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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)




That, moreover, if all the charges which have been pretended against the
Ranna, and have been alleged by the said Hastings in justification of
his conduct, had been well founded and proved to be true, the
subject-matter of those accusations and the proofs by which they wore to
be supported were known to Colonel Muir before the conclusion of the
treaty he entered into with Mahdajee Sindia; and therefore, whatever
suspicions may have been entertained or whatever degree of criminality
may have been proved against the said Ranna previous to the said treaty,
from the time he was so provided for and included in the said treaty he
was fully and justly entitled to the security stipulated for him by the
Company, and had a right to demand and receive the protection of the
British government.

That these considerations were urged by Mr. Anderson to the said Warren
Hastings, in his letter of the 24th of June, 1781, and were enforced by
this additional argument,--"that, in point of policy, I believe, it
ought not to be our wish that the Mahrattas should ever recover the
fortress of Gualior. It forms an important barrier to our own
possessions. In the hands of the Ranna it can be of no prejudice to us;
and notwithstanding the present prospect of a permanent peace betwixt us
and the Mahrattas, it seems highly expedient that there should always
remain some strong barrier to separate us, on this side of India, from
that warlike and powerful nation."

That the said Warren Hastings was highly culpable in abandoning the said
Ranna to the fury of his enemies, thereby forfeiting the honor and
injuring the credit of the British nation in India, notwithstanding the
said Hastings was fully convinced, and had professed, "that the most
sacred observance of treaties, justice, and good faith were necessary to
the existence of the national interests in that country," and though the
said Hastings has complained of the insufficiency of the laws of this
kingdom to enforce this doctrine "by the punishment of persons in the
possession of power, who may be impelled by the provocation of ambition,
avarice, or vengeance, stronger than the restrictions of integrity and
honor, to the violation of this just and wise maxim."

That the said Hastings, in thus departing from these his own principles,
with a full and just sense of the guilt he would thereby incur, and in
sacrificing the allies of this country "_to the provocations of
ambition, avarice, or vengeance_," in violation of the national faith
and justice, did commit a gross and wilful breach of his duty, and was
thereby guilty of an high crime and misdemeanor.




XV.--REVENUES.


PART I.

That the property of the lands of Bengal is, according to the laws and
customs of that country, an inheritable property, and that it is, with
few exceptions; vested in certain natives, called _zemindars_, or
landholders, under whom other natives, called _talookdars_ and _ryots_,
hold certain subordinate rights of property or occupancy in the said
lands. That the said natives are Hindoos, and that their _rights and
privileges are grounded upon the possession of regular grants, a long
series of family succession, and fair purchase_. That it appears that
Bengal has been under the dominion of the Mogul, and subject to a
Mahomedan government, for above two hundred years. That, while the Mogul
government was in its vigor, the property of zemindars was _held
sacred_, and that, either by voluntary grant from the said Mogul or by
composition with him, the native Hindoos were left in the free, quiet,
and undisturbed possession of their lands, on the single condition of
paying a fixed, certain, and unalterable revenue, or quit-rent, to the
Mogul government. That this revenue, or quit-rent, was called the
_aussil jumma_, or _original ground-rent_, of the provinces, and was not
increased from the time when it was first settled in 1573 to 1740, when
the regular and effective Mogul government ended. That, from that time
to 1765, invasions, usurpations, and various revolutions took place in
the government of Bengal, in consequence of which the country was
considerably reduced and impoverished, when the East India Company
received from the present Mogul emperor, Shah Allum, a grant of the
_dewanny_, or collection of the revenues. That about the year 1770 the
provinces of Bengal and Bahar were visited with a dreadful famine and
mortality, by which at least one third of the inhabitants perished. That
Warren Hastings, Esquire, has declared, "that he had always heard the
loss of inhabitants reckoned at a third, and in many places near one
half of the whole, and that he knew not by what means such a loss could
be recruited in four or five years, and believed it impossible." That,
nevertheless, the revenue was _violently kept up to its former
standard_,--that is, in the two years immediately preceding the
appointment of the said Warren Hastings to the government of Fort
William,--in consequence of which _the remaining two thirds of the
inhabitants were obliged to pay for the lands now left without
cultivation_; and that from the year 1770 to the year 1775 _the country
had languished, and the evil continued enhancing every day_. That the
said Warren Hastings, in a letter to the Secret Committee of the Court
of Directors, dated 1st September, 1772, declared, "that the lands had
suffered unheard-of depopulation by the famine and mortality of 1769;
that the collections, _violently kept up to their former standard_, had
added to the distress of the country, and threatened a general decay of
the revenue, unless immediate remedies were applied to prevent it." That
the said Warren Hastings has declared, "that, by intrusting the
collections to the hereditary zemindars, the people would be treated
with _more tenderness_, the rents more improved, and cultivation more
likely to be encouraged; that _they_ have a perpetual interest in the
country; that _their_ inheritance cannot be removed; that _they_ are the
proprietors; that the lands are _their_ estates, and _their_
inheritance; that, from a long continuance of the lands in their
families, it is to be concluded they have riveted an authority in the
district, acquired an ascendency over the minds of the ryots, and
_ingratiated their affections_; that, from continuing the lands under
the management of those who have a natural and perpetual interest in
their prosperity, solid advantages might be expected to accrue; that the
zemindar would be less liable to failure or deficiencies than the
farmer, from the perpetual interest which the former hath in the
country, and because his inheritance cannot be removed, and it would be
improbable that he should risk the loss of it by eloping from his
district, which is too frequently practised by a farmer when he is
hard-pressed for the payment of his balances, and as frequently
predetermined when he receives his farm." That, notwithstanding all the
preceding declarations made by the said Warren Hastings of the loss of
one third of the inhabitants and general decline of the country, he did,
immediately after his appointment to the government, in the year 1772,
make an arbitrary settlement of the revenues for five years at a higher
rate than had ever been received before, and with a progressive and
accumulating increase on each of the four last years of the said
settlement.

That, notwithstanding the right of property and inheritance, repeatedly
acknowledged by the said Warren Hastings to be in the zemindars and
other native landholders, and notwithstanding he had declared "that the
security of private property is the greatest encouragement to industry,
on which the wealth of every state depends," the said Warren Hastings,
nevertheless, in direct violation of those acknowledged rights and
principles, did universally let the lands of Bengal _in farm_ for five
years,--thereby destroying all the rights of private property of the
zemindars,--thereby delivering the management of their estates to
farmers, and transferring by a most arbitrary and unjust act of power
the whole landed property of Bengal from the owners to strangers. That,
to accomplish this iniquitous purpose, he, the said Warren Hastings, did
put the lands of Bengal up to a pretended public auction, _and invited
all persons to make proposals for farming the same_, thereby encouraging
strangers to bid against the proprietors,--in consequence of which, not
only the said proprietors were ousted of the possession and management
of their estates, but a great part of the lands fell into the hands of
the banians, or principal black servants of British subjects connected
with and protected by the government; and that the said Warren Hastings
himself has since declared, that _by this way the lands too generally
fell into the hands of desperate or knavish adventurers_.[6] That,
before the measure hereinbefore described was carried into execution,
the said Warren Hastings did establish certain fundamental regulations
in Council, to be observed in executing the same.[7] That among these
regulations it was specially and strictly ordered, that no farm should
exceed the annual amount of _one_ lac of rupees, and "that no peshcar,
banian, or other servant, of whatever denomination, of the collector, or
relation or dependant of any such servant, should be allowed to farm
lands, nor directly or indirectly to hold a concern in any farm, nor to
be security for any farmer." That, in direct violation of these his own
regulations, and in breach of the public trust reposed in him, and
sufficiently declared by the manifest duty of his station, if it had not
been expressed and enforced by any positive institution, he, the said
Warren Hastings, did permit and suffer his own banian or principal black
steward, named Cantoo Baboo, to hold farms in different purgunnahs, or
districts, or to be security for farms, to the amount of thirteen lac of
rupees (130,000_l._ or upwards) per annum; and that, after enjoying the
whole of those farms for two years, he was permitted by the said Warren
Hastings to relinquish two of them. That on the subject of the farms
held by Cantoo Baboo the said Warren Hastings has made the following
declaration. "Many of his farms were taken without my knowledge, and
almost all against my advice. I had no right to use compulsion or
authority; nor could I with justice exclude him, because he was my
servant, from a liberty allowed to all other persons in the country. The
farms which he quitted he quitted by my advice, because I thought that
he might engage himself beyond his abilities, and be involved in
disputes, which I did not choose to have come before me as judge of
them."[8] That the said declaration contains sundry false and
contradictory assertions: that, if _almost all_ the said farms were
taken against his advice, it cannot be true that _many_ of them were
taken without his knowledge; that, whether Cantoo Baboo had been his
servant or not, the said Warren Hastings was bound by his own
regulations to prevent his holding any farms to a greater amount than
one lac of rupees per annum, and that the said Cantoo Baboo, being the
servant of the Governor-General, was excluded by the said regulations
from holding any farms whatever; that, if (as the Directors observe) it
was thought dangerous to permit the banian of a collector to be
concerned in farms, the same or stronger objections would always lie
against the Governor's banian being so concerned; that the said Warren
Hastings had a right, and was bound by his duty, to prevent his servant
from holding the same; that, in advising the said Cantoo Baboo to
relinquish some of the said farms, for which he was actually engaged, he
has acknowledged an influence over his servant, and has used that
influence for a purpose inconsistent with his duty to the India Company,
namely, to deprive them of the security of the said Cantoo Baboo's
engagement for farms which on trial he had found not beneficial, or not
likely to continue beneficial, to himself; and that, if it was improper
that he, the said Warren Hastings, should be the judge of any disputes
in which his servant might be involved on account of his farms, that
reason ought to have obliged him to prevent his servant from being
engaged in any farms whatever, or to have advised his said servant to
relinquish the remainder of his farms, as well as those which the said
Warren Hastings affirms he quitted by his advice. That on the subject of
the said charge the Court of Directors of the East India Company have
come to the following resolution: "_Resolved_, That it appears that the
conduct of the late President and Council of Fort William in Bengal, in
suffering Cantoo Baboo, the present Governor-General's banian, to hold
farms in different purgunnahs to a large amount, or to be security for
such farms, contrary to the tenor and spirit of the 17th regulation of
the Committee of Revenue at Fort William, of the 14th May, 1772, and
afterwards relinquishing that security without satisfaction made to the
Company, was highly improper, and has been attended with considerable
loss to the Company"; and that in the whole of this transaction the said
Warren Hastings has been guilty of gross collusion with his servant, and
manifest breach of trust to his employers.

That, whereas it was acknowledged by the said Warren Hastings, that the
country, in the years 1770 and 1771, had suffered great depopulation and
decay, and that the collections of those years, having been violently
kept up to their former standard, had added to the distress of the
country, the settlement of the revenues made by him for five years,
commencing the 1st May, 1772, instead of offering any abatement or
relief to the inhabitants who had survived the famine, held out to the
East India Company a promise of great _increase_ of revenue, to be
exacted from the country by the means hereinbefore described. That this
settlement was not realized, but fell considerably short, even in the
first of the five years, when the demand was the lightest; and that on
the whole of the five years the real collections fell short of the
settlement to the enormous amount of two millions and a half sterling,
and upwards. That such a settlement, if it had been or could have been
rigorously exacted from a country already so distressed, and from a
population so impaired, that, in the belief of the said Warren Hastings,
it was impossible such loss could be recruited in four or five years,
would have been in fact, what it appeared to be in form, an act of the
most cruel and tyrannical oppression; but that the real use made of that
unjust demand upon the natives of Bengal was, to oblige them to
compound privately with the persons who formed the settlement, and who
threatened to enforce it. That the enormous balances and remissions on
that settlement arose from a general collusion between the farmers and
collectors, and from a general peculation and embezzlement of the
revenues, by which the East India Company was grossly imposed on, in the
first instance, by a promised _increase_ of revenue, and defrauded, in
the second, not only by the failure of that _increase_, but by the
revenues falling short of what they were in the two years preceding the
said settlement to a great amount. That the said Warren Hastings, being
then at the head of the government of Bengal, was a party to all the
said imposition, fraud, peculation, and embezzlement, and is principally
and specially answerable for the same; and that, whereas sundry proofs
of the said peculation and embezzlement were brought before the Court of
Directors, the said Directors (in a letter dated the 4th of March, 1778,
and signed by William Devaynes and Nathaniel Smith, Esquires, now
Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of the said Court, and members of this
House) did declare, that, "although it was rather their wish to prevent
future evils than to enter into a severe retrospection of past abuses,
yet, as in some of the cases then before them they conceived there had
been _flagrant corruption_, and in others great oppressions committed on
the native inhabitants, they thought it unjust to suffer the delinquents
to pass wholly unpunished, and therefore they directed the
Governor-General and Council forthwith to commence a prosecution against
the persons who composed the Committee of Circuit, and their
representatives, and against all other proper parties"; but that the
prosecutions so ordered by the Court of Directors in the year 1778 have
never been brought to trial; and that the said Warren Hastings did, on
the 23d of December, 1783, propose and carry it in Council, _that orders
should be given for withdrawing_ the said prosecutions,--declaring, that
he was clearly of opinion that there was no ground to maintain them, and
_that they would only be productive of expense to the Company and
unmerited vexation to the parties_.


REVENUES.

PART II.

That the said Warren Hastings has on sundry occasions declared his
deliberate opinion generally against all innovations, and particularly
in the collection and management of the revenues of Bengal: that "he was
well aware of the expense and inconvenience _which ever attends
innovations of all kinds_, on, their first institution;[9]--that
innovations are _always_ attended with difficulties and inconveniences,
and innovations in the revenue with a suspension of the
collections;[10]--that the continual variations in the mode of
collecting the revenue, and the continual usurpation on the rights of
the people, have fixed in the minds of the ryots a rooted distrust of
the ordinances of government."[11] That the Court of Directors have
repeatedly declared their apprehensions "that a sudden transition from
one mode to another, in the investigation and collection of their
revenue, might have alarmed the inhabitants, lessened their confidence
in the Company's proceedings, and been attended with other evils."[12]

That the said Warren Hastings, immediately after his appointment to the
government of Fort William, in April, 1772, did abolish the office of
_Naib Dewan_, or native collector of the revenues, then existing; that
he did at the same time appoint a committee of the board to go on a
circuit through the provinces, and to form a settlement of the revenues
for five years; that he did then appoint sundry of the Company's
servants to have the management of the collections, viz., one in each
district, under the title of _Collector_; that he did then abolish the
General Board of Revenue or Council at Moorshedabad, for the following
reasons: "That, while the controlling and executive part of the revenue
and the correspondence with the collectors was carried on by a council
at Moorshedabad, the members of the administration at Calcutta had no
opportunity of acquiring that thorough and comprehensive knowledge which
could only result from _practical experience_; that the orders of the
Court of Directors, which established a new system, which enjoined many
new regulations and inquiries, could not properly be delegated to a
subordinate council, and it became absolutely necessary that the
business of the revenue should be conducted _under the immediate
observation and direction of the board_."[13]--That in November, 1773,
the said Warren Hastings abolished the office of Collector, and
transferred the collection and management of the revenues to several
councils of revenue, commonly called _Provincial Councils_. That on the
24th of October, 1774, the said Warren Hastings _earnestly offered his
advice_ (to the Governor-General and Council, then newly appointed by
act of Parliament) _for the continuation of the said system of
Provincial Councils in all its parts_. That the said Warren Hastings
did, on the 22d of April, 1775, transmit to the Directors a formal plan
for the future settlement of the revenues, and did therein declare,
that, "with respect to the mode of managing the collection of the
revenue and the administration of justice, none occurred to him so good
as the system which was already established of Provincial Councils."
That on the 18th of January, 1776, the said Warren Hastings did transmit
to the Court of Directors a plan for the better administration of
justice, that in this plan the establishment of the said Provincial
Councils was specially provided for and confirmed, and that Warren
Hastings did recommend it to the Directors _to obtain the sanction of
Parliament for a confirmation of the said plan_. That on the 30th of
April, 1776, the said Warren Hastings did transmit to the Court of
Directors the draft or scheme of an act of Parliament for the better
administration of justice in the provinces, in which the said
establishment of Provincial Councils is again specially included, and
special jurisdiction assigned to the said Councils. That the Court of
Directors, in a letter dated 5th of February, 1777, did give the
following instruction to the Governor-General and Council, a majority of
whom, viz., Sir John Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, had
disapproved of the plan of Provincial Councils: "If you are fully
convinced that the establishment of Provincial Councils has not answered
nor is not capable of answering the purposes intended by such
institutions, we hereby direct you to form a new plan for the collection
of the revenues, and to transmit the same to _us for our
consideration_."--That the said Warren Hastings, in contradiction to his
own sentiments repeatedly declared, and to his own advice repeatedly
and deliberately given, and in defiance of the orders of the Directors,
to whom he transmitted no previous communication whatever of his
intention to abolish the said Provincial Councils, did, in the beginning
of the year 1781, again change the whole system of the collections of
the public revenue of Bengal, as also the administration of civil and
criminal justice throughout the provinces. That the said Warren
Hastings, in a letter dated 5th of May, 1781, advising the Court of
Directors of the said changes, has falsely affirmed, "that the plan of
superintending and collecting the public revenue of the provinces
through the agency of Provincial Councils had been instituted for the
temporary and declared purpose of introducing another more permanent
mode _by an easy and gradual change_"; that, on the contrary, the said
Warren Hastings, from the year 1773 to the year 1781, has constantly and
uniformly insisted on the wisdom of that institution, and on the
necessity of never departing from it; that he has in that time
repeatedly advised that the said institution should be confirmed _in
perpetuity_ by an act of Parliament; that the said total dissolution of
the Provincial Councils was not introduced by any easy and gradual
change, nor by any gradations whatever, but was sudden and unprepared,
and instantly accomplished by a single act of power; and that the said
Warren Hastings, in the place of the said Councils, has substituted a
Committee of Revenue, consisting of four covenanted servants, on
principles opposite to those which he had himself professed, and with
exclusive powers, tending to deprive the members of the Supreme Council
of a due knowledge of and inspection into the management of the
territorial revenues, specially and unalienably vested by the
legislature in the Governor-General and Council, and to vest the same
solely and entirely in the said Warren Hastings. That the reasons
assigned by the said Warren Hastings for constituting the said Committee
of Revenue are incompatible with those which he professed when he
abolished the subordinate Council of Revenue at Moorshedabad: that he
has invested the said Committee _in the fullest manner with all the
powers and authority of the Governor-General and Council_; that he has
thereby contracted the whole power and office of the Provincial Councils
into a small compass, and vested the same in four persons appointed by
himself; that he has thereby taken the general transaction and
cognizance of revenue business out of the Supreme Council; that the said
Committee are empowered to conduct the current business of the revenue
department without reference to the Supreme Council, and only _report to
the board such extraordinary occurrences, claims, and proposals as may
require the special orders of the board_; that even the instruction to
report to the board in extraordinary cases is nugatory and fallacious,
being accompanied with limitations which make it impossible for the said
board to decide on any questions whatsoever: since it is expressly
provided by the said Warren Hastings, _that, if the members of the
Committee differ in opinion, it is not expected that every dissentient
opinion should be recorded_; consequently the Supreme Council, on any
reference to their board, can see nothing but the resolutions or reasons
of the majority of the Committee, without the arguments on which the
dissentient opinions might be founded: and since it is also expressly
provided by the said Warren Hastings, that _the determination of the
majority of the Committee should not therefore be stayed, unless it
should be so agreed by the majority_,--that is, that, notwithstanding
the reference to the Supreme Council, the measure shall be executed
without waiting for their decision.