That Saadut Ali, being a
military
man, a
man ambitious and aspiring to greatness, should take
advantage of the abuses of the English government
and of the discontent of the country, that he should,
I say, raise a revolt against his brother is very possible; but it is scarcely within possibility that the mother of the Nabob should have joined with the
illegitimate son against her legitimate son.
man ambitious and aspiring to greatness, should take
advantage of the abuses of the English government
and of the discontent of the country, that he should,
I say, raise a revolt against his brother is very possible; but it is scarcely within possibility that the mother of the Nabob should have joined with the
illegitimate son against her legitimate son.
Edmund Burke
?
SPEECH IN REPLY.
-- FIFTH DAY.
73
yourselves whether this is not a charge, not only so
grossly improbable, but so perfectly impossible, that
there is not any evidence which can make it even
plausible. Consider next, my Lords, on the other
side, the evidence of their innocence, and then ask
yourselves whether any additional matter could make
its probability in the least degree more probable.
My Lords, the evidence we have produced is neither
more nor less than that of almost all the persons who
have had a share in exciting that rebellion, and who,
to justify their own horrible cruelty, have attempted
to charge the natural consequences of that cruelty
upon these unhappy women.
But where, all this time, is the Nabob, against
whom this rebellion is pretended to be directed?
Was it ever even insinuated to him that his mother
had raised a rebellion against him? When were the
proofs shown to him? Did lie ever charge her with
it? He surely must have been most anxious to
prevent and suppress a rebellion against himself:
but not one word on that subject has ever come out
of his mouth; nor has any one person been produced
to show that he was informed of the existence of
such a rebellion. The persons said to be rebels are
his mother and grandmother; and I again ask, Was
there the least intimation given to him by Mr. Middleton, or by any other person, of their being even suspected of rebellion against him? There was, indeed, a hint of some rebellion, which the creatures of Mr. Hastings got at obliquely; but neither the
person against whom the rebellion is supposed to
exist, nor the persons who were said to be guilty of
it, were ever either informed of or charged with it.
I defy the prisoner and his whole gang to produce
? ? ? ? 74 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
one word ever uttered by allny one of them, from
which the Nabob or Begums could learn that they
were supposed to be concerned in the rebellion: so
that none of those who were said to be the principal
actors in the scene ever heard of the parts they were
acting from the actual authors and managers of the
business. Not one word was uttered of a charge made,
much less of proof given. Nothing was heard but
" Give me the money! " - irons, - new irons, - new
imprisonment, - and at last the castle of Chunar.
And here I beg leave to pause, and to leave upon
your minds the impression, first, of the wrong that
was done, the violence, and the robbery, - and, secondly, of the pretences, both civil and criminal, by which they have attempted to justify their proceedings.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
IN
GENERAL REPLY.
SIXTH DAY: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1794.
M Y LORDS, -Your Lordships will recollect that
we closed the last day of your proceeding in
this trial at a most interesting part of our charge,
or rather of our observations upon that charge. We
closed at that awful moment when we found the first
women of Oude pillaged of all their landed and of
all their moneyed property, in short, of all they possessed. We closed by reciting to you the false pretence on which this pillage was defended, namely, that it was the work of the Nabob. Now we had
before proved to you, from evidence adduced by the
prisoner himself, that this Nabob was a mere tool in
his hands; and therefore, if this pretence be true,
it aggravates his guilt: for surely the forcing a son
to violate the property of his mother must everywhere be considered a crime most portentous and
enormous. At this point we closed; and after the
detail which has been given you already of these
horrible and iniquitous proceedings, some apology
may perhaps be necessary for entering again into
the refutation of this iniquitous pretence.
My honorable fellow Manager who preceded me
in this business did, in his remarks upon the inference drawn by the prisoner's counsel from the seiz
? ? ? ? 76 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ure of the Begums' treasures by the Nabob, as evidence of their guilt, as he ought to do, -he treated
it with proper contempt. I consider it, indeed, to
be as little an evidence of their guilt as he does,
and as little a defence of that *seizure as he does.
But I consider it in another and in a new light,
namely, as a heavy aggravation of the prisoner's
crimes, and as a matter that will let you into the
whole spirit of his government; and I warn your
Lordships against being imposed on by evasions, of
which if it were possible for you to be the dupes,
you would be unfit to be judges of the smallest
matters in the world, civil or criminal.
The first observation which I shall beg leave to
make to your Lordships is this, that the whole of
the proceedings, from beginning to end, has been a
mystery of iniquity, and that in no part of them have
the orders of the Company been regarded, but, on
the contrary, the whole has been carried on in a
secret and clandestine manner.
It is necessary that your Lordships should be acquainted with the manner in which the correspondence of the Company's servants ought to be carried on and their proceedings regulated; your Lordships,
therefore, will please to hear read the orders given
concerning correspondence of every kind with the
country powers. You will remember the period
when these orders were issued, namely, the period
at which the act passed for the better direction of
the servants of the Company. By this act Mr. Hastings was appointed to be Governor-General, and the
Court of Directors was required by that act to prepare orders and instructions, which Mr. Hastings
was required by the same act to comply with. You
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - SIXTH DAY. 77
will see what these instructions and orders were, and
in what manner lie has complied with them.
Extract of General Instructions to the Governor-'General and Council, 29th of March, 1774.
" We direct that you assemble in Council twice
every week, and that all the members be duly summoned; that the correspondence with the princes
or country powers in India be carried on by the
Governor-General only, but that all letters sent by
him be first approved in Council, and that he lay before the Council, at their next meeting, all letters received by him in the course of such correspondence, for their information. We likewise direct that a
copy of such parts of the country correspondence be
communicated to our Board of Trade (to be constituted as hereinafter mentioned) as may any ways
relate to the business of their department. "
You will observe, my Lords, two important circumstances in these instructions: first, that, after
the board had regularly met, the Persian correspondence, kept by the Governor only, was to be
communicated to the Council; and, secondly; that he
should write no answer to any part of the business
until he had previously consulted the Council upon
it. Here is the law of the land, - an order given in
pursuance of an act of Parliament. Your Lordships
will consider how Mr. Hastings comported himself
with regard to those orders: for we charge it as a
substantive crime, independent of the criminal presumptions arising from it, that he violated an act
of Parliament which imposed direct instructions
upon him as to the manner in which he was to
? ? ? ? 78 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
conduct all matters of business with the native
powers.
My Lords, we contend strongly that all the positive rules and injunctions of the law, though they are merely positive, and do not contain anything but
mere matters of regulation, shall be strictly observed.
The reason is this, and a serious reason it is: official
tyranny and oppression, corruption, peculation, and
bribery are crimes so secret in their nature that we
can hardly ever get to the proof of them without the
assistance of rules, orders, and regulations of a positive nature, intended to prevent the perpetration of these crimes, and to detect the offender in case the
crimes should be actually perpetrated. You ought,
therefore, to presume, that, wl#ver such rules or
laws are broken, these crimes are intended to be
committed; for you have no means of security against
the commission of secret crimes but by enforcing positive laws, the breach of which must be always plain, open, and direct. Such, for instance, is the spirit
of the laws, that, although you cannot directly pro-ve
bribery or smuggling in a hundred cases where they
have been committed, you can prove whether the
proper documents, proper cockets, proper entries in
regular offices have been observed and performed, or
not. By these means you lock the door against bribery, you lock the door against corruption, against smuggling and contraband trade. But how? By
falling upon and attacking the offence? No, by falling upon and attacking the breach of the regulation. You prove that the man broke the regulation, and,
as he could have no other motive or interest in break
ing it, you presume that he broke it fraudulently,
and you punish the man not for the crime the regu
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -SIXTH DAY. 79
lation was meant to prevent, but you punish him for
the breach of the regulation itself.
Next to the breach of these positive instructions,
your Lordships will attend to the consequent concealment and mystery by which it was accompanied.
All government must, to preserve its authority, be
sincere in its declarations and authentic in its acts.
Whenever ill any matter of policy there is a mystery,
you must presume a fraud; whenever in ally matter
of money there is concealment, you must presume
misconduct: you must therefore affix your punishment to the breach of the rule; otherwise the conviction of public delinquents would be unattainable. I have therefore put before you that rule which
he has violated; and we, the Commons, call upon
your Lordships to enforce that rule, and to avenge
the breach of it. You have seen the consequences
of breaking the rule; and we have charged and do
charge it as a heavy aggravation of those consequences, that, instead of consulting the Council, instead
of laying the whole correspondence before them, instead of consulting them upon his answers, he went
himself up into the country, took his Majesty's chiefjustice along with him, and made that person the
instrument of those wrongs, violelnces, robberies, and
concealments which we call upon your Lordships to
punish.
My Lords, an extraordinary circumstance occurred
in the course of our proceedings in another place,
which I must state, to show you in what a horrible
manner your laws have been trampled upon and despised. None of the proceedings which have been
last stated to your Lordships respecting the seizure
of the treasures of the Begums appear upon any
? ? ? ? 80 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
public record whatever. From the manner in which
they came to our knowledge, your Lordships will
perceive what must have been the prisoner's own
opinion of the horrible nature of proceedings which
lie thought so necessary to be concealed.
Whilst we were inquiring into the violences committed agaillnst thle Begums, in breach of the treaty
entered into with them, there came into my hands
an anlonymous letter containing a full account of all
the matter which has lately been stated to you. It
came anonymously; and I did not know from what
quarter it came. I do not even know with certainty at this hour: I say, not withl certainty, for I can
only form a conjecture. This anonymous communication enabled us to produce all the correspondence with Mr. Middleton respecting the cruelties exercised towards the Begums and their eunuchs in order to extort money. We found the names of
Major Gilpin and several other persons in these letters. We also foulnd in them a strong fox smell of
a Sir Elijah Impey, that his brush and crime had
left behind him; we traced him by that scent; and
as we proceeded, we discovered the footsteps of as
many of the wolves as Mr. Hastings thought proper
to leave there. We sent for and examined Mr. Middleton; and Major Gilpin produced his correspondence. When we applied to Mr. Middleton, we found
that all this part of his correspondence had been
torn out of his book; but having come at it by
means of our anonymous communication, we subsequently proved and established it, in the manner we
have done before your Lordsllips. Here, then, you
have important matter which this anonymous letter
has brought to light; and otherwise the whole of
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- SIXTH DAY. 81
this correspondence, so essential to the interests and
justice of Great Britain, would have been concealed
by this wicked man. Thus, I say, his violation of
a positive law would have remained undiscovered, if
mere accident had not enabled us to trace this iniquity to its source. Therefore I begin our proceedings this day by stating to your Lordships this fact, and by calling upon your justice to punish him for
this violation of the laws of his country.
We have told you who the instruments were by
which all this wickedness was committed, Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson, persons who were sent as
ambassadors to represent the interests of the Company at the court of an independent prince. Over this
prince they usurped an absolute power; they even
made use of British officers in his own service and
receiving his pay, to enslave his person, and to force
him to rob his kindred. These agents were aided
by an English chief-justice, sent under the authority
of an act of Parliament to represent the sovereign
majesty of English justice, and to be a restraint upon the misconduct of the Company's servants. These
are the instruments with which this man works.
We have shown you his system; we have shown you
his instruments: we will now proceed with the examination of the pretences upon which this horrid
and nefarious act is attempted to be justified. We
have not entered into this examination for the sake
of refuting things that want no refutation, but for
the purpose of showing you the spirit of the whole
proceeding, and making it appear to your Lordships,
as I trust it will appear, that the wicked act done
there is not half so bad as the wicked defence made
here.
VOL. XII. 6
? ? ? ? 82 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
The first part of Sir Elijah Impey's commission, as
your Lordships will remember, was to seize upon the
Begums' treasures. He had likewise another budget of instructions, which has been discovered in the
trunks of which your Lordships have heard, -- secret
instructions to be given by him to Mr. Middleton for
the furtherance of this business. And that his office
of Chief-Justice should not lie dormant, he was commissionled to seek for affidavits or written testimony
from any persons, for the purpose of convicting these
women of a design of atrociously revolting against
their son, and deposing him from the government,
with a view of getting rid of the English inhabitants.
This was the accusation; and the evidence to support
it Sir Elijah Impey was sent to collect.
My Lords, I must here observe to your Lordships
that there is no act of violence which, merely as an
act of violence, may not in some sort be borne: because all act of violence infers no principle; it infers nothiiig but a momentary impulse of a bad mind, proceeding, without law or justice, to the execution
of its object. For at the same time that it pays no
regard to law, it does not debauch it, it does not
wrest it to its purposes: the law disregarded still
exists; and hope still exists in the sufferer, that,
when law shall be resorted to, violence will cease, and
wrongs will be redressed. But whenever the law itself is debauched, and enters into a corrupt coalition with violence, robbery, and wrong, then all hope is gone; and then it is not only private persons that
suffer, but the law itself, when so corrupted, is oftem
perverted inito the worst instrument of fraud and vio
lence; it then becomes most odious to mankind, and
an infinite aggravation of every injury they suffer.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. SIXTH DAY. 83
We have therefore in our charge strongly reprobated Sir Elijah Impey's going to take such affidavits. . "O! but," they say, "a judge may take an affidavit in his cllamlber privately; and he may take an affidavit,
though not exactly in the place of his jurisdiction, to
authenticate a bond, or the like. " -- We are not to be
cheated by words. It is not dirty shreds of worn-out
parchments, the sweepings of Westminster Hall, that
shall serve us in place of that justice upon which the
world stands. Affidavits! We know that in the language of our courts affidavits do not signify a body of
evidence to sustain a criminal charge, but are generally relative to matter [matters? ] ill process collateral to the charge, which, not coming before the jury, are made known to the judge by way of affidavit.
But was it ever heard, or will it be borne, that a
person exercising a judicial office under his Majesty
should walk beyond the sphere of his jurisdiction,that lhe should desert the station in which he was
placed for the protection of the natives, and should
march to such a place as Lucknow in order to take
depositions for criminating persons in that country,
without so much as letting these poor victims know
one article in the depositions so taken? These depositions, my Lords, were made to criminate, they
were meant to justify a forfeiture, and are not in the
nature of those voluntary affidavits which, whether
made within jurisdiction or without, whether made
publicly or privately, signify comparatively nothinlg
to the cause. I do not mean to say that allny process of any court has not its weight, when the matter
is within it in the ordinary course of proceedings:
it is the extraordinary course, the extrajudicial conduct, which divests it of that just weight it otherwise
would have.
? ? ? ? 84 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
This chief-justice goes to Lucknow, where he holds
his court, such as it was. He is ready to authenticate any process by the signature of the English
chief-justice, in a court which he holds by night, in
a court which he holds in darkness and secrecy. He
holds his court in Fyzabad; he holds it, unknown to
the Nabob of Oude, in his own capital, and without
giving him the least knowledge of or any notice of
what he was proceeding to do. He holds it at the
lodgings of Colonel Morgan, a pensioner of the Nabob; and the person assisting him is Mr. Middleton,
who is likewise, as we have proved to you, one of the
Nabob's pensioners, a monopolizer of trade in the
country, and a person who received much the major
part of his emoluments from the Nabob's hands.
In that clandestine manner, in the Nabob's own
house, in his own capital city, in the lodging of his
dependant and pensioner, Colonel Morgan, with no
other witness that we know of than Mr. Middleton,
was this iniquitous, dark procedure held, to criminate the mother of the Nabob. We here see a scene
of dark, mysterious contrivance: let us now see what
is brought out in the face of open day. The attestations themselves, which you have seen on the record before you. They were brought out -- where? there? No: they were brought out in another
place; they were brought out at Calcutta, - but were
never communicated to the Nabob. He never knew
anything of the matter. Let us now see what those
attestations were. Your Lordships will bear in mind
that I do not advert to this thing, which they bring
as evidence, in the way of imputation of its being
weak, improper, and insufficient evidence, but as an
incontrovertible proof of crimes, and of a systematic
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -SIXTH DAY. 85
design to ruin the accused party, by force there and
by chicane here: these are the principles upon which
I am going to talk to you upon this abominable subject,- of which, I am sorry to say, I have no words sufficient to express my horror. No words canll express it; nor can anything but the severity of your Lordships' judgments find an adequate expression of
it. It is not to be expressed in words, but in punishment.
Having stated before whom the evidence collected
in this body of affidavits was taken, I shall now state
who the persons were that gave it. They were those
very persons who were guilty of robbing and ruining
the whole country: yes, my Lords, the very persons
who had been accused of this in the mass by Mr.
Hastings himself. They were nothing less than the
whole body of those English officers who Were usurping the office of farmers-general, and other lucrative offices in the Nabob's government, and whose pillage
and peculations had raised a revolt of the whole kingdom against themselves. These persons are here brought in a mass to clear themselves of this charge
by criminating other persons, and clandestinely imputing to them the effect of their own iniquity.
But supposing these witnesses to be good for anything, supposing it fit that the least attention should
be paid them, the matter of their testimony may very
possibly be true without criminating the Begum. It
criminates Saadut Ali Khan, the brother of;he
Nabob; the word Begum is never mentioned in the
crimination but in conjunction with his; and much
the greater part of it criminates the Nabob himself.
Now, my Lords, I will say, that the matter of these
affidavits, forgetting who the deponents were, may
? ? ? ? 86 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
possibly be true, as far as respects Saadut Ali Khan,
but that it is utterly as improbable, which is the
main point and the stress of the thing, with respect
to the Begums, as it is impossible with respect to the
Nabob.
That Saadut Ali, being a military man, a
man ambitious and aspiring to greatness, should take
advantage of the abuses of the English government
and of the discontent of the country, that he should,
I say, raise a revolt against his brother is very possible; but it is scarcely within possibility that the mother of the Nabob should have joined with the
illegitimate son against her legitimate son. I can
only say that in human affairs there is the possibility
of truth in this. It is possible she might wish to
depose her legitimate son, her only legitimate son,
and to depose him for the sake of a bastard son of
her husband's,- to exalt him at the expense of the
former, and to exalt, of course, the mother of that
bastard at her own expense, and to her own wrong.
But I say, that this, though possible, is grossly improbable. The reason why the Begum is implicated
in this charge with Saadut Ali by the affidavits cannot escape your notice. Their own acquittal might
be the only object of the deponents in their crimination of the latter; but the treasures of the former were the objects of their employers, and these treasures could not be come at but by the destruction of the Begums.
But, my Lords, there are other affidavits, or whatever your Lordships may call them, that go much further. In order to give a color to the accusation,
and make it less improbable, they say that the Nabob
himself was at the bottom of it, and that he joined
with his brother and his mother to extirpate out of
? ? ? ? SPELCH IN REPLY. -SIXTH DAY. 87
his dominions that horrible grievance, the English
brigade officers, - those English officers who were the
farmers-general, and who, as we have proved by Mr.
Hastings's own evidence, had ruined the country.
Nothing is more natural than that a man, sensible
of his duty to himself and his subjects, should form
a scheme to get rid of a band of robbers that were
destroying his country and degrading and ruining
his family. Thus you see a family compact naturally accounted for: the Nabob at the head of it, his mother joining her own son, and a natural brother
joining in the general interests of the family. This
is a possible case. But is this the case pressed by
them? No: they pass lightly over the legitimate
son; they scarcely touch upon Saadut Ali Khan;
they sink the only two persons that could give probability or possibility to this business, and endeavor to throw the whole design upon these two unfortunate
women.
Your Lordships see the wickedness and baseness
of the contrivance. They first, in order to keep the
whole family in terror, accuse the whole family;
then, having possessed themselves of the treasures of
the Begums upon another pretence, they endeavor to
fix upon them that improbable guilt which they had
with some degree of probability charged upon the
whole family, as a farther justification of that spoliation. Your Lordships will see what an insult is
offered to the Peers of Great Britain, in producing
before you, by way of defence, such gross, scandalous,
and fraudulent proceedings.
Who the first set of witnesses were which they
produced before their knight-errant chief-justice, Sir
Elijah Impey, who wandered in search of a law ad
? ? ? ? 88 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
venture, I have laid open to your Lordships. You
have now had an account of the scandalous manufacture of that batch of affidavits which was in the budget of Sir Elijah Impey, --that Pandora's box
which I have opened, and out of which has issued
every kind of evil. This chief-justice went up there
with the death-warrant of the Begums' treasures,
and, for aught he knew, the death-warrant of their
persons. At the same time that he took these affidavits he became himself a witness in this business; he appears as a witness. How? Did he know any one
circumstance of the rebellion? No, he does not even
pretend to do so. "' But," says he, "iin my travels I
was obliged to avoid Fyzabad, upon account of the
suspected rebellion there. " Another chief-justice
would have gone fifty miles about to avoid Lucknow,
for everybody knows that Lucknow was the focus and
centre of extortion, corruption, and peculation, and
that a worse air for the lungs of a chief-justice could
not be found in the world. If his lungs wanted the
benefit of pure air, he would even have put himself
in the focus of a rebellion, to have kept at a distance
from the smell of carrion and putrid corruption of
every kind that was at Lucknow. A chief-justice may
go to a place where a rebellion is raging, he may die
a martyr to his honor; but a chief-justice who puts
himself into the focus of peculation, into the focus
of bribery, into the focus of everything that is base
and corrupt, -- what can we expect from him but
that he will be engaged in clandestine jobs there?
The former might kill Sir Elijah Impey, the knighterrant, but the chief-justice would remain pure and entire; whereas Sir Elijah Impey has escaped from
Lucknow, and the chief-justice is left by Mr. Hastings to shift for himself.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - SIXTH DAY. 89
After mentioning this violation of the laws of hospitality by Sir Elijah Impey, I would ask, Was any
notice given by him, or by any of Mr. Hastings's
agents, to the Nabob, who was so immediately interested in this matter? Was any notice given to the Begums that any such charge was entertained against
them? Not a word. Was it notified to the eunuchs?
Was it to Saadut Ali Khan? Not a word. They
were all within their power. The eunuchs were a
year in irons, and they were subjected to the want
of food and water for a part of that year. They
were dragged from Fyzabad to Lucknow, and from
Lucknow to Fyzabad. During all that time was
there a word mentioned. to them by any one person
on the part of MIr. Hastings, that they were accused
of this matter? Not a word.
We now submit to your Lordships' vindictive justice and condemnation this recriminatory defence, in which every principle of justice has been violated.
And now I will ask your Lordships whether you
would have suffered such a procedure in the case of
the prisoner at your bar. It was asked by a person of
great authority in this House, when we were going
to produce certain evidence against Mr. Hastings,
(we do not say whether we offered to produce it
properly or improperly, - that is another matter,) -
we were asked, I say, whether our intentions of
producing that evidence had been communicated to
Mr. Hastings. Had he had an opportunity of crossexamining the witnesses who had given that evidence? No, he added, that evidence must be rejected. Now
I say to your Lordships, upon the same ground, deal
with the Begums as you dealt with Mr. Hastings.
Do not keep two weights and measures for different
? ? ? ? 9() IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
persons in the same cause. You would not suffer
such evidence to be produced against him; you will
not assuredly suffer such evidence to be produced to
you in his favor and against them.
My Lords, the cause between this man and these
unfortunate women is at last come into Westminster
Hall; the cause is come to a solemn trial; and we
demand other witnesses and other kinds of proof than
what these affidavits furnish. My Lords, the persons
who have been examined here are almost all of them
the same persons who made these affidavits; but
there is this material difference in their evidence: at
your Lordships' bar they sunk all those parts of their
former evidence which criminated the Nabob and
Saadut Ali, and confined their testimony wholly to
what related to the Begums. We were obliged, by a
cross-examination, to squeeze out of them the disavowal of what they had deposed on the former occasion. The whole of their evidence we leave to the judgment of your Lordships, with these summary
remarks: first, that they are the persons who were to
profit by their own wrong; they are the persons who
had seven months' arrears paid to them out of the
money of these unfortunate ladies; they are the
persons who, to justify the revolt which they had
caused in the country by their robbery, charge their
own guilt upon others. The credibility of their evidence is therefore gone. But if it were not affected by these circumstances, Mr. Hastings has put an end to it by telling you that there is not one of
them who is to be credited upon his oath, --no, not
in a court-martial; and call it, therefore, be expected
that in a case of peculation they will do otherwise
than acquit the party accused? He has himself laid
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- SIXTH DAY. 91
before you the horrible state of the whole service;
your Lordships have it fresh in your memories, and
ringing in your ears. You have also heard from
witnesses brought by Mr. Hastings himself, that these
soldiers committed misdemeanors of the very same
kind with those which we have stated. They ought
not, therefore, to be listened to for a moment; and
we aver that it is an aggravation of the prisoner's
crimes, that he has brought the instruments of his
guilt, the persons of whom he has complained as
having ruinled and destroyed that country, and whom
he had engaged, at the Nabob's desire, in the treaty
of Cllhular, to send out of the country, as being a
nuisance in it,- to bring, I say, these people here, to
criininate, at a distance of nine thousand miles, these
unfortunate women, where they have neither attorney
or agent who can from local knowledge cross-examine them. He has the audacity to bring these people here; and in what manner they comport themselves,
when they come here, your Lordships have seen.
There is one of them whom we cannot pass by:
that is, Captain Gordon. The other witnesses, who
appeared here as evidences to criminate the Begums,
did it by rumors and hearsays. They had heard
some person say that the Begums had encouraged
rebellion, always coupling them with Saadut Ali
Khlaln, and sometimes with the Nabob, because there
might have been some probability for their charge
in the transactions with Saadut Ali Khan, which,
though impossible with regard to the Begums, they
thought would implicate him [them? ] in his designs.
But Captain Gordon is to give a different account
of the proceedings.
Captain Gordon was one of Colonel Hannay's
? ? ? ? 92 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
under-farmers. He was hunted out of the country,
and, as one of the Begums says, pursued by a thousand of the zemindars, for robbing the whole country. This woman, through respect to the British name,
that name which guarantied her possessions to her,
receives this Captain Gordon and Captain Williams
with every mark of kindness, hospitality, and protection, that could be given them. She conveys them from the borders to the city of Fyzabad, and from
Fyzabad, her capital, supposed to be the nest of her
rebellion, on to their place of destination. They both
write her letters full of expressions of gratitude and
kindness for the services that they had received. They
then pass on to Lucknow to Sir Elijah Impey, and
there they sink every word of kindness, of any service
or protection that they had received, or of any acknowledgment that they had ever made of it. They
sink all this: not one word of it appears in their
affidavits.
HIow, then, did we come to the knowledge of it?
We got it from Major Gilpin, who was examined in
the course of these proceedings; and we used it in
our charge, from the papers that we hold in our
hands. Mr. Hastings has confessed the fact; and
Mr. Middleton has endeavored to slur it ovqer, but
could not completely conceal it. We have established the fact, and it is in evidence before your Lordships. You have now, then, in this manner, got these testimonials given by English officers in favor of these women; and by the same means the letters of the
latter accusing the former are come to your hands:
and now these same English officers come here with
their recriminatory accusation. Now why did they
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- SIXTH DAY. 93
not make it at Lucknow? Why did not Mr. Hastings, when Mr Middleton had such papers for him in
his hands, why, I ask, did not Mr. Hastings procure
some explanation of the circumstances whilst he was
in India? I will read your Lordships the letter, that
you may not only know, but feel, the iniquity of this
business.
Letter from the Mother of the Vizier to Mr. Hastings;
received the 6th of January, 1782.
"Our situation is pretty well, and your good
health is constantly prayed for. I had sent Behar
Ali Khan to you. Accordingly people invented a
falsehood, that Behar Ali Khan was gone to get the
deputyship of the Subah; and some persons here
were saying,'Wherefore has she sent Behar Ali
Khan to Calcutta to the Nabob Amaud ul Dowlah?
We will never permit the affair to succeed. ' And
accordingly it has so happened. For they say that
you also have not put your seal to the treaty: and
the people here say,' Why does the noble lady correspond with the English gentlemen? ' On this account, I did not send a letter at the time when you came this way. Now the state of affairs here is thus.
On the 27th Zehedja, Asoph ul Dowlah Bahadur,
without my knowledge, sent his own aumils into my
jaghires. I accordingly wrote several times to Mr.
Middleton on this business: that his seal was to the
treaty and writing of discharge; why did he not negotiate in my favor? Mr. Middleton replied,'The
Nabob is the master. ' I wrote frequently, but without effect. Being helpless, I represent to you the
state of my affairs, that, notwithstanding the existence of this treaty, I have been treated in this man
? ? ? ? 94 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ner. It is useless for me to stay here. Whatever is
is a compact; whenever any one deviates from his
compact, he meets with no credit for the future;
and the light of mine eyes, Asoph ul Dowlah, wrote
to me that he had sent his own aumils into my jaghires, and would pay ready money from his treasury.
Reflect on my security for his adhering to his future
engagements, from the consideration of his conduct
under his past promises. I do not agree to his ready
money. Let me have my jaghires as formerly; otherwise, leaving this place, I will wait on you at Benares, and thence will go towards Shaljehanabad, because he has not adhered to his engagement. Send letters to Asoph ul Dowlah, and to Mr. Middleton, and
Hussein Reza Khan, and Hyder Beg Khanl, not to molest the Begum's jaghires, and to let them remain, as
formerly, with the Begum's aumils. And it is here
suspected of me that my aumil plundered the property of Mr. John Gordon. The case is this. Mr.
John Gordon arrived at Taunda, a jaghire of mine,
fighting with the zemindars of Acberpore, which belongs to the Khalseh. Accordingly, Mr. John Gordon having come to Taunda, my aumil performed
whatever appertained to his duty. Afterwards Mr.
John Gordon wrote to me to send my people, that
he might come with them to Fyzabad. I sent people accordingly to bring Mr. John Gordon, and the
said gentleman arrived here in complete safety; and
Mr. John Gordon is now present. Ask him yourself
of these matters. Mr. John Gordon will represent
matters in detail; the truth will then become known,
how ill-founded the calumny is. Should you come
here for a few days, it will be very well, and if not,
I will wait on you; and your coming here is very
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY, -SIXTH DAY. 95
necessary, that all my affairs may become arranged.
And send a speedy answer to my letters, and a letter
to Asoph ul Dowlah, and Mr. Middleton, and Hussein
Reza Kha'n, and Hyder Beg Kllhan, on the subject of
ceasing to molest my jaghires. And send me constantly news of your health, for my peace of mind depends thereon. "
This letter was transmitted to Mr. Hastings. I
desire your Lordships will remark, upon this letter,
for it is a most important one indeed. It is hardly worth observing that all this correspondence came out of the various trunks of which your Lordships
have already heard, and that this letter is out of the
trunk of Mr. Hastings's private Persian secretary and
interpreter, Mr. Jonathan Scott. Now, my Lords, in
this letter there are several things worthy of your
Lordships' observation. The first is, that this woman
is not conscious of having ever been accused of any
rebellion: the only accusation that ever came to her
ears was, that Captain Gordon said that his baggage
had been robbed by one of her aumils. She denies
the truth of this charge; and she produces testimonials of their good behavior to him; and, what is the essential point of all, she desires Mr. Hastings to apply to this Mr. John Gordon, and to know from him what truth or falsehood there is in that accusation,
and what weight there is in the attestation she produces. ' "Mr. Gordon is now present," says she;
" ask him yourself of these matters. " This reasonable request was not complied with. Mr. Gordon swears before Sir Elijah Impey to the robbery; but
he never mentions the paper lie had written, in which
he confessed that he owed his life to this very lady.
? ?
yourselves whether this is not a charge, not only so
grossly improbable, but so perfectly impossible, that
there is not any evidence which can make it even
plausible. Consider next, my Lords, on the other
side, the evidence of their innocence, and then ask
yourselves whether any additional matter could make
its probability in the least degree more probable.
My Lords, the evidence we have produced is neither
more nor less than that of almost all the persons who
have had a share in exciting that rebellion, and who,
to justify their own horrible cruelty, have attempted
to charge the natural consequences of that cruelty
upon these unhappy women.
But where, all this time, is the Nabob, against
whom this rebellion is pretended to be directed?
Was it ever even insinuated to him that his mother
had raised a rebellion against him? When were the
proofs shown to him? Did lie ever charge her with
it? He surely must have been most anxious to
prevent and suppress a rebellion against himself:
but not one word on that subject has ever come out
of his mouth; nor has any one person been produced
to show that he was informed of the existence of
such a rebellion. The persons said to be rebels are
his mother and grandmother; and I again ask, Was
there the least intimation given to him by Mr. Middleton, or by any other person, of their being even suspected of rebellion against him? There was, indeed, a hint of some rebellion, which the creatures of Mr. Hastings got at obliquely; but neither the
person against whom the rebellion is supposed to
exist, nor the persons who were said to be guilty of
it, were ever either informed of or charged with it.
I defy the prisoner and his whole gang to produce
? ? ? ? 74 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
one word ever uttered by allny one of them, from
which the Nabob or Begums could learn that they
were supposed to be concerned in the rebellion: so
that none of those who were said to be the principal
actors in the scene ever heard of the parts they were
acting from the actual authors and managers of the
business. Not one word was uttered of a charge made,
much less of proof given. Nothing was heard but
" Give me the money! " - irons, - new irons, - new
imprisonment, - and at last the castle of Chunar.
And here I beg leave to pause, and to leave upon
your minds the impression, first, of the wrong that
was done, the violence, and the robbery, - and, secondly, of the pretences, both civil and criminal, by which they have attempted to justify their proceedings.
? ? ? ? SPEECH
IN
GENERAL REPLY.
SIXTH DAY: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1794.
M Y LORDS, -Your Lordships will recollect that
we closed the last day of your proceeding in
this trial at a most interesting part of our charge,
or rather of our observations upon that charge. We
closed at that awful moment when we found the first
women of Oude pillaged of all their landed and of
all their moneyed property, in short, of all they possessed. We closed by reciting to you the false pretence on which this pillage was defended, namely, that it was the work of the Nabob. Now we had
before proved to you, from evidence adduced by the
prisoner himself, that this Nabob was a mere tool in
his hands; and therefore, if this pretence be true,
it aggravates his guilt: for surely the forcing a son
to violate the property of his mother must everywhere be considered a crime most portentous and
enormous. At this point we closed; and after the
detail which has been given you already of these
horrible and iniquitous proceedings, some apology
may perhaps be necessary for entering again into
the refutation of this iniquitous pretence.
My honorable fellow Manager who preceded me
in this business did, in his remarks upon the inference drawn by the prisoner's counsel from the seiz
? ? ? ? 76 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ure of the Begums' treasures by the Nabob, as evidence of their guilt, as he ought to do, -he treated
it with proper contempt. I consider it, indeed, to
be as little an evidence of their guilt as he does,
and as little a defence of that *seizure as he does.
But I consider it in another and in a new light,
namely, as a heavy aggravation of the prisoner's
crimes, and as a matter that will let you into the
whole spirit of his government; and I warn your
Lordships against being imposed on by evasions, of
which if it were possible for you to be the dupes,
you would be unfit to be judges of the smallest
matters in the world, civil or criminal.
The first observation which I shall beg leave to
make to your Lordships is this, that the whole of
the proceedings, from beginning to end, has been a
mystery of iniquity, and that in no part of them have
the orders of the Company been regarded, but, on
the contrary, the whole has been carried on in a
secret and clandestine manner.
It is necessary that your Lordships should be acquainted with the manner in which the correspondence of the Company's servants ought to be carried on and their proceedings regulated; your Lordships,
therefore, will please to hear read the orders given
concerning correspondence of every kind with the
country powers. You will remember the period
when these orders were issued, namely, the period
at which the act passed for the better direction of
the servants of the Company. By this act Mr. Hastings was appointed to be Governor-General, and the
Court of Directors was required by that act to prepare orders and instructions, which Mr. Hastings
was required by the same act to comply with. You
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - SIXTH DAY. 77
will see what these instructions and orders were, and
in what manner lie has complied with them.
Extract of General Instructions to the Governor-'General and Council, 29th of March, 1774.
" We direct that you assemble in Council twice
every week, and that all the members be duly summoned; that the correspondence with the princes
or country powers in India be carried on by the
Governor-General only, but that all letters sent by
him be first approved in Council, and that he lay before the Council, at their next meeting, all letters received by him in the course of such correspondence, for their information. We likewise direct that a
copy of such parts of the country correspondence be
communicated to our Board of Trade (to be constituted as hereinafter mentioned) as may any ways
relate to the business of their department. "
You will observe, my Lords, two important circumstances in these instructions: first, that, after
the board had regularly met, the Persian correspondence, kept by the Governor only, was to be
communicated to the Council; and, secondly; that he
should write no answer to any part of the business
until he had previously consulted the Council upon
it. Here is the law of the land, - an order given in
pursuance of an act of Parliament. Your Lordships
will consider how Mr. Hastings comported himself
with regard to those orders: for we charge it as a
substantive crime, independent of the criminal presumptions arising from it, that he violated an act
of Parliament which imposed direct instructions
upon him as to the manner in which he was to
? ? ? ? 78 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
conduct all matters of business with the native
powers.
My Lords, we contend strongly that all the positive rules and injunctions of the law, though they are merely positive, and do not contain anything but
mere matters of regulation, shall be strictly observed.
The reason is this, and a serious reason it is: official
tyranny and oppression, corruption, peculation, and
bribery are crimes so secret in their nature that we
can hardly ever get to the proof of them without the
assistance of rules, orders, and regulations of a positive nature, intended to prevent the perpetration of these crimes, and to detect the offender in case the
crimes should be actually perpetrated. You ought,
therefore, to presume, that, wl#ver such rules or
laws are broken, these crimes are intended to be
committed; for you have no means of security against
the commission of secret crimes but by enforcing positive laws, the breach of which must be always plain, open, and direct. Such, for instance, is the spirit
of the laws, that, although you cannot directly pro-ve
bribery or smuggling in a hundred cases where they
have been committed, you can prove whether the
proper documents, proper cockets, proper entries in
regular offices have been observed and performed, or
not. By these means you lock the door against bribery, you lock the door against corruption, against smuggling and contraband trade. But how? By
falling upon and attacking the offence? No, by falling upon and attacking the breach of the regulation. You prove that the man broke the regulation, and,
as he could have no other motive or interest in break
ing it, you presume that he broke it fraudulently,
and you punish the man not for the crime the regu
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -SIXTH DAY. 79
lation was meant to prevent, but you punish him for
the breach of the regulation itself.
Next to the breach of these positive instructions,
your Lordships will attend to the consequent concealment and mystery by which it was accompanied.
All government must, to preserve its authority, be
sincere in its declarations and authentic in its acts.
Whenever ill any matter of policy there is a mystery,
you must presume a fraud; whenever in ally matter
of money there is concealment, you must presume
misconduct: you must therefore affix your punishment to the breach of the rule; otherwise the conviction of public delinquents would be unattainable. I have therefore put before you that rule which
he has violated; and we, the Commons, call upon
your Lordships to enforce that rule, and to avenge
the breach of it. You have seen the consequences
of breaking the rule; and we have charged and do
charge it as a heavy aggravation of those consequences, that, instead of consulting the Council, instead
of laying the whole correspondence before them, instead of consulting them upon his answers, he went
himself up into the country, took his Majesty's chiefjustice along with him, and made that person the
instrument of those wrongs, violelnces, robberies, and
concealments which we call upon your Lordships to
punish.
My Lords, an extraordinary circumstance occurred
in the course of our proceedings in another place,
which I must state, to show you in what a horrible
manner your laws have been trampled upon and despised. None of the proceedings which have been
last stated to your Lordships respecting the seizure
of the treasures of the Begums appear upon any
? ? ? ? 80 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
public record whatever. From the manner in which
they came to our knowledge, your Lordships will
perceive what must have been the prisoner's own
opinion of the horrible nature of proceedings which
lie thought so necessary to be concealed.
Whilst we were inquiring into the violences committed agaillnst thle Begums, in breach of the treaty
entered into with them, there came into my hands
an anlonymous letter containing a full account of all
the matter which has lately been stated to you. It
came anonymously; and I did not know from what
quarter it came. I do not even know with certainty at this hour: I say, not withl certainty, for I can
only form a conjecture. This anonymous communication enabled us to produce all the correspondence with Mr. Middleton respecting the cruelties exercised towards the Begums and their eunuchs in order to extort money. We found the names of
Major Gilpin and several other persons in these letters. We also foulnd in them a strong fox smell of
a Sir Elijah Impey, that his brush and crime had
left behind him; we traced him by that scent; and
as we proceeded, we discovered the footsteps of as
many of the wolves as Mr. Hastings thought proper
to leave there. We sent for and examined Mr. Middleton; and Major Gilpin produced his correspondence. When we applied to Mr. Middleton, we found
that all this part of his correspondence had been
torn out of his book; but having come at it by
means of our anonymous communication, we subsequently proved and established it, in the manner we
have done before your Lordsllips. Here, then, you
have important matter which this anonymous letter
has brought to light; and otherwise the whole of
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- SIXTH DAY. 81
this correspondence, so essential to the interests and
justice of Great Britain, would have been concealed
by this wicked man. Thus, I say, his violation of
a positive law would have remained undiscovered, if
mere accident had not enabled us to trace this iniquity to its source. Therefore I begin our proceedings this day by stating to your Lordships this fact, and by calling upon your justice to punish him for
this violation of the laws of his country.
We have told you who the instruments were by
which all this wickedness was committed, Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson, persons who were sent as
ambassadors to represent the interests of the Company at the court of an independent prince. Over this
prince they usurped an absolute power; they even
made use of British officers in his own service and
receiving his pay, to enslave his person, and to force
him to rob his kindred. These agents were aided
by an English chief-justice, sent under the authority
of an act of Parliament to represent the sovereign
majesty of English justice, and to be a restraint upon the misconduct of the Company's servants. These
are the instruments with which this man works.
We have shown you his system; we have shown you
his instruments: we will now proceed with the examination of the pretences upon which this horrid
and nefarious act is attempted to be justified. We
have not entered into this examination for the sake
of refuting things that want no refutation, but for
the purpose of showing you the spirit of the whole
proceeding, and making it appear to your Lordships,
as I trust it will appear, that the wicked act done
there is not half so bad as the wicked defence made
here.
VOL. XII. 6
? ? ? ? 82 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
The first part of Sir Elijah Impey's commission, as
your Lordships will remember, was to seize upon the
Begums' treasures. He had likewise another budget of instructions, which has been discovered in the
trunks of which your Lordships have heard, -- secret
instructions to be given by him to Mr. Middleton for
the furtherance of this business. And that his office
of Chief-Justice should not lie dormant, he was commissionled to seek for affidavits or written testimony
from any persons, for the purpose of convicting these
women of a design of atrociously revolting against
their son, and deposing him from the government,
with a view of getting rid of the English inhabitants.
This was the accusation; and the evidence to support
it Sir Elijah Impey was sent to collect.
My Lords, I must here observe to your Lordships
that there is no act of violence which, merely as an
act of violence, may not in some sort be borne: because all act of violence infers no principle; it infers nothiiig but a momentary impulse of a bad mind, proceeding, without law or justice, to the execution
of its object. For at the same time that it pays no
regard to law, it does not debauch it, it does not
wrest it to its purposes: the law disregarded still
exists; and hope still exists in the sufferer, that,
when law shall be resorted to, violence will cease, and
wrongs will be redressed. But whenever the law itself is debauched, and enters into a corrupt coalition with violence, robbery, and wrong, then all hope is gone; and then it is not only private persons that
suffer, but the law itself, when so corrupted, is oftem
perverted inito the worst instrument of fraud and vio
lence; it then becomes most odious to mankind, and
an infinite aggravation of every injury they suffer.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. SIXTH DAY. 83
We have therefore in our charge strongly reprobated Sir Elijah Impey's going to take such affidavits. . "O! but," they say, "a judge may take an affidavit in his cllamlber privately; and he may take an affidavit,
though not exactly in the place of his jurisdiction, to
authenticate a bond, or the like. " -- We are not to be
cheated by words. It is not dirty shreds of worn-out
parchments, the sweepings of Westminster Hall, that
shall serve us in place of that justice upon which the
world stands. Affidavits! We know that in the language of our courts affidavits do not signify a body of
evidence to sustain a criminal charge, but are generally relative to matter [matters? ] ill process collateral to the charge, which, not coming before the jury, are made known to the judge by way of affidavit.
But was it ever heard, or will it be borne, that a
person exercising a judicial office under his Majesty
should walk beyond the sphere of his jurisdiction,that lhe should desert the station in which he was
placed for the protection of the natives, and should
march to such a place as Lucknow in order to take
depositions for criminating persons in that country,
without so much as letting these poor victims know
one article in the depositions so taken? These depositions, my Lords, were made to criminate, they
were meant to justify a forfeiture, and are not in the
nature of those voluntary affidavits which, whether
made within jurisdiction or without, whether made
publicly or privately, signify comparatively nothinlg
to the cause. I do not mean to say that allny process of any court has not its weight, when the matter
is within it in the ordinary course of proceedings:
it is the extraordinary course, the extrajudicial conduct, which divests it of that just weight it otherwise
would have.
? ? ? ? 84 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
This chief-justice goes to Lucknow, where he holds
his court, such as it was. He is ready to authenticate any process by the signature of the English
chief-justice, in a court which he holds by night, in
a court which he holds in darkness and secrecy. He
holds his court in Fyzabad; he holds it, unknown to
the Nabob of Oude, in his own capital, and without
giving him the least knowledge of or any notice of
what he was proceeding to do. He holds it at the
lodgings of Colonel Morgan, a pensioner of the Nabob; and the person assisting him is Mr. Middleton,
who is likewise, as we have proved to you, one of the
Nabob's pensioners, a monopolizer of trade in the
country, and a person who received much the major
part of his emoluments from the Nabob's hands.
In that clandestine manner, in the Nabob's own
house, in his own capital city, in the lodging of his
dependant and pensioner, Colonel Morgan, with no
other witness that we know of than Mr. Middleton,
was this iniquitous, dark procedure held, to criminate the mother of the Nabob. We here see a scene
of dark, mysterious contrivance: let us now see what
is brought out in the face of open day. The attestations themselves, which you have seen on the record before you. They were brought out -- where? there? No: they were brought out in another
place; they were brought out at Calcutta, - but were
never communicated to the Nabob. He never knew
anything of the matter. Let us now see what those
attestations were. Your Lordships will bear in mind
that I do not advert to this thing, which they bring
as evidence, in the way of imputation of its being
weak, improper, and insufficient evidence, but as an
incontrovertible proof of crimes, and of a systematic
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -SIXTH DAY. 85
design to ruin the accused party, by force there and
by chicane here: these are the principles upon which
I am going to talk to you upon this abominable subject,- of which, I am sorry to say, I have no words sufficient to express my horror. No words canll express it; nor can anything but the severity of your Lordships' judgments find an adequate expression of
it. It is not to be expressed in words, but in punishment.
Having stated before whom the evidence collected
in this body of affidavits was taken, I shall now state
who the persons were that gave it. They were those
very persons who were guilty of robbing and ruining
the whole country: yes, my Lords, the very persons
who had been accused of this in the mass by Mr.
Hastings himself. They were nothing less than the
whole body of those English officers who Were usurping the office of farmers-general, and other lucrative offices in the Nabob's government, and whose pillage
and peculations had raised a revolt of the whole kingdom against themselves. These persons are here brought in a mass to clear themselves of this charge
by criminating other persons, and clandestinely imputing to them the effect of their own iniquity.
But supposing these witnesses to be good for anything, supposing it fit that the least attention should
be paid them, the matter of their testimony may very
possibly be true without criminating the Begum. It
criminates Saadut Ali Khan, the brother of;he
Nabob; the word Begum is never mentioned in the
crimination but in conjunction with his; and much
the greater part of it criminates the Nabob himself.
Now, my Lords, I will say, that the matter of these
affidavits, forgetting who the deponents were, may
? ? ? ? 86 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
possibly be true, as far as respects Saadut Ali Khan,
but that it is utterly as improbable, which is the
main point and the stress of the thing, with respect
to the Begums, as it is impossible with respect to the
Nabob.
That Saadut Ali, being a military man, a
man ambitious and aspiring to greatness, should take
advantage of the abuses of the English government
and of the discontent of the country, that he should,
I say, raise a revolt against his brother is very possible; but it is scarcely within possibility that the mother of the Nabob should have joined with the
illegitimate son against her legitimate son. I can
only say that in human affairs there is the possibility
of truth in this. It is possible she might wish to
depose her legitimate son, her only legitimate son,
and to depose him for the sake of a bastard son of
her husband's,- to exalt him at the expense of the
former, and to exalt, of course, the mother of that
bastard at her own expense, and to her own wrong.
But I say, that this, though possible, is grossly improbable. The reason why the Begum is implicated
in this charge with Saadut Ali by the affidavits cannot escape your notice. Their own acquittal might
be the only object of the deponents in their crimination of the latter; but the treasures of the former were the objects of their employers, and these treasures could not be come at but by the destruction of the Begums.
But, my Lords, there are other affidavits, or whatever your Lordships may call them, that go much further. In order to give a color to the accusation,
and make it less improbable, they say that the Nabob
himself was at the bottom of it, and that he joined
with his brother and his mother to extirpate out of
? ? ? ? SPELCH IN REPLY. -SIXTH DAY. 87
his dominions that horrible grievance, the English
brigade officers, - those English officers who were the
farmers-general, and who, as we have proved by Mr.
Hastings's own evidence, had ruined the country.
Nothing is more natural than that a man, sensible
of his duty to himself and his subjects, should form
a scheme to get rid of a band of robbers that were
destroying his country and degrading and ruining
his family. Thus you see a family compact naturally accounted for: the Nabob at the head of it, his mother joining her own son, and a natural brother
joining in the general interests of the family. This
is a possible case. But is this the case pressed by
them? No: they pass lightly over the legitimate
son; they scarcely touch upon Saadut Ali Khan;
they sink the only two persons that could give probability or possibility to this business, and endeavor to throw the whole design upon these two unfortunate
women.
Your Lordships see the wickedness and baseness
of the contrivance. They first, in order to keep the
whole family in terror, accuse the whole family;
then, having possessed themselves of the treasures of
the Begums upon another pretence, they endeavor to
fix upon them that improbable guilt which they had
with some degree of probability charged upon the
whole family, as a farther justification of that spoliation. Your Lordships will see what an insult is
offered to the Peers of Great Britain, in producing
before you, by way of defence, such gross, scandalous,
and fraudulent proceedings.
Who the first set of witnesses were which they
produced before their knight-errant chief-justice, Sir
Elijah Impey, who wandered in search of a law ad
? ? ? ? 88 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
venture, I have laid open to your Lordships. You
have now had an account of the scandalous manufacture of that batch of affidavits which was in the budget of Sir Elijah Impey, --that Pandora's box
which I have opened, and out of which has issued
every kind of evil. This chief-justice went up there
with the death-warrant of the Begums' treasures,
and, for aught he knew, the death-warrant of their
persons. At the same time that he took these affidavits he became himself a witness in this business; he appears as a witness. How? Did he know any one
circumstance of the rebellion? No, he does not even
pretend to do so. "' But," says he, "iin my travels I
was obliged to avoid Fyzabad, upon account of the
suspected rebellion there. " Another chief-justice
would have gone fifty miles about to avoid Lucknow,
for everybody knows that Lucknow was the focus and
centre of extortion, corruption, and peculation, and
that a worse air for the lungs of a chief-justice could
not be found in the world. If his lungs wanted the
benefit of pure air, he would even have put himself
in the focus of a rebellion, to have kept at a distance
from the smell of carrion and putrid corruption of
every kind that was at Lucknow. A chief-justice may
go to a place where a rebellion is raging, he may die
a martyr to his honor; but a chief-justice who puts
himself into the focus of peculation, into the focus
of bribery, into the focus of everything that is base
and corrupt, -- what can we expect from him but
that he will be engaged in clandestine jobs there?
The former might kill Sir Elijah Impey, the knighterrant, but the chief-justice would remain pure and entire; whereas Sir Elijah Impey has escaped from
Lucknow, and the chief-justice is left by Mr. Hastings to shift for himself.
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - SIXTH DAY. 89
After mentioning this violation of the laws of hospitality by Sir Elijah Impey, I would ask, Was any
notice given by him, or by any of Mr. Hastings's
agents, to the Nabob, who was so immediately interested in this matter? Was any notice given to the Begums that any such charge was entertained against
them? Not a word. Was it notified to the eunuchs?
Was it to Saadut Ali Khan? Not a word. They
were all within their power. The eunuchs were a
year in irons, and they were subjected to the want
of food and water for a part of that year. They
were dragged from Fyzabad to Lucknow, and from
Lucknow to Fyzabad. During all that time was
there a word mentioned. to them by any one person
on the part of MIr. Hastings, that they were accused
of this matter? Not a word.
We now submit to your Lordships' vindictive justice and condemnation this recriminatory defence, in which every principle of justice has been violated.
And now I will ask your Lordships whether you
would have suffered such a procedure in the case of
the prisoner at your bar. It was asked by a person of
great authority in this House, when we were going
to produce certain evidence against Mr. Hastings,
(we do not say whether we offered to produce it
properly or improperly, - that is another matter,) -
we were asked, I say, whether our intentions of
producing that evidence had been communicated to
Mr. Hastings. Had he had an opportunity of crossexamining the witnesses who had given that evidence? No, he added, that evidence must be rejected. Now
I say to your Lordships, upon the same ground, deal
with the Begums as you dealt with Mr. Hastings.
Do not keep two weights and measures for different
? ? ? ? 9() IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
persons in the same cause. You would not suffer
such evidence to be produced against him; you will
not assuredly suffer such evidence to be produced to
you in his favor and against them.
My Lords, the cause between this man and these
unfortunate women is at last come into Westminster
Hall; the cause is come to a solemn trial; and we
demand other witnesses and other kinds of proof than
what these affidavits furnish. My Lords, the persons
who have been examined here are almost all of them
the same persons who made these affidavits; but
there is this material difference in their evidence: at
your Lordships' bar they sunk all those parts of their
former evidence which criminated the Nabob and
Saadut Ali, and confined their testimony wholly to
what related to the Begums. We were obliged, by a
cross-examination, to squeeze out of them the disavowal of what they had deposed on the former occasion. The whole of their evidence we leave to the judgment of your Lordships, with these summary
remarks: first, that they are the persons who were to
profit by their own wrong; they are the persons who
had seven months' arrears paid to them out of the
money of these unfortunate ladies; they are the
persons who, to justify the revolt which they had
caused in the country by their robbery, charge their
own guilt upon others. The credibility of their evidence is therefore gone. But if it were not affected by these circumstances, Mr. Hastings has put an end to it by telling you that there is not one of
them who is to be credited upon his oath, --no, not
in a court-martial; and call it, therefore, be expected
that in a case of peculation they will do otherwise
than acquit the party accused? He has himself laid
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- SIXTH DAY. 91
before you the horrible state of the whole service;
your Lordships have it fresh in your memories, and
ringing in your ears. You have also heard from
witnesses brought by Mr. Hastings himself, that these
soldiers committed misdemeanors of the very same
kind with those which we have stated. They ought
not, therefore, to be listened to for a moment; and
we aver that it is an aggravation of the prisoner's
crimes, that he has brought the instruments of his
guilt, the persons of whom he has complained as
having ruinled and destroyed that country, and whom
he had engaged, at the Nabob's desire, in the treaty
of Cllhular, to send out of the country, as being a
nuisance in it,- to bring, I say, these people here, to
criininate, at a distance of nine thousand miles, these
unfortunate women, where they have neither attorney
or agent who can from local knowledge cross-examine them. He has the audacity to bring these people here; and in what manner they comport themselves,
when they come here, your Lordships have seen.
There is one of them whom we cannot pass by:
that is, Captain Gordon. The other witnesses, who
appeared here as evidences to criminate the Begums,
did it by rumors and hearsays. They had heard
some person say that the Begums had encouraged
rebellion, always coupling them with Saadut Ali
Khlaln, and sometimes with the Nabob, because there
might have been some probability for their charge
in the transactions with Saadut Ali Khan, which,
though impossible with regard to the Begums, they
thought would implicate him [them? ] in his designs.
But Captain Gordon is to give a different account
of the proceedings.
Captain Gordon was one of Colonel Hannay's
? ? ? ? 92 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
under-farmers. He was hunted out of the country,
and, as one of the Begums says, pursued by a thousand of the zemindars, for robbing the whole country. This woman, through respect to the British name,
that name which guarantied her possessions to her,
receives this Captain Gordon and Captain Williams
with every mark of kindness, hospitality, and protection, that could be given them. She conveys them from the borders to the city of Fyzabad, and from
Fyzabad, her capital, supposed to be the nest of her
rebellion, on to their place of destination. They both
write her letters full of expressions of gratitude and
kindness for the services that they had received. They
then pass on to Lucknow to Sir Elijah Impey, and
there they sink every word of kindness, of any service
or protection that they had received, or of any acknowledgment that they had ever made of it. They
sink all this: not one word of it appears in their
affidavits.
HIow, then, did we come to the knowledge of it?
We got it from Major Gilpin, who was examined in
the course of these proceedings; and we used it in
our charge, from the papers that we hold in our
hands. Mr. Hastings has confessed the fact; and
Mr. Middleton has endeavored to slur it ovqer, but
could not completely conceal it. We have established the fact, and it is in evidence before your Lordships. You have now, then, in this manner, got these testimonials given by English officers in favor of these women; and by the same means the letters of the
latter accusing the former are come to your hands:
and now these same English officers come here with
their recriminatory accusation. Now why did they
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- SIXTH DAY. 93
not make it at Lucknow? Why did not Mr. Hastings, when Mr Middleton had such papers for him in
his hands, why, I ask, did not Mr. Hastings procure
some explanation of the circumstances whilst he was
in India? I will read your Lordships the letter, that
you may not only know, but feel, the iniquity of this
business.
Letter from the Mother of the Vizier to Mr. Hastings;
received the 6th of January, 1782.
"Our situation is pretty well, and your good
health is constantly prayed for. I had sent Behar
Ali Khan to you. Accordingly people invented a
falsehood, that Behar Ali Khan was gone to get the
deputyship of the Subah; and some persons here
were saying,'Wherefore has she sent Behar Ali
Khan to Calcutta to the Nabob Amaud ul Dowlah?
We will never permit the affair to succeed. ' And
accordingly it has so happened. For they say that
you also have not put your seal to the treaty: and
the people here say,' Why does the noble lady correspond with the English gentlemen? ' On this account, I did not send a letter at the time when you came this way. Now the state of affairs here is thus.
On the 27th Zehedja, Asoph ul Dowlah Bahadur,
without my knowledge, sent his own aumils into my
jaghires. I accordingly wrote several times to Mr.
Middleton on this business: that his seal was to the
treaty and writing of discharge; why did he not negotiate in my favor? Mr. Middleton replied,'The
Nabob is the master. ' I wrote frequently, but without effect. Being helpless, I represent to you the
state of my affairs, that, notwithstanding the existence of this treaty, I have been treated in this man
? ? ? ? 94 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
ner. It is useless for me to stay here. Whatever is
is a compact; whenever any one deviates from his
compact, he meets with no credit for the future;
and the light of mine eyes, Asoph ul Dowlah, wrote
to me that he had sent his own aumils into my jaghires, and would pay ready money from his treasury.
Reflect on my security for his adhering to his future
engagements, from the consideration of his conduct
under his past promises. I do not agree to his ready
money. Let me have my jaghires as formerly; otherwise, leaving this place, I will wait on you at Benares, and thence will go towards Shaljehanabad, because he has not adhered to his engagement. Send letters to Asoph ul Dowlah, and to Mr. Middleton, and
Hussein Reza Khan, and Hyder Beg Khanl, not to molest the Begum's jaghires, and to let them remain, as
formerly, with the Begum's aumils. And it is here
suspected of me that my aumil plundered the property of Mr. John Gordon. The case is this. Mr.
John Gordon arrived at Taunda, a jaghire of mine,
fighting with the zemindars of Acberpore, which belongs to the Khalseh. Accordingly, Mr. John Gordon having come to Taunda, my aumil performed
whatever appertained to his duty. Afterwards Mr.
John Gordon wrote to me to send my people, that
he might come with them to Fyzabad. I sent people accordingly to bring Mr. John Gordon, and the
said gentleman arrived here in complete safety; and
Mr. John Gordon is now present. Ask him yourself
of these matters. Mr. John Gordon will represent
matters in detail; the truth will then become known,
how ill-founded the calumny is. Should you come
here for a few days, it will be very well, and if not,
I will wait on you; and your coming here is very
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY, -SIXTH DAY. 95
necessary, that all my affairs may become arranged.
And send a speedy answer to my letters, and a letter
to Asoph ul Dowlah, and Mr. Middleton, and Hussein
Reza Kha'n, and Hyder Beg Kllhan, on the subject of
ceasing to molest my jaghires. And send me constantly news of your health, for my peace of mind depends thereon. "
This letter was transmitted to Mr. Hastings. I
desire your Lordships will remark, upon this letter,
for it is a most important one indeed. It is hardly worth observing that all this correspondence came out of the various trunks of which your Lordships
have already heard, and that this letter is out of the
trunk of Mr. Hastings's private Persian secretary and
interpreter, Mr. Jonathan Scott. Now, my Lords, in
this letter there are several things worthy of your
Lordships' observation. The first is, that this woman
is not conscious of having ever been accused of any
rebellion: the only accusation that ever came to her
ears was, that Captain Gordon said that his baggage
had been robbed by one of her aumils. She denies
the truth of this charge; and she produces testimonials of their good behavior to him; and, what is the essential point of all, she desires Mr. Hastings to apply to this Mr. John Gordon, and to know from him what truth or falsehood there is in that accusation,
and what weight there is in the attestation she produces. ' "Mr. Gordon is now present," says she;
" ask him yourself of these matters. " This reasonable request was not complied with. Mr. Gordon swears before Sir Elijah Impey to the robbery; but
he never mentions the paper lie had written, in which
he confessed that he owed his life to this very lady.
? ?
