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 asserted by the Resident, Fowke;

but the said Warren Hastings did assert 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.

That it further appears, that, notwithstanding the new administrator

aforesaid was appointed two months, or thereabouts, after the beginning

of the Fusseli year, that is to say, about the middle of November, 1782,

and the former administrator had collected a certain portion of the

revenues of that year, amounting to 17,000_l._ and upwards, yet he, the

said new administrator, upon the unjust and destructive principle

aforesaid, suggested by the cruel and violent proceedings of the said

Warren Hastings towards his predecessor, did levy on the province,

within the said year, the whole amount of the revenues to be collected,

in addition to the sum collected by his predecessor aforesaid.

That, on account of a great drought which prevailed in the province

aforesaid, a remission of certain duties in grain was proposed by the

chief criminal judge at Benares; but the administrator aforesaid, being

fearful that the revenue should fall short in his hands, did strenuously

oppose himself to the necessary relief to the inhabitants of the said

city.

That, notwithstanding the cantonment of several bodies of the Company's

troops within the province, since the abolition of the native

government, it became subject in a particular manner to the depredations

of the Rajahs upon the borders; insomuch that in one quarter no fewer

than thirty villages had been sacked and burned, and the inhabitants

reduced to the most extreme distress.

That the Resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent

that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult, and,

besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty

the following. "That there is also one fund which in former years was

often applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the

revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This was the

private fortunes of merchants and _shroffs_ [bankers] resident in

Benares, from whom _aumils_ [collectors] of credit could obtain

temporary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of the Rajah. These sums,

which used to circulate between the aumil and the merchant, have been

turned into a different channel, by bills of exchange to defray the

expenses of government, both on the west coast of India, and also at

Madras." To which representation it does not appear that any answer was

given, or that any mode of redress was adopted in consequence thereof.

That the said Warren Hastings, having passed through the province of

Benares (Gazipore) in his progress towards Oude, did, in a letter dated

from the city of Lucknow, the 2d of April, 1784, give to the Council

Board at Calcutta an account, highly dishonorable to the British

government, of the effect of the arrangements made by himself in the

years 1781 and 1782, in the words following. "Having contrived, by

making forced stages, while the troops of my escort marched at the

ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at Benares, I was thereby

furnished with the means of acquiring some knowledge of the state of the

province, which I am anxious to communicate to you. Indeed, the inquiry,

which was _in a great degree obtruded upon me_, affected me with very

mortifying reflections on my inability to apply it to any useful

purpose. From the confines of Buxar to Benares I was followed and

_fatigued_ by the clamors of the discontented inhabitants. It was what I

expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority

should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it. The

distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably

tended to heighten the general discontent; _yet I have reason to fear

that the cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and

oppressive administration_. Of a multitude of petitions which were

presented to me, and of which I took minutes, every one that did not

relate to a personal grievance contained the representation of one and

the same species of oppression, which is in its nature of an influence

most fatal to the future cultivation. The practice to which I allude is

this. It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the

proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in kind on their

stipulated rent: that is, from those who hold their _pottah_ by the

tenure of paying _one half_ of the produce of their crops, either _the

whole_ without subterfuge, or a _large_ proportion of it by a _false

measurement_ or other pretexts; and from those whose engagements are for

a fixed rent _in money_, the half, or a greater proportion, is taken _in

kind_. This is in effect a tax upon the industry of the inhabitants:

since there is scarce a field of grain in the province, _I might say not

one_, which has not been preserved by the incessant labor of the

cultivator, by digging wells for their supply, or watering them from the

wells of masonry with which their country abounds, or from the

neighboring tanks, rivers, and nullahs. The people who imposed on

themselves this voluntary and extraordinary labor, and not unattended

with expense, did it on the expectation of reaping the profits of it;

and it is certain they would not have done it, if they had known that

their rulers, _from whom they were entitled to an indemnification_,

would take from them what they had so hardly earned. If the same

administration continues, and the country shall again labor under a want

of rain, _every field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands

perish through want of subsistence_: for who will labor for the _sole_

benefit of others, and to make himself the subject of exaction? These

practices are to be imputed to the Naib himself" (the administrator

forced by the said Warren Hastings on the present Rajah of Benares).

"The avowed principle on which he acts, and which he acknowledged to

myself, is, that the _whole_ sum fixed for the revenue of the province

_must_ be collected,--and that, for this purpose, the deficiency arising

in places where the crops have failed, or which have been left

uncultivated, must be supplied from the resources of others, where the

soil has been better suited to the season, or the industry of the

cultivators hath been more successfully exerted: a principle which,

however specious and plausible it may at first appear, _certainly tends

to the most pernicious and destructive consequences_. If this

declaration of the Naib had been made only to myself, I might have

doubted my construction of it; but it was repeated by him to Mr.

Anderson, who understood it exactly in the same sense. In the management

of the customs, the conduct of the Naib, or of the officer under him,

was forced also upon my attention. _The exorbitant rates exacted by an

arbitrary valuation of the goods_, the practice of exacting duties

_twice_ on the same goods, (first from the seller, and afterwards from

the buyer,) and the vexations, disputes, and delays drawn on the

merchants by these oppressions, were loudly complained of; and some

instances of this kind were said to exist at the very time I was at

Benares. Under such circumstances, we are not to wonder, if the

merchants of foreign countries are discouraged from resorting to

Benares, and if the commerce of that province should annually decay.

_Other_ evils, or imputed evils, have accidentally come to my knowledge,

which I will not now particularize, as I hope, that, with the

assistance of the Resident, they may be _in part_ corrected. One evil I

must mention, because it has been verified by my own observation, and is

of that kind which reflects an unmerited reproach on our general and

national character. When I was at Buxar, the Resident, at my desire,

enjoined the Naib to appoint creditable people to every town through

which our route lay, to persuade and encourage the inhabitants to remain

in their houses, promising to give them guards as I approached, and they

required it for their protection; and that he might perceive how earnest

I was for his observation of this precaution, I repeated it to him in

person, and dismissed him that he might precede me for that purpose.

But, to my great disappointment, _I found every place through which I

passed abandoned; nor had there been a man left in any of them for their

protection_. I am sorry to add, _that, from Buxar to the opposite

boundary, I have seen nothing but traces of complete devastation in

every village: whether caused by the followers of the troops which have

lately passed, for their natural relief, (and I know not whether my own

may not have had their share,)_ or from the apprehensions of the

inhabitants left to themselves, and of themselves deserting their

houses. I wish to acquit my own countrymen of the blame of these

unfavorable appearances, and in my own heart I do acquit them; for at

one encampment a crowd of people came to me complaining that _their new

aumil (collector), on the approach of any military detachment, himself

first fled from the place; and the inhabitants, having no one to whom

they could apply for redress, or for the representation of their

grievances, and being thus remediless, fled also; so that their houses

and effects became a prey to any person who chose to plunder them_. The

general conclusion appeared to me an inevitable consequence from such a

state of facts; and my own senses bore testimony to it in this specific

instance: nor do I know how it is possible for any officer commanding a

military party, how attentive soever he may be to the discipline and

forbearance of his people, to prevent disorders, _when there is neither

opposition to hinder nor evidence to detect them_. These and many other

irregularities I impute _solely_ to the Naib, and recommend his instant

removal. I cannot help remarking, that, except the city of Benares, _the

province is in effect without a government. The administration of the

province is misconducted, and the people oppressed, trade discouraged,

and the revenue in danger of a rapid decline, from the violent

appropriation of its means._"

That the said Warren Hastings did recommend to the Council, for a remedy

of the disorders and calamities which had arisen from his own acts,

dispositions, and appointments, that the administrator aforesaid should

be instantly removed from his office,--attributing the aforesaid

"irregularities, _and many others, solely_ to him," although, on his own

representation, it does appear that he was the sole cause of the

irregularities therein described. Neither does it appear that the

administrator, so by the said Hastings nominated and removed, was

properly charged and called to answer for the said recited

irregularities, or for the _many others_ not recited, but _attributed

solely_ to him; nor has any plea or excuse from him been transmitted to

the board, or to the Court of Directors; but he was, at the instance of

the said Hastings, deprived of his said office, contrary to the

principles of natural justice, in a violent and arbitrary manner; which

proceeding, combined with the example made of his predecessor, must

necessarily leave to the person who should succeed to the said office no

distinct principle upon which he might act with safety. But in comparing

the consequences of the two delinquencies charged, the failure of the

payment of the revenues (from whatever cause it may arise) is more

likely to be avoided than any severe course towards the inhabitants: as

the former fault was, besides the deprivation of office, attended with

two imprisonments, with a menace of death, and an actual death, in

disgrace, poverty, and insolvency; whereas the latter, namely, the

oppression, and thereby the total ruin, of the country, charged on the

second administrator, was only followed by loss of office,--although,

he, the said Warren Hastings, did farther assert (but with what truth

does not appear) that the collection of the last administrator had

fallen much short of the revenue of the province.

That the said Warren Hastings himself was sensible that the frequent

changes by him made would much disorder the management of the revenues,

and seemed desirous of concealing his intentions concerning the last

change until the time of its execution. Yet it appears, by a letter from

the British Resident, dated the 23d of June, 1784, "that a very strong

report prevailed at Benares of his [the said Hastings's] intentions of

appointing a new Naib for the approaching year, and that the effect is

evident which the prevalence of such an idea amongst the aumils would

probably have on the cultivation at this particular time. The heavy

mofussil kists [harvest instalments] have now been collected by the

aumils; the season of tillage is arrived; the ryots [country farmers]

must be indulged, and even assisted by advances; and the aumil must look

for his returns in the abundance of the crop, _the consequence of this

early attention to the cultivation_. The effect is evident _which the

report of a change in the first officer of the revenue must have on the

minds of the aumils, by leaving them at an uncertainty of what they have

in future to expect_; and in proportion to the degree of this

uncertainty, their efforts and expenses in promoting the cultivation

will be languid and sparing. In compliance with the Naib's request, I

have written to all the aumils, encouraging and ordering them to attend

to the cultivation of their respective districts; but I conceive I

should be able to promote this very desirable intention much more

effectually, if you will honor me with the communication of your

intentions on this subject. At the same time I cannot help just

remarking, that, if a change is intended, the sooner it takes place, the

more _the bad effects_ I have described will be obviated."

That the Council, having received the proposition for the removal of the

administrator aforesaid, did also, in a letter to him, the said

Hastings, condemn the frequent changes by him made in the administration

of the collections of Benares,--but did consent to such alterations as

might be made without encroaching on the rights established by his, the

said Hastings's, agreement in the year 1781, and did desire him to

transmit to them his plan for a new administration.

That the said Hastings did transmit a plan, which, notwithstanding the

evils which had happened from the former frequent changes, he did

propose _as a temporary expedient_ for the administration of the

revenues of the said province,--in which no provision was made for the

reduction or remission of revenue as exigences might require, or for the

extraction of the circulating specie from the said province, or for the

supply of the necessary advances for cultivation, nor for the removal or

prevention of any of the grievances by him before complained of, other

than an inspection by the Resident and the chief criminal magistrate of

Benares, and other regulations equally void of effect and

authority,--and which plan Mr. Stables, one of the Supreme Council, did

altogether reject; but the same was approved of _as a temporary

expedient_, with some exceptions, by two other members of the board, Mr.

Wheler and Mr. Macpherson, declaring _the said Warren Hastings

responsible for the temporary expediency of the same_.

That the said Warren Hastings, in the plan aforesaid, having strongly

objected to the appointment of any European collectors, that is to say,

of any European servants of the Company being concerned in the same,

declaring that there had been sufficient experience of the ill effects

of their being so employed in the province of Bengal,--by which the said

Hastings did either in loose and general terms convey a false imputation

upon the conduct of the Company's servants employed in the collection of

the revenues of Bengal, or he was guilty of a criminal neglect of duty

in not bringing to punishment the particular persons whose evil

practices had given rise to such a general imputation on British

subjects and servants of the Company as to render them unfit for service

in other places.

That the said Warren Hastings, having in the course of three years made

three complete revolutions in the state of Benares, by expelling, in the

first instance, the lawful and rightful governor of the same, under

whose care and superintendence a large and certain revenue, suitable to

the abilities of the country, and consistent with its prosperity, was

paid with the greatest punctuality, and by afterwards displacing two

effective governors or administrators of the province, appointed in

succession by himself, and, in consequence of the said appointments and

violent and arbitrary removals, the said province "being left in effect

without a government," except in one city only, and having, after all,

settled no more than a temporary arrangement, is guilty of an high crime

and misdemeanor in the destruction of the country aforesaid.

IV.--PRINCESSES OF OUDE.

I. That the reigning Nabob of Oude, commonly called Asoph ul Dowlah,

(son and successor to Sujah ul Dowlah,) by taking into or continuing in

his pay certain bodies of regular British troops, and by having

afterwards admitted the British Resident at his court into the

management of all his affairs, foreign and domestic, and particularly

into the administration of his finances, did gradually become in

substance and effect, as well as in general repute and estimation, a

dependant on, or vassal of, the East India Company, and was, and is, so

much under the control of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal,

that, in the opinion of all the native powers, the English name and

character is concerned in every act of his government.

II. That Warren Hastings, Esquire, contrary to law and to his duty, and

in disobedience to the orders of the East India Company, arrogating to

himself the nomination of the Resident at the court of Oude, as his

particular agent and representative, and rejecting the Resident

appointed by the Company, and obtruding upon them a person of his own

choice, did from that time render himself in a particular manner

responsible for the good government of the provinces composing the

dominions of the Nabob of Oude.

III. That the provinces aforesaid, having been at the time of their

first connection with the Company in an improved and flourishing

condition, and yielding a revenue of more than three millions of pounds

sterling, or thereabouts, did soon after that period begin sensibly to

decline, and the subsidy of the British troops stationed in that

province, as well as other sums of money due to the Company by treaty,

ran considerably in arrear; although the prince of the country, during

the time these arrears accrued, was otherwise in distress, and had been

obliged to reduce all his establishments.

IV. That the prince aforesaid, or Nabob of Oude, did, in humble and

submissive terms, supplicate the said Warren Hastings to be relieved

from a body of troops whose licentious behavior he complained of, and

who were stationed in his country without any obligation by treaty to

maintain them,--pleading the failure of harvest and the prevalence of

famine in his country: a compliance with which request by the said

Warren Hastings was refused in unbecoming, offensive, and insulting

language.

V. That the said Nabob, laboring under the aforesaid and other burdens,

and being continually urged for payment, was advised to extort, and did

extort, from his mother and grandmother, under the pretext of loans,

(and sometimes without that appearance,) various great sums of money,

amounting in the whole to six hundred and thirty thousand pounds

sterling, or thereabouts: alleging in excuse the rigorous demands of the

East India Company, for whose use the said extorted money had been

demanded, and to which a considerable part of it had been applied.

VI. That the two female parents of the Nabob aforesaid were among the

women of the greatest rank, family, and distinction in Asia, and were

left by the deceased Nabob, the son of the one and the husband of the

other, in charge of certain considerable part of his treasures, in money

and other valuable movables, as well as certain landed estates, called

jaghires, in order to the support of their own dignity, and the

honorable maintenance of his women, and a numerous offspring, and their

dependants: the said family amounting in the whole to two thousand

persons, who were by the said Nabob, at his death, recommended in a

particular manner to the care and protection of the said Warren

Hastings.

VII. That, on the demand of the Nabob of Oude on his parents for the

last of the sums which completed the six hundred and thirty thousand

pounds aforesaid, they, the said parents, did positively refuse to pay

any part of the same to their son for the use of the Company, until he

should agree to certain terms to be stipulated in a regular treaty, and

among other particulars to secure them in the remainder of their

possessions, and also on no account or pretence to make any further

demands or claims on them; and well knowing from whence all his claims

and exactions had arisen, they demanded that the said treaty, or family

compact, should be guarantied by the Governor-General and Council of

Bengal: and a treaty was accordingly agreed to, executed by the Nabob,

and guarantied by John Bristow, Esquire, the Resident at Oude, under the

authority and with the express consent of the said Warren Hastings and

the Council-General, and in consequence thereof the sum last required

was paid, and discharges given to the Nabob for all the money which he

had borrowed from his own mother and the mother of his father.

That, the distresses and disorders in the Nabob's government and his

debt to the Company continuing to increase, notwithstanding the violent

methods before mentioned taken to augment his resources, the said Warren

Hastings, on the 21st of May, and on the 31st July, 1781, (he and Mr.

Wheler being the only remaining members of the Council-General, and he

having the conclusive and casting voice, and thereby being in effect the

whole Council,) did, in the name and under the authority of the board,

resolve on a journey to the upper provinces, in order to a personal

interview with the Nabob of Oude, towards the settlement of his

distressed affairs, and did give to himself a delegation of the powers

of the said Council, in direct violation of the Company's orders

forbidding such delegation.

VIII. That the said Warren Hastings having by his appointment met the

Nabob of Oude near a place called Chunar, and possessing an entire and

absolute command over the said prince, he did, contrary to justice and

equity and the security of property, as well as to public faith and the

sanction of the Company's guaranty, under the color of a treaty, which

treaty was conducted secretly, without a written document of any part of

the proceeding except the pretended treaty itself, authorize the said

Nabob to seize upon, and confiscate to his own profit, the landed

estates, called jaghires, of his parents, kindred, and principal

nobility: only stipulating a pension to the net amount of the rent of

the said lands as an equivalent, and that equivalent to such only whose

lands had been guarantied to them by the Company; but provided neither

in the said pretended treaty nor in any subsequent act the least

security for the payment of the said pension to those for whom such

pension was ostensibly reserved, and for the others not so much as a

show of indemnity;--to the extreme scandal of the British government,

which, valuing itself upon a strict regard to property, did expressly

authorize, if it did not command, an attack upon that right,

unprecedented in the despotic governments of India.

IX. That the said Warren Hastings, in order to cover the violent and

unjust proceedings aforesaid, did assert a claim of right in the same

Nabob to all the possessions of his said mother and grandmother, as

belonging to him by the Mahomedan law; and this pretended claim was set

up by the said Warren Hastings, after the Nabob had, by a regular treaty

ratified and guarantied by the said Hastings as Governor-General,

renounced and released all demands on them. And this false pretence of a

legal demand was taken up and acted upon by the said Warren Hastings,

without laying the said question on record before the Council-General,

or giving notice to the persons to be affected thereby to support their

rights before any of the principal magistrates and expounders of the

Mahomedan law, or taking publicly the opinions of any person conversant

therein.

X. That, in order to give further color to the acts of ill faith and

violence aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did cause to be taken at

Lucknow and other places, before divers persons, and particularly before

Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice, acting

extra-judicially, and not within the limits of his jurisdiction, several

passionate, careless, irrelevant, and irregular affidavits, consisting

of matter not fit to be deposed on oath,--of reports, conjectures, and

hearsays; some of the persons swearing to the said hearsays having

declined to declare from whom they heard the accounts at second hand

sworn to; the said affidavits in general tending to support the

calumnious charge of the said Warren Hastings, namely, that the aged

women before mentioned had formed or engaged in a plan for the

deposition of their son and sovereign, and the _utter extirpation_ of

the English nation: and neither the said charge against persons whose

dependence was principally, if not wholly, on the good faith of this

nation, and highly affecting the honor, property, and even lives, of

women of the highest condition, nor the affidavits intended to support

the same, extra-judicially taken, _ex parte_, and without notice, by the

said Sir Elijah Impey and others, were at any time communicated to the

parties charged, or to any agent for them; nor were they called upon to

answer, nor any explanation demanded of them.

XI. That the article affecting private property secured by public acts,

in the said pretended treaty, contains nothing more than a general

permission, given by the said Warren Hastings, for confiscating such

jaghires, or landed estates, with the modifications therein contained,

"as _he_ [the Nabob] may find necessary," but does not directly point

at, or express by name, any of the landed possessions of the Nabob's

mother. But soon after the signing of the said pretended treaty, (that

is, on the 29th November, 1781,) it did appear that a principal object

thereof was to enable the Nabob to seize upon the estates of his female

parents aforesaid, which had been guarantied to them by the East India

Company. And although in the treaty, or pretended treaty, aforesaid,

nothing more is purported than to give a simple permission to the Nabob

to seize upon and confiscate the estates, leaving the execution or

non-execution of the same wholly to his discretion, yet it appears, by

several letters from Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, the Resident at the

Court of Oude, of the 6th, 7th, and 9th of December, 1781, that no such

discretion as expressed in the treaty was left, or intended to be left,

with him, the said Nabob, but that the said article ought practically to

have a construction of a directly contrary tendency: that, instead of

considering the article as originating from the Nabob, and containing a

power provided in his favor which he did not possess before, the

confiscation of the jaghires aforesaid was to be considered as a measure

originating from the English, and to be intended for their benefit, and,

as such, that the execution was to be forced upon him; and the execution

thereof was accordingly forced upon him. And the Resident, Middleton, on

the Nabob's refusal to act in contradiction to his sworn engagement

guarantied by the East India Company, and in the undutiful and unnatural

manner required, did totally supersede his authority in his own

dominions, considering himself as empowered so to act by the

instructions of the said Hastings, although he had reason to apprehend a

general insurrection in consequence thereof, and that he found it

necessary to remove his family, "which he did not wish to retain there,

in case of a rupture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing the

British forces in the reduction of _his_ aumils and troops"; and he did

accordingly, as sovereign, issue his own edicts and warrants, in

defiance of the resistance of the Nabob, in the manner by him described

in the letters aforesaid,--in a letter of 6th December, 1781, that is to

say: "_Finding the Nabob wavering in his determination about the

resumption of the jaghires_, I this day, in presence of and with the

minister's concurrence, ordered the necessary purwannahs to be written

to the several aumils for that purpose; and it was my firm resolution to

have dispatched them this evening, with proper people to see them

punctually and implicitly carried into execution; but before they were

all transcribed, I received a message from the Nabob, who had been

informed by the minister of the resolution I had taken, entreating that

I would withhold the purwannahs until to-morrow morning, when he would

attend me, and afford me satisfaction on this point. As the loss of a

few hours in the dispatch of the purwannahs appeared of little moment,

and as it is possible the Nabob, _seeing that the business will at all

events be done, may make it an act of his own, I have consented to

indulge him in his request; but, be the remit of our interview whatever

it may, nothing shall prevent the orders being issued to-morrow, either

by him or myself, with the concurrence of the ministers_. Your pleasure

respecting the Begums I have learnt from Sir Elijah, and the measure

heretofore proposed will soon follow the resumption of the jaghires.

From both, or indeed from the former alone, I have no doubt of the

complete liquidation of the Company's balance." And also in another

letter, of the 7th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you

yesterday, informing you of the steps I had taken in regard to the

resumption of _the jaghires. This morning the Vizier came to me

according to his agreement, but seemingly without any intention or

desire to yield me satisfaction on the subject under discussion; for,

after a great deal of conversation, consisting on his part of trifling

evasion and puerile excuses for withholding his assent to the measure,

though at the same time professing the most implicit submission to your

wishes, I found myself without any other resource than the one of

employing that exclusive authority with which I consider your

instructions to vest me: I therefore declared to the Nabob, in presence

of the minister and Mr. Johnson, who I desired might bear witness of the

conversation, that I construed his rejection of the measure proposed as

a breach of his solemn promise to you, and an unwillingness to yield

that assistance which was evidently in his power towards liquidating his

heavy accumulating debt to the Company_, and that I must in consequence

determine, in my own justification, _to issue immediately the

purwannahs_, which had only been withheld in the sanguine hope that he

would be prevailed upon _to make that his own act_ which nothing but the

most urgent necessity could force _me to make mine_. He left me without

any reply, but afterwards sent for his minister and authorized him to

give me hopes that my requisition would be complied with; on which I

expressed my satisfaction, but declared that I could admit of no further

delays, and, unless I received his Excellency's formal acquiescence

before the evening, I should then most assuredly issue _my_ purwannahs;

which _I have accordingly done_, not having had any assurances from his

Excellency that could justify a further suspension. I shall, as soon as

possible, inform you of the effect of the purwannahs, which, in many

parts, I am apprehensive it will be found necessary _to enforce with

military aid_. I am not, however, entirely without hopes that the Nabob,

_when he sees the inefficacy of further opposition_, may alter his

conduct, and prevent _the confusion and disagreeable consequences which

would be too likely to result from the prosecution of a measure of such

importance without his concurrence_. His Excellency talks of going to

Fyzabad, for the purpose heretofore mentioned, in three or four days: _I

wish he may be serious in his intention_, and you may rest assured _I

shall spare no pains to keep him to it_." And further, in a letter of

the 9th December, 1781: "I had the honor to address you on the 7th

instant, informing you of the conversation which had passed between the

Nabob and me on the subject of resuming the jaghires, and the step I had

taken in consequence. _His Excellency appeared to be very much hurt and

incensed at the measure, and loudly complains of the treachery of his

ministers,--first, in giving you any hopes that such a measure would be

adopted, and, secondly, in their promising me their whole support in

carrying it through; but, as I apprehended, rather than suffer it to

appear that the point had been carried in opposition to his will_, he at

length yielded a _nominal_ acquiescence, and has this day issued his own

purwannahs to that effect,--_declaring, however, at the same time, both

to me and his ministers, that it is an act of compulsion_. I hope to be

able in a few days, in consequence of this measure, to transmit you an

account of the actual value and produce of the jaghires, opposed to the

nominal amount at which they stand rated on the books of the circar."

XII. That the said Warren Hastings, instead of expressing any

disapprobation of the proceedings aforesaid, in violation of the rights

secured by treaty with the mother and grandmother of the reigning prince

of Oude, and not less in violation of the sovereign rights of the Nabob

himself, did by frequent messages stimulate the said Middleton to a

perseverance in and to a rigorous execution of the same,--and in his

letter from Benares of the 25th December, 1781, did "express doubts of

his firmness and activity, and, above all, of his recollection of his

instructions and their importance; and that, if he could not rely on his

own [power] and the means he possessed for performing those services, he

_would free him_ [the said Middleton] _from the charges_, and would

proceed _himself_ to Lucknow, and would _himself_ undertake them."

XIII. That very doubtful credit is to be given to any letters written by

the said Middleton to the said Warren Hastings, when they answer the

purposes which the said Warren Hastings had evidently in view: the said

Middleton having written to him in the following manner from Lucknow,

30th December, 1781.

XIV. "MY DEAR SIR,--I have this day answered your _public_

letter in the form _you seem to expect_. I hope there is nothing in it

that may appear to you too pointed. _If you wish the matter to be

otherwise understood than I have taken up and stated it, I need not say

I shall be ready to conform to whatever you may prescribe, and to take

upon myself any share of the blame of the (hitherto) non-performance of

the stipulations made on behalf of the Nabob_: though I do assure you I

myself represented to his Excellency and the ministers, (conceiving it

to be your desire,) that _the apparent assumption of the reins of his

government_, (for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at the

first view,) as specified in the agreement executed by him, was not

meant to be _fully_ and _literally_ enforced, but that it was necessary

_you should have something to show on your side, as the Company were

deprived of a benefit without a requital; and upon the faith of this

assurance alone_, I believe I may safely affirm, his Excellency's

objections to signing the treaty were given up. If I have understood the

matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am truly sorry for it:

_however, it is not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to

undertake, and, God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on

receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final resolve_."

XV. That it appears, but on his, the said Middleton's, sole authority,

in a letter from the said Middleton, dated Lucknow, 2d December, 1781,

that the Nabob of Oude, wishing to evade the measure of resuming the

jaghires aforesaid, did send a message to him, purporting, "that, if the

measure proposed was intended to procure the payment of the balance due

to the Company, he could better and more expeditiously effect that

object by taking from his mother the treasures of his father, which he

did assert to be in her hands, and to which he did claim a right; and

that it would be sufficient that he, the said Hastings, _would hint his

opinion upon it, without giving a formal sanction to the measure

proposed_; and that, whatever his resolution upon the subject should be,

it would be expedient to keep it secret": adding, "_The resumption of

the jaghires it is necessary to suspend till I have your answer to this

letter_."

XVI. That it does not appear that the said Hastings did write any

letter in answer to the proposal of the said Middleton, but he, the said

Hastings, did communicate his pleasure thereon, to Sir Elijah Impey,

being then at Lucknow, for his, the said Middleton's, information; and

it does appear that the seizing of the treasures of the mother of the

Nabob, said to have been proposed as _an alternative_ by the said Nabob

to prevent the resumption of the jaghires, was determined upon and

ordered by the said Hastings,--and that the resumption of the said

jaghires, for the ransom of which the seizing of the treasures was

proposed, was also directed: not one only, but both sides of the

alternative, being enforced upon the female parents of the Nabob

aforesaid, although both the one and the other had been secured to them

by a treaty with the East India Company.

XVIII.[60] That Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice at

Port William, did undertake a journey of nine hundred miles, from

Calcutta to Lucknow, on pretence of health and pleasure, but was in

reality in the secret of these and other irregular transactions, and

employed as a channel of confidential communication therein. And the

said Warren Hastings, by presuming to employ the said chief-justice, a

person particularly unfit for an agent, in the transaction of affairs

_primâ facie_ at least unjust, violent, and oppressive, contrary to

public faith, and to the sentiments and law of Nature, and which he, the

said Hastings, was sensible "could not fail to draw obloquy on himself

by his participation," did disgrace the king's commission, and render

odious to the natives of Hindostan the justice of the crown of Great

Britain.

XIX. That, although the said Warren Hastings was from the beginning duly

informed of the violence offered to the personal inclinations of the

Nabob, and the "apparent assumption of the reins of his government," for

the purposes aforesaid, yet more than two years after he did write to

his private agent, Major Palmer, that is to say, in his letter of the

6th of May, 1783, "that it has been a matter of _equal surprise and

concern_ to him to learn from the letters of the Resident that the Nabob

Vizier was with difficulty and almost unconquerable reluctance induced

to give his consent to the attachment of the treasure deposited by his

father under the charge of the Begum, his mother, and to the resumption

of her jaghire, and the other jaghires of the individuals of his

family": which pretence of ignorance of the Nabob's inclinations is

fictitious and groundless. But whatever deception he might pretend to be

in concerning the original intention of the Nabob, he was not, nor did

he pretend to be, ignorant of his, the Nabob's, reluctance to _proceed_

in the said measures; but did admit his knowledge of the Nabob's

reluctance to their full execution, and yet did justify the same as

follows.

XX. "I desire that you will inform him [the Nabob], that, in these and

the other measures which were either proposed by him or received his

concurrence in the agreement passed between us at Chunar, I neither had

nor could have any object _but his relief, and the strengthening of his

connection with the Company_; and that I should not on any other ground

have exposed myself to _the personal obloquy which they could not fail

to draw upon me by my participation in them_, but left him to regulate

by his own discretion and by his own means the economy of his own

finances, and, _with much more cause, the assertion of his domestic

right. In these he had no regular claim to my interference_; nor had I,

in my public character, any claim upon him, but for the payment of the

debt then due from him to the Company, although I was under the

strongest obligations to require it for the relief of the pressing

exigencies of their affairs. He will well remember the manner in which,

at a visit to him in his own tent, I declared my acquiescence freely,

and without hesitation, to each proposition, which afterwards formed the

substance of a written agreement, as he severally made them; and he can

want no other evidence of my motives for _so cheerful a consent_, nor

for the requests which I added as the means of fulfilling his purposes

in them. Had he not made these measures his own option, I should not

have proposed them; _but having once adopted them, and made them the

conditions of a formal and sacred agreement, I had no longer an option

to dispense with them, but was bound to the complete performance and

execution of them, as points of public duty and of national faith, for

which I was responsible to my king, and the Company my immediate

superiors: and this was the reason for my insisting on their performance

and execution, when I was told that the Nabob himself had relaxed from

his original purpose, and expressed a reluctance to proceed in it_."

XXI. That the said Warren Hastings does admit that the Nabob _had_

originally no regular claim upon him for his interference, or he any

claim on the Nabob, which, might entitle him to interfere in the Nabob's

domestic concerns; yet, in order to justify his so invidious an

interference, he did, in the letter aforesaid, give a false account of

the said treaty, which (as before mentioned) did nothing more than give

a _permission_ to the Nabob to resume the jaghires, _if HE should judge

the same to be necessary_, and did therefore leave the right of

dispensing with the whole, or any part thereof, as much in his option

after the treaty as it was before: the declared intent of the article

being only to remove the restraint of the Company's guaranty forbidding

such resumption, but furnishing nothing which could authorize putting

that resumption into the hands and power of the Company, to be enforced

at their discretion. And with regard to the other part of the spoil made

by order of the said Hastings, and by him in the letter aforesaid stated

to be made equally against the will of the Nabob, namely, that which was

committed on the personal and movable property of the female parents of

the Nabob, nothing whatsoever in relation to the same is stipulated in

the said pretended treaty.

XXII. That the said Hastings, in asserting that he was bound to the acts

aforesaid by public duty, and even by national faith, in the very

instance in which that national faith was by him grossly violated, and

in justifying himself by alleging that he was bound to the _complete_

execution by a responsibility to the Company which he immediately

served, and by asserting that these violent and rapacious proceedings,

subjecting all persons concerned in them to obloquy, would be the means

of strengthening the connection of the Nabob with the British United

Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, did disgrace the

authority under which he immediately acted. And that the said Hastings,

in justifying his obligations to the said acts by a responsibility to

the _king_, namely, to the King of Great Britain, did endeavor to throw

upon his Majesty, his lawful sovereign, (whose name and character he was

bound to respect, and to preserve in estimation with all persons, and

particularly with the sovereign princes, the allies of his government,)

the disgrace and odium of the aforesaid acts, in which a sovereign

prince was by him, the said Hastings, made an instrument of perfidy,

wrong, and outrage to two mothers and wives of sovereign princes, and in

which he did exhibit to all Asia (a country remarkable for the utmost

devotion to parental authority) the spectacle of a Christian governor,

representing a Christian sovereign, compelling a son to become the

instrument of such violence and extortion against his own mother.

That the said Warren Hastings, by repeated messages and injunctions, and

under menaces of "a dreadful responsibility," did urge the Resident to a

completion of this barbarous act; and well knowing that such an act

would probably be resisted, did order him, the said Resident, to use the

British troops under his direction for that purpose; and did offer the

assistance of further forces, urging the execution in the following

peremptory terms: "You _yourself_ must be _personally present_; you must

not allow _any_ negotiation or forbearance, but must prosecute both

services, until the Begums [princesses] are at the entire mercy of the

Nabob."[61]

XXIII. That, in conformity to the said peremptory orders, a party of

British and other troops, with the Nabob in the ostensible, and the

British Resident in the real command, were drawn towards the city of

Fyzabad, in the castle of which city the mother and grandmother of the

Nabob had their residence; and after expending two days in negotiation,

(the particulars of which do not appear,) the Resident not receiving the

satisfaction he looked for, the town was first stormed, and afterwards

the castle; and little or no resistance being made, and no blood being

shed on either side, the British troops occupied all the outer inclosure

of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.[62]

XXIV. That this violent assault, and forcible occupation of their

houses, and the further extremities they had to apprehend, did not

prevail on the female parents of the Nabob to consent to any submission,

until the Resident sent in unto them a letter from the said Warren

Hastings,[63] (no copy of which appears,) declaring himself no longer

bound by the guaranty, and containing such other matter as tended to

remove all their hopes, which seemed to be centred in British faith.

XXV. That the chief officers of their household, who were their

treasurers and confidential agents, the eunuchs Jewar Ali Khân and Behar

Ali Khân, persons of great eminence, rank, and distinction, who had been

in high trust and favor with the late Nabob, were ignominiously put into

confinement under an inferior officer, in order to extort the discovery

of the treasures and effects committed to their care and fidelity. And

the said Middleton did soon after, that is to say, on the 12th of

January, 1782, deliver them over for the same purpose into the custody

of Captain Neal Stuart, commanding the eighth regiment, by his order

given in the following words: "To be kept in close and secure

confinement, admitting of no intercourse with them, excepting by their

four menial servants, who are authorized to attend them until further

orders. You will allow them to have any necessary and convenience which

may be consistent with a strict guard over them."

XXVI. That, in consequence of these severities upon herself, and on

those whom she most regarded and trusted, the mother of the said Nabob

did at length consent to the delivering up of her treasures, and the

same were paid to the Resident, to the amount of the bond given by the

Nabob to the Company for his balance of the year 1779-80; and the said

treasure "was taken from the most secret recesses in the houses of the

two eunuchs."

XXVII. That the Nabob continuing still under the pressure of a further

pretended debt to the Company for his balance of the year 1780-81, the

Resident, not satisfied with the seizure of the estates and treasures of

his parents aforesaid, although he, the said Resident, did confess that

the princess mother "had declared, _with apparent truth_, that she had

delivered up _the whole of the property in her hands_, excepting goods

which from the experience which he, the Resident, had of the _small

produce_ of the sales of a former payment made by her in that mode he

did refuse, and that in his opinion it certainly would have amounted to

little or nothing," did proceed to extort another great sum of money,

that is to say, the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds

sterling, on account of the last pretended balance aforesaid: in order,

therefore, to compel the said ministers and treasurers either to

distress their principals by extorting whatever valuable substance might

by any possibility remain concealed, or to furnish the said sum from

their own estates or from their credit with their friends, did order

their imprisonment to be aggravated with circumstances of great cruelty,

giving an order to Lieutenant Francis Rutledge, dated 20th January,

1782, in the following words.

XXVIII. "SIR,--When this note is delivered to you by Hoolas

Roy, I have to desire that you order the two prisoners to be put _in

irons, keeping them from all food, &c., agreeable to my instructions of

yesterday_.

(Signed) "NATH^L MIDDLETON."

XXIX. That by the said unjust and rigorous proceeding the said eunuchs

were compelled to give their engagement for the payment of one hundred

and twenty thousand pounds sterling aforesaid, to be completed within

the period of one month; but after they had entered into the said

compulsory engagement, they were still kept in close imprisonment, and

the mother and grandmother of the Nabob were themselves held under a

strict guard,--although, at the same time, the confiscated estates were

actually in the Company's possession, and found to exceed the amount of

what they were rated at in the general list of confiscated estates,[64]

and although the Assistant Resident, Johnson, did confess, "that the

object of distressing the Bhow Begum was merely to obtain a

_ready-money_ instead of a _dilatory payment_, and that this ready-money

payment, if not paid, was recoverable in the course of a few months upon

the jaghires in his possession, and that therefore it was not worth

proceeding to any extremities, beyond the one described," (namely, the

confinement of the princesses, and the imprisonment and fettering of

their ministers,) "upon so respectable a family."[65]

XXX. That, after the surrender of the treasure, and the passing the

bonds and obligations given as aforesaid, the Resident having been

strictly ordered by the said Warren Hastings not to make any settlement

whatsoever with the said women of high rank, the Nabob was induced to

leave the city of Fyzabad without taking leave of his mother, or showing

her any mark of duty or civility. And on the same day the Resident left

the city aforesaid; and after his return to Lucknow, in order to pacify

the said Hastings, who appeared to resent that the Nabob was not urged

to greater degrees of rigor than those hitherto used towards his mother,

he, the said Resident, did, in his letter of the 6th February, give him

an assurance in the following words:--"I shall, as you direct, use my

influence to dissuade his Excellency from concluding _any settlement_

until I have your further commands."

XXXI. That the payment of the bond last extorted from the eunuchs was

soon after commenced, and the grandmother, as well as the mother, were

now compelled to deliver what they declared was _the extent of the

whole_ of both their possessions, including down to their _table

utensils_; which, as the Resident admitted, "they had been and were

still delivering, and that no proof had yet been obtained of their

having more."

XXXII. That bullion, jewels, and goods, to the amount of five hundred

thousand pounds and upwards, were actually received by the Resident for

the use of the Company before the 23d of February, 1782; and there

remained on the said extorted bond no more than about twenty-five

thousand pounds, according to the statement of the eunuchs, and not

above fifty thousand according to that made by the Resident.

XXXIII. That, in this advanced state of the delivery of the extorted

treasure, the ministers of the women aforesaid of the reigning family

did apply to Captain Leonard Jaques, under whose custody they were

confined, to be informed of the deficiency with which they stood

charged, that they might endeavor, with the assistance of their friends,

to provide for the same, and praying that they might through his

mediation be freed from the hardships they suffered under their

confinement: to which application they received an insolent answer from

the said Richard Johnson, dated February 27th, 1782, declaring that part

of what he had received in payment was in jewels and bullion, and that

more than a month, the time fixed for the final payment, would elapse

before he could dispose of the same,--insisting upon a ready-money

payment, and assuring them "that the day on which their agreement

expired he should be indispensably obliged to recommence severities upon

them, until the last farthing was fully paid." And in order to add to

their terrors and hardships, as well as to find some pretext for the

further cruel and inhuman acts intended, an apparently groundless and

injurious charge was suggested to the imprisoned ministers aforesaid in

the following words. "You may also mention to them, that I have reason

to _suspect_ that the commotions raised by Bulbudder have not been

without their _suggestion and abetment_, which, if proved upon them, in

addition to the _probable_ breach of their agreement, will make their

situation _very desperate_."

XXXIV. That on the receipt of the said letter, that is, on the 2d March,

the ministers aforesaid did aver, that they were not able to obtain

cash, in lieu of the jewels and other effects, but that, if the goods

were sold, and they released from their confinement, and permitted (as

they have before requested) to go abroad among their friends, they could

soon make good the deficiency; and they did absolutely deny "that they

had any hand in the commotions raised by Bulbudder, or any kind of

correspondence with him or his adherents."

XXXV. That the prisoners aforesaid did shortly after, that is to say, on

the 13th March, a third time renew their application to Nathaniel

Middleton, Esquire, the Resident, and did request that the jewels

remaining in his, the said Resident's, hands, towards the payment of the

balance remaining, "might be valued by four or five eminent merchants,

Mussulmen and Hindoos, upon oath," and that, if any balance should

afterwards appear, they would upon their release get their friends to

advance the same; and they did again represent the hardship of their

imprisonment, and pray for relief; and did again assert that the

imputations thrown upon them by the said Richard Johnson were false and

groundless,--"that they had no kind of intercourse, either directly or

indirectly, with the authors of the commotions alluded to, and that they

did stake their lives upon the smallest proof thereof being brought."

XXXVI. That, instead of their receiving any answer to any of the

aforesaid reasonable propositions, concerning either the account stated,

or the crimes imputed to them, or any relief from the hardships they

suffered, he, the Resident, Middleton, did, on the 18th of the said

month, give to the officer who had supplicated in favor of the said

prisoners an order in which he declared himself "under the disagreeable

necessity of recurring to severities to enforce the said payment, and

that this is therefore to desire that you immediately cause them _to be

put in irons_, and keep them so until I shall arrive at Fyzabad to take

further measures as may be necessary": which order being received at

Fyzabad the day after it was given, the said eunuchs were a second time

thrown into irons. And it appears that (probably in resentment for the

humane representations of the said Captain Jaques) the Resident did

refuse to pay for the fetters, and other contingent charges of the

imprisonment of the said ministers of the Nabob's mother, when at the

same time very liberal contingent allowances were made to other

officers; and the said Jaques did strongly remonstrate against the same

as follows. "You have also ordered me to put the prisoners in irons:

this I have done; yet, as I have no business to purchase fetters, or

supply them any other way, it is but reasonable that you should order me

to be reimbursed. And why should I add anything more? A late commander

at this place, I am told, draws near as many thousands monthly

contingencies as my trifling letter for hundreds. However, if you cannot

get my bill paid, be so obliging as to return it, and give me an

opportunity of declaring to the world that I believe I am the first

officer in the Company's service who has suffered in his property by an

independent command."

XXXVI. That, in about two months after the said prisoners had continued

in irons in the manner aforesaid, the officer on guard, in a letter of

the 18th May, did represent to the Resident as follows. "The prisoners,

Behar and Jewar Ali Khân, who seem to be very sickly, have requested

their irons might be taken off for a few days, that they might take

medicine, and walk about the garden of the place where they are

confined. Now, as I am sure _they will be equally secure without their

irons as with them_, I think it my duty to inform you of this request: I

desire to know your pleasure concerning it." To which letter the said

officer did receive a direct refusal, dated 22d May, 1782, in the

following words. "I am sorry it is not in my power to comply with your

proposal of easing the prisoners for a few days of their fetters. Much

as my humanity may be touched by their sufferings, I should think it

inexpedient to afford them any alleviation while they persist in a

breach of their contract with me: and, indeed, no indulgence can be

shown them without the authority of the Nabob, who, instead of

consenting to moderate the rigors of their situation, would be most

willing to multiply them":--endeavoring to join the Nabob, whom he well

knew to be reluctant in the whole proceeding, as a party in the

cruelties by which, through the medium of her servants, it was intended

to coerce his mother.

XXXVIII. That the said Resident, in a few days after, that is to say, on

the 1st June, 1782, in a letter to Major Gilpin, in command at Fyzabad,

did order the account, as by himself stated, to be read to the

prisoners, and, without taking any notice of their proposal concerning

the valuation of the effects, or their denial of the offences imputed to

them, to demand a positive answer relative to the payment, and, "upon

receiving from them a negative or unsatisfactory reply, to inform them,

that, all further negotiation being at an end, they must prepare for

their removal to Lucknow, where they would be called upon to answer not

only their recent breach of faith and solemn engagement, but also to

atone for other heavy offences, the punishment of which, as had

frequently been signified to them, it was in their power to have

mitigated by a proper acquittal of themselves in this transaction." By

which insinuations concerning the pretended offences of the said unhappy

persons, and the manner by which they were to atone for the same, and by

their never having been specifically and directly made, it doth appear

that the said crimes and offences were charged for the purpose of

extorting money, and not upon principles or for the ends of justice.

XXXIX. That, after some ineffectual negotiations to make the prisoners

pay the money, which it does not appear to have been in their power to

pay, they were again threatened by the Resident, in a letter to Major

Gilpin, dated 9th June, 1782, in the following terms. "I wish you to

explain once more to the prisoners the imprudence and folly of their

conduct in forcing me to a measure which must be attended with

consequences so very serious to them, and that, when once they are

removed to Lucknow, it will not be in my power to show them mercy, or to

stand between them and the vengeance of the Nabob. Advise them to

reflect seriously upon the unhappy situation in which they will be

involved in one case, and the relief it will be in my power to procure

them in the other; and let them make their option."

XL. That he, the said Resident, did also, at the same time, receive a

letter from the princess mother, which letter does not appear, but to

which only the following insolent return was made,--that is to say: "The

letter from the Bhow Begum is no ways satisfactory, and I cannot think

of returning an answer to it. Indeed, all correspondence between the

Begum and me has long been stopped; and I request you will be pleased to

inform her that I by no means wish to resume it, or to maintain any

friendly intercourse with her, until she has made good my claim upon her

for the balance due."

XLI. That, in consequence of these threats, and to prevent a separation

of the ministers from their mistresses, several plans for the payment of

the balance were offered, both by the mother of the Nabob and the

prisoners, to which no other objection appears to have been made than

the length of time required by the parties to discharge the

comparatively small remainder of the extorted bond: the officer on

command declaring, that, conformable to his instructions, he could not

receive the same.[66]

XLII. That the prisoners were actually removed from the city of their

residence to the city of Lucknow, where they arrived on the 24th of

June, 1782, and were on the next day threatened with severities, "to

make them discover where the balance might be procurable." And on the

28th, it should seem, that the severities for the purpose aforesaid were

inflicted, at least upon one of them; for the Assistant Resident,

Johnson, did on that day write to Captain Waugh, the officer commanding

the guard, the letter following, full of disgrace to the honor, justice,

and humanity of the British nation.

XLIII. "SIR,--The Nabob having determined _to inflict corporal

punishment upon the prisoners_ under your guard, this is to desire that

his officers, when they shall come, may have free access to the

prisoners, and _be permitted to do with them as they shall see proper_,

only taking care that they leave them always under your charge."

XLIV. That the said Richard Johnson did, further to terrify the

prisoners, and to extort by all ways the remainder of the said unjust,

oppressive, and rapacious demand, threaten to remove them out of the

Nabob's dominions into the castle of Churnagur, in order forever to

separate them from their principals, and deprive both of their

reciprocal protection and services,[67]--and did order a further guard

to be put on the palace of the grandmother of the Nabob, an ally of the

Company, and to prevent the entrance of the provisions to her, (which

order relative to the guard only was executed,) and did use sundry

unworthy and insulting menaces both with regard to herself and to her

principal ministers.[68]

XLV. That a proposal was soon after made by the said princess and her

daughter-in-law, praying that their ministers aforesaid should be

returned to Fyzabad, and offering to raise a sum of money on that

condition;[69] as also that they would remove from one of their palaces,

whilst the English were to be permitted to search the other.[70] But the

Assistant Resident, Johnson, did, instead of a compliance with the

former of these propositions, send the following orders, dated 23d July,

1782, to the officer commanding the guard on the ministers aforesaid:

"Some violent demands having been made for the release of the prisoners,

it is necessary that every possible precaution be taken for their

security; you will therefore be pleased to be very strict in guarding

them; and I herewith send _another pair of fetters to be added to those

now upon the prisoners_." And in answer to the second proposition, the

said Resident did reply in the following terms: "The proposal of

evacuating one palace, that it may be searched, and then evacuating the

next, upon the same principle, is apparently fair; but it is well known,

in the first place, that such bricked-up or otherwise hidden treasure

is not to be hit upon in a day without a guide. I have therefore

informed the Nabob of this proposal, and, if the matter is to be reduced

to a search, he will go himself, with such people as he may possess for

information, together with the prisoners; and when in possession of the

ground, by _punishing the prisoners_, or by such _other means as he may

find most effectual_ to forward a successful search upon the spot, he

will avail himself of the proposal made by the Bhow Begum."

XLVI. That, probably from the Nabob's known and avowed reluctance to

lend himself to the perpetration of the oppressive and iniquitous

proceedings of the representative of the British government, the

scandalous plan aforesaid was not carried into execution; and all the

rigors practised upon the chief ministers of the ladies aforesaid at

Lucknow being found ineffectual, and the princess mother having declared

herself ready to deliver up everything valuable in her possession, which

Behar Ali Khân, one of her confidential ministers aforesaid, only could

come at, the said change of prison was agreed to,--but not until the

Nabob's mother aforesaid had engaged to pay for the said change of

prison a sum of ten thousand pounds, (one half of which was paid on the

return of the eunuchs,) and that "she would ransack the _zenanah_

[women's apartments] for kincobs, muslins, clothes, &c., &c., &c., and

that she would even allow a deduction from the annual allowance made to

her for her subsistence in lieu of her jaghire."[71]

XLVII. That, soon after the return of the aforesaid ministers to the

place of their imprisonment at Fyzabad, bonds for the five thousand

pounds aforesaid, and goods, estimated, according to the valuation of a

merchant appointed to value the same, at the sum of forty thousand

pounds, even allowing them to sell greatly under their value, were

delivered to the commanding officer at Fyzabad; and the said commanding

officer did promise to the Begum to visit Lucknow with such proposals as

he hoped would secure the _small balance_ of fifteen thousand pounds

remaining of the unjust exaction aforesaid.[72] But the said Resident,

Middleton, did, in his letter of the 17th of the said month, positively

refuse to listen to any terms before the final discharge of the whole of

the demand, and did positively forbid the commanding officer to come to

Lucknow to make the proposal aforesaid in the terms following. "As it is

not possible to listen to _any_ terms from the Begums before the final

discharge of their conditional agreement for fifty-five lacs, your

coming here upon such an agency can only be _loss of time_ in completing

the recovery of the balance of 6,55,000, for which your regiment was

sent to Fyzabad. I must therefore desire you will leave _no efforts,

gentle or harsh_, unattempted to complete this, before you move from

Fyzabad; and I am very anxious that this should be as soon as possible,

_as I want to employ your regiment upon other emergent service, now

suffering by every delay_."

XLVIII. That the goods aforesaid were sent to Lucknow, and disposed of

in a manner unknown; and the harsh and oppressive measures aforesaid

being still continued, the Begum did, about the middle of October,

1782, cause to be represented to the said Middleton as follows. "That

her situation was truly pitiable,--her estate sequestered, her treasury

ransacked, her cojahs prisoners, and her servants deserting daily from

want of subsistence. That she had solicited the loan of money, to

satisfy the demands of the Company, from every person that she imagined

would or could assist her with any; but that the opulent would not

listen to her adversity. She had hoped that the wardrobe sent to Lucknow

might have sold for at least one half of the Company's demands on her;

but even jewelry and goods, she finds from woful experience, lose their

value the moment it is known they come from her. That she had now

solicited the loan of cash from Almas Ali Khân, and if she failed in

that application, she had no hopes of ever borrowing a sum equal to the

demand":[73]--an hope not likely to be realized, as the said Almas Ali

was then engaged for a sum of money to be raised for the Company's use

on the security of their confiscated lands, the restoration of which

could form the only apparent security for a loan.

XLIX. That this remonstrance produced no effect on the mind of the

aforesaid Resident,--who, being about this time removed from his

Residency, did, in a letter to his successor, Mr. Bristow, dated 23d

October, 1782, in effect recommend a perseverance in the cruel and

oppressive restraints aforesaid as a certain means of recovering the

remainder of the extorted bond, and that the lands with which the

princesses aforesaid had been endowed should not be restored to them.

L. That the said Warren Hastings was duly apprised of all the material

circumstances in the unjust proceedings aforesaid, but did nothing to

stop the course they were in, or to prevent, relieve, or mitigate the

sufferings of the parties affected by them: on the contrary, he did, in

his letter of the 25th of January, 1782, to the Resident, Middleton,

declare, that the Nabob having consented to the "resumption of the

jaghires held by the Begums, and to the confiscation of their treasures,

and thereby involved my own name and the credit of the Company in a

participation of both measures, I have a right to _require and insist on

the complete execution of them_; and I look to you for their execution,

declaring that I shall hold you accountable for it." And it appears that

he did write to the Nabob a letter in the same peremptory manner; but

the said letter has been suppressed.

LI. That he, the said Hastings, farther did manifest the concern he took

in, and the encouragement which he gave to the proceedings aforesaid, by

conferring honors and distinctions upon the ministers of the Nabob, whom

he, the Nabob, did consider as having in the said proceedings disobeyed

him and betrayed him, and as instruments in the dishonor of his family

and the usurpation of his authority. That the said ministers did make

addresses to the said Hastings for that purpose (which addresses the

said Hastings hath suppressed); and the Resident, Middleton, did, with

his letter of the 11th of February, 1782, transmit the same, and did in

the said letter acquaint the said Hastings "that the ministers of the

Nabob had incurred much odium on account of their participation in his

measures, and that they were not only considered by the party of the

dispossessed jaghiredars, and the mother and uncle of the Nabob, but _by

the Nabob himself_, as the _dependants of the English government, which

they certainly are, and it is by its declared and most obvious support

alone_ that they can maintain the authority and influence which is

indispensably necessary." And the said Middleton did therefore recommend

"that they should be honored with some testimony of his [the said

Hastings's] approbation and favor." And he, the said Warren Hastings,

did send _kellauts_, or robes of honor, (the most public and

distinguished mode of acknowledging merit known in India,) to the said

ministers, in testimony of his approbation of their late services.

LII. That the said Hastings did not only give the aforesaid public

encouragement to the ministers of the Nabob to betray and insult their

master and his family in the manner aforesaid, but, when the said Nabob

did write several letters to him, the said Hastings, expressive of his

dislike of being used as an instrument in the dishonorable acts

aforesaid, and refusing to be further concerned therein, he, the said

Warren Hastings, did not only suppress and hide the said letters from

the view of the Court of Directors, but in his instructions to the

Resident, Bristow, did attribute them to Hyder Beg Khân, minister to the

Nabob, (whom in other respects he did before and ever since support

against his master,) and did express himself with great scorn and

contempt of the said Nabob, and with much asperity against the said

minister: affirming, in proud and insolent terms, that he had, "by an

abuse of his influence over the Nabob,--he, the Nabob himself, being

(_as he ever must be in the hands of some person_) _a mere cipher in

his [the said minister's],--dared_ to make him [the Nabob] _assume_ a

very _unbecoming_ tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, in

opposition to _measures recommended by ME_, and even to _acts done by MY

authority_": the said Hastings, in the instruction aforesaid,

particularizing the resumption of the jaghires, and the confiscation of

the treasures that had been so long suffered to remain in the hands of

his, the Nabob's, mother. But the letters of the Nabob, which in the

said instructions he refers to as containing an opposition to the

measures recommended by him, and which he asserts was conveyed in a very

unbecoming tone of refusal, reproach, and resentment, he, the said

Hastings, hath criminally withheld from the Company, contrary to their

orders, and to his duty,--and the more, as the said letters must tend to

show in what manner the said Nabob did feel the indignities offered to

his mother, and the manner in which the said ministers, notwithstanding

their known dependence on the English government, did express their

sense of the part which their sovereign was compelled to act in the said

disgraceful measures. And in farther instructions to him, the said new

Resident, he did declare his approbation of the evil acts aforesaid, as

well as his resolution of compelling the Nabob to those rigorous

proceedings against his parent from which he had long shown himself so

very averse, in the following words. "The severities which have been

increased towards the Begums were most justly merited by the advantage

which they took of the troubles in which I was personally involved last

year, to create a rebellion in the Nabob's government, and to complete

the ruin which they thought was impending on ours. If it is the Nabob's

desire to forget and to forgive their past offence, I have no objection

to his allowing them, in pension, the nominal amount of their jaghires;

but if he shall _ever offer_ to restore their jaghires to them, or to

give them any property in land, after the warning which they have given

him by the dangerous abuse which they formerly made of his indulgence,

you must remonstrate in the strongest terms against it; _you must not

permit such an event to take place_, until this government shall have

received information of it, and shall have had time to interpose its

influence for the prevention of it." And the said Warren Hastings, who

did in the manner aforesaid positively refuse to admit the Nabob to

restore to his mother and grandmother any part of their landed estates

for their maintenance, did well know that the revenues of the said Nabob

were at that time so far applied to the demands of the Company, (by him,

the said Warren Hastings, aggravated beyond the whole of what they did

produce,) or were otherwise so far applied to the purposes of several of

the servants of the Company, and others, the dependants of him, the said

Hastings, that none of the pensions or allowances, assigned by the said

Nabob in lieu of the estates confiscated, were paid, or were likely to

be discharged, with that punctuality which was necessary even to the

scanty subsistence of the persons to which they were in name and

appearance applied. For,

LIII. That, so early as the 6th March, 1782, Captain Leonard Jaques, who

commanded the forces on duty for the purpose of distressing the several

women in the palaces at Fyzabad, did complain to the Resident, Richard

Johnson, in the following words. "The women belonging to the Khord

Mohul (or lesser palace) complain of their being in want of every

necessary of life, and are at last driven to that desperation that they

at night get on the top of the zenanah, make a great disturbance, and

last night not only alarmed the sentinels posted in the garden, but

threw dirt at them; they threaten to throw themselves from the walls of

the zenanah, and also to break out of it. Humanity obliges me to

acquaint you of this matter, and to request to know if you have any

directions to give me concerning it. I also beg leave to acquaint you I

sent for Letafit Ali Khân, the cojah who has the charge of them, and who

informs me it is well grounded,--that they _have sold everything they

had, even to the clothes from their backs, and now have no means of

subsisting_."

LIV. That the distresses of the said women grew so urgent on the night

of the said 6th of March, the day when the letter above recited was

written, that Captain Leonard Jaques aforesaid did think it necessary to

write again, on the day following, to the British Resident in the

following words. "I beg leave to address you again concerning the women

in the Khord Mohul [the lesser palace]. Their behavior last night was so

furious, that there seemed the greatest probability of their proceeding

to the uttermost extremities, and that they would either _throw

themselves from the walls or force open the doors of the zenanah_. I

have made every inquiry concerning the cause of their complaints, and

find from Letafit Ali Khân that they are in _a starving condition,

having sold all their clothes and necessaries, and now have not

wherewithal to support nature_; and as my instructions are quite silent

on this head, I should be glad to know how to proceed, in case they were

to force the doors of the zenanah, as I suspect it will happen, should

no subsistence be very quickly sent to them."

LV. That, in consequence of these representations, it appears that the

said Resident, Richard Johnson, did promise that an application should

be made to certain of the servants of the Nabob Vizier to provide for

their subsistence.

LVI. That Captain Jaques being relieved from the duty of imprisoning the

women of Sujah ul Dowlah, the late sovereign of Oude, an ally of the

Company, who dwelt in the said lesser palace, and Major Gilpin being

appointed to succeed, the same malicious design of destroying the said

women, or the same scandalous neglect of their preservation and

subsistence, did still continue; and Major Gilpin found it necessary to

apply to the new Resident, Bristow, in a letter of the 30th of October,

1782, as follows.

LVII. "SIR,--Last night, about eight o'clock, the women in the

Khord Mohul [lesser palace] or zenanah [women's apartment] under the

charge of Letafit Ali Khân, assembled on the tops of the buildings,

_crying in a most lamentable manner for food,--that for the last four

days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they

had got none_.

LVIII. "_The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than

described_; and from their representation I fear the Nabob's agents for

that business are very inattentive. I therefore think it requisite to

make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency, the

Nabob, may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct

towards these poor unhappy women."

LIX. That, although the Resident, Bristol, did not then think himself

authorized to remove the guard, he did apply to the minister of the

Nabob, who did promise some relief to the women of the late Nabob,

confined in the lesser palace; but apprehending, with reason, that the

minister aforesaid might not be more ready or active in making the

necessary provision for them than on former occasions, he did render

himself personally responsible to Major Gilpin for the repayment of any

sum, equal to one thousand pounds sterling, which he might procure for

the subsistence of the sufferers. But whatever relief was given, (the

amount thereof not appearing,) the same was soon exhausted; and the

number of persons to be maintained in the said lesser palace being eight

hundred women, the women of the late sovereign, Sujah ul Dowlah, and

several of the younger children of the said sovereign prince, besides

their attendants, Major Gilpin was obliged, on the 15th of November

following, again to address the Resident by a representation of this

tenor.

"SIR,--The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul

Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy.

LX. "_They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their

daily bread by laborious servitude, or to be relieved from their misery

by immediate death._

LXI. "In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken

the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain, at ten days' sight,

for twenty Son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah

Letafit Ali Khân, under whose charge that zenanah is."

LXII. That, notwithstanding all the promises and reiterated engagements

of the minister, Hyder Beg Khân, the ladies of the palace aforesaid fell

again into extreme distress; and the Resident did again complain to the

said minister, who was considered to be, and really and substantially

was, the minister of the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, aforesaid,

and not of the Nabob, (the said Nabob being, according to the said

Hastings's own account, "a cipher in his [the said minister's] hands,")

that the funds allowed for their subsistence were not applied to their

support. But notwithstanding all these repeated complaints and

remonstrances, and the constant promise of amendment on the part of his,

the said Hastings's, minister, the supply was not more plentiful or more

regular than before.

LXIII. That the said Resident, Bristow, finding by experience the

inefficacy of the courses which had been pursued with regard to the

mother and grandmother of the reigning prince of Oude, and having

received a report from Major Gilpin, informing him that all which could

be done by force had been done, and that the only hope which remained

for realizing the remainder of the money, unjustly exacted as aforesaid,

lay in more lenient methods,[74] he, the said Resident, did, of his own

authority, order the removal of the guard from the palaces, the troops

being long and much wanted for the defence of the frontier, and other

material services,--and did release the said ministers of the said women

of rank, who had been confined and put in irons, and variously

distressed and persecuted, as aforerecited, for near twelve months.[75]

LXIV. That the manner in which the said inhuman acts of rapacity and

violence were felt, both by the women of high rank concerned, and by all

the people, strongly appears in the joy expressed on their release,

which took place on the 5th of December, 1782, and is stated in two

letters of that date from Major Gilpin to the Resident, in the words

following.

LXV. "I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d

instant, and in consequence immediately enlarged the prisoners Behar Ali

Khân and Jewar Ali Khân from their confinement: a circumstance that gave

the Begums, and the city of Fyzabad in general, the greatest

satisfaction.

LXVI. "In tears of joy Behar and Jewar Ali Khân expressed their sincere

acknowledgments to the Governor-General, his Excellency the Nabob

Vizier, and to you, Sir, for restoring them to that invaluable blessing,

liberty, for which they would ever retain the most grateful remembrance;

and at their request I transmit you the inclosed letters.

LXVII. "I wish you had been present at the enlargement of the

prisoners. The quivering lips, with the tears of joy stealing down the

poor men's cheeks, was a scene truly affecting.

LXVIII. "If the prayers of these poor men will avail, you will, at the

LAST TRUMP, be translated to the happiest regions in heaven."