"Your order for the reduction of the Nabob"s stipend was communicated to him in the month of December, 1771. He remonstrated against it, and desired it might be again referred to the Company. The board entirely acquiesced in his remonstrance, and the subsequent payments of his stipend were paid as before. I might easily have availed myself of this plea. I might have treated it as an act of the past government, with which I had no cause to interfere, and joined in a.s.serting the impossibility of his defraying the vast expense of his court and household without it, which I could have proved by plausible arguments, drawn from the actual amount of the nizamut and bhela establishments; and both the Nabob and Begum would have liberally purchased my forbearance. Instead of pursuing this plan, I carried your orders rigidly and literally into execution. I undertook myself the laborious and reproachful task of limiting his charges, from an excess of his former stipend, to the sum of his reduced allowance."
He says in another place,--"The stoppage of the king"s tribute was an act of mine, and I have been often reproached with it. It was certainly in my power to have continued the payment of it, and to have made my terms with the king for any part of it which I might have chosen to reserve for my own use. He would have thanked me for the remainder."
My Lords, I believe it is a singular thing, and what your Lordships have been very little used to, to see a man in the situation of Mr. Hastings, or in any situation like it, so ready in knowing all the resources by which sinister emolument may be made and concealed, and which, under pretences of public good, may be transferred into the pocket of him who uses those pretences. He is resolved, if he is innocent, that his innocence shall not proceed from ignorance. He well knows the ways of falsifying the Company"s accounts; he well knows the necessities of the natives, and he knows that by paying a part of their dues they will be ready to give an acquittance of the whole. These are parts of Mr.
Hastings"s knowledge of which your Lordships will see he also well knows how to avail himself.
But you would expect, when he reduced the allowance to sixteen lac, and took credit to himself as if he had done the thing which he professed, and had argued from his rigor and cruelty his strict and literal obedience to the Company, that he had in reality done it. The very reverse: for it will be in proof, that, after he had pretended to reduce the Company"s allowance, he continued it a twelvemonth from the day in which he said he had entirely executed it, to the amount of 90,000_l._, and entered a false account of the suppression in the Company"s accounts; and when he has taken a credit as under pretence of reducing that allowance, he paid 90,000_l._ more than he ought. Can you, then, have a doubt, after all these false pretences, after all this fraud, fabrication, and suppression which he made use of, that that 90,000_l._, of which he kept no account and transmitted no account, was money given to himself for his own private use and advantage?
This is all that I think necessary to state to your Lordships upon this monstrous part of the arrangement; and therefore, from his rigorous obedience in cases of cruelty, and, where control was directed, from his total disobedience, and from his choice of persons, from his suppression of the accounts that ought to have been produced, and falsifying the accounts that were kept, there arises a strong inference of corruption.
When your Lordships see all this in proof, your Lordships will justify me in saying that there never was (taking every part of the arrangement) such a direct, open violation of any trust.--I shall say no more with regard to the appointment of Munny Begum.
My Lords, here ended the first scene, and here ends that body of presumption arising from the transaction and inherent in it. My Lords, the next scene that I am to bring before you is the positive proof of corruption in this transaction, in which I am sure you already see that corruption must exist. The charge was brought by a person in the highest trust and confidence with Mr. Hastings, a person employed in the management of the whole transaction, a person to whom the management, subordinate to Munny Begum, of all the pecuniary transactions, and all the arrangements made upon that occasion, was intrusted.
On the 11th day of March, 1775, Nundcomar gives to Mr. Francis, a member of the Council, a charge against Mr. Hastings, consisting of two parts.
The first of these charges was a vast number of corrupt dealings, with respect to which he was the informer, not the witness, but to which he indicated the modes of inquiry; and they are corrupt dealings, as Mr.
Hastings himself states them, amounting to millions of rupees, and in transactions every one of which implies in it the strongest degree of corruption. The next part was of those to which he was not only an informer, but a witness, in having been the person who himself transmitted the money to Mr. Hastings and the agents of Mr. Hastings; and accordingly, upon this part, which is the only part we charge, his evidence is clear and full, that he gave the money to Mr. Hastings,--he and the Begum (for I put them together). He states, that Mr. Hastings received for the appointment of Munny Begum to the rajahship two lacs of rupees, or about 22,000_l._, and that he received in another gross sum one lac and a half of rupees: in all making three lac and a half, or about 36,000_l._ This charge was signed by the man, and accompanied with the account.
Mr. Hastings, on that day, made no reflection or observation whatever upon this charge, except that he attempted to excite some suspicion that Mr. Francis, who had produced it, was concerned in the charge, and was the princ.i.p.al mover in it. He asks Mr. Francis that day this question:--
"The Governor-General observes, as Mr. Francis has been pleased to inform the board that he was unacquainted with the contents of the letter sent in to the board by Nundcomar, that he thinks himself justified in carrying his curiosity further than he should have permitted himself without such a previous intimation, and therefore begs leave to ask Mr. Francis whether he was before this acquainted with Nundcomar"s intention of bringing such charges against him before the board.
"_Mr. Francis._--As a member of this Council, I do not deem myself obliged to answer any question of mere curiosity. I am willing, however, to inform the Governor-General, that, though I was totally unacquainted with the contents of the paper I have now delivered in to the board till I heard it read, I did apprehend in general that it contained some charge against him. It was this apprehension that made me so particularly cautious in the manner of receiving the Rajah"s letter. I was not acquainted with Rajah Nundcomar"s intention of bringing in such charges as are mentioned in the letter.
"Warren Hastings.
J. Clavering.
Geo. Monson.
P. Francis."
Now what the duty of Mr. Hastings and the Council was, upon receiving such information, I shall beg leave to state to your Lordships from the Company"s orders; but, before I read them, I must observe, that, in pursuance of an act of Parliament, which was supposed to be made upon account of the neglect of the Company, as well as the neglects of their servants, and for which general neglects responsibility was fixed upon the Company for the future, while for the present their authority was suspended, and a Parliamentary commission sent out to regulate their affairs, the Company did, upon that occasion, send out a general code and body of instructions to be observed by their servants, in the 35th paragraph of which it is said,--
"We direct that you immediately cause the strictest inquiry to be made into all oppressions which may have been committed either against the natives or Europeans, and into all abuses that may have prevailed in the collection of the revenues, or any part of the civil government of the Presidency: and that you communicate to us all information which you may be able to learn relative thereto, or to any dissipation or embezzlement of the Company"s money."
Your Lordships see here that there is a direct duty fixed upon them to forward, to promote, to set on foot, without exception of any persons whatever, an inquiry into all manner of corruption, peculation, and oppression. Therefore this charge of Nundcomar"s was a case exactly within the Company"s orders; such a charge was not sought out, but was actually laid before them; but if it had not been actually laid before them, if they had any reason to suspect that such corruptions existed, they were bound by this order to make an active inquiry into them.
Upon that day (11th March, 1775) nothing further pa.s.sed; and, on the part of Mr. Hastings, that charge, as far as we can find, might have stood upon the records forever, without his making the smallest observation upon it, or taking any one step to clear his own character.
But Nundcomar was not so inattentive to his duties as an accuser as Mr.
Hastings was to his duties as an inquirer; for, without a moment"s delay, upon the first board-day, two days after, Nundcomar came and delivered the following letter.
"I had the honor to lay before you, in a letter of the 11th instant, an abstracted, but true account of the Honorable Governor in the course of his administration. What is there written I mean not the least to alter: far from it. I have the strongest written vouchers to produce in support of what I have advanced; and I wish and entreat, for my honor"s sake, that you will suffer me to appear before you, to establish the fact by an additional, incontestable evidence."
My Lords, I will venture to say, if ever there was an accuser that appeared well and with weight before any court, it was this man. He does not shrink from his charge; he offered to meet the person he charged face to face, and to make good his charge by his own evidence, and further evidence that he should produce. Your Lordships have also seen the conduct of Mr. Hastings on the first day; you have seen his acquiescence under it; you have seen the suspicion he endeavored to raise. Now, before I proceed to what Mr. Hastings thought of it, I must remark upon this accusation, that it is a specific accusation, coming from a person knowing the very transaction, and known to be concerned in it,--that it was an accusation in writing, that it was an accusation with a signature, that it was an accusation with a person to make it good, that it was made before a competent authority, and made before an authority bound to inquire into such accusation. When he comes to produce his evidence, he tells you, first, the sums of money given, the species in which they were given, the very bags in which they were put, the exchange that was made by reducing them to the standard money of the country; he names all the persons through whose hands the whole transaction went, eight in number, besides himself, Munny Begum, and Gourdas, being eleven, all referred to in this transaction. I do believe that since the beginning of the world there never was an accusation which was more deserving of inquiry, because there never was an accusation which put a false accuser in a worse situation, and that put an honest defendant in a better; for there was every means of collation, every means of comparison, every means of cross-examining, every means of control. There was every way of sifting evidence, in which evidence could be sifted. Eleven witnesses to the transaction are referred to; all the particulars of the payment, every circ.u.mstance that could give the person accused the advantage of showing the falsehood of the accusation, were specified. General accusations may be treated as calumnies; but particular accusations, like these, afford the defendant, if innocent, every possible means for making his defence: therefore the very making no defence at all would prove, beyond all doubt, a consciousness of guilt.
The next thing for your Lordships" consideration is the conduct of Mr.
Hastings upon this occasion. You would imagine that he would have treated the accusation with a cold and manly disdain; that he would have challenged and defied inquiry, and desired to see his accuser face to face. This is what any man would do in such a situation. I can conceive very well that a man composed, firm, and collected in himself, conscious of not only integrity, but known integrity, conscious of a whole life beyond the reach of suspicion,--that a man placed in such a situation might oppose general character to general accusation, and stand collected in himself, poised on his own base, and defying all the calumnies in the world. But as it shows a great and is a proof of a virtuous mind to despise calumny, it is the proof of a guilty mind to despise a specific accusation, when made before a competent authority, and with competent means to prove it. As Mr. Hastings"s conduct was what no man living expected, I will venture to say that no expression can do it justice but his own. Upon reading the letter, and a motion being made that Rajah Nundcomar be brought before the board to prove the charge against the Governor-General, the Governor-General enters the following minute.
"Before the question is put, I declare that I will not suffer Nundcomar to appear before the board as my accuser. I know what belongs to the dignity and character of the first member of this administration. I will not sit at this board in the character of a criminal, nor do I acknowledge the members of this board to be my judges. I am reduced on this occasion to make the declaration, that I look upon General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis as my accusers. I cannot prove this in the direct letter of the law, but in my conscience I regard them as such, and I will give my reasons for it. On their arrival at this place, and on the first formation of the Council, they thought proper to take immediate and decisive measures in contradiction and for the repeal of those which were formed by me in conjunction with the last administration. I appealed to the Court of Directors from their acts.
Many subsequent letters have been transmitted both by them and by me to the Court of Directors: by me, in protestation against their conduct; by them, in justification of it. Quitting this ground, they since appear to me to have chosen other modes of attack, apparently calculated to divert my attention and to withdraw that of the public from the subject of our first differences, which regarded only the measures that were necessary for the good of the service, to attacks directly and personally levelled at me for matters which tend to draw a personal and popular odium upon me: and fit instruments they have found for their purpose,--Mr. Joseph Fowke, Mahrajah Nundcomar, Roopnarain Chowdry, and the Ranny of Burdwan.
"It appears incontestably upon the records that the charges preferred by the Ranny against me proceeded from the office of Mr. Fowke. All the papers transmitted by her came in their original form written in the English language,--some with Persian papers, of which they were supposed to be translations, but all strongly marked with the character and idiom of the English language. I applied on Sat.u.r.day last for Persian originals of some of the papers sent by her, and I was refused: I am justified in declaring my firm belief that no such originals exist.
"With respect to Nundcomar"s accusations, they were delivered by the hands of Mr. Francis, who has declared that he was called upon by Rajah Nundcomar, as a duty belonging to his office as a councillor of this state, to lay the packet which contained them before the board,--that he conceived that he could not, consistent with his duty, refuse such a letter at the instance of a person of the Rajah"s rank, and did accordingly receive it, and laid it before the board,--declaring at the same time that he was unacquainted with the contents of it. I believe that the Court of Directors, and those to whom those proceedings shall be made known, will think differently of this action of Mr. Francis: that Nundcomar was guilty of great insolence and disrespect in the demand which he made of Mr. Francis; and that it was not a duty belonging to the office of a councillor of this state to make himself the carrier of a letter, which would have been much more properly committed to the hands of a peon or hircarra, or delivered by the writer of it to the secretary himself.
"Mr. Francis has acknowledged that he apprehended in general that it contained some charge against me. If the charge was false, it was a libel. It might have been false for anything that Mr. Francis could know to the contrary, since he was unacquainted with the contents of it. In this instance, therefore, he incurred the hazard of presenting a libel to the board: this was not a duty belonging to his office as a councillor of this state. I must further inform the board that I have been long since acquainted with Nundcomar"s intentions of making this attack upon me. Happily, Nundcomar, among whose talents for intrigue that of secrecy is not the first, has been ever too ready to make the first publication of his own intentions. I was shown a paper containing many accusations against me, which I was told was carried by Nundcomar to Colonel Monson, and that he himself was employed for some hours in private with Colonel Monson, explaining the nature of those charges.
"I mention only what I was told; but as the rest of the report which was made to me corresponds exactly with what has happened since, I hope I shall stand acquitted to my superiors and to the world in having given so much credit to it as to bring the circ.u.mstance upon record. I cannot recollect the precise time in which this is said to have happened, but I believe it was either before or at the time of the dispatch of the "Bute" and "Pacific." The charge has since undergone some alteration; but of the copy of the paper which was delivered to me, containing the original charge, I caused a translation to be made; when, suspecting the renewal of the subject in this day"s consultation, I brought it with me, and I desire it may be recorded, that, when our superiors, or the world, if the world is to be made the judge of my conduct, shall be possessed of these materials, they may, by comparing the supposed original and amended list of accusations preferred against me by Nundcomar, judge how far I am justified in the credit which I give to the reports above mentioned. I do not mean to infer from what I have said that it makes any alteration in the nature of the charges, whether they were delivered immediately from my ostensible accusers, or whether they came to the board through the channel of patronage; but it is sufficient to authorize the conviction which I feel in my own mind, that those gentlemen are parties in the accusations of which they a.s.sert the right of being the judges.
"From the first commencement of this administration, every means have been tried both to deprive me of the legal authority with which I have been trusted, and to proclaim the annihilation of it to the world; but no instance has yet appeared of this in so extraordinary a degree as in the question now before the board. The chief of the administration, your superior, Gentlemen, appointed by the legislature itself, shall I sit at this board to be arraigned in the presence of a wretch whom you all know to be one of the basest of mankind? I believe I need not mention his name; but it is Nundcomar. Shall I sit here to hear men collected from the dregs of the people give evidence, at his dictating, against my character and conduct? I will not. You may, if you please, form yourselves into a committee for the investigation of these matters in any manner which you may think proper; but I will repeat, that I will not meet Nundcomar at the board, nor suffer Nundcomar to be examined at the board; nor have you a right to it, nor can it answer any other purpose than that of vilifying and insulting me to insist upon it.
"I am sorry to have found it necessary to deliver my sentiments on a subject of so important a nature in an unpremeditated minute, drawn from me at the board, which I should have wished to have had leisure and retirement to have enabled me to express myself with that degree of caution and exactness which the subject requires. I have said nothing but what I believe and am morally certain I shall stand justified for in the eyes of my superiors and the eyes of the world; but I reserve to myself the liberty of adding my further sentiments in such a manner and form as I shall hereafter judge necessary."
My Lords, you see here the picture of Nundcomar drawn by Mr. Hastings himself; you see the hurry, the pa.s.sion, the precipitation, the confusion, into which Mr. Hastings is thrown by the perplexity of detected guilt; you see, my Lords, that, instead of defending himself, he rails at his accuser in the most indecent language, calling him a wretch whom they all knew to be the basest of mankind,--that he rails at the Council, by attributing their conduct to the worst of motives,--that he rails at everybody, and declares the accusation to be a libel: in short, you see plainly that the man"s head is turned. You see there is not a word he says upon this occasion which has common sense in it; you see one great leading principle in it,--that he does not once attempt to deny the charge. He attempts to vilify the witness, he attempts to vilify those he supposes to be his accusers, he attempts to vilify the Council; he lags upon the accusation, he mixes it with other accusations, which had nothing to do with it, and out of the whole he collects a resolution--to do what? To meet his adversary and defy him?
No,--that he will not suffer him to appear before him: he says, "I will not sit at this board in the character of a criminal, nor do I acknowledge the board to be my judges."
He was not called upon to acknowledge them to be his judges. Both he and they were called upon to inquire into all corruptions without exception.
It was his duty not merely [not?] to traverse and oppose them while inquiring into acts of corruption, but he was bound to take an active part in it,--that if they had a mind to let such a thing sleep upon their records, it was his duty to have brought forward the inquiry. They were not his judges, they were not his accusers; they were his fellow-laborers in the inquiry ordered by the Court of Directors, their masters, and by which inquiry he might be purged of that corruption with which he stood charged.
He says, "Nundcomar is a wretch whom you all know to be the basest of mankind." I believe they did not know the man to be a wretch, or the basest of mankind; but if he was a wretch, and if he was the basest of mankind, if he was guilty of all the crimes with which we charge Mr.
Hastings, (not one of which was ever proved against him,)--if any of your Lordships were to have the misfortune to be before this tribunal, before any inquest of the House of Commons, or any other inquest of this nation, would you not say that it was the greatest possible advantage to you that the man who accused you was a miscreant, the vilest and basest of mankind, by the confession of all the world? Do mankind really, then, think that to be accused by men of honor, of weight, of character, upon probable charges, is an advantage to them, and that to be accused by the basest of mankind is a disadvantage? No: give me, if ever I am to have accusers, miscreants, as he calls him,--wretches, the basest and vilest of mankind. "The board," says he, "are my accusers." If they were, it was their duty; but they were not his accusers, but were inquiring into matters which it was equally his duty to inquire into. He would not suffer Nundcomar to be produced; he would not suffer Nundcomar to be examined; he rather suffered such an accusation to stand against his name and character than permit it to be inquired into. Do I want any other presumption of his guilt, upon such an occasion, than such conduct as this?
This man, whom he calls a wretch, the basest and vilest of mankind, was undoubtedly, by himself, in the records of the Company, declared to be one of the first men of that country, everything that a subject could be, a person ill.u.s.trious for his birth, sacred with regard to his caste, opulent in fortune, eminent in situation, who had filled the very first offices in that country; and that he was, added to all this, a man of most acknowledged talents, and of such a superiority as made the whole people of Bengal appear to be an inferior race of beings compared to him,--a man whose outward appearance and demeanor used to cause reverence and awe, and who at that time was near seventy years of age, which, without any other t.i.tle, generally demands respect from mankind.
And yet this man he calls the basest of mankind, a name which no man is ent.i.tled to call another till he has proved something to justify him in so doing; and notwithstanding his opulence, his high rank, station, and birth, he despises him, and will not suffer him to be heard as an accuser before him. I will venture to say that Mr. Hastings, in so doing, whether elevated by philosophy or inflated by pride, is not like the rest of mankind. We do know, that, in all accusations, a great part of their weight and authority comes from the character, the situation, the name, the description, the office, the dignity of the persons who bring them; mankind are so made, we cannot resist this prejudice; and it has weight, and ever will have _prima facie_ weight, in all the tribunals in the world. If, therefore, Rajah Nundcomar was a man who (it is not degrading to your Lordships to say) was equal in rank, according to the idea of his country, to any peer in this House, as sacred as a bishop, of as much gravity and authority as a judge, and who was prime-minister in the country in which he lived, with what face can Mr.
Hastings call this man a wretch, and say that he will not suffer him to be brought before him? If, indeed, joined with such circ.u.mstances, the accuser be a person of bad morals, then, I admit, those bad morals take away from their weight; but for a proof of that you must have some other grounds than the charges and the railing of the culprit against him.
I might say that his pa.s.sion is a proof of his guilt; and there is an action which is more odious than the crimes he attempts to cover,--_for he has murdered this man by the hands of Sir Elijah Impey_; and if his counsel should be unwise enough to endeavor to detract from the credit of this man by the pretended punishment to which he was brought, we will open that dreadful scene to your Lordships, and you will see that it does not detract from his credit, but brings an eternal stain and dishonor upon the justice of Great Britain: I say nothing further of it.
As he stood there, as he gave that evidence that day, the evidence was to be received; it stands good, and is a record against Mr.
Hastings,--with this addition, that he would not suffer it to be examined. He railed at his colleagues. He says, if the charge was false, they were guilty of a libel. No: it might have been the effect of conspiracy, it might be punished in another way; but if it was false, it was no libel. And all this is done to discountenance inquiry, to bring odium upon his colleagues for doing their duty, and to prevent that inquiry which could alone clear his character.
Mr. Hastings had himself forgotten the character which he had given of Nundcomar; but he says that his colleagues were perfectly well acquainted with him, and knew that he was a wretch, the basest of mankind. But before I read to you the character which Mr. Hastings gave of him, when he recommended him to the Presidency, (to succeed Mahomed Reza Khan,) I am to let your Lordships understand fully the purpose for which Mr. Hastings gave it. Upon that occasion, all the Council, whom he stated to lie under suspicion of being bought by Mahomed Reza Khan, all those persons with one voice cried out against Nundcomar; and as Mr.
Hastings was known to be of the faction the most opposite to Nundcomar, they charged him with direct inconsistency in raising Nundcomar to that exalted trust,--a charge which Mr. Hastings could not repel any other way than by defending Nundcomar. The weight of their objections chiefly lay to Nundcomar"s political character; his moral character was not discussed in that proceeding. Mr. Hastings says,--
"The President does not take upon him to vindicate the moral character of Nundcomar; his sentiments of this man"s former political conduct are not unknown to the Court of Directors, who, he is persuaded, will be more inclined to attribute his present countenance of him to motives of zeal and fidelity to the service, in repugnance perhaps to his own inclinations, than to any predilection in his favor. He is very well acquainted with most of the facts alluded to in the minute of the majority, having been a princ.i.p.al instrument in detecting them: nevertheless he thinks it but justice to make a distinction between the violation of a trust and an offence committed against our government by a man who owed it no allegiance, nor was indebted to it for protection, but, on the contrary, was the minister and actual servant of a master whose interest naturally suggested that kind of policy which sought, by foreign aids, and the diminution of the power of the Company, to raise his own consequence, and to reestablish his authority. He has never been charged with any instance of infidelity to the Nabob Mir Jaffier, the constant tenor of whose politics, from his first accession to the nizamut till his death, corresponded in all points so exactly with the artifices which were detected in his minister that they may be as fairly ascribed to the one as to the other: their immediate object was beyond question the aggrandizement of the former, though the latter had ultimately an equal interest in their success. The opinion which the Nabob himself entertained of the services and of the fidelity of Nundcomar evidently appeared in the distinguished marks which he continued to show him of his favor and confidence to the latest hour of his life.
"His conduct in the succeeding administration appears not only to have been dictated by the same principles, but, if we may be allowed to speak favorably of any measures which opposed the views of our own government and aimed at the support of an adverse interest, surely it was not only not culpable, but even praiseworthy. He endeavored, as appears by the abstracts before us, to give consequence to his master, and to pave the way to his independence, by obtaining a firman from the king for his appointment to the subahship; and he opposed the promotion of Mahomed Reza Khan, because he looked upon it as a supersession of the rights and authority of the Nabob. He is now an absolute dependant and subject of the Company, on whose favor he must rest all his hopes of future advancement."
The character here given of him is that of an excellent patriot, a character which all your Lordships, in the several situations which you enjoy or to which you may be called, will envy,--the character of a servant who stuck to his master against all foreign encroachments, who stuck to him to the last hour of his life, and had the dying testimony of his master to his services.
Could Sir John Clavering, could Colonel Monson, could Mr. Francis know that this man, of whom Mr. Hastings had given that exalted character upon the records of the Company, was the basest and vilest of mankind?
No, they ought to have esteemed him the contrary: they knew him to be a man of rank, they knew him to be a man perhaps of the first capacity in the world, and they knew that Mr. Hastings had given this honorable testimony of him on the records of the Company but a very little time before; and there was no reason why they should think or know, as he expresses it, that he was the basest and vilest of mankind. From the account, therefore, of Mr. Hastings himself, he was a person competent to accuse, a witness fit to be heard; and that is all I contend for. Mr.
Hastings would not hear him, he would not suffer the charge he had produced to be examined into.
It has been shown to your Lordships that Mr. Hastings employed Nundcomar to inquire into the conduct and to be the princ.i.p.al manager of a prosecution against Mahomed Reza Khan. Will you suffer this man to qualify and disqualify witnesses and prosecutors agreeably to the purposes which his own vengeance and corruption may dictate in one case, and which the defence of those corruptions may dictate in another? Was Nundcomar a person fit to be employed in the greatest and most sacred trusts in the country, and yet not fit to be a witness to the sums of money which he paid Mr. Hastings for those trusts? Was Nundcomar a fit witness to be employed and a fit person to be used in the prosecution of Mahomed Reza Khan, and yet not fit to be employed against Mr. Hastings, who himself had employed him in the very prosecution of Mahomed Reza Khan?
If Nundcomar was an enemy to Mr. Hastings, he was an enemy to Mahomed Reza Khan; and Mr. Hastings employed him, avowedly and professedly on the records of the Company, on account of the very qualification of that enmity. Was he a wretch, the basest of mankind, when opposed to Mr.
Hastings? Was he not as much a wretch, and as much the basest of mankind, when Mr. Hastings employed him in the prosecution of the first magistrate and Mahometan of the first descent in Asia? Mr. Hastings shall not qualify and disqualify men at his pleasure; he must accept them such as they are; and it is a presumption of his guilt accompanying the charge, (which I never will separate from it,) that he would not suffer the man to be produced who made the accusation. And I therefore contend, that, as the accusation was so made, so witnessed, so detailed, so specific, so entered upon record, and so entered upon record in consequence of the inquiries ordered by the Company, his refusal and rejection of inquiry into it is a presumption of his guilt.
He is full of his idea of dignity. It is right for every man to preserve his dignity. There is a dignity of station, which a man has in trust to preserve; there is a dignity of personal character, which every man by being made man is bound to preserve. But you see Mr. Hastings"s idea of dignity has no connection with integrity; it has no connection with honest fame; it has no connection with the reputation which he is bound to preserve. What, my Lords, did he owe nothing to the Company that had appointed him? Did he owe nothing to the legislature,--did he owe nothing to your Lordships, and to the House of Commons, who had appointed him? Did he owe nothing to himself? to the country that bore him? Did he owe nothing to the world, as to its opinion, to which every public man owes a reputation? What an example was here held out to the Company"s servants!
Mr. Hastings says, "This may come into a court of justice; it will come into a court of justice: I reserve my defence on the occasion till it comes into a court of justice, and here I make no opposition to it." To this I answer, that the Company did not order him so to reserve himself, but ordered him to be an inquirer into those things. Is it a lesson to be taught to the inferior servants of the Company, that, provided they can escape out of a court of justice by the back-doors and sally-ports of the law, by artifice of pleading, by those strict and rigorous rules of evidence which have been established for the protection of innocence, but which by them might be turned to the protection and support of guilt, that such an escape is enough for them? that an Old Bailey acquittal is enough to establish a fitness for trust? and if a man shall go acquitted out of such a court, because the judges are bound to acquit him against the conviction of their own opinion, when every man in the market-place knows that he is guilty, that he is fit for a trust? Is it a lesson to be held out to the servants of the Company, that, upon the first inquiry which is made into corruption, and that in the highest trust, by the persons authorized to inquire into it, he uses all the powers of that trust to quash it,--vilifying his colleagues, vilifying his accuser, abusing everybody, but never denying the charge? His a.s.sociates and colleagues, astonished at this conduct, so wholly unlike everything that had ever appeared of innocence, request him to consider a little better. They declare they are not his accusers; they tell him they are not his judges; that they, under the orders of the Company, are making an inquiry which he ought to make. He declares he will not make it. Being thus driven to the wall, he says, "Why do you not form yourselves into a committee? I won"t suffer these proceedings to go on as long as I am present." Mr. Hastings plainly had in view, that, if the proceedings had been before a committee, there would have been a doubt of their authenticity, as not being before a regular board; and he contended that there could be no regular board without his own presence in it: a poor, miserable scheme for eluding this inquiry; partly by saying that it was carried on when he was not present, and partly by denying the authority of this board.