Volume VIII Part 21 (1/2)

x.x.xII. 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.

x.x.xIII. 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 a.s.sistance of their friends, to provide for the same, and praying that they might through his mediation be freed from the hards.h.i.+ps 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 a.s.suring 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 hards.h.i.+ps, 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_.”

x.x.xIV. 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.”

x.x.xV. 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 hards.h.i.+p of their imprisonment, and pray for relief; and did again a.s.sert 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.”

x.x.xVI. 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 hards.h.i.+ps 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.”

x.x.xVI. 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 Khan, 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.

x.x.xVIII. 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.

x.x.xIX. 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 a.s.sistant 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 princ.i.p.als, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sistant 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 _punis.h.i.+ng 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 Khan, 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 a.s.sist 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 Khan, 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 circ.u.mstances 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 Khan, 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] _a.s.sume_ 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 a.s.serts 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, a.s.signed 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 Khan, 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 Khan 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 Khan, a.s.sembled 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 circ.u.mstance, that his Excellency, the Nabob, may cause his agents to be more circ.u.mspect in their conduct towards these poor unhappy women.”