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The Works Of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IX. (of 12) written by Edmund Burke

E >> Edmund Burke >> The Works Of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IX. (of 12)




LXXXV. That the old brigade of British troops, which by treaty was to
remain, had been directed, by the instructions of the said Hastings to
the Resident Middleton and to the Resident Bristow, "not to be employed
at the requisition of the Vizier any otherwise than through the
Resident"; and the said direction was properly given,--it not being fit
that British troops should be under the sole direction of foreign
independent princes, or of any other than the British government: yet,
notwithstanding the proper and necessary direction aforesaid, he, the
said Warren Hastings, hath left the said troops, by his new treaty,
without any local control, or even inspection, notwithstanding his
powers under the treaty of Chunar, and his own repeated orders, and
notwithstanding the mischiefs and dangers which the said Warren Hastings
did foresee would result therefrom, if left under the sole direction of
the Nabob, and their own discretion, the said Hastings having stipulated
with the said Nabob not to exercise any authority, or even influence,
_secret_ or _avowed_, within his dominions.

LXXXVI. That the crime of the said Warren Hastings, in attempting thus
to abandon the British army to the sole discretion of the Nabob of Oude,
is exceedingly aggravated by the description given by him severally of
the said Nabob of Oude, and of the British army stationed for the
defence of his dominions. In his letters to the Court of Directors, and
in his Minutes of Consultation, and particularly in his letter of ----,
immediately on the accession of the Nabob, he did inform the said Court,
"that the Nabob had not, by all accounts, the qualities of the head or
heart which fitted him for that office, though there was no dispute
concerning his right to succeed"; and some years afterwards, when his
accounts must have been rendered more certain, he did, in his Minute of
Consultation of the 15th of December, 1779, (regularly transmitted to
the Court of Directors,) upon a discussion for withdrawing certain
troops kept up in the Nabob's country without his consent, by him, the
said Warren Hastings, strongly urge as follows,--"the _necessity_ of
maintaining the influence and force which we possess in the country;
that the disorders of his state [the Nabob of Oude's state] and
dissipation of his revenues are the effects of his own conduct, which
has failed, not so much from the usual effects of _incapacity_ as from
the detestable choice he has made of the ministers of his power and the
participation of his confidence. I forbear to expatiate further on his
character; it is sufficient that I am understood by the members of this
board, who must know the truth of my allusions. Mr. Francis" (a member
of the board) "surely was not aware of the injury he did me [Warren
Hastings] by attributing to the spirit of party the character I gave
Asoph ul Dowlah [the Nabob of Oude]; he himself knows it _to be true;
and it is one of those notorieties which supersede the necessity of any
evidence. I was forced to the allusion I made by the imputation cast on
this government, as having caused the evils which prevail in the
government of the Nabob of Oude, which I could only answer by ascribing
them to their true cause, the character and conduct of the Nabob of
Oude."_ And the Resident (appointed by the said Hastings, against the
orders of the Court of Directors, as his particular confidential
representative, one whom the said Nabob did himself request might be
continued with him _by an engagement in writing forever_) did some time
before, that is, on the 3d of January, 1779, assure the said Hastings
and the Council-General, that "such is his Excellency's [the Nabob of
Oude's] disposition, and so entirely has he lost the confidence and
affections of his subjects, that, unless some restraint is imposed on
him which would effectually secure those who live under the protection
of his government from violence and oppression, I am but too well
convinced that no man of reputation or property will long continue in
these provinces"; and that the said Resident proceeds to an instance of
oppression and rapine, "out of _many_ of the Nabob's, which has caused a
total disaffection and want of confidence among his subjects: he hoped
the board would take it into their humane consideration, and interpose
their _influence_, and prevent an act which would inevitably bring
disgrace upon himself, and a proportionable degree of discredit on the
national character of the English, which I consider to be more or less
concerned in every act of his administration."

LXXXVII. That no exception was ever taken by the said Warren Hastings to
the truth of the facts, or to the justness of the observation of the
said Resident, which he did transmit to the Court of Directors. And the
said Warren Hastings, in his letter from Chunar, dated the 29th of
November, 1781, speaking of the restraints which had been put by him,
the said Hastings, on the Nabob, relative to his own _mootiana_, or
forces for collection and police, and the necessity of giving the
Resident a control in the nomination of the officers of his army, has
asserted, "that the necessity of the reservation arose from a too well
known defect in the Nabob's character: if this _check_ be withdrawn, and
the choice left absolutely to the Nabob, the first commands in his army
will be filled with the most worthless and abandoned of his subjects:
his late commander-in-chief is a signal and scandalous instance of
this."

LXXXVIII. And the said Warren Hastings, in his letter to the Court of
Directors, dated Benares, the 15th of October, 1784, even after he had
made the aforesaid renunciation of the Company's authority and influence
to the Nabob, did write, "that the Nabob, though most gentle in his
manners, and endued with an understanding much above the common level,
has been _unfortunately bred up in habits_ that draw his attention too
much from his own affairs, and often subject him to the guidance of
_insidious and unworthy confidants_"; which, though more decently
expressed with regard to the Nabob than in his former minutes,
substantially agrees with them. And the said Warren Hastings did inform
the Court of Directors, after he had solemnly covenanted to withdraw all
the Company's influence on the assurances and promises of a person so by
himself described, that, for reasons grounded on his knowledge of the
imbecility of the character of the Nabob, he waited in a frontier town,
"that he might be at hand to counteract any attempt to defeat the effect
of his proceedings at Lucknow"; and in his letter to Mr. Wheler from the
same place he did write in the following words: "I am still near enough
to attend to the first effects of the execution, and to interfere with
my influence for the removal of any obstructions to which they are or
may be liable." He therefore found that there was none or but an
insufficient security to the effect of his treaty, but in his own direct
personal violation of it. What otherwise was wanting in the security for
the Nabob's engagements was to be supplied as follows: "The most
respectable persons of his family will be employed to counteract every
other which may tend to warp him from it; and I am sorry to say _that
such assistance was wanting_." And in another letter, "that he had equal
ground to expect every degree of support which could be given it by _the
first characters of his family_, who are warmly and zealously interested
in it": the principal male character of the family, and of the most
influence in that family, being Salar Jung, uncle to the Nabob; and the
first female characters of the family being the mother and grandmother
of the reigning sovereign: all of whom, male and female, he, the said
Warren Hastings, in sundry letters of his own, in the transmission of
various official documents, and even in affidavits studiously collected
and sworn before Sir Elijah Impey during his short residence at Lucknow
and Benares, did himself represent as persons entirely disaffected to
the English power in India,--as having been principal promoters, if not
original contrivers, of a general rebellion and revolt for the utter
extirpation of the English nation,--and as such, he, the said Warren
Hastings, did compel the Nabob reluctantly to take from them their
landed estates; and yet the said Warren Hastings has had the presumption
to attempt to impose on the East India Company by pretending to place
his reliance on those three persons for a settlement favorable to the
Company's interests, on his renunciation of all their own power,
authority, and influence, and on his leaving their army to the sole and
uncontrolled discretion of a stranger, meriting in his opinion the
description given by him as aforesaid, as well as by him frequently
asserted to be politically incapable of supporting his own power without
the aid of the forces of the Company. And the offence of the said Warren
Hastings, in abandoning a considerable part of the British army in the
manner aforesaid, is much increased by the description which he has
himself given of the state of the said army, and particularly of that
part thereof which is stationed in the Nabob of Oude's dominions: for he
did himself, on the 29th of November, 1781, transmit the information
following, on that subject, to the Court of Directors, namely,--"that
the remote stations of those troops, placing the commanding officers
beyond the notice and control of the board [the Council-General] at
Calcutta, afforded too much of opportunity and temptation for
unwarrantable _emoluments, and excited the contagion of peculation and
rapacity throughout the whole army_. A most remarkable instance and
uncontrovertible proof of the prevalence of this spirit has been seen in
the court-martial upon Captain Erskine, where the court, composed of
officers of rank, and respectable characters, unanimously and honorably,
(_most_ honorably,) upon an acknowledged fact, acquitted him, which in
times of stricter discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishment." From which representation (if the said Warren
Hastings did not falsely and unjustly accuse and slander the Company's
service) it appeared that the peculation which infected the whole army,
derived from the taint which it had in Oude, and so fatal to the
discipline of the troops, would be dangerously increased by his treaty
and agreement aforesaid with the Nabob, and by his own said evil counsel
to the Court of Directors.

LXXXIX. That it appears, after the said Warren Hastings had, on grounds
so disgraceful to the British nation and government, agreed to remove
forever the British influence and interference from the government of
Oude, on account of the disorders in the said government, solely
produced by his own criminal acts and criminal connivances, that he did
overturn his own settlement as soon as he had made it, and did, after he
had abolished the Company's Residency, as a grievance, wholly violate
his own solemn agreement: for he did, for his private purposes, continue
therein his own private agent, Major Palmer, with a number of officers
and pensioners, at a charge to the revenues of the country greatly
exceeding that of the establishment under Mr. Bristow, which he did
represent as frightfully enormous, and which he pretended to remove: the
former amounting to 112,950_l._, the latter only to 64,202_l._

XC. That his own secret agent, Major Palmer, did receive a salary or
allowance, equal to 22,800_l._ a year, out of the distressed province
of Oude; and this the said Palmer did declare not to be more than he
absolutely did really and _bona fide_ spend, and that he had
retrenched considerably "in some of the articles since the expense has
been borne by the Vizier, and in every particular he made as little
parade and appearance as his station would admit,"--his station being
that of the said Warren Hastings's private agent. But if the said
large salary must be considered as merely equal to the expenses, large
secret emoluments must be presumed to attend it, in order to make it a
place advantageous to the holder thereof. That the said Palmer did
apply to the board at Calcutta for a new authority to continue the
said establishments,--he conceiving their continuance, "after the
period of the Governor-General's departure, depended upon the pleasure
of the board, and not upon the _authority of the Governor-General,
under the sanction of which they were established or confirmed_."

XCI. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to ruin the Resident
Bristow, and to justify himself for his former proceedings respecting
him, did bring before the board a new charge against him, for having
paid a large establishment of offices and pensions to the Company's
servants from the revenues of Oude; and the said Bristow, in making his
defence against the charge aforesaid, did plead, that he had found all
the allowances on his list established before his last appointment to
the Residency,--that they had grown to that excess in the interval
between his first removal by the said Warren Hastings and his
reappointment; and having adduced many reasons to make it highly
probable that the said Hastings was perfectly well acquainted with it,
and did approve of the expensive establishments which he, the said
Bristow, simply had paid, but not imposed, he did allege, besides the
official assurances of his predecessor, Middleton, certain facts, as
amounting to a direct proof that the Governor-General, Warren Hastings,
was not averse to the Vizier's granting large salaries to more than one
European gentleman. And the first instance was to Mr. Thomas, a surgeon,
who, exclusive of his pay from the Company, which was 1,440_l._ a year,
claimed from the Vizier, with Mr. Hastings's knowledge, the sum of
9,763_l._ a year, and upwards, making together 11,203_l._ per annum. The
next was Mr. Trevor Wheler, who did receive, upon the same
establishment, when he was Fourth Assistant at Oude, 6,000_l._ a year;
and which last fact the said Hastings has admitted upon record "that the
accusations of Mr. Bristow and Mr. Cowper did _oblige_ and _compel_ him
to acknowledge,"--denying, at the same time, that the allowances of the
Residents Middleton and Bristow, except in this single instance, were
ever authorized by him; whereas his own agent, Palmer, did, in his
letter of the 27th of March, 1785, represent, that the said salaries and
allowances (if not more and larger) were by him authorized or confirmed.

XCII. That the aforesaid Bristow did also produce the following letter
in proof that Mr. Hastings knew and approved of large salaries to
British subjects upon the revenues of Oude, and which he did declare
that nothing but the necessity of self-defence could have induced him to
produce.

'DEAR BRISTOW,--

"Sir Eyre Coote has some field-allowances to receive from the Vizier;
they amount to Sicca Rupees 15,554 per month, and he has been paid up by
the Vizier to the 20th of August, 1782. The Governor has directed me to
write to you, to request you to receive what is due from the Vizier
from the 20th August last, at the rate of Lucknow Sicca Rupees 15,664
per month, and send me a bill for the amount, the receipt of which I
will acknowledge in the capacity of Sir Eyre Coote's attorney; and the
Governor desires that you will continue to receive Sir Eyre Coote's
field-allowances at the same rate, and remit the money to me as it comes
in.

(Signed) "CHARLES CROFTES.

"CALCUTTA, January 25, 1783."

XCIII. That Sir Eyre Coote aforesaid was at the time of the said
field-allowances not serving in the country of Oude, on which the said
allowances were charged, but in the Carnatic.

XCIV. That, from the declaration of the said Hastings himself, that it
was the conviction of Mr. Bristow and Mr. Cowper that could alone
_oblige_ and _compel_ him to _acknowledge_ certain of his aforesaid
practices, and that nothing _but the necessity of self-defence_ could
have induced Mr. Bristow to make public another and much stronger
instance of the same, it is to be violently presumed, that, where these
two, or either, or both necessities did not exist, many evil and
oppressive practices of the said Hastings do remain undiscovered,--that,
if it had not been for the contests between him, the said Hastings, and
the Resident Bristow, not only the before-mentioned particulars, but the
whole of the expensive civil establishments for English servants at
Oude, would have been forever concealed from the Directors and from
Parliament: and yet the said Hastings has had the audacity to pretend so
complete an ignorance of the facts, that, representing the Vizier as
objecting to the largeness of the payments made by Bristow, and stating
a very reduced list, which he was willing to allow for, amounting to
30,000_l._ a year, the said Hastings did affect to be alarmed at the
magnitude even of the list so curtailed, expressing himself as follows,
in his minute of the 7th of December, 1784: "For my own part, when the
Vizier's minister first informed me that the amount which his master had
authorized, and was willing to admit, for the charges of the Residency,
and the allowances of the gentlemen at Lucknow, was 25,000 rupees per
month, I own I was startled at the magnitude of the sum, and was some
days hesitating in my mind whether I could with propriety admit of it":
whereas he well knew that the three sums alone of which the necessities
aforesaid had compelled the discovery did greatly exceed that sum of
which at the first hearing he affects to have been so exceedingly
alarmed and thrown into a state of hesitation which continued for some
days, and although he, the said Hastings, was conscious that he had at
the very time authorized an establishment to more than four times the
amount thereof.

XCV. That, in the said deceits, prevarications, contradictions,
malicious accusations, fraudulent concealments, and compelled
discoveries, as well as in the said secret, corrupt, and prodigal
disposition of the revenues of Oude, as well as in his breach of faith
to the Nabob, in continuing expensive establishments under a private
agent of his own after he had agreed to remove the Company's agent, the
said Warren Hastings is guilty of an high offence and misdemeanor.




XVII.--MAHOMED REZA KHAN.


I. That it was the declared policy of the Company, on the acquisition of
the dewanny of Bengal, to continue the country government, under the
inspection of the Resident at the Nabob's durbar in the first instance,
and that of the President and Council in the last; and for that purpose
they did stipulate to assign, for the support of the dignity of the
Nabob, an annual allowance from the revenues, equal to four hundred
thousand pounds a year.

II. That, during the country government, the principal active person in
the administration of affairs, for rank, and for reputation of probity,
and of knowledge in the revenues and the laws, was Mahomed Reza Khan,
who, besides large landed property, was possessed of offices whose
emoluments amounted nearly, if not altogether, to one hundred thousand
pounds a year.

IV.[16] That the Company's servants, in the beginning, were not
conversant in the affairs of the revenue, and stood in need of natives
of integrity and experience to act in the management thereof. On that
ground, as well as in regard to the rank which Mahomed Reza Khan held in
the country, and the confidence of the people in him, they, the
President and Council, did inform the Court of Directors, in their
letter of the 30th of September, 1765, that, "as Mahomed Reza Khan's
short administration was irreproachable, they determined to continue him
in a share of the authority"; and this information was not given
lightly, but was founded upon an inquiry into his conduct, and a minute
examination of charges made against him by his rivals in the Nabob's
court,--they having insinuated to the Nabob that a design was formed for
deposing him, and placing Mahomed Reza on his throne; but, on
examination, the President and Council declare, that "he had so openly
and candidly accounted _for every rupee_ disbursed from the treasury,
that they could not, without injury to his character, and injustice to
his conduct during his short administration, refuse continuing him in a
share of the government."

V. That the Company had reason to be satisfied with the arrangement
made, so far as it regarded him: the President and Council having
informed them, in the following year, in their letter of the 9th of
December, 1766, that "the _large_ increase of the revenue must in a
great measure be ascribed to Mr. Sykes's assiduity, and to _Mahomed Reza
Khan's profound knowledge in the finances_."

VI. That the then President and Council, finding it necessary to make
several reforms in the administration, were principally aided in the
same by the suggestion, advice, and assistance of the said Mahomed Reza
Khan; and in their letter to the Court of Directors of the 24th of June,
1767, they state their resolution of reducing the emoluments of office,
which before had arisen from a variety of presents and other
perquisities, to fixed allowances; and they state the merits of Mahomed
Reza Khan therein, as well as the importance, dignity, and
responsibility of his station, in the following manner.

"Mahomed Reza Khan has now _of himself, with great delicacy of honor_,
represented to us the evil consequences that must ensue from the
continuance of this practice,--since, by suffering the principal
officers of the government to depend for the support of their dignity on
the precarious fund of perquisites, they in a manner oblige them to
pursue oppressive and corrupt measures, equally injurious to the country
and the Company; and they accordingly assigned twelve lac of rupees for
the maintenance and support of the said Mahomed Reza Khan, and two other
principal persons, who held in their hands the most important
employments of that government,--having regard to their elevated
stations, and to the expediency of supporting them in all the show and
parade requisite to keep up the authority and influence of their
respective offices, as they are all men of weight and consideration in
the country, who held places of great trust and profit under the former
government. We further propose, by this act of generosity, to engage
their cordial services, and confirm them steady in our interests; since
they cannot hope, from the most successful ambition, to rise to greater
advantages by any chance or revolution of affairs. At the same time it
was reasonable we should not lose sight of Mahomed Reza Khan's past
services. He has pursued the Company's interest with steadiness and
diligence; his abilities qualify him to perform the most important
services; the unavoidable charges of his particular situation are great;
in dignity he stands second to the Nabob only;--and as he engages to
increase the revenues, without injustice or oppression, to more than the
amount of his salary, _and to relinquish those advantages, to the amount
of eight lacs of rupees per annum_, which he heretofore enjoyed, we
thought it proper, in the distribution of salaries, to consider Mahomed
Reza Khan in a light superior to the other ministers. We have only to
observe further, that, great and enormous as the sum must appear which
we have allotted for the support of the ministers of the government, we
will not hesitate to pronounce that it is necessary and reasonable, and
will appear so on the consideration of the power which men employed on
these important services have either to obstruct or promote the public
good, unless their integrity be confirmed by the ties of gratitude and
interest."

VII. That the said Mahomed Reza Khan continued, with the same diligence,
spirit, and fidelity, to execute the trust reposed in him, which
comprehended a large proportion of the weight of government, and
particularly of the collections; and his attachment to the interest of
the Company, and his extensive knowledge, were again, in the course of
the year 1767, fully acknowledged, and stated to the Court of Directors.
And it further appears that by an incessant application to business his
health was considerably impaired, which gave occasion in the year
following, that is, in February, 1768, to a fresh acknowledgment of his
services in these terms: "We must, in justice to Mahomed Reza Khan,
express the high sense we entertain of his abilities, and of the
indefatigable attention he has shown in the execution of the important
trust reposed in him; and we cannot but lament the prospect of losing
his services from the present declining state of his health."

VIII. That as in the increase of the revenue the said Mahomed Reza Khan
was employed as a person likely to improve the same without detriment to
the people, so, when the state of any province seemed to require a
remission, he was employed as a person disposed to the relief of the
people without fraud to the revenue; and this was expressed by the
President and Council as follows, with relation to the remissions
granted in the province of Bahar: "That the general knowledge of Mahomed
Reza Khan, in all matters relative to the dewanny revenues, induced us
to consent to such deductions being made from the general state of that
province at the _last poonah_ as may be deemed irrecoverable, or such as
may procure an immediate relief and encouragement to the ryots in the
future cultivation of their lands."