My Lords, I think it is necessary to state, that there has been some little difficulty concerning this word, _presents_. Bribery and extortion have been covered by the name of presents, and the authority and practice of the East has been adduced as a palliation of the crime.
My Lords, no authority of the East will be a palliation of the breach of laws enacted in the West: and to those laws of the West, and not the vicious customs of the East, we insist upon making Mr. Hastings liable.
But do not your Lordships see that this is an entire mistake? that there never was any custom of the East for it? I do not mean vicious practices and customs, which it is the business of good laws and good customs to eradicate. There are three species of presents known in the East,--two of them payments of money known to be legal, and the other perfectly illegal, and which has a name exactly expressing it in the manner our language does. It is necessary that your Lordships should see that Mr.
Hastings has made use of a perversion of the names of authorized gifts to cover the most abominable and prost.i.tuted bribery. The first of those presents is known in the country by the name of _peshcush_: this _peshcush_ is a fine paid, upon the grant of lands, to the sovereign, or whoever grants them. The second is the _nuzzer_, or _nuzzerana_, which is a tribute of acknowledgment from an inferior to a superior. The last is called _reshwat_, in the Persian language,--that is to say, a bribe, or sum of money clandestinely and corruptly taken,--and is as much distinguished from the others as, in the English language, a fine or acknowledgment is distinguished from a bribe. To show your Lordships this, we shall give in evidence, that, whenever a peshcush or fine is paid, it is a sum of money publicly paid, and paid in proportion to the grant,--and that the sum is entered upon the very grant itself. We shall prove the nuzzer is in the same manner entered, and that all legal fees are indorsed upon the body of the grant for which they are taken: and that they are no more in the East than in the West any kind of color or pretence for corrupt acts, which are known by the circ.u.mstance of their being clandestinely taken, and which are acknowledged and confessed to be illegal and corrupt. Having stated that Mr. Hastings, in some of the evidence that we shall produce, endeavors to confound these three things, I am only to remark that the nuzzer is generally a very small sum of money, that it sometimes amounts to one gold mohur, that sometimes it is less, and that, in all the records of the Company, I have never known it exceed one gold mohur, or about thirty-five shillings,--pa.s.sing by the fifty gold mohurs which were given to Mr.
Hastings by Cheyt Sing, and a hundred gold mohurs which were given to the Mogul, as a nuzzer, by Mahomed Ali, Nabob of Arcot.
The Company, seeing that this nuzzer, though small in each sum, might amount at last to a large tax upon the country, (and it did so in fact,) thought proper to prohibit any sum of money to be taken upon any pretext whatever; and the Company in the year 1775 did expressly explode the whole doctrine of peshcush, nuzzer, and every other private lucrative emolument, under whatever name, to be taken by the Governor-General, and did expressly send out an order that that was the construction of the act, and that he was not even to take a nuzzer. Thus we shall show that that act had totally cut up the whole system of bribery and corruption, and that Mr. Hastings had no sort of color whatever for taking the money which we shall prove he has taken.
I know that positive prohibitions, that acts of Parliament, that covenants, are things of very little validity indeed, as long as all the means of corruption are left in power, and all the temptations to corrupt profit are left in poverty. I should really think that the Company deserved to be ill served, if they had not annexed such appointments to great trusts as might secure the persons intrusted from the temptations of unlawful emolument, and, what in all cases is the greatest security, given a lawful gratification to the natural pa.s.sions of men. Matrimony is to be used, as a true remedy against a vicious course of profligate manners; fair and lawful emoluments, and the just profits of office, are opposed to the unlawful means which might be made use of to supply them. For, in truth, I am ready to agree, that for any man to expect a series of sacrifices without a return in blessings, to expect labor without a prospect of reward, and fatigue without any means of securing rest, is an unreasonable demand in any human creature from another. Those who trust that they shall find in men uncommon and heroic virtues are themselves endeavoring to have nothing paid them but the common returns of the worst parts of human infirmity. And therefore I shall show your Lordships that the Company did provide large, ample, abundant means for supporting the Governor-General,--that Lord Clive, in the year 1765, and the Council with him, of which Mr. Sumner, I am glad and proud to say, was one, did fix such an allowance as they thought a sufficient security to the Governor-General against the temptations attendant upon his situation; and therefore, after they had fixed this sum, they say, "that, although by this means the Governor will not be able to ama.s.s a million or half a million in the s.p.a.ce of two or three years, yet he will acquire a very handsome independency, and be in that very situation which a man of honor and true zeal for the service would wish to possess. Thus situated, he may defy all opposition in Council; he will have nothing to ask, nothing to propose, but what he wishes for the advantage of his employers; he may defy the law, because there can be no foundation for a bill of discovery; and he may defy the obloquy of the world, because there can be nothing censurable in his conduct. In short, if stability can be insured to such a government as this, where riches have been acquired in abundance in a small s.p.a.ce of time, by all ways and means, and by men with or without capacities, it must be effected by a Governor thus restricted,"--that is, a Governor restricted from every emolument but that of his salary. I must remark, that this salary and these emoluments were not settled upon the vague speculations of men taking the measure of their necessities for India from the manners of England; but it was fixed by the Council themselves,--fixed in India,--fixed by those who knew and were in the situation of the Governor-General, and who knew what was necessary to support his dignity and to preserve him from the temptation of corruption: and they have laid open to you such a body of advantages arising from it as would lead any man, who had a regard to his honor or conscience, to think himself happy in having such a provision made for him, and at the same time every temptation to act corruptly removed far from him.
The emoluments of the office, though reduced from the original plan which Lord Clive had proposed, may be computed at near 30,000_l._ a year, when Mr. Hastings was President: 22,000_l._ in certain money, and the rest in other advantages. Whatever it was, I have shown that it was thought sufficient by those who were the best judges, and who, in carving for others, were carving for themselves their own allowance at the time. But, my Lords, I am to give a better opinion of the sufficiency of that provision to guard against the temptation, out of Mr. Hastings"s own mouth. He says, in his letter to the Court of Directors, "Although I disclaim the consideration of my own interest in these speculations, and flatter myself that I proceed upon more liberal grounds, yet I am proud to avow the feelings of an honest ambition that stimulates me to aspire at the possession of my present station for years to come. Those who know my natural turn of mind will not ascribe this to sordid views. A very few years" possession of the government would undoubtedly enable me to retire with a fortune amply fitted to the measure of my desires, were I to consult only my ease: but in my present situation I feel my mind expand to something greater; I have catched the desire of applause in public life."
Here Mr. Hastings confesses that the emoluments affixed to office were not only sufficient for the purposes and ends which the nature of his office demanded, and the support of present dignity, but that they were sufficient to secure him, in a very few years, a comfortable retreat; but his object in wishing to hold his office long was _to catch applause in public life_. What an unfortunate man is he, who has so often told us, in so many places, and through so many mouths, that, after fourteen years" possession of an office which was to make him a comfortable fortune in a few years, he is at length bankrupt in fortune, and for his applause in public life is now at your Lordships" bar, and his accuser is his country! This, my Lords, is to be unfortunate: but there are some misfortunes that never do or ever can arrive but through crimes. He was a deserter from the path of honor. At the turning of the two ways he made a glorious choice,--he caught at the applause of ambition: which though I am ready to consent is not virtue, yet surely a generous ambition for applause for public services in life is one of the best counterfeits of virtue, and supplies its place in some degree; and it adds a l.u.s.tre to real virtue, where it exists as the substratum of it.
Human nature, while it is made as it is, never can wholly repudiate it for its imperfection, because there is something yet more perfect. But what shall we say to the deserter of that cause, who, having glory and honor before him, has chosen to plunge himself into the downward road to sordid riches?
My Lords, I have shown the grievances that existed. I have shown the means that existed to put Mr. Hastings beyond a temptation to those practices of which we accuse him, even in his own opinion,--if he will not follow his example in the House of Commons, and disavow this letter, as he has done his defence before them, and say he never wrote it. That situation which was to afford him a comfortable fortune in a few years he has held for many years, and therefore he has not one excuse to make for himself; but I shall show your Lordships much greater and stronger proofs, that will lean heavy upon him in the day of your sentence. The first, the peculiar, trust that was put in him, was to redress all those grievances.
My Lords, I have stated to you the condition of India in 1765. You may suppose that the means that were taken, the regulations that were made by the Company at that period of time, had operated their effect, and that by the beginning of the year 1772, when Mr. Hastings came first to his government, these evils did not then require, perhaps, so vigorous an example, or so much diligence in putting an end to them; but, my Lords, I have to show you a very melancholy truth, that, notwithstanding all these means, the Company was of opinion that all these disorders had increased, and accordingly they say, without entering into all the grievous circ.u.mstances of this letter, which was wrote on the 10th of April, 1773, "We wish we could refute the observation, that almost every attempt made by us and our administration at your Presidency for reforming abuses has rather increased them, and added to the misery of a country we are so anxious to protect and cherish." They say, that, "when oppression pervades the whole country, when youths have been suffered with impunity to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over the natives, and to acquire rapid fortunes by monopolizing of commerce, it cannot be a wonder to us or yourselves that Dadney merchants do not come forward to contract with the Company, that the manufactures find their way through foreign channels, or that our investments are at once enormously dear and of a debased quality. It is evident, then, that the evils which have been so destructive to us lie too deep for any partial plans to reach or correct; it is therefore our resolution to aim at the root of those evils, and we are happy in having reason to believe that in every just and necessary regulation we shall meet with the approbation and support of the legislature, who consider the public as materially interested in the Company"s prosperity."
This is to show your Lordships that Mr. Hastings was armed with great powers to correct great abuses, and that there was reposed in him a special trust for that purpose. And now I shall show, by the twenty-fifth paragraph of the same letter, that they intrusted Mr.
Hastings with this very great power from some particular hope they had, not only of his abstaining himself, which is a thing taken for granted, but of his restraining abuses through every part of the service; and therefore they say, "that, in order to effectuate this great end, the first step must be to restore perfect obedience and due subordination to your administration. Our Governor and Council must rea.s.sume and exercise their delegated powers upon every just occasion,--punish delinquents, cherish the meritorious, discountenance that luxury and dissipation which, to the reproach of government, prevailed in Bengal. Our President, Mr. Hastings, we trust, will set the example of temperance, economy, and application; and upon this, we are sensible, much will depend. And here we take occasion to indulge the pleasure we have in acknowledging Mr. Hastings"s services upon the coast of Coromandel, in constructing with equal labor and ability the plan which has so much improved our investments there; and as we are persuaded he will persevere in the same laudable pursuit through every branch of our affairs in Bengal, he, in return, may depend on the steady support and favor of his employers." Here are not only laws to restrain abuse, here are not only salaries to prevent the temptation to it, but here are praises to animate and encourage him, here is what very few men, even bad in other respects, have resisted,--here is a great trust put in him, to call upon him with particular vigor and exertion to prevent all abuses through the settlement, and particularly these abuses of corruption. Much trust is put in his frugality, his order, his management of his private affairs; and from thence they hope that he would not ruin his own fortune, but improve it by honorable means, and teach the Company"s servants the same order and management, in order to free them from temptation to rapacity in their own particular situations. There have been known to be men, otherwise corrupt and vicious, who, when great trust was put in them, have called forth principles of honor latent in their minds; and men who were nursed, in a manner, in corruption have been not only great reformers by inst.i.tution, but greater reformers by the example of their own conduct. Then I am to show, that, soon after his coming to that government, there were means given him instantly of realizing those hopes and expectations, by putting into his hands several arduous and several difficult commissions.
My Lords, in the year 1772 the Company had received alarming advices of many disorders throughout the country: there were likewise, at the same time, circ.u.mstances in the state of the government upon which they thought it necessary to make new regulations. The famine which prevailed in and devastated Bengal, and the ill use that was made of that calamity to aggravate the distress for the advantage of individuals, produced a great many complaints, some true, some exaggerated, but universally spread, as I believe is in the memory of those who are not very young among us. This obliged the Company to a very serious consideration of an affair which dishonored and disgraced their government, not only at home, but through all the countries in Europe, much more than perhaps even more grievous and real oppressions that were exercised under them.
It had alarmed their feelings, it had been marked, and had called the attention of the public upon them in an eminent manner.
Your Lordships remember the death of Jaffier Ali Khan, the first of those subahs who introduced the English power into Bengal. He died about four or five years before this period. He was succeeded by two of his sons, who succeeded to one another in a very rapid succession. The first was the person of whom we have read an account to you. He was the natural son of the Nabob by a person called Munny Begum, who, for the corrupt gifts the circ.u.mstances of which we have recited, had, in prejudice of the lawful issue of the Nabob, been raised to the _musnud_; but as b.a.s.t.a.r.d slips, it is said in King Richard, (an abuse of a Scripture phrase,) do not take deep root, this b.a.s.t.a.r.d slip, Nujim ul Dowlah, shortly died, and the legitimate son, Syef ul Dowlah, succeeded him. After him another legitimate son, Mobarek ul Dowlah, succeeded in a minority. When I say _succeeded_, I wish your Lordships to understand that there is no regular succession in the office of subah or viceroy of the kingdom; but, in general, succession has been considered, and persons have been put in that place upon some principles resembling a regular succession. That regular succession had been broken in favor of a natural son, and the mother of that natural son did obtain the superiority in the female part of the family for a time.
In consequence of these two circ.u.mstances, namely, the famine, and the abuses that were supposed to arise from it, and from the circ.u.mstance of the minority of Mobarek ul Dowlah, who now reigns or appears to reign,--in consequence of these two circ.u.mstances, the Company gave two sets of orders.
The first order related to Mahomed Reza Khan, who was (as your Lordships remember I took, in the beginning of this affair, means of explaining) lord-deputy of the province under the native government, the English holding the dewanny,--and deputy dewan, or high-steward, under the name of the English, and had the command of the whole revenue; and who was accused before the Company (the channel of which accusation we now learn) of having aggravated that famine by a monopoly for his own benefit. The Company, upon these loose and general charges, ordered that he should be divested of his office, that he should be brought down to Calcutta, and there be obliged to render an account of his conduct.
The next regulation they made was concerning the effective government of the country, which was become vacant by the removal of Mahomed Reza Khan. The offices which he held were in effect these: he was guardian to the Nabob by the appointment of the Company; he had the care and management of his family; he had the care of the public justice; and he represented that shadow of government to foreign nations which it was the policy of the Company, at that time, to keep up. This was the person whom Mr. Hastings was ordered to remove; in consequence of which removal all these offices were to be supplied,--of guardian of the Nabob"s person and manager of his family, of chief magistrate, and of representative of the fallen dignity of the native government to the foreign nations which traded to Bengal.
To these orders was added an instruction of a very remarkable nature, which was a third trust that was given to Mr. Hastings: that during the Nabob"s minority he should reduce the annual allowance, which was thirty-two lacs, to sixteen; and that to prevent the abuse of this restricted sum, and to prevent its being directed by the minister"s authority to other purposes than that for which the Company allowed it, (that is to say, allowed him out of what was his own,) of these sixteen lacs an account was to be regularly kept, as a check upon the person so appointed, which account was ordered to be transmitted to Calcutta, and to be sent to England.
Now we are to show your Lordships what Mr. Hastings"s conduct was upon all these occasions; and for this we mean to produce testimony recorded in the Company"s books, and authentic doc.u.ments taken from the public offices of that country. At the same time I do admit that there never was a positive testimony that did not stand something in need of the support of presumption: for, as we know that witnesses may be perjured, and as we know that doc.u.ments can be forged, we have recourse to a known principle in the laws of all countries, that circ.u.mstances cannot lie; and therefore, if the testimony that is given was ever so clear and positive, yet, if it is contrary to the circ.u.mstances of the country, if it is contrary to the circ.u.mstances of the facts to which it alludes, if the deposition is totally adverse and alien to the characters of the persons, then I will say, that, though the testimonies should be many, though they should be consistent, and though they should be clear, yet they will still leave some degree of hesitation and doubt upon every mind timorous in the execution of justice, as every mind ought to be.
If, for instance, ten witnesses were to swear that the Chief-Justice of England, that the Lord High-Chancellor, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, was seen, in the robes of his function, at noonday, robbing upon the highway, it is not the clearness, the weight, the authority of testimonies, that could make me believe it; I should attribute it to any cause, either corruption, mistake, error, or madness, rather than believe that fact. Why? Because it is totally alien to the character of the persons, the situation, the circ.u.mstances, and to all the rules of probability. But if, on the contrary, the crime charged has a perfect relation with the person, with his known conduct, with his known habits, with the situation and circ.u.mstances of the place that he is in, and with the very corrupt inherent nature of the act that he does, then much less proof than we are able to produce will serve; and according to the nature and strength of the presumptions arising from the inherent nature of a vicious principle and vicious motives in the act, will be strengthened the weakest evidence, or, if it comes to a sufficient height, the whole burden of proof will be turned upon the party accused. And thus we shall think ourselves bound to show your Lordships, in every step of this proceeding, that there is an inherent presumption of corruption in every act. We shall show the presumptions which preceded, we shall show the presumptions which accompanied the proof; and these, with the subsequent presumptions, will make it impossible to disbelieve them. Such a body of proof was never given upon any such occasion: and it is such proof as will prevail against the whole voice of corruption, that amazing, active, diligent, spreading voice, which has been made, by buzzing in every part of this country, sometimes to sound like the public voice; it will put it to silence, by showing that your Lordships have proceeded upon the strongest evidence, active and pa.s.sive.
First, Mr. Hastings received a positive order to seize upon Mahomed Reza Khan. That order he executed with a military prompt.i.tude of obedience, which will show your Lordships what are the services which are congenial to his own mind, and which find in him always a ready acquiescence, a faithful agent, and a spirited instrument in the execution. The very day after he received the order, he sent up, privately, without communicating with the Council, from whom he was not ordered to keep this proceeding a secret,--he sent up, and found that great and respectable man and respectable magistrate, who was in all those high offices which I have stated: and if I was to compare them to circ.u.mstances and situations in this country, I should say he had united in himself the character of First Lord of the Treasury, the character of Chief-Justice, the character of Lord High-Chancellor, and the character of Archbishop of Canterbury: a man of great gravity, dignity, and authority, and advanced in years; had once 100,000_l._ a year for the support of his dignity, and had at that time 50,000_l._ This man, sitting in his garden, reposing himself after the toils of his situation, (for he was one of the most laborious men in the world,) was suddenly arrested, and, without a moment"s respite, dragged down to Calcutta, and there by Mr. Hastings (exceeding the orders of the Company) confined near two years under a guard of soldiers. Mr. Hastings kept this great man for several months without even attempting the trial upon him. How he tried him afterwards your Lordships may probably in the course of this business inquire; and you will then judge, from the circ.u.mstances of that trial, that, as he was not tried for his crime, so neither was he acquitted for his innocence;--but at present I leave him in that situation. Mr. Hastings, unknown to the Council, having executed the orders of the Company in the last degree of rigor to this unhappy man, keeps him in that situation, without a trial, under a guard, separated from his country, disgraced and dishonored, and by Mr.
Hastings"s express order not suffered either to make a visit or receive a visitor.
There was another commission for Mr. Hastings contained in these orders.
The Company, because they were of opinion that justice could not be easily obtained while the first situations of the country were filled with this man"s adherents, desired Mr. Hastings to displace them: leaving him a very large power, and confiding in his justice, prudence, and impartiality not to abuse a trust of such delicacy. But we shall prove to your Lordships that Mr. Hastings thought it necessary to turn out, from the highest to the lowest, several hundreds of people, for no other reason than that they had been put in their employments by that very man whom the English government had formerly placed there. If _we_ were to insist that we could not possibly try Mr. Hastings, or come at his wickedness, until we had eradicated his influence in Bengal, and left not one man in it who was during his government in any place or office whatever, yet, though we should readily admit that we could not do the whole without it, at the same time, rather than make a general ma.s.sacre of every person presumed to be under his influence, we would leave some of his crimes unproved. He did avow and declare, that, unless he turned all these persons out of their offices, he could never hope to come at the truth of any charges against Mahomed Reza Khan, against whom no specific charge had been made. Yet, upon loose and general charges, did he seize upon this man, confine him in this manner, and every person who derived any place or authority from him, high or low, was turned out. Mr. Hastings had in the Company"s orders something to justify him in rigor, but he had likewise a prudential power over that rigor; and he not only treated this man in the manner described, but every human creature connected with him, as if they had been all guilty, without any charge whatever against them. These are his reasons for taking this extraordinary step.
"I pretend not to enter into the views of others. My own were these.
Mahomed Reza Khan"s influence still prevailed generally throughout the country. In the Nabob"s household, and at the capital, it was scarce affected by his present disgrace. His favor was still courted, and his anger dreaded. Who, under such discouragements, would give information or evidence against him? His agents and creatures filled every office of the nizamut and dewanny. How was the truth of his conduct to be investigated by these? It would be superfluous to add other arguments to show the necessity of prefacing the inquiry by breaking his influence, removing his dependants, and putting the direction of all the affairs which had been committed to his care into the hands of the most powerful or active of his enemies."
My Lords, if _we_ of the House of Commons were to desire and to compel the East India Company, or to address the crown, to remove, according to their several situations and several capacities, every creature that had been put into office by Mr. Hastings, because we could otherwise make no inquiry into his conduct, should we not be justified by his own example in insisting upon the removal of every creature of the reigning power before we could inquire into his conduct? We have not done that, though we feel, as he felt, great disadvantages in proceeding in the inquiry while every situation in Bengal is notoriously held by his creatures,--always excepting the first of all, but which we could show is nothing under such circ.u.mstances. Then what do I infer from this,--from his obedience to the orders of the Company, carried so much beyond necessity, and prosecuted with so much rigor,--from the inquiry being suspended for so long a time,--from every person in office being removed from his situation,--from all these precautions being used as prefatory to the inquiry, when he himself says, that, after he had used all these means, he found not the least benefit and advantage from them?
The use I mean to make of this is, to let your Lordships see the great probability and presumption that Mr. Hastings, finding himself in the very selfsame situation that had occurred the year before, when Nundcomar was sold to Mahomed Reza Khan, of selling Mahomed Reza Khan to Nundcomar, made a corrupt use of it, and that, as Mahomed Reza Khan was not treated with severity for his crimes, so neither was he acquitted for his innocence. The Company had given Mr. Hastings severe orders, and very severely had he executed them. The Company gave him no orders not to inst.i.tute a present inquiry; but he, under pretence of business, neglected that inquiry, and suffered this man to languish in prison to the utter ruin of his fortune.
We have in part shown your Lordships what Mr. Hastings"s own manner of proceeding with regard to a public delinquent is; but at present we leave Mahomed Reza Khan where he was. Do your Lordships think that there is no presumption of Mr. Hastings having a corrupt view in this business, and of his having put this great man, who was supposed to be of immense wealth, under contributions? Mr. Hastings never trusted his colleagues in this proceeding; and what reason does he give? Why, he supposed that they must be bribed by Mahomed Reza Khan. "For," says he, "as I did not know their characters at that time, I did not know whether Mahomed Reza Khan had not secured them to his interest by the known ways in which great men in the East secure men to their interest." He never trusted his colleagues with the secret; and the person that he employed to prosecute Mahomed Reza Khan was his bitter enemy, Nundcomar. I will not go the length of saying that the circ.u.mstance of enmity disables a person from being a prosecutor; under some circ.u.mstances it renders a man incompetent to be a witness; but this I know, that the circ.u.mstance of having no other person to rely upon in a charge against any man but his enemy, and of having no other principle to go upon than what is supposed to be derived out of that enmity, must form some considerable suspicion against the proceeding. But in this he was justified by the Company; for Nundcomar, the great rival of Mahomed Reza Khan, was in the worst situation with the Company as to his credit. This Nundcomar"s politics in the country had been by Mr. Hastings himself, and by several persons joined with him, cruelly represented to the Company; and accordingly he stood so ill with them, by reason of Mr. Hastings"s representations and those of his predecessors, that the Company ordered and directed, that, if he could be of any use in the inquiry into Mahomed Reza Khan"s conduct, some reward should be given him suitable to his services; but they caution Mr. Hastings at the same time against giving him any trust which he might employ to the disadvantage of the Company. Now Mr. Hastings began, before he could experience any service from him, by giving him his reward, and not the base reward of a base service, _money_, but every trust and power which he was prohibited from giving him. Having turned out every one of Mahomed Reza Khan"s dependants, he filled every office, as he avows, with the creatures of Nundcomar. Now when he uses a cruel and rigorous obedience in the case of Mahomed Reza Khan, when he breaks through the principles of his former conduct with regard to Nundcomar, when he gives _him_, Nundcomar, trust, whom he was cautioned not to trust, and when he gives him that reward before any service could be done,--I say, when he does this, in violation of the Company"s orders and his own principles, it is the strongest evidence that he now found them in the situation in which they were in 1765, when bribes were notoriously taken, and that each party was mutually sold to the other, and faith kept with neither. The situation in which Mr. Hastings thus placed himself should have been dreaded by him of all things, because he knew it was a situation in which the most outrageous corruption had taken place before.
There is another circ.u.mstance which serves to show that in the persecution of these great men, and the persons employed by them, he could have no other view than to extort money from them. There was a person of the name of s.h.i.tab Roy, who had a great share in the conduct of the revenues of Bahar. Mr. Hastings, in the letter to the Company, complaining of the state of their affairs, and saying that there were great and suspicious balances in the kingdom of Bahar, does not even name the name of s.h.i.tab Roy. There was an English counsellor, a particular friend of Mr. Hastings"s, there, under whose control s.h.i.tab Roy acted. Without any charges, without any orders from the Company, Mr.
Hastings dragged down that same s.h.i.tab Roy, and in the same ignominious prison he kept him the same length of time, that is, one year and three months, without trial; and when the trial came on, there was as much appearance of collusion in the trial as there was of rigor in the previous process. This is the manner in which Mr. Hastings executed the command of the Company for removing Mahomed Reza Khan.
When a successor to Mahomed Reza Khan was to be appointed, your Lordships naturally expect, from the character I have given of him, and from the nature of his functions, that Mr. Hastings would be particularly precise, would use the utmost possible care in nominating a person to succeed him, who might fulfil the ends and objects of his employment, and be at the same time beyond all doubt and suspicion of corruption in any way whatever. Let us now see how he fills up that office thus vacant. When the Company ordered Mahomed Reza Khan to be dispossessed of his office, they ordered at the same time that the salary of his successor should be reduced: that 30,000_l._ was a sufficient recompense for that office. Your Lordships will see by the allowance for the office, even reduced as it was, that they expected some man of great eminence, of great consequence, and fit for those great and various trusts. They cut off the dewanny from it, that is, the collection of the revenues; and having lessened his labors, they lessened his reward.--They ordered that this person, who was to be guardian of the Nabob in his minority, and who was to represent the government, should have but 30,000_l._ The order they give is this.
"And that as Mahomed Reza Khan can no longer be considered by us as one to whom such a power can safely be committed, we trust to your local knowledge the selection of some person well qualified for the affairs of government, and of whose attachment to the Company you shall be well a.s.sured. Such person you will recommend to the Nabob, to succeed Mahomed Reza, as minister of the government, and guardian of the Nabob"s minority; and we persuade ourselves that the Nabob will pay such regard to your recommendation as to invest him with the necessary power and authority.
"As the advantages which the Company may receive from the appointment of such minister will depend on his readiness to promote our views and advance our interest, we are willing to allow him so liberal a gratification as may excite his zeal and insure his attachment to the Company; we therefore empower you to grant to the person whom you shall think worthy of this trust an annual allowance not exceeding three lacs of rupees, which we consider not only as a munificent reward for any services he shall render the Company, but sufficient to enable him to support his station with suitable rank and dignity. And here we must add, that, in the choice you shall make of a person to be the active minister of the Nabob"s government, we hope and trust that you will show yourselves worthy of the confidence we have placed in you by being actuated therein by no other motives than those of the public good and the safety and interest of the Company."
My Lords, here they have given a reward, and they have described a person fit to succeed in all capacities the man whom they had thought fit to depose. Now, as we have seen how Mr. Hastings obeyed the Company"s orders in the manner of removing Mahomed Reza Khan from his office, let us see how he obeyed their order for filling it up. Your Lordships will naturally suppose that he made all the orders of Mahometan and Hindoo princes to pa.s.s in strict review before him; that he had considered their age, authority, dignity, the goodness of their manners; and upon the collation of all these circ.u.mstances had chosen a person fit to be a regent to guard the Nabob"s minority from all rapacity whatever, and fit to instruct him in everything. I will give your Lordships Mr. Hastings"s own idea of the person necessary to fill such offices.
"That his rank ought to be such as at least ought not to wound the Nabob"s honor, or lessen his credit in the estimation of the people, by the magisterial command which the new guardian must exercise over him,--with abilities and vigor of mind equal to the support of that authority; and the world will expect that the guardian be especially qualified by his own acquired endowments to discharge the duties of that relation in the education of his young pupil, to inspire him with sentiments suitable to his birth, and to instruct him in the principles of his religion."
This, upon another occasion, is Mr. Hastings"s sense of the man who ought to be placed in that situation of trust in which the Company ordered him to place him. Did Mr. Hastings obey that order? No, my Lords, he appointed no man to fill that office. What, no man at all? No, he appointed no person at all in the sense which is mentioned there, which constantly describes a person at least of the male s.e.x: he appointed a woman to fill that office; he appointed a woman, in a country where no woman can be seen, where no woman can be spoken to by any one without a curtain between them; for all these various duties, requiring all these qualifications described by himself, he appointed a woman. Do you want more proof than this violent transgression of the Company"s orders upon that occasion that some corrupt motive must have influenced him?
My Lords, it is necessary for me to state the situation of the family, that you may judge from thence of the corrupt motives of Mr. Hastings"s proceedings. The Nabob Jaffier Ali Khan had among the women of his seraglio a person called Munny Begum. She was a dancing-girl, whom he had seen at some entertainment; and as he was of a licentious turn, this dancing-girl, in the course of her profession as a prost.i.tute, so far inveigled the Nabob, that, having a child or pretending to have had a child by him, he brought her into the seraglio; and the Company"s servants sold to that son the succession of that father. This woman had been sold as a slave,--her profession a dancer, her occupation a prost.i.tute. And, my Lords, this woman having put her natural son, as we state, and shall prove, in the place of the legitimate offspring of the Nabob, having got him placed by the Company"s servants on the musnud, she came to be at the head of that part of the household which relates to the women: which is a large and considerable trust in a country where polygamy is admitted, and where women of great rank may possibly be attended by two thousand of the same s.e.x in inferior situations. As soon as the legitimate son of the Nabob came to the musnud, there was no ground for keeping this woman any longer in that situation; and upon an application of the Company to Mahomed Reza Khan to know who ought to have the right of superiority, he answered, as he ought to have done, that, though all the women of the seraglio ought to have honor, yet the mother of the Nabob ought to have the superiority of it. Therefore this woman was removed, and the mother of the Nabob was placed in her situation. In that situation Mr. Hastings found the seraglio. If his duties had gone no further than the regulation of an Eastern household, he ought to have kept the Nabob"s mother there by the rules of that country.
What did he do? Not satisfied with giving to this prost.i.tute every favor that she could desire, (and money must be the natural object of such a person,) Mr. Hastings deposes the Nabob"s own mother, turns her out of the employment, and puts at the head of the seraglio this prost.i.tute, who at the best, in relation to him, could only be a step-mother. If you heard no more, do your Lordships want anything further to convince you that this must be a violent, atrocious, and corrupt act,--suppose it had gone no further than the seraglio? But when I call this woman a dancing-girl, I state something lower than Europeans have an idea of respecting that situation. She was born a slave, bred a dancing-girl.
Her dancing was not any of those n.o.ble and majestic movements which make part of the entertainment of the most wise, of the education of the most virtuous, which improve the manners without corrupting the morals of all civilized people, and of which, among uncivilized people, the professors have their due share of admiration; but these dances were not decent to be seen nor fit to be related. I shall pa.s.s them by. Your Lordships are to suppose the lowest degree of infamy in occupation and situation, when I tell you that Munny Begum was a slave and a dancing-girl.
The history of the Munny Begum is this. "At a village called Balkonda, near Sekundra, there lived a widow, who, from her great poverty, not being able to bring up her daughter Munny, gave her to a slave-girl belonging to Summin Ali Khan, whose name was Bissoo. During the s.p.a.ce of five years she lived at Shahjehanabad, and was educated by Bissoo after the manner of a dancing-girl. Afterwards the Nabob Shamut Jung, upon the marriage of Ikram ul Dowlah, brother to the Nabob Surajah ul Dowlah, sent for Biss...o...b..g"s set of dancing-girls from Shahjehanabad, of which Munny Begum was one, and allowed them ten thousand rupees for their expenses, to dance at the wedding. While the ceremony was celebrating, they were kept by the Nabob; but some months afterwards he dismissed them, and they took up their residence in this city. Mir Mahomed Jaffier Khan then took them into keeping, and allowed Munny and her set five hundred rupees per month, till at length, finding that Munny was pregnant, he took her into his own house. She gave birth to the Nabob Nujim ul Dowlah, and in this manner has she remained in the Nabob"s family ever since."
Now it required a very peculiar mode of selection to take such a woman, so circ.u.mstanced, (resembling whom there was not just such another,) to depose the Nabob"s own mother from the superiority of the household, and to subst.i.tute this woman. It would have been an abominable abuse, and would have implied corruption in the grossest degree, if Mr. Hastings had stopped there. He not only did this, but he put _her_, this woman, in the very place of Mahomed Reza Khan: he made her guardian, he made her regent, he made her viceroy, he made her the representative of the native government of the country in the eyes of strangers. There was not a trust, not a dignity in the country, which he did not put, during the minority of this unhappy person, her step-son, into the hands of this woman.
Reject, if you please, the strong presumption of corruption in disobeying the order of the Company directing him to select a _man_ fit to supply the place of Mahomed Reza Khan, to exercise all the great and arduous functions of government and of justice, as well as the regulation of the Nabob"s household; and then I will venture to say, that neither your Lordships, nor any man living, when he hears of this appointment, does or can hesitate a moment in concluding that it is the result of corruption, and that you only want to be informed what the corruption was. Here is such an arrangement as I believe never was before heard of: a secluded woman in the place of a man of the world; a fantastic dancing-girl in the place of a grave magistrate; a slave in the place of a woman of quality; a common prost.i.tute made to superintend the education of a young prince; and a step-mother, a name of horror in all countries, made to supersede the natural mother from whose body the Nabob had sprung.
These are circ.u.mstances that leave no doubt of the grossest and most flagrant corruption. But was there no application made to Mr. Hastings upon that occasion? The Nabob"s uncle, whom Mr. Hastings declares to be a man of no dangerous ambition, no alarming parts, no one quality that could possibly exclude him from that situation, makes an application to Mr. Hastings for that place, and was by Mr. Hastings rejected. The reason he gives for his rejection is, because he cannot put any man in it without danger to the Company, who had ordered him to put a man into it. One would imagine the trust to be placed in him was such as enabled him to overturn the Company in a moment. Now the situation in which the Nabob"s uncle, Yeteram ul Dowlah, would have been placed was this: he would have had no troops, he would have had no treasury, he would have had no collections of revenue, nothing, in short, that could have made him dangerous, but he would have been an absolute pensioner and dependant upon the Company, though in high office; and the least attempt to disturb the Company, instead of increasing, would have been subversive of his own power. If Mr. Hastings should still insist that there might be danger from the appointment of a man, we shall prove that he was of opinion that there could be no danger from any one,--that the Nabob himself was a mere shadow, a cipher, and was kept there only to soften the English government in the eyes and opinion of the natives.
My Lords, I will detail these circ.u.mstances no further, but will bring some collateral proofs to show that Mr. Hastings was at that very time conscious of the wicked and corrupt act he was doing. For, besides this foolish principle of policy, which he gives as a reason for defying the orders of the Company, and for insulting the country, that had never before seen a woman in that situation, and _his_ declaration to the Company, that their government cannot be supported by private justice, (a favorite maxim, which he holds upon all occasions,) besides these reasons which he gave for his politic injustice, he gives the following.
The Company had ordered that 30,000_l._ should be given to the person appointed. He knew that the Company could never dream of giving this woman 30,000_l._ a year, and he makes use of that circ.u.mstance to justify him in putting her in that place: for he says, the Company, in the distressed state of its affairs, could never mean to give 30,000_l._ a year for the office which they order to be filled; and accordingly, upon principles of economy, as well as upon principles of prudence, he sees there could be no occasion for giving this salary, and that it will be saved to the Company. But no sooner had he given her the appointment than that appointment became a ground for giving her that money. The moment he had appointed her, he overturns the very principle upon which he had appointed her, and gives the 30,000_l._ to her, and the officers under her, saving not one shilling to the Company by this infamous measure, which he justified only upon the principle of economy. The 30,000_l._ was given, the principle of economy vanished, a shocking arrangement was made, and Bengal saw a dancing-girl administering its justice, presiding over all its remaining power, wealth, and influence, exhibiting to the natives of the country their miserable state of degradation, and the miserable dishonor of the English Company in Mr.
Hastings"s abandonment of all his own pretences.
But there is a still stronger presumption. The Company ordered that this person, who was to have the management of the Nabob"s revenue, and who was to be his guardian, should keep a strict account, which account should be annually transmitted to the Presidency, and by the Presidency to Europe; and the purpose of it was, to keep a control upon the reduced expenses of the sixteen lac which were ordered in the manner I mentioned. Your Lordships will naturally imagine that that control was kept safe. No, here is the order of the Directors, and you will see how Mr. Hastings obeyed it.
"As the disburs.e.m.e.nt of the sums allotted to the Nabob for the maintenance of his household and family and the support of his dignity will pa.s.s through the hands of the minister who shall be selected by you, conformable to our preceding orders, we expect that you will require such minister to deliver annually to your board a regular and exact account of the application of the several sums paid by the Company to the Nabob. This you will strictly examine; and we trust that you will not suffer any part of the Nabob"s stipend to be appropriated to the minister"s own use, or wasted among the unnecessary dependants of the court, but that the whole amount be applied to the purposes for which it was a.s.signed by us."
One would have imagined, that, after Mr. Hastings had made so suspicious an arrangement, (I will not call it by any worse name,) he would have removed all suspicion with regard to money,--that he would have obeyed the Company by const.i.tuting the control which they had ordered to be placed over a man, even a fit man, and a man worthy of the trust committed to him. But what is his answer, when three years after he is desired to produce this account? His answer is,--"I can save the board the trouble of this reference by acquainting them that no such accounts have ever been transmitted, nor, as I can affirm with most certain knowledge, any orders given for that purpose, either to Gourdas, to whose office it did not properly belong, nor to the Begum, who had the actual charge and responsibility of those disburs.e.m.e.nts."
He has given to this woman the charge of all the disburs.e.m.e.nts of the Company; the officer whom you would imagine would be responsible was not responsible, but to this prost.i.tute and dancing-girl the whole of the revenue was given; when he was ordered to transmit that account, he not only did not produce that account, but had given no order that it should be kept: so that no doubt can be left upon your Lordships" minds, that the sixteen lac, which were reserved for the support of the dignity of the government of that country, were employed for the purpose of Mr.
Hastings"s having a constant bank, from which he should draw every corrupt emolument he should think fit for himself and his a.s.sociates.
Thus your Lordships see that he appointed an improper person to the trust without any control, and that the very accounts which were to be the guardians of his purity, and which were to remove suspicion from him, he never so much as directed or ordered. If any one can doubt that that transaction was in itself corrupt, I can only say that his mind must be const.i.tuted in a manner totally different from that which prevails in any of the higher or lower branches of judicature in any country in the world. The suppression of an account is a proof of corruption.
When Mr. Hastings committed these acts of violence against Mahomed Reza Khan, when he proceeded to make arrangements in the Company"s affairs of the same kind with those in which corruption had been before exercised, he was bound by a particular responsibility that there should be nothing mysterious in his own conduct, and that at least all the accounts should be well kept. He appointed a person nominally for that situation,--namely, the Rajah Gourdas. Who was he? A person acting, he says, under the influence of Rajah Nundcomar, whom he had declared was not fit to be employed or trusted: all the offices were filled by him.
But had Rajah Gourdas, whose character is that of an excellent man, against whom there could lie no reasonable objection on account of his personal character, and whose want of talents was to be supplied by those of Nundcomar, (and of _his_ parts Mr. Hastings spoke as highly as possible,)--had he, I say, the management? No: but Munny Begum. Did she keep any accounts? No.
Mr. Hastings was ordered, and a very disagreeable and harsh order it was, to take away one half of the Nabob"s allowance which he had by treaty. I do not charge Mr. Hastings with this reduction: he had nothing to do with that. Sixteen lac were cut off, and sixteen left; these two sums had been distributed, one for the support of the seraglio and the dignity of the state, the other for the court establishment and the household. The sixteen lac which was left, therefore, required to be well economized, and well administered. There was a rigor in the Company"s order relative to it, which was, that it should take place from an antedated time, that is, a whole year prior to the communication of their order to the Nabob. The order was, that the Nabob"s stipend should be reduced to sixteen lac a year from the month of January. Mr.
Hastings makes this reflection upon it, in order to leave no doubt upon your mind of his integrity in administering that great trust: he says,--