Now that I have done with this part of the system of bribery, your Lordships will permit me to follow Mr. Hastings to his last parting scene. He parted with his power, he parted with his situation, he parted with everything, but he never could part with Gunga Govind Sing. He was on his voyage, he had embarked, he was upon the Ganges, he had quitted his government; and his last dying sigh, his last parting voice, was "Gunga Govind Sing!" It ran upon the banks of the Ganges, as another plaintive voice ran upon the banks of another river (I forget whose); his last accents were, "Gunga, Gunga Govind Sing!" It demonstrates the power of friendship.
It is said by some idle, absurd moralists, that friendship is a thing that cannot subsist between bad men; but I will show your Lordships the direct contrary; and, after having shown you what Gunga Govind Sing was, I shall bring before you Mr. Hastings's last act of friendship for him. Not that I have quite shown you everything, but pretty well, I think, respecting this man. There is a great deal concerning his character and conduct that is laid by, and I do believe, that, whatever time I should take up in expatiating upon these things, there would be "in the lowest deep still a lower deep"; for there is not a day of the inquiry that does not bring to light more and more of this evil against Mr. Hastings.
But before I open the papers relative to this act of Mr. Hastings's friendship for Gunga Govind Sing, I must re-state some circumstances, that your Lordships may understand thoroughly the nature of it. Your Lordships may recollect, that, about the time of the succession of the minor Rajah of Dinagepore, who was then but five or six years of age, and when Mr. Hastings left Bengal eight or nine, Mr. Hastings had received from that country a bribe of about 40,000l. There is a fidelity even in bribery; there is a truth and observance even in corruption; there is a justice, that, if money is to be paid for protection, protection should be given. My Lords, Mr. Hastings received this bribe through Gunga Govind Sing; then, at least, through Gunga Govind Sing he ought to take care that that Rajah should not be robbed,—that he should not be robbed, if Gunga Govind Sing could help it,—that, above all, he should not be robbed by Gunga Govind Sing himself. But your Lordships will find that the last act of Mr. Hastings's life was to be an accomplice in the most cruel and perfidious breach of faith, in the most iniquitous transaction, that I do believe ever was held out to the indignation of the world with regard to private persons. When he departed, on the 16th of February, 1785, when he was on board, in the mouth of the Ganges, and preparing to visit his native country, let us see what the last act of his life then was. Hear the last tender accents of the dying swan upon the Ganges.
"The regret which I cannot but feel in relinquishing the service of my honorable employers would be much embittered, were it accompanied by the reflection that I have neglected the merits of a man who deserves no less of them than of myself, Gunga Govind Sing, who from his earliest youth had been employed in the collection of the revenues, and was about eleven years ago selected for his superior talents to fill the office of dewan to the Calcutta Committee. He has from that time, with a short intermission, been the principal native agent in the collection of the Company's revenues; and I can take upon myself to say that he has performed the duties of his office with fidelity, diligence, and ability. To myself he has given proofs of a constancy and attachment which neither the fears nor expectations excited by the prevalence of a different influence could shake,—and at a time, too, when these qualities were so dangerous, that, far from finding them amongst the generality of his countrymen, I did not invariably meet with them amongst my own. With such a sense of his merits, it is natural that I should feel a desire of rewarding him,—for justice, gratitude, generosity, and even policy, demand it; and I resort to the board for the means of performing so necessary a duty, in full confidence, that, as those which I shall point out are neither incompatible with the Company's interest nor prejudicial to the rights of others, they will not be withheld from me. At the request, therefore, of Gunga Govind Sing, I deliver the accompanying durkhausts, or petitions, for grants of lands lying in different districts, the total jumma, or rent, of which amount to Rupees 2,38,061. 12. 1."
Your Lordships recollect that Mr. Larkins was one of the bribe-agents of Mr. Hastings,—one, I mean, of a corporation, but not corporate in their acts. My Lords, Mr. Larkins has told you, he has told us, and he has told the Court of Directors, that Mr. Hastings parted in a quarrel with Gunga Govind Sing, because he had not faithfully kept his engagement with regard to his bribe, and that, instead of 40,000l. from Dinagepore, he had only paid him 30,000l. My Lords, that iniquitous men will defraud one another I can conceive; but you will perceive by Mr. Hastings's behavior at parting, that he either had in fact received this money from Gunga Govind Sing, or in some way or other had abundant reason to be satisfied,—that he totally forgot his anger upon this occasion, and that at parting his last act was to ratify grants of lands (so described by Mr. Hastings) to Gunga Govind Sing. Your Lordships will recollect the tender and forgiving temper of Mr. Hastings. Whatever little bickerings there might have been between them about their small money concerns, the purifying waters of the Ganges had washed away all sins, enmities, and discontent. By some of those arts which Gunga Govind Sing knows how to practise, (I mean conciliatory, honest arts,) he had fairly wiped away all resentment out of Mr. Hastings's mind; and he, who so long remembered the affront offered him by Cheyt Sing, totally forgets Gunga Govind Sing's fraud of 10,000l., and attempts to make others the instruments of giving him what he calls his reward.
Mr. Hastings states, among Gunga Govind's merits, that he had, from the time of its institution, and with a very short intermission, served the office of dewan to the Calcutta Committee. That short intermission was when he was turned out of office upon proof of peculation and embezzlement of public money; but of this cause of the intermission in the political life and political merits of Gunga Govind Sing Mr. Hastings does not tell you.
Your Lordships shall now hear what opinion a member of the Provincial Council at Calcutta, in which he had also served, had of him.
"Who is Gunga Govind Sing?" The answer is, "He was, when I left Bengal, dewan to the Committee of Revenue.—What was his office and power during Mr. Hastings's administration since 1780?—He was formerly dewan to the Provincial Council stationed at Calcutta, of which I was a member. His conduct then was licentious and unwarrantable, oppressive and extortionary. He was stationed under us to be an humble and submissive servant, and to be of use to us in the discharge of our duty. His conduct was everything the reverse. We endeavored to correct the mischiefs he was guilty of as much as possible. In one attempt to release fifteen persons illegally confined by him, we were dismissed our offices: a different pretence was held out for our dismission, but it was only a pretence. Since his appointment as dewan to the present Committee of Revenue, his line of conduct has only been a continuance of what I have described, but upon a larger scale.—What was the general opinion of the natives of the use he made of his power? He was looked up to by the natives as the second person in the government, if not the first. He was considered as the only channel for obtaining favor and employment from the Governor. There is hardly a native family of rank or credit within the three provinces whom he has not some time or other distressed and afflicted; scarce a zemindary that he has not dismembered and plundered.—Were you in a situation to know this to be true?—I certainly was.—What was the general opinion, and your own, concerning his wealth?—It is almost impossible to form a competent judgment, his means of acquiring it have been so extensive. I had an account shown to me, about July, 1785, stating his acquisitions at three hundred and twenty lacs of rupees,—that is, 3,200,000l."
My Lords, I have only to add, that, from the best inquiries I have been able to make, those who speak highest of his wealth are those who obtain the greatest credit. The estimate of any man's wealth is uncertain; but the enormity of his wealth is universally believed. Yet Mr. Hastings seemed to act as if he needed a reward; and it is therefore necessary to inquire what recommended him particularly to Mr. Hastings. Your Lordships have seen that he was on the point of being dismissed for misbehavior and oppression by that Calcutta Committee his services to which Mr. Hastings gives as one proof of his constant and uniform good behavior. "He had executed," he says, "the duties of his office with fidelity, diligence, and ability." These are his public merits; but he has private merits. "To myself," says he, "he has given proofs of constancy and attachment."
Now we, who have been used to look very diligently over the Company's records, and to compare one part with another, ask what those services were, which have so strongly recommended him to Mr. Hastings, and induced him to speak so favorably of his public services. What those services are does not appear; we have searched the records for them, (and those records are very busy and loquacious,) about that period of time during which Mr. Hastings was laboring under an eclipse, and near the dragon's mouth, and all the drums of Bengal beating to free him from this dangerous eclipse. During this time there is nothing publicly done, there is nothing publicly said, by Gunga Govind Sing. There were, then, some services of Gunga Govind Sing that lie undiscovered, which he takes as proofs of attachment. What could they be? They were not public; nobody knows anything of them; they must, by reference to the time, as far as we can judge of them, be services of concealment: otherwise, in the course of this business, it will be necessary, and Mr. Hastings will find occasion, to show what those personal services of Gunga Govind Sing to him were. His services to Gunga Govind Sing were pretty conspicuous: for, after he was turned out for peculation, Mr. Hastings restored him to his office; and when he had imprisoned fifteen persons illegally and oppressively, and when the Council were about to set them at liberty, they were set at liberty themselves, they were dismissed their offices. Your Lordships see, then, what his public services were. His private services are unknown: they must be, as we conceive from their being unknown, of a suspicious nature; and I do not go further than suspicion, because I never heard, and I have not been without attempts to make the discovery, what those services were that recommended him to Mr. Hastings.