by Edmund Burke
But, my Lords, Mr. Larkins, who has in custody Mr. Hastings’s memory, no small part of his conscience, and all his accounts, did, at last, in compliance with Mr. Hastings’s desire, think proper to send an account. Then, at last, we may expect light. Where are we to look for accounts, but from an accountant-general? Where are they to be met with, unless from him? And accordingly, in that night of perplexity into which Mr. Hastings’s correspondence had plunged them, men looked up to the dawning of the day which was to follow that star, the little Lucifer, which with his lamp was to dispel the shades of night, and give us some sort of light into this dark, mysterious transaction. At last the little lamp appeared, and was laid on the table of this House of Commons, on the motion of Mr. Hastings’s friends: for we did not know of its arrival. It arrives, with all the intelligence, all the memory, accuracy, and clearness which Mr. Larkins can furnish for Mr. Hastings upon a business that before was nothing but mystery and confusion. The account is called, —
“Copy of the particulars of the dates on which the component parts of sundry sums included in the account of sums received on the account of the Honorable Company by the Governor-General, or paid to their Treasury by his order, and applied to their service, were received for Mr. Hastings, and paid to the Sub-Treasurer.”
The letter from Mr. Larkins consisted of two parts: first, what was so much wanted, an account; next, what was wanted most of all to such an account as he sent, a comment and explanation. The account consisted of two members: one gave an account of several detached bribes that Mr. Hastings had received within the course of about a year and a half; and the other, of a great bribe which he had received in one gross sum of one hundred thousand pounds from the Nabob of Oude. It appeared to us, upon looking into these accounts, that there was some geography, a little bad chronology, but nothing else in the first: neither the persons who took the money, nor the persons from whom it was taken, nor the ends for which it was given, nor any other circumstances are mentioned.
The first thing we saw was Dinagepore. I believe you know this piece of geography, — that it is one of the provinces of the kingdom of Bengal. We then have a long series of months, with a number of sums added to them; and in the end it is said, that on the 18th and 19th of Asin, (meaning part of September and part of October,) were paid to Mr. Croftes two lac of rupees; and then remains one lac, which was taken from a sum of three lac six thousand nine hundred and seventy-three rupees. After we had waited for Mr. Hastings’s own account, after it had been pursued through a series of correspondence in vain, after his agents had come to England to explain it, this is the explanation that your Lordships have got of this first article, Dinagepore. Not the person paid to, not the person paying, are mentioned, nor any other circumstance, except the signature, G.G.S.: this might serve for George Gilbert Sanders, or any other name you please; and seeing Croftes above it, you might imagine it was an Englishman. And this, which I call a geographical and a chronological account, is the only account we have. Mr. Larkins, upon the mere face of the account, sadly disappoints us; and I will venture to say that in matters of account Bengal book-keeping is as remote from good book-keeping as the Bengal painches are remote from all the rules of good composition. We have, however, got some light: namely, that one G.G.S. has paid some money to Mr. Croftes for some purpose, but from whom we know not, nor where; that there is a place called Dinagepore; and that Mr. Hastings received some money from somebody in Dinagepore.
The next article is Patna. Your Lordships are not so ill acquainted with the geography of India as not to know that there is such a place as Patna, nor so ill acquainted with the chronology of it as not to know that there are three months called Baisakh, Asin, Chait. Here was paid to Mr. Croftes two lac of rupees, and there was left a balance of about two more. But though you learn with regard to the province of Dinagepore that there is a balance to be discharged by G.G.S., yet with regard to Patna we have not even a G.G.S.: we have no sort of light whatever to know through whose hands the money passed, nor any glimpse of light whatever respecting it.
You may expect to be made amends in the other province, called Nuddea, where Mr. Hastings had received a considerable sum of money. There is the very same darkness: not a word from whom received, by whom received, or any other circumstance, but that it was paid into the hands of Mr. Hastings’s white banian, as he was commonly called in that country, into the hands of Mr. Croftes, who is his white agent in receiving bribes: for he was very far from having but one.
After all this inquiry, after so many severe animadversions from the House of Commons, after all those reiterated letters from the Directors, after an application to Mr. Hastings himself, when you are hunting to get at some explanation of the proceedings mentioned in the letter of the month of May, 1782, you receive here by Mr. Larkins’s letter, which is dated the 5th of August, 1786, this account, which, to be sure, gives an amazing light into this business: it is a letter for which it was worth sending to Bengal, worth waiting for with all that anxious expectation with which men wait for great events. Upon the face of the account there is not one single word which can tend to illustrate the matter: he sums up the whole, and makes out that there was received five lac and fifty thousand rupees, that is to say, 55,000l., out of the sum of nine lac and fifty thousand engaged to be paid: namely, —
From Dinagepore
4,00,000
From Nuddea
1,50,000
And from Patna
4,00,000
9,50,000
Or
£95,000
Now you have got full light! Cabooleat signifies a contract, or an agreement; and this agreement was, to pay Mr. Hastings, as one should think, certain sums of money, — it does not say from whom, but only that such a sum of money was paid, and that there remains such a balance. When you come and compare the money received by Mr. Croftes with these cabooleats, you find that the cabooleats amount to 95,000l., and that the receipt has been about 55,000l., and that upon the face of this account there is 40,000l. somewhere or other unaccounted for. There never was such a mode of account-keeping, except in the new system of this bribe exchequer.
Your Lordships will now see, from this luminous, satisfactory, and clear account, which could come from no other than a great accountant and a great financier, establishing some new system of finance, and recommending it to the world as superior to those old-fashioned foolish establishments, the Exchequer and Bank of England, what lights are received from Mr. Hastings.
However, it does so happen that from these obscure hints we have been able to institute examinations which have discovered such a mass of fraud, guilt, corruption, and oppression as probably never before existed since the beginning of the world; and in that darkness we hope and trust the diligence and zeal of the House of Commons will find light sufficient to make a full discovery of his base crimes. We hope and trust, that, after all his concealments, and though he appear resolved to die in the last dike of prevarication, all his artifices will not be able to secure him from the siege which the diligence of the House of Commons has laid to his corruptions.
Your Lordships will remark, in a paragraph, which, though it stands last, is the first in principle, in Mr. Larkins’s letter, that, having before given his comment, he perorates, as is natural upon such an occasion. This peroration, as is usual in perorations, is in favor of the parties speaking it, and ad conciliandum auditorem. “Conscious,” he says, “that the concern which I have had in these transactions needs neither an apology nor an excuse,” — that is rather extraordinary, too!— “and that I have in no action of my life sacrificed the duty and fidelity which I owed to my honorable employers either to the regard which I felt for another or to the advancement of my own fortune, I shall conclude this address, firmly relying upon the candor of those before whom it may be submitted for its being deemed a satisfactory as well as a circumstantial compliance with the requisition in conformity to which the information it affords has been furnished,” — meanin
g, as your Lordships will see in the whole course of the letter, that he had written it in compliance with the requisition and in conformity to the information he had been furnished with by Mr. Hastings,— “without which it would have been as base as dishonorable for me spontaneously to have afforded it: for, though the duty which every man owes to himself should render him incapable of making an assertion not strictly true, no man actuated either by virtuous or honorable sentiments could mistakenly apprehend, that, unless he betrayed the confidence reposed in him by another, he might be deemed deficient in fidelity to his employers.”
My Lords, here is, in my opinion, a discovery very well worthy your Lordships’ attention; here is the accountant-general of the Company, who declares, and fixes it as a point of honor, that he would not have made a discovery so important to them, if Mr. Hastings himself had not authorized him to make it: a point to which he considers himself bound by his honor to adhere. Let us see what becomes of us, when the principle of honor is so debauched and perverted. A principle of honor, as long as it is connected with virtue, adds no small efficacy to its operation, and no small brilliancy and lustre to its appearance: but honor, the moment that it becomes unconnected with the duties of official function, with the relations of life, and the eternal and immutable rules of morality, and appears in its substance alien to them, changes its nature, and, instead of justifying a breach of duty, aggravates all its mischiefs to an almost infinite degree; by the apparent lustre of the surface, it hides from you the baseness and deformity of the ground. Here is Mr. Hastings’s agent, Mr. Larkins, the Company’s general accountant, prefers his attachment to Mr. Hastings to his duty to the Company. Instead of the account which he ought to give to them in consequence of the trust reposed in him, he thinks himself bound by honor to Mr. Hastings, if Mr. Hastings had not called for that explanation, not to have given it: so that, whatever obscurity is in this explanation, it is because Mr. Hastings did not authorize or require him to give a clearer. Here is a principle of treacherous fidelity, of perfidious honor, of the faith of conspirators against their masters, the faith of robbers against the public, held up against the duty of an officer in a public situation. You see how they are bound to one another, and how they give their fidelity to keep the secrets of one another, to prevent the Directors having a true knowledge of their affairs; and I am sure, if you do not destroy this honor of conspirators and this faith of robbers, that there will be no other honor and no other fidelity among the servants in India. Mr. Larkins, your Lordships see, adheres to the principle of secrecy.
You will next remark that Mr. Hastings had as many bribe-factors as bribes. There was confidence to be reposed in each of them, and not one of these men appears to be in the confidence of another. You will find in this letter the policy, the frame, and constitution of this new exchequer. Mr. Croftes seems to have known things which Mr. Larkins did not; Mr. Larkins knew things which Gunga Govind Sing did not; Gunga Govind Sing knew things which none of the rest of the confederates knew. Cantoo Baboo, who appears in this letter as a principal actor, was in a secret which Mr. Larkins did not know; it appears likewise, that there was a Persian moonshee in a secret of which Cantoo Baboo was ignorant; and it appears that Mr. Palmer was in the secret of a transaction not intrusted to any of the rest. Such is the labyrinth of this practical painche, or screw, that, if, for instance, you were endeavoring to trace backwards some transaction through Major Palmer, you would be stopped there, and must go back again; for it had begun with Cantoo Baboo. If in another you were to penetrate into the dark recess of the black breast of Cantoo Baboo, you could not go further; for it began with Gunga Govind Sing. If you pierce the breast of Gunga Govind Sing, you are again stopped; a Persian moonshee was the confidential agent. If you get beyond this, you find Mr. Larkins knew something which the others did not; and at last you find Mr. Hastings did not put entire confidence in any of them. You will see, by this letter, that he kept his accounts in all colors, black, white, and mezzotinto; that he kept them in all languages, — in Persian, in Bengalee, and in a language which, I believe, is neither Persian nor Bengalee, nor any other known in the world, but a language in which Mr. Hastings found it proper to keep his accounts and to transact his business. The persons carrying on the accounts are Mr. Larkins, an Englishman, Cantoo Baboo, a Gentoo, and a Persian moonshee, probably a Mahometan. So all languages, all religions, all descriptions of men are to keep the account of these bribes, and to make out this valuable account which Mr. Larkins gave you!
Let us now see how far the memory, observation, and knowledge of the persons referred to can supply the want of them in Mr. Hastings. These accounts come at last, though late, from Mr. Larkins, who, I will venture to say, let the banians boast what they will, has skill perhaps equal to the best of them: he begins by explaining to you something concerning the present of the ten lac. I wish your Lordships always to take Mr. Hastings’s word, where it can be had, — or Mr. Larkins’s, who was the representative of and memory-keeper to Mr. Hastings; and then I may perhaps take the liberty of making some observations upon it.
Extract of a Letter from William Larkins, Accountant-General of Bengal, to the Chairman of the East India Company, dated 5th August, 1786.
“Mr. Hastings returned from Benares to Calcutta on the 5th February, 1782. At that time I was wholly ignorant of the letter which on the 20th January he wrote from Patna to the Secret Committee of the Honorable the Court of Directors. The rough draught of this letter, in the handwriting of Major Palmer, is now in my possession. Soon after his arrival at the Presidency, he requested me to form the account of his receipts and disbursements, which you will find journalized in the 280th, &c., and 307th pages of the Honorable Company’s general books of the year 1781-2. My official situation as accountant-general had previously convinced me that Mr. Hastings could not have made the issues which were acknowledged as received from him by some of the paymasters of the army, unless he had obtained some such supply as that which he afterwards, viz., on the 22d May, 1782, made known to me, when I immediately suggested to him the necessity of his transmitting that account which accompanied his letter of that date, till when the promise contained in his letter of 20th January had entirely escaped his recollection.”
The first thing I would remark on this (and I believe your Lordships have rather gone before me in the remark) is, that Mr. Hastings came down to Calcutta on the 5th of February; that then, or a few days after, he calls to him his confidential and faithful friend, (not his official secretary, for he trusted none of his regular secretaries with these transactions,) — he calls him to help him to make out his accounts during his absence. You would imagine that at that time he trusted this man with his account. No such thing: he goes on with the accountant-general, accounting with him for money expended, without ever explaining to that accountant-general how that money came into his hands. Here, then, we have the accountant making out the account, and the person accounting. The accountant does not in any manner make an objection, and say, “Here you are giving me an account by which it appears that you have expended money, but you have not told me where you received it: how shall I make out a fair account of debtor and creditor between you and the Company?” He does no such thing. There lies a suspicion in his breast that Mr. Hastings must have taken some money in some irregular way, or he could not have made those payments. Mr. Larkins begins to suspect him. “Where did you lose this bodkin?” said one lady to another, upon a certain occasion. “Pray, Madam, where did you find it?” Mr. Hastings, at the very moment of his life when confidence was required, even when making up his accounts with his accountant, never told him one word of the matter. You see he had no confidence in Mr. Larkins. This makes out one of the propositions I want to impress upon your Lordships’ minds, that no one man did he let into every part of his transactions: a material circumstance, which will help to lead your Lordships’ judgment in forming your opinion upon many parts of this cause.
You see that Mr. Larkins suspected him. Pro
bably in consequence of those suspicions, or from some other cause, he at last told him, upon the 22d of May, 1782, (but why at that time, rather than at any other time, does not appear; and this we shall find very difficult to be accounted for,) — he told him that he had received a bribe from the Nabob of Oude, of 100,000l. He informs him of this on the 22d of May, which, when the accounts were making up, he conceals from him. And he communicates to him the rough draught of his letter to the Court of Directors, informing them that this business was not transacted by any known secretary of the Company, nor with the intervention of any interpreter of the Company, nor passed through any official channel whatever, but through a gentleman much in his confidence, his military secretary; and, as if receiving bribes, and receiving letters concerning them, and carrying on correspondence relative to them, was a part of military duty, the rough draught of this letter was in the hands of this military secretary. Upon the communication of the letter, it rushes all at once into the mind of Mr.Larkins, who knows Mr. Hastings’s recollection, who knows what does and what does not escape it, and who had a memory ready to explode at Mr. Hastings’s desire, “Good God!” says he, “you have promised the Directors an account of this business!” — a promise which Mr. Larkins assures the Directors, upon his word, had entirely escaped Mr. Hastings’s recollection. Mr. Hastings, it seems, had totally forgotten the promise relative to the paltry sum of 100,000l. which he had made to the Court of Directors in the January before; he never once thought of it, no, not even when he was making up his accounts of that very identical sum, till the 22d of May. So that these persons answer for one another’s bad memory: and you will see they have good reason. Mr. Hastings’s want of recollection appears in things of some moment. However lightly he may regard the sum of 100,000l., which, considering the enormous sums he has received, I dare say he does, — for he totally forgot it, he knew nothing about it, — observe what sort of memory this registrar and accountant of such sums as 100,000l. has. In what confusion of millions must it be, that such sums can be lost to Mr. Hastings’s recollection! However, at last it was brought to his recollection, and he thought that it was necessary to give some account of it. And who is the accountant whom he produces? His own memory is no accountant. He had dismissed the matter (as he happily expresses it in the Cheltenham letter) from his memory. Major Palmer is not the accountant. One is astonished that a man who had had 100,000l. in his hands, and laid it out, as he pretends, in the public service, has not a scrap of paper to show for it. No ordinary or extraordinary account is given of it. Well, what is to be done in such circumstances? He sends for a person whose name you have heard and will often hear of, the faithful Cantoo Baboo. This man comes to Mr. Larkins, and he reads to him (be so good as to remark the words) from a Bengal paper the account of the detached bribes. Your Lordships will observe that I have stated the receipt of a number of detached bribes, and a bribe in one great body: one, the great corps d’armée; the other, flying scouting bodies, which were only to be collected together by a skilful man who knew how to manage them, and regulate the motions of those wild and disorderly troops. When No. 2 was to be explained, Cantoo Baboo failed him; he was not worth a farthing as to any transaction that happened when Mr. Hastings was in the Upper Provinces, where though he was his faithful and constant attendant through the whole, yet he could give no account of it. Mr. Hastings’s moonshee then reads three lines from a paper to Mr. Larkins. Now it is no way even insinuated that both the Bengal and Persian papers did not contain the account of other immense sums; and, indeed, from the circumstance of only three lines being read from the Persian paper, your Lordships will be able, in your own minds, to form some judgment upon this business.