prepared to bring home these general propositions to the individuals
concerned; and, in the first place, pointed his charges against Lord
Clive. He began by making some remarks on the invidious situation in
which he was placed by the conscientious discharge of his duty. "The
task of a public accuser was never a pleasing, but was sometimes a
necessary one. Envy and malignity were the vices of little minds, and
he disclaimed them. The House, in its movements, had only followed
the cry of the public. Instances of rapacity and injustice had
occurred in our Eastern possessions, that were known to all the world;
an inordinate desire of wealth had had full play, and had led to
transactions which had stigmatised those immediately concerned in them,
and affected even the British name. That it was the duty of the House,
as guardians of the nation's honour, to apply a remedy; and as the vice
had been general, so must the punishment. It was a case in which no
partial or limited censure would suffice to remove the evil, or to wipe
off the stain from the country. The whole system on which the agents in
the various revolutions had been remunerated, or rather had remunerated
themselves, was most exceptionable and illegal. The first principle
that he would lay down was, that it was impossible that any civil or
military servant, in treating with a foreign Prince or State, could
lawfully bargain for, or acquire, property for himself. This principle
had uniformly been departed from in all the transactions which had
been laid before the House. It would be necessary to point out who
the persons were who had so acquired property, and the particular
circumstances under which it had been acquired. Death had removed some
of these persons, and their case would therefore be a matter of future
consideration. That it was proper to consider the state of India at
the time when the money was received. A mighty change had just taken
place in that country, and in the Company's affairs. In the year 1757,
when the English ascendancy was established, the Company was raised,
as by the power of magic, from the situation of merchants to that of
sovereign Princes, and, in their delirium, they at once forgot their
charters; while their servants, become ministers, and rulers of the
Governors of provinces and Princes, looked with contempt on the slow
returns of trade and merchandise, since they saw before them a shorter
and surer way to opulence. What was the consequence? The power thus
placed in their hands was not tenderly employed. Revolution followed
revolution; and, at each successive change, the treasures of the
Prince were lavished to glut the rapacity of the agents by whom it
was effected. At last, when the whole treasures of the Princes were
exhausted, they did not stop short, but took possession of the country
itself, at the same time that they retained the name of the puppet
whom they set up, only to confound all ideas of right and justice.
In the revolution of 1757, effected by Lord Clive, great stress had
been laid on its necessity; but every succeeding revolution had been
sustained on the same ground,--a ground that never would be wanting.
It appeared that, by the treaty with Sujah-u-Dowlah, the Company were
confirmed in all the privileges they had formerly enjoyed; the Company
had their factories restored; and to individuals who had suffered, a
compensation was made. Surely, in such circumstances, the Nabob had
a right to expect to be able to preserve a state of neutrality among
the different nations who had factories in his dominions; yet, on the
breaking out of the war with France, it was thought proper to violate
the treaty just concluded, by attacking Chandernagore. The Select
Committee were not unanimous on this point. Becher was for neutrality,
Drake had no opinion at all. The violent counsels of Clive prevailed.
It was argued, that having gone so far we must go farther; that having
established ourselves by force, we had made the Nabob our enemy, and
that in consequence he must always be ready to join our enemies; and
some circumstances of his conduct, said to indicate a hostile feeling,
were pointed out. But, in fact, when we broke with him, and hurled him
from his high eminence, Suraj-u-Dowlah had been guilty of no overt act
of hostility; all that was alleged, were various suspicions that he
_meant_ to break the treaty." He detailed the circumstances attending
the deposition of Meer Jaffier; the various sums received by Lord
Clive, amounting to 2,080,000 rupees, or 234,000_l._ sterling; and
contended that they were received contrary to justice and right.
He acknowledged that, in the Dutch affair, Lord Clive had shown perfect
magnanimity and disinterestedness.
"Soon after this first revolution was effected, the fortunes of those
concerned in it being made, we had an importation of Nabobs,--a
circumstance which only whetted the rapacity of those who were still
on the scene of action. There were now new men, a new Council to be
satisfied, and the principles of the revolution of 1757 were not
forgotten. It was discovered that there was a necessity for another
revolution; and accordingly, in 1760, Meer Cossim was placed in the
seat of Meer Jaffier. But Cossim was an able tyrant, who was soon found
to be too intelligent to serve the purpose of a mere tool, and it
became necessary to restore Jaffier. With Cossim, indeed, there was no
stipulation for rewards. Mr. Vansittart was then Governor. Twenty lacs
of rupees were offered to the Council for their favour and countenance.
But no; the Company's servants put by them the proffered treasure, as
Cæsar put by the crown. The Nabob was, however, given to understand,
that after their masters the Company were satisfied, the servants would
have no objection to receive what was offered. It was difficult to
treat seriously this mighty difference between taking money before and
after a treaty. The consequences are but too obvious, and amount to the
same thing.
"In the case of the Nabob Najm-Dowlah which followed, the succession
was a regular one, and the deputation which was sent on the occasion,
headed by Mr. John Johnstone, acted with fidelity in establishing the
proper heir; but they improved a regular accession to the purpose of
a revolution, and enriched themselves and the other Members of the
Council by presents and donations received in the course of this common
discharge of an ordinary duty. "I won't," said he, "colour and conceal
the conduct of the Council. They are unjustifiable. They knew of the
existence of the covenants prohibiting them from receiving presents,
at the very time when they bargained for and received them. I have
no acquaintance with any of them. I owe them neither partiality nor
grudge. I am, indeed, happy and proud to be esteemed the friend of
Governor Johnstone, the relative of one whose name has been mixed in
these transactions; but that has no influence on my judgment. At the
same time it is not possible to overlook the mode in which evidence was
procured in India, on this last subject, under the influence of Lord
Clive, by persecution not to be equalled in Portugal. The witnesses
were brought up under military guard: little pains were taken to
contradict facts, when they were known to be false. The result of these
inquiries is embodied in the infamous letter of September, 1765[194],
a composition which disgraces the ablest pen by the direction in which
it was employed.
"Into the question relating to the money received from the Begum[195]
I shall not enter, as the Report is not yet on the table. But from the
documents before the House, it will appear that the total amount of the
presents and donations received by Lord Clive was 2,000,000 of rupees,
exclusive of the jaghire. My object is, that restitution of this sum
should be made to the Company and the sufferers. If any man can say
that these sums were received according to the correct definition of
presents, I shall be exceedingly surprized. Such is not the light in
which I hold them.
"Let it be remembered, that the revolution of 1757 was the foundation
and the model of all the subsequent revolutions. Our vindictive justice
must go back to the origin of the evil. It is in many mouths, the
hardship of taking up a subject after such a time, and of wresting
from a man a fortune valiantly obtained and generously dispensed. If
time is to sanctify such offences, we should bring in a statute of
limitation of robbery. Let it not be said, that the magnitude of the
offence, and the wealth and dignity of the offender, are to be deemed a
sufficient justification.
"No public notice was given to the Company of the receipt of these
sums. But it is said that there is no instance of reporting to the
Company private donations, though they were always understood to be
received; and it is said that Lord Clive's were known to the Court.
If so, I shall be glad to hear only a letter saying so.--But they
acquiesced when they were known. That I deny. A Court of Proprietors
passed, in 1760, a positive order to institute a minute inquiry about
these presents. It is said that he had rendered great and important
services to the Company and his country. No doubt, services should be
duly weighed, and national rewards bestowed on national services, and
that amply. I wish to see the names of Lawrence, Draper, Monson, and
of many other eminent men, who have rescued us from more than _Indian_
armies, honoured with due estimation; and far be it from me to deny
to Lord Clive the meed of praise that is due to him. But in coming to
a judgment on the grave and serious charges now before the House, all
partiality and all prejudice in a man's favour should be laid aside:
an act of national justice is called for; it is not to be influenced by
wealth or connections, and will be given if a particle of that vital
fire that first invigorated this constitution still remains. Imitate
the first example of antiquity, and strike, like Manlius, when the
justice of the State requires it.
"I wish not to plunder or impoverish Lord Clive, or the subjects of
this motion. I am willing they should remain in possession of such
rewards as a generous State would give. What I ask is, a Bill for
the satisfaction of sufferers out of the private estates of persons
who received sums of money unwarrantably. Such satisfaction ought to
be made to the Company, and applied to the discharge of their debts.
Leave something to them of their overgrown fortunes, but let it be
upon European principles; let it be arranged on the principles of the
better times of our history. Where were jaghires and private donations
in the time of King William, to whom our liberties owe so much? In the
Act to be passed, let the monies go, as they should originally have
done, to the State. I have no desire, no wish, that after satisfaction
has been made, any odium should remain against the accused. I have
offered them an opportunity of bringing their characters from under
the cloud which has surrounded them, and of justifying themselves to
the world." He concluded by moving, "That it appears to this House,
that the Right Hon. Robert Lord Clive, Baron of Plassey in the kingdom
of Ireland, about the time of the deposition of Suraj-u-Dowlah, and
the establishment of Meer Jaffier on the musmud, through the influence
of the powers with which he was entrusted as a member of the Select
Committee and Commander-in-chief of the British forces, did obtain and
possess himself of 2 lacs of rupees as Commander-in-chief, a farther
sum of 2 lacs and 80,000 rupees as member of the Select Committee, and
a farther sum of 16 lacs or more under the denomination of a private
donation; which sums, amounting together to 20 lacs and 80,000 rupees,
were of the value, in English money, of 234,000_l._; and that, in so
doing, the said Robert Lord Clive abused the power with which he was
entrusted, to the evil example of the servants of the public, and to
the dishonour and detriment of the State."[196]
These resolutions were seconded by Sir Wm. Meredith, who combated the
notion of the supposed hardship of bringing up such charges, after
a period of sixteen years, and contended that length of time could
not improve the title to wealth so acquired. As to presents, he
denied that covenants alone made the receiving of them a crime, or
that where there were no covenants they were legal: that it had been
found, indeed, that presents had been taken, after the receipt of the
covenants, by Mr. Johnstone and others, in circumstances which had been
investigated and published by Lord Clive; but that it did not appear
that the ill-blood excited by such disclosure had had the slightest
influence on the conduct of his brother, the Governor, who had carried
on the investigation before the Committee with perfect exactness: that
it could not be overlooked, that the evidence against that gentleman
had been taken in a most illegal manner, the witnesses being under
restraint: that Lord Clive's supposed generosity in not plundering
Moorshedabad was nugatory; that he entered it not as a conqueror,
but as an ally: nor would the assertion, that there was no criminal
intention in receiving the presents, acquit him; that would only affect
the _extent_ of the consequences. Colonel Burgoyne's original motion
was to be kept in mind, and that he was content to leave him all
that his merit deserved. Others had fought against European enemies,
he against wretched Indians,--a circumstance not to be forgotten in
estimating the comparative merit of officers.
Mr. Wedderburn (then Solicitor-General) strenuously opposed the
motion. He said that the House was in danger of being led blindly and
inconsiderately, from misdirected feelings, to commit a grand injustice
towards one of the most illustrious men of his country. With respect
to presents, on which the burthen of the accusation lay, he argued,
that there were some, indeed many, situations, wherein the receipt
of presents was justifiable upon every principle of disinterested
integrity: and such, he contended, they were in the present instance,
where a great capital had been saved from the horrors of pillage, or
military contribution; and where signal services had been rendered to
a sovereign Prince, who had adopted only the ordinary means of showing
his gratitude: they were justifiable both from the extraordinary
circumstances of the case, and from the known customs and usages of
the country. He largely expatiated on the deep obligations under which
the nation lay to Lord Clive; and affirmed, that for the Parliament to
accuse a man of delinquency, upon the necessarily partial report of a
Select Committee, would be to accuse him without competent evidence,
and to be guilty of an act of flagrant injustice.
Mr. Richard Fuller, one of the Committee, took a similar view of the
case; and while he doubted the competency of the kind of evidence,
declared that the latter part of the Committee's report was undoubtedly
not true.
Lord North said that he was determined to attend to every part of
the evidence, and to judge of its effect; that any abuse of public
authority was of pernicious example; and that the glory which
surrounded such presents, did not, if they were illegal, render them
less culpable. The high example would in its effects be only the more
pernicious;--"Jupiter hoc faxit; ego homuncio non faciam."
Lord Clive, in the course of the debate, made a long defence of his
conduct[197]: "Sir, after rendering my country the service which I
think I may, without any degree of vanity, claim the merit of; and
after having nearly exhausted a life full of employment, for the public
welfare and the particular benefit of the East India Company, I little
thought that such transactions would have agitated the minds of my
countrymen in proceedings like the present, tending to deprive me not
only of my property and the fortune which I have fairly acquired,
but of that which I hold more dear to me--my honour and reputation."
He in the first place solicited the patient indulgence of the House,
while he corrected some facts which had been erroneously stated. He
then went through the reports of the Committees, on which the charges
were founded, and examined the different passages that concerned him.
He justified himself in regard to all his acts, civil and political;
and maintained that his whole conduct had been not only open and
undisguised, but perfectly legal, and above all blame. On the principal
charges, he read extracts of the Nabob's letter to him as President of
the Select Committee, of the Committee's letter to the Directors, and
finally of the Directors' letter containing their full approbation of
his proceedings. He entered minutely into the circumstances of each
charge, and observed that, trained in the school of war and politics
as he had been for twenty years, he was now improving in the school
of philosophy, and, if patience was a virtue, he had no doubt of soon
being very virtuous indeed. He said that the present charges arose
out of the wretched state of the Company's affairs; the Directors and
Government would willingly shift the blame from themselves. He enlarged
on the misconduct of the Directors; and arraigned the unpardonable
remissness of former administrations, in neglecting the affairs of
India; that mismanagement abroad was founded on mismanagement at home.
He pointed out the malevolence and artifice of his enemies, and the low
and insidious means by which he had been assailed; that when he went
out to India the last time, he had promised not to add a shilling to
his fortune, directly or indirectly, and this engagement, he declared
to God, he had religiously observed.
He complimented Lord North ironically on his vast abilities displayed
in the bargain which he had driven with the Company: that he was the
lion, the Company the jackal, or lion's provider: that he had already
seized on three quarters of its prey; and no doubt the lion, next time
that it returned hungry to its den, would seize the remaining quarter
also. That he stood there an independent man, and would give Government
every honourable assistance, where he thought them right; but further
he would not go: that as to the Company, he lamented their situation:
they had been long tampered with by quacks till, reduced to an absolute
consumption, they had thrown themselves on Parliament, the only
physician who could effect a cure. He said, that for two years past
the Directors had kept the affairs of the Company a secret, while they
feasted at taverns, and employed a man[198], whom they allowed 400_l._
a year, to think for them: that meanwhile their expenses in India were
increasing extravagantly beyond what they were when he left it. He
complained that the malevolence employed against him, reduced him to
the necessity of being the herald of his own fame. "I have served my
country and the Company faithfully; and had it been my fortune to be
employed by the Crown, I should not have been in the situation I am
in at present; I should have been differently rewarded: no retrospect
would have been had to sixteen years past, and I should not have
been forced to plead for what is dearer than life--my reputation.
My situation, Sir, has not been an easy one for these twelve months
past; and though my conscience never could accuse me, yet I felt for
my friends, who were involved in the same censure as myself. Sir, not
a stone has been left unturned, where the least probability could
arise of discovering something of a criminal nature against me. The
two Committees, Sir, seem to have bent the whole of their inquiries to
the conduct of their humble servant, the Baron of Plassey, and I have
been examined by the Select Committee more like a sheep-stealer than a
member of this House. I am sure, Sir, if I had any sore places about
me, they would have been found; they have probed to the bottom: no
lenient plasters have been applied to heal: no, Sir, they were all of
the blister kind, prepared with Spanish flies and other provocatives.
The public records have been ransacked for proofs against me; and the
late Deputy Chairman of the India Company, a worthy member of this
House, has been very assiduous, indeed so assiduous in my affairs, that
really, Sir, it appears that he has entirely neglected his own. As for
punishments, which have been spoken of as necessary, I have a plan to
propose which I think may be of great use. The three Jacobite heads
which were lately upon Temple Bar have tumbled down, but the poles
remain; and as there is no probability of the heads being replaced,
for Jacobitism seems at an end, (at least some people have strangely
altered their opinions of late years,) there can be no farther occasion
for them on that score: now, I would propose that the heads of three
East Indians be stuck up in their stead, _in terrorem_, and that my
head, by way of pre-eminence, be put in the middle; and as his Majesty
has given me a title to supporters, I cannot pitch upon more proper
ones than the heads of the late Chairman and Deputy to be placed one on
each side, on the other two poles."
He next examined the regulations proposed by Ministers for India,
and the measures of the Directors; and asserted that they had
improvidently, in a country peculiarly liable to temptation, abolished
all the lawful rewards of the service, and left the country at the
mercy of a handful of boys. He proceeded to examine the question of
presents. He had always recommended, approved of, and enforced the
covenants against them. He considered these covenants as indispensable
in the present state of the country, when we were its rulers; but even
then, to render them efficient, the public servants must have within
their view the prospect of an honourable and attainable independence.
Wealth and weakness can never safely be placed beside poverty and
power. As for presents in themselves, he was firmly of opinion that,
in honourable cases, it was not improper to receive them: that they
were only improper in dishonourable cases: that presents had been
allowed to be received from the earliest days of the Company; they had
been received uninterruptedly for the space of a hundred and fifty
years, and by men who sat in the Direction; they were a lawful part
of the social system of the East. "In the early part of my life,"
he continued, "my labours were without emolument or laurels; and I
hope the House cannot think that I ought not to be rewarded for my
services to my country in the latter part of it. When I was first
employed by the Company, their affairs abroad were in a condition
much to be lamented. Misfortunes attended them in every part of their
settlements, and the Nabobs looked with a jealous eye upon the small
privileges and possessions they then enjoyed; though small, in danger
everyday of being wrested from them. Their fears and weakness were
surrounded by dangers on every side. In this critical situation it
pleased God to make me the instrument of their deliverance." He drew
a rapid and bold sketch of his transactions in India, in particular
of his proceedings in regard to Suraj-u-Dowlah and Omichund: he
asserted that the former was dethroned for his breach of faith, and
as a necessary and lawful measure of self defence; that the latter
was only entangled in the toils of intrigue and treachery woven by
himself: that Admiral Watson expressed his thorough approbation of the
proceedings in the revolution, and the means by which it was obtained;
and he read the letter signed by him in conjunction with the Committee
to that effect: that, great as his fortune was, it bore no proportion
to what he might have made it: that not a sixpence was received from
the inhabitants of Moorshedabad, who came to offer contributions to
deliver them from being plundered by a victorious army: that his
jaghire was not received in 1757, at the time of the revolution, as
had been erroneously represented; it was not received till 1759, two
years after. He described his attack on the Dutch armament, which he
destroyed, as well as their army, and that at a time when most of his
property was in the hands of the Dutch Company; a fact that showed
no want of zeal for the honour and interest of the service, even at
the imminent risk of ruin to his own fortune. He enumerated the marks
of honour which he had received: he read the letters of the Court of
Directors in approbation of the revolution, and of his conduct in it.
"These, Sir," he exclaimed, "are surely sufficient certificates of my
behaviour, and of the proceedings of that revolution; and, whatever
the House may think of them, will remain an everlasting approbation of
my conduct from those persons who alone employed me, and whose servant
I was. A late Minister (Lord Chatham), whose abilities have been an
honour to his country, and whom this House will ever revere, will, I am
sure, come to your bar, and not only tell you how highly he thought of
my services at the time, but also what his opinion is now."