Nundcomar; but he says that his colleagues were perfectly well
acquainted with him, and knew that he was a wretch, the basest of
mankind. But before I read to you the character which Mr. Hastings gave
of him, when he recommended him to the Presidency, (to succeed Mahomed
Reza Khân,) I am to let your Lordships understand fully the purpose for
which Mr. Hastings gave it. Upon that occasion, all the Council, whom he
stated to lie under suspicion of being bought by Mahomed Reza Khân, all
those persons with one voice cried out against Nundcomar; and as Mr.
Hastings was known to be of the faction the most opposite to Nundcomar,
they charged him with direct inconsistency in raising Nundcomar to that
exalted trust,--a charge which Mr. Hastings could not repel any other
way than by defending Nundcomar. The weight of their objections chiefly
lay to Nundcomar's political character; his moral character was not
discussed in that proceeding. Mr. Hastings says,--
"The President does not take upon him to vindicate the moral character
of Nundcomar; his sentiments of this man's former political conduct are
not unknown to the Court of Directors, who, he is persuaded, will be
more inclined to attribute his present countenance of him to motives of
zeal and fidelity to the service, in repugnance perhaps to his own
inclinations, than to any predilection in his favor. He is very well
acquainted with most of the facts alluded to in the minute of the
majority, having been a principal instrument in detecting them:
nevertheless he thinks it but justice to make a distinction between the
violation of a trust and an offence committed against our government by
a man who owed it no allegiance, nor was indebted to it for protection,
but, on the contrary, was the minister and actual servant of a master
whose interest naturally suggested that kind of policy which sought, by
foreign aids, and the diminution of the power of the Company, to raise
his own consequence, and to reëstablish his authority. He has never been
charged with any instance of infidelity to the Nabob Mir Jaffier, the
constant tenor of whose politics, from his first accession to the
nizamut till his death, corresponded in all points so exactly with the
artifices which were detected in his minister that they may be as fairly
ascribed to the one as to the other: their immediate object was beyond
question the aggrandizement of the former, though the latter had
ultimately an equal interest in their success. The opinion which the
Nabob himself entertained of the services and of the fidelity of
Nundcomar evidently appeared in the distinguished marks which he
continued to show him of his favor and confidence to the latest hour of
his life.
"His conduct in the succeeding administration appears not only to have
been dictated by the same principles, but, if we may be allowed to speak
favorably of any measures which opposed the views of our own government
and aimed at the support of an adverse interest, surely it was not only
not culpable, but even praiseworthy. He endeavored, as appears by the
abstracts before us, to give consequence to his master, and to pave the
way to his independence, by obtaining a firman from the king for his
appointment to the subahship; and he opposed the promotion of Mahomed
Reza Khân, because he looked upon it as a supersession of the rights and
authority of the Nabob. He is now an absolute dependant and subject of
the Company, on whose favor he must rest all his hopes of future
advancement."
The character here given of him is that of an excellent patriot, a
character which all your Lordships, in the several situations which you
enjoy or to which you may be called, will envy,--the character of a
servant who stuck to his master against all foreign encroachments, who
stuck to him to the last hour of his life, and had the dying testimony
of his master to his services.
Could Sir John Clavering, could Colonel Monson, could Mr. Francis know
that this man, of whom Mr. Hastings had given that exalted character
upon the records of the Company, was the basest and vilest of mankind?
No, they ought to have esteemed him the contrary: they knew him to be a
man of rank, they knew him to be a man perhaps of the first capacity in
the world, and they knew that Mr. Hastings had given this honorable
testimony of him on the records of the Company but a very little time
before; and there was no reason why they should think or know, as he
expresses it, that he was the basest and vilest of mankind. From the
account, therefore, of Mr. Hastings himself, he was a person competent
to accuse, a witness fit to be heard; and that is all I contend for. Mr.
Hastings would not hear him, he would not suffer the charge he had
produced to be examined into.
It has been shown to your Lordships that Mr. Hastings employed Nundcomar
to inquire into the conduct and to be the principal manager of a
prosecution against Mahomed Reza Khân. Will you suffer this man to
qualify and disqualify witnesses and prosecutors agreeably to the
purposes which his own vengeance and corruption may dictate in one case,
and which the defence of those corruptions may dictate in another? Was
Nundcomar a person fit to be employed in the greatest and most sacred
trusts in the country, and yet not fit to be a witness to the sums of
money which he paid Mr. Hastings for those trusts? Was Nundcomar a fit
witness to be employed and a fit person to be used in the prosecution of
Mahomed Reza Khân, and yet not fit to be employed against Mr. Hastings,
who himself had employed him in the very prosecution of Mahomed Reza
Khân?
If Nundcomar was an enemy to Mr. Hastings, he was an enemy to Mahomed
Reza Khân; and Mr. Hastings employed him, avowedly and professedly on
the records of the Company, on account of the very qualification of that
enmity. Was he a wretch, the basest of mankind, when opposed to Mr.
Hastings? Was he not as much a wretch, and as much the basest of
mankind, when Mr. Hastings employed him in the prosecution of the first
magistrate and Mahometan of the first descent in Asia? Mr. Hastings
shall not qualify and disqualify men at his pleasure; he must accept
them such as they are; and it is a presumption of his guilt accompanying
the charge, (which I never will separate from it,) that he would not
suffer the man to be produced who made the accusation. And I therefore
contend, that, as the accusation was so made, so witnessed, so detailed,
so specific, so entered upon record, and so entered upon record in
consequence of the inquiries ordered by the Company, his refusal and
rejection of inquiry into it is a presumption of his guilt.
He is full of his idea of dignity. It is right for every man to preserve
his dignity. There is a dignity of station, which a man has in trust to
preserve; there is a dignity of personal character, which every man by
being made man is bound to preserve. But you see Mr. Hastings's idea of
dignity has no connection with integrity; it has no connection with
honest fame; it has no connection with the reputation which he is bound
to preserve. What, my Lords, did he owe nothing to the Company that had
appointed him? Did he owe nothing to the legislature,--did he owe
nothing to your Lordships, and to the House of Commons, who had
appointed him? Did he owe nothing to himself? to the country that bore
him? Did he owe nothing to the world, as to its opinion, to which every
public man owes a reputation? What an example was here held out to the
Company's servants!
Mr. Hastings says, "This may come into a court of justice; it will come
into a court of justice: I reserve my defence on the occasion till it
comes into a court of justice, and here I make no opposition to it." To
this I answer, that the Company did not order him so to reserve himself,
but ordered him to be an inquirer into those things. Is it a lesson to
be taught to the inferior servants of the Company, that, provided they
can escape out of a court of justice by the back-doors and sally-ports
of the law, by artifice of pleading, by those strict and rigorous rules
of evidence which have been established for the protection of innocence,
but which by them might be turned to the protection and support of
guilt, that such an escape is enough for them? that an Old Bailey
acquittal is enough to establish a fitness for trust? and if a man shall
go acquitted out of such a court, because the judges are bound to acquit
him against the conviction of their own opinion, when every man in the
market-place knows that he is guilty, that he is fit for a trust? Is it
a lesson to be held out to the servants of the Company, that, upon the
first inquiry which is made into corruption, and that in the highest
trust, by the persons authorized to inquire into it, he uses all the
powers of that trust to quash it,--vilifying his colleagues, vilifying
his accuser, abusing everybody, but never denying the charge? His
associates and colleagues, astonished at this conduct, so wholly unlike
everything that had ever appeared of innocence, request him to consider
a little better. They declare they are not his accusers; they tell him
they are not his judges; that they, under the orders of the Company, are
making an inquiry which he ought to make. He declares he will not make
it. Being thus driven to the wall, he says, "Why do you not form
yourselves into a committee? I won't suffer these proceedings to go on
as long as I am present." Mr. Hastings plainly had in view, that, if the
proceedings had been before a committee, there would have been a doubt
of their authenticity, as not being before a regular board; and he
contended that there could be no regular board without his own presence
in it: a poor, miserable scheme for eluding this inquiry; partly by
saying that it was carried on when he was not present, and partly by
denying the authority of this board.
I will have nothing to do with the great question that arose upon the
Governor-General's resolution to dissolve a board, whether the board
have a right to sit afterwards; it is enough that Mr. Hastings would not
suffer them, as a Council, to examine into what, as a Council, they were
bound to examine into. He absolutely declared the Council dissolved,
when they did not accept his committee, for which they had many good
reasons, as I shall show in reply, if necessary, and which he could have
no one good reason for proposing;--he then declares the Council
dissolved. The Council, who did not think Mr. Hastings had a power to
dissolve them while proceeding in the discharge of their duty, went on
as a Council. They called in Nundcomar to support his charge: Mr.
Hastings withdrew. Nundcomar was asked what he had to say further in
support of his own evidence. Upon which he produces a letter from Munny
Begum, the dancing-girl that I have spoken of, in which she gives him
directions and instructions relative to his conduct in every part of
those bribes; by which it appears that the corrupt agreement for her
office was made with Mr. Hastings through Nundcomar, before he had
quitted Calcutta. It points out the execution of it, and the manner in
which every part of the sum was paid: one lac by herself in Calcutta;
one lac, which she ordered Nundcomar to borrow, and which he did borrow;
and a lac and a half which were given to him, Mr. Hastings, besides this
purchase money, under color of an entertainment. This letter was
produced, translated, examined, criticized, proved to be sealed with the
seal of the Begum, acknowledged to have no marks but those of
authenticity upon it, and as such was entered upon the Company's
records, confirming and supporting the evidence of Nundcomar, part by
part, and circumstance by circumstance. And I am to remark, that, since
this document, so delivered in, has never been litigated or controverted
in the truth of it, from that day to this, by Mr. Hastings, so, if there
was no more testimony, here is enough, upon this business. Your
Lordships will remark that this charge consisted of two parts: two lacs
that were given explicitly for the corrupt purchase of the office; and
one lac and a half given in reality for the same purpose, but under the
color of what is called an entertainment.
Now in the course of these proceedings it was thought necessary that Mr.
Hastings's banian, Cantoo Baboo, (a name your Lordships will be well
acquainted with, and who was the minister in this and all the other
transactions of Mr. Hastings,) should be called before the board to
explain some circumstances in the proceedings. Mr. Hastings ordered his
banian, a native, not to attend the sovereign board appointed by
Parliament for the government of that country, and directed to inquire
into transactions of this nature. He thus taught the natives not only to
disobey the orders of the Court of Directors, enforced by an act of
Parliament, but he taught his own servant to disobey, and ordered him
not to appear before the board. Quarrels, duels, and other mischiefs
arose. In short, Mr. Hastings raised every power of heaven and of hell
upon this subject: but in vain: the inquiry went on.
Mr. Hastings does not meet Nundcomar: he was afraid of him. But he was
not negligent of his own defence; for he flies to the Supreme Court of
Justice. He there prosecuted an inquiry against Nundcomar for a
conspiracy. Failing in that, he made other attempts, and disabled
Nundcomar from appearing before the board by having him imprisoned, and
thus utterly crippled that part of the prosecution against him. But as
guilt is never able thoroughly to escape, it did so happen, that the
Council, finding monstrous deficiencies in the Begum's affairs, finding
the Nabob's allowance totally squandered, that the most sacred pensions
were left unpaid, that nothing but disorder and confusion reigned in all
his affairs, that the Nabob's education was neglected, that he could
scarcely read or write, that there was scarcely any mark of a man left
in him except those which Nature had at first imprinted,--I say, all
these abuses being produced in a body before them, they thought it
necessary to send up to inquire into them; and a considerable deficiency
or embezzlement appearing in the Munny Begum's account of the young
Nabob's stipend, she voluntarily declared, by a writing under her seal,
that she had given 15,000_l._ to Mr. Hastings for an entertainment.
Mr. Hastings, finding that the charge must come fully against him,
contrived a plan which your Lordships will see the effects of presently,
and this was, to confound this lac and an half, or 15,000_l._, with the
two lacs given directly and specifically as a bribe,--intending to avail
himself of this finesse whenever any payment was to be proved of the two
lacs, which he knew would be proved against him, and which he never did
deny; and accordingly your Lordships will find some confusion in the
proofs of the payment of those sums. The receipt of two lacs is proved
by Nundcomar, proved with all the means of detection which I have
stated; the receipt of the lac and a half is proved by Munny Begum's
letter, the authenticity of which was established, and never denied by
Mr. Hastings. In addition to these proofs, Rajah Gourdas, who had the
management of the Nabob's treasury, verbally gave an account perfectly
corresponding with that of Nundcomar and the Munny Begum's letter; and
he afterwards gave in writing an attestation, which in every point
agrees correctly with the others. So that there are three witnesses upon
this business. And he shall not disqualify Rajah Gourdas, because,
whatever character he thought fit to give Nundcomar, he has given the
best of characters to Rajah Gourdas, who was employed by Mr. Hastings in
occupations of trust, and therefore any objections to his competency
cannot exist. Having got thus far, the only thing that remained was to
examine the records of the public offices, and see whether any trace of
these transactions was to be found there. These offices had been thrown
into confusion in the manner you will hear; but, upon strict inquiry,
there was a _shomaster_, or office paper, produced, from which it
appears that the officer of the treasury, having brought to the Nabob an
account of one lac and a half which he said had been given to Mr.
Hastings, desired to know from him under what head of expense it should
be entered, and that he, the Nabob, desired him to put it under the head
of expenses for entertaining Mr. Hastings. If there had been a head of
entertainment established as a regular affair, the officer would never
have gone to the Nabob and asked under what name to enter it; but he
found an irregular affair, and he did not know what head to put it
under. And from the whole of the proceedings it appears that three lacs
and a half were paid: two lac by way of bribe, one lac and a half under
the color of an entertainment. Mr. Hastings endeavors to invalidate the
first obliquely, not directly, for he never directly denied it; and he
partly admits the second, in hopes that all the proof of payment of the
first charge should be merged and confounded in the second. And
therefore your Lordships will see from the beginning of that business
till it came into the hands of Mr. Smith, his agent, then appearing in
the name and character of agent and solicitor to the Company, that this
was done to give some appearance and color to it by a false
representation, as your Lordships will see, of every part of the
transaction.
The proof, then, of the two lacs rests upon the evidence of Nundcomar,
the letter of Munny Begum, and the evidence of Rajah Gourdas. The
evidence of the lac and a half, by way of entertainment, was at first
the same; and afterwards begins a series of proofs to which Mr. Hastings
has himself helped us. For, in the first place, he produces this office
paper in support of his attempt to establish the confusion between the
payment of the two lacs and of the lac and a half. He did not himself
deny that he received a lac and a half, because with respect to that lac
and a half he had founded some principle of justification. Accordingly
this office paper asserts and proves this lac and a half to have been
given, in addition to the other proofs. Then Munny Begum herself is
inquired of. There is a commission appointed to go up to her residence;
and the fact is proved to the satisfaction of Mr. Goring, the
commissioner. The Begum had put a paper of accounts, through her son,
into his hands, which shall be given at your Lordships' bar, in which
she expressly said that she gave Mr. Hastings a lac and a half for
entertainment. But Mr. Hastings objects to Mr. Goring's evidence upon
this occasion. He wanted to supersede Mr. Goring in the inquiry; and he
accordingly appoints, with the consent of the Council, two creatures of
his own to go and assist in that inquiry. The question which he directs
these commissioners to put to Munny Begum is this:--"Was the sum of
money charged by you to be given to Mr. Hastings given under an idea of
entertainment customary, or upon what other ground, or for what other
reason?" He also desires the following questions may be proposed to the
Begum:--"Was any application made to you for the account which you have
delivered of three lacs and a half of rupees said to have been paid to
the Governor and Mr. Middleton? or did you deliver the account of your
own free will, and unsolicited?" My Lords, you see that with regard to
the whole three lacs and a half of rupees the Begum had given an account
which tended to confirm the payment of them; but Mr. Hastings wanted to
invalidate that account by supposing she gave it under restraint. The
second question is,--"In what manner was the application made to you,
and by whom?" But the principal question is this:--"On what account was
the one lac and a half given to the Governor-General which you have laid
to his account? Was it in consequence of any requisition from him, or of
any previous agreement, or of any established usage?" When a man asks
concerning a sum of money, charged to be given to him by another person,
on what account it was given, he does indirectly admit that that money
actually was paid, and wants to derive a justification from the mode of
the payment of it; and accordingly that inference was drawn from the
question so sent up, and it served as an instruction to Munny Begum; and
her answer was, that it was given to him, as an ancient usage and
custom, for an entertainment. So that the fact of the gift of the money
is ascertained by the question put by Mr. Hastings to her, and her
answer. And thus at last comes his accomplice in this business, and
gives the fullest testimony to the lac and a half.
I must beg leave, before I go further, to state the circumstances of
the several witnesses examined upon this business. They were of two
kinds: voluntary witnesses, and accomplices forced by inquiry and
examination to discover their own guilt. Of the first kind were
Nundcomar and Rajah Gourdas: these were the only two that can be said to
be voluntary in the business, and who gave their information without
much fear, though the last unwillingly, and with a full sense of the
danger of doing it. The other was the evidence of his accomplice, Munny
Begum, wrung from her by the force of truth, in which she confessed that
she gave the lac and a half, and justifies it upon the ground of its
being a customary entertainment. Besides this, there is the evidence of
Chittendur, who was one of Mr. Hastings's instruments, and one of the
Begum's servants. He, being prepared to confound the two lacs with the
one lac and a half, says, upon his examination, that a lac and a half
was given; but upon examining into the particulars of it, he proves that
the sum he gave was two lacs, and not a lac and a half: for he says that
there was a dispute about the other half lac; Nundcomar demanded
interest, which the Begum was unwilling to allow, and consequently that
half lac remained unpaid. Now this half lac can be no part of the lac
and a half, which is admitted on all hands, and proved by the whole body
of concurrent testimony, to have been given to Mr. Hastings in one
lumping sum. When Chittendur endeavors to confound it with the lac and a
half, he clearly establishes the fact that it was a parcel of the two
lacs, and thus bears evidence, in attempting to prevaricate in favor of
Mr. Hastings, that one lac and a half was paid, which Mr. Hastings is
willing to allow; but when he enters into the particulars of it, he
proves by the subdivision of the payment, and by the non-payment of part
of it, that it accords with the two lacs, and not with the lac and a
half.