Volume XI Part 14 (1/2)
It is known, my Lords, that Mr. Hastings, besides having received proposals for delivering up the beautiful country of Benares, that garden of G.o.d, as it is styled in India, to that monster, that rapacious tyrant, Asoph ul Dowlah, who with his gang of mercenary troops had desolated his own country like a swarm of locusts, had purposed likewise to seize Cheyt Sing's own patrimonial forts, which was nothing less than to take from him the residence of his women and his children, the seat of his honor, the place in which the remaining treasures and last hopes of his family were centred. By the Gentoo law, every lord or supreme magistrate is bound to construct and to live in such a fort. It is the usage of India, and is a matter of state and dignity, as well as of propriety, reason, and defence. It was probably an apprehension of being injured in this tender point, as well as a knowledge of the proposal made by the Nabob, which induced Cheyt Sing to offer to buy himself off; although it does not appear from any part of the evidence that he a.s.signed any other reason than that of Mr. Hastings intending to exact from him six lacs of rupees over and above his other exactions.
Mr. Hastings, indeed, almost acknowledges the existence of this plot against the Rajah, and his being the author of it. He says, without any denial of the fact, that the Rajah suspected some strong acts to be intended against him, and therefore asked Mr. Markham whether he could not buy them off and obtain Mr. Hastings's favor by the payment of 200,000_l._ Mr. Markham gave as his opinion, that 200,000_l._ was not sufficient; and the next day the Rajah offered 20,000_l._ more, in all 220,000_l._ The negotiation, however, broke off; and why? Not, as Mr.
Markham says he conjectured, because the Rajah had learned that Mr.
Hastings had no longer an intention of imposing these six lacs, or something to that effect, and therefore retracted his offer, but because that offer had been rejected by Mr. Hastings.
Let us hear what reason the man who was in the true secret gives for not accepting the Rajah's offer. ”I rejected,” says Mr. Hastings, ”the offer of twenty lacs, with which the Rajah would have compromised for his guilt when it was too late.” My Lords, he best knows what the motives of his own actions were. He says, the offer was made ”when it was too late.” Had he previously told the Rajah what sum of money he would be required to pay in order to buy himself off, or had he required him to name any sum which he was willing to pay? Did he, after having refused the offer made by the Rajah, say, ”Come and make me a better offer, or upon such a day I shall declare that your offers are inadmissible”? No such thing appears. Your Lords.h.i.+ps will further remark, that Mr.
Hastings refused the 200,000_l._ at a time when the exigencies of the Company were so pressing that he was obliged to rob, pilfer, and steal upon every side,--at a time when he was borrowing 40,000_l._ from Mr.
Sulivan in one morning, and raising by other under-jobs 27,000_l._ more.
In the distress [in?] which his own extravagance and prodigality had involved him, 200,000_l._ would have been a weighty benefit, although derived from his villany; but this relief he positively refused, because, says he, ”the offer came too late.” From these words, my Lords, we may infer that there was a time when the offer would not have been ”too late,”--a period at which it would have been readily accepted. No such thing appears. There is not a trace upon your minutes, not a trace in the correspondence of the Company, to prove that the Rajah would at any time have been permitted to buy himself off from this complicated tyranny.
I have already stated a curious circ.u.mstance in this proceeding, to which I must again beg leave to direct your Lords.h.i.+ps' attention. Does it anywhere appear in that correspondence, or in the testimony of Mr.
Benn, of Mr. Markham, or of any human being, that Mr. Hastings had ever told Cheyt Sing with what sum he should be satisfied? There is evidence before you directly in proof that they did not know the amount. Not one person knew what his intention was, when he refused this 200,000_l._ For when he met Mr. Markham at Boglipore, and for the first time mentioned the sum of 500,000_l._ as the fine he meant to exact, Mr. Markham was astonished and confounded at its magnitude. He tells you this himself.
It appears, then, that neither Cheyt Sing nor the Resident at Benares (who ought to have been in the secret, if upon such an occasion secrecy is allowable) ever knew what the terms were. The Rajah was in the dark; he was left to feel, blindfold, how much money could relieve him from the iniquitous intentions of Mr. Hastings; and at last he is told that his offer comes too late, without having ever been told the period at which it would have been well-timed, or the amount it was proposed to take from him. Is this, my Lords, the proper way to adjudge a fine?
Your Lords.h.i.+ps will now be pleased to advert to the manner in which he defends himself and these proceedings. He says, ”I rejected this offer of twenty lacs, with which the Rajah would have compromised for his guilt when it was too late.” If by these words he means too late to answer the purpose for which he has said the fine was designed, namely, the relief of the Company, the ground of his defence is absolutely false; for it is notorious that at the time referred to the Company's affairs were in the greatest distress.
I will next call your Lords.h.i.+ps' attention to the projected sale of Benares to the Nabob of Oude. ”If,” says Mr. Hastings, ”I ever talked of selling the Company's sovereignty over Benares to the Nabob of Oude, it was but _in terrorem_; and no subsequent act of mine warrants the supposition of my having seriously intended it.” And in another place he says, ”If I ever threatened” (your Lords.h.i.+ps will remark, that he puts hypothetically a matter the reality of which he has got to be solemnly declared on an affidavit, and in a narrative to the truth of which he has deposed upon oath)--”if I ever threatened,” says he, ”to dispossess the Rajah of his territories, it is no more than what my predecessors, without rebuke from their superiors, or notice taken of the expression, had wished and intended to have done to his father, even when the Company had no pretensions to the sovereignty of the country. It is no more than such a legal act of sovereignty as his behavior justified, and as I was justified in by the intentions of my predecessors. If I pretended to seize upon his forts, it was in full conviction that a dependant on the Company, guarantied, maintained, and protected in his country by the Company's arms, had no occasion for forts, had no right to them, and could hold them for no other than suspected and rebellious purposes. None of the Company's other zemindars are permitted to maintain them; and even our ally, the Nabob of the Carnatic, has the Company's troops in all his garrisons. Policy and public safety absolutely require it. What state could exist that allowed its inferior members to hold forts and garrisons independent of the superior administration? It is a solecism in government to suppose it.”
Here, then, my Lords, he first declares that this was merely done _in terrorem_; that he never intended to execute the abominable act. And will your Lords.h.i.+ps patiently endure that such terrific threats as these shall be hung by your Governor in India over the unhappy people that are subject to him and protected by British faith? Will you permit, that, for the purpose of extorting money, a Governor shall hold out the terrible threat of delivering a tributary prince and his people, bound hand and foot, into the power of their perfidious enemies?
The terror occasioned by threatening to take from him his forts can only be estimated by considering, that, agreeably to the religion and prejudices of Hindoos, the forts are the places in which their women are lodged, in which, according to their notions, their honor is deposited, and in which is lodged all the wealth that they can save against an evil day to purchase off the vengeance of an enemy. These forts Mr. Hastings says he intended to take, because the Rajah could hold them for no other than rebellious and suspected purposes. Now I will show your Lords.h.i.+ps that the man who has the horrible audacity to make this declaration did himself a.s.sign to the Rajah these very forts. He put him in possession of them, and, when there was a dispute about the Nabob's rights to them on the one side and the Company's on the other, did confirm them to this man. The paper shall be produced, that you may have before your eyes the gross contradictions into which his rapacity and acts of arbitrary power have betrayed him. Thank G.o.d, my Lords, men that are greatly guilty are never wise. I repeat it, men that are greatly guilty are never wise. In their defence of one crime they are sure to meet the ghost of some former defence, which, like the spectre in Virgil, drives them back. The prisoner at your bar, like the hero of the poet, when he attempts to make his escape by one evasion, is stopped by the appearance of some former contradictory averment. If he attempts to escape by one door, there his criminal allegations of one kind stop him; if he attempts to escape at another, the facts and allegations intended for some other wicked purpose stare him full in the face.
Quacunque viam sibi fraude petivit, Successum Dea dira negat.
The paper I hold in my hand contains Nundcomar's accusation of Mr.
Hastings. It consists of a variety of charges; and I will first read to you what is said by Nundcomar of these forts, which it is pretended could be held for none but suspicious and rebellious purposes.
”At the time Mr. Hastings was going to Benares, he desired me to give him an account in writing of any lands which, though properly belonging to the Subah of Bahar, might have come under the dominion of Bulwant Sing, that they might be recovered from his son, Rajah Cheyt Sing. The purgunnahs of Kera, Mungrora, and Bidjegur were exactly in this situation, having been usurped by Bulwant Sing from the Subah of Bahar.
I accordingly delivered to Mr. Hastings the accounts of them, from the entrance of the Company upon the dewanny to the year 1179 of the Fusseli era, stated at twenty-four lacs. Mr. Hastings said, 'Give a copy of this to Roy Rada Churn, that, if Cheyt Sing is backward in acknowledging this claim, Rada Churn may answer and confute him.' Why Mr. Hastings, when he arrived at Benares, and had called Rajah Cheyt Sing before him, left these countries still in the Rajah's usurpations it remains with Mr.
Hastings to explain.”
This is Nundcomar's charge. Here follows Mr. Hastings's reply.
”I recollect an information given me by Nundcomar concerning the pretended usurpations made by the Rajah of Benares, of the purgunnahs of Kera, Mungrora, and Bidjegur.” (Your Lords.h.i.+ps will recollect that Bidjegur is one of those very forts which he declares could not be held but for suspicious and rebellious purposes.) ”I do not recollect his mentioning it again, when I set out for Benares; neither did I ever intimate the subject, either to Cheyt Sing or his ministers, because I knew I could not support the claim; and to have made it and dropped it would have been in every sense dishonorable. Not that I pa.s.sed by it with indifference or inattention. I took pains to investigate the foundation of this t.i.tle, and recommended it to the particular inquiry of Mr. Vansittart, who was the Chief of Patna, at the time in which I received the first intimation. The following letter and voucher, which I received from him, contain a complete statement of this pretended usurpation.”
These vouchers will answer our purpose, fully to establish that in his opinion the claim of the English government upon those forts was at that time totally unfounded, and so absurd that he did not even dare to mention it. This fort of Bidjegur, the most considerable in the country, and of which we shall have much to say hereafter, is the place in which Cheyt Sing had deposited his women and family. That fortress did Mr.
Hastings himself give to this very man, deciding in his favor as a judge, upon an examination and after an inquiry: and yet he now declares that he had no right to it, and that he could not hold it but for wicked and rebellious purposes. But, my Lords, when he changed this language, he had resolved to take away these forts,--to destroy them,--to root the Rajah out of every place of refuge, out of every secure place in which he could hide his head, or screen himself from the rancor, revenge, avarice, and malice of his ruthless foe. He was resolved to have them, although he had, upon the fullest conviction of the Rajah's right, given them to this very man, and put him into the absolute possession of them.
Again, my Lords, did he, when Cheyt Sing, in 1775, was put in possession by the _pottah_ of the Governor-General and Council, which contains an enumeration of the names of all the places which were given up to him, and consequently of this among the rest,--did he, either before he put the question in Council upon that pottah, or afterwards, tell the Council they were going to put forts into the man's hands to which he had no right, and which could be held only for rebellious and suspected purposes? We refer your Lords.h.i.+ps to the places in which all these transactions are mentioned, and you will there find Mr. Hastings took no one exception whatever against them; nor, till he was resolved upon the destruction of this unhappy man, did he ever so much as mention them. It was not till then that he discovers the possession of these forts by the Rajah to be _a solecism in government_.
After quoting the n.o.ble examples of Sujah Dowlah, and the other persons whom I have mentioned to you, he proceeds to say, that some of his predecessors, without any pretensions to sovereign authority, endeavored to get these forts into their possession; and ”I was justified,” says he, ”by the intention of my predecessors.” Merciful G.o.d! if anything can surpa.s.s what he has said before, it is this: ”My predecessors, without any t.i.tle of sovereignty, without any right whatever, wished to get these forts into their power; I therefore have a right to do what they wished to do; and I am justified, not by the acts, but by the _intentions_ of my predecessors.” At the same time he knows that these predecessors had been reprobated by the Company for this part of their proceedings; he knew that he was sent there to introduce a better system, and to put an end to this state of rapacity. Still, whatever his predecessors _wished_, however unjust and violent it might be, when the sovereignty came into his hands, he maintains that he had a right to do all which they were desirous of accomplis.h.i.+ng. Thus the enormities formerly practised, which the Company sent him to correct, became a sacred standard for his imitation.
Your Lords.h.i.+ps will observe that he slips in the word _sovereignty_ and forgets compact; because it is plain, and your Lords.h.i.+ps must perceive it, that, wherever he uses the word sovereignty, he uses it to destroy the authority of all compacts; and accordingly in the pa.s.sage now before us he declares that there is an invalidity in all compacts entered into in India, from the nature, state, and const.i.tution of that empire. ”From the disorderly form of its government,” says he, ”there is an invalidity in all compacts and treaties whatever.” ”Persons who had no treaty with the Rajah wished,” says he, ”to rob him: therefore I, who have a treaty with him, and call myself his sovereign, have a right to realize all their wishes.”
But the fact is, my Lords, that his predecessors never did propose to deprive Bulwant Sing, the father of Cheyt Sing, of his zemindary. They, indeed, wished to have had the dewanny transferred to them, in the manner it has since been transferred to the Company. They wished to receive his rents, and to be made an intermediate party between him and the Mogul emperor, his sovereign. These predecessors had entered into no compact with the man: they were negotiating with his sovereign for the transfer of the dewanny or stewards.h.i.+p of the country, which transfer was afterwards actually executed; but they were obliged to give the country itself back again to Bulwant Sing, with a guaranty against all the pretensions of Sujah Dowlah, who had tyrannically a.s.sumed an arbitrary power over it. This power the predecessors of Mr. Hastings might also have wished to a.s.sume; and he may therefore say, according to the mode of reasoning which he has adopted,--”Whatever they wished to do, but never succeeded in doing, I may and ought to do of my own will.
Whatever fine Sujah Dowlah would have exacted I will exact. I will penetrate into that tiger's bosom, and discover the latent seeds of rapacity and injustice which lurk there, and I will make him the subject of my imitation.”
These are the principles upon which, without accuser, without judge, without inquiry, he resolved to lay a fine of 500,000_l._ on Cheyt Sing!
In order to bind himself to a strict fulfilment of this resolution, he has laid down another very extraordinary doctrine. He has laid it down as a sort of canon, (in injustice and corruption,) that, whatever demand, whether just or unjust, a man declares his intention of making upon another, he should exact the precise sum which he has determined upon, and that, if he takes anything less, it is a proof of corruption.