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.