The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke
Chapter 186 : III. That the said Warren Hastings, having formed the plans aforesaid for the ruin of

III. That the said Warren Hastings, having formed the plans aforesaid for the ruin of the Rajah, did set out on a journey to the city of Benares with a great train, but with a very small force, not much exceeding six companies of regular black soldiers, to perpetrate some of the unjust and violent acts by him meditated and resolved on; and the said Hastings was met, according to the usage of distinguished persons in that country, by the Rajah of Benares with a very great attendance, both in boats and on sh.o.r.e, which attendance he did apparently intend as a mark of honor and observance to the place and person of the said Hastings, but which the said Hastings did afterwards groundlessly and maliciously represent as an indication of a design upon his life; and the said Rajah came into the pinnace in which the said Hastings was carried, and in a lowly and suppliant manner, alone, and without any guard or attendance whatsoever, entreated his favor; and being received with great sternness and arrogance, he did put his turban in the lap of the said Hastings, thereby signifying that he abandoned his life and fortune to his disposal, and then departed, the said Hastings not apprehending, nor having any reason to apprehend, any violence whatsoever to his person.

IV. That the said Hastings, in the utmost security and freedom from apprehension, did pursue his journey, and did arrive at the city of Benares on the 14th of August, 1781, some hours before the Rajah, who, soon after his arrival, intended to pay him a visit of honor and respect at his quarters, but was by the said Hastings rudely and insolently forbid, until he should receive his permission. And the said Hastings, although he had previously determined on the ruin of the said Rajah, in order to afford some color of regularity and justice to his proceedings, did, on the day after his arrival, that is, on the 15th day of August, 1781, send to the Rajah a charge in writing, which, though informal and irregular, may be reduced to four articles, two general, and two more particular: the first of the general being, "That he [the Rajah] had, by the means of his secret agents, endeavored to excite disorders in the government on which he depended"; the second, "That he had suffered the _daily_ perpetration of robberies and murders, even in the streets of Benares, to the great and public scandal of the English name."

V. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings is guilty of an high offence, contrary to the fundamental principles of justice, in the said mode of charging misdemeanors, without any specification of person or place or time or act, or any offer of specification or proofs by which the party charged may be enabled to refute the same, in order to unjustly load his reputation, and to prejudice him with regard to the articles more clearly specified.

VI. That the two specified articles relate to certain delays: the first, with regard to the payment of the sums of money unjustly extorted as aforesaid; and the second, the non-compliance with a requisition of cavalry,--which non-compliance the said Hastings (even if the said charges had been founded) did falsely, and in contradiction to all law, affirm and maintain (in his accusation against the Rajah, and addressing himself to him) "to amount to a _direct_ charge of disaffection and _infidelity_ to the government on which you depend": and further proceeded as follows: "I therefore judged it proper to state them [the said charges] thus fully to you in writing, and to _require_ your answer; and this I expect _immediately_." That the said Hastings, stating his pretended facts to amount to a charge of the nature (as he would have it understood) of high treason, and _therefore_ calling for an _immediate_ answer, did wilfully act against the rules of natural justice, which requires that a convenient time should be given to answer, proportioned to the greatness of the offence alleged, and the heavy penalties which attend it; and when he did arrogate to himself a right both to charge and to judge in his own person, he ought to have allowed the Rajah full opportunity for conferring with his ministers, his doctors of law, and his accountants, on the facts charged, and on the criminality inferred in the said accusation of disloyalty and disaffection, or offences of that quality.

VII. That the said Rajah did, under the pressure of the disadvantages aforesaid, deliver in, upon the very evening of the day of the charge, a full, complete, and specific answer to the two articles therein specified; and did allege and offer proof that the whole of the extraordinary demands of the said Hastings had been actually long before paid and discharged; and did state a proper defence, with regard to the cavalry, even supposing him bound (when he was not bound) to furnish any. And the said Rajah did make a direct denial of the truth, of the two _general_ articles, and did explain himself on the same in as satisfactory a manner and as fully as their nature could permit, offering to enter into immediate trial of the points in issue between him and the said Hastings, in the remarkable words following. "My enemies, with a view to my ruin, have made false representations to you.

Now that, _happily for me_, you have yourself arrived at this place, you will be able to ascertain all the circ.u.mstances: first, relative to the horse; secondly, to my people going to Calcutta; and thirdly, the dates of the receipts of the particular sums above mentioned. You will then know whether I have amused you with a false representation, or made a just report to you." And in the said answer the said Rajah complained, but in the most modest terms, of an injury to him of the most dangerous and criminal nature in transactions of such moment, namely, his not receiving any answer to his letters and pet.i.tions, and concluded in the following words. "I have never swerved in the smallest degree from my duty to you. It remains with you to decide on all these matters. I am in every case your slave. What is just I have represented to you. May your prosperity increase!"

VIII. That the said Warren Hastings was bound by the essential principles of natural justice to attend to the claim made by the Rajah to a fair and impartial trial and inquiry into the matter of accusation brought against him by the said Hastings, at a time and place which furnished all proper materials and the presence of all necessary witnesses; but the said Hastings, instead of inst.i.tuting the said inquiry and granting trial, did receive an humble request for justice from a great prince as a fresh offence, and as a personal insult to himself, and did conceive a violent pa.s.sion of anger and a strong resentment thereat, declaring that he did consider the said answer as not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style. "This answer you will perceive to be not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style, and less a vindication of himself than a recrimination on me. It expresses no concern for the causes of complaint contained in my letter, or desire to atone for them, nor the smallest intention to pursue a different line of conduct. An answer couched nearly _in terms of defiance_ to requisitions of so serious a nature I could not but consider as _a strong indication of that spirit of independency_ which the Rajah has for some years past a.s.sumed, and of which indeed I had early observed other manifest symptoms, both before and from the instant of my arrival." Which representation is altogether and in all parts thereof groundless and injurious; as the substance of the answer is a justification proper to be pleaded, and the style, if in anything exceptionable, it is in its extreme humility, resulting rather from an unmanly and abject spirit than from anything of an offensive liberty; but being received as disrespectful by the said Hastings, it abundantly indicates the tyrannical arrogance of the said Hastings, and the depression into which the natives are sunk under the British government.

IX. That the said Warren Hastings, pretending to have been much alarmed at the offensive language of the said Rajah's defence, and at certain appearances of independency which he had observed, not only on former occasions, but since his arrival at Benares, (where he had been but little more than one day,) and which appearances he never has specified in any one instance, did a.s.sert that he conceived himself indispensably obliged to adopt some decisive plan; and without any farther inquiry or consultation (which appears) with any person, did, at ten o'clock of the very night on which he received the before-mentioned full and satisfactory as well as submissive answer, send an order to the British Resident (then being a public minister representing the British government at the court of the said Rajah, and as such bound by the law of nations to respect the prince at whose court he was Resident, and not to attempt anything against his person or state, and who ought not, therefore, to have been chosen by the said Hastings, and compelled to serve in that business) that he should on the next morning arrest the said prince in his palace, and keep him in his custody until further orders; which said order being conceived in the most peremptory terms, the Rajah was put under arrest, with a guard of about thirty orderly sepoys, with their swords drawn; and the particulars thereof were reported to him as follows.

"HONORABLE SIR,--I this morning, in obedience to your orders of last night, proceeded with a few of my orderlies, accompanied by Lieutenant Stalker, to Shewalla Ghaut, the present residence of Rajah Cheyt Sing, and acquainted him it was your pleasure he should consider himself in arrest; that he should order his people to behave in a quiet and orderly manner, for that any attempt _to rescue him would be attended with his own destruction. The Rajah submitted quietly to the arrest_, and a.s.sured me, that, whatever were your orders, he was ready implicitly to obey; he hoped that you would allow him a _subsistence_, but as for _his zemindary, his forts, and his treasure, he was ready to lay them at your feet, and his life, if required_. He expressed himself much hurt at the ignominy which he affirmed must be the consequence of his confinement, and entreated me to return to you with the foregoing submission, hoping that you would make allowances for his youth and inexperience, and in consideration of his father's name release him from his confinement, as soon as he should prove the sincerity of his offers, and himself deserving of your compa.s.sion and forgiveness."

X. That a further order was given, that every servant of the Rajah's should be disarmed, and a certain number only left to attend him under a strict watch. In a quarter of an hour after this conversation, two companies of grenadier sepoys were sent to the Rajah's palace by the said Hastings; and the Rajah, being dismayed by this unexpected and unprovoked treatment, wrote two short letters or pet.i.tions to the said Hastings, under the greatest apparent dejection at the outrage and dishonor he had suffered in the eyes of his subjects, (all imprisonment of persons of rank being held in that country as a mark of indelible infamy, and he also, in all probability, considering his imprisonment as a prelude to the taking away his life,) and in the first of the said pet.i.tions he did express himself in this manner: "Whatever may be your pleasure, do it with your own hands; I am your slave. What occasion can there be for a guard?" And in the other: "My honor was bestowed upon me by your Highness. It depends on you alone to take away or not to take away the country out of my hands. In case my honor is not left to me, how shall I be equal to the business of the government? Whoever, with his hands in a supplicating posture, is ready with his life and property, what necessity can there be for him to be dealt with in this way?"

XI. That, according to the said Hastings's narrative of this transaction, he, the said Hastings, on account of the apparent despondency in which these letters were written, "thought it _necessary_ to give him _some_ encouragement," and therefore wrote him a note of a few lines, carelessly and haughtily expressed, and little calculated to relieve him from his uneasiness, promising to send to him a person to explain particulars, and desiring him "to set his mind at rest, and not to conceive any terror or apprehension." To which an answer of great humility and dejection was received.

XII. That the report of the Rajah's arrest did cause a great alarm in the city, in the suburbs of which the Rajah's palace is situated, and in the adjacent country. The people were filled with dismay and anger at the outrage and indignity offered to a prince under whose government they enjoyed much ease and happiness. Under these circ.u.mstances the Rajah desired leave to perform his ablutions; which was refused, unless he sent for water, and performed that ceremony on the spot. This he did. And soon after some of the people, who now began to surround the palace in considerable numbers, attempting to force their way into the palace, a British officer, commanding the guard upon the Rajah, struck one of them with his sword. The people grew more and more irritated; but a message being sent from the Rajah to appease them, they continued, on this interposition, for a while quiet. Then the Rajah retired to a sort of stone pavilion, or bastion, to perform his devotions, the guard of sepoys attending him in this act of religion. In the mean time a person of the meanest station, called a _chubdar_, at best answering to our common beadle or tipstaff, was sent with a message (of what nature does not appear) from Mr. Hastings, or the Resident, to the prince under arrest: and this base person, without regard to the rank of the prisoner, or to his then occupation, addressed him in a rude, boisterous manner, "pa.s.sionately and insultingly," (as the said Rajah has without contradiction a.s.serted,) "and, reviling him with a loud voice, gave both him and his people the vilest abuse"; and the manner and matter being observable and audible to the mult.i.tude, divided only by an open stone lattice from the scene within, a firing commenced from without the palace; on which the Rajah again interposed, and did what in him lay to suppress the tumult, until, an English officer striking him with a sword, and wounding him on the hand, the people no longer kept any measures, but broke through the inclosure of the palace. The insolent tipstaff was first cut down, and the mult.i.tude falling upon the sepoys and the English officers, the whole, or nearly the whole, were cut to pieces: the soldiers having been ordered to that service without any charges for their pieces. And in this tumult, the Rajah, being justly fearful of falling into the hands of the said Hastings, did make his escape over the walls of his palace, by means of a rope formed of his turban tied together, into a boat upon the river, and from thence into a place of security; abandoning many of his family to the discretion of the said Hastings, who did cause the said palace to be occupied by a company of soldiers after the flight of the Rajah.

XIII. That the Rajah, as soon as he had arrived at a place of refuge, did, on the very day of his flight, send a suppliant letter to the said Hastings, filled with expressions of concern (affirmed by the said Hastings to be slight expressions) for what had happened, and professions (said by the said Hastings to be indefinite and unapplied) of fidelity: but the said Warren Hastings, though bound by his duty to hear the said Rajah, and to prevent extremities, if possible, being filled with insolence and malice, did not think it "_becoming_ of him to make any reply to it; and that he _thought_ he ordered the bearer of the letter to be told that _it required none_."

XIV. That this letter of submission having been received, the said Rajah, not discouraged or provoked from using every attempt towards peace and reconciliation, did again apply, on the very morning following, to Richard Johnson, Esquire, for his interposition, but to no purpose; and did likewise, with as little effect, send a message to Cantoo Baboo, native steward and confidential agent of the said Hastings, which was afterwards reduced into writing, "to exculpate himself from any concern in what had pa.s.sed, and to profess his obedience to his _will_ [Hastings's] _in whatever_ way he should dictate." But the said Hastings, for several false and contradictory reasons by him a.s.signed, did not take any advantage of the said opening, attributing the same to artifice in order to gain time; but instead of accepting the said submissions, he did resolve upon flight from the city of Benares, and did suddenly fly therefrom in great confusion.

XV. That the said Hastings did persevere in his resolutions not to listen to any submission or offer of accommodation whatsoever, though several were afterwards made through almost every person who might be supposed to have influence with him, but did cause the Rajah's troops to be attacked and fallen upon, though they only acted on the defensive, (as the Rajah has without contradiction a.s.serted,) and thereby, and by his preceding refusal of propositions of the same nature, and by other his perfidious, unjust, and tyrannical acts by him perpetrated and done, and by his total improvidence in not taking any one rational security whatsoever against the inevitable consequences of those acts, did make himself guilty of all the mutual slaughter and devastation which ensued, as well as, in his opinion, of the imminent danger of the total subversion of the British power in India by the risk of his own person, which he a.s.serts that it did run,--as also "that it ought not to be thought that he attributed too much consequence to his personal safety, when he supposed _the fate of the British empire in India connected with it_, and that, mean as its substance may be, its accidental qualities were equivalent to those which, like the characters of a talisman in the Arabian mythology, formed the _essence_ of the state itself, representation, t.i.tle, and the _estimate_ of the public opinion; that, had he fallen, such a stroke would be universally considered as decisive of the national fate; every state round it would have started into arms against it, and _every subject of its own dominion would, according to their several abilities, have become its enemy_": and that he knew and has declared, that, though the said stroke was not struck, that great convulsions did actually ensue from his proceedings, "that half the province of Oude was in a state of as complete rebellion as that of Benares," and that invasions, tumults, and insurrections were occasioned thereby in various other parts.

XVI. That the said Warren Hastings, after he had collected his forces from all parts, did, with little difficulty or bloodshed, subsequent to that time, on the part of his troops, and in a few days, entirely reduce the said province of Benares; and did, after the said short and little resisted hostility, in cold blood, issue an order for burning a certain town, in which he accused the people at large of having killed, "upon what provocation he knows not," certain wounded sepoys, who were prisoners: which order, being _generally_ given, when it was his duty to have made some inquiry concerning the particular offenders, but which he did never make, or cause to be made, was cruel, inhuman, and tended to the destruction of the revenues of the Company; and that this, and other acts of devastation, did cause the loss of two months of the collections.

XVII. That the said Warren Hastings did not only refuse the submissions of the said Rajah, which were frequently repeated through various persons after he had left Benares, and even after the defeat of certain of the Company's forces, but did proscribe and except him from the pardons which he issued after he had satisfied his vengeance on the province of Benares.

XVIII. That the said Warren Hastings did send to a certain castle, called Bidzigur, the residence of a person of high rank, called Panna, the mother of the Rajah of Benares, with whom his wife, a woman described by the said Hastings "to be of an amiable character," and all the other women of the Rajah's family, and the survivors of the family of his father, Bulwant Sing, did then reside, a body of troops to dispossess them of her said residence, and to seize upon her money and effects, although she did not stand, even by himself, accused of any offence whatsoever,--pretending, but not proving, and not attempting to prove, then nor since, that the treasures therein contained were the property of the Rajah, and not her own; and did, in order to stimulate the British soldiery to rapine and outrage, issue to them several barbarous orders, contrary to the practice of civilized nations, relative to their property, movable and immovable, attended with unworthy and unbecoming menaces, highly offensive to the manners of the East and the particular respect there paid to the female s.e.x,--which letters and orders, as well as the letters which he had received from the officers concerned, the said Hastings did unlawfully suppress, until forced by the disputes between him and the said officers to discover the same: and the said orders are as follow.

"I am this instant favored with yours of yesterday. Mine of the same date [22d October, 1781] has before this time acquainted you with my resolutions and sentiments respecting the Rannee [the mother of the Rajah Cheyt Sing]. I think every demand she has made to you, except that of safety and respect for her person, is unreasonable. If the reports brought to me are true, _your rejecting her offers, or any negotiations with her_, would soon obtain you possession of the fort upon your own terms. I apprehend that she will contrive _to defraud the captors of a considerable part of the booty by being suffered to retire without examination. But this is your consideration, and not mine. I should be very sorry that your officers and soldiers lost ANY PART of the reward to which they are so well ent.i.tled_; but I cannot make any objection, as you must be the best judge of the expediency of the _promised_ indulgence to the Rannee. What you have engaged for I will certainly ratify; but as to permitting the Rannee to hold the purgunnah of Hurluk, or any other in the zemindary, without being subject to the authority of the zemindar, or any lands whatever, _or indeed making any conditions with her for a provision, I will never consent to it_." And in another letter to the same person, dated Benares, 3d of November, 1781, in which he, the said Hastings, consents that the said woman of distinction should be allowed to evacuate the place and to receive protection, he did express himself as follows. "I am willing to grant her now the same conditions to which I at first consented, provided that she delivers into your possession, within twenty-four hours from the time of receiving your message, the fort of Bidzigur, with the treasure and effects lodged therein by Cheyt Sing or any of his adherents, with the reserve only, as above mentioned, of such articles _as you shall think necessary to her s.e.x and condition_, or as you shall be disposed _of yourself to indulge her with_. If she complies, as I expect she will, it will be your part to secure the fort and the property it contains _for the benefit of yourself and detachment_. I have only further to request that you will grant an escort, if Panna should require it, to conduct her here, or wherever she may choose to retire to. But should she refuse to execute the promise she has made, _or delay it beyond the term of twenty-four hours_, it is my _positive_ injunction that you immediately put a stop to any further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on no pretext renew it. If she disappoints _or trifles_ with me, after I have subjected my duan to the disgrace of returning ineffectually, and of course myself to discredit, I shall consider it as a _wanton affront and indignity which I can never forgive_, nor will I grant her any conditions whatever, but leave her exposed to _those dangers_ which she has chosen to risk rather than trust to the clemency and generosity of our government. I think _she cannot be ignorant of these consequences, and will not venture to incur them_; and it is for this reason I place a dependence on her offers, and have consented to send my duan to her."

XIX. That the castle aforesaid being surrendered upon terms of safety, and on express condition of not attempting to search their persons, the woman of rank aforesaid, her female relations and female dependants, to the number of three hundred, besides children, evacuated the said castle; but the spirit of rapacity being excited by the letters and other proceedings of the said Hastings, the capitulation was shamefully and outrageously broken, and, in despite of the endeavors of the commanding officer, the said woman of high condition, and her female dependants, friends, and servants, were plundered of the effects they carried with them, and which were reserved to them in the capitulation of their fortress, and in their persons were otherwise rudely and inhumanly dealt with by the licentious followers of the camp: for which outrages, represented to the said Hastings with great concern by the commanding officer, Major Popham, he, the said Hastings, did afterwards recommend a late and fruitless redress.

XX. That the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, in exciting the hopes of the military by declaring them _well ent.i.tled to the plunder_ of the fortress aforesaid, the residence of the mother and other women of the Rajah of Benares, and by wis.h.i.+ng the troops to secure the same for their own benefit, did advise and act in direct contradiction to the orders of the Court of Directors, and to his own opinion of his public duty, as well as to the truth and reality thereof,--he having some years before entered in writing the declaration which follows.

"The very idea of _prize-money_ suggests to my remembrance _the former disorders which arose in our army from this source, and had almost proved fatal to it_. Of this circ.u.mstance you must be sufficiently apprised, and of the necessity for discouraging every expectation of this kind amongst the troops. _It is to be avoided like poison._ The bad effects of a similar measure were but too plainly felt in a former period, and our honorable masters did not fail on that occasion to reprobate with their censure, in the most severe terms, a practice which they regarded as the source of infinite evils, and which, if established, would in their judgment necessarily bring corruption and ruin on their army."

XXI. That the said Hastings, after he had given the license aforesaid, and that in consequence thereof the booty found in the castle, to the amount of 23,27,813 current rupees, was distributed among the soldiers employed in its reduction, the said Hastings did retract his declaration of right, and his permission to the soldiers to appropriate to themselves the plunder, and endeavored, by various devices and artifices, to explain the same away, and to recover the spoil aforesaid for the use of the Company; and wholly failing in his attempts to resume by a breach of faith with the soldiers what he had unlawfully disposed of by a breach of duty to his const.i.tuents, he attempted to obtain the same as a loan, in which attempt he also failed; and the aforesaid money being the only part of the treasures belonging to the Rajah, or any of his family, that had been found, he was altogether frustrated in the acquisition of every part of that dishonorable object which alone he pretended to, and pursued through a long series of acts of injustice, inhumanity, oppression, violence, and bloodshed, at the hazard of his person and reputation, and, in his own opinion, at the risk of the total subversion of the British empire.

XXI. That the said Warren Hastings, after the commission of the offences aforesaid, being well aware that he should be called to an account for the same, did, by the evil counsel and agency of Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, who was then out of the limits of his jurisdiction, cause to be taken at Benares, before or by the said Sir Elijah Impey, and through the intervention, not of the Company's interpreter, but of a certain private interpreter of his, the said Hastings's, own appointment, and a dependant on him, called Major Davy, several declarations and depositions by natives of Hindostan,--and did also cause to be taken before the said Sir Elijah Impey several attestations in English, made by British subjects, and which were afterwards transmitted to Calcutta, and laid before the Council-General,--some of which depositions were upon oath, some upon honor, and others neither upon _oath_ nor _honor_, but all or most of which were of an irregular and irrelevant nature, and not fit or decent to be taken by a British magistrate, or to be transmitted to a British government.

XXIII. That one of the said attestations (but not on oath) was made by a princ.i.p.al minister of the Nabob of Oude, to whom the said Hastings had some time before proposed to sell the sovereignty of that very territory of Benares; and that one other attestation (not upon oath) was made by a native woman of distinction, whose son he, the said Hastings, did actually promote to the government of Benares, vacated by the unjust expulsion of the Rajah aforesaid, and who in her deposition did declare that she considered the expelled Rajah as her enemy, and that he never did confer with her, or suffer her to be acquainted with any of his designs.

XXIV. That, besides the depositions of persons interested in the ruin of the Rajah, others were made by persons who then received pensions from him, the said Hastings; and several of the affidavits were made by persons of mean condition, and so wholly illiterate as not to be able to write their names.

XXV. That he, the said Hastings, did also cause to be examined by various proofs and essays, the result of which was delivered in upon honor, the quality of certain military stores taken by the British troops from the said Rajah of Benares; and upon the report that the same were of a good quality, and executed by persons conversant in the making of good military stores, although the cannon was stated by the same authority to be bad, he, the said Warren Hastings, from the report aforesaid, did maliciously, and contrary to the principles of natural and legal reason, infer that the insurrection which had been raised by his own violence and oppression, and rendered for a time successful by his own improvidence, was the consequence of a premeditated design to overturn the British empire in India, and to exterminate therefrom the British nation; which design, if it had been true, the said Hastings might have known, or rationally conjectured, and ought to have provided against. And if the said Hastings had received any credible information of such design, it was his duty to lay the same before the Council Board, and to state the same to the Rajah, when he was in a condition to have given an answer thereto or to observe thereon, and not, after he had proscribed and driven him from his dominions, to have inquired into offences to justify the previous infliction of punishment.

XXVI. That it does not appear, that, in taking the said depositions, there was any person present on the part of the Rajah to object to the competence or credibility or relevancy of any of the said affidavits or other attestations, or to account, otherwise than as the said deponents did account, for any of the facts therein stated; nor were any copies thereof sent to the said Rajah, although the Company had a minister at the place of his residence, namely, in the camp of the Mahratta chief Sindia, so as to enable him to transmit to the Company any matters which might induce or enable them to do justice to the injured prince aforesaid. And it does not appear that the said Hastings has ever produced any witness, letter, or other doc.u.ment, tending to prove that the said Rajah ever did carry on any hostile negotiation whatever with any of those powers with whom he was charged with a conspiracy against the Company, previous to the period of the said Hastings's having arrested him in his palace, although he, the said Hastings, had various agents at the courts of all those princes,--and that a late princ.i.p.al agent and near relation of a minister of one them, the Rajah of Berar, called Benaram Pundit, was, at the time of the tumult at Benares, actually with the said Hastings, and the said Benaram Pundit was by him highly applauded for his zeal and fidelity, and was therefore by him rewarded with a large pension on those very revenues which he had taken from the Rajah Cheyt Sing, and if such a conspiracy had previously existed, the Mahratta minister aforesaid must have known, and would have attested it.

XXVII. That it appears that the said Warren Hastings, at the time that he formed his design of seizing upon the treasures of the Rajah of Benares, and of deposing him, did not believe him guilty of that premeditated project for driving the English out of India with which he afterwards thought fit to charge him, or that he was really guilty of any other great offence: because he has caused it to be deposed, that, if the said Rajah should pay the sum of money by him exacted, "he would settle his zemindary upon him on the most eligible footing"; whereas, if he had conceived him to have entertained traitorous designs against the Company, from whom he held his tributary estate, or had been otherwise guilty of such enormous offences as to make it necessary to take extraordinary methods for coercing him, it would not have been proper for him to settle upon such a traitor and criminal the zemindary of Benares, or any other territory, upon the most eligible, or upon any other footing whatever: whereby the said Hastings has by his own stating demonstrated that the money intended to have been exacted was not as a punishment for crimes, but that the crimes were pretended for the purpose of exacting money.

XXVIII. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to justify the acts of violence aforesaid to the Court of Directors, did a.s.sert certain false facts, known by him to be such, and did draw from them certain false and dangerous inferences, utterly subversive of the rights of the princes and subjects dependent on the British nation in India, contrary to the principles of all just government, and highly dishonorable to that of Great Britain: namely, that the "Rajah of Benares was not a va.s.sal or tributary prince, and that the deeds which pa.s.sed between him and the board, upon the transfer of the zemindary in 1775, were not to be understood to bear the quality and force of a treaty upon optional conditions between equal states; that the payments to be made by him were not a tribute, but a rent; and that the instruments by which his territories were conveyed to him did not differ from common grants to zemindars who were merely subjects; but that, being nothing more than a common zemindar and mere subject, and the Company holding the acknowledged rights of his former sovereign, held an absolute authority over him; that, in the known relations of zemindar to the sovereign authority, or power delegated by it, he owed a personal allegiance and an implicit and unreserved obedience to that authority, at the forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property." Whereas the said Hastings did well know, that, whether the payments from the Rajah were called _rent_ or _tribute_, having been frequently by himself called the one and the other, and that of whatever nature the instruments by which he held might have been, he did not consider him as a common zemindar or landholder, but as far independent as a tributary prince could be: for he did a.s.sign as a reason for receiving his rent rather within the Company's province than in his own capital, that it would not "frustrate the intention of rendering the Rajah _independent_; that, if a Resident was appointed to receive the money as it became due at Benares, such a Resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and over his country, which would in effect render him the master of both; that this consequence might not, perhaps, be brought completely to pa.s.s without a struggle, and many appeals to the Council, which, in a government const.i.tuted like this, cannot fail to terminate against the Rajah, and, by the construction to which his opposition to the agent would be liable, might eventually draw on him severe restrictions, and end _in reducing him to the mean and depraved state of a zemindar_."

XXIX. And the said Hastings, in the said Minute of Consultation, having enumerated the frauds, embezzlements, and oppressions which would ensue from the Rajah's being in the dependent state aforesaid, and having obviated all apprehensions from giving to him the implied symbols of dominion, did a.s.sert, "that, without such appearance, he would expect from every change of government additional demands to be made upon him, and would of course descend to all the arts of intrigue and concealment practised by other dependent Rajahs, which would keep him indigent and weak, and eventually prove hurtful to the Company; but that, by proper encouragement and protection, he might prove a profitable dependant, an useful barrier, and even a powerful ally to the Company; but that he would be neither, if the conditions of his connection with the Company were left open to future variations."

x.x.x. That, if the fact had been true that the Rajah of Benares was merely an eminent landholder or any other subject, the wicked and dangerous doctrine aforesaid, namely, that he owed a personal allegiance and an implicit and unreserved obedience to the sovereign authority, at the forfeiture of his zemindary, and even of his life and property, at the discretion of those who held or fully represented the sovereign authority, doth leave security neither for life nor property to any persons residing under the Company's protection; and that no such powers, nor any powers of that nature, had been delegated to the said Warren Hastings by any provisions of the act of Parliament appointing a Governor-General and Council at Fort William in Bengal.

x.x.xI. That the said Warren Hastings did also advance another dangerous and pernicious principle in justification of his violent, arbitrary, and iniquitous actings aforesaid: namely, "that, if he had acted with an unwarrantable rigor, and even injustice, towards Cheyt Sing, yet, first, if he did _believe_ that extraordinary means were necessary, and those exerted with a strong hand, to preserve the Company's interests from sinking under the acc.u.mulated weight that oppressed them, or, secondly, if he saw a _political necessity_ for curbing the _overgrown_ power of a great member of their dominion, and to make it contribute to the relief of their pressing exigencies, that his error would be excusable, as prompted by an excess of zeal for their [the Company's] interest, operating with too strong a bias on his judgment; but that much stronger is the presumption, that such acts are founded on just principles than that they are the result of a misguided judgment." That the said doctrines are, in both the members thereof, subversive of all the principles of just government, by empowering a governor with delegated authority, in the first case, on his own private _belief_ concerning the necessities of the state, not to levy an impartial and equal rate of taxation suitable to the circ.u.mstances of the several members of the community, but to select any individual from the same as an object of arbitrary and unmeasured imposition,--and, in the second case, enabling the same governor, on the same arbitrary principles, to determine whose property should be considered as overgrown, and to reduce the same at his pleasure.

PART IV.

SECOND REVOLUTION IN BENARES.

That the said Warren Hastings, after he had, in the manner aforesaid, unjustly and violently expelled the Rajah Cheyt Sing, the lord or zemindar of Benares, from his said lords.h.i.+p or zemindary, did, of his own mere usurped authority, and without any communication with the other members of the Council of Calcutta, appoint another person, of the name of Mehip Narrain, a descendant by the mother from the late Rajah, Bulwant Sing, to the government of Benares; and on account or pretence of his youth and inexperience (the said Mehip Narrain not being above twenty years old) did appoint his father, Durbege Sing, to act as his representative or administrator of his affairs; but did give a controlling authority to the British Resident over both, notwithstanding his declarations before mentioned of the mischiefs likely to happen to the said country from the establishment of a Resident, and his opinion since declared in a letter to the Court of Directors, dated from this very place (Benares) the 1st of October, 1784, to the same or stronger effect, in case "agents are sent into the country, and armed with authority for the purposes of vengeance and corruption,--_for to no other will they be applied_."

That the said Warren Hastings did, by the same usurped authority, entirely set aside all the agreements made between the late Rajah and the Company (which were real agreements with the state of Benares, in the person of the lord or prince thereof, and his heirs); and without any form of trial, inquisition, or other legal process, for forfeiture of the privileges of the people to be governed by magistrates of their own, and according to their natural laws, customs, and usages, did, contrary to the said agreement, separate the mint and the criminal justice from the said government, and did vest the mint in the British Resident, and the criminal justice in a Mahomedan native of his own appointment; and did enhance the tribute to be paid from the province, from two hundred and fifty thousand pounds annually, limited by treaty, or thereabouts, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the first year, and to four hundred thousand for every year after; and did compel the administrator aforesaid (father to the Rajah) to agree to the same; and did, by the same usurped authority, illegally impose, and cause to be levied, sundry injudicious and oppressive duties on goods and merchandise, which did greatly impair the trade of the province, and threaten the utter ruin thereof; and did charge several pensions on the said revenues, of his own mere authority; and did send and keep up various bodies of the Company's troops in the said country; and did perform sundry other acts with regard to the said territory, in total subversion of the rights of the sovereign and the people, and in violation of the treaties and agreements aforesaid.

That the said Warren Hastings, being absent, on account of ill health, from the Presidency of Calcutta, at a place called Nia Serai, about forty miles distant therefrom, did carry on a secret correspondence with the Resident at Benares, and, under color that the instalments for the new rent or tribute were in arrear, did of his own authority make, in about one year, a second revolution in the government of the territory aforesaid, and did order and direct that Durbege Sing aforesaid, father of the Rajah, and administrator of his authority, should be deprived of his office and of his lands, and thrown into prison, and did threaten him with death: although he, the said Warren Hastings, had, at the time of the making his new arrangement, declared himself sensible that the rent aforesaid might require abatement; although he was well apprised that the administrator had been for two months of his administration in a weak and languid state of body, and wholly incapable of attending to the business of the collections; though a considerable drought had prevailed in the said province, and did consequently affect the regularity and produce of the collections; and though he had other sufficient reason to believe that the said administrator had not himself received from the collectors of government and the cultivators of the soil the rent in arrear: yet he, the said Warren Hastings, without any known process, or recording any answer, defence, plea, exculpation, or apology from the party, or recording any other grounds of rigor against him, except the following paragraph of a letter from the Resident, not only gave the order as aforesaid, but did afterwards, without laying any other or better ground before the Council-General, persuade them to, and did procure from them, a confirmation of the aforesaid cruel and illegal proceedings, the correspondence concerning which had not been before communicated: he pleading his illness for not communicating the same, though that illness did not prevent him from carrying on correspondence concerning the deposition of the said administrator, and other important affairs in various places.

That in the letter to the Council requiring the confirmation of his acts aforesaid the said Warren Hastings did not only propose the confinement of the said administrator at Benares, although by his imprisonment he must have been in a great measure disabled from recovering the balances due to him, and for the non-payment of which he was thus imprisoned, but did propose, as an alternative, his imprisonment at a remote fortress, out of the said territory, and in the Company's provinces, called Chunar: desiring them to direct the Resident at Benares "to exact from Baboo Durbege Sing every rupee of the collections which it shall appear that he has made and not brought to account, and either to confine him at Benares, or to send him a prisoner to Chunar, and to keep him in confinement until he shall have discharged the whole of the amount due from him." And the said Warren Hastings did a.s.sign motives of pa.s.sion and personal resentment for the said unjust and rigorous proceedings, as follows: "I feel myself, and may be allowed on such an occasion to acknowledge it, personally hurt at the ingrat.i.tude of this man, and at the discredit which his ill conduct has thrown on my appointment of him.

He has deceived me; he has offended against the government which I then represented." And as a further reason for depriving him of his jaghire, (or salary out of land,) he did insinuate in the said letter, but without giving or offering any proof, "that the said Rajah had been guilty of _little and mean peculations_, although the appointments a.s.signed to him had been sufficient to free him from the temptations thereto."

That it appears, as it might naturally have been expected, that the wife of the said administrator, the daughter of Bulwant Sing, the late Rajah of Benares, and her son, the reigning Rajah, did oppose to the best of their power, but by what remonstrances or upon what plea the said Warren Hastings did never inform the Court of Directors, the deposition, imprisonment, and confiscation of the estates of the husband of the one and the father of the other; but that the said Hastings, persisting in his malice, did declare to the said Council as follows: "The opposition made by the Rajah and the old Rannee, both equally incapable of judging for _themselves_, does certainly originate from some secret influence, which ought to be checked by a decided and peremptory declaration of the authority of the board, and a denunciation of their displeasure at _their presumption_."

That the said Warren Hastings, not satisfied with the injuries done and the insults and disgraces offered to the family aforesaid, did, in a manner unparalleled, except by an act of his own on another occasion, fraudulently and inhumanly endeavor to make the wife and son of the said administrator, contrary to the sentiments and the law of Nature, the instruments of his oppressions: directing, "that, if they" (the mother and son aforesaid) "could be _induced_ to yield _the appearance of a cheerful acquiescence_ in the new arrangement, and to adopt it as _a measure formed with their partic.i.p.ation_, it would be better than that it should be done by a declared act of compulsion; but that at all events it ought to be done."

That, in consequence of the pressing declarations aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did on his special recommendation appoint, in opposition to the wishes and desires of the Rajah and his mother, another person to the administration of his affairs, called Jagher Deo Seo.

That, the Company having sent express orders for the sending the Resident by them before appointed to Benares, the said Warren Hastings did strongly oppose himself to the same, and did throw upon the person appointed by the Company (Francis Fowke, Esquire) several strong, but unspecified, reflections and aspersions, contrary to the duty he owed to the Company, and to the justice he owed to all its servants.

That the said Resident, being appointed by the votes of the rest of the Council, in obedience to the reiterated orders of the Company, and in despite of the opposition of the said Hastings, did proceed to Benares, and, on the representation of the parties, and the submission of the accounts of the aforesaid Durbege Sing to an arbitrator, did find him, the said Durbege Sing, in debt to the Company for a sum not considerable enough to justify the severe treatment of the said Durbege Sing: his wife and son complaining, at or about the same time, that the balances due to him from the _aumils_, or sub-collectors, had been received by the new administrator, and carried to his own credit, in prejudice and wrong to the said Durbege Sing; which representation, the only one that has been transmitted on the part of the said sufferers, has not been contradicted.

That it appears that the said Durbege Sing did afterwards go to Calcutta for the redress of his grievances, and that it does not appear that the same were redressed, or even his complaints heard, but he received two peremptory orders from the Supreme Council to leave the said city and to return to Benares; that, on his return to Benares, and being there met by Warren Hastings aforesaid, he, the said Warren Hastings, although he had reason to be well a.s.sured that the said Durbege Sing was in possession of small or no substance, did again cruelly and inhumanly, and without any legal authority, order the said Durbege Sing to be strictly imprisoned; and the said Durbege Sing, in consequence of the vexations, hards.h.i.+ps, and oppressions aforesaid, died in a short time after, insolvent, but whether in prison or not does not appear.

PART V.

THIRD REVOLUTION IN BENARES.

That the said Warren Hastings, having, in the manner before recited, divested Durbege Sing of the administration of the province of Benares, did, of his own arbitrary will and pleasure, and against the remonstrances of the Rajah and his mother, (in whose name and in whose right the said Durbege Sing, father of the one, and husband of the other, had administered the affairs of the government,) appoint a person called Jagher Deo Seo to administer the same.

That the new administrator, warned by the severe example made of his predecessor, is represented by the said Warren Hastings as having made it his "avowed principle" (as it might be expected it should be) "that the sum fixed for the revenue _must_ be collected." And he did, upon the principle aforesaid, and by the means suggested by a principle of that sort, accordingly levy from the country, and did regularly discharge to the British Resident at Benares, by monthly payments, the sums imposed by the said Warren Hastings, as it is a.s.serted by the Resident, Fowke; but the said Warren Hastings did a.s.sert that his annual collections did not amount to more than Lac 37,37,600, or thereabouts, which he says is much short of the revenues of the province, and is by about twenty-four thousand pounds short of his agreement.