last, is the first in principle, in Mr. Larkins's letter, that, having
before given his comment, he perorates, as is natural upon such an
occasion. This peroration, as is usual in perorations, is in favor of
the parties speaking it, and _ad conciliandum auditorem_. "Conscious,"
he says, "that the concern which I have had in these transactions needs
neither an apology nor an excuse,"--that is rather extraordinary,
too!--"and that I have in no action of my life sacrificed the duty and
fidelity which I owed to my honorable employers either to the regard
which I felt for another or to the advancement of my own fortune, I
shall conclude this address, firmly relying upon the candor of those
before whom it may be submitted for its being deemed a satisfactory as
well as a circumstantial compliance with the requisition in conformity
to which the information it affords has been furnished,"--meaning, as
your Lordships will see in the whole course of the letter, that he had
written it in compliance with the requisition and in conformity to the
information he had been furnished with by Mr. Hastings,--"without which
it would have been as base as dishonorable for me spontaneously to have
afforded it: for, though the duty which every man owes to himself should
render him incapable of making an assertion not strictly true, no man
actuated either by virtuous or honorable sentiments could mistakenly
apprehend, that, unless he betrayed the confidence reposed in him by
another, he might be deemed deficient in fidelity to his employers."
My Lords, here is, in my opinion, a discovery very well worthy your
Lordships' attention; here is the accountant-general of the Company, who
declares, and fixes it as a point of honor, that he would not have made
a discovery so important to them, if Mr. Hastings himself had not
authorized him to make it: a point to which he considers himself bound
by his honor to adhere. Let us see what becomes of us, when the
principle of honor is so debauched and perverted. A principle of honor,
as long as it is connected with virtue, adds no small efficacy to its
operation, and no small brilliancy and lustre to its appearance: but
honor, the moment that it becomes unconnected with the duties of
official function, with the relations of life, and the eternal and
immutable rules of morality, and appears in its substance alien to them,
changes its nature, and, instead of justifying a breach of duty,
aggravates all its mischiefs to an almost infinite degree; by the
apparent lustre of the surface, it hides from you the baseness and
deformity of the ground. Here is Mr. Hastings's agent, Mr. Larkins, the
Company's general accountant, prefers his attachment to Mr. Hastings to
his duty to the Company. Instead of the account which he ought to give
to them in consequence of the trust reposed in him, he thinks himself
bound by honor to Mr. Hastings, if Mr. Hastings had not called for that
explanation, not to have given it: so that, whatever obscurity is in
this explanation, it is because Mr. Hastings did not authorize or
require him to give a clearer. Here is a principle of treacherous
fidelity, of perfidious honor, of the faith of conspirators against
their masters, the faith of robbers against the public, held up against
the duty of an officer in a public situation. You see how they are bound
to one another, and how they give their fidelity to keep the secrets of
one another, to prevent the Directors having a true knowledge of their
affairs; and I am sure, if you do not destroy this honor of conspirators
and this faith of robbers, that there will be no other honor and no
other fidelity among the servants in India. Mr. Larkins, your Lordships
see, adheres to the principle of secrecy.
You will next remark that Mr. Hastings had as many bribe-factors as
bribes. There was confidence to be reposed in each of them, and not one
of these men appears to be in the confidence of another. You will find
in this letter the policy, the frame, and constitution of this new
exchequer. Mr. Croftes seems to have known things which Mr. Larkins did
not; Mr. Larkins knew things which Gunga Govind Sing did not; Gunga
Govind Sing knew things which none of the rest of the confederates knew.
Cantoo Baboo, who appears in this letter as a principal actor, was in a
secret which Mr. Larkins did not know; it appears likewise, that there
was a Persian moonshee in a secret of which Cantoo Baboo was ignorant;
and it appears that Mr. Palmer was in the secret of a transaction not
intrusted to any of the rest. Such is the labyrinth of this practical
_painche_, or screw, that, if, for instance, you were endeavoring to
trace backwards some transaction through Major Palmer, you would be
stopped there, and must go back again; for it had begun with Cantoo
Baboo. If in another you were to penetrate into the dark recess of the
black breast of Cantoo Baboo, you could not go further; for it began
with Gunga Govind Sing. If you pierce the breast of Gunga Govind Sing,
you are again stopped; a Persian moonshee was the confidential agent. If
you get beyond this, you find Mr. Larkins knew something which the
others did not; and at last you find Mr. Hastings did not put entire
confidence in any of them. You will see, by this letter, that he kept
his accounts in all colors, black, white, and mezzotinto; that he kept
them in all languages,--in Persian, in Bengalee, and in a language
which, I believe, is neither Persian nor Bengalee, nor any other known
in the world, but a language in which Mr. Hastings found it proper to
keep his accounts and to transact his business. The persons carrying on
the accounts are Mr. Larkins, an Englishman, Cantoo Baboo, a Gentoo, and
a Persian moonshee, probably a Mahometan. So all languages, all
religions, all descriptions of men are to keep the account of these
bribes, and to make out this valuable account which Mr. Larkins gave
you!
Let us now see how far the memory, observation, and knowledge of the
persons referred to can supply the want of them in Mr. Hastings. These
accounts come at last, though late, from Mr. Larkins, who, I will
venture to say, let the banians boast what they will, has skill perhaps
equal to the best of them: he begins by explaining to you something
concerning the present of the ten lac. I wish your Lordships always to
take Mr. Hastings's word, where it can be had,--or Mr. Larkins's, who
was the representative of and memory-keeper to Mr. Hastings; and then I
may perhaps take the liberty of making some observations upon it.
_Extract of a Letter from William Larkins, Accountant-General of Bengal,
to the Chairman of the East India Company, dated 5th August, 1786._
"Mr. Hastings returned from Benares to Calcutta on the 5th February,
1782. At that time I was wholly ignorant of the letter which on the 20th
January he wrote from Patna to the Secret Committee of the Honorable
the Court of Directors. The rough draught of this letter, in the
handwriting of Major Palmer, is now in my possession. Soon after his
arrival at the Presidency, he requested me to form the account of his
receipts and disbursements, which you will find journalized in the
280th, &c., and 307th pages of the Honorable Company's general books of
the year 1781-2. My official situation as accountant-general had
previously convinced me that Mr. Hastings could not have made the issues
which were acknowledged as received from him by some of the paymasters
of the army, unless he had obtained some such supply as that which he
afterwards, viz., on the 22d May, 1782, made known to me, when I
immediately suggested to him the necessity of his transmitting that
account which accompanied his letter of that date, till when the promise
contained in his letter of 20th January had entirely escaped his
recollection."
The first thing I would remark on this (and I believe your Lordships
have rather gone before me in the remark) is, that Mr. Hastings came
down to Calcutta on the 5th of February; that then, or a few days after,
he calls to him his confidential and faithful friend, (not his official
secretary, for he trusted none of his regular secretaries with these
transactions,)--he calls him to help him to make out his accounts during
his absence. You would imagine that at that time he trusted this man
with his account. No such thing: he goes on with the accountant-general,
accounting with him for money expended, without ever explaining to that
accountant-general how that money came into his hands. Here, then, we
have the accountant making out the account, and the person accounting.
The accountant does not in any manner make an objection, and say, "Here
you are giving me an account by which it appears that you have expended
money, but you have not told me where you received it: how shall I make
out a fair account of debtor and creditor between you and the Company?"
He does no such thing. There lies a suspicion in his breast that Mr.
Hastings must have taken some money in some irregular way, or he could
not have made those payments. Mr. Larkins begins to suspect him. "Where
did you lose this bodkin?" said one lady to another, upon a certain
occasion. "Pray, Madam, where did you find it?" Mr. Hastings, at the
very moment of his life when confidence was required, even when making
up his accounts with his accountant, never told him one word of the
matter. You see he had no confidence in Mr. Larkins. This makes out one
of the propositions I want to impress upon your Lordships' minds, that
no one man did he let into every part of his transactions: a material
circumstance, which will help to lead your Lordships' judgment in
forming your opinion upon many parts of this cause.
You see that Mr. Larkins suspected him. Probably in consequence of those
suspicions, or from some other cause, he at last told him, upon the 22d
of May, 1782, (but why at that time, rather than at any other time, does
not appear; and this we shall find very difficult to be accounted
for,)--he told him that he had received a bribe from the Nabob of Oude,
of 100,000_l._ He informs him of this on the 22d of May, which, when the
accounts were making up, he conceals from him. And he communicates to
him the rough draught of his letter to the Court of Directors, informing
them that this business was not transacted by any known secretary of the
Company, nor with the intervention of any interpreter of the Company,
nor passed through any official channel whatever, but through a
gentleman much in his confidence, his military secretary; and, as if
receiving bribes, and receiving letters concerning them, and carrying on
correspondence relative to them, was a part of military duty, the rough
draught of this letter was in the hands of this military secretary. Upon
the communication of the letter, it rushes all at once into the mind of
Mr. Larkins, who knows Mr. Hastings's recollection, who knows what does
and what does not escape it, and who had a memory ready to explode at
Mr. Hastings's desire, "Good God!" says he, "you have promised the
Directors an account of this business!"--a promise which Mr. Larkins
assures the Directors, upon his word, had entirely escaped Mr.
Hastings's recollection. Mr. Hastings, it seems, had totally forgotten
the promise relative to the paltry sum of 100,000_l._ which he had made
to the Court of Directors in the January before; he never once thought
of it, no, not even when he was making up his accounts of that very
identical sum, till the 22d of May. So that these persons answer for one
another's bad memory: and you will see they have good reason. Mr.
Hastings's want of recollection appears in things of some moment.
However lightly he may regard the sum of 100,000_l._, which, considering
the enormous sums he has received, I dare say he does,--for he totally
forgot it, he knew nothing about it,--observe what sort of memory this
registrar and accountant of such sums as 100,000_l._ has. In what
confusion of millions must it be, that such sums can be lost to Mr.
Hastings's recollection! However, at last it was brought to his
recollection, and he thought that it was necessary to give some account
of it. And who is the accountant whom he produces? His own memory is no
accountant. He had dismissed the matter (as he happily expresses it in
the Cheltenham letter) from his memory. Major Palmer is not the
accountant. One is astonished that a man who had had 100,000_l._ in his
hands, and laid it out, as he pretends, in the public service, has not a
scrap of paper to show for it. No ordinary or extraordinary account is
given of it. Well, what is to be done in such circumstances? He sends
for a person whose name you have heard and will often hear of, the
faithful Cantoo Baboo. This man comes to Mr. Larkins, and he reads to
him (be so good as to remark the words) from a Bengal paper the account
of the detached bribes. Your Lordships will observe that I have stated
the receipt of a number of detached bribes, and a bribe in one great
body: one, the great _corps d'armée_; the other, flying scouting bodies,
which were only to be collected together by a skilful man who knew how
to manage them, and regulate the motions of those wild and disorderly
troops. When No. 2 was to be explained, Cantoo Baboo failed him; he was
not worth a farthing as to any transaction that happened when Mr.
Hastings was in the Upper Provinces, where though he was his faithful
and constant attendant through the whole, yet he could give no account
of it. Mr. Hastings's moonshee then reads three lines from a paper to
Mr. Larkins. Now it is no way even insinuated that both the Bengal and
Persian papers did not contain the account of other immense sums; and,
indeed, from the circumstance of only three lines being read from the
Persian paper, your Lordships will be able, in your own minds, to form
some judgment upon this business.
I shall now proceed with his letter of explanation. "The particulars,"
he goes on to say, "of the paper No. 1 were read to me from a Bengal
paper by Mr. Hastings's banian, Cantoo Baboo; and if I am not mistaken,
the three first lines of that No. 2 were read over to me from a Persian
paper by his moonshee. The translation of these particulars, made by me,
was, as I verily believe, the first complete memorandum that he ever
possessed of them in the English language; and I am confident, that, if
I had not suggested to him the necessity of his taking this precaution,
he would at this moment have been unable to have afforded any such
information concerning them."
Now, my Lords, if he had not got, on the intimation of Mr. Larkins, some
scraps of paper, your Lordships might have at this day wanted that
valuable information which Mr. Larkins has laid before you.
These, however, contain, Mr. Larkins says, "the first
complete"--what?--account, do you imagine?--no, "the first complete
_memorandum_." You would imagine that he would himself, for his own use,
have notched down, somewhere or other, in short-hand, in Persian
characters, short without vowels, or in some other way, _memorandums_.
But he had not himself even a memorandum of this business; and
consequently, when he was at Cheltenham, and even here at your bar, he
could never have had any account of a sum of 200,000_l._, but by this
account of Mr. Larkins, taken, as people read them, from detached pieces
of paper.
One would have expected that Mr. Larkins, being warned that day, and
cautioned by the strange memory of Mr. Hastings, and the dangerous
situation, therefore, in which he himself stood, would at least have
been very guarded and cautious. Hear what he next says upon this
subject. "As neither of the other sums passed through his hands, these"
(meaning the scraps) "contained no such specification, and consequently
could not enable him to afford the information with which he has
requested me to furnish you; and it is more than probable, that, if the
affidavit which I took on the 16th December, 1782, had not exposed my
character to the suspicion of my being capable of committing one of the
basest trespasses upon the confidence of mankind, I should, at this
distance of time, have been equally unable to have complied with this
request: but after I became acquainted with the insinuation suggested in
the Eleventh Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, I
thought it but too probable, that, unless I was possessed of the
original memorandum which I had made of these transactions, I might not
at some distant period be able to prove that I had not descended to
commit so base an action. I have therefore always most carefully
preserved every paper which I possessed regarding these transactions."
You see that Mr. Hastings had no memorandums of his accounts; you see,
that, after Mr. Larkins had made his memorandums of them, he had no
design of guarding or keeping them; and you will commend those wicked
and malicious committees who by their reports have told an
accountant-general and first public officer of revenue, that, in order
to guard his character from their suspicions, it was necessary that he
should keep some paper or other of an account. We have heard of the
base, wicked, and mercenary license that has been used by these
gentlemen of India towards the House of Commons: a license to libel and
traduce the diligence of the House of Commons, the purity of their
motives, and the fidelity of their actions, by which the very means of
informing the people are attempted to be used for the purpose of leaving
them in darkness and delusion. But, my Lords, when the
accountant-general declares, that, if the House of Commons had not
expressed, as they ought to express, much diffidence and distrust
respecting these transactions, and even suspected him of perjury, this
very day that man would not have produced a scrap of those papers to
you, but might have turned them to the basest and most infamous of uses.
If, I say, we have saved these valuable fragments by suspecting his
integrity, your Lordships will see suspicion is of some use: and I hope
the world will learn that punishment will be of use, too, in preventing
such transactions.
Your Lordships have seen that no two persons knew anything of these
transactions; you see that even memorandums of transactions of very
great moment, some of which had passed in the year 1779, were not even
so much as put in the shape of complete memoranda until May, 1782; you
see that Mr. Hastings never kept them: and there is no reason to imagine
that a black banian and a Persian moonshee would have been careful of
what Mr. Hastings himself, who did not seem to stimulate his accountants
to a vast deal of exactness and a vast deal of fidelity, was negligent.
You see that Mr. Larkins, our last, our only hope, if he had not been
suspected by the House of Commons, probably would never have kept these
papers; and that you could not have had this valuable cargo, such as it
is, if it had not been for the circumstance Mr. Larkins thinks proper to
mention.
From the specimen which we have given of Mr. Hastings's mode of
accounts, of its vouchers, checks, and counter-checks, your Lordships
will have observed that the mode itself is past describing, and that the
checks and counter-checks, instead of being put upon one another to
prevent abuse, are put upon each other to prevent discovery and to
fortify abuse. When you hear that one man has an account of receipt,
another of expenditure, another of control, you say that office is well
constituted: but here is an office constituted by different persons
without the smallest connection with each other; for the only purpose
which they have ever answered is the purpose of base concealment.
We shall now proceed a little further with Mr. Larkins. The first of the
papers from which he took the memoranda was a paper of Cantoo Baboo. It
contained detached payments, amounting in the whole, with the cabooleat,
or agreement, to about 95,000_l._ sterling, and of which it appears that
there was received by Mr. Croftes 55,000_l._, and no more.
Now will your Lordships be so good as to let it rest in your memory what
sort of an exchequer this is, even with regard to its receipts? As your
Lordships have seen the economy and constitution of this office, so now
see the receipt. It appears that in the month of May, 1782, out of the
sums beginning to be received in the month of Shawal, that is in July,
1779, there was, during that interval, 40,000_l._ out of 95,000_l._ sunk
somewhere, in some of the turnings over upon the gridiron, through some
of those agents and panders of corruption which Mr. Hastings uses. Here
is the _valuable_ revenue of the Company, _which is to supply them in
their exigencies, which is to come from sources which otherwise never
would have yielded it_,--which, though small in proportion to the other
revenue, yet is a diamond, something that by its value makes amends for
its want of bulk,--falling short by 40,000_l._ out of 95,000_l._ Here is
a system made for fraud, and producing all the effects of it.
Upon the face of this account, the agreement was to yield to Mr.
Hastings, some way or other, to be paid to Mr. Croftes, 95,000_l._, and
there was a deficiency of 40,000_l._ Would any man, even with no more
sense than Mr. Hastings, who wants all the faculties of the human mind,
who has neither memory nor judgment, any man who was that poor
half-idiot creature that Mr. Hastings pretends to be, engage in a
dealing that was to extort from some one or other an agreement to pay
95,000_l._ which was not to produce more than 55,000_l._? What, then, is
become of it? Is it in the hands of Mr. Hastings's wicked bribe-brokers,
or in his own hands? Is it in arrear? Do you know anything about it?
Whom are you to apply to for information? Why, to G.G.S.--G.G.S. I find
to be, what indeed I suspected him to be, a person that I have mentioned
frequently to your Lordships, and that you will often hear of, commonly
called Gunga Govind Sing,--in a short word, the wickedest of the whole
race of banians: the consolidated wickedness of the whole body is to be
found in this man.