Goodlad, who had no authority but that of receiving the accounts and rents of the district from Rajah Debi Sing, and occasionally to be the channel of communication between him and the Committee."
Thus your Lordships see what Mr. Hastings"s opinion of Debi Sing was. We shall prove it at another time, by abundance of clear and demonstrative evidence, that, whether he was bad or no, (but we shall prove that bad he was indeed,) _even he_ could hardly be so bad as he was in the opinion which Mr. Hastings entertained of him; who, notwithstanding, now disowns this mock Committee, inst.i.tuted by himself, but, in reality, entirely managed by Gunga Govind Sing. This Debi Sing was accepted as an unexceptionable man; and yet Mr. Hastings knows both his power of doing mischief and his artifice in concealing it. If, then, Mr. Goodlad is to be acquitted, does it not show the evil of Mr. Hastings"s conduct in destroying those Provincial Councils which, as I have already stated, were obliged to book everything, to minute all the circ.u.mstances which came before them, together with all the consultations respecting them?
He strikes at the whole system at once, and, instead of it, he leaves an Englishman, under pretence of controlling Gunga Govind Sing"s agent, appointed for the very purpose of giving him bribes, in a province where Mr. Hastings says that agent had the power of committing such enormities, and which n.o.body doubts his disposition to commit,--he leaves him, I say, in such a state of inefficiency, that these iniquities could be concealed (though every one true) from the person appointed there to inspect his conduct! What, then, could be his business there? Was it only to receive such sums of money as Debi Sing might put into his hands, and which might have been easily sent to Calcutta? Was he to be of use as a communication between Debi Sing and the Committee, and in no other way? Here, then, we have that English authority which Mr. Hastings left in the country,--here the native authority which he settled, and the establishment of native iniquity in a regular system under Gunga Govind Sing,--here the destruction of all English inspection. I hope I need say no more to prove to your Lordships that this system, taken nakedly as it thus stands, founded in mystery and obscurity, founded for the very express purpose of conveying bribes, as the best mode of collecting the revenue and supplying the Company"s exigencies through Gunga Govind Sing, would be iniquitous upon the face and the statement of it. But when your Lordships consider what horrid effects it produced, you will easily see what the mischief and abomination of Mr. Hastings"s destroying these Provincial Councils and protecting these persons must necessarily be. If you had not known in theory, you must have seen it in practice.
But when both practice and theory concur, there can be no doubt that a system of private bribery for a revenue, and of private agency for a const.i.tutional government, must ruin the country where it prevails, must disgrace the country that uses it, and finally end in the destruction of the revenue. For what says Mr. Hastings? "I was to have received 40,000_l._ in bribes, and 30,000_l._ was actually applied to the use of the Company." Now I hope I shall demonstrate, if not, it will be by some one abler than me demonstrated, in the course of this business, that there never was a bribe received by Mr. Hastings that was not instantly followed with a deficiency in the revenue,--this is clear, and what we undertake to prove,--and that Debi Sing himself was, at the time Mr.
Hastings came away, between twenty and thirty thousand pounds debtor to the Company. So that, in truth, you always find a deficiency of revenue nearly equal, and in some instances I shall show double, to all the bribes Mr. Hastings received: from whence it will be evident that he never could nor did receive them under that absurd and strange idea of a resource to government.
I must re-state to your Lordships, because I wish you never to forget, that this Committee of Revenue was, in their own opinion, and from their own certain knowledge and mere motion, if motion can be attributed originally to instruments, mere tools; that they knew that they were tools in the hands of Gunga Govind Sing. There were two persons princ.i.p.al in it,--Mr. Sh.o.r.e, who was the acting President, and Mr.
Anderson, who was President in rank, and President in emolument, but absent for a great part of the time upon a foreign emba.s.sy. It is the recorded opinion of the former, (for I must beg leave to read again a part of the paper which has already been read to your Lordships,) that "the Committee, with the best intentions, best abilities, and steadiest application, must, after all, be a tool in the hands of their dewan."
Now do you believe, in the first place, that men will long have abilities, will long have good intentions, and will long, above all, have steady application, when they know they are but tools in the hands of another,--when they know they are tools for his own corrupt purposes?
In the next place, I must beg leave to state to you, that, on the const.i.tution of this Committee, Mr. Hastings made them all take a solemn oath that they would never receive any present whatever. It was not enough to trust to a general covenant; it was not enough to trust to the penal act of 1773: he bound the Committee by a new oath, and forced them to declare that they would not receive any bribes. As soon as he had so secured them against receiving bribes, he was resolved to make them inefficient,--a good way to secure them against bribes, by taking from them the power of bribe-worthy service. This was a good counter-security to their oath. But Mr. Hastings put a dewan there, against whom there was no security; he let loose this dewan to frustrate their intentions, their application, their abilities, and oath: that is, there was a person at that board who was more than the board itself, who might riot in peculation and plunder from one end of the country to the other. He was there to receive bribes for Mr. Hastings; the Committee were to be pure with impotent hands; and then came a person with ample power for Mr. Hastings himself. And lest this person should not have power enough in this Committee, he is made the general bribe-broker to Mr. Hastings.
This secret under-current, as your Lordships will see, is to counteract everything, and, as fast as one part is rendered pure, totally to corrupt all the rest.
But, my Lords, this was not the private opinion of Mr. Sh.o.r.e only, a man of great abilities, and intimately acquainted with the revenue, who must know when he was in a situation to do good and when not. The other gentleman whom I have mentioned, Mr. Hastings"s confidant in everything but his bribes, and supposed to be in his closest secrets, is Mr.
Anderson. I should remark to your Lordships, that Mr. Anderson is a man apparently of weak nerves, of modest and very guarded demeanor, as we have seen him in the House of Commons; it is in that way only I have the honor of knowing him. Mr. Anderson being asked whether he agreed in the opinion and admitted the truth of his friend Mr. Sh.o.r.e"s statement relative to the dewan of the Committee, his answer was this: "I do not think that I should have written it quite so strong, but I do in a great measure agree to it: that is, I think there is a great deal of truth in the observation; I think, in particular, that it would require great exertion in the Committee, and great abilities on the part of the President, to restrain effectually the conduct of the dewan; I think it would be difficult for the Committee to interpose a sufficient control to guard against all the abuses of the dewan."
There is the real President of the Committee,--there the most active, efficient member of it. They are both of one opinion concerning their situation: and I think this opinion of Mr. Anderson is still more strong; for, as he thinks he should have written it with a little more guard, but should have agreed in substance, you must naturally think the strongest expression the truest representation of the circ.u.mstance.
There is another circ.u.mstance that must strike your Lordships relative to this inst.i.tution. It is where the President says that the use of the President would be to exert his best abilities, his greatest application, his constant guard,--for what?--to prevent his dewan from being guilty of bribery and being guilty of oppressions. So here is an executive const.i.tution in which the chief executive minister is to be in such a situation and of such a disposition that the chief employment of the presiding person in the Committee is to guard against him and to prevent his doing mischief. Here is a man appointed, of the greatest possible power, of the greatest possible wickedness, in a situation to exert that power and wickedness for the destruction of the country, and without doubt it would require the greatest ability and diligence in the person at the head of that Council to prevent it. Such a const.i.tution, allowed and alleged by the persons themselves who composed it, was, I believe, never heard of in the world.
Now that I have done with this part of the system of bribery, your Lordships will permit me to follow Mr. Hastings to his last parting scene. He parted with his power, he parted with his situation, he parted with everything, but he never could part with Gunga Govind Sing. He was on his voyage, he had embarked, he was upon the Ganges, he had quitted his government; and his last dying sigh, his last parting voice, was "Gunga Govind Sing!" It ran upon the banks of the Ganges, as another plaintive voice ran upon the banks of another river (I forget whose); his last accents were, "Gunga, Gunga Govind Sing!" It demonstrates the power of friendship.
It is said by some idle, absurd moralists, that friendship is a thing that cannot subsist between bad men; but I will show your Lordships the direct contrary; and, after having shown you what Gunga Govind Sing was, I shall bring before you Mr. Hastings"s last act of friendship for him.
Not that I have quite shown you everything, but pretty well, I think, respecting this man. There is a great deal concerning his character and conduct that is laid by, and I do believe, that, whatever time I should take up in expatiating upon these things, there would be "in the lowest deep still a lower deep"; for there is not a day of the inquiry that does not bring to light more and more of this evil against Mr. Hastings.
But before I open the papers relative to this act of Mr. Hastings"s friendship for Gunga Govind Sing, I must re-state some circ.u.mstances, that your Lordships may understand thoroughly the nature of it. Your Lordships may recollect, that, about the time of the succession of the minor Rajah of Dinagepore, who was then but five or six years of age, and when Mr. Hastings left Bengal eight or nine, Mr. Hastings had received from that country a bribe of about 40,000_l._ There is a fidelity even in bribery; there is a truth and observance even in corruption; there is a justice, that, if money is to be paid for protection, protection should be given. My Lords, Mr. Hastings received this bribe through Gunga Govind Sing; then, at least, through Gunga Govind Sing he ought to take care that that Rajah should not be robbed,--that he should not be robbed, if Gunga Govind Sing could help it,--that, above all, he should not be robbed by Gunga Govind Sing himself. But your Lordships will find that the last act of Mr.
Hastings"s life was to be an accomplice in the most cruel and perfidious breach of faith, in the most iniquitous transaction, that I do believe ever was held out to the indignation of the world with regard to private persons. When he departed, on the 16th of February, 1785, when he was on board, in the mouth of the Ganges, and preparing to visit his native country, let us see what the last act of his life then was. Hear the last tender accents of the dying swan upon the Ganges.
"The regret which I cannot but feel in relinquishing the service of my honorable employers would be much embittered, were it accompanied by the reflection that I have neglected the merits of a man who deserves no less of them than of myself, Gunga Govind Sing, who from his earliest youth had been employed in the collection of the revenues, and was about eleven years ago selected for his superior talents to fill the office of dewan to the Calcutta Committee. He has from that time, with a short intermission, been the princ.i.p.al native agent in the collection of the Company"s revenues; and I can take upon myself to say that he has performed the duties of his office with fidelity, diligence, and ability. To myself he has given proofs of a constancy and attachment which neither the fears nor expectations excited by the prevalence of a different influence could shake,--and at a time, too, when these qualities were so dangerous, that, far from finding them amongst the generality of his countrymen, I did not invariably meet with them amongst my own. With such a sense of his merits, it is natural that I should feel a desire of rewarding him,--for justice, grat.i.tude, generosity, and even policy, demand it; and I resort to the board for the means of performing so necessary a duty, in full confidence, that, as those which I shall point out are neither incompatible with the Company"s interest nor prejudicial to the rights of others, they will not be withheld from me. At the request, therefore, of Gunga Govind Sing, I deliver the accompanying _durkhausts_, or pet.i.tions, for grants of lands lying in different districts, the total _jumma_, or rent, of which amount to Rupees 2,38,061. 12. 1."
Your Lordships recollect that Mr. Larkins was one of the bribe-agents of Mr. Hastings,--one, I mean, of a corporation, but not corporate in their acts. My Lords, Mr. Larkins has told you, he has told us, and he has told the Court of Directors, that Mr. Hastings parted in a quarrel with Gunga Govind Sing, because he had not faithfully kept his engagement with regard to his bribe, and that, instead of 40,000_l._ from Dinagepore, he had only paid him 30,000_l._ My Lords, that iniquitous men will defraud one another I can conceive; but you will perceive by Mr. Hastings"s behavior at parting, that he either had in fact received this money from Gunga Govind Sing, or in some way or other had abundant reason to be satisfied,--that he totally forgot his anger upon this occasion, and that at parting his last act was to ratify _grants of lands_ (so described by Mr. Hastings) to Gunga Govind Sing. Your Lordships will recollect the tender and forgiving temper of Mr.
Hastings. Whatever little bickerings there might have been between them about their small money concerns, the purifying waters of the Ganges had washed away all sins, enmities, and discontent. By some of those arts which Gunga Govind Sing knows how to practise, (I mean conciliatory, honest arts,) he had fairly wiped away all resentment out of Mr.
Hastings"s mind; and he, who so long remembered the affront offered him by Cheyt Sing, totally forgets Gunga Govind Sing"s fraud of 10,000_l._, and attempts to make others the instruments of giving him what he calls his reward.
Mr. Hastings states, among Gunga Govind"s merits, that he had, from the time of its inst.i.tution, and with a very short intermission, served the office of dewan to the Calcutta Committee. That short intermission was when he was turned out of office upon proof of peculation and embezzlement of public money; but of this cause of the intermission in the political life and political merits of Gunga Govind Sing Mr.
Hastings does not tell you.
Your Lordships shall now hear what opinion a member of the Provincial Council at Calcutta, in which he had also served, had of him.
"Who is Gunga Govind Sing?" The answer is, "He was, when I left Bengal, dewan to the Committee of Revenue.--What was his office and power during Mr. Hastings"s administration since 1780?--He was formerly dewan to the Provincial Council stationed at Calcutta, of which I was a member. His conduct then was licentious and unwarrantable, oppressive and extortionary. He was stationed under us to be an humble and submissive servant, and to be of use to us in the discharge of our duty. His conduct was everything the reverse. We endeavored to correct the mischiefs he was guilty of as much as possible. In one attempt to release fifteen persons illegally confined by him, we were dismissed our offices: a different pretence was held out for our dismission, but it was only a pretence. Since his appointment as dewan to the present Committee of Revenue, his line of conduct has only been a continuance of what I have described, but upon a larger scale.--What was the general opinion of the natives of the use he made of his power? He was looked up to by the natives as the second person in the government, if not the first. He was considered as the only channel for obtaining favor and employment from the Governor. There is hardly a native family of rank or credit within the three provinces whom he has not some time or other distressed and afflicted; scarce a zemindary that he has not dismembered and plundered.--Were you in a situation to know this to be true?--I certainly was.--What was the general opinion, and your own, concerning his wealth?--It is almost impossible to form a competent judgment, his means of acquiring it have been so extensive. I had an account shown to me, about July, 1785, stating his acquisitions at three hundred and twenty lacs of rupees,--that is, 3,200,000_l._"
My Lords, I have only to add, that, from the best inquiries I have been able to make, those who speak highest of his wealth are those who obtain the greatest credit. The estimate of any man"s wealth is uncertain; but the enormity of his wealth is universally believed. Yet Mr. Hastings seemed to act as if he needed a reward; and it is therefore necessary to inquire what recommended him particularly to Mr. Hastings. Your Lordships have seen that he was on the point of being dismissed for misbehavior and oppression by that Calcutta Committee his services to which Mr. Hastings gives as one proof of his constant and uniform good behavior. "He had executed," he says, "the duties of his office with fidelity, diligence, and ability." These are his public merits; but he has private merits. "To myself," says he, "he has given proofs of constancy and attachment."
Now we, who have been used to look very diligently over the Company"s records, and to compare one part with another, ask what those services were, which have so strongly recommended him to Mr. Hastings, and induced him to speak so favorably of his public services. What those services are does not appear; we have searched the records for them, (and those records are very busy and loquacious,) about that period of time during which Mr. Hastings was laboring under an eclipse, and near the dragon"s mouth, and all the drums of Bengal beating to free him from this dangerous eclipse. During this time there is nothing publicly done, there is nothing publicly said, by Gunga Govind Sing. There were, then, some services of Gunga Govind Sing that lie undiscovered, which he takes as proofs of attachment. What could they be? They were not public; n.o.body knows anything of them; they must, by reference to the time, as far as we can judge of them, be services of concealment: otherwise, in the course of this business, it will be necessary, and Mr. Hastings will find occasion, to show what those personal services of Gunga Govind Sing to him were. _His_ services to Gunga Govind Sing were pretty conspicuous: for, after he was turned out for peculation, Mr. Hastings restored him to his office; and when he had imprisoned fifteen persons illegally and oppressively, and when the Council were about to set them at liberty, they were set at liberty themselves, they were dismissed their offices. Your Lordships see, then, what his public services were.
His private services are unknown: they must be, as we conceive from their being unknown, of a suspicious nature; and I do not go further than suspicion, because I never heard, and I have not been without attempts to make the discovery, what those services were that recommended him to Mr. Hastings.
Having looked at his public services, which are well-known scenes of wickedness, barbarity, and corruption, we next come to see what his reward is. Your Lordships hear what reward he thought proper to secure for himself; and I believe a man who has power like Gunga Govind Sing, and a disposition like Gunga Govind Sing, can hardly want the means of rewarding himself; and if every virtue rewards itself, and virtue is said to be its own reward, the virtue of Gunga Govind Sing was in a good way of seeking its own reward. Mr. Hastings, however, thought it was not right that such a man should reward himself, but that it was necessary for the honor and justice of government to find him a reward. Then the next thing is, what that reward shall be. It is a grant of lands. Your Lordships will observe, that Mr. Hastings declares some of these lands to be unoccupied, others occupied, but not by the just owners. Now these were the very lands of the Rajah of Dinagepore from whence he had taken the bribe of 40,000_l._ My Lords, this was a monstrous thing. Mr.
Hastings had the audacity, as his parting act, when he was coming to England, and ought to have expected (whatever he did expect) the responsibility of this day,--he was, I say, shameless enough not only to give this recommendation, but to perpetuate the mischiefs of his reign, as he has done, to his successors: for he has really done so, by making it impossible, almost, to know anything of the true state of that country; and he has thereby made them much less responsible and criminal than before in any ill acts they may have done since his time. But Mr.
Hastings not only recommends and backs the pet.i.tion of Gunga Govind Sing with his parting authority, which authority he made the people there believe would be greater in England than it was in India, but he is an evidence; he declares, that, "to his own knowledge, these lands are vacant, and confessedly, therefore, by the laws of this as well as of most other countries, in the absolute gift of government."
My Lords, as I said, Mr. Hastings becomes a witness, and I believe in the course of the proceedings you will find a false witness, for Gunga Govind Sing. "To my own knowledge," says he, "they are vacant." Why, I cannot find that Mr. Hastings had ever been in Dinagepore; or if he had, it must have been only as a pa.s.senger. He had not the supervision of the district, in any other sense than with that kind of eagle eye which he must have had over all Bengal, and which he had for no other purposes than those for which eagles" eyes are commonly used. He becomes, you see, a witness for Gunga Govind Sing, and orders to be given him, as a recompense for all the iniquitous acts this man committed, the lands of that very Rajah who through the hands of Gunga Govind Sing had given an enormous bribe to Mr. Hastings. These lands were not without an ownership, but were lands in the hands of the Rajah, and were to be severed from the zemindary, and given to Gunga Govind Sing. The manner of obtaining them is something so shocking, and contains such a number of enormities completed in one act, that one can scarce imagine how such a compound could exist.
This man, besides his office of dewan to the Calcutta Committee, which gave him the whole management and power of the revenue, was, as I have stated, at the head of all the registers in the kingdom, whose duty it was to be a control upon him as dewan. As Mr. Hastings destroyed every other const.i.tutional settlement of the country, so the office which was to be a check upon Gunga Govind Sing, namely, the register of the country, had been superseded, and revived in another shape, and given to the own son of this very man. G.o.d forbid that a son should not be under a certain and reasonable subordination! But though in this country we know a son may possibly be free from the control of his father, yet the meanest slave is not in a more abject condition of slavery than a son is in that country to his father; for it extends to the power of a Roman parent. The office of register is to take care that a full and fair rent is secured to government; and above all, it is his business to take care of the body of laws, the _Rawaj-ul-Mulk_, or custom of the country, of which he is the guardian as the head of the law. It was his business to secure that fundamental law of the government, and fundamental law of the country, that a zemindary cannot be split, or any portion of it separated, without the consent of the government. This man betrayed his trust, and did privately, contrary to the duty of his office, get this minor Rajah, who was but an infant, who was but nine years old at the time, to make over to him a part of his zemindary, to a large amount, under color of a fraudulent and fict.i.tious sale. By the laws of that country, by the common laws of Nature, the act of this child was void.
The act was void as against the government, by giving a zemindary without the consent of the government to the very man who ought to have prevented such an act. He has the same sacred guardianship of minors that the Chancellor of England has. This man got to himself those lands by a fraudulent, and probably forged deed,--for that is charged too; but whether it was forged or not, this miserable minor was obliged to give the lands to him: he did not dare to quarrel with him upon such an article; because he who would purchase could take. The next step was to get one of his nearest relations to seem to give a consent; because taking it of the minor was too gross. The relation, who could no more consent by the law of that country than the law of this, gave apparently his consent. And these were the very lands that Mr. Hastings speaks of as "lands entirely at the disposal of government."
All this came before the Council. The moment Mr. Hastings was gone, India seemed a little to respire; there was a vast, oppressive weight taken off it, there was a mountain removed from its breast; and persons did dare then, for the first time, to breathe their complaints. And accordingly, this minor Rajah got some person kind enough to tell him that he was a minor, that he could not part with his estate; and this, with the other shocking and illegal parts of the process, was stated by him to the Council, who had Mr. Hastings"s recommendation of Gunga Govind Sing before them. The Council, shocked to see a minor attempted to be dispossessed in such a manner by him who was the natural guardian of all minors, shocked at such an enormous, daring piece of iniquity, began to inquire further, and to ask, "How came this his near relation to consent?" He was apparently partner in the fraud. Partner in the fraud he was, but not partner in the profit; for he was to do it without getting anything for it: the wickedness was in him, and the profit in Gunga Govind Sing. In consequence of this inquiry, the man comes down to account for his conduct, and declares another atrocious iniquity, that shows you the powers which Gunga Govind Sing possessed. "Gunga Govind Sing," says he, "is master of the country; he had made a great festival for the burial of his mother; all those of that caste ought to be invited to the funeral festival; he would have disgraced me forever, if I had not been invited to that funeral festival." These funeral festivals, you should know, are great things in that country, and celebrated in this manner, and, you may depend upon it, in a royal manner by him, upon burying his mother: any person left out was marked, despised, and disgraced. "But he had it in his power, and I was threatened to be deprived of my caste by his register, who had the caste in his absolute disposition." Says he, "I was under terror, I was under duress, and I did it."
Gunga Govind Sing was fortified by the opinion, that the Governor, though departed, virtually resided in that country. G.o.d grant that his power may be extirpated out of it now! I doubt it; but, most a.s.suredly, it was residing in its plenitude when he departed from thence; and there was not a man in India who was not of opinion, either that he was actually to return to govern India again, or that his power is such in England as that he might govern it here. And such were the hopes of those who had intentions against the estates of others. Gunga Govind Sing, therefore, being pressed to the wall by this declaration of the Rajah"s relation, when he could say nothing against it, when it was clear and manifest, and there were only impudent barefaced denials, and a.s.severations against facts which carried truth with themselves, did not in his answer pretend to say that a zemindary might be parted without the consent of the government, that a minor might be deprived of it, that the next relation had a power of disposing of it. He did indeed say, but n.o.body believed him, that he had used no force upon this relation; but as every one knew the act would be void, he was driven to Mr. Hastings"s great refuge,--he was driven to say, "The government in this country has arbitrary power; the power of government is everything, the right of the subject nothing; they have at all times separated zemindaries from their lawful proprietors. Give me what Mr. Hastings has constantly given to other people without any right, or shadow or semblance of right at all." G.o.d knows, it is well that I walk with my authority in my hand; for there are such crimes, such portentous, incredible crimes, to be brought before your Lordships, that it would hardly be believed, were it not that I am constantly, as I hope I shall constantly be, guarded with evidence, and that the strongest that can be, even the evidence of the parties themselves.
"From your inquiry," Gunga Govind Sing says to the Council, "every circ.u.mstance will appear in its true colors. With respect to the alienation of parts of zemindaries, the extent and consequence of the great zemindars depend in a great measure on the favor and countenance of the ruling powers. By what means did this zemindar of Dinagepore get possession of Purgunnah b.u.t.ta.s.sim after the death of Rycobad Chowdry in 1158, of Purgunnah Coolygong after the death of Sahebrance Chowderanne in the same year, notwithstanding his heirs existed, and of Purgunnah Suntoe, &c., during the lifetime of Sumboonant, the zemindar, in 1167, all without right, t.i.tle, or pecuniary consideration? This has been the case with many purgunnahs in his zemindary, and indeed exists in many other zemindaries besides since the Company"s accession. Ramkissen, in 1172, got possession of Nurrulloor, the zemindary of Mahomed Ali. The purgunnah of Ichanguipore, &c., was in three divisions in 1173. The pet.i.tion of Govind Deo Sheopersaud was made over to the son of Bousser Chowdry, possessor of the third share. Purgunnah Baharbund belonged to the zemindary of Ranny Bhowanny, and in 1180 was made over to Lucknaut Nundy. All these changes took place in the lifetime of the rightful possessors, without right, t.i.tle, or purchase."
Your Lordships have not heard before of Lucknaut Nundy. He was the son of a person of whom your Lordships have heard before, called Cantoo Baboo, the banian of Mr. Hastings. Mr. Hastings has proved in abundance of other cases that a grant to father and son is the same thing. The fathers generally take out grants in the names of their sons: and the Ranny Bhowanny, possessing the zemindary of Radshi, an old lady of the first rank and family in India, was stripped of part of her zemindary, and it was given to Lucknaut Nundy, the son of Mr. Hastings"s banian; and then (you see the consequence of good examples) comes Gunga Govind Sing, and says, "I am as good a man as he; there is a zemindary given; then do as much for Gunga Govind Sing as you have done for Cantoo Baboo." Here is an argument drawn from the practice of Mr. Hastings. And this shows your Lordships the necessity of suppressing such iniquities by punishing the author of them. You will punish Mr. Hastings, and no man will hereafter dare to rob minors, no man will hereafter dare to rob widows, to give to the vilest of mankind, their own base instruments for their own nefarious purposes, the lands of others, without right, t.i.tle, or purchase.
My Lords, I will not after this state to you the false representation of the value of these lands which this man gave in to government. He represented it to be much less than it was, when he desired the grant of them,--as shall be stated, when it comes before your Lordships, at the proper time. But at present I am only touching upon principles, and bringing examples so far as they ill.u.s.trate principles, and to show how precedents spread.
I believe your Lordships will conceive better of the spirit of these transactions by my intermixing with them, as I shall endeavor to do, as much as possible of the grounds of them. I will venture to say, that no description that I can give, no painting, if I was either able or willing to paint, could make these transactions appear to your Lordships with the strength which they have in themselves; and your Lordships will be convinced of this, when you see, what n.o.body could hardly believe, that a man can say, "It was given to others without right, t.i.tle, or purchase,--give it to me without right, t.i.tle, or purchase; give me the estates of minors without right, t.i.tle, or purchase, because Mr. Hastings gave the estates of widows without right, t.i.tle, or purchase."
Of this exemplary grant, of this pattern for future proceedings, I will show your Lordships the consequence. I will read to your Lordships part of the examination of a witness, taken from a report of a committee of the House of Commons.
"Are you acquainted with the situation of the zemindary of Baharbund?--It lies to the eastward of Dinagepore and Rungpore. I was stationed in that neighborhood.--To whom did it originally belong?--I believe, to the zemindary of Radshi, belonging to Ranny Bhowanny.--For what reason was it taken from the Ranny of Radshi and given to Cantoo Baboo?--I do not exactly recollect: I believe, on some plea of incapacity or insufficiency in her to manage it, or some pretended decline in the revenue, owing to mismanagement.--On what terms was it granted to Cantoo Baboo or his son?--I believe it was a grant in perpetuity, at the revenue of Rupees 82,000 or 83,000 per annum.--What amount did he collect from the country?--I cannot tell. The year I was in that neighborhood, the settlement with his under-tenants was something above 3,53,000 rupees. The inhabitants of the country objected to it. They a.s.sembled in a body of about five thousand, and were proceeding to Calcutta to make known their grievances to the Committee of Revenue. They were stopped at Cossimbazar by Noor Sing Baboo, the brother of Cantoo Baboo, and there the matter was compromised,--in what manner I cannot say."
Your Lordships see, Mr. Hastings"s banian got this zemindary belonging to this venerable lady; unable to protect herself; that it was granted to him without right, t.i.tle, or purchase. To show you that Mr. Hastings had been in a constant course of such proceeding, here is a pet.i.tion from a person called ---- for some favor from government which it is not necessary now to state. In order to make good his claim, he states what n.o.body denied, but which is universally known in fact. Says he, "I have never entertained any such intention or idea," that is, of seizing upon other people"s zemindaries; "neither am I at all desirous of acquiring any other person"s zemindary in this country," &c....
[_The doc.u.ment read here is wanting, ending_] "as several Calcutta banians have done," &c.
He states it as a kind of constant practice, by which the country had been robbed under Mr. Hastings, known and acknowledged to be so, to seize upon the inheritance of the widow and the fatherless. In this manner did Gunga Govind Sing govern himself, upon the direct precedent of Cantoo Baboo, the banian of Mr. Hastings; and this other instrument of his in like manner calls upon government for favor of some kind or other, upon the same principle and the same precedent.
Your Lordships now see how necessary it was to say something about arbitrary power. For, first, the wicked people of that country (Mr.
Hastings"s instruments, I mean) pretend right, t.i.tle, purchase, grant; and when their frauds in all these legal means are discovered, then they fly off, and have recourse to arbitrary power, and say, "It is true I can make out no right, t.i.tle, grant, or purchase; the parties are minors; I am bound to take care of their right: but you have arbitrary power; you have exercised it upon other occasions; exercise it upon this; give me the rights of other people." This was the last act, and I hope will be the last act, of Mr. Hastings"s wicked power, done by the wickedest man in favor of the wickedest man, and by the wickedest means, which failed upon his own testimony.
To bring your Lordships to the end of this business, which I hope will lead me very near to the end of what I have to trouble your Lordships with, I will now state the conduct of the Council, and the resolution about Gunga Govind Sing. I am to inform your Lordships that there was a reference made by the Council to the Committee of Revenue, namely, to Gunga Govind Sing himself,--a reference with regard to the right, t.i.tle, mode, and proceeding, and many other circ.u.mstances; upon which the Committee, being such as I have described, very naturally were silent.
Gunga Govind Sing _loquitur solus_,--in the manner you have just heard; the Committee were the chorus,--they sometimes talk, fill up a vacant part,--but Gunga Govind Sing was the great actor, the sole one. The report of this Committee being laid before the Council, Mr. Stables, one of the board, entered the following minute on the 15th of May, 1785.
"I have perused the several papers upon this subject, and am sorry to observe that the Committee of Revenue are totally silent on the most material points therein, and sending the pet.i.tion to them has only been so much time thrown away: I mean, on the actual value of the lands in question, what the amount derived from them has been in the last year, and what advantages or disadvantages to government by the sale, and whether, in their opinion, the supposed sale was compulsive or not. But it is not necessary for the discussion of the question respecting the regularity or irregularity of the pretended sale of Salbarry to Gunga Govind Sing, the dewan, to enter into the particular a.s.sertions of each party.
"The representations of the Rajah"s agent, confirmed by the pet.i.tions of his princ.i.p.al, positively a.s.sert the sale to have been compulsive and violent; and the dewan as positively denies it, though the fears he expresses, "that their common enemies would set aside the act before it was complete," show clearly that they were sensible the act was unjustifiable, if they do not tend to falsify his denial.
"But it is clearly established and admitted by the language and writings of both parties, that there has been a most unwarrantable collusion in endeavoring to alienate the rights of government, contrary to the most positive original laws of the const.i.tution of these provinces, "that no zemindar and other landholder, paying revenue to government, shall be permitted to alienate his lands without the express authority of that government."
"The defence set up by Gunga Govind Sing does not go to disavow the transaction; for, if it did, the deed of sale, &c., produced by himself, and the pet.i.tion to the board for its confirmation, would detect him: on the contrary, he openly admits its existence, and only strives to show that it was a voluntary one on the part of the Ranny and the servants of the Rajah. Whether voluntary or not, it was equally criminal in Gunga Govind Sing, as the public officer of government: because diametrically opposite to the positive and repeated standing orders of that government for the rule of his conduct, as dewan, and native guardian of the public rights intrusted especially to his care; because it was his duty, not only not to be guilty of a breach of those rules himself, but, as dewan, and exercising the efficient office of _kanungo_, to prevent, detect, expose, and apprise his employers of every instance attempted to the contrary; because it was his duty to prevent the government being defrauded, and the Rajah, a child of nine years old, robbed of his hereditary possessions, as he would have been, if this transaction had not been detected: whereas, on the contrary, the dewan is himself the princ.i.p.al mover and sole instrument in that fraud and robbery, if I am rightly informed, to the amount of 42,474 rupees[1] in perpetuity, by which he alone was to benefit; and because he has even dared to stand forward in an attempt to obtain our sanction, and thereby make us parties to (in my opinion) a false deed and fraudulent transaction, as his own defence now shows the bill of sale and all its collateral papers to be.
"If offences of this dark tendency and magnitude were not to be punished in a public manner, the high example here set the natives employed under the government by their first native officer would very soon render our authority contemptible, and operate to the destruction of the public revenues. I will not dwell further on the contradictions in these papers before us on this subject.
"But I beg leave to point out how tenacious the government have been of insuring implicit obedience to their rules on this subject in particular, and in prohibiting conduct like that here exhibited against their public officer, and how sacredly they have viewed the public inst.i.tutes on this subject, which have been violated and trampled on; and it will suffice to show their public orders on a similar instance which happened some time ago, and which the dewan, from his official situation, must have been a party in detecting.
"I desire the board"s letter to the Committee on this subject, dated the 31st May, 1782, may be read, and a copy be annexed to this minute.