situation in which he must be left under any other +circumstances, whether under the Nabob of Oude, or under the English, or +under the double influence of both: "That the security of his person and +possessions from the Company's protection may be rated equal to many +lacs of rupees, _which, though saved to him, are no loss to the +government on which he depends, being all articles of invisible +expense_: in fees to the ministers and officers of the Nabob; in the +charges of a double establishment of vackeels to both governments; in +presents and charges of accommodation to the Nabob, during his residence +at any place within the boundaries of his zemindary; in _the frauds, +embezzlements, and oppressions exercised in the mint and cutwally_; +besides the allowed profits of those officers, and the advantages which +every man _in occasional power, or in the credit of it, might make of +the Rajah's known weakness_, and the dread he stood in both of the +displeasure of the Nabob _and the ill-will of individuals among the +English, who were all considered, either in their present stations or +connections, or the right of succession, as members of the state of +Bengal_. It would be scarce possible to enumerate all the inconveniences +to which the Rajah was liable _in his former situation_, or to estimate +the precise effect which they produced on his revenue and on the gross +amount of his expense; but it may be easily conceived that both were +enormous, and of a nature the most likely to lessen the profits of +government, instead of adding to them." And in justification of his +proposal of giving the Rajah the symbols of sovereignty in the power of +life and death, and in the coining of money, as pledges of his +_independence_, he states the deplorable situation of princes reduced to +dependence on the Vizier or the Company, and obliged to entertain an +English Resident at their court, in the following words: "It is proposed +to receive the payment of his [the Rajah's] rents at Patna, because that +is the nearest provincial station, and because it would not frustrate +_the intention of rendering the Rajah independent_. If a Resident was +appointed to receive the money, as it became due, at Benares, _such a +Resident_ would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and +over his country, _which would in effect render him the master of both_. +This consequence might not perhaps be brought completely to pass without +_a struggle and many appeals to the Council_, which, in a government +constituted like this, _cannot fail to terminate against the Rajah, and, +by the construction to which his opposition to the agent would be +liable, might eventually draw on him severe restrictions, and end in +reducing him to the mean and depraved state of a mere zemindar_." + +X. That, in order to satisfy the said Rajah of the intentions of the +Company towards him, and of the true sense and construction of the +grants to him, the said Rajah, to be made, the Governor-General (he, the +said Warren Hastings) and Council did, on the 24th August, 1775, +instruct Mr. Fowke, the Resident at the Rajah's court, in the following +words: "It is proper to assure the Rajah, we do not mean to increase his +tribute, but to require from him an exact sum; that, under the +sovereignty of the Company, we are determined to leave him the free and +uncontrolled management of the internal government of his country, and +the collection and regulation of the revenues, so long as he adheres to +the terms of his engagement; and will _never_ demand _any_ augmentation +of the annual tribute which may be fixed." + +XI. That the said Warren Hastings and the Council-General, not being +satisfied with having instructed the Resident to make the representation +aforesaid, to remove all suspicion that by the new grants any attempt +should insidiously be made to change his former tenure, did resolve that +a letter should be written by the Governor-General himself to the Rajah +of Benares, to be delivered to Mr. Fowke, the Resident, together with +his credentials; in which letter they declare "the board willing to +continue the grant of the zemindary to him _in as full and ample a +manner as he possessed it from former sovereigns_; and on his paying the +annual tribute," &c;--and in explaining the reasons for granting to him +the mint and criminal justice, they inform him that this is done in +order "that he may possess an _uncontrolled and free authority_ in the +regulation and government of his zemindary." + +XII. That on the 26th February, 1776, the Board and Council did order +that the proper instruments should be prepared for conveying to the +Rajah aforesaid the government and criminal justice and mint of Benares, +with its dependencies, "in the usual form, _expressing the conditions +already resolved on in the several proceedings of the board_." And on +the same day a letter was written to the Resident at Benares, signifying +that they had ordered the proper instruments to be prepared, specifying +the terms concerning the remittance of the Rajah's tribute to Calcutta, +as well as "_the several other conditions which had been already agreed +to_,--and that they should forward it to him, to be delivered to the +Rajah." And on the 20th of March following, the board did again explain +the terms of the said tribute, in a letter to the Court of Directors, +and did add, "that a _sunnud_ [grant or patent] for his [Cheyt Sing's] +zemindary should be furnished him _on these and the conditions before +agreed on_." + +XIII. That during the course of the transactions aforesaid in Council, +and the various assurances given to the Rajah and the Court of +Directors, certain improper and fraudulent practices were used with +regard to the symbols of investiture which ought to have been given, and +the form of the deeds by which the said zemindary ought to have been +granted. For it appears that the original deeds were signed by the board +on the 4th September, 1775, and transmitted to Mr. Fowke, the Resident +at the Rajah's court, and that on the 20th of November following the +Court of Directors were acquainted by the said Warren Hastings and the +Council that Rajah Cheyt Sing had been invested with the _sunnud_ +(charters or patents) for his zemindary, and the _kellaut_, (or robes of +investiture,) in all the proper forms; but on the 1st of October, 1775, +the Rajah did complain to the Governor-General and Council, that the +_kellaut_, (or robes,) with which he was to be invested according to +their order, "_is not of the same kind_ as that which he received from +the late Vizier on the like occasion." In consequence of the said +complaint, the board did, in their letter to the Resident of the 11th of +the same month, desire him "to make inquiry respecting the nature of +the kellaut, and invest him with _one of the same sort_, on the part of +this government, instead of that which they formerly described to him." +And it appears highly probable that the instruments which accompanied +the said robes of investiture were made in a manner conformable to the +orders and directions of the board, and the conditions by them agreed +to; as the Rajah, who complained of the insufficiency of the robes, did +make no complaint of the insufficiency of the instruments, or of any +deviation in them from those he had formerly received from the Vizier. +_But a copy or duplicate of the said deeds or instruments were in some +manner surreptitiously disposed of, and withheld from the records of the +Company, and never were transmitted to the Court of Directors._ + +XIV. That several months after the said settlement and investiture, +namely, on the 15th of April, 1776, the Secretary informed the Court +that he had prepared a _sunnud_, _cabbolut_, and _pottah_ (that is, a +patent, an agreement, and a rent-roll) for Cheyt Sing's zemindary, and +the board ordered the same to be executed; but the Resident, on +receiving the same, did transmit the several objections made by the +Rajah thereto, and particularly to a clause in the patent, made in +direct contradiction to the engagements of the Council so solemnly and +repeatedly given, by which clause the former patents _are declared to be +null_. That, on the representation aforesaid, on the 29th July, the +Secretary was ordered to prepare new and proper instruments, _omitting +the clause declaring the former patents to be null_, and the said new +patents were delivered to the Rajah; and the others, which he objected +to, as well as those which had been delivered to him originally, were +returned to the Presidency. But neither the first set of deeds, nor the +fraudulent patent aforesaid, nor the new instruments made out on the +complaint of the Rajah, omitting the exceptionable words, have been +inserted in the records, although it was the particular duty of the said +Warren Hastings that all transactions with the country powers should be +faithfully entered, as well as to take care that all instruments +transmitted to them on the faith of the Company should be honestly, +candidly, and fairly executed, according to the true intent and meaning +of the engagements entered into on the part of the Company,--giving by +the said complicated, artificial, and fraudulent management, as well as +by his said omitting to record the said material document, strong reason +to presume that he did even then meditate to make some evil use of the +deeds which he thus withheld from the Company, and which he did +afterwards in reality make, when he found means and opportunity to +effect his evil purpose. + + +PART II. + +DESIGNS OF MR. HASTINGS TO RUIN THE RAJAH OF BENARES. + +I. That the tribute transferred to the Company by the treaty with the +Nabob of Oude, being 250,000_l._ a year sterling, and upwards, without +any deductions whatsoever, was paid monthly, with such punctual +exactness as had no parallel in the Company's dealings with any of the +native princes or with any subject zemindar, being the only one who +never was in arrears; and according to all appearance, a perfect +harmony did prevail between the Supreme Council at Calcutta and the +Rajah. But though the Rajah of Benares furnished no occasion of +displeasure to the board, yet it since appears that the said Warren +Hastings did, at some time in the year 1777, conceive displeasure +against him. In that year, he, the said Warren Hastings, retracted his +own act of resignation of his office, made to the Court of Directors +through his agent, Mr. Macleane, and, calling in the aid of the military +to support him in his authority, brought the divisions of the +government, according to his own expression, "to an extremity bordering +on civil violence." This extremity he attributes, in a narrative by him +transmitted to the Court of Directors, and printed, not to his own fraud +and prevarication, but to what he calls "an attempt to wrest from him +his authority"; and in the said narrative he pretends that the Rajah of +Benares had deputed an agent with an express commission to his opponent, +Sir John Clavering. This fact, if it had been true, (which is not +proved,) was in no sort criminal or offensive to the Company's +government, but was at first sight nothing more than a proper mark of +duty and respect to the supposed succession of office. Nor is it +possible to conceive in what manner it could offend the said Hastings, +if he did not imagine that the express commission to which in the said +narrative he refers might relate to the discovery to Sir John Clavering +of some practice which he might wish to conceal,--the said Clavering, +whom he styles "_his opponent_," having been engaged, in obedience to +the Company's express orders, in the discovery of sundry peculations and +other evil practices charged upon the said Hastings. But although, at +the time of the said pretended deputation, he dissembled his +resentment, it appears to have rankled in his mind, and that he never +forgave it, of whatever nature it might have been (the same never having +been by him explained); and some years after, he recorded it in his +justification of his oppressive conduct towards the Rajah, urging the +same with great virulence and asperity, as a proof or presumption of +his, the said Rajah's, disaffection to the Company's government; and by +his subsequent acts, he seems from the first to have resolved, when +opportunity should occur, on a severe revenge. + +II. That, having obtained, in his casting vote, a majority in Council on +the death of Sir John Clavering and Mr. Monson, he did suddenly, and +without any previous general communication with the members of the +board, by a Minute of Consultation of the 9th of July, 1778, make an +extraordinary demand, namely: "That the Rajah of Benares should +_consent_ to the establishment of three regular battalions of sepoys, +_to be raised and maintained at his own expense_"; and the said expense +was estimated at between fifty and sixty thousand pounds sterling. + +III. That the said requisition did suppose the _consent_ of the +Rajah,--the very word being inserted in the body of his, the said Warren +Hastings's, minute; and the same was agreed to, though with some doubts +on the parts of two of his colleagues, Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler, +concerning the right of making the same, even worded as it was. But Mr. +Francis and Mr. Wheler, soon after, finding that the Rajah was much +alarmed by this departure from the treaty, the requisition aforesaid was +strenuously opposed by them. The said Hastings did, notwithstanding +this opposition, persevere, and by his casting vote alone did carry the +said unjust and oppressive demand. The Rajah submitted, after some +murmuring and remonstrance, to pay the sum required,--but on the express +condition (as has been frequently asserted by him to the said Warren +Hastings without any contradiction) that the exaction should continue +_but for one year, and should not be drawn into precedent_. He also +requested that the extraordinary demand should be paid along with the +instalments of his monthly tribute: but although the said Warren +Hastings did not so much as pretend that the instant payment was at all +necessary, and though he was urged by his before-mentioned colleagues to +moderate his proceedings, he did insist upon immediate payment of the +whole; and did deliver his demand in proud and insulting language, +wholly unfit for a governor of a civilized nation to use towards eminent +persons in alliance with and in honorable and free dependence upon its +government; and did support the same with arguments full of +unwarrantable passion, and with references to reports affecting merely +his own personal power and consideration, which reports were not proved, +nor attempted to be proved, and, if proved, furnishing reasons +insufficient for his purpose, and indecent in any public proceedings. +That the said Hastings did cause the said sums of money to be rigorously +exacted, although no such regular battalions as he pretended to +establish, as a color for his demand on the Rajah, were then raised, or +any steps taken towards raising them; and when the said Rajah pleaded +his inability to pay the whole sum at once, he, the said Hastings, +persevering in his said outrageous and violent demeanor, did order the +Resident to wait on the Rajah forthwith, and "demand of him in person, +and by writing, the full payment in specie to be made to him within five +days of such demand, and to declare to him, in the name of this +government, that his evading or neglecting to accomplish the payment +thereof within that space of time should be deemed _equivalent to an +absolute refusal_; and in case of non-compliance with this [the +Resident's] demand, _we peremptorily enjoin you to refrain from all +further intercourse with him_": the said Hastings appearing by all his +proceedings to be more disposed to bring on a quarrel with the Prince of +Benares, than to provide money for any public service. + +IV. That the said demand was complied with, and the whole thereof paid +on the 10th of October that year. And the said Rajah did write to the +said Hastings a letter, in order to mitigate and mollify him, declaring +to the said Hastings that his sole reliance was on him, "and that in +every instance he depended on his faith, religion, promises, and +actions." But he, the said Warren Hastings, as if the being reminded of +his faith and promises were an incentive to him to violate the same, +although he had agreed that his demand should not be drawn into +precedent, and the payment of the fifty thousand pounds aforesaid should +continue only for one year, did, the very day after he had received the +letter aforesaid, renew a demand of the same nature and on the same +pretence, this year even less plausible than the former, of three +battalions _to be_ raised. The said Rajah, on being informed of this +requisition, did remind the said Warren Hastings that he engaged in the +last year that but one payment should be made, and that he should not be +called upon in future, and, pleading inability to discharge the new +demand, declared himself in the following words to the said Warren +Hastings: "I am therefore hopeful you will be kindly pleased to excuse +me the five lacs now demanded, and that nothing may be demanded of me +beyond the amount expressed in the pottah." + +V. That on the day after the receipt of this letter, that is, on the +28th August, 1779, he, the said Warren Hastings, made a reply to the +said letter; and without any remark whatsoever on the allegation of the +Rajah, stating to him his engagement, that he, the said Rajah, should +not be called upon in future, he says, "I now repeat my demand, that you +do, on the receipt of this, without evasion or delay, pay the five lac +of rupees into the hands of Mr. Thomas Graham, who has orders to receive +it from you, and, in case of your refusal, to summon the two battalions +of sepoys under the command of Major Camac to Benares, that measures may +be taken to oblige you to a compliance; and in this case, the whole +expense of the corps, from the time of its march, will fall on you." + +VI. That the said Rajah did a second and third time represent to the +said Warren Hastings that he had broke his promise, and the said +Hastings did in no manner deny the same, but did, in contempt thereof, +as well as of the original treaty between the Company and the Rajah, +order two battalions of troops to march into his territories, and in a +manner the most harsh, insulting, and despotic, as if to provoke that +prince to some act of resistance, did compel him to the payment of the +said second unjust demand; and did extort also the sum of two thousand +pounds, on pretence of the charge of the troops employed to coerce him. + +VII. That the third year, that is to say, in the year 1780, the same +demand was, with the same menaces, renewed, and did, as before, produce +several humble remonstrances and submissive complaints, which the said +Hastings did always treat as crimes and offences of the highest order; +and although in the regular subsidy or tribute, which was monthly +payable by treaty, fifty days of grace were allowed on each payment, and +after the expiration of the said fifty days one quarter par cent only +was provided as a penalty, he, the said Warren Hastings, on some short +delay of payment of his third arbitrary and illegal demand, did presume +of his own authority to impose a fine or mulct of ten thousand pounds on +the said Rajah; and though it does not appear whether or no the same was +actually levied, the said threat was soon after followed by an order +from the said Hastings for the march of troops into the country of +Benares, as in the preceding year. + +VIII. That, these violent and insulting measures failing to provoke the +Rajah, and he having paid up the whole demand, the said Warren Hastings, +being resolved to drive him to extremities, did make on the said Rajah a +sudden demand, over and above the ordinary tribute or subsidy of +260,000_l._ per annum, and over and above the 50,000_l._ extraordinary, +to provide a body of cavalry for the service of the Bengal government. + +IX. The demand, as expressed in the Minute of Consultation, and in the +public instructions of the board to the Resident to make the +requisition, is "for such part of the cavalry entertained in his service +as he can spare"; and the demand is in this and in no other manner +described by the Governor-General and Council in their letter to the +Court of Directors. But in a Narrative of the said Warren Hastings's, +addressed to Edward Wheler, Esquire, it appears, that, upon the Rajah's +making difficulties, according to the representation of the said +Hastings, relative to the said requisition, the correspondence +concerning which the said Hastings hath fraudulently suppressed, he, the +said Hastings, instead of adhering to the requisition of such cavalry +_as the Rajah could spare_, and which was all that by the order of +Council he was authorized to make, did, of his own private and arbitrary +authority, in some letter which he hath suppressed, instruct the +Resident, Markham, to make a peremptory demand for two thousand cavalry, +which he well knew to be more than the Rajah's finances could support, +estimating the provision for the same at 96,000_l._ a year at the +lowest, though the expense of the same would probably have been much +more: which extravagant demand the said Hastings could only have made in +hopes of provoking the Rajah to some imprudent measure or passionate +remonstrance. And this arbitrary demand of cavalry was made, and +peremptorily insisted on, although in the original treaty with the said +Rajah it was left entirely optional whether or not he should keep up any +cavalry at all, and in the Minute of Consultation it was expressly +mentioned to be thus optional, and that for whatsoever cavalry he, the +said Rajah, should furnish, he should be paid fifteen rupees per month +for each private, and so in proportion for officers: yet the demand +aforesaid was made without any offer whatsoever of providing the said +payment according to treaty. + +X. That the said Hastings did soon after, but upon what grounds does not +appear by any Minute of Council, or from any correspondence contained in +his Narrative, reduce the demand to fifteen hundred, and afterwards to +one thousand: by which he showed himself to be sensible of the +extravagance of his first requisition. + +XI. That, in consequence of these requisitions, as he asserts in his +Narrative aforesaid, the Rajah "did offer two hundred and fifty horse, +but sent none." But the said Hastings doth not accompany his said +Narrative with any voucher or document whatever; and therefore the +account given by the Rajah, and delivered to the said Warren Hastings +himself, inserted by the said Warren Hastings himself in his Narrative, +and in no part thereof attempted to be impeached, is more worthy of +credit: that is to say,-- + +"With respect to the horse, you desired me in your letter to inform you +of what number I could afford to station with you. I sent you a +particular account of all that were in my service, amounting to one +thousand three hundred horse, of which several were stationed at distant +places; but I received no answer to this. Mr. Markham delivered me an +order to prepare a thousand horse. In compliance with your wishes I +collected five hundred horse, and a substitute for the remainder, five +hundred _burkundasses_ [matchlock-men], of which I sent you information; +and I told Mr. Markham that they were ready to go to whatever place they +should be sent. No answer, however, came from you on this head, and I +remained astonished at the cause of it. Repeatedly I asked Mr. Markham +about an answer to my letter about the horse; but he told me that he did +not know the reason of no answer having been sent. I remained +astonished." + +XII. That the said Hastings is guilty of an high offence in not giving +an answer to letters of such importance, and in concealing the said +letters from the Court of Directors, as well as much of his +correspondence with the Residents,--and more particularly in not +directing to what place the cavalry and matchlock-men aforesaid should +be sent, when the Rajah had declared they were ready to go to whatever +service should be destined for them, and afterwards in maliciously +accusing the Rajah for not having sent the same. + +XIII. That, on the 3d of February, 1781, a new demand for the support of +the three fictitious battalions of sepoys aforesaid was made by the said +Warren Hastings; but whilst the Rajah was paying by instalments the said +arbitrary demand, the said Rajah was alarmed with some intelligence of +secret projects on foot for his ruin, and, being well apprised of the +malicious and revengeful temper of the said Hastings, in order to pacify +him, if possible, offered to redeem himself by a large ransom, to the +amount of two hundred thousand pounds sterling, to be paid for the use +of the Company. And it appears that the said alarm was far from +groundless; for Major Palmer, one of the secret and confidential agents +of the said Hastings, hath sworn, on the 4th of December, 1781, at the +desire of the said Warren Hastings, before Sir Elijah Impey, to the +following effect, that is to say: "That the said Warren Hastings had +told him, the said Palmer, that he, the said Hastings, had rejected the +offer of two hundred thousand pounds made by the Rajah of Benares for +the public service, and that he was resolved _to convert the faults +committed by the Rajah into a public benefit_, and would exact the sum +of five hundred thousand pounds, as a punishment for his breach of +engagements with the government of Bengal, and acts of misconduct in his +zemindary; and if the Rajah should absolutely refuse the demand, that he +would deprive him of his zemindary, or transfer the sovereignty thereof +to the Nabob of Oude." + +XIV. And Mr. Anderson, in his declaration from Sindia's camp, of the 4th +of January, 1782, did also, at the desire of Mr. Hastings, depose +(though not on oath) concerning a conversation between him and the said +Hastings (but mentioning neither the time nor place where the same was +held); in which conversation, after reciting the allegations of the said +Hastings relative to several particulars of the delay and backwardness +of the Rajah in paying the aforesaid extra demand, and his resolution to +exact from the Rajah "a considerable sum of money to the relief of the +Company's exigencies," he proceeds in the following words: "That, if he +[the Rajah] consented, you [the said Warren Hastings] were desirous of +_establishing his possessions on the most permanent and eligible +footing_; but if he refused, you had it in your power to _raise a large +sum_ for the Company by accepting an offer which had been made for his +districts by the Vizier." And the said Anderson, in the declaration +aforesaid, made at the request of the said Hastings, and addressed to +him, expressed himself as follows: "That you told me you had +communicated our designs to Mr. Wheler [his only remaining colleague]; +and I believe, but I do not positively recollect, you said he concurred +in them." But no trace of any such communication or concurrence did, at +the time referred to, or at any time ever after, appear on the +Consultations, as it ought to have done; and the said Hastings is +criminal for having omitted to enter and record the proceeding. That the +said Wheler did also declare, but a considerable time after the date of +the conversations aforesaid, that, "on the eve of the Governor-General's +departure, the said Hastings had told him that the Rajah's offences (not +stating what offences, he having paid up all the demands, ordinary and +extraordinary) _were declared_ to require early punishment; and as _his +wealth was great, and the Company's exigencies pressing_, it was thought +a measure of policy and of justice to exact from him a large pecuniary +mulct for their relief. The sum to which the Governor declared his +resolution to extend the fine was forty _or_ fifty lacs; his ability to +pay it was stated as a fact that could not admit of a doubt; and the two +alternatives on which the Governor declared himself to have resolved +were, to the best of my recollection, either a removal from his +zemindary entirely, or, by taking immediate possession of all his +forts, to obtain out of the treasure deposited in them the above sum for +the Company." + +XV. That in the declaration of the said Wheler the time of the +conversation aforesaid is stated to be on the eve of the Governor's +departure, and then said to be confidential; nor is it said or +insinuated that he knew or ever heard thereof at a more early period, +though it appears by Major Palmer's affidavit that the design of taking, +not four _or_ five, but absolutely five, hundred thousand pounds from +the Rajah, was communicated to him as early as the month of June. And it +does not appear by the declarations of the said Wheler he did ever +casually or officially approve of the measure; which long concealment +and late communication, time not being allowed to his colleague to +consider the nature and consequences of such a project, or to advise any +precaution concerning the same, is a high misdemeanor. + +XVI. That the said Hastings, having formed a resolution to execute one +of the three violent and arbitrary resolutions aforesaid,--namely, to +sell the Company's sovereignty over Benares to the Nabob of Oude, or to +dispossess the Rajah of his territories, or to seize upon his forts, and +to plunder them of the treasure therein contained, to the amount of four +or five hundred thousand pounds,--did reject the offer of two hundred +thousand pounds, tendered by the said Rajah for his redemption from the +injuries which he had discovered that the said Hastings had +clandestinely meditated against him, although the sum aforesaid would +have been a considerable and seasonable acquisition at that time: the +said Hastings being determined, at a critical period, to risk the +existence of the British empire, rather than fail in the gratification +of his revenge against the said Rajah. + +XVII. That the first of his three instituted projects, namely, the +depriving the Rajah of his territories, was by himself considered as a +measure likely to be productive of much odium to the British government: +he having declared, whatever opinions he might entertain of its justice, +"that it would have an appearance of _severity_, and might furnish +grounds _unfavorable to the credit of our government, and to his own +reputation_, from the natural influence which every _act of rigor_, +exercised in the persons of men in _elevated situations_, is apt to +impress on those who are too remote from the scene of action to judge, +by any evidence of the facts themselves, of their motives or propriety." +And the second attempt, the sum of money which he aimed at by attacking +the fortresses of the Rajah, and plundering them of the treasure +supposed to be there secured, besides the obvious uncertainty of +acquiring what was thus sought, would be liable to the same imputations +with the former. And with regard to the third project, namely, the sale +of the Company's sovereignty to the Nabob of Oude, and his having +actually received proposals for the same, it was an high offence to the +Company, as presuming, without their authority or consent, to put up to +sale their sovereign rights, and particularly to put them up to sale to +that very person against whom the independence of the said province had +been declared by the Governor-General and Council to be necessary, as a +barrier for the security of the other provinces, in case of a future +rupture with him.[59] It was an heinous injury to the said Rajah to +attempt to change his relation without his consent, especially on +account of the person to whom he was to be made over for money, by +reason of the known enmity subsisting between his family and that of the +Nabob, who was to be the purchaser; and it was a grievous outrage on the +innocent inhabitants of the zemindary of Benares to propose putting them +under a person long before described by himself to the Court of +Directors "to want the qualities of the head and heart requisite for his +station"; and a letter from the British Resident at Oude, transmitted to +the said Court, represents him "to have wholly lost, by his +_oppressions_, the confidence and affections of his own subjects"; and +whose distresses, and the known disorders in his government, he, the +said Hastings, did attribute solely to his own bad conduct and evil +character; admitting also, in a letter written to Edward Wheler, +Esquire, and transmitted to the Court of Directors, "that many +circumstances did favor suspicion of his [the said Nabob's] fidelity to +the English interest, the Nabob being surrounded by men base in their +characters and improvident in their understandings, his favorites, and +his companions of his looser hours. These had every cause to dread the +effect of my influence on theirs; and both these, and the relations of +the family, whose views of consequence and power were intercepted by our +participation in the administration of his affairs, entertained a mortal +hatred to our nation, and openly avowed it." And the said Hastings was +well aware, that, in case the Nabob, by him described in the manner +aforesaid, on making such purchase, should continue to observe the +terms of his father's original covenants and engagements with the Rajah, +and should pay the Company the only tribute which he could lawfully +exact from the said Rajah, it was impossible that he could, for the mere +naked and unprofitable rights of a sovereignty paramount, afford to +offer so great a sum as the Rajah did offer to the said Hastings for his +redemption from oppression; such an acquisition to the Nabob (while he +kept his faith) could not possibly be of any advantage whatever to him; +and that therefore, if a great sum was to be paid by the Nabob of Oude, +it must be for the purpose of oppression and violation of public faith, +to be perpetrated in the person of the said Nabob, to an extent and in a +manner which the said Hastings was then apprehensive he could not +justify to the Court of Directors as his own personal act. + + +PART III. + +EXPULSION OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES. + +I. That the said Warren Hastings, being resolved on the ruin of the +Rajah aforesaid, as a preliminary step thereto, did, against the express +orders of the Court of Directors, remove Francis Fowke, Esquire, the +Company's Resident at the city of Benares, without any complaint or +pretence of complaint whatsoever, but merely on his own declaration that +he must have as a Resident at Benares a person of his own special and +personal nomination and confidence, and not a man of the Company's +nomination,--and in the place of the said Francis Fowke, thus illegally +divested of his office, did appoint thereto another servant of the +Company of his own choice. + +II. That, soon after he had removed the Company's Resident, he prepared +for a journey to the upper provinces, and particularly to Benares, in +order to execute the wicked and perfidious designs by him before +meditated and contrived: and although he did communicate his purpose +privately to such persons as he thought fit to intrust therewith, he did +not enter anything on the Consultations to that purpose, or record the +principles, real or pretended, on which he had resolved to act, nor did +he state any guilt in the Rajah which he intended to punish, or charge +him, the said Rajah, with entertaining any hostile intentions, the +effects of which were to be prevented by any strong measure; but, on the +contrary, he did industriously conceal his real designs from the Court +of Directors, and did fallaciously enter on the Consultations a minute +declaratory of purposes wholly different therefrom, and which supposed +nothing more than an amicable adjustment, founded on the treaties +between the Company and the Rajah, investing himself by his said minute +with "full power and authority to form _such_ arrangements _with_ the +Rajah of Benares for the _better_ government and management of his +zemindary, and to perform such acts for the improvement of the interest +which the Company possesses in it, as he shall think _fit and consonant +to the mutual engagements subsisting between the Company and the +Rajah_"; and for this and other purposes he did invest himself with the +whole power of the Council, giving to himself an authority as if his +acts had been the acts of the Council itself: which, though a power of a +dangerous, unwarrantable, and illegal extent, yet does plainly imply the +following limits, namely, that the acts done should be _arranged with_ +the Rajah, that is, _with his consent_; and, secondly, that they should +be consonant to the actual engagements between the parties; and nothing +appears in the minute conferring the said power, which did express or +imply any authority for depriving the Rajah of his government, or +selling the sovereignty thereof to his hereditary enemy, or for the +plunder of his fort-treasures. + +III. That the said Warren Hastings, having formed the plans aforesaid +for the ruin of the Rajah, did set out on a journey to the city of +Benares with a great train, but with a very small force, not much +exceeding six companies of regular black soldiers, to perpetrate some of +the unjust and violent acts by him meditated and resolved on; and the +said Hastings was met, according to the usage of distinguished persons +in that country, by the Rajah of Benares with a very great attendance, +both in boats and on shore, which attendance he did apparently intend as +a mark of honor and observance to the place and person of the said +Hastings, but which the said Hastings did afterwards groundlessly and +maliciously represent as an indication of a design upon his life; and +the said Rajah came into the pinnace in which the said Hastings was +carried, and in a lowly and suppliant manner, alone, and without any +guard or attendance whatsoever, entreated his favor; and being received +with great sternness and arrogance, he did put his turban in the lap of +the said Hastings, thereby signifying that he abandoned his life and +fortune to his disposal, and then departed, the said Hastings not +apprehending, nor having any reason to apprehend, any violence +whatsoever to his person. + +IV. That the said Hastings, in the utmost security and freedom from +apprehension, did pursue his journey, and did arrive at the city of +Benares on the 14th of August, 1781, some hours before the Rajah, who, +soon after his arrival, intended to pay him a visit of honor and respect +at his quarters, but was by the said Hastings rudely and insolently +forbid, until he should receive his permission. And the said Hastings, +although he had previously determined on the ruin of the said Rajah, in +order to afford some color of regularity and justice to his proceedings, +did, on the day after his arrival, that is, on the 15th day of August, +1781, send to the Rajah a charge in writing, which, though informal and +irregular, may be reduced to four articles, two general, and two more +particular: the first of the general being, "That he [the Rajah] had, by +the means of his secret agents, endeavored to excite disorders in the +government on which he depended"; the second, "That he had suffered the +_daily_ perpetration of robberies and murders, even in the streets of +Benares, to the great and public scandal of the English name." + +V. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings is guilty of an high +offence, contrary to the fundamental principles of justice, in the said +mode of charging misdemeanors, without any specification of person or +place or time or act, or any offer of specification or proofs by which +the party charged may be enabled to refute the same, in order to +unjustly load his reputation, and to prejudice him with regard to the +articles more clearly specified. + +VI. That the two specified articles relate to certain delays: the +first, with regard to the payment of the sums of money unjustly extorted +as aforesaid; and the second, the non-compliance with a requisition of +cavalry,--which non-compliance the said Hastings (even if the said +charges had been founded) did falsely, and in contradiction to all law, +affirm and maintain (in his accusation against the Rajah, and addressing +himself to him) "to amount to a _direct_ charge of disaffection and +_infidelity_ to the government on which you depend": and further +proceeded as follows: "I therefore judged it proper to state them [the +said charges] thus fully to you in writing, and to _require_ your +answer; and this I expect _immediately_." That the said Hastings, +stating his pretended facts to amount to a charge of the nature (as he +would have it understood) of high treason, and _therefore_ calling for +an _immediate_ answer, did wilfully act against the rules of natural +justice, which requires that a convenient time should be given to +answer, proportioned to the greatness of the offence alleged, and the +heavy penalties which attend it; and when he did arrogate to himself a +right both to charge and to judge in his own person, he ought to have +allowed the Rajah full opportunity for conferring with his ministers, +his doctors of law, and his accountants, on the facts charged, and on +the criminality inferred in the said accusation of disloyalty and +disaffection, or offences of that quality. + +VII. That the said Rajah did, under the pressure of the disadvantages +aforesaid, deliver in, upon the very evening of the day of the charge, a +full, complete, and specific answer to the two articles therein +specified; and did allege and offer proof that the whole of the +extraordinary demands of the said Hastings had been actually long before +paid and discharged; and did state a proper defence, with regard to the +cavalry, even supposing him bound (when he was not bound) to furnish +any. And the said Rajah did make a direct denial of the truth, of the +two _general_ articles, and did explain himself on the same in as +satisfactory a manner and as fully as their nature could permit, +offering to enter into immediate trial of the points in issue between +him and the said Hastings, in the remarkable words following. "My +enemies, with a view to my ruin, have made false representations to you. +Now that, _happily for me_, you have yourself arrived at this place, you +will be able to ascertain all the circumstances: first, relative to the +horse; secondly, to my people going to Calcutta; and thirdly, the dates +of the receipts of the particular sums above mentioned. You will then +know whether I have amused you with a false representation, or made a +just report to you." And in the said answer the said Rajah complained, +but in the most modest terms, of an injury to him of the most dangerous +and criminal nature in transactions of such moment, namely, his not +receiving any answer to his letters and petitions, and concluded in the +following words. "I have never swerved in the smallest degree from my +duty to you. It remains with you to decide on all these matters. I am in +every case your slave. What is just I have represented to you. May your +prosperity increase!" + +VIII. That the said Warren Hastings was bound by the essential +principles of natural justice to attend to the claim made by the Rajah +to a fair and impartial trial and inquiry into the matter of accusation +brought against him by the said Hastings, at a time and place which +furnished all proper materials and the presence of all necessary +witnesses; but the said Hastings, instead of instituting the said +inquiry and granting trial, did receive an humble request for justice +from a great prince as a fresh offence, and as a personal insult to +himself, and did conceive a violent passion of anger and a strong +resentment thereat, declaring that he did consider the said answer as +not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style. "This +answer you will perceive to be not only unsatisfactory in substance, but +offensive in style, and less a vindication of himself than a +recrimination on me. It expresses no concern for the causes of complaint +contained in my letter, or desire to atone for them, nor the smallest +intention to pursue a different line of conduct. An answer couched +nearly _in terms of defiance_ to requisitions of so serious a nature I +could not but consider as _a strong indication of that spirit of +independency_ which the Rajah has for some years past assumed, and of +which indeed I had early observed other manifest symptoms, both before +and from the instant of my arrival." Which representation is altogether +and in all parts thereof groundless and injurious; as the substance of +the answer is a justification proper to be pleaded, and the style, if in +anything exceptionable, it is in its extreme humility, resulting rather +from an unmanly and abject spirit than from anything of an offensive +liberty; but being received as disrespectful by the said Hastings, it +abundantly indicates the tyrannical arrogance of the said Hastings, and +the depression into which the natives are sunk under the British +government. + +IX. That the said Warren Hastings, pretending to have been much alarmed +at the offensive language of the said Rajah's defence, and at certain +appearances of independency which he had observed, not only on former +occasions, but since his arrival at Benares, (where he had been but +little more than one day,) and which appearances he never has specified +in any one instance, did assert that he conceived himself indispensably +obliged to adopt some decisive plan; and without any farther inquiry or +consultation (which appears) with any person, did, at ten o'clock of the +very night on which he received the before-mentioned full and +satisfactory as well as submissive answer, send an order to the British +Resident (then being a public minister representing the British +government at the court of the said Rajah, and as such bound by the law +of nations to respect the prince at whose court he was Resident, and not +to attempt anything against his person or state, and who ought not, +therefore, to have been chosen by the said Hastings, and compelled to +serve in that business) that he should on the next morning arrest the +said prince in his palace, and keep him in his custody until further +orders; which said order being conceived in the most peremptory terms, +the Rajah was put under arrest, with a guard of about thirty orderly +sepoys, with their swords drawn; and the particulars thereof were +reported to him as follows. + +"HONORABLE SIR,--I this morning, in obedience to your orders of last +night, proceeded with a few of my orderlies, accompanied by Lieutenant +Stalker, to Shewalla Ghaut, the present residence of Rajah Cheyt Sing, +and acquainted him it was your pleasure he should consider himself in +arrest; that he should order his people to behave in a quiet and orderly +manner, for that any attempt _to rescue him would be attended with his +own destruction. The Rajah submitted quietly to the arrest_, and assured +me, that, whatever were your orders, he was ready implicitly to obey; he +hoped that you would allow him a _subsistence_, but as for _his +zemindary, his forts, and his treasure, he was ready to lay them at your +feet, and his life, if required_. He expressed himself much hurt at the +ignominy which he affirmed must be the consequence of his confinement, +and entreated me to return to you with the foregoing submission, hoping +that you would make allowances for his youth and inexperience, and in +consideration of his father's name release him from his confinement, as +soon as he should prove the sincerity of his offers, and himself +deserving of your compassion and forgiveness." + +X. That a further order was given, that every servant of the Rajah's +should be disarmed, and a certain number only left to attend him under a +strict watch. In a quarter of an hour after this conversation, two +companies of grenadier sepoys were sent to the Rajah's palace by the +said Hastings; and the Rajah, being dismayed by this unexpected and +unprovoked treatment, wrote two short letters or petitions to the said +Hastings, under the greatest apparent dejection at the outrage and +dishonor he had suffered in the eyes of his subjects, (all imprisonment +of persons of rank being held in that country as a mark of indelible +infamy, and he also, in all probability, considering his imprisonment as +a prelude to the taking away his life,) and in the first of the said +petitions he did express himself in this manner: "Whatever may be your +pleasure, do it with your own hands; I am your slave. What occasion can +there be for a guard?" And in the other: "My honor was bestowed upon me +by your Highness. It depends on you alone to take away or not to take +away the country out of my hands. In case my honor is not left to me, +how shall I be equal to the business of the government? Whoever, with +his hands in a supplicating posture, is ready with his life and +property, what necessity can there be for him to be dealt with in this +way?" + +XI. That, according to the said Hastings's narrative of this +transaction, he, the said Hastings, on account of the apparent +despondency in which these letters were written, "thought it _necessary_ +to give him _some_ encouragement," and therefore wrote him a note of a +few lines, carelessly and haughtily expressed, and little calculated to +relieve him from his uneasiness, promising to send to him a person to +explain particulars, and desiring him "to set his mind at rest, and not +to conceive any terror or apprehension." To which an answer of great +humility and dejection was received. + +XII. That the report of the Rajah's arrest did cause a great alarm in +the city, in the suburbs of which the Rajah's palace is situated, and in +the adjacent country. The people were filled with dismay and anger at +the outrage and indignity offered to a prince under whose government +they enjoyed much ease and happiness. Under these circumstances the +Rajah desired leave to perform his ablutions; which was refused, unless +he sent for water, and performed that ceremony on the spot. This he +did. And soon after some of the people, who now began to surround the +palace in considerable numbers, attempting to force their way into the +palace, a British officer, commanding the guard upon the Rajah, struck +one of them with his sword. The people grew more and more irritated; but +a message being sent from the Rajah to appease them, they continued, on +this interposition, for a while quiet. Then the Rajah retired to a sort +of stone pavilion, or bastion, to perform his devotions, the guard of +sepoys attending him in this act of religion. In the mean time a person +of the meanest station, called a _chubdar_, at best answering to our +common beadle or tipstaff, was sent with a message (of what nature does +not appear) from Mr. Hastings, or the Resident, to the prince under +arrest: and this base person, without regard to the rank of the +prisoner, or to his then occupation, addressed him in a rude, boisterous +manner, "passionately and insultingly," (as the said Rajah has without +contradiction asserted,) "and, reviling him with a loud voice, gave both +him and his people the vilest abuse"; and the manner and matter being +observable and audible to the multitude, divided only by an open stone +lattice from the scene within, a firing commenced from without the +palace; on which the Rajah again interposed, and did what in him lay to +suppress the tumult, until, an English officer striking him with a +sword, and wounding him on the hand, the people no longer kept any +measures, but broke through the inclosure of the palace. The insolent +tipstaff was first cut down, and the multitude falling upon the sepoys +and the English officers, the whole, or nearly the whole, were cut to +pieces: the soldiers having been ordered to that service without any +charges for their pieces. And in this tumult, the Rajah, being justly +fearful of falling into the hands of the said Hastings, did make his +escape over the walls of his palace, by means of a rope formed of his +turban tied together, into a boat upon the river, and from thence into a +place of security; abandoning many of his family to the discretion of +the said Hastings, who did cause the said palace to be occupied by a +company of soldiers after the flight of the Rajah. + +XIII. That the Rajah, as soon as he had arrived at a place of refuge, +did, on the very day of his flight, send a suppliant letter to the said +Hastings, filled with expressions of concern (affirmed by the said +Hastings to be slight expressions) for what had happened, and +professions (said by the said Hastings to be indefinite and unapplied) +of fidelity: but the said Warren Hastings, though bound by his duty to +hear the said Rajah, and to prevent extremities, if possible, being +filled with insolence and malice, did not think it "_becoming_ of him to +make any reply to it; and that he _thought_ he ordered the bearer of the +letter to be told that _it required none_." + +XIV. That this letter of submission having been received, the said +Rajah, not discouraged or provoked from using every attempt towards +peace and reconciliation, did again apply, on the very morning +following, to Richard Johnson, Esquire, for his interposition, but to no +purpose; and did likewise, with as little effect, send a message to +Cantoo Baboo, native steward and confidential agent of the said +Hastings, which was afterwards reduced into writing, "to exculpate +himself from any concern in what had passed, and to profess his +obedience to his _will_ [Hastings's] _in whatever_ way he should +dictate." But the said Hastings, for several false and contradictory +reasons by him assigned, did not take any advantage of the said opening, +attributing the same to artifice in order to gain time; but instead of +accepting the said submissions, he did resolve upon flight from the city +of Benares, and did suddenly fly therefrom in great confusion. + +XV. That the said Hastings did persevere in his resolutions not to +listen to any submission or offer of accommodation whatsoever, though +several were afterwards made through almost every person who might be +supposed to have influence with him, but did cause the Rajah's troops to +be attacked and fallen upon, though they only acted on the defensive, +(as the Rajah has without contradiction asserted,) and thereby, and by +his preceding refusal of propositions of the same nature, and by other +his perfidious, unjust, and tyrannical acts by him perpetrated and done, +and by his total improvidence in not taking any one rational security +whatsoever against the inevitable consequences of those acts, did make +himself guilty of all the mutual slaughter and devastation which ensued, +as well as, in his opinion, of the imminent danger of the total +subversion of the British power in India by the risk of his own person, +which he asserts that it did run,--as also "that it ought not to be +thought that he attributed too much consequence to his personal safety, +when he supposed _the fate of the British empire in India connected with +it_, and that, mean as its substance may be, its accidental qualities +were equivalent to those which, like the characters of a talisman in +the Arabian mythology, formed the _essence_ of the state itself, +representation, title, and the _estimate_ of the public opinion; that, +had he fallen, such a stroke would be universally considered as decisive +of the national fate; every state round it would have started into arms +against it, and _every subject of its own dominion would, according to +their several abilities, have become its enemy_": and that he knew and +has declared, that, though the said stroke was not struck, that great +convulsions did actually ensue from his proceedings, "that half the +province of Oude was in a state of as complete rebellion as that of +Benares," and that invasions, tumults, and insurrections were occasioned +thereby in various other parts. + +XVI. That the said Warren Hastings, after he had collected his forces +from all parts, did, with little difficulty or bloodshed, subsequent to +that time, on the part of his troops, and in a few days, entirely reduce +the said province of Benares; and did, after the said short and little +resisted hostility, in cold blood, issue an order for burning a certain +town, in which he accused the people at large of having killed, "upon +what provocation he knows not," certain wounded sepoys, who were +prisoners: which order, being _generally_ given, when it was his duty to +have made some inquiry concerning the particular offenders, but which he +did never make, or cause to be made, was cruel, inhuman, and tended to +the destruction of the revenues of the Company; and that this, and other +acts of devastation, did cause the loss of two months of the +collections. + +XVII. That the said Warren Hastings did not only refuse the submissions +of the said Rajah, which were frequently repeated through various +persons after he had left Benares, and even after the defeat of certain +of the Company's forces, but did proscribe and except him from the +pardons which he issued after he had satisfied his vengeance on the +province of Benares. + +XVIII. That the said Warren Hastings did send to a certain castle, +called Bidzigur, the residence of a person of high rank, called Panna, +the mother of the Rajah of Benares, with whom his wife, a woman +described by the said Hastings "to be of an amiable character," and all +the other women of the Rajah's family, and the survivors of the family +of his father, Bulwant Sing, did then reside, a body of troops to +dispossess them of her said residence, and to seize upon her money and +effects, although she did not stand, even by himself, accused of any +offence whatsoever,--pretending, but not proving, and not attempting to +prove, then nor since, that the treasures therein contained were the +property of the Rajah, and not her own; and did, in order to stimulate +the British soldiery to rapine and outrage, issue to them several +barbarous orders, contrary to the practice of civilized nations, +relative to their property, movable and immovable, attended with +unworthy and unbecoming menaces, highly offensive to the manners of the +East and the particular respect there paid to the female sex,--which +letters and orders, as well as the letters which he had received from +the officers concerned, the said Hastings did unlawfully suppress, until +forced by the disputes between him and the said officers to discover +the same: and the said orders are as follow. + +"I am this instant favored with yours of yesterday. Mine of the same +date [22d October, 1781] has before this time acquainted you with my +resolutions and sentiments respecting the Rannee [the mother of the +Rajah Cheyt Sing]. I think every demand she has made to you, except that +of safety and respect for her person, is unreasonable. If the reports +brought to me are true, _your rejecting her offers, or any negotiations +with her_, would soon obtain you possession of the fort upon your own +terms. I apprehend that she will contrive _to defraud the captors of a +considerable part of the booty by being suffered to retire without +examination. But this is your consideration, and 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 I cannot make any objection, as +you must be the best judge of the expediency of the _promised_ +indulgence to the Rannee. What you have engaged for I will certainly +ratify; but as to permitting the Rannee to hold the purgunnah of Hurluk, +or any other in the zemindary, without being subject to the authority of +the zemindar, or any lands whatever, _or indeed making any conditions +with her for a provision, I will never consent to it_." And in another +letter to the same person, dated Benares, 3d of November, 1781, in which +he, the said Hastings, consents that the said woman of distinction +should be allowed to evacuate the place and to receive protection, he +did express himself as follows. "I am willing to grant her now the same +conditions to which I at first consented, provided that she delivers +into your possession, within twenty-four hours from the time of +receiving your message, the fort of Bidzigur, with the treasure and +effects lodged therein by Cheyt Sing or any of his adherents, with the +reserve only, as above mentioned, of such articles _as you shall think +necessary to her sex and condition_, or as you shall be disposed _of +yourself to indulge her with_. If she complies, as I expect she will, it +will be your part to secure the fort and the property it contains _for +the benefit of yourself and detachment_. I have only further to request +that you will grant an escort, if Panna should require it, to conduct +her here, or wherever she may choose to retire to. But should she refuse +to execute the promise she has made, _or delay it beyond the 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." + +XIX. That the castle aforesaid being surrendered upon terms of safety, +and on express condition of not attempting to search their persons, the +woman of rank aforesaid, her female relations and female dependants, to +the number of three hundred, besides children, evacuated the said +castle; but the spirit of rapacity being excited by the letters and +other proceedings of the said Hastings, the capitulation was shamefully +and outrageously broken, and, in despite of the endeavors of the +commanding officer, the said woman of high condition, and her female +dependants, friends, and servants, were plundered of the effects they +carried with them, and which were reserved to them in the capitulation +of their fortress, and in their persons were otherwise rudely and +inhumanly dealt with by the licentious followers of the camp: for which +outrages, represented to the said Hastings with great concern by the +commanding officer, Major Popham, he, the said Hastings, did afterwards +recommend a late and fruitless redress. + +XX. That the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, in exciting the hopes of +the military by declaring them _well entitled to the plunder_ of the +fortress aforesaid, the residence of the mother and other women of the +Rajah of Benares, and by wishing the troops to secure the same for their +own benefit, did advise and act in direct contradiction to the orders of +the Court of Directors, and to his own opinion of his public duty, as +well as to the truth and reality thereof,--he having some years before +entered in writing the declaration which follows. + +"The very idea of _prize-money_ suggests to my remembrance _the former +disorders which arose in our army from this source, and had almost +proved fatal to it_. Of this circumstance you must be sufficiently +apprised, and of the necessity for discouraging every expectation of +this kind amongst the troops. _It is to be avoided like poison._ The bad +effects of a similar measure were but too plainly felt in a former +period, and our honorable masters did not fail on that occasion to +reprobate with their censure, in the most severe terms, a practice which +they regarded as the source of infinite evils, and which, if +established, would in their judgment necessarily bring corruption and +ruin on their army." + +XXI. That the said Hastings, after he had given the license aforesaid, +and that in consequence thereof the booty found in the castle, to the +amount of 23,27,813 current rupees, was distributed among the soldiers +employed in its reduction, the said Hastings did retract his declaration +of right, and his permission to the soldiers to appropriate to +themselves the plunder, and endeavored, by various devices and +artifices, to explain the same away, and to recover the spoil aforesaid +for the use of the Company; and wholly failing in his attempts to resume +by a breach of faith with the soldiers what he had unlawfully disposed +of by a breach of duty to his constituents, he attempted to obtain the +same as a loan, in which attempt he also failed; and the aforesaid money +being the only part of the treasures belonging to the Rajah, or any of +his family, that had been found, he was altogether frustrated in the +acquisition of every part of that dishonorable object which alone he +pretended to, and pursued through a long series of acts of injustice, +inhumanity, oppression, violence, and bloodshed, at the hazard of his +person and reputation, and, in his own opinion, at the risk of the total +subversion of the British empire. + +XXI. That the said Warren Hastings, after the commission of the +offences aforesaid, being well aware that he should be called to an +account for the same, did, by the evil counsel and agency of Sir Elijah +Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, who was then out of the +limits of his jurisdiction, cause to be taken at Benares, before or by +the said Sir Elijah Impey, and through the intervention, not of the +Company's interpreter, but of a certain private interpreter of his, the +said Hastings's, own appointment, and a dependant on him, called Major +Davy, several declarations and depositions by natives of Hindostan,--and +did also cause to be taken before the said Sir Elijah Impey several +attestations in English, made by British subjects, and which were +afterwards transmitted to Calcutta, and laid before the +Council-General,--some of which depositions were upon oath, some upon +honor, and others neither upon _oath_ nor _honor_, but all or most of +which were of an irregular and irrelevant nature, and not fit or decent +to be taken by a British magistrate, or to be transmitted to a British +government. + +XXIII. That one of the said attestations (but not on oath) was made by a +principal minister of the Nabob of Oude, to whom the said Hastings had +some time before proposed to sell the sovereignty of that very territory +of Benares; and that one other attestation (not upon oath) was made by a +native woman of distinction, whose son he, the said Hastings, did +actually promote to the government of Benares, vacated by the unjust +expulsion of the Rajah aforesaid, and who in her deposition did declare +that she considered the expelled Rajah as her enemy, and that he never +did confer with her, or suffer her to be acquainted with any of his +designs. + +XXIV. That, besides the depositions of persons interested in the ruin of +the Rajah, others were made by persons who then received pensions from +him, the said Hastings; and several of the affidavits were made by +persons of mean condition, and so wholly illiterate as not to be able to +write their names. + +XXV. That he, the said Hastings, did also cause to be examined by +various proofs and essays, the result of which was delivered in upon +honor, the quality of certain military stores taken by the British +troops from the said Rajah of Benares; and upon the report that the same +were of a good quality, and executed by persons conversant in the making +of good military stores, although the cannon was stated by the same +authority to be bad, he, the said Warren Hastings, from the report +aforesaid, did maliciously, and contrary to the principles of natural +and legal reason, infer that the insurrection which had been raised by +his own violence and oppression, and rendered for a time successful by +his own improvidence, was the consequence of a premeditated design to +overturn the British empire in India, and to exterminate therefrom the +British nation; which design, if it had been true, the said Hastings +might have known, or rationally conjectured, and ought to have provided +against. And if the said Hastings had received any credible information +of such design, it was his duty to lay the same before the Council +Board, and to state the same to the Rajah, when he was in a condition to +have given an answer thereto or to observe thereon, and not, after he +had proscribed and driven him from his dominions, to have inquired into +offences to justify the previous infliction of punishment. + +XXVI. That it does not appear, that, in taking the said depositions, +there was any person present on the part of the Rajah to object to the +competence or credibility or relevancy of any of the said affidavits or +other attestations, or to account, otherwise than as the said deponents +did account, for any of the facts therein stated; nor were any copies +thereof sent to the said Rajah, although the Company had a minister at +the place of his residence, namely, in the camp of the Mahratta chief +Sindia, so as to enable him to transmit to the Company any matters which +might induce or enable them to do justice to the injured prince +aforesaid. And it does not appear that the said Hastings has ever +produced any witness, letter, or other document, tending to prove that +the said Rajah ever did carry on any hostile negotiation whatever with +any of those powers with whom he was charged with a conspiracy against +the Company, previous to the period of the said Hastings's having +arrested him in his palace, although he, the said Hastings, had various +agents at the courts of all those princes,--and that a late principal +agent and near relation of a minister of one them, the Rajah of Berar, +called Benaram Pundit, was, at the time of the tumult at Benares, +actually with the said Hastings, and the said Benaram Pundit was by him +highly applauded for his zeal and fidelity, and was therefore by him +rewarded with a large pension on those very revenues which he had taken +from the Rajah Cheyt Sing, and if such a conspiracy had previously +existed, the Mahratta minister aforesaid must have known, and would have +attested it. + +XXVII. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings, at the time that +he formed his design of seizing upon the treasures of the Rajah of +Benares, and of deposing him, did not believe him guilty of that +premeditated project for driving the English out of India with which he +afterwards thought fit to charge him, or that he was really guilty of +any other great offence: because he has caused it to be deposed, that, +if the said Rajah should pay the sum of money by him exacted, "he would +settle his zemindary upon him on the most eligible footing"; whereas, if +he had conceived him to have entertained traitorous designs against the +Company, from whom he held his tributary estate, or had been otherwise +guilty of such enormous offences as to make it necessary to take +extraordinary methods for coercing him, it would not have been proper +for him to settle upon such a traitor and criminal the zemindary of +Benares, or any other territory, upon the most eligible, or upon any +other footing whatever: whereby the said Hastings has by his own stating +demonstrated that the money intended to have been exacted was not as a +punishment for crimes, but that the crimes were pretended for the +purpose of exacting money. + +XXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to justify the acts of +violence aforesaid to the Court of Directors, did assert certain false +facts, known by him to be such, and did draw from them certain false and +dangerous inferences, utterly subversive of the rights of the princes +and subjects dependent on the British nation in India, contrary to the +principles of all just government, and highly dishonorable to that of +Great Britain: namely, that the "Rajah of Benares was not a vassal or +tributary prince, and that the deeds which passed between him and the +board, upon the transfer of the zemindary in 1775, were not to be +understood to bear the quality and force of a treaty upon optional +conditions between equal states; that the payments to be made by him +were not a tribute, but a rent; and that the instruments by which his +territories were conveyed to him did not differ from common grants to +zemindars who were merely subjects; but that, being nothing more than a +common zemindar and mere subject, and the Company holding the +acknowledged rights of his former sovereign, held an absolute authority +over him; that, in the known relations of zemindar to the sovereign +authority, or power delegated by it, he owed a personal allegiance and +an implicit and unreserved obedience to that authority, at the +forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property." Whereas +the said Hastings did well know, that, whether the payments from the +Rajah were called _rent_ or _tribute_, having been frequently by himself +called the one and the other, and that of whatever nature the +instruments by which he held might have been, he did not consider him as +a common zemindar or landholder, but as far independent as a tributary +prince could be: for he did assign as a reason for receiving his rent +rather within the Company's province than in his own capital, that it +would not "frustrate the intention of rendering the Rajah _independent_; +that, if a Resident was appointed to receive the money as it became due +at Benares, such a Resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over +the Rajah, and over his country, which would in effect render him the +master of both; that this consequence might not, perhaps, be brought +completely to pass without a struggle, and many appeals to the Council, +which, in a government constituted like this, cannot fail to terminate +against the Rajah, and, by the construction to which his opposition to +the agent would be liable, might eventually draw on him severe +restrictions, and end _in reducing him to the mean and depraved state of +a zemindar_." + +XXIX. And the said Hastings, in the said Minute of Consultation, having +enumerated the frauds, embezzlements, and oppressions which would ensue +from the Rajah's being in the dependent state aforesaid, and having +obviated all apprehensions from giving to him the implied symbols of +dominion, did assert, "that, without such appearance, he would expect +from every change of government additional demands to be made upon him, +and would of course descend to all the arts of intrigue and concealment +practised by other dependent Rajahs, which would keep him indigent and +weak, and eventually prove hurtful to the Company; but that, by proper +encouragement and protection, he might prove a profitable dependant, an +useful barrier, and even a powerful ally to the Company; but that he +would be neither, if the conditions of his connection with the Company +were left open to future variations." + +XXX. That, if the fact had been true that the Rajah of Benares was +merely an eminent landholder or any other subject, the wicked and +dangerous doctrine aforesaid, namely, that he owed a personal allegiance +and an implicit and unreserved obedience to the sovereign authority, at +the forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property, at +the discretion of those who held or fully represented the sovereign +authority, doth leave security neither for life nor property to any +persons residing under the Company's protection; and that no such +powers, nor any powers of that nature, had been delegated to the said +Warren Hastings by any provisions of the act of Parliament appointing a +Governor-General and Council at Fort William in Bengal. + +XXXI. That the said Warren Hastings did also advance another dangerous +and pernicious principle in justification of his violent, arbitrary, and +iniquitous actings aforesaid: namely, "that, if he had acted with an +unwarrantable rigor, and even injustice, towards Cheyt Sing, yet, first, +if he did _believe_ that extraordinary means were necessary, and those +exerted with a strong hand, to preserve the Company's interests from +sinking under the accumulated weight that oppressed them, or, secondly, +if he saw a _political necessity_ for curbing the _overgrown_ power of a +great member of their dominion, and to make it contribute to the relief +of their pressing exigencies, that his error would be excusable, as +prompted by an excess of zeal for their [the Company's] interest, +operating with too strong a bias on his judgment; but that much stronger +is the presumption, that such acts are founded on just principles than +that they are the result of a misguided judgment." That the said +doctrines are, in both the members thereof, subversive of all the +principles of just government, by empowering a governor with delegated +authority, in the first case, on his own private _belief_ concerning the +necessities of the state, not to levy an impartial and equal rate of +taxation suitable to the circumstances of the several members of the +community, but to select any individual from the same as an object of +arbitrary and unmeasured imposition,--and, in the second case, enabling +the same governor, on the same arbitrary principles, to determine whose +property should be considered as overgrown, and to reduce the same at +his pleasure. + + +PART IV. + +SECOND REVOLUTION IN BENARES. + +That the said Warren Hastings, after he had, in the manner aforesaid, +unjustly and violently expelled the Rajah Cheyt Sing, the lord or +zemindar of Benares, from his said lordship or zemindary, did, of his +own mere usurped authority, and without any communication with the other +members of the Council of Calcutta, appoint another person, of the name +of Mehip Narrain, a descendant by the mother from the late Rajah, +Bulwant Sing, to the government of Benares; and on account or pretence +of his youth and inexperience (the said Mehip Narrain not being above +twenty years old) did appoint his father, Durbege Sing, to act as his +representative or administrator of his affairs; but did give a +controlling authority to the British Resident over both, notwithstanding +his declarations before mentioned of the mischiefs likely to happen to +the said country from the establishment of a Resident, and his opinion +since declared in a letter to the Court of Directors, dated from this +very place (Benares) the 1st of October, 1784, to the same or stronger +effect, in case "agents are sent into the country, and armed with +authority for the purposes of vengeance and corruption,--_for to no +other will they be applied_." + +That the said Warren Hastings did, by the same usurped authority, +entirely set aside all the agreements made between the late Rajah and +the Company (which were real agreements with the state of Benares, in +the person of the lord or prince thereof, and his heirs); and without +any form of trial, inquisition, or other legal process, for forfeiture +of the privileges of the people to be governed by magistrates of their +own, and according to their natural laws, customs, and usages, did, +contrary to the said agreement, separate the mint and the criminal +justice from the said government, and did vest the mint in the British +Resident, and the criminal justice in a Mahomedan native of his own +appointment; and did enhance the tribute to be paid from the province, +from two hundred and fifty thousand pounds annually, limited by treaty, +or thereabouts, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the +first year, and to four hundred thousand for every year after; and did +compel the administrator aforesaid (father to the Rajah) to agree to the +same; and did, by the same usurped authority, illegally impose, and +cause to be levied, sundry injudicious and oppressive duties on goods +and merchandise, which did greatly impair the trade of the province, and +threaten the utter ruin thereof; and did charge several pensions on the +said revenues, of his own mere authority; and did send and keep up +various bodies of the Company's troops in the said country; and did +perform sundry other acts with regard to the said territory, in total +subversion of the rights of the sovereign and the people, and in +violation of the treaties and agreements aforesaid. + +That the said Warren Hastings, being absent, on account of ill health, +from the Presidency of Calcutta, at a place called Nia Serai, about +forty miles distant therefrom, did carry on a secret correspondence with +the Resident at Benares, and, under color that the instalments for the +new rent or tribute were in arrear, did of his own authority make, in +about one year, a second revolution in the government of the territory +aforesaid, and did order and direct that Durbege Sing aforesaid, father +of the Rajah, and administrator of his authority, should be deprived of +his office and of his lands, and thrown into prison, and did threaten +him with death: although he, the said Warren Hastings, had, at the time +of the making his new arrangement, declared himself sensible that the +rent aforesaid might require abatement; although he was well apprised +that the administrator had been for two months of his administration in +a weak and languid state of body, and wholly incapable of attending to +the business of the collections; though a considerable drought had +prevailed in the said province, and did consequently affect the +regularity and produce of the collections; and though he had other +sufficient reason to believe that the said administrator had not himself +received from the collectors of government and the cultivators of the +soil the rent in arrear: yet he, the said Warren Hastings, without any +known process, or recording any answer, defence, plea, exculpation, or +apology from the party, or recording any other grounds of rigor against +him, except the following paragraph of a letter from the Resident, not +only gave the order as aforesaid, but did afterwards, without laying any +other or better ground before the Council-General, persuade them to, and +did procure from them, a confirmation of the aforesaid cruel and +illegal proceedings, the correspondence concerning which had not been +before communicated: he pleading his illness for not communicating the +same, though that illness did not prevent him from carrying on +correspondence concerning the deposition of the said administrator, and +other important affairs in various places. + +That in the letter to the Council requiring the confirmation of his acts +aforesaid the said Warren Hastings did not only propose the confinement +of the said administrator at Benares, although by his imprisonment he +must have been in a great measure disabled from recovering the balances +due to him, and for the non-payment of which he was thus imprisoned, but +did propose, as an alternative, his imprisonment at a remote fortress, +out of the said territory, and in the Company's provinces, called +Chunar: desiring them to direct the Resident at Benares "to exact from +Baboo Durbege Sing every rupee of the collections which it shall appear +that he has made and not brought to account, and either to confine him +at Benares, or to send him a prisoner to Chunar, and to keep him in +confinement until he shall have discharged the whole of the amount due +from him." And the said Warren Hastings did assign motives of passion +and personal resentment for the said unjust and rigorous proceedings, as +follows: "I feel myself, and may be allowed on such an occasion to +acknowledge it, personally hurt at the ingratitude of this man, and at +the discredit which his ill conduct has thrown on my appointment of him. +He has deceived me; he has offended against the government which I then +represented." And as a further reason for depriving him of his jaghire, +(or salary out of land,) he did insinuate in the said letter, but +without giving or offering any proof, "that the said Rajah had been +guilty of _little and mean peculations_, although the appointments +assigned to him had been sufficient to free him from the temptations +thereto." + +That it appears, as it might naturally have been expected, that the wife +of the said administrator, the daughter of Bulwant Sing, the late Rajah +of Benares, and her son, the reigning Rajah, did oppose to the best of +their power, but by what remonstrances or upon what plea the said Warren +Hastings did never inform the Court of Directors, the deposition, +imprisonment, and confiscation of the estates of the husband of the one +and the father of the other; but that the said Hastings, persisting in +his malice, did declare to the said Council as follows: "The opposition +made by the Rajah and the old Rannee, both equally incapable of judging +for _themselves_, does certainly originate from some secret influence, +which ought to be checked by a decided and peremptory declaration of the +authority of the board, and a denunciation of their displeasure at +_their presumption_." + +That the said Warren Hastings, not satisfied with the injuries done and +the insults and disgraces offered to the family aforesaid, did, in a +manner unparalleled, except by an act of his own on another occasion, +fraudulently and inhumanly endeavor to make the wife and son of the said +administrator, contrary to the sentiments and the law of Nature, the +instruments of his oppressions: directing, "that, if they" (the mother +and son aforesaid) "could be _induced_ to yield _the appearance of a +cheerful acquiescence_ in the new arrangement, and to adopt it as _a +measure formed with their participation_, it would be better than that +it should be done by a declared act of compulsion; but that at all +events it ought to be done." + +That, in consequence of the pressing declarations aforesaid, the said +Warren Hastings did on his special recommendation appoint, in opposition +to the wishes and desires of the Rajah and his mother, another person to +the administration of his affairs, called Jagher Deo Seo. + +That, the Company having sent express orders for the sending the +Resident by them before appointed to Benares, the said Warren Hastings +did strongly oppose himself to the same, and did throw upon the person +appointed by the Company (Francis Fowke, Esquire) several strong, but +unspecified, reflections and aspersions, contrary to the duty he owed to +the Company, and to the justice he owed to all its servants. + +That the said Resident, being appointed by the votes of the rest of the +Council, in obedience to the reiterated orders of the Company, and in +despite of the opposition of the said Hastings, did proceed to Benares, +and, on the representation of the parties, and the submission of the +accounts of the aforesaid Durbege Sing to an arbitrator, did find him, +the said Durbege Sing, in debt to the Company for a sum not considerable +enough to justify the severe treatment of the said Durbege Sing: his +wife and son complaining, at or about the same time, that the balances +due to him from the _aumils_, or sub-collectors, had been received by +the new administrator, and carried to his own credit, in prejudice and +wrong to the said Durbege Sing; which representation, the only one that +has been transmitted on the part of the said sufferers, has not been +contradicted. + +That it appears that the said Durbege Sing did afterwards go to Calcutta +for the redress of his grievances, and that it does not appear that the +same were redressed, or even his complaints heard, but he received two +peremptory orders from the Supreme Council to leave the said city and to +return to Benares; that, on his return to Benares, and being there met +by Warren Hastings aforesaid, he, the said Warren Hastings, although he +had reason to be well assured that the said Durbege Sing was in +possession of small or no substance, did again cruelly and inhumanly, +and without any legal authority, order the said Durbege Sing to be +strictly imprisoned; and the said Durbege Sing, in consequence of the +vexations, hardships, and oppressions aforesaid, died in a short time +after, insolvent, but whether in prison or not does not appear. + + +PART V. + +THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES. + +That the said Warren Hastings, having, in the manner before recited, +divested Durbege Sing of the administration of the province of Benares, +did, of his own arbitrary will and pleasure, and against the +remonstrances of the Rajah and his mother, (in whose name and in whose +right the said Durbege Sing, father of the one, and husband of the +other, had administered the affairs of the government,) appoint a person +called Jagher Deo Seo to administer the same. + +That the new administrator, warned by the severe example made of his +predecessor, is represented by the said Warren Hastings as having made +it his "avowed principle" (as it might be expected it should be) "that +the sum fixed for the revenue _must_ be collected." And he did, upon the +principle aforesaid, and by the means suggested by a principle of that +sort, accordingly levy from the country, and did regularly discharge to +the British Resident at Benares, by monthly payments, the sums imposed +by the said Warren Hastings, as it is asserted by the Resident, Fowke; +but the said Warren Hastings did assert that his annual collections did +not amount to more than Lac 37,37,600, or thereabouts, which he says is +much short of the revenues of the province, and is by about twenty-four +thousand pounds short of his agreement. + +That it further appears, that, notwithstanding the new administrator +aforesaid was appointed two months, or thereabouts, after the beginning +of the Fusseli year, that is to say, about the middle of November, 1782, +and the former administrator had collected a certain portion of the +revenues of that year, amounting to 17,000_l._ and upwards, yet he, the +said new administrator, upon the unjust and destructive principle +aforesaid, suggested by the cruel and violent proceedings of the said +Warren Hastings towards his predecessor, did levy on the province, +within the said year, the whole amount of the revenues to be collected, +in addition to the sum collected by his predecessor aforesaid. + +That, on account of a great drought which prevailed in the province +aforesaid, a remission of certain duties in grain was proposed by the +chief criminal judge at Benares; but the administrator aforesaid, being +fearful that the revenue should fall short in his hands, did strenuously +oppose himself to the necessary relief to the inhabitants of the said +city. + +That, notwithstanding the cantonment of several bodies of the Company's +troops within the province, since the abolition of the native +government, it became subject in a particular manner to the depredations +of the Rajahs upon the borders; insomuch that in one quarter no fewer +than thirty villages had been sacked and burned, and the inhabitants +reduced to the most extreme distress. + +That the Resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent +that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult, and, +besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty +the following. "That there is also one fund which in former years was +often applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the +revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This was the +private fortunes of merchants and _shroffs_ [bankers] resident in +Benares, from whom _aumils_ [collectors] of credit could obtain +temporary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of the Rajah. These sums, +which used to circulate between the aumil and the merchant, have been +turned into a different channel, by bills of exchange to defray the +expenses of government, both on the west coast of India, and also at +Madras." To which representation it does not appear that any answer was +given, or that any mode of redress was adopted in consequence thereof. + +That the said Warren Hastings, having passed through the province of +Benares (Gazipore) in his progress towards Oude, did, in a letter dated +from the city of Lucknow, the 2d of April, 1784, give to the Council +Board at Calcutta an account, highly dishonorable to the British +government, of the effect of the arrangements made by himself in the +years 1781 and 1782, in the words following. "Having contrived, by +making forced stages, while the troops of my escort marched at the +ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at Benares, I was thereby +furnished with the means of acquiring some knowledge of the state of the +province, which I am anxious to communicate to you. Indeed, the inquiry, +which was _in a great degree obtruded upon me_, affected me with very +mortifying reflections on my inability to apply it to any useful +purpose. From the confines of Buxar to Benares I was followed and +_fatigued_ by the clamors of the discontented inhabitants. It was what I +expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority +should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it. The +distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably +tended to heighten the general discontent; _yet I have reason to fear +that the cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and +oppressive administration_. Of a multitude of petitions which were +presented to me, and of which I took minutes, every one that did not +relate to a personal grievance contained the representation of one and +the same species of oppression, which is in its nature of an influence +most fatal to the future cultivation. The practice to which I allude is +this. It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the +proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in kind on their +stipulated rent: that is, from those who hold their _pottah_ by the +tenure of paying _one half_ of the produce of their crops, either _the +whole_ without subterfuge, or a _large_ proportion of it by a _false +measurement_ or other pretexts; and from those whose engagements are for +a fixed rent _in money_, the half, or a greater proportion, is taken _in +kind_. This is in effect a tax upon the industry of the inhabitants: +since there is scarce a field of grain in the province, _I might say not +one_, which has not been preserved by the incessant labor of the +cultivator, by digging wells for their supply, or watering them from the +wells of masonry with which their country abounds, or from the +neighboring tanks, rivers, and nullahs. The people who imposed on +themselves this voluntary and extraordinary labor, and not unattended +with expense, did it on the expectation of reaping the profits of it; +and it is certain they would not have done it, if they had known that +their rulers, _from whom they were entitled to an indemnification_, +would take from them what they had so hardly earned. If the same +administration continues, and the country shall again labor under a want +of rain, _every field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands +perish through want of subsistence_: for who will labor for the _sole_ +benefit of others, and to make himself the subject of exaction? These +practices are to be imputed to the Naib himself" (the administrator +forced by the said Warren Hastings on the present Rajah of Benares). +"The avowed principle on which he acts, and which he acknowledged to +myself, is, that the _whole_ sum fixed for the revenue of the province +_must_ be collected,--and that, for this purpose, the deficiency arising +in places where the crops have failed, or which have been left +uncultivated, must be supplied from the resources of others, where the +soil has been better suited to the season, or the industry of the +cultivators hath been more successfully exerted: a principle which, +however specious and plausible it may at first appear, _certainly tends +to the most pernicious and destructive consequences_. If this +declaration of the Naib had been made only to myself, I might have +doubted my construction of it; but it was repeated by him to Mr. +Anderson, who understood it exactly in the same sense. In the management +of the customs, the conduct of the Naib, or of the officer under him, +was forced also upon my attention. _The exorbitant rates exacted by an +arbitrary valuation of the goods_, the practice of exacting duties +_twice_ on the same goods, (first from the seller, and afterwards from +the buyer,) and the vexations, disputes, and delays drawn on the +merchants by these oppressions, were loudly complained of; and some +instances of this kind were said to exist at the very time I was at +Benares. Under such circumstances, we are not to wonder, if the +merchants of foreign countries are discouraged from resorting to +Benares, and if the commerce of that province should annually decay. +_Other_ evils, or imputed evils, have accidentally come to my knowledge, +which I will not now particularize, as I hope, that, with the +assistance of the Resident, they may be _in part_ corrected. One evil I +must mention, because it has been verified by my own observation, and is +of that kind which reflects an unmerited reproach on our general and +national character. When I was at Buxar, the Resident, at my desire, +enjoined the Naib to appoint creditable people to every town through +which our route lay, to persuade and encourage the inhabitants to remain +in their houses, promising to give them guards as I approached, and they +required it for their protection; and that he might perceive how earnest +I was for his observation of this precaution, I repeated it to him in +person, and dismissed him that he might precede me for that purpose. +But, to my great disappointment, _I found every place through which I +passed abandoned; nor had there been a man left in any of them for their +protection_. I am sorry to add, _that, from Buxar to the opposite +boundary, I have seen nothing but traces of complete devastation in +every village: whether caused by the followers of the troops which have +lately passed, for their natural relief, (and I know not whether my own +may not have had their share,)_ or from the apprehensions of the +inhabitants left to themselves, and of themselves deserting their +houses. I wish to acquit my own countrymen of the blame of these +unfavorable appearances, and in my own heart I do acquit them; for at +one encampment a crowd of people came to me complaining that _their new +aumil (collector), on the approach of any military detachment, himself +first fled from the place; and the inhabitants, having no one to whom +they could apply for redress, or for the representation of their +grievances, and being thus remediless, fled also; so that their houses +and effects became a prey to any person who chose to plunder them_. The +general conclusion appeared to me an inevitable consequence from such a +state of facts; and my own senses bore testimony to it in this specific +instance: nor do I know how it is possible for any officer commanding a +military party, how attentive soever he may be to the discipline and +forbearance of his people, to prevent disorders, _when there is neither +opposition to hinder nor evidence to detect them_. These and many other +irregularities I impute _solely_ to the Naib, and recommend his instant +removal. I cannot help remarking, that, except the city of Benares, _the +province is in effect without a government. The administration of the +province is misconducted, and the people oppressed, trade discouraged, +and the revenue in danger of a rapid decline, from the violent +appropriation of its means._" + +That the said Warren Hastings did recommend to the Council, for a remedy +of the disorders and calamities which had arisen from his own acts, +dispositions, and appointments, that the administrator aforesaid should +be instantly removed from his office,--attributing the aforesaid +"irregularities, _and many others, solely_ to him," although, on his own +representation, it does appear that he was the sole cause of the +irregularities therein described. Neither does it appear that the +administrator, so by the said Hastings nominated and removed, was +properly charged and called to answer for the said recited +irregularities, or for the _many others_ not recited, but _attributed +solely_ to him; nor has any plea or excuse from him been transmitted to +the board, or to the Court of Directors; but he was, at the instance of +the said Hastings, deprived of his said office, contrary to the +principles of natural justice, in a violent and arbitrary manner; which +proceeding, combined with the example made of his predecessor, must +necessarily leave to the person who should succeed to the said office no +distinct principle upon which he might act with safety. But in comparing +the consequences of the two delinquencies charged, the failure of the +payment of the revenues (from whatever cause it may arise) is more +likely to be avoided than any severe course towards the inhabitants: as +the former fault was, besides the deprivation of office, attended with +two imprisonments, with a menace of death, and an actual death, in +disgrace, poverty, and insolvency; whereas the latter, namely, the +oppression, and thereby the total ruin, of the country, charged on the +second administrator, was only followed by loss of office,--although, +he, the said Warren Hastings, did farther assert (but with what truth +does not appear) that the collection of the last administrator had +fallen much short of the revenue of the province. + +That the said Warren Hastings himself was sensible that the frequent +changes by him made would much disorder the management of the revenues, +and seemed desirous of concealing his intentions concerning the last +change until the time of its execution. Yet it appears, by a letter from +the British Resident, dated the 23d of June, 1784, "that a very strong +report prevailed at Benares of his [the said Hastings's] intentions of +appointing a new Naib for the approaching year, and that the effect is +evident which the prevalence of such an idea amongst the aumils would +probably have on the cultivation at this particular time. The heavy +mofussil kists [harvest instalments] have now been collected by the +aumils; the season of tillage is arrived; the ryots [country farmers] +must be indulged, and even assisted by advances; and the aumil must look +for his returns in the abundance of the crop, _the consequence of this +early attention to the cultivation_. The effect is evident _which the +report of a change in the first officer of the revenue must have on the +minds of the aumils, by leaving them at an uncertainty of what they have +in future to expect_; and in proportion to the degree of this +uncertainty, their efforts and expenses in promoting the cultivation +will be languid and sparing. In compliance with the Naib's request, I +have written to all the aumils, encouraging and ordering them to attend +to the cultivation of their respective districts; but I conceive I +should be able to promote this very desirable intention much more +effectually, if you will honor me with the communication of your +intentions on this subject. At the same time I cannot help just +remarking, that, if a change is intended, the sooner it takes place, the +more _the bad effects_ I have described will be obviated." + +That the Council, having received the proposition for the removal of the +administrator aforesaid, did also, in a letter to him, the said +Hastings, condemn the frequent changes by him made in the administration +of the collections of Benares,--but did consent to such alterations as +might be made without encroaching on the rights established by his, the +said Hastings's, agreement in the year 1781, and did desire him to +transmit to them his plan for a new administration. + +That the said Hastings did transmit a plan, which, notwithstanding the +evils which had happened from the former frequent changes, he did +propose _as a temporary expedient_ for the administration of the +revenues of the said province,--in which no provision was made for the +reduction or remission of revenue as exigences might require, or for the +extraction of the circulating specie from the said province, or for the +supply of the necessary advances for cultivation, nor for the removal or +prevention of any of the grievances by him before complained of, other +than an inspection by the Resident and the chief criminal magistrate of +Benares, and other regulations equally void of effect and +authority,--and which plan Mr. Stables, one of the Supreme Council, did +altogether reject; but the same was approved of _as a temporary +expedient_, with some exceptions, by two other members of the board, Mr. +Wheler and Mr. Macpherson, declaring _the said Warren Hastings +responsible for the temporary expediency of the same_. + +That the said Warren Hastings, in the plan aforesaid, having strongly +objected to the appointment of any European collectors, that is to say, +of any European servants of the Company being concerned in the same, +declaring that there had been sufficient experience of the ill effects +of their being so employed in the province of Bengal,--by which the said +Hastings did either in loose and general terms convey a false imputation +upon the conduct of the Company's servants employed in the collection of +the revenues of Bengal, or he was guilty of a criminal neglect of duty +in not bringing to punishment the particular persons whose evil +practices had given rise to such a general imputation on British +subjects and servants of the Company as to render them unfit for service +in other places. + +That the said Warren Hastings, having in the course of three years made +three complete revolutions in the state of Benares, by expelling, in the +first instance, the lawful and rightful governor of the same, under +whose care and superintendence a large and certain revenue, suitable to +the abilities of the country, and consistent with its prosperity, was +paid with the greatest punctuality, and by afterwards displacing two +effective governors or administrators of the province, appointed in +succession by himself, and, in consequence of the said appointments and +violent and arbitrary removals, the said province "being left in effect +without a government," except in one city only, and having, after all, +settled no more than a temporary arrangement, is guilty of an high crime +and misdemeanor in the destruction of the country aforesaid. + + +IV.--PRINCESSES OF OUDE. + +I. That the reigning Nabob of Oude, commonly called Asoph ul Dowlah, +(son and successor to Sujah ul Dowlah,) by taking into or continuing in +his pay certain bodies of regular British troops, and by having +afterwards admitted the British Resident at his court into the +management of all his affairs, foreign and domestic, and particularly +into the administration of his finances, did gradually become in +substance and effect, as well as in general repute and estimation, a +dependant on, or vassal of, the East India Company, and was, and is, so +much under the control of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal, +that, in the opinion of all the native powers, the English name and +character is concerned in every act of his government. + +II. That Warren Hastings, Esquire, contrary to law and to his duty, and +in disobedience to the orders of the East India Company, arrogating to +himself the nomination of the Resident at the court of Oude, as his +particular agent and representative, and rejecting the Resident +appointed by the Company, and obtruding upon them a person of his own +choice, did from that time render himself in a particular manner +responsible for the good government of the provinces composing the +dominions of the Nabob of Oude. + +III. That the provinces aforesaid, having been at the time of their +first connection with the Company in an improved and flourishing +condition, and yielding a revenue of more than three millions of pounds +sterling, or thereabouts, did soon after that period begin sensibly to +decline, and the subsidy of the British troops stationed in that +province, as well as other sums of money due to the Company by treaty, +ran considerably in arrear; although the prince of the country, during +the time these arrears accrued, was otherwise in distress, and had been +obliged to reduce all his establishments. + +IV. That the prince aforesaid, or Nabob of Oude, did, in humble and +submissive terms, supplicate the said Warren Hastings to be relieved +from a body of troops whose licentious behavior he complained of, and +who were stationed in his country without any obligation by treaty to +maintain them,--pleading the failure of harvest and the prevalence of +famine in his country: a compliance with which request by the said +Warren Hastings was refused in unbecoming, offensive, and insulting +language. + +V. That the said Nabob, laboring under the aforesaid and other burdens, +and being continually urged for payment, was advised to extort, and did +extort, from his mother and grandmother, under the pretext of loans, +(and sometimes without that appearance,) various great sums of money, +amounting in the whole to six hundred and thirty thousand pounds +sterling, or thereabouts: alleging in excuse the rigorous demands of the +East India Company, for whose use the said extorted money had been +demanded, and to which a considerable part of it had been applied. + +VI. That the two female parents of the Nabob aforesaid were among the +women of the greatest rank, family, and distinction in Asia, and were +left by the deceased Nabob, the son of the one and the husband of the +other, in charge of certain considerable part of his treasures, in money +and other valuable movables, as well as certain landed estates, called +jaghires, in order to the support of their own dignity, and the +honorable maintenance of his women, and a numerous offspring, and their +dependants: the said family amounting in the whole to two thousand +persons, who were by the said Nabob, at his death, recommended in a +particular manner to the care and protection of the said Warren +Hastings. + +VII. That, on the demand of the Nabob of Oude on his parents for the +last of the sums which completed the six hundred and thirty thousand +pounds aforesaid, they, the said parents, did positively refuse to pay +any part of the same to their son for the use of the Company, until he +should agree to certain terms to be stipulated in a regular treaty, and +among other particulars to secure them in the remainder of their +possessions, and also on no account or pretence to make any further +demands or claims on them; and well knowing from whence all his claims +and exactions had arisen, they demanded that the said treaty, or family +compact, should be guarantied by the Governor-General and Council of +Bengal: and a treaty was accordingly agreed to, executed by the Nabob, +and guarantied by John Bristow, Esquire, the Resident at Oude, under the +authority and with the express consent of the said Warren Hastings and +the Council-General, and in consequence thereof the sum last required +was paid, and discharges given to the Nabob for all the money which he +had borrowed from his own mother and the mother of his father. + +That, the distresses and disorders in the Nabob's government and his +debt to the Company continuing to increase, notwithstanding the violent +methods before mentioned taken to augment his resources, the said Warren +Hastings, on the 21st of May, and on the 31st July, 1781, (he and Mr. +Wheler being the only remaining members of the Council-General, and he +having the conclusive and casting voice, and thereby being in effect the +whole Council,) did, in the name and under the authority of the board, +resolve on a journey to the upper provinces, in order to a personal +interview with the Nabob of Oude, towards the settlement of his +distressed affairs, and did give to himself a delegation of the powers +of the said Council, in direct violation of the Company's orders +forbidding such delegation. + +VIII. That the said Warren Hastings having by his appointment met the +Nabob of Oude near a place called Chunar, and possessing an entire and +absolute command over the said prince, he did, contrary to justice and +equity and the security of property, as well as to public faith and the +sanction of the Company's guaranty, under the color of a treaty, which +treaty was conducted secretly, without a written document of any part of +the proceeding except the pretended treaty itself, authorize the said +Nabob to seize upon, and confiscate to his own profit, the landed +estates, called jaghires, of his parents, kindred, and principal +nobility: only stipulating a pension to the net amount of the rent of +the said lands as an equivalent, and that equivalent to such only whose +lands had been guarantied to them by the Company; but provided neither +in the said pretended treaty nor in any subsequent act the least +security for the payment of the said pension to those for whom such +pension was ostensibly reserved, and for the others not so much as a +show of indemnity;--to the extreme scandal of the British government, +which, valuing itself upon a strict regard to property, did expressly +authorize, if it did not command, an attack upon that right, +unprecedented in the despotic governments of India. + +IX. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to cover the violent and +unjust proceedings aforesaid, did assert a claim of right in the same +Nabob to all the possessions of his said mother and grandmother, as +belonging to him by the Mahomedan law; and this pretended claim was set +up by the said Warren Hastings, after the Nabob had, by a regular treaty +ratified and guarantied by the said Hastings as Governor-General, +renounced and released all demands on them. And this false pretence of a +legal demand was taken up and acted upon by the said Warren Hastings, +without laying the said question on record before the Council-General, +or giving notice to the persons to be affected thereby to support their +rights before any of the principal magistrates and expounders of the +Mahomedan law, or taking publicly the opinions of any person conversant +therein. + +X. That, in order to give further color to the acts of ill faith and +violence aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did cause to be taken at +Lucknow and other places, before divers persons, and particularly before +Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, acting +extra-judicially, and not within the limits of his jurisdiction, several +passionate, careless, irrelevant, and irregular affidavits, consisting +of matter not fit to be deposed on oath,--of reports, conjectures, and +hearsays; some of the persons swearing to the said hearsays having +declined to declare from whom they heard the accounts at second hand +sworn to; the said affidavits in general tending to support the +calumnious charge of the said Warren Hastings, namely, that the aged +women before mentioned had formed or engaged in a plan for the +deposition of their son and sovereign, and the _utter extirpation_ of +the English nation: and neither the said charge against persons whose +dependence was principally, if not wholly, on the good faith of this +nation, and highly affecting the honor, property, and even lives, of +women of the highest condition, nor the affidavits intended to support +the same, extra-judicially taken, _ex parte_, and without notice, by the +said Sir Elijah Impey and others, were at any time communicated to the +parties charged, or to any agent for them; nor were they called upon to +answer, nor any explanation demanded of them. + +XI. That the article affecting private property secured by public acts, +in the said pretended treaty, contains nothing more than a general +permission, given by the said Warren Hastings, for confiscating such +jaghires, or landed estates, with the modifications therein contained, +"as _he_ [the Nabob] may find necessary," but does not directly point +at, or express by name, any of the landed possessions of the Nabob's +mother. But soon after the signing of the said pretended treaty, (that +is, on the 29th November, 1781,) it did appear that a principal object +thereof was to enable the Nabob to seize upon the estates of his female +parents aforesaid, which had been guarantied to them by the East India +Company. And although in the treaty, or pretended treaty, aforesaid, +nothing more is purported than to give a simple permission to the Nabob +to seize upon and confiscate the estates, leaving the execution or +non-execution of the same wholly to his discretion, yet it appears, by +several letters from Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, the Resident at the +Court of Oude, of the 6th, 7th, and 9th of December, 1781, that no such +discretion as expressed in the treaty was left, or intended to be left, +with him, the said Nabob, but that the said article ought practically to +have a construction of a directly contrary tendency: that, instead of +considering the article as originating from the Nabob, and containing a +power provided in his favor which he did not possess before, the +confiscation of the jaghires aforesaid was to be considered as a measure +originating from the English, and to be intended for their benefit, and, +as such, that the execution was to be forced upon him; and the execution +thereof was accordingly forced upon him. And the Resident, Middleton, on +the Nabob's refusal to act in contradiction to his sworn engagement +guarantied by the East India Company, and in the undutiful and unnatural +manner required, did totally supersede his authority in his own +dominions, considering himself as empowered so to act by the +instructions of the said Hastings, although he had reason to apprehend a +general insurrection in consequence thereof, and that he found it +necessary to remove his family, "which he did not wish to retain there, +in case of a rupture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing the +British forces in the reduction of _his_ aumils and troops"; and he did +accordingly, as sovereign, issue his own edicts and warrants, in +defiance of the resistance of the Nabob, in the manner by him described +in the letters aforesaid,--in a letter of 6th December, 1781, that is to +say: "_Finding the Nabob wavering in his determination about the +resumption of the jaghires_, I this day, in presence of and with the +minister's concurrence, ordered the necessary purwannahs to be written +to the several aumils for that purpose; and it was my firm resolution to +have dispatched them this evening, with proper people to see them +punctually and implicitly carried into execution; but before they were +all transcribed, I received a message from the Nabob, who had been +informed by the minister of the resolution I had taken, entreating that +I would withhold the purwannahs until to-morrow morning, when he would +attend me, and afford me satisfaction on this point. As the loss of a +few hours in the dispatch of the purwannahs appeared of little moment, +and as it is possible the Nabob, _seeing that the business will at all +events be done, may make it an act of his own, I have consented to +indulge him in his request; but, be the remit of our interview whatever +it may, nothing shall prevent the orders being issued to-morrow, either +by him or myself, with the concurrence of the ministers_. Your pleasure +respecting the Begums I have learnt from Sir Elijah, and the measure +heretofore proposed will soon follow the resumption of the jaghires. +From both, or indeed from the former alone, I have no doubt of the +complete liquidation of the Company's balance." And also in another +letter, of the 7th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you +yesterday, informing you of the steps I had taken in regard to the +resumption of _the jaghires. This morning the Vizier came to me +according to his agreement, but seemingly without any intention or +desire to yield me satisfaction on the subject under discussion; for, +after a great deal of conversation, consisting on his part of trifling +evasion and puerile excuses for withholding his assent to the measure, +though at the same time professing the most implicit submission to your +wishes, I found myself without any other resource than the one of +employing that exclusive authority with which I consider your +instructions to vest me: I therefore declared to the Nabob, in presence +of the minister and Mr. Johnson, who I desired might bear witness of the +conversation, that I construed his rejection of the measure proposed as +a breach of his solemn promise to you, and an unwillingness to yield +that assistance which was evidently in his power towards liquidating his +heavy accumulating debt to the Company_, and that I must in consequence +determine, in my own justification, _to issue immediately the +purwannahs_, which had only been withheld in the sanguine hope that he +would be prevailed upon _to make that his own act_ which nothing but the +most urgent necessity could force _me to make mine_. He left me without +any reply, but afterwards sent for his minister and authorized him to +give me hopes that my requisition would be complied with; on which I +expressed my satisfaction, but declared that I could admit of no further +delays, and, unless I received his Excellency's formal acquiescence +before the evening, I should then most assuredly issue _my_ purwannahs; +which _I have accordingly done_, not having had any assurances from his +Excellency that could justify a further suspension. I shall, as soon as +possible, inform you of the effect of the purwannahs, which, in many +parts, I am apprehensive it will be found necessary _to enforce with +military aid_. I am not, however, entirely without hopes that the Nabob, +_when he sees the inefficacy of further opposition_, may alter his +conduct, and prevent _the confusion and disagreeable consequences which +would be too likely to result from the prosecution of a measure of such +importance without his concurrence_. His Excellency talks of going to +Fyzabad, for the purpose heretofore mentioned, in three or four days: _I +wish he may be serious in his intention_, and you may rest assured _I +shall spare no pains to keep him to it_." And further, in a letter of +the 9th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you on the 7th +instant, informing you of the conversation which had passed between the +Nabob and me on the subject of resuming the jaghires, and the step I had +taken in consequence. _His Excellency appeared to be very much hurt and +incensed at the measure, and loudly complains of the treachery of his +ministers,--first, in giving you any hopes that such a measure would be +adopted, and, secondly, in their promising me their whole support in +carrying it through; but, as I apprehended, rather than suffer it to +appear that the point had been carried in opposition to his will_, he at +length yielded a _nominal_ acquiescence, and has this day issued his own +purwannahs to that effect,--_declaring, however, at the same time, both +to me and his ministers, that it is an act of compulsion_. I hope to be +able in a few days, in consequence of this measure, to transmit you an +account of the actual value and produce of the jaghires, opposed to the +nominal amount at which they stand rated on the books of the circar." + +XII. That the said Warren Hastings, instead of expressing any +disapprobation of the proceedings aforesaid, in violation of the rights +secured by treaty with the mother and grandmother of the reigning prince +of Oude, and not less in violation of the sovereign rights of the Nabob +himself, did by frequent messages stimulate the said Middleton to a +perseverance in and to a rigorous execution of the same,--and in his +letter from Benares of the 25th December, 1781, did "express doubts of +his firmness and activity, and, above all, of his recollection of his +instructions and their importance; and that, if he could not rely on his +own [power] and the means he possessed for performing those services, he +_would free him_ [the said Middleton] _from the charges_, and would +proceed _himself_ to Lucknow, and would _himself_ undertake them." + +XIII. That very doubtful credit is to be given to any letters written by +the said Middleton to the said Warren Hastings, when they answer the +purposes which the said Warren Hastings had evidently in view: the said +Middleton having written to him in the following manner from Lucknow, +30th December, 1781. + +XIV. "MY DEAR SIR,--I have this day answered your _public_ +letter in the form _you seem to expect_. I hope there is nothing in it +that may appear to you too pointed. _If you wish the matter to be +otherwise understood than I have taken up and stated it, I need not say +I shall be ready to conform to whatever you may prescribe, and to take +upon myself any share of the blame of the (hitherto) non-performance of +the stipulations made on behalf of the Nabob_: though I do assure you I +myself represented to his Excellency and the ministers, (conceiving it +to be your desire,) that _the apparent assumption of the reins of his +government_, (for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at the +first view,) as specified in the agreement executed by him, was not +meant to be _fully_ and _literally_ enforced, but that it was necessary +_you should have something to show on your side, as the Company were +deprived of a benefit without a requital; and upon the faith of this +assurance alone_, I believe I may safely affirm, his Excellency's +objections to signing the treaty were given up. If I have understood the +matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am truly sorry for it: +_however, it is not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to +undertake, and, God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on +receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final resolve_." + +XV. That it appears, but on his, the said Middleton's, sole authority, +in a letter from the said Middleton, dated Lucknow, 2d December, 1781, +that the Nabob of Oude, wishing to evade the measure of resuming the +jaghires aforesaid, did send a message to him, purporting, "that, if the +measure proposed was intended to procure the payment of the balance due +to the Company, he could better and more expeditiously effect that +object by taking from his mother the treasures of his father, which he +did assert to be in her hands, and to which he did claim a right; and +that it would be sufficient that he, the said Hastings, _would hint his +opinion upon it, without giving a formal sanction to the measure +proposed_; and that, whatever his resolution upon the subject should be, +it would be expedient to keep it secret": adding, "_The resumption of +the jaghires it is necessary to suspend till I have your answer to this +letter_." + +XVI. That it does not appear that the said Hastings did write any +letter in answer to the proposal of the said Middleton, but he, the said +Hastings, did communicate his pleasure thereon, to Sir Elijah Impey, +being then at Lucknow, for his, the said Middleton's, information; and +it does appear that the seizing of the treasures of the mother of the +Nabob, said to have been proposed as _an alternative_ by the said Nabob +to prevent the resumption of the jaghires, was determined upon and +ordered by the said Hastings,--and that the resumption of the said +jaghires, for the ransom of which the seizing of the treasures was +proposed, was also directed: not one only, but both sides of the +alternative, being enforced upon the female parents of the Nabob +aforesaid, although both the one and the other had been secured to them +by a treaty with the East India Company. + +XVIII.[60] That Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice at +Port William, did undertake a journey of nine hundred miles, from +Calcutta to Lucknow, on pretence of health and pleasure, but was in +reality in the secret of these and other irregular transactions, and +employed as a channel of confidential communication therein. And the +said Warren Hastings, by presuming to employ the said chief-justice, a +person particularly unfit for an agent, in the transaction of affairs +_prima facie_ at least unjust, violent, and oppressive, contrary to +public faith, and to the sentiments and law of Nature, and which he, the +said Hastings, was sensible "could not fail to draw obloquy on himself +by his participation," did disgrace the king's commission, and render +odious to the natives of Hindostan the justice of the crown of Great +Britain. + +XIX. That, although the said Warren Hastings was from the beginning duly +informed of the violence offered to the personal inclinations of the +Nabob, and the "apparent assumption of the reins of his government," for +the purposes aforesaid, yet more than two years after he did write to +his private agent, Major Palmer, that is to say, in his letter of the +6th of May, 1783, "that it has been a matter of _equal surprise and +concern_ to him to learn from the letters of the Resident that the Nabob +Vizier was with difficulty and almost unconquerable reluctance induced +to give his consent to the attachment of the treasure deposited by his +father under the charge of the Begum, his mother, and to the resumption +of her jaghire, and the other jaghires of the individuals of his +family": which pretence of ignorance of the Nabob's inclinations is +fictitious and groundless. But whatever deception he might pretend to be +in concerning the original intention of the Nabob, he was not, nor did +he pretend to be, ignorant of his, the Nabob's, reluctance to _proceed_ +in the said measures; but did admit his knowledge of the Nabob's +reluctance to their full execution, and yet did justify the same as +follows. + +XX. "I desire that you will inform him [the Nabob], that, in these and +the other measures which were either proposed by him or received his +concurrence in the agreement passed between us at Chunar, I neither had +nor could have any object _but his relief, and the strengthening of his +connection with the Company_; and that I should not on any other ground +have exposed myself to _the personal obloquy which they could not fail +to draw upon me by my participation in them_, but left him to regulate +by his own discretion and by his own means the economy of his own +finances, and, _with much more cause, the assertion of his domestic +right. In these he had no regular claim to my interference_; nor had I, +in my public character, any claim upon him, but for the payment of the +debt then due from him to the Company, although I was under the +strongest obligations to require it for the relief of the pressing +exigencies of their affairs. He will well remember the manner in which, +at a visit to him in his own tent, I declared my acquiescence freely, +and without hesitation, to each proposition, which afterwards formed the +substance of a written agreement, as he severally made them; and he can +want no other evidence of my motives for _so cheerful a consent_, nor +for the requests which I added as the means of fulfilling his purposes +in them. Had he not made these measures his own option, I should not +have proposed them; _but having once adopted them, and made them the +conditions of a formal and sacred agreement, I had no longer an option +to dispense with them, but was bound to the complete performance and +execution of them, as points of public duty and of national faith, for +which I was responsible to my king, and the Company my immediate +superiors: and this was the reason for my insisting on their performance +and execution, when I was told that the Nabob himself had relaxed from +his original purpose, and expressed a reluctance to proceed in it_." + +XXI. That the said Warren Hastings does admit that the Nabob _had_ +originally no regular claim upon him for his interference, or he any +claim on the Nabob, which, might entitle him to interfere in the Nabob's +domestic concerns; yet, in order to justify his so invidious an +interference, he did, in the letter aforesaid, give a false account of +the said treaty, which (as before mentioned) did nothing more than give +a _permission_ to the Nabob to resume the jaghires, _if HE should judge +the same to be necessary_, and did therefore leave the right of +dispensing with the whole, or any part thereof, as much in his option +after the treaty as it was before: the declared intent of the article +being only to remove the restraint of the Company's guaranty forbidding +such resumption, but furnishing nothing which could authorize putting +that resumption into the hands and power of the Company, to be enforced +at their discretion. And with regard to the other part of the spoil made +by order of the said Hastings, and by him in the letter aforesaid stated +to be made equally against the will of the Nabob, namely, that which was +committed on the personal and movable property of the female parents of +the Nabob, nothing whatsoever in relation to the same is stipulated in +the said pretended treaty. + +XXII. That the said Hastings, in asserting that he was bound to the acts +aforesaid by public duty, and even by national faith, in the very +instance in which that national faith was by him grossly violated, and +in justifying himself by alleging that he was bound to the _complete_ +execution by a responsibility to the Company which he immediately +served, and by asserting that these violent and rapacious proceedings, +subjecting all persons concerned in them to obloquy, would be the means +of strengthening the connection of the Nabob with the British United +Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, did disgrace the +authority under which he immediately acted. And that the said Hastings, +in justifying his obligations to the said acts by a responsibility to +the _king_, namely, to the King of Great Britain, did endeavor to throw +upon his Majesty, his lawful sovereign, (whose name and character he was +bound to respect, and to preserve in estimation with all persons, and +particularly with the sovereign princes, the allies of his government,) +the disgrace and odium of the aforesaid acts, in which a sovereign +prince was by him, the said Hastings, made an instrument of perfidy, +wrong, and outrage to two mothers and wives of sovereign princes, and in +which he did exhibit to all Asia (a country remarkable for the utmost +devotion to parental authority) the spectacle of a Christian governor, +representing a Christian sovereign, compelling a son to become the +instrument of such violence and extortion against his own mother. + +That the said Warren Hastings, by repeated messages and injunctions, and +under menaces of "a dreadful responsibility," did urge the Resident to a +completion of this barbarous act; and well knowing that such an act +would probably be resisted, did order him, the said Resident, to use the +British troops under his direction for that purpose; and did offer the +assistance of further forces, urging the execution in the following +peremptory terms: "You _yourself_ must be _personally present_; you must +not allow _any_ negotiation or forbearance, but must prosecute both +services, until the Begums [princesses] are at the entire mercy of the +Nabob."[61] + +XXIII. That, in conformity to the said peremptory orders, a party of +British and other troops, with the Nabob in the ostensible, and the +British Resident in the real command, were drawn towards the city of +Fyzabad, in the castle of which city the mother and grandmother of the +Nabob had their residence; and after expending two days in negotiation, +(the particulars of which do not appear,) the Resident not receiving the +satisfaction he looked for, the town was first stormed, and afterwards +the castle; and little or no resistance being made, and no blood being +shed on either side, the British troops occupied all the outer inclosure +of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.[62] + +XXIV. That this violent assault, and forcible occupation of their +houses, and the further extremities they had to apprehend, did not +prevail on the female parents of the Nabob to consent to any submission, +until the Resident sent in unto them a letter from the said Warren +Hastings,[63] (no copy of which appears,) declaring himself no longer +bound by the guaranty, and containing such other matter as tended to +remove all their hopes, which seemed to be centred in British faith. + +XXV. That the chief officers of their household, who were their +treasurers and confidential agents, the eunuchs Jewar Ali Khan and Behar +Ali Khan, persons of great eminence, rank, and distinction, who had been +in high trust and favor with the late Nabob, were ignominiously put into +confinement under an inferior officer, in order to extort the discovery +of the treasures and effects committed to their care and fidelity. And +the said Middleton did soon after, that is to say, on the 12th of +January, 1782, deliver them over for the same purpose into the custody +of Captain Neal Stuart, commanding the eighth regiment, by his order +given in the following words: "To be kept in close and secure +confinement, admitting of no intercourse with them, excepting by their +four menial servants, who are authorized to attend them until further +orders. You will allow them to have any necessary and convenience which +may be consistent with a strict guard over them." + +XXVI. That, in consequence of these severities upon herself, and on +those whom she most regarded and trusted, the mother of the said Nabob +did at length consent to the delivering up of her treasures, and the +same were paid to the Resident, to the amount of the bond given by the +Nabob to the Company for his balance of the year 1779-80; and the said +treasure "was taken from the most secret recesses in the houses of the +two eunuchs." + +XXVII. That the Nabob continuing still under the pressure of a further +pretended debt to the Company for his balance of the year 1780-81, the +Resident, not satisfied with the seizure of the estates and treasures of +his parents aforesaid, although he, the said Resident, did confess that +the princess mother "had declared, _with apparent truth_, that she had +delivered up _the whole of the property in her hands_, excepting goods +which from the experience which he, the Resident, had of the _small +produce_ of the sales of a former payment made by her in that mode he +did refuse, and that in his opinion it certainly would have amounted to +little or nothing," did proceed to extort another great sum of money, +that is to say, the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds +sterling, on account of the last pretended balance aforesaid: in order, +therefore, to compel the said ministers and treasurers either to +distress their principals by extorting whatever valuable substance might +by any possibility remain concealed, or to furnish the said sum from +their own estates or from their credit with their friends, did order +their imprisonment to be aggravated with circumstances of great cruelty, +giving an order to Lieutenant Francis Rutledge, dated 20th January, +1782, in the following words. + +XXVIII. "SIR,--When this note is delivered to you by Hoolas +Roy, I have to desire that you order the two prisoners to be put _in +irons, keeping them from all food, &c., agreeable to my instructions of +yesterday_. + + (Signed) "NATH^L MIDDLETON." + +XXIX. That by the said unjust and rigorous proceeding the said eunuchs +were compelled to give their engagement for the payment of one hundred +and twenty thousand pounds sterling aforesaid, to be completed within +the period of one month; but after they had entered into the said +compulsory engagement, they were still kept in close imprisonment, and +the mother and grandmother of the Nabob were themselves held under a +strict guard,--although, at the same time, the confiscated estates were +actually in the Company's possession, and found to exceed the amount of +what they were rated at in the general list of confiscated estates,[64] +and although the Assistant Resident, Johnson, did confess, "that the +object of distressing the Bhow Begum was merely to obtain a +_ready-money_ instead of a _dilatory payment_, and that this ready-money +payment, if not paid, was recoverable in the course of a few months upon +the jaghires in his possession, and that therefore it was not worth +proceeding to any extremities, beyond the one described," (namely, the +confinement of the princesses, and the imprisonment and fettering of +their ministers,) "upon so respectable a family."[65] + +XXX. That, after the surrender of the treasure, and the passing the +bonds and obligations given as aforesaid, the Resident having been +strictly ordered by the said Warren Hastings not to make any settlement +whatsoever with the said women of high rank, the Nabob was induced to +leave the city of Fyzabad without taking leave of his mother, or showing +her any mark of duty or civility. And on the same day the Resident left +the city aforesaid; and after his return to Lucknow, in order to pacify +the said Hastings, who appeared to resent that the Nabob was not urged +to greater degrees of rigor than those hitherto used towards his mother, +he, the said Resident, did, in his letter of the 6th February, give him +an assurance in the following words:--"I shall, as you direct, use my +influence to dissuade his Excellency from concluding _any settlement_ +until I have your further commands." + +XXXI. That the payment of the bond last extorted from the eunuchs was +soon after commenced, and the grandmother, as well as the mother, were +now compelled to deliver what they declared was _the extent of the +whole_ of both their possessions, including down to their _table +utensils_; which, as the Resident admitted, "they had been and were +still delivering, and that no proof had yet been obtained of their +having more." + +XXXII. That bullion, jewels, and goods, to the amount of five hundred +thousand pounds and upwards, were actually received by the Resident for +the use of the Company before the 23d of February, 1782; and there +remained on the said extorted bond no more than about twenty-five +thousand pounds, according to the statement of the eunuchs, and not +above fifty thousand according to that made by the Resident. + +XXXIII. That, in this advanced state of the delivery of the extorted +treasure, the ministers of the women aforesaid of the reigning family +did apply to Captain Leonard Jaques, under whose custody they were +confined, to be informed of the deficiency with which they stood +charged, that they might endeavor, with the assistance of their friends, +to provide for the same, and praying that they might through his +mediation be freed from the hardships they suffered under their +confinement: to which application they received an insolent answer from +the said Richard Johnson, dated February 27th, 1782, declaring that part +of what he had received in payment was in jewels and bullion, and that +more than a month, the time fixed for the final payment, would elapse +before he could dispose of the same,--insisting upon a ready-money +payment, and assuring them "that the day on which their agreement +expired he should be indispensably obliged to recommence severities upon +them, until the last farthing was fully paid." And in order to add to +their terrors and hardships, as well as to find some pretext for the +further cruel and inhuman acts intended, an apparently groundless and +injurious charge was suggested to the imprisoned ministers aforesaid in +the following words. "You may also mention to them, that I have reason +to _suspect_ that the commotions raised by Bulbudder have not been +without their _suggestion and abetment_, which, if proved upon them, in +addition to the _probable_ breach of their agreement, will make their +situation _very desperate_." + +XXXIV. That on the receipt of the said letter, that is, on the 2d March, +the ministers aforesaid did aver, that they were not able to obtain +cash, in lieu of the jewels and other effects, but that, if the goods +were sold, and they released from their confinement, and permitted (as +they have before requested) to go abroad among their friends, they could +soon make good the deficiency; and they did absolutely deny "that they +had any hand in the commotions raised by Bulbudder, or any kind of +correspondence with him or his adherents." + +XXXV. That the prisoners aforesaid did shortly after, that is to say, on +the 13th March, a third time renew their application to Nathaniel +Middleton, Esquire, the Resident, and did request that the jewels +remaining in his, the said Resident's, hands, towards the payment of the +balance remaining, "might be valued by four or five eminent merchants, +Mussulmen and Hindoos, upon oath," and that, if any balance should +afterwards appear, they would upon their release get their friends to +advance the same; and they did again represent the hardship of their +imprisonment, and pray for relief; and did again assert that the +imputations thrown upon them by the said Richard Johnson were false and +groundless,--"that they had no kind of intercourse, either directly or +indirectly, with the authors of the commotions alluded to, and that they +did stake their lives upon the smallest proof thereof being brought." + +XXXVI. That, instead of their receiving any answer to any of the +aforesaid reasonable propositions, concerning either the account stated, +or the crimes imputed to them, or any relief from the hardships they +suffered, he, the Resident, Middleton, did, on the 18th of the said +month, give to the officer who had supplicated in favor of the said +prisoners an order in which he declared himself "under the disagreeable +necessity of recurring to severities to enforce the said payment, and +that this is therefore to desire that you immediately cause them _to be +put in irons_, and keep them so until I shall arrive at Fyzabad to take +further measures as may be necessary": which order being received at +Fyzabad the day after it was given, the said eunuchs were a second time +thrown into irons. And it appears that (probably in resentment for the +humane representations of the said Captain Jaques) the Resident did +refuse to pay for the fetters, and other contingent charges of the +imprisonment of the said ministers of the Nabob's mother, when at the +same time very liberal contingent allowances were made to other +officers; and the said Jaques did strongly remonstrate against the same +as follows. "You have also ordered me to put the prisoners in irons: +this I have done; yet, as I have no business to purchase fetters, or +supply them any other way, it is but reasonable that you should order me +to be reimbursed. And why should I add anything more? A late commander +at this place, I am told, draws near as many thousands monthly +contingencies as my trifling letter for hundreds. However, if you cannot +get my bill paid, be so obliging as to return it, and give me an +opportunity of declaring to the world that I believe I am the first +officer in the Company's service who has suffered in his property by an +independent command." + +XXXVI. That, in about two months after the said prisoners had continued +in irons in the manner aforesaid, the officer on guard, in a letter of +the 18th May, did represent to the Resident as follows. "The prisoners, +Behar and Jewar Ali Khan, who seem to be very sickly, have requested +their irons might be taken off for a few days, that they might take +medicine, and walk about the garden of the place where they are +confined. Now, as I am sure _they will be equally secure without their +irons as with them_, I think it my duty to inform you of this request: I +desire to know your pleasure concerning it." To which letter the said +officer did receive a direct refusal, dated 22d May, 1782, in the +following words. "I am sorry it is not in my power to comply with your +proposal of easing the prisoners for a few days of their fetters. Much +as my humanity may be touched by their sufferings, I should think it +inexpedient to afford them any alleviation while they persist in a +breach of their contract with me: and, indeed, no indulgence can be +shown them without the authority of the Nabob, who, instead of +consenting to moderate the rigors of their situation, would be most +willing to multiply them":--endeavoring to join the Nabob, whom he well +knew to be reluctant in the whole proceeding, as a party in the +cruelties by which, through the medium of her servants, it was intended +to coerce his mother. + +XXXVIII. That the said Resident, in a few days after, that is to say, on +the 1st June, 1782, in a letter to Major Gilpin, in command at Fyzabad, +did order the account, as by himself stated, to be read to the +prisoners, and, without taking any notice of their proposal concerning +the valuation of the effects, or their denial of the offences imputed to +them, to demand a positive answer relative to the payment, and, "upon +receiving from them a negative or unsatisfactory reply, to inform them, +that, all further negotiation being at an end, they must prepare for +their removal to Lucknow, where they would be called upon to answer not +only their recent breach of faith and solemn engagement, but also to +atone for other heavy offences, the punishment of which, as had +frequently been signified to them, it was in their power to have +mitigated by a proper acquittal of themselves in this transaction." By +which insinuations concerning the pretended offences of the said unhappy +persons, and the manner by which they were to atone for the same, and by +their never having been specifically and directly made, it doth appear +that the said crimes and offences were charged for the purpose of +extorting money, and not upon principles or for the ends of justice. + +XXXIX. That, after some ineffectual negotiations to make the prisoners +pay the money, which it does not appear to have been in their power to +pay, they were again threatened by the Resident, in a letter to Major +Gilpin, dated 9th June, 1782, in the following terms. "I wish you to +explain once more to the prisoners the imprudence and folly of their +conduct in forcing me to a measure which must be attended with +consequences so very serious to them, and that, when once they are +removed to Lucknow, it will not be in my power to show them mercy, or to +stand between them and the vengeance of the Nabob. Advise them to +reflect seriously upon the unhappy situation in which they will be +involved in one case, and the relief it will be in my power to procure +them in the other; and let them make their option." + +XL. That he, the said Resident, did also, at the same time, receive a +letter from the princess mother, which letter does not appear, but to +which only the following insolent return was made,--that is to say: "The +letter from the Bhow Begum is no ways satisfactory, and I cannot think +of returning an answer to it. Indeed, all correspondence between the +Begum and me has long been stopped; and I request you will be pleased to +inform her that I by no means wish to resume it, or to maintain any +friendly intercourse with her, until she has made good my claim upon her +for the balance due." + +XLI. That, in consequence of these threats, and to prevent a separation +of the ministers from their mistresses, several plans for the payment of +the balance were offered, both by the mother of the Nabob and the +prisoners, to which no other objection appears to have been made than +the length of time required by the parties to discharge the +comparatively small remainder of the extorted bond: the officer on +command declaring, that, conformable to his instructions, he could not +receive the same.[66] + +XLII. That the prisoners were actually removed from the city of their +residence to the city of Lucknow, where they arrived on the 24th of +June, 1782, and were on the next day threatened with severities, "to +make them discover where the balance might be procurable." And on the +28th, it should seem, that the severities for the purpose aforesaid were +inflicted, at least upon one of them; for the Assistant Resident, +Johnson, did on that day write to Captain Waugh, the officer commanding +the guard, the letter following, full of disgrace to the honor, justice, +and humanity of the British nation. + +XLIII. "SIR,--The Nabob having determined _to inflict corporal +punishment upon the prisoners_ under your guard, this is to desire that +his officers, when they shall come, may have free access to the +prisoners, and _be permitted to do with them as they shall see proper_, +only taking care that they leave them always under your charge." + +XLIV. That the said Richard Johnson did, further to terrify the +prisoners, and to extort by all ways the remainder of the said unjust, +oppressive, and rapacious demand, threaten to remove them out of the +Nabob's dominions into the castle of Churnagur, in order forever to +separate them from their principals, and deprive both of their +reciprocal protection and services,[67]--and did order a further guard +to be put on the palace of the grandmother of the Nabob, an ally of the +Company, and to prevent the entrance of the provisions to her, (which +order relative to the guard only was executed,) and did use sundry +unworthy and insulting menaces both with regard to herself and to her +principal ministers.[68] + +XLV. That a proposal was soon after made by the said princess and her +daughter-in-law, praying that their ministers aforesaid should be +returned to Fyzabad, and offering to raise a sum of money on that +condition;[69] as also that they would remove from one of their palaces, +whilst the English were to be permitted to search the other.[70] But the +Assistant Resident, Johnson, did, instead of a compliance with the +former of these propositions, send the following orders, dated 23d July, +1782, to the officer commanding the guard on the ministers aforesaid: +"Some violent demands having been made for the release of the prisoners, +it is necessary that every possible precaution be taken for their +security; you will therefore be pleased to be very strict in guarding +them; and I herewith send _another pair of fetters to be added to those +now upon the prisoners_." And in answer to the second proposition, the +said Resident did reply in the following terms: "The proposal of +evacuating one palace, that it may be searched, and then evacuating the +next, upon the same principle, is apparently fair; but it is well known, +in the first place, that such bricked-up or otherwise hidden treasure +is not to be hit upon in a day without a guide. I have therefore +informed the Nabob of this proposal, and, if the matter is to be reduced +to a search, he will go himself, with such people as he may possess for +information, together with the prisoners; and when in possession of the +ground, by _punishing the prisoners_, or by such _other means as he may +find most effectual_ to forward a successful search upon the spot, he +will avail himself of the proposal made by the Bhow Begum." + +XLVI. That, probably from the Nabob's known and avowed reluctance to +lend himself to the perpetration of the oppressive and iniquitous +proceedings of the representative of the British government, the +scandalous plan aforesaid was not carried into execution; and all the +rigors practised upon the chief ministers of the ladies aforesaid at +Lucknow being found ineffectual, and the princess mother having declared +herself ready to deliver up everything valuable in her possession, which +Behar Ali Khan, one of her confidential ministers aforesaid, only could +come at, the said change of prison was agreed to,--but not until the +Nabob's mother aforesaid had engaged to pay for the said change of +prison a sum of ten thousand pounds, (one half of which was paid on the +return of the eunuchs,) and that "she would ransack the _zenanah_ +[women's apartments] for kincobs, muslins, clothes, &c., &c., &c., and +that she would even allow a deduction from the annual allowance made to +her for her subsistence in lieu of her jaghire."[71] + +XLVII. That, soon after the return of the aforesaid ministers to the +place of their imprisonment at Fyzabad, bonds for the five thousand +pounds aforesaid, and goods, estimated, according to the valuation of a +merchant appointed to value the same, at the sum of forty thousand +pounds, even allowing them to sell greatly under their value, were +delivered to the commanding officer at Fyzabad; and the said commanding +officer did promise to the Begum to visit Lucknow with such proposals as +he hoped would secure the _small balance_ of fifteen thousand pounds +remaining of the unjust exaction aforesaid.[72] But the said Resident, +Middleton, did, in his letter of the 17th of the said month, positively +refuse to listen to any terms before the final discharge of the whole of +the demand, and did positively forbid the commanding officer to come to +Lucknow to make the proposal aforesaid in the terms following. "As it is +not possible to listen to _any_ terms from the Begums before the final +discharge of their conditional agreement for fifty-five lacs, your +coming here upon such an agency can only be _loss of time_ in completing +the recovery of the balance of 6,55,000, for which your regiment was +sent to Fyzabad. I must therefore desire you will leave _no efforts, +gentle or harsh_, unattempted to complete this, before you move from +Fyzabad; and I am very anxious that this should be as soon as possible, +_as I want to employ your regiment upon other emergent service, now +suffering by every delay_." + +XLVIII. That the goods aforesaid were sent to Lucknow, and disposed of +in a manner unknown; and the harsh and oppressive measures aforesaid +being still continued, the Begum did, about the middle of October, +1782, cause to be represented to the said Middleton as follows. "That +her situation was truly pitiable,--her estate sequestered, her treasury +ransacked, her cojahs prisoners, and her servants deserting daily from +want of subsistence. That she had solicited the loan of money, to +satisfy the demands of the Company, from every person that she imagined +would or could assist her with any; but that the opulent would not +listen to her adversity. She had hoped that the wardrobe sent to Lucknow +might have sold for at least one half of the Company's demands on her; +but even jewelry and goods, she finds from woful experience, lose their +value the moment it is known they come from her. That she had now +solicited the loan of cash from Almas Ali Khan, and if she failed in +that application, she had no hopes of ever borrowing a sum equal to the +demand":[73]--an hope not likely to be realized, as the said Almas Ali +was then engaged for a sum of money to be raised for the Company's use +on the security of their confiscated lands, the restoration of which +could form the only apparent security for a loan. + +XLIX. That this remonstrance produced no effect on the mind of the +aforesaid Resident,--who, being about this time removed from his +Residency, did, in a letter to his successor, Mr. Bristow, dated 23d +October, 1782, in effect recommend a perseverance in the cruel and +oppressive restraints aforesaid as a certain means of recovering the +remainder of the extorted bond, and that the lands with which the +princesses aforesaid had been endowed should not be restored to them. + +L. That the said Warren Hastings was duly apprised of all the material +circumstances in the unjust proceedings aforesaid, but did nothing to +stop the course they were in, or to prevent, relieve, or mitigate the +sufferings of the parties affected by them: on the contrary, he did, in +his letter of the 25th of January, 1782, to the Resident, Middleton, +declare, that the Nabob having consented to the "resumption of the +jaghires held by the Begums, and to the confiscation of their treasures, +and thereby involved my own name and the credit of the Company in a +participation of both measures, I have a right to _require and insist on +the complete execution of them_; and I look to you for their execution, +declaring that I shall hold you accountable for it." And it appears that +he did write to the Nabob a letter in the same peremptory manner; but +the said letter has been suppressed. + +LI. That he, the said Hastings, farther did manifest the concern he took +in, and the encouragement which he gave to the proceedings aforesaid, by +conferring honors and distinctions upon the ministers of the Nabob, whom +he, the Nabob, did consider as having in the said proceedings disobeyed +him and betrayed him, and as instruments in the dishonor of his family +and the usurpation of his authority. That the said ministers did make +addresses to the said Hastings for that purpose (which addresses the +said Hastings hath suppressed); and the Resident, Middleton, did, with +his letter of the 11th of February, 1782, transmit the same, and did in +the said letter acquaint the said Hastings "that the ministers of the +Nabob had incurred much odium on account of their participation in his +measures, and that they were not only considered by the party of the +dispossessed jaghiredars, and the mother and uncle of the Nabob, but _by +the Nabob himself_, as the _dependants of the English government, which +they certainly are, and it is by its declared and most obvious support +alone_ that they can maintain the authority and influence which is +indispensably necessary." And the said Middleton did therefore recommend +"that they should be honored with some testimony of his [the said +Hastings's] approbation and favor." And he, the said Warren Hastings, +did send _kellauts_, or robes of honor, (the most public and +distinguished mode of acknowledging merit known in India,) to the said +ministers, in testimony of his approbation of their late services. + +LII. That the said Hastings did not only give the aforesaid public +encouragement to the ministers of the Nabob to betray and insult their +master and his family in the manner aforesaid, but, when the said Nabob +did write several letters to him, the said Hastings, expressive of his +dislike of being used as an instrument in the dishonorable acts +aforesaid, and refusing to be further concerned therein, he, the said +Warren Hastings, did not only suppress and hide the said letters from +the view of the Court of Directors, but in his instructions to the +Resident, Bristow, did attribute them to Hyder Beg Khan, minister to the +Nabob, (whom in other respects he did before and ever since support +against his master,) and did express himself with great scorn and +contempt of the said Nabob, and with much asperity against the said +minister: affirming, in proud and insolent terms, that he had, "by an +abuse of his influence over the Nabob,--he, the Nabob himself, being +(_as he ever must be in the hands of some person_) _a mere cipher in +his [the said minister's],--dared_ to make him [the Nabob] _assume_ a +very _unbecoming_ tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, in +opposition to _measures recommended by ME_, and even to _acts done by MY +authority_": the said Hastings, in the instruction aforesaid, +particularizing the resumption of the jaghires, and the confiscation of +the treasures that had been so long suffered to remain in the hands of +his, the Nabob's, mother. But the letters of the Nabob, which in the +said instructions he refers to as containing an opposition to the +measures recommended by him, and which he asserts was conveyed in a very +unbecoming tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, he, the said +Hastings, hath criminally withheld from the Company, contrary to their +orders, and to his duty,--and the more, as the said letters must tend to +show in what manner the said Nabob did feel the indignities offered to +his mother, and the manner in which the said ministers, notwithstanding +their known dependence on the English government, did express their +sense of the part which their sovereign was compelled to act in the said +disgraceful measures. And in farther instructions to him, the said new +Resident, he did declare his approbation of the evil acts aforesaid, as +well as his resolution of compelling the Nabob to those rigorous +proceedings against his parent from which he had long shown himself so +very averse, in the following words. "The severities which have been +increased towards the Begums were most justly merited by the advantage +which they took of the troubles in which I was personally involved last +year, to create a rebellion in the Nabob's government, and to complete +the ruin which they thought was impending on ours. If it is the Nabob's +desire to forget and to forgive their past offence, I have no objection +to his allowing them, in pension, the nominal amount of their jaghires; +but if he shall _ever offer_ to restore their jaghires to them, or to +give them any property in land, after the warning which they have given +him by the dangerous abuse which they formerly made of his indulgence, +you must remonstrate in the strongest terms against it; _you must not +permit such an event to take place_, until this government shall have +received information of it, and shall have had time to interpose its +influence for the prevention of it." And the said Warren Hastings, who +did in the manner aforesaid positively refuse to admit the Nabob to +restore to his mother and grandmother any part of their landed estates +for their maintenance, did well know that the revenues of the said Nabob +were at that time so far applied to the demands of the Company, (by him, +the said Warren Hastings, aggravated beyond the whole of what they did +produce,) or were otherwise so far applied to the purposes of several of +the servants of the Company, and others, the dependants of him, the said +Hastings, that none of the pensions or allowances, assigned by the said +Nabob in lieu of the estates confiscated, were paid, or were likely to +be discharged, with that punctuality which was necessary even to the +scanty subsistence of the persons to which they were in name and +appearance applied. For, + +LIII. That, so early as the 6th March, 1782, Captain Leonard Jaques, who +commanded the forces on duty for the purpose of distressing the several +women in the palaces at Fyzabad, did complain to the Resident, Richard +Johnson, in the following words. "The women belonging to the Khord +Mohul (or lesser palace) complain of their being in want of every +necessary of life, and are at last driven to that desperation that they +at night get on the top of the zenanah, make a great disturbance, and +last night not only alarmed the sentinels posted in the garden, but +threw dirt at them; they threaten to throw themselves from the walls of +the zenanah, and also to break out of it. Humanity obliges me to +acquaint you of this matter, and to request to know if you have any +directions to give me concerning it. I also beg leave to acquaint you I +sent for Letafit Ali Khan, the cojah who has the charge of them, and who +informs me it is well grounded,--that they _have sold everything they +had, even to the clothes from their backs, and now have no means of +subsisting_." + +LIV. That the distresses of the said women grew so urgent on the night +of the said 6th of March, the day when the letter above recited was +written, that Captain Leonard Jaques aforesaid did think it necessary to +write again, on the day following, to the British Resident in the +following words. "I beg leave to address you again concerning the women +in the Khord Mohul [the lesser palace]. Their behavior last night was so +furious, that there seemed the greatest probability of their proceeding +to the uttermost extremities, and that they would either _throw +themselves from the walls or force open the doors of the zenanah_. I +have made every inquiry concerning the cause of their complaints, and +find from Letafit Ali Khan that they are in _a starving condition, +having sold all their clothes and necessaries, and now have not +wherewithal to support nature_; and as my instructions are quite silent +on this head, I should be glad to know how to proceed, in case they were +to force the doors of the zenanah, as I suspect it will happen, should +no subsistence be very quickly sent to them." + +LV. That, in consequence of these representations, it appears that the +said Resident, Richard Johnson, did promise that an application should +be made to certain of the servants of the Nabob Vizier to provide for +their subsistence. + +LVI. That Captain Jaques being relieved from the duty of imprisoning the +women of Sujah ul Dowlah, the late sovereign of Oude, an ally of the +Company, who dwelt in the said lesser palace, and Major Gilpin being +appointed to succeed, the same malicious design of destroying the said +women, or the same scandalous neglect of their preservation and +subsistence, did still continue; and Major Gilpin found it necessary to +apply to the new Resident, Bristow, in a letter of the 30th of October, +1782, as follows. + +LVII. "SIR,--Last night, about eight o'clock, the women in the +Khord Mohul [lesser palace] or zenanah [women's apartment] under the +charge of Letafit Ali Khan, assembled on the tops of the buildings, +_crying in a most lamentable manner for food,--that for the last four +days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they +had got none_. + +LVIII. "_The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than +described_; and from their representation I fear the Nabob's agents for +that business are very inattentive. I therefore think it requisite to +make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency, the +Nabob, may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct +towards these poor unhappy women." + +LIX. That, although the Resident, Bristol, did not then think himself +authorized to remove the guard, he did apply to the minister of the +Nabob, who did promise some relief to the women of the late Nabob, +confined in the lesser palace; but apprehending, with reason, that the +minister aforesaid might not be more ready or active in making the +necessary provision for them than on former occasions, he did render +himself personally responsible to Major Gilpin for the repayment of any +sum, equal to one thousand pounds sterling, which he might procure for +the subsistence of the sufferers. But whatever relief was given, (the +amount thereof not appearing,) the same was soon exhausted; and the +number of persons to be maintained in the said lesser palace being eight +hundred women, the women of the late sovereign, Sujah ul Dowlah, and +several of the younger children of the said sovereign prince, besides +their attendants, Major Gilpin was obliged, on the 15th of November +following, again to address the Resident by a representation of this +tenor. + +"SIR,--The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul +Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy. + +LX. "_They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their +daily bread by laborious servitude, or to be relieved from their misery +by immediate death._ + +LXI. "In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken +the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain, at ten days' sight, +for twenty Son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah +Letafit Ali Khan, under whose charge that zenanah is." + +LXII. That, notwithstanding all the promises and reiterated engagements +of the minister, Hyder Beg Khan, the ladies of the palace aforesaid fell +again into extreme distress; and the Resident did again complain to the +said minister, who was considered to be, and really and substantially +was, the minister of the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, aforesaid, +and not of the Nabob, (the said Nabob being, according to the said +Hastings's own account, "a cipher in his [the said minister's] hands,") +that the funds allowed for their subsistence were not applied to their +support. But notwithstanding all these repeated complaints and +remonstrances, and the constant promise of amendment on the part of his, +the said Hastings's, minister, the supply was not more plentiful or more +regular than before. + +LXIII. That the said Resident, Bristow, finding by experience the +inefficacy of the courses which had been pursued with regard to the +mother and grandmother of the reigning prince of Oude, and having +received a report from Major Gilpin, informing him that all which could +be done by force had been done, and that the only hope which remained +for realizing the remainder of the money, unjustly exacted as aforesaid, +lay in more lenient methods,[74] he, the said Resident, did, of his own +authority, order the removal of the guard from the palaces, the troops +being long and much wanted for the defence of the frontier, and other +material services,--and did release the said ministers of the said women +of rank, who had been confined and put in irons, and variously +distressed and persecuted, as aforerecited, for near twelve months.[75] + +LXIV. That the manner in which the said inhuman acts of rapacity and +violence were felt, both by the women of high rank concerned, and by all +the people, strongly appears in the joy expressed on their release, +which took place on the 5th of December, 1782, and is stated in two +letters of that date from Major Gilpin to the Resident, in the words +following. + +LXV. "I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d +instant, and in consequence immediately enlarged the prisoners Behar Ali +Khan and Jewar Ali Khan from their confinement: a circumstance that gave +the Begums, and the city of Fyzabad in general, the greatest +satisfaction. + +LXVI. "In tears of joy Behar and Jewar Ali Khan expressed their sincere +acknowledgments to the Governor-General, his Excellency the Nabob +Vizier, and to you, Sir, for restoring them to that invaluable blessing, +liberty, for which they would ever retain the most grateful remembrance; +and at their request I transmit you the inclosed letters. + +LXVII. "I wish you had been present at the enlargement of the +prisoners. The quivering lips, with the tears of joy stealing down the +poor men's cheeks, was a scene truly affecting. + +LXVIII. "If the prayers of these poor men will avail, you will, at the +LAST TRUMP, be translated to the happiest regions in heaven." + +LXIX. And the Resident, Bristow, knowing how acceptable the said +proceeding would be to all the people of Oude, and the neighboring +independent countries, did generously and politically, (though not +truly,) in his letter to the princess mother attribute the said relief +given to herself, and the release of her ministers, to the humanity of +the said Warren Hastings, agreeably to whose orders he pretended to act: +asserting, that he, the said Hastings, "was the spring from whence she +was restored to her dignity and consequence."[76] And the account of the +proceedings aforesaid was regularly transmitted to the said Warren +Hastings on the 30th of December, 1782, with the reasons and motives +thereto, and a copy of the report of the officer concerning the +inutility of further force, attended with sundry documents concerning +the famishing, and other treatment, of the women and children of the +late sovereign: but the same appear to have made no proper impression on +the mind of the said Warren Hastings; for no answer whatsoever was given +to the said letter until the 3d of March, 1783, when the said Hastings, +writing in his own character and that of the Council, did entirely pass +by all the circumstances before recited, but did give directions for the +renewal of measures of the like nature and tendency with those which +(for several of the last months at least of the said proceeding) had +been employed with so little advantage to the interest and with so much +injury to the reputation of the Company, his masters, in whose name he +acted,--expressing himself in the said letter of the 3d of March, 1783, +as follows: "We desire you will inform us what means have been taken for +recovering the balance [the pretended balance of the extorted money] due +from the Begums [princesses] at Fyzabad; and if necessary, you must +recommend it to the Vizier _to enforce the most effectual means_ for +that purpose." And the Resident did, in his answer to the board, dated +31st March, 1783, on this peremptory order, again detail the particulars +aforesaid to the said Warren Hastings, referring him to his former +correspondence, stating the utter impossibility of proceeding further by +force, and mentioning certain other disgraceful and oppressive +circumstances, and in particular, that the Company did not, in +plundering the mother of the reigning prince of her wearing apparel and +beasts of carriage, receive a value in the least equal to the loss she +suffered: the elephants having no buyer but the Nabob, and the clothes, +which had last been delivered to Middleton at a valuation of thirty +thousand pounds, were so damaged by ill keeping in warehouses, that they +could not be sold, even for six months' credit, at much more than about +eight thousand pounds; by which a loss in a single article was incurred +of twenty-two thousand pounds out of the fifty, for the recovery of +which (supposing it had been a just debt) such rigorous means had been +employed, after having actually received upwards of five hundred +thousand pounds in value to the Company, and extorted much more in loss +to the suffering individuals. And the said Bristow, being well +acquainted with the unmerciful temper of the said Hastings, in order to +leave no means untried to appease him, not contented with the letter to +the Governor-General and Council, did on the same day write another +letter _to him particularly_, in which he did urge several arguments, +the necessity of using of which to the said Hastings did reflect great +dishonor on this nation, and on the Christian religion therein +professed, namely: "That he had experienced great embarrassment in +treating with her [the mother of the reigning prince]; for, as the +mother of the Vizier, the people look up to her with respect, and any +hard measures practised against women of her high rank create +discontent, and affect our national character." And the said Resident, +after condemning very unjustly her conduct, added, "Still she is the +mother of the prince of the country, and the religious prejudices of +Mussulmen prevail too strongly in their minds to forget her situation." + +LXX. That the said Warren Hastings did not make any answer to the said +letter. But the mother of the prince aforesaid, as well as the mother of +his father, being, in consequence of his, the said Hastings's, +directions, incessantly and rudely pressed by their descendant, in the +name of the Company, to pay to the last farthing of the demand, they did +both positively refuse to pay any part of the pretended balances +aforesaid, until their landed estates were restored to them; on the +security of which alone they alleged themselves to be in a condition to +borrow any money, or even to provide for the subsistence of themselves +and their numerous dependants. And in order to put some end to these +differences, the Vizier did himself, about the beginning of August, +1783, go to Fyzabad, and did hold divers conferences with his parents, +and did consent and engage to restore to them their landed estates +aforesaid, and did issue an order that they should be restored +accordingly; but his minister aforesaid, having before his eyes the +peremptory orders of him, the said Warren Hastings, did persuade his +master to dishonor himself in breaking his faith and engagement with his +mother and the mother of his father, by first evading the execution, and +afterwards totally revoking his said public and solemn act, on pretence +that he had agreed to the grant "from shame, being in their presence +[the presence of his mother and grandmother], and that it was +unavoidable at the time";[77]--the said minister declaring to him, that +it would be sufficient, if he allowed them "money for their _necessary_ +expenses, and that would be _doing enough_." + +LXXI. That the faith given for the restoration of their landed estates +being thus violated, and the money for necessary expenses being as ill +supplied as before, the women and children of the late sovereign, father +of the reigning prince, continued exposed to frequent want of the common +necessaries of life;[78] and being sorely pressed by famine, they were +compelled to break through all the principles of local decorum and +reserve which constitute the dignity of the female sex in that part of +the world, and, after great clamor and violent attempts for one whole +day to break the inclosure of the palace, and to force their way into +the public market, in order to move the compassion of the people, and to +beg their bread, they did, on the next day, actually proceed to the +extremity of exposing themselves to public view,--an extremity implying +the lowest state of disgrace and degradation, to avoid which many women +in India have laid violent hands upon themselves,--and they did proceed +to the public market-place with the starving children of the late +sovereign, and the brothers and sisters of the reigning prince! A minute +account of the transaction aforesaid was written to the British Resident +at Lucknow by the person appointed to convey intelligence to him from +Fyzabad, in the following particulars, highly disgraceful to the honor, +justice, and humanity of this nation. + +LXXII. "The ladies, their attendants and servants, were still as +clamorous as last night. Letafit, the _darogah_, went to them and +remonstrated with them on the impropriety of their conduct, at the same +time assuring them that in a few days all their allowances would be +paid, and should not that be the case, he would advance them ten days' +subsistence, upon condition that they returned to their habitation. None +of them, however, consented to his proposals, but were still intent upon +making their escape through the _bazar_ [market-place], and in +consequence formed themselves into a line, arranging themselves in the +following order: the children in the front; behind them the ladies of +the seraglio; and behind them again their attendants: but their +intentions were frustrated by the opposition which they met from +Letafit's sepoys. + +LXXIII. "The next day Letafit went twice to the women, and used his +endeavors to make them return into the zenanah, promising to advance +them ten thousand rupees; which, upon the money being paid down, they +agreed to comply with: but night coming on, nothing transpired. + +LXXIV. "On the day following their clamors were more violent than usual. +Letafit went to confer with them, upon the business of yesterday; +offering the same terms. Depending upon the fidelity of his promises, +they consented to return to their apartments, which they accordingly +did, except two or three of the ladies, and most of their attendants. +Letafit then went to Hossmund Ali Khan, to consult with him upon what +means they should take. They came to a resolution of driving them in by +force, and gave orders to their sepoys to beat any one of the women who +should attempt to move forward. The sepoys consequently assembled; and +each one being provided with a bludgeon, they drove them by dint of +beating into the zenanah. The women, seeing the treachery of Letafit, +proceeded to throw stones and bricks at the sepoys, and again attempted +to get out; but finding that impossible, from the gates being shut, they +kept up a continual discharge of stones and bricks till about ten, when, +finding their situation desperate, they retired into the Kung Mohul, and +forced their way from thence into the palace, and dispersed themselves +about the house and garden; after this they were desirous of getting +into the Begum's apartment, but she, being apprised of their intention, +ordered her doors to be shut. In the mean time Letafit and Hossmund Ali +Khan posted sentries to secure the gates of the lesser Mohul. During +the whole of this conflict, all the ladies and women remained exposed to +the view of the sepoys. The Begum then sent for Letafit and Hossmund Ali +Khan, whom she severely reprimanded, and insisted upon knowing the +causes of this infamous behavior. They pleaded in their defence the +impossibility of helping it, as the treatment the women had met with had +been conformable to his Excellency the Vizier's orders. The Begum +alleged, that, even admitting that the Nabob had given those orders, +they were by no means authorized in this manner to disgrace the family +of Sujah Dowlah; and should they not receive their allowance for a day +or two, it could be of no great moment: what was passed was now at an +end; but that the Vizier should certainly be acquainted with the whole +of the affair, and that whatever he desired she should implicitly comply +with. The Begum then sent for five of the children, who were wounded in +the affray of last night, and, after endeavoring to soothe them, she +sent again for Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khan, and in the presence of the +children expressed her disapprobation of their conduct, and the +improbability of Asoph ul Dowlah's suffering the ladies and children of +Sujah Dowlah to be disgraced by being exposed to the view of the rabble. +Upon which Letafit produced the letter from the Nabob, at the same time +representing that he was amenable only to the orders of his Excellency, +and that whatever he ordered it was his duty to obey, and that, had the +ladies thought proper to have retired into their apartments quietly, he +would not have used the means he had taken to compel them. The Begum +again observed, that what had happened was now over. She then gave the +children four hundred rupees, and dismissed them, and sent word by +Jumrud and the other eunuchs, that, if the ladies would peaceably retire +to their apartments, Letafit would supply them with three or four +thousand rupees for their personal expenses, and recommended to them not +to incur any further disgrace, and that, if they did not think proper to +act agreeable to her directions, they would do wrong. The ladies +followed her advice, and about ten at night went back into the zenanah. +The nest morning the Begum waited upon the mother of Sujah Dowlah, and +related to her all the circumstances of the disturbances. The mother of +Sujah Dowlah returned for answer, that, after there being no accounts +kept of crores of revenues, she was not surprised that the family of +Sujah Dowlah, in their endeavors to procure a subsistence, should be +obliged to expose themselves to the meanest of the people. After +bewailing their misfortunes, and shedding many tears, the Begum took her +leave, and returned home." + +That the said affecting narrative being sent, with others of the same +nature, on the 29th of January, 1784, to the said Warren Hastings, he +did not order any relief in consequence thereof, or take any sort of +notice whatsoever of the said intelligence. + +LXXV. That the Court of Directors did express strong doubts of the +propriety of seizing the estates aforesaid, and did declare to him, the +said Hastings, "that the only consolation they felt on the occasion is, +that the amount of those jaghires _for which the Company were +guaranties_ is to be paid _through our Resident at the court of the +Vizier_; and it very materially concerns the credit of your Governor on +no account to _suffer such payments to be evaded_." But the said Warren +Hastings did never make the arrangement supposed in the said letter to +be actually made, nor did he cause the Resident to pay them the amount +of their jaghires, or to make any payment to them. + +And the said Hastings being expressly ordered by the Court of Directors +to restore to them their estates, in case the charges made upon them +should not be found true, he, the said Hastings, did contumaciously and +cruelly decline any compliance with the said orders until his journey to +Lucknow, in ----, when he did, as he says, "conformably to the orders of +the Court of Directors, and more to the inclination of the Nabob Vizier, +restore to them their jaghires, but with the defalcation, according to +his own account, of _a large portion_ of their respective shares": +pretending, without the least probability, that the said defalcation was +a "voluntary concession on their part." But what he has left to them for +their support, or in what proportion to that which he has taken away, he +has nowhere stated to the Court of Directors, whose faith he has broken, +and whose orders he has thus eluded, whilst he pretended to yield _some_ +obedience to them. + +LXXVI. That the said Warren Hastings having made a malicious, loose, and +ill-supported charge, backed by certain unsatisfactory affidavits, as a +ground for his seizing on the jaghires and the treasures of the Vizier's +mother, solemnly guarantied to them, the Court of Directors did, in +their letter of the 14th of February, 1783, express themselves as +follows concerning that measure,--"which the Governor-General, [he, the +said Warren Hastings,] in his letter to your board, the 23d of January, +1782, has declared _he strenuously encouraged and supported_: we hope +and trust, for the honor of the British nation, that the measure +appeared fully justified in the eyes of all Hindostan. The +Governor-General has informed us that it can be well attested that the +Begums [the mother and grandmother of the Nabob aforesaid] _principally_ +excited and supported the late commotions, and that they carried their +inveteracy to the English nation so far _as to aim at our utter +extirpation_." And the Court of Directors did farther declare as +follows: "That it nowhere appears from the papers at present in our +possession, that they [the mother and grandmother of the Nabob of Oude] +excited any commotions previous to the imprisonment of Rajah Cheyt Sing, +and only armed themselves in consequence of that transaction; and, as it +is probable, that such a conduct proceeded from motives of +self-defence, under an apprehension that they themselves might likewise +be laid under unwarrantable contributions." And the said Court of +Directors, in giving their orders for the restoration of the jaghires, +or for the payment of an equivalent through the Resident, did give this +order for the restoration of their estates as aforesaid on condition +that it should appear from inquiry that they were not guilty of the +practices charged upon them by the said Hastings. Mr. Stables, one of +the Council-General, did, in execution of the said conditional order, +propose an inquiry leading to the ascertainment of the condition, and +did enter a minute as follows: "That the Court of Directors, by their +letters of the 14th of February, 1783, seem not to be satisfied that the +disaffection of the Begums to this government is sufficiently proved by +the evidence before them; I therefore think that the late and present +Resident, and commanding officer in the Vizier's country at the time, +should be called on to collect what further information they can on this +subject, in which the honor and dignity of this government is so +_materially concerned_, and that such information may be transmitted to +the Court of Directors." And he did further propose heads and modes of +inquiry suitable to the doubts expressed by the Court of Directors. But +the said Warren Hastings, who ought long before, on principles of +natural justice, to have instituted a diligent inquiry in support of his +so improbable a charge, and was bound, even for his own honor, as well +as for the satisfaction of the Court of Directors, to take a strong part +in the said inquiry, did set himself in opposition to the same, and did +carry with him a majority of Council against the said inquiry into the +justice of the cause, or any proposition for the relief of the +sufferers: asserting, "that the reasons of the Court of Directors, if +transmitted with the orders for the inquiry, will prove in effect an +order for collecting evidence _to the justification and acquittal of the +Begums, and not for the investigation of the truth of the charges which +have been preferred against them_." That Mr. Stables did not propose (as +in the said Hastings's minute is groundlessly supposed) that the reasons +of the Court of Directors should be transmitted with the orders for an +inquiry. But the apprehension of the said Warren Hastings of the +probable result of the inquiry proposed did strongly indicate his sense +of his own guilt and the innocence of the parties accused by him; and +if, by his construction, Mr. Stables's minute did indicate an inquiry +merely for the justification of the parties by him accused, (which +construction the motion did not bear,) it was no more than what the +obvious rules of justice would well support, his own proceedings having +been _ex parte_,--he having employed Sir Elijah Impey to take affidavits +against the women of high rank aforesaid, not only without any inquiry +made on their part, but without any communication to them of his +practice and proceeding against them; and equity did at least require +that they, with his own knowledge and by the subordinates of his own +government, should be allowed a public inquiry to acquit themselves of +the heavy offences with which they had been by him clandestinely +charged. + +LXXVII. That he, the said Hastings, in order to effectually stifle the +said inquiry, did enter on record a further minute, asserting that the +said inquiry would be productive "of evils greater than any which exist +in the consequences which have already taken place, _and which time has +almost obliterated_"; as also the following: "If I am rightly informed, +the Nabob Vizier and the Begums are on terms of mutual goodwill. It +would ill become this government to interpose its influence by any act +which might tend to revive their animosities,--and a very slight +occasion would be sufficient to effect it. They will instantly take fire +on such a declaration, proclaim the judgment of the Company in their +favor, demand a reparation of the acts which they will construe wrongs +with such a sentence warranting that construction, and either accept the +invitation to the proclaimed scandal of the Nabob Vizier, which _will +not add to the credit of our government_, or remain in his dominions, +but not under his authority, to add to his vexations and the disorders +of the country by continual intrigues and seditions. Enough already +exists to affect his peace and the quiet of his people. If we cannot +heal, let us not inflame the wounds _which have been inflicted_."--"If +the Begums think themselves aggrieved to such a degree as to justify +them in _an appeal to a foreign jurisdiction_, to appeal to it against a +man standing in the relation of son and grandson to them, _to appeal to +the justice of those who have been the abettors and instruments of their +imputed wrongs_, let us at least permit them to be the judges of their +own feelings, and prefer their complaints before we offer to redress +them. They will not need to be prompted. I hope I shall not depart from +the simplicity of official language in saying, the majesty of justice +ought to be approached with solicitation, not descend to provoke or +invite it, much less to debase itself by the suggestion of wrongs and +the promise of redress, with the denunciation of punishments before +trial, and even before accusation." + +LXXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in attempting to pass an act of +indemnity for his own crimes, and of oblivion for the sufferings of +others, supposing the latter _almost obliterated_ by time, did not only +mock and insult over the sufferings of the allies of the Company, but +did show an indecent contempt of the understandings of the Court of +Directors: because his violent attempts on the property and liberty of +the mother and grandmother of the ally aforesaid had not their first +commencement much above two years before that time, and had been +continued, without abatement or relaxation on his part, to the very time +of his minute; the Nabob having, by the instigation of his, the said +Hastings's, instrument, Hyder Beg Khan, not two months before the date +of the Consultation, been obliged a second time to break his faith with +relation to the estates of his mother, in the manner hereinbefore +recited. And the said Hastings did not and could not conceive that the +clearing the mother could revive any animosity between her and her son, +by whom she never had been accused. The said Hastings was also sensible +that the restoration of her landed estates, recommended by the Court of +Directors, could not produce any ill effect on the mind of the said son, +as it was "with almost unconquerable reluctance he had been persuaded to +deprive her of them," and at the time of his submitting to become an +instrument in this injustice, did "declare," both, to the Resident and +his ministers, "that it was an act of compulsion." + +LXXIX. That the said Hastings further, by insinuating that the women in +question would act amiss in appealing to _a foreign jurisdiction_ +against a son and grandson, could not forget that he himself, being that +foreign jurisdiction, (if any jurisdiction there was,) did himself +direct and order the injuries, did himself urge the calumnies, and did +himself cause to be taken and produced the unsatisfactory evidence by +which the women in question had suffered,--and that it was against him, +the said Hastings, and not against their son, that they had reason to +appeal. But the truth is, that the inquiry was moved for by Mr. Stables, +not on the prayer or appeal of the sufferers, but upon the ill +impression which the said Hastings's own conduct, merely and solely on +his own state of it, and on his own evidence in support of it, had made +on the Court of Directors, who were his lawful masters, and not suitors +in his court. And his arrogating to himself and his colleagues to be a +tribunal, and a tribunal not for the purpose of doing justice, but of +refusing inquiry, was an high offence and misdemeanor (particularly as +the due obedience to the Company's orders was eluded on the insolent +pretence "that the majesty of justice ought to be approached with +solicitation, and that it would debase itself by the suggestion of +wrongs and the promise of redress") in a Governor, whose business it is, +even of himself, and unsolicited, not only to promise, but to afford, +redress to all those who should suffer under the power of the Company, +even if their ignorance, or want of protection, or the imbecility of +their sex, or the fear of irritating persons in rank and station, should +prevent them from seeking it by formal solicitation. + +LXXX. That the said Warren Hastings, at the time when he pretended +ignorance of all solicitation for justice on the part of the women +aforesaid, and on that pretence did refuse the inquiry moved by his +colleague, Mr. Stables, had in all probability received from the +Resident, Middleton, or, if he had made the slightest inquiry from the +said Middleton, then at Calcutta, might immediately receive, an account +that _they did actually solicit_ the said Resident, through Major +Gilpin, for redress against his, the said Hastings's, calumnious +accusation, and the false testimony by which it was supported, and did +send the said complaint to the Resident, Middleton, by the said Gilpin, +to be transmitted to him, the said Hastings, and the Council, so early +as the 19th of October, 1782; and that she, the mother of the Nabob, +did afterwards send the same to the Resident, Bristow, asserting their +innocence, and accompanying the same with the copies of letters (the +originals of which they asserted were in their hands) from the chief +witnesses against them, Hannay and Gordon, which letters did directly +overturn the charges or insinuations in the affidavits made by them, and +that, instead of any accusation of an attempt upon them and their +parties by the instigation of the mother of the Nabob, or by her +ministers, they, the said Hannay and Gordon, did attribute their +preservation to them and to their services, and did, with strong +expressions of gratitude both to the mother of the Nabob and to her +ministers, fully acknowledge the same: which remonstrance of the mother +of the Nabob, and the letters of the said Hannay and Gordon, are annexed +to this charge; and the said Hastings is highly criminal for not having +examined into the facts alleged in the said remonstrance. + +LXXXI. That the violent proceedings of the said Warren Hastings did tend +to impress all the neighboring princes, some of whom were allied in +blood to the oppressed women of rank aforesaid, with an ill opinion of +the faith, honor, and decency of the British nation; and accordingly, on +the journey aforesaid made by the Nabob from Lucknow to Fyzabad, in +which the said Nabob did restore, in the manner before mentioned, the +confiscated estates of his mother and grandmother, and did afterwards +revoke his said grant, it appears that the said journey did cause a +general alarm (the worst motives obtaining the most easy credit with +regard to any future proceeding, on account of the foregone acts) and +excited great indignation among the ruling persons of the adjacent +country, insomuch that Major Brown, agent to the said Warren Hastings at +the court of the King Shah Allum at Delhi, did write a remonstrance +therein to Mr. Bristow, Resident at Oude, as follows. + +"The evening of the 7th, at a conference I had with Mirza Shaffee Khan, +he introduced a subject, respecting the Nabob Vizier, which, however it +may be disagreeable for you to know, and consequently for me to +communicate, I am under a necessity of laying before you. He told me he +had received information from Lucknow, that, by the advice of Hyder Beg +Khan, the Vizier had determined to bring his grandmother, the widow of +Sufdar Jung, from Fyzabad to Lucknow, with a view of getting a further +sum of money from her, by seizing on her eunuchs, digging up the +apartments of her house at Fyzabad, and putting her own person under +restraint. This, he said, he knew was not an act of our government, but +the mere advice of Hyder Beg Khan, to which the Vizier had been induced +to attend. He added, that the old Begum had resolved rather to put +herself to death than submit to the disgrace intended to be put upon +her; that, if such a circumstance should happen, there is _not a man in +Hindostan who will attribute the act to the Vizier [Nabob of Oude], but +every one will fix the odium on the English, who might easily, by the +influence they so largely exercise in their own concerns there_, have +prevented such unnatural conduct in the Vizier. He therefore called upon +me, as the English representative in this quarter, to inform you of +this, that you may prevent a step which will destroy all confidence in +the English nation throughout Hindostan, and excite the bitterest +resentment in all those who by blood are connected with the house of +Sufdar Jung. He concluded by saying, that, 'if the Vizier so little +regarded his family and personal honor, or his natural duty, as to wish +to disgrace his father's mother for a sum of money, let him plunder her +of all she has, but let him send her safe up to Delhi or Agra, and, poor +as I am, I will furnish subsistence for her, which she shall possess +with safety and honor, though it cannot be adequate to her rank.' + +"This, Sir, is a most exact detail of the conversation (as far as +related to that affair) on the part of Mirza Shaffee Khan. On my part I +could only say, that I imagined the affair was misrepresented, and that +I should write as he requested. Let me therefore request that you will +enable me to answer in a more effectual manner any further questions on +this subject. + +LXXXII. "As Mirza Shaffee's grandfather was brother to Sufdar Jung, +there can be no doubt of what his declaration means; and if this measure +of dismissing the old Begum should be persisted in, I should not, from +the state of affairs, and the character of the Amir ul Omrah, be +surprised at some immediate and violent resolution being adopted by +him." + +LXXXIII. That Mirza Shaffee, mentioned in this correspondence, (who has +since been murdered,) was of near kindred to the lady in question, +(grandmother to the Nabob,) was resident in a province immediately +adjoining to the province of Oude, and, from proximity of situation and +nearness of connection, was likely to have any intelligence concerning +his female relations from the best authority. + +LXXXIV. That the Resident, Bristow, on receiving this letter, did apply +to the said Hyder Beg Khan for an explanation of the Nabob's intentions, +who denied that the Nabob intended more than a visit of duty and +ceremony: which, whatever his dispositions might have been, and probably +were, towards his own mother, was not altogether probable, as it was +well known that he was on very bad terms with the mother of his father, +and it appears that intentions of a similar nature had been before +manifested even with regard to his own mother, and therefore obtained +the more easy credit concerning the other woman of high rank aforesaid, +especially as the evil designs of the said Hyder Beg were abundantly +known, and that the said Hastings, upon whom he did wholly depend, +continued to recommend "the most effectual, that is, the most violent, +means for the recovery of the small remains of his extorted demand." But +although it does not appear that the Resident did give credit to the +said report, yet the effect of the same on the minds of the neighboring +princes did make it proper and necessary to direct a strict inquiry into +the same, which was not done; and it does not appear that any further +inquiry was made into the true motives for this projected journey to +Fyzabad, nor into the proceedings of Hyder Beg Khan, although the said +Warren Hastings well knew that all the acts of the Nabob and his +principal ministers were constantly attributed to him, and that it was +known that secret agents, as well as the Company's regular agent, were +employed by him at Lucknow and other places. + +LXXXV. That the said Hastings, who did, on pretence of the majesty of +justice, refuse to inquire into the charges made upon the female +parents of the Nabob of Oude, in justification of the violence offered +to them, did voluntarily and of his own accord make himself an accuser +of the Resident, Middleton, for the want of a literal execution of his +orders in the plans of extortion and rapine aforesaid: the criminal +nature, spirit, and tendency of the said proceedings, for the defective +execution of which he brought the said charge, appearing in the defence +or apology made by Mr. Middleton, the Resident, for his temporary and +short forbearances. + +LXXXVI. "It could not, I flatter myself, be termed a long or +unwarrantable delay [two days], when the importance of the business, and +the peculiar embarrassments attending the prosecution of it to its +desired end, are considered. The Nabob was _son_ to the Begum whom we +were to proceed against: a son against a mother must at least _save +appearances in his mode of proceeding_. The produce of his negotiation +was to be received by the Company. Receiving a benefit, accompanying the +Nabob, withdrawing their protection, were circumstances sufficient to +_mark the English as the principal movers in this business_. At a court +where no opportunity is lost to throw odium on us, so favorable an +occasion was not missed to persuade the Nabob that we instigated him to +dishonor his family for our benefit. The impressions made by these +suggestions constantly retarded the progress, and more than once +actually broke off the business: which rendered the utmost caution on my +part necessary, especially as I had no assistance to expect from the +ministers, who could not openly move in the business. In the East, it is +well known that no man either by himself or his troops, can enter the +walls of a zenanah, scarcely in the case of acting against an open +enemy, much less of _an ally,--an ally acting against his own mother_. +The outer walls, and the Begum's agents, were all that were liable to +immediate attack: they were dealt with, and successfully, as the event +proved."--He had before observed to Mr. Hastings, in his correspondence, +what Mr. Hastings well knew to be true, "that no farther rigor than that +he had exerted could be used against females in that country; where +force could be employed, it was not spared;--that the place of +concealment was only known to the chief eunuchs, who could not be drawn +out of the women's apartments, where they had taken refuge, and from +which, if an attempt had been made to storm them, they might escape; and +the secret of the money being known only to them, it was necessary to +get their persons into his hands, which could be obtained by negotiation +only."--The Resident concluded his defence by declaring his "hope, that, +if the main object of his orders was fulfilled, he should be no longer +held criminal for a deviation from the precise letter of them." + +LXXXVII. That the said Warren Hastings did enter a reply to this answer, +in support of his criminal charge, continuing to insist "that his orders +ought to have been literally obeyed," although he did not deny that the +above difficulties occurred, and the above consequences must have been +the result,--and though the reports of the military officers charged +with the execution of his commission confirmed the moral impossibility, +as well as inutility in point of profit, of forcing a son to greater +violence and rigor against his mother. + +LXXXVIII. That the said Hastings, after all the acts aforesaid, did +presume to declare on record, in his minute of the 23d September, 1788, +"that, whatever may happen of the events which he dreads in the train of +affairs now subsisting, he shall at least receive this consolation under +them, that he used his utmost exertions to prevent them, and that in the +annals of the nations of India which have been subjected to the British +dominions _HE shall not be remembered among their oppressors_." And +speaking of certain alleged indignities offered to the Nabob of Oude, +and certain alleged suspicions of his authority with regard to the +management of his household, he, the said Hastings, did, in the said +minute, endeavor to excite the spirit of the British nation, severely +animadverting on such offences, making use of the following terms: "If +there be a spark of generous virtue in the breasts of any of my +countrymen who shall be the readers of this compilation, this letter" (a +letter of complaint from the Nabob) "shall stand for an instrument to +awaken it to the call of vengeance against so flagitious an abuse of +authority and reproach to the British name." + + +_From her Excellency the Bhow Begum to Mr. Bristow, Resident at the +Vizier's Court._ + +There is no necessity to write to you by way of information a detail of +my sufferings. From common report, and the intelligence of those who are +about you, the account of them will have reached your ears. I will here +relate a part of them. + +After the death of Sujah Dowlah, most of his ungrateful servants were +constantly laboring to gratify their enmity; but finding, from the firm +and sincere friendship which subsisted between me and the English, that +the accomplishment of their purposes was frustrated, they formed the +design of occasioning a breach in that alliance, to insure their own +success. I must acquaint you that my son Asoph ul Dowlah had formerly +threatened to seize my jaghire; but, upon producing the treaty signed by +you, and showing it to Mr. Middleton, he interfered, and prevented the +impending evil. The conspiration now framed an accusation against me of +a conduct which I had never conceived even in idea, of rendering +assistance to Rajah Cheyt Sing. The particulars are as follow. My son +Asoph ul Dowlah and his ministers, with troops and a train of artillery, +accompanied by Mr. Middleton, on the 16th of the month of Mohurum, +arrived at Fyzabad, and made a demand of a crore of rupees. As my +inability to pay so vast a sum was manifest, I produced the treaty _you_ +signed and gave me, but to no effect: their hearts were determined upon +violence. I offered my son Asoph ul Dowlah, whose will is dearer to me +than all my riches, or even life itself, whatever money and goods I was +possessed of: but an amicable adjustment seemed not worth accepting: he +demanded the delivering up the fort, and the recall of the troops that +were stationed for the preserving the peace of the city. To me tumult +and discord appeared unnecessary. I gave up these points, upon which +they seized my head eunuchs, Jewar Ali Khan and Behar Ali Khan, and sent +them to Mr. Middleton, after having obliged them to sign a bond for +sixty lacs of rupees; they were thrown into prison, with fetters about +their feet, and denied food and water. I, who had never, even in my +dreams, experienced such an oppression, gave up all I had to preserve +my honor and dignity: but this would not satisfy their demands: they +charged me with a rupee and a half batta upon each mohur, and on this +account laid claims upon me to the amount of six lacs some thousand +rupees, and sent Major Gilpin to exact the payment. Major Gilpin, +according to orders, at first was importunate; but being a man of +experience, and of a benevolent disposition, when he was convinced of my +want of means, he changed his conduct, and was willing to apply to the +shroffs and bankers to lend me the money. But with the loss of my +jaghire my credit was sunk; I could not raise the sum. At last, feeling +my helpless situation, I collected my wardrobe and furniture, to the +amount of about three lacs of rupees, besides fifty thousand rupees +which I borrowed from one place or other, and sent Major Gilpin with it +to Lucknow. My sufferings did not terminate here. The disturbances of +Colonel Hannay and Mr. Gordon were made a pretence for seizing my +jaghire. The state of the matter is this. When Colonel Hannay was by Mr. +Hastings ordered to march to Benares, during the troubles of Cheyt Sing, +the Colonel, _who had plundered the whole country, was incapable of +proceeding, from the union of thousands of zemindars, who had seized +this favorable opportunity_: they harassed Mr. Gordon near Junivard +[Juanpore?], and the zemindars of that place and Acberpore opposed his +march from thence, till he arrived near Taunda. As the Taunda nullah, +from its overflowing, was difficult to cross without a boat, Mr. Gordon +sent to the Phousdar to supply him. He replied, the boats were all in +the river, but would, according to orders, assist him as soon as +possible. Mr. Gordon's situation would not admit of his waiting: he +forded the nullah upon his elephant, and was hospitably entertained and +protected by the Phousdar for six days. In the mean time a letter was +received by me from Colonel Hannay, desiring me to escort Mr. Gordon to +Fyzabad. As my friendship for the English was always sincere, I readily +complied, and sent some companies of nejeebs to escort Mr. Gordon, and +all his effects, to Fyzabad, where, having provided for his +entertainment, I effected his junction with Colonel Hannay. The letters +of thanks I received from both these gentlemen upon this occasion are +still in my possession, copies of which I gave in charge to Major +Gilpin, to be delivered to Mr. Middleton, that he might forward them to +the Governor-General. To be brief, those who have loaded me with +accusations are now clearly convicted of falsehood. But is it not +extraordinary, notwithstanding the justness of my cause, that nobody +relieves my misfortunes? Why did Major Gilpin return without effect? + +My prayers have been constantly offered to Heaven for your arrival; +report has announced it; for which reason I have taken up the pen, and +request you will not place implicit confidence in my accusers, but, +weighing in the scale of justice their falsehoods and my +representations, you will exert your influence in putting a period to +the misfortunes with which I am overwhelmed. + + +_Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khan and Behar Ali +Khan._ + +I had the pleasure to receive your friendly letter, fraught with +benevolence; and whatever favors you, my friends, have been pleased to +confer respecting Mr. Gordon afforded me the greatest pleasure. + +Placing a firm reliance on your friendship, I am in expectation that the +aforesaid gentleman, with his baggage, will arrive at Fyzabad in safety, +that the same may oblige and afford satisfaction to me. + +A letter from Mr. Gordon is inclosed to you. I am in expectation of its +being inclosed in a cover to the Aumil of Taunda, to the end that the +Aumil may forward it to the above-mentioned gentleman, and procure his +reply. Whenever the answer arrives, let it be delivered to Hoolas Roy, +who will forward it to me. + +Always rejoice me by a few lines respecting your health. [Continue to +honor me with your correspondence.] + + +_Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar and Behar Ali Khan._ + +Khan Saib, my indulgent friends, remain under the protection of God! + +Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, accompanied by an honorary +letter from the Begum Saib, of exalted dignity, and inclosing a letter +from Mr. Gordon, sent through your hircarrahs, obliged and rejoiced me. + +With respect to what you communicate regarding your not having received +an answer to your friendly epistle, I became perfectly astonished, as a +reply was written from Mohadree. It may be owing to the danger of the +road that it never arrived,--not to the smallest neglect on my side [or +of mine]. + +I now send two letters to you,--one by the Dawk people, and the second +by one of my hircarrahs, (who will present them to you,) which you +certainly will receive. + +I am extremely well contented and pleased with the friendship you have +shown. + +You wrote me to remain perfectly easy concerning Mr. Gordon. Verily, +from the kindness of you, my indulgent friends, my heart is quite easy. +You also observed and mentioned, that, as Mr. Gordon's coming with those +attached to him [probably his sepoys and others] might be attended with +difficulty, if I approved, he should be invited alone to Fyzabad. My +friends, I place my expectation entirely upon your friendships, and +leave it to you to adopt the manner in which the said gentleman may +arrive in security, without molestation, at Fyzabad; but at the same +time let the plan be so managed that it may not come to the knowledge of +any zemindars: in this case you are men of discernment. However, he is +to come to Fyzabad: extend your assistance and endeavors. + +It is probable that the Begum Saib, of high dignity, has received +authentic intelligence from the camp at Benares. Favor me with the +contents or purport. + +From Mr. Gordon's letter I understand that Mirza Imaum Buksh, whom you +dispatched thither [Taunda], has and still continues to pay great +attention to that gentleman, which affords me great pleasure. + +An answer to the Begum's letter is to be presented. I also send a letter +for Mr. Gordon, which please to forward. + + +_An Address from Colonel Hannay to the Begum._ + +Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, &c., whom God preserve! + +Your exalting letter, fraught with grace and benevolence, that through +your unbounded generosity and goodness was sent through grace and favor, +I had the honor to receive in a fortunate moment, and whatever you were +pleased to write respecting Mr. Gordon,--"that, as at this time the +short-sighted and deluded ryots had carried their disturbances and +ravages beyond all bounds, Mr. Gordon's coming with his whole people [or +adherents] might be attended with difficulty, and therefore, if I chose, +he should be invited to come alone." Now, as your Highness is the best +judge, your faithful servant reposeth his most unbounded hopes and +expectation upon your Highness, that the aforesaid Mr. Gordon may arrive +at Fyzabad without any apprehension or danger. I shall be then extremely +honored and obliged. + +Considering me in the light of a firm and faithful servant, continue to +honor and exalt me by your letters. + +What further can I say? + + +_A Copy of an Address from Mr. Gordon to the Begum._ + +Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, whom God preserve! + +After presenting the usual professions of servitude, &c., in the +customary manner, my address is presented. + +Your gracious letter, in answer to the petition of your servant from +Goondah, exalted me. From the contents I became unspeakably impressed +with the honor it conferred. May the Almighty protect that royal purity, +and bestow happiness, increase of wealth, and prosperity! + +The welfare of your servant is entirely owing to your favor and +benevolence. A few days have elapsed since I arrived at Goondah with the +Colonel Saib. + +This is presented for your Highness's information. I cherish hopes from +your generosity, that, considering me in the light of one of your +servants, you will always continue to exalt and honor me with your +gracious letters. + +May the sun of prosperity continually shine! + + +_Copy of a Letter to Mahomed Jewar Ali Khan and Behar Ali Khan, from Mr. +Gordon._ + + Sirs, my indulgent friends, + Remain under, &c., &c. + +After compliments. I have the pleasure to acquaint you that yesterday +having taken leave of you, I passed the night at Noorgunge, and next +morning, about ten or eleven o'clock, through your favor and +benevolence, arrived safe at Goondah. Mir Aboo Buksh, zemindar, and Mir +Rustum Ali, accompanied me. + +To what extent can I prolong the praises of you, my beneficent friends? +May the Supreme Being, for this benign, compassionate, humane action, +have you in His keeping, and increase your prosperity, and speedily +grant me the pleasure of an interview! Until which time continue to +favor me with friendly letters, and oblige me by any commands in my +power to execute. + +May your wishes be ever crowned with success! + + My compliments, &c., &c., &c. + + +_Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khan and Behar Ali +Khan._ + + Khan Saib, my indulgent friends, + +Remain under the protection of the Supreme Being! + +After compliments, and signifying my earnest desire of an interview, I +address you. + +Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, I had the pleasure to +receive in a propitious hour, and your inexpressible kindness in sending +for Mir Nassar Ali with a force to Taunda, for the purpose of conducting +Mr. Gordon, with all his baggage, who is now arrived at Fyzabad. + +This event has afforded me the most excessive pleasure and satisfaction. +May the Omnipotence preserve you, my steadfast, firm friends! The pen of +friendship itself cannot sufficiently express your generosity and +benevolence, and that of the Begum of high dignity, who so graciously +has interested herself in this matter. Inclosed is an address for her, +which please to forward. I hope from your friendship, until we meet, you +will continue to honor me with an account of your health and welfare. +What further can I write? + + +V.--REVOLUTIONS IN FURRUCKABAD. + +I. That a prince called Ahmed Khan was of a family amongst the most +distinguished in Hindostan, and of a nation famous through that empire +for its valor in acquiring, and its policy and prudence in well +governing the territories it had acquired, called the Patans, or +Afghans, of which the Rohillas were a branch. The said Ahmed Khan had +fixed his residence in the city of Furruckabad, and in the first wars +of this nation in India the said Ahmed Khan attached himself to the +Company against Sujah Dowlah, then an enemy, now a dependant on that +Company. Ahmed Khan, towards the close of his life, was dispossessed of +a large part of his dominions by the prevalence of the Mahratta power; +but his son, a minor, succeeded to his pretensions, and to the remainder +of his dominions. The Mahrattas were expelled by Sujah ul Dowlah, the +late Vizier, who, finding a want of the services of the son and +successor of Ahmed Khan, called Muzuffer Jung, did not only guaranty him +in the possession of what he then actually held, but engaged to restore +all the other territories which had been occupied by the Mahrattas; and +this was confirmed by repeated treaties and solemn oaths, by the late +Vizier and by the present. But neither the late nor the present Vizier +fulfilled their engagements, or observed their oaths: the former having +withheld what he had stipulated to restore; and the latter not only +subjecting him to a tribute, instead of restoring him to what his father +had unjustly withheld, but having made a further invasion by depriving +him of fifteen of his districts, levying the tribute of the whole on the +little that remained, and putting the small remains of his territory +under a sequestrator or collector appointed by Almas Ali Khan, who did +grievously afflict and oppress the prince and territory aforesaid. + +That the hardships of his case being frequently represented to Warren +Hastings, Esquire, he did suggest a doubt whether "that little ought to +be still subject to tribute," indicating that the said tribute might be +hard and inequitable,--but, whatever its justice might have been, that, +"from the _earliest period_ of our connection with the present Nabob of +Oude, it had invariably continued a part of the funds assigned by his +Excellency as a provision for the liquidation of the several public +demands of _this government_ [Calcutta] upon him; and in consequence of +the powers the board deemed it expedient to vest in the Resident at his +court for the collection of the Company's assignments, a _sezauwil_ [a +sequestrator] has always been stationed to enforce by every means in his +power the payment of the tribute." And the said tribute was, in +consequence of this arrangement, not paid to the Nabob, but to the +British Resident at Oude; and the same being therefore under the +direction and for the sole use of the Company, and indeed the prince +himself wholly dependent, the representatives of the said Company were +responsible for the protection of the prince, and for the good +government of the country. + +II. That the said "Warren Hastings did, on the 22d of May, 1780, +represent to the board of Calcutta the condition of the said country in +the following manner. + +"To the total want of all order, regularity, or _authority_ in his +government [the Furruckabad government], among _other obvious causes_, +it may, no doubt, be owing, that the country of Furruckabad is become +_an almost 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 the Nabob himself, though in possession of a tract of +country which with only common care is notoriously capable of yielding +an annual revenue of between thirty and forty lacs [three or four +hundred thousand pounds], with _no military establishment to maintain, +scarcely commanding the means of bare subsistence_." And the said Warren +Hastings, taking into consideration the said state of the country and +its prince, and that the latter had "_preferred frequent complaints_" +(which complaints the said Hastings to that time did not lay before the +board, as his duty required) "_of the hardships and indignities_ to +which he is subjected by the conduct of the sezauwil [sequestrator] +stationed in the country for the purpose of levying the annual tribute +which he is bound by treaty to pay to the Subah of Oude," he, the said +Warren Hastings, did declare himself "extremely desirous, as well from +motives of _common justice_ as _due_ regard to _the rank which that +chief holds among the princes of Hindostan_, of affording him relief." +And he, the said Warren Hastings, as the means of the said relief, did, +with the consent of the board, order the said native sequestrator to be +removed, and an English Resident, a servant of the Company, to be +appointed in his room, declaring "he understood a local interference to +be _indispensably necessary_ for realizing the Vizier's just demands." + +III. That the said native sequestrator being withdrawn, and a Resident +appointed, no complaint whatever concerning the collection of the +revenue, or of any indignities offered to the prince of the country or +oppression of his subjects by the said Resident, was made to the +Superior Council at Calcutta; yet the said Warren Hastings did, +nevertheless, in a certain paper, purporting to be a treaty made at +Chunar with the Nabob of Oude, on the 19th September, 1781, at the +request of the said Nabob, consent to an article therein, "That no +English Resident be appointed to Furruckabad, and that the present be +recalled." And the said Warren Hastings, knowing that the Nabob of Oude +was ill-affected towards the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and that he was +already supposed to have oppressed him, did justify his conduct on the +principles and in the words following: "That, if the Nabob Muzuffer Jung +_must_ endure oppression, (_and I dare not at this time propose his +total relief_,) it concerns the reputation of our government to remove +_our participation in it_." And the said Warren Hastings making, +recording, and acting upon the first of the said false and inhuman +suppositions, most scandalous to this nation, namely, that princes +paying money wholly for the use of the Company, and directly to its +agent, for the maintenance of British troops, by whose force and power +the said revenue was in effect collected, must of necessity endure +oppression, and that our government at any time _dare_ not propose their +_total_ relief, was an high offence and misdemeanor in the said Warren +Hastings, and the rather, because in the said treaty, as well as before +and after, the said Hastings, who pretended not to dare to relieve those +oppressed by the Nabob of Oude, did assume a complete authority over the +said Nabob himself, and did dare to oppress him. + +IV. That the second principle assumed by the said Warren Hastings, as +ground for voluntarily abandoning the protection of those whom he had +before undertaken to relieve, _on the sole strength of his own +authority_, and in full confidence of the lawful foundation thereof, and +for delivering over the persons so taken into protection, under false +names and pretended descriptions, to known oppression, asserting that +the reputation of the Company was saved by removing this apparent +participation, when the new as well as the old arrangements were truly +and substantially acts of the British government, was disingenuous, +deceitful, and used to cover unjustifiable designs: since the said +Warren Hastings well knew that all oppressions exercised by the Nabob of +Oude were solely, and in this instance particularly, upheld by British +force, and were imputed to this nation; and because he himself, in not +more than three days after the execution of this treaty, and in virtue +thereof, did direct the British Resident at Oude, in orders _to which he +required his most implicit obedience_, "that the ministers [the Nabob of +Oude's ministers] are to choose _all_ aumils and collectors of revenue +with your concurrence." And the dishonor to the Company, in thus +deceitfully concurring in oppression, which they were able and were +bound to prevent, is much aggravated by the said Warren Hastings's +receiving from the person to whose oppression he had delivered the said +prince, as a private gift or donation to himself and for his own use, a +sum of money amounting to one hundred thousand pounds and upwards, which +might give just ground of suspicion that the said gift from the +oppressor to the person surrendering the person injured to his mercy +might have had some share in the said criminal transaction. + +V. That the said Warren Hastings did (in the paper justifying the said +surrender of the prince put by himself under the protection of the East +India Company) assert, "that it was a fact, that the Nabob Muzuffer +Jung [the Nabob of Furruckabad] is equally urgent with the Nabob Vizier +for the removal of a Resident," without producing, as he ought to have +done, any document to prove his improbable assertion, namely, his +assertion that the oppressed prince did apply to his known enemy and +oppressor, the Nabob of Oude, (who, if he would, was not able to relieve +him against the will of the English government,) rather than to that +English government, which he must have conceived to be more impartial, +to which he had made his former complaint, and which was alone able to +relieve him. + +VI. That the said Warren Hastings, in the said writing, did further +convey an insinuation of an ambiguous, but, on any construction, of a +suspicious and dangerous import, viz.: "It is a fact, that Mr. Shee's +[the Resident's] authority over the territory of Furruckabad is in +itself as much subversive of that [_of the lawful rulers_] as that of +the Vizier's aumil [collector] ever was, and is the more _oppressive_ as +the power from whence it is derived is greater." The said assertion +proceeds upon a supposition of the illegality both of the Nabob's and +the Company's government; all consideration of the _title_ to authority +being, therefore, on that supposition, put out of the question, and the +whole turning only upon the _exercise_ of authority, the said Hastings's +suggestion, that the oppression of government must be in proportion to +its power, is the result of a false and dangerous principle, and such as +it is criminal for any person intrusted with the lives and fortunes of +men to entertain, much more, publicly to profess as a rule of action, as +the same hath a direct tendency to make the new and powerful government +of this kingdom in India dreadful to the natives and odious to the +world. But if the said Warren Hastings did mean thereby indirectly to +insinuate that oppressions had been actually exercised under the British +authority, he was bound to inquire into these oppressions, and to +animadvert on the person guilty of the same, if proof thereof could be +had,--and the more, as the authority was given by _himself_, and the +person exercising it was by himself also named. And the said Warren +Hastings did on another occasion assert that "whether they were well or +ill-founded he never had an opportunity to ascertain." But it is not +true that the said Hastings did or could want such opportunity: the fact +being, that the said Warren Hastings did never cause any inquiry to be +made into any supposed abuses during the said Residency, but did give a +pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year to the said late Resident as a +compensation to him for an injury received, and did afterwards promote +the Resident, as a faithful servant of the Company, (and nothing appears +to show him otherwise,) to a judicial office of high trust,--thereby +taking away all credit from any grounds asserted or insinuated by the +said Hastings for delivering the said Nabob of Furruckabad to the hand +of a known enemy and oppressor, who had already, contrary to repeated +treaties, deprived him of a large part of his territories. + +VII. That, on the said Warren Hastings's representation of the +transaction aforesaid to the Court of Directors, they did heavily and +justly censure the said Warren Hastings for the same, and did convey +their censure to him, recommending relief to the suffering prince, but +without any order for sending a new Resident: being, as it may be +supposed, prevented from taking that step by the faith of the treaty +made at Chunar. + +VIII. That all the oppressions foreseen by him, the said Warren +Hastings, when he made the article aforesaid in the treaty of Chunar, +did actually happen: for, immediately on the removal of the British +Resident, the country of Furruckabad was subjected to the discretion of +a certain native manager of revenue, called Almas Ali Khan, who did +impoverish and oppress the country and insult the prince, and did +deprive him of all subsistence from his own estates,--taking from him +even his gardens and the tombs of his ancestors, and the funds for +maintaining the same. + +IX. That, on complaint of those proceedings, the said Hastings did of +his own authority, and without communicating with his Council, direct +the native collector aforesaid to be removed, and the territory of +Furruckabad to be left to the sole management of its natural prince. But +in a short time the said Hastings, pretending to receive many complaints +purporting that the tribute to the Nabob remained wholly unpaid, and the +agent to the prince of Furruckabad at the Presidency, and afterwards +chief manager to the prince aforesaid, having, as the said Warren +Hastings saith, "had the insolence to propagate a report that the +_interference_ to which his master owed the power he then enjoyed was +_purchased_ through him," he, the said Hastings, did again (but, as +before, without the Council) "withdraw his protection and interference +altogether," on or about the month of August, 1782, and did signify his +resolution, through the Resident, Middleton, to the Nabob Vizier. But +the said Hastings asserts that "the consequence of this his own second +dereliction of the prince of Furruckabad was _an aggravated renewal of +the severities_ exercised against his government, and the reappointment +of a sezauwil, with powers delegated or assumed, to the _utter +extinction_ of the rights of Muzuffer Jung, and actually depriving him +of the means of subsistence." And the said Hastings did receive, on the +16th of February, 1783, from the prince aforesaid, a bitter complaint of +the same to the following tenor. + +"The miseries which have fallen upon my country, and the poverty and +distress which have been heaped upon me by the reappointment of the +sezauwil, are such, that a relation of them would, I am convinced, +excite the strongest feelings of compassion in your breast. But it is +impossible to relate them: on one side, my country ruined and +uncultivated to a degree of desolation which exceeds all description; on +the other, my domestic concerns and connections involved _in such a +state of distress and horror, that even the relations, the children, and +the wives of my father are starving in want of daily bread, and are on +the point of flying voluntary exiles from their country and from each +other_." + +But although the said Hastings did, on the 16th of February, receive and +admit the justice of the said complaint, and did not deny the urgent +necessity of redress, the said letter containing the following sentence, +"If there should be _any delay_ in your acceptance of this proposal, _my +existence and the existence of my family will become difficult and +doubtful_,"--and although he did admit the interference to be the more +urgently demanded, "as the services of the English troops have been +added to enforce the authority of the sezauwil,"--and although he admits +also, that, even before that time, similar complaints and applications +had been made,--yet he did withhold the said letter of complaint, a +minute of which he asserts he had, at or about that time, prepared for +the relief of the sufferer, from the Board of Council, and did not so +much as propose anything relative to the same for seven months after, +viz., until the 6th of October, 1783: the said letter and minute being, +as he asserts, "_withheld_, from causes _not necessary to mention_, from +presentation." By which means the said country and prince did suffer a +long continuance of unnecessary hardship, from which the said Hastings +confessed it was his duty to relieve them, and that a British Resident +was necessary at Furruckabad, "from a sense of submission to the +_implied_ orders of the Court of Directors in their letter of 1783, +lately received, added to _the conviction I have LONG SINCE_ entertained +_of the necessity of such an appointment for the preservation of our +national credit_, and the means of rescuing an ancient and respectable +family from ruin." + +And the said Warren Hastings did at length perform what he thought had +_long since_ been necessary; and in contradiction to his engagements +with the Nabob in the treaty of Chunar, and against his strong +remonstrances, urging his humiliation from this measure, and the faith +of the agreement, and against his own former declaration that it +concerned the reputation of our government to remove our participation +in the oppressions which he, the said Hastings, supposed the prince of +Furruckabad must undergo, did once more recommend to the Council a +British Resident at Furruckabad, and the withdrawing the native +sezauwil: no course being left to the said Hastings to take which was +not a violation of some engagement, and a contradiction to some +principle of justice and policy by him deliberately advanced and entered +on record. + +That Mr. Willes being appointed Resident, and having arrived at +Furruckabad on the 25th of February, 1784, with instructions to inquire +minutely into the state of the country and the ruling family, he, the +said Resident, Willes, in obedience thereto, did fully explain to him, +the Governor-General, the said Warren Hastings, (he being then out of +the Company's provinces, at Lucknow, on a delegation which respected +this very country, as part of the dependencies of Oude,) the situation +of the province of Furruckabad; but the said Warren Hastings did not +take or recommend any measure whatsoever for the relief thereof in +consequence of the said representation, nor even communicate to the +Council-General the said representation; and it was not until the 28th +of June, 1783 [1785?], that is, sixteen months from the arrival of the +Resident at his station, that anything was laid before the board +relative to the regulation or relief of the distressed country +aforesaid, and that not from the said Warren Hastings, but from other +members of the Council: which purposed neglect of duty, joined to the +preceding wilful delay of seven months in proposing the said relief +originally, caused near two years' delay. And the said Warren Hastings +is further culpable in not communicating to the Council Board the order +which he had, of his own authority, and without any powers from them, +given to the said Resident, Willes, and did thereby prevent them from +taking such steps as might counteract the ill effects of the said order; +which order purported, that the said Willes was not to interfere with +the Nabob of Furruckabad's government, for the regulation of which he +was in effect appointed to the Residency,--declaring as follows: "I rely +much on your moderation and good judgment, which I hope will enable you +to regulate your conduct towards the Nabob and his _servants_ in such a +manner, that, _without interfering in the executive part of his +government_, you may render him essential service by _your council and +advice_." And this restriction the said Hastings did impose, which +totally frustrated the purpose of the Resident's mission, though he well +knew, and had frequently stated, the extreme imbecility and weakness of +the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and his subjection to unworthy servants; +and in the Minute of Consultation upon which he founded the appointment +did state the Nabob of Furruckabad "as a weak and unexperienced young +man, who had abandoned himself entirely to the discretion of his +servants, and the restoration of his independence was followed by a +_total_ breach of the engagements he had promised to fulfil, attended by +pointed instances of contumacy and disrespect"; and in the said minute +the said Hastings adds, (as before mentioned,) his principal servant and +manager had propagated a report that the "_interference_" (namely, his, +the said Hastings's, interference) "to which his master owed the power +he then enjoyed was purchased by him," the principal servant aforesaid: +yet he, the said Hastings, who had assigned on record the character of +the said Nabob, and the conduct of his servants, and the aforesaid +report of his principal servant, so highly dishonorable to him, the said +Hastings, as reasons for taking away the independency of the Nabob of +Furruckabad, and the subjecting him to the oppression of the Nabob of +Oude's officer, Almas Ali, did again himself establish the pretended +independence of the said prince of Furruckabad, and the real +independence of his corrupt and perfidious servants, not against the +Nabob of Oude, but against a British Resident appointed by himself ("as +a character eminently qualified for such a charge") for the correction +of those evils, and for rendering the prince aforesaid an useful ally to +the Company, and restoring his dominions to order and plenty. + +That the said Hastings did not only disable the Resident at Furruckabad +by his said prohibitory letter, but did render his very remaining at all +in that station perfectly precarious by a subsequent letter, rendering +him liable to dismission by the Vizier,--thereby changing the tenure of +the Resident's office, and changing him from a minister of the Company, +dependent on the Governor-General and Council, to a dependant upon an +unresponsible power,--in this also acting without the Council, and by +his own usurped authority: and accordingly the said Resident did +declare, in his letter of the 24th of April, 1785, "that the situation +of the country was _more_ distressful than when he [the prince of +Furruckabad] addressed himself for relief in 1783, and that he was sorry +to say that his appointment at Furruckabad was of no use"; that, though +the old tribute could not be paid, owing to famine and other causes, it +was increased by a new imposition, making the whole equal the entire +_gross_ produce of the revenue; that therefore there will not be +"_anything for the subsistence of the Nabob and family_." And the uncles +of the said Nabob of Furruckabad, the brethren of the late Ahmed Khan, +(who had rendered important services to the Company,) and their +children, in a petition to the Resident, represented that soon after the +succession of Muzuffer Jung "their misery commenced. The jaghires [lands +and estates] on which they subsisted were disallowed. Our distress is +great: we have neither clothes nor food. Though we felt hurt at the idea +of explaining our situation, yet, could we have found a mode of +conveyance, we would have proceeded to Calcutta for redress. The +scarcity of grain this season is an additional misfortune. With +difficulty we support life. From your presence without the provinces we +expect relief. It is not the custom of the Company to deprive the +zemindars and jaghiredars of the means of subsistence. To your justice +we look up." + +This being the situation of the person and family of the Nabob of +Furruckabad and his nearest relations, the state of the country and its +capital, prevented from all relief by the said Warren Hastings, is +described in the following words by the Resident, Willes. + +"Almas Ali has taken the purgunnah of Marara at a very inadequate rent, +and his aumils have seized many adjacent villages: the purgunnahs of +Cocutmow and Souje are constantly plundered by his people. The +collection of the ghauts near Futtyghur has been seized by the Vizier's +_cutwal_, and the zemindars in four purgunnahs are so refractory as to +have fortified themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments +of revenue. This is the state of the purgunnahs. _And Furruckabad, +which was once the seat of great opulence and trade, is now daily +deserted by its inhabitants, its walls mouldering away, without police, +without protection, exposed to the depredations of a banditti of two or +three hundred robbers, who, night after night, enter it for plunder, +murdering all who oppose them. The ruin that has overtaken this country +is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that there has been no +state, no stable government, for many years._ There has been the Nabob +Vizier's authority, his ministers', the Residents' at Lucknow, the +sezauwils', the camp authority, the Nabob Muzuffer Jung's, and that of +twenty duans or advisers: no authority sufficiently predominant to +establish any regulations for the benefit of the country, whilst each +authority has been exerted, as opportunity offered, for temporary +purposes. + +"Such being the present _deplorable_ state of Furruckabad and its +districts, in the ensuing year it will be in vain to look for revenue, +if some regulations equal to the exigency be not adopted. The whole +country will be divided between the neighboring powerful aumils, the +refractory zemindars, and banditti of robbers; and the Patans, who might +be made useful subjects, will fly from the scene of anarchy. The crisis +appears now come, that either some plan of government should be resolved +on, so as to form faithful subjects on the frontier, or the country be +given up to its fate: and if it be abandoned, there can be little doubt +but that the Mahrattas will gladly seize on a station so favorable to +incursions into the Vizier's dominions, will attach to their interests +the Hindoo zemindars, and possess themselves of forts, which, with +little expense being made formidable, would give employment perhaps to +the whole of our force, should it be ever necessary to recover them." + +That the Council at Calcutta, on the representation aforesaid made by +the Resident at Furruckabad, did propose and record a plan for the +better government of the said country, but did delay the execution of +the same until the arrangements made by the said Hastings with the Nabob +Vizier should be known; but the said Hastings, as far as in him lay, did +entirely set aside any plan that could be formed for that purpose upon +the basis of a British Resident at Furruckabad, by engaging with the +said Nabob Vizier that no British influence shall be employed within his +dominions, and he has engaged to that prince not to abandon him to any +other mode of relation; and he has informed the Court of Directors that +the territories of the Nabob of Oude will be ruined, if Residents are +sent into them, observing, that "Residents never will be sent for any +other purposes than those of vengeance and corruption." + +That the said Warren Hastings did declare to the Court of Directors, +that in his opinion the mode of relief most effectual, and most lenient +with regard to Furruckabad, would be to nominate one of the family of +the prince to superintend his affairs and to secure the payments; but +this plan, which appears to be most connected with the rights of the +ruling family, whilst it provides against the imbecility of the natural +lord, and is free from his objection to a Resident, is the only one +which the said Hastings never has executed, or even proposed to execute. + +That the said Hastings, by the agreements aforesaid, has left the +Company in such an alternative, that they can neither relieve the said +prince of Furruckabad from oppression without a breach of the +engagements entered into by him, the said Hastings, with the Nabob +Vizier in the name of the Company, nor suffer him to remain under the +said oppression without violating all faith and all the rules of justice +with regard to him. And the said Hastings hath directly made or +authorized no less than six revolutions in less than five years in the +aforesaid harassed province; by which frequent and rapid changes of +government, all of them made in contradiction to all his own declared +motives and reasons for the several acts successively done and undone in +this transaction, the distresses of the country and the disorders in its +administration have been highly aggravated; and in the said irregular +proceedings, and in the gross and complicated violations of faith with +all parties, the said Hastings is guilty of high crimes and +misdemeanors. + + +VI.--DESTRUCTION OF THE RAJAH OF SAHLONE. + +I. That the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah ul Dowlah, did (on what reasons of +policy or pretences of justice is unknown) dispossess a certain native +person of distinction, or eminent Rajah, residing in the country of +Sahlone, "the lineal descendant of the most powerful Hindoo family in +that part of Hindostan," of his patrimonial estate, and conferred the +same, or part of the same, on his, the Nabob's, mother, as a jaghire, or +estate, for the term of her life: and the mother of the Nabob, in order +to quiet the country, and to satisfy in some measure the principal and +other inhabitants, did allow and pay a certain pension to the said +Rajah; which pension, on the general confiscation of jaghires, made at +the instigation of the said Warren Hastings, and by the letting the +lands so confiscated to farmers at rack-rents, was discontinued and +refused to be paid; and the discontinuance of the said pension, "on +account of the personal respect borne to the Rajah, (as connections with +him are sought for, and thought _to confer honor_,)" did cause an +universal discontent and violent commotions in the district of Sahlone, +and other parts of the province of Oude, with great consequent effusion +of blood, and interruption, if not total discontinuance, to the +collection of the revenues in those parts, other than as the same was +irregularly, and with great damage to the country, enforced by British +troops. + +II. That Mr. Lumsdaine, the officer employed to reduce those disordered +parts of the province to submission, after several advantages gained +over the Rajah and his adherents, and expelling him from the country, +did represent the utter impossibility of bringing it to a permanent +settlement "merely by forcible methods; as in any of his [the Rajah's] +incursions it would not be necessary to bring even a force with him, as +the zemindars [landed proprietors and freeholders] are much attached to +the Rajah, whom they consider as their hereditary prince, and never fail +to assist him, and that his rebellion against government is not looked +on as a crime": and Mr. Lumsdaine declared it "as his clear opinion, +that the allowing the said Rajah a pension suitable to his rank and +influence in the country would be the most certain mode of obtaining a +permanent peace,"--alleging, among other cogent reasons, "that the +expense of the force necessary to be employed to subdue the country +might be spared, and employed elsewhere, and that the people would +return to their villages with their cattle and effects, and of course +government have some security for the revenue, whereas at present they +have none." And the representation containing that prudent and temperate +counsel, given by a military man of undoubted information and perfect +experience in the local circumstances of the country, was transmitted by +the Resident, Bristow, to the said Warren Hastings, who did wilfully and +criminally omit to order any relief to the said Rajah in conformity to +the general sense and wishes of the inhabitants, a compliance with whose +so reasonable an expectation his duty in restoring the tranquillity of +the country and in retrieving the honor of the English government did +absolutely require; but instead of making such provision, a price was +set upon his head, and several bodies of British troops being employed +to pursue him, after many skirmishes and much bloodshed and mutual waste +of the country, the said Rajah, honored and respected by the natives, +was hunted down, and at length killed in a thicket. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[59] See Hastings's Letter. + +[60] Sic orig. + +[61] 26th Dec., 1781. + +[62] 13th Jan., 1782. + +[63] 18th Jan., 1782. + +[64] Letter from Mr. Middleton, 2d Feb., 1782. + +[65] Lucknow, 22d July, 1782. + +[66] Major Gilpin's Letter, 15th June, 1782. + +[67] Mr. Johnson's letter, 9th July, 1782. + +[68] Ibid., 4th July, 1782. + +[69] Major Gilpin's Letter, 6th July, 1782. + +[70] Mr. Johnson's Letter, 22d July, 1782. + +[71] Major Gilpin's Letters, 16th June and 15th Sept., 1782. + +[72] Major Gilpin's letter, 15th Sept., 1782. + +[73] Major Gilpin's letter, 19th Oct., 1782. + +[74] Major Gilpin's Letter, 18 Nov., 1782. + +[75] Mr. Bristow's Letter, 2d Dec., 1782. + +[76] Mr. Bristow's Letter, 12 Dec., 1782. + +[77] Shoka from the Vizier to Hyder Beg Khan, 2d Ramsur, 1197 + +[78] Bristow's Letter, 29th Jan., 1784, with inclosures. + + +END OF VOL. VIII. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable +Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12), by Edmund Burke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF THE RIGHT *** + +***** This file should be named 18161.txt or 18161.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/1/6/18161/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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