FOOTNOTES:
[57] As the Appendixes originally printed with the foregoing Reports, and which consist chiefly of official documents, would have swelled this volume to an enormous size, it has been thought proper to omit them, with the exception of the first nine numbers of the Appendix B. to the Eleventh Report, the insertion of which has been judged necessary for the elucidation of the subject-matter of that Report.
{Received 19th May,
{Cancelled 30th July, 1774.
ARTICLES OF CHARGE
OF
HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS
AGAINST
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL:
PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
IN APRIL AND MAY, 1786.
ARTICLES I.-VI.
ARTICLES OF CHARGE
AGAINST
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ.,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL.
I.—ROHILLA WAR.
That the Court of Directors of the East India Company, from a just sense of the danger and odium incident to the extension of their conquests in the East Indies, and from an experience of the disorders and corrupt practices which intrigues and negotiations to bring about revolutions among the country powers had produced, did positively and repeatedly direct their servants in Bengal not to engage in any offensive war whatsoever. That the said Court laid it down as an invariable maxim, which ought ever to be maintained, that they were to avoid taking part in the political schemes of any of the country princes,—and did, in particular, order and direct that they should not engage with a certain prince called Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, and Vizier of the Empire, in any operations beyond certain limits in the said orders specially described.
That Warren Hastings, Esquire, then Governor of Fort William in Bengal, did, with other members of the Council, declare his clear understanding of the true intent and meaning of the said positive and repeated orders and injunctions,—did express to the Court of Directors his approbation of the policy thereof,—did declare that he adopted the same with sincerity and satisfaction, and that he was too well aware of the ruinous tendency of all schemes of conquest ever to adopt them, or ever to depart from the absolute line of self-defence, unless impelled to it by the most obvious necessity,—did signify to the Nabob of Oude the said orders, and his obligation to yield punctual obedience thereto,—and did solemnly engage and promise to the Court of Directors, with the unanimous concurrence of the whole Council, "that no object or consideration should either tempt or compel him to pass the political line which they [the Directors] had laid down for his operations with the Vizier," assuring the Court of Directors that he "scarce saw a possible advantage which could compensate the hazard and expense to be incurred by a contrary conduct,"—that he did frequently repeat the same declarations, or declarations to the same effect, particularly in a letter to the Nabob himself, of the 22d of November, 1773, in the following words: "The commands of my superiors are, as I have repeatedly informed you, peremptory, that I shall not suffer their arms to be carried beyond the line of their own boundaries, and those of your Excellency, their ally."
That the said Warren Hastings, in direct contradiction to the said orders, and to his own sense of their propriety and coercive authority, and in breach of his express promises and engagements, did, in September, 1773, enter into a private engagement with the said Nabob of Oude, who was the special object of the prohibition, to furnish him, for a stipulated sum of money to be paid to the East India Company, with a body of troops for the declared purpose of "thoroughly extirpating the nation of the Rohillas": a nation from whom the Company had never received, or pretended to receive or apprehend, any injury whatsoever; whose country, in the month of February, 1773, by an unanimous resolution of the said Warren Hastings and his Council, was included in the line of defence against the Mahrattas; and from whom the Nabob never complained of an aggression or act of hostility, nor pretended a distinct cause of quarrel, other than the non-payment of a sum of money in dispute between him and that people.
That, supposing the sum of money in question to have been strictly due to the said Nabob by virtue of any engagement between him and the Rohilla chiefs, the East India Company, or their representatives, were not parties to that engagement, or guaranties thereof, nor bound by any obligation whatever to enforce the execution of it.
That, previous to the said Warren Hastings's entering into the agreement or bargain aforesaid to extirpate the said nation, he did not make, or cause to be made, a due inquiry into the validity of the sole pretext used by the said Nabob; nor did he give notice of the said claims of debt to the nation of the Rohillas, in order to receive an explanation on their part of the matter in litigation; nor did he offer any mediation, nor propose, nor afford an opportunity of proposing, an agreement or submission by which the calamities of war might be avoided, as, by the high state in which the East India Company stood as a sovereign power in the East, and the honor and character it ought to maintain, as well as by the principles of equity and humanity, and by the true and obvious policy of uniting the power of the Mahometan princes against the Mahrattas, he was bound to do. That, instead of such previous inquiry, or tender of good offices, the said Warren Hastings did stimulate the ambition and ferocity of the Nabob of Oude to the full completion of the inhuman end of the said unjustifiable enterprise, by informing him "that it would be absolutely necessary to persevere in it until it should be accomplished"; pretending that a fear of the Company's displeasure was his motive for annexing the accomplishment of the enterprise as a condition of his assistance, and asserting "that he could not hazard or answer for the displeasure of the Company, his masters, if they should find themselves involved in a fruitless war, or in an expense for prosecuting it,"—a pretence tending to the high dishonor of the East India Company, as if the gain to be acquired was to reconcile that body to the breach of their own orders prohibiting all such enterprises;—and in order further to involve the said Nabob beyond the power of retreating, he did, in the course of the proceeding, purposely put the said Nabob under difficulties in case he should decline that war, and did oblige him to accept even the permission to relinquish the execution of this unjust project as a favor, and to make concessions for it; thereby acting as if the Company were principals in the hostility; and employing for this purpose much double dealing and divers unworthy artifices to entangle and perplex the said Nabob, but by means of which he found himself (as he has entered it on record) hampered and embarrassed in a particular manner.
That the said compact for offensive alliance in favor of a great prince against a considerable nation was not carried on by projects and counter-projects in writing; nor were the articles and conditions thereof formed into any regular written instrument, signed and sealed by the parties; but the whole (both the negotiation and the compact of offensive alliance against the Rohillas) was a mere verbal engagement, the purport and conventions whereof nowhere appeared, except in subsequent correspondence, in which certain of the articles, as they were stated by the several parties, did materially differ: a proceeding new and unprecedented, and directly leading to mutual misconstruction, evasion, and ill faith, and tending to encourage and protect every species of corrupt, clandestine practice. That, at the time when this private verbal agreement was made by the said Warren Hastings with the Nabob of Oude, a public ostensible treaty was concluded by him with the said Nabob, in which there is no mention whatever of such agreement, or reference whatever to it: in defence of which omission, it is asserted by the said Warren Hastings, that the multiplication of treaties weakens their efficacy, and therefore they should be reserved only for very important and permanent obligations; notwithstanding he had previously declared to the said Nabob, "that the points which he had proposed required much consideration, and the previous ratification of a formal agreement, before he could consent to them." That the whole of the said verbal agreement with the Nabob of Oude in his own person, without any assistance on his part, was carried on and concluded by the said Warren Hastings alone, without any person who might witness the same, without the intervention even of an interpreter, though he confesses that he spoke the Hindostan language imperfectly, and although he had with him at that time and place several persons high in the Company's service and confidence, namely, the commander-in-chief of their forces, two members of their Council, and the Secretary to the Council, who were not otherwise acquainted with the proceedings between him and the said Nabob than by such communications as he thought fit to make to them.
That the object avowed by the said Warren Hastings, and the motives urged by him for employing the British arms in the utter extirpation of the Rohilla nation, are stated by himself in the following terms:—"The acquisition of forty lacs of rupees to the Company, and of so much specie added to the exhausted currency of our provinces;—that it would give wealth to the Nabob of Oude, of which we should participate;—that the said Warren Hastings should always be ready to profess that he did reckon the probable acquisition of wealth among his reasons for taking up arms against his neighbors;—that it would ease the Company of a considerable part of their military expense, and preserve their troops from inaction and relaxation of discipline;—that the weak state of the Rohillas promised an easy conquest of them;—and, finally, that such was his idea of the Company's distress at home, added to his knowledge of their wants abroad, that he should have been glad of any occasion to employ their forces which saved so much of their pay and expenses."
That, in the private verbal agreement aforesaid for offensive war, the said Warren Hastings did transgress the bounds of the authority given him by his instructions from the Council of Fort William, which had limited his powers to such compacts "as were consistent with the spirit of the Company's orders"; which Council he afterwards persuaded, and with difficulty drew into an acquiescence in what he had done.
That the agreement to the effect aforesaid was settled in the said secret conferences before the 10th of September, 1773; but the said Warren Hastings, concealing from the Court of Directors a matter of which it was his duty to afford them the earliest and fullest information, did, on the said 10th of September, 1773, write to the Directors, and dispatched his letter over land, giving them an account of the public treaty, but taking not the least notice of his agreement for a mercenary war against the nation of the Rohillas.
That, in order to conceal the true purport of the said clandestine agreement the more effectually, and until he should find means of gaining over the rest of the Council to a concurrence in his disobedience of orders, he entered a minute in the Council books, giving a false account of the transaction; in which minute he represented that the Nabob had indeed proposed the design aforesaid, and that he, the said Warren Hastings, was pleased that he urged the scheme of this expedition no further, when in reality and truth he had absolutely consented to the said enterprise, and had engaged to assist him in it, which he afterwards admitted, and confessed that he did act in consequence of the same.
That the said Warren Hastings and his Council were sensible of the true nature of the enterprise in which they had engaged the Company's arms, and of the heavy responsibility to which it would subject himself and the Council,—"the personal hazard they, the Council, run, in undertaking so uncommon a measure without positive instructions, at their own risk, with the eyes of the whole nation on the affairs of the Company, and the passions and prejudices of almost every man in England inflamed against the conduct of the Company and the character of its servants"; yet they engaged in the very practice which had brought such odium on the Company, and on the character of its servants, though they further say that they had continually before their eyes the dread of forfeiting the favor of their employers, and becoming the "objects of popular invectives." The said Warren Hastings himself says, at the very time when he proposed the measure, "I must confess I entertain some doubts as to its expediency at this time, from the circumstances of the Company at home, exposed to popular clamor, and all its measures liable to be canvassed in Parliament, their charter drawing to a close, and his Majesty's ministers unquestionably ready to take advantage of every unfavorable circumstance in the negotiations of its renewal." All these considerations did not prevent the said Warren Hastings from making and carrying into execution the said mercenary agreement for a sum of money, the payment of which the Nabob endeavored to evade on a construction of the verbal treaty, and was so far from being insisted on, as it ought to have been, by the said Warren Hastings, that, when, after the completion of the service, the commander-in-chief was directed to make a demand of the money, the agent of the said Warren Hastings at the same time assured the Nabob "that the demand was nothing more than matter of form, common, and even necessary, in all public transactions, and that, although the board considered the claim of the government literally due, it was not the intention of administration to prescribe to his Excellency the mode, or even limits, of payment." Nor was any part of the money recovered, until the establishment of the Governor-General and Council by act of Parliament, and their determination to withdraw the brigade from the Nabob's service,—the Resident at his court, appointed by the said Warren Hastings, having written, that he had experienced much duplicity and deceit in most of his transactions with his Excellency; and the said Nabob and his successors falling back in other payments in the same or greater proportion as he advanced in the payment of this debt, the consideration of lucre to the Company, the declared motive to this shameful transaction, totally failed, and no money in effect and substance (as far as by any account to be depended on appears) has been obtained.
That the said Nabob of Oude did, in consequence of the said agreement, and with the assistance of British troops, which were ordered to march and subjected to his disposal by the said Warren Hastings and the Council, unjustly enter into and invade the country of the Rohillas, and did there make war in a barbarous and inhuman manner, "by an abuse of victory," "by the unnecessary destruction of the country," "by a wanton display of violence and oppression, of inhumanity and cruelty," and "by the sudden expulsion and casting down of an whole race of people, to whom the slightest benevolence was denied." When prayer was made not to dishonor the Begum (a princess of great rank, whose husband had been killed in battle) and other women, by dragging them about the country, to be loaded with the scoffs of the Nabob's rabble, and otherwise still worse used, the Nabob refused to listen to the entreaties of a British commander-in-chief in their favor; and the said women of high rank were exposed not only to the vilest personal indignities, but even to absolute want: and these transactions being by Colonel Champion communicated to the said Warren Hastings, instead of commendations for his intelligence, and orders to redress the said evils, and to prevent the like in future, by means which were suggested, and which appear to have been proper and feasible, he received a reprimand from the said Warren Hastings, who declared that we had no authority to control the conduct of the Vizier in the treatment of his subjects; and that Colonel Champion desisted from making further representations on this subject to the said Warren Hastings, being apprehensive of having already run some risk of displeasing by perhaps a too free communication of sentiments. That, in consequence of the said proceedings, not only the eminent families of the chiefs of the Rohilla nation were either cut off or banished, and their wives and offspring reduced to utter ruin, but the country itself, heretofore distinguished above all others for the extent of its cultivation as a garden, not having one spot in it of uncultivated ground, and from being in the most flourishing state that a country could be, was by the inhuman mode of carrying on the war, and the ill government during the consequent usurpation, reduced to a state of great decay and depopulation, in which it still remains.
That the East India Company, having had reason to conceive, that, for the purpose of concealing corrupt transactions, their servants in India had made unfair, mutilated, and garbled communications of correspondence, and sometimes had wholly withheld the same, made an order in their letter of the 23d of March, 1770, in the following tenor:—"The Governor singly shall correspond with the country powers; but all letters, before they shall be by him sent, must be communicated to the other members of the Select Committee, and receive their approbation; and also all letters whatsoever which may be received by the Governor, in answer to or in course of correspondence, shall likewise be laid before the said Select Committee for their information and consideration"; and that in their instructions to their Governor-General and Council, dated 30th March, 1774, they did repeat their orders to the same purpose and effect.
That the said Warren Hastings did not obey, as in duty he was bound to do, the said standing orders; nor did communicate all his correspondence with Mr. Middleton, the Company's agent at the court of the Subah of Oude, or with Colonel Champion, the commander-in-chief of the Company's forces in the Rohilla war, to the Select Committee: and when afterwards, that is to say, on the 25th of October, 1774, he was required by the majority of the Council appointed by the act of Parliament of 1773, whose opinion was by the said act directed to be taken as the act of the whole Council, to produce all his correspondence with Mr. Middleton and Colonel Champion for the direction of their future proceedings relative to the obscure, intricate, and critical transaction aforesaid, he did positively and pertinaciously refuse to deliver any other than such parts of the said correspondence as he thought convenient, covering his said illegal refusal under general vague pretences of secrecy and danger from the communication, although the said order and instruction of the Court of Directors above mentioned was urged to him, and although it was represented to him by the said Council, that they, as well as he, were bound by an oath of secrecy: which refusal to obey the orders of the Court of Directors (orders specially, and on weighty grounds of experience, pointed to cases of this very nature) gave rise to much jealousy, and excited great suspicions relative to the motives and grounds on which the Rohilla war had been undertaken.
That the said Warren Hastings, in the grounds alleged in his justification of his refusal to communicate to his colleagues in the Superior Council his correspondence with Mr. Middleton, the Company's Resident at Oude, was guilty of a new offence, arrogating to himself unprecedented and dangerous powers, on principles utterly subversive of all order and discipline in service, and introductory to corrupt confederacies and disobedience among the Company's servants; the said Warren Hastings insisting that Mr. Middleton, the Company's covenanted servant, the public Resident for transacting the Company's affairs at the court of the Subah of Oude, and as such receiving from the Company a salary for his service, was no other than the official agent of him, the said Warren Hastings, and that, being such, he was not obliged to communicate his correspondence.
That the Court of Directors, and afterwards a General Court of the Proprietors of the East India Company, (although the latter showed favorable dispositions towards the said Warren Hastings, and expressed, but without assigning any ground or reason, the highest opinion of his services and integrity,) did unanimously condemn, along with his conduct relative to the Rohilla treaty and war, his refusal to communicate his whole correspondence with Mr. Middleton to the Superior Council: yet the said Warren Hastings, in defiance of the opinion of the Directors, and the unanimous opinion of the General Court of the said East India Company, as well as the precedent positive orders of the Court of Directors, and the injunctions of an act of Parliament, has, from that time to the present, never made any communication of the whole of his correspondence to the Governor-General and Council, or to the Court of Directors.
II.—SHAH ALLUM.
That, in a solemn treaty of peace, concluded the 16th of August, 1765, between the East India Company and the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah ul Dowlah, and highly approved of, confirmed, and ratified by the said Company, it is agreed, "that the King Shah Allum shall remain in full possession of Corah, and such part of the province of Allahabad as he now possesses, which are ceded to his Majesty as a royal demesne for the support of his dignity and expenses." That, in a separate agreement, concluded at the same time, between the King Shah Allum and the then Subahdar of Bengal, under the immediate security and guaranty of the English Company, the faith of the Company was pledged to the said King for the annual payment of twenty-six lac of rupees for his support out of the revenues of Bengal; and that the said Company did then receive from the said King a grant of the duanné of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, on the express condition of their being security for the annual payment above mentioned. That the East India Company have held, and continue to hold, the duanné so granted, and for some years have complied with the conditions on which they accepted of the grant thereof, and have at all times acknowledged that they held the duanné in virtue of the Mogul's grants. That the said Court of Directors, in their letter of the 30th June, 1769, to Bengal, declared, "that they esteemed themselves bound by treaty to protect the King's person, and to secure him the possession of the Corah and Allahabad districts"; and supposing an agreement should be made respecting these provinces between the King and Sujah ul Dowlah, the Directors then said, "that they should be subject to no further claim or requisition from the King, excepting for the stipulated tribute for Bengal, which they [the Governor and Council] were to pay to his agent, or remit to him in such manner as he might direct."
That, in the year 1772, the King Shah Allum, who had hitherto resided at Allahabad, trusting to engagements which he had entered into with the Mahrattas, quitted that place, and removed to Delhi; but, having soon quarrelled with those people, and afterwards being taken prisoner, had been treated by them with very great disrespect and cruelty. That, among other instances of their abuse of their immediate power over him, the Governor and Council of Bengal, in their letter of the 16th of August, 1773, inform the Court of Directors that he had been compelled, while a prisoner in their hands, to grant sunnuds for the surrender of Corah and Allahabad to them; and it appears from sundry other minutes of their own that the said Governor and Council did at all times consider the surrender above mentioned as extorted from the King, and unquestionably an act of violence, which could not alienate or impair his right to those provinces, and that, when they took possession thereof, it was at the request of the King's Naib, or viceroy, who put them under the Council's protection. That on this footing they were accepted by the said Warren Hastings and his Council, and for some time considered by them as a deposit committed to their care by a prince to whom the possession thereof was particularly guarantied by the East India Company. In their letter of the 1st of March, 1773, they (the said Warren Hastings and his Council) say, "In no shape can this compulsatory cession by the King release us from the obligation we are under to defend the provinces which we have so particularly guarantied to him." But it appears that they soon adopted other ideas and assumed other principles concerning this object. In the instructions, dated the 23d of June, 1773, which the Council of Fort William gave to the said Warren Hastings, previous to his interview with the Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah at Benares, they say, that, "while the King continued at Delhi, whither he proceeded in opposition to their most strenuous remonstrances, they should certainly consider the engagements between him and the Company as dissolved by his alienation from them and their interest; that the possession of so remote a country could never be expected to yield any profit to the Company, and the defence of it must require a perpetual aid of their forces": yet in the same instructions they declare their opinion, that, "if the King should make overtures to renew his former connection, his right to reclaim the districts of Corah and Allahabad could not with propriety be disputed," and they authorize the said Warren Hastings to restore them to him on condition that he should renounce his claim to the annual tribute of twenty-six lac of rupees, herein before mentioned, and to the arrears which might be due, thereby acknowledging the justice of a claim which they determined not to comply with but in return for the surrender of another equally valid;—that, nevertheless, in the treaty concluded by the said Warren Hastings with Sujah ul Dowlah on the 7th of September, 1773, it is asserted, that his Majesty, (meaning the King Shah Allum,) "having abandoned the districts of Corah and Allahabad, and given a sunnud for Corah and Currah to the Mahrattas, had thereby forfeited his right to the said districts," although it was well known to the said Warren Hastings, and had been so stated by him to the Court of Directors, that this surrender on the part of the King had been extorted from him by violence, while he was a prisoner in the hands of the Mahrattas, and although it was equally well known to the said Warren Hastings that there was nothing in the original treaty of 1765 which could restrain the King from changing the place of his residence, consequently that his removal to Delhi could not occasion a forfeiture of his right to the provinces secured to him by that treaty.
That the said Warren Hastings, in the report which he made of his interview and negotiations with Sujah ul Dowlah, dated the 4th of October, 1773, declared, "that the administration would have been culpable in the highest degree in retaining possession of Corah and Allahabad for any other purpose than that of making an advantage by the disposal of them," and therefore he had ceded them to the Vizier for fifty lac of rupees: a measure for which he had no authority whatever from the King Shah Allum, and in the execution of which no reserve whatever was made in favor of the rights of that prince, nor any care taken of his interests.
That the sale of these provinces to Sujah Dowlah involved the East India Company in a triple breach of justice; since by the same act they violated a treaty, they sold the property of another, and they alienated a deposit committed to their friendship and good faith, and as such accepted by them. That a measure of this nature is not to be defended on motives of policy and convenience, supposing such motives to have existed, without a total loss of public honor, and shaking all security in the faith of treaties; but that in reality the pretences urged by the said Warren Hastings for selling the King's country to Sujah Dowlah were false and invalid. It could not strengthen our alliance with Sujah ul Dowlah; since, paying a price for a purchase, he received no favor and incurred no obligation. It did not free the Company from all the dangers attending either a remote property or a remote connection; since, the moment the country in question became part of Sujah Dowlah's dominions, it was included in the Company's former guaranty of those dominions, and in case of invasion the Company were obliged to send part of their army to defend it at the requisition of the said Sujah Dowlah; and if the remote situation of those provinces made the defence of them difficult and dangerous, much more was it a difficult and dangerous enterprise to engage the Company's force in an attack and invasion of the Rohillas, whose country lay at a much greater distance from the Company's frontier,—which, nevertheless, the said Warren Hastings agreed to and undertook at the very time when, under pretence of the difficulty of defending Corah and Allahabad, he sold those provinces to Sujah Dowlah. It did not relieve the Company from the expense of defending the country; since the revenues thereof far exceeded the subsidy to be paid by Sujah Dowlah, and these revenues justly belonged to the Company as long as the country continued under their protection, and would have answered the expense of defending it. Finally, that the sum of fifty lac of rupees, stipulated with the said Sujah Dowlah, was inadequate to the value of the country, the annual revenues of which were stated at twenty-five lac of rupees, which General Sir Robert Barker, then commander-in-chief of the Company's forces, affirms was certain, and too generally known to admit of a doubt.
That the King Shah Allum received for some years the annual tribute of twenty-six lac of rupees above mentioned, and was entitled to continue to receive it by virtue of an engagement deliberately, and for an adequate consideration, entered into with him by the Company's servants, and approved of and ratified by the Company themselves;—that this engagement was absolute and unconditional, and did neither express nor suppose any case in which the said King should forfeit or the Company should have a right to resume the tribute;—that, nevertheless, the said Warren Hastings and his Council, immediately after selling the King's country to Sujah Dowlah, resolved to withhold, and actually withheld, the payment of the said tribute, of which the King Shah Allum has never since received any part;—that this resolution of the Council is not justified even by themselves on principles of right and justice, but by arguments of policy and convenience, by which the best founded claims of right and justice may at all times be set aside and defeated. "They judged it highly impolitic and unsafe to answer the drafts of the King, until they were satisfied of his amicable intentions, and those of his new allies." But neither had they any reason to question the King's amicable intentions, nor was he pledged to answer for those of the Mahrattas; his trusting to the good faith of that people, and relying on their assistance to reinstate him in the possession of his capital, might have been imprudent and impolitic, but these measures, however ruinous to himself, indicated no enmity to the English, nor were they productive of any effects injurious to the English interests. And it is plain that the said Warren Hastings and his Council were perfectly aware that their motives or pretences for withholding the tribute were too weak to justify their conduct, having principally insisted on the reduced state of their treasury, which, as they said, rendered it impracticable to comply with those payments. The right of a creditor does not depend on the circumstances of the debtor: on the contrary, the plea of inability includes a virtual acknowledgment of the debt; since, if the creditor's right were denied, the plea would be superfluous.
That the East India Company, having on their part violated the engagements and renounced the conditions on which they received and have hitherto held and enjoyed the duanné of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa from the King Shah Allum, have thereby forfeited all right and title to the said duanné arising from the said grant, and that it is free and open to the said King to resume such grant, and to transfer it to any other prince or state;—that, notwithstanding any distress or weakness to which he may be actually reduced, his lawful authority, as sovereign of the Mogul Empire, is still acknowledged in India, and that his grant of the duanné would sufficiently authorize and materially assist any prince or state that might attempt to dispossess the East India Company thereof, since it would convey a right which could not be disputed, and to which nothing but force could be opposed. Nor can these opinions be more strongly expressed than they have been lately by the said Warren Hastings himself, who, in a minute recorded the 1st of December, 1784, has declared, that, "fallen as the House of Timur is, it is yet the relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern world; that its sovereignty is universally acknowledged, though the substance of it no longer exists; and that the Company itself derives its constitutional dominion from its ostensible bounty."
That the said Warren Hastings by this declaration has renounced and condemned the principle on which he avowedly acted towards the Mogul in the year 1773, when he denied that the sunnuds or grants of the Mogul, if they were in the hands of another nation, would avail them anything,—and when he declared "that the sword which gave us the dominion of Bengal must be the instrument of its preservation, and that, if it should ever cease to be ours, the next proprietor would derive his right and possession from the same natural charter." That the said Warren Hastings, to answer any immediate purpose, adopts any principle of policy, however false or dangerous, without any regard to former declarations made, or to principles avowed on other occasions by himself; and particularly, that in his conduct to Shah Allum he first maintained that the grants of that prince were of no avail,—that we held the dominion of Bengal by the sword, which he has falsely declared the source of right, and the natural charter of dominion,—whereas at a later period he has declared that the sovereignty of the family of Shah Allum is universally acknowledged, and that the Company itself derives its constitutional dominion from their ostensible bounty.
III.—BENARES.
PART I.
RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES.
I. That the territory of Benares is a fruitful, and has been, not long since, an orderly, well-cultivated, and improved province, of great extent; and its capital city, as Warren Hastings, Esquire, has informed the Court of Directors, in his letter of the 21st of November, 1781, "is highly revered by the natives of the Hindoo persuasion, so that many who have acquired independent fortunes retire to close their days in a place so eminently distinguished for its sanctity"; and he further acquaints the Directors, "that it may rather be considered as the seat of the Hindoo religion than as the capital of a province. But as its inhabitants are not composed of Hindoos only, the former wealth which flowed into it from the offerings of pilgrims, as well as from the transactions of exchange, for which its central situation is adapted, has attracted numbers of Mahomedans, who still continue to reside in it with their families." And these circumstances of the city of Benares, which not only attracted the attention of all the different descriptions of men who inhabit Hindostan, but interested them warmly in whatever it might suffer, did in a peculiar manner require that the Governor-General and Council of Calcutta should conduct themselves with regard to its rulers and inhabitants, when it became dependent on the Company, on the most distinguished principles of good faith, equity, moderation, and mildness.
II. That the Rajah Bulwant Sing, late prince or Zemindar of the province aforesaid, was a great lord of the Mogul Empire, dependent on the same, through the Vizier of the Empire, the late Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of Oude; and the said Bulwant Sing, in the commencement of the English power, did attach himself to the cause of the English Company; and the Court of Directors of the said Company did acknowledge, in their letter of the 26th of May, 1768, that "Bulwant Sing's joining us at the time he did was of signal service, and the stipulation in his favor was what he was justly entitled to"; and they did commend "the care that had been taken [by the then Presidency] of those that had shown their attachment to them [the Company] during the war"; and they did finally express their hope and expectation in the words following: "The moderation and attention paid to those who have espoused our interests in this war will restore our reputation in Hindostan, and that the Indian powers will be convinced NO breach of treaty will ever have our sanction."
III. That the Rajah Bulwant Sing died on the 23d of August, 1770, and his son, Cheyt Sing, succeeding to his rights and pretensions, the Presidency of Calcutta (John Cartier, Esquire, being then President) did instruct Captain Gabriel Harper to procure a confirmation of the succession to his son Cheyt Sing, "as it was of the utmost political import to the Company's affairs; and that the young man ought not to consider the price to be paid to satisfy the Vizier's jealousy and avarice." And they did further declare as follows: "The strong and inviolable attachment which subsisted betwixt the Company and the father makes us most readily interpose our good offices for the son." And the young Rajah aforesaid having agreed, under the mediation of Captain Harper, to pay near two hundred thousand pounds as a gift to the said Vizier, and to increase his tribute by near thirty thousand pounds annually, a deed of confirmation was passed by the said Vizier to the said Rajah and his heirs, by which he became a purchaser, for valuable considerations, of his right and inheritance in the zemindary aforesaid. In consequence of this grant, so by him purchased, the Rajah was solemnly invested with the government in the city of Benares, "amidst the acclamations of a numerous people, and to the great satisfaction of all parties." And the said Harper, in his letter of the 8th October, 1770, giving an account of the investiture aforesaid, did express himself in these words: "I will leave the young Rajah and others to acquaint you how I have conducted myself; only thus much let me say, that I have kept a strict eye not to diminish our national honor, disinterestedness, and justice, which I will conclude has had a greater effect in securing to the Company their vast possessions than even the force of arms, however formidable, could do." The President of Calcutta testified his approbation of the said Harper's conduct in the strongest terms, that is, in the following: "Your disinterestedness has been equally distinguishable as your abilities, and both do you the greatest honor."
IV. That the agreement between the Rajah and Nabob aforesaid continued on both sides without any violation, under the sanction and guaranty of the East India Company, for three years, when Warren Hastings, Esquire, being then President, did propose a further confirmation of the said grant, and did, on the 12th of October, 1773, obtain a delegation for himself to be the person to negotiate the same: it being his opinion, as expressed in his report of October 4th, 1773, that the Rajah was not only entitled to the inheritance of his zemindary by the grants through Captain Harper, but that the preceding treaty of Allahabad, though literally expressing no more than a security personal to Bulwant Sing, did, notwithstanding, in the true sense and import thereof, extend to his posterity; "and that it had been differently understood" (that is, not literally) "by the Company, and by this administration; and the Vizier had before put it out of all dispute by the solemn act passed in the Rajah's favor on his succession to the zemindary."
V. That the Council, in their instructions to the said Governor Hastings, did empower him "to renew, in behalf of the Rajah Cheyt Sing, the stipulation which was formerly made with the Vizier in consideration of his services in 1764"; and the government was accordingly settled on the Rajah and his posterity, or to his heirs, on the same footing on which it was granted to his said father, excepting the addition aforesaid to the tribute, with an express provision "that no increase shall ever hereafter be demanded." And the grant and stipulation aforesaid was further confirmed by the said Sujah ul Dowlah, under the Company's guaranty, by the most solemn and awful form of oath known in the Mahomedan religion, inserted in the body of the deed or grant; and the said Warren Hastings, strongly impressed with the opinion of the propriety of protecting the Rajah, and of the injustice, malice, and avarice of the said Sujah Dowlah, and the known family enmity subsisting between him and the Rajah, did declare, in his report to the Council, as follows: "I am well convinced that the Rajah's inheritance, and perhaps his life, are no longer safe than while he enjoys the Company's protection, which is his due by the ties of justice and the obligations of public faith."
VI. That some time after the new confirmation aforesaid, that is to say, in the year 1774, the Governor-General and Council, which had been formed and the members thereof appointed by act of Parliament, did obtain the assignment of the sovereignty paramount of the said government by treaty with the Nabob of Oude, by which, although the supreme dominion was changed, the terms and the conditions of the tenure of the Rajah of Benares remained; as the said Nabob of Oude could transfer to the East India Company no other or greater estate than he himself possessed in or over the said zemindary. But to obviate any misconstruction on the subject, the said Warren Hastings did propose to the board, that, whatever provision might in the said treaty be made for the interest of the Company, the same should be "without an encroachment on the just rights of the Rajah, or the engagements actually subsisting with him."
VII. That the said Warren Hastings, then having, or pretending to have, an extraordinary care of the interest of the Rajah of Benares, did, on his transfer of the sovereignty, propose a new grant, to be conveyed in new instruments to the said Rajah, conferring upon him further privileges, namely, the addition of the sovereign rights of the mint, and of the right of criminal justice of life and death. And he, the said Warren Hastings, as Governor-General, did himself propose the resolution for that purpose in Council, in the following words, with remarks explanatory of the principles upon which the grants aforesaid were made, namely:—
MINUTE.
VIII. "That the perpetual and independent possession of the zemindary of Benares and its dependencies be confirmed and guarantied to the Rajah Cheyt Sing and his heirs forever, subject only to the annual payment of the revenues hitherto paid to the late Vizier, amounting to Benares Sicca Rupees 23,71,656.12, to be disposed of as is expressed in the following article: That no other demand be made on him either by the Nabob of Oude or this government; nor any kind of authority or jurisdiction be exercised by either within the districts assigned him." To which minute he, the said Warren Hastings, did subjoin the following observation in writing, and recorded therewith in the Council books, that is to say: "The Rajah of Benares, from the situation of his country, which is a frontier to the provinces of Oude and Bahar, may be made a serviceable ally to the Company, whenever their affairs shall require it. He has always been considered in this light both by the Company and the successive members of the late Council; but to insure his attachment to the Company, his interest must be connected with it, which cannot be better effected than by freeing him totally from the REMAINS of his present vassalage under the guaranty and protection of the Company, and at the same time guarding him against any apprehensions from this government, by thus pledging its faith that no encroachment shall ever be made on his rights by the Company." And the said Warren Hastings, on the 5th of July, 1775, did himself propose, among other articles of the treaty relative to this object, one of the following tenor: "That, whilst the Rajah shall continue faithful to these engagements and punctual in his payments, and shall pay due obedience to the authority of this government, no more demands shall be made upon him by the Honorable Company of ANY KIND, or, on any pretence whatsoever, shall any person be allowed to interfere with his authority, or to disturb the peace of his country." And the said article was by the other members of the Council assented to without debate.
IX. On transferring the Rajah's tribute from the Nabob to the Company, the stipulation with the Nabob was renewed on the proposition of the said Warren Hastings himself, and expressed in a yet more distinct manner, namely: "That no more demands shall be made upon him by the Honorable Company of any kind." And the said Warren Hastings, in justification of his proposal of giving the Rajah "a complete and uncontrolled authority over his zemindary," did enter on the Council book the following reasons for investing him with the same, strongly indicating the situation in which he must be left under any other circumstances, whether under the Nabob of Oude, or under the English, or under the double influence of both: "That the security of his person and possessions from the Company's protection may be rated equal to many lacs of rupees, which, though saved to him, are no loss to the government on which he depends, being all articles of invisible expense: in fees to the ministers and officers of the Nabob; in the charges of a double establishment of vackeels to both governments; in presents and charges of accommodation to the Nabob, during his residence at any place within the boundaries of his zemindary; in the frauds, embezzlements, and oppressions exercised in the mint and cutwally; besides the allowed profits of those officers, and the advantages which every man in occasional power, or in the credit of it, might make of the Rajah's known weakness, and the dread he stood in both of the displeasure of the Nabob and the ill-will of individuals among the English, who were all considered, either in their present stations or connections, or the right of succession, as members of the state of Bengal. It would be scarce possible to enumerate all the inconveniences to which the Rajah was liable in his former situation, or to estimate the precise effect which they produced on his revenue and on the gross amount of his expense; but it may be easily conceived that both were enormous, and of a nature the most likely to lessen the profits of government, instead of adding to them." And in justification of his proposal of giving the Rajah the symbols of sovereignty in the power of life and death, and in the coining of money, as pledges of his independence, he states the deplorable situation of princes reduced to dependence on the Vizier or the Company, and obliged to entertain an English Resident at their court, in the following words: "It is proposed to receive the payment of his [the Rajah's] rents at Patna, because that is the nearest provincial station, and because it would not frustrate the intention of rendering the Rajah independent. If a Resident was appointed to receive the money, as it became due, at Benares, such a Resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and over his country, which would in effect render him the master of both. This consequence might not perhaps be brought completely to pass without a struggle and many appeals to the Council, which, in a government constituted like this, cannot fail to terminate against the Rajah, and, by the construction to which his opposition to the agent would be liable, might eventually draw on him severe restrictions, and end in reducing him to the mean and depraved state of a mere zemindar."
X. That, in order to satisfy the said Rajah of the intentions of the Company towards him, and of the true sense and construction of the grants to him, the said Rajah, to be made, the Governor-General (he, the said Warren Hastings) and Council did, on the 24th August, 1775, instruct Mr. Fowke, the Resident at the Rajah's court, in the following words: "It is proper to assure the Rajah, we do not mean to increase his tribute, but to require from him an exact sum; that, under the sovereignty of the Company, we are determined to leave him the free and uncontrolled management of the internal government of his country, and the collection and regulation of the revenues, so long as he adheres to the terms of his engagement; and will never demand any augmentation of the annual tribute which may be fixed."
XI. That the said Warren Hastings and the Council-General, not being satisfied with having instructed the Resident to make the representation aforesaid, to remove all suspicion that by the new grants any attempt should insidiously be made to change his former tenure, did resolve that a letter should be written by the Governor-General himself to the Rajah of Benares, to be delivered to Mr. Fowke, the Resident, together with his credentials; in which letter they declare "the board willing to continue the grant of the zemindary to him in as full and ample a manner as he possessed it from former sovereigns; and on his paying the annual tribute," &c;—and in explaining the reasons for granting to him the mint and criminal justice, they inform him that this is done in order "that he may possess an uncontrolled and free authority in the regulation and government of his zemindary."
XII. That on the 26th February, 1776, the Board and Council did order that the proper instruments should be prepared for conveying to the Rajah aforesaid the government and criminal justice and mint of Benares, with its dependencies, "in the usual form, expressing the conditions already resolved on in the several proceedings of the board." And on the same day a letter was written to the Resident at Benares, signifying that they had ordered the proper instruments to be prepared, specifying the terms concerning the remittance of the Rajah's tribute to Calcutta, as well as "the several other conditions which had been already agreed to,—and that they should forward it to him, to be delivered to the Rajah." And on the 20th of March following, the board did again explain the terms of the said tribute, in a letter to the Court of Directors, and did add, "that a sunnud [grant or patent] for his [Cheyt Sing's] zemindary should be furnished him on these and the conditions before agreed on."
XIII. That during the course of the transactions aforesaid in Council, and the various assurances given to the Rajah and the Court of Directors, certain improper and fraudulent practices were used with regard to the symbols of investiture which ought to have been given, and the form of the deeds by which the said zemindary ought to have been granted. For it appears that the original deeds were signed by the board on the 4th September, 1775, and transmitted to Mr. Fowke, the Resident at the Rajah's court, and that on the 20th of November following the Court of Directors were acquainted by the said Warren Hastings and the Council that Rajah Cheyt Sing had been invested with the sunnud (charters or patents) for his zemindary, and the kellaut, (or robes of investiture,) in all the proper forms; but on the 1st of October, 1775, the Rajah did complain to the Governor-General and Council, that the kellaut, (or robes,) with which he was to be invested according to their order, "is not of the same kind as that which he received from the late Vizier on the like occasion." In consequence of the said complaint, the board did, in their letter to the Resident of the 11th of the same month, desire him "to make inquiry respecting the nature of the kellaut, and invest him with one of the same sort, on the part of this government, instead of that which they formerly described to him." And it appears highly probable that the instruments which accompanied the said robes of investiture were made in a manner conformable to the orders and directions of the board, and the conditions by them agreed to; as the Rajah, who complained of the insufficiency of the robes, did make no complaint of the insufficiency of the instruments, or of any deviation in them from those he had formerly received from the Vizier. But a copy or duplicate of the said deeds or instruments were in some manner surreptitiously disposed of, and withheld from the records of the Company, and never were transmitted to the Court of Directors.
XIV. That several months after the said settlement and investiture, namely, on the 15th of April, 1776, the Secretary informed the Court that he had prepared a sunnud, cabbolut, and pottah (that is, a patent, an agreement, and a rent-roll) for Cheyt Sing's zemindary, and the board ordered the same to be executed; but the Resident, on receiving the same, did transmit the several objections made by the Rajah thereto, and particularly to a clause in the patent, made in direct contradiction to the engagements of the Council so solemnly and repeatedly given, by which clause the former patents are declared to be null. That, on the representation aforesaid, on the 29th July, the Secretary was ordered to prepare new and proper instruments, omitting the clause declaring the former patents to be null, and the said new patents were delivered to the Rajah; and the others, which he objected to, as well as those which had been delivered to him originally, were returned to the Presidency. But neither the first set of deeds, nor the fraudulent patent aforesaid, nor the new instruments made out on the complaint of the Rajah, omitting the exceptionable words, have been inserted in the records, although it was the particular duty of the said Warren Hastings that all transactions with the country powers should be faithfully entered, as well as to take care that all instruments transmitted to them on the faith of the Company should be honestly, candidly, and fairly executed, according to the true intent and meaning of the engagements entered into on the part of the Company,—giving by the said complicated, artificial, and fraudulent management, as well as by his said omitting to record the said material document, strong reason to presume that he did even then meditate to make some evil use of the deeds which he thus withheld from the Company, and which he did afterwards in reality make, when he found means and opportunity to effect his evil purpose.
PART II.
DESIGNS OF MR. HASTINGS TO RUIN THE RAJAH OF BENARES.
I. That the tribute transferred to the Company by the treaty with the Nabob of Oude, being 250,000l. a year sterling, and upwards, without any deductions whatsoever, was paid monthly, with such punctual exactness as had no parallel in the Company's dealings with any of the native princes or with any subject zemindar, being the only one who never was in arrears; and according to all appearance, a perfect harmony did prevail between the Supreme Council at Calcutta and the Rajah. But though the Rajah of Benares furnished no occasion of displeasure to the board, yet it since appears that the said Warren Hastings did, at some time in the year 1777, conceive displeasure against him. In that year, he, the said Warren Hastings, retracted his own act of resignation of his office, made to the Court of Directors through his agent, Mr. Macleane, and, calling in the aid of the military to support him in his authority, brought the divisions of the government, according to his own expression, "to an extremity bordering on civil violence." This extremity he attributes, in a narrative by him transmitted to the Court of Directors, and printed, not to his own fraud and prevarication, but to what he calls "an attempt to wrest from him his authority"; and in the said narrative he pretends that the Rajah of Benares had deputed an agent with an express commission to his opponent, Sir John Clavering. This fact, if it had been true, (which is not proved,) was in no sort criminal or offensive to the Company's government, but was at first sight nothing more than a proper mark of duty and respect to the supposed succession of office. Nor is it possible to conceive in what manner it could offend the said Hastings, if he did not imagine that the express commission to which in the said narrative he refers might relate to the discovery to Sir John Clavering of some practice which he might wish to conceal,—the said Clavering, whom he styles "his opponent," having been engaged, in obedience to the Company's express orders, in the discovery of sundry peculations and other evil practices charged upon the said Hastings. But although, at the time of the said pretended deputation, he dissembled his resentment, it appears to have rankled in his mind, and that he never forgave it, of whatever nature it might have been (the same never having been by him explained); and some years after, he recorded it in his justification of his oppressive conduct towards the Rajah, urging the same with great virulence and asperity, as a proof or presumption of his, the said Rajah's, disaffection to the Company's government; and by his subsequent acts, he seems from the first to have resolved, when opportunity should occur, on a severe revenge.
II. That, having obtained, in his casting vote, a majority in Council on the death of Sir John Clavering and Mr. Monson, he did suddenly, and without any previous general communication with the members of the board, by a Minute of Consultation of the 9th of July, 1778, make an extraordinary demand, namely: "That the Rajah of Benares should consent to the establishment of three regular battalions of sepoys, to be raised and maintained at his own expense"; and the said expense was estimated at between fifty and sixty thousand pounds sterling.
III. That the said requisition did suppose the consent of the Rajah,—the very word being inserted in the body of his, the said Warren Hastings's, minute; and the same was agreed to, though with some doubts on the parts of two of his colleagues, Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler, concerning the right of making the same, even worded as it was. But Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler, soon after, finding that the Rajah was much alarmed by this departure from the treaty, the requisition aforesaid was strenuously opposed by them. The said Hastings did, notwithstanding this opposition, persevere, and by his casting vote alone did carry the said unjust and oppressive demand. The Rajah submitted, after some murmuring and remonstrance, to pay the sum required,—but on the express condition (as has been frequently asserted by him to the said Warren Hastings without any contradiction) that the exaction should continue but for one year, and should not be drawn into precedent. He also requested that the extraordinary demand should be paid along with the instalments of his monthly tribute: but although the said Warren Hastings did not so much as pretend that the instant payment was at all necessary, and though he was urged by his before-mentioned colleagues to moderate his proceedings, he did insist upon immediate payment of the whole; and did deliver his demand in proud and insulting language, wholly unfit for a governor of a civilized nation to use towards eminent persons in alliance with and in honorable and free dependence upon its government; and did support the same with arguments full of unwarrantable passion, and with references to reports affecting merely his own personal power and consideration, which reports were not proved, nor attempted to be proved, and, if proved, furnishing reasons insufficient for his purpose, and indecent in any public proceedings. That the said Hastings did cause the said sums of money to be rigorously exacted, although no such regular battalions as he pretended to establish, as a color for his demand on the Rajah, were then raised, or any steps taken towards raising them; and when the said Rajah pleaded his inability to pay the whole sum at once, he, the said Hastings, persevering in his said outrageous and violent demeanor, did order the Resident to wait on the Rajah forthwith, and "demand of him in person, and by writing, the full payment in specie to be made to him within five days of such demand, and to declare to him, in the name of this government, that his evading or neglecting to accomplish the payment thereof within that space of time should be deemed equivalent to an absolute refusal; and in case of non-compliance with this [the Resident's] demand, we peremptorily enjoin you to refrain from all further intercourse with him": the said Hastings appearing by all his proceedings to be more disposed to bring on a quarrel with the Prince of Benares, than to provide money for any public service.
IV. That the said demand was complied with, and the whole thereof paid on the 10th of October that year. And the said Rajah did write to the said Hastings a letter, in order to mitigate and mollify him, declaring to the said Hastings that his sole reliance was on him, "and that in every instance he depended on his faith, religion, promises, and actions." But he, the said Warren Hastings, as if the being reminded of his faith and promises were an incentive to him to violate the same, although he had agreed that his demand should not be drawn into precedent, and the payment of the fifty thousand pounds aforesaid should continue only for one year, did, the very day after he had received the letter aforesaid, renew a demand of the same nature and on the same pretence, this year even less plausible than the former, of three battalions to be raised. The said Rajah, on being informed of this requisition, did remind the said Warren Hastings that he engaged in the last year that but one payment should be made, and that he should not be called upon in future, and, pleading inability to discharge the new demand, declared himself in the following words to the said Warren Hastings: "I am therefore hopeful you will be kindly pleased to excuse me the five lacs now demanded, and that nothing may be demanded of me beyond the amount expressed in the pottah."
V. That on the day after the receipt of this letter, that is, on the 28th August, 1779, he, the said Warren Hastings, made a reply to the said letter; and without any remark whatsoever on the allegation of the Rajah, stating to him his engagement, that he, the said Rajah, should not be called upon in future, he says, "I now repeat my demand, that you do, on the receipt of this, without evasion or delay, pay the five lac of rupees into the hands of Mr. Thomas Graham, who has orders to receive it from you, and, in case of your refusal, to summon the two battalions of sepoys under the command of Major Camac to Benares, that measures may be taken to oblige you to a compliance; and in this case, the whole expense of the corps, from the time of its march, will fall on you."
VI. That the said Rajah did a second and third time represent to the said Warren Hastings that he had broke his promise, and the said Hastings did in no manner deny the same, but did, in contempt thereof, as well as of the original treaty between the Company and the Rajah, order two battalions of troops to march into his territories, and in a manner the most harsh, insulting, and despotic, as if to provoke that prince to some act of resistance, did compel him to the payment of the said second unjust demand; and did extort also the sum of two thousand pounds, on pretence of the charge of the troops employed to coerce him.
VII. That the third year, that is to say, in the year 1780, the same demand was, with the same menaces, renewed, and did, as before, produce several humble remonstrances and submissive complaints, which the said Hastings did always treat as crimes and offences of the highest order; and although in the regular subsidy or tribute, which was monthly payable by treaty, fifty days of grace were allowed on each payment, and after the expiration of the said fifty days one quarter par cent only was provided as a penalty, he, the said Warren Hastings, on some short delay of payment of his third arbitrary and illegal demand, did presume of his own authority to impose a fine or mulct of ten thousand pounds on the said Rajah; and though it does not appear whether or no the same was actually levied, the said threat was soon after followed by an order from the said Hastings for the march of troops into the country of Benares, as in the preceding year.
VIII. That, these violent and insulting measures failing to provoke the Rajah, and he having paid up the whole demand, the said Warren Hastings, being resolved to drive him to extremities, did make on the said Rajah a sudden demand, over and above the ordinary tribute or subsidy of 260,000l. per annum, and over and above the 50,000l. extraordinary, to provide a body of cavalry for the service of the Bengal government.
IX. The demand, as expressed in the Minute of Consultation, and in the public instructions of the board to the Resident to make the requisition, is "for such part of the cavalry entertained in his service as he can spare"; and the demand is in this and in no other manner described by the Governor-General and Council in their letter to the Court of Directors. But in a Narrative of the said Warren Hastings's, addressed to Edward Wheler, Esquire, it appears, that, upon the Rajah's making difficulties, according to the representation of the said Hastings, relative to the said requisition, the correspondence concerning which the said Hastings hath fraudulently suppressed, he, the said Hastings, instead of adhering to the requisition of such cavalry as the Rajah could spare, and which was all that by the order of Council he was authorized to make, did, of his own private and arbitrary authority, in some letter which he hath suppressed, instruct the Resident, Markham, to make a peremptory demand for two thousand cavalry, which he well knew to be more than the Rajah's finances could support, estimating the provision for the same at 96,000l. a year at the lowest, though the expense of the same would probably have been much more: which extravagant demand the said Hastings could only have made in hopes of provoking the Rajah to some imprudent measure or passionate remonstrance. And this arbitrary demand of cavalry was made, and peremptorily insisted on, although in the original treaty with the said Rajah it was left entirely optional whether or not he should keep up any cavalry at all, and in the Minute of Consultation it was expressly mentioned to be thus optional, and that for whatsoever cavalry he, the said Rajah, should furnish, he should be paid fifteen rupees per month for each private, and so in proportion for officers: yet the demand aforesaid was made without any offer whatsoever of providing the said payment according to treaty.
X. That the said Hastings did soon after, but upon what grounds does not appear by any Minute of Council, or from any correspondence contained in his Narrative, reduce the demand to fifteen hundred, and afterwards to one thousand: by which he showed himself to be sensible of the extravagance of his first requisition.
XI. That, in consequence of these requisitions, as he asserts in his Narrative aforesaid, the Rajah "did offer two hundred and fifty horse, but sent none." But the said Hastings doth not accompany his said Narrative with any voucher or document whatever; and therefore the account given by the Rajah, and delivered to the said Warren Hastings himself, inserted by the said Warren Hastings himself in his Narrative, and in no part thereof attempted to be impeached, is more worthy of credit: that is to say,—
"With respect to the horse, you desired me in your letter to inform you of what number I could afford to station with you. I sent you a particular account of all that were in my service, amounting to one thousand three hundred horse, of which several were stationed at distant places; but I received no answer to this. Mr. Markham delivered me an order to prepare a thousand horse. In compliance with your wishes I collected five hundred horse, and a substitute for the remainder, five hundred burkundasses [matchlock-men], of which I sent you information; and I told Mr. Markham that they were ready to go to whatever place they should be sent. No answer, however, came from you on this head, and I remained astonished at the cause of it. Repeatedly I asked Mr. Markham about an answer to my letter about the horse; but he told me that he did not know the reason of no answer having been sent. I remained astonished."
XII. That the said Hastings is guilty of an high offence in not giving an answer to letters of such importance, and in concealing the said letters from the Court of Directors, as well as much of his correspondence with the Residents,—and more particularly in not directing to what place the cavalry and matchlock-men aforesaid should be sent, when the Rajah had declared they were ready to go to whatever service should be destined for them, and afterwards in maliciously accusing the Rajah for not having sent the same.
XIII. That, on the 3d of February, 1781, a new demand for the support of the three fictitious battalions of sepoys aforesaid was made by the said Warren Hastings; but whilst the Rajah was paying by instalments the said arbitrary demand, the said Rajah was alarmed with some intelligence of secret projects on foot for his ruin, and, being well apprised of the malicious and revengeful temper of the said Hastings, in order to pacify him, if possible, offered to redeem himself by a large ransom, to the amount of two hundred thousand pounds sterling, to be paid for the use of the Company. And it appears that the said alarm was far from groundless; for Major Palmer, one of the secret and confidential agents of the said Hastings, hath sworn, on the 4th of December, 1781, at the desire of the said Warren Hastings, before Sir Elijah Impey, to the following effect, that is to say: "That the said Warren Hastings had told him, the said Palmer, that he, the said Hastings, had rejected the offer of two hundred thousand pounds made by the Rajah of Benares for the public service, and that he was resolved to convert the faults committed by the Rajah into a public benefit, and would exact the sum of five hundred thousand pounds, as a punishment for his breach of engagements with the government of Bengal, and acts of misconduct in his zemindary; and if the Rajah should absolutely refuse the demand, that he would deprive him of his zemindary, or transfer the sovereignty thereof to the Nabob of Oude."
XIV. And Mr. Anderson, in his declaration from Sindia's camp, of the 4th of January, 1782, did also, at the desire of Mr. Hastings, depose (though not on oath) concerning a conversation between him and the said Hastings (but mentioning neither the time nor place where the same was held); in which conversation, after reciting the allegations of the said Hastings relative to several particulars of the delay and backwardness of the Rajah in paying the aforesaid extra demand, and his resolution to exact from the Rajah "a considerable sum of money to the relief of the Company's exigencies," he proceeds in the following words: "That, if he [the Rajah] consented, you [the said Warren Hastings] were desirous of establishing his possessions on the most permanent and eligible footing; but if he refused, you had it in your power to raise a large sum for the Company by accepting an offer which had been made for his districts by the Vizier." And the said Anderson, in the declaration aforesaid, made at the request of the said Hastings, and addressed to him, expressed himself as follows: "That you told me you had communicated our designs to Mr. Wheler [his only remaining colleague]; and I believe, but I do not positively recollect, you said he concurred in them." But no trace of any such communication or concurrence did, at the time referred to, or at any time ever after, appear on the Consultations, as it ought to have done; and the said Hastings is criminal for having omitted to enter and record the proceeding. That the said Wheler did also declare, but a considerable time after the date of the conversations aforesaid, that, "on the eve of the Governor-General's departure, the said Hastings had told him that the Rajah's offences (not stating what offences, he having paid up all the demands, ordinary and extraordinary) were declared to require early punishment; and as his wealth was great, and the Company's exigencies pressing, it was thought a measure of policy and of justice to exact from him a large pecuniary mulct for their relief. The sum to which the Governor declared his resolution to extend the fine was forty or fifty lacs; his ability to pay it was stated as a fact that could not admit of a doubt; and the two alternatives on which the Governor declared himself to have resolved were, to the best of my recollection, either a removal from his zemindary entirely, or, by taking immediate possession of all his forts, to obtain out of the treasure deposited in them the above sum for the Company."
XV. That in the declaration of the said Wheler the time of the conversation aforesaid is stated to be on the eve of the Governor's departure, and then said to be confidential; nor is it said or insinuated that he knew or ever heard thereof at a more early period, though it appears by Major Palmer's affidavit that the design of taking, not four or five, but absolutely five, hundred thousand pounds from the Rajah, was communicated to him as early as the month of June. And it does not appear by the declarations of the said Wheler he did ever casually or officially approve of the measure; which long concealment and late communication, time not being allowed to his colleague to consider the nature and consequences of such a project, or to advise any precaution concerning the same, is a high misdemeanor.
XVI. That the said Hastings, having formed a resolution to execute one of the three violent and arbitrary resolutions aforesaid,—namely, to sell the Company's sovereignty over Benares to the Nabob of Oude, or to dispossess the Rajah of his territories, or to seize upon his forts, and to plunder them of the treasure therein contained, to the amount of four or five hundred thousand pounds,—did reject the offer of two hundred thousand pounds, tendered by the said Rajah for his redemption from the injuries which he had discovered that the said Hastings had clandestinely meditated against him, although the sum aforesaid would have been a considerable and seasonable acquisition at that time: the said Hastings being determined, at a critical period, to risk the existence of the British empire, rather than fail in the gratification of his revenge against the said Rajah.
XVII. That the first of his three instituted projects, namely, the depriving the Rajah of his territories, was by himself considered as a measure likely to be productive of much odium to the British government: he having declared, whatever opinions he might entertain of its justice, "that it would have an appearance of severity, and might furnish grounds unfavorable to the credit of our government, and to his own reputation, from the natural influence which every act of rigor, exercised in the persons of men in elevated situations, is apt to impress on those who are too remote from the scene of action to judge, by any evidence of the facts themselves, of their motives or propriety." And the second attempt, the sum of money which he aimed at by attacking the fortresses of the Rajah, and plundering them of the treasure supposed to be there secured, besides the obvious uncertainty of acquiring what was thus sought, would be liable to the same imputations with the former. And with regard to the third project, namely, the sale of the Company's sovereignty to the Nabob of Oude, and his having actually received proposals for the same, it was an high offence to the Company, as presuming, without their authority or consent, to put up to sale their sovereign rights, and particularly to put them up to sale to that very person against whom the independence of the said province had been declared by the Governor-General and Council to be necessary, as a barrier for the security of the other provinces, in case of a future rupture with him.[59] It was an heinous injury to the said Rajah to attempt to change his relation without his consent, especially on account of the person to whom he was to be made over for money, by reason of the known enmity subsisting between his family and that of the Nabob, who was to be the purchaser; and it was a grievous outrage on the innocent inhabitants of the zemindary of Benares to propose putting them under a person long before described by himself to the Court of Directors "to want the qualities of the head and heart requisite for his station"; and a letter from the British Resident at Oude, transmitted to the said Court, represents him "to have wholly lost, by his oppressions, the confidence and affections of his own subjects"; and whose distresses, and the known disorders in his government, he, the said Hastings, did attribute solely to his own bad conduct and evil character; admitting also, in a letter written to Edward Wheler, Esquire, and transmitted to the Court of Directors, "that many circumstances did favor suspicion of his [the said Nabob's] fidelity to the English interest, the Nabob being surrounded by men base in their characters and improvident in their understandings, his favorites, and his companions of his looser hours. These had every cause to dread the effect of my influence on theirs; and both these, and the relations of the family, whose views of consequence and power were intercepted by our participation in the administration of his affairs, entertained a mortal hatred to our nation, and openly avowed it." And the said Hastings was well aware, that, in case the Nabob, by him described in the manner aforesaid, on making such purchase, should continue to observe the terms of his father's original covenants and engagements with the Rajah, and should pay the Company the only tribute which he could lawfully exact from the said Rajah, it was impossible that he could, for the mere naked and unprofitable rights of a sovereignty paramount, afford to offer so great a sum as the Rajah did offer to the said Hastings for his redemption from oppression; such an acquisition to the Nabob (while he kept his faith) could not possibly be of any advantage whatever to him; and that therefore, if a great sum was to be paid by the Nabob of Oude, it must be for the purpose of oppression and violation of public faith, to be perpetrated in the person of the said Nabob, to an extent and in a manner which the said Hastings was then apprehensive he could not justify to the Court of Directors as his own personal act.
PART III.
EXPULSION OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES.
I. That the said Warren Hastings, being resolved on the ruin of the Rajah aforesaid, as a preliminary step thereto, did, against the express orders of the Court of Directors, remove Francis Fowke, Esquire, the Company's Resident at the city of Benares, without any complaint or pretence of complaint whatsoever, but merely on his own declaration that he must have as a Resident at Benares a person of his own special and personal nomination and confidence, and not a man of the Company's nomination,—and in the place of the said Francis Fowke, thus illegally divested of his office, did appoint thereto another servant of the Company of his own choice.
II. That, soon after he had removed the Company's Resident, he prepared for a journey to the upper provinces, and particularly to Benares, in order to execute the wicked and perfidious designs by him before meditated and contrived: and although he did communicate his purpose privately to such persons as he thought fit to intrust therewith, he did not enter anything on the Consultations to that purpose, or record the principles, real or pretended, on which he had resolved to act, nor did he state any guilt in the Rajah which he intended to punish, or charge him, the said Rajah, with entertaining any hostile intentions, the effects of which were to be prevented by any strong measure; but, on the contrary, he did industriously conceal his real designs from the Court of Directors, and did fallaciously enter on the Consultations a minute declaratory of purposes wholly different therefrom, and which supposed nothing more than an amicable adjustment, founded on the treaties between the Company and the Rajah, investing himself by his said minute with "full power and authority to form such arrangements with the Rajah of Benares for the better government and management of his zemindary, and to perform such acts for the improvement of the interest which the Company possesses in it, as he shall think fit and consonant to the mutual engagements subsisting between the Company and the Rajah"; and for this and other purposes he did invest himself with the whole power of the Council, giving to himself an authority as if his acts had been the acts of the Council itself: which, though a power of a dangerous, unwarrantable, and illegal extent, yet does plainly imply the following limits, namely, that the acts done should be arranged with the Rajah, that is, with his consent; and, secondly, that they should be consonant to the actual engagements between the parties; and nothing appears in the minute conferring the said power, which did express or imply any authority for depriving the Rajah of his government, or selling the sovereignty thereof to his hereditary enemy, or for the plunder of his fort-treasures.
III. That the said Warren Hastings, having formed the plans aforesaid for the ruin of the Rajah, did set out on a journey to the city of Benares with a great train, but with a very small force, not much exceeding six companies of regular black soldiers, to perpetrate some of the unjust and violent acts by him meditated and resolved on; and the said Hastings was met, according to the usage of distinguished persons in that country, by the Rajah of Benares with a very great attendance, both in boats and on shore, which attendance he did apparently intend as a mark of honor and observance to the place and person of the said Hastings, but which the said Hastings did afterwards groundlessly and maliciously represent as an indication of a design upon his life; and the said Rajah came into the pinnace in which the said Hastings was carried, and in a lowly and suppliant manner, alone, and without any guard or attendance whatsoever, entreated his favor; and being received with great sternness and arrogance, he did put his turban in the lap of the said Hastings, thereby signifying that he abandoned his life and fortune to his disposal, and then departed, the said Hastings not apprehending, nor having any reason to apprehend, any violence whatsoever to his person.
IV. That the said Hastings, in the utmost security and freedom from apprehension, did pursue his journey, and did arrive at the city of Benares on the 14th of August, 1781, some hours before the Rajah, who, soon after his arrival, intended to pay him a visit of honor and respect at his quarters, but was by the said Hastings rudely and insolently forbid, until he should receive his permission. And the said Hastings, although he had previously determined on the ruin of the said Rajah, in order to afford some color of regularity and justice to his proceedings, did, on the day after his arrival, that is, on the 15th day of August, 1781, send to the Rajah a charge in writing, which, though informal and irregular, may be reduced to four articles, two general, and two more particular: the first of the general being, "That he [the Rajah] had, by the means of his secret agents, endeavored to excite disorders in the government on which he depended"; the second, "That he had suffered the daily perpetration of robberies and murders, even in the streets of Benares, to the great and public scandal of the English name."
V. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings is guilty of an high offence, contrary to the fundamental principles of justice, in the said mode of charging misdemeanors, without any specification of person or place or time or act, or any offer of specification or proofs by which the party charged may be enabled to refute the same, in order to unjustly load his reputation, and to prejudice him with regard to the articles more clearly specified.
VI. That the two specified articles relate to certain delays: the first, with regard to the payment of the sums of money unjustly extorted as aforesaid; and the second, the non-compliance with a requisition of cavalry,—which non-compliance the said Hastings (even if the said charges had been founded) did falsely, and in contradiction to all law, affirm and maintain (in his accusation against the Rajah, and addressing himself to him) "to amount to a direct charge of disaffection and infidelity to the government on which you depend": and further proceeded as follows: "I therefore judged it proper to state them [the said charges] thus fully to you in writing, and to require your answer; and this I expect immediately." That the said Hastings, stating his pretended facts to amount to a charge of the nature (as he would have it understood) of high treason, and therefore calling for an immediate answer, did wilfully act against the rules of natural justice, which requires that a convenient time should be given to answer, proportioned to the greatness of the offence alleged, and the heavy penalties which attend it; and when he did arrogate to himself a right both to charge and to judge in his own person, he ought to have allowed the Rajah full opportunity for conferring with his ministers, his doctors of law, and his accountants, on the facts charged, and on the criminality inferred in the said accusation of disloyalty and disaffection, or offences of that quality.
VII. That the said Rajah did, under the pressure of the disadvantages aforesaid, deliver in, upon the very evening of the day of the charge, a full, complete, and specific answer to the two articles therein specified; and did allege and offer proof that the whole of the extraordinary demands of the said Hastings had been actually long before paid and discharged; and did state a proper defence, with regard to the cavalry, even supposing him bound (when he was not bound) to furnish any. And the said Rajah did make a direct denial of the truth, of the two general articles, and did explain himself on the same in as satisfactory a manner and as fully as their nature could permit, offering to enter into immediate trial of the points in issue between him and the said Hastings, in the remarkable words following. "My enemies, with a view to my ruin, have made false representations to you. Now that, happily for me, you have yourself arrived at this place, you will be able to ascertain all the circumstances: first, relative to the horse; secondly, to my people going to Calcutta; and thirdly, the dates of the receipts of the particular sums above mentioned. You will then know whether I have amused you with a false representation, or made a just report to you." And in the said answer the said Rajah complained, but in the most modest terms, of an injury to him of the most dangerous and criminal nature in transactions of such moment, namely, his not receiving any answer to his letters and petitions, and concluded in the following words. "I have never swerved in the smallest degree from my duty to you. It remains with you to decide on all these matters. I am in every case your slave. What is just I have represented to you. May your prosperity increase!"
VIII. That the said Warren Hastings was bound by the essential principles of natural justice to attend to the claim made by the Rajah to a fair and impartial trial and inquiry into the matter of accusation brought against him by the said Hastings, at a time and place which furnished all proper materials and the presence of all necessary witnesses; but the said Hastings, instead of instituting the said inquiry and granting trial, did receive an humble request for justice from a great prince as a fresh offence, and as a personal insult to himself, and did conceive a violent passion of anger and a strong resentment thereat, declaring that he did consider the said answer as not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style. "This answer you will perceive to be not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style, and less a vindication of himself than a recrimination on me. It expresses no concern for the causes of complaint contained in my letter, or desire to atone for them, nor the smallest intention to pursue a different line of conduct. An answer couched nearly in terms of defiance to requisitions of so serious a nature I could not but consider as a strong indication of that spirit of independency which the Rajah has for some years past assumed, and of which indeed I had early observed other manifest symptoms, both before and from the instant of my arrival." Which representation is altogether and in all parts thereof groundless and injurious; as the substance of the answer is a justification proper to be pleaded, and the style, if in anything exceptionable, it is in its extreme humility, resulting rather from an unmanly and abject spirit than from anything of an offensive liberty; but being received as disrespectful by the said Hastings, it abundantly indicates the tyrannical arrogance of the said Hastings, and the depression into which the natives are sunk under the British government.
IX. That the said Warren Hastings, pretending to have been much alarmed at the offensive language of the said Rajah's defence, and at certain appearances of independency which he had observed, not only on former occasions, but since his arrival at Benares, (where he had been but little more than one day,) and which appearances he never has specified in any one instance, did assert that he conceived himself indispensably obliged to adopt some decisive plan; and without any farther inquiry or consultation (which appears) with any person, did, at ten o'clock of the very night on which he received the before-mentioned full and satisfactory as well as submissive answer, send an order to the British Resident (then being a public minister representing the British government at the court of the said Rajah, and as such bound by the law of nations to respect the prince at whose court he was Resident, and not to attempt anything against his person or state, and who ought not, therefore, to have been chosen by the said Hastings, and compelled to serve in that business) that he should on the next morning arrest the said prince in his palace, and keep him in his custody until further orders; which said order being conceived in the most peremptory terms, the Rajah was put under arrest, with a guard of about thirty orderly sepoys, with their swords drawn; and the particulars thereof were reported to him as follows.
"HONORABLE SIR,—I this morning, in obedience to your orders of last night, proceeded with a few of my orderlies, accompanied by Lieutenant Stalker, to Shewalla Ghaut, the present residence of Rajah Cheyt Sing, and acquainted him it was your pleasure he should consider himself in arrest; that he should order his people to behave in a quiet and orderly manner, for that any attempt to rescue him would be attended with his own destruction. The Rajah submitted quietly to the arrest, and assured me, that, whatever were your orders, he was ready implicitly to obey; he hoped that you would allow him a subsistence, but as for his zemindary, his forts, and his treasure, he was ready to lay them at your feet, and his life, if required. He expressed himself much hurt at the ignominy which he affirmed must be the consequence of his confinement, and entreated me to return to you with the foregoing submission, hoping that you would make allowances for his youth and inexperience, and in consideration of his father's name release him from his confinement, as soon as he should prove the sincerity of his offers, and himself deserving of your compassion and forgiveness."
X. That a further order was given, that every servant of the Rajah's should be disarmed, and a certain number only left to attend him under a strict watch. In a quarter of an hour after this conversation, two companies of grenadier sepoys were sent to the Rajah's palace by the said Hastings; and the Rajah, being dismayed by this unexpected and unprovoked treatment, wrote two short letters or petitions to the said Hastings, under the greatest apparent dejection at the outrage and dishonor he had suffered in the eyes of his subjects, (all imprisonment of persons of rank being held in that country as a mark of indelible infamy, and he also, in all probability, considering his imprisonment as a prelude to the taking away his life,) and in the first of the said petitions he did express himself in this manner: "Whatever may be your pleasure, do it with your own hands; I am your slave. What occasion can there be for a guard?" And in the other: "My honor was bestowed upon me by your Highness. It depends on you alone to take away or not to take away the country out of my hands. In case my honor is not left to me, how shall I be equal to the business of the government? Whoever, with his hands in a supplicating posture, is ready with his life and property, what necessity can there be for him to be dealt with in this way?"
XI. That, according to the said Hastings's narrative of this transaction, he, the said Hastings, on account of the apparent despondency in which these letters were written, "thought it necessary to give him some encouragement," and therefore wrote him a note of a few lines, carelessly and haughtily expressed, and little calculated to relieve him from his uneasiness, promising to send to him a person to explain particulars, and desiring him "to set his mind at rest, and not to conceive any terror or apprehension." To which an answer of great humility and dejection was received.
XII. That the report of the Rajah's arrest did cause a great alarm in the city, in the suburbs of which the Rajah's palace is situated, and in the adjacent country. The people were filled with dismay and anger at the outrage and indignity offered to a prince under whose government they enjoyed much ease and happiness. Under these circumstances the Rajah desired leave to perform his ablutions; which was refused, unless he sent for water, and performed that ceremony on the spot. This he did. And soon after some of the people, who now began to surround the palace in considerable numbers, attempting to force their way into the palace, a British officer, commanding the guard upon the Rajah, struck one of them with his sword. The people grew more and more irritated; but a message being sent from the Rajah to appease them, they continued, on this interposition, for a while quiet. Then the Rajah retired to a sort of stone pavilion, or bastion, to perform his devotions, the guard of sepoys attending him in this act of religion. In the mean time a person of the meanest station, called a chubdar, at best answering to our common beadle or tipstaff, was sent with a message (of what nature does not appear) from Mr. Hastings, or the Resident, to the prince under arrest: and this base person, without regard to the rank of the prisoner, or to his then occupation, addressed him in a rude, boisterous manner, "passionately and insultingly," (as the said Rajah has without contradiction asserted,) "and, reviling him with a loud voice, gave both him and his people the vilest abuse"; and the manner and matter being observable and audible to the multitude, divided only by an open stone lattice from the scene within, a firing commenced from without the palace; on which the Rajah again interposed, and did what in him lay to suppress the tumult, until, an English officer striking him with a sword, and wounding him on the hand, the people no longer kept any measures, but broke through the inclosure of the palace. The insolent tipstaff was first cut down, and the multitude falling upon the sepoys and the English officers, the whole, or nearly the whole, were cut to pieces: the soldiers having been ordered to that service without any charges for their pieces. And in this tumult, the Rajah, being justly fearful of falling into the hands of the said Hastings, did make his escape over the walls of his palace, by means of a rope formed of his turban tied together, into a boat upon the river, and from thence into a place of security; abandoning many of his family to the discretion of the said Hastings, who did cause the said palace to be occupied by a company of soldiers after the flight of the Rajah.
XIII. That the Rajah, as soon as he had arrived at a place of refuge, did, on the very day of his flight, send a suppliant letter to the said Hastings, filled with expressions of concern (affirmed by the said Hastings to be slight expressions) for what had happened, and professions (said by the said Hastings to be indefinite and unapplied) of fidelity: but the said Warren Hastings, though bound by his duty to hear the said Rajah, and to prevent extremities, if possible, being filled with insolence and malice, did not think it "becoming of him to make any reply to it; and that he thought he ordered the bearer of the letter to be told that it required none."
XIV. That this letter of submission having been received, the said Rajah, not discouraged or provoked from using every attempt towards peace and reconciliation, did again apply, on the very morning following, to Richard Johnson, Esquire, for his interposition, but to no purpose; and did likewise, with as little effect, send a message to Cantoo Baboo, native steward and confidential agent of the said Hastings, which was afterwards reduced into writing, "to exculpate himself from any concern in what had passed, and to profess his obedience to his will [Hastings's] in whatever way he should dictate." But the said Hastings, for several false and contradictory reasons by him assigned, did not take any advantage of the said opening, attributing the same to artifice in order to gain time; but instead of accepting the said submissions, he did resolve upon flight from the city of Benares, and did suddenly fly therefrom in great confusion.
XV. That the said Hastings did persevere in his resolutions not to listen to any submission or offer of accommodation whatsoever, though several were afterwards made through almost every person who might be supposed to have influence with him, but did cause the Rajah's troops to be attacked and fallen upon, though they only acted on the defensive, (as the Rajah has without contradiction asserted,) and thereby, and by his preceding refusal of propositions of the same nature, and by other his perfidious, unjust, and tyrannical acts by him perpetrated and done, and by his total improvidence in not taking any one rational security whatsoever against the inevitable consequences of those acts, did make himself guilty of all the mutual slaughter and devastation which ensued, as well as, in his opinion, of the imminent danger of the total subversion of the British power in India by the risk of his own person, which he asserts that it did run,—as also "that it ought not to be thought that he attributed too much consequence to his personal safety, when he supposed the fate of the British empire in India connected with it, and that, mean as its substance may be, its accidental qualities were equivalent to those which, like the characters of a talisman in the Arabian mythology, formed the essence of the state itself, representation, title, and the estimate of the public opinion; that, had he fallen, such a stroke would be universally considered as decisive of the national fate; every state round it would have started into arms against it, and every subject of its own dominion would, according to their several abilities, have become its enemy": and that he knew and has declared, that, though the said stroke was not struck, that great convulsions did actually ensue from his proceedings, "that half the province of Oude was in a state of as complete rebellion as that of Benares," and that invasions, tumults, and insurrections were occasioned thereby in various other parts.
XVI. That the said Warren Hastings, after he had collected his forces from all parts, did, with little difficulty or bloodshed, subsequent to that time, on the part of his troops, and in a few days, entirely reduce the said province of Benares; and did, after the said short and little resisted hostility, in cold blood, issue an order for burning a certain town, in which he accused the people at large of having killed, "upon what provocation he knows not," certain wounded sepoys, who were prisoners: which order, being generally given, when it was his duty to have made some inquiry concerning the particular offenders, but which he did never make, or cause to be made, was cruel, inhuman, and tended to the destruction of the revenues of the Company; and that this, and other acts of devastation, did cause the loss of two months of the collections.
XVII. That the said Warren Hastings did not only refuse the submissions of the said Rajah, which were frequently repeated through various persons after he had left Benares, and even after the defeat of certain of the Company's forces, but did proscribe and except him from the pardons which he issued after he had satisfied his vengeance on the province of Benares.
XVIII. That the said Warren Hastings did send to a certain castle, called Bidzigur, the residence of a person of high rank, called Panna, the mother of the Rajah of Benares, with whom his wife, a woman described by the said Hastings "to be of an amiable character," and all the other women of the Rajah's family, and the survivors of the family of his father, Bulwant Sing, did then reside, a body of troops to dispossess them of her said residence, and to seize upon her money and effects, although she did not stand, even by himself, accused of any offence whatsoever,—pretending, but not proving, and not attempting to prove, then nor since, that the treasures therein contained were the property of the Rajah, and not her own; and did, in order to stimulate the British soldiery to rapine and outrage, issue to them several barbarous orders, contrary to the practice of civilized nations, relative to their property, movable and immovable, attended with unworthy and unbecoming menaces, highly offensive to the manners of the East and the particular respect there paid to the female sex,—which letters and orders, as well as the letters which he had received from the officers concerned, the said Hastings did unlawfully suppress, until forced by the disputes between him and the said officers to discover the same: and the said orders are as follow.
"I am this instant favored with yours of yesterday. Mine of the same date [22d October, 1781] has before this time acquainted you with my resolutions and sentiments respecting the Rannee [the mother of the Rajah Cheyt Sing]. I think every demand she has made to you, except that of safety and respect for her person, is unreasonable. If the reports brought to me are true, your rejecting her offers, or any negotiations with her, would soon obtain you possession of the fort upon your own terms. I apprehend that she will contrive to defraud the captors of a considerable part of the booty by being suffered to retire without examination. But this is your consideration, and not mine. I should be very sorry that your officers and soldiers lost ANY PART of the reward to which they are so well entitled; but I cannot make any objection, as you must be the best judge of the expediency of the promised indulgence to the Rannee. What you have engaged for I will certainly ratify; but as to permitting the Rannee to hold the purgunnah of Hurluk, or any other in the zemindary, without being subject to the authority of the zemindar, or any lands whatever, or indeed making any conditions with her for a provision, I will never consent to it." And in another letter to the same person, dated Benares, 3d of November, 1781, in which he, the said Hastings, consents that the said woman of distinction should be allowed to evacuate the place and to receive protection, he did express himself as follows. "I am willing to grant her now the same conditions to which I at first consented, provided that she delivers into your possession, within twenty-four hours from the time of receiving your message, the fort of Bidzigur, with the treasure and effects lodged therein by Cheyt Sing or any of his adherents, with the reserve only, as above mentioned, of such articles as you shall think necessary to her sex and condition, or as you shall be disposed of yourself to indulge her with. If she complies, as I expect she will, it will be your part to secure the fort and the property it contains for the benefit of yourself and detachment. I have only further to request that you will grant an escort, if Panna should require it, to conduct her here, or wherever she may choose to retire to. But should she refuse to execute the promise she has made, or delay it beyond the term of twenty-four hours, it is my positive injunction that you immediately put a stop to any further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on no pretext renew it. If she disappoints or trifles with me, after I have subjected my duan to the disgrace of returning ineffectually, and of course myself to discredit, I shall consider it as a wanton affront and indignity which I can never forgive, nor will I grant her any conditions whatever, but leave her exposed to those dangers which she has chosen to risk rather than trust to the clemency and generosity of our government. I think she cannot be ignorant of these consequences, and will not venture to incur them; and it is for this reason I place a dependence on her offers, and have consented to send my duan to her."
XIX. That the castle aforesaid being surrendered upon terms of safety, and on express condition of not attempting to search their persons, the woman of rank aforesaid, her female relations and female dependants, to the number of three hundred, besides children, evacuated the said castle; but the spirit of rapacity being excited by the letters and other proceedings of the said Hastings, the capitulation was shamefully and outrageously broken, and, in despite of the endeavors of the commanding officer, the said woman of high condition, and her female dependants, friends, and servants, were plundered of the effects they carried with them, and which were reserved to them in the capitulation of their fortress, and in their persons were otherwise rudely and inhumanly dealt with by the licentious followers of the camp: for which outrages, represented to the said Hastings with great concern by the commanding officer, Major Popham, he, the said Hastings, did afterwards recommend a late and fruitless redress.
XX. That the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, in exciting the hopes of the military by declaring them well entitled to the plunder of the fortress aforesaid, the residence of the mother and other women of the Rajah of Benares, and by wishing the troops to secure the same for their own benefit, did advise and act in direct contradiction to the orders of the Court of Directors, and to his own opinion of his public duty, as well as to the truth and reality thereof,—he having some years before entered in writing the declaration which follows.
"The very idea of prize-money suggests to my remembrance the former disorders which arose in our army from this source, and had almost proved fatal to it. Of this circumstance you must be sufficiently apprised, and of the necessity for discouraging every expectation of this kind amongst the troops. It is to be avoided like poison. The bad effects of a similar measure were but too plainly felt in a former period, and our honorable masters did not fail on that occasion to reprobate with their censure, in the most severe terms, a practice which they regarded as the source of infinite evils, and which, if established, would in their judgment necessarily bring corruption and ruin on their army."
XXI. That the said Hastings, after he had given the license aforesaid, and that in consequence thereof the booty found in the castle, to the amount of 23,27,813 current rupees, was distributed among the soldiers employed in its reduction, the said Hastings did retract his declaration of right, and his permission to the soldiers to appropriate to themselves the plunder, and endeavored, by various devices and artifices, to explain the same away, and to recover the spoil aforesaid for the use of the Company; and wholly failing in his attempts to resume by a breach of faith with the soldiers what he had unlawfully disposed of by a breach of duty to his constituents, he attempted to obtain the same as a loan, in which attempt he also failed; and the aforesaid money being the only part of the treasures belonging to the Rajah, or any of his family, that had been found, he was altogether frustrated in the acquisition of every part of that dishonorable object which alone he pretended to, and pursued through a long series of acts of injustice, inhumanity, oppression, violence, and bloodshed, at the hazard of his person and reputation, and, in his own opinion, at the risk of the total subversion of the British empire.
XXI. That the said Warren Hastings, after the commission of the offences aforesaid, being well aware that he should be called to an account for the same, did, by the evil counsel and agency of Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, who was then out of the limits of his jurisdiction, cause to be taken at Benares, before or by the said Sir Elijah Impey, and through the intervention, not of the Company's interpreter, but of a certain private interpreter of his, the said Hastings's, own appointment, and a dependant on him, called Major Davy, several declarations and depositions by natives of Hindostan,—and did also cause to be taken before the said Sir Elijah Impey several attestations in English, made by British subjects, and which were afterwards transmitted to Calcutta, and laid before the Council-General,—some of which depositions were upon oath, some upon honor, and others neither upon oath nor honor, but all or most of which were of an irregular and irrelevant nature, and not fit or decent to be taken by a British magistrate, or to be transmitted to a British government.
XXIII. That one of the said attestations (but not on oath) was made by a principal minister of the Nabob of Oude, to whom the said Hastings had some time before proposed to sell the sovereignty of that very territory of Benares; and that one other attestation (not upon oath) was made by a native woman of distinction, whose son he, the said Hastings, did actually promote to the government of Benares, vacated by the unjust expulsion of the Rajah aforesaid, and who in her deposition did declare that she considered the expelled Rajah as her enemy, and that he never did confer with her, or suffer her to be acquainted with any of his designs.
XXIV. That, besides the depositions of persons interested in the ruin of the Rajah, others were made by persons who then received pensions from him, the said Hastings; and several of the affidavits were made by persons of mean condition, and so wholly illiterate as not to be able to write their names.
XXV. That he, the said Hastings, did also cause to be examined by various proofs and essays, the result of which was delivered in upon honor, the quality of certain military stores taken by the British troops from the said Rajah of Benares; and upon the report that the same were of a good quality, and executed by persons conversant in the making of good military stores, although the cannon was stated by the same authority to be bad, he, the said Warren Hastings, from the report aforesaid, did maliciously, and contrary to the principles of natural and legal reason, infer that the insurrection which had been raised by his own violence and oppression, and rendered for a time successful by his own improvidence, was the consequence of a premeditated design to overturn the British empire in India, and to exterminate therefrom the British nation; which design, if it had been true, the said Hastings might have known, or rationally conjectured, and ought to have provided against. And if the said Hastings had received any credible information of such design, it was his duty to lay the same before the Council Board, and to state the same to the Rajah, when he was in a condition to have given an answer thereto or to observe thereon, and not, after he had proscribed and driven him from his dominions, to have inquired into offences to justify the previous infliction of punishment.
XXVI. That it does not appear, that, in taking the said depositions, there was any person present on the part of the Rajah to object to the competence or credibility or relevancy of any of the said affidavits or other attestations, or to account, otherwise than as the said deponents did account, for any of the facts therein stated; nor were any copies thereof sent to the said Rajah, although the Company had a minister at the place of his residence, namely, in the camp of the Mahratta chief Sindia, so as to enable him to transmit to the Company any matters which might induce or enable them to do justice to the injured prince aforesaid. And it does not appear that the said Hastings has ever produced any witness, letter, or other document, tending to prove that the said Rajah ever did carry on any hostile negotiation whatever with any of those powers with whom he was charged with a conspiracy against the Company, previous to the period of the said Hastings's having arrested him in his palace, although he, the said Hastings, had various agents at the courts of all those princes,—and that a late principal agent and near relation of a minister of one them, the Rajah of Berar, called Benaram Pundit, was, at the time of the tumult at Benares, actually with the said Hastings, and the said Benaram Pundit was by him highly applauded for his zeal and fidelity, and was therefore by him rewarded with a large pension on those very revenues which he had taken from the Rajah Cheyt Sing, and if such a conspiracy had previously existed, the Mahratta minister aforesaid must have known, and would have attested it.
XXVII. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings, at the time that he formed his design of seizing upon the treasures of the Rajah of Benares, and of deposing him, did not believe him guilty of that premeditated project for driving the English out of India with which he afterwards thought fit to charge him, or that he was really guilty of any other great offence: because he has caused it to be deposed, that, if the said Rajah should pay the sum of money by him exacted, "he would settle his zemindary upon him on the most eligible footing"; whereas, if he had conceived him to have entertained traitorous designs against the Company, from whom he held his tributary estate, or had been otherwise guilty of such enormous offences as to make it necessary to take extraordinary methods for coercing him, it would not have been proper for him to settle upon such a traitor and criminal the zemindary of Benares, or any other territory, upon the most eligible, or upon any other footing whatever: whereby the said Hastings has by his own stating demonstrated that the money intended to have been exacted was not as a punishment for crimes, but that the crimes were pretended for the purpose of exacting money.
XXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to justify the acts of violence aforesaid to the Court of Directors, did assert certain false facts, known by him to be such, and did draw from them certain false and dangerous inferences, utterly subversive of the rights of the princes and subjects dependent on the British nation in India, contrary to the principles of all just government, and highly dishonorable to that of Great Britain: namely, that the "Rajah of Benares was not a vassal or tributary prince, and that the deeds which passed between him and the board, upon the transfer of the zemindary in 1775, were not to be understood to bear the quality and force of a treaty upon optional conditions between equal states; that the payments to be made by him were not a tribute, but a rent; and that the instruments by which his territories were conveyed to him did not differ from common grants to zemindars who were merely subjects; but that, being nothing more than a common zemindar and mere subject, and the Company holding the acknowledged rights of his former sovereign, held an absolute authority over him; that, in the known relations of zemindar to the sovereign authority, or power delegated by it, he owed a personal allegiance and an implicit and unreserved obedience to that authority, at the forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property." Whereas the said Hastings did well know, that, whether the payments from the Rajah were called rent or tribute, having been frequently by himself called the one and the other, and that of whatever nature the instruments by which he held might have been, he did not consider him as a common zemindar or landholder, but as far independent as a tributary prince could be: for he did assign as a reason for receiving his rent rather within the Company's province than in his own capital, that it would not "frustrate the intention of rendering the Rajah independent; that, if a Resident was appointed to receive the money as it became due at Benares, such a Resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and over his country, which would in effect render him the master of both; that this consequence might not, perhaps, be brought completely to pass without a struggle, and many appeals to the Council, which, in a government constituted like this, cannot fail to terminate against the Rajah, and, by the construction to which his opposition to the agent would be liable, might eventually draw on him severe restrictions, and end in reducing him to the mean and depraved state of a zemindar."
XXIX. And the said Hastings, in the said Minute of Consultation, having enumerated the frauds, embezzlements, and oppressions which would ensue from the Rajah's being in the dependent state aforesaid, and having obviated all apprehensions from giving to him the implied symbols of dominion, did assert, "that, without such appearance, he would expect from every change of government additional demands to be made upon him, and would of course descend to all the arts of intrigue and concealment practised by other dependent Rajahs, which would keep him indigent and weak, and eventually prove hurtful to the Company; but that, by proper encouragement and protection, he might prove a profitable dependant, an useful barrier, and even a powerful ally to the Company; but that he would be neither, if the conditions of his connection with the Company were left open to future variations."
XXX. That, if the fact had been true that the Rajah of Benares was merely an eminent landholder or any other subject, the wicked and dangerous doctrine aforesaid, namely, that he owed a personal allegiance and an implicit and unreserved obedience to the sovereign authority, at the forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property, at the discretion of those who held or fully represented the sovereign authority, doth leave security neither for life nor property to any persons residing under the Company's protection; and that no such powers, nor any powers of that nature, had been delegated to the said Warren Hastings by any provisions of the act of Parliament appointing a Governor-General and Council at Fort William in Bengal.
XXXI. That the said Warren Hastings did also advance another dangerous and pernicious principle in justification of his violent, arbitrary, and iniquitous actings aforesaid: namely, "that, if he had acted with an unwarrantable rigor, and even injustice, towards Cheyt Sing, yet, first, if he did believe that extraordinary means were necessary, and those exerted with a strong hand, to preserve the Company's interests from sinking under the accumulated weight that oppressed them, or, secondly, if he saw a political necessity for curbing the overgrown power of a great member of their dominion, and to make it contribute to the relief of their pressing exigencies, that his error would be excusable, as prompted by an excess of zeal for their [the Company's] interest, operating with too strong a bias on his judgment; but that much stronger is the presumption, that such acts are founded on just principles than that they are the result of a misguided judgment." That the said doctrines are, in both the members thereof, subversive of all the principles of just government, by empowering a governor with delegated authority, in the first case, on his own private belief concerning the necessities of the state, not to levy an impartial and equal rate of taxation suitable to the circumstances of the several members of the community, but to select any individual from the same as an object of arbitrary and unmeasured imposition,—and, in the second case, enabling the same governor, on the same arbitrary principles, to determine whose property should be considered as overgrown, and to reduce the same at his pleasure.
PART IV.
SECOND REVOLUTION IN BENARES.
That the said Warren Hastings, after he had, in the manner aforesaid, unjustly and violently expelled the Rajah Cheyt Sing, the lord or zemindar of Benares, from his said lordship or zemindary, did, of his own mere usurped authority, and without any communication with the other members of the Council of Calcutta, appoint another person, of the name of Mehip Narrain, a descendant by the mother from the late Rajah, Bulwant Sing, to the government of Benares; and on account or pretence of his youth and inexperience (the said Mehip Narrain not being above twenty years old) did appoint his father, Durbege Sing, to act as his representative or administrator of his affairs; but did give a controlling authority to the British Resident over both, notwithstanding his declarations before mentioned of the mischiefs likely to happen to the said country from the establishment of a Resident, and his opinion since declared in a letter to the Court of Directors, dated from this very place (Benares) the 1st of October, 1784, to the same or stronger effect, in case "agents are sent into the country, and armed with authority for the purposes of vengeance and corruption,—for to no other will they be applied."
That the said Warren Hastings did, by the same usurped authority, entirely set aside all the agreements made between the late Rajah and the Company (which were real agreements with the state of Benares, in the person of the lord or prince thereof, and his heirs); and without any form of trial, inquisition, or other legal process, for forfeiture of the privileges of the people to be governed by magistrates of their own, and according to their natural laws, customs, and usages, did, contrary to the said agreement, separate the mint and the criminal justice from the said government, and did vest the mint in the British Resident, and the criminal justice in a Mahomedan native of his own appointment; and did enhance the tribute to be paid from the province, from two hundred and fifty thousand pounds annually, limited by treaty, or thereabouts, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the first year, and to four hundred thousand for every year after; and did compel the administrator aforesaid (father to the Rajah) to agree to the same; and did, by the same usurped authority, illegally impose, and cause to be levied, sundry injudicious and oppressive duties on goods and merchandise, which did greatly impair the trade of the province, and threaten the utter ruin thereof; and did charge several pensions on the said revenues, of his own mere authority; and did send and keep up various bodies of the Company's troops in the said country; and did perform sundry other acts with regard to the said territory, in total subversion of the rights of the sovereign and the people, and in violation of the treaties and agreements aforesaid.
That the said Warren Hastings, being absent, on account of ill health, from the Presidency of Calcutta, at a place called Nia Serai, about forty miles distant therefrom, did carry on a secret correspondence with the Resident at Benares, and, under color that the instalments for the new rent or tribute were in arrear, did of his own authority make, in about one year, a second revolution in the government of the territory aforesaid, and did order and direct that Durbege Sing aforesaid, father of the Rajah, and administrator of his authority, should be deprived of his office and of his lands, and thrown into prison, and did threaten him with death: although he, the said Warren Hastings, had, at the time of the making his new arrangement, declared himself sensible that the rent aforesaid might require abatement; although he was well apprised that the administrator had been for two months of his administration in a weak and languid state of body, and wholly incapable of attending to the business of the collections; though a considerable drought had prevailed in the said province, and did consequently affect the regularity and produce of the collections; and though he had other sufficient reason to believe that the said administrator had not himself received from the collectors of government and the cultivators of the soil the rent in arrear: yet he, the said Warren Hastings, without any known process, or recording any answer, defence, plea, exculpation, or apology from the party, or recording any other grounds of rigor against him, except the following paragraph of a letter from the Resident, not only gave the order as aforesaid, but did afterwards, without laying any other or better ground before the Council-General, persuade them to, and did procure from them, a confirmation of the aforesaid cruel and illegal proceedings, the correspondence concerning which had not been before communicated: he pleading his illness for not communicating the same, though that illness did not prevent him from carrying on correspondence concerning the deposition of the said administrator, and other important affairs in various places.
That in the letter to the Council requiring the confirmation of his acts aforesaid the said Warren Hastings did not only propose the confinement of the said administrator at Benares, although by his imprisonment he must have been in a great measure disabled from recovering the balances due to him, and for the non-payment of which he was thus imprisoned, but did propose, as an alternative, his imprisonment at a remote fortress, out of the said territory, and in the Company's provinces, called Chunar: desiring them to direct the Resident at Benares "to exact from Baboo Durbege Sing every rupee of the collections which it shall appear that he has made and not brought to account, and either to confine him at Benares, or to send him a prisoner to Chunar, and to keep him in confinement until he shall have discharged the whole of the amount due from him." And the said Warren Hastings did assign motives of passion and personal resentment for the said unjust and rigorous proceedings, as follows: "I feel myself, and may be allowed on such an occasion to acknowledge it, personally hurt at the ingratitude of this man, and at the discredit which his ill conduct has thrown on my appointment of him. He has deceived me; he has offended against the government which I then represented." And as a further reason for depriving him of his jaghire, (or salary out of land,) he did insinuate in the said letter, but without giving or offering any proof, "that the said Rajah had been guilty of little and mean peculations, although the appointments assigned to him had been sufficient to free him from the temptations thereto."
That it appears, as it might naturally have been expected, that the wife of the said administrator, the daughter of Bulwant Sing, the late Rajah of Benares, and her son, the reigning Rajah, did oppose to the best of their power, but by what remonstrances or upon what plea the said Warren Hastings did never inform the Court of Directors, the deposition, imprisonment, and confiscation of the estates of the husband of the one and the father of the other; but that the said Hastings, persisting in his malice, did declare to the said Council as follows: "The opposition made by the Rajah and the old Rannee, both equally incapable of judging for themselves, does certainly originate from some secret influence, which ought to be checked by a decided and peremptory declaration of the authority of the board, and a denunciation of their displeasure at their presumption."
That the said Warren Hastings, not satisfied with the injuries done and the insults and disgraces offered to the family aforesaid, did, in a manner unparalleled, except by an act of his own on another occasion, fraudulently and inhumanly endeavor to make the wife and son of the said administrator, contrary to the sentiments and the law of Nature, the instruments of his oppressions: directing, "that, if they" (the mother and son aforesaid) "could be induced to yield the appearance of a cheerful acquiescence in the new arrangement, and to adopt it as a measure formed with their participation, it would be better than that it should be done by a declared act of compulsion; but that at all events it ought to be done."
That, in consequence of the pressing declarations aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did on his special recommendation appoint, in opposition to the wishes and desires of the Rajah and his mother, another person to the administration of his affairs, called Jagher Deo Seo.
That, the Company having sent express orders for the sending the Resident by them before appointed to Benares, the said Warren Hastings did strongly oppose himself to the same, and did throw upon the person appointed by the Company (Francis Fowke, Esquire) several strong, but unspecified, reflections and aspersions, contrary to the duty he owed to the Company, and to the justice he owed to all its servants.
That the said Resident, being appointed by the votes of the rest of the Council, in obedience to the reiterated orders of the Company, and in despite of the opposition of the said Hastings, did proceed to Benares, and, on the representation of the parties, and the submission of the accounts of the aforesaid Durbege Sing to an arbitrator, did find him, the said Durbege Sing, in debt to the Company for a sum not considerable enough to justify the severe treatment of the said Durbege Sing: his wife and son complaining, at or about the same time, that the balances due to him from the aumils, or sub-collectors, had been received by the new administrator, and carried to his own credit, in prejudice and wrong to the said Durbege Sing; which representation, the only one that has been transmitted on the part of the said sufferers, has not been contradicted.
That it appears that the said Durbege Sing did afterwards go to Calcutta for the redress of his grievances, and that it does not appear that the same were redressed, or even his complaints heard, but he received two peremptory orders from the Supreme Council to leave the said city and to return to Benares; that, on his return to Benares, and being there met by Warren Hastings aforesaid, he, the said Warren Hastings, although he had reason to be well assured that the said Durbege Sing was in possession of small or no substance, did again cruelly and inhumanly, and without any legal authority, order the said Durbege Sing to be strictly imprisoned; and the said Durbege Sing, in consequence of the vexations, hardships, and oppressions aforesaid, died in a short time after, insolvent, but whether in prison or not does not appear.
PART V.
THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES.
That the said Warren Hastings, having, in the manner before recited, divested Durbege Sing of the administration of the province of Benares, did, of his own arbitrary will and pleasure, and against the remonstrances of the Rajah and his mother, (in whose name and in whose right the said Durbege Sing, father of the one, and husband of the other, had administered the affairs of the government,) appoint a person called Jagher Deo Seo to administer the same.
That the new administrator, warned by the severe example made of his predecessor, is represented by the said Warren Hastings as having made it his "avowed principle" (as it might be expected it should be) "that the sum fixed for the revenue must be collected." And he did, upon the principle aforesaid, and by the means suggested by a principle of that sort, accordingly levy from the country, and did regularly discharge to the British Resident at Benares, by monthly payments, the sums imposed by the said Warren Hastings, as it is asserted by the Resident, Fowke; but the said Warren Hastings did assert that his annual collections did not amount to more than Lac 37,37,600, or thereabouts, which he says is much short of the revenues of the province, and is by about twenty-four thousand pounds short of his agreement.
That it further appears, that, notwithstanding the new administrator aforesaid was appointed two months, or thereabouts, after the beginning of the Fusseli year, that is to say, about the middle of November, 1782, and the former administrator had collected a certain portion of the revenues of that year, amounting to 17,000l. and upwards, yet he, the said new administrator, upon the unjust and destructive principle aforesaid, suggested by the cruel and violent proceedings of the said Warren Hastings towards his predecessor, did levy on the province, within the said year, the whole amount of the revenues to be collected, in addition to the sum collected by his predecessor aforesaid.
That, on account of a great drought which prevailed in the province aforesaid, a remission of certain duties in grain was proposed by the chief criminal judge at Benares; but the administrator aforesaid, being fearful that the revenue should fall short in his hands, did strenuously oppose himself to the necessary relief to the inhabitants of the said city.
That, notwithstanding the cantonment of several bodies of the Company's troops within the province, since the abolition of the native government, it became subject in a particular manner to the depredations of the Rajahs upon the borders; insomuch that in one quarter no fewer than thirty villages had been sacked and burned, and the inhabitants reduced to the most extreme distress.
That the Resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult, and, besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty the following. "That there is also one fund which in former years was often applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This was the private fortunes of merchants and shroffs [bankers] resident in Benares, from whom aumils [collectors] of credit could obtain temporary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of the Rajah. These sums, which used to circulate between the aumil and the merchant, have been turned into a different channel, by bills of exchange to defray the expenses of government, both on the west coast of India, and also at Madras." To which representation it does not appear that any answer was given, or that any mode of redress was adopted in consequence thereof.
That the said Warren Hastings, having passed through the province of Benares (Gazipore) in his progress towards Oude, did, in a letter dated from the city of Lucknow, the 2d of April, 1784, give to the Council Board at Calcutta an account, highly dishonorable to the British government, of the effect of the arrangements made by himself in the years 1781 and 1782, in the words following. "Having contrived, by making forced stages, while the troops of my escort marched at the ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at Benares, I was thereby furnished with the means of acquiring some knowledge of the state of the province, which I am anxious to communicate to you. Indeed, the inquiry, which was in a great degree obtruded upon me, affected me with very mortifying reflections on my inability to apply it to any useful purpose. From the confines of Buxar to Benares I was followed and fatigued by the clamors of the discontented inhabitants. It was what I expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it. The distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably tended to heighten the general discontent; yet I have reason to fear that the cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and oppressive administration. Of a multitude of petitions which were presented to me, and of which I took minutes, every one that did not relate to a personal grievance contained the representation of one and the same species of oppression, which is in its nature of an influence most fatal to the future cultivation. The practice to which I allude is this. It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in kind on their stipulated rent: that is, from those who hold their pottah by the tenure of paying one half of the produce of their crops, either the whole without subterfuge, or a large proportion of it by a false measurement or other pretexts; and from those whose engagements are for a fixed rent in money, the half, or a greater proportion, is taken in kind. This is in effect a tax upon the industry of the inhabitants: since there is scarce a field of grain in the province, I might say not one, which has not been preserved by the incessant labor of the cultivator, by digging wells for their supply, or watering them from the wells of masonry with which their country abounds, or from the neighboring tanks, rivers, and nullahs. The people who imposed on themselves this voluntary and extraordinary labor, and not unattended with expense, did it on the expectation of reaping the profits of it; and it is certain they would not have done it, if they had known that their rulers, from whom they were entitled to an indemnification, would take from them what they had so hardly earned. If the same administration continues, and the country shall again labor under a want of rain, every field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands perish through want of subsistence: for who will labor for the sole benefit of others, and to make himself the subject of exaction? These practices are to be imputed to the Naib himself" (the administrator forced by the said Warren Hastings on the present Rajah of Benares). "The avowed principle on which he acts, and which he acknowledged to myself, is, that the whole sum fixed for the revenue of the province must be collected,—and that, for this purpose, the deficiency arising in places where the crops have failed, or which have been left uncultivated, must be supplied from the resources of others, where the soil has been better suited to the season, or the industry of the cultivators hath been more successfully exerted: a principle which, however specious and plausible it may at first appear, certainly tends to the most pernicious and destructive consequences. If this declaration of the Naib had been made only to myself, I might have doubted my construction of it; but it was repeated by him to Mr. Anderson, who understood it exactly in the same sense. In the management of the customs, the conduct of the Naib, or of the officer under him, was forced also upon my attention. The exorbitant rates exacted by an arbitrary valuation of the goods, the practice of exacting duties twice on the same goods, (first from the seller, and afterwards from the buyer,) and the vexations, disputes, and delays drawn on the merchants by these oppressions, were loudly complained of; and some instances of this kind were said to exist at the very time I was at Benares. Under such circumstances, we are not to wonder, if the merchants of foreign countries are discouraged from resorting to Benares, and if the commerce of that province should annually decay. Other evils, or imputed evils, have accidentally come to my knowledge, which I will not now particularize, as I hope, that, with the assistance of the Resident, they may be in part corrected. One evil I must mention, because it has been verified by my own observation, and is of that kind which reflects an unmerited reproach on our general and national character. When I was at Buxar, the Resident, at my desire, enjoined the Naib to appoint creditable people to every town through which our route lay, to persuade and encourage the inhabitants to remain in their houses, promising to give them guards as I approached, and they required it for their protection; and that he might perceive how earnest I was for his observation of this precaution, I repeated it to him in person, and dismissed him that he might precede me for that purpose. But, to my great disappointment, I found every place through which I passed abandoned; nor had there been a man left in any of them for their protection. I am sorry to add, that, from Buxar to the opposite boundary, I have seen nothing but traces of complete devastation in every village: whether caused by the followers of the troops which have lately passed, for their natural relief, (and I know not whether my own may not have had their share,) or from the apprehensions of the inhabitants left to themselves, and of themselves deserting their houses. I wish to acquit my own countrymen of the blame of these unfavorable appearances, and in my own heart I do acquit them; for at one encampment a crowd of people came to me complaining that their new aumil (collector), on the approach of any military detachment, himself first fled from the place; and the inhabitants, having no one to whom they could apply for redress, or for the representation of their grievances, and being thus remediless, fled also; so that their houses and effects became a prey to any person who chose to plunder them. The general conclusion appeared to me an inevitable consequence from such a state of facts; and my own senses bore testimony to it in this specific instance: nor do I know how it is possible for any officer commanding a military party, how attentive soever he may be to the discipline and forbearance of his people, to prevent disorders, when there is neither opposition to hinder nor evidence to detect them. These and many other irregularities I impute solely to the Naib, and recommend his instant removal. I cannot help remarking, that, except the city of Benares, the province is in effect without a government. The administration of the province is misconducted, and the people oppressed, trade discouraged, and the revenue in danger of a rapid decline, from the violent appropriation of its means."
That the said Warren Hastings did recommend to the Council, for a remedy of the disorders and calamities which had arisen from his own acts, dispositions, and appointments, that the administrator aforesaid should be instantly removed from his office,—attributing the aforesaid "irregularities, and many others, solely to him," although, on his own representation, it does appear that he was the sole cause of the irregularities therein described. Neither does it appear that the administrator, so by the said Hastings nominated and removed, was properly charged and called to answer for the said recited irregularities, or for the many others not recited, but attributed solely to him; nor has any plea or excuse from him been transmitted to the board, or to the Court of Directors; but he was, at the instance of the said Hastings, deprived of his said office, contrary to the principles of natural justice, in a violent and arbitrary manner; which proceeding, combined with the example made of his predecessor, must necessarily leave to the person who should succeed to the said office no distinct principle upon which he might act with safety. But in comparing the consequences of the two delinquencies charged, the failure of the payment of the revenues (from whatever cause it may arise) is more likely to be avoided than any severe course towards the inhabitants: as the former fault was, besides the deprivation of office, attended with two imprisonments, with a menace of death, and an actual death, in disgrace, poverty, and insolvency; whereas the latter, namely, the oppression, and thereby the total ruin, of the country, charged on the second administrator, was only followed by loss of office,—although, he, the said Warren Hastings, did farther assert (but with what truth does not appear) that the collection of the last administrator had fallen much short of the revenue of the province.
That the said Warren Hastings himself was sensible that the frequent changes by him made would much disorder the management of the revenues, and seemed desirous of concealing his intentions concerning the last change until the time of its execution. Yet it appears, by a letter from the British Resident, dated the 23d of June, 1784, "that a very strong report prevailed at Benares of his [the said Hastings's] intentions of appointing a new Naib for the approaching year, and that the effect is evident which the prevalence of such an idea amongst the aumils would probably have on the cultivation at this particular time. The heavy mofussil kists [harvest instalments] have now been collected by the aumils; the season of tillage is arrived; the ryots [country farmers] must be indulged, and even assisted by advances; and the aumil must look for his returns in the abundance of the crop, the consequence of this early attention to the cultivation. The effect is evident which the report of a change in the first officer of the revenue must have on the minds of the aumils, by leaving them at an uncertainty of what they have in future to expect; and in proportion to the degree of this uncertainty, their efforts and expenses in promoting the cultivation will be languid and sparing. In compliance with the Naib's request, I have written to all the aumils, encouraging and ordering them to attend to the cultivation of their respective districts; but I conceive I should be able to promote this very desirable intention much more effectually, if you will honor me with the communication of your intentions on this subject. At the same time I cannot help just remarking, that, if a change is intended, the sooner it takes place, the more the bad effects I have described will be obviated."
That the Council, having received the proposition for the removal of the administrator aforesaid, did also, in a letter to him, the said Hastings, condemn the frequent changes by him made in the administration of the collections of Benares,—but did consent to such alterations as might be made without encroaching on the rights established by his, the said Hastings's, agreement in the year 1781, and did desire him to transmit to them his plan for a new administration.
That the said Hastings did transmit a plan, which, notwithstanding the evils which had happened from the former frequent changes, he did propose as a temporary expedient for the administration of the revenues of the said province,—in which no provision was made for the reduction or remission of revenue as exigences might require, or for the extraction of the circulating specie from the said province, or for the supply of the necessary advances for cultivation, nor for the removal or prevention of any of the grievances by him before complained of, other than an inspection by the Resident and the chief criminal magistrate of Benares, and other regulations equally void of effect and authority,—and which plan Mr. Stables, one of the Supreme Council, did altogether reject; but the same was approved of as a temporary expedient, with some exceptions, by two other members of the board, Mr. Wheler and Mr. Macpherson, declaring the said Warren Hastings responsible for the temporary expediency of the same.
That the said Warren Hastings, in the plan aforesaid, having strongly objected to the appointment of any European collectors, that is to say, of any European servants of the Company being concerned in the same, declaring that there had been sufficient experience of the ill effects of their being so employed in the province of Bengal,—by which the said Hastings did either in loose and general terms convey a false imputation upon the conduct of the Company's servants employed in the collection of the revenues of Bengal, or he was guilty of a criminal neglect of duty in not bringing to punishment the particular persons whose evil practices had given rise to such a general imputation on British subjects and servants of the Company as to render them unfit for service in other places.
That the said Warren Hastings, having in the course of three years made three complete revolutions in the state of Benares, by expelling, in the first instance, the lawful and rightful governor of the same, under whose care and superintendence a large and certain revenue, suitable to the abilities of the country, and consistent with its prosperity, was paid with the greatest punctuality, and by afterwards displacing two effective governors or administrators of the province, appointed in succession by himself, and, in consequence of the said appointments and violent and arbitrary removals, the said province "being left in effect without a government," except in one city only, and having, after all, settled no more than a temporary arrangement, is guilty of an high crime and misdemeanor in the destruction of the country aforesaid.
IV.—PRINCESSES OF OUDE.
I. That the reigning Nabob of Oude, commonly called Asoph ul Dowlah, (son and successor to Sujah ul Dowlah,) by taking into or continuing in his pay certain bodies of regular British troops, and by having afterwards admitted the British Resident at his court into the management of all his affairs, foreign and domestic, and particularly into the administration of his finances, did gradually become in substance and effect, as well as in general repute and estimation, a dependant on, or vassal of, the East India Company, and was, and is, so much under the control of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal, that, in the opinion of all the native powers, the English name and character is concerned in every act of his government.
II. That Warren Hastings, Esquire, contrary to law and to his duty, and in disobedience to the orders of the East India Company, arrogating to himself the nomination of the Resident at the court of Oude, as his particular agent and representative, and rejecting the Resident appointed by the Company, and obtruding upon them a person of his own choice, did from that time render himself in a particular manner responsible for the good government of the provinces composing the dominions of the Nabob of Oude.
III. That the provinces aforesaid, having been at the time of their first connection with the Company in an improved and flourishing condition, and yielding a revenue of more than three millions of pounds sterling, or thereabouts, did soon after that period begin sensibly to decline, and the subsidy of the British troops stationed in that province, as well as other sums of money due to the Company by treaty, ran considerably in arrear; although the prince of the country, during the time these arrears accrued, was otherwise in distress, and had been obliged to reduce all his establishments.
IV. That the prince aforesaid, or Nabob of Oude, did, in humble and submissive terms, supplicate the said Warren Hastings to be relieved from a body of troops whose licentious behavior he complained of, and who were stationed in his country without any obligation by treaty to maintain them,—pleading the failure of harvest and the prevalence of famine in his country: a compliance with which request by the said Warren Hastings was refused in unbecoming, offensive, and insulting language.
V. That the said Nabob, laboring under the aforesaid and other burdens, and being continually urged for payment, was advised to extort, and did extort, from his mother and grandmother, under the pretext of loans, (and sometimes without that appearance,) various great sums of money, amounting in the whole to six hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling, or thereabouts: alleging in excuse the rigorous demands of the East India Company, for whose use the said extorted money had been demanded, and to which a considerable part of it had been applied.
VI. That the two female parents of the Nabob aforesaid were among the women of the greatest rank, family, and distinction in Asia, and were left by the deceased Nabob, the son of the one and the husband of the other, in charge of certain considerable part of his treasures, in money and other valuable movables, as well as certain landed estates, called jaghires, in order to the support of their own dignity, and the honorable maintenance of his women, and a numerous offspring, and their dependants: the said family amounting in the whole to two thousand persons, who were by the said Nabob, at his death, recommended in a particular manner to the care and protection of the said Warren Hastings.
VII. That, on the demand of the Nabob of Oude on his parents for the last of the sums which completed the six hundred and thirty thousand pounds aforesaid, they, the said parents, did positively refuse to pay any part of the same to their son for the use of the Company, until he should agree to certain terms to be stipulated in a regular treaty, and among other particulars to secure them in the remainder of their possessions, and also on no account or pretence to make any further demands or claims on them; and well knowing from whence all his claims and exactions had arisen, they demanded that the said treaty, or family compact, should be guarantied by the Governor-General and Council of Bengal: and a treaty was accordingly agreed to, executed by the Nabob, and guarantied by John Bristow, Esquire, the Resident at Oude, under the authority and with the express consent of the said Warren Hastings and the Council-General, and in consequence thereof the sum last required was paid, and discharges given to the Nabob for all the money which he had borrowed from his own mother and the mother of his father.
That, the distresses and disorders in the Nabob's government and his debt to the Company continuing to increase, notwithstanding the violent methods before mentioned taken to augment his resources, the said Warren Hastings, on the 21st of May, and on the 31st July, 1781, (he and Mr. Wheler being the only remaining members of the Council-General, and he having the conclusive and casting voice, and thereby being in effect the whole Council,) did, in the name and under the authority of the board, resolve on a journey to the upper provinces, in order to a personal interview with the Nabob of Oude, towards the settlement of his distressed affairs, and did give to himself a delegation of the powers of the said Council, in direct violation of the Company's orders forbidding such delegation.
VIII. That the said Warren Hastings having by his appointment met the Nabob of Oude near a place called Chunar, and possessing an entire and absolute command over the said prince, he did, contrary to justice and equity and the security of property, as well as to public faith and the sanction of the Company's guaranty, under the color of a treaty, which treaty was conducted secretly, without a written document of any part of the proceeding except the pretended treaty itself, authorize the said Nabob to seize upon, and confiscate to his own profit, the landed estates, called jaghires, of his parents, kindred, and principal nobility: only stipulating a pension to the net amount of the rent of the said lands as an equivalent, and that equivalent to such only whose lands had been guarantied to them by the Company; but provided neither in the said pretended treaty nor in any subsequent act the least security for the payment of the said pension to those for whom such pension was ostensibly reserved, and for the others not so much as a show of indemnity;—to the extreme scandal of the British government, which, valuing itself upon a strict regard to property, did expressly authorize, if it did not command, an attack upon that right, unprecedented in the despotic governments of India.
IX. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to cover the violent and unjust proceedings aforesaid, did assert a claim of right in the same Nabob to all the possessions of his said mother and grandmother, as belonging to him by the Mahomedan law; and this pretended claim was set up by the said Warren Hastings, after the Nabob had, by a regular treaty ratified and guarantied by the said Hastings as Governor-General, renounced and released all demands on them. And this false pretence of a legal demand was taken up and acted upon by the said Warren Hastings, without laying the said question on record before the Council-General, or giving notice to the persons to be affected thereby to support their rights before any of the principal magistrates and expounders of the Mahomedan law, or taking publicly the opinions of any person conversant therein.
X. That, in order to give further color to the acts of ill faith and violence aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did cause to be taken at Lucknow and other places, before divers persons, and particularly before Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, acting extra-judicially, and not within the limits of his jurisdiction, several passionate, careless, irrelevant, and irregular affidavits, consisting of matter not fit to be deposed on oath,—of reports, conjectures, and hearsays; some of the persons swearing to the said hearsays having declined to declare from whom they heard the accounts at second hand sworn to; the said affidavits in general tending to support the calumnious charge of the said Warren Hastings, namely, that the aged women before mentioned had formed or engaged in a plan for the deposition of their son and sovereign, and the utter extirpation of the English nation: and neither the said charge against persons whose dependence was principally, if not wholly, on the good faith of this nation, and highly affecting the honor, property, and even lives, of women of the highest condition, nor the affidavits intended to support the same, extra-judicially taken, ex parte, and without notice, by the said Sir Elijah Impey and others, were at any time communicated to the parties charged, or to any agent for them; nor were they called upon to answer, nor any explanation demanded of them.
XI. That the article affecting private property secured by public acts, in the said pretended treaty, contains nothing more than a general permission, given by the said Warren Hastings, for confiscating such jaghires, or landed estates, with the modifications therein contained, "as he [the Nabob] may find necessary," but does not directly point at, or express by name, any of the landed possessions of the Nabob's mother. But soon after the signing of the said pretended treaty, (that is, on the 29th November, 1781,) it did appear that a principal object thereof was to enable the Nabob to seize upon the estates of his female parents aforesaid, which had been guarantied to them by the East India Company. And although in the treaty, or pretended treaty, aforesaid, nothing more is purported than to give a simple permission to the Nabob to seize upon and confiscate the estates, leaving the execution or non-execution of the same wholly to his discretion, yet it appears, by several letters from Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, the Resident at the Court of Oude, of the 6th, 7th, and 9th of December, 1781, that no such discretion as expressed in the treaty was left, or intended to be left, with him, the said Nabob, but that the said article ought practically to have a construction of a directly contrary tendency: that, instead of considering the article as originating from the Nabob, and containing a power provided in his favor which he did not possess before, the confiscation of the jaghires aforesaid was to be considered as a measure originating from the English, and to be intended for their benefit, and, as such, that the execution was to be forced upon him; and the execution thereof was accordingly forced upon him. And the Resident, Middleton, on the Nabob's refusal to act in contradiction to his sworn engagement guarantied by the East India Company, and in the undutiful and unnatural manner required, did totally supersede his authority in his own dominions, considering himself as empowered so to act by the instructions of the said Hastings, although he had reason to apprehend a general insurrection in consequence thereof, and that he found it necessary to remove his family, "which he did not wish to retain there, in case of a rupture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing the British forces in the reduction of his aumils and troops"; and he did accordingly, as sovereign, issue his own edicts and warrants, in defiance of the resistance of the Nabob, in the manner by him described in the letters aforesaid,—in a letter of 6th December, 1781, that is to say: "Finding the Nabob wavering in his determination about the resumption of the jaghires, I this day, in presence of and with the minister's concurrence, ordered the necessary purwannahs to be written to the several aumils for that purpose; and it was my firm resolution to have dispatched them this evening, with proper people to see them punctually and implicitly carried into execution; but before they were all transcribed, I received a message from the Nabob, who had been informed by the minister of the resolution I had taken, entreating that I would withhold the purwannahs until to-morrow morning, when he would attend me, and afford me satisfaction on this point. As the loss of a few hours in the dispatch of the purwannahs appeared of little moment, and as it is possible the Nabob, seeing that the business will at all events be done, may make it an act of his own, I have consented to indulge him in his request; but, be the remit of our interview whatever it may, nothing shall prevent the orders being issued to-morrow, either by him or myself, with the concurrence of the ministers. Your pleasure respecting the Begums I have learnt from Sir Elijah, and the measure heretofore proposed will soon follow the resumption of the jaghires. From both, or indeed from the former alone, I have no doubt of the complete liquidation of the Company's balance." And also in another letter, of the 7th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you yesterday, informing you of the steps I had taken in regard to the resumption of the jaghires. This morning the Vizier came to me according to his agreement, but seemingly without any intention or desire to yield me satisfaction on the subject under discussion; for, after a great deal of conversation, consisting on his part of trifling evasion and puerile excuses for withholding his assent to the measure, though at the same time professing the most implicit submission to your wishes, I found myself without any other resource than the one of employing that exclusive authority with which I consider your instructions to vest me: I therefore declared to the Nabob, in presence of the minister and Mr. Johnson, who I desired might bear witness of the conversation, that I construed his rejection of the measure proposed as a breach of his solemn promise to you, and an unwillingness to yield that assistance which was evidently in his power towards liquidating his heavy accumulating debt to the Company, and that I must in consequence determine, in my own justification, to issue immediately the purwannahs, which had only been withheld in the sanguine hope that he would be prevailed upon to make that his own act which nothing but the most urgent necessity could force me to make mine. He left me without any reply, but afterwards sent for his minister and authorized him to give me hopes that my requisition would be complied with; on which I expressed my satisfaction, but declared that I could admit of no further delays, and, unless I received his Excellency's formal acquiescence before the evening, I should then most assuredly issue my purwannahs; which I have accordingly done, not having had any assurances from his Excellency that could justify a further suspension. I shall, as soon as possible, inform you of the effect of the purwannahs, which, in many parts, I am apprehensive it will be found necessary to enforce with military aid. I am not, however, entirely without hopes that the Nabob, when he sees the inefficacy of further opposition, may alter his conduct, and prevent the confusion and disagreeable consequences which would be too likely to result from the prosecution of a measure of such importance without his concurrence. His Excellency talks of going to Fyzabad, for the purpose heretofore mentioned, in three or four days: I wish he may be serious in his intention, and you may rest assured I shall spare no pains to keep him to it." And further, in a letter of the 9th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you on the 7th instant, informing you of the conversation which had passed between the Nabob and me on the subject of resuming the jaghires, and the step I had taken in consequence. His Excellency appeared to be very much hurt and incensed at the measure, and loudly complains of the treachery of his ministers,—first, in giving you any hopes that such a measure would be adopted, and, secondly, in their promising me their whole support in carrying it through; but, as I apprehended, rather than suffer it to appear that the point had been carried in opposition to his will, he at length yielded a nominal acquiescence, and has this day issued his own purwannahs to that effect,—declaring, however, at the same time, both to me and his ministers, that it is an act of compulsion. I hope to be able in a few days, in consequence of this measure, to transmit you an account of the actual value and produce of the jaghires, opposed to the nominal amount at which they stand rated on the books of the circar."
XII. That the said Warren Hastings, instead of expressing any disapprobation of the proceedings aforesaid, in violation of the rights secured by treaty with the mother and grandmother of the reigning prince of Oude, and not less in violation of the sovereign rights of the Nabob himself, did by frequent messages stimulate the said Middleton to a perseverance in and to a rigorous execution of the same,—and in his letter from Benares of the 25th December, 1781, did "express doubts of his firmness and activity, and, above all, of his recollection of his instructions and their importance; and that, if he could not rely on his own [power] and the means he possessed for performing those services, he would free him [the said Middleton] from the charges, and would proceed himself to Lucknow, and would himself undertake them."
XIII. That very doubtful credit is to be given to any letters written by the said Middleton to the said Warren Hastings, when they answer the purposes which the said Warren Hastings had evidently in view: the said Middleton having written to him in the following manner from Lucknow, 30th December, 1781.
XIV. "MY DEAR SIR,—I have this day answered your public letter in the form you seem to expect. I hope there is nothing in it that may appear to you too pointed. If you wish the matter to be otherwise understood than I have taken up and stated it, I need not say I shall be ready to conform to whatever you may prescribe, and to take upon myself any share of the blame of the (hitherto) non-performance of the stipulations made on behalf of the Nabob: though I do assure you I myself represented to his Excellency and the ministers, (conceiving it to be your desire,) that the apparent assumption of the reins of his government, (for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at the first view,) as specified in the agreement executed by him, was not meant to be fully and literally enforced, but that it was necessary you should have something to show on your side, as the Company were deprived of a benefit without a requital; and upon the faith of this assurance alone, I believe I may safely affirm, his Excellency's objections to signing the treaty were given up. If I have understood the matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am truly sorry for it: however, it is not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to undertake, and, God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final resolve."
XV. That it appears, but on his, the said Middleton's, sole authority, in a letter from the said Middleton, dated Lucknow, 2d December, 1781, that the Nabob of Oude, wishing to evade the measure of resuming the jaghires aforesaid, did send a message to him, purporting, "that, if the measure proposed was intended to procure the payment of the balance due to the Company, he could better and more expeditiously effect that object by taking from his mother the treasures of his father, which he did assert to be in her hands, and to which he did claim a right; and that it would be sufficient that he, the said Hastings, would hint his opinion upon it, without giving a formal sanction to the measure proposed; and that, whatever his resolution upon the subject should be, it would be expedient to keep it secret": adding, "The resumption of the jaghires it is necessary to suspend till I have your answer to this letter."
XVI. That it does not appear that the said Hastings did write any letter in answer to the proposal of the said Middleton, but he, the said Hastings, did communicate his pleasure thereon, to Sir Elijah Impey, being then at Lucknow, for his, the said Middleton's, information; and it does appear that the seizing of the treasures of the mother of the Nabob, said to have been proposed as an alternative by the said Nabob to prevent the resumption of the jaghires, was determined upon and ordered by the said Hastings,—and that the resumption of the said jaghires, for the ransom of which the seizing of the treasures was proposed, was also directed: not one only, but both sides of the alternative, being enforced upon the female parents of the Nabob aforesaid, although both the one and the other had been secured to them by a treaty with the East India Company.
XVIII.[60] That Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice at Port William, did undertake a journey of nine hundred miles, from Calcutta to Lucknow, on pretence of health and pleasure, but was in reality in the secret of these and other irregular transactions, and employed as a channel of confidential communication therein. And the said Warren Hastings, by presuming to employ the said chief-justice, a person particularly unfit for an agent, in the transaction of affairs primâ facie at least unjust, violent, and oppressive, contrary to public faith, and to the sentiments and law of Nature, and which he, the said Hastings, was sensible "could not fail to draw obloquy on himself by his participation," did disgrace the king's commission, and render odious to the natives of Hindostan the justice of the crown of Great Britain.
XIX. That, although the said Warren Hastings was from the beginning duly informed of the violence offered to the personal inclinations of the Nabob, and the "apparent assumption of the reins of his government," for the purposes aforesaid, yet more than two years after he did write to his private agent, Major Palmer, that is to say, in his letter of the 6th of May, 1783, "that it has been a matter of equal surprise and concern to him to learn from the letters of the Resident that the Nabob Vizier was with difficulty and almost unconquerable reluctance induced to give his consent to the attachment of the treasure deposited by his father under the charge of the Begum, his mother, and to the resumption of her jaghire, and the other jaghires of the individuals of his family": which pretence of ignorance of the Nabob's inclinations is fictitious and groundless. But whatever deception he might pretend to be in concerning the original intention of the Nabob, he was not, nor did he pretend to be, ignorant of his, the Nabob's, reluctance to proceed in the said measures; but did admit his knowledge of the Nabob's reluctance to their full execution, and yet did justify the same as follows.
XX. "I desire that you will inform him [the Nabob], that, in these and the other measures which were either proposed by him or received his concurrence in the agreement passed between us at Chunar, I neither had nor could have any object but his relief, and the strengthening of his connection with the Company; and that I should not on any other ground have exposed myself to the personal obloquy which they could not fail to draw upon me by my participation in them, but left him to regulate by his own discretion and by his own means the economy of his own finances, and, with much more cause, the assertion of his domestic right. In these he had no regular claim to my interference; nor had I, in my public character, any claim upon him, but for the payment of the debt then due from him to the Company, although I was under the strongest obligations to require it for the relief of the pressing exigencies of their affairs. He will well remember the manner in which, at a visit to him in his own tent, I declared my acquiescence freely, and without hesitation, to each proposition, which afterwards formed the substance of a written agreement, as he severally made them; and he can want no other evidence of my motives for so cheerful a consent, nor for the requests which I added as the means of fulfilling his purposes in them. Had he not made these measures his own option, I should not have proposed them; but having once adopted them, and made them the conditions of a formal and sacred agreement, I had no longer an option to dispense with them, but was bound to the complete performance and execution of them, as points of public duty and of national faith, for which I was responsible to my king, and the Company my immediate superiors: and this was the reason for my insisting on their performance and execution, when I was told that the Nabob himself had relaxed from his original purpose, and expressed a reluctance to proceed in it."
XXI. That the said Warren Hastings does admit that the Nabob had originally no regular claim upon him for his interference, or he any claim on the Nabob, which, might entitle him to interfere in the Nabob's domestic concerns; yet, in order to justify his so invidious an interference, he did, in the letter aforesaid, give a false account of the said treaty, which (as before mentioned) did nothing more than give a permission to the Nabob to resume the jaghires, if HE should judge the same to be necessary, and did therefore leave the right of dispensing with the whole, or any part thereof, as much in his option after the treaty as it was before: the declared intent of the article being only to remove the restraint of the Company's guaranty forbidding such resumption, but furnishing nothing which could authorize putting that resumption into the hands and power of the Company, to be enforced at their discretion. And with regard to the other part of the spoil made by order of the said Hastings, and by him in the letter aforesaid stated to be made equally against the will of the Nabob, namely, that which was committed on the personal and movable property of the female parents of the Nabob, nothing whatsoever in relation to the same is stipulated in the said pretended treaty.
XXII. That the said Hastings, in asserting that he was bound to the acts aforesaid by public duty, and even by national faith, in the very instance in which that national faith was by him grossly violated, and in justifying himself by alleging that he was bound to the complete execution by a responsibility to the Company which he immediately served, and by asserting that these violent and rapacious proceedings, subjecting all persons concerned in them to obloquy, would be the means of strengthening the connection of the Nabob with the British United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, did disgrace the authority under which he immediately acted. And that the said Hastings, in justifying his obligations to the said acts by a responsibility to the king, namely, to the King of Great Britain, did endeavor to throw upon his Majesty, his lawful sovereign, (whose name and character he was bound to respect, and to preserve in estimation with all persons, and particularly with the sovereign princes, the allies of his government,) the disgrace and odium of the aforesaid acts, in which a sovereign prince was by him, the said Hastings, made an instrument of perfidy, wrong, and outrage to two mothers and wives of sovereign princes, and in which he did exhibit to all Asia (a country remarkable for the utmost devotion to parental authority) the spectacle of a Christian governor, representing a Christian sovereign, compelling a son to become the instrument of such violence and extortion against his own mother.
That the said Warren Hastings, by repeated messages and injunctions, and under menaces of "a dreadful responsibility," did urge the Resident to a completion of this barbarous act; and well knowing that such an act would probably be resisted, did order him, the said Resident, to use the British troops under his direction for that purpose; and did offer the assistance of further forces, urging the execution in the following peremptory terms: "You yourself must be personally present; you must not allow any negotiation or forbearance, but must prosecute both services, until the Begums [princesses] are at the entire mercy of the Nabob."[61]
XXIII. That, in conformity to the said peremptory orders, a party of British and other troops, with the Nabob in the ostensible, and the British Resident in the real command, were drawn towards the city of Fyzabad, in the castle of which city the mother and grandmother of the Nabob had their residence; and after expending two days in negotiation, (the particulars of which do not appear,) the Resident not receiving the satisfaction he looked for, the town was first stormed, and afterwards the castle; and little or no resistance being made, and no blood being shed on either side, the British troops occupied all the outer inclosure of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.[62]
XXIV. That this violent assault, and forcible occupation of their houses, and the further extremities they had to apprehend, did not prevail on the female parents of the Nabob to consent to any submission, until the Resident sent in unto them a letter from the said Warren Hastings,[63] (no copy of which appears,) declaring himself no longer bound by the guaranty, and containing such other matter as tended to remove all their hopes, which seemed to be centred in British faith.
XXV. That the chief officers of their household, who were their treasurers and confidential agents, the eunuchs Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, persons of great eminence, rank, and distinction, who had been in high trust and favor with the late Nabob, were ignominiously put into confinement under an inferior officer, in order to extort the discovery of the treasures and effects committed to their care and fidelity. And the said Middleton did soon after, that is to say, on the 12th of January, 1782, deliver them over for the same purpose into the custody of Captain Neal Stuart, commanding the eighth regiment, by his order given in the following words: "To be kept in close and secure confinement, admitting of no intercourse with them, excepting by their four menial servants, who are authorized to attend them until further orders. You will allow them to have any necessary and convenience which may be consistent with a strict guard over them."
XXVI. That, in consequence of these severities upon herself, and on those whom she most regarded and trusted, the mother of the said Nabob did at length consent to the delivering up of her treasures, and the same were paid to the Resident, to the amount of the bond given by the Nabob to the Company for his balance of the year 1779-80; and the said treasure "was taken from the most secret recesses in the houses of the two eunuchs."
XXVII. That the Nabob continuing still under the pressure of a further pretended debt to the Company for his balance of the year 1780-81, the Resident, not satisfied with the seizure of the estates and treasures of his parents aforesaid, although he, the said Resident, did confess that the princess mother "had declared, with apparent truth, that she had delivered up the whole of the property in her hands, excepting goods which from the experience which he, the Resident, had of the small produce of the sales of a former payment made by her in that mode he did refuse, and that in his opinion it certainly would have amounted to little or nothing," did proceed to extort another great sum of money, that is to say, the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling, on account of the last pretended balance aforesaid: in order, therefore, to compel the said ministers and treasurers either to distress their principals by extorting whatever valuable substance might by any possibility remain concealed, or to furnish the said sum from their own estates or from their credit with their friends, did order their imprisonment to be aggravated with circumstances of great cruelty, giving an order to Lieutenant Francis Rutledge, dated 20th January, 1782, in the following words.
XXVIII. "SIR,—When this note is delivered to you by Hoolas Roy, I have to desire that you order the two prisoners to be put in irons, keeping them from all food, &c., agreeable to my instructions of yesterday.
(Signed) "NATHL MIDDLETON."
XXIX. That by the said unjust and rigorous proceeding the said eunuchs were compelled to give their engagement for the payment of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling aforesaid, to be completed within the period of one month; but after they had entered into the said compulsory engagement, they were still kept in close imprisonment, and the mother and grandmother of the Nabob were themselves held under a strict guard,—although, at the same time, the confiscated estates were actually in the Company's possession, and found to exceed the amount of what they were rated at in the general list of confiscated estates,[64] and although the Assistant Resident, Johnson, did confess, "that the object of distressing the Bhow Begum was merely to obtain a ready-money instead of a dilatory payment, and that this ready-money payment, if not paid, was recoverable in the course of a few months upon the jaghires in his possession, and that therefore it was not worth proceeding to any extremities, beyond the one described," (namely, the confinement of the princesses, and the imprisonment and fettering of their ministers,) "upon so respectable a family."[65]
XXX. That, after the surrender of the treasure, and the passing the bonds and obligations given as aforesaid, the Resident having been strictly ordered by the said Warren Hastings not to make any settlement whatsoever with the said women of high rank, the Nabob was induced to leave the city of Fyzabad without taking leave of his mother, or showing her any mark of duty or civility. And on the same day the Resident left the city aforesaid; and after his return to Lucknow, in order to pacify the said Hastings, who appeared to resent that the Nabob was not urged to greater degrees of rigor than those hitherto used towards his mother, he, the said Resident, did, in his letter of the 6th February, give him an assurance in the following words:—"I shall, as you direct, use my influence to dissuade his Excellency from concluding any settlement until I have your further commands."
XXXI. That the payment of the bond last extorted from the eunuchs was soon after commenced, and the grandmother, as well as the mother, were now compelled to deliver what they declared was the extent of the whole of both their possessions, including down to their table utensils; which, as the Resident admitted, "they had been and were still delivering, and that no proof had yet been obtained of their having more."
XXXII. That bullion, jewels, and goods, to the amount of five hundred thousand pounds and upwards, were actually received by the Resident for the use of the Company before the 23d of February, 1782; and there remained on the said extorted bond no more than about twenty-five thousand pounds, according to the statement of the eunuchs, and not above fifty thousand according to that made by the Resident.
XXXIII. That, in this advanced state of the delivery of the extorted treasure, the ministers of the women aforesaid of the reigning family did apply to Captain Leonard Jaques, under whose custody they were confined, to be informed of the deficiency with which they stood charged, that they might endeavor, with the assistance of their friends, to provide for the same, and praying that they might through his mediation be freed from the hardships they suffered under their confinement: to which application they received an insolent answer from the said Richard Johnson, dated February 27th, 1782, declaring that part of what he had received in payment was in jewels and bullion, and that more than a month, the time fixed for the final payment, would elapse before he could dispose of the same,—insisting upon a ready-money payment, and assuring them "that the day on which their agreement expired he should be indispensably obliged to recommence severities upon them, until the last farthing was fully paid." And in order to add to their terrors and hardships, as well as to find some pretext for the further cruel and inhuman acts intended, an apparently groundless and injurious charge was suggested to the imprisoned ministers aforesaid in the following words. "You may also mention to them, that I have reason to suspect that the commotions raised by Bulbudder have not been without their suggestion and abetment, which, if proved upon them, in addition to the probable breach of their agreement, will make their situation very desperate."
XXXIV. That on the receipt of the said letter, that is, on the 2d March, the ministers aforesaid did aver, that they were not able to obtain cash, in lieu of the jewels and other effects, but that, if the goods were sold, and they released from their confinement, and permitted (as they have before requested) to go abroad among their friends, they could soon make good the deficiency; and they did absolutely deny "that they had any hand in the commotions raised by Bulbudder, or any kind of correspondence with him or his adherents."
XXXV. That the prisoners aforesaid did shortly after, that is to say, on the 13th March, a third time renew their application to Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, the Resident, and did request that the jewels remaining in his, the said Resident's, hands, towards the payment of the balance remaining, "might be valued by four or five eminent merchants, Mussulmen and Hindoos, upon oath," and that, if any balance should afterwards appear, they would upon their release get their friends to advance the same; and they did again represent the hardship of their imprisonment, and pray for relief; and did again assert that the imputations thrown upon them by the said Richard Johnson were false and groundless,—"that they had no kind of intercourse, either directly or indirectly, with the authors of the commotions alluded to, and that they did stake their lives upon the smallest proof thereof being brought."
XXXVI. That, instead of their receiving any answer to any of the aforesaid reasonable propositions, concerning either the account stated, or the crimes imputed to them, or any relief from the hardships they suffered, he, the Resident, Middleton, did, on the 18th of the said month, give to the officer who had supplicated in favor of the said prisoners an order in which he declared himself "under the disagreeable necessity of recurring to severities to enforce the said payment, and that this is therefore to desire that you immediately cause them to be put in irons, and keep them so until I shall arrive at Fyzabad to take further measures as may be necessary": which order being received at Fyzabad the day after it was given, the said eunuchs were a second time thrown into irons. And it appears that (probably in resentment for the humane representations of the said Captain Jaques) the Resident did refuse to pay for the fetters, and other contingent charges of the imprisonment of the said ministers of the Nabob's mother, when at the same time very liberal contingent allowances were made to other officers; and the said Jaques did strongly remonstrate against the same as follows. "You have also ordered me to put the prisoners in irons: this I have done; yet, as I have no business to purchase fetters, or supply them any other way, it is but reasonable that you should order me to be reimbursed. And why should I add anything more? A late commander at this place, I am told, draws near as many thousands monthly contingencies as my trifling letter for hundreds. However, if you cannot get my bill paid, be so obliging as to return it, and give me an opportunity of declaring to the world that I believe I am the first officer in the Company's service who has suffered in his property by an independent command."
XXXVI. That, in about two months after the said prisoners had continued in irons in the manner aforesaid, the officer on guard, in a letter of the 18th May, did represent to the Resident as follows. "The prisoners, Behar and Jewar Ali Khân, who seem to be very sickly, have requested their irons might be taken off for a few days, that they might take medicine, and walk about the garden of the place where they are confined. Now, as I am sure they will be equally secure without their irons as with them, I think it my duty to inform you of this request: I desire to know your pleasure concerning it." To which letter the said officer did receive a direct refusal, dated 22d May, 1782, in the following words. "I am sorry it is not in my power to comply with your proposal of easing the prisoners for a few days of their fetters. Much as my humanity may be touched by their sufferings, I should think it inexpedient to afford them any alleviation while they persist in a breach of their contract with me: and, indeed, no indulgence can be shown them without the authority of the Nabob, who, instead of consenting to moderate the rigors of their situation, would be most willing to multiply them":—endeavoring to join the Nabob, whom he well knew to be reluctant in the whole proceeding, as a party in the cruelties by which, through the medium of her servants, it was intended to coerce his mother.
XXXVIII. That the said Resident, in a few days after, that is to say, on the 1st June, 1782, in a letter to Major Gilpin, in command at Fyzabad, did order the account, as by himself stated, to be read to the prisoners, and, without taking any notice of their proposal concerning the valuation of the effects, or their denial of the offences imputed to them, to demand a positive answer relative to the payment, and, "upon receiving from them a negative or unsatisfactory reply, to inform them, that, all further negotiation being at an end, they must prepare for their removal to Lucknow, where they would be called upon to answer not only their recent breach of faith and solemn engagement, but also to atone for other heavy offences, the punishment of which, as had frequently been signified to them, it was in their power to have mitigated by a proper acquittal of themselves in this transaction." By which insinuations concerning the pretended offences of the said unhappy persons, and the manner by which they were to atone for the same, and by their never having been specifically and directly made, it doth appear that the said crimes and offences were charged for the purpose of extorting money, and not upon principles or for the ends of justice.
XXXIX. That, after some ineffectual negotiations to make the prisoners pay the money, which it does not appear to have been in their power to pay, they were again threatened by the Resident, in a letter to Major Gilpin, dated 9th June, 1782, in the following terms. "I wish you to explain once more to the prisoners the imprudence and folly of their conduct in forcing me to a measure which must be attended with consequences so very serious to them, and that, when once they are removed to Lucknow, it will not be in my power to show them mercy, or to stand between them and the vengeance of the Nabob. Advise them to reflect seriously upon the unhappy situation in which they will be involved in one case, and the relief it will be in my power to procure them in the other; and let them make their option."
XL. That he, the said Resident, did also, at the same time, receive a letter from the princess mother, which letter does not appear, but to which only the following insolent return was made,—that is to say: "The letter from the Bhow Begum is no ways satisfactory, and I cannot think of returning an answer to it. Indeed, all correspondence between the Begum and me has long been stopped; and I request you will be pleased to inform her that I by no means wish to resume it, or to maintain any friendly intercourse with her, until she has made good my claim upon her for the balance due."
XLI. That, in consequence of these threats, and to prevent a separation of the ministers from their mistresses, several plans for the payment of the balance were offered, both by the mother of the Nabob and the prisoners, to which no other objection appears to have been made than the length of time required by the parties to discharge the comparatively small remainder of the extorted bond: the officer on command declaring, that, conformable to his instructions, he could not receive the same.[66]
XLII. That the prisoners were actually removed from the city of their residence to the city of Lucknow, where they arrived on the 24th of June, 1782, and were on the next day threatened with severities, "to make them discover where the balance might be procurable." And on the 28th, it should seem, that the severities for the purpose aforesaid were inflicted, at least upon one of them; for the Assistant Resident, Johnson, did on that day write to Captain Waugh, the officer commanding the guard, the letter following, full of disgrace to the honor, justice, and humanity of the British nation.
XLIII. "SIR,—The Nabob having determined to inflict corporal punishment upon the prisoners under your guard, this is to desire that his officers, when they shall come, may have free access to the prisoners, and be permitted to do with them as they shall see proper, only taking care that they leave them always under your charge."
XLIV. That the said Richard Johnson did, further to terrify the prisoners, and to extort by all ways the remainder of the said unjust, oppressive, and rapacious demand, threaten to remove them out of the Nabob's dominions into the castle of Churnagur, in order forever to separate them from their principals, and deprive both of their reciprocal protection and services,[67]—and did order a further guard to be put on the palace of the grandmother of the Nabob, an ally of the Company, and to prevent the entrance of the provisions to her, (which order relative to the guard only was executed,) and did use sundry unworthy and insulting menaces both with regard to herself and to her principal ministers.[68]
XLV. That a proposal was soon after made by the said princess and her daughter-in-law, praying that their ministers aforesaid should be returned to Fyzabad, and offering to raise a sum of money on that condition;[69] as also that they would remove from one of their palaces, whilst the English were to be permitted to search the other.[70] But the Assistant Resident, Johnson, did, instead of a compliance with the former of these propositions, send the following orders, dated 23d July, 1782, to the officer commanding the guard on the ministers aforesaid: "Some violent demands having been made for the release of the prisoners, it is necessary that every possible precaution be taken for their security; you will therefore be pleased to be very strict in guarding them; and I herewith send another pair of fetters to be added to those now upon the prisoners." And in answer to the second proposition, the said Resident did reply in the following terms: "The proposal of evacuating one palace, that it may be searched, and then evacuating the next, upon the same principle, is apparently fair; but it is well known, in the first place, that such bricked-up or otherwise hidden treasure is not to be hit upon in a day without a guide. I have therefore informed the Nabob of this proposal, and, if the matter is to be reduced to a search, he will go himself, with such people as he may possess for information, together with the prisoners; and when in possession of the ground, by punishing the prisoners, or by such other means as he may find most effectual to forward a successful search upon the spot, he will avail himself of the proposal made by the Bhow Begum."
XLVI. That, probably from the Nabob's known and avowed reluctance to lend himself to the perpetration of the oppressive and iniquitous proceedings of the representative of the British government, the scandalous plan aforesaid was not carried into execution; and all the rigors practised upon the chief ministers of the ladies aforesaid at Lucknow being found ineffectual, and the princess mother having declared herself ready to deliver up everything valuable in her possession, which Behar Ali Khân, one of her confidential ministers aforesaid, only could come at, the said change of prison was agreed to,—but not until the Nabob's mother aforesaid had engaged to pay for the said change of prison a sum of ten thousand pounds, (one half of which was paid on the return of the eunuchs,) and that "she would ransack the zenanah [women's apartments] for kincobs, muslins, clothes, &c., &c., &c., and that she would even allow a deduction from the annual allowance made to her for her subsistence in lieu of her jaghire."[71]
XLVII. That, soon after the return of the aforesaid ministers to the place of their imprisonment at Fyzabad, bonds for the five thousand pounds aforesaid, and goods, estimated, according to the valuation of a merchant appointed to value the same, at the sum of forty thousand pounds, even allowing them to sell greatly under their value, were delivered to the commanding officer at Fyzabad; and the said commanding officer did promise to the Begum to visit Lucknow with such proposals as he hoped would secure the small balance of fifteen thousand pounds remaining of the unjust exaction aforesaid.[72] But the said Resident, Middleton, did, in his letter of the 17th of the said month, positively refuse to listen to any terms before the final discharge of the whole of the demand, and did positively forbid the commanding officer to come to Lucknow to make the proposal aforesaid in the terms following. "As it is not possible to listen to any terms from the Begums before the final discharge of their conditional agreement for fifty-five lacs, your coming here upon such an agency can only be loss of time in completing the recovery of the balance of 6,55,000, for which your regiment was sent to Fyzabad. I must therefore desire you will leave no efforts, gentle or harsh, unattempted to complete this, before you move from Fyzabad; and I am very anxious that this should be as soon as possible, as I want to employ your regiment upon other emergent service, now suffering by every delay."
XLVIII. That the goods aforesaid were sent to Lucknow, and disposed of in a manner unknown; and the harsh and oppressive measures aforesaid being still continued, the Begum did, about the middle of October, 1782, cause to be represented to the said Middleton as follows. "That her situation was truly pitiable,—her estate sequestered, her treasury ransacked, her cojahs prisoners, and her servants deserting daily from want of subsistence. That she had solicited the loan of money, to satisfy the demands of the Company, from every person that she imagined would or could assist her with any; but that the opulent would not listen to her adversity. She had hoped that the wardrobe sent to Lucknow might have sold for at least one half of the Company's demands on her; but even jewelry and goods, she finds from woful experience, lose their value the moment it is known they come from her. That she had now solicited the loan of cash from Almas Ali Khân, and if she failed in that application, she had no hopes of ever borrowing a sum equal to the demand":[73]—an hope not likely to be realized, as the said Almas Ali was then engaged for a sum of money to be raised for the Company's use on the security of their confiscated lands, the restoration of which could form the only apparent security for a loan.
XLIX. That this remonstrance produced no effect on the mind of the aforesaid Resident,—who, being about this time removed from his Residency, did, in a letter to his successor, Mr. Bristow, dated 23d October, 1782, in effect recommend a perseverance in the cruel and oppressive restraints aforesaid as a certain means of recovering the remainder of the extorted bond, and that the lands with which the princesses aforesaid had been endowed should not be restored to them.
L. That the said Warren Hastings was duly apprised of all the material circumstances in the unjust proceedings aforesaid, but did nothing to stop the course they were in, or to prevent, relieve, or mitigate the sufferings of the parties affected by them: on the contrary, he did, in his letter of the 25th of January, 1782, to the Resident, Middleton, declare, that the Nabob having consented to the "resumption of the jaghires held by the Begums, and to the confiscation of their treasures, and thereby involved my own name and the credit of the Company in a participation of both measures, I have a right to require and insist on the complete execution of them; and I look to you for their execution, declaring that I shall hold you accountable for it." And it appears that he did write to the Nabob a letter in the same peremptory manner; but the said letter has been suppressed.
LI. That he, the said Hastings, farther did manifest the concern he took in, and the encouragement which he gave to the proceedings aforesaid, by conferring honors and distinctions upon the ministers of the Nabob, whom he, the Nabob, did consider as having in the said proceedings disobeyed him and betrayed him, and as instruments in the dishonor of his family and the usurpation of his authority. That the said ministers did make addresses to the said Hastings for that purpose (which addresses the said Hastings hath suppressed); and the Resident, Middleton, did, with his letter of the 11th of February, 1782, transmit the same, and did in the said letter acquaint the said Hastings "that the ministers of the Nabob had incurred much odium on account of their participation in his measures, and that they were not only considered by the party of the dispossessed jaghiredars, and the mother and uncle of the Nabob, but by the Nabob himself, as the dependants of the English government, which they certainly are, and it is by its declared and most obvious support alone that they can maintain the authority and influence which is indispensably necessary." And the said Middleton did therefore recommend "that they should be honored with some testimony of his [the said Hastings's] approbation and favor." And he, the said Warren Hastings, did send kellauts, or robes of honor, (the most public and distinguished mode of acknowledging merit known in India,) to the said ministers, in testimony of his approbation of their late services.
LII. That the said Hastings did not only give the aforesaid public encouragement to the ministers of the Nabob to betray and insult their master and his family in the manner aforesaid, but, when the said Nabob did write several letters to him, the said Hastings, expressive of his dislike of being used as an instrument in the dishonorable acts aforesaid, and refusing to be further concerned therein, he, the said Warren Hastings, did not only suppress and hide the said letters from the view of the Court of Directors, but in his instructions to the Resident, Bristow, did attribute them to Hyder Beg Khân, minister to the Nabob, (whom in other respects he did before and ever since support against his master,) and did express himself with great scorn and contempt of the said Nabob, and with much asperity against the said minister: affirming, in proud and insolent terms, that he had, "by an abuse of his influence over the Nabob,—he, the Nabob himself, being (as he ever must be in the hands of some person) a mere cipher in his [the said minister's],—dared to make him [the Nabob] assume a very unbecoming tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, in opposition to measures recommended by ME, and even to acts done by MY authority": the said Hastings, in the instruction aforesaid, particularizing the resumption of the jaghires, and the confiscation of the treasures that had been so long suffered to remain in the hands of his, the Nabob's, mother. But the letters of the Nabob, which in the said instructions he refers to as containing an opposition to the measures recommended by him, and which he asserts was conveyed in a very unbecoming tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, he, the said Hastings, hath criminally withheld from the Company, contrary to their orders, and to his duty,—and the more, as the said letters must tend to show in what manner the said Nabob did feel the indignities offered to his mother, and the manner in which the said ministers, notwithstanding their known dependence on the English government, did express their sense of the part which their sovereign was compelled to act in the said disgraceful measures. And in farther instructions to him, the said new Resident, he did declare his approbation of the evil acts aforesaid, as well as his resolution of compelling the Nabob to those rigorous proceedings against his parent from which he had long shown himself so very averse, in the following words. "The severities which have been increased towards the Begums were most justly merited by the advantage which they took of the troubles in which I was personally involved last year, to create a rebellion in the Nabob's government, and to complete the ruin which they thought was impending on ours. If it is the Nabob's desire to forget and to forgive their past offence, I have no objection to his allowing them, in pension, the nominal amount of their jaghires; but if he shall ever offer to restore their jaghires to them, or to give them any property in land, after the warning which they have given him by the dangerous abuse which they formerly made of his indulgence, you must remonstrate in the strongest terms against it; you must not permit such an event to take place, until this government shall have received information of it, and shall have had time to interpose its influence for the prevention of it." And the said Warren Hastings, who did in the manner aforesaid positively refuse to admit the Nabob to restore to his mother and grandmother any part of their landed estates for their maintenance, did well know that the revenues of the said Nabob were at that time so far applied to the demands of the Company, (by him, the said Warren Hastings, aggravated beyond the whole of what they did produce,) or were otherwise so far applied to the purposes of several of the servants of the Company, and others, the dependants of him, the said Hastings, that none of the pensions or allowances, assigned by the said Nabob in lieu of the estates confiscated, were paid, or were likely to be discharged, with that punctuality which was necessary even to the scanty subsistence of the persons to which they were in name and appearance applied. For,
LIII. That, so early as the 6th March, 1782, Captain Leonard Jaques, who commanded the forces on duty for the purpose of distressing the several women in the palaces at Fyzabad, did complain to the Resident, Richard Johnson, in the following words. "The women belonging to the Khord Mohul (or lesser palace) complain of their being in want of every necessary of life, and are at last driven to that desperation that they at night get on the top of the zenanah, make a great disturbance, and last night not only alarmed the sentinels posted in the garden, but threw dirt at them; they threaten to throw themselves from the walls of the zenanah, and also to break out of it. Humanity obliges me to acquaint you of this matter, and to request to know if you have any directions to give me concerning it. I also beg leave to acquaint you I sent for Letafit Ali Khân, the cojah who has the charge of them, and who informs me it is well grounded,—that they have sold everything they had, even to the clothes from their backs, and now have no means of subsisting."
LIV. That the distresses of the said women grew so urgent on the night of the said 6th of March, the day when the letter above recited was written, that Captain Leonard Jaques aforesaid did think it necessary to write again, on the day following, to the British Resident in the following words. "I beg leave to address you again concerning the women in the Khord Mohul [the lesser palace]. Their behavior last night was so furious, that there seemed the greatest probability of their proceeding to the uttermost extremities, and that they would either throw themselves from the walls or force open the doors of the zenanah. I have made every inquiry concerning the cause of their complaints, and find from Letafit Ali Khân that they are in a starving condition, having sold all their clothes and necessaries, and now have not wherewithal to support nature; and as my instructions are quite silent on this head, I should be glad to know how to proceed, in case they were to force the doors of the zenanah, as I suspect it will happen, should no subsistence be very quickly sent to them."
LV. That, in consequence of these representations, it appears that the said Resident, Richard Johnson, did promise that an application should be made to certain of the servants of the Nabob Vizier to provide for their subsistence.
LVI. That Captain Jaques being relieved from the duty of imprisoning the women of Sujah ul Dowlah, the late sovereign of Oude, an ally of the Company, who dwelt in the said lesser palace, and Major Gilpin being appointed to succeed, the same malicious design of destroying the said women, or the same scandalous neglect of their preservation and subsistence, did still continue; and Major Gilpin found it necessary to apply to the new Resident, Bristow, in a letter of the 30th of October, 1782, as follows.
LVII. "SIR,—Last night, about eight o'clock, the women in the Khord Mohul [lesser palace] or zenanah [women's apartment] under the charge of Letafit Ali Khân, assembled on the tops of the buildings, crying in a most lamentable manner for food,—that for the last four days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they had got none.
LVIII. "The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than described; and from their representation I fear the Nabob's agents for that business are very inattentive. I therefore think it requisite to make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency, the Nabob, may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct towards these poor unhappy women."
LIX. That, although the Resident, Bristol, did not then think himself authorized to remove the guard, he did apply to the minister of the Nabob, who did promise some relief to the women of the late Nabob, confined in the lesser palace; but apprehending, with reason, that the minister aforesaid might not be more ready or active in making the necessary provision for them than on former occasions, he did render himself personally responsible to Major Gilpin for the repayment of any sum, equal to one thousand pounds sterling, which he might procure for the subsistence of the sufferers. But whatever relief was given, (the amount thereof not appearing,) the same was soon exhausted; and the number of persons to be maintained in the said lesser palace being eight hundred women, the women of the late sovereign, Sujah ul Dowlah, and several of the younger children of the said sovereign prince, besides their attendants, Major Gilpin was obliged, on the 15th of November following, again to address the Resident by a representation of this tenor.
"SIR,—The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy.
LX. "They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their daily bread by laborious servitude, or to be relieved from their misery by immediate death.
LXI. "In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain, at ten days' sight, for twenty Son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah Letafit Ali Khân, under whose charge that zenanah is."
LXII. That, notwithstanding all the promises and reiterated engagements of the minister, Hyder Beg Khân, the ladies of the palace aforesaid fell again into extreme distress; and the Resident did again complain to the said minister, who was considered to be, and really and substantially was, the minister of the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, aforesaid, and not of the Nabob, (the said Nabob being, according to the said Hastings's own account, "a cipher in his [the said minister's] hands,") that the funds allowed for their subsistence were not applied to their support. But notwithstanding all these repeated complaints and remonstrances, and the constant promise of amendment on the part of his, the said Hastings's, minister, the supply was not more plentiful or more regular than before.
LXIII. That the said Resident, Bristow, finding by experience the inefficacy of the courses which had been pursued with regard to the mother and grandmother of the reigning prince of Oude, and having received a report from Major Gilpin, informing him that all which could be done by force had been done, and that the only hope which remained for realizing the remainder of the money, unjustly exacted as aforesaid, lay in more lenient methods,[74] he, the said Resident, did, of his own authority, order the removal of the guard from the palaces, the troops being long and much wanted for the defence of the frontier, and other material services,—and did release the said ministers of the said women of rank, who had been confined and put in irons, and variously distressed and persecuted, as aforerecited, for near twelve months.[75]
LXIV. That the manner in which the said inhuman acts of rapacity and violence were felt, both by the women of high rank concerned, and by all the people, strongly appears in the joy expressed on their release, which took place on the 5th of December, 1782, and is stated in two letters of that date from Major Gilpin to the Resident, in the words following.
LXV. "I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d instant, and in consequence immediately enlarged the prisoners Behar Ali Khân and Jewar Ali Khân from their confinement: a circumstance that gave the Begums, and the city of Fyzabad in general, the greatest satisfaction.
LXVI. "In tears of joy Behar and Jewar Ali Khân expressed their sincere acknowledgments to the Governor-General, his Excellency the Nabob Vizier, and to you, Sir, for restoring them to that invaluable blessing, liberty, for which they would ever retain the most grateful remembrance; and at their request I transmit you the inclosed letters.
LXVII. "I wish you had been present at the enlargement of the prisoners. The quivering lips, with the tears of joy stealing down the poor men's cheeks, was a scene truly affecting.
LXVIII. "If the prayers of these poor men will avail, you will, at the LAST TRUMP, be translated to the happiest regions in heaven."
LXIX. And the Resident, Bristow, knowing how acceptable the said proceeding would be to all the people of Oude, and the neighboring independent countries, did generously and politically, (though not truly,) in his letter to the princess mother attribute the said relief given to herself, and the release of her ministers, to the humanity of the said Warren Hastings, agreeably to whose orders he pretended to act: asserting, that he, the said Hastings, "was the spring from whence she was restored to her dignity and consequence."[76] And the account of the proceedings aforesaid was regularly transmitted to the said Warren Hastings on the 30th of December, 1782, with the reasons and motives thereto, and a copy of the report of the officer concerning the inutility of further force, attended with sundry documents concerning the famishing, and other treatment, of the women and children of the late sovereign: but the same appear to have made no proper impression on the mind of the said Warren Hastings; for no answer whatsoever was given to the said letter until the 3d of March, 1783, when the said Hastings, writing in his own character and that of the Council, did entirely pass by all the circumstances before recited, but did give directions for the renewal of measures of the like nature and tendency with those which (for several of the last months at least of the said proceeding) had been employed with so little advantage to the interest and with so much injury to the reputation of the Company, his masters, in whose name he acted,—expressing himself in the said letter of the 3d of March, 1783, as follows: "We desire you will inform us what means have been taken for recovering the balance [the pretended balance of the extorted money] due from the Begums [princesses] at Fyzabad; and if necessary, you must recommend it to the Vizier to enforce the most effectual means for that purpose." And the Resident did, in his answer to the board, dated 31st March, 1783, on this peremptory order, again detail the particulars aforesaid to the said Warren Hastings, referring him to his former correspondence, stating the utter impossibility of proceeding further by force, and mentioning certain other disgraceful and oppressive circumstances, and in particular, that the Company did not, in plundering the mother of the reigning prince of her wearing apparel and beasts of carriage, receive a value in the least equal to the loss she suffered: the elephants having no buyer but the Nabob, and the clothes, which had last been delivered to Middleton at a valuation of thirty thousand pounds, were so damaged by ill keeping in warehouses, that they could not be sold, even for six months' credit, at much more than about eight thousand pounds; by which a loss in a single article was incurred of twenty-two thousand pounds out of the fifty, for the recovery of which (supposing it had been a just debt) such rigorous means had been employed, after having actually received upwards of five hundred thousand pounds in value to the Company, and extorted much more in loss to the suffering individuals. And the said Bristow, being well acquainted with the unmerciful temper of the said Hastings, in order to leave no means untried to appease him, not contented with the letter to the Governor-General and Council, did on the same day write another letter to him particularly, in which he did urge several arguments, the necessity of using of which to the said Hastings did reflect great dishonor on this nation, and on the Christian religion therein professed, namely: "That he had experienced great embarrassment in treating with her [the mother of the reigning prince]; for, as the mother of the Vizier, the people look up to her with respect, and any hard measures practised against women of her high rank create discontent, and affect our national character." And the said Resident, after condemning very unjustly her conduct, added, "Still she is the mother of the prince of the country, and the religious prejudices of Mussulmen prevail too strongly in their minds to forget her situation."
LXX. That the said Warren Hastings did not make any answer to the said letter. But the mother of the prince aforesaid, as well as the mother of his father, being, in consequence of his, the said Hastings's, directions, incessantly and rudely pressed by their descendant, in the name of the Company, to pay to the last farthing of the demand, they did both positively refuse to pay any part of the pretended balances aforesaid, until their landed estates were restored to them; on the security of which alone they alleged themselves to be in a condition to borrow any money, or even to provide for the subsistence of themselves and their numerous dependants. And in order to put some end to these differences, the Vizier did himself, about the beginning of August, 1783, go to Fyzabad, and did hold divers conferences with his parents, and did consent and engage to restore to them their landed estates aforesaid, and did issue an order that they should be restored accordingly; but his minister aforesaid, having before his eyes the peremptory orders of him, the said Warren Hastings, did persuade his master to dishonor himself in breaking his faith and engagement with his mother and the mother of his father, by first evading the execution, and afterwards totally revoking his said public and solemn act, on pretence that he had agreed to the grant "from shame, being in their presence [the presence of his mother and grandmother], and that it was unavoidable at the time";[77]—the said minister declaring to him, that it would be sufficient, if he allowed them "money for their necessary expenses, and that would be doing enough."
LXXI. That the faith given for the restoration of their landed estates being thus violated, and the money for necessary expenses being as ill supplied as before, the women and children of the late sovereign, father of the reigning prince, continued exposed to frequent want of the common necessaries of life;[78] and being sorely pressed by famine, they were compelled to break through all the principles of local decorum and reserve which constitute the dignity of the female sex in that part of the world, and, after great clamor and violent attempts for one whole day to break the inclosure of the palace, and to force their way into the public market, in order to move the compassion of the people, and to beg their bread, they did, on the next day, actually proceed to the extremity of exposing themselves to public view,—an extremity implying the lowest state of disgrace and degradation, to avoid which many women in India have laid violent hands upon themselves,—and they did proceed to the public market-place with the starving children of the late sovereign, and the brothers and sisters of the reigning prince! A minute account of the transaction aforesaid was written to the British Resident at Lucknow by the person appointed to convey intelligence to him from Fyzabad, in the following particulars, highly disgraceful to the honor, justice, and humanity of this nation.
LXXII. "The ladies, their attendants and servants, were still as clamorous as last night. Letafit, the darogah, went to them and remonstrated with them on the impropriety of their conduct, at the same time assuring them that in a few days all their allowances would be paid, and should not that be the case, he would advance them ten days' subsistence, upon condition that they returned to their habitation. None of them, however, consented to his proposals, but were still intent upon making their escape through the bazar [market-place], and in consequence formed themselves into a line, arranging themselves in the following order: the children in the front; behind them the ladies of the seraglio; and behind them again their attendants: but their intentions were frustrated by the opposition which they met from Letafit's sepoys.
LXXIII. "The next day Letafit went twice to the women, and used his endeavors to make them return into the zenanah, promising to advance them ten thousand rupees; which, upon the money being paid down, they agreed to comply with: but night coming on, nothing transpired.
LXXIV. "On the day following their clamors were more violent than usual. Letafit went to confer with them, upon the business of yesterday; offering the same terms. Depending upon the fidelity of his promises, they consented to return to their apartments, which they accordingly did, except two or three of the ladies, and most of their attendants. Letafit then went to Hossmund Ali Khân, to consult with him upon what means they should take. They came to a resolution of driving them in by force, and gave orders to their sepoys to beat any one of the women who should attempt to move forward. The sepoys consequently assembled; and each one being provided with a bludgeon, they drove them by dint of beating into the zenanah. The women, seeing the treachery of Letafit, proceeded to throw stones and bricks at the sepoys, and again attempted to get out; but finding that impossible, from the gates being shut, they kept up a continual discharge of stones and bricks till about ten, when, finding their situation desperate, they retired into the Kung Mohul, and forced their way from thence into the palace, and dispersed themselves about the house and garden; after this they were desirous of getting into the Begum's apartment, but she, being apprised of their intention, ordered her doors to be shut. In the mean time Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khân posted sentries to secure the gates of the lesser Mohul. During the whole of this conflict, all the ladies and women remained exposed to the view of the sepoys. The Begum then sent for Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khân, whom she severely reprimanded, and insisted upon knowing the causes of this infamous behavior. They pleaded in their defence the impossibility of helping it, as the treatment the women had met with had been conformable to his Excellency the Vizier's orders. The Begum alleged, that, even admitting that the Nabob had given those orders, they were by no means authorized in this manner to disgrace the family of Sujah Dowlah; and should they not receive their allowance for a day or two, it could be of no great moment: what was passed was now at an end; but that the Vizier should certainly be acquainted with the whole of the affair, and that whatever he desired she should implicitly comply with. The Begum then sent for five of the children, who were wounded in the affray of last night, and, after endeavoring to soothe them, she sent again for Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khân, and in the presence of the children expressed her disapprobation of their conduct, and the improbability of Asoph ul Dowlah's suffering the ladies and children of Sujah Dowlah to be disgraced by being exposed to the view of the rabble. Upon which Letafit produced the letter from the Nabob, at the same time representing that he was amenable only to the orders of his Excellency, and that whatever he ordered it was his duty to obey, and that, had the ladies thought proper to have retired into their apartments quietly, he would not have used the means he had taken to compel them. The Begum again observed, that what had happened was now over. She then gave the children four hundred rupees, and dismissed them, and sent word by Jumrud and the other eunuchs, that, if the ladies would peaceably retire to their apartments, Letafit would supply them with three or four thousand rupees for their personal expenses, and recommended to them not to incur any further disgrace, and that, if they did not think proper to act agreeable to her directions, they would do wrong. The ladies followed her advice, and about ten at night went back into the zenanah. The nest morning the Begum waited upon the mother of Sujah Dowlah, and related to her all the circumstances of the disturbances. The mother of Sujah Dowlah returned for answer, that, after there being no accounts kept of crores of revenues, she was not surprised that the family of Sujah Dowlah, in their endeavors to procure a subsistence, should be obliged to expose themselves to the meanest of the people. After bewailing their misfortunes, and shedding many tears, the Begum took her leave, and returned home."
That the said affecting narrative being sent, with others of the same nature, on the 29th of January, 1784, to the said Warren Hastings, he did not order any relief in consequence thereof, or take any sort of notice whatsoever of the said intelligence.
LXXV. That the Court of Directors did express strong doubts of the propriety of seizing the estates aforesaid, and did declare to him, the said Hastings, "that the only consolation they felt on the occasion is, that the amount of those jaghires for which the Company were guaranties is to be paid through our Resident at the court of the Vizier; and it very materially concerns the credit of your Governor on no account to suffer such payments to be evaded." But the said Warren Hastings did never make the arrangement supposed in the said letter to be actually made, nor did he cause the Resident to pay them the amount of their jaghires, or to make any payment to them.
And the said Hastings being expressly ordered by the Court of Directors to restore to them their estates, in case the charges made upon them should not be found true, he, the said Hastings, did contumaciously and cruelly decline any compliance with the said orders until his journey to Lucknow, in ——, when he did, as he says, "conformably to the orders of the Court of Directors, and more to the inclination of the Nabob Vizier, restore to them their jaghires, but with the defalcation, according to his own account, of a large portion of their respective shares": pretending, without the least probability, that the said defalcation was a "voluntary concession on their part." But what he has left to them for their support, or in what proportion to that which he has taken away, he has nowhere stated to the Court of Directors, whose faith he has broken, and whose orders he has thus eluded, whilst he pretended to yield some obedience to them.
LXXVI. That the said Warren Hastings having made a malicious, loose, and ill-supported charge, backed by certain unsatisfactory affidavits, as a ground for his seizing on the jaghires and the treasures of the Vizier's mother, solemnly guarantied to them, the Court of Directors did, in their letter of the 14th of February, 1783, express themselves as follows concerning that measure,—"which the Governor-General, [he, the said Warren Hastings,] in his letter to your board, the 23d of January, 1782, has declared he strenuously encouraged and supported: we hope and trust, for the honor of the British nation, that the measure appeared fully justified in the eyes of all Hindostan. The Governor-General has informed us that it can be well attested that the Begums [the mother and grandmother of the Nabob aforesaid] principally excited and supported the late commotions, and that they carried their inveteracy to the English nation so far as to aim at our utter extirpation." And the Court of Directors did farther declare as follows: "That it nowhere appears from the papers at present in our possession, that they [the mother and grandmother of the Nabob of Oude] excited any commotions previous to the imprisonment of Rajah Cheyt Sing, and only armed themselves in consequence of that transaction; and, as it is probable, that such a conduct proceeded from motives of self-defence, under an apprehension that they themselves might likewise be laid under unwarrantable contributions." And the said Court of Directors, in giving their orders for the restoration of the jaghires, or for the payment of an equivalent through the Resident, did give this order for the restoration of their estates as aforesaid on condition that it should appear from inquiry that they were not guilty of the practices charged upon them by the said Hastings. Mr. Stables, one of the Council-General, did, in execution of the said conditional order, propose an inquiry leading to the ascertainment of the condition, and did enter a minute as follows: "That the Court of Directors, by their letters of the 14th of February, 1783, seem not to be satisfied that the disaffection of the Begums to this government is sufficiently proved by the evidence before them; I therefore think that the late and present Resident, and commanding officer in the Vizier's country at the time, should be called on to collect what further information they can on this subject, in which the honor and dignity of this government is so materially concerned, and that such information may be transmitted to the Court of Directors." And he did further propose heads and modes of inquiry suitable to the doubts expressed by the Court of Directors. But the said Warren Hastings, who ought long before, on principles of natural justice, to have instituted a diligent inquiry in support of his so improbable a charge, and was bound, even for his own honor, as well as for the satisfaction of the Court of Directors, to take a strong part in the said inquiry, did set himself in opposition to the same, and did carry with him a majority of Council against the said inquiry into the justice of the cause, or any proposition for the relief of the sufferers: asserting, "that the reasons of the Court of Directors, if transmitted with the orders for the inquiry, will prove in effect an order for collecting evidence to the justification and acquittal of the Begums, and not for the investigation of the truth of the charges which have been preferred against them." That Mr. Stables did not propose (as in the said Hastings's minute is groundlessly supposed) that the reasons of the Court of Directors should be transmitted with the orders for an inquiry. But the apprehension of the said Warren Hastings of the probable result of the inquiry proposed did strongly indicate his sense of his own guilt and the innocence of the parties accused by him; and if, by his construction, Mr. Stables's minute did indicate an inquiry merely for the justification of the parties by him accused, (which construction the motion did not bear,) it was no more than what the obvious rules of justice would well support, his own proceedings having been ex parte,—he having employed Sir Elijah Impey to take affidavits against the women of high rank aforesaid, not only without any inquiry made on their part, but without any communication to them of his practice and proceeding against them; and equity did at least require that they, with his own knowledge and by the subordinates of his own government, should be allowed a public inquiry to acquit themselves of the heavy offences with which they had been by him clandestinely charged.
LXXVII. That he, the said Hastings, in order to effectually stifle the said inquiry, did enter on record a further minute, asserting that the said inquiry would be productive "of evils greater than any which exist in the consequences which have already taken place, and which time has almost obliterated"; as also the following: "If I am rightly informed, the Nabob Vizier and the Begums are on terms of mutual goodwill. It would ill become this government to interpose its influence by any act which might tend to revive their animosities,—and a very slight occasion would be sufficient to effect it. They will instantly take fire on such a declaration, proclaim the judgment of the Company in their favor, demand a reparation of the acts which they will construe wrongs with such a sentence warranting that construction, and either accept the invitation to the proclaimed scandal of the Nabob Vizier, which will not add to the credit of our government, or remain in his dominions, but not under his authority, to add to his vexations and the disorders of the country by continual intrigues and seditions. Enough already exists to affect his peace and the quiet of his people. If we cannot heal, let us not inflame the wounds which have been inflicted."—"If the Begums think themselves aggrieved to such a degree as to justify them in an appeal to a foreign jurisdiction, to appeal to it against a man standing in the relation of son and grandson to them, to appeal to the justice of those who have been the abettors and instruments of their imputed wrongs, let us at least permit them to be the judges of their own feelings, and prefer their complaints before we offer to redress them. They will not need to be prompted. I hope I shall not depart from the simplicity of official language in saying, the majesty of justice ought to be approached with solicitation, not descend to provoke or invite it, much less to debase itself by the suggestion of wrongs and the promise of redress, with the denunciation of punishments before trial, and even before accusation."
LXXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in attempting to pass an act of indemnity for his own crimes, and of oblivion for the sufferings of others, supposing the latter almost obliterated by time, did not only mock and insult over the sufferings of the allies of the Company, but did show an indecent contempt of the understandings of the Court of Directors: because his violent attempts on the property and liberty of the mother and grandmother of the ally aforesaid had not their first commencement much above two years before that time, and had been continued, without abatement or relaxation on his part, to the very time of his minute; the Nabob having, by the instigation of his, the said Hastings's, instrument, Hyder Beg Khân, not two months before the date of the Consultation, been obliged a second time to break his faith with relation to the estates of his mother, in the manner hereinbefore recited. And the said Hastings did not and could not conceive that the clearing the mother could revive any animosity between her and her son, by whom she never had been accused. The said Hastings was also sensible that the restoration of her landed estates, recommended by the Court of Directors, could not produce any ill effect on the mind of the said son, as it was "with almost unconquerable reluctance he had been persuaded to deprive her of them," and at the time of his submitting to become an instrument in this injustice, did "declare," both, to the Resident and his ministers, "that it was an act of compulsion."
LXXIX. That the said Hastings further, by insinuating that the women in question would act amiss in appealing to a foreign jurisdiction against a son and grandson, could not forget that he himself, being that foreign jurisdiction, (if any jurisdiction there was,) did himself direct and order the injuries, did himself urge the calumnies, and did himself cause to be taken and produced the unsatisfactory evidence by which the women in question had suffered,—and that it was against him, the said Hastings, and not against their son, that they had reason to appeal. But the truth is, that the inquiry was moved for by Mr. Stables, not on the prayer or appeal of the sufferers, but upon the ill impression which the said Hastings's own conduct, merely and solely on his own state of it, and on his own evidence in support of it, had made on the Court of Directors, who were his lawful masters, and not suitors in his court. And his arrogating to himself and his colleagues to be a tribunal, and a tribunal not for the purpose of doing justice, but of refusing inquiry, was an high offence and misdemeanor (particularly as the due obedience to the Company's orders was eluded on the insolent pretence "that the majesty of justice ought to be approached with solicitation, and that it would debase itself by the suggestion of wrongs and the promise of redress") in a Governor, whose business it is, even of himself, and unsolicited, not only to promise, but to afford, redress to all those who should suffer under the power of the Company, even if their ignorance, or want of protection, or the imbecility of their sex, or the fear of irritating persons in rank and station, should prevent them from seeking it by formal solicitation.
LXXX. That the said Warren Hastings, at the time when he pretended ignorance of all solicitation for justice on the part of the women aforesaid, and on that pretence did refuse the inquiry moved by his colleague, Mr. Stables, had in all probability received from the Resident, Middleton, or, if he had made the slightest inquiry from the said Middleton, then at Calcutta, might immediately receive, an account that they did actually solicit the said Resident, through Major Gilpin, for redress against his, the said Hastings's, calumnious accusation, and the false testimony by which it was supported, and did send the said complaint to the Resident, Middleton, by the said Gilpin, to be transmitted to him, the said Hastings, and the Council, so early as the 19th of October, 1782; and that she, the mother of the Nabob, did afterwards send the same to the Resident, Bristow, asserting their innocence, and accompanying the same with the copies of letters (the originals of which they asserted were in their hands) from the chief witnesses against them, Hannay and Gordon, which letters did directly overturn the charges or insinuations in the affidavits made by them, and that, instead of any accusation of an attempt upon them and their parties by the instigation of the mother of the Nabob, or by her ministers, they, the said Hannay and Gordon, did attribute their preservation to them and to their services, and did, with strong expressions of gratitude both to the mother of the Nabob and to her ministers, fully acknowledge the same: which remonstrance of the mother of the Nabob, and the letters of the said Hannay and Gordon, are annexed to this charge; and the said Hastings is highly criminal for not having examined into the facts alleged in the said remonstrance.
LXXXI. That the violent proceedings of the said Warren Hastings did tend to impress all the neighboring princes, some of whom were allied in blood to the oppressed women of rank aforesaid, with an ill opinion of the faith, honor, and decency of the British nation; and accordingly, on the journey aforesaid made by the Nabob from Lucknow to Fyzabad, in which the said Nabob did restore, in the manner before mentioned, the confiscated estates of his mother and grandmother, and did afterwards revoke his said grant, it appears that the said journey did cause a general alarm (the worst motives obtaining the most easy credit with regard to any future proceeding, on account of the foregone acts) and excited great indignation among the ruling persons of the adjacent country, insomuch that Major Brown, agent to the said Warren Hastings at the court of the King Shah Allum at Delhi, did write a remonstrance therein to Mr. Bristow, Resident at Oude, as follows.
"The evening of the 7th, at a conference I had with Mirza Shaffee Khân, he introduced a subject, respecting the Nabob Vizier, which, however it may be disagreeable for you to know, and consequently for me to communicate, I am under a necessity of laying before you. He told me he had received information from Lucknow, that, by the advice of Hyder Beg Khân, the Vizier had determined to bring his grandmother, the widow of Sufdar Jung, from Fyzabad to Lucknow, with a view of getting a further sum of money from her, by seizing on her eunuchs, digging up the apartments of her house at Fyzabad, and putting her own person under restraint. This, he said, he knew was not an act of our government, but the mere advice of Hyder Beg Khân, to which the Vizier had been induced to attend. He added, that the old Begum had resolved rather to put herself to death than submit to the disgrace intended to be put upon her; that, if such a circumstance should happen, there is not a man in Hindostan who will attribute the act to the Vizier [Nabob of Oude], but every one will fix the odium on the English, who might easily, by the influence they so largely exercise in their own concerns there, have prevented such unnatural conduct in the Vizier. He therefore called upon me, as the English representative in this quarter, to inform you of this, that you may prevent a step which will destroy all confidence in the English nation throughout Hindostan, and excite the bitterest resentment in all those who by blood are connected with the house of Sufdar Jung. He concluded by saying, that, 'if the Vizier so little regarded his family and personal honor, or his natural duty, as to wish to disgrace his father's mother for a sum of money, let him plunder her of all she has, but let him send her safe up to Delhi or Agra, and, poor as I am, I will furnish subsistence for her, which she shall possess with safety and honor, though it cannot be adequate to her rank.'
"This, Sir, is a most exact detail of the conversation (as far as related to that affair) on the part of Mirza Shaffee Khân. On my part I could only say, that I imagined the affair was misrepresented, and that I should write as he requested. Let me therefore request that you will enable me to answer in a more effectual manner any further questions on this subject.
LXXXII. "As Mirza Shaffee's grandfather was brother to Sufdar Jung, there can be no doubt of what his declaration means; and if this measure of dismissing the old Begum should be persisted in, I should not, from the state of affairs, and the character of the Amir ul Omrah, be surprised at some immediate and violent resolution being adopted by him."
LXXXIII. That Mirza Shaffee, mentioned in this correspondence, (who has since been murdered,) was of near kindred to the lady in question, (grandmother to the Nabob,) was resident in a province immediately adjoining to the province of Oude, and, from proximity of situation and nearness of connection, was likely to have any intelligence concerning his female relations from the best authority.
LXXXIV. That the Resident, Bristow, on receiving this letter, did apply to the said Hyder Beg Khân for an explanation of the Nabob's intentions, who denied that the Nabob intended more than a visit of duty and ceremony: which, whatever his dispositions might have been, and probably were, towards his own mother, was not altogether probable, as it was well known that he was on very bad terms with the mother of his father, and it appears that intentions of a similar nature had been before manifested even with regard to his own mother, and therefore obtained the more easy credit concerning the other woman of high rank aforesaid, especially as the evil designs of the said Hyder Beg were abundantly known, and that the said Hastings, upon whom he did wholly depend, continued to recommend "the most effectual, that is, the most violent, means for the recovery of the small remains of his extorted demand." But although it does not appear that the Resident did give credit to the said report, yet the effect of the same on the minds of the neighboring princes did make it proper and necessary to direct a strict inquiry into the same, which was not done; and it does not appear that any further inquiry was made into the true motives for this projected journey to Fyzabad, nor into the proceedings of Hyder Beg Khân, although the said Warren Hastings well knew that all the acts of the Nabob and his principal ministers were constantly attributed to him, and that it was known that secret agents, as well as the Company's regular agent, were employed by him at Lucknow and other places.
LXXXV. That the said Hastings, who did, on pretence of the majesty of justice, refuse to inquire into the charges made upon the female parents of the Nabob of Oude, in justification of the violence offered to them, did voluntarily and of his own accord make himself an accuser of the Resident, Middleton, for the want of a literal execution of his orders in the plans of extortion and rapine aforesaid: the criminal nature, spirit, and tendency of the said proceedings, for the defective execution of which he brought the said charge, appearing in the defence or apology made by Mr. Middleton, the Resident, for his temporary and short forbearances.
LXXXVI. "It could not, I flatter myself, be termed a long or unwarrantable delay [two days], when the importance of the business, and the peculiar embarrassments attending the prosecution of it to its desired end, are considered. The Nabob was son to the Begum whom we were to proceed against: a son against a mother must at least save appearances in his mode of proceeding. The produce of his negotiation was to be received by the Company. Receiving a benefit, accompanying the Nabob, withdrawing their protection, were circumstances sufficient to mark the English as the principal movers in this business. At a court where no opportunity is lost to throw odium on us, so favorable an occasion was not missed to persuade the Nabob that we instigated him to dishonor his family for our benefit. The impressions made by these suggestions constantly retarded the progress, and more than once actually broke off the business: which rendered the utmost caution on my part necessary, especially as I had no assistance to expect from the ministers, who could not openly move in the business. In the East, it is well known that no man either by himself or his troops, can enter the walls of a zenanah, scarcely in the case of acting against an open enemy, much less of an ally,—an ally acting against his own mother. The outer walls, and the Begum's agents, were all that were liable to immediate attack: they were dealt with, and successfully, as the event proved."—He had before observed to Mr. Hastings, in his correspondence, what Mr. Hastings well knew to be true, "that no farther rigor than that he had exerted could be used against females in that country; where force could be employed, it was not spared;—that the place of concealment was only known to the chief eunuchs, who could not be drawn out of the women's apartments, where they had taken refuge, and from which, if an attempt had been made to storm them, they might escape; and the secret of the money being known only to them, it was necessary to get their persons into his hands, which could be obtained by negotiation only."—The Resident concluded his defence by declaring his "hope, that, if the main object of his orders was fulfilled, he should be no longer held criminal for a deviation from the precise letter of them."
LXXXVII. That the said Warren Hastings did enter a reply to this answer, in support of his criminal charge, continuing to insist "that his orders ought to have been literally obeyed," although he did not deny that the above difficulties occurred, and the above consequences must have been the result,—and though the reports of the military officers charged with the execution of his commission confirmed the moral impossibility, as well as inutility in point of profit, of forcing a son to greater violence and rigor against his mother.
LXXXVIII. That the said Hastings, after all the acts aforesaid, did presume to declare on record, in his minute of the 23d September, 1788, "that, whatever may happen of the events which he dreads in the train of affairs now subsisting, he shall at least receive this consolation under them, that he used his utmost exertions to prevent them, and that in the annals of the nations of India which have been subjected to the British dominions HE shall not be remembered among their oppressors." And speaking of certain alleged indignities offered to the Nabob of Oude, and certain alleged suspicions of his authority with regard to the management of his household, he, the said Hastings, did, in the said minute, endeavor to excite the spirit of the British nation, severely animadverting on such offences, making use of the following terms: "If there be a spark of generous virtue in the breasts of any of my countrymen who shall be the readers of this compilation, this letter" (a letter of complaint from the Nabob) "shall stand for an instrument to awaken it to the call of vengeance against so flagitious an abuse of authority and reproach to the British name."
From her Excellency the Bhow Begum to Mr. Bristow, Resident at the Vizier's Court.
There is no necessity to write to you by way of information a detail of my sufferings. From common report, and the intelligence of those who are about you, the account of them will have reached your ears. I will here relate a part of them.
After the death of Sujah Dowlah, most of his ungrateful servants were constantly laboring to gratify their enmity; but finding, from the firm and sincere friendship which subsisted between me and the English, that the accomplishment of their purposes was frustrated, they formed the design of occasioning a breach in that alliance, to insure their own success. I must acquaint you that my son Asoph ul Dowlah had formerly threatened to seize my jaghire; but, upon producing the treaty signed by you, and showing it to Mr. Middleton, he interfered, and prevented the impending evil. The conspiration now framed an accusation against me of a conduct which I had never conceived even in idea, of rendering assistance to Rajah Cheyt Sing. The particulars are as follow. My son Asoph ul Dowlah and his ministers, with troops and a train of artillery, accompanied by Mr. Middleton, on the 16th of the month of Mohurum, arrived at Fyzabad, and made a demand of a crore of rupees. As my inability to pay so vast a sum was manifest, I produced the treaty you signed and gave me, but to no effect: their hearts were determined upon violence. I offered my son Asoph ul Dowlah, whose will is dearer to me than all my riches, or even life itself, whatever money and goods I was possessed of: but an amicable adjustment seemed not worth accepting: he demanded the delivering up the fort, and the recall of the troops that were stationed for the preserving the peace of the city. To me tumult and discord appeared unnecessary. I gave up these points, upon which they seized my head eunuchs, Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, and sent them to Mr. Middleton, after having obliged them to sign a bond for sixty lacs of rupees; they were thrown into prison, with fetters about their feet, and denied food and water. I, who had never, even in my dreams, experienced such an oppression, gave up all I had to preserve my honor and dignity: but this would not satisfy their demands: they charged me with a rupee and a half batta upon each mohur, and on this account laid claims upon me to the amount of six lacs some thousand rupees, and sent Major Gilpin to exact the payment. Major Gilpin, according to orders, at first was importunate; but being a man of experience, and of a benevolent disposition, when he was convinced of my want of means, he changed his conduct, and was willing to apply to the shroffs and bankers to lend me the money. But with the loss of my jaghire my credit was sunk; I could not raise the sum. At last, feeling my helpless situation, I collected my wardrobe and furniture, to the amount of about three lacs of rupees, besides fifty thousand rupees which I borrowed from one place or other, and sent Major Gilpin with it to Lucknow. My sufferings did not terminate here. The disturbances of Colonel Hannay and Mr. Gordon were made a pretence for seizing my jaghire. The state of the matter is this. When Colonel Hannay was by Mr. Hastings ordered to march to Benares, during the troubles of Cheyt Sing, the Colonel, who had plundered the whole country, was incapable of proceeding, from the union of thousands of zemindars, who had seized this favorable opportunity: they harassed Mr. Gordon near Junivard [Juanpore?], and the zemindars of that place and Acberpore opposed his march from thence, till he arrived near Taunda. As the Taunda nullah, from its overflowing, was difficult to cross without a boat, Mr. Gordon sent to the Phousdar to supply him. He replied, the boats were all in the river, but would, according to orders, assist him as soon as possible. Mr. Gordon's situation would not admit of his waiting: he forded the nullah upon his elephant, and was hospitably entertained and protected by the Phousdar for six days. In the mean time a letter was received by me from Colonel Hannay, desiring me to escort Mr. Gordon to Fyzabad. As my friendship for the English was always sincere, I readily complied, and sent some companies of nejeebs to escort Mr. Gordon, and all his effects, to Fyzabad, where, having provided for his entertainment, I effected his junction with Colonel Hannay. The letters of thanks I received from both these gentlemen upon this occasion are still in my possession, copies of which I gave in charge to Major Gilpin, to be delivered to Mr. Middleton, that he might forward them to the Governor-General. To be brief, those who have loaded me with accusations are now clearly convicted of falsehood. But is it not extraordinary, notwithstanding the justness of my cause, that nobody relieves my misfortunes? Why did Major Gilpin return without effect?
My prayers have been constantly offered to Heaven for your arrival; report has announced it; for which reason I have taken up the pen, and request you will not place implicit confidence in my accusers, but, weighing in the scale of justice their falsehoods and my representations, you will exert your influence in putting a period to the misfortunes with which I am overwhelmed.
Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân.
I had the pleasure to receive your friendly letter, fraught with benevolence; and whatever favors you, my friends, have been pleased to confer respecting Mr. Gordon afforded me the greatest pleasure.
Placing a firm reliance on your friendship, I am in expectation that the aforesaid gentleman, with his baggage, will arrive at Fyzabad in safety, that the same may oblige and afford satisfaction to me.
A letter from Mr. Gordon is inclosed to you. I am in expectation of its being inclosed in a cover to the Aumil of Taunda, to the end that the Aumil may forward it to the above-mentioned gentleman, and procure his reply. Whenever the answer arrives, let it be delivered to Hoolas Roy, who will forward it to me.
Always rejoice me by a few lines respecting your health. [Continue to honor me with your correspondence.]
Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar and Behar Ali Khân.
Khân Saib, my indulgent friends, remain under the protection of God!
Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, accompanied by an honorary letter from the Begum Saib, of exalted dignity, and inclosing a letter from Mr. Gordon, sent through your hircarrahs, obliged and rejoiced me.
With respect to what you communicate regarding your not having received an answer to your friendly epistle, I became perfectly astonished, as a reply was written from Mohadree. It may be owing to the danger of the road that it never arrived,—not to the smallest neglect on my side [or of mine].
I now send two letters to you,—one by the Dawk people, and the second by one of my hircarrahs, (who will present them to you,) which you certainly will receive.
I am extremely well contented and pleased with the friendship you have shown.
You wrote me to remain perfectly easy concerning Mr. Gordon. Verily, from the kindness of you, my indulgent friends, my heart is quite easy. You also observed and mentioned, that, as Mr. Gordon's coming with those attached to him [probably his sepoys and others] might be attended with difficulty, if I approved, he should be invited alone to Fyzabad. My friends, I place my expectation entirely upon your friendships, and leave it to you to adopt the manner in which the said gentleman may arrive in security, without molestation, at Fyzabad; but at the same time let the plan be so managed that it may not come to the knowledge of any zemindars: in this case you are men of discernment. However, he is to come to Fyzabad: extend your assistance and endeavors.
It is probable that the Begum Saib, of high dignity, has received authentic intelligence from the camp at Benares. Favor me with the contents or purport.
From Mr. Gordon's letter I understand that Mirza Imaum Buksh, whom you dispatched thither [Taunda], has and still continues to pay great attention to that gentleman, which affords me great pleasure.
An answer to the Begum's letter is to be presented. I also send a letter for Mr. Gordon, which please to forward.
An Address from Colonel Hannay to the Begum.
Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, &c., whom God preserve!
Your exalting letter, fraught with grace and benevolence, that through your unbounded generosity and goodness was sent through grace and favor, I had the honor to receive in a fortunate moment, and whatever you were pleased to write respecting Mr. Gordon,—"that, as at this time the short-sighted and deluded ryots had carried their disturbances and ravages beyond all bounds, Mr. Gordon's coming with his whole people [or adherents] might be attended with difficulty, and therefore, if I chose, he should be invited to come alone." Now, as your Highness is the best judge, your faithful servant reposeth his most unbounded hopes and expectation upon your Highness, that the aforesaid Mr. Gordon may arrive at Fyzabad without any apprehension or danger. I shall be then extremely honored and obliged.
Considering me in the light of a firm and faithful servant, continue to honor and exalt me by your letters.
What further can I say?
A Copy of an Address from Mr. Gordon to the Begum.
Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, whom God preserve!
After presenting the usual professions of servitude, &c., in the customary manner, my address is presented.
Your gracious letter, in answer to the petition of your servant from Goondah, exalted me. From the contents I became unspeakably impressed with the honor it conferred. May the Almighty protect that royal purity, and bestow happiness, increase of wealth, and prosperity!
The welfare of your servant is entirely owing to your favor and benevolence. A few days have elapsed since I arrived at Goondah with the Colonel Saib.
This is presented for your Highness's information. I cherish hopes from your generosity, that, considering me in the light of one of your servants, you will always continue to exalt and honor me with your gracious letters.
May the sun of prosperity continually shine!
Copy of a Letter to Mahomed Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, from Mr. Gordon.
Sirs, my indulgent friends,
Remain under, &c., &c.
After compliments. I have the pleasure to acquaint you that yesterday having taken leave of you, I passed the night at Noorgunge, and next morning, about ten or eleven o'clock, through your favor and benevolence, arrived safe at Goondah. Mir Aboo Buksh, zemindar, and Mir Rustum Ali, accompanied me.
To what extent can I prolong the praises of you, my beneficent friends? May the Supreme Being, for this benign, compassionate, humane action, have you in His keeping, and increase your prosperity, and speedily grant me the pleasure of an interview! Until which time continue to favor me with friendly letters, and oblige me by any commands in my power to execute.
May your wishes be ever crowned with success!
My compliments, &c., &c., &c.
Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân.
Khân Saib, my indulgent friends,
Remain under the protection of the Supreme Being!
After compliments, and signifying my earnest desire of an interview, I address you.
Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, I had the pleasure to receive in a propitious hour, and your inexpressible kindness in sending for Mir Nassar Ali with a force to Taunda, for the purpose of conducting Mr. Gordon, with all his baggage, who is now arrived at Fyzabad.
This event has afforded me the most excessive pleasure and satisfaction. May the Omnipotence preserve you, my steadfast, firm friends! The pen of friendship itself cannot sufficiently express your generosity and benevolence, and that of the Begum of high dignity, who so graciously has interested herself in this matter. Inclosed is an address for her, which please to forward. I hope from your friendship, until we meet, you will continue to honor me with an account of your health and welfare. What further can I write?
V.—REVOLUTIONS IN FURRUCKABAD.
I. That a prince called Ahmed Khân was of a family amongst the most distinguished in Hindostan, and of a nation famous through that empire for its valor in acquiring, and its policy and prudence in well governing the territories it had acquired, called the Patans, or Afghans, of which the Rohillas were a branch. The said Ahmed Khân had fixed his residence in the city of Furruckabad, and in the first wars of this nation in India the said Ahmed Khân attached himself to the Company against Sujah Dowlah, then an enemy, now a dependant on that Company. Ahmed Khân, towards the close of his life, was dispossessed of a large part of his dominions by the prevalence of the Mahratta power; but his son, a minor, succeeded to his pretensions, and to the remainder of his dominions. The Mahrattas were expelled by Sujah ul Dowlah, the late Vizier, who, finding a want of the services of the son and successor of Ahmed Khân, called Muzuffer Jung, did not only guaranty him in the possession of what he then actually held, but engaged to restore all the other territories which had been occupied by the Mahrattas; and this was confirmed by repeated treaties and solemn oaths, by the late Vizier and by the present. But neither the late nor the present Vizier fulfilled their engagements, or observed their oaths: the former having withheld what he had stipulated to restore; and the latter not only subjecting him to a tribute, instead of restoring him to what his father had unjustly withheld, but having made a further invasion by depriving him of fifteen of his districts, levying the tribute of the whole on the little that remained, and putting the small remains of his territory under a sequestrator or collector appointed by Almas Ali Khân, who did grievously afflict and oppress the prince and territory aforesaid.
That the hardships of his case being frequently represented to Warren Hastings, Esquire, he did suggest a doubt whether "that little ought to be still subject to tribute," indicating that the said tribute might be hard and inequitable,—but, whatever its justice might have been, that, "from the earliest period of our connection with the present Nabob of Oude, it had invariably continued a part of the funds assigned by his Excellency as a provision for the liquidation of the several public demands of this government [Calcutta] upon him; and in consequence of the powers the board deemed it expedient to vest in the Resident at his court for the collection of the Company's assignments, a sezauwil II. That the said "Warren Hastings did, on the 22d of May, 1780, represent to the board of Calcutta the condition of the said country in the following manner. "To the total want of all order, regularity, or authority in his government [the Furruckabad government], among other obvious causes, it may, no doubt, be owing, that the country of Furruckabad is become an almost entire waste, without cultivation or inhabitants; that the capital, which but a very short time ago was distinguished as one of the most populous and opulent commercial cities in Hindostan, at present exhibits nothing but scenes of the most wretched poverty, desolation, and misery; and the Nabob himself, though in possession of a tract of country which with only common care is notoriously capable of yielding an annual revenue of between thirty and forty lacs [three or four hundred thousand pounds], with no military establishment to maintain, scarcely commanding the means of bare subsistence." And the said Warren Hastings, taking into consideration the said state of the country and its prince, and that the latter had "preferred frequent complaints" (which complaints the said Hastings to that time did not lay before the board, as his duty required) "of the hardships and indignities to which he is subjected by the conduct of the sezauwil [sequestrator] stationed in the country for the purpose of levying the annual tribute which he is bound by treaty to pay to the Subah of Oude," he, the said Warren Hastings, did declare himself "extremely desirous, as well from motives of common justice as due regard to the rank which that chief holds among the princes of Hindostan, of affording him relief." And he, the said Warren Hastings, as the means of the said relief, did, with the consent of the board, order the said native sequestrator to be removed, and an English Resident, a servant of the Company, to be appointed in his room, declaring "he understood a local interference to be indispensably necessary for realizing the Vizier's just demands." III. That the said native sequestrator being withdrawn, and a Resident appointed, no complaint whatever concerning the collection of the revenue, or of any indignities offered to the prince of the country or oppression of his subjects by the said Resident, was made to the Superior Council at Calcutta; yet the said Warren Hastings did, nevertheless, in a certain paper, purporting to be a treaty made at Chunar with the Nabob of Oude, on the 19th September, 1781, at the request of the said Nabob, consent to an article therein, "That no English Resident be appointed to Furruckabad, and that the present be recalled." And the said Warren Hastings, knowing that the Nabob of Oude was ill-affected towards the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and that he was already supposed to have oppressed him, did justify his conduct on the principles and in the words following: "That, if the Nabob Muzuffer Jung must endure oppression, (and I dare not at this time propose his total relief,) it concerns the reputation of our government to remove our participation in it." And the said Warren Hastings making, recording, and acting upon the first of the said false and inhuman suppositions, most scandalous to this nation, namely, that princes paying money wholly for the use of the Company, and directly to its agent, for the maintenance of British troops, by whose force and power the said revenue was in effect collected, must of necessity endure oppression, and that our government at any time dare not propose their total relief, was an high offence and misdemeanor in the said Warren Hastings, and the rather, because in the said treaty, as well as before and after, the said Hastings, who pretended not to dare to relieve those oppressed by the Nabob of Oude, did assume a complete authority over the said Nabob himself, and did dare to oppress him. IV. That the second principle assumed by the said Warren Hastings, as ground for voluntarily abandoning the protection of those whom he had before undertaken to relieve, on the sole strength of his own authority, and in full confidence of the lawful foundation thereof, and for delivering over the persons so taken into protection, under false names and pretended descriptions, to known oppression, asserting that the reputation of the Company was saved by removing this apparent participation, when the new as well as the old arrangements were truly and substantially acts of the British government, was disingenuous, deceitful, and used to cover unjustifiable designs: since the said Warren Hastings well knew that all oppressions exercised by the Nabob of Oude were solely, and in this instance particularly, upheld by British force, and were imputed to this nation; and because he himself, in not more than three days after the execution of this treaty, and in virtue thereof, did direct the British Resident at Oude, in orders to which he required his most implicit obedience, "that the ministers [the Nabob of Oude's ministers] are to choose all aumils and collectors of revenue with your concurrence." And the dishonor to the Company, in thus deceitfully concurring in oppression, which they were able and were bound to prevent, is much aggravated by the said Warren Hastings's receiving from the person to whose oppression he had delivered the said prince, as a private gift or donation to himself and for his own use, a sum of money amounting to one hundred thousand pounds and upwards, which might give just ground of suspicion that the said gift from the oppressor to the person surrendering the person injured to his mercy might have had some share in the said criminal transaction. V. That the said Warren Hastings did (in the paper justifying the said surrender of the prince put by himself under the protection of the East India Company) assert, "that it was a fact, that the Nabob Muzuffer Jung [the Nabob of Furruckabad] is equally urgent with the Nabob Vizier for the removal of a Resident," without producing, as he ought to have done, any document to prove his improbable assertion, namely, his assertion that the oppressed prince did apply to his known enemy and oppressor, the Nabob of Oude, (who, if he would, was not able to relieve him against the will of the English government,) rather than to that English government, which he must have conceived to be more impartial, to which he had made his former complaint, and which was alone able to relieve him. VI. That the said Warren Hastings, in the said writing, did further convey an insinuation of an ambiguous, but, on any construction, of a suspicious and dangerous import, viz.: "It is a fact, that Mr. Shee's [the Resident's] authority over the territory of Furruckabad is in itself as much subversive of that [of the lawful rulers] as that of the Vizier's aumil [collector] ever was, and is the more oppressive as the power from whence it is derived is greater." The said assertion proceeds upon a supposition of the illegality both of the Nabob's and the Company's government; all consideration of the title to authority being, therefore, on that supposition, put out of the question, and the whole turning only upon the exercise of authority, the said Hastings's suggestion, that the oppression of government must be in proportion to its power, is the result of a false and dangerous principle, and such as it is criminal for any person intrusted with the lives and fortunes of men to entertain, much more, publicly to profess as a rule of action, as the same hath a direct tendency to make the new and powerful government of this kingdom in India dreadful to the natives and odious to the world. But if the said Warren Hastings did mean thereby indirectly to insinuate that oppressions had been actually exercised under the British authority, he was bound to inquire into these oppressions, and to animadvert on the person guilty of the same, if proof thereof could be had,—and the more, as the authority was given by himself, and the person exercising it was by himself also named. And the said Warren Hastings did on another occasion assert that "whether they were well or ill-founded he never had an opportunity to ascertain." But it is not true that the said Hastings did or could want such opportunity: the fact being, that the said Warren Hastings did never cause any inquiry to be made into any supposed abuses during the said Residency, but did give a pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year to the said late Resident as a compensation to him for an injury received, and did afterwards promote the Resident, as a faithful servant of the Company, (and nothing appears to show him otherwise,) to a judicial office of high trust,—thereby taking away all credit from any grounds asserted or insinuated by the said Hastings for delivering the said Nabob of Furruckabad to the hand of a known enemy and oppressor, who had already, contrary to repeated treaties, deprived him of a large part of his territories. VII. That, on the said Warren Hastings's representation of the transaction aforesaid to the Court of Directors, they did heavily and justly censure the said Warren Hastings for the same, and did convey their censure to him, recommending relief to the suffering prince, but without any order for sending a new Resident: being, as it may be supposed, prevented from taking that step by the faith of the treaty made at Chunar. VIII. That all the oppressions foreseen by him, the said Warren Hastings, when he made the article aforesaid in the treaty of Chunar, did actually happen: for, immediately on the removal of the British Resident, the country of Furruckabad was subjected to the discretion of a certain native manager of revenue, called Almas Ali Khân, who did impoverish and oppress the country and insult the prince, and did deprive him of all subsistence from his own estates,—taking from him even his gardens and the tombs of his ancestors, and the funds for maintaining the same. IX. That, on complaint of those proceedings, the said Hastings did of his own authority, and without communicating with his Council, direct the native collector aforesaid to be removed, and the territory of Furruckabad to be left to the sole management of its natural prince. But in a short time the said Hastings, pretending to receive many complaints purporting that the tribute to the Nabob remained wholly unpaid, and the agent to the prince of Furruckabad at the Presidency, and afterwards chief manager to the prince aforesaid, having, as the said Warren Hastings saith, "had the insolence to propagate a report that the interference to which his master owed the power he then enjoyed was purchased through him," he, the said Hastings, did again (but, as before, without the Council) "withdraw his protection and interference altogether," on or about the month of August, 1782, and did signify his resolution, through the Resident, Middleton, to the Nabob Vizier. But the said Hastings asserts that "the consequence of this his own second dereliction of the prince of Furruckabad was an aggravated renewal of the severities exercised against his government, and the reappointment of a sezauwil, with powers delegated or assumed, to the utter extinction of the rights of Muzuffer Jung, and actually depriving him of the means of subsistence." And the said Hastings did receive, on the 16th of February, 1783, from the prince aforesaid, a bitter complaint of the same to the following tenor. "The miseries which have fallen upon my country, and the poverty and distress which have been heaped upon me by the reappointment of the sezauwil, are such, that a relation of them would, I am convinced, excite the strongest feelings of compassion in your breast. But it is impossible to relate them: on one side, my country ruined and uncultivated to a degree of desolation which exceeds all description; on the other, my domestic concerns and connections involved in such a state of distress and horror, that even the relations, the children, and the wives of my father are starving in want of daily bread, and are on the point of flying voluntary exiles from their country and from each other." But although the said Hastings did, on the 16th of February, receive and admit the justice of the said complaint, and did not deny the urgent necessity of redress, the said letter containing the following sentence, "If there should be any delay in your acceptance of this proposal, my existence and the existence of my family will become difficult and doubtful,"—and although he did admit the interference to be the more urgently demanded, "as the services of the English troops have been added to enforce the authority of the sezauwil,"—and although he admits also, that, even before that time, similar complaints and applications had been made,—yet he did withhold the said letter of complaint, a minute of which he asserts he had, at or about that time, prepared for the relief of the sufferer, from the Board of Council, and did not so much as propose anything relative to the same for seven months after, viz., until the 6th of October, 1783: the said letter and minute being, as he asserts, "withheld, from causes not necessary to mention, from presentation." By which means the said country and prince did suffer a long continuance of unnecessary hardship, from which the said Hastings confessed it was his duty to relieve them, and that a British Resident was necessary at Furruckabad, "from a sense of submission to the implied orders of the Court of Directors in their letter of 1783, lately received, added to the conviction I have LONG SINCE entertained of the necessity of such an appointment for the preservation of our national credit, and the means of rescuing an ancient and respectable family from ruin." And the said Warren Hastings did at length perform what he thought had long since been necessary; and in contradiction to his engagements with the Nabob in the treaty of Chunar, and against his strong remonstrances, urging his humiliation from this measure, and the faith of the agreement, and against his own former declaration that it concerned the reputation of our government to remove our participation in the oppressions which he, the said Hastings, supposed the prince of Furruckabad must undergo, did once more recommend to the Council a British Resident at Furruckabad, and the withdrawing the native sezauwil: no course being left to the said Hastings to take which was not a violation of some engagement, and a contradiction to some principle of justice and policy by him deliberately advanced and entered on record. That Mr. Willes being appointed Resident, and having arrived at Furruckabad on the 25th of February, 1784, with instructions to inquire minutely into the state of the country and the ruling family, he, the said Resident, Willes, in obedience thereto, did fully explain to him, the Governor-General, the said Warren Hastings, (he being then out of the Company's provinces, at Lucknow, on a delegation which respected this very country, as part of the dependencies of Oude,) the situation of the province of Furruckabad; but the said Warren Hastings did not take or recommend any measure whatsoever for the relief thereof in consequence of the said representation, nor even communicate to the Council-General the said representation; and it was not until the 28th of June, 1783 [1785?], that is, sixteen months from the arrival of the Resident at his station, that anything was laid before the board relative to the regulation or relief of the distressed country aforesaid, and that not from the said Warren Hastings, but from other members of the Council: which purposed neglect of duty, joined to the preceding wilful delay of seven months in proposing the said relief originally, caused near two years' delay. And the said Warren Hastings is further culpable in not communicating to the Council Board the order which he had, of his own authority, and without any powers from them, given to the said Resident, Willes, and did thereby prevent them from taking such steps as might counteract the ill effects of the said order; which order purported, that the said Willes was not to interfere with the Nabob of Furruckabad's government, for the regulation of which he was in effect appointed to the Residency,—declaring as follows: "I rely much on your moderation and good judgment, which I hope will enable you to regulate your conduct towards the Nabob and his servants in such a manner, that, without interfering in the executive part of his government, you may render him essential service by your council and advice." And this restriction the said Hastings did impose, which totally frustrated the purpose of the Resident's mission, though he well knew, and had frequently stated, the extreme imbecility and weakness of the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and his subjection to unworthy servants; and in the Minute of Consultation upon which he founded the appointment did state the Nabob of Furruckabad "as a weak and unexperienced young man, who had abandoned himself entirely to the discretion of his servants, and the restoration of his independence was followed by a total breach of the engagements he had promised to fulfil, attended by pointed instances of contumacy and disrespect"; and in the said minute the said Hastings adds, (as before mentioned,) his principal servant and manager had propagated a report that the "interference" (namely, his, the said Hastings's, interference) "to which his master owed the power he then enjoyed was purchased by him," the principal servant aforesaid: yet he, the said Hastings, who had assigned on record the character of the said Nabob, and the conduct of his servants, and the aforesaid report of his principal servant, so highly dishonorable to him, the said Hastings, as reasons for taking away the independency of the Nabob of Furruckabad, and the subjecting him to the oppression of the Nabob of Oude's officer, Almas Ali, did again himself establish the pretended independence of the said prince of Furruckabad, and the real independence of his corrupt and perfidious servants, not against the Nabob of Oude, but against a British Resident appointed by himself ("as a character eminently qualified for such a charge") for the correction of those evils, and for rendering the prince aforesaid an useful ally to the Company, and restoring his dominions to order and plenty. That the said Hastings did not only disable the Resident at Furruckabad by his said prohibitory letter, but did render his very remaining at all in that station perfectly precarious by a subsequent letter, rendering him liable to dismission by the Vizier,—thereby changing the tenure of the Resident's office, and changing him from a minister of the Company, dependent on the Governor-General and Council, to a dependant upon an unresponsible power,—in this also acting without the Council, and by his own usurped authority: and accordingly the said Resident did declare, in his letter of the 24th of April, 1785, "that the situation of the country was more distressful than when he [the prince of Furruckabad] addressed himself for relief in 1783, and that he was sorry to say that his appointment at Furruckabad was of no use"; that, though the old tribute could not be paid, owing to famine and other causes, it was increased by a new imposition, making the whole equal the entire gross produce of the revenue; that therefore there will not be "anything for the subsistence of the Nabob and family." And the uncles of the said Nabob of Furruckabad, the brethren of the late Ahmed Khân, (who had rendered important services to the Company,) and their children, in a petition to the Resident, represented that soon after the succession of Muzuffer Jung "their misery commenced. The jaghires [lands and estates] on which they subsisted were disallowed. Our distress is great: we have neither clothes nor food. Though we felt hurt at the idea of explaining our situation, yet, could we have found a mode of conveyance, we would have proceeded to Calcutta for redress. The scarcity of grain this season is an additional misfortune. With difficulty we support life. From your presence without the provinces we expect relief. It is not the custom of the Company to deprive the zemindars and jaghiredars of the means of subsistence. To your justice we look up." This being the situation of the person and family of the Nabob of Furruckabad and his nearest relations, the state of the country and its capital, prevented from all relief by the said Warren Hastings, is described in the following words by the Resident, Willes. "Almas Ali has taken the purgunnah of Marara at a very inadequate rent, and his aumils have seized many adjacent villages: the purgunnahs of Cocutmow and Souje are constantly plundered by his people. The collection of the ghauts near Futtyghur has been seized by the Vizier's cutwal, and the zemindars in four purgunnahs are so refractory as to have fortified themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments of revenue. This is the state of the purgunnahs. And Furruckabad, which was once the seat of great opulence and trade, is now daily deserted by its inhabitants, its walls mouldering away, without police, without protection, exposed to the depredations of a banditti of two or three hundred robbers, who, night after night, enter it for plunder, murdering all who oppose them. The ruin that has overtaken this country is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that there has been no state, no stable government, for many years. There has been the Nabob Vizier's authority, his ministers', the Residents' at Lucknow, the sezauwils', the camp authority, the Nabob Muzuffer Jung's, and that of twenty duans or advisers: no authority sufficiently predominant to establish any regulations for the benefit of the country, whilst each authority has been exerted, as opportunity offered, for temporary purposes. "Such being the present deplorable state of Furruckabad and its districts, in the ensuing year it will be in vain to look for revenue, if some regulations equal to the exigency be not adopted. The whole country will be divided between the neighboring powerful aumils, the refractory zemindars, and banditti of robbers; and the Patans, who might be made useful subjects, will fly from the scene of anarchy. The crisis appears now come, that either some plan of government should be resolved on, so as to form faithful subjects on the frontier, or the country be given up to its fate: and if it be abandoned, there can be little doubt but that the Mahrattas will gladly seize on a station so favorable to incursions into the Vizier's dominions, will attach to their interests the Hindoo zemindars, and possess themselves of forts, which, with little expense being made formidable, would give employment perhaps to the whole of our force, should it be ever necessary to recover them." That the Council at Calcutta, on the representation aforesaid made by the Resident at Furruckabad, did propose and record a plan for the better government of the said country, but did delay the execution of the same until the arrangements made by the said Hastings with the Nabob Vizier should be known; but the said Hastings, as far as in him lay, did entirely set aside any plan that could be formed for that purpose upon the basis of a British Resident at Furruckabad, by engaging with the said Nabob Vizier that no British influence shall be employed within his dominions, and he has engaged to that prince not to abandon him to any other mode of relation; and he has informed the Court of Directors that the territories of the Nabob of Oude will be ruined, if Residents are sent into them, observing, that "Residents never will be sent for any other purposes than those of vengeance and corruption." That the said Warren Hastings did declare to the Court of Directors, that in his opinion the mode of relief most effectual, and most lenient with regard to Furruckabad, would be to nominate one of the family of the prince to superintend his affairs and to secure the payments; but this plan, which appears to be most connected with the rights of the ruling family, whilst it provides against the imbecility of the natural lord, and is free from his objection to a Resident, is the only one which the said Hastings never has executed, or even proposed to execute. That the said Hastings, by the agreements aforesaid, has left the Company in such an alternative, that they can neither relieve the said prince of Furruckabad from oppression without a breach of the engagements entered into by him, the said Hastings, with the Nabob Vizier in the name of the Company, nor suffer him to remain under the said oppression without violating all faith and all the rules of justice with regard to him. And the said Hastings hath directly made or authorized no less than six revolutions in less than five years in the aforesaid harassed province; by which frequent and rapid changes of government, all of them made in contradiction to all his own declared motives and reasons for the several acts successively done and undone in this transaction, the distresses of the country and the disorders in its administration have been highly aggravated; and in the said irregular proceedings, and in the gross and complicated violations of faith with all parties, the said Hastings is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. I. That the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah ul Dowlah, did (on what reasons of policy or pretences of justice is unknown) dispossess a certain native person of distinction, or eminent Rajah, residing in the country of Sahlone, "the lineal descendant of the most powerful Hindoo family in that part of Hindostan," of his patrimonial estate, and conferred the same, or part of the same, on his, the Nabob's, mother, as a jaghire, or estate, for the term of her life: and the mother of the Nabob, in order to quiet the country, and to satisfy in some measure the principal and other inhabitants, did allow and pay a certain pension to the said Rajah; which pension, on the general confiscation of jaghires, made at the instigation of the said Warren Hastings, and by the letting the lands so confiscated to farmers at rack-rents, was discontinued and refused to be paid; and the discontinuance of the said pension, "on account of the personal respect borne to the Rajah, (as connections with him are sought for, and thought to confer honor,)" did cause an universal discontent and violent commotions in the district of Sahlone, and other parts of the province of Oude, with great consequent effusion of blood, and interruption, if not total discontinuance, to the collection of the revenues in those parts, other than as the same was irregularly, and with great damage to the country, enforced by British troops. II. That Mr. Lumsdaine, the officer employed to reduce those disordered parts of the province to submission, after several advantages gained over the Rajah and his adherents, and expelling him from the country, did represent the utter impossibility of bringing it to a permanent settlement "merely by forcible methods; as in any of his [the Rajah's] incursions it would not be necessary to bring even a force with him, as the zemindars [landed proprietors and freeholders] are much attached to the Rajah, whom they consider as their hereditary prince, and never fail to assist him, and that his rebellion against government is not looked on as a crime": and Mr. Lumsdaine declared it "as his clear opinion, that the allowing the said Rajah a pension suitable to his rank and influence in the country would be the most certain mode of obtaining a permanent peace,"—alleging, among other cogent reasons, "that the expense of the force necessary to be employed to subdue the country might be spared, and employed elsewhere, and that the people would return to their villages with their cattle and effects, and of course government have some security for the revenue, whereas at present they have none." And the representation containing that prudent and temperate counsel, given by a military man of undoubted information and perfect experience in the local circumstances of the country, was transmitted by the Resident, Bristow, to the said Warren Hastings, who did wilfully and criminally omit to order any relief to the said Rajah in conformity to the general sense and wishes of the inhabitants, a compliance with whose so reasonable an expectation his duty in restoring the tranquillity of the country and in retrieving the honor of the English government did absolutely require; but instead of making such provision, a price was set upon his head, and several bodies of British troops being employed to pursue him, after many skirmishes and much bloodshed and mutual waste of the country, the said Rajah, honored and respected by the natives, was hunted down, and at length killed in a thicket.VI.—DESTRUCTION OF THE RAJAH OF SAHLONE.