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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)




IX. That the said Mahomed Reza Khan, in the execution of the said great
and important trusts and powers, was not so much as suspected of an
ambitious or encroaching spirit, which might make him dangerous to the
Company's then recent authority, or which might render his precedence
injurious to the consideration due to his colleagues in office; but, on
the contrary, it appears, that, a plan having been adopted for dividing
the administration, in order to remove the Nabob's jealousies, the same
was in danger of being subverted by the ambition "of two of his
colleagues, and _the excessive moderation of Mahomed Reza Khan_." And
for a remedy of the inconveniencies which might arise from the excess of
an accommodating temper, though attended with irreproachable integrity,
the President and Council did send one of their own members, as their
deputy, to the Nabob of Bengal, at his capital of Moorshedabad; and this
measure appears to have been adopted for the support of Mahomed Reza
Khan, in consequence of an inquiry made and advice given by Lord Clive,
in his letter of the 3d of July, 1765, in which letter he expresses
himself of the said Mahomed Reza Khan as follows: "It is with pleasure I
can acquaint you, _that, the more I see of Mahomed Reza Khan, the
stronger is my conviction of his honor and moderation_, but that, at the
same time, I cannot help observing, that, either from timidity or an
erroneous principle, he is too ready to submit to encroachments upon
that proportion of power that has been allotted him."

X. That, the Nabob Jaffier Ali Khan dying in February, 1765, Mahomed
Reza Khan was appointed guardian to his children, and administrator of
his office, or regent, which appointment the Court of Directors did
approve. But the party opposite to Mahomed Reza Khan having continued to
cabal against him, sundry accusations were framed relative to oppression
at the time of the famine, and for a balance due during his employment
of collector of the revenues; upon which the Directors did order him to
be deprived of his office, and a strict inquiry to be made into his
conduct.

XI. That the said Warren Hastings, then lately appointed to the
Presidency, did, on the 1st of April, and on the 24th of September,
1772, write letters to the Court of Directors, informing them that on
the very next day after he had received (as he asserts) their private
orders, "addressed to himself alone," and not to the board, he did
dispatch, by express messengers, his orders to Mr. Middleton, the
Resident at the Nabob's court at Moorshedabad, in a public character
and trust with the Nabob, to arrest, in his capital, and at his court,
and without any previous notice given of any charge, his principal
minister, the aforesaid Mahomed Reza Khan, and to bring him down to
Calcutta; and he did carefully conceal his said proceedings from the
knowledge of the board, on pretext of his not being acquainted with
their dispositions, and the influence which he thought that the said
Mahomed Reza Khan had amongst them.

XII. That the said Warren Hastings, at the time he gave his orders as
aforesaid for arresting the said Mahomed Reza Khan, did not take any
measures to compel the appearance of any other persons as
witnesses,--declaring it as his opinion, "that there would be little
need of violence to obtain such intelligence as they could give against
their former master, when his authority is taken from him"; but he did
afterwards, in excuse for the long detention and imprisonment of the
said Mahomed Reza Khan, without any proofs having been obtained of his
guilt, or measures taken to bring him to a trial, assure the Directors,
in direct contradiction to his former declaration, "that the influence
of Mahomed Reza Khan still prevailed generally throughout the country,
in the Nabob's household, and at the capital, and was scarcely affected
by his present disgrace,"--notwithstanding, as he, the said Hastings,
doth confess, he had used his utmost endeavors "to break that influence,
by removing his dependants, and putting the direction of all the affairs
that had been committed to his care into the hands of _the most powerful
or active of his enemies_; that he depended on the activity of their
hatred to Mahomed Reza Khan, incited by the expectation of rewards, for
investigating the conduct of the latter; that with this the institution
of the new dewanny coincided; and that the same principle had guided him
in the choice of Munny Begum and Rajah Gourdas,--the former for the
chief administration, the latter" (the son of Nundcomar, and a mere
instrument in the hands of his father) "for the dewanny of the Nabob's
household,--both _the declared enemies_ of Mahomed Reza Khan."

XIII. That, although it might be true that enemies will become the most
active prosecutors, and as such may, though under much guard and many
precautions, be used even as witnesses, and that it ought not to be an
exception, supposing their character and capacity otherwise good, to the
appointing them to power, yet to advance persons to power on the ground
not of their honor and integrity, which might have produced the enmity
of bad men, but merely for the enmity itself, without any reference
whatsoever to a laudable cause, and even with a declared ill opinion of
the morals of one of the party, such as was actually delivered in the
said letter by him, the said Hastings, of Nundcomar, (and which time has
shown he might also on good ground have conceived of others,) was, in
the circumstances of a criminal inquiry, a motive highly disgraceful to
the honor of government, and destructive of impartial justice, by
holding out the greatest of all possible temptation to false accusation,
to corrupt and factious conspiracies, to perjury, and to every species
of injustice and oppression.

XIV. That, in consequence of the aforesaid motives, and others
pretended, which were by no means a sufficient justification to the said
Warren Hastings, he did appoint the woman aforesaid, called Munny Begum,
who had been of the lowest and most discreditable order in society,
according to the ideas prevalent in India, but from whom he received
several sums of money, to be guardian to the Nabob in preference to his
own mother, _and to administer the affairs of the government_ in the
place of the said Mahomed Reza Khan, the second Mussulman in rank after
the Nabob, and the first in knowledge, gravity, weight, and character
among the Mussulmen of that province. And in order to try every method
and to take every chance for his destruction, the said Warren Hastings
did maliciously and oppressively keep him under confinement, for a part
of the time without any inquiry, and afterwards with a slow and dilatory
trial, for two years together.

XV. That, notwithstanding a total revolution in the power, in part
avowedly made for his destruction, the persons appointed for his trial
did, on full inquiry, completely acquit the said Mahomed Reza Khan of
the criminal charges against him, on account of which he had been so
long persecuted and confined, and suffered much in mind, body, and
fortune: and the Court of Directors, in their letter of the 3d of March,
1775, testify their satisfaction in the conduct and result of the said
inquiry, and did direct the restoration of the said Mahomed Reza Khan to
liberty, and to the offices which he had lately held, which comprehended
the management of the Nabob's household, and the general superintendency
of the justice of Bengal; but, according to the orders of the Court of
Directors, his appointments were reduced to thirty thousand pounds a
year, or thereabouts, of which he did make grievous complaint, on
account of the expenses attendant on his station, and the heavy debts
which he had been obliged to contract during his unjust persecution and
imprisonment aforesaid.

XVI. That, on the removal of the said Mahomed Reza Khan from the
superintendency of the criminal justice, and in consequence of letting
the province of Bengal in farm by the said Warren Hastings, several
dangerous and mischievous innovations were made by him, the said Warren
Hastings, and the criminal justice of the country was almost wholly
subverted, and great irregularities and disorders did actually ensue.

XVII. That the Council-General, established by act of Parliament in the
year 1773, did restore the said Mahomed Reza Khan, with the consent and
approbation of the Nabob, (but under a protest from the said Warren
Hastings,) to his liberty and to his offices, according to the spirit of
the orders given by the Court of Directors as aforesaid; and the Court
of Directors did approve of the said appointment, and did assure the
said Mahomed Reza Khan of their favor and protection as long as his
conduct should merit the same, in the following terms. "As the abilities
of Mahomed Reza Khan have been sufficiently manifested, as official
experience qualifies him for so high a station in a more eminent degree
than any other native with whom the Company has been connected, and as
no proofs of maladministration have been established against him,
either during the strict investigation of his conduct or since his
retirement, we cannot under all circumstances but approve your
recommendation of him to the Nabob to constitute him his Naib. We are
well pleased that he has received that appointment, and authorize you to
assure him of our favor, so long as a firm attachment to the interest of
the Company and a proper discharge of the duties of his station shall
render him worthy of our protection." And the said Mahomed Reza Khan did
continue to execute the same without any complaint whatsoever of
malversation or negligence, in any manner or degree, in his said office.

XVIII. That in March, 1778, the said Warren Hastings, under color that
the Nabob had completed his twentieth year, and had desired to be placed
in the entire and uncontrolled management of his own affairs, and that
Mahomed Reza Khan should be removed from his office, and that Munny
Begum, his step-mother, the dancing-girl aforesaid, "should take on
herself the management of the _nizamut_ [the government and general
superintendency of criminal justice] without the interference of any
person whatsoever," and notwithstanding the contradictions in the
pretended applications from the Nabob, with whose incapacity for all
affairs he was well acquainted, did, in defiance of the orders of the
Court of Directors, and without regard to the infamy of an arrangement
made for the evident and declared purpose of delivering not only the
family with the prince, but the government and justice of a great
kingdom, into such insufficient, corrupt, and scandalous hands, and
though he has declared his opinion "that our national character is
concerned in the character which the Nabob may obtain in the public
opinion," on obtaining a majority in Council, without any complaint,
real or pretended, remove the said Mahomed Reza from all his offices,
and did partition his salary as a spoil in the following manner: to
Munny Begum, the dancing-girl aforesaid, an additional allowance of
72,000 rupees (7,200_l._) a year; to the Nabob's own mother but half
that sum, that is to say, 36,000 rupees (3,600_l._) a year; to Rajah
Gourdas, son of Nundcomar, (whom he had described as a weak young man,)
72,000 rupees (7,200_l._) a year, as controller of the household; and to
a magistrate called Sudder ul Hock, who, in real subserviency to the
said Munny Begum, was nominally to act in the department of criminal
justice, 78,000 rupees (7,800_l._) a year: the total of which allowances
exceeding the salary of Mahomed Reza Khan by 18,000 rupees (1,800_l._)
yearly, he did, for the corrupt and scandalous purposes aforesaid, order
the same to be made up from the Company's treasury.

XIX. That Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler having moved that the execution of
the aforesaid arrangement, the whole expense of which, ordinary and
extraordinary, was charged upon the Company's treasury, and therefore
could not be even colorably disposed of at the pretended will of the
said Nabob, might be suspended until the pleasure of the Court of
Directors thereon should be known, and the same being resolved agreeably
to law by a majority of the Council then present, the said Hastings,
urging on violently the immediate execution of his corrupt project, and
having obtained, by the return of Richard Barwell, Esquire, a majority
in Council in his own casting vote, did rescind the aforesaid
resolution, and did carry into immediate execution the aforesaid most
unwarrantable, mischievous, and scandalous design.

XX. That the consequences which might be expected from such a plan of
administration did almost instantly flow from it. For the person
appointed to execute one of the offices which had been filled by Mahomed
Reza Khan did soon find that the eunuchs of Munny Begum began to employ
their power with great superiority and insolence in all the concerns of
government and the administration of justice, and did endeavor to
dispose of the offices relative to the same for their corrupt purposes,
and to rob the Nabob's servants of their due allowances; and in his
letter of the 1st September, 1778, he sent a complaint to the board,
stating, "that certain bad men had gained an ascendency over the Nabob's
temper, by whose instigation he acts"; and after complaining of the
slights he received 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 most 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."

XXI. That, in a subsequent letter to the Governor, the said
Superintendent of Justice did inform him, the said Warren Hastings, of
the audacious and corrupt manner in which, by violence, fraud, and
forgery, the eunuchs of Munny Begum had abused the Nabob's name, to
deprive the judicial and executory officers of justice of the salaries
which they ought to have drawn from the Company's treasury, in the
following words: "The Begum's ministers, before my arrival, with the
advice of their counsellors, caused the Nabob to sign a receipt, in
consequence of which they received, at two different times, near 50,000
rupees [5,000_l._], in the name of the officers of the Adawlut,
Phousdary, &c., from the Company's sircars; and having drawn up an
account-current _in the manner they wished_, they had got the Nabob to
sign it, and sent it to me." And in the same letter he asserts, "that
these people had the Nabob entirely in their power."

XXII. That the said Warren Hastings, upon this representation, did,
notwithstanding his late pretended opinion of the fitness and the right
of the Nabob to the sole administration of his own affairs,
authoritatively forbid him from any interference therein, and ordered
that the whole should be left to the magistrate aforesaid; to which the
Nabob did, notwithstanding his pretended independence, yield an
immediate and unreserved submission: for the said Hastings's order being
given on the 1st of September at Calcutta, he received _an answer_ from
Moorshedabad on the 3d, in the following terms: "Agreeably to your
pleasure, I have relinquished all concern with the affairs of the
Phousdary and Adawlut, leaving the entire management in Sudder ul Hock's
hands." Which said circumstance, as well as many others, abundantly
proves that all the Nabob's actions were in truth and fact entirely
governed by the influence of the said Hastings, and that, however the
said Hastings may have publicly discouraged the corrupt transactions of
the said court, yet he did secretly uphold the authority and influence
of Munny Begum, who did entirely direct, with his knowledge and
countenance, all the proceedings therein. For

XXIII. That on the 13th of the same month of September he did receive a
further complaint of the corrupt and fraudulent practices of the chief
eunuch of the said Munny Begum; and these corrupt practices did so
continue and increase, that on the 10th of October, 1778, he was obliged
to confess, in the strongest terms, the pernicious consequences of his
before-created unwarrantable and illegal arrangements; for, in a letter
of that date to the Nabob, he expresses himself as follows. "At your
Excellency's request, I sent Sudder ul Hock Khan to take on him the
administration of the affairs of the Adawlut and Phousdary, and hoped by
that means not only to have given satisfaction to your Excellency, but
that, through his abilities and experience, these affairs would have
been conducted in such manner as to have secured the peace of the
country and the happiness of the people; and it is with the greatest
concern I learn that this measure is so far from being attended with the
expected advantages, that the affairs both of the Phousdary and Adawlut
are in the greatest confusion imaginable, and daily robberies and
murders are perpetrated throughout the country. This is evidently owing
to the want of a proper authority in the person appointed to superintend
them. I therefore addressed your Excellency on the importance and
delicacy of the affairs in question, and of the necessity of lodging
full power in the hands of the person chosen to administer them; in
reply to which your Excellency expressed sentiments coincident with
mine; notwithstanding which, your dependants and people, actuated by
_selfish, and avaricious views, have by their interference so impeded
the business as to throw the whole country into a state of confusion,
from which nothing can retrieve it but an unlimited power lodged in the
hands of the superintendent_. I therefore request that your Excellency
will give the strictest injunctions to all your dependants not to
interfere in any manner with any matter relative to the affairs of the
Adawlut and Phousdary, and that you will yourself relinquish all
interference therein, and leave them entirely to the management of
Sudder ul Hock Khan: this is absolutely necessary to restore the country
to a state of tranquillity." And he concluded by again recommending the
Nabob to withdraw all interference with the administrator aforesaid:
"otherwise a measure which I adopted at your Excellency's request, and
with a view to your satisfaction and the benefit of the country, will be
attended with quite contrary effects, and bring discredit on me."

XXIV. That the said Hastings, in the letter aforesaid, in which he so
strongly condemns the acts and so clearly marks out the mischievous
effects of the corrupt influence under which alone the Nabob acted, and
under which alone, from his known incapacity, and his dependence on the
person supported by the said Hastings, he could act, did propose to put
all the offices of justice (which on another occasion he had requested
him to _permit_ to remain in the hands which then held them) into his
own disposal,--telling him, or rather the woman and eunuchs who governed
him, "that, if his Excellency has any plan for the management of the
affairs in future, be pleased to communicate it to me, and every
attention shall be paid to give your Excellency satisfaction": by which
means not only particular parts, as before, but the whole system of
justice was to be afloat, and to be subject to the purposes of the
aforesaid corrupt cabal of women and eunuchs.

XXV. That the Court of Directors, on receiving an account of the above
arrangements, and being well apprised of the spirit, intention, and
probable effect of the same, did, in a clear, firm, and decisive manner,
express their condemnation of the measure, and their rejection and
reprobation of all the pretended grounds and reasons on which the same
was supported,--marking distinctly his prevarication and contradictions
in the same, and pointing to him their full conviction of the unworthy
motives on which he had made so shameful an arrangement: telling him, in
the 17th paragraph of their general letter of the 4th of February, 1779,
"The Nabob's letters of the 25th and 30th of August, of the 3d of
September, and 17th of November, leave us no doubt of the _true_ design
of this _extraordinary_ business being _to bring forward_ Munny Begum,
and again to invest her with improper power and influence,
notwithstanding our former declaration, that _so great_ a part of the
Nabob's allowance had been embezzled and misapplied under her
superintendence."

XXVI. That, in consequence of the censure and condemnation of the
unwarrantable measures of the said Warren Hastings by the Court of
Directors, on the aforesaid and other weighty and substantial grounds,
they did order and direct as follows, in the 20th paragraph of the
general letter of the same date. "As we deem it for the welfare of the
country that the office of Naib Subahdar be for the present continued,
and that this high office should be filled by a person of wisdom,
experience, and of approved fidelity to the Company, and as we have no
reason to alter the opinion given of Mahomed Reza Khan in our letter of
the 24th of December, 1776, we positively direct, that you forthwith
signify to the Nabob Mobarek ul Dowlah our pleasure that Mahomed Reza
Khan be immediately restored to the office of Naib Subahdar; and we
further direct, that Mahomed Reza Khan be again assured of the
continuance of our favor, so long as a firm attachment to the interest
of the Company and a proper discharge of the duties of his station shall
render him worthy of our protection."

XXVII. That the aforesaid direction did convey in it such evident and
cogent reason, and was so far enforced by justice to individuals and by
regard to the peace and happiness of the natives, as well as by the
common decorum to be observed in all the transactions of government,
that the said Hastings ought to have yielded a cheerful obedience
thereto, even if he had not been by a positive statute, and his relation
of servant to the Company, bound to that just submission. Yet the said
Hastings did, without denying or evading any one of the reasons assigned
by the Court of Directors, or controverting the scandalous motives
assigned by them for his conduct, contumaciously refuse obedience to the
above positive order, on pretence that the Nabob, who, he had declared
it on record "to be as visible as the light of the sun, is a mere
pageant, and without even the shadow of authority," did dissent from the
same; and he did encourage the said Nabob, or rather the eunuchs, the
corrupt ministers of Munny Begum, to oppose himself and themselves to
the authority of the said Court of Directors: by which means the
arrangement, three times either ratified or expressly ordered by them,
was wholly defeated; the aforesaid corrupt system was continued; Mahomed
Reza Khan was not restored to his office; and a lesson was taught to the
natives of all ranks, that the declared approbation, the avowed
sanction, and the decided authority of the Court of Directors were
wholly nugatory to their protection against the corrupt influence of
their servants.

XXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, on a reconciliation with Mr.
Francis, one of the Council-General, who made it a condition thereof
that certain of the Company's orders should be obeyed, and that Mahomed
Reza Khan should be restored to his offices, did, a considerable time
after, notwithstanding the pretended reluctance of the Nabob, and his
pretended freedom, make, for his convenience in the said accommodation,
the arrangement which he had unwarrantably and illegally refused to the
orders of the Court of Directors, and did of his own authority and that
of the board restore Mahomed Reza Khan to his offices.

XXIX. That soon after the departure of the said Mr. Francis he did again
deprive the said Mahomed Reza Khan of his said offices, and did make
several great changes in the constitution of the criminal justice in the
said country; and after having, under pretence of the Nabob's
sufficiency for the management of his own affairs, displaced, without
any specific charge, trial, or inquiry whatsoever, the said Mahomed Reza
Khan, he did submit the said Nabob to the entire direction, in all parts
of his concerns, of a Resident of his own nomination, Sir John D'Oyly,
Baronet, and did order an account of the most minute parts of his
domestic economy to be made out, and to be delivered to the said Sir
John D'Oyly, in the following words, contained in a paper by him
intituled, INSTRUCTIONS from the Governor-General to the Nabob Mobarek
ul Dowlah respecting his conduct in the management of his affairs. "You
will be pleased to direct your _mutseddies_ to form an account of the
fixed sums of your monthly expenses, such as servants' wages in the
different departments, pensions, and other allowances, as well as of the
estimated amount of variable expenses, to be delivered to Sir John
D'Oyly _for my inspection_. I have given such orders to Sir John D'Oyly
as will enable him to propose to you such reductions of the pensions and
other allowances, and such a distribution of the variable expenses, as
shall be proportionable to the total sum of your monthly income; _and I
must request you will conform to it_." And he did, in the subsequent
articles of his said instructions, order the whole management to be
directed by Sir John D'Oyly, subject to his own directions as aforesaid;
and did even direct what company he should keep; and did throw
reflections on some persons, in places the nearest to him, as of bad
character and base origin,--persons whom he should decline to name as
such, "unless he heard that they still availed themselves of his
goodness to retain _the places_ which they improperly hold near his
person." And he did particularly order the said Nabob not to admit any
English, but such as the said Sir John D'Oyly should approve, to his
presence; and did repeat the said order in the following peremptory
manner: "You _must forbid any_ person of _that nation_ to be intruded
into _your_ presence without _his_ introduction." And he did require his
obedience in the following authoritative style: "I shall think myself
obliged to interfere _in another manner_, if you neglect it."