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+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: 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
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