FINIS.
THE SPEECHES AND LETTERS
CONTENTS
THE SPEECH OF R. B. SHERIDAN, ESQ. ON WEDNESDAY, THE 7TH OF FEBRUARY, 1787, IN BRINGING FORWARD THE FOURTH CHARGE AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ. RELATIVE TO THE BEGUMS OF OUDE.
THE SPEECH OF R. B. SHERIDAN, ESQ. ON SUMMING UP THE SECOND CHARGE AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ. BEFORE THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT, IN WESTMINSTER-HALL, TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1788.
THE CELEBRATED SPEECH OF RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, ESQ IN WESTMINSTER-HALL, ON THE 3D, 6TH, 10TH, AND 13TH OF JUNE, 1788, ON HIS SUMMING UP THE EVIDENCE ON THE BEGUM CHARGE AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE.
SPEECH OF MR. SHERIDAN, IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, ON FRIDAY THE 21ST OF APRIL, 1798, ON THE MOTION TO ADDRESS HIS MAJESTY, ON THE PRESENT ALARMING STATE OF AFFAIRS.
MR. SHERIDAN’S ARGUMENT IN THE CASE OF DALY AGAINST MAGEE.
SPEECH OF RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, ESQ. IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS OF GREAT BRITAIN, ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 31ST, 1799, IN REPLY TO MR. PITT’S SPEECH ON THE UNION WITH IRELAND.
GRANT TO THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY, 1800
A LETTER TO THE MOST INSOLENT MAN ALIVE.
A LETTER TO WILLIAM EDEN, ESQ ON THE SUBJECT OF HIS TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE; THE IRISH TRADE.
THE SPEECH OF R. B. SHERIDAN, ESQ. ON WEDNESDAY, THE 7TH OF FEBRUARY, 1787, IN BRINGING FORWARD THE FOURTH CHARGE AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ. RELATIVE TO THE BEGUMS OF OUDE.
THE SECOND EDITION, REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED.
PREFATORY ADDRESS FROM THE PUBLISHER.
SOLICITOUS as the public are to have a perfect copy of the most eloquent speech that was ever delivered in Parliament, their wishes must be in a great measure disappointed from the very liberal determination of Mr. Sheridan to give no kind of assistance in reporting it publickly; a determination that does as much honour to his humanity, as his Oration does to his abilities. — Having called forth his wonderful talents whilst in the double office of a senator, and an accuser of the great delinquent, he now sinks the apparent, tho’ just severity of the public character, in the humane sensibility of the private individual; and generously withholds that torrent of eloquence which must excite in every breast sentiments of indignation against the atrocity which demanded it to flow. — The intention of this publication is not to excite those sensations the noble-minded speaker wishes to suppress; it is not to hold forth the character of an Eastern spoiler, for “scorn to point the finger at;” — it is meant to commemorate the virtues of a patriot mind, vindicating the honor of his country, and pleading the cause of humanity; and, as near as is in the power of recollection, to preserve to the public eye, partially at least, one of the most complete pieces of Oratory that ever graced an English, or any other Senate.
In doing this, the Reporter frankly confesses the fallibility of the means — all that he can boast is, to have come as near the original as the reminiscent faculties of a person habituated to parliamentary business, would permit. How far they have succeeded, those who had the felicity of being present, are the most competent to judge.
MR. SHERIDAN’S SPEECH, FEBRUARY 7, 1787, ON THE FOURTH CHARGE AGAINST MR. HASTINGS:
IN a Committee of the whole House, Mr. St. John in the chair.
Mr. Dempster having communicated to the house, that a paper, which he held in his hand, had been received by him from Sir Elijah Impey, with a request that he would read it; as it was explanatory of some passages which he had given in evidence at the bar of the House, but which explanation the House did not think proper to receive, but from the mouth of Sir Elijah Impey himself, and he not being present, Mr. SHERIDAN was called upon.
Mr. Sheridan, during a speech which lasted near five hours and three quarters, commanded the most profound attention and admiration of the House. His matchless oration united the most solid argument with the most persuasive eloquence. His sound reasoning giving additional energy to truth, and his logical perspicuity, and unerring judgment, throwing a light upon, and pervading the obscurity, of the most involved and complicated subject.
Mr. Sheridan’s pre-eminence and unrivalled abilities, will, from this period, stand recorded, as having had power to assimilate the most discordant sentiments, upon a great and trying occasion, and (with a few exceptions,) to unite the various opinions of the multitude in one point. — He commenced his elegant speech by saying, that had it been possible to have received, without the violation of the established rules of Parliament, the paper which the Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Dempster) had just now read, he should willingly have receded from any forms of the House, for the purpose of obtaining farther illustration of the subject then before them: yet he had not come so ill prepared, as, by a trifling circumstance, to be prevented from proceeding to the discharge of his duty, or that the want of it could make any impression on the body of proof he was to bring forward that day against Warren Hastings.
In his opinion, the explanation of the evidence, so far from throwing any new light upon it and clearing it up, rendered it even more obscure and contradictory than before. Every art was made use of to impress the House with an idea that this business was not of the most serious nature. But this was far beneath his notice. The justice and strength of his cause were not to be overcome by such pitiful and flimsey expedients; nor should he waste his time in opposing measures which were as paltry and inefficacious, as they were insidious.
He would not, he said, encroach upon the time of the committee with any general arguments to prove, what was in itself so obvious, that the subject of the charge, which it fell to his lot to bring forward, was of great magnitude. The attention Parliament had bestowed upon Indian concerns for many sessions past; the voluminous productions of their committees on that subject, the various proceedings in that House respecting it, their own strong and pointed resolutions, the repeated recommendations of his Majesty, and their repeated assurances of paying due regard to those recommendations, as well as various acts of the legislature, were, all of them, undeniable proofs of the moment and magnitude of the consideration, and tended to establish this broad fact, that they acknowledged the British name and character to have been dishonoured and detested throughout India, by the malversation and crimes of the servants of the East India Company. That fact having been established beyond all question, by themselves and their own acts, there needed no argument, on his part, to induce the committee to see the importance of the subject about to be discussed that day, in a more striking point of view than they had themselves placed it in.
There were, he knew, persons, without doors, who affected to ridicule the idea of prosecuting Mr. Hastings, and, in proportion as the prosecution became more serious, to increase their sarcasms upon the subject, by asserting that Parliament might be more usefully employed; that there were matters of more immediate moment to engage their attention; that a Commercial Treaty with France had just been concluded, and that it was an object of a vast comprehensive nature, and was of itself sufficient to engross their consideration.
To all this he would oppose these questions: Was Parliament mispending its time, by enquiring into the oppressions practised on millions of unfortunate persons in India, and endeavouring to bring the daring delinquents, who had been guilty of the most flagrant acts of enormous tyranny and rapacious peculation, to exemplary and condign punishment? Was it improperly employed in giving an eminent but severe example to their future servants, of the madness and folly of relying on corruption and sycophancy for support, in the day of trial for their crimes? Was it a misuse of their functions, to be diligent in attempting, by the most effectual means, to wipe off the disgrace that stood affixed to the British name in India, and to rescue the national character from lasting infamy? Were the good faith and credit of Britain of no consequence in the eyes of the representatives of the nation? Surely no man who felt for either the one or the other, would think that a business of greater moment or magnitude could occupy his attention, or that the House could with too much steadiness, too ardent a zeal, or too industrious
a perseverance, pursue its object. Indeed they must all know and feel the necessity of bringing this important case to the issue now intended. Their conduct in this respect last year had done them immortal honour, and proved to all the world, that, however degenerate an example of the conduct of Englishmen, some of the British subjects had exhibited in India, the people of England collectively, speaking and acting by their representatives, felt as men should feel on such an occasion; that they were anxious to do justice, by redressing injuries and punishing offenders, however high their rank, however elevated their station.
Mr. Sheridan said he would exhibit to their view a body of information, which would prove the commission of the most horrid crimes ever conceived by the foulest heart that ever inhabited a human frame; facts which persons of every party, of every political bias in this kingdom, had been assisting in bringing to view. In these had the indefatigable attention and labour of several committees been employed; it was the work of many years: these were fully demonstrated in the various clear and elaborate reports which had been long upon their table; their long and interesting debates, their solemn address to the throne, and their rigorous legislative acts.
The vote of the House last session, wherein the conduct of this pillar of India, this corner stone of our strength in the east, this talisman of the British dominions in Asia, was censured, did the greatest honour to that house, as it must be the fore-runner of speedy justice on that character which was said to be above censure, and whose conduct, we were given to understand, was above suspicion, His deeds were such, they could not be justified by any possible necessity; for no situation, however elevated, however embarrassed, could justify a man for committing acts of rapacity upon individuals. To the honour of that House, they had resisted the monstrous argument attempted to be set up, they had shewn their detestation of that novel and base scepticism on the principles of judicial enquiry, constantly the language of the Governor General’s servile dependents; that such horrid crimes should be compounded; that, though M. Hastings might be guilty of all the charges exhibited against him, he ought not to be punished; he should still be considered as the saviour of India, and that fortunate events were a full and complete set-off against a system of oppression, corruption, breach of faith, peculation and treachery. What though King, Lords, and Commons, were against him, he was not a person to be assailed; for he had a vote of thanks from the Court of Proprietors in his pocket. The committee had, however, nobly combated such doctrine, and declared that Mr. Hastings’s treatment of Cheyt Sing was unjustifiable upon any ground of political necessity. Their solemn and awful judgment, that in the case of Benares, Mr. Hastings’s conduct was a proper object of parliamentary impeachment, had covered them with applause, and brought them forward in the face of all the world as the objects of perpetual admiration. To use the words of a Right Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Pitt) on this subject, the committee had found in the administration of Mr. Hastings, “Acts of strong injustice, of grinding oppression, and unprovoked severity.” That committee had also rescued his Right Honourable Friend (Mr. Burke) from the imputation of being a false accuser, they had shewn that he was not moved by envy, by malice, nor any unworthy motives to blacken a spotless name; they had approved him to be, what in reality he was, an indefatigable, and, he was happy to add, a successful, champion in the cause of truth, humanity, and justice. With sound judgment, with manly firmness, with unshaken integrity, had his Right Honourable Friend resisted the timid policy of mere remedial acts. Even the high opinion of Mr. Hastings’s successor, even the admitted worth of Lord Cornwallis’s character, had been deemed by him an inadequate atonement to India for the injuries so heavily inflicted on her. The committee had by their vote solemnly pledged themselves to India. They had audibly said to the inhabitants of that country; There shall be no more remedial acts: You shall no longer be seduced into temporary acquiescence, by sending out a titled governor, or a vapouring set of resolutions; It is not with stars and ribbands, and all the badges of regal favour, that weatone to you for past delinquencies, these should bend to the sacred shrine of justice, and the people of India shall be convinced of our honest intentions. You shall have the solid consolation of seeing an end to your grievances, by an example of punishment for past offences. The House has set up a beacon, which, while it served as a guide to themselves, would also make their motions more conspicuous to the world that surrounded and beheld them. He had no doubt of their manly determination to go through the whole of the business, with the same steadiness which gave such sterling brilliancy of character to their outset, and that they might safely challenge the world, to observe and judge of them by the result.
After an exordium of this tendency, Mr. Sheridan took notice of a paper, signed “Warren Hastings,” which had been put into his hand, as he entered the house that day, and which he considered as a second defence, and a second answer to the charge he was about to bring forward; a charge, replete with proof of criminality of the blackest die, of tyranny the most base and unprecedented, of treachery the most vile and premeditated, of corruption the most open and shameless, of oppression the most grinding and severe, and cruelty the most unmanly and unparalleled.
There never was a question since the creation of the world, wherein so much cruelty, wickedness, inhumanity and depravity, were put to the test, as in the present case. He was no party accuser:
I call, said Mr. Sheridan, upon his advocates to watch my words, and to take them down. I will exhibit no charge that has not solid truth for its foundation, for I trust nothing to declamation.
Mr. Sheridan added; he was far from meaning to rest the charge on assertion, or on any warm expressions that the impulse of wounded feelings might produce: He would establish every part of the charge, by the most unanswerable proof, and the most unquestionable evidence; the witness, whom he would bring forth to support every fact he intended to state, should be, for the most part, a witness that no man would venture to contradict; no other than Warren Hastings himself!
And yet such a character had friends — he blamed them not — they might possibly conclude him innocent; — because he himself asserted it was so.
The defence of Mr. Hastings would establish every charge he had to make against him. There was not one fact which was not founded on, or mixed with falsehood; no one question that was truly given; nor one single conclusion which followed fairly from the premises laid down: but of this assertion, the multiplied proofs would shortly arise.
Mr. Sheridan said he would go farther back into a detail of facts than his Right Honourable friend had done in his charge, in order the more clearly to shew the committee the situation in which the British government of India stood with respect to the Nabob of Oude and the Begums, till the design of obliging the Nabob to plunder those unfortunate Princesses (his mother and grandmother) of their treasures, to confiscate their Jaghires and seize upon the ministers, throw them into a dungeon, there load them with chains, and keep them for many months close prisoners, suffering incredible hardships, was first entertained by the Governor General.
Mr. Sheridan here read a variety of extracts from Mr. Hastings’s defence; wherein were stated the various steps taken by Mr. Bristow, (the Company’s Resident at Fyzyabad,) in the years 1775 and 1776, to procure aid for the Nabob, from the Begum, (the dowager princesses of that district,) and that he thought proper to exact, by his sole authority, thirty lacks of rupees, for the use of the Nabob Vizier of Oude, out of the treasures bequeathed to the Begum by her late husband Sujah Dowla; obtaining however the guarantee of the Governor and Council that, that exaction, for which no shadow of right was shewn, should be the last. Mr. Hastings, however, had not stated one of the facts truly. Groundless, nugatory and insulting were his affirmations, that the seizure of treasures from the Begums, and the exposition of their pilfered goods to public auction, (unparallelled acts of open injustice, oppression and inhumanity) were in any degree to be defended by those incroachments on their property, which had taken place previous to
his administration, or by those sales which they themselves had solicited, as a favourable mode of their supplying a part of their aid to the Nabob. The relation of a series of plain indisputable facts, would irrecoverably overthrow a subterfuge so pitiful, a distinction so ridiculous. It must be remembered that, at that period, the Begums did not merely desire, but they most expresly stipulated, that of the thirty lacks promised, eleven should be paid in sundry articles of manufacture. Was it not obvious therefore, that the sale of goods in the first case, far from partaking of the nature of an act of plunder, became an extension of relief, of indulgence, and of accommodation. By the passages which he should beg leave to read, Mr. Hastings wished to insinuate that a claim was set up to the Begum’s treasure, as belonging of right to the Nabob. In this transaction Mr. Hastings endeavoured to shift the responsibility from himself to the majority of the Council, and under that authority to keep alive the Nabob’s right.
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