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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)




XXI. That the said Warren Hastings did defend and justify the said
articles, in which the troops aforesaid were to be removed from the
Nabob's establishment, by declaring as follows. "That the _actual_
disbursements to those troops had fallen upon _our own funds_, and that
_we_ support a body of troops, established _solely_ for the defence of
the Nabob's possessions, _at our own expense_. It is true, we charge the
Nabob with this expense; but the large balance already due from him
shows too justly the little prospect there was of disengaging ourselves
from _a burden_ which was daily adding to _our_ distresses and must soon
become _insupportable_, although it were granted that the Nabob's debt,
then suffered to accumulate, _might at some future period be
liquidated_, and that this measure would substantially effect an instant
relief to the pecuniary distresses of the Company."

XXII. That Nathaniel Middleton, the Resident, did also declare that he
would at all times testify, "that, upon the plan of the foregoing years,
the receipts from the Nabob were only _a deception_, and _not an
advantage_, but _an injury_ to the Company," and "that a remission to
the Nabob of this _insufferable burden_ was _a profit_ to the Company."
And the said Hastings did assert that the force of the Company was not
lessened by withdrawing the temporary troops; although, when it suited
the purpose of the said Hastings, in denying just relief to the
distresses of the said Nabob of Oude, he had not scrupled to assert the
direct contrary of the positions by him maintained in justification of
the treaty of Chunar,--having in his minute aforesaid, of the 15th of
December, 1779, asserted, "that these troops" (the troops maintained by
the Nabob of Oude) "had no _separate or distinct existence_, and may be
properly said to consist of our whole military establishment, with the
exception only of our European infantry, and that they could not be
_withdrawn, without imposing on the Company the additional burden of
their expense_, or disbanding nine battalions of disciplined sepoys and
three regiments of horse."

XXIII. That he, the said Warren Hastings, in justification of his
agreement to withdraw the troops aforesaid from the territories and pay
of the Nabob of Oude, did further declare, "that he had been too much
accustomed to the tales of hostile preparation and impending invasions,
against all the evidence of political probability, to regard them as any
other than phantoms raised for the purpose of perpetuating or
multiplying commands," and he did trust "all ideas of danger from the
neighboring powers were altogether visionary; and that, even if they had
been better founded, this mode of anticipating possible evils would be
more mischievous than anything they had reason to apprehend," and that
the internal state of the Nabob's dominions did not require the
continuance of the said troops; and that the Nabob, "_whose concern it
was, and not ours_" did affirm the same,--notwithstanding he, the said
Hastings, had before, in answer to the humble supplications of the
Nabob, asserted, that "_it was our part, and not his_, to judge and
determine in what manner and at what time they should be reduced or
withdrawn."

XXIV. That the said Warren Hastings, in support of his measure of
withdrawing the said brigade and other troops, did also represent, that
"the remote stations of those troops, placing the commanding officers
beyond the notice and control of the board, afforded too much
opportunity and temptation for unwarrantable emoluments, and excited the
_contagion of peculation and rapacity throughout the whole army_, and,
as an instance thereof, that a court-martial, composed of officers of
rank and respectable characters, unanimously and honorably, 'most
honorably,' acquitted an officer upon an acknowledged fact which in
times of stricter discipline would have been deemed a crime deserving
the severest punishment."

XXV. That the said Warren Hastings, having in the letter aforesaid
contradicted all the grounds and reasons by him assigned for keeping up
the aforesaid establishment, and having declared his own conviction that
the whole was a fallacy and imposition, and a detriment to the Company
instead of a benefit, circumstances (if they are true) which he might
and ought to have well known, was guilty of an high crime and
misdemeanor in carrying on the imposture and delusion aforesaid, and in
continuing an insupportable burden and grievance upon the Nabob for
several years, without attending to his repeated supplications to be
relieved therefrom, to the utter ruin of his country, and to the
destruction of the discipline of the British troops, by diffusing among
them a general spirit of peculation; and the said Hastings hath
committed a grievous offence in upholding the same pernicious system,
until, by his own confession and declaration, in his minute of the 21st
of May, 1781, "the evils had _grown_ to so great an height, that
exertions will be required more powerful than can be made through the
delegated authority of the servants of the Company now in the province,
and that he was far from sanguine in his expectations that _even his own
endeavors would be attended with much success_."

XXVI. That, at the time of making the said treaty, and at the time when,
under color of the distress of the Nabob of Oude, and the failure of all
other means for his relief, he, the said Hastings, broke the Company's
faith with the parents of the Nabob, and first encouraged and afterwards
compelled him to despoil them of their landed estates, money, jewels,
and household goods, and while the said Nabob continued heavily in debt
to the Company, he, the said Warren Hastings, did, "_without
hesitation_," accept of and receive from the Nabob of Oude and his
ministers (who are notoriously known to be not only under his influence,
but under his absolute command) a bribe, or unlawful gift or present, of
one hundred thousand pounds sterling, and upwards. That, even if the
said pretended gift could be supposed to be voluntary, it was contrary
to the express provision of the Regulating Act of the 13th year of his
Majesty's reign, prohibiting the receipt of all presents upon any
pretence whatsoever, and contrary to his own sense of the true intent
and meaning of the said act, declared upon a similar, but not so strong
a case,--that is, where the service done, and the present offered in
return for it, had taken place before the promulgation of the above laws
in India: on that occasion he declared, "that the exclusion by an act of
Parliament _admitted of no abatement or evasion_, wherever its authority
extended."

XXVII. That the said Warren Hastings, confiding in an interest which he
supposed himself to have formed in the East India House, did endeavor to
prevail on the Court of Directors to violate the said act, and to suffer
him to appropriate the money so illegally accepted by him to his own
profit, as a reward for his services.

XXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings has since declared to the Court of
Directors, that, when _fortune threw a sum in his way_ (meaning the sum
of money above mentioned) _of a magnitude which could not be concealed,
he chose to apprise his employers of it_:[15] thereby confessing, that,
but for the magnitude of the same rendering it difficult to be
concealed, he never would have discovered it to them. And the said
unlawful present being received at the time when, for reasons directly
contradictory of all his former recorded declarations, he did agree to
remove the aforesaid troops from the Nabob's dominions, and to recall
the pensioners aforesaid, it must be presumed that he did not agree to
give the relief (which he had before so obstinately refused) upon the
grounds and motives of justice, policy, or humanity, but in
consideration of the sum of money aforesaid, which, in a time of such
extreme distress in the Nabob's affairs, could not be rationally given,
except for those and other concessions stipulated for in the said
treaty, but which had on former occasions been refused.

XXIX. That, notwithstanding his, the said Warren Hastings's, receipt of
the present of one hundred thousand pounds, as aforesaid, he did violate
every one of the stipulations in the said treaty contained, and
particularly he did continue in the country, and in the service of the
Nabob of Oude, those troops which he had so recently stipulated to
withdraw from his country and to take from his establishment: for, upon
the 24th of December following, he did order the temporary brigade,
making ten battalions of five hundred men each, to be again put on the
Vizier's list,--although he had recently informed the Court of
Directors, through Edward Wheler, Esquire, that any benefit to be
derived from the Nabob's paying that brigade was _a fallacy and a
deception_, and that the same was _a charge_ upon the Company, and not
_an alleviation of its distresses_, as well as _an insupportable burden_
to the Nabob: thus having, within a short space of time, twice
contradicted himself, both in declaration and in conduct.

XXX. That this measure, in direct violation of a treaty of not three
months' duration, was so injudicious, that, in the opinion of the
Assistant Resident, Johnson, "nothing less than blows could effect it":
he, the said Resident, further adding, "that the Nabob was not even able
to pay off the arrears still due to it [the new brigade]; and that the
troops being _all_ in arrears, and no possibility of present payment,
so large a body assembled here [viz., at Lucknow] without any means to
check and control them, nothing but disorder could follow. As one proof
that the Nabob is as badly off for funds as we are, I may inform you
that his cavalry rose this day upon him, and went all armed to the
palace, to demand from thirteen to eighteen months' arrears, and were
with great difficulty persuaded to retire, which was probably more
effected by a body of troops getting under arms to go against them than
any other consideration." But the letter of Warren Hastings, Esquire, of
the 24th of December, giving the above orders for the infraction of the
treaty, and to which the letter from whence the foregoing extracts are
taken is an answer, doth not appear, any otherwise than as the same is
recited in the said answer.

XXXI. That, notwithstanding the disorders and deficiencies in the
revenue aforesaid had continued and increased, and that three very large
balances had accumulated, the said Warren Hastings did cause the
Treasury accounts at Calcutta to be examined and scrutinized, and an
account of another arrear, composed of various articles, pretended to
have accumulated during seven years previous to the year 1779, (the
articles composing which, if they had been just, ought to have been
charged at the times they severally became due,) was sent to the
Resident, and payment thereof demanded, to the amount of 260,000_l._
sterling; which unexpected demand, in so distressed a situation, did not
a little embarrass the Nabob. But whilst he and his ministers were
examining into the said unexpected demand, another, and fifth balance,
made up of similar forgotten articles, was demanded, to the amount of
140,000_l._ sterling more. Which said two last demands did so terrify
and confound the Nabob and his ministers, that they declared that the
Resident "might at once take the country, since justice was out of the
question."

XXXII. That the said Hastings, in order to add to the confusion,
perplexity, and distress of the Nabob's affairs, did send to his court
(in which he had already a Resident and Assistant Resident) two secret
agents, Major Palmer and Major Davy, and did instruct Major Palmer to
make a variety of new claims, one of a loan to the Company of
600,000_l._ sterling, although he well knew the Nabob was himself
heavily in arrear to the Company, and was utterly unable to discharge
the same, as well as in arrear to his own troops, and to many
individuals, and that he borrowed (when he could at all borrow) at an
interest of near thirty per cent. To this demand was added a new bribe,
or unlawful present, to himself, to the amount of 100,000_l._ sterling,
which he did not refuse as unlawful and of evil example, but as
_indelicate_ in the Nabob's present situation,--and did, as if the same
was his own property, presume to dispose of it, and to desire the
transfer of it, as of his own bounty, to the Company, his masters. To
this second demand he, the said Hastings, added a third demand of
120,000_l._ sterling, for four additional regiments on the Nabob's list,
after he had solemnly engaged to take off the ten with which it had been
burdened: the whole of the claims through his private agent aforesaid
making the sum of 820,000_l._ sterling.

XXXIII. That the demands, claims, &c., made by the said Warren Hastings
upon the government of Oude in that year amounted to the enormous sum of
2,530,000_l._ sterling; which joined to the arrears to troops, and some
internal failures, amounting to 255,000_l._ sterling more, the whole
charge arose to 2,785,000_l._ sterling, which was considerably more than
double the net produce of the Nabob's revenue,--the same only amounting
to 1,450,000_l._ "nominal revenue, never completely realized."

XXXIV. That, towards providing for these extravagant demands, he, the
said Warren Hastings, did direct and authorize another breach of the
public faith given in the treaty of Chunar. For whereas, by the second
article of the treaty aforesaid, it was left to the Nabob's discretion
whether or not he should resume the landed estates, called jaghires,
within his dominions, and notwithstanding the said Hastings, in defence
of the said article, did declare that the Nabob should be left to the
exercise of his own authority and pleasure respecting them, yet he, the
said Hastings, did authorize a violent compulsion to be used towards the
said Nabob for accomplishing an universal confiscation of that species
of landed property; and in so doing he did also compel the Nabob to
break his faith with all the landholders of that description, not only
in violating the assurance of his own original grants, but his assurance
recently given, when, being pressed by the Company, he, the Nabob, had
made a temporary seizure of the profits of the lands aforesaid, in the
manner of a compulsory loan, for the repayment of which he gave his
bonds and obligations; and although he had at the same time solemnly
pledged his faith that he never would again resort to the like
oppressive measure, yet he, the said Warren Hastings, did cause him to
be compelled to confiscate the estates of at least sixty-seven of the
principal persons of his country, comprehending therein his own nearest
relations and the ancient friends and dependants of his family: the
annual value of the said estates thus confiscated amounting to
435,000_l._ sterling, or thereabouts, upon an old valuation, but stated
by the Resident, Middleton, as being found to yield considerably more.

XXXV. That the violent and unjust measure aforesaid, subversive of
property, utterly destructive of several ancient and considerable
families, and most dishonorable to the British government, did produce
an universal discontent and the greatest confusion throughout the whole
country,--the said confiscated lands being on this occasion put to
rack-rents, and the people grievously oppressed: and to prevent a
possibility of redress, at least for a considerable time, the said
confiscated estates were mortgaged (it appearing otherwise impracticable
to make an approach towards satisfying the exorbitant demands of the
said Hastings) for a great sum to certain usurious bankers or
money-dealers at Benares.

XXXVI. That, besides these enormous demands, which were in part made for
the support of several corps of troops under British officers which by
the treaty of Chunar ought to have been removed, very large extra
charges not belonging to the military list of the said Nabob, and
several civil charges and pensions, were continued, and others newly put
on since the treaty of Chunar, namely, an allowance to Sir Eyre Coote
of 15,554 rupees per month, (being upwards of 18,664_l._ sterling a
year,) and an allowance to Trevor Wheler, Esquire, of 5,000 rupees per
month (or 6,000_l._ sterling and upwards a year); and the whole of the
settled charges, not of a military nature, to British subjects, did
amount to little less than 140,000_l._ yearly, and, if other allowances
not included in the estimate were added, would greatly exceed that sum,
besides much more which may justly be suspected to have been paid, no
part whereof had at that time been brought forward to any public
account.

XXXVII. That the commander of one of these corps, of whose burden the
said Nabob did complain, was Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Hannay, who
did farm the revenues of certain districts called Baraitch and
Goruckpore, which the said Hastings, in the ninth article of his
instructions to Mr. Bristow, did estimate at twenty-three lacs of
rupees, or 230,000_l._, per annum: but under his, the said Hannay's,
management, the collections did very greatly decline; complaints were
made that the countries aforesaid were harassed and oppressed, and the
same did fall into confusion, and at last the inhabitants broke out into
a general rebellion.

XXXVIII. That the far greater part of the said heavy list was authorized
or ordered by him, the said Warren Hastings, for the purpose of
extending his own corrupt influence: for it doth appear, that, at the
time when he did pretend, in conformity to the treaty of Chunar
aforesaid, to remove the Company's servants, "_civil_ and military,
from the court and service of the Vizier," he did assert that he thereby
did "diminish _his own influence_, as well as that of his colleagues, by
narrowing the line of _patronage_"; which proves that the offices,
pensions, and other emoluments aforesaid, in Oude, were of _his_
patronage, as his patronage could not be diminished by taking away the
said offices, &c., unless the same had been substantially of his gift.
And he did, at the time of the pretended reformation aforesaid, express
both his knowledge of the existence of the said excessive and abusive
establishments, and his sense of his duty in taking them away: for in
agreeing to the article in the treaty of Chunar for abolishing the said
establishments, he did declare himself "actuated solely by motives of
_justice_ to the Nabob, and a regard to _the honor of our national
character_"; and, according to his own representation, the said servants
of the Company, civil and military, "by their numbers, their influence,
and the _enormous amount_ of their salaries, pensions, and emoluments,
were an _intolerable_ burden on the revenues and authority of the
Vizier, and exposed us to _the envy and resentment of the whole
country_, by excluding the native servants and adherents of the Vizier
from the rewards of their services and attachment."

XXXIX. That the revenue of the country being anticipated, mortgaged, and
dilapidated, by the counsel, concurrence, connivance, and influence, and
often by the direct order of the said Warren Hastings, the whole civil
government, magistracy, and administration of justice gradually declined
and at length totally ceased through the whole of the vast provinces
which compose the territory of Oude, and no power was visible therein
but that of the farmers of the revenue, attended by bodies of troops to
enforce the collections; insomuch that robberies, assassinations, and
acts of every description of outrage and violence were perpetrated with
impunity,--and even in the capital city of Lucknow, the seat of the
sovereign power, there was no court of justice whatever to take
cognizance of such offences.

XL. That the said Warren Hastings, when he did interfere in the
government of Oude, was obliged by his duty to interfere for the good
purposes of government, and not merely for the purpose of extorting
money therefrom and enriching his own dependants,--which latter purpose
alone he did effect, in the manner before mentioned, but not one of the
former. For the said Hastings, having procured the extraordinary powers
given by and to himself by his delegation of the 3d of July, 1781, did
declare the same to be for the purpose, among many others, "of assisting
the Nabob Vizier in forming such regulations as may be necessary for the
peace and good order of his government and the improvement of his
revenue." And in consequence of the said powers, the said Warren
Hastings did, in the treaty of Chunar, obtain an article from the Nabob
by which the said Nabob did promise to attend to his advice in the
reformation of his civil administration; and he did give certain
instructions to the Resident, Middleton, to which he did require him to
yield _the most implicit obedience_, and did in one article thereof
direct him to urge the Nabob to endeavor gradually, if it could not be
done at once, to establish courts of _adawlut_ [justice], and that the
_darogahs_ [chief criminal magistrates], _moulavies_ [consulting or
assistant lawyers], and other officers, should be selected by the
ministers, with his, the Resident's, concurrence; and afterwards, in his
instructions to the Resident Bristow, desiring him to pursue the same
object, he declared his opinion, "that the want of such courts, and the
extreme licentiousness occasioned thereby, is one of the most
disreputable defects in his Highness the Nabob's government, and that,
while they do not exist, every man knows the hazard which he incurs in
lending his money "; but he did give him, the said Resident, no positive
instruction concerning the same, supposing the establishment of such
courts a matter of difficulty, and did therefore leave him a latitude in
his proceedings therein.

XLI. That the said Resident Bristow did, however, in conformity to the
said instructions, at last given with such latitude, endeavor to prevail
on the said minister gradually to introduce courts of justice for the
cognizance of crimes, by beginning to establish a criminal court under a
native judge, to judge according to the Mahomedan law in the city of
Lucknow. But Hyder Beg Khan, a minister of the said Warren Hastings's
nomination, and solely dependent upon him, did elude and obstruct, and
in the end totally defeat, the establishment of the same.

XLII. That the obstruction aforesaid, and the evil consequences thereof,
were duly represented to the said Hastings; and though the said Hastings
had made it the fourth article of a criminal charge against the Resident
Middleton, "that he did not report to the Governor-General, or to the
board, the progress which he had made from time to time in his endeavors
to comply with his instructions, and that, if he met with any
impediments in the execution of them, he had omitted to state those
impediments, and to apply for fresh orders upon them," yet he, the said
Hastings, did give no manner of support to the Resident Bristow against
the said Hyder Beg Khan, and did not even answer several of his letters,
the said Bristow's letters, stating the said impediments, or take any
notice of his remonstrances, but did at length revoke his own
instructions, declaring that he, the said Resident, should not presume
to act upon the same, and yet did not furnish him with any others, upon
which he might act, but did uphold the said Hyder Beg Khan in the
obstruction by him given to the performance of the first and fundamental
duty of all government,--namely, the administration of justice, and the
protection of the lives and property of the subject against wrong and
violence.

XLIII. That the said Hastings did afterwards proceed to the length of
criminating the Resident Bristow aforesaid for his endeavors to
establish the said necessary court, as an invasion of the rights of the
Nabob's government,--when, if the Nabob in his own proper person and
character, and not the aforesaid Hyder Beg, (who was a creature of the
said Hastings,) had opposed the reestablishment of justice in the said
country, it was the duty of the said Hastings to have pressed the same
upon him by every exertion of his influence. And the said Warren
Hastings, in his pretended attention to the Nabob's authority, when
exercised by his, the said Hastings's, minister, to prevent the
establishment of courts of justice for the protection of life and
property, at the same time that he did not hesitate, in the case of the
confiscation of the jaghires, and the proceedings against the mother and
grandmother of the Nabob, totally to supersede his authority, and to
force his inclinations in acts which overturned all the laws of
property, and offered violence to all the sentiments of natural
affection and duty, and accusing at the same time his instruments for
not going to the utmost lengths in the execution of his said orders, is
guilty of an high crime and misdemeanor.

XLIV. That the said Hastings did highly aggravate his offence in
discountenancing and discouraging the reestablishment of magistracy,
law, and order, in the country of Oude, inasmuch as he did in the eighth
article of his instructions to the Resident order him to exercise powers
which ought to have been exercised by lawful magistrates, and in a
manner agreeable to law. And in the said article he did state the
prevalence of rebellion in the said country of Oude,--as if rebellion
could exist in a country in which there was no magistracy, and no
protection for life or property, and in which the native authority had
no force whatever, and in which he himself states the exercise of
British authority to be an absolute usurpation; and he did accordingly
direct a rigorous prosecution against the offence of rebellion under
such circumstances, but "with a fair and impartial inquiry," when he did
not permit the establishment of those courts of justice and magistracy
by which alone rebellion could be prevented, or a fair and impartial
inquiry relative to the same could be had; and particularly he did
instruct the said Resident to obtain the Nabob's order for employing
some sure means for apprehending certain zemindars, and particularly
three, in the instruction named, whom he, the said Hastings, did cause
to be apprehended upon what he calls good information, founded upon some
facts to which he asserts he has the testimony of several witnesses,
"that they had the destruction of Colonel Hannay and the officers under
his command as their immediate object, and ultimately the extirpation of
the English influence and power throughout all the Nabob's dominions,"
and that they did still persevere in their rebellious conduct without
deviation, "though the Nabob's, and not our government, was then the
object of it"; and he did direct the said Resident, if it should appear,
"_on a fair and regular inquiry_, that their conduct towards the Nabob
had been such as it had been reported to be, to insist upon the Nabob's
punishing them with _death_, and to treat with the same rigor every
zemindar and every subject who shall be the leader in a rebellion
against his authority."