by Edmund Burke
In consequence of these two circumstances, namely, the famine, and the abuses that were supposed to arise from it, and from the circumstance of the minority of Mobarek ul Dowlah, who now reigns or appears to reign, — in consequence of these two circumstances, the Company gave two sets of orders.
The first order related to Mahomed Reza Khân, who was (as your Lordships remember I took, in the beginning of this affair, means of explaining) lord-deputy of the province under the native government, the English holding the dewanny, — and deputy dewan, or high-steward, under the name of the English, and had the command of the whole revenue; and who was accused before the Company (the channel of which accusation we now learn) of having aggravated that famine by a monopoly for his own benefit. The Company, upon these loose and general charges, ordered that he should be divested of his office, that he should be brought down to Calcutta, and there be obliged to render an account of his conduct.
The next regulation they made was concerning the effective government of the country, which was become vacant by the removal of Mahomed Reza Khân. The offices which he held were in effect these: he was guardian to the Nabob by the appointment of the Company; he had the care and management of his family; he had the care of the public justice; and he represented that shadow of government to foreign nations which it was the policy of the Company, at that time, to keep up. This was the person whom Mr. Hastings was ordered to remove; in consequence of which removal all these offices were to be supplied, — of guardian of the Nabob’s person and manager of his family, of chief magistrate, and of representative of the fallen dignity of the native government to the foreign nations which traded to Bengal.
To these orders was added an instruction of a very remarkable nature, which was a third trust that was given to Mr. Hastings: that during the Nabob’s minority he should reduce the annual allowance, which was thirty-two lacs, to sixteen; and that to prevent the abuse of this restricted sum, and to prevent its being directed by the minister’s authority to other purposes than that for which the Company allowed it, (that is to say, allowed him out of what was his own,) of these sixteen lacs an account was to be regularly kept, as a check upon the person so appointed, which account was ordered to be transmitted to Calcutta, and to be sent to England.
Now we are to show your Lordships what Mr. Hastings’s conduct was upon all these occasions; and for this we mean to produce testimony recorded in the Company’s books, and authentic documents taken from the public offices of that country. At the same time I do admit that there never was a positive testimony that did not stand something in need of the support of presumption: for, as we know that witnesses may be perjured, and as we know that documents can be forged, we have recourse to a known principle in the laws of all countries, that circumstances cannot lie; and therefore, if the testimony that is given was ever so clear and positive, yet, if it is contrary to the circumstances of the country, if it is contrary to the circumstances of the facts to which it alludes, if the deposition is totally adverse and alien to the characters of the persons, then I will say, that, though the testimonies should be many, though they should be consistent, and though they should be clear, yet they will still leave some degree of hesitation and doubt upon every mind timorous in the execution of justice, as every mind ought to be. If, for instance, ten witnesses were to swear that the Chief-Justice of England, that the Lord High-Chancellor, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, was seen, in the robes of his function, at noonday, robbing upon the highway, it is not the clearness, the weight, the authority of testimonies, that could make me believe it; I should attribute it to any cause, either corruption, mistake, error, or madness, rather than believe that fact. Why? Because it is totally alien to the character of the persons, the situation, the circumstances, and to all the rules of probability. But if, on the contrary, the crime charged has a perfect relation with the person, with his known conduct, with his known habits, with the situation and circumstances of the place that he is in, and with the very corrupt inherent nature of the act that he does, then much less proof than we are able to produce will serve; and according to the nature and strength of the presumptions arising from the inherent nature of a vicious principle and vicious motives in the act, will be strengthened the weakest evidence, or, if it comes to a sufficient height, the whole burden of proof will be turned upon the party accused. And thus we shall think ourselves bound to show your Lordships, in every step of this proceeding, that there is an inherent presumption of corruption in every act. We shall show the presumptions which preceded, we shall show the presumptions which accompanied the proof; and these, with the subsequent presumptions, will make it impossible to disbelieve them. Such a body of proof was never given upon any such occasion: and it is such proof as will prevail against the whole voice of corruption, that amazing, active, diligent, spreading voice, which has been made, by buzzing in every part of this country, sometimes to sound like the public voice; it will put it to silence, by showing that your Lordships have proceeded upon the strongest evidence, active and passive.
First, Mr. Hastings received a positive order to seize upon Mahomed Reza Khân. That order he executed with a military promptitude of obedience, which will show your Lordships what are the services which are congenial to his own mind, and which find in him always a ready acquiescence, a faithful agent, and a spirited instrument in the execution. The very day after he received the order, he sent up, privately, without communicating with the Council, from whom he was not ordered to keep this proceeding a secret, — he sent up, and found that great and respectable man and respectable magistrate, who was in all those high offices which I have stated: and if I was to compare them to circumstances and situations in this country, I should say he had united in himself the character of First Lord of the Treasury, the character of Chief-Justice, the character of Lord High-Chancellor, and the character of Archbishop of Canterbury: a man of great gravity, dignity, and authority, and advanced in years; had once 100,000l. a year for the support of his dignity, and had at that time 50,000l. This man, sitting in his garden, reposing himself after the toils of his situation, (for he was one of the most laborious men in the world,) was suddenly arrested, and, without a moment’s respite, dragged down to Calcutta, and there by Mr. Hastings (exceeding the orders of the Company) confined near two years under a guard of soldiers. Mr. Hastings kept this great man for several months without even attempting the trial upon him. How he tried him afterwards your Lordships may probably in the course of this business inquire; and you will then judge, from the circumstances of that trial, that, as he was not tried for his crime, so neither was he acquitted for his innocence; — but at present I leave him in that situation. Mr. Hastings, unknown to the Council, having executed the orders of the Company in the last degree of rigor to this unhappy man, keeps him in that situation, without a trial, under a guard, separated from his country, disgraced and dishonored, and by Mr. Hastings’s express order not suffered either to make a visit or receive a visitor.
There was another commission for Mr. Hastings contained in these orders. The Company, because they were of opinion that justice could not be easily obtained while the first situations of the country were filled with this man’s adherents, desired Mr. Hastings to displace them: leaving him a very large power, and confiding in his justice, prudence, and impartiality not to abuse a trust of such delicacy. But we shall prove to your Lordships that Mr. Hastings thought it necessary to turn out, from the highest to the lowest, several hundreds of people, for no other reason than that they had been put in their employments by that very man whom the English government had formerly placed there. If we were to insist that we could not possibly try Mr. Hastings, or come at his wickedness, until we had eradicated his influence in Bengal, and left not one man in it who was during his government in any place or office whatever, yet, though we should readily admit that we could not do the whole without it, at the same time, rather than make a general massacre of every person presumed to be under his influence, we would lea
ve some of his crimes unproved. He did avow and declare, that, unless he turned all these persons out of their offices, he could never hope to come at the truth of any charges against Mahomed Reza Khân, against whom no specific charge had been made. Yet, upon loose and general charges, did he seize upon this man, confine him in this manner, and every person who derived any place or authority from him, high or low, was turned out. Mr. Hastings had in the Company’s orders something to justify him in rigor, but he had likewise a prudential power over that rigor; and he not only treated this man in the manner described, but every human creature connected with him, as if they had been all guilty, without any charge whatever against them. These are his reasons for taking this extraordinary step.
“I pretend not to enter into the views of others. My own were these. Mahomed Reza Khân’s influence still prevailed generally throughout the country. In the Nabob’s household, and at the capital, it was scarce affected by his present disgrace. His favor was still courted, and his anger dreaded. Who, under such discouragements, would give information or evidence against him? His agents and creatures filled every office of the nizamut and dewanny. How was the truth of his conduct to be investigated by these? It would be superfluous to add other arguments to show the necessity of prefacing the inquiry by breaking his influence, removing his dependants, and putting the direction of all the affairs which had been committed to his care into the hands of the most powerful or active of his enemies.”
My Lords, if we of the House of Commons were to desire and to compel the East India Company, or to address the crown, to remove, according to their several situations and several capacities, every creature that had been put into office by Mr. Hastings, because we could otherwise make no inquiry into his conduct, should we not be justified by his own example in insisting upon the removal of every creature of the reigning power before we could inquire into his conduct? We have not done that, though we feel, as he felt, great disadvantages in proceeding in the inquiry while every situation in Bengal is notoriously held by his creatures, — always excepting the first of all, but which we could show is nothing under such circumstances. Then what do I infer from this, — from his obedience to the orders of the Company, carried so much beyond necessity, and prosecuted with so much rigor, — from the inquiry being suspended for so long a time, — from every person in office being removed from his situation, — from all these precautions being used as prefatory to the inquiry, when he himself says, that, after he had used all these means, he found not the least benefit and advantage from them? The use I mean to make of this is, to let your Lordships see the great probability and presumption that Mr. Hastings, finding himself in the very selfsame situation that had occurred the year before, when Nundcomar was sold to Mahomed Reza Khân, of selling Mahomed Reza Khân to Nundcomar, made a corrupt use of it, and that, as Mahomed Reza Khân was not treated with severity for his crimes, so neither was he acquitted for his innocence. The Company had given Mr. Hastings severe orders, and very severely had he executed them. The Company gave him no orders not to institute a present inquiry; but he, under pretence of business, neglected that inquiry, and suffered this man to languish in prison to the utter ruin of his fortune.
We have in part shown your Lordships what Mr. Hastings’s own manner of proceeding with regard to a public delinquent is; but at present we leave Mahomed Reza Khân where he was. Do your Lordships think that there is no presumption of Mr. Hastings having a corrupt view in this business, and of his having put this great man, who was supposed to be of immense wealth, under contributions? Mr. Hastings never trusted his colleagues in this proceeding; and what reason does he give? Why, he supposed that they must be bribed by Mahomed Reza Khân. “For,” says he, “as I did not know their characters at that time, I did not know whether Mahomed Reza Khân had not secured them to his interest by the known ways in which great men in the East secure men to their interest.” He never trusted his colleagues with the secret; and the person that he employed to prosecute Mahomed Reza Khân was his bitter enemy, Nundcomar. I will not go the length of saying that the circumstance of enmity disables a person from being a prosecutor; under some circumstances it renders a man incompetent to be a witness; but this I know, that the circumstance of having no other person to rely upon in a charge against any man but his enemy, and of having no other principle to go upon than what is supposed to be derived out of that enmity, must form some considerable suspicion against the proceeding. But in this he was justified by the Company; for Nundcomar, the great rival of Mahomed Reza Khân, was in the worst situation with the Company as to his credit. This Nundcomar’s politics in the country had been by Mr. Hastings himself, and by several persons joined with him, cruelly represented to the Company; and accordingly he stood so ill with them, by reason of Mr. Hastings’s representations and those of his predecessors, that the Company ordered and directed, that, if he could be of any use in the inquiry into Mahomed Reza Khân’s conduct, some reward should be given him suitable to his services; but they caution Mr. Hastings at the same time against giving him any trust which he might employ to the disadvantage of the Company. Now Mr. Hastings began, before he could experience any service from him, by giving him his reward, and not the base reward of a base service, money, but every trust and power which he was prohibited from giving him. Having turned out every one of Mahomed Reza Khân’s dependants, he filled every office, as he avows, with the creatures of Nundcomar. Now when he uses a cruel and rigorous obedience in the case of Mahomed Reza Khân, when he breaks through the principles of his former conduct with regard to Nundcomar, when he gives him, Nundcomar, trust, whom he was cautioned not to trust, and when he gives him that reward before any service could be done, — I say, when he does this, in violation of the Company’s orders and his own principles, it is the strongest evidence that he now found them in the situation in which they were in 1765, when bribes were notoriously taken, and that each party was mutually sold to the other, and faith kept with neither. The situation in which Mr. Hastings thus placed himself should have been dreaded by him of all things, because he knew it was a situation in which the most outrageous corruption had taken place before.
There is another circumstance which serves to show that in the persecution of these great men, and the persons employed by them, he could have no other view than to extort money from them. There was a person of the name of Shitab Roy, who had a great share in the conduct of the revenues of Bahar. Mr. Hastings, in the letter to the Company, complaining of the state of their affairs, and saying that there were great and suspicious balances in the kingdom of Bahar, does not even name the name of Shitab Roy. There was an English counsellor, a particular friend of Mr. Hastings’s, there, under whose control Shitab Roy acted. Without any charges, without any orders from the Company, Mr. Hastings dragged down that same Shitab Roy, and in the same ignominious prison he kept him the same length of time, that is, one year and three months, without trial; and when the trial came on, there was as much appearance of collusion in the trial as there was of rigor in the previous process. This is the manner in which Mr. Hastings executed the command of the Company for removing Mahomed Reza Khân.
When a successor to Mahomed Reza Khân was to be appointed, your Lordships naturally expect, from the character I have given of him, and from the nature of his functions, that Mr. Hastings would be particularly precise, would use the utmost possible care in nominating a person to succeed him, who might fulfil the ends and objects of his employment, and be at the same time beyond all doubt and suspicion of corruption in any way whatever. Let us now see how he fills up that office thus vacant. When the Company ordered Mahomed Reza Khân to be dispossessed of his office, they ordered at the same time that the salary of his successor should be reduced: that 30,000l. was a sufficient recompense for that office. Your Lordships will see by the allowance for the office, even reduced as it was, that they expected some man of great eminence, of great consequence, and fit for those great and various trusts. They cut off the dewanny f
rom it, that is, the collection of the revenues; and having lessened his labors, they lessened his reward. — They ordered that this person, who was to be guardian of the Nabob in his minority, and who was to represent the government, should have but 30,000l. The order they give is this.
“And that as Mahomed Reza Khân can no longer be considered by us as one to whom such a power can safely be committed, we trust to your local knowledge the selection of some person well qualified for the affairs of government, and of whose attachment to the Company you shall be well assured. Such person you will recommend to the Nabob, to succeed Mahomed Reza, as minister of the government, and guardian of the Nabob’s minority; and we persuade ourselves that the Nabob will pay such regard to your recommendation as to invest him with the necessary power and authority.
“As the advantages which the Company may receive from the appointment of such minister will depend on his readiness to promote our views and advance our interest, we are willing to allow him so liberal a gratification as may excite his zeal and insure his attachment to the Company; we therefore empower you to grant to the person whom you shall think worthy of this trust an annual allowance not exceeding three lacs of rupees, which we consider not only as a munificent reward for any services he shall render the Company, but sufficient to enable him to support his station with suitable rank and dignity. And here we must add, that, in the choice you shall make of a person to be the active minister of the Nabob’s government, we hope and trust that you will show yourselves worthy of the confidence we have placed in you by being actuated therein by no other motives than those of the public good and the safety and interest of the Company.”
My Lords, here they have given a reward, and they have described a person fit to succeed in all capacities the man whom they had thought fit to depose. Now, as we have seen how Mr. Hastings obeyed the Company’s orders in the manner of removing Mahomed Reza Khân from his office, let us see how he obeyed their order for filling it up. Your Lordships will naturally suppose that he made all the orders of Mahometan and Hindoo princes to pass in strict review before him; that he had considered their age, authority, dignity, the goodness of their manners; and upon the collation of all these circumstances had chosen a person fit to be a regent to guard the Nabob’s minority from all rapacity whatever, and fit to instruct him in everything. I will give your Lordships Mr. Hastings’s own idea of the person necessary to fill such offices.