The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke Volume X Part 11

Hastings wishes to appeal to a court of justice, rather than to give satisfaction to his employers,) "though supported by the cries of the people and the most authentic representations, it is yet impossible in most cases to obtain legal proofs of it; and unless the discretionary power which I have recommended be somewhere lodged, the a.s.surance of impunity from any formal inquiry will baffle every order of the board, as, on the other hand, the fear of the consequence will restrain every man within the bounds of his duty, if he knows himself liable to suffer by the effects of a single control." You see Mr. Hastings himself is of opinion that the cries of oppression, though extorted from a whole people by the iron hand of severity,--that these cries of a whole people, attended even with authentic doc.u.ments sufficient to satisfy the mind of any man, may be totally insufficient to convict the oppressor in a court; and yet to that court, whose competence he denies, to that very court, he appeals, in that he puts his trust, and upon that ground he refuses to perform the just promise he had given of any explanation to those who had employed him.

Now I put this to your Lordships: if a man is of opinion that no public court can truly and properly bring him to any account for his conduct, that the forms observable in courts are totally adverse to it, that there is a general incompetency with regard to such a court, and yet shuns a tribunal capable and competent, and applies to that which he thinks is incapable and incompetent, does not that man plainly show that he has rejected what he thinks will prove his guilt, and that he has chosen what he thinks will be utterly insufficient to prove it? And if this be the case, as he a.s.serts it to be, with an under servant, think what must be the case of the upper servant of all: for, if an inferior servant is not to be brought to justice, what must be the situation of a Governor-General? It is impossible not to see, that, as he had conceived that a court of justice had not sufficient means to bring his crimes to light and detection, nor sufficient to bring him to proper and adequate punishment, therefore he flew to a court of justice, not as a place to decide upon him, but as a sanctuary to secure his guilt. Most of your Lordships have travelled abroad, and have seen in the unreformed countries of Europe churches filled with persons who take sanctuary in them. You do not presume that a man is innocent because he is in a sanctuary: you know, that, so far from demonstrating his innocence, it demonstrates his guilt. And in this case, Mr. Hastings flies not to a court for trial, but as a sanctuary to secure him from it.

Let us just review the whole of his conduct; let us hear how Mr.

Hastings has proceeded with regard to this whole affair. The court of justice dropped; the prosecution in Bengal ended. With Sir Elijah Impey as chief-justice, who, as your Lordships have seen, had a most close and honorable connection with the Governor-General, (all the circ.u.mstances of which I need not detail to you, as it must be fresh in your Lordships' memory,) he had not much to fear from the impartiality of the court. He might be sure the forms of law would not be strained to do him mischief; therefore there was no great terror in it. But whatever terror there might be in it was overblown, because his colleagues refused to carry him into it, and therefore that opportunity of defence is gone. In Europe he was afraid of making any defence, but the prosecution here was also soon over; and in the House of Commons he takes this ground of justification for not giving any explanation, that the Court of Directors had received perfect satisfaction of his innocence; and he named persons of great and eminent character in the profession, whose names certainly cannot be mentioned without highly imposing upon the prejudices and weighing down almost the reason of mankind. He quotes their opinions in his favor, and argues that the exculpation which they give, or are supposed to give him, should excuse him from any further explanation.

My Lords, I believe I need not say to great men of the profession, many of the first ornaments of which I see before me, that they are very little influenced in the seat of judgment by the opinions which they have given in the chamber, and they are perfectly in the right: because while in the chamber they hear but one part of the cause; it is generally brought before them in a very partial manner, and they have not the lights which they possess when they sit deliberately down upon the tribunal to examine into it; and for this reason they discharge their minds from every prejudice that may have arisen from a foregone partial opinion, and come uninfluenced by it as to a new cause. This, we know, is the glory of the great lawyers who have presided and do preside in the tribunals of this country; but we know, at the same time, that those opinions (which they in their own mind reject, unless supported afterwards by clear and authentic testimony) do weigh upon the rest of mankind at least: for it is impossible to separate the opinion of a great and learned man from some consideration of the person who has delivered that opinion.

Mr. Hastings, being conscious of this, and not fearing the tribunal abroad for the reason that I gave you, namely, his belief that it was not very adverse to him, and also knowing that the prosecution there was dropped, had but one thing left for his consideration, which was, how he should conflict with the tribunal at home: and as the prosecution must originate from the Court of Directors, and be authorized by some great law opinions, the great point with him was, some way or other, by his party, I will not say by what means or circ.u.mstances, but by some party means, to secure a strong interest in the executive part of the India House. My Lords, was that interest used properly and fairly? I will not say that friendship and partiality imply injustice; they certainly do not; but they do not imply justice. The Court of Directors took up this affair with great warmth; they committed it to their solicitor, and the solicitor would naturally (as most solicitors do) draw up a case a little favorably for the persons that employed him; and if there was any leaning, which upon my word I do not approve in the management of any cause whatever, yet, if there was a leaning, it must be a leaning for the client.

Now the counsel did not give a decided opinion against the prosecution, but upon the face of the case they expressed great doubts upon it; for, with such a strange, disorderly, imperfect, and confused case as was laid before them, they could not advise a prosecution; and in my opinion they went no further. And, indeed, upon that case that went before them, I, who am authorized by the Commons to prosecute, do admit that a great doubt might lie upon the most deciding mind, whether, under the circ.u.mstances there stated, a prosecution could be or ought to be pursued. I do not say which way my mind would have turned, upon that very imperfect state of the case; but I still allow so much to their very great ability, great minds, and sound judgment, that I am not sure, if it was _res integra_, I would not have rather hesitated myself (who am now here an accuser) what judgment to give.

It does happen that there are very singular circ.u.mstances in this business, to which your Lordships will advert; and you will consider what weight they ought to have upon your Lordships' minds. The person who is now the solicitor of the Company is a very respectable man in the profession,--Mr. Smith; he was at that time also the Company's solicitor, and he has since appeared in this cause as Mr. Hastings's solicitor. Now there is something particular in a man's being the solicitor to a party who was prosecuting another, and continuing afterwards in his office, and becoming the solicitor to the party prosecuted. It would be nearly as strange as if our solicitor were to be the solicitor of Mr. Hastings in this prosecution and trial before your Lordships. It is true, that we cannot make out, nor do we attempt to prove, that Mr. Smith was at that time actually Mr. Hastings's solicitor: all that we shall attempt to make out is, that the case he produced was just such a case as a solicitor anxious for the preservation of his client, and not anxious for the prosecution, would have made out.

My Lords, I have next to remark, that the opinion which the counsel gave in this case, namely, a very doubtful opinion, accompanied with strong censure of the manner in which the case was stated, was drawn from them by a case in which I charge that there were _misrepresentation_, _suppression_, and _falsification_.

Now, my Lords, in making this charge I am in a very awkward and unpleasant situation; but it is a situation in which, with all the disagreeable circ.u.mstances attending it, I must proceed. I am, in this business, obliged to name many men: I do not name them wantonly, but from the absolute necessity, as your Lordships will see, of the case. I do not mean to reflect upon this gentleman: I believe, at the time when he made this case, and especially the article which I state as a _falsification_, he must have trusted to some of the servants of the Company, who were but young in their service at that time. There was a very great error committed; but by whom, or how, your Lordships in the course of this inquiry will find. What I charge first is, that the case was improperly stated; secondly, that it was partially stated; and that afterwards a further report was made upon reference to the same officer in the committee. Now, my Lords, of the three charges which I have made, the two former, namely, the misrepresentation and suppression, were applicable to the case; but all the three, misrepresentation, suppression, and falsification, were applicable to the report.

This I say in vindication of the opinions given, and for the satisfaction of the public, who may be imposed upon by them. I wish the word to be understood. When I say _imposed_, I always mean by it the weight and authority carried: a meaning which this word, perhaps, has not got yet thoroughly in the English language; but in a neighboring language _imposing_ means, that it weighs upon men's minds with a sovereign authority. To say that the opinions of learned men, though even thus obtained, may not have weight with this court, or with any court, is a kind of compliment I cannot pay to them at the expense of that common nature in which I and all human beings are involved.

He states in the case the covenants and the salary of Mr. Hastings, and his emoluments, very fairly. I do not object to any part of that. He then proceeds to state very partially the business upon which the Committee of Circuit went, and without opening whose conduct we cannot fully bring before you this charge of bribery. He then states, "that, an inquiry having been made by the present Supreme Council of Bengal respecting the conduct of the members of the last administration, several charges have been made, stating moneys very improperly received by Mr. Hastings during the time of the late administration: amongst these is one of his having received 150,000 rupees of Munny Begum, the guardian of the Nabob, who is an infant."

In this statement of the case everything is put out of its true place.

Mr. Hastings was not charged with receiving a lac and a half of rupees from Munny Begum, the guardian of the Nabob,--for she was not then his guardian; but he was charged with receiving a lac and a half of rupees for removing the Nabob's own mother, who was his natural guardian, and subst.i.tuting this step-mother, who was a prost.i.tute, in her place; whereas here it supposes he found her a guardian, and that she had made him a present, which alters the whole nature of the case. The case, in the recital of the charge, sets out with what every one of your Lordships knows now not to be the truth of the fact, nor the thing that in itself implies the criminality: he ought to have stated that in the beginning of the business. The suppressions in the recital are amazing.

He states an inquiry having been made by the Supreme Council of Bengal respecting the conduct of the members of the last administration. That inquiry was made in consequence of the charge, and not the charge brought forward, as they would have it believed, in consequence of the inquiry. There is no mention that that inquiry had been expressly ordered by the Court of Directors; but it is stated as though it was a voluntary inquiry. Now there is always something doubtful in voluntary inquiries with regard to the people concerned. He then supposes, upon this inquiry, that to be the charge which is not the charge at all. The crime, as I have stated, consisted of two distinct parts, but both inferring the same corruption: the first, two lac of rupees taken expressly for the nomination of this woman to this place; and the other, one lac and a half of rupees, in effect for the same purpose, but under the name and color of an entertainment. The drawer of the case, finding that in the one case, namely, the two lac of rupees, the evidence was more weak, but that no justification could be set up,--finding in the other, the lac and a half of rupees, the proof strong and not to be resisted, but that some justification was to be found for it, lays aside the charge of the two lac totally; and the evidence belonging to it, which was considered as rather weak, is applied to the other charge of a lac and a half, the proof of which upon its own evidence was irresistible.

My speech I hope your Lordships consider as only pointing out to your attention these particulars. Your Lordships will see it exemplified throughout the whole, that, when there is evidence (for some evidence is brought) that does belong to the lac and a half, it is entirely pa.s.sed by, the most material circ.u.mstances are weakened, the whole strength and force of them taken away. Every one knows how true it is of evidence, _juncta juvant_: but here everything is broken and smashed to pieces, and nothing but disorder appears through the whole. For your Lordships will observe that the proof that belongs to one thing is put as belonging to another, and the proof of the other brought in a weak and imperfect manner in the rear of the first, and with every kind of observation to rebut and weaken it; and when this evidence is produced, which appears inapplicable almost in all the parts, in many doubtful, confused, and perplexed, and in some even contradictory, (which it will be when the evidence to one thing is brought to apply and bear upon another,) good hopes were entertained in consequence that that would happen which in part did happen, namely, that the counsel, distracted and confused, and finding no satisfaction in the case, could not advise a prosecution.

But what is still more material and weighty, many particulars are suppressed in this case, and still more in the report; and turning from the case to the proceedings of the persons who are supposed to have the management of the inquiry, they bring forward, as an appendix to this case, Mr. Hastings's own invectives and charge against these persons, at the very same time that they suppress and do not bring forward, either in the charge or upon the report, what the other party have said in their own justification. The consequence of this management was, that a body of evidence which would have made this case the clearest in the world, and which I hope we shall make to appear so to your Lordships, was rendered for the most part inapplicable, and the whole puzzled and confused: I say, for the most part, for some parts did apply, but miserably applied, to the case. From their own state of the case they would have it inferred that the fault was not in their way of representing it, but in the infirmity, confusion, and disorder of the proofs themselves; but this, I trust we shall satisfy you, is by no means the case. I rest, however, upon the proof of partiality in this business, of the imposition upon the counsel, whether designed or not, and of the bias given by adding an appendix with Mr. Hastings's own remarks upon the case, without giving the reasons of the other parties for their conduct. Now, if there was nothing else than the fallacious recital, and afterwards the suppression, I believe any rational and sober man would see perfect, good, and sufficient ground for laying aside any authority that can be derived from the opinions of persons, though of the first character (and I am sure no man living does more homage to their learning, impartiality, and understanding than I do): first, because the statement of the case has thrown the whole into confusion; and secondly, as to the matter added as an appendix, which gives the representation of the delinquent and omits the representation of his prosecutors, it is observed very properly and very wisely by one of the great men before whom this evidence was laid, that "the evidence, as it is here stated, is still more defective, if the appendix is adopted by the Directors and meant to make a part of the case; for that throws discredit upon all the information so collected." Certainly it does; for, if the delinquent party, who is to be prosecuted, be heard with his own representation of the case, and that of his prosecutors be suppressed, he is master both of the lawyers and of the mind of mankind.

My Lords, I have here attempted to point out the extreme inconsistencies and defects of this proceeding; and I wish your Lordships to consider, with respect to these proceedings of the India House in their prosecutions, that it is in the power of some of their officers to make statements in the manner that I have described, then to obtain the names of great lawyers, and under their sanction to carry the accused through the world as acquitted.

These are the material circ.u.mstances which will be submitted to your Lordships' sober consideration in the course of this inquiry. I have now stated them on these two accounts: first, to rebut the reason which Mr.

Hastings has a.s.signed for not giving any satisfaction to the Court of Directors, namely, because they did not want it, having dropped a prosecution upon great authorities and opinions; and next, to show your Lordships how a business begun in bribery is to be supported only by fraud, deceit, and collusion, and how the receiving of bribes by a Governor-General of Bengal tends to taint the whole service from beginning to end, both at home and abroad.

But though upon the partial case that was presented to them these great lawyers did not advise a prosecution, and though even upon a full representation of a case a lawyer might think that a man ought not to be prosecuted, yet he may consider him to be the vilest man upon earth. We know men are acquitted in the great tribunals in which several Lords of this country have presided, and who perhaps ought not to have been brought there and prosecuted before them, and yet about whose delinquency there could be no doubt. But though we have here sufficient reason to justify the great lawyers whose names and authorities are produced, yet Mr. Hastings has extended that authority beyond the length of their opinions. For, being no longer under the terror of the law, which, he said, restrained him from making his defence, he was then bound to give that satisfaction to his masters and the world which every man in honor is bound to do, when a grave accusation is brought against him. But this business of the law I wish to sleep from this moment, till the time when it shall come before you; though I suspect, and have had reason (sitting in committees in the House of Commons) to believe, that there was in the India House a bond of iniquity, somewhere or other, which was able to impose in the first instance upon the solicitor, the guilt of which, being of another nature, I shall state hereafter, that your Lordships may be able to discover through whose means and whose fraud Mr. Hastings obtained these opinions.

If, however, all the great lawyers had been unanimous upon that occasion, still it would have been necessary for Mr. Hastings to say, "I cannot, according to my opinion, be brought to give an account in a court of justice, and I have got great lawyers to declare, that, upon the case laid before them, they cannot advise a prosecution; but now is the time for me to come forward, and, being no longer in fear that my defence may be turned against me, I will produce my defence for the satisfaction of my masters and the vindication of my own character." But besides this doubtful opinion (for I believe your Lordships will find it no better than a doubtful opinion) given by persons for whom I have the highest honor, and given with a strong censure upon the state of the case, there were also some great lawyers, men of great authority in the kingdom, who gave a full and decided opinion that a prosecution ought to be inst.i.tuted against him; but the Court of Directors decided otherwise, they overruled those opinions, and acted upon the opinions in favor of Mr. Hastings. When, therefore, he knew that the great men in the law were divided upon the propriety of a prosecution, but that the Directors had decided in his favor, he was the more strongly bound to enter into a justification of his conduct.

But there was another great reason which should have induced him to do this. One great lawyer, known to many of your Lordships, Mr. Sayer, a very honest, intelligent man, who had long served the Company and well knew their affairs, had given an opinion concerning Mr. Hastings's conduct in stopping these prosecutions. There was an abstract question put to Mr. Sayer, and other great lawyers, separated from many of the circ.u.mstances of this business, concerning a point which incidentally arose; and this was, whether Mr. Hastings, as Governor-General, had a power so to dissolve the Council, that, if he declared it dissolved, they could not sit and do any legal and regular act. It was a great question with the lawyers at the time, and there was a difference of opinion on it. Mr. Sayer was one of those who were inclined to be of opinion that the Governor-General had a power of dissolving the Council, and that the Council could not legally sit after such dissolution. But what was his remark upon Mr. Hastings's conduct?--and you must suppose his remark of more weight, because, upon the abstract question, he had given his opinion in favor of Mr. Hastings's judgment. "The meeting of the Council depends on the pleasure of the Governor; and I think the duration of it must do so, too. But it was as great a crime to dissolve the Council upon base and sinister motives as it would be to a.s.sume the power of dissolving, if he had it not. I believe he is the first Governor that ever dissolved a Council inquiring into his behavior, when he was innocent. Before he could summon three Councils and dissolve them, he had time fully to consider what would be the result of such conduct, _to convince everybody, beyond a doubt, of his conscious guilt_."

Mr. Sayer, then, among other learned people, (and if he had not been the man that I have described, yet, from his intimate connection with the Company, his opinion must be supposed to have great weight,) having used expressions as strong as the persons who have ever criminated Mr.

Hastings most for the worst of his crimes have ever used to qualify and describe them, and having ascribed his conduct to base and sinister motives, he was bound upon that occasion to justify that strong conduct, allowed to be legal, and charged at the same time to be violent. Mr.

Hastings was obliged then to produce something in his justification. He never did. Therefore, for all the reasons a.s.signed by himself, drawn from the circ.u.mstances of prosecution and non-prosecution, and from opinions of lawyers and colleagues, the Court of Directors at the same time censuring his conduct, and strongly applauding the conduct of those who were adverse to him, Mr. Hastings was, I say, from those acc.u.mulated circ.u.mstances, bound to get rid of the infamy of a conduct which could be attributed to nothing but base and sinister motives, and which could have no effect but to convince men of his consciousness that he was guilty. From all these circ.u.mstances I infer that no man could have endured this load of infamy, and to this time have given no explanation of his conduct, unless for the reason which this learned counsel gives, and which your Lordships and the world will give, namely, his conscious guilt.

After leaving upon your minds that presumption, not to operate without proof, but to operate along with the proof, (though, I take it, there are some presumptions that go the full length of proof,) I shall not press it to the length to which I think it would go, but use it only as auxiliary, a.s.sisting, and compurgatory of all the other evidences that go along with it.

There is another circ.u.mstance which must come before your Lordships in this business. If you find that Mr. Hastings has received the two lac of rupees, then you will find that he was guilty, without color or pretext of any kind whatever, of acting in violation of his covenant, of acting in violation of the laws, and all the rules of honor and conscience. If you find that he has taken the lac and a half, which he admits, but which he justifies under the pretence of an entertainment, I shall beg to say something to your Lordships concerning that justification.

The justification set up is, that he went up from Calcutta to Moorshedabad, and paid a visit of three months, and that there an allowance was made to him of two hundred pounds a day in lieu of an entertainment. Now, my Lords, I leave it to you to determine, if there was such a custom, whether or no his covenant justifies his conformity with it. I remember Lord c.o.ke, talking of the Brehon law in Ireland, says it is no law, but a lewd custom. A governor is to conform himself to the laws of his own country, to the stipulations of those that employ him, and not to the lewd customs of any other country: those customs are more honored in the breach than in the observance. If Mr. Hastings was really feasted and entertained with the magnificence of the country, if there was an entertainment of dancing-girls brought out to amuse him in his leisure hours, if he was feasted with the hookah and every other luxury, there is something to be said for him, though I should not justify a Governor-General wasting his days in that manner. But in fact here was no entertainment that could amount to such a sum; and he has nowhere proved the existence of such a custom.

But if such a custom did exist, which I contend is more honored in the breach than in the observance, that custom is capable of being abused to the grossest extortion; and that it was so abused will strike your Lordships' minds in such a manner that I hardly need detail the circ.u.mstances of it. What! two hundred pounds to be given to a man for one day's entertainment? If there is an end of it there, it ruins n.o.body, and cannot be supposed, to a great degree, to corrupt anybody; but when that entertainment is renewed day after day for three months, it is no longer a compliment to the man, but a great pecuniary advantage, and, on the other hand, to the person giving it, a grievous, an intolerable burden. It then becomes a matter of the most serious and dreadful extortion, tending to hinder the people who give it not only from giving entertainment, but from having bread to eat themselves.

Therefore, if any such entertainment was customary, the custom was perverted by the abuse of its being continued for three months together.

It was longer than Ahasuerus's feast. There is a feast of reason and a flow of soul; but Mr. Hastings's feast was a feast of avarice and a flow of money. No wonder he was unwilling to rise from such a table: he continued to sit at that table for three months.

In his covenant he is forbidden expressly to take any allowance above 400_l._, and forbidden to take any allowance above 100_l._, without the knowledge, consent, and approbation of the Council to which he belongs.

Now he takes 16,000_l._, not only without the consent of the Council, but without their knowledge,--without the knowledge of any other human being: it is kept hid in the darkest and most secret recesses of his own black agents and confidants, and those of Munny Begum. Why is it a secret? Hospitality, generosity, virtues of that kind, are full of display; there is an ostentation, a pomp, in them; they want to be shown to the world, not concealed. The concealment of acts of charity is what makes them acceptable in the eyes of Him with regard to whom there can be no concealment; but acts of corruption are kept secret, not to keep them secret from the eye of Him, whom the person that observes the secrecy does not fear, nor perhaps believe in, but to keep them secret from the eyes of mankind, whose opinions he does fear, in the immediate effect of them, and in their future consequences. Therefore he had but one reason to keep this so dark and profound a secret, till it was dragged into day in spite of him; he had no reason to keep it a secret, but his knowing it was a proceeding that could not bear the light.

Charity is the only virtue that I ever heard of that derives from its retirement any part of its l.u.s.tre; the others require to be spread abroad in the face of day. Such candles should not be hid under a bushel, and, like the illuminations which men light up when they mean to express great joy and great magnificence for a great event, their very splendor is a part of their excellence. We upon our feasts light up this whole capital city; we in our feasts invite all the world to partake them. Mr. Hastings feasts in the dark; Mr. Hastings feasts alone; Mr.

Hastings feasts like a wild beast; he growls in the corner over the dying and the dead, like the tigers of that country, who drag their prey into the jungles. n.o.body knows of it, till he is brought into judgment for the flock he has destroyed. His is the entertainment of Tantalus; it is an entertainment from which the sun hid his light.

But was it an entertainment upon a visit? Was Mr. Hastings upon a visit?

No: he was executing a commission for the Company in a village in the neighborhood of Moorshedabad, and by no means upon a visit to the Nabob.

On the contrary, he was upon something that might be more properly called a _visitation_. He came as a heavy calamity, like a famine or a pestilence on a country; he came there to do the severest act in the world,--as he himself expresses, to take the bread, literally the bread, from above a thousand of the n.o.bles of the country, and to reduce them to a situation which no man can hear of without shuddering. When you consider, that, while he was thus entertained himself, he was famishing fourteen hundred of the n.o.bility and gentry of the country, you will not conceive it to be any extenuation of his crimes, that he was there, not upon a visit, but upon a duty, the harshest that could be executed, both to the persons who executed and the people who suffered from it.

It is mentioned and supposed in the observations upon this case, though no circ.u.mstances relative to the persons or the nature of the visit are stated, that this expense was something which he might have charged to the Company and did not. It is first supposed by the learned counsel who made the observation, that it was a public, allowed, and acknowledged thing; then, that he had not charged the Company anything for it. I have looked into that business. In the first place, I see no such custom; and if there was such a custom, there was the most abusive misemployment of it. I find that in that year there was paid from the Company's cash account to the Governor's travelling charges (and he had no other journey at that end of the year) thirty thousand rupees, which is about 3,000_l._; and when we consider that he was in the receipt of near 30,000_l._, besides the nuzzers, which amount to several thousand a year, and that he is allowed 3,000_l._ by the Company for his travelling expenses, is it right to charge upon the miserable people whom he was defrauding of their bread 16,000_l._ for his entertainment?

I find that there are also other great sums relative to the expenses of the Committee of Circuit, which he was upon. How much of them is applicable to him I know not. I say, that the allowance of three thousand pounds was n.o.ble and liberal; for it is not above a day or two's journey to Moorshedabad, and by his taking his road by Kishenagur he could not be longer. He had a salary to live upon, and he must live somewhere; and he was actually paid three thousand pounds for travelling charges for three months, which was at the rate of twelve thousand pounds a year: a large and abundant sum.

If you once admit that a man for an entertainment shall take sixteen thousand pounds, there never will be any bribe, any corruption, that may not be justified: the corrupt man has nothing to do but to make a visit, and then that very moment he may receive any sum under the name of this entertainment; that moment his covenants are annulled, his bonds and obligations destroyed, the act of Parliament repealed, and it is no longer bribery, it is no longer corruption, it is no longer peculation; it is nothing but thanks for obliging inquiries, and a compliment according to the mode of the country, by which he makes his fortune.

What hinders him from renewing that visit? If you support this distinction, you will teach the Governor-General, instead of attending his business at the capital, to make journeys through the country, putting every great man of that country under the most ruinous contributions; and as this custom is in no manner confined to the Governor-General, but extends, as it must upon that principle, to every servant of the Company in any station whatever, then, if each of them were to receive an entertainment, I will venture to say that the greatest ravage of an hostile army could not, indeed, destroy the country more entirely than the Company's servants by such visits.

Your Lordships will see that there are grounds for suspicion, not supported with the same evidence, but with evidence of great probability, that there was another entertainment given at the expense of another lac of rupees; and there is also great probability that Mr.

Hastings received two lac of rupees, and Mr. Middleton another lac. The whole of the Nabob's revenues would have been exhausted by these two men, if they had stayed there a whole year: and they stayed three months. Nothing will be secured from the Company's servants, so long as they can find, under this name, or under pretence of any corrupt custom of the country, a vicious excuse for this corrupt practice. The excuse is worse than the thing itself. I leave it, then, with your judgment to decide whether you will or not, if this justification comes before you, establish a principle which would put all Bengal in a worse situation than an hostile army could do, and ruin all the Company's servants by sending them from their duty to go round robbing the whole country under the name of entertainments.

My Lords, I have now done with this first part,--namely, the presumption arising from his refusal to make any defence, on pretence that the charge brought against him might be referred to a court of justice, and from the non-performance of his promise to give satisfaction to his employers,--and when that pretence was removed, still refusing to give that satisfaction, though suffering as he did under a load of infamy and obloquy, and though urged to give it by persons of the greatest character. I have stated this to your Lordships as the strongest presumption of guilt, and that this presumption is strengthened by the very excuse which he fabricated for a part of his bribes, when he knew that the proof of them was irresistible, and that this excuse is a high aggravation of his guilt,--that this excuse is not supported by law, that it is not supported by reason, that it does not stand with his covenant, but carries with it a manifest proof of corruption, and that it cannot be justified by any principle, custom, or usage whatever. My Lords, I say I have done with the presumption arising from his conduct as it regarded the fact specifically charged against him, and with respect to the relation he stood in to the Court of Directors, and from the attempt he made to justify that conduct. I believe your Lordships will think both one and the other strong presumptions of his criminality, and of his knowledge that the act he was doing was criminal.

I have another fact to lay before your Lordships, which affords a further presumption of his guilt, and which will show the mischievous consequences of it; and I trust your Lordships will not blame me for going a little into it. Your Lordships know we charge that the appointment of such a woman as Munny Begum to the guardianship of the Nabob, to the superintendency of the civil justice of the country, and to the representation of the whole government, was made for no other purpose than that through this corrupt woman sixteen thousand pounds a year, the whole tattered remains of the Nabob's grandeur, might be a prey to Mr. Hastings: it could be for no other. Now your Lordships would imagine, that, after this, knowing he was already grievously suspected, he would have abstained from giving any further ground for suspicion by a repet.i.tion of the same acts through the same person; as no other reason could be furnished for such acts, done directly contrary to the order of his superiors, but that he was actuated by the influence of bribery. Your Lordships would imagine, that, when this Munny Begum was removed upon a charge of corruption, Mr. Hastings would have left her quiet in tranquil obscurity, and that he would no longer have attempted to elevate her into a situation which furnished against himself so much disgrace and obloquy to himself, and concerning which he stood charged with a direct and positive act of bribery. Your Lordships well know, that, upon the deposition of that great magistrate, Mahomed Reza Khan, this woman was appointed to supply his place. The Governor-General and Council (the majority of them being then Sir John Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis) had made a provisional arrangement for the time, until they should be authorized to fill up the place in a proper manner. Soon after, there came from Europe a letter expressing the satisfaction which the Court of Directors had received in the acquittal of Mahomed Reza Khan, expressing a regard for his character, an high opinion of his abilities, and a great disposition to make him some recompense for his extreme sufferings; and accordingly they ordered that he should be again employed. Having no exact ideas of the state of employments in that country, they made a mistake in the specific employment for which they named him; for, being a Mahometan, and the head of the Mahometans in that country, he was named to an office which must be held by a Gentoo. But the majority I have just named, who never endeavored by any base and delusive means to fly from their duty, or not to execute it at all, because they were desired to execute it in a way in which they could not execute it, followed the spirit of the order; and finding that Mahomed Reza Khan, before his imprisonment and trial, had been in possession of another employment, they followed the spirit of the instructions of the Directors and replaced him in that employment: by which means there was an end put to the government of Munny Begum, the country reverted to its natural state, and men of the first rank in the country were placed in the first situations in it. The seat of judicature was filled with wisdom, gravity, and learning, and Munny Begum sunk into that situation into which a woman who had been engaged in the practices that she had been engaged in naturally would sink at her time of life. Mr. Hastings resisted this appointment. He trifled with the Company's orders on account of the letter of them, and endeavored to disobey the spirit of them. However, the majority overbore him; they put Mahomed Reza Khan into his former situation; and as a proof and seal to the honor and virtue of their character, there was not a breath of suspicion that they had any corrupt motive for this conduct.

They were odious to many of the India House here; they were odious to that corrupt influence which had begun and was going on to ruin India; but in the face of all this odium, they gave the appointment to Mahomed Reza Khan, because the act contained in itself its own justification.

Mr. Hastings made a violent protest against it, and resisted it to the best of his power, always in favor of Munny Begum, as your Lordships will see. Mr. Hastings sent this protest to the Directors; but the Directors, as soon as the case came before them, acknowledged their error, and praised the majority of the Council, Sir John Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, for the wise and honorable part they had taken upon the occasion, by obeying the spirit and not the letter,--commended the act they had done,--confirmed Mahomed Reza Khan in his place,--and to prevent that great man from being any longer the sport of fortune, any longer the play of avarice between corrupt governors and dancing-girls, they gave him the pledged faith of the Company that he should remain in that office as long as his conduct deserved their protection: it was a good and an honorable tenure. My Lords, soon afterwards there happened two lamentable deaths,--first of Colonel Monson, afterwards of General Clavering. Thus Mr. Hastings was set loose: there was an inspection and a watch upon his conduct, and no more. He was then just in the same situation in which he had stood in 1772. What does he do? Even just what he did in 1772. He deposes Mahomed Reza Khan, notwithstanding the Company's orders, notwithstanding their pledged faith; he turns him out, and makes a distribution of two lacs and a half of rupees, the salary of that great magistrate, in the manner I will now show your Lordships. He made an arrangement consisting of three main parts: the first was with regard to the women, the next with regard to the magistracy, the last with regard to the officers of state of the household.

The first person that occurred to Mr. Hastings was Munny Begum; and he gave her, not out of that part of the Nabob's allowance which was to support the seraglio, but out of the allowance of this very magistrate, just as if such a thing had been done here out of the salary of a Lord Chancellor or a Lord Chief-Justice,--out of these two lacs and a half of rupees, that is, about twenty-four or twenty-five thousand pounds a year, he ordered an allowance to be made to Munny Begum of 72,000 rupees per annum, or 7,200_l._ a year; for the Nabob's own mother, whom he thrust, as usual, into a subordinate situation, he made an allowance of 3,000_l._; to the Sudder ul Huk Khan, which is, translated into English, the Lord Chief-Justice, he allowed the same sum that he did to the dancing-girl, (which was very liberal in him, and I am rather astonished to find it,) namely, 7,200_l._ a year. And who do you think was the next public officer he appointed? It was the Rajah Gourdas, the son of Nundcomar, and whose testimony he has attempted both before and since this occasion to weaken. To him, however, he gave an employment of 6,000_l._ a year, as if to make through the son some compensation to the manes of the father. And in this manner he distributes, with a wild and liberal profusion, between magistrates and dancing-girls, the whole spoil of Mahomed Reza Khan, notwithstanding the Company's direct and positive a.s.surance given to him. Everything was done, at the same time, to put, as it was before, into the hands of this dancing-girl the miserable Nabob's whole family; and that the fund for corruption might be large enough, he did not take the money for this dancing-girl out of the Nabob's separate revenue, of which he and the dancing-girl had the private disposal between them.

Now upon what pretence did he do all this? The Nabob had represented to Mr. Hastings that he was now of age,--that he was an independent, sovereign prince,--that, being independent and sovereign in his situation, and being of full age, he had a right to manage his own concerns himself; and therefore he desired to be admitted to that management. And, indeed, my Lords, ostensibly, and supposing him to have been this independent prince, and that the Company had no authority or had never exercised any authority over him through Mr. Hastings, there might be a good deal said in favor of this request. But what was the real state of the case? The Nabob was a puppet in the hands of Mr.

Hastings and Munny Begum; and you will find, upon producing the correspondence, that he confesses that she was the ultimate object and end of this request.

I think this correspondence, wherein a son is made to pet.i.tion, in his own name, for the elevation of a dancing-girl, his step-mother, above himself and everybody else, will appear to your Lordships such a curiosity as, I believe, is not to be found in the state correspondence of the whole world. The Nabob begins thus:--"The excellency of that policy by which her Highness the Begum" (meaning Munny Begum) "(may her shadow be far extended!) formerly, during the time of her administration, transacted the affairs of the nizamut in the very best and most advantageous manner, was, by means of the delusions of enemies disguised under the appearance of friends, hidden from me. Having lately seriously reflected on my own affairs, I am convinced that it was the effect of maternal affection, was highly proper, and for my interest,--and that, except the said Begum is again invested with the administration, the regulation and prosperity of this family, which is in fact her own, cannot be effected. For this cause, from the time of her suspension until now, I have pa.s.sed my time, and do so still, in great trouble and uneasiness. As all affairs, and particularly the happiness and prosperity of this family, depend on your pleasure, I now trouble you, in hopes that you, likewise concurring in this point, will be so kind as to write in fit and proper terms to her Highness the Begum, that she will always, as formerly, employ her authority in the administration of the nizamut and the affairs of this family."

This letter, my Lords, was received upon the 23d of August; and your Lordships may observe two things in it: first, that, some way or other, this Nabob had been (as the fact was) made to express his desire of being released from his subjection to the Munny Begum, but that now he has got new lights, all the mists are gone, and he now finds that Munny Begum is not only the fittest person to govern him, but the whole country. This young man, whose incapacity is stated, and never denied, by Mr. Hastings, and by Lord Cornwallis, and by all the rest of the world who know him, begins to be charmed with the excellency of the policy of Munny Begum. Such is his violent impatience, such the impossibility of his existing an hour but under the government of Munny Begum, that he writes again on the 25th of August, (he had really the impatience of a lover,) and within five days afterwards writes again,--so impatient, so anxious and jealous is this young man to be put under the government of an old dancing-woman. He is afraid lest Mr.

Hastings should imagine that some sinister influence had prevailed upon him in so natural and proper a request. He says, "Knowing it for my interest and advantage that the administration of the affairs of the nizamut should be restored to her Highness the Munny Begum, I have already troubled you with my request, that, regarding my situation with an eye of favor, you will approve of this measure. I am credibly informed that some one of my enemies, from selfish views, has, for the purpose of oversetting this measure, written you that the said Begum procured from me by artifice the letter I wrote you on this subject.

This causes me the greatest astonishment. Please to consider, that artifice and delusion are confined to cheats and impostors, and can never proceed from a person of such exalted rank, who is the head and patron of all the family of the deceased Nabob, my father,--and that to be deluded, being a proof of weakness and folly, can have no relation to me, except the inventor of this report considers me as void of understanding, and has represented me to the gentlemen as a blockhead and an idiot. G.o.d knows how harshly such expressions appear to me; but, as the truth or falsehood has not yet been fully ascertained, I have therefore suspended my demand of satisfaction. Should it be true, be so kind as to inform me of it, that the person may be made to answer for it."

My Lords, here is a very proper demand. The Nabob is astonished at the suspicion, that such a woman as Munny Begum, whose trade in youth had been delusion, should be capable of deluding anybody. Astonishing it certainly was, that a woman who had been a deluder in youth should be suspected to be the same in old age, and that he, a young man, should be subject to her artifices. "They must suspect me to be a great blockhead," he says, "if a man of my rank is to be deluded." There he forgot that it is the unhappy privilege of great men to be cheated, to be deluded, much more than other persons; but he thought it so impossible in the case of Munny Begum, that he says, "Produce me the traitor that could suppose it possible for me to be deluded, when I call for this woman as the governor of the country. I demand satisfaction." I rather wonder that Mr. Hastings did not inform him who it was that had reported so gross and improbable a tale, and deliver him up to the fury of the Nabob.

Mr. Hastings is absolutely besieged by him; for he receives another letter upon the 3d of September. Here are four letters following one another quick as post expresses with horns sounding before them. "Oh, I die, I perish, I sink, if Munny Begum is not put into the government of the country!--I therefore desire to have her put into the government of the country, and that you will not keep me longer in this painful suspense, but will be kindly pleased to write immediately to the Munny Begum, that she take on herself the administration of the affairs of the nizamut, which is, in fact, her own family, without the interference of any other person whatever: by this you will give me complete satisfaction." Here is a correspondence more like an amorous than a state correspondence. What is this man so eager about, what in such a rage about, that he cannot endure the smallest delay of the post with common patience? Why, lest this old woman (who is not his mother, and with whom he had no other tie of blood) should not be made mistress of himself and the whole country! However, in a very few months afterwards he himself is appointed by Mr. Hastings to the government; and you may easily judge by the preceding letters who was to govern. It would be an affront to your Lordships' judgment to attempt to prove who was to govern, after he had desired to put the whole government of affairs into the hands of Munny Begum.

Now, Munny Begum having obtained this salary, and being invested with this authority, and made in effect the total and entire governor of the country, as I have proved by the Nabob's letters, let us see the consequences of it; and then I desire to know whether your Lordships can believe that in all this haste, which, in fact, is Mr. Hastings's haste and impatience, (for we shall prove that the Nabob never did or could take a step but by his immediate orders and directions,)--whether your Lordships can believe that Mr. Hastings would incur all the odium attending such transactions, unless he had some corrupt consideration.

My Lords, very soon after these appointments were made, consisting of Munny Begum at the head of the affairs, the Lord Chief-Justice under her, and under her direction, and Rajah Gourdas as steward of the household, the first thing we hear is, just what your Lordships expect to hear upon such a case, that this unfortunate chief-justice, who was a man undoubtedly of but a poor, low disposition, but, I believe, a perfectly honest, perfectly well-intentioned man, found it absolutely impossible for him to execute his office under the direction of Munny Begum; and accordingly, in the month of September following, he sends a complaint to Mr. Hastings, "that certain bad men had gained an ascendency over the Nabob's temper, by whose instigation he acts." After complaining of the slights he receives from the Nabob, he adds, "Thus they cause the Nabob to treat me, sometimes with indignity, at others with kindness, just as they think proper to advise him: their view is, that, by compelling me to displeasure at such unworthy treatment, they may force me either to relinquish my station, or to join with them, and act by their advice, and appoint creatures of their recommendation to the different offices, from which they might draw profit to themselves."