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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)




To bring this point a little nearer home,--since we are challenged thus,
since we are led into Asia, since we are called upon to make good our
charge on the principles of the governments there, rather than on those
of our own country, (which I trust your Lordships will oblige him
finally to be governed by, puffed up as he is with the insolence of
Asia,)--the nearest to us of the governments he appeals to is that of
the Grand Seignior, the Emperor of the Turks.--_He_ an arbitrary power!
Why, he has not the supreme power of his own country. Every one knows
that the Grand Seignior is exalted high in _titles_, as our prerogative
lawyers exalt an abstract sovereign,--and he cannot be exalted higher in
our books. I say he is destitute of the first character of sovereign
power: he cannot lay a tax upon his people. The next part in which he
misses of a sovereign power is, that he cannot dispose of the life, of
the property, or of the liberty of any of his subjects, but by what is
called the _fetwah_, or sentence of the law. He cannot declare peace or
war without the same sentence of the law: so much is _he_, more than
European sovereigns, a subject of strict law, that he cannot declare war
or peace without it. Then, if he can neither touch life nor property,
if he cannot lay a tax on his subjects, or declare peace or war, I leave
it to your Lordships' judgment, whether he can be called, according to
the principles of that constitution, an arbitrary power. A Turkish
sovereign, if he should be judged by the body of that law to have acted
against its principles, (unless he happens to be secured by a faction of
the soldiery,) is liable to be deposed on the sentence of that law, and
his successor comes in under the strict limitations of the ancient law
of that country: neither can he hold his place, dispose of his
succession, or take any one step whatever, without being bound by law.
Thus much may be said, when gentlemen talk of the affairs of Asia, as to
the nearest of Asiatic sovereigns: and he is more Asiatic than European,
he is a Mahomedan sovereign; and no Mahomedan is born who can exercise
any arbitrary power at all, consistently with their constitution;
insomuch that this chief magistrate, who is the highest executive power
among them, is the very person who, by the constitution of the country,
is the most fettered by law.

Corruption is the true cause of the loss of all the benefits of the
constitution of that country. The _practice of Asia_, as the gentleman
at your bar has thought fit to say, is what he holds to; the
constitution he flies away from. The question is, whether you will take
the constitution of the country as your rule, or the base practices of
those usurpers, robbers, and tyrants who have subverted it. Undoubtedly,
much blood, murder, false imprisonment, much peculation, cruelty, and
robbery are to be found in Asia; and if, instead of going to the sacred
laws of the country, he chooses to resort to the iniquitous practices of
it, and practices authorized only by public tumult, contention, war, and
riot, he may indeed find as clear an acquittal in the practices as he
would find condemnation in the institutions of it. He has rejected the
law of England. Your Lordships will not suffer it. God forbid! For my
part, I should have no sort of objection to let him choose his
law,--Mahomedan, Tartarian, Gentoo. But if he disputes, as he does, the
authority of an act of Parliament, let him state to me that law to which
he means to be subject, or any law which he knows that will justify his
actions. I am not authorized to say that I shall, even in that case,
give up what is not in me to give up, because I represent an authority
of which I must stand in awe; but, for myself, I shall confess that I am
brought to public shame, and am not fit to manage the great interests
committed to my charge. I therefore again repeat of that Asiatic
government with which we are best acquainted, which has been constituted
more in obedience to the laws of Mahomet than any other, that the
sovereign cannot, agreeably to that constitution, exercise any arbitrary
power whatever.

The next point for us to consider is, whether or no the Mahomedan
constitution of India authorizes that power. The gentleman at your
Lordships' bar has thought proper to say, that it will be happy for
India, (though soon after he tells you it is an happiness they can never
enjoy,) "when the despotic institutes of Genghiz Khan or Tamerlane shall
give place to the liberal spirit of a British legislature; and," says
he, "I shall be amply satisfied in my present prosecution, if it shall
tend to hasten the approach of an event so beneficial to the great
interests of mankind."

My Lords, you have seen what he says about an act of Parliament. Do you
not now think it rather an extraordinary thing, that any British subject
should, in vindication of the authority which he has exercised, here
quote the names and institutes, as he calls them, of fierce conquerors,
of men who were the scourges of mankind, whose power was a power which
they held by force only?

As to the institutes of Genghiz Khan, which he calls arbitrary
institutes, I never saw them. If he has that book, he will oblige the
public by producing it. I have seen a book existing, called Yassa of
Genghiz Khan; the other I never saw. If there be any part of it to
justify arbitrary power, he will produce it. But if we may judge by
those ten precepts of Genghiz Khan which we have, there is not a shadow
of arbitrary power to be found in any one of them. Institutes of
arbitrary power! Why, if there is arbitrary power, there can be no
institutes.

As to the institutes of Tamerlane, here they are in their original, and
here is a translation. I have carefully read every part of these
institutes; and if any one shows me one word in them in which the prince
claims in himself arbitrary power, I again repeat, that I shall for my
own part confess that I have brought myself to great shame. There is no
book in the world, I believe, which contains nobler, more just, more
manly, more pious principles of government than this book, called the
Institutions of Tamerlane. Nor is there one word of arbitrary power in
it, much less of that arbitrary power which Mr. Hastings supposes
himself justified by,--namely, a delegated, subordinate, arbitrary
power. So far was that great prince from permitting this gross, violent,
intermediate arbitrary power, that I will venture to say the chief thing
by which he has recommended himself to posterity was a most direct
declaration of all the wrath and indignation of the supreme government
against it. But here is the book. It contains the institutes of the
founder of the Mogul empire, left as a sacred legacy to his posterity,
as a rule for their conduct, and as a means of preserving their power.

* * * * *

"Be it known to my fortunate sons, the conquerors of kingdoms, to my
mighty descendants, the lords of the earth, that, since I have hope in
Almighty God that many of my children, descendants, and posterity shall
sit upon the throne of power and regal authority, upon this account,
having established laws and regulations for the well governing of my
dominions, I have collected together those regulations and laws as a
model for others, to the end that, every one of my children,
descendants, and posterity acting agreeably thereto, my power and
empire, which I acquired through hardships and difficulties and perils
and bloodshed, by the Divine favor, and by the influence of the holy
religion of Mahomet, (God's peace be up on him!) and with the assistance
of the powerful descendants and illustrious followers of that prophet,
may be by them preserved. And let them make these regulations the rule
of their conduct in the affairs of their empire, that the fortune and
the power which shall descend from me to them may be safe from discord
and dissolution.

"Now, therefore, be it known to my sons, the fortunate and the
illustrious, to my descendants, the mighty subduers of kingdoms, that,
in like manner as I by twelve maxims, which I established as the rule of
my conduct, attained to regal dignity, and with the assistance of these
maxims conquered and governed kingdoms, and decorated and adorned the
throne of my empire, let them also act according to these regulations,
and preserve the splendor of mine and their dominions.

"And among the rules which I established for the support of my glory and
empire, the _first_ was this,--that I promoted the worship of Almighty
God, and propagated the religion of the sacred Mahomet throughout the
world, and at all times and in all places supported the true faith.

"_Secondly_. With the people of the twelve classes and tribes I
conquered and governed kingdoms, and with them I strengthened the
pillars of my fortune, and from them I formed my assembly.

"_Thirdly_. By consultation and deliberation and provident measures, by
caution and by vigilance, I vanquished armies, and I reduced kingdoms to
my authority. And I carried on the business of my empire by complying
with times and occasions, and by generosity, and by patience, and by
policy; and I acted with courteousness towards my friends and towards my
enemies.

"_Fourthly_. By order and by discipline I regulated the concerns of my
government; and by discipline and by order I so firmly established my
authority, that the emirs and the viziers and the soldiers and the
subjects could not aspire beyond their respective degrees; and every one
of them was the keeper of his own station.

"_Fifthly_. I gave encouragement to my emirs and to my soldiers, and
with money and with jewels I made them glad of heart; and I permitted
them to come into the banquet; and in the field of blood they hazarded
their lives. And I withheld not from them my gold nor my silver. And I
educated and trained them to arms; and to alleviate their sufferings, I
myself shared in their labors and in their hardships, until with the arm
of fortitude and resolution, and with the unanimity of my chiefs and my
generals and my warriors, by the edge of the sword, I obtained
possession of the thrones of seven-and-twenty kings, and became the king
and the ruler of the kingdoms of Eraun, and of Tooraun, and of Room, and
of Mughrib, and of Shaum, and of Missur, and of Erauk-a-Arrub, and of
Ajjum, and of Mauzinduraun, and of Kylaunaut, and of Shurvaunaut, and of
Azzurbauejaun, and of Fauris, and of Khorausaun, and of the Dusht of
Jitteh, and the Dusht of Kipchauk, and of Khauruzm, and Khuttun, and of
Kauboolistaun, and of Hindostaun, and of Bauktur Zemeen.

"And when I clothed myself in the robe of empire, I shut my eyes to
safety, and to the repose which is found on the bed of ease. And from
the twelfth year of my age I travelled over countries, and combated
difficulties, and formed enterprises, and vanquished armies, and
experienced mutinies amongst my officers and my soldiers, and was
familiarized to the language of disobedience; and I opposed them with
policy and with fortitude, and I hazarded my person in the hour of
danger; until in the end I vanquished kingdoms and empires, and
established the glory of my name.

"_Sixthly_. By justice and equity I gained the affections of the people
of God; and I extended my clemency to the guilty as well as to the
innocent; and I passed that sentence which truth required; and by
benevolence I gained a place in the hearts of men; and by rewards and
punishments I kept both my troops and my subjects divided between hope
and fear. And I compassionated the lower ranks of my people, and those
who were distressed. And I gave gifts to the soldiers.

"And I delivered the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor; and after
proof of the oppression, whether on the property or the person, the
decision which I passed between them was agreeable to the sacred law.
And I did not cause any one person to suffer for the guilt of another.

"Those who had done me injuries, who had attacked my person in battle,
and had counteracted my schemes and enterprises, when they threw
themselves on my mercy, I received them with kindness, I conferred on
them additional honors, and I drew the pen of oblivion over their evil
actions; and I treated them in such sort, that, if suspicion remained in
their hearts, it was plucked out entirely.

"_Seventhly_, I selected out, and treated with esteem and veneration,
the posterity of the Prophet, and the theologians, and the teachers of
the true faith, and the philosophers, and the historians. And I loved
men of courage and valor; for God Almighty loveth the brave. And I
associated with good and learned men; and I gained their affections, and
I entreated their support, and I sought success from their holy prayers.
And I loved the dervishes and the poor; and I oppressed them not,
neither did I exclude them from my favor. And I permitted not the evil
and the malevolent to enter into my council; and I acted not by their
advice; and I listened not to their insinuations to the prejudice of
others.

"_Eighthly_. I acted with resolution; and on whatever undertaking I
resolved, I made that undertaking the only object of my attention; and I
withdrew not my hand from that enterprise, until I had brought it to a
conclusion. And I acted according to that which I said. And I dealt not
with severity towards any one, and I was not oppressive in any of my
actions; that God Almighty might not deal severely towards me, nor
render my own actions oppressive unto me.

"And I inquired of learned men into the laws and regulations of ancient
princes, from the days of Adam to those of the Prophet, and from the
days of the Prophet down to this time. And I weighed their institutions
and their actions and their opinions, one by one. And from their
approved manners and their good qualities I selected models. And I
inquired into the causes of the subversion of their power, and I shunned
those actions which tend to the destruction and overthrow of regal
authority. And from cruelty and from oppression, which are the
destroyers of posterity and the bringers of famine and of plagues, I
found it was good to abstain.

"_Ninthly_. The situation of my people was known unto me. And those who
were great among them I considered as my brethren; and I regarded the
poor as my children. And I made myself acquainted with the tempers and
the dispositions of the people of every country and of every city. And I
contracted intimacies with the citizens and the chiefs and the nobles;
and I appointed over them governors adapted to their manners and their
dispositions and their wishes. And I knew the circumstances of the
inhabitants of every province. And in every kingdom I appointed writers
of intelligence, men of truth and integrity, that they might send me
information of the conduct and the behavior and the actions and the
manners of the troops and of the inhabitants, and of every occurrence
that might come to pass amongst them. And if I discovered aught contrary
to their information, I inflicted punishment on the intelligencer; and
every circumstance of cruelty and oppression in the governors and in the
troops and in the inhabitants, which reached my ears, I chastised
agreeably to justice and equity.

"_Tenthly_. Whatever tribe, and whatever horde, whether Toork, or
Taucheek, or Arrub, or Ajjum, came in unto me, I received their chiefs
with distinction and respect, and their followers I honored according to
their degrees and their stations; and to the good among them I did good,
and the evil I delivered over to their evil actions.

"And whoever attached himself unto me, I forgot not the merit of his
attachment, and I acted towards him with kindness and generosity; and
whoever had rendered me services, I repaid the value of those services
unto him. And whoever had been my enemy, and was ashamed thereof, and,
flying to me for protection, humbled himself before me, I forgot his
enmity, and I purchased him with liberality and kindness.

"In such manner Share Behraum, the chief of a tribe, was along with me.
And he left me in the hour of action, and he united with the enemy, and
he drew forth his sword against me. And at length my salt, which he had
eaten, seized upon him; and he again fled to me for refuge, and humbled
himself before me. As he was a man of illustrious descent, and of
bravery, and of experience, I covered my eyes from his evil actions; and
I magnified him, and I exalted him to a superior rank, and I pardoned
his disloyalty in consideration of his valor.

"_Eleventhly_. My children, and my relations, and my associates, and my
neighbors, and such as had been connected with me, all these I
distinguished in the days of my fortune and prosperity, and I paid unto
them their due. And with respect to my family, I rent not asunder the
bands of consanguinity and mercy; and I issued not commands to slay
them, or to bind them with chains.

"And I dealt with every man, whatever the judgment I had formed of him,
according to my own opinion of his worth. As I had seen much of
prosperity and adversity, and had acquired knowledge and experience, I
conducted myself with caution and with policy towards my friends and
towards my enemies.

"_Twelfthly_. Soldiers, whether associates or adversaries, I held in
esteem,--those who sell their permanent happiness to perishable honor,
and throw themselves into the field of slaughter and battle, and hazard
their lives in the hour of danger.

"And the man who drew his sword on the side of my enemy, and committed
hostilities against me, and preserved his fidelity to his master, him I
greatly honored; and when such a man came unto me, knowing his worth, I
classed him with my faithful associates; and I respected and valued his
fidelity and his attachment.

"And the soldier who forgot his duty and his honor, and in the hour of
action turned his face from his master, and came in unto me, I
considered as the most detestable of men.

"And in the war between Touktummish Khaun, his emirs forgot their duty
to Touktummish, who was their master and my foe, and sent proposals and
wrote letters unto me. And I uttered execrations upon them, because,
unmindful of that which they owed to their lord, they had thrown aside
their honor and their duty, and came in unto me. I said unto myself,
'What fidelity have they observed to their liege lord? what fidelity
will they show unto me?'

"And, behold, it was known unto me by experience, that every empire
which is not established in morality and religion, nor strengthened by
regulations and laws, from that empire all order, grandeur, and power
shall pass away. And that empire may be likened unto a naked man, who,
when exposed to view, commandeth the eye of modesty to be covered; and
it is like unto a house which hath neither roof nor gates nor defences,
into which whoever willeth may enter unmolested.

"THEREFORE I established the foundation of my empire on the morality and
the religion of Islaum; and by regulations and laws I gave it stability.
And by laws and by regulations I executed every business and every
transaction that came before me in the course of my government."

* * * * *

I need not read any further, or I might show your Lordships the noble
principles, the grand, bold, and manly maxims, the resolution to abstain
from oppression himself, and to crush it in the governors under him, to
be found in this book, which Mr. Hastings has thought proper to resort
to as containing what he calls arbitrary principles.

But it is not in this instance only that I must do justice to the East.
I assert that their morality is equal to ours, in whatever regards the
duties of governors, fathers, and superiors; and I challenge the world
to show in any modern European book more true morality and wisdom than
is to be found in the writings of Asiatic men in high trust, and who
have been counsellors to princes. If this be the true morality of Asia,
as I affirm and can prove that it is, the plea founded on Mr. Hastings's
geographical morality is annihilated.

I little regard the theories of travellers, where they do not relate the
facts on which they are founded. I have two instances of facts attested
by Tavernier, a traveller of power and consequence, which are very
material to be mentioned here, because they show that in some of the
instances recorded, in which the princes of the country have used any of
those cruel and barbarous executions which make us execrate them, it has
been upon governors who have abused their trust,--and that this very
Oriental authority to which Mr. Hastings appeals would have condemned
him to a dreadful punishment. I thank God, and I say it from my heart,
that even for his enormous offences there neither is nor can be anything
like such punishments. God forbid that we should not as much detest
out-of-the-way, mad, furious, and unequal punishments as we detest
enormous and abominable crimes! because a severe and cruel penalty for a
crime of a light nature is as bad and iniquitous as the crime which it
pretends to punish. As the instances I allude to are curious, and as
they go to the principles of Mr. Hastings's defence, I shall beg to
quote them.

The first is upon a governor who did what Mr. Hastings says he has a
power delegated to him to do: he levied a tax without the consent of his
master. "Some years after my departure from Com," says Tavernier, "the
governor had, of his own accord, and without any communication with the
king, laid a small impost upon every pannier of fruit brought into the
city, for the purpose of making some necessary reparations in the walls
and bridges of the town. It was towards the end of the year 1632 that
the event I am going to relate happened. The king, being informed of the
impost which the governor had laid upon the fruit, ordered him to be
brought in chains to court. The king ordered him to be exposed to the
people at one of the gates of the palace; then he commanded the son to
pluck off the mustachios of his father, to cut off his nose and ears, to
put out his eyes, and then cut off his head. The king then told the son
to go and take possession of the government of his father, saying, _See
that you govern better than this deceased dog, or thy doom shall be a
death more exquisitely tormenting_."

My Lords, you are struck with horror, I am struck with horror, at this
punishment. I do not relate it to approve of such a barbarous act, but
to prove to your Lordships, that, whatever power the princes of that
country have, they are jealous of it to such a degree, that, if any of
their governors should levy a tax, even the most insignificant, and for
the best purposes, he meets with a cruel punishment. I do not justify
the punishment; but the severity of it shows how little of their power
the princes of that country mean to delegate to their servants, the
whole of which the gentleman at your bar says was delegated to him.

There is another case, a very strong one, and that is the case of
presents, which I understand is a custom admitted throughout Asia in all
their governments. It was of a person who was raised to a high office;
no business was suffered to come before him without a previous present.
"One morning, the king being at this time on a hunting party, the
_nazar_ came to the tent of the king, but was denied entrance by the
_meter_, or master of the wardrobe. About the same time the king came
forth, and, seeing the nazar, commanded his officers to take off the
bonnet from the head of that dog that took gifts from his people, and
that he should sit three days bareheaded in the heat of the sun, and as
many nights in the air. Afterwards he caused him to be chained about the
neck and arms, and condemned him to perpetual imprisonment, with a
_mamoudy_ a day for his maintenance; but he died for grief within eight
days after he was put in prison."

Do I mean, by reading this to your Lordships, to express or intimate an
approbation either of the cruelty of the punishment or of the coarse
barbarism of the language? Neither one nor the other. I produce it to
your Lordships to prove to you, from this dreadful example, the horror
which that government felt, when any person subject to it assumed to
himself a privilege to receive presents. The cruelty and severity
exercised by these princes is not levelled at the poor unfortunate
people who complain at their gates, but, to use their own barbarous
expression, _to dogs that impose taxes and take presents_. God forbid I
should use that language! The people, when they complain, are not called
dogs and sent away, but the governors, who do these things against the
people: they are called dogs, and treated in that cruel manner. I quote
them to show that no governors in the East, upon any principle of their
constitution or any good practice of their government, can lay arbitrary
imposts or receive presents. When they escape, it is probably by
bribery, by corruption, by creating factions for themselves in the
seraglio, in the country, in the army, in the divan. But how they escape
such punishments is not my business to inquire; it is enough for me that
the constitution disavows them, that the princes of the country disavow
them,--that they revile them with the most horrible expressions, and
inflict dreadful punishments on them, when they are called to answer for
these offences. Thus much concerning the Mahomedan laws of Asia. That
the people of Asia have no laws, rights, or liberty, is a doctrine that
wickedly is to be disseminated through this country. But I again assert,
every Mahomedan government is, by its principles, a government of law.