parts of the body of this House. We know them, we reckon, we rest upon
them, and commit safely the interests of India and of humanity into your
hands. Therefore it is with confidence, that, ordered by the Commons,
I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misdemeanors.
I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament
assembled, whose Parliamentary trust he has betrayed.
I impeach him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose
national character he has dishonored.
I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights,
and liberties he has subverted, whose properties he has destroyed, whose
country he has laid waste and desolate.
I impeach him in the name and by virtue of those eternal laws of justice
which he has violated.
I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly
outraged, injured, and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rank,
situation, and condition of life.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Vakeel states Mofussil Jumma, of Salbarry, for 1,191
S* R* 96,229
Purchase money 53,755
------
Per annum, loss 42,474
SPEECHES
IN
THE IMPEACHMENT
OF
WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE,
LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL.
* * * * *
SPEECH ON THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
April and May, 1789.
NOTE.
After Mr. Burke had concluded the opening speeches, the first
article of the impeachment was brought forward, on the 22d of
February, 1788, by Mr. Fox, and supported by Mr. Grey on the 25th.
After the evidence upon this article had been adduced, it was
summed up and enforced by Mr. Anstruther, on the 11th day of April
following.
The next article with which the Commons proceeded was brought
forward on the 15th of April, 1788, by Mr. Adam, and supported by
Mr. Pelham; and the evidence, in part upon the second article of
charge, was summed up and enforced, on the 3d of June, by Mr.
Sheridan.
On the 21st of April, 1789, Mr. Burke opened the sixth charge,
bribery and corruption, in the following speech, which was
continued on the 25th of April, and on the 6th and 7th May, in the
same session.
SPEECH
ON
THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE.
FIRST DAY: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1789.
My Lords,--An event which had spread for a considerable time an
universal grief and consternation through this kingdom, and which in its
issue diffused as universal and transcendent a joy, has in the
circumstances both of our depression and of our exaltation produced a
considerable delay, if not a total suspension, of the most important
functions of government.
My Lords, we now resume our office,--and we resume it with new and
redoubled alacrity, and, we trust, under not less propitious omens than
when we left it, in this House, at the end of the preceding session. We
come to this duty with a greater degree of earnestness and zeal, because
we are urged to it by many and very peculiar circumstances. This day we
come from an House where the last steps were taken (and I suppose
something has happened similar in this) to prepare our way to attend
with the utmost solemnity, in another place, a great national
thanksgiving for having restored the sovereign to his Parliament and the
Parliament to its sovereign.
But, my Lords, it is not only in the house of prayer that we offer to
the First Cause the acceptable homage of our rational nature,--my Lords,
in this House, at this bar, in this place, in every place where His
commands are obeyed, His worship is performed. And, my Lords, I must
boldly say, (and I think I shall hardly be contradicted by your
Lordships, or by any persons versed in the law which guides us all,)
that the highest act of religion, and the highest homage which we can
and ought to pay, is an imitation of the Divine perfections, as far as
such a nature can imitate such perfections, and that by this means alone
we can make our homage acceptable to Him.
My Lords, in His temple we shall not forget that His most distinguished
attribute is justice, and that the first link in the chain by which we
are held to the Supreme Judge of All is justice; and that it is in this
solemn temple of representative justice we may best give Him praise,
because we can here best imitate His divine attributes. If ever there
was a cause in which justice and mercy are not only combined and
reconciled, but incorporated, it is in this cause of suffering nations,
which we now bring before your Lordships this second session of
Parliament, unwearied and unfatigued in our persevering pursuit; and we
feel it to be a necessary preliminary, a necessary fact, a necessary
attendant and concomitant of every public thanksgiving, that we should
express our gratitude by our virtues, and not merely with our mouths,
and that, when we are giving thanks for acts of mercy, we should render
ourselves worthy of them by doing acts of mercy ourselves. My Lords,
these considerations, independent of those which were our first movers
in this business, strongly urge us at present to pursue with all zeal
and perseverance the great cause we have now in hand. And we feel this
to be the more necessary, because we cannot but be sensible that light,
unstable, variable, capricious, inconstant, fastidious minds soon tire
in any pursuit that requires strength, steadiness, and perseverance.
Such persons, who we trust are but few, and who certainly do not
resemble your Lordships nor us, begin already to say, How long is this
business to continue? Our answer is, It is to continue till its ends are
obtained.
We know, that, by a mysterious dispensation of Providence, injury is
quick and rapid, and justice slow; and we may say that those who have
not patience and vigor of mind to attend the tardy pace of justice
counteract the order of Providence, and are resolved not to be just at
all. We, therefore, instead of bending the order of Nature to the laxity
of our characters and tempers, must rather confirm ourselves by a manly
fortitude and virtuous perseverance to continue within those forms, and
to wrestle with injustice, until we have shown that those virtues which
sometimes wickedness debauches into its cause, such as vigor, energy,
activity, fortitude of spirit, are called back and brought to their true
and natural service,--and that in the pursuit of wickedness, in the
following it through all the winding recesses and mazes of its
artifices, we shall show as much vigor, as much constancy, as much
diligence, energy, and perseverance, as any others can do in endeavoring
to elude the laws and triumph over the justice of their country. My
Lords, we have thought it the more necessary to say this, because it has
been given out that we might faint in this business. No: we follow, and
trust we shall always follow, that great emblem of antiquity, in which
the person who held out to the end of a long line of labors found the
reward of all the eleven in the twelfth. Our labor, therefore, will be
our reward; and we will go on, we will pursue with vigor and diligence,
in a manner suitable to the Commons of Great Britain, every mode of
corruption, till we have thoroughly eradicated it.
I think it necessary to say a word, too, upon another circumstance, of
which there is some complaint, as if some injustice had arisen from
voluntary delay on our part.
I have already alluded to, first, the melancholy, then the joyful
occasion of this delay; and I shall now make one remark on another part
of the complaint, which I understand was formally made to your Lordships
soon after we had announced our resolution to proceed in this great
cause of suffering nations before you. It has been alleged, that the
length of the pursuit had already very much distressed the person who is
the object of it,--that it leaned upon a fortune unequal to support
it,--and that 30,000_l._ had been already spent in the preliminary
preparations for the defence.
My Lords, I do admit that all true, genuine, and unadulterated justice
considers with a certain degree of tenderness the person whom it is
called to punish, and never oppresses those by the process who ought not
to be oppressed but by the sentence of the court before which they are
brought. The Commons have heard, indeed, with some degree of
astonishment, that 30,000_l._ hath been laid out by Mr. Hastings in this
business. We, who have some experience in the conduct of affairs of this
nature, we, who profess to proceed with regard not to the economy so
much as to the rigor of this prosecution, (and we are justified by our
country in so doing,) upon a collation and comparison of the public
expenses with those which the defendant is supposed to have incurred,
are much surprised to hear it. We suppose that his solicitors can give a
good account to him of those expenses,--that the thing is true,--and
that he has actually, through them, incurred this expense. We have
nothing to do with this: but we shall remove any degree of uneasiness
from your Lordships' minds, and from our own, when we show you in the
charge which we shall bring before you this day, that one bribe only
received by Mr. Hastings, the smallest of his bribes, or nearly the
smallest, the bribe received from Rajah Nobkissin, is alone more than
equal to have paid all the charges Mr. Hastings is stated to have
incurred; and if this be the case, your Lordships will not be made very
uneasy in a case of bribery by finding that you press upon the sources
of peculation.
It has also been said that we weary out the public patience in this
cause. The House of Commons do not call upon your Lordships to do
anything of which they do not set the example. They have very lately sat
in the Colchester Committee as many, within one or two, days
successively as have been spent in this trial interruptedly in the
course of two years. Every cause deserves that it should be tried
according to its nature and circumstances; and in the case of the
Colchester Committee, in the trial of paltry briberies of odd pounds,
shillings, and pence, in the corruption of a returning officer, who is
but a miller, they spent nearly the same number of days that we have
been inquiring into the ruin of kingdoms by the peculation and bribery
of the chief governor of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa.
Therefore God forbid that we should faint at thrice thirty days, if the
proceedings should be drawn into such a length, when for a small crime
as much time has been spent as has yet been spent in this great cause!
Having now cleared the way with regard to the local and temporary
circumstances of this case,--having shown your Lordships that too much
time has not been spent in it,--having no reason to think, from the time
which has hitherto been spent, that time will be unnecessarily spent in
future,--I trust your Lordships will think that time ought neither to be
spared nor squandered in this business: we will therefore proceed,
article by article, as far as the discretion of the House of Commons
shall think fit, for the justice of the case, to limit the inquiry, or
to extend it.
We are now going to bring before your Lordships the sixth article. It is
an article of charge of bribery and corruption against Mr. Hastings; but
yet we must confess that we feel some little difficulty _in limine_. We
here appear in the name and character not only of representatives of the
Commons of Great Britain, but representatives of the inhabitants of
Bengal: and yet we have had lately come into our hands such ample
certificates, such full testimonials, from every person in whose cause
we complain, that we shall appear to be in the strangest situation in
the world,--the situation of persons complaining, who are disavowed by
the persons in whose name and character they complain. This would have
been a very great difficulty in the beginning, especially as it is come
before us in a flood-tide of panegyric. No encomium can be more exalted
or more beautifully expressed. No language can more strongly paint the
perfect satisfaction, the entire acquiescence, of all the nations of
Bengal, and their wonderful admiration of the character of the person
whom we have brought as a criminal to your bar upon their part. I do
admit that it is a very awkward circumstance; but yet, at the same time,
the same candor which has induced the House of Commons to bring before
you the bosom friends and confidants of Mr. Hastings as their evidence
will not suffer them to suppress or withhold for a moment from your
Lordships this universal voice of Bengal, as an attestation in Mr.
Hastings's favor, and we shall produce it as a part of our evidence. Oh,
my Lords, consider the situation of a people who are forced to mix their
praises with their groans, who are forced to sign, with hands which have
been in torture, and with the thumb-screws but just taken from them, an
attestation in favor of the person from whom all their sufferings have
been derived! When we prove to you the things that we shall prove, this
will, I hope, give your Lordships a full, conclusive, and satisfactory
proof of the misery to which these people have been reduced. You will
see before you, what is so well expressed by one of our poets as the
homage of tyrants, "that homage with the mouth which the heart would
fain deny, but dares not." Mr. Hastings has received that homage, and
that homage we mean to present to your Lordships: we mean to present it,
because it will show your Lordships clearly, that, after Mr. Hastings
has ransacked Bengal from one end to the other, and has used all the
power which he derives from having every friend and every dependant of
his in every office from one end of that government to the other, he has
not, in all those panegyrics, those fine high-flown Eastern encomiums,
got one word of refutation or one word of evidence against any charge
whatever which we produce against him. Every one knows, that, in the
course of criminal trials, when no evidence of _alibi_ can be brought,
when all the arts of the Old Bailey are exhausted, the last thing
produced is evidence to character. His cause, therefore, is gone, when,
having ransacked Bengal, he has nothing to say for his conduct, and at
length appeals to his character. In those little papers which are given
us of our proceedings in our criminal courts, it is always an omen of
what is to follow: after the evidence of a murder, a forgery, or
robbery, it ends in his character: "He has an admirable character; I
have known him from a boy; he is wonderfully good; he is the best of
men; I would trust him with untold gold": and immediately follows,
"Guilty,--Death." This is the way in which, in our courts, character is
generally followed by sentence. The practice is not modern. Undoubtedly
Mr. Hastings has the example of criminals of high antiquity; for Caius
Verres, Antonius, and every other man who has been famous for the
pillage and destruction of provinces, never failed to bring before their
judges the attestations of the injured to their character. Voltaire
says, "_Les bons mots sont toujours redits_." A similar occasion has
here produced a similar conduct. He has got just the same character as
Caius Verres got in another cause; and the _laudationes_, which your
Lordships know always followed, to save trouble, we mean ourselves to
give your Lordships; we mean to give them with this strong presumption
of guilt, that in all this panegyric there is not one word of defence to
a single article of charge; they are mere lip-honors: but we think we
derive from those panegyrics, which Mr. Hastings has had sent over as
evidence to supply the total want of it, an indication of the
impossibility of attaining it. Mr. Hastings has brought them here, and I
must say we are under some difficulty about them, and the difficulty is
this. We think we can produce before your Lordships proofs of barbarity
and peculation by Mr. Hastings; we have the proofs of them in specific
provinces, where those proofs may be met by contrary proofs, or may lose
their weight from a variety of circumstances. We thought we had got the
matter sure, that everything was settled, that he could not escape us,
after he had himself confessed the bribes he had taken from the specific
provinces. But in what condition are we now? We have from those specific
provinces the strongest attestations that there is not any credit to be
paid to his own acknowledgments. In short, we have the complaints,
concerning these crimes of Mr. Hastings, of the injured persons
themselves; we have his own confessions; we shall produce both to your
Lordships. But these persons now declare, that not only their own
complaints are totally unfounded, but that Mr. Hastings's confessions
are not true, and not to be credited. These are circumstances which your
Lordships will consider in the view you take of this wonderful body of
attestation.
It is a pleasant thing to see in these addresses the different character
and modes of eloquence of different countries. In those that will be
brought before your Lordships you will see the beauty of chaste European
panegyric improved by degrees into high, Oriental, exaggerated, and
inflated metaphor. You will see how the language is first written in
English, then translated into Persian, and then retranslated into
English. There may be something amusing to your Lordships in this, and
the beauty of these styles may, in this heavy investigation, tend to
give a little gayety and pleasure. We shall bring before you the
European and Asiatic incense. You will have the perfume-shops of the two
countries.
One of the accusations which we mean to bring against Mr. Hastings is
upon the part of the Zemindar Radanaut, of the country of Dinagepore.
Now hear what the Zemindar says himself. "As it has been learned by me,
the mutsuddies, and the respectable officers of my zemindary, that the
ministers of England are displeased with the late Governor, Warren
Hastings, Esquire, upon the suspicion that he oppressed us, took money
from us by deceit and force, and ruined the country, therefore we, upon
the strength of our religion, which we think it incumbent on and
necessary for us to abide by, following the rules laid down in giving
evidence, declare the particulars of the acts and deeds of Warren
Hastings, Esquire, full of circumspection and caution, civility and
justice, superior to the conduct of the most learned, and, by
representing what is fact, wipe away the doubts that have possessed the
minds of the ministers of England; that Mr. Hastings is possessed of
fidelity and confidence, and yielding protection to us; that he is clear
of the contamination of mistrust and wrong, and his mind is free of
covetousness or avarice. During the time of his administration no one
saw other conduct than that of protection to the husbandman, and
justice. No inhabitant ever experienced afflictions, no one ever felt
oppression from him; our reputations have always been guarded from
attacks by his prudence, and our families have always been protected by
his justice. He never omitted the smallest instance of kindness towards
us, but healed the wounds of despair with the salve of consolation by
means of his benevolent and kind behavior, never permitting one of us to
sink in the pit of despondence. He supported every one by his goodness,
overset the designs of evil-minded men by his authority, tied the hand
of oppression with the strong bandage of justice, and by these means
expanded the pleasing appearance of happiness and joy over us. He
reëstablished justice and impartiality. We were during his government in
the enjoyment of perfect happiness and ease, and many of us are thankful
and satisfied. As Mr. Hastings was well acquainted with our manners and
customs, he was always desirous, in every respect, of doing whatever
would preserve our religious rites, and guard them against every kind of
accident and injury, and at all times protected us. Whatever we have
experienced from him, and whatever happened from him, we have written
without deceit or exaggeration."
My Lords, here is a panegyric; and, directly contrary to the usual mode
of other accusers, we begin by producing the panegyrics made upon the
person whom we accuse. We shall produce along with the charge, and give
as evidence, the panegyric and certificate of the persons whom we
suppose to have suffered these wrongs. We suffer ourselves even to
abandon, what might be our last resource, his own confession, by showing
that one of the princes from whom he confesses that he took bribes has
given a certificate of the direct contrary.
All these things will have their weight upon your Lordships' minds; and
when we have put ourselves under this disadvantage, (what disadvantage
it is your Lordships will judge,) at least we shall stand acquitted of
unfairness in charging him with crimes directly contrary to the
panegyrics in this paper contained. Indeed, I will say this for him,
that general charge and loose accusation may be answered by loose and
general panegyric, and that, if ours were of that nature, this panegyric
would be sufficient to overset our accusation. But we come before your
Lordships in a different manner and upon different grounds. I am ordered
by the Commons of Great Britain to support the charge that they have
made, and persevere in making, against Warren Hastings, Esquire, late
Governor-General of Bengal, and now a culprit at your bar: First, for
having taken corruptly several bribes, and extorted by force, or under
the power and color of his office, several sums of money from the
unhappy natives of Bengal. The next article which we shall bring before
you is, that he is not only personally corrupted, but that he has
personally corrupted all the other servants of the Company,--those under
him, whose corruptions he ought to have controlled, and those above him,
whose business it was to control his corruptions.
We purpose to make good to your Lordships the first of these, by
submitting to you, that part of those sums which are specified in the
charge were taken by him with his own hand and in his own person, but
that much the greater part have been taken from the natives by the
instrumentality of his black agents, banians, and other
dependants,--whose confidential connection with him, and whose agency on
his part in corrupt transactions, if his counsel should be bold enough
to challenge us to the proof, we shall fully prove before you. The next
part, and the second branch of his corruption, namely, what is commonly
called his active corruption, distinguishing the personal under the name
of passive, will appear from his having given, under color of contracts,
a number of corrupt and lucrative advantages from a number of
unauthorized and unreasonable grants, pensions, and allowances, by which
he corrupted actively the whole service of the Company. And, lastly, we
shall show, that, by establishing a universal connivance from one end of
the service to the other, he has not only corrupted and contaminated it
in all its parts, but bound it in a common league of iniquity to support
mutually each other against the inquiry that should detect and the
justice that should punish their offences. These two charges, namely, of
his active and passive corruption, we shall bring one after the other,
as strongly and clearly illustrating and as powerfully confirming each
other.