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LIBRARY

OF THE

Theological Seminary,

PRINCETON, N.J.

Case, C Xj S 4*6.3

Shelf, Sec » M 6 4“

Book, V" .'. . O.

THE HISTORY

OF BRITISH INDIA,

BY

MILL & WILSON.

IN NINE VOLUMES.

VOL. V.

THE HISTORY OF

BRITISH INDIA.

/

BY JAMES MILL, ESQ.

FOURTH EDITION WITH NOTES AND CONTINUATION,

By HORACE HAYMAN WILSON, M.A., F.R.S.

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETIES OF PARIS, BOSTON, AND
CALCUTTA, AND OF THE ORIENTAL SOCIETY OF GERMANY; OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMIES
OF ST. PETERSBURGH AND VIENNA; OF THE IMPERIAL SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS
OF MOSCOW, AND OF THE ROYAL ACADEMIES OF BERLIN AND MUNICH;
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF FRANCE: PH. DR. IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF BRESLAU; MED. DR. IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
MARBURG, ETC. ETC.; AND BODBN PROFESSOR OF
SANSCRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

VOLUME V.

LONDON :

JAMES MADDEN, 8, LEADENHALL STREET

M.DCCC.XLVIII.

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2016

https://archive.org/details/historyofbritish05mill

CONTENTS.

BOOK VI.

FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, IN 1784, TO THE
TERMINATION OF THE WAR WITH THE MAHRATTAS, IN

1805.

CHAPTER I.

Page

Administration of Mr. Macpherson — State of the Go-
vernment in India, internal and external — Board of
Control pays, without Inquiry, the Debts of the Nabob
of Arcot — Orders the Assignment of the Carnatic Reve-
nues to be given up — Absorbs the Power of the Directors
— Lord Cornwallis appointed Governor-General — Com-
mencement of the Proceedings in Parliament relative to
the Impeachment of Mr. Hastings — The best Mode of
Proceeding rejected by the House of Commons — Articles
of Charge against Mr. Hastings — Three Bills to amend
the East India Act — Proceedings in Parliament relative
to the Impeachment of Mr. Hastings — Impeachment
voted — Proceedings in Parliament tending to the Im-
peachment of Sir Elijah Impey — Motion for Impeach-
ment negatived — Mr. Pitt’s declaratory Act

1

VI

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.

Page

The Trial of Mr. Hastings

105

CHAPTER III.

Arrangement about Troops and Money with the Nabob
of Oude — The Guntoor Circar obtained from the Nizam,
and a new Arrangement made with that Prince — Aspect
which that Arrangement bore to Tippoo Saib — Dispute
of Tippoo with the Raja of Travancore — Tippoo attacks
the Lines of Travancore — The English prepare for War
— Form an Alliance with the Nizam and with the Mah-
rattas — Plan of the Campaign — General Medows takes
possession of Coimbetore, and establishes a Chain of
Depots to the Bottom of the Gujelhutty Pass — Tippoo
descends by the Gujelhutty Pass — And compels the
English General to return for the Defence of the Carnatic
— End of the Campaign, and Arrival of Lord Cornwallis
at Madras — Operations in Malabar — A new Arrangement
with Mohammed Ali, respecting the Revenues of the
Carnatic 312

CHAPTER IV.

Cornwallis takes the Command — Second Campaign
begins — Siege of Bangalore — March to Seringapatam —
Operations of the Bombay Army — Battle at Arikera
between Cornwallis and Tippoo — Army in Distress for
Bullocks and Provisions — Obliged to Return — Ope-
rations of the Mahratta Contingent — Negotiations with
Tippoo — Debate in the House of Commons on the War
with Tippoo — Preparations for a third Campaign — Re-
duction of the Fortresses which commanded the Passes
into the Carnatic, and threatened the Communications —
Operations of the Nizam’s Army, and of the Mahratta
Contingent, in the Interval between the first and second

CONTENTS.

Vll

Page

March upon Seringapatam — Operations of thp Bombay
Army — Operations of Tippoo — March to Seringapatam —
Intrenched Camp of the Enemy stormed before Seringa-
patam— Preparations for the Siege — Negotiations —

Peace — Subsequent and Judicial Arrangements 375

CHAPTER V.

Lord Cornwallis’s Financial and Judicial Reforms .... 468

CHAPTER VI.

Result of Lord Cornwallis’s Financial and Judicial
Reforms 517

HISTORY

OP

BRITISH INDIA

BOOK VI.

FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, IN 1784, TO THE TER-
MINATION OF THE WAR WITH THE MAHRATTAS, IN

1805.

CHAPTER I.

Administration of Mr. Macpherson . — State of the
Government in India, internal , and external. —
Board of Control pays, without inquiry , the Debts
of the Nabob of Arcot. — Orders the Assignment
of the Carnatic Revenues to be given up. — Absorbs
the Power of the Directors. — -Lord Cornwallis
appointed Governor-General. — Commencement of
the Proceedings in Parliament relative to the
Impeachment of Mr. Hastings. — The best mode of
proceeding rejected by the House of Commons. —
Articles of Charge against Mr. Hastings. — Three
Bills to amend the East India Act. — Proceedings
in Parliament relative to the Impeachment of Mr.
VOL. v.

B

2

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Hastings. — Impeachment voted. — Proceedings in
Parliament tending to the Impeachment of Sir
Elijah Impey. — Motion for Impeachment negatived
— Mr. Pitt's declaratory act.

book vi Upon the departure of Mr. Hastings from Bengal,
C11A1' Mr. Macpherson succeeded, as senior in council, to
1785. the power and dignity of Chief Governor of the
British establishments in India. Certain peculiari-
ties marked the history of this gentleman in the
service of the Company. He sailed to Madras in
1766, purser of an India ship ; and having obtained
the means of an introduction to the Nabob of Arcot,
insinuated himself quickly into his inmost con-
fidence. As the Nabob, since the first moment
of his deliverance from the terror of the French, had
been in a state of perpetual struggle with the
servants of the Company for a larger share of
power, Mr. Macpherson appears to have flattered
him with the hopes of advantage from an application
to the British minister ; and to have prevailed upon
the Nabob to make use of himself as the organ of
the attempt. The project was, to persuade the
minister, that the Nabob was suffering under a load
of oppression by the Company’s servants. Mr.
Macpherson arrived in England, in execution of this
commission, towards the end of the year 1768.
Upon his return to Madras, he was, during the
administration of Governor Dupre, admitted into
the civil service of the Company, and employed by
that Governor in the most confidential transactions ;
particularly, in writing his despatches, to which the
superior skill of Mr. Macpherson in the art of com-

MR. MACPHERSON GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

3

position afforded a recommendation. In the year bc°ok yi

1776, Lord Pigot was Governor of Madras. Mr.

Macpherson had ascended to the rank of a factor in 1785.
the Company’s service ; when a paper, purporting to
be a memorial to the Nabob of Arcot, was presented
to the Council by their President. It had no
signature : but it recapitulated various services,
which the writer had rendered to the Nabob in
England ; and the concurrence of circumstances
rendered it hut little possible that he should be any
other person than Mr. Macpherson. Mr. Macpher-
son was called before the Board ; and asked whether,
or not, he acknowledged the production. Mr. Mac-
pherson replied, “ That he could not give a precise
answer; that it was not written in his hand, nor
signed by him ; and that it referred to transactions
before he was in the Company’s service.” Lord
Pigot regarded this answer as not only evasive, but
a satisfactory proof that Mr. Macpherson was the
author ; and as the transactions appeared to him to
be those of a man unfit for the service of the Com-
pany, he therefore moved that he should be dis-
missed. The following is a passage of the memorial :
tr The object of this commission was to procure
relief from the oppressions under which the Nabob
was labouring : to procure this wished-for relief, the
means to be employed were, if possible, to raise in
the breast of the Prime Minister a favourable respect
for the Nabob; then to lay before him the distress
of the Prince ; likewise to show the advantage which
would arise to the state, from granting him the proper
protection.” In describing his first interview with
the Minister, the Duke of Grafton, the memorialist

b 2

4

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book \ i sai(j? i expatiated upon the superior merits of the

Nabob; showed that he was the person to whom

i/85. papain owed the rise of her power in India; that
his attachment and unsullied honour to the English
were unparalleled. I then dwelt upon his personal
merits, as a statesman and a gentleman; and showed,
that though he had assurances of protection, under
the sovereign hand, he was treated with indignity,
and even tyranny.” “ Having represented,” con-
tinues the author, “ the Nabob’s distress, and the
oppressions under which he laboured, in the most
cautious manner to his Grace, I availed myself of the
disputes which subsisted, or were rather commencing,
between his Grace, as First Lord of the Treasury,
and the India Directors, to enforce the propriety of
supporting the Nabob.” Another of the topics
which he says he always laboured was, “ that the
firm support of his Highness was the best restraint
which government had upon the usurpations of the
servants of a certain Company.” The memorialist
also desires the Nabob to recollect, whether he was
not the inventor of the plea, by which the Nabob
claimed to be a party to the treaty of Paris ; that is,
to rank himself with the princes of Europe, as a
member of their general system ; and to make the
King of France an arbiter between him and the
English. Beside the general project of relieving the
Nabob from oppression, that is, from the necessity of
paying his debts, and of yielding anything from the
revenues of the country toward its defence, the
memorialist claims the merit of having exerted him-
self in favour of two other favourite designs of the
Nabob ; that of usurping the seat of the Subah of the

MR. MACPHERSON GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

5

Deccan, and that of disinheriting his elder in favour ' 1

of his second son. Beside the arguments which the

memorialist employed upon the minister, and the 1/85'
publications by which he boasts of having influenced
the public mind, he recurred to other instruments of
persuasion. He offered presents to the minister,
but they were rejected; and then to the minister’s
secretary, but they were rejected again. His next
offer, but under the necessary portion of disguise,
was that of a present to the nation : a sum of seventy
lacs, or even more, to be given to the minister, on
loan for the public service, at an interest of two per
cent.

As the memorialist in these transactions appeared
distinctly to have lent or sold himself to the Nabob,
to act in hostility to the Company, it was decided in
the Council, by a majority of nine to two, that Mr.
Macpherson should be dismissed from the service.

Four of the members, not satisfied with a silent ac-
quiescence in the reasons of the President, add, that
“ a man of the intriguing disposition which that paper
shows Mr. Macpherson to be, is, we think, very unfit
to be employed as a servant of the Company ; more
especially as we believe Mr. Macpherson has been
concerned in the intrigues, which the greater part of
the Board must be sensible have lately been carried
on at the Nabob’s Durbar, to the detriment of the
Company’s service, and which may have impeded the
execution of their late orders.”

As the Board regarded the evidence against Mr.
Macpherson as conclusive, they held it unnecessary to
call upon him for a defence. To the Directors, the
offence, when it came before them, must have ap-

6

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

jV 1 peared of a very trivial nature. About the restoration
of Mr. Macpherson they seem not to have hesitated.

1785- Their only anxiety was to restore him, without
submission to the condition (the votes of three-
fourths of the Directors and three-fourths of the
Proprietors) prescribed by the act. The opinion
obtained from the Company’s Council was, that
though his dismission, pronounced without receiving
his defence, was informal, he could not, without
submission to the clause of the act, be restored. The
council added, “ And it is worth considering, if Mr.
Macpherson should be restored, whether he is a
proper person to be continued in the Company’s
service : He has, in my opinion, too much con-

nexion with the Nabob of Arcot; and when the
Company’s interest and Nabob’s are opposite, (as
they will often happen,) they will greatly disturb a
man of honour and integrity.” As this opinion ap-
pears not to have accorded with the wishes of the
leading portion of the Directors, they made an ex-
periment whether a more favourable opinion could
not be obtained from another quarter. They con-
sulted the Solicitor-General, W edderburne, who had
sufficient power over technical language to satisfy
them completely. He pronounced the dismission of
Mr. Macpherson not a dismission ; and by conse-
quence, the clause of the act, which regarded dis-
mission, had in this case no application. Mr. Mac-
pherson was immediately restored. In announcing,
however, this decree to the Governor and Council of
Madras, the letter of the Court of Directors has the
following words : “ But, as his behaviour was dis-
respectful to the Board, and, in other particulars,

MR. MACPHERSON GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

7

very reprehensible, we direct that you give him a TV1

severe reprimand, and acquaint him that a like con-

duct will meet with a severer punishment.” From 1785-
the humiliation, however, of such a reprimand, and
such a menace, the Court of Directors, who pre-
scribed them, afforded him effectual protection.

Though restored to his rank and emoluments in the
service, he was allowed to remain in England, till
January, 1781, when he was chosen to fill the high
office, vacant by the resignation of Mr. Barwell, in
the Supreme Council of Bengal. This appointment
excited the attention of the Select Committee of the
House of Commons, who took it under examination,
and deemed it of sufficient importance to make it the
subject of their third report. The conduct of Mr.
Macpherson, who undertook the office of a secret
enemy of the Company, and became the willing and
mercenary instrument of designs levelled against his
country ; the conduct of the Court of Directors in
shielding such a man from the punishment awarded
for his offence, nay distinguishing him, as if he had
been a model of excellence, by a most unusual
reward; lifting him up from a low rank in the ser-
vice, and placing him all at once in nearly the highest
and most important office which they had to bestow,
the Select Committee condemned in language of the
greatest severity. The design of the Nabob to ex-
empt himself from all dependence upon the Company,
the Committee represented as early formed, syste-
matically pursued, and pregnant with danger. He
endeavoured to negotiate a treaty of neutrality with
the French, which would have secured that nation at
Pondicherry. He carried on, to the perpetual dis-

8

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 1

1785.

turbance of the Company’s government, a perpetual
system of intrigue, in pursuance of his plan. Of Mr.
Macplierson’s construction of the article in the treaty
of Paris respecting the guarantee of his independence
by France, he was eager to take advantage, and to
interpose that nation between himself and the Eng-
lish. “ By means of such flattering delusions,” say
the Committee, “ the ambition of the Nabob Mo-
hammed Ali had been, before this invention, as well
as ever since, stimulated to desperate designs and
enterprises ; which have disturbed the peace of India,
shaken the lawful government of the Company at
Madras, wasted his own revenues, and at length
brought the power of Great Britain in that part of
the world to the verge of ruin.”

A copy of this report was sent out by the Directors
to Bengal, where Mr. Macpherson was then perform-
ing so important a part in the government of India.
It was a call upon him for a defence of his own con-
duct and of theirs. The apology was written, under
date the 30th of March, 1783. It consisted of the
following particulars : First, an assertion, that the

transactions in which he had been engaged for the
Nabob of Arcot, were made fully known to the Com-
pany’s Governor at Madras, at the time when he
entered into the Company’s service, and that he had
never presented any memorial of those transactions
to the Nabob, but what had that Governor’s appro-
bation : Secondly, of a display of the meritorious
proceedings of the Supreme Government in Bengal,
from the time when he became a member of it.1

1 For these facts, see the Third Report of the Select Committee formed
in 1781; and Mr. Macpherson’s Letter to the Court of Directors, dated

MACPHERSON S ACCOUNT OF THE GOVERNMENT.

9

Upon the first part of this apology, it is obvious to ' 1

remark, that it consisted entirely of his own affirma-

tion of what passed between himself and a man that 178t>-
was dead. Besides, if it was true, it only proved that
a certain governor sanctioned a certain conduct ; not
that such conduct was innocent. The secret concur-
rence of a governor, if in any thing wrong, was a
collusion between two individuals, not the sanction
of government. Upon the second part, an observa-
tion equally conclusive was, that the plea was foreign
to the charge ; for surely the acts of the Supreme
Council, whether excellent or the reverse, during the
time in which Mr. Macpherson had possessed a seat
at the Board, were no proof that nearly twenty years
before he had not committed an act, which ought to
have excluded him from the service.

As Mr. Hastings remained in India, till the pass-
ing of Mr. Pitt’s bill left no longer any doubt of
his recall, Mr. Macpherson had time to rise to
seniority in the Council ; and by virtue of his station,
occupied, when left vacant, the Governor-General’s
chair.1

Calcutta, 30th of March, 1783, printed by order of the House of Commons,
among the papers laid before them in 1787.

1 Thus far, relates not to Mr. Macpherson’s administration, which alone
is the legitimate subject of the History of India, but to matters of a private
and personal nature, which have little or no historical importance. The
notice is borrowed, both in language and spirit, from the Third Report of
the Select Committee, the whole of which is most unworthily taken up
with similar topics. Admitting, that Mr. Macpherson had, twenty years
before, and when he owed no fealty to the Company, advocated the claims
of the Nabob of Arcot — admitting that he had, whilst yet young in the
Company’s employment, memorialized the Nabob on the subject of the
services he had rendered him, a fact not substantiated — admitting, that he
had been precipitately dismissed and informally restored — these were cir-
cumstances that could have been swelled into such magnitude, as to have
been deemed worthy of special parliamentary investigation, only by secret

10

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book \ i The Sj-a^e 0f revenues. the affairs of Oude ;

CHAP. 1. ’ ’

■ and the proceedings of Sindia, the great Mahratta

1785.

motives, with which we are imperfectly acquainted, but which we may
suspect had their origin in some party virulence, provoked by the share
which Mr. Macpherson was known to have taken, both in 1769 and 1777,
whilst in England, as a writer on the side of the Government. There is no
doubt that the Court of Directors and the public duly appreciated the cha-
racter of the Report, as it led to no ulterior measures. As, however, the
personalities of the Committee have been repeated in the text, it is ad-
visable to offer some corrections of them by a statement of the facts. Mr.
Macpherson went out to India, nominally, as Purser of the Mansfield
Chinaman, commanded by his uncle, Captain Macleod. He was theson of
the Rev. Dr. Macpherson, of Sleat, in the Isle of Skye, and received a
classical education, first at Aberdeen, and afterwards at Edinburgh, where
he was the favourite pupil of Professor Fergusson, and became the tutor of
the sons of the Earl of Warwick. He left England in March, 1767. The
ship touched at Madras, and Mr. Macpherson, having been introduced to
the Nabob of Arcot, speedily acquired so much consideration with him,
that he engaged the young man to return to England as his agent, with
letters addressed to the Minister: with these he arrived in November,
1768, and presented his despatches to the Duke of Grafton. Whatever
may be the truth of the assertions of the memorial, that bribes were
offered to the Minister and his Secretary, it is very certain that nothing in
Mr. Macpherson’s conduct was offensive to either, as it was solely by the
Duke’s interest that a writership was obtained for him. Mr. Macpherson
remained in England till the beginning of 1770; he then sailed to Madras
with an appointment in the service, to which, therefore, he was not “ ad-
mitted by Mr. Dupre.” In 1774 he was paymaster to the army. In 1776
he was dismissed. We have seen the violence of the disputes which en-
listed the whole of the Madras community as partisans, either of the
Governor or the Nabob. Mr. Macpherson had no doubt been flattered by
the notice and confidence of the latter ; he felt grateful to him as indirectly
the cause of his success in life, and he entertained to the last a strong im-
pression of the validity of the Nabob’s pretensions to regal independence
and power, and of his being treated with indignity and injustice. His
expression of these sentiments was no doubt the real cause of Lord Pigot’s
animosity, and of his removal from the service. Mr. Macpherson returned
to England in 1777, and was again the bearer of communications from the
Nabob of Arcot, including his ‘Will,’ in which the King was nominated
his executor and the guardian of his family, trusts which were accepted
by His Majesty. He was also charged with an account of secret overtures
made by France to the Nabob, soliciting his alliance and co-operation, and
promising to assist him in recovering Tanjore ; information which enabled
the English authorities in India to prepare for the war with France that
ensued ; and under secret orders from the Chairman, and Deputy, and

MACPHERSON S ACCOUNT OF THE GOVERNMENT.

11

chief, occupied first the attention of the new admini-
stration.

The state in which Mr. Macpherson received the
government, he represents as far from happy and
prosperous. In a statement, bearing date the 4th of
March, 1785, “ The public distress,” he says ‘‘was
never so pressing as in this moment. The season of
the heavy collections is over ; the demands of Madras
and Bombay are most pressing ; and our arrears to the
army are upwards of fifty lacs.”1 To the Court of
Directors, when rendering an account of his govern-
ment, upon the intimation of his recall, he represents
himself, as having been called upon, “ to act as their

President of the Board of Control, -which the Secretary of State -would not
sign, to effect the capture of Pondicherry. The readiness with which the
Nabob imparted the temptations offered him, displayed none of that dis-
position to engage in desperate designs against the British power, with
which he is charged by the Report, as a consequence of Mr. Macpherson’s
flattering delusions. These communications, and the support he gave to
Lord North’s administration, both by his pen, and in parliament, in which
he represented Cricklade, no doubt recommended him to the friendship of
the minister, and led to his nomination to a seat in Council at Bengal.
The Directors in concurring in his appointment, must have felt secure that
they had little reason to apprehend his giving countenance to the Nabob,
in opposition to the interests of the Company, and more probably anti-
cipated, from his personal influence, the confirmation of the Nabob’s pur-
pose in a continued rejection of any intercourse with France. These
particulars are derived from private correspondence, and various printed
documents, viz. — “ Letter to Sir J. Macpherson from J. Robinson, Esq.,
Secretary to Lord North, dated May, 1800.” “ Letter from Sir J. M. to
the Hon. W. Elpliinstone, Chairman of the Court of Directors, August,
1804.” “ Letter from the same to Whitshead Keene, Esq., M. P., May,

1806 and from a quarto volume printed by his friends in 1808, entitled,
“ Case of Sir John Macpherson, &c.,” the statements of which are verified
by extracts from the Correspondence between the Governments of India
and the Court of Directors. See also a notice of Sir John Macpherson in
Wraxall’s Posthumous Memoirs, vol. i. p. . — W.

1 Letter to Major Palmer, printed among extracts from papers in
No. 2, vol. vii., presented to the House of Commons on the 13th of March,
1786.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1785.

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

12 ,

Bc°°^iV I Governor-General, at a season of peculiar difficulty,

when the close of a ruinous war, and the relaxed

1/8o‘ habits of their service, had left all their armies in
arrear, and their presidencies in disorder.”1 The
loose language, in which the Indian Governors
indulge, makes it impossible to know very exactly
what Mr. Macpherson indicated, by the term
“ relaxed habits ” of the service ; undoubtedly, how-
ever, he meant bad government ; since he described
them as among the causes of some of the worst
effects, — armies all in arrear — and presidencies all in
disorder.

The Governor-General and Council stood pledged
to Mr. Hastings for the maintenance of his new sys-
tem for the management of Oude. To reduce, how-
ever, the drain upon the Nabob’s treasury, produced
by allowances and gratuities to the Company’s ser-
vants, a rule was introduced, that every thing of this
nature should appear upon the face of his accounts,
should be recorded by the Council, and transmitted
for the inspection of the Court of Directors. A body
of troops had been assigned by the Nabob to Mr.

1 Copy of a Letter to the Court of Directors, dated 10th of August,
1786, printed by order of the House of Commons.— The Select Committee
of the House of Commons in 1810, in their Third Report, p. 370, say,
“ The effects of the war which ended in the year 1783, were particularly
prejudicial to the financial system of India. The revenues had been
absorbed, the pay and allowances of both the civil and military branches
of the service were greatly in arrear; the credit of the Company was
extremely depressed : and, added to all, the whole system had fallen into
such irregularity and confusion, that the real state of affairs could not be
ascertained till the conclusion of the year 1785-6.” Such is the state, in
which India was left, by the administration of Mr. Hastings. — M. Such
were the inevitable consequences of the ruinous wars engaged in by the
Presidencies of Bombay and Madras. That the mischief was not incur-
able, was the merit of Hastings’s administration. — W.

RELATIONS WITH OUDE, SINDIA, AND THE MOGUL. 13

Hastings, as a body guard, during his residence in ) 1

Oude ; and to these troops had been appointed

British officers at the Nabob’s expense. This too 1785-
was a burden upon the Nabob which the Governor-
General deemed it improper any longer to impose.

The expense, however, of Major Palmer, the private
agent of Mr. Hastings, left at the seat of the Nabob
when the ostensible resident was withdrawn, he was
induced “ from motives (he says) of delicacy to the
late Governor-General, and his arrangements in the
upper provinces,” not immediately to remove ;
though the expense was enormous,1 and the agent
employed for no other function that to transmit to
the Presidency the letters of the Vizir and present
those addressed to him by the Governor-General. The
Futty-gur detachment, from the changes which had
taken place on the frontiers of Oude, it was also,
for the present, deemed unsafe to withdraw. But
the Governor-General declared his resolution of
confining the military burden imposed upon the
Vizir to the smallest amount, consistent with the
security of his dominions ; and for this he conceived
that one complete brigade, in constant readiness,
and punctually paid, would suffice.2 * * 5

1 In all 112.950Z. of which 22,80(B. was in salary to Major Palmer alone.

The expense of the residency, under Mr. Bristow, which Mr. Hastings had

represented as frightfully enormous, amounted to 64,202L See Burke’s

Charges, No. 16, sect. 89.

5 See the letter to Major Palmer, quoted in the preceding page. — M.
The portion of the text that follows, and which relates to Sindia, belongs
almost entirely to the administration of Hastings, and not to that of his
successor ; of whose measures, therefore, scarcely any account is given.
With regard to Sindia, the only important transaction that took place with
him, was his demand on behalf of Shah Aulum of the tribute due to the
Mogul to the amount of four millions sterling : the demand was civilly,

14

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

1 The proceedings of Sindia were already an object
• of great jealousy, if not of dread. In 1781, Mr.

1785.

but peremptorily resisted by Sir John Macpherson’s government, not, as
might be supposed from the loose manner in which it is alluded to in the
text, by that of Hastings. The leading feature of Sir John Macpherson’s
administration, however, was the eminent success which attended his
efforts to reduce public expenditure, and re-establish public credit. In a
minute in the Secret Department, dated 15th December, 1785, it is stated,
that a comparison of the receipts and disbursements of the year ending
30tli April, 1786, exhibited a deficit of about 1,300,0007. The arrears due
to the armies of the three Presidencies were about two millions. The
ascertained Bengal debt alone was about four millions sterling. The
troops at Madras and Bombay were in a state of utter destitution, and
some of them in open mutiny, from the great amount of their arrears. In
this situation, the government of Bengal declared itself responsible for the
debts of the three Presidencies. All remittances of cash from the Collectors’
Treasuries, were prohibited, until the arrears of troops within or near their
districts had been discharged. All civil servants, civil surgeons, and un-
covenanted servants drawing more than 300 rupees per month, were to be
paid their salaries and all their arrears, with certificates bearing interest at
8 percent, per annum, until cashed. All issues of paper on account of the
Company, except the Company’s bonds, were ordered to be registered, the
registry was to be published, and the paper was to be paid off in the order
of its issue. The cash accumulating in the Treasuries, was to form a fund,
by which the certificates and other paper were dischargeable, and under
these arrangements the Governor-General and Council publicly expressed
their expectations, that “ all the paper in currency at the end of

1785, would be paid off in the course of twelve months, through funds
derivable from the amount of the reductions made in the established
charges of the government, aided by the effects of these regulations,
and the additional resources to be derived from the Upper Provinces.”
These measures were made known to the public by advertisement in
the Official Calcutta Gazette, 29th December, 1785, and 15th January,

1786. The orders were followed up by subsidiary arrangements, which
completely altered the aspect of affairs. “ Every man in the settlement,”
observes a competent authority on the spot, “ witnessed the magical effects
of this measure. It operated like a charm in restoring public confidence,
which once secured, this moving fund acquired life and activity. At no
remote period from the commencement of the plan, Treasury Certificates
could raise cash in the market at a discount less than the legal interest of
the money. I shall ever bear grateful testimony of the salutary relieffrom
ruin, which the measure afforded to me, and to every trader in the settle-
ment.” Prinsep’s Proposal of a Substitute for Funding, 1797. In a
letter to the Governor of Madras from the Governor-General, dated 20th
May, 1786, he writes, “In our reductions of expense, which have been

RELATIONS WITH OUDE, SINDIA, AND THE MOGUL.

15

Hastings, apparently engrossed by one object, the ^ 1

accomplishment of peace with Sindia, and through

him with the goveniment at Poonah, overlooked or l785-
misunderstood the dangers which were involved in
the aggrandizement of the Mahratta chief, and ex-
pressly instructed the English ambassador to throw
no obstacles in the way of the designs which he
entertained against the remaining territories of the
Mogul. Toward the end of the year 1782, died
Nujuf Khan, whose talents had, even in its present
decline, given a portion of stability to the imperial
throne. The remaining chiefs by whom it was sur-
rounded immediately broke into general discord. In
the petty, but virulent warfare, in which they engaged,
the unhappy Emperor was bandied from one to
another, according as each, attaining a precarious
ascendency, became master of his person ; and he
was equally enslaved, and oppressed by them all.

About six months after the death of Nujuf Khan,

Mr. Hastings, though he had directed Colonel Muir,
not to insert any thing in the treaty with Sindia
“ which might expressly mark our knowledge of his
views, or concurrence in them,” namely, his Hews
on the territory of Shah Aulum ; and though he had
on that occasion declared, that “ our connexion with
the Mogul had long been suspended, and he wished

very great, (125 lacs,) 1,250,0001., I shall have cold praise and a thousand
secret enemies.” He received, however, in November, 1786, the unani-
mous thanks of the Court of Directors, for his able administration of the
affairs of India, and was raised by His Majesty to the dignity of a baronet.
It was during the government of Sir John Macpherson, that by an amicable
arrangement with the King of Queda, the valuable settlement of Penang>
or Prince of Wales’ Island, was added to the Company’s Eastern posses-
sions.— W.

16

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1785.

never to see it renewed, as it had proved a fatal
drain to the wealth of Bengal, and the treasury of
the Company,” sent certain agents, among whom
Avere Major Browne, and Major Davy, to the court
of the Emperor at Delhi ; and, by means of them,
entered into negotiations, if not engagements, of which
the nature has never been satisfactorily explained.
It appears, that an offer was made, on conditions
which were accepted, to provide for the expense of
any troops which the King might require ; and
Major Browne, in his despatch to Mr. Hastings laid
before the Board, declared, that “ The business of
assisting the Shah can and must go on, if we wish to
be secure in India, or regarded as a nation of faith
and honour.”1 The proposition, however, Avhich
was made by the Governor-General, to grant assist-
ance to the Mogul, was disrelished by the other mem-
bers of the Board ; and the scheme was defeated.
At what mark it was aimed, we no where distinctly
perceive.2 “ I avow,” says Mr. Hastings, that I
would have afforded effectual assistance to the Mogul,
that is, to the King Shah Aulum, if powers had been
granted to me ; but my Council differed in opinion
with me, and nothing was done.” This is all the
information which, in his answer to the charge on

1 Letter from Major Brown to Mr. Hastings, dated at Delhi, 30th
December, 1783.

2 The papers on this subject were refused by the ministry, or rather by
the House of Commons, under the guidance of the minister. See the
Debates in Parliament, under date March 6th and 17th, 1786. — M. At
the same time it is evident from the 18th charge, presented to the
House on the 26th of the following April, that Burke was in possession
of the papers. The debates were therefore merely on a question of
form. — W.

THE MOGUL.

17

this subject, Mr. Hastings condescends to yield.
When urging upon the Directors his wishes for
sending troops to the assistance of the Mogul, he
had indeed held a language, contradictory both to
his former and his subsequent declarations. If the
King’s authority, he said, “ is suffered to receive its
final extinction, it is impossible to foresee what
power may arise out of its ruins, or what events may
be linked in the same chain of revolution with it.
But your interests may suffer by it ; your reputation
certainly will — as his right to our assistance has been
constantly acknowledged — and, by a train of con-
sequences to which our government has not in-
tentionally given birth, but most especially by the
movements, which its influence, by too near an ap-
proach, has excited, it has unfortunately become the
efficient instrument of a great portion of the King’s
present distresses and dangers.” Mr. Burke, how-
ever, affirms, with a strength which the circumstances
will not warrant, that the pretended design of Mr.
Hastings to free the Emperor from thraldom under
the Delhi chiefs, was not his real design, because
not consistent with some of his declarations, and some
of his acts. While Mr. Hastings was at Lucknow,
in 1784, the eldest son, and heir apparent of the
Emperor, repaired to Oude, to solicit the protection
of the Governor-General and Nabob. He was re-
ceived with marks of distinction, which had no
tendency to extinguish hope, and was described by
Mr. Hastings as a person of considerable qualifica-
tions, well versed in affairs. His solicitations for aid
to deliver his father from oppression, and re-establish
in some degree the fortunes of his house, Mr. Hast-
VOL. v.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1785.

C

18

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bcn?iK i 1 in§s informed him, were opposed, by the present

• temper of the English nation, as well as by that of

1785- his colleagues in the government ; and he advised an
intermediate application to Sindia, as the most
powerful Mahratta Prince, the ally of the English
nation, and a man who, unless early prevented, was
likely to take an opposite part. To Sindia, Mr.
Hastings, as he informed the Court of Directors, had
himself written, on the very first advice he received
of the flight of the Mogul Prince, not only to ap-
prize him of that event, but to solicit his advice.
Sindia immediately sent to Lucknow his familiar
and confidential ministers, with whom Mr. Hastings
held several secret conferences, without the presence
even of a secretary. He reported no more than
the result of these conferences ; namely, “ that the
inclinations of the Mahratta chief were not very
dissimilar from his own;” and he added, that neither
in this, nor in any other instance, would he suffer
himself to be drawn into measures which should tend
to weaken the connexion between the English go-
vernment and Sindia ; “ nor, in this, even to oppose
his inclinations.” What his inclinations were, at the
time of the negotiation with Colonel Muir, the reader
will remember : What were the recent declarations

of Mr. Hastings, respecting the obligations both of
justice and of policy, to support the Emperor, has
been immediately stated : What were the inclina-

tions of Sindia at the present moment, Mr. Hastings
is far from disclosing : The actions of Sindia made

them soon distinctly appear.1 The Emperor, from

1 The insinuations of Mr. Burke that the negotiation of the Governor-
General -with the Mogul covered an insidious design to betray him into

THE MOGUL.

19

the impulse of a feeble mind, which deems any evil B00K y1

1 .... . J CHAP. J .

less than that under which it is immediately suffering, .

1785.

the hands of Sindia, receives its greatest confirmation from what Mr.
Pitt was brought to say in the House of Commons, on the 18th of
March, 1786, in the debate on the production of Delhi papers. “ If
he were inclined to lay open secrets which the interests of the country
required should be concealed, he could easily prove,” he said, “ that the
junction of the Mogul with the Mahratta powers was of the highest advan-
vantage to the Company.” Two other objects, which were always found
an efficient source of terror, as terror is always, in such hands, a most con-
venient instrument of persuasion, were, on this occasion, brought forward
by the minister. These were, Tippoo Saib, and the French. These two,
he said, were, at that time, plotting against the Company ; and Tippoo was
making efforts, by holding out dazzling projects to the Mogul, to realize the
great advantage of the imperial authority and name. “ In order to coun-
teract this,” said Mr. Pitt, “ it became necessary for the servants of the
Company to exert themselves to the utmost to ingratiate themselves with
the Court of Delhi, and by that means secure to their employers that great
body of strength and influence which would naturally result from the coun-
tenance of the Shah.” Ibid. It was a “body of strength and influence,”
on which Mr. Hastings set a high value, in his instructions for a negotiation
with Sindia ! — M. The insinuation of Burke was founded solely upon his
malevolence towards Hastings, and was, as he well knew, contradicted by
the instructions given by Hastings to Major Browne, for he had those in-
structions before him when he framed his charge, every syllable of which
they falsified. He gets rid of this difficulty by asserting, that either Hast-
ings entered upon the Bengal Consultation of the 5th (it should be the 6th)
October, 1783, a false paper as the true, or that he gave to Major Browne
other secret instructions, totally different from, and even opposite to, his
public instructions. Now of these two alternatives, the first is easily dis-
posed of. On the Consultations of the 3rd March, 1783, the appointment
of Major Browne is adverted to, and the Governor-General affirms, that the
instructions furnished him had been given with the knowledge and appro-
bation of the Council. The other members of Council present do not
deny this affirmation, and their acquiescence in it proves that it was the
truth. The instructions, when finally entered, are described as those for-
merly alluded to. Of the members present on the 6th of October, two,
Messrs. Macpherson and Stables, were present on the 3rd of March. They
must have known whether the instructions were the same as those which
they had formerly sanctioned, and if the document was false, must have
connived at the substitution — a connivance with which they were never
charged, and of which it is not probable that they could have been guilty.
The second insinuation is also disproved by the whole course of the pro-
ceedings, which were throughout in harmony with the instructions given
to Major Browne. These were of a general nature, and were designed to

C 2

20

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book yi listened to the insidious overtures of Sindia, who

CHAP. 1.

. offered him deliverance from the undutiful servants

1785.

assure Shall Alem of a disposition, sincerely entertained by Hastings cer-
tainly, and possibly by the Council, to support the Emperor against the
factious nobles of his court, ivho contended with each other for his person
and authority, and had reduced him to the lowest pitch of degradation and
distress. The agent, however, was most particularly cautioned against
committing the government by any positive engagement, as they wisely
desired, before entering into any agreement, to ascertain the real state of
parties at Delhi, and the character and the resources of the Emperor.
The question was, however, decided before Major Browne reached Delhi.
After the death of Nujuf Khan, the scenes of anarchy and violence that
ensued, and the indignity with which he was treated, made Shah Alem
turn anxiously towards the English for succour, and repeated letters arrived
from him in the early part of 1783, praying for military aid. Hastings was
inclined to give it, but all the other members at the consultation above
referred to, that of the 3rd of March, determined, that it did not appear
immediately advisable to send any forces to the assistance of the King,
which might involve the British government in fresh troubles. It was
subsequently to this, that Major Browne arrived at Delhi, and very excus-
ably compassionating the wretchedness of the Emperor, urged that prompt
and effective aid should be at once afforded. He expresses himself as if
a treaty had been set on foot, and articles proposed and accepted ; but at
the date of his letter, the 30th December, 1783, he had not been presented
to the King ; and the chief ministers, lately elevated by violence and mur-
der to their stations, were not likely to have entered into any treaty which
was to liberate Shah Alem from their control. Early in 1784, Hastings
went to Lucknow; while there, Prince Juwan Bukht, son of Shah Alem,
fled from Delhi, from the insolence of Afrasiab Khan, and sought protection
from the Vizir. Major Browne continued to recommend that military
assistance should be given to the Mogul, but now Hastings himself, although
retaining the same sentiments towards the Emperor, was satisfied that the
support of him by arms, was no longer advisable. An extract from the
Public Letter of the Bengal Government to the Court of Directors, 5th
July, 1784, will show the soundness of his views, and the utter baselessness
of the charges against him. “ In a second letter of the same date (22nd
April) the Governor-General transmitted to us several letters which he had
received from Major Browne at Delhi, strongly recommending an alliance
with his Majesty Shah Alem, together with the plan of a treaty to be
entered into, as proposed to him by Afrasiab Khan ; but the Governor-
General acquainted us at the same time, that he had given no encouragement
to Afrasiab Khan’s expectations. The reasons urged by Major Browne in
favour of this alliance, are the supposed intrigues carrying on at the Court of
Delhi, by Mahdajee Sindia, unfavourable to the interests of the Company,
and the danger of the King’s throwing himself upon the Seiks for assist-

THE MOGUL.

21

that enthralled him. Partly by intrigue, and partly BC(^I°^1VI
by force, Sindia got possession easily of the imperial

1785.

ance and protection, in case of our refusing to afford him aid in the present
distracted situation of his affairs. On the other hand, the Governor-General
stated to us such arguments as appeared to militate against the proposed
alliance. These were the dangers of converting Sindia into an enemy, by
thwarting his views, (if he had any,) at the Court of Delhi. The proba-
bility that the account of his intrigues at that Court was fabricated by
Afrasiab Khan, to suit an interested purpose — the impolicy of giving way
to hasty suspicions, and the change in his Majesty’s situation since the
month of October last, when he deemed such an interference on our part
expedient, his dominions having been since that period harassed by intes-
tine commotions, and his resources exhausted by the calamities incident to
such a situation.” The Council concurred entirely in these views, and unani-
mously determined to exhort the Governor-General to avoid most sedu-
lously and cautiously committing the Company, either as to their arms or
treasure, in his correspondence with the King. A subsequent letter from
Hastings to the Court of Directors, dated the 16th June, details all that
had occurred ; and although it still show's a leaning to the policy of inter-
fering in behalf of the unhappy old King, expresses a determination to
adhere to the instructions of the Court, and the sentiments of his colleagues.
Anticipating now, what he before evidently hesitated to believe, the inten-
tion of Sindia to interpose, he, consistently with his instructions to Colonel
Muir, remarks : — “ I consider the alliance of Mahdajee Sindia, as of such
importance to your political interests, that you may rest assured, that
neither in this nor any other instance will I suffer myself to be drawn into
any measures which shall tend to weaken this connexion.” He proceeds
to say, that he believes the intentions of Sindia are not very different from
his own wishes, and that he seeks to vindicate the authority, and protect
the life of Shah Alem. Shortly after this, Sindia avowed his purpose of
taking a part in the political agitations of Delhi, professedly in favour of
the Emperor ; and there was no longer any occasion, nor would it have been
compatible with the declared policy of the Government of Bengal, to inter-
fere. From all this the inferences are palpable. Hastings would have
stepped forward as the protector of Shah Alem, had the character and
resources of that prince encouraged him to do so, and had the resources at
his own command permitted his so doing with safety ; but when he was fully
aware of the state of affairs at Delhi, and that whatever was to be done, must
have been effected wholly at the Company’s expense — an expense to which
their finances were inadequate, as the war with Tippoo still continued, he
relinquished the enterprise — a determination confirmed by the appearance
of Sindia on the scene of action, to whom he considered it of vital im-
portance to avoid giving offence. There was nothing in this conduct that
merited censure ; he throughout kept a prudent restraint upon a generous
impulse, and ultimately sacrificed it to more emergent considerations.

22

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1785.

person, and with the imperial person, of all the pre-
tensions, and all the territories, which belonged to
the imperial throne. Nor was it long before he
manifested the value of that friendship of his to the
English, which Mr. Hastings claimed so much of
merit for maintaining. Mr. Hastings had not yet
left Calcutta, when a body of the Seiks invaded
Rohilcund ; and it was on strong grounds believed,
that they received encouragement from Sindia to the
attempt. That ambitious chief proceeded in his
plans with so much expedition, that before the end
of March he was master of Agra ; and the fort of
Ally Ghur, which could not long be defended, re-
mained, in that part of India, the only place of
strength, beyond the confines of the Vizir, which
was not in his power. He afforded protection to
Cheyte Sing, and gave him a command in his army.
He had already treated the Vizir with so little
delicacy, that nothing but the prospect of effectual
resistance, as Major Palmer and Mr. Anderson
united in representing, could be expected to restrain
him within the hounds of justice.1 What was more,
he compelled the Emperor to declare him Vicegerent
to the Mogul empire, an authority which superseded
that of the Vizir ; and consolidated in the hands of
the Mahrattas all the legal sovereignty of India.
These advantages he failed not to direct immediately

Neither was there any cause to regret the predominance of Sindia’s autho-
rity established at this period at the Court of Delhi. Whilst it lasted, it
was much more favourable to the comfort, and even the dignity, of Shah
Alem, than the power of any of the miltary adventurers, who in the usurped
character of servants, had been cruel and tyrannical masters over their
sovereign. MS. Records. See also Francklin’s Shah Aulum. — W.

1 Extracts from Papers in No. 2, vol. vii. ut supra.

THE MOGUL.

23

against the Company themselves; and incited the
Mogul to make a demand of the tribute due to him
from the English. On the charge, however, of hav-
ing connived with the designs of Sindia, Mr. Hast-
ings has the following words, ‘f I declare, that I
entered into no negotiations with Madajee Sindia for
delivering the Mogul into the hands of the Mahrattas :
but I must have been a madman indeed, if I had
involved the Company in a war with the Mahrattas,
because the Mogul, as his last resource, had thrown
himself under the protection of Madajee Sindia.”1
The question is, whether he did not more surely pre-
pare a war with the Mahrattas, by allowing Sindia
to feed his presumption and his power, with all the re-
sources and pretensions of the imperial throne.

The power of Sindia over the Mogul family was
not complete, so long as the eldest son of the
Emperor remained out of his hands. Towards the
end of March a negotiation was opened with him
by Sindia, of which the object was his return to
Delhi. The conditions offered were extremely
favourable. f‘ This convinced me,” said Major
Palmer, f{ they were insidious ; and I earnestly
recommended that the Prince should not trust to
promises ; as, without security for their performance,,
he would expose his dignity, his succession, and
even his life, to the greatest hazard.” Major Palmer
continues, “ I consider the interests of the Company,
and the Vizir, as deeply involved in the fate of the
Prince. Whilst he continues under the protection
of the Vizir and the Company, the usurpation of the

BOOK VI

CHAP. I.

1785.

1 Mr. Hastings’s Answer to the Nineteenth, Eighteenth, and Seven-
teenth Articles of Charge.

24

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK

CHaP.

1785.

1 Mahrattas must be incomplete ; but, if he should
- fall under their power, it will be perpetuated, and
the consequences of their being permanently esta-
blished in the authority of the empire, would be
truly alarming to the peace of the Vizir’s, and the
Company’s dominions.” The Major added, “ It
will not only be impracticable to withdraw the Futty
Ghur detachment, in the event of Sindia’s obtaining
a firm footing in the Dooab, which is his aim, and
which he has nearly accomplished ; but it will also
be necessary for the Vizir to maintain a respectable
body of cavalry to act with the Company’s infantry
for the protection of his dominions. And his Excel-
lency is so seriously alarmed at the growing power
of the Mahrattas in his neighbourhood, that I am
convinced he will readily adopt any practicable plan
for securing himself against the consequences of
it.” 1

The Board of Control, at the head of which was
placed Mr. Henry Dundas, had not been long in the
exercise of its functions, when it manifested pretty

' Letters from the agent in Oude, dated Lucknow, 1st April, 1785;
Extracts from Papers, ut supra. — M.

The vicissitudes of the different parties disputing for the last fragments
of the Mogul empire, were so sudden and incessant, that they baffled the
keenest political foresight. Sindia, after holding the power of prime
minister for two years, was expelled from his office by a new combination
of the Mogul chiefs. His army was defeated, and he himself obliged to
fly to his own dominions. He was succeeded by various nobles, amongst
whom was the infamous Gholam Kadir, by whom Shah Alem was deposed
and blinded. This outrage brought Sindia again to Delhi, but the conso-
lidated power of the British rendered him less formidable than he had
been. The Prince Juwan Bukht, after several vain attempts to engage the
Nawab Vizir and the British Government to aid him, and after one unsuc-
cessful effort in 1787, to re-establish himself at Delhi by force of arms,
returned to Delhi, and died suddenly in 1788. Francklin’s Shah Aulum,

BOARD OF CONTROUL.

25

clearly the ends which it was calculated to B00K y1

J CHAP. 1.

promote.

So strong a conviction was impressed upon 1785-
Englishmen, in general, of the evil resulting from
the magnitude of the debts due to British subjects
by the Nabob of the Carnatic; of the fraudulent
methods by which they had been contracted ; and of
the mischievous purposes which the Nabob pursued,
by acknowledging debts, where nothing had been
received, and nothing but a dangerous co-operation
was expected in return ; that, in every one of the
schemes which the late reformers had proposed for
the government of India, a provision had been
included, for an adjustment of those enormous and
suspicious contracts. In Mr. Dundas’s bill it was
proposed, that the Governor-General and Council
“ should take into consideration the present state of
the atfairs of the Nabob of Arcot, and inquire into
and ascertain, the origin, nature, and amount of his
just debts,” and take the most speedy and effectual
measures for discharging them. A provision to the
same effect, and couched very nearly in the self-same
words, was contained in Mr. Fox’s bill; and to
prevent the recurrence of a like evil in future, it was
declared ‘‘unlawful for any servant, civil or military,
of the Company, to be engaged in the borrowing or
lending of any money, or in any money transaction
whatsoever, with any protected or other native
prince.” The clause in Mr. Pitt’s act was in the
following words : “ Whereas very large sums of
money are claimed to be due to British subjects by

the Nabob of Arcot, be it enacted, That the

Court of Directors shall, as soon as may be, take

26

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bc°ok vi into consideration, the origin and justice of the said

demands ; and that they shall give such orders to

1785- their Presidencies and servants abroad for completing
the investigation thereof, as the nature of the case
shall require ; and for establishing, in concert with
the Nabob, such fund, for the discharge of those
debts which shall appear to be justly due, as shall
appear consistent with the rights of the Company,
the security of the creditors, and the honour and
dignity of the said Nabob.”

The Directors, from the words of this enactment,
concluded, as anybody would conclude, that this
inquiry, respecting these alleged debts, was a trust,
expressly and exclusively devolved upon them ; and
that an inquiry into “ the origin and justice of the
said demands” implied (what was absolutely neces-
sary to the end which seemed to be proposed, the
separation of the false from the true) that scrutiny
should be made into each particular case. They
proceeded to the fulfilment of the obligations, which
this enactment seemed to lay upon them ; drew up
a set of instructions for their Presidencies and
servants abroad; and transmitted them for appro-
bation to the Board of Control.

They were not a little surprised to find the Board
of Control take the whole business out of their
hands. The Board of Control thought proper to
divide the debts of the Nabob into three classes;

1. A class consolidated, as it was called, in the year
1767, constituting what it called the loan of 1767 ;

2. A class contracted for paying the arrears of
certain cavalry discharged in 1777, which it called
the cavalry loan ; 3. Another class, which it called

NABOB OF ARGOTS DEBTS.

27

the consolidated debt of 1777.1 And it ordered, book vi

CHAP. 1.

that all these three classes should be discharged,

without any inquiry. 1785-

As it was only by degrees that funds for that dis-
charge could arise ; and twelve lacs annually were
set apart for that purpose ; the following order was
prescribed: That the debt consolidated in 1767 be
made up to the end of the year 1784 with the
current interest at ten per cent. ; the cavalry loan
made up 2 to the same period with the current interest
at twelve per cent. ; the debt consolidated in 1777
made up to the same period with the current interest
at twelve per cent, to November, 1781, and from
thence with the current interest at six per cent. :

That the annual twelve lacs should be applied ; 1 .

To the growing interest on the cavalry loan at twelve
per cent. ; 2. To the growing interest on the debt of
1777 at six per cent. ; 3. Of the remainder, one-half
to the payment of the growing interest, and liquida-
tion of the principal of the loan of 1767, the other
half to the liquidation of the debt which the Nabob,
beside his debt to individuals, owed to the Company:

That when the loan of 1767 should thus be dis-
charged, the twelve lacs should be applied; 1. To
the growing interest of the loan of 1777 ; 2. Of the
remainder, one-half to pay the interest and liquidate
the principal of the cavalry loan, the other half to the
liqudation of the debt to the Company : That when
the cavalry loan should thus be discharged, the

1 This classification seems to have been adopted from a pamphlet
entitled “ A clear and candid exposition of the origin, progress, and state of
the several loans made to Mohammed Ally Khan, from 1760 to 1777.”— W.

2 “ Made up," means augmented by the addition of interest due.

28

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bch i 1 twe^ve ^acs should be applied, in the proportion of

five lacs to the interest and principal of the loan of

i/85. 1 777, seven lacs to the debt due to the Company:

and lastly, when the debt to the Company should
thus be discharged, that the whole of the twelve
lacs should go to the extinction of the debt of 1777.

The Directors remonstrated, but very humbly.
“ My Lords and Gentlemen, It is with extreme con-
cern that we express a difference of opinion with your
Right Honourable Board, in this early exercise of
your controlling power ; but, in so novel an institution
it can scarce be thought extraordinary, if the exact
boundaries of our respective functions and duties
should not at once, on either side, be precisely and
familiarly understood, and therefore confide in your
justice and candour for believing that we have no
wish to evade or frustrate the salutary purposes of
your institution, as wre on our part are thoroughly
satisfied that you have no wish to encroach on the
legal powers of the East India Company ; we shall
proceed to state our objections to such of the amend-
ments as appear to us to be either insufficient, inex-
pedient, or unwarranted.” And under the head of,
private debts of the Nabob of Arcot, “ You are
pleased,” they say, “ to substantiate at once the justice
of all those demands which the act requires us to
investigate.” After “ submitting,” which is all that
they presume to do, “ to the consideration” of the
Board, whether “ the express direction of the act, to
examine the nature and origin of the debts,” had thus
been “ complied with and likewise “ submitting,”
whether inquiry could have done any harm ; they
add, “ But to your appropriation of the fund, our duty

NABOB OF ARCOT’S DEBTS.

29

requires that we should state our strongest dissent. book ^ 1

Our right to be paid the arrears of those expenses by

which, almost to our own ruin, we have preserved 1785-
the country, and all the property connected with it,
from falling a prey to a foreign conqueror, surely
stands paramount to all claims, for former debts,
upon the revenues of a country so preserved, even if
the legislature had not expressly limited the assist-
ance to be given to private creditors to be such as
should be consistent with our rights. The Nabob
had, long before passing the act, by treaty with our
Bengal government, agreed to pay us seven lacs of
pagodas, as part of the twelve lacs, in liquidation of
those arrears ; of which seven lacs the arrangement
you have been pleased to lay down would take away
from us more than the half and give it to private
creditors, of whose demands there are only about a
sixth part which do not stand in a predicament that
you declare would not entitle them to any aid or
protection from us in the recovery thereof, were it
not upon grounds of expediency. Until our debt
shall be discharged, we can by no means consent to
give up any part of the seven lacs to the private
creditors.”1

The correspondence upon this subject between the
Court of Directors and the Board of Control passed
during the months of October and November in the
year 1784. The Board of Control persisted in the
plan which it had originally adopted. And on the
28th of February, 1785, it was moved by Mr. Fox,
in the House of Commons, that the directions which

1 Beside the Parliamentary Papers, these documents are found in the
Appendix to Burke’s speech on the Nabob of Arcot’s Debts.

30

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 1

1785.

had in consequence been transmitted to India, should
he laid before the House. A vehement debate ensued,
in which Mr. Burke delivered that celebrated speech,
which he afterwards published, under the title of
“ Mr. Burke’s Speech on the Motion made for Papers
relative to the Directions for charging the Nabob of
Arcot’s Private Debts to Europeans on the Revenues
of the Carnatic.” Mr. Dundas defended the Board
of Control: By showing that, whatever might be the
natural and obvious meaning of the words of the le-
gislature commanding inquiry, and committing that
inquiry to the Court of Directors ; it was yet very
possible for the strong party to torture them into a
meaning, which enabled the strong party to do what
it pleased: By asserting that the Directors had suf-
ficient materials in the India House, for deciding
upon all three classes of debts ; though the opinion of
the Directors themselves was precisely the reverse :
By observing, that, if any improper claim under any
of the three classes was preferred, it was open to the
Nabob, to the Company, and to the other creditors, to
object. The only object, which, as far as can be
gathered from the report of his speech, he held forth
as about to be gained, by superseding that inquiry,
which all men, but himself and his majority in parlia-
ment, would have concluded to be the command of
the legislature, was, that this measure would not leave
“ the Nabob an opportunity to plead in excuse for
not keeping his payments to the Company, that he
was harassed by the applications of his private
creditors.”1

1 How wretched his foresight, if he really was sincere in this opinion,
and how little he was capable of calculating the effects of his own mea-

PARLIAMENTARY INFLUENCE.

31

Mr. Burke took a very extensive view of theB00K,VI

. . CHAP. 1.

Indian policy of the ministers. The most curious

and important part of his speech ; and that is im- l785-
portant indeed ; is the part, where he undertakes to
show what was the real motive, for superseding that
inquiry which was called for by the legislature, and
for deciding at once, and in the lump, upon a large
amount of suspicious and more than suspicious de-
mands. The motive, which he affirms, and in support
of which he adduces as great a body of proof as it is
almost ever possible to bring, to a fact of such a de-
scription (facts of that description, though of the
highest order of importance, are too apt to exhibit
few of those marks which are commonly relied upon
as matter of evidence), was no other than that
baneful source of all our misgovernment, and almost
all our misery, Parliamentary Influence. It was to
hold the corrupt benefit of a large parliamentary in-
terest, created by the creditors and creatures, fraudu-
lent and not fraudulent, of the Nabob of Arcot, that,
according to Mr. Burke, the ministry of 1784 decided
they should all, whether fraudulent or not fraudulent,
receive their demands. “ Paul Benfield is the grand

sures, soon appeared by tbe event. “ The actual loss,” says Mr. Hume,
“by this proceeding of the Board of Control is not limited to the large
sum -which has been paid : for the knowledge of the fact, that Mr. Dundas
had in that manner admitted, without any kind of inquiry, the whole
claims of the consolidated debt of 1777, served as a strong inducement to
others, to get from the Nabob obligations or bonds of any description, in
hopes that some future good-natured President of the Board of Control
would do the same for them. We accordingly find that an enormous debt
of near thirty millions sterling was very soon formed after that act of
Mr. Dundas, and urgent applications were soon again made to have the
claims paid in the same manner.” Speech of Joseph Hume, Esq. at a
general Court of Proprietors at the East India House, on the 9th of June,
1814, p. 23.

32

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1.

1785.

1 parliamentary reformer. What region in the empire,
- what city, what borough, what county, what tribunal
in this kingdom, is not full of his labours. In order
to station a steady phalanx for all future reforms, this
public-spirited usurer, amidst his charitable toils for
the relief of India, did not forget the poor rotten con-
stitution of his native country. For her, he did not
disdain to stoop to the trade of a wholesale upholsterer
for this house, to furnish it, not with the faded
tapestry figures of antiquated merit, such as decorate,
and may reproach, some other houses, but with real
solid, living patterns of true modern virtue. Paul
Benfield made (reckoning himself) no fewer than
eight members in the last parliament. What copious
streams of pure blood must he not have transfused
into the veins of the present!"

But the occasions of Mr. Benfield had called him
to India. “ It was therefore,” continues Mr. Burke,
“ not possible for the minister to consult personally
with this great man. What then was he to do %
Through a sagacity that never failed him in these
pursuits, he found out in Mr. Benfield’s representa-
tive his exact resemblance. A specific attraction, by
which he gravitates towards all such characters, soon
brought our minister into a close connexion with Mr.
Benfield’s agent and attorney; that is, with the grand
contractor (whom I name to honour) Mr. Bichard
Atkinson; a name that will be well remembered as long
as the records of this house, as long as the records
of the British treasury, as long as the monumental
debt of England, shall endure! This gentleman, Sir,
acts as attorney for Mr. Paul Benfield. Every one
who hears me is well acquainted with the sacred

PARLIAMENTARY INFLUENCE.

33

friendship and the mutual attachment that subsist vi

between him and the present minister. As many

members as chose to attend in the first session of this 1'85-
parliament can best tell their own feelings at the
scenes which were then acted.” After representing
this Atkinson, as the man whose will directed in
framing the articles of Mr. Pitt’s East India Bill,

Mr. Burke proceeds : “But it was necessary to
authenticate the coalition between the men of In-
trigue in India, and the minister of Intrigue in Eng-
land, by a studied display of the power of this their
connecting link. Every trust, every honour, every
distinction was to be heaped upon him. He wTas at
once made a Director of the India Company ; made
an Alderman of London ; and to be made, if ministry
could prevail (and I am sorry to say how near, how
very near they were to prevailing), representative of
the capital of this kingdom. But to secure his ser-
vices against all risk, he was brought in for a minis-
terial borough. On his part he was not wanting in
zeal for the common cause. His advertisements
show his motives, and the merits upon which he
stood. For your minister, this worn-out veteran sub-
mitted to enter into the dusty field of the London
contest ; and you all remember that in the same
virtuous cause, he submitted to keep a sort of public
office, or counting-house, where the whole business
of the last general election was managed. It was
openly managed, by the direct agent and attorney of
Benfield. It was managed upon Indian principles,
and for an Indian interest. This was the golden
cup of abominations ; this the chalice of the fornica-
tions of rapine, usury, and oppression, which was
VOL. V.

D

34

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

^ r held out by the gorgeous Eastern harlot; which so

• many of the people, so many of the nobles of this

1785' land, had drained to the very dregs. Do you think
that no reckoning was to follow this lewd debauch?
that no payment was to be demanded for this riot of
public drunkenness, and national prostitution ? Here !
you have it, here before you. The principal of the
grand election manager must be indemnified. Ac-
cordingly the claims of Benfield and his crew must
be put above all inquiry.”

This is a picture! It concerns my countrymen to
contemplate well the features of it. I care not to
what degree it may please any one to say that it is
not a likeness of the group that sat for it. To me
it is alone of importance to know, that, if it presents
not an individual, it presents, and with consummate
fidelity, a family likeness ; that it represents the
tribe ; that such scenes, and such exactly, were sure
to be acted, by the union between Indian influence
and parliamentary influence ; that such was sure to
be the game, which would be played into one
another’s hands, by Indian corruption, and parlia-
mentary corruption, the moment a proper channel of
communication was opened between them.

The points to which Mr. Burke adverts in the next
place, are of a more tangible nature. “ Benfield,” he
says, “for several years appeared as the chief pro-
prietor, as well as the chief agent, director, and con-
troller of this system of debt. My best information
goes to fix his share at 400,000/. By the scheme of
the present ministry for adding interest to the
principal, that smallest of the sums ever mentioned
for Mr. Benfield will form a capital of 592,000/., at

PARLIAMENTARY INFLUENCE.

35

six per cent, interest. Benfield has thus received, book vi

... . CHAP. 1.

by the ministerial grant before you, an annuity of

35,520 1. a year, charged on the public revenues.”1 1785-
After several other remarks on the proceedings of
Benfield, he thus sums up; “I have laid before you,

Mr. Speaker, I think with sufficient clearness, the
connexion of ministers with Mr. Atkinson at the ge-
neral election; I have laid open to you the connexion
of Atkinson with Benfield ; I have shown Benfield’s
employment of his wealth in creating a parliamentary
interest to procure a ministerial protection ; I have
set before your eyes his large concern in the debt,
his practices to hide that concern from the public
eye ; and the liberal protection which he has received
from the minister. If this chain of circumstances do
not lead you necessarily to conclude that the minis-
ter has paid to the avarice of Benfield the services
done by Benfield’s connexion to his ambition, I do not
know any thing short of the confession of the party
that can persuade you of his guilt. Clandestine and
collusive practice can only be traced by combination

1 Mr. Hume applied to the Directors in 1814, for information relative
to the money which had been paid by the Company, under this decision
of the Board of Control ; also for a copy of the instructions which the
Directors proposed to send out to the Presidency for separating the true
from the fraudulent debts, and which instructions the Board of Control
superseded. In both instances the application was unsuccessful ; and
Mr. Hume, from the best information he could obtain, places the amount
at nearly 5,000,000/. “ These claims,” he says, “for what was called the

consolidated debt of 1777, ‘of which the Directors had never heard until
1776, and had never been able to obtain any satisfactory information,’
amounted, with high interest made up to the end of 1784, to the sum of
54,98,500 pagodas, or 2,199,400/. : and, agreeably to the orders of the
Board of Control sent out at that and subsequent periods, the total had
been paid in 1804, with nearly twenty years’ interest, amounting in the
whole to near five millions sterling.” Speech, ut supra, p. 22.

D 2

36

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1.

1785.

1 and comparison of circumstances. To reject such
-combination and comparison is to reject the only
means of detecting fraud ; it is indeed to give it a
patent, and free license, to cheat with impunity. I
confine myself to the connexion of ministers mediately
or immediately with only two persons concerned in
this debt. How many others, who support their
power and greatness within and without doors, are
concerned originally, or by transfers of these debts,
must be left to general opinion. I refer to the Re-
ports of the Select Committee for the proceedings of
some of the agents in these affairs, and their attempts,
at least, to furnish ministers with the means of buy-
ing general courts, and even whole parliaments, in
the gross.”1

In what proportion these ancient debts were false,
and either collusive or forged, we have, as far as they
were exempted from inquiry, no direct means of
knowing. If a rule may be taken from those of a
more modern date, when suspicion was more awake,
and after all the checks of Mr. Dundas and his
successors had been applied, it will be concluded
that few were otherwise. The commissioners, who
were appointed in the year 1805, to decide upon the
claims of the private creditors of the Nabob of
Arcot, had, in the month of November, 1814, per-
formed adjudication on claims to the amount of
20,390,570?., of which only 1,346,796?. were allowed
as good, 19,043,774?. were rejected as bad; in other
words, one part in twenty was all that could be
regarded as true and lawful debt.2

1 Second Report of Select Committee, 1781.

1 See Tenth Report of Commissioners, the last which has yet come to

BOARD OF CONTROL.

37

Mr. Dundas assumed that he had done enough, B00K y1

when he allowed the Nabob, the Company, and

other creditors to object. That this was a blind, is 1785-
abundantly clear ; though it is possible that it stood
as much between his own eyes and the light, as he
was desirous of putting it between the light and eyes
of other people. Where was the use of a power
given to the Nabob to object? The Nabob was
one of the fraudulent parties. Or to the creditors
to object ? of whom the greater number had an
interest in conniving at others, in order that others
might connive at them. Or to the Company to
object? The Company was not there to object:

And the servants of the Company were the creditors
themselves.

It was not thus decided, by the parties on whom
the power of decision depended, when the commis-
sioners for adjudication on the debts of the Nabob

my hand, p. 469. Mr. Hume says, “ The claims which formed the conso.
lidated debt of 1777, amounting to 2,199,4007. were considered equally
objectionable in 1774, as these new claims in 1806 ; and if Mr. Dundas had
permitted a proper inquiry to be instituted in 1785, as the act of 24 Geo.
Ill, directed, there is every reason to conclude that a much larger propor-
tion of the old than the new debt would have been rejected We

are fully warranted in drawing the above conclusion, as the Court of
Directors, and all the Governors in India, had invariably declared these
claims of 1777 to be shameful, and such as could not bear the light. And, in
1781, the claimants had so bad an opinion of their right to the whole, that
they made a voluntary offer to the government in Bengal to take off one
fourth from the amount of their claims, and to agree to any kind of settle-
ment, without interest, if the Company would but sanction their title to the
remainder. There is also very little doubt, I think, but that the debt of
1767, and also the cavalry debt, if properly examined, would have turned
out very objectionable. And it was the duty of Mr. Dundas to have
ordered the necessary inquiry into the justice of the whole, agreeably to
Mr. Pitt’s bill, which made no distinction in the debts of 1767 and 1777.”
Speech, ut supra, p. 24, 25.

38

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

ROOK V

CHAP. 1.

1785.

were appointed in 1805. It was not accounted
wisdom, then, to approve of all in the lump, and
only allow the power of objection. It was thought
necessary to inquire; and to perform adjudication,
after inquiry, upon each particular case. The con-
sequence is, as above disclosed, that one part in
twenty, in a mass of claims exceeding twenty
millions sterling, is all that is honest and true.

In this imputed collusion between the ministry
and the creditors of the Nabob, it was not insinuated
that the ministers had taken money for the favour
which they had shown. Upon this Mr. Burke
makes a remark, which is of the very highest
importance. “ I know that the ministers,” says he,
“ will think it little less than acquittal, that they are
not charged with having taken to themselves some
part of the money of which they have made so liberal
a donation to their partisans. If I am to speak my
private sentiments, I think, that in a thousand cases
for one, it would be far less mischievous to the public
(and full as little dishonourable to themselves), to be
polluted with direct bribery, than thus to become a
standing auxiliary to the oppression, usury, and
peculation of multitudes, in order to obtain a corrupt
support to their power. It is by bribing; not so
often by being bribed ; that wicked politicians bring
ruin on mankind. Avarice is a rival to the pursuits
of many ; it finds a multitude of checks and many
opposers in every walk of life. But the objects of
ambition are for the few : And every person who
aims at indirect profit; and therefore wants other
protection than innocence and law ; instead of its
rival becomes its instrument; There is a natural

BOARD OF CONTROL.

39

allegiance and fealty due to this domineering para-
mount evil from all the vassal vices ; which acknow-
ledge its superiority, and readily militate under its
banners ; and it is under that discipline alone, that
avarice is able to spread to any considerable extent,
or to render itself a general public mischief. It is,
therefore, no apology for ministers, that they have
not been bought by the East India delinquents ;
that they have only formed an alliance with them,
for screening each other from justice, according to
the exigence of their several necessities. That they
have done so is evident: and the junction of the
power of office in England, with the abuse of autho-
rity in the East, has not only prevented even the
appearance of redress to the grievances of India, but
I wish it may not be found to have dulled, if not
extinguished, the honour, the candour, the generosity,
the good-nature, which used formerly to characterize
the people of England.”

In October, 1784, the Directors appointed Mr.
Holland, an old servant, on the Madras establish-
ment, to succeed eventually to the government of
Fort St. George, upon the resignation, death or
removal of Lord Macartney. The Board of Control
disapprove the choice ; not as wrong in itself, but
“ open to plausible misrepresentation.” The Direc-
tors not only persist in their appointment, but
proceed so far as to say, that the Board are interfering
in matters “ to which their control professedly does
not extend.” The conduct of the Board of Control
is characteristic. “ If the reasons,” say they, “which
we have adduced, do not satisfy the Court of
Directors, we have certainly no right to control their

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1785.

40

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1.

1785.

1 opinion." Mr. Holland, however, is informed, that
- the moment he arrives in India, he will be re-called.
This terminates the dispute ; and Sir Archibald
Campbell, a friend of Mr. Dundas, is nominated in
his stead.

According to the very force of the term, the
operation of control is subsequent, not precedent.
Before you can control, there must be something to
he controlled. Something to he controlled must be
something either done or proposed. The subsequent
part of transactions by no means satisfied the new
organ of government for the East Indies, the Board
of Control. Without an interval of reserve, the
Board took upon itself to originate almost every
measure of importance.

Intimately connected with its proceedings relative
to the debts of the Nabob of the Carnatic, was the
resolution formed by the Board of Control with
respect to the revenues. The assignment had been
adopted by the government of Madras, and approved
by the Court of Directors, upon the maturest expe-
rience ; as the only means of obtaining either the
large balances which were due to the Company, or of
preventing that dissipation of the revenue, and
impoverishment of the country, by misrule, which
rendered its resources unavailable to its defence,
involved the Company in pecuniary distress, and
exposed them continually to dangers of the greatest
magnitude.

The same parties, however, whose interests were
concerned in the affair of the debts, had an interest,
no less decisive, in the restoration to the Nabob of
the collection and disbursement of the revenues ;

BOARD OF CONTROL.

41

from which so many showers of emolument fell book vi

J # # CHAP. 1.

upon those who had the vices requisite for standing

under them. The same influence which was 1785-
effectual for the payment of the debts was effectual
also for the restoration of the revenues. The Board
of Control decreed that the revenues should be
restored; for the purpose, the Board declared, of
giving to all the powers of India, a strong proof of
the national faith.

The order for the restitution of the assignment,
and the notification of the appointment of a successor,
were received by Lord Macartney at the same time.

The appointment of a successor he had solicited.

The overthrow of his favourite measure, from a full
knowledge of the interests wThich were united, and
at work, he was led to expect. “ Well apprized,”
he said, “ of the Nabob’s extensive influence, and of
the ability, industry, and vigilance of his agents, and
observing a concurrence of many other circum-
stances, I was not without apprehensions, that,
before the government of Madras could have timely
notice of the train, the assignment might be blown
up at home ; the sudden shock of which, I knew,
must almost instantly overthrow the Company in the
Carnatic. I, therefore, employed myself most assi-
duously, in making preparations, to mitigate the
mischief ; and by degrees collected and stored up all
the money that it was possible to reserve with safety
from other services and demands ; so that when the
explosion hurst upon us, I had provided an unex-
pected mass, of little less than thirteen lacs of
rupees, to resist its first violence.”1

1 Letter from Lord Macartney to the Committee of Secrecy of the Court

42

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

i 1 conformity with his declared determination,

not to be accessary to a measure which he regarded

1785' as teeming with mischief, or a witness to the triumph
of those whose cupidity he had restrained,1 Lord
Macartney chose not to hold any longer the reins of
government. But one attempt he thought proper to
make ; which was, to return to England by way of
Bengal ; and endeavour to convey to the Supreme
Board so correct a notion of the evils to which the
recent instructions from home were likely to give
birth, as might induce them to delay the execution
of those orders, or at least exert themselves to
prevent as far as possible their pernicious effects.
In less than a week, after receiving the despatches
from England, he embarked, and arrived about the
middle of June at Calcutta. The Governor-General
and Council were too conscious of their own pre-

of Directors, dated Calcutta, 27th July, 1785. How much Lord Macartney
and his Council agreed with Mr. Burke, respecting the springs which in all
these transactions moved the machinery, still further appears from the fol-
lowing words : “ The Ameer al Omrah and Mr. Benfield were well known
to each other; mutual esteem did not appear to attract them to each
other ; hut as soon as the objects of their antipathies were the same,
they united at once. In this partnership, Mr. Benfield has brought
his knowledge of ministers, his interest in parliament, to the former
experience of his successful intrigues upon the spot.” Copy of Letter
from the Government of Fort St. George to that of Bengal, dated 28th
May, 1783.

1 “ I considered the assignment as the rock of your strength in the
Carnatic, and therefore had guarded it with vigilance against the assaults
of the Durbar and the menaces of Bengal. It had contributed largely to
your support through the war, and might have secured the stability of
your commerce and dominion on the coast. Dus aliter visum est !

I had long since expressed my hope of not being made a witness or an
accessary to a premature surrender of it ; and indeed no man could be less
properly qualified on such an occasion than myself, being personally dis-
agreeable to the Durbar, and from my knowledge of their duplicity,
disaffection, and politics, totally unqualified for any negotiation that
required the slightest degree of confidence to be reposed in them.” Letter
to the Secret Committee, 27th July, 1785.

LORD MACARTNEY.

43

carious and dependent situation, to risk the appear-
ance of disobedience to an order, regarding what
they might suppose a favourite scheme of the Board
of Control. Lord Macartney, therefore, was disap-
pointed in his expectation, of obtaining through
them, a delay of the embarrassments which the
surrender of the revenues would produce. He had
indulged, however, another hope. If the resources
of the Carnatic were snatched from the necessities of
the Madras government, he believed that the want
might he supplied by the surplus revenues of Bengal.
“ I had long before,” he says, in a letter to the
Secret Committee of Directors, “ been so much
enlivened (and your Honourable House was, no
doubt, enlivened also) by the happy prospects
held out in the late Governor-General’s letter to you
of the 16th of December, 1783, published in several
newspapers both foreign and domestic, that I
flattered myself with hopes of finding such resources
in Bengal alone, as might relieve any exigency or
distress in the rest of India, resulting from a loss
of the assignment, or from other misfortunes; but
in the range of my inquiries, no distinct traces were
to he discovered of these prognosticated funds. I
had, it seems, formed a visionary estimate; the
reality disappeared like a phantom on the approach
of experiment, and I looked here for it in vain.
The government declared themselves strangers to
Mr. Hastings’s letter, and indicated not a few
symptoms of their own necessities.” 1

They, accordingly, assured Lord Macartney, “ that

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1785.

Letter to tire Secret Committee, '27th July, 1785.

44

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

-- jVI the exhausted state of the finances of the Bengal

government would not admit of any extraordinary

1/85' and continued aid to Fort St. George;”1 expressing
at the same time their desire to contribute what
assistance was in their power to relieve the distress,
which the loss of the revenues, they acknowledged,
must produce.2

A dangerous illness prolonged the stay of Lord
Macartney at Calcutta, and previous to his departure,
he received a despatch from the Court of Directors,
in which was announced to him his appointment to
be Governor-General of Bengal. After his removal
from the Government, after the subversion of his
favourite plans at Madras ; an appointment, almost
immediate, and without solicitation, to the highest
station in the government of India, is not the clearest
proof of systematic plans, and correspondent execu-
tion. The motives, at the same time, appear to have
been more than usually honourable and pure. Though
Lord Macartney, from the praises which Mr. Fox
and his party had bestowed upon him in Parliament,
might have been suspected of views in conformity
with theirs ; though he had no connexion with the
existing administration which could render it per-
sonally desirable to promote him ; though the Board
of Control had even entered upon the examination of
the differences between him and Mr. Hastings, with
minds unfavourably disposed, the examination im-
pressed the mind of Mr. Dundas with so strong an

1 Barrow’s Life of Lord Macartney, i. 282.

2 The conduct of Lord Macartney in this important business is dis-
played in a series of official documents, entitled, “ Papers relating to the
affairs of the Carnatic,” vol. ii., printed by order of the House of Com-
mons in 1803.

LORD MACARTNEY APPOINTED GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

45

idea of the merit of that Lord’s administration, B00K VI

7 CHAP. 1.

that he induced Mr. Pitt to concur with him in

recommending Lord Macartney to the Court of Di- 1785
rectors, that is, in appointing him Governor-General
of Bengal.

The gratification offered to those powerful passions,
the objects of which are wealth and power, had not
so great an ascendency over the mind of Lord Ma-
cartney, as to render him insensible to other con-
siderations. His health required a season of repose,
and the salutary influence of his native climate. The
state of the government in India was such as to
demand reforms ; reforms, without which the admi-
nistration could not indeed he successful ; but which
he was not sure of obtaining power to effect. The
members of the Bengal administration had been
leagued with Mr. Hastings in opposing and under-
valuing his government at Madras ; and peculiar ob-
jections applied to any thought of co-operation with
the person who was left by Mr. Hastings at its
head.1 He resolved, therefore, to decline the ap-

1 This assumption -which is gratuitous, is quite at variance -with the
language of repeated letters from Lord Macartney to Sir John Macpherson.
On the 3rd January, 1782, he writes, “ Let me now thank you for your
kindness in telling me what appears to you amiss in my conduct; you have
acted like a true friend, and I shall ever remember it with gratitude as
long as I live.” On the 20th, he resumes, “ In all the parts of the world
I have been in, and of the various men I have transacted business with, I
must say, I never was better pleased with any man than yourself. There
is no pleasure equal to the sympathy of friends.” The only event that
could have disturbed this cordiality, the restoration of the assigned terri-
tory to the Nabob of Arcot was the act of the Court of Directors, not of Mr.
Macpherson, although it had his concurrence. This difference of opinion
was scarcely sufficient to have cancelled a gratitude which Lord Macartney
had professed should end only with his life. There is no reason to believe
that Lord Macartney entertained any peculiar objection to a co-operation
with his former friend. Case of Sir John Macpherson, 5, 6. — W.

46

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. ] .

1785.

1 pointment ; at least for a season, till a visit to
_ England should enable him to determine, by con-
ference with ministers and directors, the arrange-
ments which he might have it in his power to effect.

He arrived in England on the 9th of January,
1786, and on the 13th had a conference with the
chairman, and deputy chairman, of the Court of Di-
rectors. The regulations on which he insisted, as
of peculiar necessity for the more successful govern-
ment of India, were two. The entire dependence of
the military upon the civil power he represented, as
not only recommended by the most obvious dictates
of reason, hut conformable to the practice of the
English government in all its other dependencies, and
even to that of the East India Company, previous to
the instructions of 1774 ; instructions which were
framed on the spur of the occasion, and created two
independent powers in the same administration.
Secondly, a too rigid adherence to the rule of se-
niority in filling the more important departments of
the State, or even to that of confiding the choice to
the Company’s servants, was attended, he affirmed,
with the greatest inconveniences ; deprived the go-
vernment of the inestimable use of talents ; lessened
the motives to meritorious exertion among the serv-
ants ; and fostered a spirit, most injurious to the
government, of independence and disobedience as
towards its head. With proper regulations in these
particulars ; a power of deciding against the opinion
of the Council ; and such changes among the higher
servants, as were required by the particular circum-
stances of the present case, he conceived that he
might, but without them, he could not, accept of the

LORD MACARTNEY’S DEMANDS.

47

government of India, with hopes of usefulness to his book ^

country, or honour to himself.

A minute of this conversation was transmitted 1785-
by the Chairs to the Board of Control ; and on the
20th of F ebruary , Lord Macartney met Mr. Dundas,
and Mr. Pitt. Even since his arrival, Mr. Pitt, in
answer to an attack by Mr. Fox, upon the incon-
sistency of appointing that nobleman to the chief
station in the Indian government almost at the very
moment when his principal measure had been re-
versed, had been called forth to pronounce a warm
panegyric upon Lord Macartney ; and to declare that,
with the exception of that one arrangement, his
conduct in his government had merited all the praise
which language could bestow ; and pointed him out
as a most eligible choice for the still more important
trust of Governor-General of Bengal. To the new
regulations or reforms, proposed by Lord Macartney,

Mr. Pitt gave a sort of general approbation ; but
with considerable latitude, in regard to the mode and
time of alteration. Lord Macartney remarked, that
what he had observed in England had rather in-
creased, than diminished, the estimate which he
had formed of the support which would he necessary
to counteract the opposition, which, both at home
and abroad, he was sure to experience ; and he
pointed in direct terms to what he saw of the enmity
of Mr. Hastings, the influence which he retained
among both those who were, and those who had
been the servants of the Company, as well as the
influence which arose from the opinion of the favour
borne to him by some of those persons who were
high in the administration. His opinion was, that

48

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1785.

some distinguished mark of favour, which would
impose in some degree upon minds that were ad-
versely disposed, and proclaim to all, the power with
which he might expect to he supported, was neces-
sary to encounter the difficulties with which he
would have to contend. He alluded to a British
peerage, to which, even on other grounds, he con-
ceived that he was not without a claim.

No further communication was vouchsafed to Lord
Macartney ; and in three days after this conversation
he learned, that Lord Cornwallis was appointed
Governor-General of Bengal. The appointment of
Lord Macartney was opposed by several members of
the administration, among others the Chancellor
Thurlow, whose impetuosity gave weight to his opi-
nions ; it was also odious to all those among the East
India Directors and Proprietors, who were the parti-
sans either of Hastings or Macpherson. “ When,
therefore,” says a letter of Lord Melville, “ against
such an accumulation of discontent and opposition,
Mr. Pitt was induced by me to concur in the return
of Lord Macartney to India, as Governor- General,
it was not unnatural that both of us should have felt
hurt, that he did not rather repose his future fortune
in our hands, than make it the subject of a sine qua
non preliminary. And I think if Lord Macartney
had known us as well then as he did afterwards, he
would have felt as we did.” These were the private
grounds : As public ones, the same letter states, that
the precedent was disapproved of indicating to the
world that a premium was necessary to induce per-
sons of consideration in England to accept the office
of Governor-General in India, at the very moment

PARTIES IN PARLIAMENT.

49

when the resolution was taken of not confining the

high situations in India to the servants of the Com

pany.1 1785-

We have now arrived at the period of another
parliamentary proceeding, which excited attention by
its pomp, and by the influence upon the public mind
of those whose interests it affected, much more than
by any material change which it either produced, or
was calculated to produce, upon the state of affairs
in India. In a history of those affairs, a very con-
tracted summary of the voluminous records which are
left of it, is all for which a place can be usefully
found.

The parties into which parliament wTas now di-
vided ; the ministerial, headed by Mr. Pitt ; and that
of the opposition, by Mr. F ox ; had, both, at a preced-
ing period, found it their interest to arraign the
government in India. The interest of the party in
opposition remained, in this respect, the same as
before. That of the ministry was altogether
changed. It appeared to those whose interest it
still was to arraign the government in India, that
the most convenient form the attack could assume
was that of an accusation of Mr. Hastings. The
ministry had many reasons to dislike the scrutiny
into which such a measure would lead. But they
were too far committed, by the violent censures which
they had formerly pronounced, to render it expedient
for them to oppose it. Their policy was, to gain
credit by an appearance of consent, and to secure
their own objects, as far as it might be done, under

' Letter from Lord Melville, in Barrow’s Macartney, i. 330.

VOL. V. E

50

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Boii°v^ I1 sPeci°us pretences, during the course of the pro-
ceedings.

178G- The vehement struggles of the parliamentary
parties had prevented them, during the year 1784,
from following up by any correspondent measure the
violent censures which had fallen upon the administra-
tion of India. The preceding threats of Mr. Burke
received a more determinate character, when he gave
notice on the 20th of June, 1785, “ That if no other
gentleman would undertake the business, he w: ould,
at a future day, make a motion respecting the con-
duct of a gentleman just returned from India.” On
the first day of the following session, he was called
upon by Major Scott, who had acted in the avowed
capacity of the agent of Mr. Hastings, to produce
his charges, and commit the subject to investigation.
On the 18th of February, 1786, he gave commence-
ment to the undertaking, by a motion for a variety
of papers ; and a debate of great length ensued,
more remarkable for the criminations, with which
the leaders of the two parties appeared desirous of
aspersing one another, than for any fight which it
threw upon the subjects in dispute

Mr. Burke began his speech, by requiring that the
Journals of the House should be opened, and that the
44th and 45th of that series of resolutions, which
Mr. Dundas had moved, and the House adopted on
the 29th of May, 1782, should be read : “ I. That, —
for the purpose of conveying entire conviction to the
minds of the native princes, that to commence hostili-
ties, without just provocation, against them, and to
pursue schemes of conquest and extent of dominion,
are measures repugnant to the wish, the honour, and

THE WHIG PARTY ACCUSE HASTINGS. 51

the policy of this nation — the parliament of Great

Britain should give some signal mark of its displea-

sure against those, (in whatever degree intrusted 178G-
with the charge of the East India Company’s affairs,)
who shall appear wilfully to have adopted, or coun-
tenanced, a system, tending to inspire a reasonable
distrust of the moderation, justice, and good faith of
the British nation : — 2. That Warren Hastings, Esq.
Governor-General of Bengal, and William Hornby,

Esq. President of the Council at Bombay, having in
sundry instances acted in a manner repugnant to the
honour and policy of this nation, and thereby
brought great calamities on India, and enormous
expenses on the East India Company, it is the duty
of the Directors of the said Company, to pursue all
legal and effectual means for the removal of the said
Governor-General and President from their respec-
tive offices, and to recall them to Great Britain.”

After Mr. Burke had remarked that the present task
would better have become the author of these resolu-
tions than himself, he vented his sarcasms on a zeal
against Indian delinquency, which was put on, or
put off, according as convenience suggested; ex-
hibited a short history of the notice which parlia-
ment had taken of Indian affairs ; and, in the next
place, adduced the considerations which, at the pre-
sent moment, appeared to call upon the House to
institute penal proceedings. It then remained for him,
to present a view of the different courses, which, in
such a case, it was competent for that assembly to
pursue. In the first place, the House might effect a
prosecution by the Attorney-General. But to this
mode he had three very strong objections. First,

e 2

52

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v1 * * thg person who held that office appeared to be

unfriendly to the prosecution ; whatever depended

17 -6' upon his exertions was, therefore, an object of despair.
Secondly, Mr. Burke regarded a jury as little
qualified to decide upon matters of the description of
those which would form the subject of the present
judicial inquiry. Thirdly, he looked upon the Court
of King’s Bench as a tribunal radically unfit to be
trusted in questions of that large and elevated nature.
The inveterate habit of looking, as in that court, at
minute affairs, and that only in their most contracted
relations, produced a narrowness of mind, which was
almost invariably at fault, when the extended rela-
tions of things or subjects of a comprehensive nature
were the objects to be investigated and judged.1 A
bill of pains and penalties was a mode of penal
inquiry which did not, in his opinion, afford suf-
ficient security for justice and fair dealing towards
the party accused. The last mode of proceeding,
to which the House might have recourse, was that
of impeachment ; and that was the mode, the adoption
of which he intended to recommend. He should,
however, propose a slight departure from the usual
order of the steps. Instead of urging the House to
vote immediately a bill of impeachment, to which
succeeded a Committee by whom the articles were
framed, he should move for papers, in the first
instance : and then draw up the articles with all the
advantage in favour of justice, which deliberation
and knowledge, in place of precipitation and igno-

1 “ The magnitude of the trial would overwhelm,” he said, “ the vary-

ing multitude of lesser causes, of meum and tuum, assault and battery,

conversion and trover, trespass and burglary,” &c.

MR. 'DUNDAS DEFENDS HIMSELF.

53

ranee, were calculated to yield. He concluded by a ^ 1

motion for one of the sets of papers which it was

his object to obtain. 1/86,

Mr. Dundas thought that the allusions to himself
demanded a reply. He observed, that, at one time
during the speech, he began to regard himself, not
Mr. Hastings, as the criminal whom the Right
Honourable Gentleman meant to impeach : that he
was obliged, however, to those who had any charge
to prefer against him, when they appeared without
disguise : that he wished to meet his accusers face to
face : that he had never professed any intention to
prosecute the late Governor-General of India: that
the extermination of the Rohillas, the aggression
upon the Mahrattas, and the misapplication of the
revenue, were the Doints on which his condemnation
rested : that he did move the resolutions which had
been read ; and entertained now the same sentiments
which he then expressed: that the resolutions he
had moved, went only to the point of recall; that
though in several particulars he deemed the conduct
of Mr. Hastings highly culpable, yet, as often as he
examined it, which he had done very minutely, the
possibility of annexing to it a criminal intention
eluded his grasp ; that the Directors were often the
cause of those proceedings to which the appearance
of criminality was attached ; that after India was
glutted with their patronage, no fewer than thirty-
six writers had been sent out, to load with expense
the civil establishment, in one year; that year of
purity, when the situation of the present accusers
sufficiently indicated the shop, from which the com-
modity was supplied; that subsequently to the

54

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1.

1786.

1 period at which he had moved the resolutions in
- question, Mr. Hastings had rendered important ser-
vices; and merited the vote of thanks with which
his employers had thought fit to reward him.
Mr. Dundas concluded, by saying, that he had no
objection to the motion, and that, but for the insi-
nuations against himself, he should not have thought
it necessary to speak.

The defence, however, of Mr. Dundas, is not less
inconsistent than his conduct. His profession of a
belief, that he himself was to be the object of the
prosecution, was an affectation of wit, which proved
not, though Mr. Hastings were polluted, that Mr.
Dundas was pure ; or that in the accusation of the
former it was not highly proper, even requisite, to
hold up to view what was suspicious in the conduct
of the latter. Whether he ever had the intention to
prosecute Mr. Hastings, was known only to himself.
But that he had pronounced accusations against Mr.
Hastings, which were either unjust, or demanded a
prosecution, all the world could judge. When he
said that the resolutions which he had moved, and
which had immediately been read, implied nothing
more than recall, it proved only one of two things ;
either that he regarded public delinquency, in a very
favourable light, or that this was one of those bold
assertions, in the face of evidence, which men of a
certain character are always ready to make. If
Warren Hastings had really, as was affirmed by Mr.
Dundas, and voted at his suggestion by the House
of Commons, “ in sundry instances tarnished the
honour, and violated the policy of his country,
brought great calamities on India, and enormous

DUNDAS’S DEFENCE INCONSISTENT WITH ITSELF.

55

expenses to the East India Company,” had he ' 1

merited nothing but recall ? Lord Macartney w as

recalled; Sir John Macpherson was recalled ; many 1/Sti-
others were recalled ; against whom no delinquency
was alleged. Recall was not considered as a punish-
ment. And was nothing else due to such offences as
those which Mr. Dundas laid to the charge of Mr.
Hastings? But either the words of Mr. Dundas’s
resolutions were very ill adapted to express his
meaning, or they did imply much more than recall.

Of the two resolutions which Mr. Burke had required
to be read, tbe last recommended the measure of
recall to the Court of Directors, whose prerogative
it was ; the first recommended something else, some
signal mark of the displeasure of the Parliament
of Great Britain. What might this be? Surely
not recall ; which was not within the province of
Parliament. Surely not a mere advice to the Direc-
tors to recall, which seems to fall wonderfully short
of a signal mark of its displeasure. But Mr. Dundas
still retained the very sentiments respecting the
conduct of Mr. Hastings which he had entertained
when he described it as requiring “ some signal mark
of the displeasure of the British Parliament yet, as
often as he examined that conduct, the possibility of
annexing to it a criminal intention eluded his grasp :
nay, he regarded Mr. Hastings as the proper object
of the Company’s thanks; that is to say, in the
opinion of Mr. Dundas, Mr. Hastings was, at one and
the same moment, the proper object of “ some signal
mark of the displeasure of the British Parliament,”
and of a vote of thanks at the East India House.

56

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK A

CHAP. 1

1786.

The Court of Directors were the cause of the bad
actions of Mr. Hastings. Why then did Mr. Dundas
pronounce those violent censures of Mr. Hastings ?
And why did he profess that he now entertained the
same sentiments which he then declared ? He

thought him culpable, forsooth, but not criminal;
though he had described him as having “ violated
the honour and policy of his country, brought great
calamities upon India, and enormous expense on his
employers ; ” so tenderly did Mr. Dundas think it
proper to deal with public offences, which he himself
described as of the deepest dye! But he could not
affix criminal intention to the misconduct of Mr.
Hastings. It required much less ingenuity than
that of Mr. Dundas, to make it appear that there is
no such thing as criminal intention in the world.
The man who works all day to earn a crown, and
the man who robs him of it, as he goes home at
night, act, each of them, with the very same inten-
tion; that of obtaining a certain portion of money.
Mr. Dundas might have known, that criminal
intention is by no means necessary to constitute the
highest possible degree of public delinquency.
Where is the criminal intention of the sentinel who
falls asleep at his post1? Where was the criminal
intention of Admiral Byng, who suffered a capital
punishment4? The assassin of Henry the Fourth of
France was doubtless actuated by the purest and
most heroic intentions. Yet who doubts that he
Avas the proper object of penal exaction? Such are
the inconsistencies of a speech, which yet appears to
have passed as sterling, in the assembly to which it

ACCUSATION OF DUNDAS, BY FOX.

57

was addressed ; and such is a sample of the speeches
which have had so much influence in the government
of this nation !

The year in which Mr. Fox had been minister was
accused of overloading the patronage of India ; and
Mr. Dundas hazarded a curious proposition, to which
his experience yielded weight, that the circumstance
of who wTas minister always indicated the shop, as he
called it, from which Indian patronage was retailed.1
This called up Mr. F ox, who began by declaring that
he spoke on account solely of the charges which had
been levelled against himself. Surmise might be
answered, he thought, by assertion ; and, therefore,
he solemnly declared, that he had never been the
cause of sending out except one single writer to
India, and that during the administration of Lord
Shelburne. The consistency, however, of the Honour-
able Gentleman suggested strongly a few remarks,

BOOK vi

CHAP. 1.

1786.

1 Mr. Dundas did not intimate that the circumstance of who was
minister “ always ” indicated the shop for Indian patronage. He indicated
it in one specific case only, that of the administration of 1783, and why ?
This should have been stated if it was worth while to have noticed the
subject at all. Hastings had written home in 1782, complaining of the
situation he was in, in consequence of so many writers being sent out to
him, declaring that he had at that time 250 young men, the younger sons
of the first families in Great Britain, all gaping for lacs, and scrambling
for patronage. Notwithstanding this remonstrance thirty-six writers were
sent out in 1783. Fox and Burke disclaimed for themselves any hand in
these appointments; but it seems to have been understood on both sides of
the House, that the ministry of the time of which they were members
were not unconcerned in the abuse of patronage. This overloading of the
India Service was at once a source of embarrassment to the government,
and disappointment to the individuals ; and the latter was very likely to
have brought upon Hastings much of the opposition which his measures
encountered, and much of the animosity which he personally expe-
rienced.— W.

58

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1.

1786.

1 notwithstanding his boasted readiness to face his
- opponents. The power of facing, God knew, was
not to be numbered among his wants ; even when
driven, as on the present occasion, to the miserable
necessity of applauding, in the latter part of his
speech, what he condemned in the former. His
opinion of Mr. Hastings remained the same as when
he arraigned him ; yet he thought him a fit object of
thanks. He condemned the Rohilla war ; the treaty
of Poorunder; and the expense of his administration.
Gracious heaven! Was that all? Was the shameful
plunder of the Mogul Emperor, the shameful plunder
of the Raja of Benares, the shameful plunder of the
Princesses of Oude, worthy of no moral abhorrence,
of no legal visitation? Was the tender language
now held by the Honourable Gentleman, respecting
the author of those disgraceful transactions, in con-
formity either with the facts, or his former decla-
rations ?

Mr. Pitt rose in great warmth, to express, he said,
some part of the indignation, with which his breast
was filled, and which he trusted, no man of generous
and honourable feelings could avoid sharing with him.
Who had accused his Honourable Friend of guilt, in
now applauding the man whom he had formerly
condemned ? Who, but he, who, in the face of
Europe, had united councils with the man w7hom for
a series of years he had loaded with the most extra-
vagant epithets of reproach, and threatened with the
severest punishment ! The height of the colouring
which that individual had bestowed upon the sup-
posed inconsistency of his friend, might have led

ACCUSATIONS OF FOX, BY PITT.

59

persons unacquainted with his character, to suppose book ' 1

that he possessed a heart really capable of feeling

abhorrence at the meanness and baseness of those 1786-
who shifted their sentiments with their interests.

As to the charge of inconsistency against his Honour-
able Friend, was it not very possible for the conduct
of any man to merit, at one time, condemnation, at
another, applause ? Yet it was true, that the practice
of the accuser had instructed the world in the merit
of looking to persons, not to principles ! He then
proceeded to extenuate the criminality of the Rohilla
war. And concluded, by ascribing the highest praise
to that portion of the administration of Hastings
which had succeeded the date of the resolutions of
Mr. Dundas.

On this speech, what first suggests itself is, that a
great proportion of it is employed, not in proving that
Mr. Dundas had not, but in proving that Mr. Fox
had, been corruptly inconsistent. In what respect,
however, did it clear the character of Mr. Dundas,
to implicate that of the man who accused him ?

How great soever the baseness of Mr. Fox, that of
Mr. Dundas might equal, and even surpass it. True,
indeed, the conduct of a man, at one time bad, might,
at another time, be the reverse. But would that be
a good law which should exempt crimes from punish-
ment, provided the perpetrators happened afterwards
to perform acts of a useful description “? A man
might thus get securely rich by theft and robbery,
on the condition of making a beneficent use of the
fruits of his crimes. “ The former portion of the
administration of Mr. Hastings was criminal ; the

60

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1.

1786.

1 latter, meritorious.” It suited the minister’s present
- purpose to say so. But they who study the history,
will probably find, that of the praise which is due to
the administration of Mr. Hastings, a greater portion
belongs to the part which Mr. Pitt condemns, than
to that which he applauds : To such a degree was

either his judgment incorrect, or his language deceit-
ful!1

The production of the papers was not opposed, till
a motion was made for those relating to the business
of Oude during the latter years of Mr. Hastings’s

1 The abstract and criticisms of this debate are partial and uncandid.
The 45th Resolution of the Committee imposed upon the Directors of the
East India Company, “ The duty of pursuing all legal and effectual means
for the removal of Warren Hastings and William Hornby from their re-
spective offices, and their recall to Great Britain.” In proposing such a
Resolution, most certainly Mr. Dundas gave no intimation whatever,
much less a pledge of his intending to propose that parliament should
undertake a duty thus specially imposed upon the Court. Much less was
it incumbent on him or any member of the government to suggest further
proceedings, when the result of the Court’s recourse to legal measures to
carry the Resolution of the House of Commons into execution, was the
confirmation by those vested with lawful authority, the Court of Pro-
prietors, of the individuals whom it had been proposed to remove. Again,
supposing that the measures anterior to the resolution of the 26th May,
1782, had been proved, as they were not, “ repugnant to the wish and the
honour and policy of the nation,” where was the inconsistency of admitting
their exculpation by subsequent merits ? The principle laid down by Mr.
Pitt, is that alone by which the conduct of persons in office can be equit-
ably tested. “ He held it,” he observed, “ absolutely necessary in point
of justice and of right, to examine the whole of the public conduct of any
servant of the people, to give him due credit for such parts as were
meritorious, as well as to censure him for such as were culpable; and, for
his own part, he should not hesitate for one moment to declare that, how-
ever censurable some parts of Mr. Hastings’s conduct might be made to
appear, he must, notwithstanding, consider such as were praiseworthy as
entitled to the warmest approbation. Nay, as a sufficient ground for
reward and thanks, could they be proved to predominate over what was
exceptionable.” — W .

MOTIONS FOR PAPERS.

61

administration. To this Mr. Pitt objected,
said, it would introduce new matter ; and make the
ground of the accusation wider than necessary : He

wished to confine the judicial inquiry to the period
embraced in the reports of the Committees of 1781.
Mr. Dundas stood up for the same doctrine. If the
object, however, was, to do justice between Mr.
Hastings and the nation, it will be difficult to ima-
gine a reason, why one, rather than another part of
his administration should escape inquiry. Even the
friends, however, of Mr. Hastings, urged the neces-
sity of obtaining the Oude papers ; and, therefore,
they were granted.

A motion was made for papers relative to the
Mahratta peace. It was opposed, as leading to the
discovery of secrets. On ground like this, it was
replied, the minister could never want a screen to
any possible delinquency. A motion for the papers
relative to the negotiations which Mr. Hastings had
carried on at Delhi in the last months of his adminis-
tration, was also made, and urged with great impor-
tunity. It was opposed on the same grounds, and
both were rejected.

During the debates on these motions, objections
had begun to be started, on the mode of procedure
which Mr. Burke had embraced. To call for papers
relative to misconduct, and from the information
which these might afford, to shape the charges by
the guilt, was not, it was contended, a course which
parliament ought to allow. The charges ought to be
exhibited first ; and no evidentiary matter ought to
be granted, hut such alone as could be shown to bear

He book vi

CH4P. 1.

1786.

62

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi upon the charge. These objections, however, pro-

duced not any decisive result, till the 3rd of April,

n86. when Mr. Burke proposed to call to the bar some of
the gentlemen who had been ordered, as witnesses,
to attend. On this occasion, the crown lawyers op-
posed in phalanx. Their speeches were long, but
their arguments only two. Not to produce the
charges in the first instance, and proof, strictly con-
fined to those charges, was unfair, they alleged, to
the party accused. To produce the charges first,
and no proof but what strictly applied to the charges,
was the mode of proceeding in the Courts of Law.
Mr. Burke, and they who supported him, maintained,
that this was an attempt to infringe the order of pro-
cedure already adopted by the House ; which had
granted evidence in pursuance of its own plan ; had
formed itself into a Committee for the express pur-
pose of receiving evidence ; and had summoned wit-
nesses to be at that moment in attendance. They
affirmed, that the mode of proceeding, by collecting
evidence in the first instance, and thence educing the
charges, was favourable to precision and accuracy ;
that the opposition, which it experienced, savoured
of a design to restrict evidence ; and that the grand
muster of the crown lawyers for such a purpose was
loaded with suspicion. The House, however, agreed
with the lawyers ; which is as much as to say,
that such was the plan of the minister ; and the
accuser was obliged to invert the order of his steps.
Some elucidation of the incident is strongly re-
quired.

To collect some knowledge of the facts of the sup-

THE REFUSAL OF EVIDENCE IRRATIONAL.

63

posed delinquency ; to explore the sources of evi- vi

dence; to seek to throw light upon the subject of

accusation ; to trace the media of proof from one link 1786-
to another, often the only way in which it can be
traced ; and, when the subject is thus in some degree
understood, to put the matter of delinquency into
those propositions which are the best adapted to
present it truly and effectually to the test of proof, is
not, say the lawyers, the way to justice. Before you
are allowed to collect one particle of knowledge re-
specting the facts of the delinquency ; before you are
allowed to explore a single source of evidence, or do
any one thing which can throw light upon the sub-
ject, you must put the matter of delinquency, which
you are allowed, as far as the lawyers can prevent
you, to know nothing about, into propositions for the
reception of proof. And having thus made up the
subject, which you know nothing about, into a set of
propositions, such as ignorance has enabled you to
make them, you are to be restrained from adducing
one particle of evidence to any thing hut your first
propositions, how much soever you may find, as light
breaks in upon you, that there is of the matter of
delinquency, which your propositions, made by com-
pulsion under ignorance, do not embrace. And this
is the method, found out and prescribed by the
lawyers, for elucidating the field of delinquency, and
ensuring the detection of crime !

To whom is the most complete and efficient pro-
duction of evidence unfavourable? To the guilty
individual. To whom is it favourable? To all who
are innocent, and to the community at large. Evi-

64

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1.

1786.

1 dence, said the lawyers, shall not be produced, till
_ after your charges, because it may be unfavourable to
Mr. Hastings.

If they meant that partial evidence might operate
unequitably on the public mind ; the answer is
immediate : why allow it to he partial ? Mr.
Hastings knew the field of evidence far better
than his accusers, and might call for what he re-
quired.

The lawyers were very merciful. It was a cruel
thing to an innocent man, to have evidence of guilt
exhibited against him ; and every man should he
presumed innocent, till proved guilty. From these
premises there is only one legitimate inference ; and
that is, that evidence of guilt should never be exhi-
bited against any man.

The rule of the lawyers for the making of propo
sitions is truly their own. It is, to make them out
of nothing. All other men, on all occasions, tell us
to get knowledge first; and then to make proposi-
tions. Out of total ignorance how can any thing
the result of knowledge be made? — No, say the
lawyers ; make your propositions, while in absolute
ignorance ; and, by help of that absolute ignorance,
show, that even the evidence which you call for is
evidence to the point. It is sufficiently clear, that
when the man who endeavours to throw light upon
delinquency is thus compelled to grope his way in
the dark, a thousand chances are provided for delin-
quency to escape.

When a rule is established by lawyers, and furi-
ously upheld ; a rule pregnant with absurdity, and

lawyer’s mode of accusation.

65

contrary to the ends of justice, hut eminently con-Bc°OKvi

ducive to the profit and power of lawyers, to what

sort of motives does common sense guide us in 1786-
ascribing the evil? Delinquency produces law-
suits ; law-suits produce lawyers’ fees and lawyers’
power ; whatever can multiply the law-suits which
arise out of delinquency, multiplies the occasions on
which lawyers’ power and profit are gained. That
a rule to draw up the accusatory propositions before
inquiry, that is, without knowledge, and to adduce
evidence to nothing but those propositions which
ignorance drew, is a contrivance, skilfully adapted,
to multiply the law suits to which delinquency
gives birth, is too obvious to be capable of being
denied.

And what is the species of production, which
their rule of acting in the dark enables the lawyers
themselves, in the guise of the writing of accusation
or bill of indictment, to supply? A thing so
strange, so extravagant, so barbarous, that it more
resembles the freak of a mischievous imagination,
playing a malignant frolic, than the sober contri-
vance of reason, even in its least instructed con-
dition.

Not proceeding by knowledge, but conjecture, as
often as the intention is really to include, not to
avoid including, the offence, they are obliged to
ascribe to the supposed delinquent, not one crime,
but all manner of crimes, which bear any sort of
resemblance to that of which they suppose him to
have been really guilty ; in order, that, in a multi-
tude of guesses, they may have some chance to be
right in one.

VOL. v. F

66

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 1

1786.

And this course they pretend to take, out of ten-
derness to the party accused. To save him from
the pain of having evidence adduced to the one
crime of which he is guilty, they solemnly charge him
with the guilt of a great variety of crimes. Where
innocence really exists, the production of evidence is
evidence to innocence, and is the greatest favour
which innocence, under suspicion, can receive.

The absurdities, with which, under this irrational
mode of procedure, a bill of indictment is frequently
stuffed, far exceed the limits of ordinary belief. Not
only are the grossest known falsehoods regularly and
invariably asserted, and found by juries upon their
oaths ; but things contradictory of one another, and
absolutely impossible in nature. Thus, when it is
not known in which of two ways a man has been
murdered, he is positively affirmed to have been
murdered twice ; first to have been murdered in one
way ; and after being murdered in that way, to be
murdered again in another.

The truth, in the mean time, is, that a system of
preliminary operations, having it for their object to
trace out and secure evidence for the purpose of the
ultimate examination and decision, so far from being
adverse to the ends of justice, would form a con-
stituent part of every rational course of judicial pro-
cedure. By means of these preparatory operations,
the judge would be enabled to come to the examina-
tion of the case, with all the circumstances before
him on which his decision ought to be grounded, or
which the nature of the case allowed to he produced.
Without these preparatory operations, the judge is
always liable to come to the examination with only

THE CHARGES ADDUCED.

67

a small part of the circumstances before him, and B00K VI

r . 7 CHAP. 1.

very seldom indeed can have the advantage of the

whole. The very nature of crime, which as much 1/86-
as possible seeks concealment, implies that the evi-
dence of it must be traced. Some things are only
indications of other indications. The last may alone
be decisive evidence of guilt; but evidence, which
would have remained undiscovered, had the inquirer
not been allowed to trace it, by previously exploring
the first. One man may be supposed to know
something of the crime. When examined, he is
found to know nothing of it himself, but points out
another man, from whom decisive evidence is ob-
tained. If a preliminary procedure for the purpose
of tracing evidence is allowed, the persons and
things whose evidence is immediate to the fact in
question, are produced to the judge ; and the truth
is ascertained. If the preliminary procedure is for-
bidden, the persons and things, whose evidence
would go immediately to the facts in question, are
often not produced to the judge ; and in this and a
thousand other ways, the means of ascertaining the
truth, that is of satisfying justice, are disappointed of
their end.

It thus appears, that a confederacy of crown
lawyers and ministers, with a House of Commons at
their beck, succeeded in depriving the prosecution of
Mr. Hastings of an important and essential instru-
ment of justice, of which not that cause only, but
every cause ought to have the advantage ; and that
they succeeded on two untenable grounds ; first,
because the search for evidence was unfavourable to
Mr. Hastings, which was as much as to say, that

F 2

68

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1

1786.

Mr. Hastings was guilty, not innocent; next, because
it was contrary to the practice of the courts of law ;
as if the vices of the courts of law ought not only to
he inviolate on their own ground, hut never put to
shame and disgrace by the contrast of virtues in any
other place ! 1

Mr. Burke being thus compelled to produce the
particulars of his accusation, before he was allowed
by aid of evidence to acquaint himself with the
matter of it,2 exhibited nine of his articles of charge
on the fourth of April, and twelve more in the course
of the following week. I conceive that in this place
nothing more is required than to give indication of
the principal topics. These were, the Rohilla war ;
the transactions respecting Benares and its Raja ;
the measure by which Corah and Allahabad, and the

1 For a profound elucidation of what he calls Investigatorial Procedure,
sec Mr. Bentliam’s Treatise, entitled Scotch Reform.

2 If this were true, it would argue Burke capable of atrocious iniquity.
To prefer a charge without being acquainted with the matter of it, would
be a most infamous species of delation. But it is not true. Burke’s
charges were avowedly framed upon the investigations of the Select Com-
mittee, and upon documents already in his possession ; and so little were
his accusations affected by the decision of the 3rd of April, that they were
preferred on the following day. In all that has been previously said upon
this subject, it has been forgotten, that in theory at least, the question was
not the guilt or innocence of Hastings. He was not supposed to be upon
his trial. The proceedings were preliminary, and amounted to no more
than to determine whether there were reasonable grounds why the House
of Commons should become his accusers. Proof of this, as in the bills
found by a Grand Jury did not render it necessary to exhaust evidence ;
and it was the more necessary to be reserved in calling for it, as whatever
might be the professed principles of the proceedings of the House, they
could not fail to prejudice the accused. It is argued indeed, that the
evidence was as likely to clear as to condemn Hastings, but here again it
is forgotten, that evidence on one side only was demanded, evidence in
support of the accusation. A perusal of the debate will satisfy every
impartial mind that the lawyers were more rational than the rhetori-
cians.— W.

DEBATES ON THE CHARGES.

69

1786.

tribute due for the province of Bengal, were taken vi
from the Mogul; the transactions in Oude respecting _
the Begums, the English Residents, and other affairs ;
those regarding the Mahratta war, and the peace by
which it was concluded; the measures of internal
administration, including the arrangements for the
collection of the revenues and the administration of
justice, the death of Nuncomar, and treatment of
Mohammed Reza Khan ; disobedience of the com-
mands, and contempt for the authority, of the
Directors ; extravagant expense, for the purpose of
creating dependants and enriching favourites ; and
the receipt of presents or bribes. An additional
article was afterwards presented, on the 6tli of May,
which related to the treatment bestowed upon Fy-
zoolla Khan.1 I shall not account it necessary to
follow the debates, to which the motions upon these
several charges gave birth, in the House of Com-
mons ; both because they diffused little information
on the subject, and because the facts have already
been stated with such lights as, it is hoped, may
suffice to form a proper judgment upon each.

Not only, on several preliminary questions, did the
ministers zealously concur with the advocates of Mr.
Hastings ; but even when the great question of the
Rohilla war, and the ruin of a whole people, came
under discussion, Mr. Hastings had the decisive
advantage of their support. Mr. Dundas himself,
who had so recently enumerated the Rohilla war

1 The better understanding of the subject seems to require a more
precise detail of the charges than is given in this place, or than can be
collected from the detached notices found elsewhere. As a summary
recapitulation of them may be useful, it will be given at the end of this
chapter. — W.

70

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1786.

among the criminal transactions which called forth
his condemnation, rose up in its defence ;l and the
House voted, by a majority of 119 to 67, that no
impeachable matter was contained in the charge.

It was not without reason that the friends of Mr.
Hastings now triumphed in the prospect of victory.
Every point had been carried in his favour : The
minister had steadily and uniformly lent him the
weight of his irresistible power : And the most for-
midable article in the bill of accusation, had been
rejected as void of criminating force.

The motion on the charge respecting the exter-
mination of theRohillas was made on the first of June.
That on the charge respecting the Raja of Benares
was made on the 13th of the same month. On that
day, however, the sentiments of Mr. Pitt appeared to
have undergone a revolution. The exceptions, indeed,
which he took to the conduct of Mr. Hastings, were
not very weighty. In his demands upon the Raja,
and the exercise of the arbitrary discretion intrusted
to him, Mr. Hastings had exceeded the exigency.

1 The following are the words of the eighth of the resolutions, which he
moved in 1781, “That too strong a confirmation cannot be given to the
sentiments and resolutions of the Court of Directors and the Court of
Proprietors, in condemnation of the Rohilla war : — That the conduct of the
President and Select Committee of Bengal appears, in almost every stage
of it, to have been biassed by an interested partiality to the Vizir, to
transgress their own, as well as the Company’s positive and repeated
regulations and orders : — That the extermination of the Rohillas was not
necessary, for the recovery of forty lacs of rupees : — And that if it was ex-
pedient to make their country a barrier against the Mahrattas, there is
reason to believe, that this might have been effected by as easy, and by a
less iniquitous, interference of the government of Bengal ; which would,
at the same time, have preserved the dominion to the rightful owners,
and exhibited an attentive example of justice, as well as policy, to all
India.”

THE MINISTER DEFENDS AND ABANDONS HASTINGS. 71

Upon this ground, after having joined in a sentence BC°°^1VI

of impunity on the treatment of the Rohillas, the

minister declared, that “ upon the whole, the conduct 1/86,
of Mr. Hastings, in the transactions now before the
House, had been so cruel, unjust, and oppressive, that
it was impossible he, as a man of honour or honesty,
or having any regard to faith or conscience, could
any longer resist; and therefore he had fully satisfied
his conscience, that Warren Hastings, in the case in
question, had been guilty of such enormities and mis-
demeanours, as constituted a crime sufficient to call
upon the justice of the House to impeach him.”

Some article of secret history is necessary to account
for this sudden phenomenon.1 With the conduct of
the minister, that too of the House of Commons
underwent immediate revolution ; the same majority,
almost exactly, which had voted that there was not
matter of impeachment in the ruin brought upon the
Rohillas, voted that there was matter of impeachment
in the ruin brought upon the Raja Cheyte Sing.

The friends of Mr. Hastings vented expressions of
the highest indignation; and charged the minister
with treachery ; as if he had been previously pledged
for their support.2

No further progress was made in the prosecution

1 The cause is variously conjectured; some turn in the cabinet; or in
the sentiments of the King, whose zeal for Mr. Hastings was the object of
common fame ; an increasing dread of unpopularity, from the progress of
indignation in the public mind.

2 The contemporary historian says, “ The conduct of the minister on this
occasion drew upon him much indecent calumny from the friends of Mr.

Hastings. They did not hesitate to accuse him, out of doors, both publicly
and privately, of treachery. They declared it was in the full confidence
of his protection and support, that they had urged on Mr. Burke to bring
forward his charges : and, that the gentleman accused had been persuaded
to come to their bar, with an hasty and premature defence. And they did

72

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bo°K of Mr. Hastings during that session of the parliament.

But the act of Mr. Pitt for the better government of

i/86. India was already found in need of tinkering. Mr.
Francis, early in the session, had moved for leave to
bring in a bill for amending the existing law agree-
ably to the ideas which he had often expressed.
Upon this, however, the previous question was moved,
and carried without a division.

In the course of the year 1786, no fewer than
three bills for amending the late act, with regard to
the government of India, were introduced by the
ministers, and passed. The first 1 had for its principal

not scruple to attribute this conduct in the minister to motives of the
basest jealousy.” Annual Register for the year 1786, chap. vii. — M.
Mr. Pitt’s view of the case was as little satisfactory to the enemies, as to
the friends, of Hastings. He maintained that the Government of India
was fully warranted in calling upon the Zemindar of Benares for extra-
ordinary contributions in circumstances of public emergency. To the first
demand upon Cheit Sing he entertained no objection, but thought that the
subsequent conduct of the Governor-General in imposing a fine of half a
million upon the Raja, for his delay in the payment of a contribution of
fifty thousand pounds, was oppressive and unjust ; but he specifically
limited his censure to the exorbitancy of the fine, and expressly protested
against any extension of it to the other parts of the charge. His biographer,
Gifford, observes, of the feelings with which his speech was received, that
while one side wished him to exculpate the Governor-General, the other
was dissatisfied with the limitation of his censure to a particular point. His
conduct, however, was such as justice demanded, and conscience approved.
Life of Pitt, i. 184. See also Tomline’s Life of Pitt, i. 215. Where the
purport of Mr. Pitt’s speech is given in the same manner, “ the exorbitant
amount of the fine was the only unjust part of the transaction. Cheit Sing’s
rebellion was not to be vindicated by the plea of resistance to exaction, for
he knew not that the fine intended to be levied was exorbitant, Hastings’s
intention to levy such fine never having been announced to him. The fine
was never exacted — very probably never would have been. The intention
was merely matter of conversation. Hastings was not pledged to its
accomplishment ; and after all, therefore, even Mr. Pitt was led to join in
charging as a high crime and misdemeanour — an unfulfilled design — a design
which would probably never have been carried into effect — and of which
nothing could have been known but from Hastings’s own honest avowal
of having for a time entertained it. — W.

1 26 Geo. III. c. 16.

AMENDMENTS OF PITTS BILL.

73

object to free the Governor-General from a depen-

dence upon the majority of his council, by enabling

him to act in opposition to their conclusions, after 1785-
their opinions, together with the reasons upon which
they were founded, had been heard and recorded.

This idea had been first brought forward by Lord
North, in the propositions which he offered as the
foundation of a bill, immediately before the dissolu-
tion of his ministry. It appears to have been first
suggested by Mr. Dundas ; and the regulation wTas
insisted upon by Lord Macartney, as indispensable
to the existence of a good government in India. It
was violently, indeed, opposed by Mr. Francis, Mr.

Burke, and the party who were led by them, in their
ideas on Indian subjects. The institution, however,
bears upon it considerable marks of wisdom. The
Council were converted into a party of assessors to
the Governor-General, aiding him by their advice,
and checking him by their presence. Individual
responsibility and unity of purpose were thus united
with multiplicity of ideas, and with the influence,
not only of eyes, to which every secret was exposed,
but of recorded reasons, in defiance of which, as often
as the assessors were honest and wTise, every per-
nicious measure would have to be taken, and by
which it would be seen that it might afterwards
be tried.

The same bill introduced another innovation,
which was, to enable the offices of Governor-General
and Commander-in-Chief, to be united in the same
person. It was undoubtedly of great importance to
render the military strictly dependent upon the civil
power, and to preclude the unavoidable evils of

74

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bc(;0KV! two conflicting authorities. But very great in-

conveniences attended the measure of uniting in the

1786, same person the superintendence of the civil and
military departments. In the first place, it raised
to the greatest possible degree of concentrated
strength the temptations to what the parliament and
ministry pretended they had the greatest aversion ;
the multiplication of wars, and pursuit of conquest.
In the next place, the sort of talents, habits, and
character, best adapted for the office of civil governor,
were not the sort of talents, habits, and character,
best adapted for the military functions: nor were
those which were best adapted for the military
functions, best adapted for the calm and laborious
details of the civil administration. And, to omit all
other evils, the whole time and talents of the ablest
man were not more than sufficient for the duties of
either office. For the same man, therefore, it was
impossible, not to neglect the one set of duties, in the
same degree in which he paid attention to the other.

This bill was arraigned by those who generally
opposed the minister, and on the 22nd of March, when,
in the language of parliament, it was committed, in
other words, considered by the House, when the
House calls itself a committee, Mr. Burke poured
forth against it one of his most eloquent harangues.
It established a despotical power, he said, in India.
This, it was pretended, was for giving energy and
despatch to the government. But the pretext was
false. He desired to know, where that arbitrary
government existed, of which dignity, energy, and
despatch, were the characteristics. To what had de-
mocracy, in all ages and countries, owed most of its

AMENDMENTS OF PITT’S BILL.

75

triumphs, but to the openness, the publicity, and bc°°k ]VI
strength of its operation.”1

Mr. Dundas called upon his opponents to inform 1786-
him, whether it was not possible for despotism to
exist in the hands of many,, as well as in the hands
of one : and he observed, that if the power of the
Governor-General would be increased, so would also
his responsibility. The answer was just and victo-
rious. It is a mere vulgar error, that despotism
ceases to be despotism, by merely being shared. It
is an error, too, of pernicious operation on the British
constitution. Where men see that the powers of
government are shared, they conclude that they are
also limited, and already under sufficient restraint.

Mr. Dundas affirmed, and affirmed truly, that the
government of India was no more a despotism, when
the despotism was lodged in the single hand of the
* Governor-General, than when shared between the
Governor and the Council. What he affirmed of
increasing the force, by increasing the concentration
of responsibility, is likewise so true, that a respon-
sibility, shared, is seldom any responsibility at all.

So little was there, in Burke’s oratory, of wisdom, if
he knew no better, of simplicity and honesty, if he did.

The second of the East India acts of this year2
was an artifice. It repealed that part of Mr. Pitt’s

1 Cobbett’s Pari. Hist. xxv. 1276. In the same speech Mr. Burke
said, “ What he, from the experience derived from many years’ attention,
would recommend as a means of recovering India, and reforming all its
abuses, was a combination of these three things — a government by law —
trial by jury — and publicity in every executive and judicial concern.”

Ibid. Of these three grand instruments of good government, what he
meant is not very clear as to any but the last ; of which the importance is,
undoubtedly, great beyond expression.

2 26 Geo. III. c. 25.

76

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bc°°k jV 1 original act which made necessary the approbation
— — — of the King for the choice of a Governor-General.

1/b'- It reserved to the King the power of recall, in which
the former was completely included.

The third of the acts of the same year 1 had but
one object of any importance ; and that was, to repeal
the part of Mr. Pitt’s original bill, which almost
alone appears to have had any tendency to improve
the government to which it referred : I mean the dis-
closure of the amount of the property which each
individual, engaged in the government of India,
realized in that country. This was too searching a
test : And answered the purposes neither of ministers
in England, nor of the Company’s servants in India.2

Nor was this all. There was also, during the
course of this year, a fourth bill, granting relief to the
East India Company : that sort of relief, for which
they had so often occasion to apply, relief in the way
of money. A petition from the Company was pre-

1 26 Geo. III. c. 57.

? The following is a curious testimony to the importance of the clause
which was now repealed. Major Scott, the famous agent of Mr. Hastings,
in the debate of the 7th of February, 1788, on the impeachment of Sir E.
Impey, counteracting the panegyrics which had been pronounced on Mr.
Francis, said, “ Before I join in applauding the integrity of the Hon. Gen.,
I require it to be proved by the only possible way in which his inteyrity can
possibly be proved. Let him come fairly, boldly, and honestly forward,
as Lord Macartney has done ; let him state that he left England in debt,
that he was six years in India, that his expenses at home and abroad were
so much, and his fortune barely the difference between the amount of his
expenses and the amount of his salary. When the Hon. Gent, shall have
done this, I will join the committee of impeachment with cheerfulness, in
pronouncing Mr. Francis to be one of the honestest men that ever came
from Bengal. But until he shall submit to this only true test of his inte-
grity, I shall pay no attention to the animated panegyrics of his friends.”
Cobbett’s Pari. Hist. xxvi. 1425, I wish I could have availed myself of
this testimony, without repeating the surmise of a man who would not
have confined himself to surmise againt Mr. Francis, had he had any thing
stronger to produce.

IMPEACHMENT OF HASTINGS VOTED.

77

sented : and the subject was discussed in the House B00K y1

of Commons, on the 9th, and 26th of June. The

act1 enabled them to raise money by the sale of 1/b7-
a part, to wit, 1,207,559/. 15s. of the 4,200,000/,
which they had lent to the public ; and also, by
adding 800,000/. in the way of subscription to their
capital stock.

On the first day of the following session, which
was the 23rd of January, 1787, Mr. Burke announced,
that he should proceed with the prosecution of Mr.
Hastings, on the first day of the succeeding month.

The business, during this session, was carried
through its first and most interesting stage. The
House of Commons reviewed the several articles of
charge ; impeached Mr. Hastings at the bar of the
House of Peers ; and delivered him to that judica-
tory for trial. Of the proceedings at this stage it is
necessary for me to advert to only the more re-
markable points.

On the 7th of February, the charge relating to
the resumption of the jaghires or lands of the Prin-
cesses of Oude, the seizure of their treasure, and the
connected offences, was exhibited by Mr. Sheridan
in a speech which powerfully operated upon the sym-
pathy of the hearers, and was celebrated as one of
the highest efforts of English eloquence. On this
subject Mr. Pitt took a distinction between the
landed estates, and the treasures. For depriving the
Begums, of their estates, he could conceive that reasons
might exist, although peculiar delicacy and forbear-
ance were due on the part of the English, who were
actually the guarantees to the Princesses for the

1 26 Geo. III. c. 62.

78

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi secure possession of those estates. But the confisca-

CHAP. 1. A

tion of their treasures, he thought an enormity,

1787- altogether indefensible and atrocious ; and the guilt
of that act was increased by stifling the order of the
Court of Directors, which commanded the proceed-
ings against the Princesses to be revised. The plun-
der of the Chief of Furruckabad, a dependant, also,
of the Nabob, whom the English were bound to
protect, formed a part of the transactions to which
the Governor-General became a party by the treaty
of Chunar. It was made a separate article of charge.
And, in the matter of that, as well as the preceding
article, it was voted by large majorities, that high
crimes and misdemeanours were involved. Mr. Pitt
observed, that the conduct of the Governor-General,
in receiving a present of enormous value from the
Nabob, at the time when he let him loose to prey
upon so many victims, was not justified by the pre-
tence of receiving it for the public service, in which
no exigence existed to demand recurrence to such a
resource : “ it could be accounted for by nothing but
corruption.”

In the course of these proceedings, Mr. Burke
thought it necessary to call the attention of the House
to the difficulties under which the prosecution
laboured in regard to evidence. The late Governor-
General, as often as he thought proper, had with-
held, mutilated or garbled the correspondence which
he was bound to transmit to the East India House.
Nor was this all. Those whose duty it was to bring
evidence of the charges were often ignorant of the
titles of the papers for which it was necessary to call;
and papers, however closely connected with the sub-

PROCEEDINGS RELATIVE TO THE IMPEACHMENT. 79

ject, were withheld, if not technically included under book

the title which was given. He himself, for example,

had moved for the Furruckabad papers, and what he 1787 -

received under that title, he concluded, were the
whole ; but a motion had been afterwards made, by
another member, for the Persian correspondence,
which brought forth documents of the greatest im-
portance. To another circumstance it befitted the
House to advert. The attorney of the East India
Company, in vindication of whose wrongs the pro-
secution was carried on, was (it was pretty remark-
able) the attorney, likewise, of Mr. Hastings ; and
while the House were groping in the dark, and
liable to miss what was of most importance, Mr.
Hastings and his attorney, to whom the documents
in the India House were known, might, on each
occasion, by a fortunate document, defeat the im-
perfect evidence before the House, and laugh at the
prosecution.

On the charge, that expense had been incurred by
Mr. Hastings for making dependants and creating a
corrupt influence, brought forward on the 15th of
March, Mr. Pitt selected three particulars, as those
alone which appeared to him, in respect to magni-
tude, and evidence of criminality, to demand the
penal proceedings of parliament. These were, the
contract for bullocks in 1779 ; the opium contract in
1780 ; 1 and the extraordinary emoluments bestowed

1 There were several pecuniary transactions with individuals, such
as a contract for supplying the army with bullocks, a contract for feeding
elephants, an agency for the supply of corn, a contract for the Company’s
opium, which were laid hold of by the accusers of Mr. Hastings, as either
not having been performed agreeably to the rules and orders of the service,
or in some way implying corruption on the part of the Governor-General,

80

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi on Sir Eyre Coote. In the first there were not only,

CHAP. 1. J J

. he said, reprehensible circumstances, hut strong

1787- marks of corruption : while the latter transaction
involved in it almost every species of criminality ; a
violation of the faith of the Company, a w7anton
abuse of power against a helpless ally, a mis-
application of the public property, and disobe-
dience to his superiors, by a disgraceful and wicked
evasion.1

On the 2nd of April, when the report of the Com-
mittee on the articles of charge was brought up, it
was proposed by Mr. Pitt, that, instead of voting
wdiether the House should proceed to impeachment,
a preliminary step should be interposed, and that a
committee should be formed to draw up articles of
impeachment. His reason was, that on several of
the particulars, contained in the articles of charge, he
could not vote for the penal proceeding proposed,
while he thought that on account of others it was
clearly required. A committee might draw up
articles of impeachment, which would remove his
objections, without frustrating the object which all
parties professed to have in view. After some little
opposition, this suggestion was adopted. Among the

and thence included among the subjects of criminal charge. As the indica-
tions of criminality in these transactions appeared to me to fall short of
proof; and as they were matters of that degree of detail, to which the
limits of history do not allow it to descend, no account of them is included
in the narrative of Mr. Hastings’s Indian Administration.

1 The extra allowances paid to Sir E. Coote were charged to the Nawab
Vizir whilst the General was in Oude, and they were continued to him
after his return to Bengal, and embarkation for Madras. Hastings admits
the facts in his defence. He no doubt submitted to these arrangements to
keep Sir E. Coote in good humour. And they were chargeable with indif-
ference to expenditure, but not with the criminality imputed by the
minister. — W.

IMPEACHMENT BROUGHT UP.

81

names presented for the Committee was that of Mr.
Francis. Objection to him was taken, on the score
of a supposed enmity to the party accused ; and he
was rejected by a majority of 96 to 44.

On the 25th of the month, the articles of impeach-
ment were brought up from the Committee by Mr.
Burke. They were taken into consideration on the
9th of May. The formerly celebrated, then Aider-
man, Wilkes, was a warm friend of Mr. Hastings;
and strenuously maintained that the prosecution was
unjust. He said, what was the most remarkable
thing in the debate, that it was the craving and avari-
cious policy of this country, which had, for the purpose
of getting money to satisfy this inordinate appetite,
betrayed Mr. Hastings into those of his measures
for which a defence was the most difficult to be found.
The remark had its foundation in truth; and it goes
pretty far in extenuation of some of Mr. Hastings’s
most exceptionable acts. The famous Alderman
added, that a zeal for justice, which never recognises
any object that takes any thing from ourselves, is a
manifest pretence. If Mr. Hastings had committed
so much injustice, how disgraceful was it to be told,
that not a single voice had yet been heard to cry for
restitution and compensation to those who had suf-
fered by his acts % The stain to which the reformed
patriot thus pointed the finger of scorn, is an instance
of that perversion of the moral sentiments to which
nations by their selfishness are so commonly driven,
and which it is therefore so useful to hold up to per-
petual view. Among individuals, a man so corrupt
could scarcely be formed as to cry out with vehemence
against the cruelty of a plunder, perpetrated for his

VOL. v. G

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1 .

1787.

82

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1

1787.

1 benefit, without a thought of restoring what by in-
- justice he had obtained.1 There was in this debate
another circumstance worthy of notice ; that Mr. Pitt
pronounced the strongest condemnation of those who
endeavoured to set in balance the services of Mr.
Hastings against the crimes, as if the merit of the
one extinguished the demerit of the other. This was
an attempt, he said, to compromise the justice of the
country. Yet at a date no further distant than the
preceding session, Mr. Pitt had joined with Mr.
Dundas, when that practical statesman urged the

1 The objection was most just. Not even Burke proposed that the
money said to have been extorted from the Vizir, from the Begums, from
Fyzoolla Khan, should be restored to them, nor that Corah and Allahabad
should be redeemed from the Vizir, and given back to Shah Alem, nor
that Cheit Sing should be replaced in his Zemindary of Benares. As long
as the Company reaped the advantages of these measures, as long as the
nation kept firm hold of the wealth and power derived from Indian terri-
tory acquired by such means, as long as both appropriated and retained the
plunder that their agents laid at their feet, it was monstrous inconsistency
to denounce and punish those agents as plunderers and spoilers. At the
same time, irrrefutable as is the argument, it was not employed by Wilkes.
The speech of the Alderman as reported in the History of Parliament, and
as published separately, although a most reasonable and manly vindication
of Hastings, does not contain the passage cited in the text. Something
like it occurs in the speech of Mr. Nathaniel Smith, the Chairman of
the Court of Directors, who had been throughout opposed to the policy of
Hastings, and had strenuously advocated his recall. He ascribed the
origin of all the evils that had occurred to the financial embarrassments of
the Company, consequent upon “ the inconsiderate eagerness of the minis-
ters after immediate gain from the newly -acquired revenues of India, whilst
every other object was neglected.” Mr. Dundas also remarked, that “ no
intention being to this day signified from any quarter to refund the money
received by Warren Hastings, (from the native princes,) with what pro-
priety could he be impeached for procuring it ? These are the only traces
of the argument found in the Report of the Debate, to which it seems
likely, therefore, Mr. Mill had not referred, contenting himself with the
abstract of the speeches contained in the Annual Register for 1787, c. vi.,
where the words of the text, with others to the same purport, are given as
the essence of Wilkes’s speech. Parliamentary History, xxvi, 1092.
Speech of Mr. Wilkes, 9th May, 1787.— W.

CHARGES MOOTED AGAINST IMPEY.

83

1787.

merit of the latter part of Mr. Hastings’s administra- j 1
tions, as reason to justify himself for not following up -
by prosecution the condemnations which he had for-
merly pronounced.1

The articles of impeachment, which were now
brought up from the Committee, received the appro-
bation of the House; a vote for impeaching Mr.
Hastings was passed ; the impeachment was carried
by Mr. Burke to the bar of the Lords ; Mr. Hastings
was brought to that bar ; admitted to bail ; and
allowed one month, and till the second day of the
following session of parliament, to prepare for his
defence.

On the 24th of April, 1787, Sir Gilbert Elliot,
whose intention had been delayed by other business
which was before the House, gave notice of a day on
which he intended to bring forward the subject of the
impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey, but on account
of the approaching termination of that session was
induced to postpone it till the next.

On the 12th of December, after an introductory
speech, Sir Gilbert exhibited his articles of charge.

They related to five supposed offences, regarding,

1. The catastrophe of the Raja Nuncomar; 2. The
Patna cause ; 3. The Cossijurah cause; 4. The office
of Sudder Dewannee Adaulut ; 5. The affidavits at
Lucknow. They were referred to a Committee of
the whole House, and on the 4th of February, 1788,

1 This is not quite fairly stated : the argument used by Pitt in the first
debate, was that in judging of an administration, its character should rest
upon its general merits, and should not be condemned, because every part
of it was not equally defensible. His present assertion was, that if great
crimes could be proved, they were not to be overlooked, because there
were great merits. To such a “set off” he objected, and so did Hastings;
but errors and demerits are not necessarily ‘ great crimes.’ — W.

G 2

84

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

j 1 Sir Elijah Impey was heard in his defence. What

he advanced was confined to the subject of the first

1787. . . J

charge, his concern in the death of Nuncomar.

Further discussions took place, on the same subject,
on the 7th and 8th. On the 11th and 26th of
February, and on the 16th of April, witnesses were
examined at the bar, and more or less of discussion
accompanied. On the 28th of April, on the 7th and
9th of May, Sir Gilbert Elliot summed up and
enforced the evidence on the first of the charges, and
on the last of these days moved, “ That the Com-
. mittee, having considered the first article, and
examined evidence thereupon, is of opinion, that
there is ground of impeachment of high crimes and
misdemeanours against Sir Elijah Impey, upon the
matter of the said article.” After a debate of con-
siderable length, the motion was negatived, by a
majority of seventy-three to fifty-five. An attempt
was made to proceed with the remaining articles on
the 27th of May; but the business was closed, by a
motion to postpone it for three months. In this
affair, the lawyers, as was to be expected, supported
the judge. The minister, Mr. Pitt, distinguished
himself by the warmth with which he took up the
defence of Sir Elijah from the beginning of the
investigation, and by the asperity with which he now
began to treat Mr. Francis.1

The operation of Mr. Pitt’s new law produced
occasion for another legislative interference. In
passing that law, two objects were very naturally
pursued. To avoid the imputation of what was
represented as the heinous guilt of Mr. Fox’s bill, it

1 See Parliamentary Hist, ad dies.

ENCROACHMENTS OF THE BOARD OF CONTROL. 85

was necessary, that the principal part of the power ' 1
should appear to remain in the hands of the Directors,

^ . . . 1787.

h or ministerial advantage, it was necessary, that it
should in reality be all taken away.

Minds drenched with terror are easily deceived.

Mr. Fox’s bill threatened the Directors with evils
which to them, at any rate, were not imaginary.

And with much art, and singular success, other men
were generally made to believe, that it was fraught
with mischief to the nation.

Mr. Pitt’s bill professed to differ from that of his
rival, chiefly in this very point, that while the one
destroyed the power of the Directors, the other left
it almost entire. The double purpose of the minister
was obtained, by leaving them the forms, while the
substance was taken away. In the temper into which
the mind of the nation had been artfully brought, the
deception was easily passed. And vague and ambi-
guous language was the instrument. The terms, in
which the functions of the Board of Control were
described, implied, in their most obvious import, no
great deduction from the former power of the Direc-
tors. They were susceptible of an interpretation
which took away the whole.

In all arrangements between parties of which the
one is to any considerable degree stronger than the
other, all ambiguities in the terms are sooner or later
forced into that interpretation which is most favour-
able to the strongest party, and least favourable to
the weakest. The short-sighted Directors under-
stood not this law of human nature; possibly saw
not, in the terms of the statute, any meaning beyond
what they desired to see ; that which the authors of

86

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1

1787.

1 the terms appeared, at the time, to have as ardently
- at heart as themselves.

The Directors had not enjoyed their imaginary
dignities long, when the Board of Control began
operations which surprised them; and a struggle
which they were little able to maintain, immediately
ensued. The reader is already acquainted with the
disputes which arose on the payment of the debts of
the Nabob of Arcot; and on the appointment of a
successor to Lord Macartney, as Governor of Fort
St. George.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ross had been guilty of what
the Directors considered an outrageous contempt of
their authority. In July, 1785, they dictated a
severe reprimand. The Board of Control altered the
despatch, by striking out the censure. The dignity
of the Directors was now touched in a most sen-
sible part. “ The present occasion,” they said,
tf appeared to them so momentous, and a submission
on their part so destructive of all order and subor-
dination in India, that they must take the liberty of
informing the Right Honourable Board that no
despatch can be sent to India which does not contain
the final decision of the Directors on Lieutenant-
Colonel Ross.” The Board of Control, it is probable,
deemed the occasion rather too delicate for the
scandal of a struggle. It could well afford a com-
promise : and crowned its compliance, in this
instance, with the following comprehensive decla-
ration, “We trust, however, that by this acquies-
cence, it will not be understood that we mean to
recognise any power in you to transmit to India
either censure or approbation of the conduct of any

BOARD OF CONTROL OPPOSED BY THE DIRECTORS.

87

servant, civil or military, exclusive of the control J 1

of this Board:” that is to say, they were not to —

retain the slightest authority, in any other capacity
than that of the blind and passive instruments of the
superior power.

These cases are a few, out of a number, detached
for the purpose of giving greater precision to the idea
of the struggle which for a time the Court of Direc-
tors were incited to maintain with the Board of
Control. At last an occasion arrived which carried
affairs to a crisis. In 1787, the democratical party
in Holland rose to the determination of throwing off
the yoke of the aristocratical party. As usual, the
English government interfered, and by the strong
force of natural tendency, in favour of the aristo-
cratical side. The French government, with equal
zeal, espoused the cause of the opposite party ; and
a war was threatened between England and France.

The Directors took the alarm ; petitioned for an
augmentation of military force; and four royal regi-
ments, destined for that sendee, were immediately
raised. Happily the peace with France was not
interrupted. The Directors were of opinion that, now,
the regiments were not required. The Board of
Control, however, adhered to its original design.

The expense of conveying the troops, and the
expense of maintaining them in India, would be very
great. The finances of the Company were in their
usual state of extreme pressure and embarrassment.

This addition to their burdens the Directors regarded
as altogether gratuitous; and tending to nothing but
the gradual transfer of all military authority in India
from the Company to the minister. Their ground

88

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 1.

1788.

1 appeared to be strong ; by an act which passed in
- 1781, they were exempted from the payment of any
troops which were not sent to India upon their
requisition. They resolved to make a stand, refusing
to charge the Company with the expense of the
ministerial regiments. The Board of Control main-
tained that, by the act of 1784, it received the
power, upon the refusal of the Company to concur in
any measure which it deemed expedient for the
government of India, to order the expense of the
measure to be defrayed out of the territorial revenues.
The Directors, looking to the more obvious, and, at
the time of its passing, the avowed meaning of the
act, which professed to confirm, not to annihilate the
“ chartered rights of the Company,” denied the con-
struction which was now imposed upon the words.
They took the opinion of several eminent lawyers,
who, looking at the same points with themselves,
rather than the unlimited extent to wThich the terms
of the act were capable of stretching, declared that
the pretensions of the ministers were not authorized
by law.

The question of the full, or limited, transfer of the
government of India, was to be determined. The
minister, therefore, resolved to carry it before a
tribunal on whose decision he could depend. On the
25th of February, 1788, he moved the House of
Commons for leave to bring in a bill. When the
meaning of an act is doubtful, or imperfect, the usual
remedy is a bill to explain and amend. Beside the
confession of error which that remedy appears to
imply, a confession not grateful to ministerial sensi-
bility, something is understood to be altered by that

pitt’s bill for a declaratory act. 89

proceeding in the matter of the law. Now, the book vi

extraordinary powers, to which the claim was at this —

1788

time advanced,, might, it was probable, he more easily
allowed, if they were believed to be old powers,
already granted, than new powers, on which delibe-
ration, for the first time, was yet to he made. For
this, or for some other reason, the ministers did
not bring in a bill to explain and amend their former
act, but a bill to declare its meaning. The business
of a legislature is to make laws. To declare the
meaning of the laws, is the business of a judicatory.

What, in this case, the ministers therefore called
upon the parliament to perform, was not an act of
legislation, but an act of judicature. They called
upon it successfully, of course, to supersede the
courts of justice, and to usurp the decision of a
question of law ; to confound, in short, the two
powers, of judicature and legislation.

In the speech, in which Mr. Pitt moved for leave
to bring in the bill by means of which this act of
judicature was to be performed, it was, he declared,
incomprehensible to him, that respectable men of the
law should have questioned that interpretation of the
statute of 1784 for which he contended. “ In his
mind nothing could be more clear, than that there
was no one step that could have been taken previous
to passing the act of 1784, by the Court of Directors,
touching the military and political concerns of India,
and also the collection, management, and application
of the revenues of the territorial possessions, that
the Commissioners of the Board of Control had not
now a right to take by virtue of the powers and
authority vested in them by the act of 1784.”

90

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bc^pKj 1 If every power which had belonged to the Direc-
— — — tors, might be exerted by the Board of Control,
against the consent of the Directors ; but the Direc-
tors could not exercise the smallest political power,
against the consent of the Board of Control, it is
evident that all political power was taken away from
the Directors. The present declaration of Mr. Pitt,
with regard to the interpretation of his act, was,
therefore, directly contradictory to his declarations in
1783, when he professed to leave the power of the
Directors regulated, rather than impaired.

Mr. Dundas, the President of the Board of Con-
trol, spoke a language still more precise. “ It was
the meaning, he affirmed, of the act of 1784, that the
Board of Control, if it chose, might apply the whole
revenue of India to the purposes of its defence, with-
out leaving to the Company a single rupee.’'

The use to which the minister was, in this manner,
about to convert the parliament, the opponents of
the bill described as full of alarm. To convert the
makers of law into the interpreters of law, was, itself,
a circumstance in the highest degree suspicious ; in-
volved in it the destruction of all certainty of law,
and by necessary consequence of all legal govern-
ment. To convert into a judicature the British
parliament, in which influence made the will of the
minister the governing spring, was merely to erect
an all-powerful tribunal, by which every iniquitous
purpose of the minister might receive its fulfilment.
The serpentine path, which the minister had thus
opened, was admirably calculated for the introduc-
tion of every fraudulent measure, and the accomplish-
ment of every detestable design. He finds an object

CRITICISMS UPON THE BILL.

91

with a fair complexion; lulls suspicion asleep tyB^jVI
liberal professions ; frames a law in terms so inde- — - — -
finite as to be capable of stretching to the point in
view ; watches his opportunity ; and, when that
arrives, calls upon an obedient parliament, to give
his interpretation to their words. By this manage-
ment, may be gained, with little noise or observa-
tion, such acquisitions of power, as, if openly and
directly pursued, would at least produce a clamour
and alarm.

When, however, the opponents of the bill contended
that the act did not warrant the interpretation which
the legislature was now called upon to affix ; they
assumed a weaker ground. They showed, indeed,
that the act of 1784, was so contrived as to afford
strong appearances of the restricted meaning from
which the minister wished to be relieved ; such ap-
pearances as produced general deception at the time ; 1
but it was impossible to show, that the terms of the
act were not so indefinite, as to be capable of an in-
terpretation which involved every power of the Indian
government.

It was indeed true, that when a law admits of two
interpretations, it is the maxim of Courts of law, to
adopt that interpretation which is most in favour of
the party against whom the law is supposed to operate.

In parliament, the certain maxim is, to adopt that
interpretation which is most favourable to the
minister.

1 Mr. Baring said, that “-when the bill of 1784 was in agitation, it had
not been intimated to the Directors, that the bill gave any such power to
the Commissioners of Control, as was now contended for : if they had so
understood it, they would not have given their support to a bill, that tended
to annihilate the Company, and deprive them of all their rights and
powers.” Pari. Hist, xxvii. 67.

92

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAF. 1.

1788.

The memory of the minister was well refreshed
with descriptions of the dreadful effects which he
said would flow from the powers transferred to the
minister by the bill of Mr. Fox. As the same or
still greater powers were transferred to the minister
by his own, so they were held in a way more alarm-
ing and dangerous. Under the proposed act of Mr.
Fox, they would have been avowedly held. Under
the act of Mr. Pitt, they were held in secret, and by
fraud. Beside the difference, between powers ex-
ercised avowedly, and powers exercised under a
cover and by fraud, there was one other difference
between the bill of Mr. Fox and that of Mr. Pitt.
The bill of Mr. Fox transferred the power of the
Company to commissioners appointed by parliament.
The bill of Mr. Pitt transferred them to commissioners
appointed by the King. For Mr. Pitt to say that
commissioners chosen by the parliament were not
better than commissioners chosen by the King, was
to say that parliament wTas so completely an instru-
ment of bad government, that it w'as worse calcu-
lated to produce good results than the mere arbitrary
will of a King. All those who asserted that the bill
of Mr. Pitt was preferable to that of Mr. Fox, are
convicted of holding, however they may disavow',
that remarkable opinion.

The declaratory bill itself professed to leave the
commercial powers of the Company entire. Here,
too, profession was at variance with fact. The com-
mercial funds of the Company were blended with
the political. The power of appropriating the one,
was the pow'er of appropriating the whole. The
military and political stores were purchased in Eng-

DEFENCE OF THE BILL BY THE MINISTER.

93

land with the produce of the commercial sales. The book yi

A # CHAP. 1 .

Presidencies abroad had the power of drawing upon —
the domestic treasury to a vast amount. The bill,
therefore, went to the confiscation of the whole of
the Company’s property. It was a bill for taking
the trading capital of a Company of merchants, and
placing it at the disposal of the ministers of the
crown.

Beside these objections to the general powers
assumed by the bill, the particular measure in con-
templation was severely arraigned. To send out to
India troops, called the King’s, when troops raised
by the Company in India could be so much more
cheaply maintained, was an act on which the mis-
chievousness of all unnecessary expense stamped the
marks of the greatest criminality. That criminality
obtained a character of still deeper atrocity, when
the end was considered, for which it was incurred.

It was the increase of crown patronage, by the
increase of that army which belonged to the crown.

And what was the use of that patronage4? To in-
crease that dependence upon the crown which unites
the members of the House of Commons, in a tacit
confederacy for their own benefit, against all political
improvement.

Another objection to the troops was drawn from
what was called the doctrine of the constitution : that
no troops should belong to the King, for which parlia-
ment did not annually vote the money.

Some of the Directors professed, that though the
powers, darkly conveyed by the act of 1784, were not
altogether concealed from them at the time ; they had
given their consent to the bill, from the confidence

94

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1788.

they had in the good intentions of the ministry;
whom they never believed to be capable of aiming
at such extravagant powers as those which they now
assumed.

This body of arguments was encountered by the
minister, first with the position that no interpretation
of a law was to be admitted, which defeated its end.
But what was the end of this law of his, was a ques-
tion, from the solution of which he pretty completely
abstained. If it was the good government of India;
he did not attempt the difficult task of proving that to
this end the powers for which he contended were in
any degree conducive. If it was the increase of
ministerial influence ; of their conduciveness to this
end, no proof was required.

To the charge that he had introduced his act,
under professions of not adding to the influence of
the Crown, nor materially diminishing the powers of
the Company ; professions which his present pro-
ceedings completely belied ; he made answer by
asserting, broadly and confidently, that it was the
grand intention of the act of 1784 to transfer the
government of India from the Court of Directors
to the Board of Control; and that he had never
held a language which admitted a different con-
struction.

Mr. Dundas denied, what was asserted on the part
of the Company, that for some time after the passing
of the act, the Board of Control had admitted its
want of title to the powers which now it assumed.
The Company offered to produce proof of their
assertion at the bar of the House. The ministers
introduced a motion, and obtained a vote that they

DEFENCE OF THE BILL BY THE MINISTER.

95

should not be allowed. No further proof of the jVI
Company’s assertion, according to the rules of— g—
practical logic, could be rationally required.

To show that the Board of Control had exercised
the powers which it was thus proved that they had
disclaimed, Mr. Dundas was precipitated into the
production of facts, which were better evidence of
other points than that to which he applied them.

He made the following statement: that in 1785,
the resources of the Company were so completely
exhausted, as to he hardly equal to payment of the
arrears which were due to the army : that the
troops were so exasperated by the length of those
arrears, as to be ripe for mutiny : and that the
Board of Control sent orders to apply the Company’s
money to the satisfaction of the troops, postponing
payments of every other description. In this appro-
priation, however, was it not true, that the Directors,
though reluctantly, did at last acquiesce %

Mr. Dundas further contended, that without the
powers in question, namely, the whole powers of
government, the Board of Control would he a nuga-
tory institution.

If the whole powers of government, however, were
necessary for the Board of Control, what use was
there for another governing body, without power *?

This was to have two governing bodies ; the one
real, the other only in show. Of this species of
duplication the effect is, to lessen the chances for
good government, increase the chances for bad ; to
weaken all the motives for application, honesty, and
zeal in the body vested with power ; and to furnish
it with an ample screen, behind which its love of

96

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1788.

ease, power, lucre, vengeance, may be gratified more
safely at the expense of its trust.

To crown the ministerial argument, Mr. Dundas
advanced, that the powers which were lodged with
the Board of Control, how great soever they might
be, were lodged without danger, because the Board
was responsible to parliament. To all those who
regard the parliament as substantially governed by
ministerial influence, responsibility to parliament
means responsibility to the minister. The responsi-
bility of the Board of Control to parliament, meant,
according to this view of the matter, the respon-
sibility of the ministry to itself. And all those,
among whom the authors of the present bill and
their followers were to be ranked as the most
forward and loud, who denounced parliament as so
corrupt, that it would have been sure to employ,
according to the most wicked purposes of the
minister, the powers transferred to it by the bill of
Mr. Fox, must have regarded as solemn mockery,
the talk, whether from their own lips, or those
of other people, about the responsibility of ministers
to parliament.

Meeting the objections to the sending of King’s
troops, Mr. Pitt confessed his opinion, that the
army in India ought all to be on one establishment ;
and should all belong to the King; nor did he
scruple to declare, that it was in preparation for
this reform that the troops were now about to be
conveyed.

With regard to the doctrine, called constitutional,
about the necessity of an annual vote of parliament
for the maintenance of all troops kept on foot by the

DEFENCE OF THE BILL BY THE MINISTER.

97

King, he remarked, that the Bill of Rights, and the
Mutiny Act, the only positive laws upon the subject,
were so vague and indefinite (which is very true)
as to be almost nugatory; that one of the advan-
tages attending the introduction of the present
question would be, to excite attention and apply
reform to that important but defective part of the
constitutional law ; and that he was ready to receive
from any quarter the suggestion of checks upon any
abuse to which the army, or the patronage of India,
might appear to be exposed.

If any persons imagined, that this language, about
the reform of the constitutional law, would lead to
any measures for that desirable end ; they were egre-
giously deceived. Besides, was it any reason, be-
cause the law which pretended to guard the people
from the abuse of a military power was inadequate to
its ends, that therefore a military force should now
be created, more independent of parliament than
any which, under that law, had as yet been allowed
to exist? That any danger, however, peculiar to
itself, arose from this army, it was, unless for the
purpose of the moment, weak to pretend.

Notwithstanding the immense influence of the
minister, so much suspicion was excited by the
contrast between his former professions, and the
unlimited power at which he now appeared to be
grasping, that the bill was carried through the first
stages of its progress, by very small majorities.
With a view to mitigate this alarm, Mr. Pitt pro-
posed that certain clauses should be added ; the
first, to limit the number of troops, beyond which
the orders of the Board of Control should not be

VOL. v. h

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1788.

98

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. ].

1788.

obligatory on the East India Company ; the second,
to prevent the Board from increasing the salary
attached to any office under the Company, except
with the concurrence of Directors and Parlia-
ment ; the third, to prevent the Board, except with
the same concurrence, from ordering any gratuity
for services performed; the fourth, to oblige the
Directors annually to lay before parliament the ac-
count of the Company’s receipts and disbursements.

The annexation of these clauses opened a new
source of argument against the bill. A declaratory
bill, with enacting clauses, involved, it was said, an
absurdity which resembled a contradiction in terms.
It declared that an act had a certain meaning; but a
meaning limited by enactments yet remaining to be
made. It declared that a law without limiting
clauses, and a law with them, was one and the same
thing. By the bill before them, if passed, the
House would declare that certain powers had been
vested in the Board of Control, and yet not vested,
without certain conditions, which had not had
existence. Besides, if such conditions were now
seen to be necessary to prevent the powers claimed
under the act from producing the worst of conse-
quences, what was to be thought of the legislature
for granting such dangerous powers ? It was asked,
whether this was not so disgraceful to the wisdom
of parliament, if it saw not the danger ; so disgraceful
to its virtue, if it saw it without providing the
remedy, as to afford a proof, that no such powers
in 1784 were meant by the legislature to be con-
veyed ?

A protest in the upper house, signed Portland,

PROTEST AGAINST THE DECLARATORY ACT. 99

Carlisle, Devonshire, Portchester, Derby, Sandwich, j 1

Cholmondely, Powis, Cardiff, Craven, Bedford,

Loughborough, Fitzwilliam, Scarborough, Bucking- 1788 '

hamshire, — fifteen lords — exhibits, on the subject of
the patronage, the following words: “ The patronage
of the Company — and this seems to be the most
serious terror to the people of England — the Com-
missioners of Control enjoy in the worst mode,
without that responsibility which is the natural
security against malversation and abuse. They
cannot immediately appoint ; hut they have that
weight of recommendation and influence, which
must ever inseparably attend on substantial power,
and which, in the present case, has not any where
been attempted to be denied. — Nor is this disposal
of patronage without responsibility the only evil that
characterizes the system. All the high powers and
prerogatives with which the commissioners are vested,
they may exercise invisibly — and thus, for a period
at least, invade, perhaps, in a great measure finally
baffle, all political responsibility; for they have a
power of administering to their clerks and other
officers an oath of secrecy framed for the occasion by
themselves ; and they possess in the India House
the suspicious instrument of a Secret Committee,
bound to them by an oath.”

CHARGES AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS.

PREFERRED ON THE 4th APRIL, 1786.

1. That in contradiction of the positive orders of the Court of Directors,

Warren Hastings furnished the Nabob of Oude, for a stipulated sum of
money, to be paid to the East India Company, with a body of troops, for
the declared purpose of “thoroughly extirpating the nation of the lio-
hillas.”

H 2

100

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI 2 That in violation of the agreement under which the English Govern-
chai . 1. ment held 0f Shah Alem, the Dewannee of Bengal, Beliar, and Orissa, and
’ by which they engaged to pay him an annual sum of money, and to secure

17t>8. him the possession of the districts of Corah and Allahabad, Warren
Hastings had seized upon those districts, and sold them to the Nabob of
0 Oude, appropriated the money to the Company’s use, and withheld the

annual tribute promised to the King.

3. That in violation of solemn agreements, by which Chcit Sing, the
Raja of Benares, was acknowledged as an independent prince, liable only
to a fixed annual contribution, the amount of which it was declared should
on no account, and at no time whatever, be exceeded ; Warren Hastings,
on the plea of war with France, extorted from the Raja repeated augmenta-
tions of his annual contributions, and upon his inability to discharge fresh
demands, forcibly dispossessed him of his hereditary dominions, and drove
him into exile.

4. That contrary to justice and equity, and the security of property, as
well as to public faith, and the sanction of the Company’s guarantee, War-
ren Hastings authorized the Nabob of Oude, a dependant or vassal of the
East India Company, and over whom he possessed an entire and absolute
command, to seize upon and confiscate to his own profit, the landed estates of
his mother and grandmother, his kindred and principal nobility, as also the
personal property of the two princesses ; and that in the enforcing of these
measures against the latter, they, with other females of the royal family,
their servants and dependants, were treated with atrocious indignity and
barbarity, in obedience to his injunctions and commands.

5. That by frequent changes in his policy, with regard to the Nawab of
Furruckabad, at one while placing a British Resident in the province, at
another restoring it to the oppressive superintendence of the Nawab of
Oude ; he had been the cause of subjecting the person and kindred of the
Nawab of Furruckabad to great suffering and distress, and the whole pro-
vince to misgovernment and desolation.

6. That a Hindoo prince, the Raja of Lahore, having been dispossessed
of his territory by the Nawab of Oude, made frequent incursions into his
former country, to the constant occurrence of disturbances, and effusion of
blood ; to prevent the recurrence of which, it was proposed by the officer
in command, to grant the Raja a pension — that Hastings omitted to order
any relief to the Raja ; and that instead of any provision for the Raja, to
which in equity and humanity he was entitled, a price was set upon his
head, and he was hunted down and killed.

7. That in disregard of the orders of the Court of Directors, that all
contracts should bo publicly advertised, and certain contracts for the army
should be annually renewed by public advertisement, W. Hastings did
from time to time accept of private proposals, and for periods of three and
five years, many of which contracts were notoriously made on disadvan-
tageous conditions, to the great waste of the public property, and with the
view of forming a party to support his measures ; with which view also
he created new oliices, and lavished on various individuals excessive
salaries and emoluments, especially on Sir Eyre Coote, the Commander-

CHARGES PREFERRED AGAINST HASTINGS.

101

in-Chief; and that in consequence of this profusion, the cost of the civil BOOK VI
establishment alone was raised from 205,399/. per annum in 1776, to chap. 1.
927,945/. in 1783.

8. That notwithstanding his covenants and engagement to receive no 1788.
presents, fees, or gratuities, whatever, sundry charges had been brought
against Hastings for gifts or presents corruptly taken by him, some of

which charges having been brought against him before the Council were
never denied or disputed ; that of those, of which explanations had been
promised by him, the explanations were never submitted to the Court of
Directors; that, after a long interval, he informed them of his having
received money from the Prince of Oude, as well as from other persons,
especially Raja Nuncomar, Munny Begum, Khan Jehan Khan, and Raja
Cheit Sing, of which there is no proof that the sums so received ever were,
as he asserts, applied to the public service ; and that his description of his
own conduct in these matters, is marked with gross evasions, and palpable
prevarication and deceit, and confirms all former evidence of his having
constantly used the influence of his station for the most scandalous, illegal,
and corrupt purposes.

9. That after Warren Hastings had signified his intention of resigning
the Government, in consequence of which General Clavering was appointed
his successor, he refused to relinquish his situation to General Clavering,
and in so doing, was guilty of a breach of faith, and of an act of disrespect
to the Court of Directors and his Majesty’s Ministers, tending to bring their
authority into contempt, and that such refusal was an act of injustice to
General Clavering, and was, or might have been, to Mr. Wlieler, and was
an act of signal treachery to Laughlan Macleane, Esq., as also to Mr.

Vansittart and Mr. Stewart: “and the said refusal was prejudicial to the
affairs of the servants of the Company in India, by shaking the confidence
to be placed in their agents by those persons with whom it might be for
their interests to negotiate on matters of importance, and by thus subjecting
the communication of persons abroad with those at home to difficulties
unknown before.” (This to be matter of solemn impeachment !)

ADDITIONAL CHARGES, 12th APRIL.

10. That Warren Hastings did grant to the Surgeon-General a contract
for three years for defraying every kind of hospital and medicinal expense.

11. That he persuaded the Council to enter into a contract with Archi-
bald Frazer, Esq., for the repairs of the pools and tanks of Burdwan, at a
fixed rate for four years.

12. That he granted to Stephen Sullivan, son of Lawrence Sullivan,

Chairman of the Court of Directors, a contract for four years for the pro-
vision of opium ; that in order to pay for the opium so provided, he borrowed
large sums at an interest of 8 per cent., at a time when he declared the
drug could not be exported with profit, and yet he sent it to China, which
was an act of additional criminality, as he knew that importation of opium
into China was prohibited by the Chinese; that a great loss ensued, and
that every part of the transaction was a disobedience of orders and conti-
nued breach of trust.

102

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI 13. That Mr. R. J. Sullivan, having on false pretexts retired from the
chap. 1. Madras service, entered into that of the Nabob of the Carnatic, and was
received by Hastings as the agent of the Nabob, and was appointed by him
1 788. Resident at Arcot. And that when this was revoked by the Court of Di-
rectors, who dismissed Mr. Sullivan from their service, Warren Hastings, in
defiance of their orders and authority, recommended him to be employed
as ambassador at the Court of the Nizam.

14. That notwithstanding the Rana of Gohud, agreeably to stipulations
previously made with the British Government, was a party to the treaty
of peace concluded with Madajee Sindia, yet immediately afterwards
Sindia was allowed to make war upon the Rana, and dispossess him of his
territory, without any interference on the part of the English Government
in behalf of their ally, thereby forfeiting the honour, and injuring the
credit, of the British nation in India.

15. That notwithstanding his own admissions of the declining resources
of the country, Warren Hastings enforced a settlement of the revenue for
five years, at a higher rate than had ever been exacted before. That he
next, in violation of the hereditary rights of the Zemindars, the sole pro-
prietors of the lands in India, let the lands in farm for five years ; and in
contradiction to positive orders of the Court of Directors, that no farm
should exceed the annual amount of one lac of rupees, and that no native
servant of a collector of revenue should hold land in farm, or become
security for other farmers, he allowed his own Banian to farm lands to the
extent of thirteen lacs of rupees per annum ; and that by repeated altera-
tions in the system of managing the revenues, he did harass and afflict the
inhabitants, and destroy all security to private property, and all confidence
in the good faith, principles, and justice, of the British Government.

1 6. That he was guilty of high olfence and misdemeanour in his various
transactions with the Nabob of Oude ; or in deceits, prevarications, con-
tradictions, malicious accusations, fraudulent concealments, and compelled
discoveries, in secret, corrupt and prodigal dispositions of the revenues of
Oude ; in breach of faith to the Nabob in continuing expensive establish-
ments under a private agent of his own, (Major Palmer,) after he had
agreed to remove the agent of the Company.

17. That after a long course of public service, in which his merits had
been repeatedly acknowledged by the Government of Bengal, Mohammed
Reza Khan, Naib Subah of Bengal, was arrested by the private orders of
Warren Hastings, and brought prisoner to Calcutta, where he was long
ignominiously and needlessly detained without trial. That his authority as
guardian of the Nawab of Bengal, and manager of his affairs, was transferred
to Munny Begum, a woman of the lowest and most discreditable order of
society, notoriously incapable of the duties thus assigned to her. That after
Mohammed Reza Khan was acquitted of every charge against him, and
was restored to his offices by order of the Court of Directors, Warren
Hastings again removed him, on the pretext that the Nabob was competent
to manage his own affairs ; and when the Court again insisted upon the
restitution of Mohammed Reza Khan to an authority rendered necessary

CHARGES PREFERRED AGAINST HASTINGS.

103

by the incapacity of the Nawab, he long resisted their orders, his support BOOK VI
of Munny Begum having been secured by corrupt means. That in other chap 1.

matters affecting the Nabob, he also exercised undue and mischievous *

interference, by which the affairs of the Court of Murshedabad had fallen 1788.
into extreme disorder and distress.

18. That in contradiction to the safe, just, and honourable policy of the
Court of Directors, which whilst it forbad their government engaging in
any measure for the extension of the authority of Shah Alem, enjoined
that he should be treated with friendship, good faith, and respectful atten-
tion, Warren Hastings did unite with the Captain-General of the Mahratta
State, called Madajee Sindia, in designs against the few remaining terri-
tories of the Mogul Emperor; and that whilst he sent an agent to Delhi,
and carried on intrigues with the King and his ministers, tending to involve
the Company in renewed hostililities, he did all along concur with the
Mahrattas in their designs against the said King and his ministers, under
the treacherous pretext of supporting the authority of the former against the
latter, and did contrive and effect the ruin of them all, having in view one
only object, the aggrandizement of the lately hostile, and always dangerous,
power of the Mahrattas, which he pursued by means highly dishonourable
to the British character for honour, justice, candour, plain-dealing, mode-
ration, and humanity.

19. That although it was highly improper to publish letters or papers in
defence of measures under the consideration of the Court of Directors,
without their consent, Warren Hastings published a narrative of his
transactions at Benares without leave had, in order to preoccupy the
minds of their servants, and ensure a factious countenance and support;
and that upon the communication to him of the Resolutions of the Court
disapproving of his proceedings, he did write and cause to be printed and
published a certain false, insolent, malicious, and seditious libel, purport-
ing to be a letter from him to the Court, and calculated, as they remark, to
bring upon them odium and contempt, and excite a spirit of disobedience
to the lawful government of this nation in India, through all ranks of their
service.

ADDITIONAL CHARGES, 28th APRIL.

20. That although W. Hastings pronounced the war entered into by the
Bombay Government with the Mahrattas, to be unseasonable, impolitic,
unjust, and unauthorized, and sent an envoy to conclude peace, yet he
afterwards sanctioned the violation of the .article upon which its establish-
ment depended, and by concurring in the support given by the Bombay
Government to the unjustifiable pretensions of Ragoba, a person univer-
sally held in abhorrence in the Mahratta empire, prevented the conclusion
of the treaty, and that he was therefore specially and principally answer-
able for the war that followed, with all the expense, distress, and
disgraces, which attended it. That being finally obliged to conclude
peace, Warren Hastings did consent to articles highly disadvantageous
to the Company, and dishonourable to the British character, by con-

104

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 1.

1788.

ceding every object for which the war had been undertaken, and aban-
doning to the vindictive resentment of the Maliraltas, the princes who
had been our allies — such as the Rana of Gohud, the Nabob of Bhopal,
and Futty Sing Guicowar. That he embarrassed the negotiations
by employing different ministers to treat, evincing an eagerness highly
detrimental to the interests of the English, and originating not in any
sincere desire for tranquillity, but the purpose of engaging the India Com-
pany in a new war with Hyder Ally, and making the Mahrattas parties
thereto : and that upon the conclusion of peace with Tippoo by the
Government of Fort St. George, ratified by that of Bengal, during the
absence of Warren Hastings at Lucknow, he did endeavour, at the inte-
rested instigation of the Nabob of Arcot, to impose additional articles in
favour of the Nabob, to the imminent peril of a renewal of the calamities
and dangers of the war.

21. That in defiance of the Act of Parliament commanding the obedience
of the Governor-General and Council to the orders of the Court of
Directors, and in disregard of positive orders from the Court, that the cor-
respondence with the Princes or country powers, although carried on by
the Governor-General, should be communicated to the Council, and ulti-
mately to the Court, Warren Hastings in sundry instances concealed from
his council the correspondence carried on by him with the princes of India,
and withheld from the Court copies of the correspondence, and the proceed-
ings thereon, for the purpose of covering his own improper and dangerous
practices from his employers.

FURTHER ARTICLE OF CHARGE, 5th MAY.

22. That in violation of solemn treaties and guarantees entered into
with Fyzoolla Khan, Nabob of Rampore, W. Hastings demanded of the
Nabob to furnish more than his stipulated quota of troops, conspired with the
Nawab Vizir to strip Fyzoolla Khan of his possessions, and finally,
extorted from him a large sum of money in lieu of the troops wliich were
illegally required ; in consideration of which, he fully exculpated the
Nawab of the evil intentions of which he, under the influence of secret and
criminal purposes, had falsely and unjustly accused him.

These were the charges preferred against Mr. Hastings, and most of
them were extended to an inordinate length, from the desultory manner
in which they were urged, and the vast quantity of collateral, and not
unfrcquently, irrelevant matter, with which they were overloaded. The
Benares charge, for example, is classed under five heads, besides an
introduction, and contains 110 paragraphs, some of them of great length.
Notwithstanding all this parade of denunciation, the Trial was confined to
the third and fourth charges, or those relating to Cheit Sing and the Begums
of Oude : the seventh, that of the contracts, including the other articles
relating to the same subject ; and the eighth, or that concerning ‘ pre-
sents.’— W.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

105

CHAPTER II.

The Trial of Mr. Hastings.

The trial of Mr. Hastings commenced in West- ^^2/

minster Hall on the 13th day of February, 1788.

So great was the interest which this extraordinary
event had excited, that persons of the highest eleva-
tion crowded to the scene.1 After two days were

1 Take the following account, from the publication entitled, Trial of
W. Hastings, Esq., &c. p. 1. — “ Previous to their Lordships’ approach to
the Hall, about Eleven o’clock, her Majesty, with the Princesses
Elizabeth, Augusta, and Mary, made their appearance in the Duke of
Newcastle’s gallery. Her Majesty was dressed in a fawn-coloured satin,
her head-dress plain, with a very slender sprinkling of diamonds. The
royal box was graced with the Duchess of Gloucester and the young
Prince. The ladies were all in morning dresses ; a few with feathers
and variegated flowers in their head-dress, but nothing so remarkable as to
attract public attention.

“ Mrs. Fitzherbert was in the royal box.

“ The Dukes of Cumberland, Gloucester, and York, and the Prince
of Wales, with their trains, followed the Chancellor, and closed the
procession.

“ Upwards of 200 of the Commons, with the Speaker, were in the
gallery.

“ The Managers, Charles Fox and all, were in full dress.

“ But a very few of the Commons were full dressed — some of them
were in boots. Their seats were covered with green cloth — the rest of the
building was “ one red.”

“ Mr. Hastings stood for some time — On a motion from a Peer, the
Chancellor allowed, as a favour, that the prisoner should have a chair —

And he sat the whole time — but occasionally, when he spoke to his
Counsel.

“ His Counsel were Mr. Law, Mr. Plomer, Mr. Dallas. — For the
Commons — Dr. Scott and Dr. Lawrence; Messrs. Mansfield, Piggot,

Burke, and Douglas.

106

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book J1 spent in the preliminary and accustomed ceremonies,

on the 15th Mr. Burke began. His oration was

1788- continued on the 16th, 18th, and 19th, and lasted four
days. It was the object of this address to convey to
the members of the court a general idea of the character
and circumstances of the people of Hindustan ; of
their situation under the government of Englishmen ;
of the miseries which he represented them as enduring
through the agency of Mr. Hastings ; and of the
motives, namely, pecuniary corruption, to which he
ascribed the offences with which that Governor was
charged. The most remarkable passage in the speech
was that which related to the enormities imputed to
Devi, or Deby Sing ; a native placed by Mr. Hast-
ings in a situation of confidence and power. It
cannot be omitted ; both because the delivery of it is
matter of history, whatever may be the proper judg-
ment with respect to the accusations which it brought;
and also, because it gave birth to several subsequent
proceedings on the trial. This man was admitted ;
according to the accuser, improperly, and for corrupt
ends ; to farm the revenues of a large district of
country. After a time, complaints arrived at Cal-
cutta, of cruelties which he practised, in extorting
money from the people ; upon whom, contrary to his
instructions, he had raised the rents. Mr. Paterson,
one of the gentlemen in the civil service of the Com-
pany was deputed, in the capacity of a Commissioner,

“ A party of horse-guards, under the command of a Field Officer,
■with a Captain’s party from the horse-grenadiers, attended daily during
the trial.

“ A body of 300 foot-guards also kept the avenues clear, and a con-
siderable number of constables attended for the purpose of taking offenders
into custody.”

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

107

to inquire into the foundation of the complaints. It book vi

was from his report, that the statements of Mr. Burke,

reported in the following words, were derived. 1788-

“ The poor Ryots, or husbandmen, were treated
in a manner that would never gain belief, if it was
not attested by the records of the Company; and Mr.

Burke thought it necessary to apologize to their
Lordships for the horrid relation, with which he
would be obliged to harrow up their feelings ; the
worthy Commissioner Paterson, who had authen-
ticated the particulars of this relation, had wished
that, for the credit of human nature, he might have
drawn a veil over them; but as he had been sent to
inquire into them, he must, in discharge of his duty,
state those particulars, however shocking they were
to his feelings. The cattle and corn of the husband-
men were sold for less than a quarter of their value,
and their huts reduced to ashes ! the unfortunate
owners were obliged to borrow from usurers, that
they might discharge their bonds, which had unjustly
and illegallyBeen extorted from them while they were
in confinement ; and such was the determination of
the infernal fiend, Devi Sing, to have these bonds
discharged, that the wretched husbandmen were
obliged to borrow money, not at twenty, or thirty,
or forty, or fifty, but at six hundred per cent, to
satisfy him ! Those who could not raise the money,
were most cruelly tortured ; cords were drawn tight
round their fingers, till the flesh of the four on each
hand was actually incorporated, and became one
solid mass : the fingers were then separated again by
wedges of iron and wood driven in between them. —

Others were tied two and two by the feet, and thrown

108

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

across a wooden bar, upon which they hung, with

their feet uppermost ; they were then beat on the

]78S- soles of the feet, till their toe-nails dropped off.

“ They were afterwards beat about the head till
the blood gushed out at the mouth, nose, and ears ;
they were also flogged upon the naked body with
bamboo canes, and prickly bushes, and, above all,
with some poisonous weeds, which were of a most
caustic nature, and burnt at every touch. The
cruelty of the monster who had ordered all this, had
contrived how to tear the mind as well as the body ;
he frequently had a father and son tied naked to one
another by the feet and arms, and then flogged till
the skin was torn from the flesh ; and he had the
devilish satisfaction to know that every blow must
hurt ; for if one escaped the son, his sensibility was
wounded by the knowledge he had that the blow had
fallen upon his father : the same torture was felt by
the father, when he knew that every blow that
missed him had fallen upon his son.

“ The treatment of the females could not be de-
scribed : — dragged forth from the inmost recesses of
their houses, which the religion of the country had
made so many sanctuaries, they were exposed naked
to public view : the virgins were carried to the Court
of Justice, where they might naturally have looked
for protection : but now they looked for it in vain ;
for in the face of the Ministers of J ustice, in the face
of the spectators, in the face of the sun, those tender
and modest virgins were brutally violated. The only
difference between their treatment and that of their
mothers was, that the former were dishonoured in
the face of day, the latter in the gloomy recesses of

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

109

their dungeon. Other females had the nipples of1300*^1

their breasts put in a cleft bamboo, and torn off.

What modesty in all nations most carefully conceals, 1788-
this monster revealed to view, and consumed by slow
fires ; nay, some of the tools of this monster Devi
Sing had, horrid to tell! carried their unnatural
brutality so far as to drink in the source of genera-
tion and life.

“ Here Mr. Burke dropped his head upon his
hands a few minutes ; but having recovered himself,
said, that the fathers and husbands of the hapless
females were the most harmless and industrious set of
men. Content with scarcely sufficient for the sup-
port of nature, they gave almost the whole produce
of their labour to the East India Company : those
hands which had been broken by persons under the
Company’s authority, produced to all England the
comforts of their morning and evening tea : for it
was with the rent produced by their industry, that
the investments were made for the trade to China,
where the tea which we use was bought.” 1

1 The words of the quotation are taken from the short account of the
speech which is given in the History of the Trial of Warren Hastings,
Esq, published by Debrctt. The account, though short, is the best which
I have been able to procure. The report to which 1 have had access, in
the MS. of the short-hand writer, is exceedingly confused, and indistinct.
Upon this passage, the compiler of the History of the trial adds in a note,
“ In this part of his speech Mr. Burke’s descriptions were more vivid —
more harrowing — and more horrific — than human utterance on either fact
or fancy, perhaps, ever formed before. The agitation of most people was
very apparent — and Mrs. Sheridan was so overpowered that she fainted.

On the subject of the Ministers of these infernal enormities, he broke
out with the finest animation !

“ ‘ My Lords,’ exclaimed Mr. Burke, ‘ let me for a moment quit my
delegated character, and speak entirely from my personal feelings and
conviction. I am known to have had much experience of men and
manners — in active life, and amidst occupations the most various ! From

no

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
chap. 2.

1788.

The next proceeding in the course of the trial
was a matter of great importance. As soon as Mr.

that experience, I now protest — I never knew a man who was bad, fit for
service that was good There is always some disqualifying ingredient,
mixing and spoiling the compound ! The man seems paralytic on that
side ! His muscles there have lost their very tone and character ! — They
cannot move ! In short, the accomplishment of any thing good, is a
physical impossibility for such a man. There is decrepitude as well as
distortion — he could not if he would, is not more certain, than he would
not, if he could !’

“ Shocking as are the facts which Mr. Burke related, and which he
says he finds recorded in the account taken by Mr. Paterson, who was
appointed Commissioner to inquire into the circumstances of this dreadful
business, and of a rebellion which took place in consequence, Mr. Burke
says, of the above-mentioned cruelties : our readers must see that Mr. Hast-
ings cannot be responsible for them, unless it shall be proved that he was
privy to, and countenanced the barbarities.” — M. Burke’s oratory on
this occasion was liable to still more serious censure. It was a tissue of
falsehood. In any case, the cruelties of Deby Sing in collecting his rents
could not be charged upon Hastings, for as soon as he heard or knew of
them he displaced him, and that in so hasty a manner as to expose him-
self to the charge of having acted with too much severity towards Deby
Sing. But, in fact, although some acts of violence had been committed,
nothing had occurred to justify Burke’s exaggeration. The late Henry
Thomas Colebrooke, who, in 1788, had been some time in India, and was
not at all an admirer of Hastings, nor inclined to extenuate his errors,
thus writes to his father. “ Mr. Paterson’s report was not founded upon
evidence taken and facts ascertained. Sent up to investigate accusations
preferred against Raja Deby Sing, he received every petition presented,
however improbable the facts asserted, and drew up his report upon no

better grounds than the tenor of the complaints delivered to him.”

“ It is from such a report that Mr. Burke has selected Mr. Paterson for
his hero, unaware that a respectable commission consisting of three gen-
tlemen of known abilities and integrity, with diligence unremitted during
many months, investigated those matters, and that the result of their in-
quiries and the whole purport of a large body of evidence from witnesses
produced on both sides, proved the assertions in Paterson’s report ground-
less. Notices of the Life of H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. by his son. Trans.
R. Asiatic Society, vol. v. p. 11. At a subsequent period, June 1794, Mr.
Law, adverting to this charge, states the fact of this commission and of its
results, and he also does justice to Mr. Paterson, who he says, “ was so
little pleased with the encomiums of the leading manager, (Burke,) that he
has publicly disavowed them, and expressed concern that his reports
should have been tortured into evidence against Hastings.” Parliamentary
History, xxxi, 949. Burke knew Mr. Paterson’s opinion long before :

PLAN OF THE TRIAL.

Ill

Burke had finished his opening speech, Mr. Fox book vi
stood up, and explained to the Court the order of .

1788.

possibly even at the very moment when he was charging Hastings with
being the cause of atrocities that he had reason to believe were at least of
equivocal existence. Certainly some intimation had been conveyed to
Burke from Mr. Paterson, early in 1788, the year in which the crimes of
Deby Sing were dwelt upon with such an unnatural appetite for disgusting
details, that he was desirous of qualifying or retracting the information he
had given in his report. That this intimation alarmed and irritated
Burke, is evident from a Letter in the Editor’s possession, from him, to a
friend of Mr. Paterson, through whom the communication had been con-
veyed. The Letter is dated 7th of April, 1788, in it he endeavours to in-
timidate Mr. Paterson from disclaiming his concurrence in Burke’s accusa-
tions ; without effect, it should seem, from the tenor of Mr. Law’s statement.

Burke thus writes about six weeks after he had made his oration ; “ On the
credit and authority of Mr. Paterson’s accuracy and fidelity, I have in the
name of the Commons of this Kingdom, in the presence of Europe, and
before the most awful of all tribunals, given a strong representation of the
ill-government exercised in Rungpore, during the administration of Mr.

Hastings. It is not in my choice, because I do not act for myself, but in
trust for others, to suffer the Commons of Great Britain to be discredited,
without doing all in my power to bring to punishment those, who through
negligence, or other unjustifiable causes, have been the means of mislead-
ing them. It is not in my choice for a moment to tolerate any sort of com-
promise, which tends to destroy the credit, not only of the testimony which
Mr. Paterson has collected, but of all other testimony which can be pro-
duced hereafter, on any complaint of oppression. There is no medium.

Either Mr. Paterson has been guilty of criminal and unpardonable negli-
gence, implying a strong suspicion of corruption in executing his office of
commissioner, or there has been a most shocking and corrupt scene of
combination and collusion to abet tyranny, and to suppress truth, one or the
other of these at some time must be determined to be the fact, and the
point so determined must be acted upon. I am no longer alone in this
business, nor does it depend upon my single life, or my continuance in
parliament.” The meaning of this last menace is somewhat mysterious,
but it is evidently designed to terrify a timid, though conscientious man,
from proclaiming any truth unfavourable to Burke’s purposes. As to the
alternatives which the orator leaves to time, neither has been established.

There was neither criminality nor collusion in the commissioner’s report,
or in his retractation, although upon Mr. Colebrooke’s testimony, it
appears that there were the same errors in Mr. Paterson’s proceedings,
which marked every step of Burke’s ; a prejudiced disposition to listen alone
to exparte evidence, and an imprudent readiness to credit the exaggerated
language of complaint. — W.

112

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

J1 proceeding which it was the intention of the managers
for the prosecution to adopt.

1788- They proposed that one of the articles of impeach-
ment only should be taken under consideration at
one time ; that the speakers and the evidence, both
for the prosecution, and for the defence, should, in
the usual manner, be heard on that individual
article ; that the sentence of the court should then
he pronounced ; and that the several charges should
thus be treated, and thus disposed of, one after
another, to the end.

The counsel for Mr. Hastings, three barristers,
Mr. Law, Mr. Plomer, and Mr. Dallas, were asked
by the Lords, if they agreed to the proposed course
of procedure. Upon their declaration, that they
desired the matter of accusation upon all the articles
to be exhibited first, after which they would deliver
all the matter of defence upon them all, when, lastly,
the Court might decide upon them all, the parties
were ordered to produce what they could urge in
support of their respective demands.

Mr. Fox maintained, that the weight of evidence
was best appropriated when fresh in the memory ;
that distinctness and clearness, notwithstanding the
complexity of the subject, and facility of conception,
notwithstanding its vastness, might, according to
the method recommended by the managers, be to a
considerable degree attained ; wThereas, according to
the mode of procedure for which the lawyers con-
tended, evidence would be decided on after it was
forgotten, and such an accumulation of matter
would be offered all at once to the mind, as no
mind, without taking it piecemeal, was competent to
manage.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

113

The three learned gentlemen, as the lawyers are
called, spoke, one after another, very earnestly, and
at considerable length. Mr. Law was first, and
most vehement. He proceeded to animadvert upon
the strong language of condemnation which had been
employed by Mr. Burke ; and was reproached for
the very offence of which he complained. He alluded
to the opprobrious language with which a great state
prisoner had been treated by a hot-headed lawyer of
former times, and said, “ this defendant has been
loaded with terms of such calumny and reproach,
which since the days of Sir Walter Raleigh were
never used at the bar of this House.”1 Mr. Fox
interrupted him, and said, that, vested with a great
trust by the house of Commons, he could not sit and
hear such language applied to an accusation which
that House, in the prosecution of high crimes, had
carried to the bar of the competent court.

In opposition to the order of proceeding, recom-
mended by the managers, the allegations urged by
the lawyers were ; that such an order was contrary
to ancient usage ; that the cases offered by the
managers as precedents did not apply, and in fact
there was no precedent ; that the mode proposed
was contrary to the modes of procedure at common
law; and that it was disadvantageous to the de-
fendant. Mr. Law and Mr. Dallas specified one
disadvantage. That in giving their answer upon one
charge, they might be compelled to disclose to their
adversary the defence which they meant to employ
upon others. “ My Lords,” said Mr. Law, “ we

BOOK vi

CHAP. 2.

1788.

1 Short-hand writer’s report, MS. in the writer’s hands.
VOL. V. I

114

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi are come forward, on the first article, to state our

case, and to produce all the evidence, and all the

l788- defence, we are to make on nineteen others. Is it
just ? Is it reasonable ? Is it what would be
admitted in any other court of justice ? On the first
article we are immediately put under the necessity
to sustain our defence : the cross examination of
the prosecutor immediately attaches on those wit-
nesses ; they extract from them perhaps some evidence
which may make it less necessary to call on their
part such evidence as they want. Is that right?”1
It was further urged by Mr. Dallas, that as the
charges had a close connexion, the evidence which
applied to one, would sometimes be necessary for
another, whence repetition and delay.

The Lords withdrew to their own chamber to
deliberate, and adjourned the Court to the 22nd.
The Lord Chancellor Thurlow opened the question,
in the chamber of the Lords, by strongly recommend-
ing, in a speech of considerable length, the order of
proceeding contended for by the lawyers ; and his
proposition was adopted without a division. The
business of the Court on the 22nd was opened by
the Lord Chancellor, proclaiming, “ Gentlemen,
I have in charge to inform you, that you are to
produce all your evidence, in support of the pro-
secution, before Mr. Hastings is called upon for his
defence.”

The historian, who is not bound by the opinion,
either of the Judges, or of the prosecutors, is called
upon to try if he can discover the decision which is
pronounced by reason upon the facts of the case.

1 MS. ut supra.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

115

It will not, surely, admit of dispute, that a question
will be decided most correctly, when all the evidence
which hears upon it is most fully present to the
memory, and every part of it receives its due por-
tion of regard. As little will it admit of dispute, that
two things contribute to that just appreciation of
evidence, namely, recent delivery, and freedom from
the mixture both of other evidence not bearing upon
the point, and of other questions distracting the
attention. The truth of every affirmation is best
seen, when the mind, as exempt as possible from
every other thought, applies the proof immediately
to the point which is in dispute ; confronts the
affirmative with the negative evidence ; adjusts the
balance, and decides. There cannot be a question,
that for the purpose of ascertaining the truth, of esti-
mating the evidence correctly, and arriving at a
decision conformable to the facts, as they took place,
the course recommended by the managers was the
proper course. As little can it be doubted, that for
the purposes of lawyer-craft ; for all the advantages
to be gained by the suppression of evidence, by the
loss of it from the memory, by throwing the Judges
into a state of confusion and perplexity, when the
mind becomes passive, and allows itself to be led
by the adviser who seems most confident in his own
opinion ; the course successfully contended for by
the lawyers, was infinitely the best. The course
recommended by the managers, was most favourable
to an innocent defendant, to the man for whose
advantage it is that the truth should be correctly
ascertained. The course successfully contended for
by the lawyers was most favourable to a guilty

I 2

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1788.

116

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v i defendant, to the man for whose advantage it is that
the truth should not he correctly ascertained.

1788- If truth is the end, we have, then, arrived at a
decision. To this reasoning and its conclusion, there
is not, in the harangues of the lawyers, a tittle op-
posed. On this, the only question at issue, they
were silent : and diverted the attention to other
objects. They did not inquire, whether the path
pointed out was that which led to the discovery of
truth ; hut whether the Lords, or the lawyers, had
been accustomed to tread in that path before. We
shall now, however, decide, that vrhenever the path
which leads to truth is discovered, it is no longer
the question who has not walked in it before, but
who shall best walk in it for the future. When the
path which leads to truth is discovered, it is a
wretched solicitude, which endeavours to find out
that our predecessors have not walked in it, in
order that we may follow their unhappy example,
instead of proceeding in the direction which reason
points out as the only one that is good. As for the
practice of the lawyers’ courts, if that was ascer-
tained to lead in a direction not the most favourable
to the discovery of truth, there was no obligation on
the Lords to follow it.

After this, the lawyers had two allegations, and
no more. There was Mr. Law’s complaint, that
they would be obliged, on one charge, to disclose the
grounds of their defence on all. This is a com-
plaint, at being obliged to contribute to the dis-
covery of truth. It is a demand, that a door should
be left open to lawyer-craft, for the purpose of
defeating the discovery of truth. No disadvantage,

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

117

but that which the disclosure of truth inferred, B00K } 1

could thus arise to the defendant. The necessity of

producing evidence would be equal to both parties. 1788'
If the defendant were obliged, in answering one
charge, to disclose the grounds of his defence on
others, the accusers would be equally obliged to
disclose the grounds of their accusation. The party
who by this course would gain, is the party to whom
the truth would be favourable ; the party who
would lose, the party to whom the truth would
be noxious. According to the course of the
lawyers, the advantage and disadvantage change
their sides.

Last of all, we notice the allegation of Mr. Dallas,
that, as several of the articles of charge were closely
connected, it would be necessary to repeat a part of
the evidence. This is true ; and so far as it goes a
valid objection. But surely the small portion of
additional labour, and the small portion of additional
time, requisite for hearing more than once the same
article of evidence, may be counterbalanced by a
small advantage afforded to the discovery of truth.

Besides, when the Judges, after the lapse of years,
came to pronounce a separate judgment upon each
of the charges, it was absolutely necessary for them,
either to repeat to themselves the evidence as often
as repetition was necessary, or so far to decide with-
out evidence. 1

1 This reasoning is full of fallacies. The main argument is, that prompt
decision ensures perfect recollection of the evidence; but what judge ever
trusts to his memory for the appreciation of evidence, unless it be very
brief and simple, and applicable to a case which can at once be decided ;
for what memory can accurately retain many and complicated particu-
lars, asserted by a number of witnesses during a long and desultory

118

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

.y1 A protest, on the subject, well worthy of a place

in the history of this trial, was entered on the J our-

1788- nals of the Lords :

examination, continued during many successive days, and often suspended
for many days ? There was in Hastings’s Trial no such thing as “ recent”
delivery of the testimony, there was no possibility of preventing its
escaping to a very material extent from the recollection. No conscientious
person could have founded a decision upon it as it was heard. He would
have weighed it, and pronounced judgment upon it as it was recorded. But
if it is necessary for the ends of justice, and that it is so, no person can
question, that evidence should be recorded, the recollection of it becomes
a matter of indifference. We are as competent at this time to examine its
bearing, and determine the amount of its proof, as the persons who actually
listened to its utterance. Again, as to another chief argument — the advan-
tage of examining the proofs of each charge separately in detail : it is evident
from the minutes of the evidence, that such a course would have been most
unfavourable to the elicitment of truth. The circumstances of the prin-
cipal charges were inseparably connected with each other, and to have
passed judgment on one, without investigating both, would have excluded
the judges from the cognizance of much that was indispensable to a com-
prehensive view of either. The managers, themselves, admitted this most
unequivocally, when they abandoned a number of specific charges, be-
cause they were “ partly involved in others previously investigated.” The
charges assailed the whole of the intentions and the acts, and the gene-
ral character of the administration of Hastings, through a series of
years ; and it was absolutely necessary to look at them together, to
judge of them individually. A different procedure, a piece-meal investi-
gation, would have been open to the objections so justly taken to such
a course in the preface, and would have exemplified the apologue of the
blind men and the elephant.

As to the arguments of the managers, they, like all the sophistical
reasonings of public debaters were adapted to a particular object, and not
founded on general principles. Of this a very remarkable and irrefutable
proof is afforded by the conduct of Mr. Fox, who on this occasion stood
foremost in advocating a decision upon the charges severally. Unfortu-
nately for his consistency he had not very long before maintained the
opposite doctrine. “ Mr. Secretary Fox perfectly agreed in the method
proposed by the learned lord, and advised the Hon. Baronet (Sir Thomas
Rumbold) to postpone his defence until he heard every thing that could be
alleged against him.” — Debates on Charges against Sir T. Rumbold,
29th April, 1782, Parliamentary Hist. xxii. 1316. It may be said that
there was no inconsistency in this ; Fox wishing in one instance to screen,
in the other to convict. This is true — but it is not calculated to inspire us
with any respect for arguments that take their colour from personal in-
terests and feelings, not from a love of truth or reverence for justice. — W.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

119

“ Dissentient.

1st. Because we hold it to be

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

primarily essential to the due administration of
justice, that they who are to judge have a full , clear ,
and distinct knowledge of every part of the question
on which they are ultimately to decide : and in a
cause of such magnitude, extent, and variety , as the
present, where issue is joined on acts done at times
and places so distant, and with relation to persons so
different, as well as on crimes so discriminated from
each other by their nature and tendency, we conceive
that such knowledge cannot but with extreme difficulty
be obtained without a separate consideration of the
several articles exhibited.

“ 2nd. Because we cannot with equal facility, accu-
racy, and confidence, apply and compare the evidence
adduced , and more especially the arguments urged by
the prosecutors on one side and the defendant on the
other, if the whole charge be made one cause, as if
the several articles be heard in the nature of separate
causes.

“3rd. Because, admitting it to be a clear and
acknowledged principle of justice, that the defendant
against a criminal accusation should be at liberty to
make his defence in such form and manner as he
shall deem most to his advantage; we are of opinion,
that such principle is only true so far forth as the
use and operation thereof shall not be extended to
defeat the ends of justice , or to create difficulties and
delays equivalent to a direct defeat thereof ; and,
because we are of opinion, that the proposition made
by the managers of the House of Commons, if it had
been agreed to, would not have deprived the defend-
ant in this prosecution, of the fair and allowable

120

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK

CHAP.

1788.

2. 1 benefit of such principle taken in its true sense ;
inasmuch as it tended only to oblige him to apply
his defence specially and distinctly to each of the
distinct and separate articles of the Impeachment,
in the only mode in which the respective merits of the
charge and of the defence can he accurately compared
and determined , or even retained in the memory , and
not to limit or restrain him in the form and manner
of constructing, explaining, or establishing his
defence.

“4th. Because, in the case of the Earl of Mid-
dlesex, and that of the Earl of Strafford, and other
cases of much less magnitude, extent and variety,
than the present, this House has directed the pro-
ceedings to be according to the mode now proposed
by the managers on the part of the Commons.

“5th. Because, even if no precedent had existed,
yet, from the new and distinguishing circumstances
of the present case, it would have been the duty of
this House to adopt the only mode of proceeding,
which, founded on simplicity, can ensure perspicuity ,
and prevent conf usion.

“ 6th. Because we conceive, that, the accepting
the proposal made by the Managers would have
been no less consonant to good policy than to sub-
stantial justice, since by possessing the acknoivledged
right of preferring their articles as so many successive
Impeachments, the Commons have an undoubted
power of compelling this House in future virtually to
adogt that mode which they now recommend ; and if they
should ever be driven to stand on this extreme right,
jealousies must unavoidably ensue between the two
Houses, whose harmony is the vital principle of na-

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

121

Portland,

Devonshire,

Bedford,

Cardiff,

Derby,

For the 1st, 2nd, and 7th reasons,

F or the 1 st and 2nd reasons only

Manchester.
( Townshend,

\ Harcourt,

( Leicester.”

1788.

tional prosperity ; public justice must be delayed, if 1

not defeated ; the innocent might be harassed, and

the guilty might escape.

“7th. Because many of the reasons upon which a
different mode of conducting their prosecution has
been imposed upon the Commons, as alleged in the
debate upon this subject, appear to us of a still more
dangerous and alarming tendency than the measure
itself, forasmuch as we cannot hear hut with the
utmost astonishment and apprehension , that this
Supreme Court of Judicature is to be concluded hy
the instituted rides of the practice of inferior Courts ;
and that the law of Parliament , which we have ever
considered as recognised and reverenced by all who
respected and understood the laws and the constitu-
tion of this country, has neither form , authority , nor
even existence; a doctrine which we conceive to strike
directly at the root of all parliamentary proceeding hy
impeachment, and to be equally destructive of esta-
blished rights of the Commons, and of the criminal
jurisdiction of the Peers, and consequently to tend to
the degradation of both Houses of Parliament, to
diminish the vigour of public justice, and to subvert
the fundamental principles of the constitution.

[Signed]

Wentworth Fitzwilliam,
Stamford,

Loughborough,

Craven,

122

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1788.

After withdrawing for a few minutes to deliberate,
the managers for the Commons submited to the
decision of the Lords, and proceeded to the investi-
gation upon the first of the charges ; that relating to
the conduct of the defendant toward the Raja of
Benares, Chey te Sing. Mr. F ox addressed the Court
as accuser, and Mr. Grey followed him the succeed-
ing day. This was the eighth day of the trial ; and
time was consumed in hearing evidence, with disputes
raised about its admission or exclusion, from that
till the 13th, when Mr. Anstruther summed up, and
commented upon the matter adduced. Of the evi-
dence, or the observations by which it was attended,
both for the accusation and the defence, as it is hoped
that the preceding narrative has already communi-
cated a just conception of the facts, a repetition
would be attended with little advantage ; and the
incidents by which the course of the proceedings was
affected will appear, in most parts of the trial, to
include nearly the whole of what the further eluci-
dation of this memorable transaction requires.

On the 29th of February, which was the eleventh
day of the trial, Mr. Benn, a witness, professing
forgetfulness, or speaking indeterminately, on a point
on which he appeared to the managers to have spoken
more determinately, when previously examined be-
fore the House of Commons, was interrogated as to
the tenor of his evidence on that preceding occasion.
The barristers, of counsel for the defendant, had
cavilled several times before at the questions of the
accusers. They now made a regular stand.

Mr. Law, and Mr. Plomer, argued, that a party
should not be allowed to put any questions tending

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

123

to lessen the credit of his own witness. Their bookvi

CHAP. 2.

reasons were, that such a proceeding was not allowed

in the courts of law ; that if the party believed his 1788-
witness unworthy of credit, he acted fraudulently, in
proposing to take the benefit of his evidence, if
favourable ; to destroy his credit, if the reverse ; and
that such an inquisition is a hardship to the man
upon whom it is imposed.

The managers for the Commons contended ; That
such a question as they had put was conformable to
the practice both of the courts of law, and of the high
court of parliament ; as appeared by the trial of Lord
Lovat, by the permission given to put leading ques-
tions to a reluctant witness, and the practice in the
courts of law of questioning a witness as to any depo-
sition he may have made on the same subject in a
court of equity : That most of the witnesses, who
could be summoned upon this trial, were persons
whose prejudices, whose interests, whose feelings,
were all enlisted on the side of the defendant ; and
who would not, if they could help it, tell any thing to
his prejudice : And that hence, in all cases similar
to this, the privilege for which they contended was
essential to justice.1

It is evident from former reasonings, that the first
and principal plea of the lawyers is altogether foreign
to the question, and deserves not a moment’s regard.

A contrary practice was universal in the courts of
law. What then ? The question of the wise man

1 Minutes of the Trial of Warren Hastings, MS. The reader may, how-
ever, consult the printed History, ut supra, which differs in nothing material
from the original document in my hands.

124

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi is not what is done in the courts of law, but what

CHAP. 2.

ought to be done.

1788. Witnesses would suffer by sustaining the proposed
inquisition. But surely inquisition is not a worse
thing, performed by one, than performed by another
party. Inquisition is performed upon every witness
by the cross examination. But if inquisition is to
be performed, what objection is there to giving truth
the benefit of it? Why confine it to one of the
parties ?

We now come to that plea of theirs which alone
has any obscurity in it. A party ought not to bring
a witness, whose testimony is unworthy of trust. To
this two things are to be given in answer. First,
he may bring a witness, not knowing that he is un-
wrnrthy of trust. Secondly, he may bring a witness,
knowing that he is very imperfectly worthy of trust,
because he has none that is better.

If a party brings a witness, expecting he will
speak the truth, but finds that he utters falsehood,
he is without resource, unless he is permitted to show
that what is uttered is falsehood, or at any rate
destitute of some of the requisite securities for truth.
Upon these terms, a man need only be admitted a
witness, to defeat, when he pleases, the cause of
justice. This is to shut up one of the doors to the
discovery of truth ; and whatever in judicature shuts
up any of the doors to the discovery of truth, by the
same operation opens a door to the entrance of ini-
quity. Let us inquire what danger can arise from
the privilege to which the lawyers object. If the
testimony is really true, to scrutinize is the way to
confirm, not weaken it. If the credibility of the

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

125

witness is good, the more completely it is explored, ] 1

the more certainly will its goodness appear. Make

the most unfavourable supposition ; that a party brings 1/88'

a witness, expecting mendacity ; and, finding truth,
endeavours to impair his credit. This is a possible
case : Let us see what happens. All that a party
can do to weaken the credit of a witness, is to point
out facts which show him to be capable of mendacity.

The credibility of a witness is either strong or weak.

If strong, the attempts of a party who stands in the
relation of a summoning party, to detract from it,
can hardly ever have any other effect than to confirm
it, and cast suspicion on his own designs. If w’eak,
he can only show the truth, which ought always to
be shown ; and if it appears, that he brought a wit-
ness, known to be mendacious, whose character he
discloses only when he speaks the truth, in this case
too he affords presumption against himself. Even
when a witness, who has a character for mendacity,
speaks the truth, it is fit that his character should be
made known to the judge. It is not enough that one
of the parties happens to know the conformity between
the testimony and the facts. The satisfaction of the
public is of more importance than that of an indi-
vidual ; and for the satisfaction of the public, it is
necessary that all the requisite securities for the dis-
covery of truth should have been employed.

It very often happens, that the only witness to be
had is a mendacious and reluctant witness ; a partner,
for instance, in the crime. Justice may yet have
some chance, if the party whose interest it is that the
truth should be discovered is allowed the use of all
the most efficient instruments of extraction. But if

126

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1788.

his witness declares, for example, that he does not
recollect, and the party is not allowed to adduce
evidence to show that it is impossible he should not
recollect, a witness of such a description has a license
put into his hand to defeat the ends of justice. It is
thus abundantly evident that the honest suitor has
often the greatest possible occasion for the power of
discrediting his own witness, and must be defeated
of his rights if deprived of it. Let us see what pos-
sible evil the dishonest suitor can effect by being
possessed of it. He wishes, for example, to prove
the existence of a fact which never had existence;
and he brings a man whom he expects to swear to
it, but who disappoints him. Here it is plain that to
discredit his witness does no harm ; the false fact
remains unproved. Let us suppose that he brings,
to disprove an actual fact, a witness who disappoints
him. In this case he gains as little by discrediting
his witness ; the true fact is not in the least by that
means disproved. But these two are the only pos-
sible sets of cases, to which for a fraudulent purpose
evidence can be adduced. It appears then, we may
almost say, demonstratively, that the power of dis-
crediting his own witness may very often indeed be
of the utmost importance to the honest suitor, can
never, or almost never, be of any use to the dishonest
one. It is a power, therefore, essential to the ends of
justice.1

1 For a specimen of just ideas on this, and other parts of the subject of
evidence, see an unfinished work, entitled “Rationale of Evidence, by J.
Bentham, Esq.” For a complete elucidation, the public must wait for that
more voluminous production, which he announced as nearly prepared, so
long ago as in the first edition of the Letters to Lord Grenville on Scotch
Reform.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

127

The Lords, however, in conformity with the wishes J 1

of the lawyers, and with a grand lawyer at their —

head, having adjourned to their own chamber for the
purpose of deliberation, opened the business, the day
on which the court was next convened, by informing
the managers for the Commons, that it was not
allowed them to put the question which they had last
proposed. “ The managers for the Commons,” say
the printed Minutes of Evidence, “ requested leave
to withdraw for a while. — The managers for the
Commons, being returned, said it was with the
greatest concern they informed the House, that it
was impossible for them to acquiesce in the decision
of the House : That they felt it so important, not

only to the present question, but to the whole of the
trial, that they should hold themselves bound to go
back to the House of Commons, who sent them
thither, to take instructions from them how to pro-
ceed— if they did not feel it necessary to proceed
with vigour and despatch, which might make them,
for the present, wave their opinion upon the subject,
but under a protest the most strong, that they had a
right to put the question proposed, and that if they
should think a similar question necessary to be put in
the course of the future proceedings, they would pro-
pose it for the more deliberate judgment of the
House.”1

On the 10th day of April, and thirteenth of the
trial, the evidence for the prosecution, on the first
article of impeachment, was closed. On the following
day it was summed up by Mr. Anstruther ; and this

' Minutes of the Evidence taken at the Trial of Warren Hastings,

Esq., p. 321.

128

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

^ 1 part of the trial was concluded by some observations
— — ^ ■■ which Mr. Burke requested permission to adduce, on
a peculiar feature of the evidence, to which the nature
of the circumstances compelled the complainants in
this case to resort. It had been already remarked
that of the witnesses who could be called upon this
prosecution, the greater part from powerful causes
would he favourable to the defendant. It was now
remarked that they would be lenient to the crimes.
“ It was to be recollected, that some of those men
who had been called to the bar of the court, had
been the instruments of that tyranny which was now
arraigned. Those who were deputed to oppress were
to be heard with caution when they spoke of the
measure of the oppression. It was easy to be seen
that those who had inflicted the injustice would not
use the harshest terms when speaking of its measure
and rate.”1

On the 15th day of April, and the fourteenth of
the trial, the proceedings were opened on the second
article of the accusation ; or that, relating to the
Begums of Oude. Mr. Adam, in a speech of great
length, exhibited a view of the allegations. On the
following day, Mr. Pelham commented on the answer
of Mr. Hastings, and evidence began to be heard.

The extreme want of recollection, professed by Mr.
Middleton, and the embarrassment and confusion of
his statements, having drawn down certain strictures
from Mr. Sheridan, ft I must take the liberty,” said
Mr. Law, the counsel, “ of requesting, that the
Honourable Manager will not make comments on the

1 Minutes of the Trial of Warren Hastings, Esq. MS. of the short-
hand writer.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

129

evidence of the witness, in the presence of the witness. 1

It will tend to increase the confusion of a witness

who is at all confused ; and affect the confidence of 1/ VS'
the most confident, — I shall, therefore, hope the
Honourable Manager will, from humanity and de-
corum, attend to it. I am sure I do not mention it
out of disrespect to him.”1 This passage is adduced
to show the opinion of a person, of great eminence in
the law, on a matter of some importance — the brow-
beating of a witness.

The courts in which, by the usual steps, he rose
to preside, are justly designated, as, of all the places
set apart for the administration of justice, those in
which the rule of humanity and decorum, here set up
by the advocate, is the most grossly and habitually
violated. The advantage taken of the embarrassment
of a witness, who really appears desirous to conceal
or contradict the truth, is not of course the practice
which it is meant to condemn. What excites the
disgust and indignation of every honest spectator,
from every quarter of the globe, is the attempt so
often made, and so often made- successfully, to throw
an honest witness into confusion and embarrassment,
for the sake of destroying the weight of his testimony,
and defeating the cause of truth ; the torture unne-
cessarily and wantonly inflicted upon the feelings of
an individual, to show off a hireling lawyer, and
prove to the attorneys his power of doing mischief.

Mr. Middleton availed himself to an extraordinary
extent of the rule, a rule upheld by the Lords ; that
a witness might refuse to answer a question, which

1 Minutes of the Trial of Warren Hastings, Esq. MS. of the short -hand
writer, twentieth day.

VOL. V.

K

130

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 2

1789.

1 tended to criminate himself. This is a rule, which if
- thieves, robbers, and murderers, were the makers of
law, one would not he surprised at finding in force
and repute. That the personages, by whom it was
established, wished the discovery of guilt, it is not
easy to believe ; for so far as it operates, the impunity
of the criminal is secured.

On the 30th day of May, thirty-first of the trial,
the evidence for the prosecution on the subject of the
Begums was closed; and on the following, Mr. Sheri-
dan began to present the view of it which he wished
to imprint upon the minds of the judges. Four days
were occupied in the delivery of the speech; and this
part of the business was concluded on the 13th of
June, when the Lords adjourned to the first Tuesday
in the next session of parliament.

Before the time which was destined for re-assem-
bling the parliament, the event occurred of the mental
derangement of the King. This delayed the resump-
tion of proceedings till the 21st of April, 1789. On
that day, the thirty-sixth day of the trial, the article
of impeachment, relating to the receipt of presents,
was opened by Mr. Burke. The intermediate articles
were omitted, partly as involved in the question
respecting the Begums of Oude, and partly for the
avoidance of delay, of which complaints were now
industriously raised and dispersed.

Having stated in his speech those facts, the first
information of which was derived from the Raja
Nuncomar, the manager declared that, “if the counsel
for the defendant should be so injudicious as to bring
forward the conviction of the Raja, for the purpose
of destroying the effect of these charges, he would

TRIAL OF HASTINGS. *

131

open that scene of blood to their Lordships’ view, and

show that Mr. Hastings had murdered Nuncomar by

the hands of Sir Elijah Impey.” Six days afterwards, 1/89
that is on the 27th of April, when the manager had
spoken for two days, Major Scott presented to the
House of Commons a petition from Mr. Hastings,
complaining that Mr. Burke had adduced against
him a variety of accusations extraneous to the charges
found by that House ; and especially had accused
him of having murdered Nuncomar by the hands of
Sir Elijah Impey. Upon the subject of this petition
several debates ensued. It was first disputed, whe-
ther the petition should be received : The managers
contending, that the motion was irregular and unpre-
cedented ; that if every expression not agreeable to
the feelings of the party accused, were improper in
a criminal prosecution, it would be necessary for
criminal prosecutions to cease ; that a practice of
petitioning against the accuser would regularly con-
vert him into a species of defendant, and, by creating
a diversion, defeat the prosecution of crimes ; that if
the prosecutor misconduct himself in his function, it
is for the tribunal before which he offends to anim-
advert upon his conduct ; that the Commons might
undoubtedly change their managers, if experience
had proved them to be unfit for their office ; that if
the Commons, however, did not mean to withdraw
their trust, it would be inconsistent, by any dis-
crediting procedure, to weaken the hands of those
who, contending with an adversary so numerously
surrounded, so potently supported, and whose delin-
quencies, by distance of place, distance of time, com-
plexity of matter, and difficulties of innumerable sorts

k 2

132

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1789.

by which the production of evidence was loaded, were
to so extraordinary a degree covered from detection,
had need of support, not of debilitation ; and who
required additional strength to enable them to remove
the obstacles which separated the evidence from the
facts.

The minister, and with him the ministerial part of
the house, observing that the Commons had given to
their conductors limited powers, and that, if those
conductors exceeded the hounds within which it was
intended to confine them, it belonged to the Commons,
not the Lords, to impose the due restraint, carried
the vote that the petition ought to be received.

It was agreed, that the subject of the petition
should undergo deliberation on the 30th of the month,
and that in the mean time the Lords should be re-
quested, by a message, to suspend proceedings on the
trial .

On the 30th, instead of proceeding to the appointed
deliberation, the House, on a suggestion of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, anxious, he said, to preserve
the regularity of the proceedings of the House, com-
municated to the member whose conduct was
charged (though everybody had seen him present at
every thing which had passed), a formal notice, that
a petition had been received, and that the House
would take it into consideration on a day that was
name:!. Mr. Burke, without objecting to the forma-
lity, said, that he had no wish for it on the present
occasion ; that he willingly cast himself on the
honour and justice of the House ; that he should
gladly, if it were their pleasure, retire from the heavy
burden under which they had placed him ; that in

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

133

order to facilitate the inquiry he should not be6001^1

A J # CHAP. 2.

present at their deliberation, and should in the mean

time distinctly confess that he did employ the words, 1789-
on account of which the complaint had been brought.

In justification of them he observed ; That circum-
stantial evidence constituted the proof by which the
pecuniary corruption of Mr. Hastings was to be ascer-
tained ; that, in tracing the indications of concealed
delinquency, a solicitude to destroy the sources of
evidence had always been considered as one of the
strongest ; that it was for this purpose, the circum-
stances attending the death of Nuncomar had been
exhibited; that this individual having offered to
produce evidence of the pecuniary corruption of Mr.
Hastings, and Mr. Hastings having lent himself both
actively and passively to the destruction of this source
of evidence, such behaviour on the part of Mr.
Hastings, was circumstantial evidence of guilt ; and
that if circumstantial evidence must not be produced,
because the mention of the scenes from which it is
to be extracted may give pain to the individual,
whose imputed guilt is the object of inquiry, the use
of circumstantial evidence is precluded, and the
punishment of some of the most dangerous crimes
is rendered impossible.

On the following day, to which the consideration
of the petition was postponed, a member of the
House produced, and read a letter, from Mr. Burke.

Its object was to exhibit again, and in a permanent
form, the reasons which induced him to abstain from
any share in the controversy respecting his own
behaviour ; and to declare that no appearance of dis-
favour, no discouragement, provided the House,

134

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAT. '2.

1789.

1 whose servant he was, still left in his hands the trust
- which they had originally placed in them, should
affect his attachment to the great service w7hich he
had undertaken to render, or slacken his diligence
therein to the end. Describing the petition as a
stratagem, familiar to the politics of Calcutta, for
turning the accuser into a defendant, and diverting
inquiry, he adduced two reasons, for declining all
defence; first, because he would not expose his
sources of proof to the knowledge, nor his witnesses
to the power of the defendant ; secondly, because a
man whose conduct is good, can hardly ever be
injured by unjust accusations. “ It would,” he
said, “ be a feeble sensibility on my part, which at
this time of day would make me impatient of those
libels, which by despising through so many years, I
have at length obtained the honour of being joined
in commission with this committee, and becoming
an humble instrument in the hands of public justice.”
The last of the reasons, which were thus solemnly
adduced by Mr. Burke, reaches far beyond the limits
of any single inquiry, however important; since it
involves in it the freedom of the press ; and shows,
that, even when it is converted to abuse, it is not for
the advantage of an innocent man to seek to restrain
it ; he will find his advantage in continuing through
life to despise its excesses.

In favour of Mr. Hastings it was proposed that
evidence should be taken to prove the words of which
the petition complained; and Major Scott made a
speech, in which, after giving his own explanation
of the death of Nuncomar, he adduced, as a defence
on which he might rely, the circumstance, that after

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

135

1789.

the facts relating to the death of Nuncomar were book yi

known in England, Mr. Hastings had been repeatedly

chosen by the Ministers and the Company to fill the
high office of chief ruler in India, and upon his
return to England had never been called upon for
one word of explanation in regard to that extraor-
dinary affair.

That could not be a very sure defence of one
party, which possibly was but a severe accusation of
another.

In opposition to this proposal, and in order to
explode the inquiry, it was moved, that the House
do adjourn. After some contention, 158 members
voted against ninety-seven, that evidence should be
heard ; and it was moved, that the short-hand writer
be called in. This was not a proper mode, it was
said, of proving the words of a member of parliament.

And, in cavilling about evidence, the managers
showed an inclination, not much better than that of
their opponents.

It was moved, and upon division carried, that a
Committee should be formed to search for precedents,
and the House adjourned.

On the 4th of May the Committee reported that a
precedent exactly in point was not to be found. A
question then was raised, whether the examination
of the short-hand writer should extend to the whole
of the speech, or so much of it only as was the
subject of complaint. The managers contended for
the whole. Mr. Pitt spared not upon them either
sarcasms or imputations. The question, urged to a
division, went of course with the minister.

The words being proved, which Mr. Burke had

136

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1789.

i begun with confessing, it was moved, “ That no
_ direction, or authority, was given by this House, to
bring as a charge against Mr. Hastings, or to impute
to him, the condemnation and execution of Nun-
comar.” Mr. Pitt described the motion, as a neces-
sary atonement which the House owed to Mr.
Hastings for charging him with murder; at the
same time disclaiming all intention of throwing
blame on the managers. Mr. Fox had not much
objection to the motion, as it implied no censure on
Mr. Burke, nor restrained him in future from
adducing the facts; but he threw out insinuations
against the minister, as having belied his professions
of fairness and impartiality ; and contended that it
was inconsistent with the honour and justice of the
House to leave men to struggle with a duty, whom
they found unequal to its discharge ; that in proving
a crime, it was essential to the ends of justice to be
allowed to adduce every relevant fact : that it was
no matter whether the fact was innocent or criminal ;
and that in courts of law themselves, it was a rule
to admit one crime as evidence to prove another ; a
greater crime as evidence of a less ; murder, for
example, as proof of a fraud.

Mr. Sheridan represented that he had used the
same words a year before, when no notice was taken
of them: that Mr. Hastings was familiar with the
imputation of causing the death of Nuncomar, for
in his defence he had noticed it, and repelled it by
denial. With regard to the truth of the allegation,
he called upon Mr. Pitt to rise, and say, if he dared,
that Nuncomar, if he had not accused Mr. Hastings,
would have died the death to which he was exposed.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

137

Nor was this all. Both he and Mr. Fox declared, B00K yi

that if they had occasion in the course of the trial to

speak again of the death of Nuncomar, they would 1789-
speak of it in terms exactly the same with those
which Mr. Burke had employed.

rt Mr. Pitt said he disregarded the insinuations
against himself, but he and his friends should be
watchful over the conduct of the managers, and take
care they transgressed not the directions of the
House.

“Mr. Fox replied, that no tyrant ever behaved
in a more barbarous manner over those whom he
governed, nor with more treachery and fraud : that
the privileges of the Commons were never more
invaded, or endangered, within this century, nay, he
would say within the last, than they had been within
these few days.”

In consequence of this altercation, the ministerial
party proposed to increase the asperity of the motion,
by adding, that the words “ he murdered him by the
hands of Sir Elijah Impey,” ought not to have been
spoken. Mr. Fox, after inveighing against the
absurdity of condemning and not changing the
managers, proposed the following amendment; “Not-
withstanding in a former year no notice was taken
of the words spoken by another manager to the same
effect ; and that Mr. Hastings in his defence had
considered them as a charge, and given it a reply.”

Upon his intimating very plainly his belief, that the
ministerial party, after finding it convenient to vote
for the impeachment, were now at work to defeat it
of its end, and through the medium of a courtly
censure meanly to convey sentiments which they

138

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bookv1 ^ afraid or ashamed to avow, Colonel Phipps

rose to order, describing the words which had been

1789‘ uttered as words not fit for that assembly, and which
would not be tolerated in any other place. This
being treated by Mr. Francis as an indecent menace,
and receiving a severe reply from Mr. Fox, strangers,
that is the public, as if something were about to
occur which it was not good the public should know,
were turned out. Upon their admission, after an
hour’s exclusion, Mr. Pitt was repeating former
arguments; to which, after Mr. Fox had made a
reply, the House called impatiently for the question,
Mr. Fox’s amendment was negatived without a divi-
sion, and the original motion with its amendment
passed by a majory of 133 to sixty-six.1 This was
followed by a motion for a vote of thanks to the
managers ; but that w7as treated as premature, and
resisted by a vote for the previous question.

The trial was resumed by the Lords on the 5th
of May, when Mr. Burke continued his opening
speech on the charge relating to presents. He an-
nounced with great dignity the proceedings which
had taken place in the House of Commons, and the
restrictions which they had imposed upon him with

1 There can be no doubt of the propriety of the decision. The
accusation was of too serious a nature to be thrown out at random,
merely to create a prejudice against the accused, in the minds of those who
were sitting in judgment upon him for charges of very inferior criminality.
If the death of Nuncomar was in any way imputable to Hastings, it should
have been made matter of positive accusation. It was wholly unwarrant-
able to denounce him as guilty of murder, merely as a collateral proof of
his being culpable of corruption. If it was impossible to substantiate the
charge, as Burke well knew that it was, it was most unfair to Hastings to
prefer it in so indirect a manner, as should leave him no opportunity of
disproving it. With regard to the accusation itself, see former remarks,
vol. 3, p. 644, note. — W.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

139

regard to the death of Nuncomar : at the same time B00K y1

° # 5 CHAP. 2.

declaring that he had used the word murder only

because he could not find a stronger ; that the opinion 1789-
of which that word was the expression, was the
result of a nine years’ laborious inquiry ; and that it
would be tom from him only with his life. On the
7th, which was the next day of the trial, he concluded
his speech. It was left to the managers either to
produce evidence on that part of the charge which
Mr. Burke had opened, or to go on to that, the
opening of which was reserved to another speaker ;
and the first was the mode which they preferred.

On this article of the impeachment it will be ne-
nessary, rather more than on the former articles, to
enter into the particulars of the evidence ; first,
because in the history of the government and people
it was fit to confine the narrative to events of which
the consequences were important to the government
and people, instead of complicating it with questions
which had little reference beyond the character of an
individual ; and, secondly, because, at this stage, a
variety of questions, on the admission or exclusion of
evidence, arose ; questions, the operation of which
extended far beyond the limits of any single inquiry,
and of which, without a knowledge of the circum-
stances, a due conception cannot be obtained.

The question, whether the defendant had or had
not received presents corruptly, was divided into two
parts. The first related to the presents, alleged to
have been received previously to the arrival of Cla-
vering, Monson, and Francis, the receipt of which
Mr. Hastings had not voluntarily disclosed ; the
second related to the presents which he had received

140

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 2.

1789.

1 when Clavering and Monson were dead, one just
-before, the rest after the departure of Mr. Francis
for Europe, presents which, after a time, he confessed
that he had received, and which he said he received
not for his own use, but that of the Company.

The principal object of the managers in the first
part of the inquiry was to prove, that the appointment
of Munny Begum to the office of Naib Subah was a
corrupt appointment, made for the sake of the bribes
with which it Avas attended.

The first part of the proof was to show that the
choice of Munny Begum was so improper and absurd,
that as no good motive could be assigned for it, so
the receipt of bribes was the only rational one it was
possible to find.

First, the duties of the office of Naib Subah, as
described by Mr. Hastings himself, were numerous
and important ; and such as could not be neglected,
or misperformed, without the deepest injury, not only
to the population of the country, but to the East
India Company itself. In the long list of those
duties, were the administration of justice and police,
of which the Naib Subah was not, like our kings,
the mere nominal head. The actual performance of
a considerable portion of the business of penal judi-
cature (for the civil was mostly attached to the office
of Dewan), was reserved to him ; and the portion so
reserved was the high and governing portion ; Avith-
out which the rest could not at all, or very imper-
fectly, go on. The same was the case with the
police, of Avhich he Avas the principal organ. The
conduct of all negotiations, and execution of treaties,
that is, the charge of all the external relations of the

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

141

1789.

state, though, really, as the agent of the Company,

was ministerially vested in him. Nor was the .

administration of all that related to the person and
family of the Nabob, who, though in a dependent
condition, still maintained the appearance of sove-
reignty, a matter of which the performance was as
easy as it might seem to be familiar.

That the Court of Directors had the same concep-
tion of the importance of the office of Naib Subali,
the managers proved by one of their despatches, in
which they gave directions to choose for it ‘"some
person well qualified for the affairs of government,”
that is, a person endowed with the rarest qualifica-
tions. Nay, so much stress did they lay upon this
selection, that they actually pointed it out as one of
the most signal proofs which their President and
Council could afford, that the confidence they reposed
in them was not misapplied.1

That Munny Begum, whom Mr. Hastings ap-
pointed to this office, was devoid of every requisite
qualification for the proper performance of its duties,
was, they contended, indisputable, from a variety of
facts and considerations. In the first place, she was
a woman, that is, a person, according to Oriental
manners, shut out from the acquisition of knowledge
and experience ; acquainted with nothing but the
inside of a haram ; precluded from intercourse with
mankind ; and, in the state of seclusion to which she
was chained, incapacitated, had she possessed the
knowledge and talents for those transactions wTith
the world, in which the functions of government

Letter, dated 28th of August, 1778; Minutes, ut supra, 973.

142

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI consist

CHAP. 2

1789.

In the next place they contended that she
■ was a person, not only of the lowest rank, but of
infamous life ; having not been the wife of Meer
J affier ; hut, a dancing girl ; that is, a professional
prostitute, who caught his fancy at an exhibition, and
was placed as a concubine in his haram.1

They next proceeded to prove that, when Munny
Begum was chosen, other persons were set aside,
whose claims were greatly superior to hers.

In the first place, if a lady of the haram of Meer
J affier was a proper choice, the mother of the Nabob
was alive ; and she, it was inferred, would have been
a fitter guardian of her son during nonage, than a
spurious step-mother, a person whose interests were
so apt to be contrary to his.

In the next place, if there was any peculiar fitness
for the office in a member of the family of the late
Meer Jaffier, Ahteram ul Dowla, the brother of that
Nabob, and the eldest surviving male of the family,
had actually advanced his claims. But as Mr. Hast-
ings had stated a reason for setting him aside, the
managers offered to show by evidence that what he
alleged was a false pretence.

The reason produced by Mr. Hastings was, that
Ahteram ul Dowla had a family of his own ; that he
might, therefore, be tempted to shorten that life
which stood between them and promotion : that his
son and he, if Nabob and guardian, would possess
an inconvenient, if not a dangerous, portion of power ;
that the establishment of any male in the office of

1 See a letter, dated 30tli September, 1765, from the President Lord
Clive and Council, in which her son by the Nabob is treated as a bastard.
Minutes, ut supra, p. 976.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

143

Nail) Subah would prevent the Company from avail- 1

ing themselves of the minority, to withdraw from the

Nabob a still greater share of his power ; and that, 1/89-
until a greater share of power were withdrawn from
the Nabob, the authority and even security of the
Company were by no means complete. The mana-
gers proceeded to show, that this pretext was false ;
and for this purpose produced a document to prove,
that when a different view of the subject favoured
the purpose of Mr. Hastings, he made affirmations
of a very different sort. He then affirmed, that the
Company had already taken from the Nabob every
particle of independent power; and that the antici-
pation of danger from such a quarter, by any
possible combination of circumstances, was altogether
absurd. “No situation of our affairs,” he said,

“ could enable the Nabob, or any person connected
with him, to avail himself, by any immediate or
sudden act, of the slender means which he has left to
infringe our power, or enlarge his own. He has
neither a military force — authority in the country —
foreign connexion — nor a treasury.”1

Having given such evidence, that the pretexts on
which Mr. Hastings rejected other parties were
false, the managers proceeded to give evidence that
the pretexts were equally false, on which he made
choice of Munny Begum. The first was, that it was
inexpedient to leave* in existence the office of Naib
Subah. The second was, that the annual charge of
three lacs of rupees, the salary of that officer, was an
expense of which the East India Company would

1 President’s Minute in Consultation, 28th July, 1772. Minutes of
Evidence, ut supra, p, 973 — 976.

144

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

J1 not approve. The third was, that the existence of

such an officer lessened the consequence of the

1789- Company’s own administration. The fourth was,
that it was expedient to divide the duties among
three officers, one, the guardian of the person and
household of the Nabob ; a second, the steward of
that household, under the title of Dewan ; a third,
the superintendent of judicature and police, under
title of Roy Royan of the Khalsa. And a fifth was,
that Munny Begum, as widow of Meer Jaffier, had
a peculiar fitness for the office of guardian of the
Nabob. To show that the pretext of abolishing the
office of Naib Subah was false, the managers brought
evidence to prove that it still existed ; as all the
powers of it were vested in Munny Begum, other
persons being nothing but agents and subordinates
dependent upon her will : “ You,” said the Board,
“ are undoubtedly the mistress, to confirm, dismiss,
and appoint whomsoever you shall think fit in the
service and offices of the Nizamut ; they are account-
able to you alone for their conduct, and no one shall
interfere between you and them.” That the pretext
relating to the expense was false, was proved by the
fact, that no diminution was ever attempted, but the
whole three lacs were given to Munny Begum and
her subordinates. The pretext that the dignity of
any person administering what Mr. Hastings himself
called the slender means of the Nabob, could lessen
the consequence of the Company’s government, upon
which both he and the Nabob depended absolutely
for all they possessed, is so evidently false, as to be
ridiculous. That the pretext about dividing the
duties was false appeared from the fact, that they

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

145

were not divided, any further than by name;B00KVI

Munny Begum being the absolute mistress of all the

instruments, just as if she had been appointed the 1789-
Naib Subah in title. And that it was a false
pretext to rest the fitness of Munny Begum upon
her being the widow of Meer Jaffier, was proved by
the fact that she was not his widow, that she had
never been his wife, but his concubine, and that her
offspring had been treated as spurious by the Eng-
lish government.1

Having thus shown, or endeavoured to show, that
the choice of Munny Begum to fill the office, or
supply the place of Naib Subah, could not be
accounted for upon any other supposition than that of
pecuniary corruption, the managers next proceeded
to prove that Mr. Hastings, as well as his creatures,
did actually receive large sums of money for that
appointment. And at this point began the great
efforts which were made on the part of the defendant
to exclude evidence ; and so successfully made, that
nothing more than a vigilant application of the rules
which his lawyers laid down, and the lords confirmed,
is necessary, in the case of a ruler who has a little
cunning, to render conviction of delinquency all but
impossible.

To one of the preliminary points, the managers
wished to adduce the evidence of a letter of Mr.
Hastings. The original letter, however, was not to
be found. But there was a copy of it in the book
at the India House, into which all letters were tran-
scribed ; and there was a printed copy of it in the

VOL. v.

Minutes, ut supra, p. 978 — 980.
L

146

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi rep0rt 0f the Secret Committee of the House of
Commons. The counsel for the defendant objected ;

1789‘ and the Lords determined, that before any of these
copies could be received as evidence, the managers
must prove three points ; first, that the original letter
had existed; secondly, that now it could not be
found ; thirdly, that the alleged copy was exact.
All these points might have been determined imme-
diately, had not one of the darling rules of the
lawyers, for the exclusion of evidence, shut up, on
this occasion, the source from which perfect evidence
might have been immediately derived. Had the real
discovery of truth been the direct and prevailing
object, there stood the supposed author of the
letter; he might have been asked, upon his oath,
whether he did write such a letter or not ; and the
question would have been decided at once. Oh
but ! say the lawyers, this would have been to make
him criminate himself. Quite the contrary, pro-
vided he was innocent; if guilty, the lawyers will
not say , that his guilt ought not to be proved.
Upon the strength, however, of the lawyers’ rules,
this instrument for the discrimination of guilt from
innocence was not to be used.

Whereas Mr. Hastings had the express commands
of the Court of Directors, dated in August, 1771,
to make it appear in the Nabob’s accounts for what
particular purpose every disbursement was made, and
yet nothing was exhibited in those accounts but
general statements of so much expended, while it
was ascertained that Mr. Hastings had given no
orders agreeably to the commands of the Directors,
and that inaccuracies prevailed in the statements

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

147

that were given ; a strong presumption was thereby } 1

created against the Governor-General, because he

had thus provided a grand channel through which l789-
the current of presents might flow into his pockets
without the necessity of an entry, sufficient to detect
them, in any hooks of account. After the statement
of this presumption, the managers proceeded to the
exhibition of direct testimony, that bribes were
received by Mr. Hastings, for the appointment both
of Munny Begum and her subordinates. They
began with the information received from the Raja
Nuncomar, that Mr. Hastings had accepted a present
of two lacs and a half from Munny Begum for
appointing her Regent during the minority of the
Nabob ; and a present of one lac from himself for
appointing his son, the Raja Gourdass, steward
under Munny Begum. The documents produced
were the Minutes of Consultation of the President
and Council at Calcutta. The reading was not
interrupted till it came to the examination of the
Raja, before the Council, on the subject of the
charges which he had preferred. The learned
counsel represented that it ought not to be read,

First, because it was not upon oath ; Secondly,
because it was taken in the absence of Mr. Hastings ;
Thirdly, because it was not before a competent
jurisdiction ; Fourthly, because the Raja was after-
wards convicted of a forgery, committed before the
date of the examination. On the objection as to
the want of an oath, it was shown to have been the
practice of Mr. Hastings to avail himself of the alle-
gation that an oath was not a requisite to the testi-
mony of a noble Hindu, of whose religion it was a

L 2

148

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1789.

! breach. Besides, it can, on reflection, be regarded
by no body, as adding any thing considerable ; and
may perhaps, be, with justice, regarded as adding
nothing at all, to the securities for truth, to compel
a man, who otherwise would certainly affirm a lie to
the judge, to perform a short religious ceremony
beforehand. In the case of the man who otherwise
would not tell a lie to the judge, the oath evidently
is of no use whatever. Further; testimony admits
of degrees ; one testimony has so many of the secu-
rities for truth, another has so many less, another
fewer still ; the value of each is estimated by the
judge, and even the lowest is reckoned for what it is
worth. So, when the oath is wanting to an article
of testimony, it is only one of the securities that is
wanting ; and the testimony may be wTorthy of the
highest possible credit on other accounts. As to the
objection drawn from the absence of Mr. Hastings,
it was treated as not merely unreasonable, but im-
pudent. Why wras Mr. Hastings absent *? Because
he determined not to be present: and if a man is thus
allowed to fabricate by his own act an objection to
evidence, and then to employ it, he is above the law.
The objection to the competence of the jurisdiction
wyas founded upon a disallowed assumption, that the
Council, after it met, was dissolved by the simple fiat
of the President, though the majority, whose vote
was binding, determined it was not. As to the con-
viction of Nuncomar, the managers declared that
they wTere only restrained by the authority of those
whom they represented from asserting that it was a
conviction brought about for the very purpose to
w7hich it was now applied, the suppression of evi-

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

149

dence against Mr. Hastings. I shall add, that the bc°°k Jr

rule upon which the objection was founded, is preg- .

nant with the same sort of absurdity and injustice 1789
with the other rules of exclusion, examples of which
we have already beheld. If a man has committed a
crime, ought he therefore to be endowed with the
privilege of conferring impunity on every crime com-
mitted in his presence, provided no body sees the
action hut himself? The evidence of the greatest
criminal is of so much importance, that pardon is
commonly granted to any one of a combination who
gives evidence against the rest.

Upon the whole, with regard to this document, it
is most obvious to remark, that it is contrary to the
nature of things to suppose that evil should have
arisen from hearing it read; because every observa-
tion which could tend to show how little on the one
side, or much on the other, wrns its value as an article
of evidence, it was the business of the parties to
present ; and this the Lords were surely as competent
to determine as the still more important questions
which it behoved them to decide. When the judge
has heard the information which is tendered to him,
he can ascertain whether it does or does not contain
any of the matter of proof, and if any, in what precise
quantity, little or great : When of the evidence ten-

dered to him there is any portion which he has not
heard, he can determine nothing about it ; and may
possibly have lost, rejected, and destroyed that very
information on which the power of righteous judg-
ment depended.

Another observation which might have been urged
with irresistible force of reason was, that the pro-

150

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

kook vi priety of receiving such evidence was already weighed

. and determined by the Legislature, which, in consti-

]789- tuting a new Court of Judicature for the trial of
offences committed in India, had enacted, that all
documents, of the nature of that which was now
tendered in evidence, should be received as evidence.
The assent of the Lords was included in every act of
the Legislature ; and that very assembly, therefore,
winch had already decreed, in its legislative capacity,
that such evidence was useful, now, in its judicial
capacity, decreed that it was the reverse.

For the purpose for which the managers now
adduced the examination of Nuncomar, it was not
necessary, they said, to insist upon the truth of the
testimony left behind him by that unfortunate man.
They meant to exhibit the behaviour which Mr.
Hastings had manifested, when accusations of such
a nature w ere preferred against him ; and by the
relation of the behaviour to the charge manifest the
probability of guilt. The demeanour of a criminal
was circumstantial evidence of his crime.

If the examination was to be read for the sake
alone of the circumstantial evidence afforded by the
demeanour of Hastings, not for the purpose of adduc-
ing as evidence the testimony itself, the Counsel ex-
pressed a sort of willingness to give way. But the
managers refused to bind themselves to any condi-
tions, in limitation of wThat they claimed as a right.
On a suggestion from Lord Kenyon, the Lords ad-
journed to their ow n chamber to consult.

On the next day of the trial, the Lords announced,
“ That it is not competent for the managers for the
Commons to produce the examination of Nuncomar

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

151

in evidence ; the said managers not having proved,
or even stated any thing as a ground for admitting
such evidence, which, if proved, would render the
same admissible.” If the reason which precedes be
well founded, admissibility in regard to relevant evi-
dence ought never to be a question.

The managers desired leave to withdraw. Upon
their return, Mr. Burke declared, it was with equal
surprise and concern they had heard the determina-
tion of their Lordships : It was a determination

which exceedingly increased the difficulty of bring-
ing criminality to conviction : To the Lords, how-

ever, belonged the power of determining : It remained
for the managers to submit.

At a consultation of the Board of Council at Cal-
cutta, on a subsequent day, when Mr. Hastings was
present, it appeared that the minutes of consultation
of the day on which the examination of Nuncomar
was taken, including the examination itself, were
read ; and that the minutes of that day were signed
by Mr. Hastings, and by him transmitted to the
Court of Directors. The managers proposed that
these minutes should be read. The counsel for the
defendant objected ; as this was to introduce obliquely
that very document of which the direct introduction
was forbidden by the Court. The Lords, upon a
second suggestion from Lord Kenyon, withdrew to
deliberate, and determined, “ That the circumstance
of the consultation of the 13th of March, 1775, being
read at a consultation of the 20th of March, 1775, at
which Mr. Hastings was present, does not of itself
make the matter of such consultation of the 13th of
March, 1775, admissible evidence.” Mr. Burke pro-

BOOK vi

CHAP. 2.

1789.

152

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi fessecl that, worded as the resolution was, he could

CHAP. 2.

not say that he perfectly understood it. It was

1789. affirmed that one particular circumstance did not
render the evidence in question admissible evidence.
But perhaps there were other circumstances which
might have that happy effect. If so, the managers,
as not being technical men, claimed the same assist*
ance as was due to men without professional assist-
ance pleading their ow7n cause.

The Lord Chancellor replied, that what was said
or done by Mr. Hastings was evidence against him ;
not what was said or done by other persons ; for
then calumny might stand as evidence of guilt.
Something said or done by Mr. Hastings was there-
fore necessary to render this examination admissible
evidence.

Mr. Fox rejected this decision. Forbearing to
do, was often guilt, or evidence of guilt, as wTell as
doing. There are circumstances in which, if charges
are made against a man, and instead of promoting he
does all in his power to prevent inquiry, he gives
evidence, and satisfactory evidence of his guilt. This
wTas the evidence which the managers desired to
present to their Lordships, and which their Lordships
were so unwilling to receive. If this kind of evidence
were rejected, Mr. Burke would give joy to all East
Indian delinquents. “ Plunder on. The laws in-
tended to restrain you are mere scarecrows. Accumu-
late wealth by any means, however illegal, profligate,
infamous. You are sure of impunity: for the natives
of India are by their religion debarred from appear-
ing against you out of their own country, and cir-
cumstantial evidence will not be received.” If the

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

153

new principle were established, that acts of omission .J1

were not evidence, Mr. Fox observed, that Indian

delinquents were rendered secure. They would take 1/S9,
no notice of any charges preferred against them ; and
thereby render inadmissible the only evidence by
wdiich guilt could be proved.

The managers, therefore, proposed to read the
whole of the consultation of the 20th of March, in-
cluding that of the 13th, in order to show the de-
meanour of Mr. Hastings. Then the House adjourned
to the chamber of parliament. Next day the resolu-
tion of the Lords was announced, “ That the con-
sultation of the 13th of March, 1775, cannot now be
read.” Mr. Burke said that how great soever the
pain with wffiich he heard the resolution, he was con-
soled by the use of the word now ; which left him
room to hope, that the evidence in question might be
admitted another time.

As Cantoo Baboo, the Banyan of Mr. Hastings,
when summoned by the Council to give evidence on
the subject of the charges of Nuncomar, was ordered
by Mr. Hastings not to attend, the managers affirmed
that this was something done by Mr. Hastings ; and
that the condition prescribed by the Chancellor was
therefore fulfilled. The Lord Chancellor asked what
the Council for Mr. Hastings had to offer against this
plea. Mr. Law said, they possessed their Lordships’
decision for excluding this evidence, and claimed the
benefit of it. The managers conjured the Lords to
reflect, that in the sort of cases before them, to adhere
to the rules of evidence upheld by English lawyers,
was to let loose rapine and spoil upon the subjects of
government. The managers were then asked, “ if

154

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1789.

they would state the whole of the circumstances upon
which they meant to rely, as a ground to entitle
them to read the proceedings of the 13th of March,
1775.” The managers desired leave to withdraw.
Upon their return they expressed their regret, at
not being able to comply with the request of the
Lords. In the course of the trial various circum-
stances might arise, which did not at present occur to
their minds. At present they held it enough to
adduce one ground which to themselves appeared
satisfactory, and upon this they craved the judgment
of the Court. The Lords adjourned.

At this point, the Lords demanded to be enlight-
ened, or kept in countenance, by the sages of the
law. The following question was referred to the
twelve judges. “Whether it be competent for the
managers to produce an examination without oath
by the rest of the Council, in the absence of Mr.
Hastings the Governor, charging him with cor-
ruptly receiving 3,54,105 rupees, which examination
came to his knowledge, and was by him transmitted
to the Court of Directors as a proceeding of the said
Councillors, in order to introduce the proof of his
demeanour thereupon ; it being alleged by the ma-
nagers for the Commons, that he took no steps to
clear himself, in the opinion of the said Directors, of
the guilt thereby imputed, but that he took active
means to prevent the examination by the said Coun-
cillors of his servant Cantoo Baboo.” To this the
judges returned for answer, “ That it is not com-
petent for the managers to produce an examination,
without oath, by the rest of the Councillors, in the
absence of Mr. Hastings the Governor, charging

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

155

him with corruptly receiving 3,54,105 rupees, which book J1

examination came to his knowledge, and was by him

transmitted to the Court of Directors, as a proceeding l789-
of the said Councillors, in order to introduce the
proof of his misdemeanour thereupon.” It being
carried in the affirmative that the Lords do agree
to this opinion, the Court was resumed, and the
managers were informed, “ That the examination
of Nuncomar, and the rest of the proceedings of
the Councillors, on the 13th of March, 1775, after
Mr, Hastings left the Council, ought not to be
read.”

The managers began now to complain bitterly
that the resolutions of the Lords were pronounced^
without the accompaniment of the reasons on which
these resolutions were founded. The managers
affirmed that they were thus left -completely in the
dark, and embarrassed in all their proceedings. This
was a point of the highest importance, and it is to
be regarded as one of the most characteristic parts of
the exhibition then made of itself, by the tribunal
before which Mr. Hastings was tried. To issue
decisions, without presenting the reasons, is to act
the part not of a judge, but of a despot. The man-
date of a despot rests on his will. The decision of a
judge is founded on reasons, or it deserves any thing
rather than the name. But if the decision of the
judge is founded on reasons, it is of infinite import-
ance that they should not be confined to his
own breast. In the first place, the necessity of
stating reasons is one of the strongest securities
against all the causes of bad decision, the ignorance

156

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1789.

of the judge, the negligence of the judge, and the
• corruption of the judge ; against the ignorance of
the judge, by making it visible and ridiculous ;
against the negligence and corruption of the judge,
by making him know that he himself must be the
indicator of his own offences, the herald as well as
author of his own shame. This is one, but not the
only benefit derived from imposing upon judges the
necessity of giving the reasons upon which their
decisions are grounded. The public do not enjoy the
advantages of security, unless they have wThat is
called the sense of security, or the belief that they
are secure. Unless the administration of justice
yield the sense of security, it fails of accomplishing
one of the most important of its ends. But of all
possible means to convey this sense of security one of
the most potent undoubtedly is, to make known to
the people invariably the reasons upon which the
decisions of the judges are founded. It is this alone
with which the people can, or ought to be satisfied.
How can they know, that a decision is just, when
they are ignorant of its grounds ? It is to be consi-
dered as circumstantial evidence (and evidence which
in general ought to be held conclusive), when reasons
are not given for a judicial decision, that it is for
one of two causes ; either, 1. because no good reasons
can be given; or 2. in order to favour a practice
according to which decisions, for which no good
reason can be given, may be pronounced at any
time.

It is therefore a fundamental axiom in the science
of jurisprudence, that without reasons strictly accom-

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

157

panying every judicial decision, the duty of the judge
is most imperfectly performed, and good judicature
altogether impossible.1

With regard to the resolution itself, Mr. Burke
proclaimed, in the face of the Court by which it was
formed, ‘f That it held out to future governors of
Bengal the most certain and unbounded impunity.
Peculation in India would be no longer practised, as
it used to be, with caution and with secrecy. It
would in future stalk abroad in noon-day, and act
without disguise ; because, after such a decision as
had just been made by their Lordships, there was no
possibibility of bringing into a court the proofs of
peculation.”

The fact is of the highest importance. The rules
of evidence, deplorably adopted by the Lords, are so
many instruments of protection to the crimes of pub-
lic men in public places ; that is, crimes, from the
very nature of the case, more extensively mischievous
than all others ; and crimes of which the existence
can seldom be legally ascertained except by the very
sort of evidence, which the Court, set up in this
country to punish them, makes rules to exclude.

Besides the examination of the Raja Nuncomar,

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1789.

1 For the Lords, to have assigned reasons, however unanswerable, would
have only furnished the Commons with occasion of cavil — and this no doubt
induced them to refuse their formal communication. For the purposes of
justice all that was really essential was performed, for although not for-
mally communicated, the grounds of the decisions of the Lords were fully
known to the managers of the Commons, as they were the consequence of
discussions which were publicly reported. The managers had thus ample
opportunity of controverting any doctrines adverse to their cause without
violating the privileges of parliament, or losing time and dignity in per-
sonal controversy. The character and relative positions of the parties do
not admit of any analogy to the discharge of his duty by an individual
judge. — W.

158

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1789.

there was recorded in the consultation of the 13th of
March, a letter from Munny Begum, which stood,
according to the managers, upon grounds of its own.
Its authenticity was fully proved by Sir John
D’Oyley, Mr. Auriol, and a Persian Moonshee who
had translated it, and after having examined the
seal, pronounced it to he the seal of Munny Begum.
This person, whose character and rank Mr. Hastings
placed very high, had stated in this letter her having
given a large sum of money to Mr. Hastings for
appointing her regent during the minority of the
Nabob. The evidence of this letter the managers
proposed to adduce. The counsel for the prisoner
objected. The ground of the objection was, that the
letter was recorded in those minutes of the consul-
tation of the 13th of March, which the Court had
refused to admit. The House sustained the objection,
and forbade the letter to be read.1

The next part of the proceedings is truly remark-
able. “ The managers desired that Philip Francis,
Esq., might be called in, to prove that a letter from
Munny Begum to the Raja Nuncomar, charging Mr.
Hastings with a receipt of three and a-half lacs of
rupees, was delivered in to the Council on the 13th
of March, 1775, and that Mr. Hastings knew the
Begum had written such letter.” The witness was
not allowed to speak to the consultation of that day,
or to the letter. The reason was, because the pro-
ceedings existed in writing, the letter existed in

1 The circumstances respecting the proposal to produce this letter, and
the decision upon it, appear more distinctly in the Hist, of the Trial of
Warren Hastings, Esq. part ii. p. 57, than in the Minutes of Evidence,
where there is obscurity, and probably an omission.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

159

writing; and that which itself existed in writing book vi

was better evidence than parole testimony to its

contents. The witness was not allowed to speak, 1789-
because there existed a writing that was better
evidence ; and that writing which was better evi-
dence the Court had determined they would not
receive ! The witness was not allowed to speak, on
the pretext that something else was better evidence,
while the Court itself had determined that the said
something else was not evidence at all !

When the accounts of Munny Begum, in her
quality of Regent, were called for by the Board of
Council, after the arrival of Clavering, Monson,
and Francis, a large sum appeared, of the mode of
disposing of which no explanation was given. A
commission, at the head of which was placed Mr.

Goring, was sent to Moorshedabad, to inquire. Upon
this investigation came out the declarations of
Munny Begum, that the sum not accounted for
had, at the time of vesting her with the Regency, been
given to Mr. Hastings and his attendants. Certain
papers, stating the receipt, by Mr. Hastings, of one
lac and a-half of rupees, papers transmitted by Mr.

Goring to the Board at Calcutta, received by them,
recorded without any objection on the part of Mr.
Hastings, and transmitted by him, still without
objection, to the Court of Directors, it was proposed,
by the managers, to read. The council for Mr.
Hastings insisted, that these papers were not direct
evidence, as wanting the requisite securities of oath
and authentication ; and not circumstantial evidence,
because no act of Mr. Hastings, as required by the
Court, connected them with himself. The Lords

160

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BcH?r‘ 2 1 determined that the papers ought not to be read.

And yet that there was matter of evidence in papers

1789' so delivered, and that there might be in the demea-
nour of the person whom they regarded, it is impos-
sible to deny. That the papers did contain the
declaration of Munny Begum, was susceptible of the
completest proof. That her declaration, not judicially
given, and not subject to cross examination, was of
much less value than if it had received these securities,
is no less true ; but still, as far as it was not invali-
dated by other circumstances, it was of some value,
and ought to have been counted for what it was
worth. And if Mr. Hastings, instead of taking the
course which was natural to an innocent man, took
that which a consciousness of guilt would naturally
prescribe, this demeanour would be circumstantial
evidence against himself. Instead of permitting
light to come in from these two sources, light of
which the value, whatever it was, would appear,
when it was seen and examined, the Lords re-
solved to shut it out, without permitting it to be
seen at all.

The managers next offered to produce, in evidence
of the same facts, an original Persian letter, under
the hand and seal of the Munny Begum, signed by
the Nabob, and transmitted by Mr. Goring to the
Board. And as an act of demeanour, fulfilling the
condition required by the Lords to constitute any
document a link in a chain of circumstantial evidence,
they stated that Mr. Hastings, after Munny Begum
was freed from all influence but his own, never
attempted to invalidate the testimony she had given.1

1 With respect to Mr. Hastings personally, I am anxious to observe.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

1G1

The House determined that the letter should not be book vi

CHAP. 2.

read.

The Managers next proposed to examine Mr. 1789-
Goring, in order to prove that Munny Begum de-
livered to him a paper, in the Persian language,
under her own hand, stating, that Mr. Hastings had
received from her a lac and a half of rupees, under
colour of money for his entertainment. The counsel
for the defendant objected to evidence of any consul-
tation with Munny Begum, Mr. Hastings himself
not being present. They objected also to the pro-
duction of any paper which had not been delivered in
the presence of Mr. Hastings, and the contents of it
read to him. The Managers offered the paper as an
original instrument, which possessed all the securities
for truth required by the Indian laws, being under
the seal of the Begum, and attested by the Nabob,
while it was contrary to the manners of the country
for a woman of rank to appear in public, or take an
oath. The House decided that the paper could not,
upon these grounds, be admitted as evidence against
the defendant.

As Major Scott, agent of Mr. Hastings, with full,
and almost unlimited powers, had delivered to the
Select Committee of the House of Commons, a
translation of a letter from Munny Begum to Mr.
Hastings, in which she affirmed the delivery to him
of one lac and a half of rupees, the managers con-
tended that this was a perfect acknowledgment of the
letter on the part of Mr. Hastings ; and that, there-

that this affords a presumption of innocence ; at least of the truth of his
allegation, that the sum in question, which was given him for entertain-
ment-money, as he had never denied it, so he never meant to conceal.
VOL. V.

M

162

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BCn v^ 2 1 ^0re’ ^ie ^e^er ought to be read. The matter was

. pressed by the managers in every possible direction :

1/89' and every expedient which they could imagine for
opening a way to its reception was tried, but in vain.
The lawyers for the defendant, burying in silence a
rule which on another occasion they would have
strained their lungs to proclaim, Qui facit per aliurn
facit per se, insisted that what is done for a man by
his agent, is not done by himself; and that the
recognition of a piece of evidence by Major Scott,
was not recognition by Mr. Hastings. After some
days of contention, the Lords retired to their chamber
to deliberate; and, on the next day of the Court,
came out, in the usual oracular style, the response,
“ That the Persian paper, purporting to be a letter
from the Munny Begum, and the translation of the
same, offered in evidence by the managers for the
House of Commons, ought not to be read.”

Beside the absurdity already disclosed, of refusing
to receive an article of evidence, because it is not so
strong as it would have been, had it possessed more
of the causes of strength; while the interests of
truth require that the exact value of it should be
ascertained, and that it should not be thrown away,
but counted for what it is worth ; it is obvious to
common sense that the question agitated on this
occasion so long and vehemently before the Court,
might have been settled in one instant, by barely
asking Mr. Hastings, if he acknowledged the writing
as a letter to himself from Munny Begum.

The vulgar notion, that a man should not be
required to give evidence which may operate against
himself, is then only rational, when the law is so bad,

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

163

1789.

that it really ought not to be executed ; and when book .J 1

humanity approves of every subterfuge by which

men may escape from its detestable fangs. That
this was once the case with the law of England, as
it is the case with the laws of all countries, in times
of ignorance, and times of despotism, is undoubtedly
true ; and then it was, that the vulgar notion, and
the rule founded upon it, received their birth. In
times when the law was so bad, and the King and
other great men so powerful, that they were able on
most occasions to use the law as a commodious
instrument, for executing upon individuals the dictates
of their vengeance, their jealousy, their avarice, or
their caprice, that great instrument for defeating the
law, namely, the rule, that a man shall not be com-
pelled to give evidence against himself, had often a
very obvious though a temporary, and limited utility.

Like most other matters of law it obtained its exist-
ence more immediately from the interests of the
great men. In times of rudeness, which are times
of turbulence, contests are frequent for the crown ;
and the great men are ranged on different sides. If
it happens to them sometimes to be on the winning
side, it is equally incident to them to be on the
losing. When that happens, the law will be
employed to destroy them. And as they live in such
a state of things that all foresee they may very pro-
bably stand in this predicament themselves, they all
eagerly concur in establishing the credit of a rule
that shall render it very difficult for the law to
convict them ; in other words, shall afford them many
chances to escape. The moment, however, at which
the law becomes good, and no man has power to

M 2

164

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bc®ok ^ 1 wrest it iniquitously to his own purposes, the case is

. altered. The moment the law becomes such, that it

1789 really ought to be executed, that it is good for the
community it should be exactly executed, that it
cannot without mischief to the community, in one
instance, be defeated of its execution, then every
subterfuge by which he who has infringed the law
may escape, is an evil ; then every thing which
guards the truth from discovery, is a cause of
mischief; and, surely, it is one of the most effectual
expedients for guarding the truth from discovery ;
surely it is one of the most effectual of all the sub-
terfuges by which he who has infringed the law may
escape its penalties, if he who knows the most of the
circumstances shall be protected in concealing what
he knows.

Mr. Burke complained of the inextricable per-
plexity in which the managers were involved by
these naked decisions. If reasons wTere given, they
would know, that wherever the same reasons applied,
the same decision would be pronounced. Issued
without any reason, every decision stood for itself
alone ; was confined to an individual, not extended
to a species ; and furnished no rule for anything
else. They doubted not but the resolution of the
House was founded upon technical grounds. But
“ in the case on which their Lordships had last
decided, the managers had offered in evidence a
paper, proved to have been written by Munny Begum,
and transmitted to Mr. Hastings — they offered also
a translation of that paper, delivered to the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons by the very agent
of Mr. Hastings — they proved that these papers had

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

165

been sent to the prisoner in the Eleventh printed
Report of that Committee, and that when he
drew up his defence he must have had them before
him. That papers so substantiated, should have
been rejected by their Lordships, must be a matter
of astonishment to all the thinking part of mankind,
who should happen to be unacquainted with the
technical grounds on which their Lordships had
resolved that these papers were not to be re-
ceived.” 1

During these contentions two incidents occurred,
the importance of which requires, that they should
here be presented to view. It was given out, as a
dictum , by Mr. Law, the defendant’s counsel, That
every accusation brought against a man, and not

BOOK VI
chap. 2.

1789.

1 The expressions are here taken from the report of the speech, in the
History of the Trial, ut supra, part ii. p. 64. Mr. Burke, on this occasion,
took pointed notice of a circumstance of some importance in the history of
the public life of Mr. Hastings. Having warned the Lords of the wide
door they laid open for the escape of guilt, by sustaining the disavowals
which the guilty found it convenient to make ; “ In the case of Mr.
Hastings,” he said, “there appeared to be a system of disavowals. The
prisoner once appointed an agent, who, in his name, made a formal resigna-
tion of the Government of Bengal. But the principal afterwards dis-
avowed this act of his agent, and strenuously resisted it, though the ruin of
the British empire in the East might have been the consequence of it.

“ At another time he delivered at the bar of the House of Commons,
(as his own ) a written defence against the charges then pending against
him in that House. But afterwards, at their Lordships’ bar, he disavowed
this defence, and produced evidence to prove that it had been drawn up by
others, and not by himself, and that, therefore, he ought not to be account-
able for the contents of it.

“ In the case immediately before their Lordships, it had appeared in
evidence, that Major Scott was the agent of the prisoner, and that his
powers were as unlimited as words could make them, except in one point
only. This agent delivered to the Committee of the House of Commons,
the papers of which he was then speaking ; certainly with some view, and
probably to serve his principal, for he delivered them unasked. But now
he disavowed all authority for such delivery.”

166

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

chap. 2.

1789.

proved, was a calumny and slander. “ Mr. Burke,”
says the historian of the trial, “ replied, with much
indignation, that he was astonished the learned
gentleman dared to apply such epithets to charges
brought by the Commons of Great Britain, whether
they could or could not be proved by legal evidence.
It Avas very well known that many facts could be
proved to the satisfaction of every conscientious man,
by evidence which, though in its own nature good
and convincing, Avould not be admitted in a court of
law. It would be strange, indeed, if an accusation
should be said to be slanderous and calumnious,
merely because certain rules of law declared that
evidence not to be admissible in law, which would
carry conviction to the breast of every man who read
it.” 1 But this observation, pointed as it was in the
particular case, Avas too much limited to that parti-
cular case ; as was, indeed, the misfortune of most
of the instruments Avith which Mr. Burke endea-
voured to parry the weapons of the lawyers. The
dictum of the lawyer is universally mischievous, and
also contemptible ; and ought to have been proved
to be so ; the efficacy of it, as far as it is allowed to
have any, is to provide impunity for crimes. When
is it known that an accusation can be proved*?
Never, till the cause is tried before the judge. If an
accusation must, therefore, never be brought (assuredly
a calumny ought never to be brought), unless it is
knoAvn that it can be proved, an accusation ought
never to be preferred at all. There ought to be no
accusation of guilt ; and of course, no trial ; and no

History of the Trial, ut supra, part ii. p. 62

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

167

punishment ! If, in order to escape from these atro- book vi

cious consequences, the lawyer will not say that it is .

necessary a man should know his accusation can be 1789-
proved, but declare it is enough provided he believes
that it can he proved, the wretched dictum is wholly
given up. The fact is, that presumption, and often
a very slight presumption, may not only justify, hut
urgently demand accusation. According to the vile
doctrine of the lawyer, every indictment found by
the grand jury, upon which a verdict of guilty is not
given at the trial, is a calumny; and yet the grand
jury proceed so purely upon presumption, and are so
precluded from the possibility of knowing whether
the accusation can be proved, that they can hear
evidence only on one of the sides.

The other incident is closely connected with the
foregoing. Mr. Law, whose native audacity had,
by the support which he found he received, and the
indignities put upon the accusation, been gradually
rising to a tone of great disrespect to the managers,
had now broken out into such language, as the House
thought it necessary to rebuke for indecency. Mr.

Law defended himself by saying, he did not mean to
apply the terms slander or calumny to any proceeding
of the House of Commons ; but he had the authority
of that House for declaring, that the Honourable
Manager had used slanderous and calumnious ex-
pressions, not authorized by them. “Mr. Fox,” says
the historian of the trial, “ took fire at this expression.

He said it was indecent and highly irregular, in an
advocate, to allude to what had taken place within
the walls of the House of Commons : that the learned
counsel had done worse, he had misrepresented that

168

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

.J1 t° which he had presumed to allude : he had charged

the whole body of the Commons with having sent up

1/S9' slanders in the shape of charges : and he had pro-
nounced the deputies of the Commons calumniators,
merely because they offered in evidence those very
documents, on the authority of which the Commons
had pronounced the charges to be well-founded, and
sent them as articles of impeachment to the Lords.”
Mr. Law defended himself acutely from the impro-
priety of alluding to any proceeding in the House of
Commons, by affirming that he alluded only to
what the Honourable Manager himself had told
them of the proceedings of that House. Mr. Fox
said, that this Avas a new misrepresentation ; their
Lordships had not been told that any thing which
had fallen from the managers had been designated
by the House of Commons, slanderous or calumni-
ous ; nor any thing which could be tortured into such
a meaning.

Mr. Fox Avould not proceed in the trial, until the
Lords should give an opinion on this language. If
that Avas refused, he must return to the Commons for
fresh instructions.

The words were taken doAvn, read to their author,
and recognised. It was proposed that the Lords
should Avithdraw to consider them. But a mode Avas
found of giving satisfaction to the managers without
this interruption. The Lord Chancellor, it was
agreed, should admonish the learned counsel, That
it Avas contrary to order in the counsel to advert to
any thing that had passed in the House of Com-
mons : That it Avas indecent to apply the terms

slander or calumny to any thing that Avas said by

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

169

their authority : And that such expressions must not book 1
be used.1 .

The managers next proceeded to prove, that when 1789-
Mr. Hastings became master of the votes of the
Council, he re-appointed Munny Begum, and the
Baja Goordass, to the offices from which the majority
of the Council had removed them, after those persons
had presented public official accounts charging him
with the receipt of three and a half lacs of rupees.

This was an act of Mr. Hastings, in relation to these
accounts, which, the managers contended, fulfilled
the condition required by the Lords for receiving
them. The counsel for the defendant produced his
objections. The managers answered. The counsel
replied. The Lords withdrew to their chamber to
deliberate. They asked the opinion of the twelve
judges. The judges required a little time. After an
intermission of proceedings from the 17th of June to
the 24th, the Lords met in Westminster Hall, and
informed the managers, “ That the accounts last
offered by them in evidence ought not to be read.”

Before any further proceedings commenced, it was
proposed by Lord Portchester, one of the Peers, that
certain questions should be referred to the judges. It
was according to form, that this business should be
transacted, by the Lords, in their chamber of parlia-
ment. To this they returned. And at six o’clock in
the evening, they sent a message to the Commons,
that they had adjourned the further proceedings on
the trial for six days. When they met on the 30th
in Westminster Hall, no communication of what had

1 History of the Trial, ut supra, part ii. p. 62, 63.

170

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BchJp 2 1 Passe(l in their chamber of parliament, was made to

the parties. And the managers for the Commons

1/89' were desired to proceed.

Upon their adjournment, however, on the 24th,
the Lords had spent the day in debate ; and agreed
to proceed with the further consideration of the sub-
ject on the 29th. On that day, they went into a
committee, “To inquire into the usual method of
putting questions to the judges and receiving their
answers in judicial proceedings.” A great number
of precedents were read. There was a long debate.
At last it was determined, “ That the proceedings
on the trial of Warren Hastings, Esq. had been
regular, and conformable to precedent in all trials of
a similar nature.”

It had been agreed at an early period of the trial,
that of the documents received in evidence only so
much as referred strictly to the point in question
should be read ; and that they should be printed
entire by way of appendix to the minutes. In this
Avay, a letter of Mr. Goring, reporting the state-
ments made by Munny Begum relative to the money
received by Mr. Hastings, had been printed. This
report the managers now desired might be read. As
printed, by order of the peers, to give information
on the subject of the trial, it Avas already in evidence
before them. A long contention ensued. The Lords
adjourned twice to deliberate, on two separate points.
They at last determined, “ That no paper ought to
be read merely because it is printed in the appendix ;
and, therefore, that the letter of Mr. Goring, last
offered in evidence, ought not to be read.”

The managers offered the letter again, and urged

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

171

its acceptance, on two other grounds ; First, as part b°^k 1

of a consultation which had already been read, and

applied to the same subject ; Secondly, as rendered 1789-
evidence by the demeanour of Mr. Hastings, who
had requested the Court of Directors to read and
consider it. The objections of the counsel were made.

The usual reply and rejoinder were heard. The
managers were asked, “ If the above were the whole
of the grounds upon which they put the admissibility
of the papers offered : To which they made answer,

That they were. The House adjourned to the cham-
ber of parliament.” The next day of the trial the
managers were informed, that “ the letter ought not
to he read.”

The managers after this proceeded to prove, that
when Mr. Hastings, as soon as he recovered an
ascendency in the Council, re-established Munny
Begum in the regency, the pretext upon which he
grounded this proceeding, namely, the will of the
Nabob, who had a right to make the appointment,
was false, and impostrous ; in as much as the Nabob,
according to Mr. Hastings himself, according to the
Judges of the Supreme Court, and according to the
known facts of his situation, had no will ; and was
nothing but a creature in the hands of Mr. Hastings.

They also offered proof, that this proceeding was
condemned by the Court of Directors, and that it
was injurious to the government, and to the interests
of the people. To the evidence tendered for this
purpose, but little opposition was raised. And here
the case for the managers upon the first part of this
article of the impeachment was closed.1

1 See the Minutes of Evidence, ut supra, p. 953 — 1101, with the
History of the Trial, ut supra, part ii. — M. The greater part of this

172

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1789.

Before proceeding to open the question upon the
second part, the Lord Chancellor requested to know
to what length of time it appeared to the managers
that their proceedings on this branch of the subject
would extend. As he received an answer, importing
that several days would be requisite, even if no delay
was created by the lawyers in objecting to evidence :
and as these communications seemed to point to a
design of adjourning further progress in the trial, till
the beginning of the next session of parliament, Mr.
Hastings rose, and made a very humble and pathetic
speech, complaining of the hardships of the trial, and
earnestly deprecating delay. His life, he said, would
not suffice, if this prosecution proceeded at the pace
at which it had begun, to see it to an end. He
affirmed, but qualifying the assertion carefully, that
it might not appear offensive to the Lords, that he
would have pleaded Guilty, had he foreseen the
space of time which the trial would consume. He

second year of the trial was occupied with disputes in regard to the
evidence, and it is urged in the text that these disputes originated in
the technical objections of the lawyers to the evidence tendered by the
managers. It is clear from a perusal of the proceedings, however, that
the legal objections were provoked by the tenacity of the managers in
insisting upon what was quite as technical as the legal arguments by
which they were defeated — the formal recognition by the Court, of docu-
ments, which, however exceptionable as legal proof, had been all along
admitted to be authentic. The main fact — that alone of an equivocal
appearance, the receipt of money from the Begum, had been acknowledged,
and the money had been accounted for,— and the appointment of her to
the chief authority at Murshedabad, was matter of public notoriety.
Nothing more could have been proved against Hastings, had the docu-
ments been received as testimony, and their production, therefore, was
merely designed to raise in the minds of the judges a personal prejudice
against him. The attempt was, with good reason, therefore, resisted by
the counsel for the defence, who displayed, throughout the discussion, quite
as much talent as was enlisted on the side of the prosecution. — W.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

could not frame, he said, any specific prayer to their
Lordships, nor could he press them to a greater -waste
of their time, at so advanced a period of the season;
but if the managers could specify any such limited
period as their Lordships could devote, to close the
impeachment, which he had been informed was to
end with this article, he would rather consent to wave
all defence, than postpone the decision to another
year. The House adjourned to the chamber of
parliament, where it was agreed to proceed on the
trial on the first Tuesday in the next session of par-
liament.

On the 16th of February, 1790, the business of
the trial, now prolonged to the fifty-sixth day, was re-
sumed. What remained of the sixth article of im-
peachment, and a part of the seventh, were opened
by Mr. Anstruther. And on the 18th of February,
which was the fifty-seventh day of the trial, evidence
began to be heard.

A letter was produced, dated 29th of November
1780, from Mr. Hastings to the Court of Directors.
In this letter the Directors were told, that, so far
back as on the 26th of June, Mr. Hastings had made
“ a very unusual tender,” as he calls it; that is, to
defray with his own money the extraordinary ex-
pense of sending against the Mahrattas the detach-
ment under Major Camac. He also at the same time
gives them to understand that the money, which he
had thus expended, was not his own. But, without
a word to show to whom, in that case, the money did
belong, he only adds, “ With this brief apology I
shall dismiss the subject.” His language is some-
what strange. This account of this transaction he

174

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \
CHAP. 2,

1790.

calls an “ anecdote.” — “ Something of affinity,” he
says, “ to this anecdote may appear in the first
aspect of another transaction.” Of that transaction
too the same letter contains an account. When
Bengal was threatened with the detachment of the
Berar army, which during the war with the Mah-
rattas marched into Cuttack, one of the means which
Mr. Hastings employed for eluding the danger was,
to supply that detachment with money. He now
informs the Court of Directors, that he took upon
himself the responsibility of sending three lacs of
rupees, unknown to his Council. Two-thirds of
this sum, he says, he had raised by his own credit ;
and should charge as a debt due to himself by the
Company : the other third he had supplied from the
cash in his hands belonging to the Company.

About these several sums, this was all the in-
formation which the Governor-General thought fit
to give to the Directors on the 29th of November,
1780.

On the 5th of January, 1781, the following notice
was communicated by the Governor-General to the
Members of the Council, “ Honourable Sir, and
Sirs, Having had occasion to disburse the sum of
three lacs of sicca rupees, on account of secret ser-
vices, which having been advanced from my own
private cash , I request that the same may be repaid
to me,” &c. ; and on the 9th he received three bonds
for the amount.

Of the whole sum it was proved that one-third was
paid to Mr. Hastings in England.

The next document was a letter from Mr. Hastings
to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors,

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

175

dated Patna, 20th January, 1782, stating, that he J1

had, when at Chunar, accepted from the Nabob ■

Vizir, a present of ten lacs of rupees, which he re- 1790-
quested their permission to appropriate to himself.

Another of his letters to the same Committee,
dated 22nd May, 1782, gave an account of the sums
which he had privately received, and expended in the
service of the Company. Excepting the sum from
the Nabob Vizir, no information was yet given of the
sources whence any part of that money had been
derived. Of the use which was made of the several
sums, he says, that the reference which he gives to
the several accounts, in which they are credited in
the Company’s hooks, is specification enough. With
regard to the sources whence they were derived, the
motives for receiving them, and his own modes of
dealing with them, he satisfies himself with the fol-
lowing mysterious and obscure expressions. “ Why
these sums were taken by me; why they were,
except the second” (that applied to the service of
Camac’s detachment) “ quietly transferred to the
Company’s use ; why bonds were taken for the first,”

(that sent to the Berar army in Cuttack), “ and not
for the rest, might, were this matter to be exposed
to the view of the public, furnish a variety of con-
jectures, to which it would be of little use to reply.

Were your Honourable Court to question me upon
these points, I would answer, that the sums were
taken for the Company’s benefit, at times in which
the Company very much needed them ; that I either
chose to conceal the first receipts from public curi-
osity by receiving bonds for the amount, or possibly
acted without any studied design which my memory

176

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK "V
CHAP. 2.

1790.

could at this distance of time verify : and that I did
not think it worth my care to observe the same
means with the rest.”

The managers proved ; that in the letter of the
29th of November, 1780, two-thirds of the money
sent to the Berar army were stated as the money
of the Governor-General himself: that in this of the
22nd of May, 1782, the whole is stated as the money
of the Company. It may, however, be also observed,
that the taking of the bonds, instead of being a
transaction to keep the matter secret, was the only
thing which could make it public. He received the
money from a private source ; he gave it to the Berar
Raja privately, and told him the gift was a secret ;
all this might have been hid from the world for ever,
except for the bonds.

Another thing which is very remarkable is, the
idea, which the Governor-General seems to have
formed, of the strange negligence of the Court of
Directors toward the proceedings of their servants ;
when he could present to them such an account, as
this, of such transactions, without expecting their
most severe displeasure. Great sums of money,
received from secret sources, and instead of any ac-
count of such extraordinary and suspicious transac-
tions given to them, to whom the fullest account of
every transaction was due, a declaration that this
was not a matter for public view, and that it would
furnish a variety of conjectures if known, make up
one of the strangest scenes between a master and
servant, that the history of public negligence presents
for the instruction of mankind.

The negligence, which the Governor-General here

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

177

imputes to himself, the crime of acting in such affairs book \ i

. , P1 ° . CHAP. 2.

with so disgraceful a measure of inattention, that he

himself knew not the motive hy wThich he was guided, i790-
ought alone, if true, to have condemned him in the
minds of vigilant employers, and proved his total
inaptitude for the trust which wTas placed in his
hands ; if not true, conclusions are suggested of a
different sort.

The above-mentioned account of the appropriation
to the service of the Company of certain sums pri-
vately received, though dated on the 22nd of May,

1782, was not sent from Calcutta on the 16th of
December. By this time, Mr. Hastings had received
accounts of the inquiries instituted, and even the
resolutions passed, with respect to his conduct, hy
the House of Commons in England. To escape the
appearance of having been impelled to produce this
account by the terror of investigation, he got Mr.
Larkins, the Accountant-General, to affix to it his
affidavit of the time in which it was written. In his
letter of this date he reproaches his employers for
rendering necessary, by their want of confidence, this
humiliating precaution. Addressing the Secret Com-
mittee of the Court of Directors, he says, “ If I
wanted integrity and honour, the Court of Directors
have afforded me hut too powerful incentives to sup-
press the information which I now convey to them
through you, and to appropriate to my own use the
sums which I have already passed to their credit — hy
the unworthy, and, pardon me if I add, dangerous
reflections which they have passed upon me for the
first communication of this kind. And your own
experience will suggest to you that there are persons

VOL. V. N

178

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi who would profit by such a warning.” He adds,

with regard to the sums in question, and the clecla-

179°- ration is important, “ I could have concealed them,
had I had a wrong motive, from yours and the public
eye, for ever.” He makes in the same letter another
declaration, which is worthy of a man conscious of
rectitude ; “ if I appear in any unfavourable light by
these transactions, I resign the common, and legal,
security of those who commit crimes or errors. I am
ready to answer every particular question, that may
be put against myself, upon honour, or upon oath.”
There he laid his finger on the material point.
There he appealed to an efficient test. Innocence is
proved by interrogation, and best proved when the
interrogation is most severe. Had Mr. Hastings
acted up to this declaration ; had he really submitted
himself to scrutiny ; instead of using, to defend
himself from it, every effort which the artifice of
lawyers could invent, and every subterfuge which
the imperfections of the law could afford, he might
have left his rectitude, if real, without a suspicion ;
whereas now, if his accusers could not prove his guilt,
it is still more certain that he has not proved his
innocence1.

1 If it had been the fortune of Hastings to have had his conduct investi-
gated by wise, just, and dispassionate judges, he would, no doubt, have
established his personal integrity and rectitude of intention, although it
might have appeared that in his anxiety to provide for critical emergencies,
he had not always been sufficiently scrupulous in obtaining the necessary
means, nor sufficiently careful in preparing precise statements of their
amount, origin, and appropriation. The investigation, however, was not
instituted to ascertain truth, but to fix criminality upon him. Talents the
most popular, and passions the most ungoverned, were let loose against him ;
and no reasonable man can believe, that if he had stood alone in his de-
fence, his innocence would have shielded him from the combined assault of

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

179

Mr. Hastings, to prove that he never meant to 2 1

appropriate the money for which he took the bonds,

stated in his defence, delivered at the bar of the 1/90‘
House of Commons, that a few months after the
receipt of the bonds, that is in July, 1781, he
indorsed all three payable to the Company, and left
them in the hand of the Accountant-General, with
express directions to deliver them up. The managers
gave evidence to prove that they were not indorsed
till the 29th of May, 1782 ; and not communicated
to the Board and cancelled, till the 17th of January,

1785.

The managers next gave in evidence a letter of
Mr. Hastings to the Court of Directors, dated the
21st of February, 1784, in which he gave them an
account of several sums, which had been expended in
their service, but drawn from his own fortune, with-
out having, as yet, been charged to their account.

Some of the objects of this expenditure were of the
most excellent kind, as the digest and translation
of the native laws. Having stated these debts,
amounting to a sum of not less than 34,000/. sterling,

Mr. Hastings added, that he meant to pay himself
by a sum of money which had privately come into his
hands. Of the source from whence this money was
derived, he afforded, as on former occasions of the
sort, no information to his employers whatsoever.

He left them absolutely and unceremoniously in the
dark.

The managers next presented a passage from Mr.

Fox, Sheridan, and Burke. His only chance of justice lay in opposing
like to like, and in his friend Scott, and his counsel Law, he was fortunate
enough to find courage and ability equal to the conflict. — W.

N 2

180

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bookv! Hastings’s defence, delivered at the bar of the House

of Commons, in which the mode of receiving this

i790. money is declared in the following words. “ In the
year 1783, when I was actually in want of a sum of
money for my private expenses, owing to the Company
not having at that time sufficient cash in their trea-
sury to pay my salary, I borrowed three lacs of
rupees of Raja Nobkissen, an inhabitant of Calcutta,
whom I desired to call upon me, with a bond pro-
perly filled up — he did so ; but, at the same time I
was going to execute it, he entreated, I would rather
accept the money than execute the bond : I neither
accepted the offer nor refused it; and my determi-
nation upon it remained suspended between the
alternative of keeping the money as a loan to be
repaid, and of taking it and applying it, as I had
done other sums, to the Company’s use ; and there
the matter rested till I undertook my journey to
Lucknow, when I determined to accept the money
for the Company’s use. And these were my motives :
Having made disbursements from my own cash,
which I had hitherto omitted to enter into my public
accounts, I resolved to reimburse myself, in a mode
most suitable to the situation of the Company’s
affairs, by charging these disbursements in my Dur-
bar accounts of the present year, and crediting them
by a sum privately received, which was this of Nob-
kissen’s.”

A letter was then read, from the Court of Direc-
tors to the Governor-General and Council at Fort
William, dated 16th March, 1784, in which they
require an account (none had as yet been given) of
the presents which the Governor-General had con-

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

181

1790.

fessed. Although it is not,” they say, “ our inten- book 1

tion to express any doubt of the integrity of our

Governor-General, on the contrary, after having re-
ceived the presents, we cannot avoid expressing our
approbation of his conduct, in bringing them to the
credit of the Company : yet, we must confess, the
statement of these transactions appears to us in many
parts so unintelligible, that we feel ourselves under
the necessity of calling on the Governor-General for
an explanation, agreeable to his promise, voluntarily
made to us. We therefore desire to be informed —
of the different periods when each sum was received —
and what were the Governor-General’s motives for
withholding the several receipts from the knowledge
of the Council — or of the Court of Directors — and
what were his reasons for taking bonds for part of
these sums — and for paying other sums into the
treasury as deposits on his own account.”

Mr. Hastings was at Lucknow when this letter
was received. He returned to Calcutta on the 5th
of November, 1784; and departed for England in
the month of February, 1785. During all this time
no answer was returned. When in England, he was
given to understand that an explanation was still
required; and he addressed a letter to the Chairman,
dated Cheltenham, 11th July, 1785. He first apo-
logizes, for delay, by his absence from Calcutta, and
the pressure of business at the close of his government.

He can give no further account, he says, of dates,
than he has given, though possibly Mr. Larkins could
give more. The necessities of the government, he
says, wt ere at that time so great, that “ he eagerly
seized every allowable means of relief ;” but partly

182

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BooKv^ght unnecessary to record these secret aids,

partly thought it might be ostentatious, partly that

179°- it would excite the jealousy of his colleagues. He
made the sums be carried directly to the treasury,
and allowed them not to pass through his own hands,
to avoid the suspicion of receiving presents for his
own use. Two of the sums were entered as loans.
One was entered as a deposit, namely, that expended
on Camac’s detachment, because the transaction did
not require concealment, having been already avowed.
He makes a curious declaration, that though des-
tined for the public service, and never meant for his
own use, “ it certainly was his original design to
conceal the receipt of all the sums, except that one,
even from the knowledge of the Court of Directors.”
This relates to all the sums, except that from the
Nabob Vizir. With respect to that he says, “ When
fortune threw in my way a sum, of a magnitude
which could not he concealed, and the peculiar deli-
cacy of my situation, at the time in which I received
it, made me more circumspect of appearances, I
chose to apprize my employers of it, and to add to
the account all the former appropriations of the same
kind.”

In this, if something, be it what it may, be
alleged, as a motive for concealment from the Council,
nothing whatsoever is even hinted at as a motive for
concealment from the Court of Directors. This, the
principal question, was still completely evaded, and
left without a shadow of an answer. One of the
allegations is altogether unintelligible, that it would
have excited suspicion had the sums been carried to
his own house, but no suspicion when, as his money,

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

183

not the Company’s, it was lodged in their treasury .] 1

either as a deposit or a loan. If the money was

represented as his, the question, how he came by it, 179°-
was the same in either case. With respect to these
most suspicious transactions, two important points of
information were still obstinately withheld ; namely,
from what parties the sums were obtained, and why
the transactions were concealed from those from
whom it was a crime in their servants, of the deepest
dye, to conceal any thing which affected the trust
committed to their charge.

On the 18th of July, 1785, a week after the date
of his letter from Cheltenham, Mr. Hastings wrote
to Mr. Larkins, still in India ; to send to the Court
of Directors, an account of the dates of the sums
which he had privately received. The letter of Mr.

Larkins, sent in compliance with this request of Mr.
Hastings, was now produced by the managers. In
this letter, beside the dates, four of the sources of
receipt were incidentally mentioned ; namely, Cheyte
Sing, and the renters of Bahar, Nuddea, and Dinage-
pore.

From this, the managers proceeded to a different
head of evidence ; namely, the changes which Mr.
Hastings had introduced in the mode of collecting
the revenues. The object was to show that these
changes increased the facilities of peculation, and
laid open a wide door for the corrupt receipt of
money ; that such facilities had not been neglected ;
and that money had been corruptly received. The
great points to which the managers attached their
inferences of guilt were three ; the appointment of
the Aumeens, with inquisitorial powers for the

184

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 2.

1790.

purpose of the inquiry into the taxable means of the
country, at the termination of the five years’ settle-
ment in 1777 ; the abolition of the Provincial Councils
and appointment of the Committee of Revenue ; and
the receipt of presents from the farmers of the revenue
in Nuddea, Dinagepore, and Bahar.

The managers began with the Provincial Councils.
It was proved by a variety of documents, that the
Provincial Councils had received the strongest appro-
bation of the Court of Directors. It was proved
that they had repeatedly received the strongest testi-
monies of approbation from Mr. Hastings himself.
Yet, on the 9th of February, 1781, Mr. Hastings
abolished them; and formed his Committee of
Revenue.

It w7as next proved, that Gunga Govind Sing
was appointed Dewan to this Committee ; and that
high and important powers were attached to his
office.

To prove that the character of Gunga Govind
Sing was bad, a consultation of the Council in 1775
was read. On that occasion he was, for a fraud,
dismissed from his office of Naib DewTan to the
Provincial Council of Calcutta; Mr. Francis and
Mr. Monson declaring that from general information
they held him to be a man of infamous character ;
the Governor-General asserting that he had many
enemies, and not one advocate, but that all this wTas
general calumny, no specific crime being laid to his
charge. Lastly, the managers offered evidence to
prove that Gunga Govind Sing, at the time of this
appointment, was a public defaulter, by a large
balance, of which he would render no account.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

185

They now passed from the abolition of the \l

Provincial Councils, to the present from the revenue

fanner of Patna. In the sixth article of charge, 1/90,
Mr. Hastings was accused of having taken from a
native, of the name of Kelleram, as a consideration
for letting to him certain lands in Bahar, a sum of
money amounting to four lacs of rupees. It was
inferred that this was a corrupt appointment, as
well from other circumstances, as from this : That
Kelleram was notoriously a person of infamous
character, and, in all other respects, unqualified for
the office.

The managers proposed to begin with the proof
of this unfitness. The Counsel for the defendant
objected ; because unfitness was not a charge in the
impeachment. After hearing both parties, the Lords
adjourned. Finally, they resolved, “ That the
managers for the Commons be not admitted to give
evidence of the unfitness of Kelleram for the appoint-
ment of being a renter of certain lands in the province
of Bahar ; the fact of such unfitness not being charged
in the impeachment.”

The point is of importance. It is only when
conformable to reason, that the authority of lords, or
of any one else, is the proper object of respect.

Whether the appointment of a particular man to
a particular office was corrupt, or not corrupt, was
the question to be tried. If circumstantial evidence
is good in any case, it is good in this. But surely,
it will not be denied, that the fitness or unfitness of
the person to the office, is one among the circum-
stances from which the goodness or badness of the

186

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1790.

motives which led to his appointment may he
inferred. Accordingly, the counsel for the defendant
did not deny that the unfitness of Kelleram was
proper to be made an article of circumstantial
evidence. Not denying that it would be just matter
of evidence, if given, they insisted that it should not
be given.

Their objection amounted to this, that to prove
one fact of delinquency, no other fact importing
delinquency shall be given in evidence, unless the
evidentiary fact itself is charged as delinquency in
the instrument of accusation. Now such is the
nature of many crimes, that other crimes are the
most common and probable source of circumstantial
evidence. At the same time, it may be very incon-
venient, or even impossible, to include all these
minor crimes in the instrument of accusation appro-
priated to the principal crime. They may not all
be known, till a great part of the evidence has been
heard and scrutinized. The tendency of such a rule
cannot be mistaken. It adds to the difficulties of
proving crimes ; it furnishes another instrument, and,
as far as it operates, a powerful instrument for
giving protection and impunity to guilt. The
objection, that a man cannot be prepared to defend
himself against an accusation which has not been
preferred, is futile ; because the fact is not adduced
as the fact for which the man is to be punished, but
a fact to prove another fact. Besides, if on this, or
any other incident of the trial, he could show cause
for receiving time to adduce evidence, or in any
other way to prepare himself, for any fresh matter

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

187

which might arise on the trial, a good system
of judicature would provide the best mode of receiv- .
ing it.

Mr. Burke took the liberty of making remarks.
He said the Commons of England had a right to
demand that they should not be held to technical
niceties. And he complained of the obstruction,
which this resolution of the Court would create, in
dragging to light the offences of the accused, or even
in ascertaining the measure of the crime. “ If the
managers were to be debarred,” he said, “ from giving
evidence of corrupt intentions, and of aggravations
arising from circumstances, not specifically stated in
the charges , it would be impossible for their Lord-
ships to determine the amount of the fine, which
ought to be imposed upon the prisoner, if he should
be convicted ; and their Lordships must, in the end,
be embarrassed by their own decision.”

The managers then gave in evidence, that, in July
1780, Mr. Hastings wrote an order to the chief of
the Patna Council, to permit Kelleram to go to Cal-
cutta : that it was debated in the Council, whether,
“ in his present situation,” he ought to he permitted
to go in consequence of the Governor-General’s orders:
that two out of five members voted against the per-
mission : that Kelleram, on receiving permission, re-
quested a guard of Sepoys for his protection down to
Calcutta, which was granted: that proposals were re-
ceived by Mr. Hastings from Cullian Sing for renting
the province of Bahar : that the proposals were ac-
cepted : and that Kelleram was appointed deputy, or
naib.

The managers for the Commons stated, that they

BOOK VI

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188

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1790.

would next give evidence to show that this bargain
had been extremely injurious to the interests of the
Company, as Kelleram had not made good his en-
gagements.

The Counsel for the defendant objected to this
evidence, and a long debate ensued. They took the
same ground as before, that this would be evidence to
a crime not specified in the charge. The Lords ad-
journed, and spent the rest of the day in deliberation.
On the next day of the trial, the managers were in-
formed, “ That it was not competent for them to give
evidence, upon the charge in the sixth article, to
prove that the rent at which the defendant, Warren
Hastings, let the lands, mentioned in the said sixth
article of charge, to Kelleram, fell into arrear and
was deficient.” Yet why should a fact, which was
offered only as a matter of evidence, be rejected as
evidence because it was not offered also as matter of
charge *? This was to confound the most important
distinctions. Assuredly, if the corruption of a bargain
can be proved by circumstances, its evil consequences,
if such as might easily have been, or could not but
be, foreseen, is one of those circumstances, and an
important one. This, said the Lords and the lawyers,
must not be adduced.

The managers vehemently renewed their complaint,
that the resolutions of their Lordships were unaccom-
panied by the reasons on which they were founded.
The judges of other courts, it was said, pursued a
different course. The evil consequence on which
they principally rested their complaint was, the
ignorance in which a decision without a reason left
them of what would be decided in other cases.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

189

The managers next gave in evidence, that a rule,

with regard to peshcush, or the gratuity offered by a

renter upon the renewing of his lease, had been es- 1790'
tablished in 1775; and that a small sum, merely to
preserve an old formality, was accurately prescribed,
and made permanent. The great sum, taken by Mr.
Hastings from Kelleram, was not, therefore, pesh-
cush. Mr. Young, who had been six years a mem-
ber of the Provincial Council of Patna, said that the
lease stood in the name of Cullian Sing ; but Kelle-
ram was considered as a partner. Being asked,
Whether, if the lands had been let at their full value,
it would have been for the interest of Kelleram to
give four lacs of rupees as a gratuity upon the bar-
gain, he replied, “ I think, in the circumstances in
which Kelleram stood, he could not afford it.” He
was asked, “ In what circumstances did he stand ?”

The opposing lawyers objected; upon the old ground,
that the unfitness of Kelleram was not matter of
charge. True, and not proposed to be made. But
it was matter of evidence, and, as such, ought to
have been received. The managers waved the
question.

The same witness proved, that at the time when
this bargain was struck between Mr. Hastings and
Kelleram, a contract had actually been concluded
for the whole province by the Provincial Council,
who had let the lands, in the usual proportions, to
the Zemindars of the country, and other renters.

This legal transaction was therefore violated by the
bargain subsequently struck between Mr. Hastings
and Kelleram. Within the knowledge of the wit-

190

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1790.

1 ness the province had never before been all let to one
.. man.

It was given in evidence that Cullian Sing was
Dewan of the province ; that it was the duty of the
Dewan to check the collectors, and prevent the op-
pression of the ryots ; that of course this check was
annihilated by making the Dewan renter ; but it was
also stated, that Cullian Sing had never, in fact, ex-
ercised any of the powers of Dewan, being prevented
by the Provincial Council as unfit.

The witness was asked, “ Whether the withdraw-
ing the Provincial Council, and abolishing the office of
Dewan, did not put it in the power of the farmer to
commit oppression with greater ease than before ?”
His answer was, “ Doubtless.” He was asked
“ What impressions the letting of the lands to Kel-
leram and Cullian Sing made upon the minds of the
inhabitants of the country?” Mr. Young answered,
“ They heard it with terror and dismay.” After the
answer was given, Mr. Law objected to the question;
it not being within the competence of the witness to
speak of any body’s sentiments but his own. To
give in evidence the sense of the country was on the
other hand affirmed to be an established practice.
The Lords returned to their own house. They put a
question to the judges. The judges requested time
to answer it. And further proceedings on the trial
were adjourned for two days. When the court re-
sumed, the managers were informed, “ That it was
not competent for them to put the following question
to the witness on the sixth article of the charge ; —
What impression the letting of the lands to Kelleram

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

191

and Cullian Sing made upon the minds of the in-
habitants’in the province of Bahar.” Yet it will not
he denied, that when a man was set over a country
with powers to which those of a despot in Europe
are but trifling, the impression on the minds of the
people might rise to such a height as to be a circum-
stance of great importance, and indispensably neces-
sary to be taken into the account, in forming a correct
and complete conception of the views of him by
whom the appointment was made. To refuse to
receive such evidence is, therefore, to refuse the means
of forming a complete and correct conception of that
on which the most important judicial decisions may
turn.

The witness was asked, what effects arose from the
appointment of Kelleram? and how he conducted
himself as renter of the province? Neither of these
questions was allowed.

After this the managers went back to the abolition
of the Provincial Councils and the Committee of
Revenue. Mr. Young deposed, that Gunga Govind
Sing, who was appointed Dewan ; that is, under the
new system, the great executive officer of revenue ;
was a man of infamous character, in the opinion both
of Europeans and natives ; that the Board of Re-
venue was in his opinion an institution which gave a
new degree of power to the Governor-General ; that
under that system, mischief could more easily exist
and be concealed, than under that of the Provincial
Councils ; that the people were more open to the op-
pression of the Dewan. When the question was
asked, whether it came within his knowledge that

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1790.

192

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bc° ap^ J1 more eyih or less evil, existed under the Committee

of Revenue, than under the Provincial Councils, the

179°- right of exclusion was urged afresh. Acts of oppres-
sion could not he given, because oppression was not
charged in the articles. Be it so ; but corruption
was charged, and acts of oppression were offered as
proof of it. Nor is there any contempt of rationality
so great as to deny, that acts of oppression may
afford evidence, in proof of corruption. To exclude
that evidence, by rule, is to deprive justice of one of
the means of disclosing guilt. The managers main-
tained, that oppression was in reality matter of
charge, by the words, “ to the great oppression and
injury of the said people.” The lawyers contended,
that this, like the words, “ contrary to the peace of
our Lord the King,” was but an inference of law.
The managers insisted that the cases were radically
different, because an act of murder, felony, treason, was,
by its nature, and necessarily, contrary to the King’s
peace ; the appointment of a Board of Revenue was
not by necessity, oppression. The oppression was
not matter of inference, but matter of proof. The
Lords adjourned to deliberate, and consumed in the
chamber of parliament the rest of the day. The
managers were at last informed, “ That it was not
competent for them to put the following question to
the witness upon the seventh article of charge, viz.,
Whether more oppressions did actually exist under
the new institution than under the old.”

The managers then reverted to the bargain of Mr.
Hastings with Cullian Sing, and Kelleram. The
purport of the questions was to prove that a rumour,
a prevalent belief, of the receipt, as a gratuity or

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

193

present, of a sum of four lacs of rupees, by Mr. Bi®°IK .J1

Hastings, existed, previous to the time at which he

made confession of it to his employers. Many of the 179°-
questions of the managers were resisted by the
Counsel for the defendant, but such questions were
put by some of the Peers as elicited proof that the
rumour did precede the confession.

By cross-examination it was shown, that the abo-
lition of the Provincial Councils was injurious to the
interests of the witness ; that Gunga Govind Sing,
to whose reputed character he spoke, lived at Cal-
cutta, while he himself resided principally at Patna ;
that one of the individuals from whom he had heard
a bad character of Gunga Govind Sing was his enemy ;
but that his bad character was a subject of common
conversation.

In the course of this examination it came out,
though the Counsel for the defendant objected to
it as evidence, that Kelleram at the time of his
bargain with Mr. Hastings, was a bankrupt and a
prisoner.

Mr. David Anderson was examined, the President
of the Committee of Revenue, and a man selected
by Mr. Hastings for the most important employments.

It appeared that his office, as President of the Com-
mittee, was almost a sinecure, for excepting about
three months, he was always absent on other employ-
ments. He, too, was acquainted wfith the rumour
about the money received from Kelleram, which
made him so uneasy about the reputation of Mr.
Hastings, that he conversed with him upon the
subject, and was told that the money had been
accounted for. He understood, that sums were pri-

vol. v.

o

194

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BOOK "V
chap. 2.

1790.

[ vately received from persons employed in the revenue,
. which never were entered in the public accounts.
He himself was sworn not to receive money pri-
vately. The Dewan of the Committee of Revenue
might extort money unduly from the people, without
detection, provided the offence was not very general.
The question was put, and a most important question
it was : “ Whether, after all, the Committee, with
the best intention, and with the best ability, and
steadiest application, might not, to a certain degree,
be tools in the hands of the Dewan.” The question
was objected to, and given up.

On his cross-examination, he affirmed that Gunga
Govind Sing had not a bad character, he thought he
had in general a good character. To show that
three lacs of the money privately received were sent
to the Berar army, two questions were put, to which
the managers objected, with as little to justify their
objections, as those of their opponents, and more to
condemn them, because contrary to the principles to
which they were calling for obedience on the oppo-
site side.

The managers added the following pertinent ques-
tions : “ Whether during the whole of the year 1780,
there was any such distress in the Company’s affairs
as to put them to difficulty in raising three lacs of
rupees ? — I do not believe there was. — Whether after
the year 1781, the Company did not borrow several
millions ? — They borrowed very large sums ; I
cannot say what.”

This was intended to meet the allegation of Mr.
Hastings, that the extreme exigence of the Com-
pany’s affairs had led him to the suspicious resource

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

195

of taking clandestine sums of money from the sub-
jects and dependants of the state.

After some further evidence, bearing upon the
same points, and exciting objections of the same
tendency, on which therefore it is unnecessary to
dwell, the managers proceeded to the questions con-
nected with the province of Dinagepore, whence one
of the secret sums had been derived.

In order to show the opinion of Mr. Hastings
himself, that great enormities might be committed
under the Committee of Revenue, and yet he con-
cealed, they read the passage from his minute of the
21st of January, 1785, in which he says, “ I so well
know the character and abilities of Raja Dehy Sing,
that I can easily conceive it was in his power both to
commit the enormities which are laid to his charge,
and to conceal the grounds of them from Mr. Good-
lad,” the collector, and Company’s chief officer in the
district. The managers said, they would next pro-
ceed to show the enormities themselves.1

But the Counsel for the defendant objected, on the
ground they had so often successfully taken, that
these enormities were not matters of charge. To
this, as before, the simple answer is, that corruption
was the matter of charge; and that the enormities of
a man placed in a situation to do mischief might be
a necessary and important article in the proof that
corruption placed him there. To reject it was,
therefore, to reject that without which it might be
that justice could not be faithfully administered ;
without which it might be that misconception would

BOOK VI

CHAP. 2.

1790.

1 It is worthy of remark, that by this time Burke knew that the autho-
rity on which these enormities were asserted, had been retracted. See
p. 110. See also Hastings’s Defence at the end of the next note. — W.

O 2

196

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAT*. 2.

1790.

be created in the mind of the judge ; and hence
misdecision, wrong in place of right, become the
ultimate and unavoidable result.

The managers again contended that oppression was
a matter of charge ; that Mr. Hastings well knew
it must flow from the system which he pursued ; and
that the honour of the Court, and the character of
the British nation, were at stake, when the question
was, whether enormities, such as no tongue could
describe, should be thought worthy of investigation,
or be for ever screened from it by lawyers’ cere-
monies. The Counsel for the defendant answered
this appeal to honour and feeling, by challenging
the managers to make these enormities an article of
impeachment, and boasting their readiness to meet
such a charge. But this was a mere evasion.
Why meet those enormities only as matter of im-
peachment, refuse to meet them as matter of evi-
dence *? They had the same advantages in the one
case as in the other. They might equally display
the weakness, if any existed, in the evidence brought
to support the allegations ; they might equally bring
counter-evidence, if any existed, to disprove them.
As far therefore as the challenge had any effect,
it was an effect contrary to the interests of justice.1

1 The whole of this scene, as given by the historian of the Trial,
is curious, and forms an important incident in the History of Mr.
Hastings.

“ Mr. Burke said, that he must submit to their Lordships’ decision, but
he must say, at the same time, that he had heard it with the deepest con-
cern : for if ever there was a case in which the honour, the justice, and the
character of a country were concerned, it was in that which related to the
horrid cruelties and savage barbarities exercised by Deby Sing, under an
authority derived from the British Government, upon the poor forlorn in-
habitants of Dinagepore ; cruelties and barbarities so frightfully and tran-
scendently enormous and savage, that the bare mention of them had filled
with horror every description of people in the country.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

197

To meet the allegation of Mr. Hastings, that he book vi
took one present, because money was not in the

1790.

“ The impression that even the feeble representation which his slender
abilities had been able to produce had made upon the hearts and feelings
of all who had heard him, was not to be removed but by the evidence that
should prove the whole a fabrication. — The horror which the detail of
those cruelties had produced in the minds of all classes of people was inde-
scribable ; the most dignified ladies of England had shuddered, and some
had fainted at the bare recital ; and was no evidence now to be received
to prove the existence of those acts of barbarity which had shocked the
whole nation ?

“ Mr. Law said, it was not to be borne, that the Right Hon. Manager
should thus proceed to argue in reprobation of their Lordships’ judgments
solemnly given.

“ Mr. Burke said, nothing could be further from his intention than to
reprobate any decision coming from a Court for which he entertained the
highest respect. But he was not a little surprised to find, that the learned
Counsel should stand forth the champion for their Lordships’ honour ; —
they were themselves the best guardians of their own honour : and it
never could be the intention of the Commons to sully, much less to call in
question, the honour of the House of Peers. As their co-ordinate estate
in the Legislature, the Commons were perhaps not less interested than
their Lordships themselves in the preservation of the honour of that
noble House; and therefore he never could think of arguing in reprobation
of any of its decisions.

“ But the truth was, that the decision upon which he was then speaking
was not upon a question put by the Commons : the Lords had no doubt
decided properly ; but it was certainly upon their own question, and not
upon that of the Commons. If the Commons had been suffered to draw
up their question themselves, they would have worded it in a very different
manner, and called for the judgment of the House upon a question very
differently stated from that on which the decision had just been given.

“ It was true that the cruelties charged in the article were not stated,
eo nomine, to have been exercised by Deby Sing ; but the article charged
Mr. Hastings with having established a system which he knew would be,
and in point of fact had actually been, attended with cruelty and oppres-
sion.— The article did not state by whom the acts of cruelty had been com-
mitted, but it stated cruelty in general ; and of such cruelty, so charged,
the managers had a right to give evidence.

“ He observed, that their Lordships must perceive a difference in the
case thus stated, from that which they had stated themselves, and on which
they had decided. He begged, therefore, that they would consider
seriously what effect this decision would have upon this part of the article
and upon the general character of the country.

198

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bookJ1 treasury to pay his salary, accounts were produced
which showed that it was six months in arrear in

1790.

“ If they were entirely to shut out all evidence of those acts of cruelty,
what would the world say ? what would be the opinion of mankind ? It
would astonish the surrounding nations, that the door should be shut upon
the proof of cruelties, the bare recital of which had harrowed up the souls
of all who had heard it. The character of the nation would suffer, the
honour of their Lordships would be affected, if, when the Commons of
England stood ready to prove the existence of barbarities that had dis-
graced the British name, and called for vengeance on the guilty heads of
those who were in any degree instrumental in them, they should be stopped,
and told that no evidence could be received in proof of those barbarities.
A Noble Lord, deservedly high in the opinion of his Peers, had said, when
he heard those savage cruelties detailed, that, compared with the enormity
of them, all the articles of the impeachment weighed not a feather ; that if
the detail was founded in truth, no punishment could be too severe for
whoever should be found to have had any part in exercising them.

“ The same Noble Lord, Mr. Burke observed, had said, that if the Hon.
Manager did not make good this most horrid of all charges, he ought to
pass for the most daring calumniator.

“ Upon that issue, said Mr. Burke, I am ready to put my character :
suffer me to go into the proofs of those unparalleled barbarities ; and if I
do not establish them to the full conviction of this House and of all man-
kind, if I do not prove their immediate and direct relation to, and connex-
ion with the system established by Mr. Hastings, then let me be branded
as the boldest calumniator that ever dared to fix upon unspotted innocence
the imputation of guilt.”

“ Earl Stanhope called Mr. Burke to order. His Lordship said, that
the time of the House must not be wasted in arguments upon questions on
which their Lordships had already decided.”

“ Mr. Burke said, that it was his object to save the honour and the
character of their Lordships, and not their time : and it could not have
entered his head, that whilst he was pursuing so great an object, he could
be supposed to be wasting their time, which, though certainly precious,
could not weigh a feather against their honour and character.

“ However, let that be as it might, he had done : he had endeavoured
to rescue the character and justice of his country from obloquy ; if
those who had formerly provoked inquiry, if those who had said that
the savage barbarities which he had detailed had no other existence than
that which they derived from the malicious fertility of his imagination, if
those who had said that he was bound to make good what he had charged,
and that he would deserve the most opprobrious names if he did not afford
Mr. Hastings an opportunity of doing away the impression which every
part of the nation had received from the picture of the savage cruelties
exercised by Deby Sing; if, he repeated, they now shrunk from the

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

199

August, 1783; that it was four months in arrear in
September of that year ; that it continued between

inquiry for which they had before so loudly called, if they now called upon
their Lordships to reject, and not listen to the proofs which they before
had challenged him to bring, the fault was not with him ; he had done his
duty to his country, whose honour and justice had been outraged ; to the
House of Commons, who had sent him to their Lordships’ bar to express
their abhorrence of cruelties, and to point the vengeance of the law against
those who had been instrumental in practising them ; and he had done
what he owed to himself, in offering to prove all that he had advanced on
the subject, on pain of being branded, if he should fail in his proofs, as a
bold and infamous calumniator. — ‘ Upon the heads of others therefore
(said he), and not upon those of the Commons of Great Britain, let the
charge fall, that the justice of the country was not to have its victim. The
Commons have shown their readiness to make good their charges. — But
the defendant shrinks from the proof, and insists that your Lordships ought
not to receive it.’

“ Mr. Law, with unexampled warmth, whether real, or assumed in
consequence of instructions in his brief, we cannot pretend to say, replied
to Mr. Burke. He said that the Right Hon. Manager felt bold, only
because he knew the proof which he wanted to give could not be received;
that, from the manner in which the charge was worded, their Lordships
could not , if they would, admit them, without violating the clearest rules
and principles of law. ‘But (said he) let the Commons put the detail of
those shocking cruelties into the shape of a charge which my client can
meet, let them present them in that shape at your Lordships’ bar, and
then we will be ready to hear every proof that can be adduced. And if,
when they have done that, the Gentleman for whom I am now speaking does
not falsify every act of cruelty that the Honourable Managers shall attempt
to prove upon him, May the hand of this House and the hand of
God light upon him !’

“ After this ejaculation, delivered in a tone of voice not unlike that of
the theatric hero, when he exclaims, ‘ Richard is hoarse with calling thee
to battle !’ — this part of the business ended.” History of the Trial of
Warren Hastings, Esq., part iii. p. 54 — 56.

Beside what Mr. Burke had thus declared, Mr. Fox, in the speech in
which he summed up the evidence on this article, said, “ The Counsel for
the defendant had, upon this subject, invoked the judgment of their
Lordships, and the vengeance of Almighty God, not on their own heads,
but on the head of their client, if the enormities of Deby Sing, as stated by
his Right Hon. Friend, should be proved and brought home to him. He
knew not how the defendant might relish his part in this imprecation
which the Counsel had made ; but in answer to it, if the time should
come when they were fairly permitted to come to the proof of those enor.
mities, he would, in his turn, invoke the most rigorous justice of the

BOOK VI
chap. 2.

1790.

200

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK. V
ciur. 2.

1790.

1 four and five months in arrear till December ; and
- that it was eight months in arrear on the following
April, when it was completely paid up.

Noble Lords, and the full vengeance of Almighty God, not on the head of
his Right Hon. Friend, but on his own, if he did notprove these enormities
and bring them home to the defendant, in the way which his Right Hon.
Friend had charged them upon him; and this he pledged himself to do,
under an imprecation on himself, as solemn as the Counsel had invoked
on their client.” As these passages, and the passages from the intro-
ductory speech of Mr. Burke, have been presented to the reader, it is fair
that he should also receive what Mr. Hastings said in his defence.

“ I will not detain your Lordships by adverting, for any length, to the
story told by the manager who opened the general charges relative to the
horrid cruelties practised on the natives of Dhee Jumla by Deby Sing. —
It will be sufficient to say, that the manager never ventured to introduce
this story in the form of a charge, though pressed and urged to do so,
in the strongest possible terms, both in and out of Parliament.— Mr.
Paterson, on whose authority he relied for the truth of his assertions,
and with whom, he said, he wished to go down to posterity, has had
the generosity to write to my attorney in Calcutta, for my information,
‘ That he felt the sincerest concern to find his reports turned to my dis-
advantage, as I acted as might be expected from a man of humanity
throughout all the transactions in which Deby Sing was concerned.’ —
Had the cruelties which the manager stated been really inflicted, it was
not possible, as he very well knew at the time, to impute them, even
by any kind of forced construction, to me. — My Lords, it is a fact that I
was the first person to give Mr. Paterson an ill opinion of Deby Sing,
whose conduct upon former occasions had left an unfavourable, and
perhaps an unjust, impression upon my mind. In employing Deby Sing
I certainly yielded up my opinion to Mr. Anderson and Mr. Shore,
who had better opportunities of knowing him than I could have. In the
course of the inquiry into his conduct he received neither favour nor coun-
tenance from me, nor from any Member of the Board. That inquiry was
carried on principally when I was at Lucknow, and was not completed
during my government, though it was commenced and continued with
every possible solemnity, and with the sincerest desire, on my part, and on
the part of my colleagues, to do strict and impartial justice. The result I
have read in England ; and it certainly appears that though the man was
not entirely innocent, the extent of his guilt bore no sort of proportion to
the magnitude of charges against him. In particular, it is proved that the
most horrible of those horrible acts, so artfully detailed, and with such
effect, in this place, never were committed at all.

“ Here I leave the subject, convinced that every one of your Lord-
ships must feel for the unparalleled injustice that was done to me by

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

201

. The managers next proposed, that a letter of the ) 1

Governor-General should be read, to prove that the

plan which he himself had represented to the Court
of Directors, as best, namely, to let the lands, espe-
cially the larger districts, to the ancient Zemindars,
had been violated by himself, and violated by a pre-
ference given to persons not only of another descrip-
tion, but persons in the highest degree worthless and
exceptionable. Mr. Law was again ready with his
objections. The disconformity of the conduct of
Mr. Hastings with his opinions was not in charge.

On this occasion Mr. Burke made his celebrated de-
clarations; First, That the efficiency of Impeach-
ment was indispensable to give practical utility to the
principles of the English constitution ; the machinery
of which without this particular spring would remain
totally insufficient for the purposes of good govern-
ment : Secondly, That the technical rules of pleading
and evidence, set up by the lawyers, were, if sanc-
tioned by the Lords, most completely sufficient to de-
stroy the useful efficacy of impeachment. The Lords
did sanction and confirm (Mr. Burke confessed and
bewailed the fact) the technical rules of the lawyers.

He was therefore bound by consistency to this im-
portant conclusion ; That the English constitution
remains but a delusive name ; and affords no security
for good government.1

the introduction and propagation of that atrocious calumny.” How far
these allegations of a man in his own favour, who would not allow
them to be submitted to proof, are entitled to weigh, is the question
which remains.

1 The words of Mr. Burke, as reported by the historian of the trial, are
as follow : “ At the revolution, the people had taken no other security for
that preservation, and for the pure and impartial administration of justice,

202

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1790.

The Lords retired to their chamber to deliberate ;
and, on their return, which was not till the succeed-
ing day of the trial, announced, that it was not com-
petent for the managers to produce the evidence
proposed.

To show that the offices of Farmer of the revenue,
and the Dewan, the latter of which was intended to
be a check upon the former, were never united in
one person, except in two of the instances in which
Mr. Hastings received money, the following extract
of a letter from Mr. Shore, President of the Com-
mittee of Revenue, to the Governor-General and
Council, dated 2nd of November, 1784, was read:
“ Raja Deby Sing was Farmer, Security, and the
Dewan of Rungpore. The union of the two former
offices in the same person requires no explanation,
since the practice is very general, and is founded
upon solid and obvious reasons. The investiture in
the office of the Dewan, during the period in which
he held the farm, is less common, but not without
precedent ; for Raja Cullian Sing stood precisely in

than the responsibility of ministers and judges to the High Court of Par-
liament. An impeachment by the Commons was the mode of bringing
them to justice, if the former should attempt any thing against the consti-
tution, or the latter should corruptly lend themselves to measures calcu-
lated to set aside the government by law, or should attempt to pollute the
source of public justice.

“ If in the pursuit of such criminals the Commons, who could have
nothing in view but substantial justice, were to be stopped at every step
by objections drawn from technical rules and forms of pleading, then
would the greatest and most dangerous crimiuals escape the vengeance of
offended justice ; parliamentary impeachments, which were the principal,
if not the only security for the preservation of the constitution, would be-
come nugatory and vain ; and the most corrupt ministers might, without
check or control, pursue the most anti-constitutional career, unawed by
responsibility, or an impeachment from which they could have nothing to
fear.” History, ut supra, part iii. p. 58.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

203

the same predicament with regard to the province of
Behar.”

The managers next adduced evidence, with respect
to an offer made by the Vizir in the month of
February, 1782, of a second present of ten lacs of
rupees to Mr. Hastings. Mr. Hastings declined
acceptance of the present, on his own account ; and
communicated the circumstance to the Council,
who used endeavours to obtain the money for the
Company.

Evidence was next adduced to prove that Mr.
Hastings had remitted, through the East India
Company, since his first elevation to the head of the
government in Bengal, property in his own name to
the amount of 238,7577

Mr. Shore being examined whether Gunga
Govind Sing was a fit person to be the DewTan, or
principal executive officer of revenue, declared that,
in his opinion, no native ought to have been employ-
ed in that situation. To the character of the natives,
in general, he ascribed the highest degree of cor-
ruption and depravity.

Mr. Fox summed up the evidence, thus adduced
on the sixth and on part of the seventh and four-
teenth articles of impeachment, on the 7th and 9th of
June, 1790, the sixty-eighth and sixty-ninth days
of the trial. The Lords then adjourned to their
chamber, and agreed to postpone the trial to the first
Tuesday in the next session of parliament.1

Some incidents, which, during these proceedings,

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1790.

1 On this head of the proceedings, have been followed the printed Minutes
of Evidence, ut supra, p. 1103—1301, and the Hist, of the Trial, ut supra,
part iii.

204

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. ‘2.

1790.

1 took place in the House of Commons, it is requisite
- briefly to mention. On the 11th of May, in con-
formity with a previous notice, Mr. Burke, after a
speech in which he criticized severely the petitions of
Mr. Hastings, who had bewailed the hardships of
the trial, and complained of delays, though he him-
self, he affirmed, was the grand cause of delay, and
appeared to have contrived the plan of making his
escape by procrastination, moved two resolutions •
First, that the House would authorize the managers
to insist upon such alone of the articles as should
appear to them most conducive in the present case
to the satisfaction of justice : Secondly, that the House
was bound to persevere till a judgment was obtained
upon the articles of principal importance. The
minister supported the first of the motions, but the
other, as unnecessary, he thought the manager ought
not to press. Mr. Fox laid the cause of delay upon
the obstructions to the receipt of evidence, particularly
the want of publicity in the deliberations upon the
questions of evidence in the House of Lords ; because
every decision, unaccompanied with reasons, was con-
fined to a solitary case ; and all other cases were left
as uncertain and undecided as before. Some days
after these proceedings, appeared, in one of the news-
papers, a letter, signed by Major Scott, containing a
short review of the trial, and animadverting with
great severity upon the managers ; treating it as no
better than a crime, and indeed a crime of the deepest
dye, to have prosecuted so meritorious an individual
as Mr. Hastings at all ; but a still greater enormity
not long ago to have closed all proceedings against
him. Of this publication complaint was made in the

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

205

House of Commons. The author, as a member of B00K y1
the House, w as heard in his defence. The letter was — 1^—
treated as a libel on the managers, and a violation of
the privileges of the House. The minister admitted
the truth of these allegations ; but urged, with great
propriety, That the House had exceedingly relaxed
its practice, in restraining the publication either of
its proceedings, or censures bestowed upon them;
that the common practice of the House formed a sort
of rule, a rule to which every man had a right to
look, and which he had a right to expect should not
be violated in his particular case : that under a law,
formed by custom, or fallen partially into desuetude,
no individual instance ought to be selected for
punishment if it was not more heinous than those
which were commonly overlooked ; and, on these
principles, that the present offence, though it might
require some punishment, required, at any rate, a very
gentle application of that disagreeable remedy. The
managers were more inclined for severity. Mr.

Burke made an important declaration : “ That he
was not afraid of the liberty of the press ; neither
was he afraid of its licentiousness; but he avowrnd
that he was afraid of its venality.” He then made
an extraordinary averment, that 20,000/. had been
expended in the publication of what he called, “ Mr.
Hastings’s libels.” It was finally agreed, that the
offender should be reprimanded by the speaker in
his place.

Before the time appointed by the House of Lords
for resuming the business of the trial, the parliament
was dissolved. This gave birth to a question,
whether a new parliament could proceed with the

206

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1790.

impeachment ; and whether a proceeding of that
description did not abate or expire with the parlia-
ment which gave it birth. The new parliament
assembed on the 25th of November, 1790 ; and on
the 30th, the subject was started by Mr. Burke, who
exhibited reasons for proceeding with the trial, but
intimated his suspicion that a design was entertained
in the House of Lords to make the incident of a new
parliament a pretext for abating the impeachment.
On the 9th of December, a motion was brought for-
ward, that on that day se’ennight the House should
resolve itself into a committee to take into considera-
tion the state in which the impeachment of Warren
Hastings, Esq. was left at the dissolution of the last
parliament. In opposition to this motion it was
proposed, that the House should determine a more
limited question, whether or not it would go on with
the impeachment. Mr. Pitt was of opinion, that it
was not fit to wave a question respecting an import-
ant privilege of the House, when that privilege was
called in question. The original motion was there-
fore carried. On the day appointed for the Com-
mittee, the motion that the Speaker do leave the
chair was opposed by allegations of the excellence of
the conduct of Mr. Hastings, and the hardships to
which he had been exposed, by the length of the
trial, and the asperity of the managers. Mr. Pitt
said, the question to which these arguments applied
was the question whether it was proper in the House
to go on with the impeachment. He wished another
question to be previously, and solemnly decided,
whether it had a right to go on with it. Mr. Burke
said, that gentlemen seemed afraid of a difference

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

207

with the House of Lords. For his part, “ he did 2'1
not court — fools only would court, such a contest. — ——
But they who feared to assert their rights, would
lose their rights. They who gave up their right for
fear of having it resisted, would by and by have no
right left.” The motion was carried after a long
debate. On the 22nd, the business was resumed, on
the question, whether the trial of Warren Hastings
was pending or not. The debate lasted for two days.

The minister, and by his side Mr. Dundas, joined
with the managers in maintaining the uninterrupted
existence of the trial. Almost all the lawyers in the
House, Mr. Erskine among them, contended vehe-
mently that the dissolution of parliament abated the
impeachment. This brought forth some strictures
upon the profession, which formed the most remark-
able feature of the debate. Mr. Burke said, that
“ he had attentively listened to every thing that had
been advanced for and against the question ; and he
owned he was astonished to find, that the lawyers
had not brought a single particle of instruction with
them for the use of those that were laymen. One
learned gentleman had given the solution, by con-
fessing that he was not at home in that House. The
same might be said of most of his brethren. They
were birds of a different class, and only perched on
that House, in their flight towards another. Here
they rested their tender pinions, still fluttering to be
gone, with coronets before their eyes. They were
like the Irishman, who, because he was only a pas-
senger in the ship, cared not how soon she foundered.”

Mr. Grant said, the great zeal for Parliamentary
Law , and Constitutional Law , always forced into his

208

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

1 mind the adage, latet anguis in herba. They were
— wide grasping phrases, admirably calculated to pro-
mote, without confessing, a design of acting agreeably
to arbitrary will. Mr. Fox wTas very pointed in his
strictures on the professors of the law. “ If to their
knowledge of the law,” he said, “ the lawyers were
to add some regard to the constitution, it would be
no great harm. He saw the high necessity of im-
peachments, not so much to check ministers, as to
check the courts of justice. Suppose our judges were
like some of those in the reign of Charles the Second.
Where was our remedy, if not in impeachment ? If
that great instrument of safety was made inefficient,
we should have no law, no justice, not even a scin-
tilla of liberty. He reprobated the gentlemen of the
long robe for having, as it were, conspired to oppose
the motion. When he saw a corps of professional
people, a knot of lawyers, a band of men, all ani-
mated with 1’ esprit du corps, setting themselves
against the liberty of the subject, and the best means
of supporting the constitution, he should say it was
worse than the Popish plot in Charles the Second’s
time, if any Popish plot did then exist.” Mr. Burke
said, “ he wished the country to be governed by law,
but not by lawyers.” The motion was finally earned
by a great majority.

The business was not resumed till the 14th of
February 1791, when it was moved by Mr. Burke,
that the House should proceed with the impeach-
ment. In a long speech he endeavoured to obviate
the prejudices which were now generally dissemi-
nated, as if the measure was operating upon the
defendant with cruelty and oppression. “ It had

TRIAL OF HASTINGS. 209

been argued,” he said, “ that the trial had lasted B00KJr
a long time, and that the very length of it was a suf- — — —
ficient reason why it should cease ; but if protraction
was admitted as a substantial reason for putting an
end to a penal investigation, he who committed the
greatest crimes would be surest of an acquittal ; and
mankind would be delivered over to the oppression
of their governors ; provinces to their plunder, and
treasuries to their disposal.” — ■“ False compassion
aimed a stroke at every moral virtue.” He affirmed
that the managers were chargeable with none of the
delay. Though the quantity of the matter was un-
exampled, a small number of days had been employed
in hearing the speeches they made, or the evidence
which they tendered. For all the rest any body in
the world was responsible rather than they. He
then displayed the great and numerous difficulties
which had been thrown in the way of the prosecu-
tion : and asked if the House “ had forgotten, there
was such a thing as the Indian interest; which
had penetrated into every department of the constitu-
tion, and was felt from the Needles, at the Isle of
Wight, to John o’Grot’s House!” He then com-
plained of the extraordinary obstructions raised “ by
certain professors of the law, whose confined and
narrow mode of thinking, added to their prejudices,
made them enemies to all impeachments, as an
encroachment on the regular line of practice in the
courts below.” Yet, notwithstanding the importance
of these considerations, that he might comply with
the spirit of the times, he should propose, that
the managers proceed no further than to one other
article ; that on contracts, pensions, and allowances ;

VOL. v.

p

210

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bookv! which, as Mr. Hastings had defended the acceptance

of presents, by alleging the pecuniary wants of the

Company, and as the proof of this article would
show that where poverty was pretended, profusion had
prevailed, was an article, necessary to complete the
proof of the offences, which were charged under the
previous head of accusation. After a long debate, in
which nothing of particular moment occurred, the
several motions for proceeding in the impeachment,
so limited and reduced, were put and carried.

When the intention of the Commons to proceed
with the impeachment was announced to the Lords,
a committee was formed to search the journals for
precedents. The question was at last debated on the
20th of May. The only circumstance of much im-
portance, in the debate, was one of the arguments
employed by the Lord Chancellor to prove that im-
peachments abated by the dissolution of parliament.
They abated he said, because one of the parties to
the prosecution, namely, the Commons, became
extinct. If it were alleged that the whole people of
England were the real prosecutors, as the acts of the
Lower House of Parliament were the acts of the
people, he had two things to reply. The first was,
that the acts of the House of Commons could not
be regarded as the acts of the people of England ;
because the House of Commons did not actually
represent the people of England ; it represented them
no more than virtually. The next thing was, that
their Lordships’ House of Parliament knew nothing
about the people, as an acting body in the state;
they knew only the House of Commons, the acts of
which, he had shown, were not the acts of the people.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

211

The people, therefore, were not parties to an im-
peachment. Lord Loughborough attempted to
answer this argument ; hut, as he produced
nothing which refuted the assertion, that the House
of Commons did not represent the people of England,
did not, in any such sense represent them, as could
allow it with truth to he said that the acts of that
House were the acts of the people ; so he said
nothing which bore with any force upon the point,
till he came to allege that the people had the power
of insurrection. “ Let not their Lordships,” he said,
“ act incautiously with regard to the popular part of
the constitution ! Let them look about them, and he
warned ! Let them not deny that the people were
any thing ; lest they should compel them to think
that they were every thing."

On the unfitness of the constitution to produce
good government, unless impeachment existed in a
state of real efficiency, Lord Loughborough followed
Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke. Without this, “ it would
be impossible to get at a bad minister, let his misde-
meanours and crimes be ever so enormous : Our
much-boasted constitution would lose one of its best
securities; and ministerial responsibility would be-
come merely nominal.” In other words, it would
have no existence ; we should have, instead of it, an
impostrous pretence. Mr. Burke, however, and Mr.
Fox asserted; and no one who understands the facts
can honestly dispute ; that the mischievous rules of
evidence and procedure set up by the lawyers, and
sanctioned by the Lords, make impeachment effec-
tual, not for the punishment of the guilty, but their
escape. That the constitution of England is inade-

p 2

BOOK VI

chap. 2.

1791.

212

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1791.

1 quate to the purposes of good government ; as no
- improvement in that respect has since taken place ;
is, therefore, the recorded opinion of three at least of
the most eminent men of the last generation. After
a long debate, it was finally agreed, that the impeach-
ment was depending ; and that on the 23rd the
House would resume proceedings in Westminster
Hall.

The Lords having taken their places, and the
usual preliminaries performed, Mr. St. John was
heard to open the fourth article of the impeachment;
that in which was charged the crime of creating
influence, or of forming dependants, by the corrupt
use of public money.

Under this head of the trial, the material incidents
are few.

The topic of influence was of a more extensive
application, than the question relating to Mr. Hastings,
or than all the questions relating to India taken
together. On this subject, to which the most
important question respecting the actual state of the
British constitution immediately belongs, Mr. St.
J ohn laid down the following doctrines : “ That all
the checks of the constitution, against the abuse of
power, would he weak and inefficient, if rulers might
erect prodigality and corruption into a system for the
sake of influence: That public security was founded
on public virtue, on morals, and on the love of
liberty : That a system which tended to set public
virtue to sale, to pluck up morals by the roots, and
to extinguish the flame of liberty in the bosoms of
men, could not be suffered to escape punishment,
without imminent peril to the public weal.” Whether

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

213

Mr. Hastings was guilty or not guilty of creating ^ok J1
that influence, remained to be proved: That it tends

. . 1791.

more than almost any other crime to deprive the
people of England of the benefits of good govern-
ment, it is impossible not to perceive.

As soon as the opening speech was concluded,

Mr. Hastings rose. As the length of his address is
moderate, and as it affords a specimen of the manner
in which Mr. Hastings demeaned himself to the
Lords, its insertion will be repaid by the instruction
which it yields.

“ My Lords,

“ I shall take up but a very few minutes of your
time ; but what I have to say, I hope, will be deemed
of sufficient importance to justify me in requesting
that you will give me so much attention. A charge
of having wasted 584,000/. is easily made, where no
means are allowed for answering it. It is not
pleasant for me, from week to week, from month to
month, from year to year, to hear myself accused of
crimes, many of them of the most atrocious dye, and
all represented in the most shocking colours, and to
feel that I never shall be allowed to answer them.

In my time of life — in the life of a man already
approaching very near to its close, four years of
which his reputation is to be traduced and branded
to the world, is too much. I never expect to be
allowed to come to my defence, nor to hear your
Lordships’ judgment on my trial. I have long been
convinced of it, nor has the late resolution of the
House of Commons, which I expected to have heard
announced to your Lordships here, afforded me the
least glimpse of hope, that the termination of my

214

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi is at all the nearer. My Lords, it is now four

years complete since I first appeared at your Lord-

1/9L ships’ bar; nor is this all; I came to your bar with
a mind sore from another inquisition, in another
place, which commenced, if I may be allowed to
date it from the impression of my mind, on the day
I arrived in this capital, on my return to England
after thirteen years’ service. On that day was
announced the determination of the House of Com-
mons, for arraigning me for the whole of my conduct ;
I have been now accused for six years ; I now
approach very near (I do not know whether my
recollection fails me) to sixty years of age, and can I
waste my life in sitting here from time to time
arraigned, not only arraigned, but tortured with
invectives of the most virulent kind ? I appeal to
every man’s feelings, whether I have not borne
many things, that many even of your Lordships
could not have borne, and with a patience that
nothing but my own innocence could have enabled
me to show. As the House of Commons have
declared their resolution, that for the sake of speedy
justice (I think that was the term) they had ordered
their managers to close their proceedings on the
article which has now been opened to your Lord-
ships, and to abandon the rest, I now see a prospect
which I never saw before, but which it is in your
Lordships’ power alone to realize, of closing this dis-
agreeable situation, in which I have been so long
placed ; and however I may be charged with the
error of imprudence, I am sure I shall not be deemed
guilty of disrespect to your Lordships in the request
which I make ; that request is, that your Lordships

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

215

will be pleased to grant me that justice which every vr

man, in every country in the world, free or other-

wise, has a right to ; that where he is accused he
may defend himself, and may have the judgment
of the court on the accusations that are brought
against him. I therefore do pray your Lordships,
notwithstanding the time of the year (I feel the
weight of that reflection on my mind), but I pray
your Lordships to consider not the unimportance of
the object before you, hut the magnitude of the pre-
cedent which every man in this country may bring
home to his own feelings, of a criminal trial
suspended over his head for ever ; for in the history
of the jurisprudence of this countiy, I am told (and
I have taken some pains to search, and, as far as my
search has gone, it has been verified) there never yet
was an instance of a criminal trial that lasted four
months, except mine, nor even one month, excepting
one instance, an instance drawn from a time and
situation of this government, which I hope will be
prevented from ever happening again. My Lords,
the request I have to make to your Lordships is, that
you will be pleased to continue the session of this
court till the proceedings shall be closed, I shall be
heard in my defence, and your Lordships shall have
proceeded to judgment. My Lords, it is not an
acquittal that I desire ; that will rest with your
Lordships, and with your own internal conviction.

I desire a defence, and I desire a judgment, be that
judgment what it will. My Lords, I have bowed,

I have humbled myself before this court, and I have
been reproached for it. I am not ashamed to bow
before an authority to which I owe submission, and

216

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1791.

1 for which I feel respect that excites it as a willing
- oblation from me. I now again, with all humility,
present myself a subject of your justice and humanity.
I am not a man of apathy, nor are my powers of
endurance equal to the tardy and indefinite operation
of parliamentary justice. I feel it as a very cruel
lot imposed on me, to be tried by one generation,
and, if I live so long, to expect judgment from
another; for, my Lords, are all the Lords present
before whom I originally was tried ? Are not many
gone to that place to which we must all go *? I am
told that there is a difference of more than sixty in
the identity of the judges before whom I now stand.
My Lords, I pray you to free me from this pro-
secution, by continuing this trial till its close, and
pronouncing a judgment during this session ; if
your Lordships can do it, 1 have a petition to that
effect in my hand, which, if it is not irregular, I now
wish to deliver to your Lordships.”

There was exquisite adaptation, either with or
without design, in the conduct of Mr. Hastings, to
the circumstances in which he was placed. The
tone of submission, not to say prostration, which he
adopted towards the Court, was admirably suited to
the feelings of those of whom it was composed.
The pathetic complaints of hardship, of oppression,
of delay, of obloquy, began when the tide of popular
favour began to be turned successfully against the
agents of the prosecution ; and they increased in
energy and frequency, in proportion as odium towards
the managers, and favour towards himself, became
the predominant feeling in the upper ranks of the
community.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

217

This odium, and this favour, are not the least book vi
remarkable among the circumstances which this im- C11A1‘ 2'
peachment holds up to our view. During the trial, 1791.
what had the managers done to merit the one ; what
had Mr. Hastings done, to merit the other *? 1 Con-
vinced, for it would he absurd to suppose they were
not convinced, that they had brought a great criminal
to the judgment seat, they had persevered with great
labour to establish the proof of his guilt. Mr. Hast-
ings had suffered a great expense ; and at that time,
it could not be known that he had suffered any thing
more than expense. The necessity of labour and

1 There were abundant reasons why the sentiments of the people should
have undergone a change. The managers, after long declamatory harangues,
which had “harrowed up the souls” of a tender-hearted public, had
proved — -nothing. It was impossible that the people should not feel some
resentment at the fraud thus practised upon their sympathies. Then so
many instances of undignified violence had been exhibited by Burke in
particular, the prime mover of the whole — both in Parliament, and in
Westminster Hall, that it was generally felt there was more of personal
vindictiveness in his proceedings against Hastings, than a patriotic or
philosophical vindication of the principles of good government. The un-
deniable hardship, inflicted upon Hastings by the state of anxiety in which
he was so long kept, and the expense he was compelled to incur, were
other claims upon the indulgence of the nation. It is argued in the text,
that of these two the expense alone was certain ; as if equal certainty does
not attach to the anxiety. It was not a question of mere labour and
attendance ; guilty or innocent, anxiety is the necessary condition of
every person accused of crime : the guilty man has much more cause to
fear conviction than to hope for escape, and the innocent man has cause to
apprehend that in the passions of his adversaries, the misconceptions of
interested persons, and the fallibility of human judgment, his innocence
may not be his safety. From anxiety, the prosecutors of Hastings were
comparatively free — it mattered little to them what might be the result.
Their expenses were paid by the nation. The contrast of their position,
with that of Hastings, could not fail to strike the most unobservant, espe-
cially when it had been continued for a protracted period — and naturally
awoke sentiments of compassion for one exposed to so unequal a contest.
Sympathy with him, necessarily begot disfavour for his opponents, and time
has justified popular feeling. — W.

218

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2

1791.

1 attendance was common to him with his accusers.
_ As for suspense, where a man is guilty, the feeling
connected with it may be a feeling not of pain but of
pleasure; a feeling of hope that he may escape. To
a man who is sure to be condemned, delay may be a
benefit. The innocent man alone is he to whom it
is necessarily injurious : and the innocence of Mr.
Hastings was not yet decreed.

Of the causes of the odium incurred by the ma-
nagers, and the favour acquired by the defendant, I
am unable to render a perfect account. There is
much of secret history connected with it, which it is
not possible to establish, on evidence which history
can trust. This much may be said, for it rests on
public grounds : The managers brought a great deal
of rhetoric, with papers and witnesses, to the trial ;
and seemed unhappily to think that rhetoric, papers,
and witnesses were enough : They brought not much
knowledge of those grand pervading principles which
constitute the moral and rational standard of all that
ought to be law, and on which they might have
grounded themselves steadfastly and immoveably in
defiance of the lawyers: And they brought little
dexterity ; so that the lawyers were able to baffle,
and insult, and triumph over them, at almost every
turn. After the prosecution was rendered unpopular,
the intemperance of the tone and language of Mr.
Burke operated strongly as a cause of odium ; yet it
is remarkable, that when that same intemperance
was speedily after carried to greater excess, and ex-
erted in a favourite direction, that is, against the
reformers in France, it became, with the very same
class of persons, an object of the highest admiration

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

219

and love.1 The favour with which the cause of Mr. book vi

CHAP.

Hastings was known to be viewed in the highest .

family in the kingdom, could not he without a power- 1791-
ful effect on a powerful class. The frequency with
which decisions and speeches, favourable to him, were
made in the House of Lords ; the defence which he
received from the great body of the lawyers; the
conversation of a multitude of gentlemen from India,
who mixed with every part of society f the uncommon
industry and skill with which a great number of per-
sons, who openly professed themselves the agents or
friends of Mr. Hastings, worked, through the press,
and other channels, upon the public mind ; and, not
least, the disfavour which is borne to the exposure of
the offences of men in high situations, in the bosom
of that powerful class of society which furnishes the
men by whom these situations are commonly filled ;
all these circumstances, united to others which are
less known, succeeded, at last, in making it a kind of
fashion, to take part with Mr. Hastings, and to rail
against the accusers.

In the present speech of Mr. Hastings, and the
petition which it echoed, it surely was, on his part,
an extraordinary subject of complaint, that, between

1 The intemperate vehemence of Burke does not constitute his claim
in this instance to love or admiration ; but his intemperance when he
thought the whole frame of society in danger, was much more venial than
when it aimed to crush an individual. Had, however, Burke’s views of
the French revolution been characterized by no prudent patriotism, no
prophetic foresight, they would not have been entitled to admiration,
merely as specimens of impetuous eloquence. — W.

* This is one of the strongest proofs that could have been adduced of
Hastings’s merits. Had he been the corrupt, base, cruel, tyrannical mon-
ster that Burke depictured him, “ the conversation of a multitude of gen-
tlemen from India,” would have been of all things least likely to clear his
reputation. — W.

220

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \
CHAP. 2

1791.

the delivery of the accusations, and the delivery of
his defence, a long period had intervened : When the
managers had from the beginning most earnestly
contended that, immediately, after each of the accu-
sations, he should make his defence upon each ; and
he himself had insisted, and victoriously insisted, that
he should not.

Of the delay, one part was owing to the nature of
the charges and the nature of the evidence ; the one
comprehensive, the other voluminous. This was in-
separable from the nature of the cause. The rest,
a most disgraceful portion, was owing to the bad
constitution of the tribunal, and its bad rules of pro-
cedure ; causes of which Mr. Hastings was very
careful not to insinuate a complaint. The whole
odium of the accusation fell, as it was intended to
fall, upon the managers, to whom, unless guilty of
delay, which was never alleged, in bringing forward
the evidence, not a particle of blame under this head
belonged.

When Mr. Hastings desired to represent the hard-
ship as unparalleled in his native country of remaining
under trial during four years ; he was very little in-
formed of the dreadful imperfections of the law of
that country, and of the time which any poor man,
that is the far greater number of men, is liable to
remain, not in the enjoyment of freedom and every
comfort which wealth can bestow : but in the most
loathsome dungeons, without bread sufficient to eat,
or raiment to put on, before trial begins, and after
acquittal is pronounced. In that last and most cruel
state of human suffering, there was at that time no
limit to the number of years, during which, without

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

221

guilt, or imputation of guilt, a man (as a debtor) .) 1
might remain.1

To prove that Mr. Hastings had created influence, 1/9L
to ensure to himself by the misapplication of the
public money a corrupt support, five instances were
adduced : a contract of opium, granted to Mr. Suli-
van ; an illegal traffic in opium, for the alleged pur-
pose of remitting money of creatures and dependants ;
undue allowances granted to Sir Eyre Coote ; a con-
tract for bullocks ; and two contracts for grain. The
two cases to which the greatest suspicion attaches
are the opium contract ; and the money given to Sir
Eyre Coote.

With regard to the contract, the facts are shortly
these. Mr. Sulivan was the son of the Chairman of
the Court of Directors : He was a very young man,
with little experience in any of the affairs of India,
and no experience in the business of opium at all :

The Court of Directors ordained, that all contracts
should be for one year only, and open to competition :

The opium contract was given to Mr. Sulivan with-
out competition, by private bargain, and not for one
year only, but four : Mr. Sulivan possessed the office
of Judge Advocate ; he was further appointed Secre-
tary to Mr. Hastings, and attended him on his
journey to the Upper Provinces : He could not there-
fore attend to the business of the contract, and he
sold it : He sold it to Mr. Benn for a sum of about
40,000/. : Mr. Benn sold it to Mr. Young for 60,000/.:

And Mr. Young confessed that he made from it an
ample profit. From these facts the managers iu-

1 The defective condition of the law in regard to others, was no alle-
viation of the hardship which Hastings himself suffered. — W.

222

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

y 1 ferred, that the contract was given at an unfair price

to Mr. Sulivan, for enabling the son of the Chairman

179L to make a fortune, and Mr. Hastings to ensure the
father’s support. “ It was melancholy,” they said,
“ to see the first Officer of the Company at home,
and their first Officer abroad, thus combining in a
system of corruption, and sharing the plunder between
them.”

The facts adduced on the other side were ; that
the rule of forming the opium contract for one year,
and openly, had long been dispensed with, and for
good reasons, with the consent of Mr. Francis himself;
that a more favourable bargain was not granted to
Mr. Sulivan than to his predecessor ; and that Mr.
Benn and Mr. Young owed their profits to their own
peculiar knowledge of the business.

The question however is not yet answered, why
it was given to a man, who it was known could not
keep it ; and who could desire it only for the pur-
pose of selling it again with a profit ; when it might
have been sold to the best purchaser at once.

In the case of Sir Eyre Coote, the following were
the facts: “That 16,000/. per annum was the pay
allowed him by the Company, and ordered to stand
in lieu of all other emoluments: that it was of great
importance to the Governor-General to obtain his
support in the Council, of the votes of which he
would then possess a majority : that shortly after
his arrival, a proposition, introduced by himself, and
supported by the Governor-General, was voted in
the Council, for granting to him, over and above the
pay to which he was restricted by the Court of
Directors, a sum exceeding 18,000/. per annum.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

223

1791.

under the name of expenses in the field: that the6001*'71

\ ' chap. 2.

General began immediately to draw this allowance,

though in a time of peace, under the pretence of
visiting the stations of the army: that the burden
was speedily shifted from the shoulders of the
Company, to those of the Nabob Vizir, by the
General’s arrival to visit the stations of the army in
Oude: that the face put upon the matter was, to
charge the payment of the allowances upon the
Vizir, only while the General was in the territory ;
but that in fact they never were taken off so
long as the General lived : that the Court of
Directors condemned these allowances : but this
condemnation was disregarded, and the allowances
paid as before.

The facts operating in favour of Mr. Hastings
were; that General Stibbert, when acting as Com-
mander-in-chief only for a time, had, partly by the
orders of the Court of Directors, partly by the libe-
rality of the Governor-General in Council, received
an allowance of about 12,000/. for his expenses in
the field : that Sir Eyre Coote represented an allow-
ance equal to that received by General Stibbert, as
absolutely necessary to save him from loss, when
subject to the expenses of the field: that, notwith-
standing the treaty, expresssly confining the demands
of the English government upon the Vizir to the
expense of one battalion of troops, he did in fact pay
for more, because more were by his consent em-
ployed in his country, the whole expense of which
(and the field allowance to the General when at
those stations of the troops were stated as part of
that expense) he was called upon to defray.

224

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V! Mr. Hastings further alleged, that this sum was

paid with great cheerfulness by the Vizir, even after

179L the General left the territory of Oude ; that the
General was soon after called to Madras to oppose
Hyder Ali ; that his death was evidently approach-
ing ; and that it would have been imprudent to make
him throw up the service in disgust, by telling him
that the Court of Directors condemned the allow-
ance, when he alone could save the British interests
in India from that destruction with which they were
threatened by Hyder.

Upon the comparison of these facts, the following
questions remain unanswered : why not postpone
the allowance till the Directors were consulted?
Why give the General 6,000?. per annum more than
he asked? Why make the allowance to General
Stibbert, whose pay was only 7500?. per annum, a
rule for a man whose pay was 16,000?., and wTho
was expressly declared to have received that large
amount in lieu of all other emoluments? It is
further, in plain language to be declared (for this
practice of governments cannot he too deeply stamped
with infamy,) that it was hypocrisy, and hypocrisy
in its most impudent garb, to hold up the consent of
the Nabob, as a screen against condemnation and
punishment : when it is amply proved that the
Nabob had not a w ill of his own : but waited for the
commands of the Governor-General, to know what,
on any occasion that interested the Governor-
General, he should say that he wished. When the
Governor-General wished to lay upon the Vizir the
expense of a greater portion of the Company’s army,
than was contracted for by treaty, what could he do?

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

225

He knew it was better for him to submit than to ' 1

contest ; and if so, it was evidently his interest to .

afford to the transaction any colour which the 1791-
Governor-General might suggest, or which it was
easy to see would best answer his purposes. Cheer-
fully paid by the Nabob! No doubt. We have
seen the Nabob eager to make presents ; presents of
one sum, after another, of a hundred thousand
pounds, to the great man on whom depended the
favour he hoped, or the disfavour he dreaded ; at the
time when he was complaining that his family were
unprovided with bread. At the very time when he
is said to have cheerfully paid nearly two lacs of
rupees per annum to Sir Eyre, he was writing to the
Governor- General the most pathetic descriptions of
the misery to which he was reduced by the exactions
of the English government; and declaring that “ the
knife had nowr penetrated to the bone.” But by
what power was this eagerness to bribe the powerful
servants of the Company produced4? Could it be
regarded, in any sense, as a voluntary act, the fruit
of benevolence and friendship ? Was it not extorted
by what may truly be denominated the torture of his
dependence ; the terror of those evils which he
contemplated in the displeasure of his masters ? It
is infamous to speak of presents from a man, in such
a situation, as free gifts. No robbery is more truly
coercion.

Again : the allegation that Sir Eyre Coote would
have deserted his post, as a soldier, and abandoned
his country in a moment of extreme exigency, upon
a question of 18,000/. per annum ; stamps with
infamy, either the character of that General, if it

vol. v. a

226

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1791.

was true, and it is not without appearances to
support it ; or that of Mr. Hastings, if it was
false.

On the rest of the transactions, charged in this
article as acts of delinquency, the explanations of
Mr. Hastings left so few points for suspicion remain-
ing, that, as the facts in themselves are not material
to the history, the description of them would he of
little advantage.

On the 30th of May, 1791, and the seventy-third
day of the trial. Sir James St. Clair Erskine was
heard to sum up the evidence upon the fourth article
of impeachment. “ Then the managers for the
Commons informed the House, that, saving to them-
selves all their undoubted rights and privileges, the
Commons were content to rest their charge here.”
Mr. Hastings made an humble address to the court,
and alluding to his last petition which yet lay upon
the table unconsidered, he implored that, if the
prayer of that petition was not complied with, he
might be allowed to appear, at least, one day at
their Lordships’ bar, before the end of the present
session. The Lords adjourned, and sent a message
to the Commons, from their own house, that they
would sit again on the 2nd of June. The next day,
in the House of Lords, a motion, grounded upon a
letter of Mr. Hastings, requiring only fourteen days
for the time of his defence, was made by one of the
peers, for an address to the King that he would not
prorogue the parliament, till the conclusion of the
trial. The proposition of Mr. Hastings to confine
his defence to any number of days, was treated by
Lord Grenville as absurd. How could Mr. Hastings

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

227

know what questions would arise upon evidence, book yi

and how much time their Lordships might require to ...

resolve them ; business which had occupied the 179L
principal part of the time that had already been
spent ? How could he know what time the Com-
mons might require for their evidence, and speeches
in reply? How could he know what time their
Lordships the Judges would require for deliberation
on the evidence wThich they had heard ? The
motion was rejected.1

On the 2nd of June, the seventy-fourth day of the
trial, Mr. Hastings read a written paper, containing
his defence. As far as the matter of it was any thing
in answer to the facts which have been charged as
criminal, or tends to the demonstration of innocence,
it has either been already adduced, when the fact or
the charge was exhibited; or will hereafter be stated
when the evidence is brought forward on which the
allegation was grounded. One or two incidents it is
instructive to mention.

Mr. Hastings declared, in the beginning of his
paper ; that if his judges would only then come to a
decision, he would wave all defence. He risked no-
thing by this proposition ; to which he well knew that
the Lords would not consent. But he gained a great
deal by the skill with which his declaration insinuated
the hardship of delay.

It is observable that most of the ill-favoured acts
of Mr. Hastings’s administration, the extermination of
the Rohillas, the expulsion of Cheyte Sing, the seizure
of the lands and treasures of the Begums, and the ac-

1 On this article of charge, see printed Minutes of Evidence, ut supra, p.

1303 — 1458 ; History of Trial, ut supra, part iv. p. 64—80.

Q 2

228

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

ai^ 2 1 cePtance of presents, were all for the acquisition of

money. Though Mr. Hastings insisted, that all

1,9L these acts were severally justifiable in themselves,
without the plea of state necessity, yet state necessity,
the urgent wants of the Company, are given, as the
grand impelling motive which led to the adoption of
every one of them. They are exhibited by Mr. Hastings,
as acts which saved the Company, acts, without which,
according to him, the Company must have pe-
rished. 1

Towards the end of his defence, he rises to a most
exulting strain :

“ To the Commons of England, in whose name
I am arraigned for desolating the provinces of their
dominion in India, I dare to reply, that they are, and
their representatives annually persist in telling them
so, the most flourishing of all the States in India —
It was I who made them so.

“ The valour of others acquired, I enlarged, and
gave shape and consistency to the dominion which
you hold there ; I preserved it ; I sent forth its
armies with an effectual, but economical hand
through unknown and hostile regions, to the support
of your other possessions ; to the retrieval of one
from degradation and dishonour : and of the other
from utter loss and subjection. I maintained the
wars which were your formation, or of that of

1 He asserted, “ The resources of India cannot, in time of war, meet
the expenses of India.” He denied that loans could be obtained : “ I
could not borrow to the utmost extent of my wants, during the late war,
and tax posterity to pay the interest of my loans. The resources to be
obtained by loans (those excepted for which bills upon the Company were
granted,) failed early in my administration, and will fail much earlier in
Lord Cornwallis’s.”

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

229

others not of mine. I won one member1 of the great B00K y1

J # ° CHAP. 2.

Indian Confederacy from it by an act of seasonable-

restitution; with another2 I maintained a secret in- 1792-
tercourse, and converted him into a friend: a third3
I drew off by diversion and negotiation, and employed
him as the instrument of peace — When you cried out
for peace, and your cries were heard by those who
were the object of it, I resisted this, and every other
species of counteraction, by rising in my demands ;
and accomplished a peace, and I hope everlasting one,
with one great state ; 4 and I at least afforded
the efficient means by which a peace, if not so durable,
more seasonable at least, was accomplished with
another.5

“ I gave you all, and you have rewarded me
with confiscation , disgrace , and a life of impeach-
ment.”

The House having heard his address, adjourned to
the chamber of parliament, where it was determined
they should proceed with the impeachment on the
first Tuesday in the next session of parliament.

On the 14th day of February, 1792, and the
seventy-fifth day of the trial, the court was next
assembled. Mr. Law, the leading counsel for Mr.
Hastings, began to open the defence. The length of
the trial, the toils of the Lords in sustaining the
burden of judges, the sufferings of the prisoner under
the evils of delay, of misrepresentation, of calumny,
and insult, were now become favourite and successful
topics, well remembered both by Mr. Hastings and

1 The Nizam. 2 Moodajee Bonsla. 3 Madajee Sindia.

* The Mahrattas. 3 Tippoo Sultan.

230

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 2.

1792.

1 his counsel. A mischievous prejudice was hatched ;
- that of all these evils, the prosecution itself was the
cause ; as if crimes of the nature of those imputed to
Mr. Hastings, were crimes of which it is easy to
establish the proof; as if the prosecution of such
crimes, apt to be the most hurtful of all crimes, were
an evil, not a good ; as if those by whom that service
is powerfully and faithfully rendered were among the
enemies, not the greatest benefactors of mankind !
Mr. Hastings, it may be said, committed no crimes.
Be it so. Yet it will not be disputed that he com-
mitted acts which looked so much like crimes, that it
was fit in the House of Commons to send them, as it
did, to their trial ; it was fit in the managers to
adduce such evidence as they believed would make
known the fact ; to accompany that evidence with
such observations as they thought best adapted to
discover its application and force ; and to resist such
attempts as they conceived were made to prevent the
exhibition and accurate appreciation of evidence, and
hence the disclosure and conviction of guilt. What-
ever time was necessary for this, was legitimately
and meritoriously bestowed. It has not been
attempted to be proved, that the managers consumed
one instant of time that was not employed in these
necessary functions. The number of hours so con-
sumed was not great. Of all the rest, the court and
the defendant were the cause ; and upon the delay,
which they themselves produced, they laboured to
defame, or acted in such a manner as had the effect
of defaming, the prosecution of all complicated
offences ; in other words, of creating impunity for the
whole class of great and powerful offenders.

Though blame, and even ridicule, and insult, had

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

231

1793.

been bestowed upon the managers, for the length of .J 1
their speeches, Mr. Law consumed three whole days •
with the speech in which he made the general
opening of the defence. After he had finished, Mr.

Plomer commenced on the first article of impeach-
ment, the charge relating to Benares ; and with his
speech he occupied five days. It was not till the 1st
of May, and the eighty-third day of the trial, that
the defensive evidence began to be adduced. The
mass of evidence given in defence was still greater
than that presented by the managers. Appendix
included, it occupies nearly twice as many pages as
the printed minutes. Of this mass very little was
new, excepting some parole evidence, chiefly intended
to prove that there was disaffection, and preparations
for rebellion, on the part of Cheyte Sing, before the
arrival of Mr. Hastings at Benares. That evidence
completely fails. That Mr. Hastings believed in
nothing like rebellion, is evident from his conduct.

Besides ; would the proper punishment for rebellion
have been a fine of fifty lacs ? 1

In making objections to evidence, the managers
were only less active than Mr. Law. One thing may
be said against them ; and one thing for them. It
was inconsistent in them to follow a course, which
they had made a ground of complaint against their
opponents. But as their opponents had seized the

1 This is unfairly put, Hastings only talked of levying this fine, if not im-
posed. No overt act of rebellion had been committed, although disaffec-
tion was known to exist ; and certainly there was no more effectual mode
of preventing it from becoming dangerous, from being manifested at all,
than a fine which should cripple the resources of the disaffected party.
The fine was proposed as the punishment of disaffection, not of rebellion, as a
preventive of rebellion, and after all it was only proposed, not levied. — W.

232

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2,

1793.

benefit of a particular instrument, it would have been
to place themselves, by their own act, in a state of
inequality and disadvantage, had they refused to
defend themselves by the same weapons with which
they were assailed. There was no instance of exclu-
sion which falls not under some of the heads, on
which reflections have already been adduced.

Mr. Dallas, of Counsel for the defendant, was
then heard to sum up the evidence on this head of
the defence ; and occupied the greatest part of three
days with his speech. As soon as he had finished,
the House adjourned to the chamber of parliament ;
and agreed to proceed in the trial on the first Tuesday
in the next session of parliament.1 *

Though parliament re-assembled on the 13th of
December, 1792, the House of Lords did not resume
proceedings in trial till the 15th day of February,
1793. This was the ninety-sixth day of the trial.
Mr. Law opened the defence, on the charge relative
to the Begums of Oude, in a speech two days long,
He began “ w7ith,” says the historian of the trial,
“ a very affecting introduction ; in which he stated
that the situation of his oppressed client was such
as, he believed, no human being, in a civilized nation,
had ever before experienced ; and which, he hoped,
for the honour of human nature, no person would
ever again experience.” The moral was ; that the
prosecution which produced so much oppression
was a wicked thing ; that the managers, who
were the authors of it, were the oppressors ; and
that the defendant, who bore the oppression, no mat-

1 See, for this head of the trial, Minutes of Evidence, ut supra, p. 1465 —

1822 ; History of the Trial, part v.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

233

ter for the allegations of his oppressors, deserved vi

benevolence and support, not condemnation and

punishment. In this lamentation, therefore, of the 1793-
lawyer, the force of a multitude of fallacies, which
his auditors, he knew, were well prepared to imbibe,
was involved ; and a variety of unjust and mis-
chievous ideas, though not expressed, were effectually
conveyed.

Of the evidence tendered, on the part of the
defence, the result has already been fully adduced.

During the delivery of it only one incident occurred,
of which the importance would compensate descrip-
tion. On the third of the days allotted to the
delivery and receipt of the evidence, on which day
the managers had been minute and tedious in their
cross examination, Mr. Hastings made another
address to the Court. The benefit derived from his
former attempts, and from the pathetic exordiums
of the Counsel, encouraged repetition. “ He said it
was with pain, with anxiety, but with the utmost
deference, that he claimed to be indulged in a most
humble request that he had to make ; which request
was, that their Lordships would, in their great
wisdom, put as speedy a termination to this severe
and tedious trial, as the nature of the case would
admit.” His expense, and the loss of witnesses by
delay, were the hardships of which, on this occasion,
he principally complained. He took special care,
however, to inform the Court, that though f‘ it was
known there had been great and notorious delays ; in
no moment of vexation or impatience, had he im-
puted those delays to their Lordships.”1 True,

1 History of the Trial, ut supra, part vi. p. 42.

234

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book yi indeed! That would have been a course, most

CHAP. 2.

inconsistent with his kind of wisdom. On the 25th

1793- of April, the evidence was closed ; Mr. Plomer
began to sum it up ; and continued his speech on
the 30th of April, and the 2nd and 6th of May, the
next three days of the trial.1

On the 9th of May, which was the 111th day of
the trial, Mr. Dallas began to open the defence on
as much as had been insisted upon by the managers,
of the sixth, seventh, and fourteenth articles of im-
peachment. His speech continued four days. On
the second day of the speech, when the Lords
returned to the chamber of parliament, another
petition was presented to them from Mr. Hastings,
urging again the hardship of his case, and presenting
a most humble prayer for the termination of his trial
during the present session of parliament. Not satis-
fied with this ; as soon as Mr. Dallas had brought
his opening speech to a close, Mr. Hastings made a
short address to the Court, which he read, from a
paper. Describing his state of suspense as “ become
almost insupportable,” he stated his resolution to
abridge the matter of his defence, both on the above
articles, and also the fourth, relating to influence, in
such a manner, as to he able to deliver it in three
days, that the managers for the Commons might
have time to conclude their reply during the present
session. With respect to a declaration, in this
address, that, for eminent services to his country, he
had been rewarded with injustice and ingratitude,
Mr. Burke said, it was for the Lords to consider the

1 Minutes, ut supra, p. 1823 — 2090; History, ut supra, part vi. p.
38 — 55.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

235

propriety of such a speech, as applied by a culprit
at their bar to the Commons of Great Britain ; and
he entered a caveat against the proposal of the
defendant to deprive himself of any thing due to his
defence ; since he might thus be cunningly providing
for himself a plea, that, had he not omitted his
evidence, the proof of his innocence would have been
rendered complete.

Of the evidence brought forward under those
several heads, the only material point, which has not
been already presented to view, is that relating to the
remittances of the defendant. It appeared that
238,757 1. had been remitted through the Company
in the name of Mr. Hastings. Mr. Woodman, his
attorney, swore, that the greater part of this was
remitted for other persons ; and that the sum re-
maining in his hands, as the property of Mr. Hastings,
at the time of his return, was 72,463?.

A large mass of attestations of good behaviour, and
of plauditory addresses from India, were presented.
But these proved only one of two things ; either that
the prisoner deserved them ; or that the authors of
them were under an influence sufficient to produce
them without his deservings. That the latter was
the case, there can he no doubt ; whatever the fact in
regard to the former. Sir Elijah Impey said, in a
letter from India produced to the House of Commons,
“ that addresses are procured in England through in-
fluence, in India through force.” Viewing the matter
more correctly, we may decide that there is a mixture
of the force and the influence in both places. And
Mr. Burke justly described the people of India, when
he said ; “ The people themselves, on whose behalf

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1793.

236

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book yi the Commons of Great Britain take up this remedial

CHAP. 2. # # L

and protecting prosecution, are naturally timid. Their

1793- spirits are broken by the arbitrary power usurped
over them ; and claimed by the delinquent, as his law.
They are ready to flatter the power which they dread.
They are apt to look for favour, by covering those
vices in the predecessor, which they fear the successor
may be disposed to imitate. They have reason to
consider complaints, as means, not of redress, but of
aggravation, to their sufferings. And when they
shall ultimately hear, that the nature of the British
laws and the rules of its tribunals are such, as by no
care or study, either they or even the Commons of
Great Britain, who take up their cause, can compre-
hend, but which, in effect and operation, leave them
unprotected, and render those who oppress them
secure in their spoils, they must think still worse of
British justice, than of the arbitrary power of the
Company’s servants. They will be for ever, what for
the greater part they have hitherto been, inclined to
compromise with the corruption of the magistrates,
as a screen against that violence from which the laws
afford them no redress.” 1

When the evidence was closed, instead of sum-

1 Report of the Committee, of the House of Commons (which Committee
were the managers) appointed 5th March, 1794, to report on certain matters
in the impeachment of Mr. Hastings. — M. There can be no doubt

that Hastings was the most popular of all the Governors of Bengal with
the natives of the country ; his name is still held in fresher recollection and
in higher esteem than that of any other. The addresses, although they
might have been suggested by influential persons, expressed the honest
sentiments of the people. The mention of force is absurd, and the influ-
ence, whatever it may have been, was strictly private. Lord Cornwallis
was not a governor likely to exercise or permit any interference with
native feeling or principle by authority. — W.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

237

ming it up by means of his Counsel, Mr. Hastings book yi

himself addressed the Court. The object was

fourfold; First, to make, under an appeal to Heaven, 1793-
a solemn asseveration, of having in no instance
intentionally sacrificed his public trust to his private
interest; Secondly, a similar asseveration, that Mr.
Woodman received all the remittances which during
the period of his administration he had made to
Europe, and that at no time had his whole property
ever amounted to more than 100,0007; Thirdly, to
make a strong representation of the great necessities
of the state, for the relief of which he had availed
himself of the irregular supplies for which he was
accused ; F ourthly, to charge the managers with a
design to retard the decision on the trial till another
year, and to entreat the Lords to resist them.

Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox thought it necessary to
take notice of the great freedom with which the de-
fendant was at last emboldened to speak of the mana-
gers for the Commons; to repel the charge of pro-
crastination so confidently thrown upon them ; and
to challenge the proof that one single moment of un-
necessary delay had been created by them.

The defence was finished on Tuesday the 28th of
May, 1793. On the return of the Lords to the cham-
ber of parliament, they agreed, after a long discus-
sion, to adjourn further proceedings on the trial till
Wednesday se’nnight. When this resolution was
communicated to the Commons, Mr. Burke addressed
himself to the House. He first contended, that, con-
sidering the mass of evidence which it was necessary
to digest, the time was not sufficient to prepare the
reply. He next animadverted, in a style of severity,

238

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

J1 upon the appeals, made by Mr. Hastings to the

• House of Lords, and calculated to bring odium upon

1/93‘ the House of Commons. A line of conduct had been
pursued, which brought affronts upon the managers,
the servants of the House. He said, that the mana-
gers had been calumniated.

In this, he alluded to an incident of rather an
extraordinary nature. On the 25th of May, when
Mr. Burke was cross-examining Mr. Auriol, and
pushing the witness with some severity, and at con-
siderable length, the Archbishop of York, who had
already signalized his impatience during the cross-
examinations performed by Mr. Burke, and whose
son, Mr. Markham, had been in high employments
under Mr. Hastings in India, “ started up,” says the
historian of the trial, “ with much feeling; and said
it was impossible for him silently to listen to the
illiberal conduct of the manager ; That he examined
the witness, as if he were examining, not a gentle-
man, but a pick-pocket: That the illiberality and
the inhumanity of the managers, in the course of this
long trial, could not be exceeded by Marat and
Robespierre, had the conduct of the trial been com-
mitted to them.” Mr. Burke, with great dignity
and great presence of mind, replied, “ I have not
heard one word of what has been spoken, and I shall
act as if I had not.” Upon reading the printed
minutes of the evidence with due care, I perceive
that Mr. Burke treated the witness as an unwilling
witness, which he evidently was ; as a witness, who,
though incapable of perjury, was yet desirous of
keeping back whatever was unfavourable to Mr.
Hastings, and from whom information unfavourable

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

239

to Mr. Hastings, if he possessed it, must be extorted
by that sort of coercion which it is of the nature and

J • • 1793

to the very purpose of cross-examination to apply.

Of the tones employed by Mr. Burke, the mere
reader of the minutes cannot judge; but of the
questions there set down, there is not one which
approaches to indecorum, or makes one undue insi-
nuation.1 It was the right reverend prelate, there-
fore, who betrayed an intemperance of mind, which
as ill accorded with the justice of the case, as with
the decencies of either his judicial or his sacerdotal
character.

Alluding to that outrage, Mr. Burke said, that an
investigation into the conduct of the managers was
indispensable ; that to render investigation answer-
able to its end, the utmost possible publicity should
be given ; and that for this purpose he should move
for a committee of the whole House, before which
he undertook to prove, that the managers had neither
protracted the trial by unnecessary delay, nor short-
ened it to the frustration of j ustice.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer preferred a select
committee to inquire and report ; as a committee of
the whole House would retard the business of the
country. In this proposal all parties finally acqui-
esced, and the committee was formed.

1 This may be doubted : there is one question -which insinuates that
Mr. Auriol had falsely sworn to ignorance of a present or peshcush paid by
the Raja ; he had denied having heard of it. The question was repeated
more than once ; and at last it is thus put. “ Then do you say, upon your
oath, of any such peshcush privately paid from Dinagepore in 1779, 1780,
or 1781, whether you have heard of any peshcush privately received by
Mr. Hastings in those years ? ” It is easy to conceive this urged in an
insulting manner. — W.

240

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

2 1 A discussion then took place, on a report of the

• words of the Archbishop, which had been published

1793' in one of the prints of the day. But, information
being communicated that the prelate had just
sustained a severe calamity in the loss of his daugh-
ter, the subject was dropped. Mr. Burke, with
characteristic propriety, recommended to the House
to overlook the offence of the dignified speaker, the
real offender; but to prosecute the poor publisher,
for a libel; Nobody attended to his wretched sug-
gestion.

The next day, May the 29th, when the Lords
were informed by a message from the Commons,
that more time was required to prepare for the reply,
they agreed to proceed with the trial on Monday
se’nnight.

In the House of Commons, on the 30th, the
report from the Committee was brought up ; and a
motion was made that a further day be desired to
make the reply. A debate ensued; the House
divided ; and the motion was carried by a majority
of more than two to one.

Mr. Burke then moved, “ That the managers be
required to prepare and lay before the House the
state of the proceedings in the trial of Warren
Hastings, Esq. ; to relate the circumstances attending
it, and to give their opinion, and make observations
on the same, in explanation of those circum-
stances.”

This motion was opposed by the friends of Mr.
Hastings. “ Mr. Burke,” says the historian of the
impeachment, “ called loudly upon the justice of the
House, either to dismiss him from their service as a

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

241

manager of this impeachment, or allow him to defend
himself from the aspersions which had been thrown
upon his character. Mr. Dundas thought it would
be prudent in the Right Honourable Manager to
withdraw his motion ; though, if he persisted in it,
he would give him his vote. He agreed perfectly
with him, that the managers had great cause of
complaint. But he trusted it would not be so in
future. The motion might, in its consequences,
lead to a misunderstanding, that would be fatal to
the impeachment. Mr. Wyndham thought the
managers had been so ill-treated, that the House
ought not to lose a moment in asserting its dignity
and privileges. It had been said, no insults,
perhaps, would be offered in future. He hoped
there would not. But the managers might be
treated in such a way, that they might feel them-
selves hurt, while yet the House could not interfere.
Mr. Pitt, moved by the reasons urged by Mr.
Dundas, proposed that the previous question be
admitted by the Right Honourable Manager; but
said, that he was, notwithstanding, so well convinced
of the truth of what he had asserted, that he would
vote with him, if he refused to withdraw his motion.”
On a division of the House, the motion was lost by a
majority of four.

On Wednesday, the 5th of June, in his place in the
House of Commons, Mr. Grey, having affirmed the
impossibility of being ready on Monday to reply to a
mass of evidence which was not yet printed, and the
further impossibility, at so late a period of the session,
of going through with the remaining business of the
trial, without compromising the claims of justice, said,

VOL. v. R

BOOK VI
chap. 2.

1793.

242

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1793.

“ he should be ready in his place the next day, to
move for a message to the Lords, to adjourn further
proceedings in the trial till the next session of par-
liament, when the Commons would be ready to pro-
ceed day by day till final judgment should he given,
if their Lordships thought fit.”

Mr. Wigley, one of the gentlemen of the long robe,
who had signalized his zeal in favour of the defendant,
“ opposed the motion,” says the historian of the trial,
tf as prejudicial to the justice and character of the
House ; and which, if passed, would carry with it
such a marked wish for delay, as would render im-
peachments detestable.

Mr. Dundas, as he spoke with more courage, so
spoke to the point more correctly than any other man
who spoke upon this occasion. “ If he thought the
motion could operate unjustly upon the defendant,
he should he as ready,” he said, “ as any one to give
it his negative; but sending the managers unprepared
to reply, wTould be neither more nor less than a com-
plete loss of the time so misapplied. Much had been
said of delay. But to whom was that delay im-
putable “? N ot, in any degree, to that House, or to the
managers ; against whom such insinuations w'ere
neither just, nor generous, from those gentlemen who
had negatived a proposition, made by the managers
on a former day, for stating the whole facts on the
trial, to exculpate themselves from every shadow of
foundation for such a charge. He also observed, that
the cry against delay had been uniformly raised at
the close of a session. Why it was not made at an
early period, when propositions might have been
brought forward to expedite the proceeding, he left

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

243

the House to form their own opinion. If, however, B00K J1

there was any delay in the trial, it lay, he cared not

who heard him, or where his declaration might be 1793-
repeated, at the door of the House of Lords.”

On a division, however, the motion was lost by a
majority of 66 to 61. Mr. Burke immediately gave
notice, that, in consequence of these extraordinary
proceedings, he should next day submit a motion to
the House, which he deemed absolutely necessary for
their honour, dignity, and character. On that day,

Friday, the 7th of June, Mr. Grey expressed his wish
to the House, that they would accept of his resig-
nation, as a manager. It was his duty to reply to
the defence of Mr. Hastings, on the first article of
the impeachment. But it was impossible for him to
be ready on Monday. In this distress he applied to
the House for instruction. After some conversation,
a motion was made by Mr. Dundas, to apply once
more to the Lords for delay. While this was de-
bated, strangers were excluded. The motion was
carried by a majority of 82 to 46.

On Monday, the 10th of June, a petition to the
Lords was presented from Mr. Hastings, remon-
strating against the application for delay. His lan-
guage now waxed exceedingly strong. “ He could
not but regard the further adjournment required, as
derogatory to those rights which belong to him, and
as warranted by no grounds of reason or justice ap-
plicable to the case.” He argued, that the time
which had been allowed for preparation was quite
sufficient ; as the greater part of the evidence adduced
in his defence had been long familiar to the managers.

This allegation was true ; but it is one thing to have

R 2

244

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1793.

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

been long familiar with a great mass of evidence ;
and another thing to be able to speak upon it; and to
show accurately the force with which it applies to all
the parts of a complicated question. It is remark-
able that the zeal of Mr. Hastings, not perhaps un-
natural, to accuse his prosecutors, should have made
him forget that the world would see and feel this
distinction. Not only was a very intense process of
thought necessary to determine with precision what
should be done with every portion of so vast an
aggregate of evidence ; but the labour was immense
to fix every portion, and that which was to be done
with it, in the memory ;l a task which could not be
performed till the very time arrived when the tongue
was immediately to deliver what the memory con-
tained.

Lord Stanhope, in his zeal for the defendant, moved
the House to give notice to the Commons, that the
Lords would proceed on the trial on Wednesday next.
Lord Abingdon said, “ to refuse the application of
the Commons would bring a national censure on the
House.” He asked, “ Do your Lordships mean, by
a side wind, or some other manoeuvre, to get rid of
this trial V Lord Grenville, then rising, proposed an
amendment, that instead of “ Wednesday next,” these
words should be inserted, “ the second Tuesday in the
next session of parliament.” After some explana-
tion and debate, the amendment was carried by a
majority of 48 to 21.2

1 How is this consistent with the former argument in favour of the
prompt decision on the ground that the evidence was then easily recol-
lected.— W.

* Minutes, ut supra, p. 2090 — 2323; History of Trial, ut supra, part vi.
p. 55 — 78.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

245

The proceedings on the trial were resumed by the .] 1

House of Lords, on Thursday the 13th of February,

1794, the one hundred and eighteenth day of the 1794
trial. The counsel for the defendant having requested
to take the evidence of Lord Cornwallis, who had
just arrived from India ; and the managers having
given their assent, not as to a right,but an indulgence,
the Lords adjourned the trial to Wednesday next.

“ The delay,” says the historian of the trial, “ was
occasioned by complaisance to Lord Cornwallis, who,
it was supposed, might want time to refresh his
memory, with the perusal of official papers, before
he appeared in the character of a witness, in the
impeachment.” This wTas an abundant allowance
for refreshing the memory of a witness, compared
with the time to which the Lords and the prisoner
at their bar contended, at the conclusion of the pre-
ceding session, for restricting the managers in making
ready for the reply. In consequence of the indis-
position of the Noble Marquis, the trial was further
postponed to the 24th, and then to the 25th of the
same month ; when it was announced on the part of
the defendant, that, in consequence of the continued
indisposition of Lord Cornwallis, he waved the benefit
of his evidence. The managers expressed their rea-
diness to permit his Lordship to be examined at any
period during the remainder of the trial ; and at the
same time alluded to the arrival of another gentle-
man, Mr. Larkins, whose testimony, when it was
not obtainable, Mr. Hastings had described as calcu-
lated to be of the utmost service to him, but, to their
great surprise, showed no inclination to avail himself

246

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2,

1794.

1 of it, now when it was at his command. Mr. Law
- said he disdained to accept for his client, as a boon,
the power, which was his right, of adducing evidence
at any period of his trial ; that his client rested his
defence upon the grounds already adduced, and was
not accountable to any man for the motives which
induced him to call or not to call any man as a witness.
Mr. Law forgot, or wished his hearers to forget, that
the question was not about accountability , but about
evidence ; whether by not calling Mr. Larkins, whose
absence he had formerly deplored, he did not render
the sincerity of that lamentation doubtful, and add
to the circumstantial evidence against a cause, for the
defence of which, so much artifice was employed :
The proper business of Mr. Law would have been
to show, if he could, that for such inferences, how-
ever natural, the fact of not calling now for the evi-
dence of Mr. Larkins did not afford any ground.

The managers produced evidence to rebut the de-
fence on the Benares charge. It had been stated,
that if Mr. Hastings acted wrong in the demands
which he made upon C'heyte Sing, Mr. Francis con-
curred with him. The managers proposed to call
Mr. Francis, to show that he did not. The counsel
for the defendant objected. They affirmed, that on
the reply, the prosecutor was entitled to bring evi-
dence for one purpose only ; that of rebutting evidence
adduced on the defence : If not for this purpose, it
ought to have been given at first, to enable the
defendant to meet it in his defence. — This was rather
inconsistent with the doctrine of Mr. Law, when,
alluding to the offer of the managers to permit the

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

247

examination of Lord Cornwallis and Mr. Larkins, book \ i

CHAP. 2.

he claimed for his client a right to bring any evidence

at any period of the trial. The objection about 1;94-
meeting such evidence, on the defence, might be
answered, by granting, which would be due, a power
of meeting new matter of crimination, by new matter
of defence. The objection is, that this would tend
to delay ; but so it would, if the same matter had,
in the first instance, been added respectively to the
matter of crimination and that of defence ; and it
would always be a question, to be left to the court,
whether the importance of the evidence was enough
to compensate for the inconvenience and delay ; and
whether any thing sinister was indicated by giving it
after, rather than before, the defence. Mr. Burke
made a speech, in disparagement of the lawyers’
rules of evidence ; wThich he said were very general,
very abstract, might be learned by a parrot he had
known, in one half hour, and repeated by it in five
minutes ; might be good for the courts below ; hut
must not shackle parliament, which claimed a right
to every thing, without exclusion, or exception, which
was of use to throw light on the litigated point.

After a dispute, which lasted for the greater part
of two days, the Commons were informed, that it
was not competent for them to adduce the evidence
proposed. Mr. Burke again complained bitterly of
the want of publicity in the deliberations which led
to the decisions, and the ignorance in which the
managers were held of the reasons on which they
were grounded. It wTas thus impossible they could
know before-hand whether a piece of evidence, which
presented itself to them as important, would, or

248

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1794.

1 would not, be admitted by the Lords. This refusal
- of reasons was one of the causes of that delay, of
which so many complaints had been raised. Lord
Radnor having interrupted him, as arguing against
a decision of the House, Mr. Burke said, “ What he
asked from the House was publicity in its decisions
on questions of law, and a communication of the
grounds on which it formed those decisions. He had
condescended to ask this as a favour, when he might
have claimed it as a right .” Mr. Law said, he
would not waste a moment of their Lordships’ time,
in supporting a judgment of the House, which, being
founded on a rule of law, wanted no other support.
Mr. Burke replied, that “ he had been accustomed
to insolent observations from the counsel ; who, to do
them justice, were as prodigal of bold assertions as
they were sparing of arguments.” Before the Court
adjourned for deliberation, Mr. Hastings again ad-
dressed them, enumerated the miseries of delay, prayed
for expedition, and, in particular, entreated their
Lordships not to adjourn, as usual, on account of
the absence of the judges during the circuit.

One of the reasons adduced by Mr. Hastings for
the dethronement or deprivation of Cheyte Sing was
the bad police of his country ; to prove which, the
outrages complained of by Major Eaton were ad-
duced. The managers stated that “ they would now
produce a letter of Major Eaton’s, to show he did
not consider the supposed irregularities worth in-
quiring into. The counsel for the defendant objected
to the evidence. The House informed the managers,
that the whole Benares narrative, and the papers
annexed, having been given originally by the ma-

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

249

nagers for the Commons, the evidence tendered was J1

not admissible.” Be it so. But that does not

hinder this from proving the existence of the letter, 1794
and the insignificance of the occurrences on which
the plea of Mr. Hastings was erected.

As the defendant had produced in evidence the
vote of thanks offered to him by the Court of Direc-
tors on the 28th of June, 1785; to rebut this
evidence, the managers offered to produce a paper
printed for the information of the proprietors, by
order of the Court of Directors in 1783. This was
vehemently resisted, not only by the counsel for
Mr. Hastings, but by himself in person, as an ill-
considered and intemperate act of a Court of Direc-
tors, who were his political enemies. “ It was,
therefore, (he said,) a species of unparalleled cruelty
to bring it forward to oppress a man who had already
suffered so much, for no other reason which he
could divine, than having at a time of great public
danger, effectually served his country, and saved
India. He relied upon their Lordships’ humanity,
honour, and justice, that they would not suffer
this minute of the censure to be read ; it being passed
at a moment of intemperate heat and agitation,
and utterly extinguished by a subsequent resolution.

“ Mr. Burke rose as soon as Mr. Hastings had
concluded, and contended that the paper was proper
to be received, because it was an answer to a
letter which the prisoner had dared to write to the
Directors his Masters, and to print and publish in
Calcutta.

“ Mr. Hastings instantly rose, and said, ‘ My
Lords, I affirm that the assertion which your Lord-

250

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 2.

1794.

ships have just heard from the Manager is false.
I never did print or publish any letter in Calcutta
that I wrote to the Court of Directors. I knew my
duty better. That assertion is a libel ; it is of a
piece with every thing that I have heard uttered since
the commencement of this trial, by that authorized ,
licensed , — (and after a long pause, he added, turning
to Mr. Burke,) ‘ Manager ! '

“ Mr. Burke continued to affirm that Mr. Hastings
had printed and published the letter in Calcutta.
Mr. Hastings loudly called out to him, it was
not true ; and the counsel said to Mr. Burke,
No ! no ! ”

The Lords adjourned, put the question to the
judges, received their answer, and announced to the
managers on a following day, “ That it was not
competent for the managers for the Commons to give
in evidence the paper, read in the Court of Directors
on the 4th of November, 1783, and then referred by
them to the consideration of the Committee of the
whole Court, and again read in the Court of Direc-
tors on the 19th November, 1783, and amended, and
ordered by them to be published for the information
of the proprietors — to rebut the evidence given by
the defendant of the thanks of the Court of Di-
rectors, signified to him on the 28th June, 1785.”
No decision is more curious than this. The same
sort of evidence exactly, which the Lords allowed
to be given for Mr. Hastings, they would not allow
to be given against him ; one proceeding of the
Court of Directors, as well as another. It might
have been said, that a prior decision of the same
court was superseded by a posterior ; but this

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

251

should have been said after both were submitted to book \ i

CHAP. L

consideration, because it might be so, or it might .
not, according to the circumstances of the case.

On the 1st of March, the Lords not choosing to
proceed without the assistance of the Judges, during
their absence on the circuit, adjourned the court to
the 7th of April. On the 6th of March, upon
motion made in the House of Commons, by Mr.
Burke, the managers were appointed a committee to
inspect the journals of the House of Lords, and to
examine into the mode of procedure that was
adopted on the trial of Warren Hastings, Esq. ; and
on the 17th of the same month, it was ordered, on
the motion of Mr. Burke, that the managers should
lay before the House the circumstances which have
retarded the progress of the said trial, with their
observations thereon.

On the 9th of April, which was the second day of
the proceedings after the adjournment for the circuit,
Lord Cornwallis was examined on the part of the
defendant. His evidence contributed little to establish
any thing. If it tended to confirm the views, held
up by any one of the parties, more than those by
another, it was rather those of the accusers than
those of the defendant. On the alleged right of the
government to call upon the Zemindars in time of
war, for aids, over and above their rents, he made
one important declaration, that no such aid had been
demanded in any part of India during his administra-
tion.1

As Mr. Hastings had declined, the managers

1 There is nothing very important in this, it amounts to no more than
that there had been no occasion to call upon them. — W.

252

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1794.

thought proper, to call for the evidence of Mr.
Larkins. The first questions which they put were
intended to elucidate the letter which Mr. Larkins,
upon the application of Mr. Hastings, wrote to Mr.
Devaynes, in explanation of the dates of a part of the
presents which Mr. Hastings had received. The
counsel for the defendant objected; contending that,
in reply, evidence, though of a witness till that time
in India, could not be admitted to new matter, or
matter which had not been contested : but only to
points which had been disputed, or evidence which
had been attacked. Mr. Burke again disclaimed the
authority of the lawyers ; and said, “ the defendant
was placed by these arguments in the most con-
temptible point of view. He had been specifically
charged with bribery, sharping, swindling: From

these charges, he had replied, that the testimony of
Mr. Larkins, if he had it, would vindicate him : Mr.

Larkins was now present : But the prisoner, instead

of wishing to clear his fame, called for protection
against the testimony to which he had appealed;
and sought a shelter, not in his own innocence, but
in a technical rule of evidence.” The Lords adjourned
to deliberate, and when the court met on a future
day, their Speaker announced, “ Gentlemen,
Managers for the Commons, and Gentlemen of
Counsel for the Defendant, I am commanded by the
House to inform you, that it is not competent for
the managers for the Commons to examine the
witness, in relation to a letter of the 5th of August,
1786, from the witness to William Devaynes, Esq.
one of the Directors of the East India Company,
produced as evidence in chief by the managers for

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

253

the Commons.” Mr. Larkins was again called, and8^^1

one of the first questions which were put was repre

sented by the counsel for the defendant as falling 1/94-
under the same objection. But “ so much, they
said, had been uttered, about this testimony, and the
motives of Mr. Hastings in resisting it, that any
longer to forbear bringing these assertions to the test
of proof, might ' perhaps seem to justify the insinua-
tions which had been cast out against the defendant.”
Relying, therefore, on the justice and humanity of
the House to prevent the protraction of the trial, on
this or any other account, to another year, they
gave their consent to the examination of Mr. Larkins,
on the same terms as if he had been examined at the
first stage of the trial. This day the Court received
another of Mr. Hastings’ addresses. Alluding to a
report of an early prorogation of parliament, he con-
jured them to end his trial before the end of the
session ; affirming, “ that human patience (meaning
no disrespect to the Lords) could not sustain this
eternal trial.” Next day, also, time passing away in
disputes about the admissibility of the questions
which the managers tendered to the witness, Mr.
Hastings rose, and said that, if the Lords would but
sit to finish the trial during the present session, his
counsel should make no objection to any questions
that might be asked. He then made a pathetic
statement, recounting the offers which he had made
to wave his defence, the actual relinquishment of part
of it, and his other sacrifices to expedite the trial,
among which he stated his consent to the examina-
tion of Mr. Larkins. He ended by praying that the

254

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1791-

1 court would sit on the following day, and permit that
examination to be closed.

This was on the 16th of April. On the 17th Mr.
Burke, in the House of Commons, brought up the
report of the managers appointed to inquire into the
causes of the delay in the trial of Mr. Hastings. An
ample view of this important document is required.
But it would interrupt too long the proceedings on
the trial, and may be reserved till they are brought
to a close.1 The lawyers, whom it desperately
offended, because it spoke out, respecting their system,
a greater than usual portion of the truth, argued
against the printing of it ; as in this, however, Pitt
and Dundas took part with the managers, the opposi-
tion of the lawyers failed.

The examination of Mr. Larkins was concluded
on the 28th of April, having, together with the dis-
putes to which it gave occasion, occupied the time of
the court for rather more than three days. It had a
tendency, but no more than a tendency, rather to
clear than convict Mr. Hastings of any intention at
any time to appropriate to himself any part of the
presents, the receipt of which he afterwards disclosed;
because the money, though entered in the Company’s
books as money of Mr. Hastings, was not entered as
such in the accounts kept of his private property by
Mr. Larkins. The only new fact of any importance
was, that a balance of the presents, received by
Gunga Govind Sing for Mr. Hastings, was never
paid to Mr. Hastings ; who stated, with some marks

1 See Appendix at the end of this chapter.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

255

of displeasure to Mr. Larkins, that Gunga Govind .] 1

Sing pretended he had expended one lac of rupees,

(10,00(R.) during the absence of Mr. Hastings, in 1/94-
jewels, for a present to Mrs. Wheler, the wife of the
member of council, upon whom, together with the
Governor-General, the weight of administration at
that time reposed.

Of the money which Mr. Hastings had desired to
borrow of the Raja Nobkissen, and which he said he
had afterwards, upon the entreaty of the Raja, ac-
cepted as a present, it appeared that Nobkissen had
afterwards demanded payment, when Mr. Hastings
had met the demand by what the lawyers call a set-
off, or counter claim upon the demandant. Nobkissen
had then filed a bill of discovery against Mr. Hast-
ings in Chancery. The answer of Mr. Hastings
was, that, as an impeachment was depending, he
declined giving any answer at all. The managers
proposed to give these proceedings in evidence. The
lawyers of counsel for Mr. Hastings repelled them
as inadmissible. Mr. Burke was provoked to
language scarcely temperate : “ He was addressing,”
he said, “ a body of nobles who would act like
nobles ; and not as thieves in a night cellar ; he could
not suspect them of so foul a thing as to reject matter
so pregnant of evidence : the notions of the Judges
were not binding on the Lords : And the trial of

Lord Strafford afforded an example to which, in this
respect, he trusted they would always conform.” The
Lords took the rest of the day to deliberate ; and on
their next return to the hall of judgment announced,

“ That it was not competent to the managers for the

256

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

--Z1 Commons to give in evidence the pleas put in by

Warren Hastings, Esq., on the 14th of February and

1794' 25th of March, 1793, to the discovery prayed by a
bill in Chancery, filed against him by Raja Nobkissen
on the 27th of June, 1792, touching a sum of three
lacs of rupees, or 34,000/. sterling money, mentioned
in the sixth article of charge.”

“ As the counsel for the defendant had, on the
Benares charge, the Begum charge, the charge of
presents, and the charge of contracts, given evidence
of the distresses of the country, as a justification, or
excuse, of the irregular acts of extortion, oppression,
bribery, and peculation, charged against the defend-
ant in the articles of charge,” the managers proposed
to prove, that the cause of these distresses was the
misconduct of Mr. Hastings, plunging the Company
into a war with the Mahrattas, neither necessary nor
just. To this evidence the counsel objected, and the
Lords resolved that it was not admissible. Abund-
ance of angry altercation took place both before and
after the decision ; and Mr. Burke, in the pursuit of
his object, a pursuit always eager, now, in some
degree, intemperate, exposed himself at last to the
imputation of pushing his examinations too far, of
putting frivolous, when his stock of important, ques-
tions was exhausted, and contending long for points,
either of no importance, or points in which he might
see that he would not succeed. Yet, in these aber-
rations of a mind, which had now, to a considerable
degree, lost the command of itself, a very small por-
tion of time ; not six, possibly not so much as three
days, in the whole of this protracted business, were

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

257

really misplaced by him, or fell to his share in
distributing the blame of the unnecessary portion of
delay.

Of the extraordinary proposition, to offer the in-
justice of the Mahratta war to rebut certain allega-
tions of the defendant, Mr. Burke was probably the
injudicious author. This was to bring a fact, to prove
another fact, when the evidentiary fact was much
more difficult of proof than the principal one ; when
the evidentiary fact was of such a nature, that it was
either not susceptible of precise and conclusive proof ;
or opened so wide a field of inquiry, that the service
it would render in the cause was evidently not a
compensation for the trouble, which, in the shape of
delay, expense, and vexation, it could not fail to
create. This constituted a sufficient ground for the
decision which, in this instance, was pronounced by
the Lords. Mr. Burke, however, was so pertina-
cious, as to desire to enter against it a deliberate
protest, which he tendered, in a writing of consider-
able length, and wished to have it entered upon the
minutes. But the Lords informed him it could not
be received.

After adducing evidence to several other points,
the Commons offered matter to rebut the certificates,
which had been presented in favour of the character
and administration of the defendant, from several
parts of India. They proposed to show, that these
certificates could not be voluntary, because they were
contradicted by the circumstances to which the
people were reduced : and if so, these certificates
were additional proofs of the atrocity, not of the
beneficence, of the English government in India.

VOL. v.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1794.

S

258

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Among other places, a certificate had arrived even

from Dinagepore. To throw light upon this certifi-

1794. ca^e^ the irianagers offered to read the official report
of an eminent servant of the Company, upon the
government of this province. This was the famous
document relative to the cruelties of Deby Sing.1
Its admission was again resisted on the part of the
Defendant. Again the Lords decreed that it was
not to be heard.

The evidence was closed on the 6th of May, which
was the 129th day of the trial. The advocate for
the defendant having confidently told the Lords,
“ that all the attempts which had been made in
the present session to support the case of the prose-
cution had ended in producing an effect directly
contrary ; and that important conclusions, which
could not have escaped their Lordships’ penetration,
had resulted in favour of his client from the invalu-
able oral testimony lately given at their bar,”
(alluding to the testimony of Lord Cornwallis and
Mr. Larkins, which just as little established any
thing in favour, as it did in crimination of Mr.
Hastings) : and having thus, with a well-timed
artifice, assumed, without proof,' and as standing in
need of no proof, all that he wished to be believed ;
he added, that, in imitation of the former sacrifices to
which, for the sake of lessening the delay, enormous,
dreadful delay, the defendant had already submitted,
he would make another sacrifice (which, if that was
true which had just been asserted by the counsel,
was no sacrifice at all), and wave his right to make

1 To have received it in evidence now, after it had been proved erro-
neous, would have been preposterous. — W.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

259

any observations on the evidence which had been .) 1
offered in reply.

The managers then proceeded to sum up the evi- 1/94,
dence in reply ; Mr. Grey, on the Benares charge,

Mr. Sheridan on that of the Begums, Mr. Fox on the
charge of presents, and Mr. Taylor on that of con-
tracts. In this business seven days were consumed.

Mr. Burke began the concluding speech on the 28th
of May, and continued his oration nine days. After
the third day, another petition was presented from
Mr. Hastings to the House of Lords, which, as it is
not very long, and not slightly impregnated with in-
struction, is here inserted.

“ That it is with the greatest reluctance and con-
cern that your Petitioner feels himself obliged once
more to address your Lordships on the subject of his
long-depending trial.

“ Your Petitioner begs leave to lay before your
Lordships his well-founded apprehensions, excited by
the manner in which the general reply on the part of
the managers is now evidently conducted, that such
reply is meant to be extended beyond the probable
limits of the present session of parliament.

“ Your Petitioner hopes he may be allowed to
bring to your Lordships’ recollection, that the reply
was, at the instance of the managers, adjourned over
from the last year, under the assurance of an accele-
rated and early termination of it ; and that the whole
of the present session, except a small interruption
occasioned by the examination of the Marquis Corn-
wallis, has been employed by the honourable mana-
gers, notwithstanding that your Petitioner has, for the
purpose of despatch, in addition to the sacrifices made

S 2

260

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1794.

for a similar purpose in the last year, waved his right
to observe, by his counsel, on the new evidence ad-
duced in reply.

“ Your Petitioner begs leave again to suggest to
your Lordships the unexampled duration of his trial ;
the indefinite period to which it may he still further
protracted ; and the extreme vexation and injury to
which he would be subjected, if the intention on the
part of his prosecutors should be suffered to have
effect.

“ He implores, therefore, of your Lordships’ hu-
manity and justice, that such measures maybe adopted
on the part of your Lordships, as may assure to your
Petitioner the speedy termination of this painful and
unparalleled proceeding; and further, if need should
he, that your Lordships will graciously condescend,
in such a manner as to the wisdom and dignity of
your Lordships may seem meet, to become suitors to
his Majesty’s goodness in his behalf, that the present
session of parliament may be permitted to continue
till the reply on the part of the honourable managers
for the House of Commons shall be fully and finally
closed.”

On the opening of the Court, on the first day after
this petition to the House of Lords, Mr. Burke, says
the historian of the trial, “began, by complaining in
very strong terms, both of the Court, and of Mr.
Hastings ; of the latter for writing a most audacious
libel, under the name of a petition; and of the former
for having recorded it in their Journals. What the
House of Commons would do, in consequence of this
insult, he could not tell, as he had not had an oppor-
tunity of consulting the House upon it : he should,

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

261

therefore, proceed as if no such libel had been book vj:

written.”

Mr. Burke concluded his speech on the 16th of 1794-
June. On the 20th, in the House of Commons, Mr.

Pitt rose to move, “ That the thanks of the House
should be given to the managers appointed by them
to conduct the prosecution against Warren Hastings,
Esquire, for their faithful management in the discharge
of the trust reposed in them.” The motion was se-
conded by Mr. Dundas. Mr. Pitt declared, that the
magnitude and difficulty of the task which had been
imposed upon the managers, and the ability and dili-
gence with which it had been sustained, excited the
strongest sentiments in their favour. Delay was the
great source of complaint ; but if the long intervals
of the Court were excluded, and the number of hours
were computed which had actually been bestowed
upon the business of the trial, it would be found,
compared with the quantity of matter essentially in-
volved in the cause, by no means unreasonably great.

“ The next point,” he said, “ to be considered was ;
of this time, whether great or small, how much had
been occupied by the managers ; and how much by
the defendant, as well in the several replies, as by the
unceasing and unwearied objections, taken on his
part, to almost every thing offered on the part of the
prosecution. To prove this disposition of objecting
to evidence, gentlemen had but to look to the report
made, by their committee, on the causes of delay.

They would there find it proved. — It was, in the next
place, to be recollected, that their managers had to
discuss questions which they could not relinquish
without abandoning the privileges of the Commons.

262

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bch°K2 1 — Upon all these grounds he would not allow that,

if any unnecessary delay existed, any portion of it

1794. Was chargeable to the managers for that House.”

Mr. Sumner, regretting the unusual necessity
which made him vote against the minister, opposed
the motion. He said, “ he was happy to avow him-
self a very great admirer of Mr. Hastings ; that he
looked up to him with every sentiment of regard
and affection ; ” professing at the same time, “ that
his objections to the present motion arose from cir-
cumstances, utterly independent of Mr. Hastings.”
He excepted to the time of the vote, which, though
not contrary to precedent, w7ould have something of
the effect of a pre-judging of the cause. However,
he at last confessed, that he should have little objec-
tion to the vote, if it regarded only the rest of the
managers without including Mr. Burke. Against
him, he ran forth into a long invective ; his anger
appearing to be directed against the strong terms
of disapprobation, which Mr. Burke had scattered
with a lavish hand, not only on Mr. Hastings, but
all other individuals whom he regarded as partners
either in his crimes or their protection. Mr. Wigley,
and others, concurred with him in his observations.
Mr. Wyndham, Mr. Francis, and Mr. Fox said, that
many of the expressions, adduced by the Gentlemen
as the grounds of their opposition, were not correct :
that they disclaimed the separation which had been
made between them and their distinguished leader ;
and that it was affectation and the affectation of
weakness, to pretend disgust at the natural language
of a strong indignation, when calling for punishment
on crimes which the managers believed to have been

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

263

committed, and to which, if they were committed, no B00K y 1

language capable of describing them adequately

could be found. Mr. Law, a servant of the Com- 1794
pany, and brother of the Counsel for Mr. Hastings,
made a speech against the coarseness of Mr. Burke, in
such language as the following: “ If any passage
in his speech could be called sublime and beau-
tiful ; it was, at the best, but sublime and beautiful
nonsense : At other times his expressions were so
vulgar and illiberal, that the lowest blackguard in a
bear-garden would have been ashamed to utter them.”

He was, indeed, surprised that a Right Honourable
Gentleman (Mr. Fox) “ should condescend to mix
his character with that of the leading manager,
whose follies and intemperance he had vainly endea-
voured to correct. Whatever might be the abilities
of the leading manager, he was totally unfit to con-
duct a public trial. His violence, his passion, and
his obstinacy, were unconquerable. And as for his
information,” said Mr. Law, f‘ I was really aston-
ished, that a man who had been twenty-two years
employed in Indian inquiries, should still he so very
ignorant of India. His prejudices had totally warped
his judgment.”

Upon this latter point, the question was, whether
it was Mr. Burke, or Mr. Law, who continued
ignorant; and of which of the two it was that
prejudices had perverted the judgment to the
greatest extent. Mr. Law was very quietly making
himself the standard of perfection ; when, like so
many of his brethren in India, he had hardly looked
at a single object, except through the medium of
prejudice; and had so little information about India,

264

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi aSj on great objects, to be wrong in every opinion
which he entertained.1

1795. The vote for thanks of the House was carried
by a majority of fifty to twenty-one. The Speaker,
in addressing the managers, said ; “ That the
subject to which their attention had been directed
wras intricate and extensive beyond example : That
they had proved it was well suited to their industry
and eloquence, the exertions of which had conferred
honour, not on themselves only, hut on that House,
whose credit was intimately connected with their
own.” Mr. Pitt moved that the Speaker do print his
speech.2

No further proceeding was had on the trial till the

1 This attack upon Mr. Law for the part he took in the debate, and the
just reprobation he pronounced upon the intemperate language which even
the friends and admirers of Burke admit that he sometimes employed, is
wholly unwarranted by his speech. There was nothing wrong in his
opinions on the subject, and on what others he erred in consequence of
his ignorance of India, it would be difficult to substantiate. He asserted
that the charge recently repeated in the French convention, that the
English were the authors of the famine that occurred in Bengal in 1770,
was calumnious and untrue. That the atrocities of Deby Sing had been
investigated by a Committee, and proved to be false, and that the original
reporter disclaimed his own report as criminating Hastings. That
Hastings was not a man of low, vulgar, and obscure origin, nor of base,
mean, and sordid occupations. Few will accuse Mr. Law of either error
or ignorance in these assertions. He may have erred in his estimate of
Burke’s motives and conduct, but it cannot in justice be said that there-
fore only, and his speech furnishes no other grounds, he looked at every
object through the mist of prejudice, and was utterly wrong in every
opinion he entertained regarding India. It is difficult to understand what
part of Mr. Law’s speech, the only occasion in which he comes before the
reader, could have provoked such gratuitous and unqualified condemna-
tion. Mr. Sumner was much more severe in his censure of Burke’s
proceedings and language. Why has he escaped ? Report of the debate
of the 20th June, 1794. History of Hastings’s trial. — W.

* For the evidence, and incidents on the reply, see the printed Minutes,
ut supra, p. 2179 — 2854; History of the Trial, ut supra, part vii.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

265

next session of parliament. The 13th day of ^ .] 1

January, 1795, was the clay on which the business

was appointed to begin. On that day a committee 1795-
of the Lords was formed, to inspect the journals,
and to report on what they contained, respecting the
mode of giving judgment on trials of high crimes and
misdemeanours. The report was referred to a com-
mittee of the whole House, which began to deliberate
on the 2nd of March. Though, at the beginning of
the trial, it had been determined by the Lords, that
they should not proceed article by article, but that
all the articles should be lumped together, both in
the prosecution and the defence ; it was now repre-
sented, by Lord Thurlow, who had before this time
resigned the woolsack to Lord Loughborough, not
only that they must not take, for decision, the articles
all in the lump ; but that it would be too much for
their Lordships to take them even one by one ; that
it would be necessary, as several of the articles con-
tained several allegations, to break these articles into
separate parts, and to deliberate and decide sejia-
rately upon each. How severe a condemnation this
pronounced upon the former decision, by which the
whole evidence was demanded in a lump, not one of
their Lordships remarked ; but they all agreed in the
present propriety of that expedient for distinctness
which they had formerly renounced and prohi-
bited.

The procedure adopted by their Lordships was,
to decide upon each point three times ; first in a com-
mittee of the whole House; next in the House itself;
and a third time as judges in Westminster-hall.
Twenty-three questions were formed, upon those

266

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 2,

1795.

articles of impeachment to which the Commons had
tendered evidence, and one upon the rest. Upon
most of the questions, a debate of considerable
length ensued. Lord Thurlow was the strenuous
advocate of Mr. Hastings, upon all points ; and
argued to show from the evidence that no criminal
fact whatsoever was proved. Lord Loughborough,
the Chancellor, took a different course, and argued
to show that of the allegations to which the Com-
mons had adduced their evidence, almost all were
proved. It was not till the last day of March that
the deliberations of the committee were closed, and
their resolution upon each of the questions was pro-
nounced. On all of them the vote passed in favour
of Mr. Hastings. On the next day, when, agreeably
to form, the resolutions were reported to the House,
Lord Thurlow moved, that the resolutions reported
be read one by one, and a question put upon each.
The Lord Chancellor, and several other Lords, con-
tended that this was a proceeding altogether nuga-
tory, if not ludicrous ; it was to vote the same
questions, first on one day, and then on another, on
no other account than a change of name ; they were
called the Committee the one day, the House the
other; but no man was bound as a judge, by the
decisions either of the Committee or the House ;
though assuredly embarrassment would be thrown
in the way of their determinations as a tribunal, by
a reiteration of votes on the same subject, given
when they were not a tribunal. The motion of
Lord Thurlow was, nevertheless, carried, by a majo-
rity of fourteen to six ; and the resolutions one after
another obtained a second assent.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

267

The business was not resumed till the 7th of60^'1

CHAP. 2.

April, when the form was determined of the ques-

tions which were to be put to the Lords individually 1795-
in Westminster-hall. Some discussion occurred, and
the questions agreed upon differed considerably from
those, on each of which the House had passed a couple
of preparatory votes. They proceeded to judgment
on the 23rd: when the questions were put and deter-
mined in the following mode :

“ 1. IsWarren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not guilty,
of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged by the
Commons in the first article of charge ?

“ George Lord Douglas (Earl of Morton in Scot-
land), how says your Lordship, Is Warren Hastings
Esq. guilty, or not guilty, of the said charge ?

“ Whereupon Lord Douglas stood up uncovered,
and laying his right hand on his breast, pronounced
— Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ The Lord Chancellor then put the same question
to all the Peers in robes, as follows :

“James Lord Fife, how says your Lordship'? —

Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Charles Lord Somers, how says your Lordship?

— Not guilty, upon my honour.

“Francis Lord Rawdon (Earl of Moira in Ire-
land), how says your Lordship ? — N ot guilty, upon
my honour.

Thomas Lord Walsingham, how says your Lord-
ship ? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Edward Lord Thurlow, how says your Lordship?

— Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Martin Lord Hawke, how says your Lordship?

— Not guilty upon my honour.

268

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book ) 1 “ F rederick Lord Boston, how says your Lordship ?

— Not guilty, upon my honour.

1795. “Edwin Lord Sandys, how says your Lordship?
— Not guilty, upon my honour.

“Henry Lord Middleton, how says your Lord-
ship? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“Samuel Lord Bishop of Rochester (Dr. Horsley),
how says your Lordship ? — N ot guilty, upon my
honour.

“ John Lord Bishop of Bangor (Dr. Warren), how
says your Lordship ? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Thomas Lord Viscount Sidney, how says your
Lordship ? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ George Lord Viscount Falmouth, how says your
Lordship ? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Henry Earl of Caernarvon, how says your Lord-
ship ? — Guilty, upon my honour.

“ Joseph Earl of Dorchester, how says your Lord-
ship ? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Algernon Earl of Beverley, how says your Lord-
ship? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Jacob Earl of Radnor, how says your Lordship?
— Guilty, upon my honour.

“ William Earl Fitzwilliam, how says your Lord-
ship ? — Guilty, upon my honour.

“ George, Earl of Warwick, how says your Lord-
ship? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ George William Earl of Coventry, how says your
Lordship? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ John Earl of Suffolk, how says your Lordship?
— Guilty, upon my honour.

“ George Marquis Townshend, how says your
Lordship ? — N ot guilty, upon my honour.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

269

f‘ Francis Duke of Bridgewater, how says your
Grace ? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Francis Duke of Leeds, how says your Grace ?
— Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Charles Duke of Norfolk, how says your Grace ?
— Guilty, upon my honour.

“ David Earl of Mansfield, how says your Lord-
ship? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ William Lord Archbishop of York, how says
your Grace? — Not guilty, upon my honour.

“ Alexander Lord Loughborough, the Lord Chan-
cellor, pronounced — Guilty, upon my honour.

“ Upon the remaining fifteen questions the Peers
voted in the following manner :

“ 2. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not
guilty, of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged by
the Commons in the second article of charge ? —
Guilty, six. — Not Guilty, twenty-three.

“ 3. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not guilty,
of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged upon him
by the Commons in the sixth article of charge, in so
far as relates to the said Warren Hastings having in
the years 1772, 1773, and 1774, corruptly taken the
several sums of money charged to have been taken
by him in the said years, from the several persons in
the said article particularly mentioned? — Not guilty,
twenty-six.

“ 4. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not guilty ?
of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged upon him
by the Commons in the sixth article of charge, in so
far as relates to his having, on or before the 26th of
June, 1780, corruptly received and taken from Sada-
nund, the Buxey of the Raja Cheit Sing, the sum of

BOOK VI
chap. 2.

1795.

270

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1795.

two lacs of rupees, as a present or gift ?— Guilty, four.
— Not Guilty, twenty-three.

“ 5. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not guilty,
of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged upon him
by the Commons in the sixth article of charge, in so
far as relates to his having, in October, 1780, taken
and received from Kelleram, on behalf of himself and
a certain person called Cullian Sing, a sum of money
amounting to four lacs of rupees, in consideration of
letting to them certain lands in the province of
Bahar in perpetuity, contrary to his duty, and to the
injury of the East India Company *? — Guilty, three.
— Not Guilty, twenty-three.

“ 6. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not guilty,
of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged upon him
by the Commons in the sixth article of charge, in so
far as relates to his having, in the year 1781, re-
ceived and taken as a present from Nundoolol, the
sum of fifty-eight thousand rupees *? — Guilty, three.
— N ot Guilty, twenty-three.

“ 7. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not guilty,
of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged upon him
by the Commons in the sixth article of charge, in so
far as relates to his having, on or about the month of
September, 1781, at Chunar, in the Province of
Oude, contrary to his duty, taken and received as a
present from the Vizir the sum of ten lacs of rupees *?
— Guilty three. — Not Guilty, twenty-three.

“ 8. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not guilty,
of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged upon him
by the Commons in the sixth article of charge, in so
far as relates to his having first fraudulently solicited
as a loan, and of his having afterwards corruptly and

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

271

illegally taken and retained as a present or gift, from 1

Raja Nobkissen, a sum of money amounting to

34,000?. sterling; and of his having, without any 1/95'
allowance from the Directors, or any person autho-
rized to grant such allowance, applied the same to
his own use, under pretence of discharging certain
expenses said to be incurred by the said Warren
Hastings in his public capacity Guilty, five. — Not
Guilty, twenty.

“ 9. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not guilty,
of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged upon him
by the Commons in the fourth article of charge, in so
far as relates to his having, in the year 1781, granted
a contract for the provision of opium for four years,
to Stephen Sulivan, Esq. without advertising for
the same, and upon terms glaringly extravagant and
wantonly profuse, for the purpose of creating an
instant fortune to the said Stephen Sulivan ? — Guilty,
five. — Not Guilty, nineteen.

“ 10. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not
guilty, of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged
upon him by the Commons in the fourth article of
charge, in so far as relates to his having borrowed
money at a large interest, for the purpose of ad-
vancing the same to the contractor for opium, and
engaging the East India Company in a smuggling
adventure to China % — Not Guilty, twenty-five.

“ 11. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not
guilty, of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged
upon him by the Commons in the fourth article of
charge, in so far as relates to the contract for bullocks
granted to Charles Croftes, Esq. *? — Guilty, three. —

Not Guilty, twenty-three.

272

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 2.

1795.

1 “ 12. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not

- guilty, of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged
upon him by the Commons in the fourth article of
charge, in so far as relates to his having granted the
provision of bullocks to Sir Charles Blunt by the
mode of agency? — Guilty, three. — Not Guilty,
twenty-three.

“ 13. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not
guilty, of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged
upon him by the Commons in the fourth article of
charge, in so far as relates to the several allowances
charged to have been made to Sir Eyre Coote, and
directed to be paid by the Vizir for the use of the
said Sir Eyre Coote? — Guilty, four. — Not guilty,
twenty-two.

“ 14. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not
guilty, of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged
upon him by the Commons in the fourth article of
charge, in so far as relates to the appointment of
James Peter Auriol, Esq. to be agent for the pur-
chase of supplies for the relief of the Presidency of
Madras, and all the other Presidencies in India, with
a commission of fifteen per cent. ? — Guilty, four. —
Not Guilty, twenty -two.

“ 15. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not
guilty, of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged
upon him by the Commons in the fourth article of
charge, in so far as relates to the appointment of
John Belli, Esq. to be agent for the supply of stores
and provisions for the Garrison of Fort William in
Bengal, with a commission of thirty per cent. ? —
Guilty, three. — Not Guilty, twenty-three.

"■ 16. Is Warren Hastings, Esq. guilty, or not

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

273

guilty, of high crimes and misdemeanours, charged J1

upon him by the residue of the impeachment of the

Commons? — Guilty, two. — Not Guilty, twenty- 1795-
five.”1

On the 29th of May, at the desire of nine Pro-
prietors, a General Court of the East India Company
was held ; at which two resolutions were passed,
recommending that indemnification should be made
by the Company to Mr. Hastings for the legal
expenses incurred by him in making his defence ;
and that, in consideration of his important services,
an annuity of 5000/. out of the territorial revenue
should be granted to him and his representatives,
during the term of the Company’s exclusive trade.

Both questions were determined by ballot, one on
the 2nd, the other on the 3rd of June. These proceed-
ings were communicated to the ministers on the 24th
of June; by whom the questions were referred to the
law officers of the crown. Legal doubts existed
whether, under the legislative appropriation of the
Company’s revenues and profits, any fund existed
from which the proposed allowances could be drawn.

For a time the ministry showed no disposition to let
the munificence of the Company obtain its effect.

The application was not answered till the 13th

1 In this concluding part of the business of the impeachment, has been
followed a volume in quarto entitled “ Debates of the House of Lords,
on the Evidence delivered on the Trial of Warren Hastings, Esquire;

Proceedings of the East India Company, in consequence of his Acquittal ;
and Testimonials of the British and Native Inhabitants of India,
relative to his Character and Conduct whilst he was Governor-General
of Fort William in Bengal.” — This was a volume compiled and distri-
buted under Mr. Hastings’ directions, and at his expense, but never
published. The contents of it, however, are found almost verbatim in
the History of the Trial, (part viii.) to which reference has been so
frequently made.

VOL. V.

T

274

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1796.

of January, 1796 ; and then the answer was unfavour-
able, with respect to both parts of the donation.
The question, however, did not rest. A negotiation
was carried on between the Court of Directors, and
the Board of Control. Finally, on the 2nd of March,
it was announced at a General Court, that the Board
of Control, and the Court of Directors, had agreed
in the propriety of granting to Mr. Hastings an
annuity of 40007 for twenty-eight years and a half,
to commence from June 24th, 1785.1 * Nothing as
yet was determined respecting a re-imbursement of
his law expenses, but, in order to relieve him from
his present embarrassments, 50,0007 was lent to
him, by the Company, without interest, for eighteen
years.3

1 Debates of the House of Lords, &c., ut supra, p. 331 — 495.

* When 16,000£. of this loan had been repaid, the rest was remitted,
and in 1814 his pension was continued for the remainder of his life. In

1813 W. Hastings was called upon to give evidence on matters affecting
the renewal of the East India Company’s Charter before the House of
Commons ; and upon his retiring, the members paid him the compliment
of rising simultaneously from their seats; he was shortly afterwards
elevated to the station of Privy Counsellor. In 1820 it was resolved by the
Court of Proprietors that a statue of him should be placed in the Court
Room ; and about the same time a meeting of the inhabitants of Calcutta
voted the erection of a statue of him in that city. The speeches made
upon this latter occasion by several distinguished servants of the Company
are worthy of notice as ingenuous avowals of the dissipation of prejudices
contracted in early life from a perusal of the speeches of Sheridan and
Burke, by a more mature judgment, and a nearer acquaintance with the
people of India. It was also remarkable that the Governor-General to
whom application was necessarily made for the purpose of carrying the
vote into effect, the Marquis of Hastings, had been one of his predecessor’s
judges. He not only expressed his ready concurrence in the proposed
tribute, but stated that he had been most punctual in his attendance during
the trial, that he had pronounced conscientiously a verdict of acquittal ;
and that all which he had learned since his arrival in India strongly sup-
ported the rectitude of the verdict which he had delivered in England.
Asiatic Journal, March 1820. — W.

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

275

The observations that have been scattered through the preceding notes BOOK VI
will have sufficiently expressed the views entertained by the writer of the chai\ 2.

administration of Warren Hastings ; but as in attendance upon the text

they have been spread over a considerable space in a detached, and not 179G.
always methodical manner, a summary review of the measures by which
that administration was characterized may not be without its use.

In considering the occurrences which took place during the administra-
tion of W. Hastings, whether civil or military, the peculiarities of the
position of the English in India should always be borne in mind. A great
territory had been acquired by a rapid succession of unexpected and
extraordinary events, and the servants of the Company were conquerors
and kings, where but a very short time before they had been barely suf-
fered to trade. At the date of Hastings’s appointment to the station of
Governor-General, scarcely ten years had elapsed since the expulsion of
the last independent Nabob of Bengal, Kasim Ali Khan, and the assump-
tion of the supremacy over the Bengal provinces by the Company. It was
utterly impossible that in so brief an interval the information should have
been acquired which was essential to the good government of a
numerous population, of whose language, manners, opinions, and laws,
their new rulers were ignorant, or that the resources and relations of the
surrounding states, with some of which no intercourse had been opened,
and with none of which had any intimate connexion been fully established,
should have been thoroughly investigated, and accurately understood. In
all the discussions which took place at home, these considerations seem
to have been overlooked, and expectations were evidently entertained
that the Indian governments should have been guided in their measures by
an experience which it was impossible they could have gained, and by fixed
principles which they had yet enjoyed no means of forming. The expec-
tations were most unreasonable, and the manner in which their disap-
pointment was resented was most unjust.

With the appointment of W. Hastings in 1772, ceased the attempt to
administer the affairs of Bengal in concert with the Court of Moorshe-
dabad, and under the mask of its nominal authority. The Company stood
forth, as they expressed it, as Dewan. The change, as the text truly defines
it, was enormous, it was an innovation which affected the tenure of all
property, and completely altered the administration of justice. It was
the duty of Hastings to carry this momentous revolution into effect, and
he accomplished the task with intense labour and consummate ability.

W. Hastings brought with him to the arduous duties assigned to him
qualifications which have always been rare in India, but which were then
much less frequently found in the Company’s servants than they have
since been, knowledge of the language of the people, of their manners
and institutions, and conversancy with the details of both native and
British rule. No time, therefore, was lost in fitting himself for his duties.

He at once took his place as President of two Committees, one for the
investigation of the mode in which justice had been administered under

T 2

27G

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI the Mohammedan government, and the other for the ascertainment of the
chap. 2. manner in which the revenues had been collected, and the amount which
" might be levied without oppressing the people. Full reports on both

1796. subjects were prepared, and plans devised for adapting the conduct of
affairs to the change in those by whom they were in future to be con-
ducted. That the plans so devised, and which were avowedly experi-
mental, should have been at once free from imperfection, was not within
the scale of human wisdom. They required, and they received, during the
whole period of the government of Hastings, constant and careful investi-
gation, and they were subjected to frequent modifications. Many of their
provisions, however, whether principal or subsidiary, have been ratified by
time, and the institution of Provincial Courts and Courts of Appeal, or
the Dewannee and Nizamut Adauluts, of provincial collectors, of the Salt
Agency, the Presidency Treasury, and the Board of Revenue, which are
still the principal instruments for carrying on the revenue and judicial
functions of the government owe their origin to W. Hastings.

The inquiries and enactments which necessarily accompanied the reor-
ganization of an extensive country in which all the old institutions had
been abruptly overturned, might of themselves have been considered a
sufficient demand upon the time and deliberations of the head of the
government; but his measures were delayed, thwarted, and not unfre-
quently frustrated, by the systematic opposition which he experienced from
his colleagues, and the insubordination which their example and encou-
ragement spread amongst the service. Embarrassment also arose from
other quarters. In the third year of his administration the Supreme Court
commenced its operations, and was very soon engaged in a contest for
authority with the Governor-General and his council. The contest lasted
for some time, and seriously aggravated the difficulties which attended the
introduction of the new system of judicature, as well as the anxieties and
embarrassments of the government. The pretensions of the Court were
firmly but respectfully resisted ; they were moderated by the compromise
which Hastingsjudiciously effected in placing the Chief Justice at the head
of the native courts, and they were finally circumscribed by the interference
of Parliament. However troublesome and vexatious the usurpations of
the Court must have been, it is worthy of remark that no violence was
permitted in the opposition of the government, and that no interruption
occurred to the personal intimacy of the Judges and the Governor-General.

Nor was there any intemperance in the conduct of Hastings towards his
colleagues, although their animosity assailed his private character as well
as his public measures. They brought natives into the Council Room to
charge him in his seat of office with gross corruption ; they endeavoured to
compel his resignation by force, and he was obliged to vindicate his repro-
bation of their proceedings by the exposure of his life in a duel. That
onposition so inveterate and incessant must have grievously imbittered his
life, and enhanced the anxieties and labour of his high office, cannot admit
of question, whilst it is singularly characteristic of the spirit of his adminis-

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

277

(.ration, that he inflexibly though calmly persisted in the prosecution of BOOK VI
those public objects which he deemed wise and expedient, and ultimately chat. 2.
triumphed over talented as well as virulent opposition. 1796

The public measures of W. Hastings were not only embarrassed by
local instructions, but had to contend with formidable obstacles
at home. His antagonists at the Council Board were the creatures
of the minister, and were sure of his support. The same interest created
a strong party against Hastings in the Direction, and more than one
occasion showed that the ministry and the Directors were both eager to
get rid of him. For a public man, in the service of England, to rely solely
upon his public merit, would be indeed to lean upon a broken reed ; he
must meet party with party ; he must make ‘ friends.’ Hastings was not
exempt from this necessity, and he was successful. Many of his friends
were, no doubt, attached to him on account of his personal worth ; and
it was justly remarked that no man ever had more zealous friends than he
had. Some persons possibly supported him on public grounds, but the
large majorities that protected his interests in the Court of Proprietors,
must have been influenced by other motives. The obligation of securing
their support, as well as that of vindicating his measures to the Directors,
in opposition to their sentiments, must have been a plentiful source of
embarrassment, anxiety, and labour. The correspondence and the
Minutes of Council which proceeded from the pen of Hastings are
most voluminous. It is evident that he never meditated but on paper, and
it is difficult to conceive a moment when his mind and his pen could have
been at rest. Yet even the immense toils of his civil administration, and
the public and private difficulties by which his whole path was beset, con-
stituted but the minor events by which his government was characterized.

The greater proportion of the period of his administration was a season of
warfare, during which the very existence of the British power in India
was at stake.

W. Hastings had scarcely assumed charge of his appointment, when he
found himself engaged in the reduction of the military power of the
Rohillas. The transaction did not originate with him, it was a legacy
from his predecessors ; and in continuing to take part in it, he acted, not
as a principal, but as the confederate of the Nawab Vizir. That the
government of Oude had justifiable grounds for seeking to annihilate the
political existence of the Rohillas, is undeniable. They were dangerous
neighbours, and had been hostile from the first aggrandizement of their
leaders. There had always been a struggle for mastery between the prin-
cipalities, and it was not possible that it should terminate without the
subjugation of one or the other. Policy the most palpable, instigated the
Vizir to accomplish their annihilation, not, as absurdly misrepresented, as a
people, but as a power. Policy equally obvious urged the British govern-
ment to fulfil the spirit of the stipulations into which they had entered
with the Vizier, as the means of conciliating the only potentate iu Hindu-
stan able and disposed to form with them a counterpoise against the Mogul
and the Mahrattas. Feeble as the Court of Delhi had become, its extreme

278

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1796.

weakness was not suspected, and in the name of the king it still possessed
a formidable watchword which might have combined the strength of India
against the English. The power of the Mahrattas was great, and was
imagined to be still greater. It was impossible that they should not look
with evil eyes upon the rich plains of Bengal and Behar, now defended
against their spoliations, and they claimed the districts of Corah and Alla-
habad on the part of the Mogul. They had, therefore, powerful induce-
ments to assail the English in addition to those of a more truly national
policy. Had the princes of India been capable of foresight or combination,
they would not have suffered the dominion which a handful of foreigners
had founded, to have grown into a fearful predominance. They were able
at this time to have crushed the infant empire, and it was but prudent to
anticipate that they wouid attempt it. It was known that a coalition of
the Mogul, the Mahrattas, and the Rohillas had been contemplated, and it
only wanted the accession of the Vizir to have rendered the situation of
the English more perilous than when they contended with Suraj ad Dowla
alone. It was, therefore, of infinite importance to preserve the friendship of
the Vizir, and to contribute to the improvement of his resources by the
cession made to him of Corah and Allahabad, and the assistance given to him
against irreconcileable enemies. It was taking a very narrow view of the
policy of Hastings, to ascribe his support of the Vizir to pecuniary consi-
derations alone. The payments made by him, however convenient to the
government, were but minor and subsidiary advantages. The main pur-
pose of Hastings was the friendship of Oude, and he succeeded in
preserving it. Events testified the wisdom of his policy. He was able to
apply the whole of his resources to meet the perils which presently came
fast upon the English from other quarters, because he was secure in the
direction of Oude : he was able to encounter and overcome enemies
the most formidable in Western India and the Dukhin, because, in con-
sequence of his relations with the Vizir, he had nothing to apprehend
from enemies in Hindustan.

The Roliilla campaign was scarcely at an end — the arrangements for
the conduct of civil affairs were yet incomplete — when the distractions of
the councils of Bengal commenced, and were speedily followed by the
announcement of hostilities between the Presidency of Bombay and the
much dreaded and really dangerous confederacy of the Mahrattas. These
hostilities were suspended for a time by the pacific intervention of the
government of Bengal, but they were renewed in 1778, with the approba-
tion of the Court of Directors, and the concurrence of the Supreme
Government. The support given by Hastings was decided, judicious, and
vigorous, and generally without the co-operation, or in despite of the
counteraction of his colleagues. By timely negotiations he deterred a
leading member of the Mahratta State, the Bhonsla Raja, qualified by his
position and power to have inflicted a deadly blow upon the resources of
Bengal, from taking any part in the contest, and by an operation of sin-
gular daring, considering the time and circumstances— that of sending an
army to the assistance of Bombay across the whole of central India, he not

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

279

only afforded aid of vital importance to the sister Presidency, but exhibited BOOK VI
to the native states a proof of the spirit and resources of the government of CUAP- 2.
Bengal, which struck them with salutary astonishment and apprehension. '

Early in the year 1779, that of the very first campaign, the British arms 1796.
on the side of Bombay sustained a disgraceful discomfiture, and the safety
of the troops was purchased by an ignominious pacification, The terms
were not ratified by the Mahratta ministers, and an opportunity was
afforded to Bombay to redeem its reputation. This was the only advan-
tage that resulted from the renewal of hostilites. The Mahratta armies,
notwithstanding the courage with which they were opposed, were not to
be resisted ; they overran the Konkan — cut off all the resources of the
Bombay Presidency, and left it wholly dependent upon Bengal for means
to defray not only its current expenditure, but the pay of the troops.

There wanted but the co-operation of the Bhonsla and Sindhia to have
expelled the English entirely from the coast of Malabar. The providence
of Hastings had kept the former quiet, and his energy recalled the latter to
the defence of his territories in Hindustan. The success of the armament
despatched by Hastings against Malwa disposed Sindhia to peace, and by
his intermediation also the war was brought to a close at a season when
the pressure of other enemies added to the difficulty and danger of its con-
tinuance.

About the time when hostilities with the Mahrattas commenced, infor-
mation reached India of a war with France. The coast of Coromandel
necessarily became the scene of hostile movements. At first, the proceed-
ings of the Madras Presidency were successful, but great exertions were
made by France, and during the five years that the war continued, the
French forces, both by land and sea, acquired many advantages, and
were upon the eve of obtaining a formidable superiority on the coast, when
peace between the parent countries was restored. It was not only by
their own strength, however, that the French were dangerous : their hos-
tility was rendered more alarming by the peril to which Madras was
exposed from a still more implacable and powerful foe.

When war with the Mahrattas and the French was fairly on foot, the
Madras Government, although unable to maintain, without assistance from
Bengal, the contest with the latter, wantonly offered insult and injury to the
Nizam and to Hyder Ali, the warlike sovereign of Mysore. The two
princes were on the eve of an alliance with the Mahrattas and the French,
when the Nizam was diverted from his purpose by the prudent interference
of Hastings ; and it was well that it was so, for although not of much
account in himself, the Nizam, aided by a French corps, and acting
simultaneously with Hyder would probably have effected the ruin of
Madras. Even without his aid, Madras was saved with difficulty, and it
was saved by Bengal. Hyder Ali broke into the Carnatic when no pre-
paration had been made to resist him — formed an alliance with the French
— cut to pieces one division of the army sent against him, and drove the
other to the walls of Madras. The whole of the country was in his pos-
session : — the Presidency, was utterly destitute of military stores, of money,

280

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \ I and even in want of food. It was preserved from destruction, and enabled
CHAP ' ultimately to effect a peace on advantageous terms with Tippoo, entirely
~ by the prompt and extensive supplies which the energy of Hastings pro-

17 j(). vided. The war ceased only the year before the term of his government

expired.

Here then was a distant warfare maintained for several years with the
two most powerful and warlike states of India — Hyder and the Mahrattas,
and with a formidable European rival, entirely by the resources of Bengal.
These, under the administration of Hastings, were large, but they were not
illimitable, and they had demands of their own to answer. Such was the
annual provision of the Company’s investment, the main stay of their
credit and disbursements in England, and amidst all the financial em-
barrassments of the Government of Bengal, this was never interrupted.
As, however, the ordinary means at his command were not adequate to the
emergencies of his situation, Hastings had recourse to those which were
the principal topics of Iris subsequent impeachment. He demanded con-
tributions of Cheit Sing, and countenanced the Nawab Vizir’s resumption
of that wealth from which alone he could discharge his debt to the Com-
pany and furnish the Government with that pecuniary aid which was
urgently needed. It was preposterous to tax Hastings with either tyranny
or avarice on these accounts. He had no aim in gathering treasures into the
coffers of the Company, except pouring them forth again for the equipment
of those armies and fleets upon which the safety of British India depended.
He may be charged with rigour in the execution of his resolves, but those
resolves were dictated by an imperious necessity, and there was no time
for hesitation. To have admitted of any temporising would have been a
weakness that might have entailed the loss of Bombay and Madras, if not
the extinction of the British power in Bengal. It was the characteristic
merit of Hastings to resolve calmly and act resolutely. He says of him-
self, with perfect truth, “ it was ever my rule in all political transactions,
however I might allow myself to hesitate in forming plans of action, to
prosecute them, when they were formed, with a fixed and undeviating
resolution, to their accomplishment.”

These are the great features of the administration of Hastings. In the
civil branch of his government he laid, amidst many obstructions from
ignorance and animosity, the foundations of the judicial and revenue
systems which have ever since prevailed, and in despite of equal em-
barrassments and opposition in the conduct of the military transactions in
which he wras involved, he rescued the Presidencies of Bombay and
Madras from the most imminent peril, and placed the British power in
India in a position beyond the reach of future danger from hostile aggres-
sion. Clive acquired an empire; its perpetuation is due to Hastings.

The limits of a note have been already too much transgressed to allow
of any notice being taken of other less prominent, although by no means un-
important circumstances of the government of Hastings. It is not possible,
however, to omit all mention of the beneficial encouragement and direction
which he gave to the first attempts that were made by the English in

TRIAL OF HASTINGS.

281

India to acquire an accurate knowledge of the people amongst whom they BOOK VI
dwelt. Besides Committees appointed officially to institute investigations chap. 2.
into the systems of revenue and law which had prevailed under the native
governments, the servants of the Company were engaged, under his 1796.
patronage, in deriving authentic information from native authorities. A
code of Hindu law was compiled by the Pundits, and translated into
English. The Hedaya or Mohammedan code was also translated, and the
translation of the Ayin Akbari, the Institutes of Akber, was commenced
under the patronage of Hastings. He also founded the Mohammedan
College of Calcutta, expressly that competent expounders of Mohammedan
law might be reared for the public service. Nor was his patronage
restricted to the literature of Hindu or Mohammedan law. It was liberally
granted to all literary undertakings. The Press was of his creation — the
first types were cast, the first presses worked, by his authority and with his
aid. The Bhagavat Gita was translated and printed — the translation of the
Seir Mutakherin was commenced — the first grammar of the Bengali lan-
guage was published. Names the most illustrious in the history of Indian
Oriental literature, Halhed, Hamilton, Gladwin, Wilkins, Wilford, belong
to this sera; and when Sir William Jones instituted the Asiatic Society of
Bengal, he not only received the warm concurrence of Hastings, but found
a body of Asiatic scholars ready to enlist under his banners, whom the
patronage of the Governor-General had reared. Nor is the period of the
government of Hastings less remarkable for talent in other departments,
and many of the most distinguished of the Company’s civil servants.

Grant, Shore, Duncan, the two Colebrookes, Anderson, Harington, and
others, of like reputation, were either his associates or his disciples.

Whether, therefore, we look to the origination of the systems which
have prevailed in India since the days of Hastings, for the collection of
the revenue or the distribution of justice — to the consolidation and durabi-
lity of the political power of the Company, which he found feeble and
tottering, and left impregnable — or to the liberal spirit of inquiry and zeal
for the public service which he impressed indelibly upon the character of
the Company’s servants, it cannot be denied that his administration has
infinite claims upon the gratitude of the Company, and if India be worth
the having, upon the gratitude of Great Britain.

Were there then no imperfections, no errors, no faults, in the adminis-
tration of Hastings ? The answer to this is — he was a man. There were
defects, no doubt, but there were no great crimes and misdemeanours to
justify his impeachment. In his internal government there was profuse
expenditure, and undue facilities were afforded to individuals to enrich
themselves, by profitable contracts, at the public cost. Some of this, it
may be admitted, arose out of the necessity which was imposed upon the
Governor-General by the opposition he had to overcome both in India and
in England, a necessity which he deeply lamented — of conciliating support
— he did sometimes purchase ‘ friends’ with the money of the state — his
offence is not singular — and in his day, in particular, men were a very
purchaseablc commodity. He wanted them, and he bought them with the

282

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI funds at his disposal — payment of a less coarse description may now be
chap. 2. offered, but there is no reason to believe that the traffic has ceased. Some
part of this profuse expenditure, however, may be also attributed to want
1794. 0f sufficient thrift, for it may be granted that Hastings was not, at all
times, sufficiently careful of pecuniary outlay, whether it was on his own
account or that of the state. The greatest portion of the extravagance
however was unavoidable. In the utter want of organization, which the
newness of all the public departments necessarily presented, there was no
other mode of procuring supplies, except by the system of contracts.
There were no officers in the employ of the Government who had either
the time or the skill to conduct such duties themselves, and it was indis-
pensable to have recourse to those who were stimulated to the attainment
of the requisite qualifications by interested motives. The system survived
Hastings long after the pleas by which it was viiidicable, in his time, had
lost their force, and it cannot in justice be made a ground of accusation
against his government. As it affected his own conduct, although there
was at times want of care and caution, there was no justifiable reason for
charging him with being guilty of corruption. It was never attempted to
be proved that he had, in any way, benefited by the advantageous contracts
by which he secured opulence to others.

To the principles of his foreign policy no shadow of guilt can be
attached. The safety and honour of British India were manifestly the
motives of all his actions. Whether he was not at times less unrelenting
than the occasion called for may admit of conjecture, but undoubtedly, the
times were critical — great firmness was demanded — and its excess was a
venial error, when its deficiency would have been an inexpiable crime. —
W.

APPENDIX.

“ Report from the Committee of the House of
Commons appointed ( viz. on the 5th of March
1794 ) to inspect the Lords' Journals in relation
to their Proceedings on the trial of Warren
Hastings , Esq. and to report what they find
therein to the House ; which Committee were
the Managers appointed to make good the Articles
of Impeachment against the said Warren Hast-
ings, Esq. and who were afterwards ( viz. on the

burke’s report on abuses in the trial.

283

17 th of March , 1794 ) instructed to report the
several matters which have occurred since the
Commencement of the said Prosecution, and which
have , in their Opinion , contributed to the Dura-
tion thereof to the present Time, with their Observa-
tions thereupon .”

A short account of the spirit of this document, B00K VI

and of the principal matters which it contains, is of .

high importance. It is a criticism not only upon 1<94-
this trial, but upon the law ; a thing in this country,
of great rarity, from a source of high authority. It
would also be a thing of great utility, if it would
show the people of the country, what they have been
carefully disciplined not to believe, that no greater
service can be rendered to the community than to
expose the abuses of the law ; without which the
hope of its amendment is for ever excluded. The
Anew is incomplete, and hut superficial, which Mr.

Burke, who was the author of the document, takes,
even of that small portion of the mass of abuses, of
which he had occasion to complain. He neither
stretched his eye to the whole of the subject, nor did
he carry its vision to the bottom. He was afraid.

He was not a man to explore a new and dangerous
path without associates. Edmund Burke lived upon
applause — upon the applause of the men who were
able to set a fashion ; and the applause of such men
was not to be hoped for by him, who should expose
to the foundation the iniquities of the juridical
system. In the case of public institutions, Mr.

Burke had also worked himself into an artificial

284

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 2.

1794.

admiration of the hare fact of existence ; especially
ancient existence. Every thing was to be protected ;
not, because it was good, but, because it existed.
Evil, to render itself an object of reverence in his eye,
required only to be realized. Acutely sensible how-
ever to the spur of the occasion, he felt the abuses
which crossed him in his path. These he has dis-
played with his usual felicity of language ; and these
it is of importance with respect to the imitative herd
of mankind to have stamped with the seal of his
reprobation.

I. Under the first head of the report, an analysis
was given for the duration of the trial, and of the
causes to which that duration was owing. At that
time the trial had occupied, though six years, only
1 18 days. Of these it appeared that in speeches,
opening, and summing up, the managers consumed
nineteen days ; that in speeches, opening, and sum-
ming up, and his own addresses, the defendant and
his counsel had consumed twenty-two days. In do-
cumentary and oral evidence fifty-one days were
employed by the managers ; and twenty-three on the
part of the defendant. But, as the managers brought
forward the case, they were under the necessity of
adducing almost all the documents which bore upon
the facts, and to interrogate almost all the witnesses
from whom, on either side, any information could be
derived. A great part of this evidence the defendant,
at the time of his defence, had only to apply. Lastly,
and chiefly, the greater part of the long and ha-
rassing contentions about the admissibility of evi-
dence, took place during the fifty-one days which

burke’s report on abuses in the trial.

285

are set down to the account of the managers, blit of
which the greater part was consumed on account of
the defendant.

“ This last cause of the number of sitting-days,”
said the report, ‘f your Committee considers as far
more important than all the rest.

“ The questions upon the admissibility of evidence,
the manner in which these questions were stated, and
were decided; the modes of proceeding; the great
uncertainty of the principle upon which evidence in
that Court is to be admitted or rejected; all these
appear to your Committee materially to affect the
constitution of the House of Peers as a court of
judicature, as wTell as its powers, and the purposes it
wras intended to answer in the state.

“ The conservation of all other parts of the law ;
the whole indeed of the rights and liberties of the
subject, ultimately depends upon the preservation of
the law of parliament in its original force and
authority.

“ Your Committee had reason to entertain appre-
hensions, that certain proceedings in this trial may
possibly limit and weaken the means of carrying on
any future impeachment of the Commons.”

In the House of Commons, on the 11th of May,
1790, Mr. Burke affirmed, that the Lords sat on the
trial in Westminster Hall not more than three hours
a day on an average. Suppose in this statement
some exaggeration ; four hours is doubtless a large
allowance. The number of hours, then, consumed
in the trial, was 472. If the court had acted con-
stantly, and ten hours a day (a well-constituted
judicature, during the continuance of a trial, would

BOOK VI
CIIAP. 2.

1794.

286

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1794.

not account ten hours an excess) the trial of Warren
Hastings, which lasted eight years, and occupied
145 days, might with all the technical obstructions
have been begun, carried through all its stages, and
finished, in little more than sixty days, or about two
calendar months. When the defendant, therefore,
and his counsel, took advantage of the disgraceful
catalogue of years, to cast odium upon the managers,
they were the cause of injustice. It is worthy at the
same time of being observed, that it was the length
of the trial of which he affected so bitterly to
complain, and the horrid expense with which law
proceedings are in this country attended, which by
converting suspicion, and, in many cases indignation,
into pity, rendered the termination of the trial so
favourable to Mr. Hastings ; which, if his acquittal,
from the lips of his judges, would at any time have
been equally sure, rendered, most undoubtedly, his
acquittal, at the great tribunal of public opinion,
much more complete ; and which was the sole cause
of the gratuities with which he was afterwards
treated.

II. The relation of the ordinary, the law judges,
to the court of parliament, the committee remarked
upon, as a thing of great importance to fix and to
understand. They had found their interference
peculiarly hostile to all those ends of justice which
the technical rules of procedure are calculated to
obstruct. It was, therefore, the committee declared,
agreeable to them, to find, upon inquiry, that the
judges were nothing but servants ; “ that they

neither had, nor of right ought to have, a deliberative
voice, either actually, or virtually, in the judgments

burke’s report on abuses in the trial.

287

given in the High Court of Parliament and that J1

their answers to questions are no further a guide to

that court than it pleases to make them. 1794-

III. The committee set forward a principle which,
in the capacity of managers, they had frequently
urged in Westminster Hall; that the Lords were not
bound by the Roman law, or that of any of the
inferior courts in Westminster Hall; but only by
the law of parliament. That they were not bound
by the Roman, or English technical law, it might
be very wise to maintain. But where wTas that law
of parliament of which the committee spoke ? It
had no existence, any where ; it was a mere fiction ;
spoken of, indeed, but never seen. This is one of
those important facts, its ignorance of which exposed
the mind of Mr. Burke to much of the perplexity,
confusion, and embarrassment, which it experienced
upon this subject ; and to much of the weakness and
inconsistency, of which the lawyers were disposed to
take a prompt and unsparing advantage. It was
one of the grand foundations, too, of that imperfec-
tion of the House of Lords, as a criminal tribunal,
whence those evils resulted, with complaints of which
the nation was filled.

IY. The committee were not satisfied with show-
ing, that the formalities in pleading, rigidly demanded
in the ordinary courts of law, had been explicitly and
solemnly determined to be unnecessary before the
Lords ; they were bold enough to proceed further
in condemnation of the courts below, and to offer
reasons for showing that some at least of the forma-
lities of these courts were hostile, not conducive, to
substantial justice.

288

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK yi It is necessary, for example, in an indictment, that

a certain day he assigned for the commission of the

1/94- fact. Yet on the trial it is sufficient to prove that it
happened on any other day. In this, the committee
said, there was “ something insnaring ; the defendant
having notice to answer for only one day, when the
prosecutor has his choice of a number of days.” They
made also the following important remark, that the
practice of the ordinary courts of law in England, is
distinguished by “ extreme rigour and exactness in
the formal part of the proceeding, and extreme
laxity in the substantial part:” That is to say, it
is a practice well calculated for sacrificing the
substance of justice, under the screen of attention to
its forms.

But here also Mr. Burke found himself weak ;
and so did his opponents find him : because he knew
not the ground upon which he stood. He wTas afraid
to do more than carp, as detached instances, at one
or two formalities, which he had found, in the case
before him, might be employed for the obstruction
of justice. And the lawyers overwhelmed him with
assumptions to which it was the habit of his mind
to submit. Had he seen far enough into the subject,
to be able to denounce every thing merely technical
in judicial procedure, every thing which falls not
under the description of a simple and rational instru-
ment of simple and rational inquiry, as a contrivance
set up to impede the course of justice, and existing
only for pernicious ends ; the lawyers would have
found that they had nothing beside their common-
place fallacies by which they could oppose him.

V. On the question of publicity, the managers

burke’s report on abuses in the trial.

289

spoke with the greatest emphasis. They divided 1

the subject into two parts ; that relating to the

publicity of the judges’ opinions; and that relating 1/94-
to publicity in general.

In taking the opinions of the judges in private,
and defrauding the parties and the public of the
benefit of their reasons, the committee complained,
that the House of Lords had violated, at once, the
obvious rules of natural justice, and the established
law and usage of their own house. To show what
was the law and usage of the High Court of Parlia-
ment a variety of precedents were adduced.

On the more general part of the question, it was
the object of the committee to show, that the publi-
city of all the proceedings of the judges, and the
statement of the reasons upon which all their
determinations were founded, were so much the
confirmed and undeviating practice in all other
English courts of law, that “ it seemed to be moulded
in the essential frame and constitution of British
judicature.”

It was also their object to show, that this great
principle was indispensably necessary, both for pre-
serving the public liberties of the country, and for
securing to the people the benefits of law.

f‘ It was fortunate,” they said, “ for the constitu-
tion of this kingdom, that in the judicial proceedings
in the case of Ship-money, the judges did not then
venture to depart from the ancient course. They
gave, and they argued, their judgment, in open
court. Their reasons were publicly given ; and the
reasons assigned for their judgment took away all its
authority.”

VOL. v. u

290

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

-ok vi jn regarc[ to the benefits of law, they said; “To
■ give judgment privately, is to put an end to Reports ;

1794, and to put an end to Reports is to put an end to the
law of England.” This the committee made out, by
showing, that in respect to law the people of Eng-
land are in a most dreadful situation. For the
greater part of that which they ought to possess in
the state of precise and accurate law, they have
nothingbut notes, taken by any body, of what has been
done, without any better kind of law, in this, and
the other instance, in the several courts. It fol-
lowed of course, that if you have no law, beside
these notes, and yet destroy your notes, you destroy
also the law. “ Your Committee,” said the report,
“ conceives, that the English jurisprudence has not
any other sure foundation ; nor consequently the
lives and properties of the subject any secure hold ;
but in the maxims, rules, and principles, and juridical
traditionary line of decisions, contained in the notes
taken, and, from time to time, published, called
Reports.” After the word “ published,” the report
says, “ mostly under the sanction of the judges;” an
expression that misleads, if it is understood to import
any security taken by the judges, that they are
correct: or even any knowledge the judges possess
of what they are to contain. — Is not this a shocking
account of a state of law yet existing in a civilized
country ? It is here also fit, to insert a protest
which was entered in the Journals of the Lords,
against the innovation of secret deliberation and
despotical mandates — mandates purely despotical,
because mere expressions of arbitrary will.

“Dissentient. 1st. Because, by consulting the
Judges out of court in the absence of the parties,

burke’s report on abuses in the trial.

291

and with shut doors, we have deviated from the most
approved, and almost uninterrupted, practice of above
a century and a half, and estabb bed a precedent not
only destructive of the justice due to the parties at
our bar, but materially injurious to the rights of the
community at large, who in cases of impeachments
are more peculiarly interested that all proceedings of
this High Court of Parliament should be open and
exposed, like all other courts of justice, to public
observation and comment, in order that no covert and
private practices should defeat the great ends of public
justice.

“ 2ndly. Because, from private opinions of the
Judges, upon private statements, which the parties
have neither heard nor seen, grounds of a decision
will be obtained, which must inevitably affect the
cause at issue at our bar ; this mode of proceeding
seems to be a violation of the first principle of
justice, inasmuch as we thereby force and confine
the opinions of the Judges to our private statement;
and through the medium of our subsequent decision
we transfer the effect of those opinions to the parties
who have been deprived of the right and advan-
tage of being heard, by such private, though unin-
tended, transmutation of the point at issue.

“ 3rdly. Because the prisoners who may hereafter
have the misfortune to stand at our bar wTill be
deprived of that consolation which the Lord High
Steward Nottingham conveyed to the prisoner, Lord
Cornwallis, viz. f That the Lords have that tender
regard of a prisoner at the bar, that they will not
suffer a case to be put in his absence, lest it should
prejudice him by being wrong stated.’

u 2

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1794.

292

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bc°ap. 2/ “ 4thly. Because unusual mystery and secrecy in

our judicial proceedings must tend either to discredit

the acquittal of the prisoner, or render the justice of
his condemnation doubtful.

“.(Signed) Porchester,

Suffolk and Berkshire,
Loughborough.”

VI. The committee next showed, by irresistible
evidence, that the House of Lords, by the questions
which they had transferred to the decision of the
judges, had subverted the usage of parliament,
violated some of the most important of the privileges
of the Commons, betrayed and relinquished their
own judicial trust, and broken down one of the
strongest bulwarks of the constitution.

On all former occasions, the judges were con-
sulted by the Lords, not on the individual circum-
stances of the individual cause ; but on some general
question, within which the circumstances of the indi-
vidual case might fall, and the application of which
to those circumstances the Lords reserved to them-
selves.

“In the present trial,” says the report, “ the
judges appear to your Committee, not to have given
their judgment on points of law, stated as such ; but
to have, in effect, tried the cause, in the whole course
of it, with one instance to the contrary. — The Lords
have stated no question of general law ; no question
on the construction of an act of parliament ; no ques-
tion concerning the practice of the courts below.
They put the whole gross case, and matter in ques-

burke’s report on abuses in the trial. 293

tion, with all its circumstances, to the judges. They 1

have for the first time , demanded of them what parti

cular person, paper, or document, ought, or ought 1/9L
not, to be produced before them, by the managers
for the Commons of Great Britain.

So much for the innovation : Now for the conse-
quences of it.

“ This mode strikes, as we apprehend, at the vital
privileges of the House. For, with a single excep-
tion, the case being stated, the questions are raised
directly, specifically, and by name, on these privi-
leges ; that is, What evidence is it competent for the
managers of the House of Commons to produce. —

We conceive, that it was not proper, nor justified by
a single precedent, to refer to the judges of the infe-
rior courts any question, and still less for them to
decide in their answer, of what is, or is not com-
petent for the House of Commons, or for any com-
mittee acting under their authority, to do, or not to
do, in any instance, or respect whatsoever. This
new and unheard of course can have no other effect
than to subject to the discretion of the judges the
law of parliament and the privileges of the House
of Commons, and in a great measure the judicial
privileges of the Peers themselves; any intermed-
dling in which, on their part, we conceive to he
a dangerous and unwarrantable assumption of
power.”

Such were the effects upon the privileges of the
Lords, and the Commons. Let us next observe
what they were upon objects of much greater
importance.

“ The operation of this method is, in substance,
not only to make the judges masters of the whole

294

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi process and conduct of the trial: but, through that

CHAP. 2. 1 . .

. medium, to transfer to them the ultimate judgment

1794. 0f the cause itself and its merits.

“ These essential innovations tend, as your Com-
mittee conceives, to make an entire alteration in the
constitution and in the purposes of the High Court
of Parliament, and even to reverse the ancient rela-
tions between the Lords and the Judges.

“ It tends wholly to take away from the Commons
the benefit of making good their case before the pro-
per judges, and submits this high inquest to the
inferior courts.

“ Your Committee sees no reason why, on the
same principles and precedents, the Lords may not
terminate their proceedings, in this and in all future
trials, by sending the wLole body of evidence taken
before them, in the shape of a special verdict, to the
Judges, and may not demand of them whether they
ought, on the whole matter, to acquit or condemn
the prisoner : Nor can we discover any cause that
should hinder them from deciding on the accumu-
lative body of the evidence, as hitherto they have
done in its parts, and from dictating the existence
or non-existence of a misdemeanour or other crime
in the prisoner, as they think fit, — without any more
reference to principle or precedent of law, than
hitherto they have thought proper to apply in deter-
mining on the several parcels of this cause.

“ Your Committee apprehends that very serious
inconveniences and mischiefs may hereafter arise
from a practice in the House of Lords, of considering
itself as unable to act without the judges of the
inferior courts, of implicitly following their dictates,
of adhering with a literal precision to the very

burke’s report on abuses in the trial.

295

words of their responses, and putting them to decide ) 1

on the competence of the managers for the Com-

mons, — the competence of the evidence to be pro- 1/94-
duced, — who are to he permitted to appear, — what
questions are to be asked of witnesses, and indeed,
parcel by parcel, of the whole of the gross case
before them ; as well as to determine upon the
order, method, and process of every part of their
proceedings. The judges of the inferior courts are
by law rendered independent of the Crown. But
this, instead of a benefit to the subject, would be a
grievance, if no way was left of producing a respon-
sibility. If the Lords cannot, or will not act without
the Judges; and if (which God forbid!) the Com-
mons should at any time find it hereafter necessary
to impeach them before the Lords ; this House would
find the Lords disabled in their functions, fearful of
giving any judgment on matter of law, or admitting
any proof of fact without them ; and having once
assumed the rule of proceeding and practice below
as their rule, they must at every instance resort, for
their means of judging, to the authority of those
whom they are appointed to judge.”

On the side of judicature, then, the people were
left without a remedy. The Lords, by nullifying
themselves, took away every legal check upon the
iniquity of judges, because the judges could only be
tried before the Lords, and to he tried before the
Lords was to be tried by themselves.

For the departure from the ancient practice of
framing a general question, within which the parti-
cular point in doubt was comprehended, to the new
and extraordinary practice of sending the particular
point itself to the judges, before whom the cause and

296

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi its evidence was not brought, two possible causes are

assignable. First ; Talent, and the exercise of talent,

17 94- were necessary to the framing of general questions ;
but talent was possibly scarce, and the labour of
thought undoubtedly painful. Secondly ; General
rules, framed to embrace the particular instances,
decided as they were by the judges, would, in many
cases, not have borne to be expressed ; their efficacy,
in corrupting the administration of justice, would
have been sufficiently visible, to excite the indignation
of the world.

They would have been seen to be, what, by the
committee, they were declared to be, “ of a ten-
dency to shut up for ever all the avenues to justice
to operate as “ a means of concealment;” “to render
the process of judicature, not the terror, but the
protection, of all the fraud and violence arising from
the abuse of power;” and, united with “ private,
unargued judicial opinions, to introduce, by degrees,
the miserable servitude which exists where the law
is uncertain or unknown.”

“ A miserable servitude exists wherever the law is
uncertain or unknown .” Such was the opinion,

solemnly pronounced, on a very important occasion,
by the assemblage of great men by whom this trial
of Warren Hastings was conducted. Does any man
dispute its truth and importance? After this ac-
knowledgment, did the managers reflect how dread-
fully uncertain law must be, in that country where
it has nothing for its foundation, but the notes taken
by casual individuals, of the incidents which happen
in this and that individual case ? Did they reflect,
to how dreadful a degree law must be unknown, in
that country, in which it is so voluminous and

BURKES REPORT ON ABUSES IN THE TRIAL. 297

obscure, that the longest life of the most ingenious J1

lawyer, according to the lawyers themselves, is not

sufficient to learn completely even one of its parts? 1/94
Is it necessary to add, how great a portion of this
miserable servitude is, therefore, the curse and the
disgrace of the country, among the legislators of
which these managers themselves were found ?

VII. The committee made a dissertation of con-
siderable value upon the rules of evidence, or rather
the rules for exclusion of evidence. Even here,
however, the author of the report saw his way but
obscurely. He perceived distinctly, that every one
of the rules of exclusion, which had been brought to
bear against himself, was mischievous, and opposed
to the course of justice in that particular application
of it. But he did not ascend to the principle of
exclusion itself ; and perceive that generically it wrns
pregnant with nothing but mischief. The mind of
Mr. Burke was not a generalizing mind. It rested
upon individual cases ; had little native propensity to
ascend any higher ; and seldom did so, unless when
impelled by unusual circumstances.

The Committee begin with stating to the House
of Commons, and to the world, a most important
fact. They had been informed, before the trial
began, that use would be made of the rules of
evidence to obstruct them. That is to say, the
knowledge existed, and was capable of being turned
to practical account, that the laws of evidence were
useful to protect a criminal ; because it was not yet
known whether Hastings was criminal or not crimi-
nal ; but it was perfectly known, it seems, that, in
either case, the laws of evidence would be effectual
to obstruct his prosecutors. And, happily, the

298

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book ^ i power of obstructing justice, which English law thus

puts into the hands of her professors, received a

1/94. memorable and flagrant illustration, on the trial of
Warren Hastings.

The committee first observe, that if the rules for
excluding evidence were of advantage in questions
which related to men of our own country, and to
private transactions they were altogether inappli-
cable, in questions, which related “ to a people
separated from Great Britain by a very great part of
the globe, separated by manners, by principles of
religion, and by inveterate habits as strong as nature
itself, still more than by the circumstance of local
distance and questions which related to men,
“ who in the perpetration and concealment of
offences, have had the advantage of all the means
and powers given to government for the detection
and punishment of guilt, and for the protection of the
people.”

The author of the report lays down the principle
of evidence, with more than his usual comprehen-
siveness, in the following words: “ Your committee
conceives, that the trial of a cause is not in the
arguments or disputations of the prosecutors and the
counsel, but in the evidence; and that to refuse
evidence, is to refuse to hear the cause : Nothing,
therefore, but the most clear and weighty reasons
ought to preclude its production.” Yet, after laying
down this important proposition, the author seems
to have known little of its value ; for he makes
hardly any use of it, but goes immediately to
challenge his adversary, on the score of precedent
and practice; though he had made the committee
expressly declare, that where not “ founded on the

burke’s report on abuses in the trial.

299

immutable principles of substantial justice, no book .J1

practice, in any court, high or low, is proper, or fit .

to be maintained.” 1794

The committee proceeded to lay before the House
and the world, the result of a careful research, which
they professed to have made into the subject of
legal technicalities , or “ those supposed strict and
inflexible rules of proceeding and of evidence, which
appeared to them,” as they affirmed, f‘ destructive of
all the means and ends of justice;” a declaration
more firmly grounded than even they were aware;
and of which their country has not yet been wise
enough to profit.

They gave an account of the doctrine of evidence,
as it had been manifested in the proceedings of the
high court of parliament, as it existed in the civil or
Roman, and as it existed in English law. The
inference presented was, that on the trial of Mr.
Hastings, the Lords, in the leading-strings of the
judges, went beyond the law of parliament, beyond
the civil, and beyond even the English law, in their
rejections of evidence.

Reflecting upon the history of English law, which
for a series of years had been relaxing the cere-
monial of barbarous times, and always most rapidly
in the hands of its most enlightened professors, the
committee presented a most important historical and
philosophical fact: That an overlaboured devotion
to forms, at the expense of substance, is the bent of
a rude age : and of a rude mind, in all ages.

The committee, having produced a number of the
most remarkable instances they could find, in which
the judges had violated the formalities of law in order
to preserve the substance of justice, exhibited the

300

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi; following brilliant eulogium on the courts of law:

“ It is with great satisfaction your committee has

i/94. found, that the reproach of disgraceful subtleties, of
inferior rules of evidence which prevent the dis-
covery of truth, of forms and modes of proceeding
which stand in the way of that justice, the forward-
ing of which is the sole rational object of their
invention, cannot fairly be imputed to the common
law of England, or to the ordinary practice of the
courts below.”

This was to draw a general rule from the induc-
tion of a small and insufficient number of particulars,
agreeably to the mental habit of Edmund Burke.
He had exhibited a certain number of instances, in
which the formalities of law had been made to yield
to the claims of justice. He might have exhibited a
much greater number, in which the claims of justice
had been made to yield to the formalities of law.
Mr. Burke seems to have been perfectly ignorant of
a great and pervading principle of English law,
which may be called the principle of duplicity. On
occasions, so numerous as to extend over a great part
of the whole field of law*, English judges are provided
with two grounds, on which they may erect their
decisions; two opposite grounds, by means of which
they may, upon the same question, make choice of
any one of two opposite decisions which they please;
and still be in the right. They may follow the rule
of rational justice, and the genuine merits of the
case, without regard to the formalities of law : In
that instance, they are clothed with the praise of
liberality. They may adhere to the formalities, and
disregard the substance of the case : In that instance
they are decorated with the praise of a zeal for the

burke’s report on abuses in the trial. 301

law, for that steadiness and fixity in the rules of law .) 1

on which the usefulness of them mainly depends.

This power of deciding, either on one side or 1/94-
another, just as they please, is arbitrary power; and,
as far as it extends, renders the Judges completely,
and uncontrollably, despotic. They may do what-
ever they please. They may favour justice, if they
have an inclination for justice. They may violate
justice, if they have any end to serve by the
violation. In the one case they are safe, on pretence
of justice : in the other they are safe, on pretence of
law.

VIII. After some general observations on the
nature and importance of circumstantial evidence,
the committee stated that the Lords had, on this
occasion, pursued a course, not only unsupported by
any practice of their predecessors, and in hostility
with the practice of the Courts below ; but a course
which appeared to the committee “ totally abhorrent
from the genius of circumstantial evidence, and
mischievously subversive of its use.”

“ As proof by circumstantial evidence rarely, if
ever,” says the report, “ depends upon one fact only,
but is collected from the number and accumulation
of circumstances concurrent in one point ; we do
not find an instance until this trial of Warren
Hastings, Esq., (which has produced many novelties)
that attempts have been made by any court to call
on the prosecutor for an account of the purpose for
which he means to produce each particle of this
circumstantial evidence, to take up the circum-
stances one by one, to prejudge the efficacy of each
matter separately in proving the point ; and thus
to break to pieces and garble those facts, upon the

302

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 2.

1794.

multitude of which, their combination, and the
relation of all their component parts to each other,
and to the culprit, the whole force and virtue of this
evidence depends. To do any thing which can
destroy this collective effect, is to deny circum-
stantial evidence.”

The following was another pertinent remark.
“ Your committee cannot but express their surprise
at the particular period of the present trial when the
attempts to which we have alluded first began to be
made. We did not find any serious resistance on
this head, till we came to make good our charges of
secret crimes; crimes of a class and description, in
the proof of which all Judges of all countries have
found it necessary to relax almost all their rules of
competency ; such crimes as peculation, pecuniary
frauds, extortion, and bribery.”

IX. The committee complained that the Lords
had made it a ground of exclusion, if a question was
put on the cross-examination, not on the examination
in chief ; or if an article of evidence was tendered on
the reply, not in the first stage of the prosecution.
They entered into a long argument to show, that
this conduct, as it was unfavourable to the discovery
of truth and correct decision ; so it was unsup-
ported by any thing in the law or practice of the
courts.

X. The committee, last of all, commented upon
the defence set up for this rejection of evidence ;
that it corresponded with the practice of the Judges
in trying offences under commissions of oyer and
terminer. They made a distinction between common
jurymen, bound to give their verdict at one sitting,
and the peers of parliament, possessing all the time

BURKES REPORT OK ABUSES IN THE TRIAL.

303

for deliberation which the case might require. They 41

allowed, with flagrant inconsistency, that exclusion

might be very wise and good, when it was common 1794-
jurymen who were to decide upon the case; con-
tended that it was very noxious when the Lords of
Parliament were to decide ; as if common jurymen
were capable of deciding accurately and justly upon
the merits of a case, with evidence not complete ;
the Lords of Parliament were not capable! As if
the way to prevent ignorance from deciding wrong
was to withhold information! As if a man with
imperfect eyes were expected to find his way best in
the dark ! Assuredly, if an ignorant man is called
upon to make a decision, the way to obtain a correct
one is not to deprive him of information on the
subject, but to give him all the information in your
power, and instruct him, as completely as you can,
what degree of influence each article of information
intrinsically possesses towards proving the matter in
dispute.

This unprecedented exposure of abuses in the
law, and of the advantage made of those abuses, by
the professors of the law, excited the highest indig-
nation among those professors. Lord Thurlow, at
the head of them in point of weight, and almost at
the head of them also in impetuosity of temper,
broke out, on an early occasion, with the flames
which were kindled within his breast.

In a debate which took place in the House of
Peers, on Thursday, May 22nd, on the bill for allow-
ing government to take up and confine for a limited
time persons suspected of treasonable or seditious
practices, Lord Thurlow in his speech mentioned

304

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v1 “ a pamphlet which his Lordship said was published

hy one Dehrett, in Piccadilly, and which had that

1794 day been put into his hands, reflecting highly upon
the Judges and many Members of that House: it
was disgraceful and indecent; such as he thought
never ought to pass unpunished. He considered
that vilifying and misrepresenting the conduct of
Judges and Magistrates, intrusted with the admi-
nistration of justice and the laws of the country,
ivas a crime of a very heinous nature, most destruc-
tive in its consequences, because it tended to lower
them in the opinion of those who ought to feel a
proper reverence and respect for their high and
important stations ; and when it was stated to the
ignorant and wicked, that their Judges and Magis-
trates were ignorant and corrupt, it tended to lessen
their respect for, and obedience to, the laws of their
country, because they were taught to think ill of
those who administered them.”1

We may here observe one of the most remarkable
of the expedients of the lawyers. What they have
laboured from an early date to create and establish
in the minds of their countrymen is — a belief, that it

1 Had the House of Lords prosecuted Debrett for a libel, they would
only have followed the example set them by the House of Commons a few
years before, in the course of this same trial. The charges found against Hast-
ings were printed and sold. They were commented upon with consider-
able ability and some severity, by the Rev. Mr. Logan, one of the ministers
of Leith, in Scotland. This review was published by a bookseller of the
name of Stockdale, and upon the motion of the managers, an information
was filed against him by the Attorney-General, for a libel on the Commons
House of Parliament. The cause was heard in the Court of Kings’ Bench in
December, 1789. The occasion was rendered remarkable by the eloquence
of Erskine, who defended Stockdale, and made a speech in his defence, which
is considered as one of the most brilliant specimens of his oratory. Although
only incidental to the subject, there are several passages in the speech
which powerfully vindicate the conduct of Hastings. — See Erskine’s
speeches, vol. ii. 205. — W.

WRATH OF THE LAWYERS AT BURKE’S REPORT. 3(J5

is criminal ever to express blame of them or their book vi

C H A P 2

system. This endeavour has hardly been less dili-

gent than it has been successful. The belief has !?94.
grown into one of the most rooted principles in the
minds of the more opulent classes of Englishmen.

That it is one of the most pernicious prejudices is
indisputable. For it is obvious, that it confers upon
the lawyers, as far as it goes, a complete and absolute
license to make the system of which they are the
organs, and upon which all the happiness of society
depends, as favourable to their own interests, at the
expense of those of the community, as ever they
please. It is, therefore, a belief artificially created
by the lawyers, for the protection of their own
abuses ; and will never be allowed to retain a place
in the mind of any enlightened and disinterested
man. The grand remedy for the defects of govern-
ment is, to let in upon them publicity and censure.

There are no abuses in the exposure of which society
is more interested than those of the law. There is
no misconduct in the exposure of which it is more
interested than that of the lawyers.

The first thing observable in the speech of this
great lawyer is the fiction , under which he speaks of
the report of a committee of the House of Commons.

It was a pamphlet published by one Debrett. The
regulations of parliament required, that notice should
not be taken in one of the Houses, of any thing done
in the other. The speech of the great lawyer, then,
was a flagrant violation of that rule ; for the whole
purport of it was to arraign the matter of the writ-
ing, which was the production of the House of Com-
mons, not the mere act of publication , in which

VOL. v.

x

306

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi alone Debrett was concerned. A rule that can be

CHAP. 2.

set aside by a fiction, that is, by a declaration more

i794. or iess false, adapted to the purpose, is not a rule that
is good for much, as it will never be in substance
regarded when any one has a motive for breaking it.

The vindictive Judge here speaks of two things,
vilifying, and misrepresenting. If he meant to say,
that the report of the committee of the House of
Commons had misrepresented any thing done by the
Judges, of either of the two descriptions, concerned
in the trial of Mr. Hastings; it is not true. He
could not have mentioned a single fact which was
not justly stated ; nor a single censure, with respect
to which, the fact against which it was pointed, and
the reasons for which it was applied, were not both
of them distinctly assigned. Nothing could be
further from misrepresentation than this.

Further, the offended Judge speaks of two things,
vilifying, and misrepresenting, as if they were one
and the same thing ; and thereby creates a deceitful
and mischievous confusion. Misrepresenting , which
is conveying a false conception of another man, is
always bad. It may or it may not imply guilt,
according to the state of the mind from which it
issued. But all means should be employed both to
prevent its existence, and to provide a remedy for its
effects. Vilification is a very different thing ; and
is subject to very different laws. Vilification, as
distinct from misrepresentation, is the conveying a
true character of a bad man. The case is not easy
to be conceived, in which that is not good for society.
There can be no case, in which to publish the true
character of a bad ruler is not good for society.
There can be no case, in which to publish the true

WRATH OF THE LAWYERS AT BURKE’S REPORT.

307

character of a bad Judge is not pre-eminently bene- book vi
ficialto society.

Observe the sleight of hand, with which the artificer 1 7 94
endeavours to pass his counterfeit coin. Vilification ,
and misrepresentation, are both spoken of, as the
same thing. Misrepresentation is unquestionably
bad; and vilification being shuffled in, under the
same cover, is spoken of as bad also. And then
comes the doctrine, delightful to the lawyer, that to
speak with censure of the dignitaries of the law,
on any occasion, or in any shape, is the height of
criminality; and that “ to reflect,” as they call it,
upon the Judges, that is, to make just remarks upon
ill-behaviour, “ ought never to pass unpunished .” It
is very natural for Judges to preach punishment for
all “ reflection” upon Judges. But what is the con-
sequence with respect to the unhappy community %

To ensure to the Judges a power of gratifying and
aggrandizing themselves at their expense ; the power,
in short, of making and keeping the law, an instru-
ment, to any extent which they please, not of justice,
but oppression.

Hear the plea of the lawyer, in behalf of his mis-
chievous claim. To make known, says he, the offences
of great men of the law would le diminish respect for,
and obedience to the laws.” That is say : When
laws and the administration of them are made good,
they will not be respected : When they are bad, if
you only say nothing about their badness, and allow
the lawyers to praise the badness as if it were good-
ness, you will then have perfect respect and obe-
dience. Who but those who have rendered up their
understandings to the will of the deceivers, can be-

X 2

308

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 2.

1794.

lieve this wretched misrepresentation of the human
mind *? It requires pains and trouble, cunningly and
perseveringly applied, to make people in love with
that which hurts them ; leave them only to the opera-
tion of nature, and that which does them good will
of itself engage their affections. If half the pains
were taken to make the people see the excellence of
good laws, that have been always taken to prevent
them from seeing the wickedness of bad laws, an
obedience such as the world has never yet beheld,
and never can behold, till that righteous course is
adopted, would be the consequence, ensured, with
the certainty of the laws of nature.1

1 What Mr. Burke said upon the subject of this attack deserves atten-
tion ; though his strictures fall greatly short of the mark, because his
mind was deluded by the fallacy — of respect for bad Judges, and bad laws.
On the day after the speech of Lord Thurlow was delivered in the House
of Lords, he thus addressed the House of Commons :

“The license of the present times makes it very difficult to talk upon
certain subjects in which Parliamentary Order is involved. It is difficult
to speak of them with regularity, or to be silent with dignity or wisdom. All
our proceedings have been constantly published, according to the discre-
tion and ability of individuals, with impunity, almost ever since I came
into Parliament. By prescription people had obtained something like a
right to this abuse. I do not justify it. The abuse is now grown so
inveterate, that to punish it without a previous notice would have an
appearance of hardship, if not injustice. These publications are frequently
erroneous as well as irregular, but not always so : what they give as
Reports and Resolutions of this House, have sometimes been fairly given.

“ It has not been uncommon to attack the proceedings of the House
itself, under colour of attacking these irregular publications ; and the
House, notwithstanding this colourable plea, has, in some instances,
proceeded to punish the persons who have thus insulted it. When a com-
plaint is made of a piratical edition of a work, the author admits that it is
his work that is thus piratically published ; and whoever attacks the work
itself in these unauthorized publications, does not attack it less than if he
had attacked it in an edition authorized by the writer,

“ I understand, that in a place which I greatly respect, and by a person
for whom I have likewise great respect, a pamphlet published by a Mr.
Debrett has been very heavily censured. That pamphlet, I hear (for I
have not read it), purpoits to be a Report made by one of your committees
to this House. It has been censured (as I am told) by the person and in

WRATH OF THE LAWYERS AT BURKe’s REPORT.

309

the place I have mentioned, in very harsh and very unqualified terms. It BOOK VI
has been said, and so far very truly, that at all times, and particularly at chap. 2.
this time, it is necessary for the preservation of order and the execution
of the law, that the characters and reputation of the Judges of the Courts 1794.
in Westminster Hall should be kept in the highest degree of respect and
reverence ; and that in this pamphlet, described by the name of a Libel,
the characters and conduct of those Judges upon a late occasion had been
aspersed, as arising from ignorance or corruption.

“ I think it impossible, combining all the circumstances, not to suppose
that this speech does reflect upon a Report which, by an order of the
committee on which I served, I had the honour of presenting to this
House. For any thing improper in that report I am responsible, as well
as the other members of the committee, to this House, and to this House
only. The matters contained in it, and the observations upon them, are
submitted to the wisdom of the House, that it may act upon both in the
time and manner that to your judgment may seem most expedient, or that
you may not act upon them at all, if you should think it most useful to the
public good. Your committee has obeyed your orders; it has done its
duty in making that Report. I am of opinion with the eminent person by
whom that Report is censured, that it is necessary, at this time very parti-
cularly, to preserve the authority of the Judges. This, however, does not
depend upon us, but upon themselves. It is necessary to preserve the
dignity and respect of all the constitutional authorities. This, too, depends
upon ourselves. It is necessary to preserve the respect due to the
House of Lords : it is full as necessary to preserve the respect due to the
House of Commons : upon which (whatever may be thought of us by some
persons) the weight and force of all other authorities within this kingdom
essentially depend. If the power of the House of Commons is degraded
or enervated, no other can stand. We must be true to ourselves ; we ought
to animadvert upon any of our members who abuse the trust we place in
them : we must support those who, without regard to consequences, per-
form their duty.

“ For your committee of managers and for myself, I must say, that the
Report was deliberately made, and does not, as I conceive, contain any
very material error, or any undue or indecent reflection upon any person.

It does not accuse the Judges of ignorance or corruption. Whatever it
says, it does not say calumniously. This kind of language belongs to
persons whose eloquence entitles them to a free use of epithets. The
report states, that the Judges had given their opinions secretly, contrary
to the almost uninterrupted tenor of Parliamentary usage on such occa-
sions. It states that the opinions were given, not upon the Law, but upon
the Case. It states that the mode of giving the opinions was unprece-
dented, and contrary to the privileges of the House of Commons. It
states that the committee did not know upon what rules and principles
the Judges had decided upon those cases, as they neither heard them, nor
are they entered upon the Journals. It is very true, that we were and are
extremely dissatisfied with those opinions, and the consequent determina-
tions of the Lords ; and we do not think such a mode of proceeding at all
justified by the most numerous and the best precedents. None of these

310

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI sentiments are the committee, as I conceive (and I full as little as any of
chap. 2. them), disposed to retract or to soften in the smallest degree.

’ “ The report speaks for itself. Whenever an occasion shall be regularly

1794 given to maintain every thing of substance in that Paper, I shall be ready
to meet the proudest name for ability, learning, or rank, that this kingdom
contains, upon that subject. Do I say this from any confidence in myself?
Far from it ! It is from my confidence in our cause, and in the ability,
the learning, and the constitutional principles, which this House contains
within itself, and which I hope it will ever contain ; and in the assistance
which it will not fail to afford to those who, with good intention, do their
best to maintain the essential Privileges of the House, the ancient Law of
Parliament, and the public Justice of the Kingdom.” Hist, of Trial,
part vii. p. 117, 118.

No reply or observation was made on the subject by any other
member. — M.

It appears from Burke’s correspondence with Dr. Laurence, that he
at one time contemplated writing a History of the Trial, and that when he
found his health and powers unequal to the task, he imposed it earnestly
upon his friend. He retained to the last moments of his life a deep im-
pression that his charges were just, and that his accusation of Hastings
was the great glory of hislife. Upon the subject of the acquittal of Hastings,
he writes to Dr. Laurence — “ Let not this cruel, daring, unexampled act
of public corruption, guilt, and meanness, go down to posterity without its
due animadversion. Let my endeavours to save the nation from that
shame and guilt, be my monument, ‘the only one I ever will have.’ He
was with some difficulty deterred from addressing a petition to the House
of Commons, against the decision of the Lords, and was most indignant
with the ministry for sanctioning the pension and the loan. At a subse-
quent period, in February, 1797, he exults over the loss of 44,0007. by Mrs.
Hastings, in consequence of the failure of a Dutch house of business, and
evidently concludes that this money had been invested in foreign secu-
rities, that it might be kept secret. It is, however, very nearly the sum
accounted for as the accumulation of the marriage-settlement of Mrs.
Hastings, in a letter from her husband to the Court in 1795. In the same
letter he repeats his request, and takes a short review of his conduct,
which is of exceeding interest, as a remarkable, although melancholy proof
of the extraordinary manner in which virtuous feelings, uncontrolled by
cautious judgment, and misdirected by imperfect knowledge, could mis-
lead even so illustrious a man as Burke.

“ The affair of Mrs. Hastings has something in it that might move a third
Cato to a horse-laugh, though the means, I am afraid, by which she and
her paramour have made that and all the sums which they have got by
their own dishonesty, or lost by the dishonesty of others or the confusion
of the times, [might cause] the laughing Democritus to weep as much as
his opponent : but let whoever laugh or weep, nothing plaintive will let
Mr. Pitt or Mr. Dundas blush for having rewarded the criminal whom
they prosecuted, and sent me and nineteen members of Parliament to pro-
secute, for every mode of peculation and oppression, with a greater sum

BURKE ON THURLOW’S ATTACK.

311

of money than ever yet was paid to any one British subject, except the BOOK VI
Duke of Marlbro’, for the most acknowledged public services, and not to chat. 2.

him if you take Blenheim, which was an expense and not a charge, out of

the account. All this and ten times more will not hinder them from add- l/'JT

ing the Peerage, to make up the insufficiency of his pecuniary rewards.

My illness, which came the more heavily and suddenly upon me by this
flagitious act, whilst I was preparing a representation upon it, has hindered
me, as you know, from doing justice to that act, to Mr. Hastings, to my-
self, to the House of Lords, to the House of Commons, and to the unhappy
people of India, on that subject. It has made me leave the letters that I
was writing to my Lord Chancellor and Mr. Dundas, as well as my peti-
tion to the House of Commons, unfinished. But you remember, likewise,
that when I came hither at the beginning of last summer, I repeated to
you that dying request which I now reiterate, That if at any time, without
the danger of ruin to yourself, or over-distracting you from your professional
and parliamentary duties, you can place in a short point of view, and sup-
port by the documents in print and writing which exist with me, or with
Mr. Troward, or yourself, the general merits of this transaction, you will
erect a cenotaph most grateful to my shade, and will clear my memory
from that load, which the East India Company, King, Lords, and Com-
mons, and in a manner the whole British N ation, (God forgive them 1 ) have
been pleased to lay as a monument upon my ashes. I am as conscious as
any person can be of the little value of the good or evil opinion of mankind
to the part of me that shall remain, but I believe it is of some moment not
to leave the fame of an evil example, of the expenditure of fourteen years’
labour, and of not less (taking the expense of the suit, and the costs paid
to Mr. Hastings, and the parliamentary charges) than near 300,00(B. This
is a terrible example, and it is not acquittance at all to a public man, who,
with all the means of undeceiving himself if he was wrong, has thus with
such incredible pains both of himself and others, persevered in the perse-
cution of innocence and merit. It is, I say, no excuse at all to urge in
his apology, that he has had enthusiastic good intentions. In reality, you
know that I am no enthusiast, but [according] to the powers that God has
given me, a sober and reflecting man. I have not even the other very bad
excuse, of acting from personal resentment, or from the sense of private
injury — never having received any ; nor can I plead ignorance, no man
ever having taken more pains to be informed. Therefore I say, Re-
member.” Correspondence, &c.

It is certain, however, notwithstanding this denial of enthusiasm, that
enthusiastic zeal was at the bottom of all Burke’s proceedings in this
remarkable inveteracy towards Hastings, and that, as observed by an
equally distinguished orator, “ his prejudices on this occasion warped his
judgment.” “ When strongly interested,” Lord Brougham continues,

“ Burke was apt to regard things in false colours and distorted shape. The
fate of society for many years hung upon Hastings’s impeachment ; during
that period, he exhausted as much vituperation upon the East Indians in
this country, as he afterwards did on the Jacobins ; and he was not more
ready to quarrel with Mr. Fox on a difference of opinion about France,
than lie had been a year before to attack Mr. Erskine with every weapon

312

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI of personal and professional abuse, upon a slighter difference about the
cha.1'. 3. abating of the impeachment : nay, after the Hastings’ question might have
been supposed forgotten, or merged in the more recent controversy on
17SG. French affairs, he deliberately enumerates among the causes of alarm at
French principles, the prevalence of the East India interest in England ;
ranks 1 Nabobs’ with the diplomatic body all over Europe, as naturally
and incurably Jacobin ; and warns this country loudly and solemnly against
suffering itself to be overthrown by a Bengal Junto.” Statesmen of the
Time of George 3rd., by Henry Lord Brougham, 1G3. — W.

CHAPTER III.

Arrangement about troops and money with the
Nabob of Oude. — The Guntoor drear obtained
from the Nizam , and a new arrangement made
with that Prince. — Aspect which that arrange-
ment bore to Tippoo Saib. — Dispute of Tippoo with
The Paja of Travancore. — Tippoo attacks the
lines of Travancore. — The English prepare for
war. — Form an alliance with the Nizam , and
with the Mahrattas. — Plan of the campaign. —
General Meadows takes possession of Coimbetore,
and establishes a chain of depots to the bottom of
the Gujelhutty Pass. — Tippoo descends by the
Gujelhutty Pass. — And compels the English Ge-
neral to return for the Defence of the Carnatic. —
End of the Campaign , and arrival of Lord Corn-
wallis at Madras. — Operations in Malabar. — A
new arrangement with Mohammed Ali, respecting
the revenues of the Carnatic.

Lord Cornwallis took in his hand the reins of
the Indian government in the month of September,
1786; and was guided by a pretty extensive code

TRANSACTIONS WITH THE NABOB OF OUDE.

313

of instructions, carried out from the joint manu-
facture of the Board of Control and the Court of
Directors.

Of the two grand divisions into which the mea-
sures of this Governor-General are distinguished ;
those which regarded the interior management of
the empire, and those which regarded its external
relations; the one constitutes a subject distinct
from the other; and we shall consult utility, by
reserving the attempts which he made to improve
the state of the government, till after the narrative is
presented of the transactions which took place be-
tween him and the neighbouring powers.

The state of the connexion with the Nabob of
Oude was the object which first solicited the atten-
tion of Lord Cornwallis. The preceding Governor-
General and Council had pledged themselves to Mr.
Hastings for the support of that arrangement which
was one of the last measures of his administration.
But no sooner had Lord Cornwallis arrived in India,
than the Nabob proposed to come even in person to
Calcutta, and pressed in the most earnest manner for
leave to send Hyder Beg Khan his minister. The
object was to represent as insupportable the weight
of the burden which was still imposed upon his coun-
try : and to entreat that the temporary brigade, now
called the Futtyghur brigade, should, agreeably to
the contract which Mr. Hastings had formed, but
which had never been observed, now be withdrawn.

To Lord Cornwallis, it appeared, however, by no
means safe, to intrust the defence of the Nabob’s do-
minions to the stipulated amount of the Company’s
troops, a single brigade at Cawnpore. In the minute
which he recorded upon this occasion, he represented

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1786.

314 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bcu!rV 3 1 discipline of the Nabob’s own troops as too im-

perfect to be depended upon, even for the obedience

R8G. 0f ]^s supjects ; who were retained in submission
solely by their dread of the Company’s arms : He
described the character of the Nabob as a pure com-
pound of negligence and profusion : And though, at
that time, Oude was threatened with no particular
danger ; and the expense attending the continuance
of the brigade at F uttyghur exceeded the sum which
he was entitled to exact of the Nabob ; he adhered
to the resolution that the troops should not be re-
moved.

In the pecuniary burden, however, he admitted
some alteration. It appeared that, during the nine
preceding years, the Nabob had paid to the Com-
pany, under different titles, at the rate of eighty-four
lacs of rupees per annum ; though by the treaty of
1775, he had bound himself to the annual payment
of only 31,21,000, and by the treaty of 1781, to that
of 34,20,000 rupees.

It was agreed that fifty lacs should be the annual
payment of the Nabob ; and that this should em-
brace every possible claim. The Governor-General
declared that this wTas sufficient to indemnify the
Company for all the expense which it was necessary
for them to incur in consequence of their connexion
with the Vizir. In other wTords, he declared that,
for the nine preceding years, unjustifiable extortion,
to the amount of thirty-four lacs per annum, had
been practised on that dependent prince. The rela.
tion now established between the Nabob of Oude
and the Honourable Company was described by the
Governor-General in the following words: “We
undertake the defence of his country : in return, he

THE GUNTOOR CIRCAR DEMANDED FROM THE NIZAM. 315

agrees to defray the real expenses incurred by an 3 1

engagement of so much value to himself : and the .

internal administration of his affairs is left to his 178S-
exclusive management.”1

Among the instructions with which Lord Corn-
wallis was furnished for his government in India, he
carried out with him explicit orders to demand from
the Nizam the surrender of the circar of Guntoor.

Bazalut Jung had died in 1782; but Nizam Ali
retained possession of the circar ; and the English
had withheld the payment of the peshcush. Upon
the arrival of Lord Cornwallis in India, he was
deterred from obeying immediately the peremptory
orders of his European masters, with regard to the
surrender of Guntoor, on account of the advantage
which it appeared that a dispute with the Nizam
might lend to the ambition of Tippoo, and the appre-
hension which was entertained of a rupture with
France. In the year 1788, however, the prospect
of uninterrupted peace with France, the great addi-
tion to the English military strength expected in the
course of the season, and the general position of the
other powers in India, presented the appearance of as
favourable an opportunity for making the demand,
as any which was regarded as sufficiently probable
to form a rational basis of action. Immediately after
the return of Tippoo from the siege of Mangalore,
and the conclusion of his treaty with the English in
1784, he set up against the Nizam a demand for
Beejapore. About the same time a dispute arose
between Tippoo and the Poona ministers, respecting
a part of those acquisitions from the Mahratta ter-

1 Sec Papers relating to the East Indies, printed by order of the House
of Commons in 1806, No. 2. p. 1 — 14.

316

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

J1 ritory, which had been made by Hyder, during the

Peshwaship of Ragoba. These circumstances, toge-

1788- ther with the jealousy, if not the fears, which the
power and character of Tippoo inspired into these
neighbouring chiefs, produced a connexion between
them, in consequence of which a junction was formed
between a Poona and Hyderabad army, in the begin-
ning of the year 1786. The terms of reprobation
in which Englishmen in India were accustomed to
speak of the peace of 1784, led the Poona ministers,
according to the opinion of Colonel Wilks, to expect
that the English would take part in this confederacy
against Mysore ; and he is not well pleased with
Lord Cornwallis, who lost no time in letting them
know, that no project of an alliance, or any other
measure of an aggressive nature, would he enter-
tained by his nation. After a year of warring,
attended by no considerable result, Tippoo and his
enemies were both weary of the contest. A peace
was concluded, on terms not very favourable to the
Sultan, who was alarmed at the progressive accu-
mulation of the instruments of war in the hands of
the English ; and desirous of an interval to settle
his dominions on the coast of Malabar. In these cir-
cumstances, Lord Cornwallis was under no appre-
hension of a union between Tippoo and the
Mahrattas : he thought it by no means probable,
that, without the prospect of alliance with the
French, he would provoke the dangers of an English
war: and he concluded with some assurance that,
with the support of Tippoo alone, the Nizam would
not hazard the dangers of resistance. Still, though
not probable, it was by no means impossible, that a
connexion subsisted, or might in consequence of

THE GUNTOOR CIRCAR DEMANDED FROM THE NIZAM. 317
this requisition be formed, between the Nizam and book \ i

A # CHAP. 6.

Tippoo ; which, “ no doubt,” said the Governor-

General, “ would bring on a war, calamitous to the
Carnatic, and distressing to the Company’s affairs.”

Yet if ever the claim upon the Guntoor circar was to
be enforced, the time was now arrived ; and with
regard to the result, should war ensue, it was, in the
opinion of this ruler, impossible that for one moment
a doubt could be entertained.1

The resolution being taken, the execution was
skilfully planned. Captain Kennaway, a gentleman
whose address was supposed well calculated to
soften what might appear offensive in his commission,
was sent to the court of the Nizam, instructed to
employ conciliatory language, and to show the
utmost liberality, in regard to every other point
respecting which adjustment was required. No
intimation was to be given to the Nizam of the pro-
posed demand, till after the arrival of Captain
Kennaway at his court. At the same time, instruc-
tions were sent to the Residents at the several
durbars, of the Peshwa, Sinclia, and the Raja of
Berar, to give to these powers a full explanation of
the proceeding, before intelligence of it could reach
them from any other source. The government
of Madras, under specious pretences, conveyed a
body of troops to the neighbourhood of the circar ;
and held themselves in readiness to seize the territory
before any other power could interpose, either with
arms or remonstrance.

1 Copy of a Letter from Earl Cornwallis to Sir Archibald Campbell,
dated Calcutta, 30th of May, 1788. Ordered to be printed 1792. Wilks’s
Hist. Sketches, ii. 535 — 559 ; iii. 36.

318

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

J1 Captain Kennaway was yet on his journey to
— p-p — Hyderabad, when the following letter from the
Governor-General, dated 3rd of July, 1788, went
after him by despatch : “ Sir — I have this instant
received advice from Sir Archibald Campbell, that
the Raja of Cherika has actually committed hosti-
lities on the Company’s possessions at Tellicherry
by order from Tippoo. Sir Archibald appears like-
wise to be decidedly of opinion, that Tippoo will
immediately attack the Raja of Travancore. This
may, however, I think, be doubtful. Unless this
alarm should be blown over, previous to your arrival
at Hyderabad, of which you cannot fail of having
certain information, you will of course recollect that
part of your instructions, and, instead of declaring
the real object of your mission, confine yourself
to the general expressions of friendship, and assu-
rances of our earnest desire to cultivate a good
understanding between the two governments.”

The situation of the Nizam was such, that he
regarded himself as having more to hope, and less
to apprehend, from a connexion with the English,
than with either of the other powers which bordered
upon his dominions. Greatly inferior to either the
Mahrattas or Tippoo, he was ever in dread of being
swallowed up by the one or the other of these for-
midable neighbours, and was no doubt protected
from that destiny by the assistance which, in case of
an attack from the one, he was more than likely to
receive from the other. An alliance with the
English, though disagreeable to both, would not, he
concluded, be sufficient, with pretensions irrecon-
cileable as theirs, to unite them for his destruction ;

THE GUNTOOR CIRCAR DEMANDED FROM THE NIZAM. 319

while the effect of it would be to lessen his depend-
ence upon both. Under the influence of those views ;
possibly, too, attaching no great value to the pos-
session of Guntoor, which, under the bad manage-
ment of his renters, had yielded little revenue, the
Nizam manifested an unexpected readiness to comply
with the Company’s demands ; and, without even
waiting for a decision upon the other points which
were to be adjusted between them, he surrendered
the circar in September, 1788. The settlement of
the arrears of the peshcush, which the Company
had forborne to pay ; and the set-off wThich was con-
stituted by the revenue of the Guntoor circar, from
the time of the death of Bazalut Jung, occasioned
some difficulty and delay. To remove these diffi-
culties, but more with a view to prevail upon the
Governor-General to form with him at least a defen-
sive alliance, which would raise him above his
fears from Tippoo and the Mahrattas, he sent his
confidential minister to Calcutta. A few amicable
conferences sufficed to produce an adjustment of the
pecuniary claims. But with regard to the formation
of new and more comprehensive ties between the
two governments, the English ruler was restrained,
by two powerful considerations. In the first
place, they were forbidden by the act of parliament.
And in the next place, they could not fail to
excite the jealousy and displeasure of the Mah-
rattas, the friendship of whom he was desirous to
cultivate.1

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1788.

1 “ As liis Higliness’s political situation with the Mahrattas has long
approached almost to a state of dependence upon the Poonah government,
we could make no alteration in the terms of our agreement with the

320

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bc°«vi The expedient, which suggested itself to the

— British Indian government, as happily calculated to

1/88‘ answer all purposes, was, To profess the continued
existence of the old treaty of 1768, in which both the
Mysorean and Mahratta governments, as well as the
English at home, had so long acquiesced ; and to
give to the clauses such an extent of meaning as
would satisfy the inevitable demands of the Nizam.
To the clause in that treaty, by which it was stipu-
lated that English troops, to the amount of two
battalions of sepoys, and six pieces of cannon,
manned by Europeans, should be lent to the Nabob,
were annexed the words, “ whenever the necessity
of the Company’s affairs would permit.” It was now
agreed that these words1 should mean, Whenever
the Nizam should think proper to apply for them ;
under one limitation, that they should not be em-
ployed against the Company’s allies, among whom
were enumerated the Mahratta chiefs, the Nabobs of
Oude and Arcot, and the Rajas of Travancore and
Tanjore. Of the treaty of 1768, one memorable

Nizam, without its being construed by the Peshwa’s Ministers as an
attempt to detach him from them.” Lett. Cornwallis to Secret Com-
mittee, 1st of November, 1789. We are informed by Colonel Wilks,
that at the same time with this embassy to the English government,
the Nizam sent one to Tippoo, to propose an alliance offensive and
defensive ; whether to supersede the agreement with the English, or as
a further security, does not appear. Tippoo proposed the adjunct of a
matrimonial connexion between the families ; but this, not suiting the
family pride of the Nizam, broke off the negotiation. Hist. Sketches, iii.
26, 36.

1 The Governor-General imputes bad faith to those who inserted them
as well as the clause relating to the grant of the Carnatic Balaghaut, and
the consequent peshcush : “ The sixth and twelfth articles are couched in
terms which do not manifest a very sincere intention in the framers of the
treaty to perform them.” Minute of Governor-General, 10th of July, 1789.

INJURY SUSTAINED BY TIPPOO.

321

article related to the transfer to the Company of the book vi

Carnatic Balaghaut ; an article which, if the ancient

treaty were binding, still continued in force. The pro- 178S-
positions of the Nizam, that measures should now be
taken for carrying this engagement into effect, the
Governor-General was obliged to elude, by observing
that the lapse of time by the alteration of circum-
stances, had not left that part of the agreement on the
same foundation on which it originally stood; and
that the English were bound in a treaty of peace with
the prince whose territory it actually went to dis-
member ; “ but,” said his Lordship, “ should it
hereafter happen that the Company should obtain
possession of the country mentioned in these articles,
with your Highness’s assistance, they will strictly
perform the stipulations in favour of your Highness
and the Mahrattas.”1

“ The desire of not offending,” says Sir John
Malcolm, 4f against the letter of the act of parlia-
ment, would appear on this occasion to have led to a
trespass on its spirit. Two treaties had been concluded,
subsequently to the treaty of 1768, between Hyder
Ali Khan and the British government : And the

latter state had concluded a treaty of peace with his
son Tippoo Sultaun in 1784 ; by which it had fully
recognised his right of sovereignty to the territories
which he possessed. And assuredly under such cir-
cumstances, the revival with any modification of an
offensive alliance (for such the treaty of 1768 un-
doubtedly was) could not but alarm that Prince.”

Sir John Malcolm proceeds ; “ Nor was that alarm

1 Letter, Cornwallis to the Nizam, 7th of July, 1789.

VOL. V. Y

322

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1788.

likely to be dispelled, by that qualification in the
engagement which provided that no immediate opera-
tion should be undertaken against his dominions, as
the expression by which that qualification was fol-
lowed, showed, that the eventual execution of those
articles, which went to divest him of his territories,
was not deemed an improbable, or at least an im-
possible occurrence, by the contracting powers.
Another part of this engagement which appeared cal-
culated to excite apprehension in the mind of Tippoo
was, the stipulation which regarded the employment
of the subsidiary force granted to the Nizam ; which
was made discretional, with the exception of not
acting against some specified Prince and chiefs,
among whom he was not included.”1

Sir John Malcolm wrote under the strongest im-
pression of the hostile designs of Tippoo, and of the
wisdom and virtue of Lord Cornwallis, yet he makes
the following severe reflection, “ that the liberal
construction of the restrictions of the act of parlia-
ment had, upon this occasion, the effect of making
the Governor-General pursue a course, which was,
perhaps, not only questionable in point of faith ; but
which must have been more offensive to Tippoo
Sultaun, and more calculated to produce a war with
that Prince, than the avowed contract of a defensive

1 Sir John says further, “that such ideas were entertained by Tippoo,
from the moment he heard of the conclusion of this engagement, there
cannot be a doubt. It would indeed appear by a letter from the Resident
at Poonah, that the minister of that Court considered this engagement as
one of an offensive nature, against Tippoo Sultaun.” Sketch of Political
India. — M. The work here referred to was published in 1811. It was
subsequently enlarged and printed in 1826, as the Political History of
India from 1784 to 1823. — W.

SYMPTOMS OF HOSTILE DESIGNS IN TIPPOO.

323

engagement, framed for the express and legitimate
purpose of limiting his inordinate ambition.” 1

The Raja of Cherika was a petty prince on the 1788-
Malabar coast, in whose territory was situated the
Company’s factory at Tellicherry. This prince, with
his neighbours, had been subdued by Hyder Ali, and
remained a tributary under Tippoo his son. A friendly
connexion had long subsisted between the English
and the Rajas of Cherika, whom the English were
in the habit of accommodating with loans of money
and military stores. In 1765, the debt had accumu-
lated to a considerable sum ; and the Raja assigned
to the Company a territory called Rhandaterrah for
security and payment. Among other transactions
with the Raja, the English farmed of him, in 1761,
the customs of the port of Tellicherry, for which
they agreed to pay at the rate of 4200 rupees per
annum. Since 1765, accounts had not been adjusted,
but the Raja had received additional supplies both
of money and stores. About the beginning of the
year 1786, the Raja sent a body of men, drove away
the English guard, consisting of a seijeant and eight
or ten sepoys, and took possession of Rhandaterrah.

The government of Bombay directed the chief and
factors of Tellicherry to make out the Raja’s account,
whence it appeared that he was still to a large amount
in debt to the Company ; and to represent the out-
rage of which he had been guilty to his master

' Malcolm’s Sketch, ut supra, p. 66 — 69. See the papers relative to
this treaty, laid before parliament in 1792. To the same purpose, another
enlightened Indian Soldier: “ It is highly instructive to observe a states-
man, justly extolled for moderate and pacific dispositions, thus indirectly
violating a law, enacted for the enforcement of these virtues, by entering
into a very intelligible offensive alliance.” Wilks’s Hist. Sketches, iii. 38.

Y 2

324

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v1 Tippoo; but not by force to attempt the recovery of

. Rhandaterrah, lest it should bring on a renewal of

1788- the war. The Raja, under frivolous pretences,
evaded acknowledgment of the account; Tippoo re-
turned for answer that he had commanded the dis-
trict to be restored ; the Raja disavowed the receipt
of any such injunction ; and produced a letter from
Tippoo w7hich merely commanded him to settle his
accounts. The affair remained in suspense till 1788.
Early in that year Tippoo descended the Ghauts, at
the head of an army, for the ostensible purpose of taking
cognizance of his dominions on the coast. Before his
march from Calicut towards Palacatcherry on the
8th of May, he addressed a letter to the English
chief at Tellicherry, stating it as the information of
the Raja of Cherika, that he had paid his debt to the
English, and wTas entitled to the restitution of his
country : upon which the Sultan recommended a
settlement of accounts. A letter was soon after
received from the Raja, in which he stated the
amount for twenty-seven years of rent due on the
customs of the port, without making any mention of
the much larger sums which the Company charged
to his account ; and he demanded the immediate
payment of a lac of rupees. It was this which
alarmed the Governor-General during the journey of
his negotiator to Hyderabad ; as the apprehension
was, that the Raja was instigated by Tippoo; might
proceed to hostilities ; and involve the government
in war.

The territory of the Raja of Travancore com-
mences near the island of Yipeen, at the mouth of
the Chinnamangalum river, about twenty miles to

THE RAJA OF TRAVANCORE IN DREAD OF TIPPOO.

325

1788.

the north of Cochin. From this point it extends to book vi

# r CHAP. 3.

the southern extremity of India, bounded on the ■
west by the sea, and on the east by the celebrated
chain of mountains which terminate near the southern
cape. The situation of this Prince made a connexion
between him and the English of importance to both :

He was placed at so great a distance, that he had
little to apprehend from the encroachments of the
Company: His country, which was only separated

from their province of Tinivelly by the ridge of
mountains, formed a barrier to the invasion of an
enemy into that province, and through that province
into the Carnatic itself: The support of the Com-

pany was necessary to preserve the Raja against the
designs of such powerful and rapacious neighbours
as Hyder Ali and his son : The productiveness of

his dominions enabled him to contribute consider-
ably to the military resources of the English : And,

in the last war with Hyder, his co-operation had
been sufficiently extensive, to entitle him to lie in-
serted in the Treaty with Tippoo, under the character
of an ally.

The descent of Tippoo, with an army, into the
western country, filled the Raja with apprehensions.

He was the only prey on that side of the Ghauts,
opposite to the dominions of Tippoo, which remained
undevoured; and the only obstruction to the ex-
tension of his dominions from the Mahratta frontier
to Cape Comorin ; an extension, attended with the
highly-coveted advantage of placing him in contact
with Tinivelly, the most distant, and most defence-
less part of the English possessions in Coromandel.

The occurrences which took place between Tippoo

326

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bo- y 1 and the Raja of Cochin, added greatly to the terror
— — and alarms of the Kino; of Travancore.

1788 °

There had been a period at which the Raja of
Calicut, known by the name of the Zamorin, had en-
deavoured to subdue the Cochin Raja. At that
time the Cochin Raja had received assistance from
the Raja of Travancore. The Cochin Raja had
continued to need support; and the predecessor of
the reigning Prince had made over to his benefactor,
the Raja of Travancore, under the title of compensa-
tion for expense, two small districts on the northern
side of Travancore. Another motive may be sup-
posed to have contributed to this territorial arrange-
ment. Hyder Ali had at the time commenced his
inroads on the coast of Malabar ; and alarmed the
Rajas for their safety. As a means of defence, the
Raja of Travancore projected a great wall or barrier,
on his northern frontier, to the formation of which
the districts in question were of peculiar importance.
Though part of the territory of the King of Cochin
lay north of the projected line of defence, yet a con-
siderable part, including his capital, was blended
with Travancore on the opposite side, and would
receive protection by it against the designs of Hyder,
no less than the dominions of the Travancore Raja
themselves. The works were constructed about
twenty-five years previous to the period at which
this narrative has arrived. They consisted of a ditch
about sixteen feet broad and twenty deep, a strong
bamboo hedge, a slight parapet, and good rampart,
with bastions on rising grounds, which almost
flanked one another. They commenced at the sea,
on the island of Vipeen, and extended eastwards,

TROOPS SENT TO PROTECT THE RAJA.

327

about thirty miles, to the Anamalaiah, or Elephant
mountains, a part of the great Indian chain. On the
north they were assailable only by regular ap-
proaches; but in the case of such an enemy as
Tippoo, rather provoked attack, than afforded any
permanent protection.

Some time after the erection of the lines, Hyder,
who was extending his conquests over the Malabar
Rajas, carried his arms against the territory of the
King of Cochin, at least the part which was without
the wall of Travancore ; and the King, rather than
lose that part of his dominions, consented to become
the tributary of Hyder.

The Raja of Cochin waited upon Tippoo, in 1778,
at Palacatcherry, whither he had proceeded after
leaving Calicut. Upon his return, this Raja reported
the substance of his conference with Tippoo to the
Raja of Travancore. Tippoo questioned him why
his visit had not been earlier; when something
useful might have been effected ; but now the rainy
season was at hand. Tippoo asked, if the delay
had been occasioned by the Raja of Travancore.
He told the Raja that he should demand back those
districts of Cochin, which had been given to the
Raja of Travancore, and that he might receive the
aid of the Mysore troops to enforce the claim. It
was doubtful to the Raja of Travancore whether the
report of the King of Cochin was deceitful or true ;
but it indicated in either case the hostile designs of
Tippoo.

The Raja made known his fears to the govern-
ment of Madras, and requested a company of sepoys,
with an English officer, as a demonstration to the

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1789.

328

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Sultan of the assistance which he might expect to
1789 receive. Sir Archibald Campbell, who then presided
over the Councils of Madras, not only complied with
the Raja’s demand, hut desired his permission to
canton some battalions of the Company’s troops,
along the strong grounds behind the wall. For
this service, two battalions of sepoys, with their
proportion of artillery, were soon after sent from
Bombay.

The arrival of the rainy season prevented active
operations during the remainder of the year 1783,
but in the month of May of the following year,
Tippoo again descended to the coast, and began
with summoning the fort of Cranganore. This, and
another place, named Jaycotah,1 belonged to the
Dutch, and were maintained as a species of outwmrk
to their grand settlement at Cochin. They were
situated close upon the wall of Travancore, at its
maritime extremity, and regarded by the Raja as of
the utmost importance for the defence of the lines.
He prepared himself to join with the Dutch in
defending them ; he represented to the English not
only that Cranganore and Jaycotah were the very
key to his country, but that he was bound in a
defensive treaty with the Dutch; he therefore made
earnest application to the English government to
grant him thaf'assistance which the present exigency
appeared to require.

Mr. Hollond, who was now placed at the head of
the Madras government, happened to be very paci-
fically inclined. He informed the Raja, that, except

Written Ayacottah, by Col. Wilks.

HOSTILE DEMONSTRATIONS OF TIPPOO.

329

for the immediate protection of his own dominions, book vi

A # # CHAP. O.

he could not receive assistance from the English ; .

and enjoined him, in a particular manner, to abstain 1789-
from every act which could raise the jealousy of
Tippoo, or afford him a pretext for invading
Travancore.

Though Tippoo made several demonstrations, and
went so far as to bring heavy guns from Palacat-
cherry, as if for the reduction of Cranganore, he
retired before the middle of May, without com-
mencing the attack ; and placed his troops at Pala-
catcherry and Coimbetore. It was confidently
expected, that he would return at the end of the
monsoon ; and that his first operations would be
against the possessions of the Dutch. Were these
in his hands, Travancore would be an easy conquest;
and, in the opinion of the Company’s Resident, it
would even be difficult, if not impossible, for the
English detachment to retreat.

In the mean time intelligence was received from
the Commandant at Tellicherry, that, during the
whole of the rains, that settlement had been en-
vironed by the troops of Tippoo, and shut up as in
a state of rigorous blockade ; that a chain of posts
had been established surrounding the place, some of
them so near, as to be within musket-shot of the
lines ; that his troops had strict orders, which they
rigidly obeyed, to prevent the admission of every
article of supply ; that his boats were as vigilant
for the same purpose by sea, as the troops were by
land; and that the necessaries of life had, in con-
sequence, risen to an exorbitant price.

The assurance, conveyed from the Company’s

330

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 3.

1789.

1 governor at Madras, that the English would inter-
- fere in the defence of no territory hut that which
immediately belonged to the Raja himself, suggested
to the Raja and the Dutch an expedient for realizing
the condition on which was made to depend the
assistance which they required. A negotiation,
which was said to have been pending for two years,
was concluded in the beginning of August, for ren-
dering Cranganore and Jaycotah part of the domi-
nions of the Raja; that is, by purchase from the
Dutch. Of this transaction, however, the govern-
ment of Madras disapproved ; and they despatched
a peremptory command to the Raja, that he should
annul the contract, and restore the places to the
Dutch.

Tippoo affirmed, that the Dutch had built the fort
of Cranganore upon ground which belonged to his
tributary and subject, the Raja of Cochin ; that the
Dutch had even paid rent for that ground, in the
same manner as the ryots ; and that the purchase
and sale of it was the purchase and sale of a part of
the kingdom of Mysore.

The Raja asserted the falsehood of the allegations
of Tippoo ; and remonstrated against the orders
which he had received from Madras. The resident
and he concurred in representing, and produced
documents from the Dutch which proved ; that
Cochin was one of the early conquests of the Portu-
guese, and their capital in that part of India ; that
Cranganore and Jaycotah were their dependencies;
that the Rajas of Cochin paid them tribute ; that in
the year 1654, the Dutch were at war with the
Portuguese, and attacked their settlement of Cochin;

INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 331

that they expelled the Portuguese entirely from that J1
part of India, and seized their possessions; that — — —
they held no lands of the Raja of Cochin, whom
they rather considered as dependent upon them ;
that the Raja of Cochin had not been a tributary of
the Mysore chiefs for more than about twelve years ;
and considered himself as such for that territory
only, for which he paid choute ; the territory,
namely, which was situated without the wall of
Travancore.

On the 23rd of September the Governor-General
made answer to the representations which had been
transmitted to him by the Governor in Council of
Madras : That, without a hope of assistance from
the French, which Tippoo at this time could not
entertain, he would not, it was probable, desire to
draw upon himself the resentment of the Company ;
that Tippoo was aware, and had indeed been
expressly informed, of the certainty with which an
attack upon the Travancore Raja, included in the
late treaty as an ally of the English, would be
followed by war; that the character at the same
time of that violent Prince rendered calculation upon
his conduct from the rules of prudence somewhat
precarious ; and that provision should be made, not
only for securing the dominions of the Company and
their allies, but for obtaining ample satisfaction, in
case of any injury which they might be made to
sustain. He, therefore, directed that the best mode
of assembling the army, and of opposing resistance
to an enemy, should be concerted with the com-
manding officer; that from the moment Tippoo
should invade any part of the territory of the Raja of

332

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 3,

1789.

1 Travancore or Nabob of Arcot, he should be con-
- sidered as in a state of war ; that all payments to the
private creditors of the Nabob of Arcot should in
that case be suspended ; and that even the advances
for providing the Company’s investment should be
withheld. It was well for Lord Cornwallis, that he
possessed an influence, which enabled him to take
such a license with impunity. The creditors of the
Nabob were, as appeared by important consequences,
favourites with the Board of Control. And a rich
investment, which filled the coffers of the India
House, was the principal source of delight to the
Court of Directors. A man of less authority would
not have dared to offer disappointment to such com-
manding inclinations. And perhaps it required the
brilliant success which crowned the operations of
Lord Cornwallis to exempt even his audacity from
disagreeable consequences. The efforts made by
Mr. Hastings, to prevent a failure in the article of
investments, produced the principal errors of his
administration, and the great misfortunes of his
life.

The Governor-General concluded his letter with
the following words; “We sincerely hope and
believe that the case will not happen : but should
the Carnatic unfortunately be involved in war, you
may, in addition to all the means that are in your
own power to command, be assured that this govern-
ment will make the utmost exertions to give you
effectual assistance, and to terminate, as speedily as
possible, a contest that cannot, even if attended with
the utmost success, prove advantageous to our affairs
in this country.”

TIPPOO ATTACKS THE LINES OF TK AVAN CORE.

333

In the representation first transmitted to Bengal, book vi

regarding the transfer of Jaycotah and Cranganore,

it appeared as if they did belong to the dependant of 1/89'
Tippoo, and had been alienated without his consent.

In this view of the circumstances Lord Cornwallis
condemned the transaction ; and confirmed the in-
junction which had been given by the government of
Madras. When it was affirmed, that neither Tippoo,
nor his tributary, had any title to the territory, that
it had for centuries been the independent possession
of Europeans, and more than a hundred years ago
had been taken in lawful war from the Portuguese
by the Dutch, he thought proper to suspend his
decision. He directed that a proposition should be
transmitted to Tippoo for a mutual appointment of
commissioners to try the point in dispute ; and
proposed to agree that if the ground was proved to
belong to the Raja of Cochin, the transfer should be
annulled; if it was proved to belong to the Dutch,
the transaction should be confirmed.

Towards the end of October the army of Tippoo
was known to be encamped in the neighbourhood of
Palgaut; and the Raja was confirmed in his expec-
tation of an attack. On the 14th of December Tip-
poo arrived at a place about twenty-five miles distant
from the boundary of Travancore, and the ravages of
his cavalry were carried within a mile of the wall.

On the following day a vakeel, a sort of character in
which the capacities of the messenger and negotiator
were compounded, arrived from the camp of the
Sultan, bearing a letter to the Raja. It contained
the annunciation of Tippoo’ s demands ; that, as the
Raja had given protection within his dominions to

334

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 3.

1789.

1 certain Rajas, and other refractory subjects of the
_ Mysore government, he should deliver them up, and
in future abstain from similar offences ; 2. That as
the Dutch had sold to him that which was not theirs
to sell, he should withdraw his troops from Cranga-
nore ; 3. That he should demolish that part of his
lines which crossed the terrritory of Cochin, because
it belonged to the kingdom of Mysore. The Raja
replied; 1. That the Rajas of whose protection the
Sultan complained had obtained an asylum in his
country, because they were his relations, at the
distance of many years ; that no objection to their
residence had ever been taken before ; that to prove
his amicable disposition, they should nevertheless be
removed ; and that no refractory subject of the My-
sore government had ever, with his knowledge, been
harboured in Travancore ; 2. That the fort and ter-
ritory which he had purchased from the Dutch be-
longed to the Dutch, and was in no respect the
property of the dependant of Tippoo ; 3. That the
ground on which he had erected his lines was ceded
to him in full sovereignty by the Raja of Cochin
before that Raja became tributary to the sovereign
of Mysore ; and that the lines, existing at the time
when he was included in the late treaty between the
English and the Sultan, were sanctioned by the
silence of that important deed.

On the 24th of December Tippoo encamped at
not more than four miles, distance from the lines ;
began to erect batteries on the 25th ; early in the
morning of the 29th turned by surprise the right
flank of the lines, where no passage was supposed to
exist ; and introduced a portion of his army within

ARRANGEMENTS OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

335

the wall. Before he could reach the sate which he book vi

° . CHAP. 3.

intended to open, and at which he expected to admit —

the rest of his army, his troops were thrown into
confusion by some slight resistance, and fled in
disorder, with a heavy slaughter, across the ditch.

Tippoo himself was present at the attack, and, not
without personal danger, made his escape.

Intelligence of these events was received by the
Supreme Government from Madras on the 26th of
January; and on the morrow instructions were des-
patched to that Presidency. The Governor-General
expressed his expectation that the Madras rulers had
considered Tippoo as at war, from the first moment
when they heard of the attack ; that they had dili-
gently executed the measures which he had formerly
prescribed ; and in particular, that all payments to
the Nabob’s creditors, and all disbursements on the
score of investment, had immediately ceased. He
added, that his intention was to employ all the
resources which were within his reach “ to exact a
full reparation from Tippoo for this wanton and
unprovoked violation of treaty;” that for this pur-
pose endeavours should be employed to secure the
assistance both of the Mahrattas and of the Nizam ;
that instructions should be despatched to the govern-
ment of Bombay to attack his possessions on the
coast of Malabar; and that in every part of India
the army should be increased.

The instructions to the government of Madras
were dated on the 27th of January ; those to the
Resident at the Court of the Nizam were dated on
the 28th. The actual commencement of hostilities
relieved Cornwallis from all restraint with regard

336

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v 1 10 new connexions; and it was now his part to

CHAP. 3. . . _ 1

solicit from the Nizam an alliance, which, a few

months before, that Prince would have received as
the greatest of favours. The Resident was in-
structed to expose in the strongest colours the
faithless and rapacious character of Tippoo ; to
raise in the minds of the Nizam and his ministers
as high a conception as possible of the advantages
of an intimate connexion ivith the English ; to
promise him a full participation in the fruits
of victory, and a mutual guarantee of their re-
spective dominions, against the ambition and hatred
of Tippoo.

The chief difficulty in this negotiation arose from
the violent apprehensions of the Nizam with respect
to the Mahrattas. To such a degree was he im-
pressed with an opinion of the villany of that nation,
and of their determination to rob him of his domi-
nions, whenever an opportunity should occur, that
he desired the English Resident to inform him, if the
Peshwa should invade his kingdom, while his army
was absent, co-operating with the English, what
measures, in that case, the English government
would pursue : and he displayed intense reluctance
to spare any portion of his forces from his own
defence, without an article for the unlimited
guarantee of his country. But the Governor-
General, who was anxious for the alliance of the
Mahrattas, and reckoned them “ the people whose
friendship was of far the greatest value,”1 in the
contest with Tippoo, was careful not to give

1 Lett. Gov. Gen. to the Secret Committee, 1st Nov. 1789.

ARRANGEMENTS FOR WAR WITH TIPPOO.

337

umbrage to the Poonah rulers, by appearing to raise book J1
a barrier against their ambitious designs.

The instructions to the Resident at Poonah were
of the same description ; and dated the pre-
ceding day. The relation with the Mahrattas,
from the conclusion of the treaty of Salbhye had
been that of general amity ; which the Poonah
government, with some eagerness and some address,
had endeavoured to improve into an engagement for
mutual protection against Tippoo. The restrictions
however, imposed by act of parliament, had pre-
vented the Governor-General from acceding to their
desire ; and of that policy he now expressed his
opinion. “ Some considerable advantages,” he said,

“ have no doubt been experienced by the system of
neutrality which the legislature required of the
governments in this country : But it has, at the same
time, been attended with the unavoidable inconve-
nience of our being constantly exposed to the
necessity of commencing a war, without having
previously received the assistance of efficient
allies.” 1

The offer of a defensive alliance against Tippoo
was now made to the Mahrattas ; and they had the
advantage of holding themselves up as the party
who bestowed the favour, which, a twelvemonth
before, they would have been well contented to
appear as the party who received. The Indian
desire, to make the most of every circumstance
in a bargain, and to sell every favour at the highest
price, made them higgle and wrangle for advan-

' Despatch to Mr. Malet, 28th Feb. 1790.

VOL. V.

Z

338

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book j1 * * * * * tages, and protract the negotiation to a considerable

• length.1

1790. 0

A treaty, however, with the Nizam, and another
with the Mahrattas, of which the conditions were
nearly the same, were signed, the former on the 4th
day of July, the latter on the 1st of June. A triple
league was formed, to punish Tippoo for the trea-
chery, of which he was declared to have been guilty
to all the contracting parties: The Nizam and
Peshwa bound themselves to prosecute vigorously
the war with a potent and well-appointed army: The
Peshwa received the option of being joined, during
the war, by an English force equal to that w7hich
served with the Nizam: And the parties jointly en-
gaged, never to make peace, except with mutual
consent ; to make an equal partition of conquests ;
and to resist and punish by their combined forces
any injury to any of them which Tippoo thereafter
might accomplish or attempt.

It was declared by the Governor-General to both
the parties with whom he was endeavouring to con-
tract, that the objects were four, at which he should
aim by the war: To exact from the enemy indem-
nification for the expense or loss imposed upon the
Company by the war: To make him restore to the
Nizam and Peshwa, if they should take part in the
conflict, whatever he or his father might have taken

1 Captain Grant gives a different representation. According to him

Nana Furnawees no sooner heard of Tippoo’s attack on the lines of

Travancore, than he made specific proposals to the Governor-General

through Mr. Malet, in name both of his own master and of Nizam Ali,

which with a few modifications were accepted. Hist. Mahr. It is not

likely that the Maliratta Government would have made any difficulty as to

an alliance against Tippoo with whom they were in a state of war. — W.

OBJECTS OF THE WAR.

339

1790.

from those powers ; To wrest from him all that he book vi

_ CHAP. 3.

possessed of the Carnatic Payen Ghaut : And, in

consequence of the barbarity which he had exercised
on the Nairs of Malabar, to set them free from his
dominion.1

The gratification of their resentment for the losses
inflicted on them by Tippoo and his father; the
removal of the terrors with which they were haunted
by his ambition and power ; the prospect of recover-
ing what they had lost, and of elevating themselves
upon his ruin, were powerful aids towards obtaining
the alliance of the Nizam and Mahrattas.

While the mind of the Governor-General was thus
intensely engaged in preparing the means of war
upon the largest scale, a very different spirit pre-
vailed at Madras ; and, on the 8th of F ebruary, he
despatched to that Presidency a letter of complaint
and crimination. He charged the President and
Council with neglect of duty, and disobedience of
orders, in not having made the prescribed provision
of draught cattle for the army; in not having
suspended the business of the Company’s invest-
ment;2 and, after they had received an explicit
declaration from the Governor-General in Council, of
his determination to protect the Raja of Travancore
in his purchase of Cranganore and Jaycotah if those
places belonged not to the Raja of Cochin but the
Dutch, in their having, in their correspondence with

1 See the despatch to the Resident at Poonah, dated the 22nd of March.
s On the point of investment the Governor-General afterwards re-
tracted his censure, as it was explained, that nothing more had been
done than what was necessary to fulfil the contract with the Philippine
Company.

Z 2

340

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

3 1 Tippoo and even with the Raja of Travancore and

— the English Resident in his camp, withheld that

179°- declaration, and thereby “ discouraged a faithful
ally in the defence of his country against an enemy,
who was within a few miles of his frontiers, and
with the insolence and violence of whose character
they had long been fully acquainted.”

To his early decision against the purchase of the
two forts, Governor Hollond adhered : On the alle-
gation of the Raja that Sir Archibald Campbell
encouraged the purchase, he had replied ; 1 “As you
received early information of Governor Campbell’s
departure, it was not acting a friendly part to pro-
secute negotiations of so much importance without
communicating their commencement and progress to
me, upon my advising you of my succession to the
government : ” Even after the right of the Dutch
appeared to be decidedly proved, still he maintained
that the bargain was an offence against Tippoo, not
to be justified by the law of nations : because with
equal propriety might the Dutch make sale to the
French of Sadras and Pulicate, within a few miles of
Fort St. George: And lastly, he denied that the
importance of the places in question was an adequate
compensation for the evils of war.

To these reasonings the Governor-General made
the following reply : “ In your letter, dated 3rd of
January, you thought proper to lay down principles,
as being, in your opinion, founded on the law of
nations, respecting the Raja and the Dutch, which
militate against the spirit of our orders, and which we

1 In his letter of the 16tli of November.

MADRAS GOVERNMENT AVERSE TO THE WAR.

341

conceive it was not regularly within your province to
discuss, as you are not responsible for the measure
directed.”

In as far as the government of Madras acted upon
their own notions of justice or policy in disobedience
to the express orders of those whose commands they
had undertaken to obey, they were guilty of a most
serious offence; hut in laying their opinions and
reasons before the governing authority, they practised
a virtue, from which the governing authority might
derive essential advantage, and merited no insolence
of reply.

To their reasonings, at the same time, very strong
objections applied, In the two cases, that of Cran-
ganore and Jaycotah, and that of Pulicate and
Sadras, the circumstance which constituted the
material part of the question, that, on which its
decision, if founded on rational principles, would
depend, was perfectly reversed. Pulicate and Sadras
could not he held by the French, without essentially
impairing the security of Madras: Cranganore and
Jaycotah were of no importance to the security of
Tippoo: and were evidently desired by him, as a
means of aggression against the Raja of Travancore.
With regard to the value of the places in question,
the value, as it had at an early period been, by the
Governor-General in Council, declared to the
government of Madras, “ could not, however great,
be opposed to the serious consequences of war; hut
a tame submission to insult or injury, he was equally
convinced, would, in its effects, prove the most
fatal policy.” This was the question, and the only
question; not whether Cranganore and Jaycotah

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1790.

342

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v1^6 a compensation for the consequences of war.

• — - Scarcely any single injury can ever approach to an

equivalent for the expense, which is but a small part
of the evils of war ; and it is then only when there
is a decided probability that the permission of one
injury will draw on a second, and after the second,
a third, and so on, that the advantages of war can
be an equivalent for its evils, and recourse to it the
dictate of wisdom. At the moment of action, this
is often a question not easy to decide ; because there
is seldom a rule to guide, and the party who has
power in his hand, is prone to over-rate the proba-
bilities of that repetition of injury which forbearance
may produce. Whether the forbearance of the
English would, on the present occasion, have pro-
duced the repetition of injury, it is even now impos-
sible with any assurance to pronounce. But the
probabilities were so great, that either the decision
of the Governor-General was right, or his error
excusable.

After the repulse of Tippoo, on the 29th of
December, from the rampart of Travancore, he dis-
avowed the outrage ; described it as the unauthorized
act of his troops, who had been accidentally
provoked to hostility by the people of the Raja;
gave assurance that his affections were pacific, and
that he had no intention to invade the ancient terri-
tories of Travancore ; but he repeated his claims, on
the score of protection afforded to his refractory
subjects, the purchase of Cranganore and Jaycotah,
and the erection of works upon the territory of his
dependant, the Raja of Cochin.

The persuasion that peace might be preserved

RESOLUTION OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

343

with Tippoo, continued in the Madras government 3 1

as long as Mr. Hollond remained at its head. On -■

the 12th of February, having learned that General 1/9a
Medows, who commanded the Bombay army, was
appointed to succeed him, he transmitted by letter
to the Governor-General his intention of departing
immediately for Europe ; and omitted not the oppor-
tunity of repeating his conviction, that Tippoo “ had
no intention to break with the Company, and would
be disposed to enter into negotiation for the adjust-
ment of the points in dispute.”

In a letter, dated on the 7th of February, in
answer to the proposition respecting the examination
by commissioners, Tippoo wrote, that since he had
examined in person the foundation of the claims,
there was nothing which remained for commissioners
to perform ; but if it were the wish of the English,
they might send “ one or two trusty persons to the
presence, where, having arrived, they might settle
the business that he wrote from regard to the
ties of friendship which subsisted between him
and the English, “ otherwise the taking of the lines
would not be a work of much difficulty or time.”

To descend to the measure of sending commis-
sioners to the presence of Tippoo, appeared to the
Madras government to import a loss of dignity in
the eyes of the Princes of Hindustan ; and before
intelligence of this proposition, the Governor-Ge-
neral had communicated his sentiments to General
Medows, in the following words : “ Good policy, as
well as a regard to our reputation in this country,
requires, that we should not only exact severe repa-
ration from Tippoo : but also, that *we should take

344

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK

CHAP.

1790.

1 this opportunity to reduce the power of a Prince,
- who avows upon every occasion so rancorous an
enmity to our nation. — At present we have every
prospect of aid from the country powers, whilst he
can expect no assistance from France. And if he
is suffered to retain his present importance, and to
insult and bully all his neighbours, until the French
are again in a condition to support him, it would
almost certainly leave the seeds of a future dangerous
war.”1 In the letter which made answer to that
in which the proposal of Tippoo "was transmitted to
the Governor-General, a hope was expressed that
the government of Madras had been exerting them-
selves to the utmost in the business of the war.
They Avere told, that the attack on the lines of
Travancore left no further room for deliberation ;
and that the Company’s government could not with
honour commence a negotiation with Tippoo, till he
offered reparation for such an outrage, much less
send commissioners to his presence. Instructed to
make no relaxation, while answering his letters, in
the vigour of their military operations ; they were
ordered to inform him, that Cranganore and Jay-
cotah belonged incontestably to the Dutch; that,
as the lines of the Raja were in his possession at
the period of the late treaty, his right was thereby
recognised ; and that the violation of them could
not be regarded as accidental, since it was ascer-
tained that the Sultan was upon the spot, and
conducted the attack in person.2

1 Letter dated 8th March, 1790.

2 Letter to Gen. Medows, Governor in Council, dated 17th March, 1790.
The papers laid before Parliament, relative to the commencement of this
war, have furnished the materials of the preceding narrative.

WAR BEGINS.

345

On the 2nd of March, a skirmish happened,
between the troops of the Sultan, and a party of the
Raja’s people sent to clear away a jungle which
stood in front of the lines. On the 6th, Tippoo
began to fire on the wall, and completed the erection
of five batteries on the 10th. A considerable time
was spent in making such an opening in the lines
as appeared to him to make it expedient to venture
the assault. At last, on the 7th of May, he advanced
to the breach with his whole army ; wThen the troops
of the Raja were struck with apprehension, and fled
in all directions. Having rendered himself master
of the lines, he appeared immediately before Cran-
ganore ; of which he soon obtained possession. All
the northern quarter of Travancore was now seized
by the conqueror, who razed the lines, and spread
desolation over the country. The necessity, how-
ever, of defending his own dominions soon recalled
him from his prey. On the 24th of May, he hurried
back to his capital, attended by a small body of
troops.1

Though he had received a letter from General
Medows, dated the 7th of April, declaring, that all
his complaints against the Raja of Travancore were
unfounded, that his first attack on the lines was
a breach of the treaty, and together with his renewal

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1790.

1 Colonel Wilks says, “ In plain fact he was unprepared for war.” And
yet the Colonel supposes, that “ he had calculated on possessing every part
of Travancore in December, 1789, when the option would have been in
his hands of a sudden invasion of the southern provinces at once from
Travancore, Dindigul, and Carour ; and of being ready, by the time an
English army could be assembled, to commence the war with the Caveri
as his northern frontier towards Cotomandel.” Hist. Sketches, iii. 65.

346

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 3.

1790.

of hostilities, left no room for deliberation, calling
for action rather than words ; he wrote again, under
date the 22nd of May, professing his desire of amity,
lamenting the misunderstandings which had occa-
sioned the assemblage of the respective armies, and
offering to send a person of dignity to Madras, who
might give and receive explanations on the subjects
of dispute, and “ remove the dust by which the
upright mind of the General had been obscured.”
To this, the following was the answer returned.
“ I received yours, and understand its contents.
You are a great Prince, and, but for your cruelty to
your prisoners, I should add an enlightened one.
The English, equally incapable of offering an insult,
as of submitting to one, have always looked upon
war as declared, from the moment you attacked their
ally, the King of Travancore. God does not always
give the battle to the strong, nor the race to the
swift, but generally success to those whose cause is
just. — Upon that we depend.”

For conducting the operations of the campaign,
it was planned; that General Medows, with the
principal part of the Carnatic army, should take
possession of the Coimbetore country, and endeavour,
through the Gujelhutty pass, to penetrate into the
heart of Mysore; that General Abercromby, with
the army of Bombay, should reduce the territory of
Tippoo on the coast of Malabar, and effect a junction
with Medows if events should render it desirable:
and that Colonel Kelly should remain, for the
security of the Carnatic, with a small army before the
passes which led most directly from Mysore.

PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN.

347

From the plain of Trichinopoly, where the army
had assembled, the General marched on the 15th of
June. It was of great importance that Coimbetore,
formerly a Rajaship of considerable extent and opu-
lence, should be occupied ; both as depriving Tippoo
of one principal source of his supplies ; and as afford-
ing resources to the English army for the remainder
of the campaign. It was also necessary, for the sub-
sequent operations against Mysore, that a chain of
posts should be established from the Coromandel
coast to the foot of the pass ; and Tanjore, Trichi-
nopoly, Caroor, Erroad, and Sattimungul, were the
places of which, for that purpose, selection was made.
Having entered the enemy’s country, and taken pos-
session of Caroor, the General halted for eighteen
days, while he collected provisions and formed a
magazine. From Caroor he marched to Daraporam,
which he took without opposition, and made a depot.
Leaving there a considerable garrison, and all his
superfluous baggage, he pushed on to the city of
Coimbetore, which he found evacuated.

No enemy had as yet appeared, except some bodies
of irregular cavalry, who had made attempts to
harass the march. On the day after the army
arrived at Coimbetore, the presence was announced
of one of Tippoo’s ablest captains, with 3000 horse,
at the distance of about forty miles. A detachment
was sent with directions to surprise them, but re-
turned with only a few prisoners. At the same
time, another detachment was employed in the
capture of Erroad, which yielded after a trifling
resistance.

Dindigul, and Palacatcherry, though not in the

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1790.

348

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

^uap^ J1 adopted line of communication, were fortresses of

too much importance to he left with safety in the

i/9o. enemy’s hands. A strong detachment, under Colonel
Stuart, proceeded to the attack of Dindigul. The
garrison was summoned, with a declaration, that,
if they surrendered, private property should be re-
spected ; if they persisted in a fruitless defence, they
should be all put to the sword. The Governor re-
turned the summons by the messenger who brought
it : “ Inform your commander,” said he, verbally,
“ that I cannot account to my master for the sur-
render of such a fort as Dindigul: If, therefore, a

second messenger comes with a similar errand, I will
blow him back again to his comrades, from one of my
guns.” Batteries were erected ; and after a heavy
cannonade of two days, an assault was projected on
the following night. The breach was imperfect, but
ammunition expended. The troops advanced to the
attack with their usual gallantry, and made great
and persevering efforts to penetrate. The strength,
however, of the fortification was still so great, and the
defence so vigorously maintained, that they were
compelled to retire. It was matter of surprise to the
assailants, to behold at day-break the flag of surrender
displayed on the breach. The garrison, afraid to
abide the effects of another assault, had deserted their
commander during the night. The same detach-
ment proceeded to the fort of Palacatcherry, which
yielded after a short and feeble resistance. And
Colonel Floyd was sent against Sattimungul, which
he surprised and took without bloodshed.

The first important section of the operations of
the campaign was thus completed with happy ex-

FIRST OPERATIONS OF TIPPOO SUCCESSFUL.

349

pedition and ease. The line of communication was

established ; an enemy’s country was obtained for

the supply of the troops; and nothing remained but 1/90,
to ascend the Gujelhutty pass, and make Tippoo
contend for his throne in the centre of his
dominions.

The army was at this time separated into three
divisions of nearly equal strength ; one with General
Medows, whose head quarters were at Coimbetore ;
one with General Floyd, distant about sixty miles,
at the advanced post of Sattimungul, near the bottom
of the Gujelhutty pass ; and the other with Colonel
Stuart at Palacatcherry, about thirty miles in the
rear; constituting between the advanced and ulti-
mate positions of the army a distance of ninety
miles.

On the 13th of September, in the morning, a re-
conn oitreing party, sent from the camp of Colonel
Floyd, toward the mouth of the pass, was encoun-
tered by a body of the enemy; and after a little time
the whole army of the Sultan commenced an attack
upon the English detachment. The commander was
able to choose a position which induced Tippoo to
confine his operations to a distant cannonade ; which
he continued, however, during the whole of the day,
and with considerable execution. The descent of
Tippoo, by the very pass through which the English
meant to ascend, has been represented as a perfect
surprise, according to the usual want of intelligence
in the English camp. Colonel Wilks, however,
affirms, that Floyd had early intelligence of the
movements of the Sultan ; that he forwarded the
intelligence to General Medows, with a suggestion,

350

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

1 considering the dispersed situation of the army, of

the propriety of falling bach ; that his intelligence

1/90- was not credited ; and that he had orders to remain.

A council of war having determined on retreat, the
troops had crossed the river in basket boats, and were
on the march next morning by eight o’clock, leaving
the provisions collected in Sattimungul, and three
pieces of cannon, behind. Tippoo found considerable
difficulty in getting his army ready for pursuit, and
marched at last with only a part of it. Two o’clock
arrived before he could bring his infantry into action.
He then meditated a decisive blow ; but met with
great obstructions from the strong hedges w ith which
the ground was enclosed ; and, being at last alarmed,
by the report that General Medows was at hand, a
report of which the English commander dexterously
availed himself, he drew off, on the approach of
night.

During the action, Colonel Floyd received a des-
patch, in which he was told that General Medows
on the 14th would march for Yelladi. This was
not on the direct road from Coimbetore to Satti-
mungul, nor that in which Floyd was retreating,
and from the place at which he had arrived, to Yel-
ladi, wras twenty miles. The only chance, however,
for saving the army, was, to force the junction. He
began his march at two o’clock in the morning, and
without seeing the enemy, reached Yelladi at eight
at night, when the troops had been without provi-
sions, and literally fasting, for three days. The
General had already passed ten miles in advance of
Velladi. He was immediately apprized of the state
of the detachment, and next morning retraced his

ACTIVITY AND GENERALSHIP OF TIPPOO.

351

steps. The army then marched back to Coimbetore,
where they were joined by the division of Colonel
Stuart from Palacatcherry.

The Sultan, disappointed in his expectation of
cutting off the dispersed divisions of the English
army in detail, now turned his operations against
the chain of their depots. This is described by
Colonel Wilks as very imperfect. “ Caroor,” he
says, “ could scarcely be deemed a good depot ;
Erroad was better qualified to contain than protect
stores ; and Sattimungul was ill adapted to either
purpose.” Erroad, from which, in contemplation of
wThat happened, the greater part of the garrison had
been withdrawn, capitulated as soon as the enemy
appeared : After emptying the storehouses of Erroad,

the Sultan marched in a line directly south, and was
followed by the English army, which left Coimbetore
on the 29th of September, and in six marches arrived
at Erroad. On the day on which the English left
Erroad, the Sultan proposed to encamp in a situation
about sixteen miles distant, whence he could march,
either upon a convoy that was advancing from Caroor,
or upon Daraporam, or upon Coimbetore, according
to the direction which the English might take. The
English army came up; and he increased his dis-
tance by a nocturnal march. General Medows
waited to protect his convoy from Caroor: and the
Sultan marched towards Coimbetore. He knew that
the field hospital, valuable stores, and the battering
train, were left with a very feeble garrison ; but after
performing a march in that direction, his intelligence,
which never failed him, announced the important
fact, that Colonel Hartley had just ascended from

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1790.

352

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \
CHAP. 3

1790.

1 the Malabar coast, and reinforced Coirabetore.
- One point of his plan yet remained ; he marched
rapidly toward the south ; found Daraporam miser-
ably provided for defence ; carried his approaches to
the ditch ; and on the 8th of October entered the
place by capitulation.

The English General, alarmed by the danger
which had threatened the loss of Coimbetore,
returned in haste to that grand depot ; which he
resolved to render as strong as circumstances would
admit.

While he was employed in strengthening Coim-
betore, an object of great importance engaged the
attention of Tippoo. Colonel Kelly, the officer who
commanded the corps of defence before the passes
which led more immediately to the Carnatic from
Mysore, died, and was succeeded by Colonel Max-
well, toward the end of September. On the 24th of
October, in obedience to orders received from General
Medows, this corps invaded Baramahl. Of this the
Sultan was not long without intelligence. Leaving
about one-fourth of his army to watch the motions of
General Medows, he marched with the remainder in
great haste toward Baramahl. On the 9th of
November, several bodies of his light cavalry reached
Colonel Maxwell’s ground. On the 11th, the
Colonel’s cavalry, one regiment, allowed themselves,
inveigled in pursuit in a defile, to he attacked by a
great superiority of force, and were driven back with
considerable loss. The Sultan appeared with his
whole army on the 12th; and if he had not been
baffled by the superior skill of Maxwell, who chose
his ground, and made his dispositions, in such a

TIPPOO INVADES THE CARNATIC.

353

manner, as allowed not the Sultan an opportunity of book vi

CHAP. o.

attacking him, except with the greatest disadvantage,

this movement of Tippoo would have been cele- 179°-
brated as a specimen of generalship, not easy to be
matched.1

After his operations for strengthening Coimbetore,

General Medows put the army in motion, to look for
the enemy in the direction of Erroad; which he
approached on the 2nd of November. A strong
corps, sent out under Colonel Floyd, to force an
extensive reconnoissance, at last ascertained that the
Sultan’s whole army had crossed the river several
days before, and gone to the northward. The
English army crossed, not without difficulty ; and
began to follow on the 10th. On the 14th they
encamped at the southern extremity of the pass of
Tapoor. Next day they cleared the pass; and on
reaching the ground intended for their encampment
on the northern face of the hills, discovered the flags
and tents of an army, on the plain, at about six
miles’ distance, below. Nearly three weeks had
elapsed since they had direct intelligence from
Colonel Maxwell : they had performed an anxious
and laborious march ; they hailed with delight the
sight of their comrades, and the prospect of a speedy
conjunction ; and three signal guns were fired to
announce their approach. It was the Sultan, who
had so completely eluded their observation, and
whom they now had in their view.

During three days he had endeavoured, with all

1 A detailed account of these operations is given in a letter from Colonel
Munro, then serving with the division under Maxwell. Life, i. 102. — W.
VOL. V. 2 A

354

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

-ok v 1 ar^ obtain an opportunity of attacking Colonel

Maxwell ; and had withdrawn, the preceding even-

179°- ing, with a supposition that General Medows
would require another day to clear the pass. He
immediately removed to a greater distance up the
Palicode valley ; and General Medows proceeded
fifteen miles next morning in the direction of Caveri-
patam ; where the important junction with Maxwell
was effected on the following day.

After the disruption of their chain of posts, and
the defeat of their original plan for invading Mysore,
it was not easy for the Sultan to divine what scheme
of hostilities the English would afterwards pursue.
Concluding, however, that whither he should go,
they would follow, he resolved upon carrying the
war into their own country, and in such a manner, if
possible, as would afford him the means of recover-
ing the places he had lost. Both armies intended
to double back by the pass of Tapoor. Both armies
arrived at the head of the pass at the same time.
Yet the Sultan, only sending back his baggage, and
rear guard, contrived to pass through before the
English without loss : and never halted till he was
opposite the weak but important depot of Trichi-
nopoly. The English General reached the banks of
the Cavery, opposite Caroor, on the 27th of November,
and was talking of a plan for calling Tippoo from the
Carnatic, by ascending the Caveripatam pass, taking
post at the head of the Gujelhutty, opening that of
Tambercherry, and preserving his communication
with Coimbetore, Palacatcherry, and the other coast,
on the execution of which plan he expected to enter
by the 8th of December ; when he was summoned

TIPPOO INVADES THE CARNATIC.

355

to the defence of Trichinopoly, by intelligence of^^ J1
what the Sultan had performed. — - — —

The English General arrived at Trichinopoly on
the 14th of December, where the swelling of the
river had contributed to prevent the Sultan from
effecting anything by surprise, and confined his
mischief to the plunder of the island of Seringham.

On the approach of the English army he proceeded
with his usual devastations, latterly exchanged for
contributions, northward, through the heart of
Coromandel, and approached Tiagar. It was com-
manded by an officer, Captain Flint, who had already
distinguished himself in the wars of the Carnatic and
Mysore ; and the efforts of Tippoo, who had no time
for tedious operations, were defeated. He was more
successful, however, at Trinomalee and Permacoil ;
from which he proceeded to the neighbourhood of
Pondicherry, where he had some communication
with the French governor, and engaged a French
gentleman to go upon a mission for 6000 French
troops to the King of F ranee. The King of F ranee,
it is said, out of compunction, which he strongly
expressed, for having aided the Americans in resisting
the crown of England, declined compliance, and
amused himself “ with the shabby finery of Tippoo’s
presents to himself and the Queen.”

The English army followed that of the Sultan as
far as Trinomalee. Lord Cornwallis had arrived at
Madras on the 12th of December, and directed
General Medows to return to the Presidency.

From Trinomalee, therefore, the army turned off to
Arnee, where the guns and heavy stores were
deposited under Colonel Musgrave, the second in

2 a 2

356

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

B(miapV 3 ' command ; and the remainder of the army reached
— the encampment at Vellout, eighteen miles from
Madras, on the 27th of January.

On the Malabar side. Colonel Hartley was left,
after the Madras troops wTere withdrawn, with one
European regiment and two battalions of Sepoys.
Happily the General left by Tippoo gave him the
opportunity of a pitched battle on the 10th of
December, and being routed escaped with the public
treasure up the Tambercherry pass.

General Abercromby, the Governor of Bombay,
had not been able to take the field till late in the
season. He arrived at Tellicherry with a respectable
force a few days preceding the battle of Hartley :
and on the 14th, appeared before Cannanore, which
after a very short resistance made an unconditional
surrender. As the population was thoroughly dis-
affected to the government of Mysore, and none of
the forts were strong, the task of the English army
was little more than that of overrunning the country ;
and in the space of a few weeks every place which
belonged to Tippoo in Malabar was subdued, and
the whole province placed in possession of the
English.1

During this campaign the Governor-General had
been engaged in a transaction of considerable im-
portance with the Nabob of Arcot. When Sir
Archibald Campbell arrived at Madras, after the
Carnatic revenues, which had been placed under
British management by Lord Macartney, had been
restored to the Nabob, one of the principal services

1 For the facts of this campaign, Col. Wilks is undoubted authority ; but
for opinions, his partialities deserve to be watched.

THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AT MADRAS. 357

which he was called upon to perform, was, that of B<i,[<:v>iK } 1
effecting a new arrangement with the said master of — —

those revenues. By the memorable arrangement of
the Board of Control, the creditors of the Nabob
were to receive annually twelve lacs of pagodas.

The expense at which the President in Council
estimated the peace establishment was twenty-one
lacs. It was, therefore, his proposal, that the Nabob,
the English Presidency, and the Baja of Tanjore,
should each contribute to this expense, in exact
proportion to the gross amount of their several and
respective revenues. According to this principle,
the contingent of the Nabob towards the peace
establishment would have amounted to ten and a
half lacs of pagodas. But upon a very pathetic
remonstrance, setting forth his inability to sustain so
vast a burden, the President was induced to admit
an abatement of a lac and a half; and upon this
agreement, of nine lacs to the state, and twelve to
the creditors, an instrument, which they called a
treaty, was signed on the 24th of February, 1787.

Such was the distribution of the revenues appointed
for the period of peace. In the period of war, it was
agreed that the parties should contribute four-fifths
of their respective revenues to the exigencies of the
State; the Nabob, however, being allowed to deduct,
in the first instance, jaghires to a considerable
amount for the maintenance of his family.

For punctuality of payment, it was arranged, that
the following securities should be taken. In case of
failure or delay in the contribution for the season of
peace, certain districts were named, the aumildars
and r ollectors of which were to make their payments,

358

HISTORY OF ERITISH INDIA.

book \ i no^ to qie Nabob, but to receivers appointed by the

— Company. For securing payment of the four-fifths

of the revenues which were to be received by the
Company in the season of war, the government of
Madras might appoint one or more inspectors of
accounts to examine the receipts of the districts; and
on failure of payment, they might appoint receivers
to obtain the money from the aumildars, in the same
manner for the whole country, as had been stipulated
in the case of certain districts, on failure of the pay-
ment of the subsidy during peace.

Sir Archibald took to himself a high degree of
credit for this arrangement. In his letter to the
Court of Directors in which he announced the com-
pletion of it, a letter bearing date the very day on
which the treaty was signed, he first announces the
pecuniary terms, and thus proceeds : “ The care I
have taken in securing to the Company the punctual
payment of the several sums agreed upon, will be
sufficiently illustrated by the treaty itself, which I
have the honour to enclose. It is therefore only
necessary to observe, that this, as well as all the
other objects, recommended to me by the Court of
Directors, have been minutely attended to in this
treaty. The power of the purse and sword is now
completely secured to the Company ; without lessen-
ing the consequence of the Nabob: and I pledge
myself that these powers, so long as I have the
honour to preside in this government, will be exerted
with discretion, and to the utmost of my abilities,
to secure the interests, and promote the honour and
prosperity, of the India Company. If the articles
of this treaty appear satisfactory to you ; if they

ARRANGEMENT WITH THE NABOB. 359

produce, as I trust they will, solid and lasting 3 1

advantages to the India Company, by the very

respectable addition of five lacs of pagodas to their 1790-
annual receipts, while the Nabob of the Carnatic is
happy and pleased with the arrangement, I shall
think my labours well bestowed, and feel that I am
fully rewarded for all the fatigue and anxiety of
mind I have undergone, preparatory to, and during
the whole of this negotiation, which I can with truth
say has greatly exceeded any description that I can
possibly convey.”

Hardly -was Sir Archibald more pleased with him-
self, than he was with the Nabob. “ I should not.”
he says, “ discharge my duty to the Honourable
Company, were I not to recommend the present
state of the Nabob’s finances to your most serious
consideration. The voluntary grant of so large a
proportion of his revenues to the public and private
creditors of his Highness, does, in my opinion, infi-
nite honour, and marks his real character. But it
ought to be considered, that this grant was made at
a time when he thought his proportion for the
defence of the Carnatic would not exceed the sum of
four lacs of pagodas annually. His contribution for
this defence is now extended to nine lacs ; and I can
easily perceive, that although he has cheerfully
agreed to pay for that purpose five lacs of pagodas
more than he expected, yet it is from a conviction
that such a contribution is indispensable for the
general security; and that this venerable Prince
would rather subject himself and family to the feel-
ings of difficulty and distress, than be thought back-
ward for a single moment, in contributing most

360

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

“JT liberally to any arrangement which might tend effec-
tually to the defence and prosperity of the Carnatic.

1790' I have narrowly watched the Nabob’s conduct and
sentiments since my arrival in this country, and I
am ready to declare, that I do not think it possible
that any Prince or person on earth can be more sin-
cerely attached to the prosperity of the Honourable
Company than his Highness, or that any one has a
higher claim to their favour and liberality.”1

Of this arrangement in general, the Directors ex-
pressed great approbation. Injustice, however, they
remarked, had been done to the Raja of Tanjore,
and undue favour shown to the Nabob, in one par-
ticular: For as the Raja paid an annual tribute to
the Nabob, and this had not been deducted from the
estimate of the Raja’s revenues, and added to that
of the revenues of the Nabob, a burden of 50,000
pagodas annually, more than his due, had thus been
laid upon the one ; a burden of 50,000 pagodas
which he ought to bear, had been thus removed from
the other. With regard to the abatement which, on
the score of inability, had been allowed to the Nabob,
in the proportional payments, the Directors expressed
a wish, that the indulgence had rather been shown
by diminishing the payments exacted for the cre-
ditors than by reducing the annual subsidy. They
directed, accordingly, that the payment of ten lacs
and a half on that account should still be required,
together with the above-mentioned 50,000 pagodas
which had been wrongfully charged to the Raja of
Tanjore. The regular contingent of the Nabob was

1 See a volume of papers, on this subject, ordered by the House of
Commons to be printed on the 16th of March, 1792.

RESULT OF CAMPBELLS ARRANGEMENT.

361

therefore established at the sum of eleven lacs ; but, book vi

m consideration of his poverty, something less would

he accepted for a few years. 179°-

Before the proposal for a new arrangement in
conformity to these conditions of the Directors was
communicated to the Nabob, his payments had, as
usual, fallen in arrear; and in an answer to the
importunities of Governor Hollond, he thus expressed
himself: “ The treaty that was entered into, in the
government of Sir Archibald Campbell, I was in-
duced to accede to, in the fullest hopes that I should
obtain possession of Tanjore. I have exerted myself
beyond my ability ; and exercised every kind of
hardship and oppression over the ryots, in collecting
money to pay the Company ; though in doing this I
suffer all those pangs which a father feels when he
is obliged to oppress and injure his own son. Such
is the impoverished state of the country, that it is by
no means equal to the burden ; and I most sincerely
and with great truth do declare, that I am necessi-
tated to draw the very blood of my ryots to pay my
present heavy instalment to the Company.” He not
only remonstrated with the utmost vehemence against
the additional payments which the Directors com-
manded to be imposed upon him ; but he earnestly
prayed for relief, even from those which by the
treaty with Sir Archibald Campbell he had engaged
himself to sustain. Nor was it till a period sub-
sequent to the arrival of General Medows, that his
consent to the new burdens was obtained.1

While the Nabob was pressed on this important

1 See a volume of papers, ut supra, p. 17, 19, and 50.

362

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 3.

1790.

subject, he had recourse to an expedient which suc-
ceeded so well when employed with Mr. Hastings.
He lodged an accusation against the Governor of
Madras : and sent a letter privately to the Governor-
General through a subaltern in the Company’s army.
The grounds of the accusation the Governor-General
directed to be examined by a Committee. In regard
to the private letter and its bearer, he adopted a line
of conduct differing widely from that which on a
similar occasion had been pursued by Mr. Hastings.
“ If I had not,” said he, in his answer to the Nabob
“ believed that the conduct of Lieutenant Cochrane
proceeded only from inadvertency, I should have
been highly displeased with him for presuming to
undertake the delivery of a letter to me of such
serious import from your Highness, without the
knowledge or sanction of the Madras government ;
which I am sure, upon a little reflection, your High-
ness must agree with me, in thinking the only regu-
lar and proper channel of communication between
us.”1

When the war broke out, the demands of the
English for money became more urgent ; the back-
wardness of the Nabob in his payments continued
the same. “ After a most attentive consideration
of the subject,” say the president and Council of
Madras, in their political letter dated the 16th of
September, 1790, “ we resolved to submit to the
supreme government the correspondence which had
taken place between our President and the Nabob ;
and to point out to his Lordship in Council the

See a volume of papers, ut supra, p. 24.

COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE NABOB.

363

impolicy of depending for our principal resources, at bookv1

a time when the greatest exertions were necessary,

and pecuniary supplies were of the utmost import- 179°-
ance, upon the operations and management of the
Nabob’s government, of which the system was
perhaps as defective and insufficient as any upon
earth. And we did not hesitate to declare it as our
unqualified opinion, that this government ought,
during the war, to take the Nabob’s country under
their own management, as affording the only
means by which the resources to be derived from it
could be realized, and the fidelity and attachment
of the polvgars and tributaries secured, which is of
the utmost importance to the successful operations
of the war. In the event of his Lordship’s agreeing
with us in opinion, and instructing us to act in con-
formity, we submitted to him the necessity of our
adopting the measure in so comprehensive a manner
as to preclude any kind of interference on the part
of the Nabob, while the country might be under our
management; and stating that, if this were not
done, the expected advantages could not be de-
rived.”

Instead of nine lacs, which it had been found im-
possible to make the Nabob pay during peace, four-
fifths of his whole revenues were payable to the
Company during war. But, whereas Sir Archibald
Campbell had boasted to the Directors, that the ar-
rangements, which he had made, “ secured the
punctual payment of the sums agreed upon ; ” the
President and Council of Madras affirmed that they
were totally inadequate to the securing of payment ;
and pointing out, what was a strange defect in prac-

364

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 3.

1790.

1 tical policy, “ It might,” they say, “ have been ex-
. pected, that the securities for the performance of the
war stipulations, which are of such importance, would
have been made stronger than those which are pro-
vided in the event of failures on the part of his
Highness in time of peace : But they are, in fact,

less efficient ; and the process prescribed for failures
in time of war is so tedious and complicated, that
it can scarce be said to deserve the name of any
security or provision whatever.” “ As to the appoint-
ment,” they said, “ of inspectors of accounts, pro-
vided for in the treaty of Sir Archibald Campbell,
we think they are so little calculated to have any
good effect, that we are not disposed to put the
Company to expense on this account; being con-
vinced that, in this country, no power, excepting the
one which governs, can obtain a true state of
Cutcherry accounts.”1

The Governor-General lost no time in expressing
his full conviction of the necessity of assuming the
government of the country ; but recommended that
the acquiescence of the Nabob should, if possible, be
obtained. The most vehement opposition which it
was within the power of the Nabob to make, the
Nabob on this occasion displayed. “We cannot say,”
replied the Madras Council, “ that the event has sur-
prised us ; — for, when it is considered, how many
people, attached to the Durbar, are interested in the
Nabob’s retaining the management of his country in
his hands, it will not be a matter of wonder that
every effort should be made to prevent his again

1 Lett, to Gov. Gen. 1st May, and 7th June, 1790. See a volume of
papers, ut supra, p. 91 and 102.

RESOLUTION TO ASSUME THE NABOB’S GOVERNMENT.

365

ceding what in a former instance he had much diffi- J1

culty in recovering. — We are convinced he will never-

make a voluntary assignment of his country.”1 l790'

On the 21st of June, the Supreme Government,
declaring their “ perfect persuasion of the impos-
sibility of obtaining in future the stipulated propor-
tion of the Nabob’s revenues, through the medium
of his own managers, which also precluded all hopes
of being able, by those means, to recover the im-
mense amount of his balance, authorized and directed
the Governor and Council of Madras, to take effectual
measures to put the Company into immediate pos-
session of the management of his Highness’s revenues
and country ; in order that the total amount of the
collections might be applied with fidelity and economy,
in the proportions that had been already settled, to
defray the exigencies of the war, and to support his
Highness’s own family and dignity.” Tanjore was
included in the same arrangement.2

The Letter of the Governor-General and Council
was continued in the following words : “We sincerely
lament, that your endeavours to prevail upon the
Nabob, by argument and persuasion, to sacrifice his
ideas and private feelings, respecting his own per-
sonal dignity and importance, to the real and sub-
stantial good of his subjects — and for that purpose to
make a voluntary surrender3 to the Company of the

1 Letter from the Presidency of Madras to the Gov. Gen. in Council,
dated 7tli June, 1790. Ibid. p. 103.

2 Letter from the Gov. Gen. in Council, to the Gov. in Council of Fort
St. George. Ibid. p. 114.

3 “ For the real and substantial good of his subjects make a voluntary
surrender” of his sovereignty ! The Governor-General and his Council
could not be simple enough to expect it. Where would he have found

366

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 3.

1790.

management of his country, during the continuance
of the present war, have proved so fruitless and
ineffectual. We trust, however, that before long, his
Highness will be fully sensible of the interested and
criminal motives of the advisers, by whom he has
been influenced to resist your solicitations ; and that
he will soon see, that, whilst his people will be
treated with justice and humanity, a liberal fund
will he secured for the maintenance of his own family
and dignity, and that the remainder of the revenues
will he secured from the hands of extortioners and
usurers, and honourably applied to the defence and
protection of his subjects and dominions.”1

In reporting upon these transactions to the Court
of Directors, the Governor- General drew a picture of
the government and circumstances of the Nabob,
which is too material to this part of the history, not

a prince, in much more civilized countries, capable of that sacrifice ? —
“ We trust that before long his Highness will be fully sensible of the
interested and criminal motives of his advisers.” What prince is without
such interested and criminal advisers ? And what can he expected from
the advisers of any prince — advisers who, as long as they have the wielding
of his power, how destructive soever to the community, gain by its magni-
tude ; would lose by its diminution ? — “ While his people will be treated
with justice and humanity, a liberal fund will be secured for his own
family and dignity.” If every prince, upon the securing of a liberal fund
for his family and dignity, would consent to lose all that portion of his
power which obstructs the exercise of humanity and justice to his people,
what a different world should we speedily behold ! That the doctrine,
however, of Lord Cornwallis, so earnestly preached to this Indian prince,
and recommended to his acceptance by more effectual means, when
preaching would not sulfice, was a doctrine which ought to be recom-
mended to princes, few will dispute. But history provides for a just
judgment upon Mohammed Ali, and his advisers; who certainly deserve
no peculiar measure of disapprobation for preferring the existence to the
annihilation of his power, notwithstanding the claims of humanity and
justice, which I fully admit, with respect to his people.

1 Letter, ut supra, ibid. p. 117.

THE GOVERNOR GENERAL APPROVES THE ASSUMPTION. 367

to be insertedin its original shape. “ I was impelled,” B 1

says he, “ to the determination of assuming the

revenues of the Carnatic, by the strongest considera- 1/9°-
tions of humanity, justice, and public necessity. The
flagrant failure, on the part of the Nabob, in the
performance of the stipulations of the treaty with
the Company, ought long ago to have awakened the
government of F ort St. George to a sense of their
public duty ; and would, in strictness, at any time,
have merited the serious interference of this govern-
ment. But, at a dangerous juncture, when the
resources of Bengal are totally inadequate alone to
support the expense of the war into which we have
been forced, by one of the most inveterate enemies
of his Highness’s family, and of the British name,

I could not for a moment hesitate in discharging
what clearly appeared to me to be the duty of my
station — by taking the only measures that could be
effectual for securing the proportional assistance, to
which we are entitled, from the funds of the Car-
natic.— I must likewise observe, that, by executing
this resolution, I have every reason to believe, that
whilst we provide for the general safety, we, at the
same time, greatly promote the interests of humanity.

F or, by the concurrent accounts that I have received
from many quarters, I am perfectly convinced, that,
from the Nabob’s being unacquainted with the
details of business, and, either from an indifference
to the distresses of his subjects, or from a total in-
capacity to superintend and control the conduct of his
renters and managers, the most insatiable extortions,
and cruel oppressions, are no where in India more
openly and generally committed, with impunity,

368

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book yi upon the mass of the miserable inhabitants, than by

CHAP. 3. . > 5 *'

his Highness’s officers in the internal management

179°- of his country. And it will, therefore, not only be
felt as a relief, by the body of the people, to be put
under the authority of the Company’s servants; but
we shall probably be able, by mild and just treat-
ment, to conciliate, on this critical occasion, the
attachment of the southern Polygars, who, from
being harassed by the unreasonable exactions of the
Nabob’s renters, have almost always been ripe for
disturbance and revolt. I trust, likewise, that, in
addition to the other advantages that may be expected
from the measure of taking the management of the
Carnatic into your own hands, it may tend to break off
a connexion between the Durbar and many of your
servants — from which nothing but the most baneful
effects can result, both to your own and his Highness’s
interests. — The relation between his Highness and
the Company’s government ; the delusive schemes,
into which he has at different times been drawn by
the acts of intriguing and interested men, to seek for
support in England, against regulations and orders,
no less calculated for his real good, than for the
advantage of the Company ; and the ease which
Europeans of all descriptions have found, by the
vicinity of his residence to Madras, in carrying on an
intercourse with him, in defiance of all your pro-
hibitions, have thrown out temptations that have
proved irresistible to several of your servants and
other persons, not only recently, but during a long
period of years, to engage in unjustifiable and
usurious transactions with the Durbar. And I believe
I may venture to assure you, that it is to these

ASSUMPTION OF THE CARNATIC APPROVED OF.

causes, so highly injurious to the Company’s in-
terests, and so disgraceful to the national character,1
that the present state of disorder and ruin, in his
Highness’s affairs, is principally to he attributed. —
It will require much mature consideration to devise
means that will be effectual to prevent a repetition of
these evils; and, indeed, I must freely own, that I

1 English virtue — his Lordship is not restrained by the common cry,
that an Englishman should never speak of English virtue except with
praise, from pointing out where English want of virtue has been pro-
ductive of undesirable effects. “ I am sensible,” says he, “ that many
individuals, conceiving that they are actuated by the best of motives, will
differ with me in the sentiments which I have taken the liberty to offer
upon this subject, and I cannot be confident that they will meet with a
favourable reception from the nation at large. — The Nabob’s age, his long
connexion with us, his rights to the possession of the country ; and ex-
aggerated accounts of his former services, may furnish topics for popular
declamation, and may possibly engage the nation, upon mistaken ideas of
humanity, to support a system of cruelty and oppression. But whilst I
feel conscious that I am endeavouring to promote the happiness of mankind
and the good of my country, I shall give very little weight to such con-
siderations : And should conceive, that I had not performed the duty of
the high and responsible office in which you did me the honour to place
me, if I did not declare— That the present mixed government cannot
prosper; even in the best hands in which your part of it can be placed :
And that, unless some such plan as that which I have proposed, should be
adopted, the inhabitants of the Carnatic must continue to be wretched ; the
Nabob must remain an indigent bankrupt ; and his country an useless and
expensive burden to the Company and to the nation.” Ibid. p. 58. — M.

Although it is no doubt true that the cause of the Nabob of Arcot was
not unfrequeutly advocated from motives of self-interest, yet it is unjust
to ascribe his defence in every case, to want of virtue in his defenders.
Many persons of integrity were at all times ready to take part with him, in
consideration of what they conscientiously believed to be his hereditary
rights, and his attachment to the English. They were not well apprized
of his real situation, and regarded the control which the Madras Govern-
ment sought to maintain, as usurpation and insult. They believed also in
his having considerable power, which he might exercise to the disadvantage
of the British, and they therefore questioned the policy of exciting his
displeasure. These considerations operated even with superior minds in
his behalf, and procured him unpaid friends and partisans both in India
and in England. — W.

YOL. V. 2 B

BOOK

CHAP.

1790.

370

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v1 could not venture to propose any plan, on the success
of which I could have a firm reliance, unless the

1790.

Nabob could be induced, by a large annual revenue,
to surrender the management of his country for a
long term of years to the Company.”1

For the details of management, the same regula-
tions were adopted which had been devised by Lord
Macartney ; and the highest testimony was now borne
to the wisdom of the plan which he established, and
which the Board of Control had overturned. General
Medo^vs, as early as the 31st of March, was not re-
strained from declaring, in his letter of that date to
the Court of Directors, “ His Highness, the Nabob,
is so backward in his payments, and oppressive to
his Polygars, whom at this time it is so necessary to
have on our side, that I conceive it will be absolutely
necessary, upon his first material delay of payment,
to take the management of his country into your own
hands ; a measure, in spite of the opposition made to
it, so advantageous to you, the country, and even his
Highness himself, wrhen so wisely projected, and
ably executed, by Lord Macartney.”2

This important arrangement was followed by the
complete approbation of the Directors,3 who expressed
themselves, even upon the first assignment, procured
by Lord Macartney, in the following terms : “ If the
absolute necessity of recurring to the measure in
question were not, in our opinion, to be completely
justified upon its own merits, we might recall to our

1 Letter from Lord Cornwallis to the Court of Directors, dated 10th
August, 1790. Ibid. p. 57, 58.

s Ibid. p. 55.

3 See the vol. of papers on the subject, ordered to be printed by the
House of Commons, on the 2nd of April, 1792, p. 5.

OPPOSITION MADE BY THE NABOB.

371

recollection the circumstances of a former period. At book yi

x CHAP. 3.

the commencement of the preceding war, the Nabob

agreed to appropriate the whole of his revenues for 179°-
its support, and the Company appointed superin-
tendents, or receivers, to collect and receive all the
rents, &c. from the Nabob’s aumildars. But,
whether it arose from the bad system of manage-
ment in general, or from this double system in par-
ticular ; or whether there wTas a predominant influ-
ence in the Nabob’s Durbar, inimical to the interests
of the Company — all of which were repeatedly sug-
gested— the measure did not afford any relief to the
Company’s finances in the prosecution of the war.

Nor, till the country was absolutely made over by
a deed of assignment, in December, 1781, did the
Company receive a thousand pagodas into their
treasure.”1 2

Not in exact conformity with the character which
had been given of him by Sir Archibald Campbell,
the Nabob now practised all the arts which, in the
case of Lord Macartney, had been employed to defeat
the purposes of the assignment. This time, however,
they were practised with inferior success, because
they were not, as when employed against Lord
Macartney, supported by the superior powers. Even
in this case, the Nabob had the boldness to circulate
instructions to his aumils, or revenue agents in the
country, calculated to prevent co-operation with the
English government. The remarks of the Directors
upon these proceedings of his are necessary to be
known. “ Having signified our approbation of the

1 Court’s Political Letter to Fort St. George, dated 6th May, 1791.

2 b 2

372

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \!

CHAP. 3,

1790.

i determination of the Bengal government, authorizing
_ you to assume the management of the Nabob’s
revenues during the continuance of the war, and
which seems to have been carried into effect with as
much delicacy towards the Nabob, as a circumstance
so totally against his inclination would admit of; we
are sorry to remark on the nature and tendency of
the Nabob’s orders to his aumildars. Surely his
Highness must have forgot, for a moment, the nature
of his connexion with the Company : and that he is
entirely indebted to their support for the preserva-
tion of his country. If the Nabob’s professions and
actions had not been very much at variance, with
what reason could Lieutenant Boisdaun, commanding
at Nellore, complain, that the Nabob’s managers
seemed rather the enemies of the detachment than
their friends. We likewise have the mortification to
find that his Highness’s phousdar and aumildar, at
Nellore, absolutely refused to submit to the Com-
pany’s authority ; a resistance, which, say the Board
of Revenue, might be expected from the nature of
the Nabob’s circular orders. We find also that the
collector at Trichinopoly was encountering many
difficulties, in establishing the Company’s authority
in the different districts, from the opposition of an
armed force ; and that so very industrious have the
Nabob’s sons been in throwing obstacles in the way,
that not an account was to be found in any of the
village Cutcheries, nor any public servant who could
give the smallest information ; and that they have
been particularly active in disposing of all the grain
in the country. We likewise observe, in the intelli-
gence from Tanjore, that the Raja had been recently

OPPOSITION MADE BY THE NABOB.

373

alienating several villages,, and that the repairs of 1

tanks and water-courses had been neglected, that the

Company’s collectors might not he able to produce 1'90‘
much income. Such friends and allies can he
looked upon as little better than open and declared
enemies. And such a conduct on their part is an ill
return for the protection that has been constantly
afforded them by the British nation.”1

The opposition which the English encountered on
the part of the people themselves, was naturally
created by the course which the English pursued.

They professed, that they were to retain the govern-
ment of the country, only during the war. After
one or two years, the business and the power would
again be consigned to the Nabob ; when those who
during that interval had acted agreeably to his in-
clinations would be favoured ; those who had con-
formed to the inclinations of the English would
be oppressed. The English collections, therefore,
continued far below the amount to which a per-
manent arrangement might have been expected to
bring them.

Hypocrisy was the cause wdiich produced the dif-
ficulties resulting to the English from their con-
nexion with the Nabob. They desired to hold him
up to the world, as an independent Prince, their ally,
when it was necessary they should act as his lord and
master. If they succeeded in persuading no other
person that he was an independent Prince, they suc-
ceeded in persuading himself. And very naturally,
on every occasion, he opposed the most strenuous re-

Court’s Political Letter to Fort St. George, dated 6tli May, 1791.

374

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

F sis^ance to every scheme of theirs, which had the

appearance of invading his authority. If the defence

1/90‘ of the country rested with the English ; and if they
found that to govern it through the agency of the
Nabob deprived them of its resources, and above all
inflicted the most grievous oppression upon the in-
habitants; results, the whole of which might have
been easily foreseen, without waiting for the bitter
fruits of a long experience ; they ought from the be-
ginning, if the real substance, not the false colours of
the case, are taken for the ground of our decision, to
have made the Nabob in appearance, what he had
always been in reality, a pensioner of the Company.
What may be said in defence of the Company is, that
parliament scanned their actions with so much igno-
rance, as to make them often afraid to pursue their
own views of utility, and rather take another course,
which would save them from the hostile operation of
vulgar prejudices.

CORNWALLIS COMMANDS THE ARMY.

375

CHAPTER IV.

Cornwallis takes the Command. — Second Campaign
begins. — Siege of Bangalore. — March to Seringapa-
tam. — Operations of the Bombay Army. — Battle at
Arikerabetween Cornwallis and Tippoo. — Army in
Distress for Bullocks and Provisions. — Obliged to
return. — Operations of the Mahratta Contingent. —
Negotiations with Tippoo. — Debate in the House of
Commons on the War with Tippoo. — Preparations
for a third Campaign. — Reduction of the Fortresses
which commanded the Passes into the Carnatic, and
threatened the Communications. — Operations of the
Nizam's Army, and of the Mahratta Contingent,
in the interval between the frst and second March
upon Seringapatam. — Operations of the Bombay
Army. — Operations of Tippoo. — March to Serin-
gapatam,— Intrenched Camp of the Enemy stormed
before Seringapatam. — Preparations for the Siege.

— Negotiations. — Peace. — Subsequent Arrange-
ments.

When the breach with Tippoo first appeared in- J1

evitable, the Governor-General formed the design of

proceeding to the coast, and of taking upon himself 179L
the conduct of the war. He resigned that intention,
upon learning that General Medows was appointed
Governor of Fort St. George. But he resumed it,
when the success of the first campaign fell short of

376

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bcha!\ I/ his hopes; and on the 17th of November, wrote to
the Court of Directors, that, notwithstanding the

1791. ^

good conduct, both of the General and of the troops,
yet, by the irruption of Tippoo into Coimbetore, by
the loss of stores and magazines, and by the check
given to Colonel Floyd, enough had been effected to
impress unfavourably the country powers, and create
a danger lest the Mahrattas and the Nizam should
incline to a separate peace : That his purpose, there-
fore, was, to place himself at the head of the army,
not with the overweening conceit that he would act
more skilfully than General Medows, but from the
supposition, that, holding the higher situation in the
government, he could act with the greater weight, and
at any rate convince the native powers, by his ap-
pearance in the field, of the serious determination
with which the East India Company had engaged in
the war.

The routes to the centre of Tippoo’s dominions,
that by one of the southern passes, and that by the
line of Velore, Amboor, and Bangalore, presented a
choice of difficulties; as the route by the southern
passes, gave a line of operation, from Madras, the
grand source of supply, both very long, and, owing to
the weakness of several of the posts, very difficult to
defend; and that in the direction of Velore, afforded
little in the way of supply for the wants of the army,
and demanded the preliminary operation of the siege
of Bangalore, one of the strongest places in Mysore,
distant ninety miles from Amboor, the nearest depot
of the besieging army. The issue of the preceding
campaign contributed probably to determine Lord
Cornwallis in the choice of the latter.

THE ENGLISH BESIEGE BANGALORE.

377

1791.

Tippoo, summoned from his negotiations in the } 1
neighbourhood of Pondicherry, by intelligence of the -
march of Lord Cornwallis toward Velore, on the
5th of February, ascended rapidly by the passes of
Changama and Policode ; and was ready to meet
the English army in its attempt to penetrate by any
of the usual and easiest of the passes. Contriving
the appearances of a march toward Amboor, which
completely imposed upon the Sultan, Lord Cornwallis
turned suddenly to the north, and was at the head
of the pass of Mooglee, before it was in the power of
the enemy to offer any obstruction to his march.

The English army began to move from the head of
the pass on the 21st of February ; and it was the 4th
of March before the cavalry of the enemy appeared
in considerable force. A mind like that of the Sultan
was not very capable of entertaining more than one
object at a time. All his military operations were
suspended while he was preparing at Pondicherry the
means of assistance from the French. When he was
frustrated in his hopes of resisting the English in the
pass, by their ascent at Mooglee, he was wholly en-
grossed by the thought of his Harem, left at Banga-
lore. Dispositions might have been made, to impede
his enemy in front, and harass them in the rear, in
every possible route. The Sultan, on the other hand,
chose to go, in person, at the head of his army, to
remove his women and valuables from Bangalore, a
service which might have been performed by any of
his officers with 500 men ; and he allowed the English
General to arrive within ten miles of his object,
before he had occasion to fire a gun. An intended
assault on the baggage on the morning of the 5th

378

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

^iiap^i 1 was frustrated by a skilful movement of the General :

and in the evening the English took up their position

i/9L pefore Bangalore, without any loss of stores and only
five casualties, after a day’s exertion of the whole
army of Tippoo.

Next day, as the cavalry, commanded by Colonel
Floyd, and a brigade of infantry, were performing in
the afternoon an observation to the south-west of
the fort, they unexpectedly approached the line of
encampment, which the Sultan had marked out, and
which his army, by a circuitous and undiscovered
march, were just beginning to enter. A body of
about 1000 horse, all who were not foraging, ordered
to check the approach of the English, were the only
part of the enemy yet seen by Colonel Floyd; and
he moved against them with his cavalry, leaving the
infantry in a swampy hollow, with orders there to
wait his return. The retreat of Tippoo’s horse dis-
covered the rear of his infantry with baggage and
guns ; the temptation was great ; the orders against
an enterprise were forgotten ; the flying enemy left
their guns ; the ground became irregular and strong ;
several charges had been made successfully on the
right and the left, when Colonel Floyd advancing to
dislodge the largest body of the enemy, received a
musket ball, and fell. Though he was not mortally
wounded, a retreat commenced ; orders could not be
distinctly communicated ; great confusion ensued ;
but the infantry, which had been left under Major
Gowdie, advanced with their guns to an eminence
which commanded the line of retreat, and after allow-
ing the cavalry to pass, opened afire upon the enemy
which soon cleared the field. The danger was over,

THE ENGLISH BESIEGE BANGALORE.

379

when Lord Cornwallis arrived with a division of the book)1

army to the support of the fugitives.1

The Pettah, a considerable town surrounded by a 1791-
wall and a ditch, was assaulted on the 7th. “ Two
ladders,” says Colonel Wilks, “ would probably have
saved many lives, but there was not one in camp ;
and after a long delay in making a practicable opening
in the gate, which the troops bore with the greatest
steadiness and patience, the place was at length
carried.” The Sultan, the very same day, made a
powerful effort for its recovery. A part of his army
endeavoured to gain the attention of the English by
a feint to turn their right, while the main body, by
a concealed movement, entered the Pettah. Corn-
wallis had understood the stratagem, and reinforced
the Pettah. So long as the struggle was confined to
firing, the superiority was on the side of the Sultan ;
but when the British troops had recourse to the
bayonet, they pressed the enemy from one place to
another, and after a contest of some duration, drove
them out of the town, with a loss of upwards of two
thousand men.2 The siege had continued till the

1 Colonel Wilks seems inclined to think that had not Floyd been
wounded, the attack might have been successful. Munro thinks the check
prevented more serious mischief. “ Had he not been wounded,” he
writes, “ he would probably have pushed so far on that he never could
have extricated himself, for the enemy were strongly posted, and the flower
of their cavalry, which was at some distance, was coming on, led by
Tippoo.” Life, 109. — W.

2 “ The casualties of the English on this day,” (says Colonel Wilks,
iii. 125) “ amounted to 131, but no loss made so deep an impression as that
of Lieutenant-Colonel Moorhouse” (he commanded the artillery) “ who
was killed at the gate. He had risen from the ranks. But nature herself
had made him a gentleman. Uneducated, he had made himself a man of
science. A career of uninterrupted distinction had commanded general
respect; and his amiable character universal attachment. The regret of

380

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bcha^4VI 20th of March, the besiegers incessantly threatened

by the whole of the enemy’s force, the place not only

1/9L not invested, but relieved at pleasure with fresh
troops ; when the Sultan, perceiving that operations
were approaching to maturity for the assault, placed
his guns, during a fog, on the 21st, in a situation of
some strength, whence he could enfilade and destroy
the whole of the trenches, and open sap. The
English General struck his camp as soon as he per-
ceived this alarming design, and endeavoured to
deter the enemy by threatening a general attack.
The guns were removed, but carried back in the
evening. And this with other causes determined the
English General to overlook all the impediments
which yet remained to be removed, and to give the
assault on that very night. The intention was con-
cealed from his own army till the last moment ; and
only communicated to the senior officer of artillery,
who employed the intermediate space in perfecting, as
far as possible, the breach, and taking off the defences
of all the wTorks which commanded it. The ladders
were nearly planted before the garrison took the
alarm. However carefully the intention of assault-
ing had been concealed, it was not unknown to the
Sultan, who, at night-fall, moved his whole army
within a mile and a half of the Mysore gate, warned
the garrison of the impending trial, and appointed two
heavy corps to fall upon both flanks of the assailants ;
though such effectual precautions were employed to

his general, and the respect of his government, were testified by a monu-
ment erected at the public expense in the Church at Madras.” This is a
generous tribute to singular worth ; and deserves remembrance on account
of both parties.

BANGALORE TAKEN BY ASSAULT.

381

protect them, as frustrated all his designs. TheBc®°^]'1

serious struggle had just begun in the breach, when

a narrow circuitous way was discovered, which led a 1/9L
few men to the rampart.1 They wraited coolly till
joined by a sufficient number of their comrades to
enable them to charge with the bayonet. Till the
Kelledar fell, the garrison maintained a vigorous
resistance. The English, as they penetrated, pro-
ceeded by alternate companies to the right and left,
every where overcoming a respectable opposition, till
they met at the opposite gate. The fury which
almost always animates soldiers in a storm, when
their own safety depends upon the terror they inspire,
led to a deplorable carnage. The enemy crowding
to escape had choked up the gate ; and the bodies of
upwards of one thousand men were buried after the
assault. The Sultan, when advertised of the attack,
sent a large column to reinforce the garrison, which
was approaching the Mysore gate, at the moment
when the invaders had met above it from the right
and the left. A few shots from the ramparts apprized
them of the catastrophe ; and the Sultan, who had
shown great timidity during the siege, and availed
himself very feebly of his means to annoy the be-
siegers, and waste their time, remained in a sort of
torpid astonishment till the dawn, when he returned
to his camp.

Nothing but the blunders of Tippoo appears to
have prevented this enterprise from failing. And to
the evil consequences of that failure, the limit is not

’ According to Munro, the men ascended the main rampart with very
little opposition, for no considerable body of the enemy was formed near
the breach. Life, 113. — W.

382

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1791.

easy to assign. “ The forage and grain found in the
Pettah,” says Colonel Wilks, “ had long been con-
sumed ; the neighbouring villages had all been effec-
tually destroyed ; and the resource of digging for the
roots of grass within the limits of the piquets had
been so exhausted, that scarcely a fibre remained.
The draught and carriage cattle were daily dying by
hundreds at their piquets ; and those intended for
food scarcely furnished the unwholesome means of
satisfying hunger. Grain, and every other necessary,
including ammunition, were at the lowest ebb.”

Such were the circumstances of the British army.
rt Of raising the siege,” says Colonel Wilks, “ the
most favourable result would have been, the loss of
the whole battering train; and a retreat .upon the
depots of Coromandel, pressed by all the energy with
which such an event could have inspired the Sultan’s
army.”

On the 28th, Lord Cornwallis was able to move
from Bangalore, and proceeded in a northern direc-
tion, “ the cattle reduced to skeletons, and scarcely
able to move their own weight.” The intention of
this movement was to effect a junction with the corps
of cavalry destined for him by the Nizam, his ally.
The English and the Sultan crossed each other on
the march, when the Sultan declined a rencounter.
The forts of Deonhully and Little Balipoor surren-
dered to Cornwallis without opposition as he passed ;
and he wTas joined by the polygars, who paid dearly
afterwards to the Sultan for their fault. Intelligence
again deserted the English army. After a march of
about seventy miles, notwithstanding, in their situa-
tion, the unspeakable importance of time, they came

PREPARATIONS FOR THE SIEGE OF SERINGAPATAM. 383

to a stand, not knowing what to do ; and halted for 1

five days. False information at last induced the

General, in despair of meeting the Nizam’s cavalry, 1791'
to terminate his movement in that direction, and
proceed southwards, to meet a convoy advancing by
the pass of Amboor. After marching a day in this
retrograde direction, he received fresh information,
which induced him to trace back his steps ; and in
two days more he was met by his ally. The force
of this ally was nominally 15,000, in reality, 10,000
well-mounted horsemen, who were expected to render
good service, in performing the duties of light troops,
and extending the command of the army over the
resources of the country. The hope of any assist-
ance from them, whatsoever, was almost immediately
found to be perfectly groundless. “ They soon,”
says Colonel Wilks, “ showed themselves unequal
to the protection of their own foragers on ordinary
occasions ; and, after the lapse of a few days from
leaving Bangalore, they never stirred beyond the
English piquets, consuming forage and grain, and
augmenting distress of every kind, without the
slightest return of even apparent utility.”1

All the means procurable, for the siege of Seringa-
patam, were now prepared at Bangalore. By the
beginning of May, the equipments of the army,
except in the article of cattle, were reckoned com-
plete; and beside the motives of economy, and other
local advantages attending the termination of the
war, Lord Cornwallis, we are informed, was stimu-
lated by a consideration of the F rench revolution, to

1 Munro gives a similar account, “ the whole of them,” he observes,
would not face five hundred of the enemy’s horse.” Life 1 16. — W.

384

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

] 1 a degree of precipitation, of which, in other circum-

stances, he might not have approved. The apprehen-

1/9U sions and jealousy of the Sultan, and some discoveries
at this time of treachery, fired him to various acts of
cruelty. Before the departure of Lord Cornwallis from
Bangalore, he had taken a strong position on the main
road to his capital. To avoid this position, and
also a road on which the forage had been carefully
destroyed, the English General took the route of
Caunkanhully ; but the Sultan soon found the
means of rendering this, also, a march through a
desert.

On the 13th of May, the English army reached
Arikera, about nine miles from Seringapatam ; the
failure of the cattle increasing every day, and the
followers of the camp already in the greatest distress
for grain, of which a quantity had been destroyed
from want of ability to carry it on.

It had been planned that General Abercromby,
with the Bombay army, should ascend the Ghauts
from Malabar, and penetrate to the centre of the
Sultan’s dominions, in co-operation with the main
army from the east. With infinite labour, that army
had constructed roads, and carried a battering train,
with a large supply of provisions and stores, over
fifty miles of stupendous mountains ; “ every se-
parate gun being hoisted over a succession of ascents
by ropes and tackle.” They had reached Poodi-
cherrum by the first of March. But as Lord
Cornwallis was not yet ready to advance, he trans-
mitted instructions to that General to halt; and
only after he returned to Bangalore, with the cavalry
of the Nizam, sent him orders to advance to Peria-

BATTLE OF ARIKERA.

385

patam, a place distant about three marches from book yi

Seringapatam.

When the army, led by the Governor-General, 1791 •
arrived at Arikera, the river was already so full, as
to render impracticable, or at any rate dangerous,
his original plan of crossing at that place. Commu-
nication, however, was necessary with the army of
Abercromby ; and he resolved to march to the ford
of Caniambaddy, eight miles above Seringapatam.

The Sultan, in the mean time, not daring to leave
his capital to strike a blow at the army descending
from the west, and ashamed to let it be invested
without a struggle, had mustered resolution for a
battle. On the same day on which the English army
arrived at Arikera, the enemy took up a strong
position about six miles in their front. As the
ground for the direct approach of the English army
was unfavourable, being a narrow broken space
between the river and a ridge of hills, the com-
mander resolved, by a march, which he learned was
practicable, to cross, during the night, the ridge of
hills on the enemy’s right, to turn his left flank
before day-light, and gaining his rear, cut off the
retreat of the main body of his army to Seringa-
patam. A dreadful storm disconcerted this well-
planned enterprise ; by rendering it impossible for
the corps to find their way, and proceed in the dark.

Lord Cornwallis, however, halting till dawn, re-
solved to persevere, as he could not repeat his
stratagem, after the enemy was apprized ; and
expected some advantage, by forcing him to an
action on other ground than that which he had
deliberately chosen.

2 c

VOL. V.

386

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
chap. 4.

1791.

“ Tippoo Sultaun did not decline the meeting ;
and the praise,” (says Colonel Wilks, who appears to
have little pleasure in praising the Sultan, but great
in imputing to him all the had qualities which belong
to the most despicable, as well as the most odious,
of the human race) “ cannot, in justice, be denied
to him on this occasion, of seeing his ground, and
executing his movements, with a degree of promp-
titude and judgment, which would have been
creditable to any officer.” The loss of the English
was chiefly sustained during the time necessary to
form under the guns of the enemy. F or after they
were in a condition to advance, the troops of Tippoo
did not long maintain their ground ; and were
pursued till they found refuge under the works of
Seringapatam.

So ill were the arrangements of the English taken
for procuring intelligence, and so well those of
Tippoo for intercepting it, that no information was
possessed of General Abercromby, to open commu-
nication with whom, it was now resolved to march
to Caniambaddy. In this march, lengthened by a
circuit to twenty miles, three days were consumed ;
exhibiting to the enemy, in the battering train, and
almost every public cart in the army, dragged by the
troops, ‘f conclusive evidence,” says Colonel Wilks,
“ of the utter failure of all the equipments of the
English army.” Not only were food and carriage
wanting ; but fatigue, with the rains, which were
now almost incessant, and defective unwholesome
food, had filled the camp with disease, in which, in
addition to other horrors, the small-pox raged with
uncommon violence.

LOSS OF CATTLE AND EQUIPMENTS COMPEL A RETREAT. 387

Such, in the mind of Lord Cornwallis, was the B00K ) 1

state of the faculties on which foresight depends,

that, after he had brought the army to the extreme 1/91,
point of its line of operations, on the day after his
arrival at Caniambaddy, when the official reports of
the morning were presented to him, and not before,
did he discover, that all this fatigue, all this misery,
all this loss of lives, and all this enormous expense,
were to no purpose; that he could not attempt a
single operation, that he must destroy the whole of
the battering train and heavy equipments, and lose
no time in endeavouring, by retreat to save, if it
yet were possible, the army from destruction.

To General Abercromby, of whom as yet no intel-
ligence was obtained, orders were written to return
to Malabar. On the same day the appearance of
considerable bodies of troops marching, as toward
General Abercromby, from Seringapatam, so greatly
alarmed the Governor-General, that he sent three
brigades across the river, merely to attract the
enemy’s attention ; though it was not improbable
that the river would fill, and, precluding return,
place them in a situation from which they could
hardly expect to escape.

General Abercromby received, not without sur-
prise, the orders to return. They were followed by
a similar destruction of the heavy guns and equip-
ments, as that which took place in the army of
Cornwallis ; except that a part of the guns were
buried at the head of the pass. Almost all the cattle
lost their lives, and the men their health, in per-
forming back a long and unprovided march at a
dreadful season. And the cost of this expedition, in

2 c 2

388

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1791.

men, in money, and in labour, was added to the loss
occasioned by the fruitless march of the army from
the east.

On the 26th of May, the army commenced its
melancholy return. Before the first six miles were
accomplished, a party of horse unexpectedly rode in
upon the baggage flank. They were taken for
enemies ; but proved to be Mahrattas, from whom
was received the joyful intelligence of the near ap-
proach of two armies, led by two of the Poonah
Chiefs, Hurry Punt, and Purseram Bliow.

The tardy arrival of the Mahrattas has been
accused, as the cause of the disaster sustained by the
British army, and of their disappointment in respect to
the capture of Seringapatam. How far it was in the
power of the General to have provided himself better
with bullocks and provisions, we are without the
means of accurate knowledge. That no dependence
ought to have been placed upon the punctuality of
the Mahrattas, it would be extraordinary indeed if
there was not, at that time, sufficient experience in
his camp to give him full information. Of the cam-
paign of this portion of the confederate force a very
brief account must suffice.

The detachment of the British troops, for whose
service with the Mahrattas an agreement had been
made in the recent treaty, left Bombay on the 20th
of May, 1790; disembarked in the Jaigur river;
ascended the Ghauts by the Ambah pass; and joined
the army of Purseram Bhow, consisting of about 20,000
horse, and 10,000 foot, near the town of Coompta,
about fifty miles from the pass, on the 26th of June.
They proceeded without resistance till they arrived

OPERATIONS OF THE MAHRATTA ALLIES.

389

at Darwar, one of the great barriers of Tippoo’s
northern frontier, situated some miles south of the
river Malpurba, and from Goa eastward about seventy
miles. The Mahrattas took ground before the place
on the 18th of September ; and it was not till the 3rd
of April, after a wretched siege of twenty-nine weeks,
that it surrendered upon capitulation. The Mahrattas,
when battering in breach, aim at no particular spot,
but fire at random all over the wall. “From their
method of proceeding,” says Lieutenant Moore, who
was an indignant witness of so much loss of time,
“ we are convinced they would not, with twenty guns
against the present garrison, approach and breach
Darwar in seven years. A gun is loaded, and the
whole of the people in the battery sit down, talk, and
smoke for half an hour, when it is fired, and if it
knocks up a great dust, it is thought sufficient ; it is
reloaded, and the parties resume their smoking and
conversation. During two hours in the middle of the
day, generally from one to three, a gun is seldom
fired on either side, that time being, as it would
appear, by mutual consent set apart for meals. In
the night the fire from guns is slackened, but mus-
quetry is increased on both sides, and shells are spar-
ingly thrown into the fort with tolerable precision.”
The same intelligent officer makes the following
remarks. “ March the 1st. — Our line is more sickly
than it has hitherto been ; many officers are ill :
and among them our Colonel ; whose situation is
peculiarly cruel, being the only Company’s officer,
commanding in the field, set down before a fort of
this importance, without a single requisite for
reducing it, and subject to the delays, and irksome

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1791.

390

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi frivolity, of our tardy allies. — Too much confidence

seems to have been placed in their promises of sup-

179L plies : and it should be a caution, how, again, the
success and credit of the British arms is suffered to
depend upon the punctuality of a country power. —
If any can be at all trusted, it certainly is the Mah-
rattas : but, even with them it seems a matter of
little moment to what extent their promises are
made. And although, at the time, they may have
no intention of breaking them, it is to be understood
that failure is no discredit : nor must punctuality be
expected any further than their own views are for-
warded by observing it.”

“ March the 13th. — We were this morning,” con-
tinues Mr. Moore, “ much surprised to hear of the
death of our much respected Colonel ; for none but
the medical gentlemen had any idea of its being so
near. Actuated by the ardour of a soldier, his
enterprising spirit could not brook the procrastination
to which he was obliged to submit : and, losing,
with the unsuccessful attempt of the 7 th of F ebruary,
all expectation of an honourable conquest of the fort,
he had from that time been on the decline. No
event could have been more acute to his detachment,
for with them he was universally beloved ; nor could
the Bombay army, of which he was at the head,
have sustained a severer loss.”1 Colonel Frederick,
such was the name of this meritorious officer, was
succeeded by Major Sartorius, in the command of
the detachment ; and by Captain Little, when that

1 Moore’s Narrative of the Operations of Captain Little’s Detachment,
p. 30, 32.

LOAN TO THE MAHRATTAS.

391

officer returned to Bombay, after the surrender of J 1
Darwar.

The original garrison was estimated at 10,000 1791 ■
men ; but from the numbers which were sent away
after the Pettah was taken, and the desertions and
casualties during the siege, it was at last reduced to
3000. To have placed Darwar in blockade, nothing
less than an army would have sufficed; and the
capture was necessary to secure the Mahratta com-
munications. Had it fallen earlier, the Mahratta
army would have been employed in ravaging
Tippoo’s dominions, and cutting off supplies from
the country to the north.

The Bhow’s army, after leaving Darwar, proceeded
by easy marches to the Toombudra, and had sub-
dued the little resistance opposed to them at all the
forts which protected the possessions of Tippoo north
of that river, early in May. Lord Cornwallis had
written to Poona that he expected to be joined by
this chief at Seringapatam : and as soon as the Bhow
obtained intelligence of the arrival of the English at
Seringapatam, he proceeded towards them with all
the expedition in his power. And as he approached, he
was joined by Hurry Punt, who had advanced by a
more easterly route through Gooty, Baidroog, and
Sera, recovering, in that direction, the conquests
made upon the Mahrattas by Hyder and his son ;
and on the 28th of May, the interview between them
and the British commander took place. At this
period the army of the Bhow was estimated at
20,000, that of Hurry Punt at 12,000, horse and
foot.1

1 This is the statement of Major Dirom, who was Deputy Adjutant-

392

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book yi But the Mahrattas, now when they had arrived,

were unable to keep the field, or at least persuaded

I791- Lord Cornwallis that they were unable, unless they
received from the English pecuniary support. He
agreed to advance to them a loan of twelve lacs of
rupees ; and, in order to obtain the money, had
recourse to one of those bold expedients which would
have proved the ruin of any of his less protected
predecessors. From his camp, near Ootradroog, on
the 21st of June, he wrote to the Governor and
Council of Madras, to take the treasure out of the
China ships, and, coining it into rupees, to send it to
him with the utmost possible despatch.1

Tippoo announced to his own people the battle on
the 1 5th as a victory, the effect of which had been to
make the English destroy their battering train, and
force them to retreat, and on the 26th, he ordered a
salute to be fired from the fort. In the mean time,
certain communications had taken place between him
and Lord Cornwallis on the subject of peace. So
early as the 18th of February a letter from the Sultan,
dated the 13th, was received at Muglee, proposing to
send or receive an ambassador. Lord Cornwallis
replied on the 23rd, that as the infraction of the
treaty was on the part of the Sultan, it was necessary
to know whether he was prepared to make reparation.
On the 3rd of March an answer arrived, in which
the Sultan endeavoured to show, that the conduct of

General of his Majesty’s forces in India, and with the army at the time.
Lieutenant Moore thinks that the army of the Bhow is thus considerably
under-rated.

1 Papers (No. 4) ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, lGtli
February, 1792.

RETREAT CONTINUED.

393

the Raia of Travancore justified the attack upon his B00K y1

J J ■*; CHAP. 4.

lines; at the same time disclaiming all idea of

insult to the British government; and expressing a 1791,
wish for negotiation. To this he received no reply.

On the 27th of March the Sultan despatched another
letter, offering directly to send an ambassador. Lord
Cornwalls declined receiving an ambassador, on the
ground of his not as yet having with him any
persons qualified to treat on the part of his allies ;
but if the Sultan would send his propositions in
writing, he would transmit them to those allies, and
return an answer. On the 17th of May, when Lord
Cornwallis released the wounded prisoners after the
action of Arikera, Tippoo renewed the proposal of
negotiation Lord Cornwallis, having persons now
with him, on the part of the Mahrattas and the
Nizam, answered, on the 19th, that if the Sultan
would state his propositions in writing, commissioners
might be chosen to meet; and that he would consent
to a cessation of hostilities, if it were the Sultan’s
desire. On the 24th, when Lord Cornwallis was at
Caniambaddy, had destroyed his battering train, and
sent three brigades across the river, Tippoo
answered. He took no notice of the proposition for
a cessation of hostilities, and only urged anew the
propriety of mutually appointing confidential persons
to discuss. Lord Cornwallis now departed from the
point of written propositions, on which he had hitherto
insisted, as an indispensable preliminary, and pro-
posed that the allies should send deputies to Ban-
galore. On the 27th, when this letter was not yet
answered, and the army, now joined by the Mahrattas,

394

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA*

Bc°^ j 1 was advancing in view of Seringapatam, a present of
■ — — — fruit was sent to Lord Cornwallis, accompanied by
a letter from the Sultan’s secretary to the Persian
interpreter. This was regarded as a contrivance to
sow jealousy between the English and their allies :
and the present was returned.1 On the 29th Tippoo
replied; and after some prolix and vague explanations,
recommended that Lord Cornwallis should return to
the frontier, and then act as his last letter proposed.

With the Mahratta army, provisions and draught
cattle arrived ; though these allies, knowung well the
situation of the English army, would part with
nothing at a moderate price. The loss, however, of
the battering train, the return of General Ab ere romby,
and the state of the season, forbidding the siege of
Seringapatam ; the combined army, having resolved
upon falling back to Bangalore, proceeded on the 6th
of June, in a northern direction, to Naugmungul, and
thence eastward to the river Madoor, which they
crossed on the 19th of the same month. While en-
camped on the eastern bank of this river, a detach-
ment of the English army went forward to summon
and threaten Hoolydroog ; a hill fort, six miles east
from the pass of the river, too strong to have been

1 The passion with which soldiers are averted from peace is a pheno-
menon awfully interesting. The arrival of these presents indicated a
good understanding ; which, if it existed, might be supposed to exist, on
grounds deemed more favourable to the nation than war. “ It will be
difficult,” says Colonel Wilks, “for the reader to conceive the intense
delight with which on the ensuing morning the whole army beheld the
loads of fruit untouched, and the camel unaccepted, returning to Scrin-
gapatam.” The fact is, that the English in India, at that time, had been
worked up into a mixture of fury and rage against Tippoo, more resembling
the passion of savages against their enemy, in fact more resembling his
passion towards them, than the feelings with which a civilized nation
regards the worst of its foes.

STATE OF AFFAIRS WHEN THE ARMY ARRIVED.

395

taken, had the courage of the garrison allowed them ] 1

to defend it ; but they dreaded resistance to European — .

soldiers, and agreed to surrender, upon condition of 1791 •
security to themselves and their private property. A
provision was found in it of sheep, cattle, and grain ;
a seasonable relief to the army : and the fort was de-
stroyed, as neither the English nor the Mahrattas
thought it worth retaining. The fortresses of
Ootradroog, and Savendroog, were likewise sum-
moned during the march; hut without effect; and in
present circumstances, it was not expedient to attempt
their reduction.

The combined army arrived in the neighbourhood
of Bangalore early in July ; and were exhilarated by
several articles of agreeable intelligence.

To supply the demand of the army for draught
bullocks and rice, the following were the plans which,
upon the discovery of that deficiency which occasioned
the retreat, were adopted. The trade of corn in India
is carried on in a mode peculiar to that country. The
merchants in corn are a particular caste denoted by
the term Brinjarries. They traverse the country,
conveying the grain, often from the greatest distances,
in large bodies which resemble the march of an army.

They encamp with regularity, never lodging in
houses ; are strongly armed ; and ready to fight no
contemptible battle in their own defence. The
practice comes down from a remote antiquity ; and
marks that unsettled and barbarous state of society,
when merchants are obliged to depend upon them-
selves for the means of their defence. The expe-
rienced utility of their services has procured them
considerable privileges. They are regarded as

396

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 4

1791.

Neutral in all wars; they enjoy a right of transit
- through all countries ; and the armies, which spare
nothing else, act under a species of obligation, seldom
violated, of respecting the property of the Brinjarries.
One of the officers of the Company, Captain Alex-
ander Read, well acquainted with the language and
customs of the natives, suggested to the Commander-
in-Chief the expedient of availing himself of the
extensive resources of the Brinjarries. It was re-
solved, in consequence, that encouragement should
be held out to them, to resort with their cargoes to
the English camp. Captain Read was employed to
circulate intelligence ; and before the arrival of the
army he had collected more than ten thousand
bullock-loads of grain.

For the supply of bullocks, nearly forty thousand
of which had been lost in the last campaign, Lord
Cornwallis, beside the contractors, employed agents
to purchase them on the part of the government, and
directed the same to be done at Madras. As a relief
to the exigencies of this department, he also made an
agreement with the officers, to carry and provide their
own tents for a monthly allowance, during the re-
mainder of the war, and a similar arrangement with
the officers commanding battalions of sepoys, for the
tents of their corps, and the carriage of their ammuni-
tion and stores. Upon the arrival of the army at
Bangalore, it was found that success had attended
those exertions ; and that 100 elephants from Bengal
had arrived at Velore.

The army had the further satisfaction of learning
that Gunjcotah, which had been for some time be-
sieged by the Nizam’s troops, including the British

STATE OF AFFAIRS WHEN THE ARMY ARRIVED.

397

detachment, had surrendered on the 12th of June ; B00K V
and had given a valuable country to that ally.

The intelligence also from Europe was exhilarating, 179L
to an army keen for the continuance of the war. On
the 22nd of December, 1790, Mr. Hippesly, in the
House of Commons, had called in question the justice
and policy of the war : had affirmed that the Raja
of Travancore was the aggressor, by his lines on the
Cochin territory, and his purchase from the Dutch ;
that the Mahrattas were the people from whom in
India the greatest danger impended over the interests
of England, and that the Mysore sovereign was
valuable as a balancing power; that the resources
and genius of Tippoo rendered a war against him an
undertaking of no common difficulty and hazard;
and that the finances of the Company, feeble and ex-
hausted as they were acknowledged to be, could ill
endure the burden of an expensive war. Mr. F rancis
and Mr. Fox repeated and enforced the same con-
siderations.

On the 28th of February, Mr. Hippesly renewed
the discussion, when the alliance concluded with the
Nizam and Mahrattas afforded a new topic. He
complained that, in those treaties, though made
ostensibly on account of the attack on Travancore,
the Raja was not mentioned. The cause however of
the Raja was included in that of the English ; and
the interposition of such a people as the Mahrattas
and the Nizam, in any shape, between the English
and their allies, was incapable on almost any occasion
of conducing to good, far from incapable on many
occasions of conducing to evil.

398

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi Mr. Fox assailed the alliance in a tone of vehement

CHAF. 4.

reprobation. He denounced it a plundering con-

1791- federacy for the purpose of extirpating a lawful Prince.
He said, that when the progress of civilization had
rendered men ashamed of offensive alliances in Europe,
we had signalized our virtue hy renewing them in
India. He described the family compact of the
House of Bourbon, as the last of those odious leagues
which had disgraced the policy of civilized Europe.
As soon as a better order of things in France arose,
it dissolved, he said, that wretched engagement, and
put an end, he hoped for ever, to those expedients of
wicked governments in a barbarous age.

In reply to these accusations, circumstances were
presented to show ; that the war in the first place
was defensive ; in the next place necessary to deter
an insatiable enemy from perpetual encroachments ;
and lastly politic, as affording every prospect of a
favourable termination. And on the 22nd of March,
Mr. Dundas moved three resolutions, which passed
without a division, declaring that Tippoo had broken
the treaty hy his attack on the lines of Travancore,
and that Lord Cornwallis deserved approbation, as
well for his determination to prosecute the war, as
for the treaties he had formed with the Nizam and
Mahrattas. The favour manifested to the war in
England, was by no means confined to empty praise.
The Company resolved to send out 500,000/. in
specie : an augmentation was voted to the establish-
ment of the King’s regiments in India : Another
detachment of the royal artillery was destined for
the same purpose ; The Company exerted them-

399

\

APPROBATION IN ENGLAND OF THE WAR.

selves to send out recruits : And all these reinforce- B00K y1

ments and supplies, the General was given to under- .

stand he might receive by the ships of the season. 1/9L

It was necessary for the facility of subsistence, and
certain preparatory operations, that the allied armies
should separate during the inactive season. The
Bhow, with the detachment of Captain Little, shaped
his course toward Sera. The greater part of the
Nizam’s horse went to join the rest of the Nizam’s
army. Hurry Punt, with the English, remained at
Bangalore. Tippoo, it was supposed, would not
dare to make an advance against any of these
detached armies, for fear of being intercepted in his
retreat.

The Policade pass afforded the easiest communica-
tion with the Carnatic; and one of the most com-
modious issues for the sudden incursions of the
enemy. It was commanded by several forts, of
which Oossoor and Bayacottah were the chief.

With four heavy iron guns, which had not been
carried to Seringapatam, and four iron twelve-
pounders, which had been kept for field service,
when the heavier guns were destroyed, the army on
the 15th of July began to move towards Oossoor.

Tippoo had lately made exertions to improve the
defences of this important place ; fortunately they
were not so far advanced as to render it tenable in
the opinion of its defenders ; and upon the approach
of the English they made a precipitate retreat. F rom
Oossoor, left with a strong garrison, a brigade of the
army under Major Gowclie, proceeded against Raya-
cottah ; which consisted of two forts, one at the bottom,
the other at the top of a stupendous rock. They carried

400

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \
CHAP. 4

1791.

the first by assault ; and, pursuing the fugitives, got
possession of two walls, which formed a rampart
between the higher and lower fort. The place, if
well defended, was too strong by nature to be re-
duced ; and Major Gowdie had instructions to return,
if it was not surrendered upon the first attack. As
the lodgement, however, which he had effected on
the hill, covered the troops from the fire of the upper
fort ; and he believed the enemy intimidated, he
begged permission to persevere. The daring con-
duct of the assailants, with aid from the main army,
soon produced the desired effect upon the mind of
the Kelledar ; and, on condition of security to private
property, and leave to reside with his family in the
Carnatic, he surrendered this “ lofty and spacious
fort, so strong and complete, in all respects, that it
ought to have yielded only to famine and a tedious
blockade.”1 The rest of the forts by which the pass
was defended, either obeyed the summons, or made
a feeble resistance. The convoy which had reached
Amboor, on its way from Madras, received directions
to proceed by the newly-opened route, and the army
remained in the neighbourhood of Oossoor to cover
its march. One hundred elephants, all loaded with
treasure, marching two a-breast, with the British
standard displayed; 6000 bullocks with rice, 100
carts, with arrack, and several hundreds of coolies,
with other supplies, entered the camp on the 10th of
August ; a convoy to which nothing similar had
ever joined a British army on Indian ground.

While the army remained at Oossoor, a vakeel.

The words of Major Dirom.

AN OVERTURE FROM TIPPOO.

401

commissioned to treat with all the allies conjointly, B^IK}1

was sent by Tippoo. Lord Cornwallis consented, it

seems, to receive him, ‘f at the warm instances of 179L
Hurry Punt ; ” little expecting that Tippoo would yet
submit to the terms he was disposed to require, but
desirous of avoiding every appearance, which might
be thought to indicate a disinclination to peace.

Upon a point of form, the ambassador being com-
missioned to treat only with principals, and Lord
Cornwallis declining to treat with an agent, and
upon the surmise that the object of Tippoo was
intrigue, and the consumption of time, the messenger
was sent back to his master without being permitted
to enter the camp.1

Between Bangalore and Goorumconda lay some
hill-forts, which interrupted the communication with
the Nizam’s army, and rendered it difficult to receive
supplies from the country to the north. The brigade
of Major Gowdie was again in requisition. The only
fortress which made any considerable resistance was
Nundydroog, before which the Major arrived on the
22nd of September, with a force, consisting of one
regiment of Europeans, six battalions of sepoys, six
battering guns, and four mortars. The fort was

1 On this occasion, as well as on that of the overture on the 27th of
May, Major Dirom is careful to mention the joy which pervaded the army
when the overture was rejected. — It is another, among the many proofs
of a most remarkable fact, that whole masses of men are capable of desir-
ing the death of thousands of their fellow-creatures, at once, simply for
their own profit. Had the negotiation proceeded and been productive of
peace, it might have been supposed, by an army which had confidence in
Lord Cornwallis, that the peace, which he deliberately approved, was
better for their country than war. Better for their country.— -Yes. But
not better for them, because it precluded the acquisition of plunder, promo-
tion, and glory.

VOL. V. 2D

402

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi situated on the summit of a mountain, about one

CHAP. 4.

thousand seven hundred feet in height, of which

1791- three-fourths of the circumference was absolutely
inaccessible, and the only part which could be as-
cended was guarded by two excellent walls, and by
an outwork which covered the gate-way and yielded
a flank fire. A road was cut, and the guns dragged
with infinite difficulty to the top of an adjacent hill ;
but there, after a battery was erected, the guns were
found to be too distant even to take off the defences
of the fort. No alternative remained, but either to
work up the face of the principal hill, or lose the ad-
vantage of the impression struck on the minds of the
enemy’s garrisons, who believed that no strength,
either of nature or of art, was sufficient to protect
them against an English attack. The exertions
demanded were excessive. Without the strength
and sagacity of the elephants, the steepness of the
ascent would have rendered it impossible to carry up
the guns. Fortunately the shot of the fort, from a
height so nearly perpendicular, seldom took effect ;
but the men were severely galled by the ginjall, a
species of wall pieces, which threw with precision,
to a great distance, a ball of considerable size.

Batteries were erected after a labour of fourteen
days ; and in a short time two breaches were effected,
one on the re-entering angle of the out-work, the
other in the curtain of the outer wall ; while the
inner wall, at the distance of eighty yards, could not
be reached by the shot. The Governor still refused
to surrender, and the British commander made an
offer, which it is pleasing to record, to send out the
women, and other persons not bearing arms, that

NUNDYDROOG TAKEN BY STORM.

403

they might not suffer in the storm. The breaches B00K VI

_ J ° _ _ CHAP. 4.

being reported practicable to the Commander-in-

Chief, he detached the flank companies of the 36th 179L
and 71st regiments to lead the assault; and General
Medows, who, though superseded in the chief com-
mand, had seconded every operation of the war with
an ardour and fidelity which did him the highest
honour, offered to conduct the perilous enterprise. It
was determined to storm the breaches, to attempt
the inner wall by escalade, and, if this should fail, to
make a lodgement behind a cavalier between the
walls, and thence proceed by regular attack. A
trench which had been dug within a hundred yards
of the wall was formed into an advanced parallel,
and the flank companies were lodged in it before day-
break. At midnight, the orders were given, when
the men moved out from the right and left of the
parallel, and rushed to the assault.1 2

The fort was instantly illuminated with blue
lights ; a heavy fire was opened ; and large stones
were rolled down the hill. The fire was ill- directed;
but the stones rushing down the precipice were ex-
ceedingly formidable, and had considerable effect.

Both the breaches were quickly mounted ; and the
storming party penetrated with such rapidity, that
time was not allowed for barricading completely the
gate of the inner wall, and, after some difficulty, it
was fortunately opened. The meritorious exertions
of Captain Robertson, who led the grenadier com-

1 When the hour was approaching, some person said, in the hearing of
the troops, that a mine was reported to be near the breach. General
Medows, anticipating the effect upon their minds, cried aloud, “ If there
be a mine, it is a mine of gold.”

2 D 2

404

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1791.

panies to the breach in the curtain, prevented the
carnage which so often attends the capture of places
by assault; and of the whole garrison, about forty
only were killed and wounded. The storming
party had two men killed and twenty-eight wounded,
the latter chiefly by the stones descending the
hill.

By this time the ships of the season had brought
out the expected reinforcements, money and military
stores, with 300 troops from St. Helena, who coming
a shorter voyage, and seasoned to a warm climate,
arrived in perfect health : The powers of the several
Presidencies had been strained to the utmost to make
provision for the war: The preparations were upon
a great scale ; and now in a high state of perfection.
From Nundydroog the army moved toward the
passes, for the protection of the convoys proceeding
from Madras ; while a detachment, commanded by
Col. Maxwell, was sent to clear the Baramahal valley,
in which, and the adjoining districts, a party of the
enemy were effecting depredations.

The principal protection of this predatory party was
Penagra, a strong mud fort at the south end of the
valley. By forced marches the detachment arrived
before it on the 31st of October. A flag of truce,
sent to summon, was invited to advance, by signs
from the wall, and then repeatedly fired upon. The
wall was scaled ; and the enemy hung out the flag
for quarter in the middle of the assault. It was too
late : the troops had closed with them ; and out of
300 men who composed the garrison, 150 were
slain. Of the captors, seven alone were slightly
wounded.

UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK UPON KISTNAGHERY.

405

The detachment returned, and encamped within a ' 1

few miles of Kistnaghery. This was another of those

stupendous rocks, or rather insulated mountains, 179L
which form the strong-holds of India, and one which
yielded to few of them in natural strength. Although
it was not supposed that the reduction of the upper
fort was an undertaking to which the detachment was
equal, it was of importance, in order, as much as
possible, to cut off whatever afforded cover to the
predatory incursions of the enemy, to destroy the
Pettah, and the works at the bottom of the hill.

They were attacked under cover of the night; and
the troops escalading the walls, got possession of
them without much resistance. The ardour of the
assailants made them conceive the hope of entering
the upper fort with the fugitives. They rushed up
with such rapidity, that, notwithstanding the length
and steepness of the ascent, the enemy had barely
time to shut the gate; a standard of the regulars was
taken on the very steps of the gateway; and had the
ladders been up at this critical moment, it is probable
that the walls would have been escaladed. The enemy
had time to begin their operation of rolling down
enormous stones, which, descending in vast quantities
crushed, at once, the ladders and the men. During
two hours the strongest exertions were made to
get the ladders up the small part of the road which
was most exposed to the stones. But a clear moon-
light discovered every motion ; and, when most
of the ladders were broken, and the troops had
severely suffered, Colonel Maxwell was compelled
to put an end to the attempt. After this, having
reduced several petty forts, he rejoined the army.

Between Bangalore and Seringapatam, lies a tract

406

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

1791.

Bcn°p- j 1 of hills, thickly covered with wood, extending from

the vicinity of Bangalore to the river Madoor. This

difficult country, which of itself formed a strong
barrier to the capital of Mysore, was studded with
forts, of which some, particularly Savendroog, was
of extraordinary strength. It offered such advan-
tages to the enemy, for interrupting the communica-
tion with Bangalore, when the army should advance
to Seringapatam, that the Brinjarries, who engaged
for large quantities of grain at Bangalore, would not
undertake to supply it beyond Savendroog, if that
fortress remained in the enemy’s hands. Lord Corn-
wallis was now provided with his battering train ;
and resolved, while delayed by the Mahrattas, and
waiting for the last of the convoys, to make an effort
to gain possession of this important, but formidable
post.

It is a vast mountain of rock, computed to rise
above half a rmile in perpendicular height, from a
base of eight or ten miles in circumference, sur-
rounded by a close forest, or jungle, several miles in
depth, having its natural impenetrability heightened
by thickets of planted bamboos. A narrow path, cut
through the jungle, in a winding direction, and
defended by barriers, served as the only approach to
the fort: The natural strength of the mountain had
been increased by enormous walls and barriers, which
defended every accessible point : And to these
advantages was added the division of the mountain,
by a great chasm, into two parts at the top, on each
of which was erected a citadel ; the one affording a
secure retreat, though the other were taken ; and by
that means doubling the labour of reduction.

Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart, employed during the

THE FORT OF SAYENDROOG TAKEN BY STORM.

407

first Campaign in reducing Dindegul and Palacat- bc^ok vi

cherry, was destined to command at the siege of

Savendroog. On the 10th of December, he en- 1791-
camped within three miles of that side of the rock
from which it was proposed to carry on the attack ;
while the Commander-in-Chief made that disposition
of the rest of the army, which seemed best adapted
to cover the besiegers, and secure the convoy.

The first labour was immense, that of cutting a
way through the powerful jungle, and transporting
heavy guns over the rocks and hills which inter-
vened.

The closeness of the surrounding hills and woods
had rendered this fortress as remarkable for its noxi-
ous atmosphere as its strength. Its name signified
literally the rock of death. And the Sultan congra-
tulated his army upon the siege ; at which one half,
he said, of the English army would be destroyed by
sickness, the other by the sword. The confidence of
the garrison in the strength of the place had this
good effect, that it made them regard the approach
of the besiegers as of little importance ; and they
were allowed to erect their batteries without any
further opposition than the fire of the fort.

Within three days after the opening of the batte-
ries the breach was practicable. The jungle was
now of advantage ; for growing close up to the very
wall, the troops were able to scramble up unseen, by
the crevices and rugged parts of the rock, and made
a lodgement within twenty yards of the breach. The
21st of December was the day chosen for the assault;
and Lord Cornwallis and General Medows arrived
to witness the terrible scene. The grenadiers of the

408

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \
CHAP. 4.

1791.

52nd, and flank companies of the 76th regiment, led
. by Captain Gage, were to gain the eastern summit ;
Captain Monson, with the light company of the 52nd,
was to scour the works on the western ; the flank
companies of the 71st, under Captains Lindsay and
Robertson, were to engage whatever works or parties
might be found in the chasm between ; the 52nd and
72nd regiments to follow the flank companies; and
parties, under Colonel Baird and Major Petrie, were
to proceed round the mountain, for the purpose of
attracting the attention of the enemy, and preventing
escape.

At an hour before noon, on a signal of two guns
from the batteries, the flank companies advanced to
the breach, and mounted, while the band of the 52nd
regiment played Britons strike home. The enemy,
who had descended for the defence of the breach,
when they beheld the Europeans advancing, were
seized with a panic ; and Captain Gage had little
difficulty in carrying the eastern top : The danger
was, lest the flying enemy should gain the western
summit, which, from the steepness of the approach,
and the strength of the works, might require a repe-
tition of the siege. To provide for this contingency.
Captain Monson had directions, if he thought ad-
vancing imprudent, to effect a lodgement in some part
of the hill from which the operations might be carried
on. Fortunately the enemy impeded one another in
the steep and narrow path up which they crowded
to the citadel, while some shot, which opportunely
fell among them from the batteries, increased their
confusion. Captain Monson, with the light company
of the 52nd regiment, and a serjeant and twelve gre-

OOTRADROOG TAKEN.

409

nadiers of the 71st, pressed after the fugitives, andB°ok vi

so critical was the moment, that the serjeant of the

71st regiment shot, at a distance, the man who was 179L
closing the first of the gates. All the other harriers
the English entered along with the enemy, about 100
of whom were killed on the western hill, and several
fell down the precipices endeavouring to escape.

The prisoners taken were few. The garrison, they
said, had consisted of 1500 men, but a great part of
them had deserted during the siege. Of the English,
only one private soldier was slightly wounded.

On the 23rd of December, Colonel Stuart -was
again detached against Ootradroog. This was an-
other fortress of the same description, about twelve
miles from Savendroog. It had been summoned
when the army retreated the preceding year from
Seringapatam. But the Kelledar replied, “ I have
eaten Tippoo’s salt for twenty years, and will not
give up my post, till you first take Seringapatam.”

He was still so determined in his resistance, that he
would admit of no communication, and fired on the
flag. Next morning the lower fort was carried by
escalade ; when the Governor requested a parley.

While this was taking place, the assailants imagined
they saw the garrison moving, and treacherously
pointing their guns ; upon which they rushed to the
assault. Some of the gateways they broke, others
they escaladed. Though many parts of the road
were so narrow and steep, that a few resolute men
might have defended themselves against any attack,
so great was the alarm of the enemy, that they fled
wherever they saw a single European above the
walls. At the last gate only, they fired a few shot,

410

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1791.

by which two soldiers were wounded. Masters of
the summit, the assailants fell upon the garrison, of
whom many, to avoid the bayonets, precipitated
themselves from the rock. The Kelledar, with
some others, was taken prisoner. He reported that
his garrison, on the arrival of the detachment, had
mutinied; and that 400 had deserted during the
night.

After the success of these hazardous enterprises,
none of the inferior places had courage to resist ;
and the line of communication for the ultimate
operations of the war was now rendered secure.
The last great convoy from Madras, of which the fall
of the rains, and the state of the roads, had rendered
the progress very slow, arrived, on the 2nd of
January, at Bangalore. The Brinjarries had 50,000
bullocks, conducting grain to the army, even from
the enemy’s country itself, in quantities which no
exertions of the public service could have matched.
From the state of public credit, and the money sent
out from England, Lord Cornwallis had, what in no
former war the Indian rulers had ever enjoyed, an
overflowing treasury. At the same time it was
ascertained that the treasury of the enemy was in a
far different situation ; for several of his principal
Brinjarries brought their grain to the British camp,
complaining that Tippoo was unable to pay them,
and could give them nothing but ineffectual orders
upon the collectors of his revenues.

Such were the proceedings of the army under
Lord Cornwallis, during the season in which the
main operations of the war were suspended. A
short account is required of what, during the same

OPERATIONS OF THE CONTINGENTS.

411

time, was performed, by the other divisions of the
confederate force.

By the army of the Nizam, only two objects had
been effected during the war; the reduction of
Gunjicottah, and that of Kopaul. Not one even of
these places could have been taken without the
British detachment ; and the reduction of the latter
might be regarded as more a consequence of the fall
of Bangalore than of the operations of the siege.
This army had been employed, since the month of
August, in the attack of Goorumconda; but, de-
pending on the Nizam’s artillery, were not able to
breach the lower fork till the guns which had been
employed at Nundydroog, and a supply of ammuni-
tion, were sent from Bangalore. With British guns,
the British artillery-men completed a breach in two
days ; and prepared for the assault. As the small
party of artillery-men were the only Europeans
present, they gallantly offered, after breaching the
place, to quit their guns, and lead the assault. The
reduction of the lower fort had not long been effected,
when a large reinforcement arrived from Hyderabad,
under the Nizam’s second son. The upper fort
being regarded as too strong for assault, a body of
troops was left to establish a blockade; while the
main army, by concert with Lord Cornwallis, moved
into the neighbourhood of Colar, to cover the convoy,
which was proceeding from Madras with the last of
the ammunition and stores for the siege of Seringa-
patam. This movement escaped not the attention
of Tippoo ; Hyder Saib, his eldest son, appeared
suddenly before Goorumconda, with a flying party ;
and took the lower fort, with the whole of the de-

BOOK VI

CHAP. 4.

1791.

412

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

4vr taehment left for the blockade. This immediately

’recalled the main army, and exposed the convoy,

179L which had ascended the Ghauts, and arrived at Ven-
cataghery, to a danger which would have been great,
had the detachment with Hyder Saib been suffi-
ciently strong. But he satisfied himself with
throwing succour into Goorumconda ; and carrying
with him the families of some principal people, he
returned to Seringapatam.

Purseram Bhow passed Serah, which had sur-
rendered to Hurry Punt, on his march to the south-
ward; and arrived, without any memorable event,
in the neighbourhood of Chittledroog, early in Sep-
tember. This was the capital of a considerable
Raja, whose dominions Hyder added to his own
about the year 1776. It was one of the strongest
hill-forts in India, and said to be garrisoned by
upwards of 10,000 men. The Bhow, who had no
idea of gaining it by force, thought he might
succeed by treachery, and endeavoured to seduce the
commander, but in vain.

The Bhow seemed to have hardly any other
object than to procure repose and refreshment to his
army in the neighbourhood of Chittledroog, till after
the beginning of December, when forage began to
fail. A fertile country was intersected by the Toom
and the Budra, which, by their junction, form the
river, the name of which is also composed by the
union of theirs. It was defended, however, by
several forts. Hooly Honore, one of the most
important of them, situated at the conflux of the
rivers, Captain Little, with his detachment, under-
took to reduce. He took up his ground on the

A POSITION OF THE, ENEMY FORCED.

413

19th of December; effected a breach the following Jr

day ; and carried the place by storm in the night.

After this, the smaller forts surrendered without 1791 •
opposition ; and only Simoga remained.

Tippoo, at a preceding period of the season, had
sent one of his generals, with a considerable army,
to keep open his communication with the rich pro-
vinces of Bednore and Mangalore, almost the only
part of his dominions which was not either in the
possession of his enemies, or had sustained the
ravages of the war. This officer had taken post
near Simoga. But on the approach of the Mah-
rattas, he left his intrenchments, for a position in
the woods, some miles to the westward, from which
he purposed to act upon them during the siege.

It was of great importance to begin by dislodging
this enemy. But all the difficulties and hazard
of the attempt were by no means understood.

His position was one of the strongest which the
choice of circumstances could have given. His
right was completely defended by the river Toom :
his left by hills covered with jungle, which ap-
proached within a mile of the river; his rear was
secured by an impenetrable jungle ; and a deep
ravine, having a jungle beyond it, protected his
front. “ The open space,” says Lieutenant Moore,

“ on which the enemy had pitched their camp, was
not more than six hundred yards wide ; and was,
upon the whole, naturally, the strongest place we
ever saw ; nor can we form an idea of one more
disadvantageous to an assault. Had their situation
been accurately known, no one, but an officer who
had the most unlimited confidence in his troops,
could, in prudence, have hazarded an attack.”

414

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 4.

1791.

1 Of course the enterprise fell to the English. In
- such a position the Mahratta cavalry were unable to
act ; and a corps of infantry who had advanced
into the jungle, when directed to a position where
possibly they might have been of some use, declared
they had no ammunition. Not only were the Mah-
rattas useless ; “ so far as we observed,” says Lieu-
tenant Moore, “ they were no trifling impediment.”
Leaving, by the Bhow’s desire, four guns with
nine companies, to guard the camp. Captain Little,
with the remainder of his detachment, less than 750
bayonets, and two guns, proceeded to the attack.
About one o’clock they entered the jungle, tolerably
open at first, but extremely thick as they approached
the enemy ; who opened upon them a heavy discharge
of guns, musquetry, and rockets. Both officers of
the 8th grenadiers fell ; and Captain Little had some
difficulty in supporting the Sepoys under their loss.
The action continued doubtful a considerable time ;
for as only small and broken parties could pass the
ravine, which was very deep, the English could not
come to the decision of the bayonet. After the re-
pulse of several parties, some of whom had penetrated
into the camp, Captain Little rallied the grenadiers,
and, putting himself at their head, carried the posts
on the enemy’s right, when the rest of the line pressed
onwards, and, in a short time, cleared the field. The
English pursued, and captured the whole of the guns,
ten in number ; and during that time the Mahrattas
•plundered the camp with their usual skill. The
amount of the enemy was not exactly ascertained.
By the account of the prisoners it exceeded 10,000
men. This is allowed to have been one of the most
spirited and brilliant actions of the war. The men

OPERATIONS OF THE MAHRATTA CONTINGENT.

415

were under arms, and actively employed, without book v i

refreshment, for six and thirty hours. Though it .

was dark, when they returned to the camp, the 179L
Bhow sent to inform Captain Little that he was
coming to embrace him. The Captain excused him-
self on account of his fatigue and the lateness of the
hour; but was not prevented, says Lieutenant Moore,
from visiting his wounded officers. The Bhow was
at head quarters by sun-rise the next morning, com-
plimenting the detachment in the most flattering
terms.

The siege of Simoga was now undertaken without
fear of interruption. A battery of five guns was
ready to open on the 2nd of January, and by noon
the next day had effected a breach nearly practicable;
when the garrison, on condition of security to private
property, offered to surrender. It may be remarked
that they required the guarantee of the English de-
tachment. Such is the depravity of Hindu morals,
that it is no affront, either to a nation or an indi-
vidual, to be charged with the want of faith ; and
the Bhow totally overlooked the opprobrium which
the enemy scrupled not to cast upon him and his
nation. The place was capable of a good defence ;
but the garrison were dispirited by the defeat of the
protecting army, and the greater part of them had
deserted.

The valuable country which the Bhow had thus
conquered, and which he regarded as an accession to
his own personal dominions, so raised his ambition,
that he aspired to the conquest, or at any rate the
plunder of Bednore. After remaining inactive in the
neighbourhood of Simoga till the middle of January,

416

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bc°0^ ^ 1 he arrived by a few marches, through a country in

great part covered with jungle, at Futteh Pet, one

1791- of the great barriers of the province of Bednore ; and
passing this fortress, without any serious attempt
upon it, he sent forward a detachment, which began
on the 28th to cannonade Bednore. It was recalled,
however, the following day ; when the army, to its
great surprise, received orders to retreat. To stop
the progress of the Mahrattas, Tippoo had detached
an army, under one of his best generals, who had
already advanced as far as Simoga and taken it.
The Bhow was by no means desirous of meeting an
equal enemy in a close country, in which cavalry
could not advantageously act. He crossed the
Toom near Simoga on the 10th of February, and the
Budra the next day near Binkapoor: he obtained
the fort of Adjampoor by capitulation on the 12th :
and he joined the allies on the 10th of March, before
Seringapatam.

Recovered in health, reinforced, and equipped, the
Bombay army, under General Abercromby, left their
cantonments in the neighbourhood of Tellicherry;
assembled at Cannanore on the 23rd of November;
and on the 5th of December began their march for
the Poodicherrum Ghaut. Vast labour was neces-
sary to repair the road, which the torrents of the
monsoon had destroyed. Three weeks, of constant
exertion, barely sufficed to bring up the heavy guns ;
but on the 18th of January, the whole of the artil-
lery, amounting to eighty-six carriages, of which
eighteen were heavy, with the usual proportion of
ammunition, and forty days’ rice for the men, was
at the top of the pass. Lord Cornwallis had de-

INTERMEDIATE OPERATIONS OF TIPPOO. 417

pended upon the army of Purseram Bhow, with the Bc00K J1

three battalions of British Sepoys, under Captain

Little, to cross the Cavery, and join Abercromby; 1791-
for the purpose of enabling him to bring on his
heavy artillery, to march without dread of Tippoo,
and to complete the investment on the southern side
of Seringapatam. Disappointed in this expectation,
by the avaricious expedition of the Mahrattas to
Bednore, he sent his orders to General Abercromby
to place his artillery in a secure post at the top of
the Ghauts, and hold his corps in readiness to move
at the shortest notice, lightly equipped. Aber-
cromby had already performed his first march from
the top of the Ghauts, on the 22nd of January, when
these orders arrived ; he had, therefore, to send back
the heavy part of his guns, and encamped at the
bottom of the Seedaseer Ghaut, to wait for future
instructions.

During the proceedings of the confederate armies,
the operations of Tippoo were but feeble ; and
betrayed the inferiority of his means. Toward the
end of June, he sent a detachment, as well to attack
Coimbetore, as to raise contributions and collect
supplies in the province. Lieutenant Chalmers had
been left in the command of the place ; with a com-
pany of topasses, and a battalion of Travancore
Sepoys, commanded by a French officer, named Migot
de la Combe, in the service of the Raja. The heavy
guns, ammunition, and stores, had been removed
from Coimbetore, as a place not sufficient to stand a
siege, and placed in the fort of Palgaut, or Palacat-
cherry, where Major Cuppage, who was now the
commanding officer in the province, established his

2 e

VOL. v.

418

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi head-quarters. As it was convenient to retain Coim-

CHAP. 4.

betore for the fiscal business of the province, a few

]791- bad guns, not worth removing, and a small quantity
of ammunition, were left in it ; with directions to the
commandant to fall back to Palacatcherry, if a
powerful enemy should appear. The party who
were now sent against Coimbetore appeared not to
Lieutenant Chalmers sufficiently formidable to re-
move him from his post. After a siege, however, of
some duration, a breach was made, and on the 11th
of July the enemy attempted to storm. It was with
great difficulty that order was preserved among the
Travancore troops ; but the zeal of their French
commander ably seconded the exertions of the Lieu-
tenant, and the enemy were repulsed with great
slaughter. Major Cuppage, who advanced with
expedition from Palacatcherry, completed their dis-
comfiture, taking the two guns with which they had
breached the fort, and pursuing them till they
crossed the Bowani.

At the time of this transaction the Sultan with his
army had made a movement towards the north ;
with the intention, as was at first supposed, of pro-
ceeding against Purseram Bhow in the province of
Chittledroog. This alarmed Cornwallis so much,
that he thought it necessary to make a few marches
in the same direction, for the purpose of recalling
the hostile army. But Tippoo, having covered a
large convoy which he expected from Bednore ;
having routed, by a detachment, a corps of the army
of Purseram Bhow, left by that chief, on his route
to Sera, for the purpose of masking Mudgerry ; and
having terrified into flight the garrison thrown by

INTERMEDIATE OPERATIONS OF TIPPOO.

419

the Mahrattas at the same time into Great Balipoor, 2 1

returned to the neighbourhood of his capital. As

soon as there, he despatched Rummer ud Deen 1/9L
Khan, his second in command, into Coimbetore.

Beside the army which this General led into Coim-
betore ; a light party, chiefly horse, proceeded with
him till after he descended the Gujelhutty pass, and
then crossing the Cavery, proceeded through the
Tapoor pass ; and with great secrecy and despatch
conducted a new Kelledar, with a reinforcement, to
Kistnagherry ; the only place of importance which
Tippoo now possessed, between Bangalore and the
Carnatic. This sendee performed, they remained to
ravage the country ; and threatened interruption to
the British convoys.

The Khan arrived before Coimbetore, towards the
end of October, with a force, of which the estimate,
at 500 regular cavalry, 8000 regular infantry, and
fourteen pieces of cannon with a body of irregulars,
both horse and foot, is probably overcharged. Lieu-
tenant Chalmers, reinforced by the two heavy guns
which were taken from the enemy’s routed detach-
ment, and Lieutenant Nash, with a company of re-
gular sepoys from Palacatcherry, expected to hold
the place till relieved by Major Cuppage. The
want of ammunition was the chief defect, supplies of
which the Major repeatedly sent by Sepoys, who
contrived to enter during the night. On the 22nd
of October Cuppage marched from Palacatcherry
with three battalions of Sepoys, six field-pieces, and
two Travancore battalions without guns. The
enemy determined, with their superiority of number,
to anticipate his approach; and met him at the

2 e 2

420

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \
chap. 4,

1791.

1 distance of about six miles from Coimbetore. The
- Khan appeared to decline engaging ; but made a
dexterous movement to the right of the English
detachment, and placed them in such a position that
it was necessary for the commander either to force
his way to Coimbetore, leaving the Khan behind
him, and the road open to Palacatcherry, or to fall
back for the security of that more important post,
and leave Coimbetore to its fate. Thus outge-
neraled, the British officer, considering, that if the
enemy got possession of the strong and narrow
defile which led to Palacatcherry, it might be no
easy task to return ; considering also that a large
convoy from Madras, of bullocks for the use of the
Bombay army, was now on its way, and might be
taken by the enemy if they got between him and the
pass ; and not thinking himself sufficiently strong to
spare a detachment to take possession of the defile,
when, allowing the enemy to pass, and following
them close into the defile, he might have taken them
between two fires, made up his mind to retreat. On
seeing the English begin to recede, the enemy
rapidly advanced to the attack ; showers of rockets
attempted to break the detachment; and the cavalry
approached with boldness to the charge. They
were received by the flank companies of the rear
guard, and several times repulsed ; when the Khan,
unable to prevent the march of the column, pro-
claimed a victory and returned to Coimbetore. The
ammunition of the place was nearly expended ; a
breach was made ; and all hope of relief had expired.
Lieutenant Chalmers capitulated on the 2nd of
November, on condition that private property should

INTERMEDIATE OPERATIONS OF TIPPOO.

421

be secured, and the garrison sent to Palacatcherry,
on their parole. The capitulation was violated.
The garrison were detained as prisoners, till Tippoo
was consulted ; and he ordered them to Serin-
gapatam.

It is worthy of mention that, about the middle
of January, notwithstanding the powerful armies
with which the Carnatic was defended, and the
enemy pressed in the very centre of his dominions,
a party of horse suddenly appeared in the neighbour-
hood of Madras; and made some trifling depreda-
tions, but ventured not to remain beyond the space
of a day. Madras was thrown into the most violent
alarm ; and the gentlemen of the settlement fur-
nished horses to mount a party of troopers, who
with another of infantry were sent to the Mount.

Tippoo, at this time, renewed his offer to send
vakeels for the settlement of disputes ; but his mes-
sengers were immediately sent back, with an answer
that no embassy would be admitted, so long as the
prisoners taken at Coimbetore were retained in
breach of the capitulation.

In the beginning of January the army was en-
camped in the neighbourhood of Ootradroog, and
only waited for the arrival of the heavy cannon, and
the junction of the Hyderabad army, to set forward
on the grand design.1 The Hyderabad army had

1 Colonel Wilks accuses the Mahrattas, rather than the Nizam, of
causing delay. “ The demonstrations of Tippoo Sultaun,” he says, “to
the north-ward had induced his Lordship to request, that Purseram Bhow
should advance simultaneously on the direct road from Sera, as well to
prevent a detachment to Goorumconda, which actually occurred, as to
form a column on his right to unite at the proper time with General Aber-
cromby : but the general purposes of the war were of secondary consi-

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

422

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

not yet taken Goorumconda, and was obliged to
leave the place with a party behind to retain the
pettah and continue the blockade. On the 25th of
January, when the Hyderabad army was approach-
ing the British camp, the Governor-General went
out to receive, in pomp, the Prince who was placed
at its head.

As the great men of the East would hurt their
dignity, if they did not exceed the time of their
appointment by several hours, the British com-
mander spent a tedious day in attendance, and only
met with his Prince, as the evening approached.

Hoolydroog, ten miles in advance, had been
re-occupied by the enemy ; and as it was inaccessi-
ble to assault, and had been repaired with great
diligence, it might have been expected, though
small, to make a serious defence. But when the
Kelledar was summoned by Colonel Maxwell, and
was told, that the attack would instantly com-
mence, he was so dismayed as to surrender without
resistance.

Before the march, the eastern chiefs were invited
to an imposing spectacle, that of the British army in
battle array ; at which they gazed with childish,
more than rational curiosity.1

deration in all the movements of this chief: he had a political illness
which produced an embarrassing correspondence, and it was the necessity
of delay arising from this circumstance which induced Lord Cornwallis to
occupy the time intended for advance in the siege of Savendroog, which
he had determined to leave in his rear from the great improbability of
being able to reduce it ; and thus in the actual result the delay was use-
ful.” Historical Sketches, iii. p. 212.

' This is probably a specimen of our author’s besetting prejudice. It
does not appear that he has any grounds for imputing childishness to the
“ Eastern ” chiefs, except their being “ Eastern.” The only intimation of

THE COMBINED ARMY BEGINS ITS MARCH.

423

On the first of February the combined forces B00K y1

J ' CHAP. 4.

began to advance from Hoolydroog. The English

army, as usual, moved off at break of day. A change, 1792-
of sufficient importance to require a description, had
been introduced into the order of the march. In
former wars, and at the beginning of the present, the
army advanced in one column, with the battering
train in the rear";' which was apt to fall behind so far
that sometimes it reached not the ground of encamp-
ment before the following day. It was next tried in
the centre of the column ; but in that case it sepa-
rated the wings, and produced still greater delay.

The succeeding experiment was, to march with it in
front : an improvement ; as it had the first of the
road, and being parked on the leading flank, got
earlier off the ground, and without interruption from
the line. As the train however became enlarged, it
occupied so great an extent of road as to draw out
the line of march to a very inconvenient length ; and
the plan was then adopted of marching with it, on
one road, and the troops and light guns on another
road, on its flank. The success of this experiment
suggested an additional improvement. After wheel-
carriages became very numerous, and prolonged to
an inconvenient length the line of the march, a third
road was taken by vehicles of that description on the

the kind that is found, occurs in Major Dirom, who observes, that there
was a striking contrast “ between the good sense of our generals on horse-
back, and the absurd state of the ‘ chiefs ’ looking down from their
elephants.” The only candid interpretation of which is, that the back of
a horse is a more appropriate plaoe for a general, than the back of an
elephant ; an opinion natural enough in an English officer, and possibly
rational enough, but implying no want of rational interest in the display of
military power, which was witnessed by the native princes from their
howdahs. — W.

424

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
chap. 4.

1792.

1 other flank of the train. The English army, accord-
. ing to this arrangement was seen in three columns ;
1. The battering guns, tumbrils, and heavy car-
riages, on the great road, in the centre ; 2. The line
of infantry and field-pieces, parallel to the first, at
the distance of about one hundred yards, on the
right flank, which was nearest to the enemy ; and 3.
On the left of the battering train, all the lighter part
of the store-carts, with the baggage conveyances, and
the followers of the camp. The line of march was,
in this manner, shortened to one-third of the space
to which a single column would have drawn it out ;
and every part of the moving body was much nearer
protection.1

The armies of the allies followed, at their usual
hour, and in their usual confusion.

The last day’s march, on the 5th of February, over
the barren heights which lie to the north-east of Se-
ringapatam, afforded the allies a view of the Myso-
rean capital, and the enemy encamped under its
walls. They took up their ground, across the valley
of Milgotah, at the distance of about six miles from
the Sultan; a body of whose horse had hovered
about the army from nearly the beginning of the
march ; but with little power of giving annoyance.

Separated from the chain of hills which the army
had immediately crossed, there stood, at a little

1 It had also been found an improvement of the greatest importance, to
harness the bullocks to the heavy guns four a-breast, instead of two :
carrying back the chain by which they drew, to the axle of the gun
instead of that of the limber. In the first campaign, a few eighteen
pounders created the greatest difficulty and delay. At this time, the
battering train moved with a facility not much less than that of the rest of
the army.

POSITION OF THE ARMY BEFORE SERINGAPATAM.

425

distance on the plain, a cluster of high rocks called
the French rocks, with a large adjoining tank, or re-
servoir of water. The space between these rocks,
and the hills, was occupied by the line of the British,
fronting the Sultan ; the hills affording protection on
the left, and the French rocks affording not only pro-
tection on the right, but covering from the view of
the enemy a part of the line which extended behind
them. The reserve encamped about a mile in the
rear, facing outwards, with the stores and baggage
in the interval between. The armies of the Hy-
derabad Prince and the Mahrattas, were somewhat
further in the rear, the one on the right, the other on
the left of the British reserve.

After his arrival before Seringapatam, Lord Corn-
wallis wrote immediately to General Abercromby, to
march, and occupy as strong a position as he could
find on the south side of a particular ford, which had
been described as one of the best on the river, at a
distance of nearly forty miles from the Sultan’s
capital. It was the intention of the English com-
mander to employ the troops of the Nizam, along
with the English battalions attached to it, in the
service originally destined for Purseram Bhow,
namely, that of forming a junction with General
Abercromby, and completing the investment of
Seringapatam : and the minister of the Nizam, who,
under the nominal authority of the Prince, possessed
in reality the whole command of the army, showed a
real desire to second the wishes of Lord Cornwallis:
on taking cognizance, however, of the state of this
part of the confederate force, the Commander-in-Chief
discovered, that the Hyderabad minister was so little
qualified for the business he was sent to perform,

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

426

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

J1 that he could not, if removed from the English

• markets, and the northern communication, provide,

1/92. even fQr a few ^ayS? sllppiies to his troops. Greatly
displeased with Purseram Bhow, whose army was
well qualified to have yielded assistance, either in
completing the investment of the capital, or making
head against the corps with which Tippoo might
endeavour to interrupt the supplies of the besiegers.
Lord Cornwallis wrote letters as well to Poonah to
complain of his conduct, as to himself to accelerate
his approach. As the armies of the Nizam and
Hurry Punt could not act on detached service, they
remained completely useless and unemployed.

Seringapatam is situated on an island, formed by
two branches of the Cavery, which, after separating
to a distance of a mile and a half, again unite, about
four miles below the place of their separation.
Around Seringapatam ran the usual hedge, called
the bound hedge, composed of the bamboos, and
other strong and prickly shrubs of the country,
forming a rampart of considerable strength. On
the northern side, that on which the confederate
army had taken up their ground, an oblong space
of about three miles in length, and from half a
mile to a mile in breadth, was enclosed between
the hedge and the river. In this enclosure
Tippoo was encamped. It contained the most
commanding ground on that side of the fort; and
was further guarded in front by a large tank or canal ;
by rice-fields which it watered ; and by the windings
of a river called the Lockany, which crossed the line
of the British camp, and intersected the intermediate
valley by three streams, of which one fell into the Ca-
very, near the eastern point of the island. To the

STRENGTH OF SERINGAPATAM.

427

natural strength of this position was added the assist- ] 1

ance of six large redoubts erected on commanding

ground; of which one, called the Mosque redoubt, 1,92‘
situated at the western extremity, on an eminence
somewhat advanced beyond the line of the rest, and
in the corner of the bound hedge which was here
carried out to surround it, was a post of great
strength, and covered the left of the encampment.

The mountainous range which protected the left of
the British line, extended close to the river at the
eastern end of the island ; and by a hill called the
Carrighaut, the fortifications of which had been
lately improved, together with the branch of the
Lockany which entered the Cavery at its base, afforded
strong protection to the right of the Sultan’s en-
campment.

In the western angle of the island was situated
the strong fortress of Seringapatam. The eastern
part was fortified towards the river by redoubts and
batteries, connected by a strong intrenchment with
a deep ditch. The fort and island therefore constituted
a second line which supported the defences of the
first ; and afforded a secure retreat, as from the out-
works to the body of a place. Heavy cannon in the
redoubts, and the field train disposed to the best
advantage, to the amount of 100 pieces of artillery,
defended the first line ; and at least three times that
number were employed in the fort and island. The
Sultan’s army was supposed, at a low estimation, to
amount to 5000 cavalry, and from forty to fifty
thousand infantry. He commanded the centre and
right of his line in person, and had his tent pitched
near the most easterly of the six redoubts, which

428

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK
CHAT. 4.

1792.

1 from that circumstance was called the Sultan’s
- redoubt.

Tippoo, having abandoned the design of keeping
the field against so powerful a combination of foes,
had directed his attention to the fortification of this
position, and the improvement of his defences in the
island and fort. His plan of defence was founded
on the hope of being able to protract the siege, till
the want of supplies in a country already exhausted,
or at any rate the recurrence of the monsoon, should
compel his enemies to retreat. He was probably
the more confirmed in the anticipation of this result,
because it was the same expedient by which his father
had baffled the potent combination by which he was
attacked in 1767.

The British troops had just been dismissed from
the parade, at six o’clock on the evening of the 6th,
when they were directed to fall in again with their
arms and ammunition.

Every thing was in its proper place at half an hour
after eight o’clock, when the order was given to
march. The evening was calm and serene ; the moon
shone bright ; and the troops advanced in silence.
The security of the northern supplies, and the diffi-
culty of crossing the river with all the stores and
heavy artillery, pointed out the necessity of dislodg-
ing the enemy. But his position, every where pro-
tected by the guns of the fort, or the batteries of the
island, was so strong, that in an open attack in day-
light, the event was doubtful, the loss of a great
number of the best soldiers of the army unavoidable.
The night was therefore chosen, and an early night
for the greater certainty of surprise. As guns could

NOCTURNAL ATTACK ON THE CAMP OF THE SULTAN. 429

be of little service in the dark, and the state of the B00K y1

ground made it difficult to convey them, it was re-

solved that none should be employed. 1/92-

The army was formed into three columns : The
right column composed of two European, and five
native battalions, under the command of General
Medows : The centre column, of three European,
and five native battalions, led by the Commander-in-
Chief : And the left, of one battalion of European,
with three of native troops, under the command of
Colonel Maxwell.

According to the plan of attack, the centre column,
under the Commander-in-Chief, was to penetrate the
centre of the enemy’s camp, while the columns on
the right and the left were to take possession of the
posts w-hich defended the enemy’s flanks : And the
front divisions of all the three columns, after carrying
what was immediately opposed to them, were to cross
with the fugitives, and endeavour to get possession
of the batteries on the island. So early an attack,
before the junction of the Bombay army, and during
the darkness of the night, was probably unexpected
by Tippoo. The allies, to whom the plan of the
attack was not communicated, till after the columns
had marched, were in the greatest consternation.

To attack with a handful of infantry, and without
cannon, the whole of Tippoo’s army in a fortified
camp under the walls of his capital, appeared to
them an extraordinary attempt. And their surprise
was increased, when told that Lord Cornwallis in
person commanded the division which was to pene-
trate the centre of the enemy’s camp, and had gone

430

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

to fight, as they expressed it, like a private
soldier.

When the columns were on the march, the camp
was struck, and the baggage packed; the corps of
artillery, and the quarter and rear guards of the line,
stood to their guns and arms ; while the reserve,
consisting of the cavalry and the 7th brigade, were
drawn up in front of the camp, to act as occasion
might require, or to pass a night of the keenest
anxiety.

Between ten and eleven o’clock the centre column
touched upon the enemy’s grand guard, who were
escorting a party of rocket-men for the annoyance,
during the night, of the English camp. The horse-
men galloped hack to the line ; but the men with
the rockets remained, and endeavoured by dis-
charging them to harass the march. At the time
when the rocketing began, the left division were
ascending the Carighaut hill, which soon became
illumined with the discharge of musquetry. The
centre column (the men, as soon as discovered,
lengthening the step, though silence was not broken
by a single voice, and in one minute moving at
double the former pace) gained the hedge, and entered
the enemy’s lines, about fifteen minutes after the
return of the horsemen had communicated to the
enemy the alarm. The right division, which had a
more difficult march, and was misguided to a point
more distant than was intended, entered the bound
hedge about half-past eleven, when the discharge of
cannon and musquetry showed that the rest of the
troops had every where closed with the enemy.

OPERATIONS DURING THE ATTACK.

431

Of the centre column, 3700 firelocks, the front B00K^1

corps had for its primary object to pass into the

island with the fugitives: the corps in the centre 1/92‘
was first to clear the right of the camp, and next, if
possible, to gain the island ; while that in the rear
was to form a reserve under Lord Cornwallis, in a posi-
tion where he might support the other two, and wait
the co-operation of the columns on his right and left.

The head of the column penetrated the hedge, under
a heavy hut ill-directed fire, both of cannon and
musquetry ; and as it advanced, the enemy gave way.

The leading companies, the Captains of which had
been instructed to charge themselves, each particu-
larly with the men of his own command, and, in
getting to the fort, to regard the celerity more than
the solidity of their movement, pushed their way
directly to the river. Amid the entanglements of the
rice-fields, and the darkness and hurry of the night,
the front companies separated into two bodies. The
party which first reached the ford, crossed without
opposition under the very walls of the fort. Captain
Lindsay pushed into the sortie in hopes of entering
the gate with the fugitives ; but it had been shut im-
mediately before, and the bridge drawn up. The second
party reached the same ford about five minutes after the
first had gained the opposite side. The passage was
now more difficult, for the ford was choked up by
the crowds of the enemy pressing into the island. No
resistance was, however, attempted, and though
some guns were discharged from the fort, they were
not directed to the ford. The first party marched
across the island, and took post near the southern
side. Colonel Knox, who commanded the second,

432

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

J1 proceeded towards the eastern angle of the island,

near which there was a pettah, or town, called

1/ J2' Shaher Ganjam, with lines and batteries towards the
river commanding the eastern ford. The pettah was
hardly carried, Avhen a firing began from the batteries
on the river. It indicated that the troops on the left
had penetrated the enemy’s camp, and, it might be,
were forcing their way into the island. The Colonel
despatched the greater part of his corps to take these
batteries in reverse. As soon as the men came down
upon them in the rear, where they were open, the
enemy, who could not judge of their numbers, and
trembled at the bayonet in European hands, aban-
doned the works and dispersed.

Beside these two parties, a third, consisting chiefly
of the seven battalion companies of the fifty-second
regiment under Captain Hunter, came to the river
soon after the party of Colonel Knox, but at a place
about half-way between the two fords, where they
crossed, and took post in what was called the Raja’s
garden. Ignorant that any other troops had passed
into the island, Captain Hunter resolved to remain in
the garden till a greater force should arrive, or cir-
cumstances recommend an enterprise. He soon, how-
ever, perceived that his post, being exposed to the
guns of the fort, would not be tenable at break of
day ; and endeavoured, but in vain, to send intelli-
gence of his situation to Lord Cornwallis. After he
had been two hours in the garden, a part of the
enemy brought two field-pieces to the opposite bank ;
when he plunged into the river to cross and attack
them before the guns were unlimbered for action ;
succeeded, though not without loss from a heavy fire

OPERATIONS DURING THE ATTACK.

433

both of musquetry and cannon; passed through the book vi

enemy’s camp without opposition; and joined Lord

Cornwallis at a critical moment. 1792

Such were the operations of the front division of the
centre column ; and such was the first part of the
operations on the island.

One of the native regiments of the first division
lost its commander in passing the hedge, and fell into
some disorder in taking ground to the right. The
centre division hastened to its support, and thence
proceeded to the left, to attack the right wing of the
enemy. On approaching the Sultan’s redoubt, a
large body of horse opposed themselves. Major
Dalrymple formed the seventy-first regiment, and
gave orders to fire one round, to load and shoulder.

On the clearing up of the smoke, the horse were seen
at a distance scattered over the field. The corps
proceeded to attack the Sultan’s redoubt; but on
mounting the walls, and entering the embrasures,
found it abandoned. Leaving two companies of the
seventy-first regiment, a detachment of artillery, and
fifty sepoys for its defence, they advanced and com-
pleted the defeat of the enemy’s right, which had
been turned by the column of Maxwell.

The rear division Lord Cornwallis formed near the
Sultan’s redoubt, and waited, in anxious expectation,
for the column of General Medows from the right.

About two hours before day-light, he was joined by
Captain Hunter, after his return from the island.

The men had scarcely time to replace their cart-
ridges, which had been damaged in the river, when
a large body of troops, part of Tippoo’s centre and
left, who had recovered from the early panic of the
vol. v. 2 f

434

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi night, made a disposition, and advanced with a con-

siderable degree of order and resolution. The party,

1 792- animated by the presence of the Commander-in-Chief,
returned with coolness the fire of the enemy, and
charged them with the bayonet on their approach.
They returned several times, however, with great
bravery, to the attack, and were not finally repulsed
till the day was about to break. Cornwallis then
ordered his men to retire towards the Carighaut Hill,
that they might not be exposed to the fire of the fort,
or surrounded by the enemy at day-light ; and was
met by General Medows, hastening to support him.1

It was the intention of the Commander-in-Chief,
that the column of the right, 3300 firelocks, under
General Medows, should penetrate the line about half
a mile east from the mosque redoubt, which was not
intended to be attacked, as it was understood to be
very strong, stood at a considerable distance from the
enemy’s front, and would no doubt be evacuated, if
the rout of the army was completed. By a mistake
of the guides,2 the column was led to a point further
west than that which was intended, and at no con-
siderable distance from the formidable redoubt. On
approaching the hedge, one battalion of the front
division was desired to make a circuit to the right,

1 The Commander-in-Chief paid a heart-felt compliment to the spirit
and fidelity of General Medows. When the enemy began to attack
him, “ If General Medows,” said he, “ be above ground, this will bring
him.” The harmony of these leaders is one of the finest features of the
campaign : the zeal with which Medows strove to perform the duties
of the second, after being deprived of the honours of the first com-
mand ; and the pleasure which Cornwallis displayed in proclaiming the
merit of General Medows, and the importance of the services which he
received from him.

* By an ambiguity of the orders, says Colonel Wilks, iii. 220.

OPERATIONS DURING THE ATTACK.

435

to call the attention of the enemy, while the column B00K VI

J _ CHAP. 4.

penetrated, and having done so, left two battalions

as a reserve, just within the hedge. Colonel Nesh it, 1792-
who led the column, the station of the General being
in the centre, agreeably to the orders of the Comman-
der-in-Chief, finding no opposition, nor any camp, the
extremity of which was at a considerable distance to
the east, and perceiving one of the posts protecting the
enemy’s left which it was the business of the column
to subdue, wheeled his division to the right, and
ascended the hill of the redoubt. No opposition was
made till the leading division crossed the canal, and
was approaching the redoubt, when they were re-
ceived by a heavy discharge of musquetry and grape.

Part of the column rushed forward, gave the enemy
their fire, and drove them from the covert way. But
the inner works were strongly manned ; many of
the ladders were missing; and several ineffectual
attempts were made to pass the ditch, before a path
was fortunately discovered which led from the end of
the mosque into the redoubt. The redoubt was car-
ried after a severe conflict, in which its commandant,
and nearly four hundred of the enemy, lost their
lives; with eleven officers, and about eighty men,
killed and wounded on the part of the assailants.

Tippoo’s European corps, commanded by Mon. Yigie,
had been stationed in the angle of the hedge in front
of the redoubt ; but their attention was attracted by
the party making the circuit without the hedge, till
finding themselves surrounded, they broke, and made
their escape.

Leaving a force sufficient for the defence of the post,

General Medows commanded the troops to be again

2 f 2

436

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

1 1 f°rme(l their original order ; and was impatient to

proceed to the real point of attack. Several other

179‘2- redoubts remained on the left of the enemy’s position;
but he held it more adviseable to leave them behind,
than waste additional time. Before he was in a con-
dition to march, the firing had ceased in every part of
the line ; and finding it very difficult, from swamps
and ravines, to march within the hedge, he pro-
ceeded to the outside, and marched along its front
to the Carighaut Hill : where he had not long re-
mained, when his attention was fixed by the firing
of the attack upon the Commander-in-Chief.

The object of the left column of the British army,
1700 firelocks, was, to clear the Carighaut Hill, to
join in the attack upon the right of the enemy’s
encampment, and make their way into the island.
The attack on the hill was so well conducted, and
the surprise of the enemy so complete, that this post,
strong as it was both by nature and art, made but a
feeble resistance ; the walls were instantly scaled ;
and the loss was inconsiderable. In descending,
however, towards the camp, the column had to sus-
tain the fire of the right of Tippoo’s line ; and were
galled by a party who enjoyed the shelter of a water-
course at the bottom of the hill. They bore down
every obstacle, and proceeded through the camp, till
met by the centre division of the Commander-in-
Chief. To pass into the island was the next exploit.
A party plunged into the river opposite to the bat-
teries, which, opening upon them, had called the
attention of Colonel Knox, and they crossed wfith
considerable difficulty, as the water was deep. Their
cartridges were rendered useless; and they must

OPERATIONS AFTER DAY-BREAK.

437

have trusted to their bayonets to clear the batteries J1
and lines, had not the enemy, at that critical period, —
been dislodged by Colonel Knox. The rest of the
column moved higher up the river, in search of a
better ford, and joined a part of the centre column,
which was crossing, under the command of Colonel
Stuart. These corps united at the eastern end of
the island ; and, towards morning, were joined by
the party which first had entered the island, and
taken post on the southern side. The separate po-
sition of this corps, as well as that of the corps
under Captain Hunter, in the Raja’s garden, had
not been without their advantage; as they had
distracted the enemy’s attention, and checked him
from reinforcing his positions on the river, or
making a speedy effort to dislodge the assailants
before they could establish themselves in force upon
the island.

Such were the operations of the night. The Sul-
tan had just finished his evening’s repast, when the
alarm was given. He mounted ; and before he had
time to receive intelligence of the nature and quality
of the attack, not only perceived, by the mass of the
fugitives, that the centre of his camp was entered,
but discovered, by the light of the moon, an extended
column passing through his camp, and pointing
directly to the main ford. As this threatened his
retreat, he went off with great celerity, and, having
barely time to cross before the English, took his sta-
tion on the part of the fort best calculated for the
view, and there continued, issuing his commands, till
the morning. In the retreat a great number of his
troops deserted. One corps, 10,000 strong, con-

438

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

sisting of the persons whom he had forcibly re-
moved from Coorg, wholly disappeared, having
escaped to their native woods : and a number of
Europeans, in his service, from which he gave no
allowance to depart, seized this opportunity of
making their escape.

The day broke only to vary the features of the
conflict. The most easterly of the six redoubts, the
Sultan’s; and the most westerly, the mosque re-
doubt, were taken ; but the intervening four were
in possession of the enemy. The scattered parties
collected themselves. And the guns of the fort,
which, during the night, had been kept silent by
order of the Sultan, lest they should persuade the
troops in camp that the fort was attacked, and make
them imitate the example of the deserters, were
opened as soon as daylight fully appeared, and
fired upon the assailants wherever they could be
reached.

The eastern fork of the two branches of the river
which surround the island, Tippoo had occupied
with a palace and gardens. The English took up a
strong position in front of the gardens, completely
across the island, where they commanded the ford
to the Carighaut Hill, and occupied the lines and
batteries by which it was guarded. A little after
day-light a body of the enemy’s infantry approached,
under cover of old houses and walls. Their fire
was but feebly returned; because the ammuni-
tion of the English troops had been nearly expended
during the night, or damaged in the river. The
Commander-in-Chief, who had taken his station
upon the Carighaut Hill, whence every operation

OPERATIONS AFTER DAY-BREAK.

439

could be seen, immediately detached several corps to J1

support them ; and,, upon the arrival of this rein-

forcement, the enemy withdrew: Colonel Maxwell, 1792-
thinking that his services, no longer necesssary in
the island, might elsewhere be useful, left the troops
to the command of Colonel Stuart, and joined Corn-
wallis on the hill.

In the mean time the enemy were assembling
from every quarter for an attack on the Sultan’s
redoubt, which it was deemed expedient to recover,
before the serious attempt was made to dislodge the
English from the island. This redoubt was nearly
of the same size and construction with that which
had been stormed by General Medows at the left of
the enemy’s position ; it stood, however, within
reach of the guns of the fort; and the gorge was
left open to the fort and island, to keep it untenable
by an enemy. The corps which had been left in it
amounted to about 100 Europeans, and fifty Sepoys,
with their officers. And as the army was kept at a
distance by the cannon of the island, the fate of the
post was left to the constancy of its defenders.

An attempt was made to shut up the gorge, by
some broken litters, and the carriage of a gun. This
was no sooner perceived by the fort, than it opened
three guns on the gorge, and two field-pieces were
advanced to certain rocks, which stood at a little
distance from the redoubt, and sheltered the enemy.

The slender barrier was soon destroyed, and the
works considerably impaired, when the enemy ad-
vanced to the assault. They were repulsed with
slaughter, and retired to their station behind the
rocks. Considerable loss, however, was sustained in

440

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

'rn!^ i 1 re(l°ubt. The commanding officer fell; and as

the day was extremely sultry, the wounded men

i/92. w ere dying for want of water, of which not a drop
remained in the place. Great apprehensions, for a
time, prevailed, of the failure of ammunition, with
which the party had been scantily supplied. But
happily, two of the bullocks that carried spare ammu-
nition for the regiments, were found astray in the
ditch. Scarcely had the men filled their cartridge-
boxes, when a body of cavalry, at least two thousand
strong, were seen advancing to the redoubt ; of whom
three or four hundred dismounted just without
musket-sliot of the redoubt, and, drawing their
sabres, rushed toward the gorge. The fire of the
defenders was ready, given coolly, and brought down
so many, that the rest fell into confusion, and
retired. The lapse of an hour brought forward
another attack. The troops which now advanced,
supposed to be the remains of Lally’s brigade, were
headed by Europeans; and the English prepared
themselves for a more dreadful contest than any
which they had yet sustained. They were disap-
pointed ; for this party had advanced but a little way
from the rocks, when, a few of them falling, they
hesitated, got into disorder, and went off.

This was the last of the enemy’s attempts. The
redoubt was a scene of carnage. Two officers,
and nineteen privates, lay dead upon the ground:
three officers, and twenty-two privates, grievously
wounded, were perishing for assistance; and the
rest were nearly exhausted with want and fatigue.
About four in the afternoon, the fire from the rocks
began to slacken, and the enemy withdrew.

THE ATTACK SUCCESSFUL.

441

The battle every where seemed now to be given B00K ) 1

up. The enemy, however, was only preparing for

his attack on the troops in the island. A consider- 1792-
able force advanced, about five o’clock, which was
without much difficulty repulsed. But the English
received information, that a desperate attempt would
be made to drive them from the island during the
night. They made their dispositions for defence;
and the troops lay upon their arms in anxious ex-
pectation of the assault ; but the morning dawned
without an alarm.

In the preceding evening, Lord Cornwallis issued,
in the shape of general orders, a flattering compli-
ment to the army ; and seldom has a tribute of
applause been more richly deserved. The plan of
the attack has the character of good sense upon the
face of it, and is stamped with the approbation
of military men, while it is evident to all, that the
conduct of the army in its execution, whether intel-
lect or bravery be considered, was such as it would
not be easy to surpass. The only point of failure
regarded, as usual, the article of intelligence. The
localities of the quarter against which General
Medows was directed, were ill understood; and
hence arose his defect of success.

The total of killed, wounded, and missing, accord-
ing to the returns of the British army, was 535. The
loss of the enemy was estimated at 4000 slain;
but the desertions were the principal cause of his
diminution of force. His troops were withdrawn
from the redoubts on the north side of the river,
during the night of the 7th ; and on the morning
of the 8th, the remains of his army were collected,

442

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi the infantry within the works of the fort, the cavalry

and baggage on the south side of the river towards

179‘2. Mysore.

Arrangements were now made and executed for
besieging the fort. Three European regiments,
seven battalions of sepoys, a captain’s command of
artillery, were established in the island ; and occu-
pied the position taken originally by Colonel Stuart,
in front of the Sultan’s gardens. While the fort
occupied the western extremity of the island, and
with its works comprehended the space of a mile,
the Sultan’s new palace and gardens covered a
similar extent at the eastern extremity. Previous to
the war, the space between these gardens and the
fort, was occupied by the houses and streets of the
most flourishing capital at that time in the do-
minions of any native prince in India. With the
exception of the pettah, or suburb, already men-
tioned, which constituted the eastern extremity of
the town, the rest had all been destroyed, to make
room for the batteries of the island, and to form an
esplanade to the fort. The gardens in which the
Sultan delighted, laid out in shady walks of
large cypress trees, and enriched with all the vege-
table treasures of the East, were cut to pieces, and
destroyed, to furnish materials for the siege ; while
the gorgeous palace adjoining, was converted into an
hospital for the sick.

On the evening of the 8th, Tippoo sent for Lieu-
tenants Chalmers and Nash, whom he had retained
in contempt of the capitulation of Coimbetore. They
found him sitting under the fly of a small tent on the
south glacis of the fort, very plainly dressed, and

PREPARATION FOR THE SIEGE OF SERINGAPATAM.

443

■with a small number of attendants. He gave them B00K y1

presents, and charged them with letters to Lord

Cornwallis, on the subject of peace, which he gave 1792-
them assurance he had never ceased to desire. Con-
trary to the usual custom of Tippoo, their confine-
ment had not been cruel.

At day-break on the 10th, the cavalry of Tippoo,
who had crossed the river about six miles below the
island, got round undiscovered to the rear of the left
wing of the English camp, and advancing between
the position of the English, and that of the Hydera-
bad army, were taken by the English piquets and
rear guards for a part of the confederate troops.

On passing the park of artillery, they asked some of
the camp followers for the Burra Saib or com-
mander ; who, supposing they meant the officer of
artillery, pointed to his tent. They galloped towards
it immediately, drawing their sabres ; but receiving
the fire of a party of sepoy draughts and recruits
who turned out with great alacrity, they dispersed,
and recrossing the hills, disappeared. The incident
produced alarm in the British camp, as a blow struck
at the life of the Commander-in Chief, whose popu-
larity was deservedly great.

Unable to accomplish his design of strengthening
General Abercromby by the junction of the Mahratta
or Hyderabad armies. Lord Cornwallis directed him
to cross the river, and join the main army, on the
northern side. He began his march on the 8th,
sending back his sick to the hospitals at Poodi-
cherrum, and leaving a detachment, strongly posted
at the Seidaseer Ghaut. On the 11th, he crossed
the Cavery at Eratore. A party of the enemy’s horse,

444

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bchai^ i 1 breaking in upon the baggage, as it was crossing a

small river on the 13th, captured a part of it, and

Ll'J~ ' continued to infest the march for the remainder of
the day. A still larger body appeared in front on
the 14th, when the army was halted and formed for
action : The supposed enemy was a strong detach-
ment which Lord Cornwallis had sent to protect this
army in its approach. On the 16th, without further
interruption, it gave to the force before Seringapatam,
an accession, tit for duty, of 2000 Europeans, and
double that number of native troops.

To this junction Tippoo intended a more serious
opposition. He detached the whole of his cavalry on
the evening of the 13th; but they sustained a ren-
counter with the protecting detachment, and were
afraid to proceed.

The fort of Seringapatam is of a triangular shape,
to correspond with the ground on which it stands ;
two sides, and those the longest, being in this manner,
defended by a deep and broad river, and only one,
that towards the island, without a natural obstacle to
oppose an attack. This, of course, was the side which
had received the strongest fortifications. This was
covered with strong outworks, and two broad and
massy ramparts, one a considerable distance within
the other, having flank defences, a deep ditch, draw-
bridges, and every advantage of modern fortification.
Upon a computation of all obstructions, it was re-
solved, notwithstanding the river, to carry on the
English attack on the northern side.

About eight o’clock, on the evening of the 18th,
a detachment, consisting of one European regiment
and one battalion of sepoys, crossed the south branch

PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE.

445

of the river from the island, and making a circuit of^^J1

several miles, over rice-fields, and broken ground,

approached the enemy’s camp before midnight. The 1792-
commanding officer halted, about a mile from the
camp, sending forward the party destined for the
attack. They entered the camp undiscovered ;
killed about a hundred troopers, and as many
horses, with the bayonet, before the alarm became
general; then fired several volleys to keep up the
consternation, without losing a single man, without
a man’s having broken his rank to plunder, and
without bringing in so much as a horse. The fort
was immediately, on all sides, a blaze of light, as if
expecting a general assault ; but was afraid of firing,
which might hurt its enemies less than its friends.

On the same evening, as soon as dark, the party
which was destined to open the trenches marched to
the chosen spot; and, before day-light, formed a
nullah, which was situated within eight hundred
yards of the fort, into a large parallel, having its left
flank covered by a redoubt which they constructed,
its right defended by a ravine. When Tippoo found
that one of the most interesting operations of the
siege had been performed without opposition, while
his attention was successfully drawn off to another
quarter, he opened every gun which could hear upon
the works ; sent parties of infantry across the river,
to harass the troops in flank, and interrupt their pro-
ceedings ; and attempted, but in vain, to cut off the
stream of water which supplied the camp. On the
1 9th, the Bombay army, under General Abercromby,
crossed the river ; and though Tippoo went out to

446

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

] 1 oppose them, at the head of his infantry, successfully

invested the south side of the fort, and prepared to

1/92‘ carry on (he enfilade.

During the 19th, 20th, and 21st, traverses were
finished, to connect the first parallel with a large
redoubt in the rear ; and on the night of the 21st,
the line was marked out for the second parallel, two
hundred yards in advance ; from which, as the
ground was favourable, no doubt was entertained that
the fort could be breached.

Though no relaxation was admitted in the opera-
tions of the siege, Lord Cornwallis, after the release
of the prisoners taken at Coimbetore, had listened to
the Sultan’s application for peace. Tents were
pitched for the conferences ; which began on the
15th, and were continued on the 16th, 19th, and
21st. With much difficulty could the aspiring mind
of the Sultan reconcile itself to the severity of the
terms which were demanded. On the 22nd, a
severe conflict was sustained by a party of the
Bombay army, endeavouring to gain possession of a
grove within reach of the guns of the fort. The
second parallel was completed on the 23rd ; and a
very advantageous position obtained for the breach-
ing batteries. A fire of fifty pieces of heavy ord-
nance might have been directed against the place
by the 1st of March : furnaces were prepared for
heating shot : the combustible materials of the
houses, with which the fort was crowded, could
hardly fail, in a few hours, of setting it in flames : at
any rate the fire of the breaching batteries was sure
of success : the spirit of the army was elevated to the

CONFERENCES ON PEACE.

447

highest pitch: and General Medows, whose gallantry J1

was always on the alert, had determined to lead in

the storm. 1/92-

The councils of the British army went forward,
as wisdom directs, to every contingency ; and, even
anticipating the case, that a brave and able prince,
who had declared his resolution to perish in the
breach, and was surrounded by a band of followers,
who, like himself, had every thing at stake, might,
with the assistance of the rugged channel of a deep
and rapid river, be able to defend his principal for-
tress against an assault, had made arrangements for
completing the enterprise by the irresistible opera-
tions of a blockade. The army of Purseram Bhow,
with Captain Little’s detachment, a force sufficient
to complete the investment, was now daily expected:

Major Cuppage, from the Coimbetore country, with
a brigade of 400 Europeans, and three battalions of
Sepoys, had ascended the Gujelhutty pass; and
without difficulty would take the forts of Ardinelly
and Mysore as he advanced : Large supplies collected
in the southern countries were ready to ascend the
Gujelhutty pass : General Abercromby had per-
fected a line of communication with the Malabar
coast, whence supplies were constantly arriving ;
Arrangements were made for providing the Mahratta
and Hyderabad armies from their own countries : and
the Brinjarries maintained such abundance in the
camp of Cornwallis, as had not been known since
the commencement of the war.

On the morning of the 24th, orders were received
by the troops in the trenches, to forbear working, and
desist from hostilities. “ The soldiers,” says Major

448

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK

CHAP.

1792.

^Dirom, “dejected to a degree not to be described,
— could with difficulty be restrained from continuing
their work.” The troops of Tippoo fired, both with
cannon and musquetry, upon the British troops, for
some time after they had ceased; a barbarous bravado,
intended to show, that he was the last to resign the
contest, and effected peace by the vigour of his
defence. The general orders which were issued on
the English side concluded with the folloAving pas-
sage, not less honourable to the presiding councils,
than the most brilliant operations of the war. “ Lord
Cornwallis thinks it almost unnecessary to desire the
army to advert, that moderation in success, is no less
expected from brave men, than gallantry in action ;
and he trusts, that the officers and soldiers in his army
will not only be incapable of committing violence, in
any intercourse that may happen between them and
Tippoo’s troops, but that they will even abstain from
making use of any kind of insulting expression, to-
wards an enemy now subdued and humbled.”

Of the preliminary treaty which Tippoo was con-
strained to accept, the substantial conditions were,
That he should cede one-half of his territories to the
allies ; pay three crores and thirty lacs of rupees ;
and give up two of his three eldest sons, as hostages
for the due execution of the treaty. Lord Cornwallis,
though it required no little patience and discretion to
manage his allies, had gained over them so great an
ascendency, by a condescending attention to their
forms and prejudices, by the dazzling superiority of
his power, and by firmness of decision in matters of
importance, that they disturbed not the negotiation
by urging any points of their own ; and professing the

PRELIMINARY TREATY.

449

fullest confidence in his discretion, declared their B00K y1

CHAP. 4.

willingness, either to go on with the war, or conclude

a peace, and to agree to any terms which should 1/92-
meet with his approbation.

The eldest of Tippoo’s sons was about twenty years
of age ; and had at last taken a considerable share in
the war. Of the next two, who were destined to
become the hostages, one was about ten, the other
eight. The uneasiness which parting with them pro-
duced in the Seraglio, occasioned a delay which Corn-
wallis was too generous to resent : To satisfy the
mind of the Sultan, he sent him information by his
vakeels, that he would in person wait upon the
Princes, as soon as they arrived at their tents, and
„ beside their own attendants, would appoint a careful
officer, with a battalion of Sepoys for their guard.

Tippoo answered with like courtesy; “ That he could
by no means consent that his Lordship should have
the trouble of waiting first upon his sons; that, having
the most perfect reliance on the honour of Lord
Cornwallis, it was his own particular desire and
request, that he would allow them to be brought at
once to his own tent, and delivered into his hands.”

On the 26th, about noon, the Princes left the fort.

It appeared to be manned for the occasion, and was
crowded with people to see them depart. The
Sultan himself was on the rampart above the gate-
way, the fort saluting as the princes went out.

On approaching the English camp, they were
received by a salute of twenty-one guns from the
park. At their own tents, they were met by Captain
Kennaway, the English negotiator, with the vakeels
of the Nizam and Mahrattas, and by them conducted
vol. v. 2 g

450

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi Commander-in-Chief. They were each mounted

on an elephant, richly caparisoned, and seated in a

1792- silver houdah. They were attended by their father’s
vakeels on elephants. The procession was led by
several camel hircarrahs, and seven standard-bearers,
carrying small green flags, followed by 100 pikemen
with spears inlaid with silver. Their guard of 200
of their father’s Sepoys, and a party of horse,
brought up their rear. As they drew near to
head-quarters, the battalion of Sepoys intended for
their English guard, formed an avenue to conduct
them.

Lord Cornwallis, attended by his staff, and some
of the principal officers of his army, received them
as they dismounted from their elephants, at the door
of his great tent ; embraced them ; led them in by
the hand ; and seated them, one on each side of
himself ; when he was thus addressed by the head
vakeel : “ These children were this morning the
sons of the Sultan, my master ; They now must look
up to your Lordship as a father!” His Lordship
assured, with earnestness, both the vakeels and the
princes, that they should not feel the loss of a father’s
care. The faces of the children brightened up, and
every spectator was moved. At this interview Lord
Cornwallis presented each of them with a gold
watch, which appeared to give them great satisfaction.
Bred up, as usual with the children of the East, to
imitate the reserve and politeness of age, and
educated with infinite care, all were astonished to
behold the propriety of their deportment. The next
day Lord Cornwallis paid them a visit at their tents.
They came out to receive him ; when he embraced

CONCLUSION OF THE DEFINITIVE TREATY.

451

them, and led them as before, one in each hand into B00K ) 1

the tent. They were now more at their ease, and

spoke with animation and grace. Each of the princes 1/92-
presented his Lordship with a fine Persian sword ;
and he made them a present of some elegant fire-
arms in return. “There was,” says Major Dirom,

“ a degree of state, order, and magnificence, in every
thing, much superior to what we had seen amongst
our allies. The guard of Sepoys, drawn up without,
were clothed in uniform ; and not only regularly and
well armed, but, compared to the rabble of infantry in
the service of the other native powers, appeared well-
disciplined, and in high order.” On the morning
of the 28th, a royal salute was fired from the fort ;
which wTas said to announce the satisfaction of the
Sultan at the reception given to his sons.

Considerable difficulties occurred in adjusting the
terms of the definitive treaty. During the delay,
it was observed, that repairs were actively carried
on within the fort ; and Lord Cornwallis remon-
strated. The Sultan with a disdainful submission
replied; “ His Lordship was misinformed; but for
his satisfaction, if he desired it, he would throw
down one of the bastions, to let him see into the
fort.”

The condition which regarded the Raja of Coorg
was the principal cause of delay. Of the great chain
of the western mountains, this country occupied the
eastern part of the range which extended from the
Tambercherry pass on the south, to the confines of
the Bednore country on the north. Periapatam was
in former times the capital. But after the growth
of the Mysore power, the Rajas had lived at

2 g 2

452

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

Mercara, a place more protected by the mountains,
about twenty miles north from the Poodicherrum
pass.

The Coorgs are considered as related to the
Nairs, that singular caste, of high pretensions to
rank, on the coast of Malabar. Their country,
placed at a medium elevation, between the sultry
plains, and the tempestuous tops of the mountains,
enjoyed a temperate and delightful climate, with a
fertile soil. Hyder laboured for its subjugation in
vain, till a dispute about the succession arose
between two brothers. Upon usurping the govern-
ment of the country, Hyder confined the royal
family in the fort of Cuddoor, on the eastern frontier
of Bednore. Tippoo removed them to Periapatam,
on the eastern side of the woods of Coorg. A son
of the Baja, then dead, made his escape from Peria-
patam in 1788.1

The discontented and inflexible spirit of the
Coorgs, and the cruelty with which they had been
treated, had rendered the country a scene of devas-
tation and bloodshed. Upon the appearance among
them of their native Prince, they renounced with
enthusiasm their obedience to the Sultan ; and

' The story is told somewhat differently by Colonel Wilks and by Major
Dirom. Major Dirom says, that the interference of Hyder between the
brothers being admitted, he destroyed the family of the elder brother,
carried that of the younger to Seringapatam, and took possession of the
country. In the year 1785, the son of that brother made his escape. He
had been a prisoner in Seringapatam from his infancy. It was part of the
policy or piety of Tippoo, to make converts to his religion ; and that by
force as well as persuasion. The occasion was not omitted in the case of
the young Raja. He was subjected to the painful rite of the Mussulman
religion, and enrolled among the C'aelas, or corps of slaves; of whom he
had, though strictly guarded, the nominal command of a battalion, at the
time of his escape.

TIPPOO AVERSE TO RELINQUISH COORG.

453

defeated a detachment of his army descending with Jr
a convoy to the western coast. Before the com-

1792

mencement of the war between the English and
Tippoo, the Raja had repaired to Tellicherry, to
form, if possible, a connexion with the English, of
whose sentiments with regard to the Sultan he was
sufficiently apprized. A regard to the existing
treaty made him unable to obtain their consent, at
that time, to the engagements which he was desirous
of contracting. But no sooner had the war broken
out, than he offered his services ; and, though his
country was miserably drained both of men and
resources, he was able, by his intelligence and
activity, to aid materially the operations of the
Bombay army. The circumstances in which he had
been placed by misfortunes had broken many of the
fetters which bind the understandings of his coun-
trymen ; and he manifested an enlargement of mind
seldom witnessed among those matchless slaves of
prejudice. Not only had trials invigorated his facul-
ties, but he displayed a generosity, and a heroism,
worthy of a more civilized state of society.

Lord Cornwallis included his country by name, in
the territory which Tippoo was called upon to
resign. The proposal, it seems, excited his astonish-
ment and rage. He had destined the Raja, no
doubt, for a conspicuous example of the direful
consequences of renouncing his allegiance : The
territory of the Raja commanded the best approach
to his capital from the sea: And he complained, not
without reason, that to demand a territory which
approached to his very capital, and was not con-
tiguous to the country of any of the allies, was a real

454

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

infringement of the preliminary articles.1 Lord
Cornwallis, having enjoyed the advantages of the
Baja’s rebellion, -was determined not to leave him at
the mercy of his foe. The vakeels of the Sultan
returned to the English camp with a declaration
that their master refused to see them, or to deliberate
on the point. Lord Cornwallis ordered preparations
for resuming the siege. The guns were sent back
to the island and the redoubts; and the working
parties resumed their labours. The army of Pur-
seram Bhow, having at last joined Cornwallis, was
sent across the Cavery, to assist General Abercromby
in completing the investment of the fort; and
exceeded the intentions of the British commander,
by plundering the country. The princes wTere
informed of the necessity which had arrived of
removing them to the Carnatic. Their guard was
disarmed, and treated as prisoners of war. The
Princes were actually, next morning, on the march
to Bangalore, not a little affected with the change of
their situation ; when Lord Cornwallis, at the urgent
request of the vakeels, agreed to suspend, for one
day, the execution of his orders. The submission of
the Sultan was intimated. And on the 19th of
March, the hostage Princes performed the ceremony
of delivering the definitive treaty to Lord Cornwallis
and the allies.2

1 The words of the article were, “ One half of the dominions of which
Tippoo Sultan was possessed before the war, to be ceded to the allies,
from the countries adjacent, according to their situation.”

s When Tippoo sent out the vakeels with the documents finally pre-
pared, he charged them with a remonstrance on the subject of the out-
rage which had been committed by Purseram Bhow ; and with a request
that he might be recalled, with his 20,000 horse, across the river, and

CESSIONS OF TIPPOO.

455

The revenues of Tippoo’s dominions, according to
the admitted schedule, were two crores and thirty-
seven lacs of rupees. One-half of this, divided equally
among the three allies, afforded to each an accession
of territory, worth thirty-nine and a half lacs of
rupees, approaching to half a million sterling, per
annum. The boundary of the Mahrattas was again
extended to the river Toombuddra. The share
allotted to the Nizam reached from the Kistna beyond
the river Penna, and included the forts of Gunjecotah
and Cudapa. The British share was obtained in three
portions, the first, on the western frontier of the
Carnatic, including the Baramahal and the Lower
Ghauts ; the second a district surrounding Dindegul ;
the last, the dominions tributary to the Sultan, on
the coast of Malabar.1

made to answer for his conduct; or, “which would be a still greater
favour,” added the Sultan, “ that Lord Cornwallis would be pleased to
permit me to go out and chastise him myself.” When the eldest of the
Princes delivered the treaty, we are told, that a manly acquiescence ap-
peared in the manner of performing the delivery to Lord Cornwallis ;
that an air of compulsion and dislike was observed to accompany the
ceremony when repeated towards the vakeels of the allies ; and that
some expressions, not distinctly heard, which the boy took for words
of disrespect or dissatisfaction, falling from one of the vakeels, he asked
“ at what he muttered adding, “ You may well be silent ; your masters
have reason to be pleased.” Dirom’s Narrative, p. 246.

' For the history of this war, the principal materials, as yet accessible,
are the papers laid before parliament; the official statements in the
Gazette; Dirom’s Narrative, which, beside a very minute account of the
last campaign, contains a retrospect of the previous operations of the war ;
Mackenzie’s Sketch of the War with Tippoo Sultaun; the instructive
volumes of Wilks ; Moore’s Narrative of the Operations of Captain Little’s
Detachment; and the contemporary historians. Particular references
for notorious facts were deemed unnecessary, and would have been
troublesome by their number. Of the view of Indian politics which was
taken in England at the time of the conclusion of the treaty of Cornwallis,
an instructive judgment may be drawn from the following passage in the
Annual Register (1792, chap. x. last paragraph). “ The advantages

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

456

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 4.

1792.

As some recompense for the virtues and exertions
of the troops, the Commander-in-Chief took upon him
to order them a donative equal to six months’ batta,
out of the money exacted from Tippoo ; and he and
General Medows resigned their shares both in this
and the prize-money. For the satisfaction of the army,
and to obviate the jealousies and inconveniencies
which had been formerly experienced, Lord Corn-
wallis, at the commencement of the war, agreed, that
the plunder taken from the enemy should form one
general fund ; and that prize-agents to take care of
it should be appointed by the army themselves. The
officers of the King’s army nominated two delegates ;
those of the Company’s Madras army, two ; and
those of the Bengal battalions, one. A committee
was also chosen of seven officers, whose business it
was to inspect the accounts of the agents, and make
reports upon them to the army. The effects of this
arrangement, as might be expected, were admirable.
But the democratical complexion of an elective and

which have accrued to the Company from this treaty, amply appear to
counterbalance the enormous expense of the war. By the acquisitions
in the neighbourhood of the Carnatic, and the consequent possession of
the several passes from Mysore, a considerable augmentation of revenue,
and a greater protection from hostile incursions, have been obtained in a
very important quarter ; whilst on the Malabar coast, where we owned but
little before, a portion of rich territory has been allotted to us, which,
exclusive of its own commercial consequence, by being attached to the
Presidency of Bombay, will at once tend to increase the security of that
Presidency, and enhance its value. The wise moderation of these coun-
sels, which directed only a partial division of the conquered countries,
cannot be too much praised. For had not a sufficient extent of territory
been left to Tippoo Sultan, to make him respectable, and still in some
degree formidable to his neighbours, the balance of power in India might
have been again materially affected, the future adjustment of which would
have led to new wars. The treaty was a return, as far as circumstances
would admit, to our old and true policy.”

POWER OF FEAR TO SUGGEST DEFAMATION.

457

deliberative body formed in the army, would, at a book v1

short distance afterwards, have made the very pro

posal he regarded with alarm and abhorrence.

It is so common for nations to ascribe the most
odious qualities to every party whom they dread, that
the excess to which this low passion is carried in
England would be less wonderful, did not the superior
attainments of the nation render it far less excusable
in them, than it is in a people less favourably situated.

Several remarkable instances stand in our history, of
a sort of epidemical frenzy in abusing our enemies.

The frenzy, too, appears to have corresponded pretty
exactly in violence with the degree of terror, which
each of those foes, in their several times and places,
happened to inspire. Louis the Fourteenth, Tippoo
Sultan, and Napoleon Bonaparte may be adduced as
conspicuous examples. As in regard to Louis in his
day, and Napoleon in his ; so among our countrymen,
either in India, or in England, scarcely was Tippoo
ever spoken of but under the description of a hideous
monster ; disfigured by almost every vice which ren-
ders human nature, in the exercise of power, an object
of dread and abhorrence. Even Major Rennell, who
is not an example of a man easily hurried away by
the prejudices of his countrymen, had already de-
scribed him as “cruel to an extreme degree;” and
though possessed of talents, held in such utter detes-
tation by his own subjects, that it was improbable
his reign would be long.”1 And Lieutenant Moore in-
forms us, that “many highly respectable persons,
impressed with the same sentiments, doubted not, at

Rennell’s Memoir, Introd. p. cxxxix.

458

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi the commencement of the late war, hut the defection

CHAP. 4.

• — of his whole army would be the immediate conse-

quence of the approach of the confederate forces.”1

The fact, however, was, that when the English ad-
vanced into the dominions of Tippoo, they discovered
such indications of good government as altogether
surprised them ; a country highly cultivated, and
abounding in population ; in short, a prosperity far
surpassing that which any other part of India ex-
hibited, not excepting the British dominions them-
selves. And for the sentiments with which he was
regarded, some information may be derived from the
conduct they inspired. The fidelity with which his
people adhered to him under the most trying reverses
of fortune, would have done honour to the most wise
and beneficent prince. Notan instance of treachery
occurred amongst his commanders during the whole
course of the war. His troops, with the exception of
the men w ho had been cruelly dragged from the con-
quered countries, though disheartened by a constant
succession of disasters, fought with constancy to the
last. The people of the ceded countries yielded as to
inevitable fate ; but no sooner did an opportunity
occur, than they replaced themselves with eagerness
under the government of Tippoo.2

' Moore’s Narrative of the Operations of Captain Little’s Detachment,
p. 197. That officer, having a mind above the ordinary standard, thus
describes the defamatory mania of his countrymen. “ Of late years, our
language has been ransacked for terms in which well-disposed per-
sons were desirous to express their detestation of his name and cha-
racter ; vocabularies of vile epithets have been exhausted ; and doubtless
many have lamented that the English language is not copious enough
to furnish terms of obloquy sufficiently expressive of the ignominy
wherewith they in justice deem his memory deserves to be branded.
Ibid. p. 193.

s The following passages from the two intelligent officers to whom we

CIRCUMSTANCES BY WHICH TIPPOO WAS MISLED.

459

As the English over-rated the vices of Tippoo ; so 1

they greatly over-rated his power and consequence, - — - — —
as an enemy. It was found, after all, that his whole
revenues amounted hut to two and a-half millions
sterling ; and instead of the mighty treasures which
he and his father were supposed to have accumulated,
and which, from the number of troops they had
always kept up, and the expensive wars in which

are chiefly indebted for our knowledge of this war, are so honourable
to the writers, and instructive to their countrymen, that the insertion of
them cannot be declined. “ When a person,” says Lieutenant Moore,

“ travelling through a strange country, finds it well cultivated, populous
with industrious inhabitants, cities newly founded, commerce extending,
towns increasing, and every thing flourishing, so as to indicate hap-
piness, he will naturally conclude it to be under a form of government
congenial to the minds of the people. This is a picture of Tippoo’s
country ; and this is our conclusion respecting its government. It has
fallen to our lot to tarry some time in Tippoo’s dominions, and to
travel through them as much, if not more than any other officer in the
field, during the war; and we have reason to suppose his subjects to
be as happy as those of any other sovereign : For we do not recollect to
have heard of any complaints or murmurings among them ; although, had
causes existed, no time would have been more favourable for their ut-
terance, because the enemies of Tippoo were in power, and would have
been gratified by any aspersion of his character. The inhabitants of the
conquered countries submitted with apparent resignation to the direction
of their conquerors, but by no means as if relieved from an oppressive
yoke in their former government ; on the contrary, no sooner did an
opportunity offer, than they scouted their new masters, and gladly returned
to their loyalty again.” Moore’s Narrative, p. 201. “Whether from
the operation of the system established by Hyder, from the principles
which Tippoo has adopted for his own conduct, or from his domi-
nions having suffered little by invasion for many years, or from the
effect of these several causes united, his country was found every where
full of inhabitants, and apparently cultivated to the utmost extent of
which the soil was capable; while the discipline and fidelity of his
troops in the field, until their last overthrow, were testimonies equally
strong, of the excellent regulations which existed in his army. His
government, though strict and arbitrary, was the despotism of a politic
and able sovereign, who nourishes, not oppresses, the subjects who are to
be the means of his future aggrandizement : and his cruellies were, in
general, inflicted only on those whom he considered as his enemies.”

Dirom’s Narrative, p. 249.

460

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v1 they had been almost constantly engaged, it was im-
— possible they should have accumulated ; the expense
1792' of only two campaigns was found to have so com-
pletely exhausted his finances, that he was unable to
pay the grain-merchants for the most essential of all
articles, when they conveyed it to his camp.

But Tippoo was a braggart, and talked so loftily
of his own power, and with so much contempt of the
power of the English, that he both hurt their pride,
and awakened their apprehensions. The little deli-
cacy which he displayed in construing in his own
favour whatever points the treaty left without defini-
tion, was no more than what is practised regularly by
every Indian Prince, and every other Prince, where
he sees no danger of being made to suffer for his en-
croachments. But the little regard he paid to the
anger of the English, and the indifference with which
he provoked them, arose from two causes: the hope of
assistance from the E rench, which, had the government
of the Bourbons remained undisturbed, he was sure
of receiving ; and his incapability of estimating the
change in regard to the English which had recently
taken place. Only a few years before, he had seen
his father reduce them to the very brink of destruc-
tion ; and no change, which to his eye was visible, had
added to their power. Their dominions had received
no extension; and the Carnatic, which was all that
he saw of their dominions, was in a state of rapid
deterioration, while his own were in a state of gradual
improvement. It was impossible for Tippoo to under-
stand that his father had to contend with only the East
India Company, feeble from a defective treasury,
and timid, from the jealousy wfith which they were

RESULTS OF THE WAR WITH TIPPOO.

461

watched at home, and from the want of protection B00K y1

A # # CHAP. 4.

which they were sure to experience : That the ministry

had now transferred the government of India to them- 1792-
selves: That it was their own ruler into whose hands
they had put the reins ; and who, if he acted agree-
ably to them, was sure of their protection : That it
was not, in reality, the East India Company with
which he had now to contend ; but the English go-
vernment and the East India Company combined,
the resources of both of which were clubbed to pro-
vide for the war. Not only were the whole revenues
of the East India Company devoted to that purpose,
and their credit in India stretched to an extent, of
which they would have trembled to think, without
the firm assurance of ministerial support, and which,
without that support, would more than probably
have accomplished their ruin ; hut the ministers gave
them parliamentary authority and ministerial coun-
tenance, to raise, that is to say, the ministers raised
for them, repeated sums in England to a very large
amount.

In drawing the balance of profit and loss, upon the
speculation which they had in this manner closed,
the only advantage which the English could imagine
they had gained, was the chance of having rendered
Tippoo more pacific, and less dangerous in case of a
future war. That there was no other advantage,
will appear from a very simple reflection. They had
indeed a new territory. But in overbalance of that,
it is to be considered that they had expended a sum
of money in the war, the interest of which would
have exceeded the net revenues of the country which
they gained. Their income, therefore, would have

462

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi been greater had they never entered into the war.

CHAP. 4. ° J %

- Then, as to the question in what degree it lessened

1792. either the chance or mischievousness of future wars,
experience seemed to show that if Tippoo was not
exasperated into a more eager propensity for war, he
was not more humbled into a tame desire of peace ;
and the conduct of the government speedily showed,
that if he had ceased to lie equally dangerous, he was
far from ceasing to be equally dreaded. That the
Company had added by conquest to their territories
in violation of the declared sense and enactments of
parliament, and were nevertheless applauded by par-
liament and the nation, the world beheld, and have
not yet forgotten.1

The weakness of the Nizam, and his need of
resting upon the English for support against the
Mahrattas, when no longer checked by the dread of

1 Sir John Malcolm, whose loyalty offends not commonly on the score
of weakness, seems to regard it as one of the principal advantages of the
war, that it displayed Lord Cornwallis’s contempt for the act of par-
liament. “ The policy ” (says that writer, Sketch of the Political History
of India, p. 94) “ of Lord Cornwallis was neither directed to obtain a
delay of hostilities, nor limited to the object of repelling the immediate
danger, with which the state, over whose councils he presided was
threatened.” That is to say, it was not confined to the express object to
which he was limited by act of parliament. “ When fully satisfied, of
the designs of Tippoo, he hastened to attack him ; he saw the great
advantages which were likely to result from early offensive operations ;
and the moment he resolved on war, he contemplated (as appears from
the whole tenour of his correspondence previous to the commencement of
hostilities) the increase of the Company’s territories in the quarters of the
Carnatic and Malabar, as a desirable object of policy.” The grand object,
indeed, of Sir John’s intelligent work, is to point out the impolicy of the
restricting act of parliament; to demonstrate that the most eminent of
the Indian governors, Mr. Hastings, Lord Cornwallis, and Lord Wellesley,
have treated it with uninterrupted contempt; and received applause for
every successful violation of it.

RESULTS OF THE WAR WITH TIPPOO.

463

Tippoo, made that chief desirous of maintaining the book. J1
fortunate and useful connexion he had formed.

1792.

Between the English and Mahrattas jealousies
quickly arose. The Mahrattas saw with regret the
shield of the British power held up between them
and the Nizam, whom they had long destined for
their prey.

While the armies were before Seringapatam, and
the Sultan was yet unsubdued, Mahdajee Sindiah
marched towards Poonah with an army ; and not
only alarmed Nana Furnavese who governed in the
name of the Peshwa, and whose authority Sindiah
wished to usurp ; but was regarded with suspicion
by the English themselves.

When the English, before the war, were bidding so
high for alliances against Tippoo, Sindiah, too,
offered his services to sale ; but asked an exorbitant
price. He required that two battalions of the
British troops should join his army as an auxiliary
force, in the same manner as the armies of the
Nizam and Peshwa; that the English government
should engage to protect his dominions in the upper
provinces during his absence; and should become
bound to assist him in the reduction of the Rajpoot
Princes, who resisted the extension of his conquests.

To involve themselves in war in the distant pro-
vinces of Hindustan, for the aggrandizement of
Sindiah, whose power was already an object of
alarm, by no means accorded with the policy of
the English; and the alliance of Sindiah was not
obtained.

Upon the conclusion of the peace with Tippoo, a
proposition was made to the British commander, by

464

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

} 1 Hurry Punt ; that the service of the British troops

with the army of the Peshwa should he rendered

permanent, in the same manner as that of the corps
vrhich was attached to the army of the Nizam. It
was the opinion of Lord Cornwallis, that this subsi-
diary force, though asked under the pretext that it
would only be employed in enabling the Peshwa to
reduce to obedience any of his refractory dependants,
was really desired as a weapon against Mahdajee
Sindiah, whose power endangered the authority of
the minister at Poonah. But though Lord Corn-
wallis could not fail to be sensible of the extraordi-
nary increase of the power of Sindiah, who had
established the dominion given him, by the policy of
Mr. Hastings, over the Mogul provinces, and em-
ployed in his own favour the remaining authority of
his imperial captive, while he had formed a large
and formidable corps of regular infantry under
European officers mostly French, and erected foun-
deries and arsenals, in short had made the most for-
midable accumulation of all the instruments of war.
belonging to any Prince in India ; he regarded all
attempts to check the career of Sindiah, as either
imprudent, or contrary to the act of parliament, and
unlikely to obtain the concurrence of the ruling
powers at home. He therefore refused to accede to
the wishes of the Poonah minister ; though he
directed the British Resident at the Court of
Sindiah, to make a spirited remonstrance, when
intelligence arrived in July that the claims of the
Emperor to his tribute from Bengal began to be
renewed.

According to the terms on which the receipt and

NEW ARRANGEMENT WITH THE NABOB OF ARCOT.

465

disbursement of the Carnatic revenues had been B00K y1

CHAP. 4.

assumed by the English, they were now to be re-

stored, when the war was at an end. As soon as 1/92-
Lord Cornwallis led back the army from Seringa-
patam to Madras, he entered upon the discussion of a
new arrangement, which, as usual, was somewhat
affectedly, if not ludicrously, denominated a treaty.

Of the former agreement both parties complained;
the Nabob, that its pecuniary conditions were
heavier than the country was able to bear; the
English, that the securities it provided for the pay-
ments of the Nabob, were inadequate to their end.

The treaty, therefore, which was made with Sir
Archibald Campbell, and the obligation of the
Nabob, respecting the annual payments to his
private creditors, were annulled; and it was de-
clared, that the agreement which was now con-
cluded with Lord Cornwallis, provided for the
objects of both.

According to the terms of this new arrangement,
the contribution of the Nabob towards the peace
establishment was fixed at nine lacs of pagodas, per
annum ; the payment to his creditors was reduced
from twelve to six lacs, 21,105 pagodas; and for the
expenses of war, he was to contribute, as by the last
agreement, four-fifths of his revenues.

As security for these payments, it was agreed,

That during war, the Company should assume en-
tirely the receipt and disbursement of the Nabob’s
revenues, which he should recover upon the restora-
tion of peace: And that, if any failure of payment
occurred during peace, the Company should enter
upon the receipt of the revenues of certain specified

VOL. V. 2 H

466

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 4.

1793.

1 districts, from which the Nabob’s officers should, in
- that event, be withdrawn. The Polygars of Madura
and Tinivelly, whose power enabled them to resist
the feeble government of the Nabob, and, in a great
measure, to prevent the collection of his revenue, were
transferred to the management of the English.

It appears from the despatches of Lord Cornwallis,
that he set a great value upon this arrangement ; and
fondly believed it was calculated to answer all the
ends which it was the object of himself and his coun-
trymen to secure. The complaints of which he had
heard, were chiefly complaints respecting the securi-
ties for the payments of the Nabob. The securities
which he had taken had the appearance of being
complete ; and he saw not far beyond first appear-
ances. The observation is just, “ that though this
engagement simplified in some points, and greatly
ameliorated in others, the engagement which Sir
Archibald Campbell had contracted; it corrected
none of its radical defects.” 1 Management during a
limited and precarious period excluded that minute
knowledge on which alone could be founded an
assessment, just either to the Company or the inha-
bitants ; ensured the bad offices of all descriptions
of the people, who had an interest in courting the
government which they were again to obey ; and
totally prevented the introduction of a new manage-
ment, in place of that cruel and oppressive system
which, under the government of the Nabob, desolated
the country.

Of the transactions of Lord Cornwallis with

1 Sir John Malcolm, ut supra, p. 114.

THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS TAKEN.

467

foreign powers, one yet remains of sufficient import- book ^ 1

ance to require a separate statement. In 1793, the —

change of government in France precipitated the
people of England into a war with that country. It
followed, as a matter of course, that in India the
possessions of the French should he attacked. The
interests of the French in India had now, for a great
while, languished under poverty and neglect. The
progressive embarrassments of the government at
home, and the progressive intensity with wffiich the
eyes of the nation were turned upon that govern-
ment, left the Indian establishments in a state of
weakness, ill fitted to resist the weight of the
English power, when the bonds of peace were
broken asunder. The forces of Madras were sent
against Pondicherry, with Major-General Sir John
Brathwaite at their head. And Lord Cornwallis
hastened from Bengal, to obtain the honour of
extirpating the republicans. The difficulty, however,
was so very small, that the enterprise was accom-
plished before he arrived; and the whole of the
French settlements in India were added to the
English possessions.

2 h 2

468

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

CHAPTER V.

Lord Cornwallis s Financial and Judicial Reforms.

book vi The measures taken during the administration of this
CHAP' 5' Viceroy, for altering the internal government of the
1787. British dominions in India, are not less memorable
than his transactions with foreign states.

In the eye of the new government of India, con-
sisting more ostensibly of the Directors, more really
of the King’s ministers, revenue naturally consti-
tuted the first object. In the code of instructions,
with which, upon his departure for his government.
Lord Cornwallis was provided, occasion was taken to
censure the financial administration of his predeces-
sors, and to prescribe a new arrangement. The
frequent changes, the substitution of farmers and
temporary agents for the permanent Zemindars, the
failure of all attempts to enhance the revenue, and
the exclusion of the collectors from a share in
forming assessments of their respective districts,
were mentioned Avith disapprobation. Complaint
was made of the heavy arrears outstanding on the
settlement of the last four years ; and the country
was represented as exhausted and impoverished.
Such is the opinion which it was, by the King’s
ministers and Court of Directors, held fit to express,

lord Cornwallis’s financial reforms.

469

of the merits of the British government, in India, at bc°ok v a

the date of this document, in April, 1786. For the .

purpose of improvement, they directed, that the 1787-
settlement should be made with the Zemindars.
Knowledge sufficient for an assessment, they pre-
sumed was already acquired. They prescribed
the period of ten years, as the limit to which
the settlement should he confined, in the first
instance. But they declared their intention to
render it permanent, provided, on experience, it
should merit their approbation. They further com-
manded, that the collectors of the revenue should be
vested with the powers of judicature and police ; by
having conveyed to them the principal authority in
the Dewannee Adauluts, with the power of magis-
trates in apprehending offenders against the public
peace. And, in making this provision for the admi-
nistration of justice, they declared, that they were
not actuated by “ abstract theories — drawn,” they
said, “ from other countries, or applicable to a dif-
ferent state of things, but a consideration of the sub-
sisting manners and usages of the people.”

Upon his arrival in India, Lord Cornwallis found,
that his masters in England were egregiously mis-
taken, when they imagined that there was sufficient
knowledge, already treasured up, for the business of
settling the revenue. The very nature of the land-
tenure was not understood. The rights of the dif-
ferent orders of people, who cultivated the soil, and
divided its produce, formed a complicated mystery.

All that was known, with any certainty, was the
amount of revenue which had been annually col-
lected. But whether the country could pay more, or

470

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi the exactions were already heavier than it could

CHAP. 5. .

hear, no man had any satisfactory grounds to affirm.

]787- In this situation Lord Cornwallis determined to
suspend his obedience to the orders of Whitehall and
Leadenhall-street ; to content himself, in the mean
time, with annual settlements, by the local agency
of the district collectors, and the superintendence of
the Committee, now decorated with the title of Board,
of Revenue ; to circulate interrogatories, and collect
information from every accessible source.1

The directions of the government at home, with
regard to the administration of justice, were treated
with greater respect ; the Governor-General saw
nothing here to dissuade prompt obedience. In
1787, regulations were promulgated; and the col-
lectors were vested with the triple power of revenue
agents, of judges, and of police magistrates. It is
good to hear the reasons which the compound of
statesmen and Directors, now formed into an instru-
ment of government for India, produced for this
device of theirs. They prescribed it, they said, on
account of its “ tendency to simplicity, energy,
justice, and economy.”

By Mr. Shore,2 on whom the Governor-General
chiefly relied for information, it was remarked ; in
that document, in which he exhibited the result of
his observation and inquiries ; That the constitution
of the English government in India was ill adapted
for promoting improvement, and the situation of the

1 The fate of Mr. Francis, and of Mr. Francis’s ideas, formed a contrast.
He himself had been treated by the powers which were, with any thing
rather than respect. But his plan of finance was adopted with blind
enthusiasm, with a sort of mechanical and irresistible impulse.

* Afterwards Sir John Shore, and finally Lord Teignmouth.

LORD CORNWALLIS S JUDICIAL REFORMS.

471

Company’s servants ill calculated for the acquisition
of knowledge and legislative talent. The individuals
of whom the government was composed, were in such
a state of fluctuation, that no separate portion of them
had time to conceive and mature any important ideas of
reform. In the next place he remarked, that the
servants of the Company were so much engrossed
with official forms and the details of business,
as to be in a great measure debarred from the ac-
quisition even of local knowledge. Still further;
he asserted, that the knowledge which they acquired
was not appropriate knowledge, such as lays the
foundation for political wisdom : it was a mere know-
ledge of practice ; that is to say, a knowledge of a
certain number of facts which are obvious, with igno-
rance of the numerous facts which lie more remote,
and ignorance of the numerous connexions which
subsist both among the facts which may happen to
be familiar, and those of the far wider circle which is
wholly unknown.1 From knowledge of this sort no

1 The words are worth transcribing. They meet some obstinate pre-
judices, and some pernicious ideas. “ If we consider the form of the
British government in India, we shall find it ill calculated for the speedy
introduction of improvement. The members, composing it, are in a con-
stant state of fluctuation ; and the period of their residence often expires,
before experience can be acquired, or reduced to practice. — Official forms
necessarily occupy a large portion of time, and the constant pressure of
business leaves little leisure for study and reflection, without which no
knowledge of the principles and detail of the revenues of this country can
be obtained. — True information is also procured with difficulty ; because
it is too often derived from mere practice, instead of being deduced from
fixed principles. — Every man who has long been employed in the manage-
ment of the revenues of Bengal, will, if candid, allow, that his opinion on
many important points has been often varied, and that the information of
one year has been rendered dubious by the experience of another. Still,
in all cases, decision is necessary. And hence, precedents, formed on
partial circumstances, and perhaps, on erroneous principles, become

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1787.

472

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1787.

plan of improvement, no combination of expedients, to
make the future better than the past, can ever be
rationally expected.

It is necessary to remark, that Mr. Shore, aware
of that succession of blunders, which constituted the
succession of attempts to improve the mode of
governing India, claims indulgence for so many
errors, on account of the time required to obtain a
knowledge of Asiatic manners and finance. This
apology may delude, unless distinction is made
between the errors which arose from the want of
local knowledge, and those which arose from general
ignorance. Those >vhich arose from the want of
local knowledge, as far as more time was absolutely
necessary for its acquisition, are not to be blamed.
Those which arose from general ignorance are, in
every instance, the proper objects of reprobation ;
because provision should always have been made for
giving to the government of India the benefit of men
capable of applying the best ideas of their age to the
arrangement of its important affairs.1

established rules of conduct. For a prudent man, when doubtful, will be
happy to avail himself of the authority of example. The multiplication of
records, which ought to be a great advantage, is, in fact, an inconvenience
of extensive magnitude ; for in them only the experience of others can be
traced, and reference requires much time and labour.” Mr. Shore’s
Minute on the Bengal revenues, paragraph 2nd, in the Appendix, Fifth
Report of Committee on India Affairs, 1810, p. 169. If the multiplication
of documents is troublesome to the Company’s servants, what must it be
to the historian, whose field is so much wider ? It is worth remarking,
that the Committee in 1810 not only inserted the whole of the Minute, in
the Appendix to the Report above quoted, but laid so much stress upon
this particular passage, as to incorporate it with the Report, p. 11.

1 The chief source of difficulty is here overlooked. It is that of com-
bining local with general knowledge. If the Company’s servants go
young to India, they cannot carry with them much general financial in-
formation ; if they go to India advanced in life, they will never acquire

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

473

On the 2nd of August, 1789, Lord Cornwallis book vi

informed the government at home, that he had at .

last matured his plan of revenue, and was preparing 1789-
to carry it into immediate execution. He took that
occasion to describe the state in which the country
would be found at the time when his law would
begin to operate ; and announced the improvements
which he expected it would introduce.

“ I am sorry,” these are his words, “ to be obliged
to say that agriculture and internal commerce have,
for many years, been gradually declining ; and that,
at present, excepting the class of shroffs and
banyans, who reside almost entirely in great
towns, the inhabitants of these provinces were
advancing hastily to a general state of poverty and
wretchedness.

“ In this description I must even include almost
every Zemindar in the Company’s territories ; which,
though it may have been partly ocasioned by their
own indolence and extravagance, I am afraid must
also be, in a great measure, attributed to the
defects of our former system of management.”

The beneficial effects which he expected to flow
from the plan, were summed up in these compre-

local and practical knowledge. It is, therefore, impossible to unite the
two to any effective extent under the present system, but it is certainly
better for the country that practical skill should be acquired by experience,
than that theorists and experimentalists should be intrusted with the
management of the revenues of India. It is only necessary to allow time
and opportunity for the acquirement of experience, and that the evils
adverted to in Mr. Shore’s Minute, should be guarded against as much as
possible. Changes of appointment should not be needlessly frequent, and
residence in India should be encouraged as long as service is effective ;
fluctuation should not be incessant ; period of residence should not be cut
short before experience has been acquired and applied to practice. — W.

474

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 5

1789.

1 hensive terms, “Wealth and happiness to the intel-
- ligent and industrious part of the individuals of the
country.” And, independent, added his Lordship,
of all other considerations, “ I can assure you that
it will be of the utmost importance, for promoting
the solid interests of the Company, that the principal
landholders and traders, in the interior parts of the
country, should be restored to such circumstances, as
to enable them to support their families with decency,
and to give a liberal education to their children,
according to the customs of their respective castes
and religions ; that a regular gradation of ranks may
be supported, which is no where more necessary
than in this country, for preserving order in civil
society.”1

Every where, and apparently at all times, in
India, the revenue of government had been almost
wholly derived from the annual produce of the land.
It had been originally extracted in that rude and
simple mode which accorded with the character of a
rude and ignorant people. The annual produce of
the land was divided into shares between the culti-
vator and the government : originally shares in kind,
and so to the last in many parts of India ; though
latterly, government took the money equivalent, in

1 Letter from Lord Cornwallis to the Court of Directors, 2nd August,
1789; printed by H. of C. 8th March, 1790. The following document
contains a similar affirmation, respecting the failure of former regulations.
“ By the rules established in 1772, all nuzzers or salamies (free gifts)
wdiich had been usually presented (to the Company’s servants) on the
first interview (with the natives), as marks of subjection and respect,
were required to be totally discontinued, the revenue officers were for-
bidden to hold farms, &c. — This regulation, as far as related to the
unavowed emoluments of the Company’s servants, does not appear to have
been effectual.” Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 11.

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

475

those provinces which had long enjoyed the benefit J1

of a Mogul administration. The shares varied .

according as the land was recently or anciently 1789-
brought under culture, and according to the pressure
sustained by the state. Two fifths to the culti-
vator, and three to the government, have been
assumed as the average proportions for land under
full cultivation.1

Every year to ascertain the produce of every field,
and collect from it the share which belonged to the
government, was a very laborious and complicated
process ; and some variety occurred in the modes in
which the operation was performed. In the petty
Hindu governments, it would appear, that the agents
of the prince transacted immediately with the hus-
bandmen, called ryots, either man by man, or village
by village.

The establishment of villages (a vicinity, or
parish,2 would, perhaps, be the more appropriate
title) is a peculiarity in India, of which, having been
already explained, it is only necessary here to excite
the recollection. Each vicinity, call it village, or
call it parish, constituted a little community ; which
had a species of government within itself.3 Of the

1 By the Committee on Indian affairs in 1810, Fifth Report, p. 16.

s Tlapoiicia.

3 Detailed descriptions of the constitution of the village communities, as
they exist in the South and West of India, are to be found in different
authorities. Wilks, South of India, i. 117. Briggs on the Land Tax of
India. Duff’s History of the Mahrattas, i. 31. Sykes on Land Tenures
in the Dekkan. Colonel Briggs has ascertained also, that vestiges more
or less complete of the same system, are to be found in Bengal and Hin-
dustan. In the Upper Provinces the system of village property was found
entire when they came into the British possession, and the Revenue set-
tlements have recognised the principle. E. India Records, Revenue,

476

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1789.

villagers, one was headman, distinguished in different
places by different appellations ; another was em-
ployed to keep and register the accounts of the com-
munity. Each community had also its Brahmens,
as well for the service of the gods, as for the educa-
tion of the children. It was provided, too, with the
various species of handicrafts, and labourers, required
by the habits of the people. The land of the village
was sometimes divided into lots, and was regarded
as individual property ; but sometimes it belonged
to the community as a whole ; and a separate parti-
tion of it was made every year by the villagers
among themselves, each ryot receiving for the culti-

i. 415. Much valuable light has been also thrown upon the system as it
exists at Azimgerh, on the borders of Oude. Report on Azimgerh by Mr.
Thomason. J. As. Soc. Bengal. 1840. They had suffered great disor-
ganization in Malwa, but speedily resumed their form when tranquillity
was secured. Malcolm’s Central India, ii. 22. The author remarks —
“ We may, after the scenes which they (the village institutions) have sur-
vived in Central India, presume them to be indestructible, unless the hand
of power be actually exerted to put an end to an establishment which has
for ages formed the basis of all Indian governments.” Ibid. ii. 4. It is
evident that the existence and rights of village communities or town-
ships were not known or suspected at the time of Lord Cornwallis’s
regulations, and although it is true that they had suffered much injury in
Bengal, yet there were indications of their existence, and it is remarkable
that the undoubted industry and talent which was engaged in the inves-
tigation of the state of landed property amongst the natives of India,
should have missed so curious a peculiarity. It is a proof of the extreme
difficulty which then prevailed of procuring accurate information ; and our
inquirers in fact were unable to avail themselves of the sources best
entitled to reliance. They could not discourse with the people — they did
not live amongst them — they derived such information as they, with pro-
digious labour and most commendable exertions, were able to collect,
through the medium of the Persian language, and the functionaries of the
Mohammedan Government. It is, also, however, an exemplification of
our liability to overlook that which is unfamiliar to our own preconceptions,
and different from all to which we have been accustomed. We suspect
not the existence of that, for the appreciation of which we have no standard
ready. — W.

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

477

vation of the year, such a portion as appeared to 1

correspond with his capital or means. In this, as in

other transactions, the headman was the great regu- l/89-
lator ; but rather, it should seem, from the habitual
deference which was paid to him, than any power
which he had to enforce his decrees. When the
revenue agents of the government transacted village
by village, without descending to the annual assess-
ment of each individual ryot, they levied a particular
sum upon each particular village, and left the
villagers to settle the individual quotas among
themselves.

When the Mogul government extended itself so
enormously as to comprehend the greater part of the
vast Indian continent, the greatness of its transac-
tions, and the rudeness of its mind, naturally
rendered it impatient of details ; and modes were
invented of transacting the business of revenue more
in the gross. The revenue agents were rendered
stationary, in the districts where they collected, and
became responsible to the government for the
revenue, receiving payment, by a per centage, or
share of what they collected. Under the Indian
governments, Moslem or Hindu, every thing which
was enjoyed, whether office or possession, had a
tendency to become hereditary. There was a great
convenience in preserving, in each district, the same
grand agent of revenue, and after himself, his son or
successor; because each was better acquainted with
the people and resources of the district, than,
generally speaking, any other man could be expected
to be. In this manner, the situation of those agents
became in fact hereditary ; and the government of

478

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi the Moguls, which was, though occasionally violent,

in many respects considerate and humane, seldom

789' allowed itself to displace those officers, without some
heavy ground of displeasure; even when it some-
times superseded them in the business of collection,
it generally made them an allowance, to preserve
their families from want or degradation. Before
the period of the English acquisitions, the Persian
appellative of Zemindar 1 had been generally appro-
priated to them, in the northern regions of India.

Being responsible to government for the revenue,
they were allowed the exercise of all the powers

1 The term means literally land-holder; the nature of the office has
been unnecessarily perplexed by the use of the term sometimes in its
literal, sometimes in its conventional sense, or by an actual combination
of functions. Under the native village system several villages were
formed into a district, and besides the headman of each village, there was
a headman of the district. He was probably at first nominated by the
villagers, and was one of their own body, being a proprietor of a share of
the common land. Subsequently he may have been nominated by the
Government, on whose behalf he collected its dues, receiving as an equi-
valent, a per centage upon the collections. But besides this fee, and
whether he had land of his own or not, he received from the villagers sub-
sistence allowance in the form of a grant of land. Now as the office, as
the text remarks, very commonly became hereditary, the Nan-kar, or
subsistence-land, became a hereditary succession, and this either with or
without a proprietary estate derivable from a share in the township,
invested the headman of a district with the character of a land-holder,
independently of, and not inconsistently with, his office of collector of
revenue. He was, therefore, not merely an officer of the Government. He
was at the same time the representative of the people, and in that capacity
a holder of certain land. It was consequently possible to deprive him of his
government office, as was done repeatedly in the time of Hastings, without
destroying his character of Zemindar. He was still the head of the district
on behalf of the people, and enjoyed his own land, or that attached to his
popular office, although he had no longer any thing to do with the collection
of the revenue. At the same time his continuance in his Zemindari did
not constitute him proprietor of the soil beyond his subsistence-land, or
such share or shares as might have come down to him from an original
member of the township. Briggs on the Land Tax. Malcolm’s Central
India, ii. 9. — W.

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

479

which, in the rude government of the Moguls, were
accounted necessary for realizing it. The common
method in India of enforcing payment of any debt,
was the use of coercion in the hand of the creditor.
For revenue debts government was not likely to
pursue more lenient methods. A military force was
the instrument allowed; and the Zemindars, in the
common style of Oriental pride, retained about them
as many troops as they could possibly find the
means of maintaining. Under Eastern despotisms
the different powers of government were seldom
communicated asunder. To the power of collecting
the revenue by a military force, was added the
power of administering justice. All civil disputes
appear to have been regarded in India as falling
naturally under the cognizance of the agents of
revenue. And, in fact, the whole business of
judicature and police, with the sole exception of
inflicting the highest class of punishments, devolved
upon Zemindars, each within the district over which
he was placed.1

“We generally,” says an intelligent servant of
the Company, speaking of himself and his brethren,
“see Indian affairs, with English eyes; and carry
European notions into Indian practice.”2 3 To this

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1789.

1 This statement is not quite correct. As head of the district, the

Zemindar in common with the headmen of the villages, was responsible
for the police, and maintained a civil force to preserve peace, protect pro-
perty, and collect the revenues ; but he was never officially armed with
judicial or military authority. The expounder of the law was the Pundit
or Maulavi, or Cazi. The military commander was the Foujdar. Some
of the more considerable Zemindars took advantage of the distracted state
of the empire to raise troops, and assume the attitude of military chiefs,
but this was no part of their proper functions. — W.

3 Mr. Thackeray, in his Report on the comparative Advantages and Dis-

480

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bchai^ 5. 1 source may evidently be traced a considerable pro-

portion of the blunders of our countrymen in the

789‘ government of India. For how long a period, and
as yet hardly closed, did they resolve upon finding
a feudal system in India? With this turn of mind,
it was to be expected, that they would, if possible,
find a set of land-holders, gentry, and nobles, to
correspond with those in England. The Zemindar
had some of the attributes which belong to a land-
owner : he collected the rents of a particular district,
he governed the cultivators of that district, lived in
comparative splendour, and his son succeeded him
when he died. The Zemindars, therefore, it was
inferred without delay, wrere the proprietors of the
soil, the landed nobility and gentry of India.1 It

advantages of the Ryotwar and Zemindary settlements, dated 4tli August,
1807 ; Fifth Report, ut supra, App. 31. p. 990.

1 It can scarcely be said with justice, that this inference was drawn
without delay. The subject had received repeated attention. A Letter
from the Committee of Revenue, of March 1786, cited in Harington’s
Analysis, iii. 252, observes, that “ the discussion of the rights of the
Zemindar has employed for years past the first talents both in India and
Europe.” The most rash and uncompromising advocate of the doctrine
was Francis, and he maintained the proprietary rights of the Zemindars
with equal pertinacity in his place in Parliament. Sixth Report,
Appendix, p. 915, 937. Hastings never admitted it, and in opposition
to Francis’s opinions, a committee was appointed by Hastings to investi-
gate the nature of landed tenures in Bengal. The report of this committee,
submitted in 1778, authorizes no inference in favour of the proprietary
rights of the Zemindars. “ Almost all the lands, it is said, are held under
some person who collects the rents, pays a revenue, and stands between
the Government and the immediate tenant of the soil, whether the land be
considered as belonging to Government, or the property of the person
under whom it is held, or of him by whom it is occupied and cultivated,
it is still subject to some superior who possesses rights and claims over it,
the extent of which we presume not to examine. But whatever these
rights may be, the land itself is liable to the Government revenue, and
whoever possesses it, holds it on this special condition.” Harington’s
Analysis. Revenue, ii. 62. Fora summary sketch of the discussions in

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

481

was not considered that the Zemindars, though they
collected the rents, did not keep them; but paid
them all away, with a small deduction, to the
government. It was not considered that if they
governed the ryots, and in many respects exercised
over them despotic power, they did not govern them
as tenants of theirs, holding their lands either at
will or by contract under them. The possession of
the ryot was an hereditary possession; from which
it was unlawful for the Zemindar to displace him :
For every farthing which the Zemindar drew from
the ryot he was bound to account : And it was only
by fraud, if, out of all that he collected, he retained
an ana more than the small proportion which, as
pay for collection, he was permitted to receive.
Three parties shared in the produce of the soil.
That party to any useful purpose most properly
deserves the name of proprietor, to whom the prin-
cipal share of the produce for ever belongs. To
him who derives the smallest share of the produce
the title of owner least of all belongs.1 In India to
the sovereign the profit of the land may be said
to have wholly belonged. The ryot obtained a
mere subsistence, not more than the necessary wages
of his labour. The Zemindar enjoyed allowances
to the amount of about ten per cent, upon the
revenue which he collected, not more than a com-
pensation for his services. To the government

Bengal, in which Mr. Grant, Sir J. Shore, Mr. Law, and a writer under
the signature of Agricola, were the principal disputants, see British
India Analyzed, ii. 410. — W.

1 This is even the language of English law. “ By a grant of the profits
of the land,” say the English lawyers, “ the whole land itself doth pass.
For what is the land but the profits thereof?”

VOL. V. 2 I

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1789.

482

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BchapV l1 belonged more than one-half of the gross produce
. of the soil.

1789. The Engiish Were actuated not only by an en-
lightened, but a very generous policy, when they
resolved to create, in favour of individuals, a perma-
nent property in the soil, as conducive at once to the
increase of its produce, and the happiness of the
people. They were under the influence of prejudices
in the mode of carrying their design into execution.
Full of the aristocratical ideas of modern Europe,
the aristocratical person now at the head of the
government, avowed his intention of establishing an
aristocracy, upon the European model ; and he was
well aware that the union, at home, of statesmen and
Directors, whom he obeyed, was under the influence
of similar propensities.

In agreement with the orders from home, the
resolution was, to form a settlement with the
Zemindars for the revenues of their several dis-
tricts ; to limit the settlement in the first instance,
to a term of ten years ; but to render it perma-
nent, if sanctioned by the authorities in England;
and to recognise the Zemindars as hereditary pro-
prietors of the soil, upon payment, as a land-
tax, not to be enhanced, of the sum at present
assessed.

To such a degree were the English, up to that
hour, unacquainted with the country, that the most
instructed among them differed prodigiously in esti-
mating the revenue which Bengal was competent to
yield. Some were of opinion that the existing rate
of assessment was heavier than the people could
bear. Others conceived that it was far below the

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

483

amount to which it might, with propriety, be raised. ^ 1

The government, after all its inquiries, had no better

foundation on which to place the magnificent struc- 1 789-
ture it intended to raise, than the amount of the
actual collections of preceding years ; upon the
average or medium of a few of which the assessment,
destined for perpetuity, was now arranged. The
authorities at home dissuaded, or rather forbade, an
actual measurement and valuation of the country ;
and made a remark which, in itself, does them
credit, whatever may be thought of its application to
the occasion on which it was produced: that an
assessment below what the country could bear, was
no detriment, in the long run, to the government
itself, because the riches of the people were the
riches of the state.

It was easy for the government to assume that the
Zemindars were proprietors of the soil under the
Mogul sceptre ; and it was easy to declare that they
should be so in future. But it was not easy to
reconcile these proceedings with the rights of other
classes of the people. Under the Mogul system,
there were various descriptions of persons, as Ta-
lookdars , Chowdries, Munduls , Mokuddims ,l who,
as well as the Zemindars, had hereditary claims upon
the produce of the soil ; and it was not the intention
of government to sacrifice to any class of its subjects
the interests of any other. But the interests of the
ryots, which were of many times the importance of

1 The three last were different designations of the same functionary —
head-men of villages or districts. The Taluk-dar was a holder of land
by different tenures — as grants from Government, from a Zemindar, by
purchase, inheritance, &c., but usually paying his land-tax to Government
direct. — W.

2 I 2

484

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi interests of all the other classes taken together,

whether the mass of individual happiness, or the

1/89- power of the state, be regarded as the end, were
by far the most difficult to bring into a state of
concordance with the rights which were thus to be
conferred upon the Zemindars.

The possessions of the ryots, either individually,
or by villages, were hereditary possessions. So long
as they continued to pay to government the due pro-
portion of the produce, they could not lawfully be
dispossessed. They not only transmitted their pos-
sessions by descent ; but had the power of alienation,
and could either sell them, or give them away.1 At

1 This statement is too comprehensive, and is therefore inexact ; and it
is of importance to correct the misuse of the term, as it leads to practical
errors. The ryot, as synonymous with the actual cultivator, is not neces-
sarily the proprietor of the soil. Proprietary right depends upon an indi-
vidual being a member of the family or corporation by which at some
indefinite period the village lands were held in common. In all parts of
India these persons are found in various relations to the soil. They may
cultivate their own share or shares, in which case alone they combine the
characters of proprietor and ryot. They may have let their land, and in
that case they may have let it to a ryot inhabiting the same village, or to
one inhabiting another village. They may have actually sold their land ;
in which case they cannot of course be considered as proprietors ; but they
still are to be regarded as members of the village community, and in that
capacity, as having avoice in the settlement of the revenue to be paid to the
state, the purchasers of their lands having no such corporate authority. For
it is clear, that the qualification of beinga member of the village proprietary,
a member of the commons house of the community, is not dependent npon
the land, but upon descent. The legislators of the commune are hereditary,
and they cannot transfer, by sale or appointment, their privileges, which
birth alone confers. They are the heirs of the first occupants and settlers
in their character of rulers — not of cultivators ; and this principle of orga-
nization chiefly illustrates the history of these establishments. They have
originated in conquest, or it may be termed colonization, but it has been
the forcible colonization of an occupied country, thinly occupied perhaps,
rudely cultivated no doubt, but there have been inhabitants who in some
instances may have been destroyed, but who in others w^ere reduced to a
state of serfage. The immigrants, more civilized and more powerful, have
partitioned the lands amongst distinct families or fraternities, who have

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

485

an early period of the Mogul history, a minute
survey had been made of the land ; upon that survey
an assessment had been founded, which had long
been regarded as the standard of what every field
was to pay ; even when new imposts, during the
progressive difficulties and corruption of the Mogul
administration, were superadded, the Zemindars
were bound to give written schedules, called pottahs,
to the ryots, specifying the particulars of the assess-
ment upon each individual; and these documents
were registered in the government accounts, and
intended for the protection of the ryot against the
extortion of the collector.

The means which, under the Mogul sceptre, were
provided for the security of the ryots, were very in-
adequate to their end. The Zemindars were enabled
to exercise universal oppression. Under the eye of a
humane and vigilant governor, they were occasionally
restrained, by the terror of summary punishment,
from the excesses of exaction. But, in general, they
took from the ryots every thing beyond what was

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1789.

held certain districts in common as proprietors and rulers. The members
of the families have subdivided the lands, but not the sovereignty. As
they multiplied, the lands were still more divided, or were disposed of to
meet the wants of the occupants ; but the authority over the whole could
not be communicated to persons of other birth and other castes, and the
hereditary right depending on birth was indefeasible, although after a long
period the possession of such right might be the only record of community
of origin. Now, although it is no doubt true that the principle of village
organization is very ancient, yet it is not necessary that all the instances
should pretend to high antiquity. The contrary is known to be the case,
and both Colonel Sykes and Mr. Thomason specify instances, where
within the last two or three centuries the village municipality has either
been exterminated or become extinct, and lands and powers have passed
to other associations. The organization, has, however, been preserved,
and is now intelligible. See Briggs, Sykes, Thomason, also Malcolm’s
Malwa, and Elphinstone’s Report on Poona. — W.

486

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 5,

1789.

1 necessary to preserve them in existence ; and every
- now and then desolated whole districts by the
weight of their oppressions. This was contrary to
the laws under which the Zemindar was appointed
to act. But to whom was the ignorant, the timid,
the credulous, the indigent ryot, to apply for re-
dress? His fears, and very often his experience,
taught him, that to suffer in patience was the
prudent course. The exactions of the Zemindars
were covered with so many ingenious contri-
vances, that they puzzled the wits of the simple
cultivator, and often eluded the eye of the govern-
ment itself.

If the aristocracy was provided for, it appears to
have been thought, as by English aristocrats it is
apt to be thought, that every thing else would pro-
vide for itself. The rules by which the payments of
the ryots were determined varied in various places ;
and so intricate did they appear to the Anglo-Indian
government, that no little trouble would be necessary
to make an assessment in detail. The ryots were,
therefore, handed over to the Zemindars in gross.
The Zemindars were empowered to make with their
ryots any settlements which they chose, under a
mere general recommendation to be guided by the
custom of the place. One security alone was thought
of for the ryot. Upon the terms on which the
Zemindar agreed to fix his payment, he was to give
him a pottah ; and according to the terms of that
pottah, his possession or estate was to be equally
permanent with that of the Zemindar.

When the principles of the decennial settlement
were finally resolved, and proclamation of the mea-

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

487.

sure was about to be made, a question arose,

whether notice, at the same time, should be given of

the intention to make the assessment and its rules un- 1/S9-
alterable, in case the authorities in England should
approve. Mr. Shore, though he was among the
leading patrons of the Zemindary system, opposed
such an intimation, as fraught with imprudence.

The Zemindars, he affirmed, were a set of people,
whose minds would be as powerfully governed by a
decennial, as a perpetual term. He insisted upon
the deficiency of the information under which the
matter had been arranged. He allowed that
enormous abuses existed in the mode of dealing of
the Zemindars toward the ryots ; abuses which no
sufficient expedients had been employed to correct.

And he desired that a door might be left open for
the introduction of such improvements as the ex-
perience of ten years might suggest.

The advantages which the imagination of the
Governor-General had painted, as likely to result
from the permanence of the settlement, had made so
deep an impression on his mind, that he opposed the
arguments of Mr. Shore ; persisted in his purpose of
proclaiming the design ; and declared his resolution
to use all his influence with the Court of Directors,
that they should not wait for the lapse of ten years,
but make the settlement perpetual without any loss
of time. The circumstance, from which he most
vehemently argued, was, the improvement which
certainty of enjoyment, he affirmed, would effect,
and which certainty of enjoyment alone could be
expected to effect, in the cultivation of the country.

“ I may safely,” said he, “ assert that one-third of

438

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bookv! the Company’s territory in Hindostan, is now a jun-

— gle, inhabited only by wild beasts. Will a ten years’

1/89- lease induce any proprietor to clear away that jungle,
and encourage the ryots to come and cultivate his
lands ? when, at the end of that lease, he must either
submit to be taxed, ad libitum, for his newly ac-
quired lands, or lose all hopes of deriving any benefit
for his labour. — I must own, that it is clear to my
mind, that a much more advantageous tenure will be
necessary, to incite the inhabitants of this country to
make those exertions which can alone effect any sub-
stantial improvement.”1

The authorities which constituted the Indian
government made it their profession, and their boast,
that they were not directed by “ abstract theories,
drawn from other countries, and applicable to a dif-
ferent state of things;”2 and the fact was, that
almost every step which they took was the result of
an “ abstract theory,” commonly drawn from some-
thing in their own country, and either misdrawn or
misapplied. The abstract theory now acted upon by
the Governor-General ; namely, that the highest
improvements in the cultivation of the land can be
expected from none but the proprietors of the land ;
was just only in one, and that a restricted, point of
view. But though it were proprietors alone that
had sufficient motives for the highest efforts in culti-
vation, the Governor-General, and his ministerial and
directorial masters, who concurred with him, ought
to have reflected, that there are sorts of proprietors ;

1 Governor-General’s Minute, 18th Sept. 1789, Fifth Report, ut supra,
p. 472.

5 Vide supra, p. 459.

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms. 489

and that it is not from every sort, that any improve- J1

ment whatsoever, or any attempt towards improve-

ment, is to be expected. They might have reflected, 1789-
for how many centuries the soil of Poland has been
private property, or the soil of Russia, and how
little, in those countries, of any thing like improve-
ment, has yet taken place. They might have
recollected, that the nobles even of France, where
knowledge was so far advanced, had for many
centuries before the revolution enjoyed the property
of the soil of France ; and that the agriculture of
France still continued in the most deplorable con-
dition.1 There are three sets of circumstances,
whose operation, where it is felt, prevents the im-
provement of the soil at the hands of its proprietors :
first, ignorance; secondly, possessions too large;
and thirdly, too much power over the immediate
cultivators. The last is by far the most important
circumstance ; because men, with very few excep-
tions, as education and government have hitherto
moulded their minds, are more forcibly drawn by the
love of absolute power, than by that of money, and
have a greater pleasure in the prostrate subjection of
their tenants than the increase of their rents. When
our countrymen draw theories from England, it
would be good if they understood England. It is not
because in England we have a landed aristocracy,
that our agriculture has improved, but because the
laws of England afford to the cultivator protection
against his lord. It is the immediate cultivators who
have increased so wonderfully the produce of the

See a good book, Travels in France by Arthur Young, Esq., passim.

490

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book J i land in England, not only without assistance from

the proprietors, hut often in spite of them. The

i/89. proprietors of the land in England even to this hour,
exhibit one of the strongest proofs which can be
adduced, of the ascendency which is exercised by
the love of domination over the love of improvement
and of wealth. No principle is more thoroughly
established, and indeed more universally admitted,
than that the grant of leases, and leases of a long
duration, to the immediate cultivators of the soil, are
essential to all spirited and large improvement. But
the proprietors of the soil in England complain, that
leases render their tenantry too independent of them ;
and the greater proportion of the land of England is
cultivated on tenure at will. If the gentlemen of
England will sacrifice improvement to the petty
portion of arbitrary power which the laws of England
allow them to exercise over tenants at will ; what
must we not expect from the Zemindars of Hin-
dustan, with minds nurtured to habits of oppression,
when it is referred to themselves whether they shall,
or shall not, have power over the miserable ryots, to
whom the law is too imperfect to yield any protec-
tion ? It is the interest of permanent governments to
promote the prosperity of their people, because the
prosperity of the people is the prosperity of govern-
ment. But the prosperity of the people depends
entirely upon their freedom. What governments, on
this account, have ever promoted freedom? The
propensity of the Zemindars was to regard themselves
as petty sovereigns.

The effect of ignorance , with respect to improve-
ment, is too obvious to require illustration. But it

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

491

may be remarked, that it operates with peculiar effi- book vi

cacy in augmenting the force of the most powerful of

the causes by which the proprietors of land are made 1789.
to prevent improvement. The love of domination
has always the greatest sway in the most ignorant
state of the human mind.

The effect of large possessions in preventing those
efforts and sacrifices, on which improvement depends,
deserved of the Indian legislators profound consider-
ation. It cannot escape the feeblest powers of reflec-
tion, that the man, who already enjoys a vast accu-
mulation of wealth, must regard, with comparative in-
difference, small acquisitions ; and that the prospect
of increasing his great revenue, by slowly adding the
painful results of improvement, cannot operate very
powerfully upon his mind. It is the man of small
possessions who feels most sensibly the benefit of
petty accessions ; and is stimulated the most power-
fully to use the means of procuring them. It is on
the immediate cultivator, when the benefit of his
improvements is allowed to devolve in full upon
himself, that the motives to improvement operate
with the greatest effect. That benefit, however,
cannot devolve upon him in full, unless he is the
proprietor as well as the cultivator of his fields ; and
hence, in part, the backwardness of agriculture in
some of the most civilized portions of the globe.

There was an opportunity in India, to which the
history of the world presents not a parallel. Next,
after the sovereign, the immediate cultivators had, by
far, the greatest portion of interest in the soil : For
the rights (such as they were) of the Zemindars, a
complete compensation might have easily been made:

492

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 5.

1789.

i The generous resolution was adopted of sacrificing to
_ the improvement of the country, the proprietary
rights of the sovereign : The motives to improvement
which property gives, and of which the power was
so justly appreciated, might have been bestowed upon
those upon whom they would have operated with a
force incomparably greater than that with which they
could operate upon any other class of men ; they might
have been bestowed upon those from whom alone, in
every country, the principal improvements in agricul-
ture must be derived, the immediate cultivators of
the soil : And a measure, worthy to be ranked among
the noblest that ever were taken for the improve-
ment of any country, might have helped to compen-
sate the people of India, for the miseries of that
misgovernment which they had so long endured. —
But the legislators were English aristocrats ; and
aristocratical prejudices prevailed.1

Instructions for the settlement were issued in
Bengal towards the end of 1789, and for the province

1 This imputation, which has repeatedly occurred in the foregoing pages,
is wholly unsupported by any thing but the author’s anti-aristocratic
opinions. The settlement was not made with the Zemindars with any
purpose of creating an aristocracy, but in the honest, though in some
respects a mistaken belief, that the Zemindars were the proprietors of the
soil. What says the Fifth Report — “ The first point proposed in the
interrogatories circulated by Government, was intended to determine the
person with whom the settlement should be made, and here no difficulty
occurred, for whatever might be the difference of opinion amongst those
who were officially consulted on the theoretical question of proprietary
right in the soil, a general concurrence prevailed in favour of the settle-
ment being made with the Zemindars.” Lord Cornwallis, therefore,
listened not to his aristocratical prejudices, but to the general concurrence
of the opinions of those who were best likely to be accurately informed on
the subject— the servants of the Company. It would have argued extreme
folly and presumption, had he set any private opinion of his own in oppo-
sition to their presumable knowledge and experience. — W.

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

493

of Bahar in the following year. A complete code of 1

regulations was promulgated for the new system in

November, 1791. And the land revenue realized in l'93-
that year from Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, together
with Benares, amounted to 3,02,54,563, sicca rupees,
or 3,509,530?. It was not, however, before the year
1793, that the decennial settlement was executed in
every district ; and that the completion of the measure
was announced. So perfectly did the ideas of the
government at home correspond with the ideas of the
Governor-General, that in the early part of that very
year, and before the plan was fully carried into exe-
cution, authority arrived in India for bestowing upon
it the intended permanence by immediate proclama-
tion.

Besides the land revenue, some other duties were
levied in India, which were all generally included
under the denomination of Sayer ; and consisted,
chiefly, of certain tolls upon the entry or transit of
goods, by land or water.1 These duties, also, the Ze-
mindars, in their capacity of collectors of the revenue,
had formerly had in charge. To the Anglo-Indian
government, however, it appeared, that the manage-
ment of the Sayer duties but ill accorded with the

1 The most general division of the sources of revenue in the Mogul
system of finance, is that of mal and sayer , the former term which literally
signifies wealth or treasure, is used to denote the 'permanent revenue
arising from land or other tenements and funds of a fixed durable nature ;
the second title, which imports fluctuation and change, comprehending the
variable revenue of every description, from customs on exports and im-
ports, internal duties on the transportation and sale of grain and all kinds of
merchandise, professional taxes, and other imposts upon persons and pro-
perty. The proportion of the sayer to the whole revenue was found, when
the collection was separated in 1789-90, to he not more than 4 per cent.
Harington’s Analysis, ii. Gl. Note. — W.

494

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1793.

character of a great landed aristocracy, now imparted,
or supposed to be imparted, to the Zemindars. In-
vention was taxed for the discovery of another plan,
by which these duties might be collected. Upon
inquiry it appeared, that the difficulties of the busi-
ness would be very great. The value, too, of the
Sayer duties had never yet been very considerable.
It was certainly the easiest, and was finally deter-
mined to be the best expedient, to abolish them.
The tax on spirituous liquors, from moral rather than
fiscal motives, was alone reserved.

The taxes of Bengal were thus included, with
hardly any exception, in one grand impost, that upon
the land. The government, however, added to its
income, by the resource of monopoly. There are
but two articles of luxury, of which there is any con-
siderable consumption in India ; salt, and opium.
Under the native governments, the monopoly of salt
had usually been sold. It has been already stated in
what manner the servants of the company endea-
voured, at an early period of its territorial history, to
appropriate the benefits of this monopoly ; and at
what period the Company itself thought proper to
become the monopolist. From the period of the as-
sumption of the monopoly till the year 1780, it had
been usual to dispose of the manufactories in farm,
on leases of five years. In that year Mr. Hastings
abolished the system of farming, and placed the
manufacture of salt in the hands of government.
Servants of the Company were appointed to conduct
the business, in the capacity of agents: and the price
was annually fixed by the Governor-General in
Council. With this arrangement Lord Conwallis

lord Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

495

no further interfered than by an alteration in the mode bookvi

of sale, and some rules to protect the workmen. In-

stead of fixing a price, the commodity was to be sold 1/93-
in small lots by public auction. And as cruelties
were practised upon the salt-makers, in confining
them to the salt-works, while they were subject to
fraud on the part of the natives employed as sub-
ordinate agents, certain measures were taken for the
prevention of those evils.1 The salt monopoly pro-
duced, at the commencement of the present adminis-
tration, the sum of 40,00,500 sicca rupees, or
464, 060/. It had been gradually worked up to the

rate of 1 ,360,180/, the sum which it produced on the
average of three years preceding 1810.2 How much
of this arose from increased consumption ; how much
from the severity of augmented price, will appear
hereafter.

The monopoly of opium, like that of salt, the
Mogul government uniformly sold. In this branch
of business, the Company’s government did not
depart from the practice of its predecessors. The
contract was disposed of by private bargain and
special favour till the year 1785 ; when it was
exposed to public competition, and consigned to the

1 A practice prevailed, unauthorized by legislation, but sanctioned by pre-
scription, of compelling certain families in the salt districts to engage in the
manufacture at lower terms than those granted to free labourers. This practice
was abolished by a Regulation of the Government in 1788 : the first clause
of which enacts — “ That it be a fixed principle in the conduct of the busi-
ness of the manufacture of salt, that in future no compulsion, on any plea
whatever, shall be used to make manufacturers work, except in conse-
quence of a previous engagement, but that their services shall be entirely
voluntary.” — W.

2 This is somewhat indistinctly stated. The net average amount of the
salt sales for the three years following the adoption of Hastings’s agency
system in 1780, was 464, 060/., from 1783 to 1786, the three preceding the
arrival of Lord Cornwallis, it was 522,450/. In 1836-7, the gross amount
was Rupees 1,40,66,1 19, or about 1,400,000/.

498

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BrnAiK 5 1 highest bidder. Regulations were at the same time

made for protecting the ryots from the compulsion,

i/93. which ^ had been usual to exercise upon them, to
cultivate this article at the contractor’s price. It
was the interest of government, when government
became the monopolist, to pay to the ryot, as grower,
the lowest possible price. To effect this object, a
rate was declared, at which the ryot was compelled
to furnish the commodity. Lord Cornwallis com-
plained, that the regulations which had been formed
to mitigate the effects of this oppressive system,
were by no means adequate to their end ; and he
added, or substituted, others, of which the beneficial
effects were not much superior. One peculiarity it
is useful to remark. When the East India Company
became the sovereign, it was not only the seller of
the monopoly, but it was the principal buyer, too,
from its own contractor. As the government fixed
the price, at which the contractor was to pay for the
opium to the grower; so it fixed the price, at which
the contractor was to sell it to the Company. The
price at which the Company bound the contractor to
furnish it with opium, was less than the price at which
it bound him to pay for it to the grower. “ Though
the result,” say the Select Committee of the House
of Commons, in 1810, “ will sufficiently demonstrate
the erroneous tendency of these contracts, yet the
mistakes committed in them wrere not discovered
soon.”1 They were not seen by Lord Cornwallis.2
He continued the system.

1 Fifth Report, p. 25.

s It would be more remarkable if they had not been seen by the con-
tractor. There is some fallacy in the Committee’s view of the trans-
action.— W.

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

497

Beside the changes in the financial, Lord Corn-BOOKyI

° .... CHAP. 5.

wallis meditated important changes in the judicial .

department of government. For that part of the 1793-
judicial business which regards the civil, as distinct
from the penal branch of law, the rulers in England,
free, as they boasted, from the influence of “ abstract
theories,”1 made, by their orders of 1786, a combi-
nation of the business of judicature with the business
of finance : a mixture of the character of a tax-
gatherer with that of the judge. In each district,
the same man was collector of the revenue, judge of
the Dewannee Adaulut, and moreover head of the
police. Of two such offices as those of collector and
judge, lodged in the same hands, it was notorious
that the one had a very strong tendency to produce a
sacrifice of the duties of the other. As a security
against that great and glaring evil, the rulers of 1786
prescribed, that the proceedings of the collectors in
their financial department, and in their judicial and
magisterial departments, should be kept separate and
distinct. Upon experience, Lord Cornwallis did not
think that this grand expedient was altogether ade-
quate to the end which it was contrived and provided
to secure. In a minute, dated the 11th of February,

1793, 2 he stated, that, under this system, the protec-
tion of the natives depended solely upon the character
of the individual who was sent to govern them.

Where the collector was a man of humanity and jus-

1 It may be remarked with pleasure, as a sign of progressive im-
provement, that the Select Committee in 1S10, have twice, in their Fifth
Report, held forth this boast about abstract theories, as an object of
contempt.

2 Appendix No. 9 (A) to Second Report of Select Committee, 1810.

2 K

VOL. V.

498

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V
CHAP. 5.

1793.

1 tice, the people, as under the worst government on
_ earth, would no doubt be protected. But as often as
it should happen that the collector was a man of ano-
ther character, the people were exposed to the greatest
injustice. If the collector was oppressive, he himself
was his own judge. If he decided iniquitously,
where lay the appeal? To another class of revenue
officers, whose feelings could not be regarded as im-
partial ; to the Board of Revenue, as SudderDewannee
Adaulut ; a tribunal at such a distance that few indeed
of the natives could endure the expense of an appeal.
It was therefore resolved that the financial and judi-
cial functions should be disjoined ; and the following
reasons for that important measure were published to
the country : “ That while the collectors of the reve-
nue preside in the courts of Mhal Adaulut as judges,
and an appeal lies from their decisions to the Board
of Revenue, and from the decrees of that Board to
the Governor- General in Council in the revenue de-
partment ; the proprietors can never consider the pri-
vileges which have been conferred upon them as
secure; That exclusive of the objections arising to
these courts, from their irregular, summary, and often
exparte proceedings, and from the collectors being
obliged to suspend the exercise of their judicial func-
tions whenever they interfere with their financial
duties ; it is obvious that, if the regulations for assess-
ing and collecting the public revenue are infringed,
the revenue officers themselves must be the aggres-
sors ; and that individuals who have been aggrieved
by them in one capacity can never hope to obtain
redress from them in another : That their financial
occupations equally disqualify them from administer-

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

499

ing the laws between the proprietors of land and their
tenants : That other security must, therefore, be
given to landed property, and to the rights attached
to it, before the desired improvements in agriculture
can be expected to be effected.”1 2

With a view to improve upon this plan of adminis-
tering justice, Lord Cornwallis devised and established
the following scheme. In each district, that is, in
the language of the country, each Zillah, and in each
of the considerable towns or cities, a Zillah, or city,
court, was established. One of the Company’s ser-
vants, higher in rank than the collector, was the
judge. To this judge was appointed a registrar, and
one or more assistants from among the junior servants
of the Company. Each court was provided with a
native, duly qualified to expound the Hindu or Mo-
hammedan law, in cases which turned upon any of
these several codes. And all descriptions of persons
within the local administration of the tribunal, except
British subjects amenable to the Supreme Court,
were rendered subject to its jurisdiction.

To obviate the danger of arrears in decision, from
the arrival of too many causes to decide, the judge
was authorized to refer to his registrar, under an
appeal to himself, all suits in which the litigated pro-
perty was not of considerable amount. The jurisdic-
tion of the registrar was extended at first to 200 rupees,
and afterwards even to sums of a higher amount. F or
determining, in suits regarding personal property,
from the value of 50 rupees downwards, native com-
missioners were appointed ; and of these tribunals

1 Preamble to Regulation II. of 1793.

2 K 2

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1793.

500

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

j^1 several, at convenient distances, were established in
— every Zillah, They were allowed no salary or esta-
blishment, but received as remuneration a fee of one
ana per rupee, or a commission of somewhat more
than six per cent, upon all sums litigated before them.
They acted the part of arbitrators ; and their mode
of procedure was summary, that of simple rational
inquiry, not distorted into a labyrinth, by technical
forms. From their decision an appeal might be car-
ried to the Zillah Court. And upon these appeals,
as well as those from the jurisdiction of the registrar,
the decision of the Zillah Court was final, excepting
in one set of cases; namely, those regarding the
species of property called in English law real pro-
perty, and of those cases in only that part in which
the decision of the inferior court was reversed.

Such was the establishment for primary jurisdic-
tion, or decision in the first instance in the civil de-
partment of judicature. A new provision was also
devised for the second and ultimate decision, in case
of appeal. The Board of Revenue, or the Governor-
General in Council, had previously exercised the
powers of appellate jurisdiction. But to prevent the
inconvenience of their having too much to do, it had
been provided (as if unjust decisions on small sums
could never happen), that no appeal should be made
to them, unless the property in dispute amounted to
the value of 1000 sicca rupees. By experience it was
found, that among the indigent natives very few suits
arose for sums so large as 1000 rupees. From that
security for justice, therefore, which is constituted by
the power of appeal, the natives were, in point of fact,
almost wholly excluded : and, indeed, had the limits

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

501

of appeal been enlarged, the expense of repairing to b^kv!

Calcutta would in most cases have rendered the

exclusion equally complete. 1793-

Regarding this as an evil, Lord Cornwallis esta-
blished four tribunals of appeal : one in the vicinity
of Calcutta, one at the city of Patna, one at Dacca,
and a fourth at Moorshedabad. They were consti-
tuted in the following manner. Three judges, chosen
from the civil department of the Company’s service,
and distinguished by the appellations of first, second,
and third ; a registrar, with one or more assistants
from the junior branch of the European servants ;
and three expounders of the native law, a Cauzee,
a Mooftee, and a Pundit, formed the establishment of
each court. The privilege of appeal was still con-
fined to sums of a given though reduced amount ;
and by subsequent regulations a more humane and
rational policy was adopted, an appeal being allowed
from every primary decision of the Zillah Courts.

Even the appellate jurisdiction of the Zillah Courts
might be reviewed by this superior Court of appeal,
commonly known by the name of the Provincial
Court, in those cases in which it saw occasion to in-
terpose. It was also, in the exercise of its appellate
jurisdiction, empowered to take fresh evidence; or,
for the sake of receiving fresh evidence, to send back
the cause to the original court.

Another and higher, a third stage of jurisdiction,
was erected. A tribunal, entitled the Court of Sudder
Dewannee Adaulut, was still set up at Calcutta. It
was composed of the Governor-General, and the
members of the council, assisted by the Cauzy ul
Cauzaut, or head cauzy, two moofties, two pundits,

502

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

-OKV!a registrar and assistants. They received appeals

from the Provincial Courts, or courts of primary

1793- appeal; at first for sums of 1000 rupees. At this
amount, however, appeals were numerous : decision
on so many was laborious to the Governor-General
and Council. The number of appeals was, at any
rate, no proof of the want of need for the privilege of
appeal. What was the remedy? To raise the sum on
which appeal was admitted : that is, to deny the
privilege to the poorest class.1 By act 21 Geo. III.
c. 70, sect. 21, an appeal lay to the King in Council
for all sums exceeding 50,000 rupees.

Among the other prejudices of those who at this
time legislated in India with so much of good inten-
tion for the people of Hindustan, were the prejudices
which owe their birth to the interests, and hence to
the instructions of lawyers. Of these it is one of the
most remarkable, and the most mischievous, that to
render judicial proceedings intricate by the multipli-
cation of technical forms, by the rigid exaction of a
great number of nice, obscure, pedantic, and puzzling
rites and ceremonies, tends to further the ends of

' It may appear to be ludicrous ; but as a far better expedient than this,
I should very seriously recommend the determination of the matter by lot.
Suppose the Court can find time to decide upon twenty appeals in a
month, and that sixty arrive. By cutting off- the forty in which the
amount of property is least, you make it visible to the inferior judge in
what cases he may commit iniquity, free from that check which the
prospect of appeal imposes. Reject the forty by lot, and as the inferior
judge can never know, on which of his decisions the review of the Supe-
rior Court will attach, the check is, with some degree at least of efficiency,
spread over the whole of his decisions. At any rate the suitors are
treated impartially, and the interest of those with the small lots of pro-
perty is not sacrificed, as, according to all systems of law, that ever yet
have had any existence, it has been very generally sacrificed, to the
interest of those with the large.

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 503

justice. This unhappy instrument of justice was BC°°^5VI

not forgotten in the present reforms. For courts of

law, provided for a people, among whom justice had 1793-
always been distributed in the method of simple and
rational inquiry, was prescribed a course of pro-
cedure, loaded with minute formalities ; rendered
unintelligible, tedious, and expensive, by technical
devices. Of the intricacy and obscurity thus inten-
tionally created, one effect was immediately seen ;
that the candidates for justice could no longer plead
their own causes ; that no one could undertake to
present a cause to the mind of the judge according
to the nicety of the prescribed and intricate forms,
unless he belonged to a class of men who made it
their trade to remember and observe them. The
necessity of an establishment of hired advocates ; in
Indian phrase vakeels , a word of very general appli-
cation, meaning almost any man who is employed
on any occasion to, speak and act for another ; was
therefore acknowledged. A system of rules was
prescribed for the formation and government of a
body of native pleaders; to whom pay was provided
by a small retaining fee, and a per centage on the
amount of the litigated property. From this, one
inconvenience immediately flowed; an inconveni-
ence from which the establishment of mercenary
pleaders has never yet been freed, but which by this
regulation was carried up to its greatest height,
and there made secure from descent; that the
class of causes which is infinitely the most im-
portant of all, could not fail to be treated with
comparative neglect, and to sustain a proportionate
failure of justice.

504

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bc°H°pK5VI In one important particular, common sense and

pure intention guided the present ruler into the

H93. g004 path, wherein his successors, alas! had not
the wisdom to follow him. When the Company
abolished the clioute , or exaction for the judge of
twenty-five per cent, upon the value of the litigated
property, they established in lieu of it what was
called an institution fee, or a sum to be paid upon
the commencement of a suit. Any obstruction to
the demand for justice, Lord Cornwallis treated as
an evil ; and appears to have had some perception
more or less clear, of the important truth, that
where there is not cheap justice , in the great
majority of cases there is no justice. He abolished
the impost upon the commencement of a suit ; pro-
hibited all fees of court; and restricted the expense
of justice to the remuneration of the pleader, and
the necessary conveyance and maintenance of wit-
nesses. With regard to the judges, he emphati-
cally insisted upon their being paid entirely and
exclusively by salary, “ without receiving any kind
of perquisite whatever : ” 1 And he who under-
stands the injuries which justice has sustained and
yet continues to sustain, for the benefit of judges’
fees, will appreciate the gratitude which for this
determination, if for nothing else, he deserves from
mankind.

Such was the provision made by Lord Cornwallis
for the civil department of judicature : he was not
less deeply impressed with the necessity of substan-
tial reforms in the penal.

1 See his address to the Court of Directors, dated the 2nd of August,
1789, printed by order of the House of Commons, 8th of March, 1790.

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

505

In his address to the Court of Directors, under B00K y1

date the 17th of November, 1790, he said; “ Your

possessions in this country cannot be said to be well 1793-
governed, nor the lives and property of your subjects
to be secure, until the shocking abuses, and the
wretched administration of justice in the foujedarry
department can be corrected. Anxious as I have
been, to supply a speedy remedy to evils, so disgrace-
ful to government, so ruinous to commerce, and
indeed destructive to all civil society, it has still
appeared to me to be so important as to make it
necessary for me to act with great circumspection.

But I am so strongly incited by motives of huma-
nity, as well as of regard to the public interest, to
establish, as early as possible, an improved system
for the administration of criminal justice, that I shall
use every exertion in my power to effect it, before
my embarkation for Madras.”1

When the opinions, which Lord Cornwallis ex-
pressed of the different departments of the Indian
government, at the time when he undertook his

1 Letter from Lord Cornwallis to the Court of Directors, ordered to he
printed by the House of Commons, 16th May, 1791. He had, in a pre-
ceding letter, dated the 2nd of August, 1789, expressed himself in similar
language. “ The system for the administration of criminal justice has
long attracted my serious attention, and is, in my opinion, in a most excep-
tionable state. I feel myself called upon, by the principles of humanity,
and a regard for the honour and interest of the Company, not to leave this
government, without endeavouring to take measures to prevent, in future,
on one hand, the cruel punishments of mutilation, which are frequently
inflicted by the Mohammedan law, and on the other, to restrain the spirit
of corruption which so generally prevails in native courts, and by which
wealthy offenders are generally enabled to purchase impunity for the most
atrocious crimes. . . .1 conceive that all regulations for the reform of that
department would be nugatory, whilst the execution of them depends upon
any native whatever.” Ordered to be printed by the House of Commons,
8th March, 1790.

506

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book \ i reforms, are brought together, it would not be easy

to draw a stronger picture of a people suffering by

]/93- the vices of government. The administration of
justice through all its departments, in a state the
most pernicious and depraved; the public revenue
levied upon principles incompatible with the exist-
ence of private property ; the people sunk in poverty
and wretchedness ; more than one-third of the
country a desert, and the rest hastening to desolation :
Such is the picture on the one hand. Pictures of
an unexampled state of prosperity were, nevertheless,
held forth, at this very moment, by speeches in
parliament,1 * to the parliament, and the nation ; and
the flattering pictures, as they were the pictures
of the minister, governed the belief of parliament,
and through parliament that of the nation, wherein,
to most persons indeed, the facts constituting the
real state of the case were wholly unknown.

For criminal judicature or jail delivery, four
tribunals were erected. For judges on these

1 See The Parliamentary History, for the speeches on Indian affairs of
the ministers in general, more especially those of Mr. Henry Dundas, the
President of the Board of Control. — M. It may be doubted if the light

in which Lord Cornwallis’s picture is here represented is entirely correct.

It does not appear that he considered the administration of justice most
pernicious and depraved in all the departments. Although he speaks
strongly of the abuses in one department, that of the police, the reforms in
the administration of civil law were matters rather convenient than urgent.
It does not appear that private property was, in any degree, endangered by
the mode in which the revenues were collected ; and although there were
many tracts of waste land, there is no reason to believe that the whole was
hastening to desolation. That there were many defects in the constitution
of the government, was no doubt true — it is true at the present day; but it
is equally certain that the country was in a state of progressive improve-
ment, and that the statements made in Parliament were not wholly with-
out foundation — the revenue was permanently augmented, and the
commerce was greatly enlarged. — W.

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

507

tribunals, the judges of appeal in the four provincial
courts were appointed, with the same auxiliaries, in
the shape of registrar, assistants, and native officers,
as were appointed for them in the civil courts of
appeal. The business of penal judicature was to be
performed by circuit. The jail deliveries at the
four principal cities, the seats of the provincial
courts, were to be held every month; those in the
district of Calcutta four times, and those in the
remaining Zillahs of the country twice in the
year. According to the plan of Lord Cornwallis,
the judges of each of the four courts of appeal
formed two courts for the circuit: one, consisting of
the first judge, accompanied by the registrar and
Mooftee ; and one consisting of the two remaining
judges, attended by the second assistant and the
Cauzee.

While the judges of appeal were, in this manner,
employed, the courts of appeal were unavoidably
shut. The inconvenience of this was soon very
heavily felt. In 1794, it was ordained, that one of
the judges should remain to execute the business of
the civil court ; while the other two proceeded to
hold the penal courts by circuit. By an unhappy
rule, however, of the civil court, requiring that two
judges should be present for decision upon appeals,
little relief was obtained by this measure. It was,
therefore, in 1797, directed that two of the judges
should remain for the business of the civil appeal
court, and that only one should be spared for the
business of the penal circuit.

Beside the courts of circuit, the utility was still
recognised of a superior criminal tribunal at the

BOOK VI
CHAP. 5.

1793.

508

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

5 1 seat of government. As in the case of the Sudder

• Dewnnee Adaulut, it was composed of the Governor-

1/93‘ General and the Members of the Supreme Council,
assisted by the head Cauzee and two Mooftees.
Nizamut Adaulut, in the language of the country,
was the name, by which this high criminal court
was distinguished.

In the performance of the great penal branch of
the judicial duties, the judges of circuit, periodically,
repair to the places which are the seats of the Zillah
courts, and remain till they have gone through the
calendar ; in other words have investigated every
charge which is contained in the list of charges
presented to them, upon their arrival. The accu-
sation, with its evidence ; the defence with its
evidence, or the confession of the prisoner when he
happens to confess, are heard before the judge, and
recorded in writing. The Cauzee, or Mooftee, who
has witnessed the proceedings, is then required to
write at the bottom of the record the sentence which
is required by the Moslem law, and to attest it with
his signature and seal. With this decision it is
optional in the judge to concur or to disagree. If he
disagree, the case is referred to the Nizamut Adaulut ;
and in all cases inferring the higher degrees of
punishment, the sentence of the itinerant court is
not executed, till confirmed by that presiding tri-
bunal. A copy of the record, with every material
paper delivered into court, is transmitted with all
convenient despatch to the Nizamut Adaulut, accom-
panied by a letter stating the opinion of the judge on
the evidence adduced.

The judges are required, on their return from the

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

509

circuit, to make a report, containing an account of 1

every thing which has appeared to them to be wor-

thy of the notice of government, in the perfections or l'93-
imperfections of the law; in the condition of the
jails ; in the management of the prisoners ; and even
in the moral and physical condition of the people. It
is always a favourable sign of a government to pro-
vide for its own information respecting the error of
its own proceedings, and the means of carrying on to
perfection what is yet mingled with defect. To re-
quire periodical reports from the judges, for the pur-
pose of making known the evils which remained
without a remedy, is a measure deserving no com-
mon tribute of applause. Were a similar operation
carried over the whole field of government, and made
sufficiently faithful and searching, the melioration
of governments, and with it the happiness of the
human race, would proceed with an accelerated
pace. One consideration, however, which it is of
great importance to hold constantly in view, has been
well suggested on this very occasion by the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons, appointed to report
on the affairs of India in 1810. ‘f It is hardly,” they
say, “ to he supposed that public servants, in such a
case, would lean to the unfavourable side ; or, without
sufficient foundation, transmit accounts which would
prove disagreeable to the governed to receive. A
communication of this nature might be rather sus-
pected of painting things in colours pleasing to the
government, with the view of bringing the writer
into favourable notice.”1 It is a matter of experi-

1 Fifth Report, p. 65.

510

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bch?i\ 5 / ence? that this propensity, in general, is uncommonly

strong. A wise government therefore would always

1/9,?- take, with very considerable allowance, the flattering
picture presented in the reports it might receive ;
but in the language of the same Committee, “Would
regard them as worthy of particular consideration, as
often as defects are stated to exist, and evils are re-
presented to prevail.”1 How opposite the ordinary
conduct of governments, how effectual the measures
which they take to hear no accounts but flattering
ones, to discountenance and deter the suggestion of
defects, the world is too old to need to be informed.

Such was the apparatus provided by Lord Corn-
wallis for the administration of law. A correspon-
dent consideration ought to have been, what was
the law which through this machinery was to be ad-
ministered.

When rights are considered as already established,
the object of a body of law is to define and secure
them. Among the people of India rights to a great
extent were already established; and there were
two systems of law which respected them. It was
an important question to what degree those systems
were calculated to answer the purposes of law ; that
is, to mark out, by clear, precise, and unambiguous
definitions, what were rights, and what the viola-
tions of them. It was a very lame and defective
provision for the distribution of justice, to appoint
a number of persons for the administration of
law, if there was no law, or no tolerably good
law, for them to administer. The standards of

1 Fifth Report, p. G5.

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

511

Hindu and Moslem law, by which, respectively, the 1

rights of the Hindu and Mohammedan population —
were to be governed, were their sacred books : the
Shasters and the Khoran. These were just about as
well calculated for defining the rights of the people
of England.1 There was, by consequence, in India,
nothing which in reality deserved the name of law.

Its place was supplied by the opinions of the Pundits
and Cauzees, which were liable to all the fluctua-
tions, which diversity of thoughts, and the operation of
interest, were calculated to produce. Every thing was
vague, every thing uncertain, and, by consequence,
every thing arbitrary. The few points which could
be regarded as in any degree determinate and fixed,
covered a very small portion of the field of law. In
all the rest, the judges and interpreters were at
liberty to do what they pleased ; that is, to gratify
their own interests and passions, at the expense of
the candidates for justice, to as great a degree, as
the ignorance or negligence of the ruling power
would permit. With the law, in such a condition
as this, it is evident, that any thing like a tolerable
administration of justice was altogether impossible.

The first thing, therefore, first in point both of order
and importance, was, to have prepared a set of exact
definitions comprehending rights, and those viola-

1 The errors of our author upon these subjects have been already pointed
out. The standards of Hindu and Mohammedan law are, in a very
restricted acceptation, their sacred books. The word Shaster is of very
wide and vague signification, and, as here employed, has no meaning at
all. The social institutions of the Hindus are based upon the Vedas, but
their laws are laid down in a variety of works written upon the subject.
In like manner the standards of Mohammedan law are numerous and
comprehensive, and are very slightly dependent upon the Koran. — W.

512

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

J1 ^ons °f them which it is the business of law to pro-
■ — ~3_ hibit ; in other words, it was proper to have drawn
up a clear and unambiguous digest of law, in both its
departments ; the prohibitive or penal, as well as the
creative or civil. The thought of rendering this
great service to justice and to human nature, seems
never to have visited the mind of the Governor-
General and his advisers. To this day, it has
hardly visited the mind of any Indian ruler ; though
to provide an expensive machinery of judges and
courts without a body of law, is in point of reason
as great an absurdity, as to provide an expensive
apparatus of cooks and kitchen utensils, without
any victuals to cook. Is it a wonder, that the
administration of justice in India should still be a
disgrace to a government conducted by a civilized
people ? 1

1 The justice of this accusation may be reasonably questioned, and although
like every thing human, the administration of the law in India may be
imperfect, yet that it is not so disgracefully defective as is here intimated
is proved by the general prevalence of order and tranquillity in the Com-
pany’s territories, by the low ratio of crime, and by the universal feeling of
security to both life and property, which prevails amongst the people.
That the government should have opened its legislative career with defi-
nitions and a digest, is to expect that a man should become an adept in a
science before he has mastered its rudiments. The lesson was to be
learned : to have waited until it was learned, without taking any steps to
acquire it, was a sure way never to learn it at all. To legislate without
knowledge may be an innocent amusement for a philosopher, but it is a
dangerous practice for a government. Experience must be gained, even at
the cost of imperfection and error in the process of making the acquisition,
before the circumstances and relations indispensable to accurate definitions
and unambiguous digests can be known or provided for. It may be
doubted, even in the present day, if India is ripe for a code of laws,
although the attempt has been instituted — a code stands still — society
does not; and the condition of British India has been, for the best
part of a century, and will be, for a still longer period, in perpetual
motion. — W.

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

513

The irrational notion appears to have established B00KVI

. CHAP. O.

itself in the minds of most Englishmen, that courts,

or tribunals, are also law ; and that when you have 1793-
established tribunals, you have not merely provided
an instrument for the administration of law, if any
law exists; but have provided law itself. Nothing,
it must be owned, was ever better calculated for
generating so absurd an opinion, than the state of
the law in England, and the efforts of English
lawyers, whose interests it eminently promotes.

In England, extraordinary as it may sound, the
courts have been at once tribunals, and law. In
England, as in India, the courts were originally set
up without law. What they did was to make law
for themselves. In that deplorable condition the
business of law in England remains. The greater
part of the rights of Englishmen depend upon
nothing better than unwritten, undefined law, gene-
rally denominated common law ; that is, any thing
which the judges choose to call law, under no other
restrictions than certain notions, to a great degree
arbitrary, of what has been done by other judges
before them. Englishmen in general have no con-
ception of the extent to which they lie under a des-
potic power in the hands of the judges ; and how
deeply it concerns them to see that despotic power
taken away.

It is remarkable, notwithstanding this, that Lord
Cornwallis has expressed very strongly, both by
words and example, the great utility, or rather abso-
lute necessity, if the ends of justice are the ends in
view, that every law should be fixed, by written,
permanent expressions ; and, what is more, that it

2 l

vol. v.

514

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOKV! should be accompanied by the reasons upon which it

is grounded. In the preamble to one of his enact-

1793- ments, he said ; “ It is essential to the future pro-
sperity of the British in Bengal, That all regulations
which may be passed by government, affecting, in
any respect, the rights, persons, or property of
their subjects, should be formed into a regular code;
and printed, with translations in the country lan-
guages : That the grounds on which each regulation
may be enacted, should be prefixed to it: And
that the courts of justice should be bound to regu-
late their decisions by the rules and ordinances
which those regulations may contain.” If all this
is of so much importance, in the case of regulations
for only the modes of administering law ; what must
it not be for the matter of law itself ? And w hat is
to be thought of the state of legislation in India, and
in Great Britain, the people of both of which are
still deprived of such an advantage, “ essential to
their prosperity?” — “A code of regulations,” con-
tinues the preamble, “ framed upon the above prin-
ciples, would enable individuals to render them-
selves acquainted with the laws, and the mode of
obtaining speedy redress against every infringement
of them : The courts of justice would be able to
apply the regulations, according to their true intent:
Future administrations would have the means of
judging how far the regulations had been produc-
tive of the desired effect, and, when necessary, of
altering them, as experience might direct : And the
causes of future prosperity or decline wTould always
be traceable in the code to their source.”1 The gra-

' Preamble to Regulations xli. of 1793.

lord Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

515

titude of mankind is due to a government, which, } 1

thus solemnly, promulgated to the world the bene

ficent creed ; That it is only by a code, that is, laws 1/<J3-
existing in a given form of words, that the people
can know the laws, or receive protection from them :

That it is only by means of a code, that courts of
justice will apply the laws according to their true
intent: That the defects of all ordinances of law
ought to be experimentally traced; and corrected
whensoever known : And that the causes of the de-
cline or prosperity of nations may always be found,
as at their source, in the state of the laws. Opi-
nions more important to the interests of human beings
never issued from human lips.

By the reforms of Lord Cornwallis, however, almost
wholly confined to the instruments of judicature, no
alterations were made in the state of the law, except
that the mutilations, and some other cruelties in the
native modes of punishing were abolished, and certain
modes, very liable to abuse, of enforcing payment of
debt, were forbidden ; no coercion for the recovery of
debt, even in the case of the revenue, being allowed,
except through the medium of the courts of law.

Beside the dispensation of justice, in deciding upon
rights, and in punishing wrongs, the protection of
society requires that provision, as effectual as pos-
sible, should be made, for preventing evil ; for check-
ing crimes, in the act of commission ; and for ensuring
the persons of offenders for justice. The system of
operations and powers, destined for the performance
of these services, goes, in the languages of modern
Europe, by the unappropriate name of police.

The native system of police, the powers of which,

2 l 2

516

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book ^ i in arbitrary exercise, were confided to the Zemindars

■ with their armed followers, in the country ; and to a

1/93- set of officers, called Cutwals, with armed followers,
in cities; was abolished. From both these sets of
officers all powers were taken away. Instead of the
previous expedients, the judges of the Zillah courts
were vested, in quality of magistrates, with powers of
apprehending and examining all offenders. On slight
offences, importing a trivial punishment, they might
pass and execute sentence : in other cases, it was
their business to secure the supposed delinquent for
trial in the court of circuit, and that, either by com-
mitting, or holding him to hail, as the gravity of
the case might seem to require. Each Zillah was
divided into districts of ten coss, or twenty miles
square ; and in each of these districts the judge was
to establish a darogah, or constable, with a train of
armed men, selected by himself. The darogah was
empowered to apprehend on a written charge, and to
take security, in the case of a bailable offence, for
appearance before the magistrate. The cities of
Dacca, Patna, and Moorshedabad were divided into
wards, each of which was guarded by a darogah and
his party, all under the ultimate superintendence of
the magistrate, but subject immediately to the ma-
nagement of a head darogah of the city, who received
the old name of Cutwal, and to whom the regulation
of the market was consigned.

The magistrate was commanded to present to the
Nizamut Adaulut, a report, at the end of every
month, embracing the following particulars : 1 . Per-
sons apprehended, with name, date of charge, order
for punishment, commitment for trial, release; 2.

REFORMS RELATING TO THE POLICE. oi/

Casualties in regard to prisoners, by death, and re- J1
movals : 3. Sentences in the court of circuit : 4. i7g3
Trials under reference to the Nizamut Adaulut: 5.
Sentences received from the Nizamut Adaulut :

Every six months he was to transmit to the same
authority a report of all convicts under confinement :

And by a subsequent regulation, he was every year
to present two additional reports ; one, of all cri-
minal cases depending before him ; and another, of
the material circumstances of all the robberies and
higher crimes, committed during the course of the
preceding year, within the Zillah to which he
belonged.1

CHAPTER VI.

Result of Lord Cornwallis'' s Financial and Judicial
Reforms.

Of the regulations, constituting this great revolu-
tion in the government of the Indian people, the
natural consequences were, within a few years, pretty
fully developed in practice ; and the present is perhaps
the occasion on which the instructive picture of them
can with most advantage be presented to view.

1 As authorities for the account of these institutions, see the Code of
Regulations, published in 1793, and the Fifth Report of the Committee on
Indian Affairs in 1810.

518

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

^ h ajK g 1 ^1C trespass upon chronological order, in the case of
events which scarcely fall into the ordinary channel
of narration, will be amply compensated by the
advantage of surveying, in immediate sequence,
institutions and their results.

According to the order in which the institutions
were considered, the consequences of the new system
of finance come first to be described. Its more imme-
diate object was, to establish a landed aristocracy in
the persons of the Zemindars. That project, what-
ever character may he thought to belong to it, has
completely failed.

In default of payment of their taxes on the part of
the Zemindars, the security reserved for government
was, to put up to sale as much of the land as would
suffice to discharge the arrears. The important
question, of judicature with a multitude of tech-
nical forms, or judicature without a multitude of
technical forms, was curiously illustrated on this
occasion. The government had established courts of
law, and appointed for them a numerous list of forms
through which it required much time to pass. In
their own case, however, it would, they perceived, be
highly desirable to obtain speedy justice. To obtain
speedy justice, they saw, it would be absolutely neces-
sary to be exempted from technical forms. To what
expedient then had they recourse ? To the abolition
of technical forms'? No, indeed! They made a par-
ticular exception of their own case. They enacted
that in all suits for rent or revenue, the courts should
proceed by summary process ; nay, further, that in
such suits the proceedings should be exempted from
those fees and expenses to Avhich other candidates for

result of Cornwallis's revenue reforms.

519

justice were appointed to submit. By a high and

conspicuous act, more expressive than words, they

declared that one thing was conducive, or rather 1793-
essential, to justice. They established, by their legis-
lative authority, the very reverse. On what conceiv-
able principle, was speedy and unexpensive justice
good for the government, and not good for the peo-
ple? From which of its imaginary evils was it
exempt in the case of the government, and not equally
so in the case of the people.

With how much inaccuracy and ignorance the
measure had been taken of the moral, intellectual,
and political state of the Zemindars, when it was
supposed that, by rendering them proprietors of the
land, under a fixed but heavy land-tax, provision
was made for their prosperity, for the improvement
of the country, and the happiness of the great body
of the people, experience early evinced.

The selling of the lands immediately began ; and
proceeded with a rapid pace. In the year 1796, the
land advertised for sale comprehended a rent-roll of
28,70,061 sicca rupees;1 which, according to the
total assessment, was nearly one-tenth of the whole
of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, in a single year.2 By
the progress of this operation, the whole class of the
ancient Zemindars, instead of being erected into an
aristocracy, was speedily destroyed. In 1802, Sir
Henry Strachey, in his answer to a list of inter-
rogatories which had been circulated to the judges,
asserted that “ an almost universal destruction” had
overtaken the Zemindars; and that if any survived,

Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 56.

• Vide sura total, supra, p. 493.

520

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 6.

1793.

they were, “ according to the notions of the Com-
pany’s servants, reduced to the same condition, and
placed at an equal distance from their masters, as
their lowest ryots.” 1

A cause which accelerated, but by no means pro-
duced, the ruin of the Zemindars (for the incompa-
tibility of their characters with the situation in
which they were placed, led infallibly to the same
result), was the delay which they experienced in
obtaining payment from the ryots. The government
had given to themselves the benefit of summary
process with regard to the Zemindars. But they left
the Zemindars to the tedious progress through all
the technical forms of the courts in extracting
payment from the ryots. Under the observance of
many tedious forms the decisions of the courts were
so slow, that in the space of two years the accumu-
lation of undecided causes threatened to arrest the
course of justice. In one district alone, that of
Burdwan, the suits pending before the judge ex-
ceeded thirty thousand ; and it appeared by compu-
tation upon the established pace of the court, that no
candidate for justice could expect to obtain a deci-
sion during the ordinary period of his life.

The collector of Burdwan stated the matter cor-
rectly, in reporting to government the following com-
plaint of the Raja; who “ submits it,” he says, “ to
your consideration, whether or no it can be possible
for him to discharge his engagements to government,
with that punctuality which the regulations require,
unless he be armed with powers, as prompt to

' Answer to Interrogatories, parag. 7, in the Fifth Report, ut supra,
p. 537.

result of Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

521

enforce payment from his renters, as government had J1

been pleased to authorize the use of, in regard to its

claims on him: and he seems to think it must have 1793-
proceeded from an oversight, rather than from any
just and avowed principle, that there should have been
established two modes of judicial process, under the
same government ; the one, summary, and efficient,
for the satisfaction of its own claims; the other,
tardy, and uncertain, in regard to the satisfaction of
the claims due to its subjects ; more especially in a
case like the present, where ability to discharge the
one demand necessarily depends on the other demand
being previously realized.” 1

The effects of this system upon the minds, as well
as upon the condition of the Zemindars, cannot he
doubtful. In answer to an inquiry of government
in 1802, the collector of Midnapore said ; “ All the
Zemindars with whom I have ever had any commu-
nication in this, and in other districts, have hut one
sentiment, respecting the rules at present in force for
the collection of the public revenue. They all say,
that such a harsh and oppressive system was never
before resorted to in this country; that the custom
of imprisoning landholders for arrears of revenue,
was, in comparison, mild and indulgent to them :
that, though it was no doubt the intention of govern-
ment to confer an important benefit on them by
abolishing this custom, it has been found, by melan-
choly experience, that the system of sales and
attachments, which has been substituted for it, has,

1 Letter from the Collector of Burdwan to the Board of Revenue,
dated 9th January, 1794 ; Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 59, and App.

No. 8.

522

BOOK

CHAP.

1793.

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

g 1 in the course of a very few years, reduced most
— . of the great Zemindars in Bengal to distress and
beggary ; and produced a greater change in the
landed property of Bengal, than has, perhaps, ever
happened in the same space of time, in any age
or country, by the mere effect of internal regu-
lations.”1

“ The great men formerly,” says Sir Henry
Strachey, “ were the Mussulman rulers, whose
places we have taken, and the Hindu Zemindars.
These two classes are now ruined and destroyed.”2
We have thus seen the effects of the new system
upon the Zemindars. Let us next endeavour to
trace its effects upon a much more important class
of men, the ryots. Unfortunately, for this more
interesting part of the inquiry, we have much more
scanty materials. In the documents which have
been exhibited, the situation of the ryots is in a great
measure overlooked. And it is from incidental
circumstances, and collateral confessions, that we are
enabled to form a judgment of their condition.
This result itself is, perhaps, a ground for a pretty
decisive inference ; for if the situation of the ryots
had been prosperous, we should have had it cele-
brated, in the loftiest terms, as a decisive proof,
which surely it would have been, of the wisdom and
virtues of our Indian government.

When it was urged upon Lord Cornwallis, by Mr.
Shore, and others, that the ryots were left in a great
measure at the mercy of the Zemindars, who had
always been oppressors, he replied, that the perma-

1 Fifth Report, p. 60.

5 Answer to Interrogatories, 30lh Jan. 1802, Ibid. p. 536.

result of Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

523

nency of the landed property would cure all those book ^ J

defects ; because, “ where the landlord has a perma-

nent property in the soil, it will be worth his while 1793-
to encourage his tenants, who hold his farm in lease,
to improve that property.” It has already been
shown how inapplicable this reasoning was to the
case which it regarded. It now appears that the
permanency, from which Lord Cornwallis so fondly
expected beneficial results, had no existence; that
the plan which he had established for giving perma-
nency to the property of the Zemindars, had
rendered it less permanent than under any former
system ; had in fact destroyed it. The ryots, left
without any efficient legal protection, were intrusted
to the operation of certain motives, which were
expected to arise out of the idea of permanent pro-
perty ; and, practically, that permanence had no
existence. The ryots were, by consequence, left
altogether without protection.

“ Fifty means,” says a very intelligent and expe-
rienced servant of the Company, “ might be men-
tioned, in which the ryots are liable to oppression by
the Zemindars, even when pottahs have been given.

The Zemindars will make collusive engagements,
and get ryots to do so. Bajeh Kherch, and village
expenditure, will go on, at a terrible rate, as it does
in the Circars ; and where I have no doubt but there
are farmers, and under farmers, and securities, and all
the confusion that arises from them; that pottahs
are not given, and that village charges are assessed
on the ryot as formerly.” 1

' Mr. Thackeray’s Memoir, April, 1806, Fifth Report, p.914

524

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi is wonderful that neither Lord Cornwallis, nor

his advisers, nor his masters, either in the East India

1793- House or the Treasury, saw, that between one part
of his regulations and the effects which he expected
from another, there was an irreconcileable contradic-
tion. He required, that fixed, unalterable pottahs
should be given to the ryots ; that is, that they
should pay a rent which could never be increased,
and occupy a possession from which, paying that
rent, they could never he displaced. Is it not
evident, that in these circumstances, the Zemindars
had no interest whatsoever in the improvement of
the soil % It is evident, as Mr. Thackeray has well
remarked, that in a situation of this description, it
may be " the Zemindar’s interest not to assist, but
ruin the ryot ; that he may eject him from his right
of occupancy, and put in some one else, on a raised
rent ; which will often be his interest, as the country
thrives, and labour gets cheap.” 1

It is by the judges remarked, that numerous suits
are instituted by the ryots for alleged extortions.
The Zemindar lets his district in farm to one great
middleman, and he to under farmers, to whose exac-
tions upon the ryots it appears that there is really no
restriction. In one of the reports, in answer to the
queries of 1802, we are informed, that “ the inter-
change of engagements between the parties, with few
exceptions, extends no further than the Zemindar’s
farmer, who is here called the sudder (or head)
farmer, and to those among whom he subdivides his
farm in portions. An engagement between the

Mr. Thackeray’s Memoir, April, 1806, Fifth Report, p. 917.

result of Cornwallis’s revenue reforms. 525

latter and the cultivator, or heads of a village, is^o^vi

scarcely known, except the general one, to receive .

and pay, agreeable to past and preceding years ; and 1793-
for ascertaining this, the accounts of the farm are no
guide. The Zemindar himself, seeing that no confi-
dence is to be placed in the accounts rendered him
of the rent-roll of the farm, from the practice which
has so long prevailed of fabrications and false
accounts, never attempts to call for them at the end
of the lease ; and, instead of applying a corrective to
the evil, increases it, by farming out the lands literally
by auction ; and the same mode is adopted in almost
every subdivision of the farm.”1 This is the security
which is afforded to the cultivators, by the boasted
permanency of the property of the Zemindars.

That any prosperity can accrue to this class of
the people, or encouragement to agriculture, from
such an order of things, is not likely to be alleged.

The relation established by Cornwallis between
the ryot and the Zemindar, was remarkable. The
Zemindar had it in his power to pillage the ryot ;
but the ryot had it in his power to distress the
Zemindar. He might force him to have recourse to
law for procuring payment of his rent; and the
delay and expense of the courts were sufficient to
accomplish his ruin. It is the habit of the people
of India to pay nothing until they are compelled. A
knowledge that they might always ward off the day
of payment to a considerable distance, by waiting for
prosecution, was a sufficient motive to a great pro-
portion of the ryots to pursue that unhappy course,

1 Answer of Mr. Thompson, Judge and Magistrate of Burdwan, Fifth
Report, p. 544.

526

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi in the Ion" run, was not less ruinous to them-

OHAr. 0. 1 o’

selves than to the Zemindars.

1/93, The following picture of these two great classes
of the population, is presented by a high authority.
“ By us all is silently changed. The ryot, and the
Zemindar, and the gomastah, are by the levelling
power of the Regulations, very much reduced to an
equality. The protecting, but often oppressive, and
tyrannical power of the Zemindar, and the servitude
of the ryot are at an end. All the lower classes, —
the poorest, I fear, often in vain — now look to the
Regulations only, for preserving them against extor-
tion and rapacity. The operation of our system has
gradually loosened that intimate connexion between
the ryots and the Zemindars which subsisted here-
tofore. The ryots were once the vassals of their
Zemindar. Their dependence on the Zemindar, and
their attachment to him, have ceased. They are
now often at open variance with him ; and, though
they cannot contend with him on equal terms, they
not unfrequently engage in law-suits with him, and
set him at defiance. The Zemindar, formerly, like
his ancestors, resided on his estate. He was
regarded as the chief and the father of his tenants,
from whom all expected protection, but against
whose oppressions there was no redress. At
present the estates are often possessed by Calcutta
purchasers, who never see them ; and whose agents
have little intercourse with the tenants, except to
collect the rents.” 1

“ The ryots,” says the same excellent magistrate,

Report by Sir H. Stracliey, in 1802 ; Fifth Report, p. 564.

result of Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

527

“ are not, in my opinion, well protected by the (] 1

revenue laws ; nor can they often obtain effectual

redress by prosecuting, particularly for exaction and 1/!M'
dispossession.” And these are the very injuries to
which they are most exposed. The reason Sir
Henry immediately subjoins. “ The delay and
expense attending a law-suit are intolerable, in cases
where the suitor complains, which almost invariably
happens, that he has been deprived of all his pro-
perty. The cancelling of leases, after the sale of an
estate for arrears, must frequently operate with
extreme harshness and cruelty to the under
tenants.” 1

The Indian Government, in their observations
addressed to the court of Directors, “ appeared/’ say
the Select Committee of the House of Commons,

“ unwilling to admit that the evils and grievances
complained of, arose from any defects in the public
regulations. The very grounds of the complaints,
the government observed, namely those whereby the
tenantry were enabled to withhold payment of their
rents, evinced that the great body of the people,
employed in the cultivation of the land, experienced
ample protection from the laws, and were no longer
subject to arbitrary exactions.”2 That the great
body of the people enjoyed protection, because they
could force the Zemindars to go to law for their
rent, is an inference which it would be very unwise
to trust ; which appears to be, as there is no wonder
that it should be found to be, contrary to the fact.

1 Sir H. Strachey’s Answer to Interrogatories, Fifth Report, ut supra,
p. 528.

8 Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 55.

528

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bookv! ]}ut suppose the fact had been otherwise ; and that

the ryots received protection ; was it no evil, upon

1793- the principle of the Regulations, that the Zemindars
were ruined ? Yet so it is, that the organ of
government in India found this ruin, when it hap-
pened, a good thing ; affording, they said, the satis-
factory reflection, that the great estates were divided
into small ones ; and that, by change of proprietors,
the land was transferred to better managers. 1

Upon the review of the conduct of the govern-
ment, in thus praising, one after another, the results
of the new system, whatever they might be, those
originally expected from that system, or the very
reverse ; the same Committee of the House of
Commons, though commonly very reserved in their
censorial essays, observe, f‘ It was thus, in explaining
to the authorities at home the effects and tendency
of the new system, that the government in India
generally found something to commend. When the
operation of the regulations proved adverse to their
expectations, in one respect, in another, something
had occurred to console them for the disappoint-
ment.” 2 In fact, they only pursued the grand high-
way, the beaten common track, of misrepresentation;
a track in which the instruments of government, as
far as concerns their own operations and the appa-
ratus to which they have attached their interests,
can seldom be without a motive to tread. The evil
effects, which cannot be concealed, are represented
as trivial. All those, which are not calculated to
force themselves upon the public attention, are care-

Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 57.

2 Ibid. p. 57.

result of Cornwallis’s revenue reforms. 529

fully covered from view. Every effect, which isB°°^bVI

either good, or absurdly supposed to be so, is exag-

gerated and extolled. And many good effects, which 1793-
it is in reality of a nature to obstruct rather than
produce, are ascribed, by some through ignorance,
by others from fraud, to the object, whatever it is,
which it is the wish to applaud.

The unhappy reluctance of the Indian rulers, to
see any imperfection in the scheme of government
which they had devised, was, however, at last, over-
come. A Regulation, or law, was promulgated in
1799, the preamble of which acknowledged, “ that
the powers allowed the landholders for enforcing pay-
ment of then’ rents, had, in some cases, been found
insufficient ; that the frequent and excessive sales of
land, within the current year, had been productive of
ill consequences, as well towards the land proprietors
and under tenants, as in their effects on the public
interest, in the fixed assessment of the land-revenue ;
that the Zemindars were understood to have made
purchases of their own lands in fictitious names,
or in the names of their dependants, the object
of which was to procure, by fraudulent means, a
reduction of the rate of assessment.”1 2 For remedy
of the evils, now at last acknowledged, it was
enacted, that the Zemindars should have the use
of summary process, with the power of attachment
and sale, in realizing their rents. The reflections of
Sir Henry Strachey, upon this reform of the new
law, eminently merit the attention of both the philan-
thropist and the statesman. “ In passing,” says this

VOL. v.

1 Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 61

2 M

530

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Rcii!r g 1 highly-respectable witness, “ the seventh regulation,

1799, it was, I believe, the design of government (a

1'1’3' very reasonable and liberal design in my opinion) to
enable the Zemindars to collect their just demands of
rent, with punctuality, and without expense. And
I think it would have been just and considerate at
the same time, to have facilitated to the ryots the
means of obtaining redress against extortioners. But
the fact is — the ruin of one Zemindar being more
conspicuous at the Sudder than that of 10,000 ryots,
his interests naturally attract the attention of the
legislature first ; and as, in the proposal of any plan
connected with finance, it is required to set out with
the maxim, that the sudder jumma can on no pre-
tence be lowered, there remains no other resource for
helping the Zemindars, than the restoration of part
of the power they possessed of old to plunder their
tenants. Exaction of revenue is now, I presume, and,
perhaps, always was, the most prevailing crime
throughout the country. It is probably an evil ne-
cessarily attending the civil state of the ryots. I
think it rather unfortunate than otherwise, that it
should be less shocking to humanity than some fouj-
darry crimes. I know not how it is that extortioners
appear to us in any other light than that of the worst
and most pernicious species of robbers. It wfill be
found, I believe, that the condition of husbandmen in
eastern countries, is incompatible with security, and
that sort of independence which enables men to main-
tain themselves against oppression and violence. The
public revenues, which are in reality the rent of land,
are, throughout the East, collected by a system of
extortion, violence, and barbarity of every kind.”

result of Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

531

After alluding to the attempts, not without a partial
success, which had been made by the Company’s
government, for the redress of that great class of evils,
Sir Henry goes on to say, “ The frequency, however,
of the attachments and sales, under the Regulation of
1799, would alone serve to prove, that the revenues
are not collected without extreme misery to the ryot.”
Two circumstances will be sufficient to show the un-
limited oppression to which the ryots stand exposed.
The first is, that the Zemindars are empowered to
distrain, previous to a legal judgment, “ without ad-
ducing,” to use the language of Sir Henry, “ any
evidence of their claim before they proceed to enforce
it, and acting as judges in their own cause.” The second
circumstance is, that “ the ryots are almost totally
deprived of the power of seeking redress, by the ex-
pense of the courts of law.”1 Knowing this, can any
one be surprised, when Sir Henry Strachev declares,
The laws regarding attachments are greatly abused,
and are productive of extreme oppression.”

Some diminution in the outstanding balances, and
some improvement in the sales of the estates of Ze-
mindars, having become a subject of boast; it is to
the regulation, which authorized the above-stated
oppressions, that “ this effect,” says Sir Henry
Strachey, “ is chiefly to be ascribed. Yet,” he adds,
“ as if the mode in which the rents are levied, and
the condition of the ryots, were matters not necessary
to be noticed, it is frequently pronounced at once, as
a position admitting of no doubt, that these favour-
able sales afford a substantial proof of the lightness

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

See, below, under the head of Justice, p. 540, 541.
2 M 2

532

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 6.

1793.

1 of the assessment, and of the flourishing state of the
- country.”1

The important subject of judicature, or the effects
of the regulations contrived for the dispensation of
justice, next call for our attention.

The Committee of the House of Commons remark,

1 Nothing is more remarkable than the propensity of all sorts of persons
connected with the Indian government, to infer from any thing, or every
thing, “ the flourishing state of the country.” Here is one instance of the
curious premises from which the inference is apt to be drawn. The man
who explores, with any degree of attention, the documents of Indian
history, will be at no loss for others. Another is adduced by Sir Henry
Strachey, on the same occasion, and its insufficiency pointed out. “ To
those who are tolerably well acquainted with the internal state of the
country, it is known,” says he, “ that the population, unless checked by
some great calamity, constantly increases very fast. Increasing culti-
vation necessarily follows population. The want of courts of justice, of a
regular system of police, prevents not the prosperity of the provinces sub-
ject to the Mahrattas. Where no battles are fought, where the ryots
remain unmolested by military exactions, where the Zemindar or his agent
are seldom changed, the lands of the Mahrattas, in the neighbourhood of
this district (Midnapore) are in a high state of cultivation, and the popu-
lation is equal, frequently superior to ours. From the circumstance of
increasing population alone, we cannot, as many pretend, draw an infer-
ence of very high prosperity and good government.” In fact, where
marriage at the earliest marriageable age is a religious duty of the strongest
obligation, and to die without having a son, the greatest of misfortunes,
nothing but extreme misery can prevent the rapid increase of population ;
and when a vast quantity of good land still remains to be cultivated,
nothing can be the cause of such misery but bad government. “To
imagine,” continues the same enlightened observer, “ that the population
has increased, solely in consequence of our system of internal adminis-
tration, appears to me most erroneous. Under the native government, the
population had reached its utmost height, or very near it. Thirty years ago,
nearly half the people were swept away, by the greatest famine recorded
in history. Ever since that period, except in 1790, when a partial famine
happened, the numbers have been gradually increasing. I do not know
that the increase has been more rapid, during the last ten years, than
during the twenty preceding; although most of the abuses of the native
governments, and many new abuses of our government, prevailed through-
out the greater part of the last-mentioned period. Supposing the country
to enjoy peace, I cannot easily conceive internal mismanagement so
excessive, as to stop the increase of population.” See for these, and the
quotations in the text, Answer to Interrogatories in 1802, Fifth Report,
ut supra, p. 530 — 532.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

533

that so inadequate was the provision for judicature Bc^^(YI

to a population of 27, 000, 000, 1 when the collectors

alone were the judges, that the people, among 1793-
themselves, must have settled the greater number of
their disputes, “ by modes peculiar to their tribes or
castes, or by reference to their gooroos , or spiritual
guides ; ” that it was the object, on the other hand,
of Lord Cornwallis, to afford the means of a regular
judicial decision, in every case, to every inhabitant
of the country, “ without any impediment from the
distance the complainant would have to travel for
redress;” an object so essential undoubtedly to
goodness of government, that it is the principal end
of its institution.

It soon appeared, however, that the provision
made for this important business was ill adapted to
its end. The tedious forms through which the
judges had to travel, permitted them to decide so
small a number of causes in a given portion of time ;
and the delay and uncertainty which attended a
technical and intricate mode of procedure, afforded

1 The Committee complain that they still remain in the dark respecting
this important article of knowledge ; and that the estimates formed by the
best informed of the Company’s servants, betrayed, by their discrepancy,
ignorance so profound of the field of inquiry. The first estimate, upon the
acquisition of the Dewannee, made the population of the three provinces,
Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, 10,000,000. By Sir William Jones it was
computed to be 24,000,000. Mr. Colebrooke made it 30,000,000. The
Committee take the medium between the conjectures of Jones and Cole-
brooke, and call it 27,000,000. Report, ut supra, p. 62. — M. The Com"
mittee allude to the returns called for by Lord Wellesley, in 1801,
although they ajtach no credit to the results. From a comparison with
other inquiries, since made, they appear to have erred chiefly in being
under-rated. The population of Bengal and Bahar, according to Hamilton,
is above thirty-six millions, and that of Benares three millions. • The
population of Orissa is estimated by Stirling at 1,296,000 exclusive of the
hill tribes, -whose numbers could not be ascertained. — W.

534

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi go much encouragement to dishonest litigation,

chap. 6. & . ® . :

. that the pace of decision fell prodigiously behind

1793- that of the multiplication of suits ; and the path of
justice might, in some places, be regarded as com-
pletely blocked up.

A more melancholy exhibition of the weakness of
the human mind, arising from the wretched nurture
which it still receives, cannot easily be discovered or
conceived, than that which appears in the proceeding
we are next to relate.

To obviate the disproportion which was found to
exist between the number of judicial decisions and
the occasions for them, two rational expedients pre-
sented themselves. One was to disencumber the
Courts of every operation not essential to the ends of
justice ; by which means they might have been
enabled to get through with a much greater number
of causes. If, even by the most expeditious mode of
procedure, the Courts were unable to decide as many
causes as were brought to them, the case was plain ;
the number of courts was too small for the business
of the country, and, wheresoever necessary, ought to
have been increased.

This was not the course pursued by the Anglo-
Indian government. No. To ease the pressure
upon the Courts, they enacted, that every man who
applied for justice should be punished ; literally
punished; as if the application for justice were a
crime ; in hopes that many persons, if they were
punished on account of their applying for justice,
wTould cease to apply. Government enacted, that-
every applicant for justice should be fined; that is,
should be compelled to pay a sum of money upon

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

535

the institution of a suit; and various other sums BcH°p ^

during the progress of it, by the imposition of taxes

upon the proceedings : all for the declared purpose, 1/9'3’
the sole purpose, of driving people away from the
Courts. Such was the scheme for the better adminis-
tration of justice which was devised by British
legislators in the year 1795; such the scheme, the
existence of which they still approve ; and finally,
such is the scheme which obtained the applause of a
Select Committee of the British House of Commons
in the year 1810.1

Nothing is more easy than to lessen the business
of the Courts of law : to diminish it to any proposed
extent; to produce its annihilation. What are the
means ? The most obvious in the world ; denial of
justice. Decree that no person whatsoever who is
less than six feet high, shall be admitted to sue in a
court of justice ; and you will reduce the business to
a very manageable quantity : decree that no man
who is less than eight ; and you reduce it to nothing.

A man’s stature is surely as good a test to judge by,
whether he has received an injury, as his purse.

The delusion is so gross, which in this case pro-
duces its effects upon the minds of the deluded, that
the contemplator is astonished at finding men who
are subject to its influence still occupying, and that
almost exclusively, the seats of power.

Of the two parties to a suit it is not of absolute
necessity that either should be dishonest : because
the case may have in it such obscurity as to require
the decision of a judge. But these cases are, or at

1 Fifth Report, p. 63.

536

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \
chap. 6,

1 793.

1 any rate, if there was a good code of laws, would be,
_ very rare. In by far the greater proportion of cases,
when law-suits are numerous, one of the parties is
intentionally dishonest, and wishes to keep or to
gain some unjust advantage.

When legislators, therefore, propose to drive
people from the Courts of Justice by expense, they
must of necessity imagine that it is the dishonest
parties only whom the expense will deter; for it
would be dreadful to make laws to prevent the
honest from receiving a legal protection. But is it
easy for the wit of mau to frame a proposition
stamped with stronger characters of ignorance or
corruption than this ? That to render access to
justice difficult is the way to lessen the number
of crimes. What is the greatest encouragement to
injustice ? Is it not every thing which tends to
prevent immediate redress. What is the greatest
discouragement to injustice*? Every thing which
tends to ensure immediate redress. But tedious
and expensive forms of law, of which uncertainty
is a consequence, have the greatest tendency to
prevent immediate redress. They are, therefore, a
great encouragement, not a hindrance to injustice.

Let us contemplate the motives which actuate the
two parties to a civil suit, the just, and the unjust.
The unjust man is actuated by the desire, wrongfully
to retain, or wrongfully to obtain, possession of an
article of property. The just party is actuated by
the desire, rightfully to obtain, or rightfully to retain,
the same possession. What is the evil, the hazard
of which the unjust man incurs *? The costs of suit.
What is the good the chance of which he obtains *?

RESULT OF CORNWALLIS S JUDICIAL REFORMS.

537

The whole of the property forming the subject of ^ 1

dispute. It is evident, that a very slender chance in

the latter case may outvalue all that is risked in the 1/93’
former. It is evident, that, considering the great
propensity of mankind, particularly of the dishonest
part, to over-value their own chances of good fortune,
the risk of the costs will in many instances be run,
where the chance of success is exceedingly small.

In the case of sums of any considerable amount, the
advantage of retaining the property, even during the
long period which under an intricate form of procedure
is required to arrive at the execution of a decree, may
be more than a compensation for all the expense
which it is necessary to incur.

Even in those cases in which the expense bears a
great proportion to the value of the matter in dispute ;
those cases in which the value of the property is
moderate; what are the motives by which the honest
and dishonest litigant are liable to be impelled ? On
the side of injustice there is, first, the certain ad-
vantage of delay, and there is, secondly, the chance of
success. On the side of justice there is only the
chance of success.

Suppose then chances of success to be equal ; the
motives to incur the expense of a law-suit would in
that case be always greatest on the side of the dis-
honest litigant ; none, therefore, but the injured is in
that case liable to be deterred from law-suits by fines
upon the application for justice.

As it is evident that, in proportion to the chance
which injustice has for success in the Courts of
Justice, the greater is the motive which the unjust
man has not to be deterred, and the just man has to

538 HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi |)e deterred by the expense : so it is also evident that

this is not all : it is evident, that the motive of the

i/93. unjust litigant is not proportioned to the real chance
which he has for a decision favourable to his in-
justice ; but that it rises to the pitch of his own
exaggerated estimate of his chance of success. Now,
in all systems of procedure, which by technical forms
render the judicial business complex, intricate, full
of subtleties and snares, the chance of success to
injustice, in a vast proportion of cases, is very great.
This chance, most assuredly, is the producing cause
of a great proportion of lawsuits. This, together
with the advantages of delay, derived from the
same system of forms, is, where the corruption of
the judge is not contemplated, accountable for all
suits at law, except that comparatively small number,
in which the right of the honest man is really a
matter of obscurity and doubt. In all cases, there-
fore, in which the unjust man estimates this chance
at more than the expense of a suit, it is not the man
who injures, but the man who is injured, whom the
fine upon justice operates to deter. In all such
cases the fine upon the application for justice has no
other effect than to compel the honest man to submit
to iniquity ; no other effect than that of affording
a province to injustice, in which it may range at
will.1

1 In India the actual state of the facts is asserted, upon the experience
of Sir Henry Strachcy, one of the most respectable of the Indian judges,
and an honour to the judicial character, to be this ; That “ out of 100
suits, perhaps in five at the utmost,” the plaint of the prosecutor is
unfounded. In ninety-five then, out of every 100 cases, the plaintiff has
a right to a decision. In all that vast proportion of cases, with the small
exception of those in which the point of justice may be doubtful, the

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 539

In all cases then, in which this expedient does not bc°°k vi
deter the unjust litigant, it is mischievous beyond ex- — -
pression. The cases in which it can deter the unjust
litigant must always be few ; because it is evident,
that the motive, under the present state of the law,
is very great to unjust litigation, and that the counter
motive, arising from a certain addition to the expenses
of suit, is in comparison small. If it be considered,
that all litigation is caused by the motive to injustice,
unless in the comparatively small number of cases in
which the point of right is really doubtful, it must
be regarded as a motive very powerful, since it
governs the conduct of so great a number of men.

If it be considered that the only force employed, by
the new expedient of the Indian government, to coun-
teract this motive, is a certain difference of expense,
it will not be regarded as possessing much efficacy
to deter from litigation the man who expects from it
an unjust advantage.

Thus stands the case with regard to the class of
suitors who can endure the oppression of a law-suit,
rendered expensive by legislative design. There is,
however, a different class of persons ; a class of per-
sons including the whole population, with the deduc-
tion of a small proportion ; and how stands the case
with regard to them ? They are utterly unable to
defray the expense of a law-suit, rendered costly and
oppressive by legislative design. They are, by con-
sequence, excluded from the Courts of Justice. A
barrier, altogether insurmountable, is set up between

defendant is an injurer ; and every thing which has a tendency to
prevent the law-suit, has a tendency to defraud the innocent, reward
the guilty. Answer to Interrogatories, Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 526.

540

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 6.

1793.

1 them and the services of the judge. Except in the
_ cases affecting the public peace, and calling for public
prosecution, justice is denied them: They are placed
out of the protection of law. In this, the most large,
and, by its largeness, the most interesting and im-
portant, of all the portions of the demand for justice,
the man who intends injustice clearly sees, that he
may perpetrate his purpose in absolute safety. The
poor man is debarred from even the application for
redress. It must be confessed, then, that in this
large department of the field of justice, law-suits
are prevented by expense ; effectually prevented, by
rendering plunder and oppression, without remedy,
the lot of the innocent, and holding out the premium
of perfect impunity to injustice.

A provision, indeed, was made for persons suing
in the character of poor. But to how little effect
that provision exists any where, no words are neces-
sary to make known.

A mode of procedure, inartificial, expeditious, and
cheap, before native commissioners, provided for suits
on account of small sums, though much more useful,
was extremely inadequate to the extent of the de-
mand.1

1 “ The expense and delay,” says Sir Henry Strachey, “ to which
ryots are subject in prosecuting their suits are, to my knowledge, exces-
sive. For the truth of this, I would refer to the records of any Registrar
in Bengal. The duty of deciding revenue causes, for a small amount,
under the operation of the present regulations, has fallen chiefly on the
Registrars. The rights of the inferior ryots are seldom discussed in the
superior courts. The welfare of those from whom all revenue, and even
subsistence, must be derived — who are the poorest, the weakest, and
most numerous — is a matter of importance ; and not unworthy of the
notice of government. I have therefore thought it my duty to dwell
on this subject with some minuteness. It must, I am sure, constantly
happen, that a ryot gives up his prosecution in despair, on finding his

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

541

The expedient, for proportioning the number of ' 1
law-suits to the powers of the courts of justice, by

1793.

power of continuing it beyond his power to sustain ! — Exaction of revenue
is peculiarly difficult of proof. Either no engagements exist, and no
accounts can be found ; or they are extremely defective and perplexing.

It is not the original fee, on the institution of the suit; but the subsequent
charges, on exhibits, and on witnesses, that appear to me intolerable.

I have often seen a suitor, when stripped of his last rupee, and called upon
for the fee on a document, produce in court a silver ring or other trinket,
and beg that it might be received as a pledge ; and after all, perhaps, he
was cast for want of money to bring proof.” On the subject of delay, this
Judge observes ; “ The cultivators are unable to support themselves at the
Sudder, during a procedure of two or three months. They cannot return
to their houses without submitting to their oppressor. They must have
speedy justice, or none.”

The pretended relief afforded by the power of suing in forma pauperis ,
he shows, is more burdensome than paying the fees. The number too
of the persons who sue in this form suggests important reflections. “ Half
the complainants, in the Dewanny Adaulut of this Zillah, appear as
paupers, although these find much difficulty in complying with the regu-
lation intended for the relief of paupers. No man can be admitted to
prosecute as a pauper, till he brings two witnesses to attest his poverty,
and two securities for his personal appearance ; and no one can well do
this without, at least, maintaining himself and them, during their absence
from home. But the expense of such maintenance must exceed that of the
fees and stamp-paper.”

On the pretext of checking litigiousness by expense ; he asserts, that
there are no litigious plaintiffs, or at most very few, and that law-suits are
almost always produced by the dishonesty of the defendant. Checking
litigiousness, then, by expense, is merely fining a plaintiff for seeking
justice ; compelling the honest man to remain a prey to the cheat. In
some few prosecutions, the dishonest intention is on the side of the
plaintiff, when false demands are supported by false evidence. But he
asserts, that the proportion of false and frivolous demands, both taken
together, amount not to five in a hundred of those which are just and sub-
stantial. Contrary to the usual prejudice, he affirms, “ The complaints
of these people are seldom or never litigious, brought forward merely from
the quarrelsome disposition of the prosecutor.”

If suits, he said, were prevented, by increasing the expense, all that
could be inferred was, that few could afford to pay : “ but a man is
disabled from sustaining expense, in proportion as he is poor, and not in
proportion as he is litigious.”

The notions of this Indian Judge, on the subject of judicature, were
very different from those of the governing men in India and in England.

“ It is my opinion,” said he, “ that the nearer we approach to the rule

542

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

B°ia!' g. 1 rendering justice more oppressive than injustice;

irrational as it was in principle, and atrocious in prac-

1/J3' tice, failed in another respect. It produced not the
effect for which it was intended. In spite of all the
exertions which could be made, and in spite of re-
peated augmentations of law expenses, the number
of causes remaining undecided, in 1801, was so great
as to excite the attention of the Court of Directors ;
who pointed it out to their government in India, as
an evil calling loudly for redress. In 1 803, on “ the
almost incredible number of causes undecided,” they

of granting to all speedy justice, without any expense whatever, the
nearer we shall, in our judicial system, approach perfection. It will not,
I imagine, be denied, that it is desirable, the least tedious, and least
expensive mode of obtaining redress, should be open, where an injury
has really been suffered. When a poor man has been oppressed, he should
be freed from trouble and expense, and assisted and encouraged, as far as
possible, in prosecuting his complaint. He is not, in such a situation, a
fair object for taxation. It does not become the ruling power to add to
his misfortune by levying impositions upon him. It is clear that a ryot,
from whom undue rent has been exacted, must feel the charge of stamp
and fees to be a severe aggravation of his distress.” What is the con-
sequence ? That which must of necessity follow — that which might be
expected to call forth all the attention of Englishmen — but which to this
late period appears to have called forth none : “ That the ryots, though
now more independent (not from oppression) are much worse protected
from distress than heretofore ” For these quotations from Sir Henry
Stracliey, see the Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 525 to 532.

Sir Henry Strachey is not the only one of the Judges in India from
whom a British parliament and British rulers, both in London and
Calcutta, might receive important lessons. The report from the Judges
of the Court of Circuit and Appeal at Moorshedabad, consisting of
Mr. Colebrooke, Mr. Pattle, and Mr. Rocke, in 1802, says, “ The increased
expense of law-suits has never been found to check litigiousness. On the
contrary, it has been generally observed, that litigiousness is encouraged
thereby, in the hope that the certainty of the expense, added to the
uncertainty of the result, might deter parties from defending even just
rights. On comparing the half-yearly reports of the several adauluts in this
division, it does not appear that the number of suits, filed since the
establishment of the fees and stamp duties, differs much from the number
filed, in a similar period, previous thereto.” Fifth Report, p. 519.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

543

remark, that, f£ to judge by analogy of the courts in
Europe, they would he induced to think so great an
arrear could scarcely ever come to a hearing. In the
year 1802, the government resolved on instituting,
where necessary, the office of an assistant Judge; on
extending the jurisdiction of the native commis-
sioners ; and on allowing a more expeditious mode
of procedure in sums of a small amount. “ Subsequent
reports,” say the Select Committee of the House of
Commons, “are not calculated to show that the diffi-
culty of keeping down the number of cases, depend-
ing on the file, has at all diminished ; or that the
means resorted to for that purpose, have been as suc-
cessful as was expected.” And they quote a despatch,
of a date so late as March, 1812, in which the Direc-
tors express themselves in the following extraordinary
terms. “We should be very sorry, that, from the
accumulation of such arrears, there should ever be
room to raise a question, whether it were better to
leave the natives to their own arbitrary and preci-
pitate tribunals, than to harass their feelings and
injure their property, by an endless procrastination
of their suits, under the pretence of more deliberate
justice.”1

Of the extent to which they are harassed, and the
evils which so defective a system of judicature pro-
duces, some conception may be attained by the fol-
lowing quotation from a report of one of the Judges
of circuit. “ The commitments for breaches of the
peace, arising from boundary disputes, and other con-
tests concerning landed property, are ascribed to the

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

See for the above quotations, the Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 63, 64.

544

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

^o^y1 great, though unavoidable arrear, of untried causes

pending in some of the courts : since by necessarily

,793- protracting, for years, the decision of suits, it fre-
quently drove the suitors to despair ; and induced
them to run the risk of taking justice into their own
hands, by seizing the object in dispute, rather than
to await the tardy issue of a process, which threatened
to exceed the probable duration of their own lives.”1
The Court of Directors appear, in that despatch of
theirs which has been recently quoted, to imagine,
that the choice lies exclusively between the present
institution, of which the evils are so enormous, and
the arbitrary and precipitate system of the natives.
A slight degree of reflection, exempt from the shackles
tied upon their minds by custom and authority, would
point out to them another course, infinitely preferable
to both. Let them give to the people distinct defi-
nitions of their rights in an accurate code, and give
them courts of justice, which will decide not preci-
pitately, hut carefully ; free, however, from technical
impediments, and therefore quickly: and they will
both enable their courts to investigate a greater
number of causes ; and will exceedingly reduce the
number of suits.

It is the admirable effect of an excellent admi-
nistration of justice, that it prevents the very inten-
tion to commit injury, by making it certain to every
one that injustice will be disappointed of its aim.
Who would go into court for a decision, aware that
his cause was bad, if he knew that its merits would
be accurately explored, and justice immediately

See fertile above quotations, the Fifth Report, ut supra, p. G5.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

545

awarded? In this case the minutest portion of6001^'1

. . . CHAP. b.

benefit could not be expected from iniquitous liti

gation. Iniquitous litigation, therefore, would cease. 1/93-
And after the deduction of suits instituted or pro-
voked for purposes of injustice, very few in com-
parison would remain. But the case is altogether
different, when a man knows that it will be months,
or perhaps years, before his injustice will come in
turn for investigation; that even then, it is only cere-
monies that are to be performed, for a considerable
space of time, while the merits of the question remain
unexplored ; that the law is unwritten, arbitrary and
obscure ; that the procedure is exceedingly difficult
to follow without mistakes ; and that on these mis-
takes, totally regardless of the merits of the question,
the decision may finally depend. The advantages
of injustice, in a state of things like this, are so very
numerous, and the encouragement to unjust litigation
so very great, that the multiplication of suits may be
regarded as a natural and unavoidable result.

No proposition, derived from political experience,
may be relied on more confidently than this. That
the multiplication of law-suits is a proof of the had
administration of justice ; that a perfect administra-
tion of justice would almost annihilate litigation :
and that the attempt to reduce it by any other means,
such as that of expense, is to hold out encouragement
to plunderers, and to deny protection of law to
the honest and just.

When any great public duty is to he performed,
and the number of performers is found to he too
small for the demand, the most obvious of all expe-
dients is to increase the number. With regard to

VOL. V. 2 N

546

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

this expedient for enabling the government in India
to do justice between its subjects, the Committee of
the House of Commons made an extraordinary
declaration in the year 1812. “An augmentation of
the number of European Judges, adequate to the
purpose required, would be attended with an
augmentation of charge, which the state of the
finances is not calculated to bear; and the same
objection occurs to the appointment of assistant
Judges.”1 Never, since man had the use of language,
was a more terrible condemnation of any government
pronounced. Of all the duties of government, that
of maintaining justice among the people is the fore-
most. This, in fact, is the end for which it exists.
Here is said to be a government, which raises upon
the people a revenue so vast, that, by avowed inten-
tion, it is literally all that they can bear; that is,
oppressive to the highest pitch which oppression can
reach without desolating the country ; And all this
revenue is squandered away, till not a sufficiency
remains to hire Judges for the distribution of
justice ! 2

' Fifth Report, p. 65.

* The evil arises, in a great measure, out of the anomalous constitution of
the government. Foreign judges can neither be so numerous or so cheap
as native judges. Unfortunately the latter are not equally effective— they
may become so, and it is undoubtedly the duty of the government to pro-
mote their efficiency, and thus remedy the great want, the disproportion
between the Courts of Justice and the population. The measure has been
adopted, of late years, of employing natives in the administration of the
civil law to a much greater extent, and on a more liberal scale than
formerly. The result has been beneficial, although to what extent is not
yet determined. Even before the policy was formally introduced, some
steps towards its fulfilment had been made, particularly at Madras; and
some of the consequences are thus described by a competent authority.
“ The experience acquired at Madras, where native agency has been
largely resorted to for more than twelve years in judicial duties, does not

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

547

What is made of all this money % To what prefer- ' 1

able purpose is it applied *? High matter, in large .

quantity, would be contained in a proper answer to 1/93-
these questions.

Having surveyed the effects which practice and
experience have made visible, to those that least
enjoy the powers of reflection, of the Regulations
made for decision upon the civil rights of the people
of India ; we come, in order, to the effects which
have been produced by the Regulations made for the
suppression of crimes, including both penal judicature
and police.

In two ways, a system of legislative provisions for
the suppression of delinquency may be defective. The
burdens which it imposes, in the way of expense,
and in the way of infliction, may be too heavy. It
may not answer its end; instead of completely
repressing offences, allowing them continually to
increase.

In regard to burdens, under the reforms which we
are now contemplating expense was increased. The
inflictions, according to the ideas of Englishmen,
were mitigated ; but the banishments, substituted to
the mutilations, seem to be regarded with still
greater horror by the natives than the mutilations
themselves. It is unnecessary to dwell upon this
topic. The most important point for contem-
plation is, the diminution or increase of the security

justify the apprehension that natives are liable to prove corrupt judges.
During that period they have decided, on an average, upwards of 60,000
suits in the year, to the general and growing satisfaction both of the people
and of their official superiors. Minute of D. Hill, Esq. on Judicial
and Revenue Administration. March, 1830. App. to the Report of the
Select Committee. August, 1832, p. 179. — W.

2 N 2

548

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi 0f pe0pie hv the increase or diminution of crimes.

chap. 6. r r j

In this respect, too, the effects of the English Regu-

1793- lations have been deplorable.

Of all the crimes by which the private members of
the same community infest one another, robbery, in
the idea of which are included plunder and murder,
is the most deeply fraught w7ith mischief, both by
the evil brought upon the immediate victims ; and
by the alarming sense of insecurity which the pre-
valence of that crime strikes into the mind of almost
every individual in the community. This, the
highest of all crimes, assumes an aspect peculiarly
terrible in India ; where the robbers (in the language
of the country decoits ) form themselves into confede-
racies, and perform their crimes with a combination of
forces which it is not easy to resist. This class of
offences did not diminish under the English govern-
ment, and its legislative provisions. It increased ;
to a degree, highly disgraceful to the legislation of a
civilized people. It increased under the English
government, not only to a degree, of which there
seems to have been no example under the native
governments of India, but to a degree surpassing
what was ever witnessed in any country in which
law and government could with any degree of pro-
priety be said to exist.

The testimony of the judges, and other officers of
the Company’s government, shall be adduced, as
much as possible, in their own words. “ The crime
of decoity” (that is robbery by gangs), says Sir
Henry Strachey, in his report as judge of circuit in
the district of Calcutta in the year 1802, “has, I
believe, increased greatly, since the British adminis-

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

549

tration of justice. The number of convicts confined booka i

at the six stations of this division (independent of

Zillah twenty-four pergunnahs) is about 4000. Of 1/93-
them probably nine-tenths are decoits. Besides
these, some hundreds have of late years been trans-
ported. The number of persons convicted of decoity,
however great it may appear, is certainly small, in
proportion to those who are guilty of the crime. At
Midnapore, I find, by the reports of the police
darogas, that, in the year 1802, a period of peace
and tranquillity, they sent intelligence of no less than
ninety-three robberies, most of them, as usual, com-
mitted by large gangs. With respect to fifty-one
of these robberies, not a man was taken ; and for the
remaining forty-two very few, frequently only one or
two in each gang. It must not be supposed that
decoity prevails in the district of Midnapore to
a greater extent than in other districts of this
division ; on the contrary, I think there is less,
except perhaps in Beerbhoom. In Burdwan there
is certainly three or four times as much.”1

The judge of circuit in the Rajeshahye division in
1808, in a letter to the Registrar to the Nizamut
Adaulut, says, “ It is with much diffidence I address
the Nizamut Adaulut on the present occasion ; for I
have to propose measures, the nature of which they
are, I know, generally averse to. I do not wait till
the end of the circuit, when, in the course of official
routine, I should have to make a report to the
court; because the evil which I complain of is great,
and increasing; and every instant of delay serves

Fifth Report, p. 559.

550

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi only to furnish new victims to the atrocities which

CHAP. 6. J

are daily committed. — That decoity is very preva-

1793- lent in Rajeshahye has been often stated. But if its
vast extent were known : if the scenes of horror, the
murders, the burnings, the excessive cruelties, which
are continually perpetrated here, were properly repre-
sented to government, I am confident that some
measures would be adopted, to remedy the evil.
Certainly there is not an individual, belonging to the
government, who does not anxiously wish to save
the people from robbery and massacre. Yet the
situation of the people is not sufficiently attended
to. It cannot be denied, that, in point of fact, there
is no protection for persons or property. Such is
the state of things which prevails in most of the
Zillahs in Bengal. But in this it is much worse
than in any other I have seen. I am fully per-
suaded, that no civilized country ever had so bad a
police, as that which Rajeshahye has at present.”1
Mr. Dowdeswell, the secretary to government, in
a report which he drew up, in 1809, “ On the
general state of the police of Bengal,” says; ‘'Were
I to enumerate only a thousandth part of the atroci-
ties of the decoits, and of the consequent sufferings
of the people ; and were I to soften that recital in
every mode which language would permit, I should
still despair of obtaining credit, solely on my own
authority, for the accuracy of the narrative.” He
goes on to state, that, “ Robbery, rape, and even
murder itself, are not the worst figures, in this
horrid and disgusting picture. An expedient of

1 Fifth Report, p. 586.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

551

common occurrence with the decoits, merely to2001^1

induce a confession of property, supposed to be con-

cealed, is, to burn the proprietor with straw or 1793,
torches, until he discloses the property, or perishes
in the flames. And when they are actuated by a
spirit of revenge against individuals, worse cruelties,
if worse can be, are perpetrated by those remorseless
criminals. If the information obtained is not ex-
tremely erroneous, the offender, hereafter noticed,
himself committed fifteen murders in nineteen days :

And volumes might be filled with the atrocities of
the decoits, every line of which would make the
blood run cold with horror.” 1

Mr. Dowdeswell inserts an abstract of three trials
which had been recently adjudged in the court of
Nizamut Adaulut. It is highly proper that one
should appear as a specimen. The prisoners, nine
in number, were charged with being the principal
actors in a gang of robbers, who on the night of the
27th August, 1808, perpetrated the enormities which
the prosecutor related, as follows : “ That about
twelve o’clock on the night on which the robbery
and murders took place, he was sleeping in a house at
a short distance from that of his father, and being
awoke by the noise of robbers, went out, and saw
that a party of about fifty decoits had attacked his
father’s house ; that, from fear, he concealed himself
in a plantain garden, within fifty yards of the spot,
from whence he saw the robbers drag out from the
house his father and mother ; and, after binding
their hands and feet, apply lighted straw and torches

Fifth Report, p. 603.

552

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 6.

1793.

to their bodies, demanding of them, at the same
time, to point out where their money wTas concealed ;
that the unfortunate people assured them, they had
none ; but that the robbers, proving inexorable,
went into the house and brought from it a quantity
of hemp, which they twisted round the body of
Loharam, and, after pouring on it ghee, or clarified
butter, to render it more inflammable, set fire to it : —
That they then procured a quilt from the house,
which they also moistened with ghee and rolled
round the body of Loharam : — That the prisoners
Balka Sirdar, Nubboo Sirdar, and Kunkye Cupally,
at the direction of the prisoner Bulram Sirdar, threw
the prosecutor’s father on the ground, and keeping
him down, with a bamboo which they held over his
breast, set fire to the quilt : — That at this time the
cries of the unfortunate man were most shocking,
the robbers continually calling on him to tell where
his money was, and he assuring them that he had
none, and imploring them to take his cows, or any
thing they might find in his house: — That the
robbers, however, still proceeded to further cruelty,
having procured some mustard-seed, and torn up the
flesh of Loharam’s breast, by drawing a large
bamboo several times across it, pounded the mustard-
seed on the sores, with a view to make the torment
more excruciating : — That, at the same time, the
mother of the prosecutor was tortured nearly in the
same manner, by the robbers tying hemp round her
body, and setting fire to it, and dragging her about
from place to place, by the hair of her head, calling
on her all the while, to tell them where her hus-
band’s money was concealed; and also calling out

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

on the prosecutor by name, to come and witness the
state of his father and mother : — That these cruelties,
together with the plunder of the house of Loharam
and other ones adjacent, continued until between
three and four o’clock in the morning, at which time
the robbers departed; and that the prosecutor, on
going up to his father and mother, found them most
dreadfully mangled, but still alive ; that his father
expired about noon, and his mother, not till the
following morning. The prisoners whom the pro-
secutor swore to have recognised, at the murder of
his parents, in addition to Bulram Sirdar, Balka
Sirdar, Nubboo Sirdar, and Kunkye Cupally, before
mentioned, were ; — Dacooa Sirdar, Shookoor Peada,
Mudary Peada, Kallichurn Ghose, and Nubboo
Sirdar ; and he also specified Casinauth Bagdy, and
Gudda Barooge.”

“ Several witnesses on the part of the prosecution
(inhabitants of the village) confirmed the circum-
stances related by the prosecutor.

“ The court in consequence, sentenced the pri-
soners convicted, nine in number, to suffer death.” 1

The other two cases are of a similar character.
One of them relates to the robbery of an English
gentleman whose house was plundered, who was
himself loaded with indignity, and some of his ser-
vants murdered. “ An accurate judgment,” says the
secretary of the Indian government, “ of the nature
of the evils in question, may be formed from the
foregoing documents.”

Of the extent of the mischief, this gentleman.

553

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

Fifth Report, p. 606.

554

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

however, informs us, that the government had no
very accurate knowledge. We are left to judge of
it, by the general declarations we receive respecting
its prevalency, and respecting the state of alarm in
which the people are universally held. From one
declaration, to which there is no dissent, we may
draw an estimate, beyond which no imaginable
evil can easily he found. “ To the people of India
there is no protection, either of persons or of
property.”

It is impossible to suppose that the worst of all
crimes should grow up to a height of unexampled
atrocity, singly, and by itself. That state of things
which affords encouragement to one species of delin-
quency, is pretty sure to afford encouragement to
other species of delinquency. The case of India
confirms the general experience. Beside decoity,
which involves a combination of the most dreadful
crimes, “ burglaries, effected by breaking through
the walls of houses ; murder from various motives ;
robberies attended with murder and manslaughter ;
perjury, and subornation of perjury, practised for
the most atrocious purposes; are,” say the Select
Committee, “ not unfrequent in many parts of the
country ; but the Bengal provinces appear to be,
more than any other, characterized by them.” 1

Sir Henry Strachey says, “ Since the year 1793,
crimes of all kinds are increased ; and I think most
crimes are still increasing. The present increase
of crimes may, perhaps, be doubtful; but no one,
I think, can deny, that immediately after 1793,

' Fifth Report, p. 66.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

555

during five or six years, it was most manifest and book vi

• • • i CHAP. b.

rapid ; and that no considerable diminution has .

taken place.” 1 1793-

The Judge of circuit in the Bareilly division, in
1805, warns the government against supposing that
the lists transmitted from the courts exhibit an
accurate view of the state of delinquency ; because
the cases are extremely numerous which are never
brought before the magistrates, from the negligence
or connivance of the police officers, and the aversion
of the people to draw upon themselves the burden
of a prosecution. Hence it happens that the less
aggravated cases of robbery, with those of theft and
fraud, “ are frequently perpetrated, and no records of
them remain.” Hence the cases of homicide, which
least admit of concealment, occupy the largest space
in the criminal calendar. “ The number of per-
sons,” continues the Judge, “ convicted of wilful
murder is certainly great. — The murder of children,
for the sake of their ornaments, is, I am sorry to
say, common. So much so, that I submit whether
it might not be advisable to strike at the root
of the evil, by taking away, if possible, the tempta-
tion to commit the act : I mean, adopting measures
to prevent children from wearing gold and silver
ornaments. For my own part, being convinced
that, under the existing laws, we have no other
means of putting an end to the frequent perpetration
of this crime, I could wish to see the practice of
adorning children with valuable trinkets, altogether
prohibited.” He adds, “ A want of tenderness and

1 Answer to Interrogatories, Fifth Report, p. 533.

556

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BcHif J1 regard f°r lifer is very general, I think, throughout
the country.” 1

1793> In Sir Henry Strachey’s paper of answers to inter-
rogatories, from which we have derived so much
important information, he says, “ Perjury has in-
creased greatly ; and is increasing.” 2 In the report of
the circuit Judge of the Patna division in 1802, it is
stated, that “of the murders charged (at his late jail
delivery) only a few, and of the robberies no more
than one, really happened. The rest are merely fic-
titious crimes, brought forward to harass an opposing
litigant, or revenge a quarrel. The criminal court is
the weapon of revenge, to which the natives of this
province resort, on all occasions. Men of the first
rank in society feel no compunction at mutually ac-
cusing each other of the most heinous offences, and
supporting the prosecution with the most barefaced
perjuries. Nor does the detection of their falsehood
create a blush.” 3

Such a prevalence of the higher crimes implies a
complete dissolution of morals. To this also, if it
could remain doubtful, the same weight of testimo-
nial evidence is applied. Sir Henry Strachey says,
“ The people are probably somewhat more licentious
than formerly. Chicanery, subornation, fraud, and
peijury, are certainly more common. Drunkenness,
prostitution, indecorum, profligacy of manners, must
increase, under a system, which, although it pro-
fesses to administer the Mohammedan law, does not
punish those immoralities.”

In having lessened the quantity of direct oppres-

1 Fifth Report, p. 565, 566. 5 lb. p. 544. 3 lb. p. 68.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 557

sion which superiors exercised, as a sort of right, book vi

over inferiors, consisted, in the opinion of this judge,

the whole of the benefit introduced by the English 1793-
laws. And this, again, he thought, was coun-
terbalanced by the loss of that protection which
the superior was accustomed to yield to his de-
pendants : and by exposure to the still more dread-
ful scourge of decoits, and other depredators and
destroyers.1

The Judge and magistrate of Burdwan, in his
answer to interrogatories in 1802, says, I am sorry
that of the moral character of the inhabitants, I
cannot report favourably ; or give it, as my opinion,
that the British system has tended to improve either
the Mohammedan or Hindu moral character. Cer-
tain it is, that much profligacy, vice, and depravity, are
to be found amongst the higher class : and the
crimes, committed by the lower, will, I think, be
found more prevailing, and in greater number, than
under the Mohammedan jurisprudence.” 3

The magistrates of the twenty-four pergunnahs,
on the same occasion, say, “We are sorry that we
cannot make any favourable report respecting the
moral character of the inhabitants of the districts
subject to our jurisdiction. The lower classes are in
general profligate, and depraved. The moral duties
are little attended to by the higher ones. The
system, introduced by the British government, for
the administration of the law, and for the conduct of
the internal administration of the country, does not,
therefore, appear to have improved the moral cha-

1 Fifth Report, p. 527.

a lb. p. 546.

558

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

racter of its inhabitants. The use of spirituous
liquors, debauchery, and numberless other vices,
which formerly met with the severest checks and
punishments, are now practised, with impunity,
amongst all classes.” 1

Of this hideous state of society, the causes are now
to he explored. That the root was laid in the cor-
ruptive operation of the despotism to which in all
ages the people had been subject, admits of no dis-
pute, and stands in need of no explanation. The
important inquiry to which we are summoned is ;
why the British regulations, intended for the abate-
ment of delinquency, had been so unfortunate as to
increase rather than diminish it.

That penal law in the hands of the English has
failed so completely of answering its end, is to be
ascribed in a great degree to the infirmities and
vices of the law itself. The qualities wherein
consist the virtues of a system of law appear to have
been little understood in time past by British legis-
lators. Clearness, certainty, promptitude, cheapness,
with penalties nicely adapted to the circumstances of
each species of delinquency ; these are the qualities
on which the efficacy of a system of penal law
depends ; and in all these, without one exception,
the penal law set up by the English in India is
defective to a degree that never was surpassed, and
very rarely has been equalled. Its failure, there-
fore, and the misery of the people who must
depend upon it for protection, are not a subject for
surprise.

1 Fifth Report, p. 551.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

559

It is a sort of a mixture of the Mohammedan and } 1

chap. b.

English systems, and so contrived as to combine

the principal vices of both. With the exception of a 1/93,
change in certain modes of punishment, revolting to
English minds, the Mohammedan code, which in
penal matters had been exclusively followed by the
Mogul government, was still retained. It was the
characteristic of the Mohammedan law, as it is of
the law of all rude nations, to he unwritten. The
standard was the Koran, in which nothing beyond a
few vague precepts could be found. To this were
added the commentaries of the doctors, of which
some had attained the rank of authorities. The
vagueness of the commentaries corresponded with the
vagueness of the original ; and no distinct legislative
definition existed. On every occasion, therefore,
requiring a decision, the expounder of the law was
called upon, for what? Not to point out a passage
of the code exclusively containing the appropriate
point of law. No such passage existed. What he
did, or pretended to do, was, from a general view of
what had been taught or decided by preceding
doctors, to frame an inference for the particular case
of the moment. His business was, not simply to
declare, but to make the law, to make a separate law
for an individual case, every time that a decision was
required ; to make it, and under no other restriction
than that of some obligation to make the result bear
some resemblance to former practice. In a law
existing in this barbarous state, in which there was
so little of any thing fixed or certain, a wide field
was commonly assigned to the arbitrary will of the
judge. All uncertainties in the law operate to the

560

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bcu°pV 6 1 encouragement of crime ; because the criminal inter-

prets them, and with an estimate far beyond their

1793- value, in his own favour.

With a law of this description to administer, a
procedure resembling that of the regular halls or
rather closets of judicature in England was adopted
for its administration. The English form of prac-
tice, or course of procedure, consists of so many
operations and ceremonies, to which, however fri-
volous, or obstructive to the course of justice, the
most minute obedience is rigidly enacted, that the
administration of English law abounds with delay,
is loaded with expense, and paralyzed by uncer-
tainty. From only one of the vices of the Moham-
medan system, the corruption of the judges, were
the people of India now delivered ; but they were
visited with another, which appears to be to them a
much more dreadful calamity, a complicated, tedious,
expensive course of procedure, which to a great
degree annihilates all the advantages of law.

The evidence we have on this important subject,
is the testimony of those of the Company’s servants
on whom the business of judicature devolves : some
of whom, if we may judge by those of their reports
which the public have been permitted to peruse,
are to a singular degree qualified for that important
trust.

In answer to the following interrogatory ; “ Are
you of opinion that the Mohammedan criminal law,
with the alterations of that law made by the British
government, is administered with too much lenity, or
too much severity ; and w7hat do you suppose to be
the consequences produced by the operation of the

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

561

spirit, in which the criminal law is in your opinion book vi

administered ; ” “ We are of opinion,’’ said the judges

of circuit of the Moorshedabad division in 1802, 1793-

“ that, from the discretionary mode in which the Mo-
hammedan criminal law, with the alterations of that
law made by the British government, is administered,
the administration of it admits, both of too much
lenity, and too much severity ; at any rate of too
much uncertainty. An offence, which to one law
officer may appear sufficiently punished by a month’s
imprisonment, shall from another law officer incur a
sentence of three or more years. Even in the heinous
crime of gang-robbery, our records will show some-
times a sentence of fourteen years’ transportation, and
sometimes a sentence of two years’ confinement. The
consequences which we suppose to be produced by
the operation of this spirit in which the criminal law
is in our opinion administered, are contempt of the
law itself, and encouragement to offenders.”1

By Sir Henry Strachey, in his report in the same
year as judge and Magistrate of Midnapore, it is said,

“ I may here take the liberty to mention a few cir-
cumstances which have fallen under my observation,
as operating to obstruct the conviction of delinquents
under the present system. I think the delay which
occurs between the apprehension and the trial is too
great. The accused have time and opportunity to
fabricate a defence ; and very little money will pro-
cure false witnesses to support it. The extreme
length and intricacy of trials render the full and com-
plete investigation of every case impossible.”2

' Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 524.
VOL. V. 2 O

5 Ibid, p.534.

562

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

g 1 The magistrates of the twenty -four pergunnahs, in

• 1802, reported; “ The delay attending the adminis-

1793, tration of criminal justice, and the length of time that
elapses before criminal prosecutions are brought to a
conclusion, is one of the causes to which the frequent
commission of crimes in general, and that of decoity
in particular, may, we think, be in a great measure
attributed. The trouble, loss of time, and expense,
that attends a criminal prosecution on the present
system, is in our opinion a serious evil, and not only
induces many who have been robbed to put up with
the loss they sustain, rather than apply to the police
officers for redress, hut prevents numbers from coming
forward with informations that would be highly be-
neficial to the community, and would, we have no
doubt, in numberless instances be preferred, were
the administration of justice more prompt and speedy
than at present. The consequence of delay is, that
numbers of criminals of the most daring description,
against whom, when committed for trial, there is
the most full and complete evidence, escape, and are
again let loose on society owing to the death, re-
moval, loss of memory, or mendacity of the
witnesses ; a mendacity often purchased, often the
fruit of intimidation.1

“ I am by no means sure,” says the Judge of the
Calcutta Court of Circuit, the enlightened Sir Henry
Strachey, in 1803, “ of the necessity or propriety of
increasing the severity of punishment. Before I can
form a judgment of the efficacy of such remedies, I
must be certain that the punishment reaches the

Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 552, 554.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

563

offenders ; at present the punishment does not reach J1

them ; they elude conviction ; they elude apprehen-

sion. We cannot say that men become decoits, be- 1793-
cause the punishments are too lenient ; they become
so, because their chance of escaping altogether is so
good.”1

The report, in 1805, of the Judge of circuit in the
Bareilly division says, “ Attendance on the court,
whether as a prosecutor, or witness, is generally
regarded as a heavy misfortune ; to avoid which,
many leave their homes, and submit to infinite
inconvenience and vexation ; and many more, I
presume, pay handsomely to the Nazir or his people,
for permission to keep out of the way. Hence
crimes are perpetrated, and no records remain of
them. — The delay, and expense, of prosecuting, are
intolerable to the lower orders.”2

A system of law, marked by so many infirmities,
may, in a country like England, where crimes are
easily suppressed, and where the sentiments and
manners of the people accomplish more than the
law, afford an appearance of efficacy, and get the
credit of much of that order which it does not
produce ; but in a country like India, where crimes
are difficult to repress, and where the law receives
little aid from the sentiments and manners of the
people, a far more perfect system is required.

A system of law, which would really afford the

1 Fifth Report, p. 561. Sir Henry continues, “ A robber even in
Bengal is, I presume, a man of courage and enterprise ; who, though he
roughly estimates the risk he is to run by continuing his depredations on
the public, is rather apt to under-rate that risk — small as in reality it is.”
s Ibid. p. 565, 567.

2 o 2

564

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

1 1 benefits of law to the Indian people, would confer

upon them unspeakable benefits. It is perhaps the

i/93. onjy great political blessing which they are as yet
capable of receiving. But the arbitrary will of a
master, which though it often cuts down the inno-
cent with the guilty, yet prohibits all crimes but his
own, is preferable to a mere mockery of law, which
lays the innocent man at the mercy of every depre-
dator.

Of the prevalence of crime in India, the first of
the causes, therefore, is found, in the vices and
defects of the law. The second may be traced to
those of the police ; by the imperfections of which,
because more superficial, and obvious to ordinary
eyes, the attention of the Company’s servants, and
of the Committee of the House of Commons, appears
to have been more peculiarly engaged. The main
purpose of a system of police, is to serve as an
instrument to the courts of justice ; providing that
no offence shall be committed without the prompt
subjection of the offender to the course of law. The
English system appears to fail in accomplishing this
important end, by two defects. In the first place,
the instruments are too feeble. In the next place,
they are ill adapted to the end.

“ The establishment of an efficient police,” say
the Select Committee of the House of Commons,
“ though an object of the first importance, appears
to be a part of the new internal arrangements, in
which the endeavours of the supreme government
have been the least successful. With respect to the
darogahs, or head police officers, who under the new
system have taken the place of the Tannahdars, it is

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 565

observed of them, that they are not less corrupt than J1

the Tannahdars, their predecessors ; and that them-

selves, and the inferior officers acting under them, 1793-
with as much inclination to do evil, have less ability
to do good, than the Zemindary servants, employed
before them. The darogah, placed in a division of
the country, comprehending four hundred square
miles, is, with fifteen or twenty armed men, found
to be incompetent to the protection of the inhabi-
tants.” 1

If the agents of police are greatly too few, the
obvious remedy is to add to their number. The
answer to this exhortation, however, is unhappily
the same as that for the multiplication of the courts
of justice. The finances of the Company will not
endure the expense. In other words, the revenue of
the country, instead of being applied to its only legi-
timate end, the protection of the people, is disposed
of in a different way.

Not only are the agents of police defective in
point of number, but adequate means are not em-
ployed to make them discharge the duties of their
office. So far is this from being done, that the
darogahs, and their people, add to the very evils
which they are intended to suppress. By the
Judge of Midnapore, in 1802, we are told, “The
darogahs, I believe it is generally confessed, do
not perform the duty that was expected. They
are clearly either unable, or unwilling. Their
insufficiency consists, I think, in a general neglect
of duty, in petty rogueries, in a want of respecta-

1 Fifth Report, p. 7J.

566

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI
chap. 6.

1793.

bility, in being destitute of that energy and activity,
and that delicate sensibility to character, which
ought to characterize a police officer. In the duties
of his office, a darogah is hardly occupied half an
hour a day : and he often becomes negligent, indo-
lent, and, in the end, corrupt. His dishonesty
consists in taking bribes from poor people who have
petty foujdarry suits, in conniving at the absconding
of persons summoned through him, in harrassing
ryots with threats, or pretended complaints, creating
vexatious delays in settling disputes, or preventing
their being settled, and chiefly in deceiving the poor
and ignorant, with whom he has to deal. The
avowed allowances of a police darogah are not
sufficiently liberal to render the office worthy the
acceptance of men who are fit to perform the
duty.” 1

The secretary of government says ; “ The

darogahs of police seldom, if ever, possess any
previous instruction as to the nature and extent of
their duties, nor any habits of life calculated to
enable them to perform those duties with effect. A.
brahmin, a sirdar, a moonshy, or even a menial
servant, is, each in his turn, a candidate for this situa-
tion, of their fitness for which it is easy to judge.
Their agency, even in furnishing information, a duty
which requires no particular exertions or capacity is,
totally ineffectual. Happy, however, would it be,
if the defects already noticed were the greatest to be
found in the character of the police darogahs. The
vices, which render them a pest to the country, are,

Fifth. Report, p. 538.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

567

their avarice, and addiction to every species of extor- book vi
tion.” 1

The description of the following scene of iniquity, 1793-
in which the police agents are the principal actors, is
necessary to convey a just idea of the state of this
branch of the government. The Judge of circuit, in
the Calcutta division, in 1810, in a paper addressed
to the Judge and magistrate of the Zillah, says, “ The
practice, so nefarious and so prevalent, of extorting
and fabricating confessions, requires your most serious
attention. I remarked, with much concern, that, in
every case of decoity brought before me, the proof
rested on a written confession, given in evidence at
the trial ; and regret to add, that all those confessions
bear the marks of fabrication. In one of these cases
(No. 7 of your calendar), a prisoner, who was per-
fectly innocent, confirmed, before the magistrate,
under the influence of improper means previously
made use of towards him, a confession before a police
darogah, which was proved on the trial to be false :
and which had, in fact, been extorted by intimidation
and violence. An erroneous idea prevails, that a con-
fession is the strongest proof of guilt. This false
notion, perhaps, first gave rise to the custom of fabri-
cating them ; and the practice appears to have in-
creased, till it has become general and systematic. It
would be endless entering into a detail of the different
modes in which confessions are fabricated and proved.

The usual course appears to be first, to apprehend as
many people as caprice may dictate, and then to select
from the number those individuals who are to con-

1 Mr. Dowdeswell’s Report on the Police of Bengal, in 1819, ibid, p.

611, 612.

568

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 6

1793

1 fess, and determine on the purport of their confes-
_ sions. The preliminaries being thus arranged the
victims are made over to the subordinate agents or
instruments of police, to be dealt with according to
circumstances ; and the rest are discharged. It some-
times happens that they meet with a man whom
they are able to deceive, by assurances of immediate
pardon, and false promises of future favour and in-
dulgence. In such case, he is usually told, that by
signing a paper, prepared by the buckshee for that
purpose, or repeating before witnesses what he is
instructed to say, he will not only escape hanging, or,
at least, perpetual imprisonment, but become one of
the chosen of the police, and make his fortune as a
goyendah ; that all he has to do, is to pretend that he
was concerned in the decoity, and say, that the gang
was composed of particular individuals who are named
to him, and leave the rest to the darogah. In short,
the alternative is offered him, either of making a
friend or an enemy of the police ; either of suffering
ignominious death through their power, or of raising
himself to a post of honourable ambition and profit by
their favour. When these means fail, they have re-
course to compulsion. In this event the prisoners are
taken out singly, at night; and subjected to every
species of maltreatment, till they consent to subscribe
before witnesses, to the contents of a confession, drawn
up for their signature by the buckshee ; or to learn it
by heart, and repeat it in their presence. When the
prisoner is thus prepared, if there appears no danger
of his retracting before morning, he is left at peace
for a few hours ; but if any apprehension of that sort
is entertained, a burkundaaz is sent for three or four

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 569

people of the village, to witness the confession in- g1

stantly, and they are roused from their sleep at all

hours of the night for that purpose. It is to be 1/93-
observed, however, that the sending for impartial wit-
nesses does not often occur, except when the darogah
has not sufficient weight or talent to keep his place,
and at the same time set appearances at defiance.

A darogah who is sure of his post, will, with the
utmost impudence, send in a confession witnessed
only by a few pykes, or other police dependants, who
were, perhaps, the very instruments by whose means
it was extorted.” The fabrication of evidence in
general, and the subornation of perjury for that
purpose, is declared by the same indubitable authority
to have become ‘f a prevailing practice with the
agents of police.”1

When such are the deeds of the very men by whom
the crimes of others are to be suppressed, it is easy
to judge of the sort of protection which the British
government has succeeded in providing for the people
of India.

The Secretary, Mr. Dowdeswell, complains, that
powers, far too great, are intrusted in the hands of
those men. They have not only the executive powers
of a constable and sheriff’s officer, but those united
to them of a justice of the peace : they have the
power of receiving charges and information without
limit ; the power of receiving them on oath, or dis-
pensing with the oath, a power of great moment, con-
sidering the prejudices of the natives with regard to
an oath ; the power of proceeding by summons or

1 Fifth Report, p. 595, 596.

570

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book v i arrest5 at discretion ; the power of referring or not

■ referring the determination to the magistrate ; of

1793, fixing the amount of bail ; of making, or, if they
please, causing to be made, a local inquiry upon the
recent commission of any robbery or violent offence ;
and, finally, of apprehending and sending to the
magistrates all persons under the vague denomination
of “vagrants and suspected persons “ powers,” adds
Mr. Dowdeswell, “ which never have been confided
to any subordinate peace-officers in England : and
which, indeed, would not be tolerated for a moment
in that country : powers, the interposition of which,
by the hands of the Indian darogahs, are attended
with intolerable vexations.” 1

The means, employed for accomplishing the ends
of a police, have, therefore, been ignorantly devised.
“ It is nowT,” say the Committee of the House of
Commons, “ unequivocally acknowledged on the pro-
ceedings of government, that the existing system of
police has entirely failed in its object .”2 The Judge
of Circuit, in the Rajeshahye division, in 1808, with
indignation says : “ The present wretched, mecha-
nical, inefficient system of police, is a mere mockery.”3
The extraordinary imperfection of the system of
police, I rank as the second of the causes of the great

' Report on the Police of Bengal, Fifth Report, p. 611, 612.

* Fifth Report, p. 73. This expression, if authority can give it force,
deserves peculiar attention. It was first employed by Mr. Lumsden, a
member of the Supreme Government, recorded on the 13th of June, 1808 ;
it was quoted, as authority, confirming the declaration of his own opinion,
by Mr. Secretary Dowdeswell, in his Report in 1809, on the Police of
Bengal ; and lastly it is quoted, as expressing the result of their own in-
quiries, by the Committee of the House of Commons.

3 Fifth Report, p. 586.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 571

prevalence of crime, and the insecurity of persons J1

and property in Bengal.1

The next of these causes is an infirmity which 1793-
adheres to governments in general, to many of them
in a greater degree than the Anglo-Indian govern-
ment: the obstinate determination to believe that
every thing which they do is excellent ; and, of
course, that every institution which they set up must
of necessity accomplish its end. This most perni-
cious propensity appears to have long completely
blinded the Indian government to the deplorable im-
perfections attaching upon, and characterizing, every

1 It should rather have been the first. The commission of crime was en-
couraged rather by the impunity by which it was attended before trial than
after it. The culprit was not apprehended, or if apprehended, evidence
could not be brought against him to secure his conviction. No code of
law, however, can ensure the depositions of witnesses — this is a matter of
police. — Whatever may be the theoretical perfection of a penal code, the
police must be effective, to protect witnesses against the vindictive resent-
ment of a culprit, and his confederates, or guilt can never be proved. It was
to this latter defect that those who were guilty of gang-robbery looked for
impunity, much more than to any want of enactments to punish the guilt
which had been established by adequate testimony. The state of the
police was, undoubtedly, very bad at the time referred to in the text, but
even then, active European superintendence could and did commu-
nicate to it efficiency. Gang-robbery was suppressed very shortly after-
wards by the energy and intelligence of one or two individual magistrates.
Instances of it have no doubt occurred since, but they have been compara-
tively rare, and attended with less atrocious circumstances. The organization
of the Police is still defective — the principal officers are ill paid, the numbers
of the establishment are ill-proportioned to the immense tracts of country
over which it is spread. The evils resulting from these circumstances are
admitted, and attempts are now in course of progress to construct a
system of greater efficiency. The wisdom and necessity of the determina-
tion cannot be denied, although it is not so easy as it might be thought, to
discover the means by which it is to be carried into practice. In the mean
time, it may be asserted, notwithstanding all the dark colouring of the
Fifth Report, that public order and private security are maintained in
India in a very extraordinary manner, and that few countries in Europe so
little require the constant interposition of the Police. — W.

572

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

department of that institution of government which
was set up by the regulations of 1793. The imper-
fections of even the system of police, those which
were the most obvious to ordinary eyes, they not only
continued determined not to see ; but, such was the
pernicious influence of their authority, that indi-
viduals were deterred either from allowing themselves
to believe, or, at any rate, from the important duty
of making known, the vices of the system. “ What,”
says the Judge of the Circuit, in the Benares divi-
sion, in 1808, after a long display of the evils to
which those horrid vices were giving birth, “ may be
thought of the weight of the preceding reasoning, I
know not. A very few years hack, I should have
been afraid, in advancing the arguments which I
have offered, of exposing myself to the imputation of
singularity. I have now the satisfaction to find that
some of my conclusions, at least, are sanctioned by
the highest authority. The preamble to Regulation
Twelfth, of 1807, declares, that the police establish-
ments in the provinces, those establishments on
which we have relied for sixteen years, are ineffi-
cient.”1 The Committee of the House of Commons,
with some indignation, remark, that, “ though the
letters from the Bengal government, down to April,
1806, represent the commission of crimes, particu-
larly perjury, to be increasing rather than the con-
trary, there is nothing said to excite any particular
apprehension for the security of person and property
enjoyed by the natives under the British government,
or to create any doubt in regard to the new system

1 Fifth Report, p. 577, 578.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 573

of police having secured to the natives the benefits B00K vi

. ... CHAP. 6.

which were intended for them by its introduction.”1

Another cause, a natural consequence of the for- 1793-
mer, is, the temptation under which the servants of
the state are placed, to represent in a flattering light
the proceedings of government ; to keep back, or
explain away, the disagreeable consequences ; to
exaggerate those that are pleasant ; and, very often,
to suppose and describe such as never exist. Go-
vernments are thus deceived, and remain in ignorance
of what above all things it imports them to know ;
the extent to which the institutions of government
fall short of accomplishing the ends for the sake of
which they exist. What is stated by Mr. Dowdes-
well is worthy of particular attention, and indelible
remembrance ; That this unhappy propensity, which
is a power of such extensive and such pernicious
operation in all governments, is the foremost among
the causes of the disgraceful state of Anglo-India.

“ The principal cause,” says the Secretary, in his in-
structive report on the police of Bengal, “ why the
measures, hitherto adopted for the protection of the
people against robbery by open violence, have been
ineffectual, is, the very imperfect information which
government, and the principal authorities under
government, possessed, respecting the actual state
of the police. — The defect here noticed,” he continues,

“ may arise, either from the very imperfect infor-
mation which the local magistrates themselves pos-
sess respecting the state of the police, or from an ill-
judged, but not an unnatural, solicitude, to represent

1 Fifth Report, p. 73.

574

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK Y

CHAP. 6.

1793.

the districts in the most favourable state possible.” 1
It is also in the highest degree worthy of being
pointed out to general attention, that the Select
Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in
1810 to inquire into the affairs of India, have
selected this prevailing vice in almost all govern-
ments, as the object of their particular reprobation.
“ Your Committee,” they tell the House, “ must
here express their opinion of the dangerous tendency
of indulgence in the disposition alluded to ; of
representing districts, or things, to be in a more
favourable state than they really are : As this may
lead ; first, to a postponement of the communication
of unpleasant circumstances; next, to the suppression
of information ; and, finally, to the misrepresentation
of facts.”2 Of one thing, however, we may remain
assured, as of a law of nature, that so long as the
wisdom and virtue of governments are in too low a
state to recognise the indication of defects as the
most useful information which it is possible for them
to receive ; the dependants of government, who hence
find it their interest to report what is agreeable, will
be sure to mislead. A sufficient antidote would
exist, in a free press, under the unsparing operation
of which governments would remain ignorant of none
of their defects. Solid objections may indeed be
started to the institution as yet of a free press in
India, though objections of much less weight than is
generally imagined. But the existence of a free
press, in any state of society, or under any circum-
stances, it is the constant, strenuous, and wicked

Fifth Report, p. 607.

2 Ibid. p. 73.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 575

endeavour of almost all governments, utterly to pre- Bc°^g 1

vent.

The parliamentary committee carry their investi- 1793-
gation to the highest source ; they accuse the Indian
government, itself, of acting under the influence of
this destructive vice; and, in its representations to
the authorities at home, of describing things in India
as in a far better situation than they really are. From
general knowledge, the experienced mind would
easily infer the existence of this deceptive propensity,
and its operation, to a great extent. It is necessary
to have studied particularly the documents of our
Indian history, to know with what unusual strength
it operates in the breast of almost every man who has
been connected with the government of India; in a
word, to have any conception to what an extent the
British people have been deluded, and continue
to be deluded, with flattering accounts of wThat is
described as “ their empire in India.” In the whole
correspondence of the Bengal government with
the Court of Directors, down to April, 1806, the
Committee remark, that not a syllable is found
expressive of any failure in the system of police,
though from the year 1801, “ the reports of the
circuit judges, at the conclusion of each session,
evinced the prevalence of gang-robbery, not only in a
degree sufficient to attract the notice of the govern-
ment, but to call forth its endeavours to suppress
it.”1

Another cause of the disorders of India, a cause,
too, of which it is highly important to convey a just

1 Fifth Report, p. 73, 74.

576

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

g1 idea, is the overweening estimate which our coun-

try men are prone to make, not only of their own

,/tJ3‘ political contrivances in India, but of the institu-
tions of their own country in the mass. Under the
influence of a vulgar infirmity, That SeZ/’inust he
excellent, and every thing which affects the pride of
Self must have surpassing excellence, English insti-
tutions, and English practices, have been generally
set up as a standard, by conformity or disconformity
with which, the excellence or defect of every thing
in the world was to he determined. With mode-
rate taxes, under a government which protects
from foreign violence, the only thing necessary for
the happiness and the rapid improvement of the
people of India, is a good administration of justice.
But to this great object the circumstances of the
people, and the moral habits left in their minds by
superstition and despotism, oppose a formidable
resistance. To afford in any tolerable degree the
protection of law to the people of India, is a far more
difficult process than it is in England ; and for its
accomplishment, a far more perfect system of legal
and judicial provisions, than wThat is witnessed in
England, is indispensably required. Of this the
rulers in India have not attained the slightest con-
ception ; and hence the many ill-contrived measures
to which they have had recourse.1

1 It is not so difficult to afford to the people of India effective protection
as it is to the people of England or other European countries, as the
former are of a less turbulent character, and have an almost servile respect
for official authority. It is, however, quite true, that it is a great mistake
to attempt to afford it in the same way : to set aside all local usages and
practices, and to remodel the police of India after the approved receipts of
the Home Office. The adaptation of local means to local ends should be

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

577

Of part of the difficulties under which the adminis- B00K J 1

1 _ _ CHAP. 6.

tration of justice labours in India, some conception

may be formed, from the description which has 1793‘
already been given of the agents of police. The
state of the people is such, that trustworthy instru-
ments cannot be found. In a more favourable state
of the human mind, that large portion of the field
of action which it is impossible to reach with the
terrors of law, is protected by the sentiments of the
people themselves : they distribute towards indivi-
duals their favour and abhorrence, in proportion as
those individuals observe or violate the general rules
on the observance of which the happiness of society
depends ; and of so much importance to every man
are the sentiments with which he is regarded by
those among whom he lives, that without some share
of their good opinion, life itself becomes a burden.

In India there is no moral character. Sympathy
and antipathy are distributed by religious, not by
moral judgment. If a man is of a certain caste, and
has committed no transgression of those ceremonies
by which religious defilement or degradation is
incurred, he experiences little change in the senti-
ments of his countrymen, on account of moral purity
or pollution. In employing the natives of India, the
government can, therefore, never reckon upon good
conduct, except when it has made provision for the
immediate detection and punishment of the offender.

The proneness of the natives to mendacity and per-
jury, renders the evidence of judicial facts in India so
weak and doubtful, as extremely to increase the diffi-

carefully considered, if the latter are to be attained in India as well as in
other countries. — W.

VOL. V. 2 P

578

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bookv! culties of judication. The intelligent Judge of Cir-

cuit, in the Rajeshahye division, in 1808, thus

]793' describes the state of evidence in the Indian courts.
“ Every day’s experience, and reflection on the
nature of our courts, and the minds and manners of
the natives, serve to increase my douhts, about our
capacity to discover truth among them. It appears
to me, that there is a very great deal of perjury, of
many different shades, in our judicial proceedings :
and that many common rules of evidence would here
he inapplicable and absurd. Even the honest men,
as well as the rogues, are perjured. The most simple,
and the most cunning, alike, make assertions that are
incredible, or that are certainly false. If the prose-
cutor, in cases of decoity, was always to be disbe-
lieved because there was perjury, scarce a decoit
would he convicted. By cross-examination, you may
draw an honest witness into as many absurdities
and contradictions as you please.1 It is not easy to
detect the persons who come forward as eye-witnesses,
in cases of decoity. Their story is all true — but
one point; the identity of the persons whom they
accuse : and how can you discover whether this is
true or false ? Some witnesses are loquacious, some
taciturn ; some frigid, some over zealous ; some
willing, some unwilling; some bold, some timid,
some scrupulous : some come to give false evidence,
in favour of a friend, or master; some to ruin an
enemy ; and the signs of the different modes that
disguise truth are so very equivocal, and often so

1 This is not restricted to India, although it may happen more frequently
than in England, through the greater timidity and simplicity of the
witnesses. Such prevarication is not to be confounded with wilful false-
hood— W.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

579

unintelligible, that nothing can be depended on.
There is not one witness in a dozen on whom you can
rely for a purely true story. It has very often
happened, that a story, which, by attending only to
the plain direct course of things, I believed to be true,
has, by examining into matters apparently connected
in a very distant degree with the case, turned out
to be entirely false. I am afraid that the evidence
of witnesses in our courts is, for the most part, an
instrument in the hands of men : and not an inde-
pendent, untouched source of truth.”1 2

“ In the course of trials,” says Sir Henry Strachey,
“ the guilty very often, according to the best of my
observation, escape conviction. Sometimes, an atro-
cious robbery or murder is sworn to, and in all appear-
ance clearly established by the evidence on the part
of the prosecutors ; but when we come to the defence,
an alibi is set up ; and though we are inclined to dis-
believe it, if two or three witnesses swear consis-
tently to such alibi, and elude every attempt to catch
them in prevarication or contradiction, we are thrown

1 Fifth Report, p. 589. — M. Very much that has been mistaken for
falsehood and perjury by English judges, has been little else than their
own ignorance — they have not understood the character of the natives with
whom they have had to deal — have made no allowance for the circum-
stances of their situation, and although not wholly unacquainted with
the language, have not understood it sufficiently to appreciate its phrase-
ology. The impatience too, which is commonly characteristic of the
juvenile Indian judge, is very unfavourable to the elicitment of truth from
a native witness. See, upon this subject, the remarks of Sir H. Strachey,
quoted in a subsequent page. There is also another source of exaggeration,
if not of error, in these opinions of the Indian Judges, which has not been
sufficiently adverted to : their whole experience is confined to India : they
have no standard of comparison : could they preside at the Old Bailey for
a sessions, they would probably discover, that very much of that which
they deprecate, is not peculiarly Indian, but characterises fraud and crime
in all times and in all countries. — W.

2 p 2

BOOK VI

CHAT. G.

1793.

580

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

q 1 into doubt, and the prisoners escape. Very frequently
— the witnesses on the part of the prosecution swear to
facts in themselves utterly incredible, for the purpose
of fully convicting the accused : when, if they had
simply stated what they saw and knew, their testi-
mony would have been sufficient.” 1

In another place he declares ; “ A rich man can
seldom be convicted of a crime at a gaol-delivery.
If committed on the strongest positive testimony
before the magistrate, he without difficulty brings
twenty witnesses on his trial to swear an alibi , or
any thing else, that may suit his case ; or he can
bribe the prosecutor, or his material witnesses. He
has besides a very good chance of escaping by the
mere contradictions of the witnesses against him,
particularly if what they have to depose to is long or
intricate, or happened at a distant period ; or was
seen and heard by many witnesses of different
descriptions and characters ; or if many facts, names,
and dates, are to be recollected. No falsehood is
too extravagant or audacious to be advanced before
the Court of Circuit. No case, at least no rich
man’s case, is desperate for a defence, supported
by counter-evidence ; and if once doubts are raised,
no matter of what kind, the object of the accused is
gained, and he is secure. Perjury is extremely
common, and though it occurs much more frequently
on the part of the accused than of the prosecutor,
yet I have known several instances of conspiracies
and false complaints supported by perjury. The
judge who has once had experience of a case of this
kind is soon plunged into doubt and perplexity,
continually awake to the possibility of the wit-

1 Fifth Report, p. 561.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 581

nesses against the accused being forsworn : and as he B00K J1

° ° . CHAP. 6.

of course leans to the favourable side, the conse-

quence must he, that the guilty frequently escape.” 1 1793-

Whenever you fail to a certain extent in
assuring protection to the innocent, and punishment
to the guilty, the criminal is enabled to employ the
great instruments of government, punishment and
reward, in his own defence Such is the military
strength of the British government in Bengal, that
it could exterminate all the inhabitants with the
utmost ease ; such at the same time is its civil
weakness, that it is unable to save the community
from running into that extreme disorder, where the
villain is more powerful to intimidate than the
government to protect. The judge of circuit of the
Bajeshahye division in 1808, says: “The decoits
know much better than wTe how to preserve their
power. They have with great success established a
respect for their order, by speedy, certain, and
severe punishments, and by judicious arrangements
for removing obstacles, and for facilitating the
execution of their plans. There are two grand
points for the decoits to effect ; first, to prevent
apprehension; second, to prevent conviction. For
the first, they bribe the Zemindary and police
officers. For the second, they torture and murder
the informers, prosecutors, and witnesses, who ap-
pear against them. The progress of this system
is dreadful : the decoits become every thing ; and
the police, and the criminal judicature, nothing.” 2

1 Fifth Report, p. 534.

2 Fifth Report, p. 587. “ On my way through the northern parts of

this Zillah,” he continues, “ I had some conversation with a Zemindar,
and a police darogah, who have distinguished themselves by their exer-

582

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

B^i°\r l;1 44 This we know,” says the same enlightened

• Judge in another passage, “that a sirdar decoit has

generally the means of saving himself from convic-
tion ; and that, although all the world say that he is
a notorious robber and murderer, not an individual
can be found who will give evidence against him.
This is a dreadful state of things : and so it must
remain, till confidence is restored to the people
by removing their well-grounded fears, by extir-
pating the sirdars, and giving a real efficiency and
vigour to the police.” 1

“ The terror of decoits among the ryots,” says Sir
Henry Strachey, “ is excessive. Persons who have
families and property deem it extremely rash and
dangerous to prosecute, or to appear as witnesses
against men of such desperate character as the
decoits of this country. Indeed it is with the
utmost difficulty that they can be prevailed upon
to come forward, even in cases where they have
received personal injury, and where they have
not to speak to the persons of the prisoners, but
merely to identify the property found in their
possession.”2

Such is the nature, such the extent, and such the
causes of the evil. The remedies surely constitute
an important object of inquiry. The government
attempted to oppose the torrent by changes in the
rules of police, and by adding to the severity of
punishment. Under these expedients, enormities

tions to apprehend decoits ; they told me that it was impossible to get any
information about the great decoits ; that the houses of all the principal
inhabitants were open to them : yet that nobody dared mention their
names, for fear of being murdered.” Ibid.

1 Ibid. p. 591. 2 Ibid. p. 661, 554, 534.

RESULT OF CORNWALLIS’S JUDICIAL REFORMS. 583

continued to increase till 1807, when a more effica- B00K' 1
cious remedy was thought to be required. The - — — —
Zemindars, who formerly exercised a power almost
despotic over the districts consigned to then- care,
and who maintained a large establishment of armed
men, with a commission for the suppression of
crimes, were enabled, as often as they had activity
and good will, to suppress by arbitrary execution all
violent offences but then- own. One robber in a
district was better than a multitude. But Lord
Cornwallis, impressed with the evidence of the
abominable use made of this power by the Zemindars,
in exercising oppression on the people submitted
to their jurisdiction, resolved to deprive them
of all exercise of any of the powers of government ;
and laid it down as a rule, that the union of the
functions of revenue with those of police or judica-
ture, was a fundamental error, from which nothing
but misgovernment could ensue. Notwithstanding
this, the rulers of 1807, with that sort of empirical
impulse, by which the vulgar tribe of rulers are
usually conducted, took up the notion, that if the
Zemindars had once preserved the country from
decoits, the Zemindars truly might do so again. In
spite of the grand rule of Lord Cornwallis, the Ze-
mindars, farmers of land, and others of the principal
inhabitants, received the title of aumeens of police,
and were vested with the same authority as the
darogahs for the apprehension of offenders, but
without the judicial powers intrusted to the darogah
in the case of petty offences and disputes.

Not only was this expedient for the suppression of
crimes attended with no good effects ; it was attended

584

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

Bchap g 1 so many °f a contrary description, that in 1810
• — it was abolished. Other expedients in the mean

j 793 . . L

time had been invented and tried. In 1808, a
superintendent of police was appointed ; whose labours
were expected to have the effect of concentrating
information, and giving unity and combination to
the efforts of the magistrates in the separate dis-
tricts. A regular establishment was also organized
of police spies called goyendas , with a species of
superintendents called girdawars , who had in some
degree been employed from 1792. The office of the
goyendas was to point out the robbers : that of the
girdawars to apprehend them.1

So imperfectly were those means adapted to the
end in view, that in a despatch of the Governor-
General, under date the 29th of May, 1810, the
extent of the mischief is thus described : “ The evi-
dence lately adduced, exclusive of a multiplicity
of other proofs, establishes beyond a question, the
commission of robberies, murder, and the most
atrocious deliberate cruelties : in a word, an aggre-
gate of the most atrocious crimes. Nor let it be
supposed, that these offences were of rare occur-
rence; or confined to particular districts. They
were committed, with few exceptions, and with
slight modifications of atrocity, in every part of
Bengal.”2

The inconvenience which attended the employ-
ment of goyendas was of the same nature with
that which attended the employment of darogahs:
instead of protectors, they themselves became the

1 Fifth Report, p. 7 I.

? Ibid. p. 72.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

585

plunderers and murderers of the people. Sir Henry
Strachey informs us, that “ the people are harassed
by the vexatious visits and outrages, and the plunder
of goyendas and girdawars ; who constantly, when
supported by the least colour of authority from the
magistrate, intimidate, extort, suborn, and rob,
under pretence of bringing offenders to justice.” 1
The head-money which was granted for the
conviction of decoits pointed out a ready wTay to the
darogahs and goyendas, in confederacy, for acquiring
riches, by fabricating evidence against as many
innocent persons as they chose. A member of the
government, in 1810, in a minute in which he
advocated the employment of goyendas, made the
following admission : f‘ That abuses have been prac-
tised by goyendas or informers, but still more by
girdwars, or those intrusted with power to appre-
hend, is unquestionable. Seeking a livelihood, by
the profession in which they had engaged, but not
able always to procure it, by the slow means of the
detection of crimes and proof of guilt, they have, no
doubt, resorted, but too often, to various modes
of extortion ; sometimes from persons of suspected
character ; and, at other times, from the honest part
of the community, under threats of accusation :
and have occasionally proceeded to prefer groundless
charges, and even to support them by false evidence :
and instances have actually occurred, where there
has been too much reason to believe, that the
goyenda himself devised the robbery, of which he
convicted the unhappy wretches, reduced by his arts

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

1 Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 561,

586

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 6.

1793.

1 to a participation in the crime.” To such a height
- had the enormity of convicting innocent persons, for
the sake of the head-money, proceeded, that in
1810, the necessity was felt of destroying the temp-
tation, by putting the reward offered for the convic-
tion of offenders on a new foundation. And the
Committee of the House of Commons thus report ;
“ The bad practises, used by goyendas, your
Committee find noticed strongly in the answer to the
interrogatories circulated in 1801. There must con-
sequently have been a wide field for the goyendas to
move in, from their first appearance in 1792, until
the period referred to, in 1810, when the modi-
fication of the reward or head-money considerably
narrowed the ground on which they had been
accustomed to practise their atrocities. The pro-
ceedings of the courts of justice, and the reports of
the judges of circuit, furnish a strong confirmation of
what has been stated with respect to the unprin-
cipled practices of that description of people; and
of the evils resulting from a combination between
them, and the darogahs, or head police officers, for
the purpose of sharing with them the head-money
for decoits.” 1

To the villainy of the police agents is attached a
considerable danger, lest, being employed by the
magistrates, and necessary to their functions, the
magistrates should contract a reluctance to believe
in their guilt. It is in evidence, that the reality of
this evil is but too frequently experienced. The
Judge of circuit, reporting on the state of the twenty-

Fifth Report; ut supra, p. 75.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 587

four pergunnahs in 1810, says: “Several petitions
were presented to me in the course of the session. 17;j;j '
Those of the greatest public importance complain of
the rapacity, oppression, and gross and daring acts of
illegal violence and rapine committed by goyendas ;
and strong disinclination evinced on the part of the
magistrate to redress grievances of that descrip-
tion.” 1

To remedy the defects of the provision made by
Lord Cornwallis, for the administration of penal
justice, such were the supplemental measures
employed till 1810, and such their effects. It
is proper also to consider what proposals were
made of other means for the attainment of the same
end.

One thing recommended was, to re-invest the
Zemindars with powers of police ; and among the
interrogatories circulated by government in 1801,
the opinion of the judges was asked, on “ the expe-
diency of granting to Zemindars, farmers, and other
persons of character, commissions empowering them
to act as justices of the peace.” Among the most
intelligent of the Company’s servants, one opinion, on
this subject, seems alone to exist. “ I am per-
suaded,” says the magistrate of Burdwan, “ that to
vest the Zemindars and farmers of this district with
the powers proposed, would not only prove nugatory
for the objects intended, but be highly detrimental
to the country, and destructive of the peace of the
inhabitants. Few of the Zemindars and farmers, of
any respectability, reside on their estates and farms.

Allow them to exercise a power equal to the pur-

1 Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 597.

588

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAT. 5.

1793.

1 poses, and to vest with it by delegation, their agents
" or under farmers, the worst and most mischievous
consequences are to he apprehended from their abuse
of it.” 1 On the same occasion, the magistrates of
the twenty-four pergunnahs say, “ From the general
character of the Zemindars, farmers, and other inha-
bitants of the districts, we do not think that it would
be advisable to vest any of them with the powers of
justices of the peace. On the contrary, we are of
opinion, that such a measure, so far from being in
any way beneficial to the police of the district, would
be a source of great oppression to the lower class of
the inhabitants, and of innumerable complaints to
the magistrate.” 2

They add, “We have reason to believe, though it
is difficult to establish proof against them, that the
Zemindars, not only, in many instances, encourage
and harbour decoits, but frequently partake of the
property plundered by them. The chokedars and
pykes employed by them, are concerned in almost
every decoity committed in the districts subject to
our jurisdiction.” 3

To the same purport, the Judge of circuit in the
Rajeshahye division says, in 1808: “ My informants
attributed the success of the decoits to the same
cause that every body else does ; namely, the pro-
tection given them by the Zemindars and police
officers, and other people of power and influence in
the country. Every thing I see, and hear, and read
on this subject, serves to convince me of the truth of
this statement.” 4

1 Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 549. 2 Ibid. p. 555. 3 Ibid. p. 554.

* Ibid. p. 587.

result of cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 589

Sir Henry Strachey, as usual, reasons with much J1

intelligence upon this subject. “ It is extremely

difficult,” he says, in his reply to the same interro-
gatory, “ I may, I believe, say it is not possible to
arrange an effectual plan of association and co-opera-
tion, among the higher orders, for purposes of police,
or for any other purpose. We have few large
towns ; no societies exercising or capable of exer-
cising municipal authority. — There are no gentle-
men, in whose honour and probity, in whose spirit
and activity, government can repose confidence — •

There exists not, between the common people and
the rulers, a middle order, who feel a common
interest in the prosperity of the state ; who love
their countrymen, wffio respect their rulers, or are by
them respected ; who either could, or, if they could,
would, even in a case of the greatest exigency, exert
themselves heartily and effectually, each in his own
sphere, for the public good. Such a set of men in
the society is here unknown. Government is unable
to direct, or in any way to make use of, the power
of the individuals composing the community. Hence
our extreme ignorance of all that passes ; our com-
plete inability to detect and apprehend offenders ; to
explain to the public what we wish should be
known ; and persuade them what should be done.

Hence the long continuance of enormous abuses
without its being possible for government, or
for the magistrate, to prevent or to discover
them.” 1

“ It should,” he says in another place, “ be the

1 Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 537.

590

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

study of government, in my opinion, to form, if

possible, a body of gentry, such as exists in other

1 ' 93‘ countries ; an intermediate order, between the gover-
nors and the governed, to whom the one might look
down, and the other might look up. At present, no
such order exists. Most of the men who once pos-
sessed rank and wealth, are gone to ruin. The men
of property who do exist are, for the most part, such
as have lately risen. That the magistrate can main-
tain the peace over a million or more of persons,
without the help of a considerable number whose
interest or sense of duty should induce them to assist
him, is plainly impossible.” 1

The Judge of circuit in the Benares division, in
1808, descants with great warmth upon the same
topic ; the extreme difficulty of maintaining order
in any country, without the assistance of a superior
class of inhabitants incorporated with the people, and
possessing that influence which superior property
and education confer, over others deprived of those
advantages. “ In maintaining this opinion I may,”
says he, “ unless I greatly deceive myself, appeal to
the general practice of almost all nations, originating,
doubtless, in circumstances and feelings common to
all mankind. The natural mode of managing men
is to employ the agency of those, whom, from the
relation in which they stand to them, they regard
with respect and confidence. Accordingly, all go-
vernments seem to have made the authority of these
native leaders the basis of their police : and any
hired police establishment which they maintain are

Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 5G1

RESULT OF CORNWALLIS S JUDICIAL REFORMS.

591

not intended to supersede the native police, but to
superintend, watch, and aid its efforts. To take an
example with which we are all familiar. In our
own country we all know what services the society
contributes to its own protection. We know how
much vigour is conferred on its police, by the
support which it receives from native gentry, from
respectable landholders, from the corporations in
towns, and from substantial persons of the middle
class in the villages. We can form some concep-
tion of the mischief which would ensue, if that
support should be withdrawn, and an attempt made
to compensate it by positive laws and artificial insti-
tutions.”

Such is the extreme difficulty of distributing
justice to a people without the aid of the
people themselves! Such, at the same time, is the
utter impracticability, under the present education,
circumstances, and character, of the people of India,
of deriving from them the aid which is required !
Without a tolerable administration of justice, how-
ever, which the people of India are so far from
enjoying, every man will acknowledge, that all
attempts to improve either their circumstances or their
character, must be attended with disappointment.
What then is the inference ? Are the government
and the people to go on, for ever, in their present
deplorable situation ; the people suffering all the
evils of a state of anarchy ; the government strug-
gling with eagerness to help them, but in vain?

If it wTere possible for the English government to
learn wisdom by experience ; which governments
rarely do ; it might here, at last, see, with regret.

BOOK VI

CHAP. G.

1793.

592

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi some of the effects of that illiberal, cowardly, and

short-sighted policy, under which it has taken the

1 ' J3' most solicitous precautions to prevent the settlement
of Englishmen in India; trembling, forsooth, lest
Englishmen, if allowed to settle in India, should
detest and cast off its yoke ! 1 The most experienced
persons in the government of India describe, what
to them appears the difficulty, almost or altogether
insuperable, of affording protection either to person
or property in that country, without the assistance of
persons of the requisite moral and intellectual quali-
fications, rooted in the country, and distributed over
it in every part. They unite in declaring that there
is no class in India who possess these qualifications ;
that the powers necessary for an efficient police
cannot be intrusted to the Zemindars, without
ensuring all the evils of a gross and barbarous des-
potism. And they speak with admiration of the
assistance rendered to government by the gentlemen
distributed in every part of England. Is it possible
to avoid seeing; and seeing, not to acknowledge, the
inestimable service which might have been derived,
in this great exigency, from a body of English gen-
tlemen, who, if they had been encouraged to settle,
as owners of land, and as manufacturers and mer-
chants, would at this time have been distributed in
great numbers in India? Not only would they have
possessed the requisite moral and intellectual quali-

1 It is wonderful to see how the English government, every now and
then, voluntarily places itself in the station of a government existing in
opposition to the people ; a government which hales, because it dreads the
people, and is hated by them in its turn. Its deportment with regard to
the residence of Englishmen in India speaks these unfavourable senti-
ments with a force which language could not easily possess.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

593

fications, a thing of inestimable value ; but they
would have possessed other advantages of the
highest importance. 1

The representation of Lord Teignmouth is lament-
ably true, That the civil servants of the Company,
enclosed in government offices from the time of
their arrival in India, have neither leisure nor op-
portunity to become acquainted with the people ;
and that the periods of their residence, from their
being in a state of perpetual change, come to an
end, before they are able to acquire either local
knowledge or experience.2 Among the circumstances
to which the best of the Company’s servants ascribe
their deplorable inability to afford protection to the
people, their own ignorance of the local manners,
character, and circumstances, occupy a conspicuous
rank. In an enumeration of the causes which concur
to prevent the due administration of justice. Sir
Henry Strachey says ; “Another impediment, though
of a very different nature from those I have men-
tioned, and much more difficult to remove, is to me
too palpable to be overlooked : I mean, that arising
from Europeans, in our situation, being necessarily
ill qualified in many points, to perform the duties

' Upon no subject relating to India have more erroneous impressions
been entertained, than that of allowing Europeans to hold lands in India.
The permission has been now granted them for several years, and where is
the numerous body of respectable English landholders, who, according to
the view taken in the text, are to render inestimable services to the
Government in preserving the peace of the country ? Scarcely any have
availed themselves of the permission, and the Government must seek for aid
in the management of the criminal and civil justice of the country from
that quarter alone from which it is naturally to be expected — the people
themselves — under active and enlightened European official superin-
tendence.— W.

2 Mr. Shore’s Minute, Fifth Report, p. 169.

VOL. V. 2 Q

BOOK VI

CHAF. 6.

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BOOK VI

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required of us, as judges and magistrates. Nothing
is more common, even after a minute and laborious
examination of evidence on both sides, than for the
judge to be left in utter doubt respecting the points
at issue. This proceeds chiefly from our very imper-
fect connexion with the natives, and our scanty
knowledge, after all our study, of their manners, cus-
toms, and languages. The judge of circuit, and his
assistant, are strangers, and quite unacquainted with
the character of the persons examined, and the credit
due to them ; and always on that account less com-
petent to discover truth among volumes of contra-
dictory evidence.”1 On another occasion he asks,
“ What judge can distinguish the exact truth, among
the numerous inconsistencies of the natives he exa-
mines"? How often do those inconsistencies proceed
from causes, very different from those suspected by
us ? How often from simplicity, fear, embarrassment
in the witness ? How often from our own ignorance
and impatience? We cannot study the genius of the
people, in its own sphere of action. We know little
of their domestic life; their knowledge, conversation,
amusements, their trades and castes, or any of those
national and individual characteristics, which are
essential to a complete knowledge of them. Every
day affords us examples of something new and sur-
prising : and we have no principle to guide us in the
investigation of facts, except an extreme diffidence of
our opinion ; a consciousness of inability to judge of
what is probable or improbable.” He adds, “ The
evil I complain of is extensive, and, I fear, irreparable.

Answer to Interrogatories, Fifth Report, p. 534.

RESULT OF CORNWALLIS S JUDICIAL REFORMS.

595

The difficulty we experience in discerning truth and b^ok V!
falsehood among the natives may be ascribed, I think, — - — -
chiefly to our want of connexion and intercourse ' '
with them ; to the peculiarity of their manners and
habits ; — their excessive ignorance of our characters
— and our almost equal ignorance of theirs.”1

It is impossible to reflect upon the situation of
English gentlemen, settled in the country, as pro-
prietors of land, and as manufacturers, without per-
ceiving how advantageously they would be situated
for acquiring that knowledge of the natives, in which
the Company’s servants are proved to be so defective;
and for giving that aid in the administration of
justice, without which a good administration is not
to be attained. Such men would be forced into an
intimate intercourse with the natives, whence, under
the necessity of employing them, and of transacting
and conversing with them in almost all the relations
of life, an intimate knowledge would arise. They
would have a local influence of great efficacy. They
would be useful, beyond all calculation, in maintain-
ing order in a wide circle around them, among a
people in such a state of society as that at present
found in Bengal.2

1 Answers to Interrogatories, Fifth Report, p. 562.

2 As an additional proof, if any additional proof were wanting, of the
benefit which might be derived from the multiplication of English settlers ;
it may be mentioned, as a matter of present experience, that the English-
men, the most thoroughly conversant with the language and manners of
the people, are generally those who have been tolerated, as private adven-
turers, in some line of industry in the country. A conspicuous example
lately appeared. A gentleman of the name of Blacquiere, not in the
service of the Company, but who had lived in India in the pursuit of private
objects, was found so much better qualified than any of the servants of the
Company, by his knowledge of the language and manners of the country,

2 q 2

596

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

Though in most of their reports, the Judges regard
a remedy as hopeless ; yet there is one recommend-
ation in which a considerable number of them concur.
As trials are delayed, and crimes escape punishment,
by a deficiency in the number of tribunals, the peri-
odical visits of the judges of circuit being inadequate
to the demand for justice, it is proposed, that the
magistrates in the Zillalis should he vested with the
powers of penal judication. To this recommendation,
however, several weighty objections apply. In the
first place, the civil judicature in the Zillahs is already
a duty far too heavy for the judges to discharge ;
and the arrear of causes produces a delay, which ap-
proaches to a denial, of justice. If in the hands of
those judges the business of penal judicature were to
be added to that of civil judicature, the number of
them ought to be doubled ; and that, we are told,
the finances of the Company will not allow. Besides,
according to the routine of the Company’s service,
the judges in the Zillahs are generally too little ad-
vanced in years and experience, to be intrusted with
the powers of life and death, or any powers approach-

and had actually rendered so much service as a magistrate of Calcutta,
that he was vested with extensive powers over several districts. After
the private traders in India, the officers of the sepoys, from their inter-
course with their men, are the best acquainted with the natives ; and would
very often form the best judges and magistrates. Lord Cornwallis, not
finding a man among the civil servants of the Company at Madras, tolerably
acquainted with the language and manners of the country, appointed
sepoy officers to be collectors and managers in the newly-acquired
districts ; and the great success of the experiment proved the wisdom of
the choice. The services which were rendered by such officers as Read
and Munro, in establishing order in extensive countries, show to what
practical excellence the government of India might be carried, if English-
men, incorporated with the natives as landlords and manufacturers, were
intrusted with the powers of police.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

597

ing to that importance, under so many chances of

error as accompany judicature in India.

As the number of darogahs and their establish- ]793'
ments would be far too small to prevent the disorders
of the country, even if they were faithful to their trust,
some of the judges propose, that their numbers should
be increased, and their salaries augmented. To this,
too, the objection of the government would be, that
the finances cannot admit the expense. A more
legitimate objection is, that by increasing the number
of darogahs they would only increase the number
of privileged plunderers : and that it is one of the
most imbecile of vulgar prejudices to suppose, that
large salaries make honest men.1 So long as things
were so miserably organized, that gain, unbalanced
by danger, would accrue to the darogahs, by violating
their duties, they might be expected to violate them,
if their salaries were as large as those of the Gover-
nor-General.

Some of the Company’s servants, among others
Mr. Dowdeswell, argue strongly for the employment
of spies and informers. Their abstract, general
arguments, to show that informers are useful auxi-
liaries to justice, are good and conclusive. Make
justice certain, immediate, unexpensive, at the tri-
bunals, and every act which spies and informers can
perform, will be an act of utility. But if, in India,
your securities for justice are so wretched, that by
employing spies, you only create a new class of rob-
bers, and let loose upon the people an order of men

1 This is a notion, the fallacy of which has been previously demonstrated.
Adequate allowances diminish chances of temptation, and render character
of too much value to be slightly hazarded. — W.

598

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

^ 1 who carry on their depredations with the arms of

government, you increase instead of diminishing the

1793, disorders of the country.

Contemplating this accumulation of difficulties, the
Company’s servants in general appear to regard the
case with a kind of despair ; or at least to contem-
plate the evil as rooted so deeply in the moral cha-
racter of the people, that it cannot he removed, unless
by the slow improvements which it may be possible
for education to effect.

After the recommendation of some of the above
expedients, of the efficacy of which his hopes were
but too sanguine, Mr. Dowdeswell said; “I am at
the same time sensible that a great deal more must
he done in order to eradicate the seeds of the crimes
most injurious to the peace and happiness of society.
The real source of evil lies in the corrupt morals of
the people. Under these circumstances, the best
laws can only have a partial operation. If we would
apply a lasting remedy to the evil, we must adopt
means of instruction for the different classes of the
community.” 1

In answer to the interrogatory, “ Do any measures
occur to you, the adoption of which would, in your
opinion, contribute progressively to the improvement
of the moral character of the inhabitants of the divi-
sion;” the judges of Moorshedabad replied ; “The
moral character of a nation can be improved by edu-
cation only. All instruction is unattainable to the
labouring poor: whose own necessities require the
assistance of the children, as soon as their tender

1 Filth Report, p. GI7.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

599

limbs are capable of the smallest labour. With the
middle class of tradesmen, artificers and shopkeepers,
education ends at ten years of age, and never reaches
further than reading, writing (a scarcely legible hand)
on a plantain leaf, and the simplest rules of arithme-
tic. We are not prepared to suggest any measures,
the adoption of which would, in our opinion, contri-
bute progressively to the improvement of a people
thus circumstanced.” 1 In reply to the interrogatory
which respected the effect produced by the operation
of the English government on the moral character
of the natives, the same judges observe ; “ The gene-
ral moral character of the inhabitants of our division
seems, in our opinion, much the same as we have
always known the moral character of the natives in
general. Ignorance ; and its concomitant, gross
superstition ;• an implicit faith in the efficacy of
prayers, charms, and magic : selfishness, low cunning,
litigiousness, avarice, revenge, disregard to truth,
and indolence, are the principal features to be traced.
It does not strike us, that the system established by
the British government, for the administration of the
laws, and the conduct of the internal administration
of the country, can have any influence on the moral
character of the inhabitants in general, either by
way of improvement, or otherwise.”2

On this, as on other occasions, Sir Henry Strachey
evinces superior powers of reflection, and penetrates
farthest below the surface. “ To attempt,” says he,
“ any material improvement or alteration in the

1 Fifth Report, p. 524.

2 Ibid. p. 520. See to the same purpose the answer of the Judge and
Magistrates of Burdwan, p. 550.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

600

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi morai character of the natives, by the intervention of

legislative measures, I look upon as vain. They no

1793- longer consider the laws as a part of their religion.
I do not even see that, with us, law and morality
have much connexion. It is the province of the
magistrate to quell disorders and preserve peace ; but
as to good morals, I am not aware, that, either by
precept or example, we are capable of producing any
effect whatever. The vices and the crimes of the
people proceed from their poverty and ignorance.
And I do not conceive they are likely to grow much
richer or wiser, while the present state of things
exists. — This assertion, however, that the vices and
crimes of the people proceed from their poverty and
ignorance, I would wish to be understood with limi-
tations. Where considerable numbers are collected
and associate together, — especially if there happens
to be much inequality of rank and fortune, — the
morals of the people are worst : The same may be
observed respecting such persons as have occasion to
attend our cuteherries; they get into bad habits. It
is not always, therefore, that the people are the worst
where they are the poorest and most ignorant ; never-
theless, the assertion is, in my opinion, generally
speaking, true. It is certain that where labour is
amply rewarded, where all can easily get employment,
and where the poor are provided for, the people
lead industrious and virtuous lives ; and it will be
observed that in remote parts, where debauchery
and dissipation are little known, very few, except
from necessity, resort to depredation on the public.
Most, but not all, decoits begin their evil practices
from necessity. A ryot, finding some difficulty to

RESULT OF CORNWALLIS S JUDICIAL REFORMS.

601

subsist, either from his imprudence or ill fortune ; a
peon, or other servant, losing his place, and unable
to procure another ; a cooly, finding no employment :
Such persons, of whom in this populous country
there are always many thousands, often take to
stealing ; are corrupted by vicious companions ;
drink spirits ; and are gradually led on, from impunity
and habits of idleness, to become decoits, and depend
on robbery alone for subsistence.”1 This is an im-
portant passage, which will afford evidence for some
interesting conclusions in a subsequent page.

W e have now seen the extent and dreadful nature
of the evil ; the inefficacy of the remedies which
have been applied ; and the sort of despair enter-
tained by the functionaries of government that
better can be found. That there is no impossibility,
however, in establishing a good administration of
justice, even in such a state of things as exists
in India, we may infer without much danger of
mistake, or even of contradiction.2 If much of the

1 Fifth Report, p. 539.

2 That there was no impossibility, nor even much difficulty in applying
remedies to the evil, even when at its greatest height, has been proved by
incontestable authority, the records of the Government, which show that
the remedies were at hand when there was industry and skill to employ
them. Amongst the districts most notorious for decoity, prior to 1820, had
been that of Burdwan. In that year Mr. W. B. Bayley was appointed
magistrate. In the following year, the Circuit Judge reported that gang-
robbery had become nearly extinct in the district, and a regular system
had been introduced, which promised fair to secure the co-operation of all
parts of the community in the detection and apprehension of offenders.
Upon being desired to explain the means by which such a change had
been so rapidly effected, Mr. Bayley reported, the principal of them to have
been — the co-operation of the village watchmen, secured by rewarding
them for activity, punishing them for neglect, protecting them against
encroachments upon their Chakerani lands — small apportionments of rent-
free land, by which their services were retained, and inducing the head-
men of the villages to subscribe more liberally for the support of the
Chowkccdars. The Munduls, who, were the principal fixed residents of

BOOK VI

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1793.

G02

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

difficulty has arisen from the dominion of English
prejudices, and especially that deep-rooted prejudice,
that English law is the standard of perfection to
which every thing should be fitted, considerable pro-
gress towards improvement will be made, as soon as
we have emancipated ourselves from those prejudices.

In the first place, as the law, according to what
we have already seen, is in a state in which it is to a
great degree incapable of performing the offices of
law, and must remain almost wholly impotent, in a
situation in which the deficiences of law are not
supplied by manners, let the law be reformed, and
put into that state in which alone it is adapted to
answer the ends for which it is intended. Let the
laws, whatever they may, for the security of existing
rights, or the attainment of future advantages, he
determined to be, receive what alone can bestow
upon them a fixed, or real existence ; let them all
he expressed in a written form of words ; words, as
precise and accurate as it is possible to make them,
and let them be published in a book. This is what
is understood by a code ; without such a code there
can be no good administration of justice : in such a
state of things as that in India, there can, without

eacli village, and who, as Mr. Bayley states, were vested by long usage
with considerable local authority and immunities, and the Chowkeedars
under them, were the chief classes upon whom he deemed it requisite to
call for particular assistance, both in furnishing information and active aid
in the improvement of the police.” Judicial letter to Bengal 9th Nov.
1814. Papers relating to Police, from 1810 to 1819, printed for the
House of Commons. The circumstances of Burdwan warrant the inference
that it was not so much the character of the people, or the inadequacy of
the law, as the inefficiency of the magistracy, which led to the prevalence
of decoity at particular times in the lower provinces of Bengal. It was
comparatively rare in the upper provinces, and was not as might be sup-
posed from the remarks in the text, universal in the Company’s terri-
tories.—W.

result of Cornwallis's judicial reforms.

603

it, be no such administration of iustice as consists book vi

with any tolerable degree of human happiness or

national prosperity. In providing this most important 1793-
instrument of justice, no further difficulty will be
found, than the application of the due measure of
virtue and intelligence ; not to be looked for in the
classes, whose interests the vices of the law promote.

Sir William Jones, and others, recognised the de-
mand for a code of Indian law ; but unhappily
thought of no better expedient than that of employing
some of the natives themselves ; as if one of the most
difficult tasks to which the human mind can be
applied, a work to which the highest measure of
European intelligence is not more than equal, could
be expected to be tolerably performed by the
unenlightened and perverted intellects of a few Indian
pundits.1 With no sanction of reason could any
thing better be expected than that which was in
reality produced ; a disorderly compilation of loose,
vague, stupid, or unintelligible quotations and
maxims, selected arbitrarily from books of law,
books of devotion, and books of poetry ; attended
with a commentary, which only adds to the mass of
absurdity and darkness: a farrago, by which nothing
is defined, nothing established; and from which,
in the distribution of justice, no assistance beyond
the materials of a gross inference, can for any
purpose be derived. To apply the authority of
religion, or any other authority than that of the
government, to the establishment of law, is now
unnecessary ; because the great and multiplied

’ The Pundits were employed, not to compile a new code, but to digest
what laws prevailed amongst the Hindus, and it cannot be denied that it
was wise to ascertain what the people had, before supplying them with
what they might not be found to require. — W.

604

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

changes which the English have made in all the
interior regulations of society, have already de-
stroyed in the minds of the natives the association
between the ideas of religion and the ideas of law.1
But, at any time, for combining the authority of
religion with that of law, nothing more was re-
quired, than what might still be advisable ; namely,
to associate the most celebrated of the pundits.
For digesting the law into an accurate code, such
men wrould be altogether unqualified ; but they
might lend their peculiar and local knowledge to
him to whom the task is assigned ; and they
might easily and effectually annex the authority of
religion to his definitions, by subjoining quotations
from their sacred books, and declaring the words of
the code to be the true interpretation of them.
The law of the natives, and the minds of its inter-
preters, are equally pliant. The words, to which
any appeal can be made as the words of the law, are
so vague, and so variable, than they can be accom-
modated to any meaning. And such is the eager-
ness of the pundits to raise themselves in the esteem
of their masters, that they show the greatest desire
to extract from the loose language of their sacred
books, whatever opinions they conceive to bear the
greatest resemblance to theirs.2 It would require
but little management to obtain the cordial co-opera-

1 This is an affirmation not warranted by the fact, as far as it regards a
belief in the sanctity of those laws which are supposed to be based upon
the Vedas or the Koran. — W.

2 There is no proof of such a disposition, and its existence to the extent
here intimated may be confidently denied. At the same time, it is, no
doubt true, that the co-operation of Moulavis and Pundits is essential to
the formation of an unexceptionable code, although in the attempt now in
progress towards the codification of Indian law, native assistance has been
dispensed with by the ‘ wisdom ’ of the British legislature. — W.

result of Cornwallis’s revenue reforms.

605

tion of the doctors, both Moslem and Hindu, in book}’1

covering the whole field of law with accurate defini-

tions and provisions; giving security to all existing 1/93-
rights, and the most beneficial order to those which
were yet to accrue.

For the distribution of justice, there is required
not only an accurate expression of what is to be
observed and obeyed as law ; but an adequate
judicial establishment; or, an appointment of judges,
and other ministers of justice, sufficient on every
occasion, which calls for a decision, to declare w’hat
the law is, and to carry it into effect, with the smallest
possible burden, in the way either of delay, vexa-
tion, or expense.

For this important purpose, it is evidently neces-
sary, that the number of tribunals should bear a due
proportion to the business which they are called
upon to perform ; and that, whenever the causes
which offer themselves for decision exceed the
number of those which it is possible for the existing
tribunals to decide, addition should be made to the
number of them, till they are sufficient for the prompt
investigation of every case on which the judicial
decision is required. From no government, surely,
ought this language to be heard ; that it does indeed
see the necessity of a greater number of tribunals, in
the inability of the existing number to investigate the
suits of the people ; but that it has something
else to do with the mone) which it takes from
the people, than to expend it in perfecting the
administration of justice.

Nor is it enough, that the tribunals be sufficient
in number to perform without delay the judicial
business of the country ; they ought to be sufficiently

G06

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

g 1 near each other, to enable every suitor to have

recourse to them without that obstruction to justice

1/9?' which arises from the necessity of any considerable
journey to perform. Of the value of this attribute of
a judicial establishment no illustration is required.1

Another important condition to the excellence of
a judicial establishment is, that in its mode of con-
ducting the judicial business, all forms, all ceremo-
nies, which create delay, trouble, and expense, or
any one of them, without any corresponding advan-
tage, should be carefully and completely retrenched;
and nothing whatsoever left, but those plain and
rational operations, which are recognised by all the
world as useful, and alone useful, in the inves-
tigation of a matter of fact. It will remove the
necessity of a longer explanation to observe,
That the mode of procedure, which is called
summary, and followed in the small debt courts in
England, is an example of the mode of procedure
which is divested of ceremonies, and retains only
such plain and simple operations as form the ordi-
nary steps of a rational inquiry : That the mode of
procedure, on the other hand, which is called regular,
and followed in the superior courts, is an example of
the mode of procedure which is loaded with super-
stitious ceremonies and observances ; and complicated
by a multitude of operations, altogether different
from the recognised steps of a rational inquiry.
The consequence of this load of superstitious ob-

1 What is here observed on the properties desirable in a judicial esta-
blishment, are only such general deductions from the science of legislation,
as can find a proper place in a critical history. The analysis of the whole
subject is seen in great perfection, in a work entitled, “ Draught of a new
Plan for the Organization of the judicial Establishment in France,” by
Jeremy Bentham, Esq.

result of Cornwallis’s revenue reforms. 607

servances, and this multiplicity of operations, is, not to g1

lead with more certainty to the discovery of truth, .

but with less certainty : while the people are driven 1793-
from the courts of justice by the terror of delay,
trouble, and expense ; and every species of injustice
flourishes under the prospect of impunity and
success. In the summary mode of procedure, in its
perfect shape, is included every operation conducive
to the elucidation of truth ; every thing which is
necessary for securing and bringing forward the
evidence, and for presenting it to the mind of the
judge, in its greatest possible plenitude, and most
perfect possible shape. To add to these operations
a multitude of others, which have no tendency what-
soever to improve the state in which the evidence is
presented to the mind of the judge, can have no ten-
dency to aid the discovery of truth. It must have a
sure tendency to give it obstruction, in ways too
numerous here to recount. Among the bitter fruits
of a complicated mode of procedure; the loss of
evidence, by the death, removal, and feeble memo-
ries of witnesses ; and the successful efforts made by
the guilty to intimidate or corrupt them ; are enume-
rated, by the Indian judges, as evils, with which
their experience had made them minutely acquainted.

Were there nothing more than the complexity,
which a multitude of nice and puzzling operations
produces, it would be hurtful to the discovery of
truth, by diverting and confusing the mind of the
judge. But when those multiplied niceties and
observances are supers titiously elevated as they
uniformly are, into matters of chief and primary
importance ; when the mind of the judge is more

G08

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAP. 6.

1793.

1 vigilant to observe whether every one of the words
- and actions which enter into a multitude of frivolous
ceremonies has been exactly observed, than to elicit
every particle of evidence, and assign to it the proper
station in his mind, it is impossible to estimate the in-
jury which is done to the discovery of truth, and thence
to the interests of justice, by a technical mode of pro-
cedure. Even by the servants of the Company, who
have remarked with so much intelligence the shock-
ing state of justice in India, I observe that “preci-
pitate” is the epithet applied to the summary, or
rational mode of procedure ; “ deliberate,” that
applied to the regular or ceremonious. It is a proof
of the defects of their education, when such an
illusion could pass upon minds of so much strength.
That which is done with thought, is that which is
done deliberately. That which is done without
thought, is that which is done precipitately. It is of
no consequence how long a thing remains undone,
provided thought all the while is never applied to it.
During the delay which takes place by the per-
formance of the superstitious ceremonies of regular
procedure, is it supposed by any body that the judge
turns a thought to the merits of the cause? Deli-
beration is performed by the non-existence of thought,
according to the theory of those who account delay and
deliberation the same thing. The judge deliberates
upon the question, at least to any valuable purpose,
only during the time when he is receiving and digest-
ing the evidence ; for, as to the law, if it were all
clearly expressed and written in a book, there never
could be any considerable doubt. If any point was
found to be really doubtful, the case should either be

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. G09

suspended, or decided provisionally, till the deter- book vi

mination of the legislature, removing the doubtfulness,

should be applied for, and received. But with 1793-
regard to evidence, and the light which it yields,
the only article of real importance in the pursuit
of truth, the judge is far more favourably situated,
in the summary mode of procedure, than in the
regular ; because, in the summary mode, it is the
light of evidence to the collecting and presenting of
which, in its most complete and trust-worthy state,
the force of every operation is directed. In the
regular mode, so far is this from being the primary
object, that a great proportion of the ceremonies
have the unavoidable effect of compelling the evi-
dence to be presented, in not the best possible, but
a very inferior, state. With regard even to time
for deliberation, the situation of the judge, under
tardy, is worse than that of the judge under expedi-
tious procedure. Of the greater proportion of
causes the evidence may all be received and
thoroughly understood in a very limited space of
time. But causes do every now and then occur, in
the case of which time is required, not only to
receive, but complete the evidence; as when, by
the hearing of one article of the evidence, other
articles are indicated which time is required to
produce. As often as occasions of this description
occur, the rational mode of inquiry directs, that the
judge should allow himself that portion of time,
whatever it is, which is suited to the exigence of
the case. Under the regular mode of procedure,
the judge is tied down to fixed times and seasons ;
and must decide upon the evidence which he has

2 R

VOL. V.

610

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book vi been able to hear, whether it is complete and well

CHAP. G. _

digested, or the contrary. The nature of regular or

J793. superstitious procedure, therefore, is to produce the
opposite evils of delay and precipitation. The
nature of rational procedure is to shun both evils ;
to retrench every moment of the time and labour
expended in the performance of useless ceremonies ;
to ensure in the fullest measure all the time which
is necessary for the most perfect reception and un-
derstanding of the evidence.

It is probable that the words ‘'summary,” and
“ regular,” impose upon persons who give to the
subject only a precipitate glance. They are very ill
chosen ; that is to say, they very inaccurately
describe the objects which they are employed to
denote. Summary has very frequently the same
import, as the term abridged. Now an abridged
mode of procedure naturally means a mode of proce-
dure in which some of the steps are left out; and
if all the steps were useful, such a mode of proce-
dure would be undoubtedly precipitate. But if no
steps are left out, except those which are useless
and pernicious ; and all those which are of any use
are much more carefully and much more perfectly
performed, the summary mode of procedure is in
reality the least precipitate ; and also the most
regular, if the exact adjustment of means to their
ends, be the standard of regularity. Better names
would be ; the superstitious, instead of the regular,
mode of procedure ; and the rational, instead of the
summary.

Thus far the way for the government of India is
clear. For the performance of what is thus shown

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 611

to be necessary, all that is wanting is the will. If

this were done, let us then consider how much would

be gained. The mass of causes, that mass which, in 1793-
India, smites, by its magnitude, the administration
of justice with impotence, divides itself into two
classes : First, that of the causes which derive
themselves from the vices of the law : Secondly, that
of those which derive themselves from the vices of
the people. There are few other ; there can be but
few other. How great the proportion of those which
are derived from the vices of the law, the com-
plaints of the judges and other functionaries in India
abundantly disclose. We learn that the great body
of the people are excluded from the courts of law by
means of the expense ; that oppression reigns, be-
cause the people are unable to sue for redress ; that
universal encouragement is given to one man to
withhold from another what is his due, by the
certainty of delay, and the two chances, first of not
being prosecuted, and secondly of baffling the
plaintiff by the uncertainties of the law. We also
learn that a wide field of impunity is ensured to
every species of crime, the most atrocious not ex-
cepted : first, because the people, upon whom the
expense and trouble, arising out of the dilatory and
costly proceedings of the courts, impose a burden
greater than they are able to bear, fly from the duty of
appearing as witnesses or prosecutors against delin-
quents; secondly, because delay produces the fre-
quent destruction of evidence; and, together with
the uncertainties of an unwritten law, and the
complicated ceremonies of a superstitious mode of
procedure, affords the greatest chance of escape.

2 r 2

612

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 6.

1793.

1 F rom the whole then of these evils ; to which is in
_ a great measure to be ascribed the destructive
anarchy which exists under the government of India ;
from the whole, I say, of that part of the mass of
litigation which grows out of the vices of the law,
and all the evils with which both are attended,
the reform of the law, that is, an accurate code,
an adequate judicial establishment, and a rational
mode of procedure, would effect a complete de-
liverance.

No litigation would then remain, to prevent the
effectual administration of justice, hut that which
would arise from the vices, intellectual or moral, of
the people. The number of difficulties being greatly
diminished, the power of coping with them would
be greatly increased. It is also an important consi-
deration, how much the vices of the people depend
upon the vices of the laws, and how necessarily the
vices of the people diminish, as the virtues of the
laws are increased. Of this no man will doubt;
that the most effectual step which can be taken by
any government to diminish the vices of the people
is, to take away from the laws every imperfection by
which the vices, to impart to them every perfection
by which the virtues, of the people may receive
encouragement. On a former occasion we have
heard Lord Cornwallis declare, that the prosperity or
decline of any people may always be referred to the
laws, as their source.1 To the same copious foun-
tain of all that is good, or all that is evil, with still
greater certainty may their vices and virtues be traced.

The vices among the people of India which tend

' Vide supra, p. 473.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 613

most to enfeeble the arm of iustice, are two ; their B00K J 1

0 ' 7 CHAP. 6.

proneness to perjury ; and their perfidy as agents of

police : the one rendering it extremely difficult to 1793-
convict offenders upon satisfactory evidence ; the
other shielding them from detection and apprehen-
sion. One would think it was not an effort beyond
the reach of the human mind to find remedies of
considerable efficacy for those diseases.

First in regard to perjury ; the powers with which
government, in this, as in other cases, is capable of
acting upon the human mind, are three ; the power
of instruction ; the power of reward ; and the power
of punishment.

On the subject of peijury it appears, that the
people stand peculiarly in need of instruction.

Under the native systems, legal or religious, parti-
cularly the Hindu, perjury was treated as a very
trifling and venial offence. The most effectual
measures should be adopted to make them clearly
comprehend, that there is no crime, upon which the
present government looks with more abhorrence ;
and that there is no quality wdiich will be employed
as a more certain mark to distinguish the objects of
its favour and disfavour. Effectual modes of com-
municating this knowledge would not be difficult to
find. It is observable, that wherever governments
are in earnest about the communication of any
article of knowledge to the people, they seldom
remain destitute of means. They are seldom baffled,
we see, in communicating a complete knowledge of
what they wish to be done by the people, how com-
plicated soever it may be, in making payment of
taxes. It would be easy in India, for example, to

614

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

print upon the receipt of taxes, or any other paper

. of general distribution, a short and clear description

1793. 0f the crime of perjury; with a notification, in the
most impressive terms possible, of the deep abhor-
rence in -which it is held by the government, and the
severe punishment, both direct and indirect, to
which it is exposed. To secure attention to this or
any other article of information, many expedients
might be found ; rendering it, for example, necessary
to answer certain questions, before any one could be
admitted to perform certain acts. Where the
manners of the people suffer any important con-
dition to be placed before the permission to contract
a marriage, it might he rendered conducive to many
good effects.

In regard to the application of rewards and
punishments, the channel in which the conceptions
of the Reformer should run, is all that can here he
easily shown. In the first place it is obvious, that
every man whose veracity in a court of justice
appears without suspicion, should be treated by the
court with peculiar respect, and pointed out as an
object of honour and esteem. He might be asked,
if he had any favour to request, or any service to
point out, which the court could render him, to
testify its opinion of his virtue : he might be fur-
nished with some honorary badge of distinction; and
might even receive a ticket which should point him
out as an object of favour to all the instruments of
government, and to all those who wished to make
the government their friend.

The punishments which have been applied to
this offence appear, by the complaints of the Indian

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

615

judges, not to have been skilfully chosen, and to^oo^J1

have been attended with little advantage. To pre-

vent a crime of which the mischievous effects are so 1793-
great, one would he willing to go to the expense of
considerable severity, provided it were well adapted
to the end. We are informed that severity of
punishment has greatly diminished the prevalence of
perjury before the Supreme Court ; but the infor-
mation is too general to enable us to ascertain the
value of the fact. One circumstance there is which
renders severity of punishment peculiarly inapplica-
ble to this crime ; and that is, the uncertainty of
proof. In the greater number of cases, perjury is
rather strongly suspected than clearly proved ; and
a judge, whose humanity is considerable, will not
execute a terrible punishment, where he is not
perfectly assured of guilt. The consequence is, that
in the great majority of cases, the perjurer, for want
of certain evidence, escapes, and the crime receives
encouragement. On the other hand, if the punish-
ment were mild, and the evil not incapable of repara-
tion in case of mistake, a strong suspicion would
suffice for the inference of guilt, and few delinquents
would be suffered to escape. There is another con-
sideration, of the highest possible importance ; that
perjury is not an offence which in every instance
implies the same degree of guilt. In different
instances, it implies all possible varieties of guilt,
and very often, among the people of India, no guilt
at all. Such, in many of them, is their imbecility of
mind ; so faint are the traces of their memory ; so
vivid the creations of their imaginations ; so little are
they accustomed to regard truth in their daily prac-

616

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

book yi tice; so much are they accustomed to mingle fiction

with reality in all they think, and all they say ; and

i793. so inaccurate is their language, that they cannot tell
a true story, even when they are without any induce-
ment to deceive.1 Again, perjury is always com-
mitted as an instrument in the service of some other
crime; and bears the character of guilt, in a low or
a high degree, according to the nature of the crime
for the sake of which it is perpetrated. It may he
committed in exculpation of one’s self, or of a near
relation or friend ; and for a slight or an atrocious
offence; it may he committed for the accomplish-
ment of a petty fraud ; or it may be committed for
the deliberate purpose of taking away the life of an
innocent person. It is evident, that in these cases,
there is the greatest possible difference in point of
guilt ; and the feelings of our nature revolt at
the thought of inflicting the same punishment upon
all. In the case of this, as of other accessary
crimes, common good sense, not to speak of legis-
lative wisdom, directs that it should be punished
in some proportion to the principal crime ; — the
crime the benefit of which was the motive to the
transgression.

1 The following is a case so analogous as to afford some instruction.
“ He that goes into the Highlands with a mind naturally acquiescent,
and a credulity eager for wonders, may come back with an opinion very
different from mine ; for the inhabitants, knowing the ignorance of all
strangers in their language and antiquities, perhaps are not very scrupu-
lous adherents to truth: yet, I do not say that they deliberately speak
studied falsehood, or have a settled purpose to deceive. They have in-
quired and considered little, and do not always feel their own ignorance.
They are not much accustomed to be interrogated by others ; and seem
never to have thought upon interrogating themselves ; so that if they do
not know what they tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly perceive
it to be false. — Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inquiries; and the

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms. 617

In tracing the truth, through the mazes of Indian ^ 1

evidence, there is required in the judge, not only

much acuteness and sagacity, but great acquaintance 1793-
with the habits and manners of the people ; that he
may be able to interpret the innumerable indications
which are given by peculiar modes of expression and
deportment. The grammatical construction of the
sounds which pass through the lips of a witness, is
often the least part of the instruction which a pene-
trating judge derives from him. Even in the native
country of the Judge, experience gained from long
practice in the modes of thinking, acting, and speak-
ing, of the principal class of depredators, is found to
give him important advantages in extracting the evi-
dence of guilt. The extraordinary disadvantages, un-
der which Englishmen, totally unacquainted with the
manners of the Indians, lie, when they begin to seek
their way through the labyrinth of Indian testimony,
can be easily conceived. This ignorance is, accord-
ingly, singled out, by some of the most intelligent of
the Company’s servants, as a source, and one of the
principal sources, of the wretched administration of
justice. The civil servants of the Company, who
ascend to the office of Judge in routine of service,
have, in general, no opportunity of obtaining any
considerable acquaintance with the modes of thinking
of the natives, and the evidence which their peculiari-
ties import.

Another consideration, which ought to be impressed
upon the minds of those who have it in their power to

result of his investigation was, that the answer to the second question was
commonly such as nullified the answer to the first.” Johnson’s Journey
to the Hebrides.

618

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

I?ch?^g 1 amen(l legislation of India, is ; That well to per-

form the service of a judge, skilfully to extract, and

1/93- wisely to estimate every article of a complicated mass
of evidence, not only peculiar experience, and that
acuteness and dexterity, which are acquired by
habitual practice, are of the greatest importance, but
also an enlightened acquaintance with those general
principles regarding law and the administration of
justice, which have their foundation in the general
laws of human society, and which ought to run
through and form the ground-work of the laws of all
nations. In a situation where the body of law is
complete, and well adapted to its ends, the absolute
necessity is not so great for this species of knowledge
in the judge, because he has rules for his guidance
in every thing. He has few rules for his guidance
in India, where every judge must, in a great measure,
be the rule to himself. Here, it is evident, he has the
greatest possible occasion for the guidance of those
general principles, which an enlightened education
alone can give. The youth who is destined to the great
and delicate duties of a judge, in India, cannot be too
carefully disciplined in that philosophy which gives
the best insight into the principles of human nature ;
which most completely teaches the ends which the
administration of justice has it in view to accomplish,
and the means which are best adapted to the ends.
This sort of education is of importance not only for
imparting a knowledge, to the youths who become
judges, of what ought to be done ; but for imparting
to them a love for the ends of justice ; and thus cre-
ating a grand set of motives for ensuring the per-
formance of what ought to be done. If those on

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

619

whom the legislation for India depends are in earnest 1

for the establishment of a good administration of

justice, a good education for judges is one of the first 1793-
reforms they will undertake. This reform, too, will
be without difficulty ; because all that is wanting is
a good choice of means. The cost would not be
exorbitant. Here also is another of the occasions
which so frequently occur, of remarking the hitter
effects of that wretched policy, by which the settle-
ment of Englishmen in our Indian dominions has been
opposed. Had all parts of India been stocked, as
under a system of freedom would have been the case,
with Englishmen, settled in the various occupations
of agriculture, manufactures, and trade, there would
have been in the country a sufficient number of
English gentlemen, thoroughly conversant with the
manners and character of the natives : many of them
horn and bred among them ; gentlemen, to whom it
would have added dignity, to be vested with the
powers of judicature ; and who would have been well
pleased to discharge its duties for a moderate reward.

By these, or expedients such as these, it will pro-
bably be allowed, that the difficulties, arising from
the prevalence of peijury in India, might, to a great
degree, he overcome. It is next to be inquired,
what is capable of being done for the improvement
of the police ; that is, for the best organization of the
powers necessary to detect and apprehend offenders,
and to guard the people against the mischief they
pursue.

Although, in a situation where the moral sanction
operates with so little effect as in India, where the
intellects of the people are too weak to distribute

620

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 6.

1793.

their love and esteem, their hatred and contempt,
with operative energy, upon the acts, respectively,
by which society is benefitted, or injured, the diffi-
culty of ensuring a tolerable discharge of the duties
of the men employed as agents of police is greatly
enhanced ; yet, in every situation, agents will violate
their duties, if it is their interest to do so ; and if in
India it is made their interest not to violate them,
we may count, with tolerable certainty, upon their
being performed. We see the end, then, for which
the means remain to be provided. On the subject of
those means, a few general suggestions are all that
can here find an appropriate place. Much both of
local and of appropriate knowledge is required for
details.

One observation there is, of which it is of import-
ance that the wT eight should be felt. Were the
business before the tribunals well performed, by re-
moving the imperfections of law and judicature, the
difficulties of police would be greatly reduced. As
every offender will be pretty sure to suffer, who was
actually detected and apprehended, the number of
crimes would be so far diminished, and the agents of
police more afraid to transgress. If the people were
not punished for giving information, by a load of
expense and trouble, they would afford means of great
value for detecting and apprehending the authors of
crime. Their apathy might be overcome by appro-
priate instruction, and by gentle applications of both
punishment and reward. Protection, indeed, would
be required against the vengeance of thedecoits; and
this should be one of the first objects of government.
No exertion of its powers can be too great, to pursue

RESULT OF CORNWALLIS S JUDICIAL REFORMS.

immediately, and incessantly, the gang by which any c
enormity has been committed in revenge for informa-
tion. It should be seen and felt, by the whole com-
munity, that government will never rest, till it has
seized the men by whom a crime, in so high a degree
injurious to society, has been perpetrated, and till it
has inflicted upon them the punishment which the
repression of so dreadful an enormity requires. As
qne great end would be, to interest and rouse the
people, might they not be called forth, in such a pur-
suit, in the mode of a posse comitatus P One expe-
dient will naturally suggest itself to every body.
The army could not be more usefully, nor more
honourably employed, than in protecting the people
who maintain them, from internal, as well as external,
foes. All that would be necessary would be to dis-
tribute the men with their officers according to a
skilful organization, combining their operations, in
the smallest parties, with their operations in a body.
The organization of people called gens-d' armes in
France, would afford the instruction of an example.
The concurrence of their will might be ensured by
reward, as well in other shapes, as in that of honour,
which would be so justly their due. Against the
abuse of their powers, a well-ordered plan, and cer-
tainty of punishment, might afford a pretty effectual
security. Objections will be drawn from the danger,
to the morals and discipline of the soldiers ; but the
same securities which preserved them from the abuse
of their powers, would also preserve them from the
loss of their virtue. A more serious difficulty would
be, to supply their place wThen called away by the
demands of war.

622

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

l1 The best remedy to this, as to many other difficul-

ties which baffle, and, without it, will long continue

1793‘ to baffle, the powers of the Indian government, would
be found among the admirable effects of colonization.
If Englishmen were mixed in considerable numbers
among the natives, it would be easy to find a suffi-
cient number of men, whose intellectual and moral
qualities would fit them for guiding the native agents
in the functions of police ; and through whom it
would be possible to prevent the abuse of the powers
of those agents by ensuring its detection and punish-
ment. The parent which begets the crimes of the
darogalis, as of the decoits, is their knowledge of the
inability of government to punish them.

When the business of detection and conviction is
accomplished, punishment remains. On this subject
a few observations are still to be made. As crimes
have multiplied, increasing severity of punishment
has been tried, and the multiplication of crimes has
not been diminished. Beside the general experience
and arguments which prove the inefficacy of severe
punishments for the repression of crime, peculiar
reasons apply to the case of India. Under the infir-
mities which diminish the evidentiary force of almost
all Indian testimony, the cases are comparatively few
in which the guilty can receive conviction on very
satisfactory evidence. The feelings of no humane
judge will permit him to inflict a cruel punishment,
such as death, or any thing approaching to death,
when the evidence is not complete. His only alter-
native is, to acquit; the consequence is, that in a
great proportion of cases, the guilty escape: and
crime receives that effectual encouragement, which

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

C23

uncertainty of punishment always affords.1 For
such a combination of circumstances as that which

1 Fifth Report, p. 588, 589, where we find the following excellent re-
marks, addressed, by E. Strachey, Esq., one of the Moorshedabad Judges,
to the Court of Nizamut Adaulut, under date 19th August, 1808.

“ I must again entreat the attention of the Court to some suggestions
with respect to the police, and to the operation of the more immediate
causes of decoity ; and to a consideration of the reasons, why the sanction
of the criminal law is become inefficient in the way of example, and can
no longer deter from the commission of crimes, or affect any criminals
except those who, in justice, are not deserving of severe punishment.

“ I consider it as out of the question, to improve the moral and religious
principle of the people, by direct positive institutions. We are too
ignorant of the natives to attempt any thing so artificial without imminent
risk. We do not understand the operation of such institutions on their
minds, or their tendency, with respect to the frame of the society. As
for the criminal law, I believe the impolicy and inefficacy, even the
mischief of very severe punishments, is generally acknowledged, as well
as the injustice of inflicting punishment, where other remedies might have
been used with equal effect. With respect to increasing the severity of
the criminal laws, we have before our eyes an admirable example. In
1803, and again in 1805, this principle was expected to prove a remedy
for decoity. It has been tried, and it has utterly failed. As it is im-
possible to conceive a case more directly in point, or a more full, simple,
convincing proof of the insufficiency of the means to the end ; I trust no
increase in the severity of the criminal law will ever be again resorted to.

“ As punishments are more severe, stricter proof of the crime is re-
quired ; and consequently a proportionally greater number of criminals
escape conviction. Besides, the terror of the severe punishment makes
the criminal more careful to guard against being taken ; and as it has no
tendency to increase the activity of the police, but the contrary, the
number of offenders apprehended will, of course, be less than before.
The decoits now guard against the danger of apprehension and conviction,
by corruption and terror. They would give more bribes, and commit
more murders, if they thought more precaution necessary ; and the con-
sequence would be, that the difficulties of apprehending and convicting
decoits would increase, and people who had been robbed and tortured
would still be compelled to perjure themselves that they might not be
murdered.

“ And with respect to the administration of the laws, are not the judges
now intrusted with as much power as is proper ? And if the law was
made more severe, would it not be necessary to extend their power still
further ! And are we all fit persons to be intrusted with discretionary
power to inflict punishments which are by many considered to be worse
than death ?

BOOK VI
chap. G.

1793.

G24

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

bc°°k vi India presents to the hand of the legislator, the

rational course of expedients would undoubtedly he,

1793- to apply that lenity of punishment with which alone
it is found that certainty can be combined ; to pre-
scribe no punishment which, upon strong presump-
tion of guilt, the mind of a man would revolt pro-
visionally to apply ; to make use of no punishment
the evil of which cannot be repaired, if the innocence
of the prisoner should afterwards appear ; and then
to prescribe unsparing conviction as often as the
balance of probability inclines to the side of guilt.

That admirable instrument for the application of
all sorts of reparable punishments, and not only of
reparable punishments, but what is infinitely better,
of reformative punishments, punishments under the
operation of which the restoration to society of hardly
any offender would be an object of despair: the
Panopticon penitentiary house, invented and de-
scribed by Mr. Bentham, an organ of justice so well
adapted to the exigencies of every community, would,
with extraordinary advantage, apply itself to the
extraordinary circumstances of Bengal. For indi-
viduals, under every species of guilt, and every legal
degree of suspicion, an appropriate place would be
found in one of these important hospitals for the
mind ; and society would no longer be exposed to
danger from any individual to whom probable evi-
dence of a mischievous character attached.1

“ Persons -who are intrusted with such powers ought to be appointed
from no other consideration whatever, but that of the fitness of the man
for the place. But I would ask, whether all our appointments have ever
been so filled ? And whether it is probable, from the nature of our service,
that they ever will be ? We may all be judges, learned and unlearned.”

1 The want of this important instrument of judicature is felt, though not

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

625

Under the existing system the penal contrivances J1

appear to be no better adapted to their end than those

which we have already contemplated. In the report 1793-
from Moorshedabad,in 1803, “ The number of crimes,”
say the judges, “ committed annually in the division
under our jurisdiction, appears to have increased
since the year 1793. The causes to which we ascribe
the increase, are ; the want of a preventive police ;
and the inefficacy of imprisonment, as a punishment,
for either reformation, or example. We do not per-
ceive any effects from the regulation, which declares
persons convicted of the crime of perjury, liable to be
marked on the forehead. In the course of our
judicial duties, we still meet with the same barefaced
disregard of truth, which always characterized the
natives of India. The punishment of transportation,
introduced by the British government, falls chiefly on
decoits. And yet the crime of decoity has not de-
creased, in the division under our authority. To
judge, therefore, of its operation by this result, it
would follow, — that the punishment is of no effect ;
and the terror of it must daily diminish.1

A government which would render honesty and

distinctly understood, by some of the Company’s judges. The answer to
the interrogatories, in 1802, from the magistrates of the twenty-four per-
gunnahs, says ; “ A number of the convicts at this station are employed
in repairing some of the public roads in the vicinity of Calcutta, &c. The
number of guards requisite to superintend and watch the convicts, thus
employed, prevents our keeping so many of them to work, as we could
wish, and as the preservation of their health seems to require. The
construction of a house of correction, in the vicinity of the jail, where all
the convicts who are capable of work might be kept to constant labour,
would remedy the evil, and appears to us to be a preferable mode.” Fifth
Report, ut supra, p. 553.

1 Ibid. p. 521, 524.

VOL. V. 2 S

626

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

g 1 justice prevalent among its subjects must itself be

honest and just. Sir Henry Strachey, who looked

noa. upon the evils of India with eyes more enlightened
than ordinary, complains, that “ no provision is
made for the return of those convicts to their
country, who are transported beyond seas for a
limited time, although it is well known, that hardly
any native possesses the means of procuring a
passage for himself.” 1 What is this, but, under
the false pretence of a sentence of a limited number
of years, to pronounce, in all cases of transportation,
a sentence for life4? Is it possible that a class of
delinquents who know themselves exposed to
become the victims of this injustice should not be
hardened to greater ferocity, and on account of the
wrongs which they are liable to receive, regard with
less remorse the wrongs which they commit? Is it
possible, that the most impressive of all examples,
the example of the government, should fail of its
effect in imbuing the minds of the people with a
reverence or contempt of justice ?

There is another remedy for the evils of that
delinquency which, to so dreadful a degree, prevails
in India ; a remedy which some of the agents of the
Company’s government have wisely and virtuously
brought to view, and which from every consideration
both of humanity and policy deserves the most pro-
found regard. We have already learned from Sir
Henry Strachey, that the vices of the people arise
from their poverty and ignorance ; and especially
their poverty ; because he expressly affirms, that

Fifth Report, ut supra, p. 558.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

627

“ where labour is amply rewarded, where all can book vi

easily get employment, and where the poor are -

provided for, the people lead industrious and virtu- 1793-
ous lives.” 1 He frequently recurs to this important
topic. On another occasion he says, uIn a year of
plenty, like the present, when few are in want of
food or employment, decoity will certainly less
prevail, than in a year of scarcity.”2 The con-
nexion between poverty and crime is one of the laws
of society on which, to a peculiar degree, the atten-
tion of the legislator ought to be fixed. None of
the links in the moral constitution of our nature is
more indissoluble ; on none do a greater number of
important consequences depend. That a perpetual
struggle with the miseries of poverty and want ope-
rates with baneful effect upon the moral character,
no man who has observed the laws of human nature
will dispute. When a man has nothing to lose, and
every thing to gain, by disregarding the laws of
society, by what power is he to be restrained ? As
soon as death by hunger stares him in the face;
with regard to him, the law is deprived of its power ;
for what is the evil with which it meets him, to the
evil from which he runs ? Another thing ought to
be well remembered, That extreme misery, and
above all things the miseries of poverty, diminish
the value of life ; and that the man to whom life is

1 Vide supra, p. 339, 340.

2 Fifth Report, p. 559. In another place he says, “ Great population,
and poverty, produce misery and crimes ; particularly in a country where
there is no public, and consequently, no certain and regular, provision for
the poor : Where there are, I may almost say, more poor than in any
country : And where the ability, and disposition, of private individuals to
support them, are continually diminishing.” Ibid. p. 533.

2 s 2

628

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

B™pK ^ 1 a burden is but little affected with the prospect of

losing it. Whoever has had an opportunity of wit-

1/93' nessing, with any habits and powers of observation,
the deaths of the poor and the rich, must have been
struck with one extraordinary distinction : In most
cases the rich part from life with great reluctance ;
the poor, except just in the morning of hope, with a
kind of satisfaction, a sort of pleasurable anticipa-
tion of the rest of the grave ; an expression among
those of them at least who have entered the vale of
years, than which there is none more common, none
to which the feelings are more truly attuned. It is
also a matter of general experience, that the man
whose thoughts are perpetually harassed with the
torment of immediate, or the dread of future want,
loses the powers of benevolent sympathy with his
fellow-creatures; loses the virtuous feelings of a
desire for their pleasures and an aversion to their
pains ; rather hates their pleasures, as rendering
the sense of his own misery more pungent ; desires
their pains, as rendering the sense of that misery the
less. This is the account which all the wisest inter-
preters of nature have rendered of that cruel and
ferocious character, which uniformly accompanies
the hardships of the savage life. The man who
sets little value on his own life is not likely to be
much affected at the thought of taking away the
life of another. The man who rather desires the
pains than the pleasures of others, is not likely to
deny himself any gratification ; on account of the
sufferings to others of which his pleasure may be
the cause. Another result of immediate suffering
is, that it produces an extraordinary greediness of

RESULT OF CORNWALLIS S JUDICIAL REFORMS.

629

immediate gratification; a violent propensity to any®^^1

sensual indulgence which is within the reach

This is a result which deserves the greatest atten- 1/IM-
tion ; and which is a recognised, experienced principle
of human nature. The animal nature of man, when
it is under suffering, impels him, with a force which is
almost irresistible, to afford himself some compensation
in the way of animal pleasure ; any pleasure whatso-
ever, rather than none ; that which he can most easily
command; that which most completely takes from
him awhile the grating recollection of his own wretch-
edness. It is a rule, accordingly, that the poorest
people are the most intemperate ; the least capable
of denying themselves any pleasure, however hurtful,
which they are able to command; hence their passion
for intoxicating liquors; and hence, because still more
wretched, the still more furious passion of the savage
for those pernicious drugs. Nor is this all. The
great restraining power, the happy influence which
keeps the greatest part of mankind within the hounds
of virtue, is the love of esteem, and the dread of con-
tempt; the passionate desire, which is natural to
man, for the favourable regards, the dread and horror
with which he contemplates the unfavourable regards
of his fellow-creatures. The favourable regards, how-
ever, of mankind can only be obtained, by pursuing a
line of conduct which is useful to mankind ; their un-
favourable regards can be avoided, only by abstaining
from every line of conduct which is hurtful to them.

But it deserves to he considered with very great atten-
tion, that it is only in a state of some ease and com-
fort, that this salutary feeling exists in any consider-

630

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK \

CHAT. 6

1793.

[ able strength. And the wretchedness of poverty is
. attended with this evil consequence, that it excludes
those favourable regards of mankind, the desire of
which constitutes the strongest motive to virtue. It
plunges a man into that state of contempt into which
misconduct would have placed him : and out of which
no virtues which he can practise are sufficient to
raise him. The favourable or unfavourable regards
of mankind, therefore, operate with little effect to
restrain him from any course of action to which he is
impelled. What, then, upon the whole of this in-
duction, is the general result % That, in a state of ex-
treme poverty, the motives which usually restrain
from transgression ; respect for the laws, dread of the
laws, desire of the esteem and affection, dread of the
contempt and abhorrence of mankind, sympathy with
the pains and pleasures of our fellow-creatures, lose
their influence upon the human mind, while many of
the appetites which prompt to wickedness acquire
additional strength.

If, therefore, the government of India would lessen
the tendency to crime, which is manifested among its
subjects to so extraordinary a degree, it must lessen
the poverty which prevails among them to so extra-
ordinary a degree.

If the state of crime be, as it undoubtedly is, a sort
of criterion of the state of property, the people of
India have been falling, since the year 1793, into
deeper poverty and wretchedness. Knowing, then,
what we thus know, of the progress of delinquency
in India, what are we led to think of the uninter-
mitting concert of praises, sung from year to year.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

631

upon the Indian government, and upon the increas- J 1
ing happiness of the Indian people, of which that I— —
government is the cause?

The mode of increasing the riches of the body of
the people is a discovery no less easy than sure.

Take little from them in the way of taxes ; prevent
them from injuring one another ; and make no absurd
laws, to restrain them in the harmless disposal of their
property and labour. Light taxes and good laws ;
nothing more is wanting for national and individual
prosperity all over the globe. In India, where there
is yet uncultivated a prodigious quantity of good
land, the inference will suggest a doubt to no in-
structed mind. In more fully peopled countries, the
effect has never yet been seen of good laws in keep-
ing the pace of population back to the pace of food.

The laws of human nature, clearly read, no less en-
sure the one result than they do the other.

The government of Bengal lost an opportunity,
than which a finer was never enjoyed, of accelerating
the acquisition of riches, and hence the growth of
virtue, and decline of vice, in the great body of the
people ; when it declared the Zemindars, and not the
ryots, the proprietors of the soil ; when it sought by
coercive and artificial means to create that vast ine-
quality of fortunes, of which the corruption of the
great body of the people is the never-failing result.

It is actually singled out, by the most intelligent
of the Company’s servants, among the causes of the
prevalence of crime in India, as one, the operation
of which is very particularly and distinctly felt.

“ Where considerable numbers,” says Sir Henry
Strachey, “ are collected and associate together, espe-

632

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

cially if there happens to he much inequality of rank
and fortune, the morals of the people are worst,
though, compared to the inhabitants of other parts
of the same country, they may be said to be neither
indigent nor uninformed.”1 That nothing should be
done to prevent inequality of fortune, the good of
society, because the encouragement of production,
requires. Laws for the purpose of creating and
preserving a forced, unnatural inequality, are the
result of a desire of making slaves of the many to
make lords of the few. The original laws of India
follow in this important respect the dictates of nature.
By permitting a man to dispose of his property as he
pleases during his life, and leave it to any person, or
any number of persons, after his death; and by
dividing it equally among his children, or his rela-
tives of equal proximity, if no disposition of it is made
by himself, they favour that freedom of disposal, that
perfection of ownership, that circulation and distri-
bution of property, by which the benefits derived
from property are in greatest perfection attained.

The temper and practice of the courts of justice
are enumerated among the causes of the prevalence
of crime; the courts of justice are represented as so
immoral, that they infuse a deeper stain of depravity
into the Indian character; and corrupt, beyond their
usual pitch of wickedness, the natives who approach
them. An imputation, more expressive of the inte-
rior depravity of courts of justice, cannot easily be
conceived. That the tribunals ought to be the guar-
dians of morals, not the corrupters, is a general

' Fifth Report, p. 539.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

633

maxim ; the guardians, both by the doctrines which J1

they teach, and the example they afford. That any

tribunal, however, which guides unhappy suitors 1'93-
through a maze of wretched ceremonies and forms
should be other than a den of chicane, that is, of
fraud ; and the chief of all seminaries of the fraudulent
arts, is not very possible. That such are the courts
of justice in India, and above all the Supreme Court,
the court of English law, is indubitably proved. Sir
Henry Strachey, after stating, that where inequality
of rank and fortune prevails, there “ the morals of the
people are worst,” adds, “ the same may be ob-
served, respecting such persons as have occasion to
attend our cutcherries.” 1 In another place, he says,

I beg leave here to offer it as my opinion, that little
morality is learnt in any court of justice. In Calcutta,

I have reason to believe the morals of the people are
worse by means of the system established by us.

Nor do I attribute this solely to the size, population,
and indiscriminate society of the capital, but in part
to the Supreme Court. I scarcely ever knew a native
connected with the Supreme Court, whose morals
and manners were not contaminated by that con-
nexion.”2 Enumerating the causes, which, under the
English government, have operated to change the
character of the natives, “ the cicumstance,” he says,

“ of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and the
intercourse between the Natives and the lowest offi-
cers of that court, may be considered as one of the
causes of that nature. But, I ask, whether the morals
of the people are in any respect improved by these

1 Fifth Report, p. 539.

2 Ibid. p. 539.

634

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK V

CHAP. 6,

1793.

causes ? Whether they have not learned all the low
arts of chicanery, imposture, and litigiousness, pecu-
liar to an English court of justice ; — without a par-
ticle of plain-dealing, firmness, independence of spirit,
or useful knowledge of any kind4?”1

It has been alleged above, that most of the
Indian judges point to education, as the only power
from the operation of which a favourable change can
be expected in the moral character of the people ; on
this subject, however, if Sir Henry Strachey is ex-
cepted, their views are superficial. The most effi-
cient part of education is that which is derived from
the tone and temper of the society ; and the tone and
temper of the society depend altogether upon the
laws and the government. Again ; ignorance is the
natural concomitant of poverty ; a people wretchedly
poor, are always wretchedly ignorant. But poverty
is the effect of bad laws, and bad government ; and
is never a characteristic of any people who are
governed well. It is necessary, therefore, before
education can operate to any great result, that the
poverty of the people should be redressed; that
their laws and government should operate benefi-
cently. The education of the poor is not extended
beyond the use of written, in addition to that of
spoken language. Now this, considered nakedly by
itself, and without regard to the exercise made of it,
cannot be regarded as of any great value. In
Europe, where books are so happily diffused, the
faculty of written language, imparted to any people,
must of necessity prove to them a source of new and

1 Fifth Report, p. 527.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

635

useful ideas. But in India, of what sort are the18001^1

books to which alone it can introduce them ?

The tales about their gods, from which they can 1793-
derive nothing but corruption. In fact, the natives
of India, and other parts of Asia, are very generally
taught the use of written language ; 1 and have been
so from time immemorial ; yet continue the ignorant
and vicious people, of whose depravity we have so
many proofs. No; if the government would make
the faculty of reading useful to the people of India,
it must take measures for giving them useful books.

There is one effectual measure for this purpose ; and
there never was, and never will be another ; and
that is the freedom of the press. Among the other
admirable effects of a free press, one is, that it makes
it the interest of government that the people should
receive the highest possible instruction ; compels
the government to exert itself to the utmost in giving
them instruction ; to the end, that the people may
not be in danger of being misled by misrepresenta-
tion ; and that the government may he assured of their
attachment, whenever it deserves it. The Indian
government, however, if a conclusion from its past
may be drawn to its future conduct, will not choose
a free press for the first of its ameliorating agents.
Considering the mental state of the people of India,
it is possible that among them, at the present
moment, the unrestrained use of the press might be
attended with inconveniences of a serious nature, and
such as would surpass the evils it would remove.

There is no people, however, among whom it may
not be introduced by degrees. The people of India,

1 See Malcolm’s History of Persia, and Elphinstone’s Caubul.

636

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

it is certain, ought to receive, as one of the indispen-
sable instruments of improvement as much of it as
they can bear ; and this would soon prepare them, if
properly encouraged, for the receipt of more, and
hence, by rapid steps, for the enjoyment of it, in all
its fulness, and all its efficiency. The government of
India is told, indeed, by one of its own servants,
from whose recorded instructions it might learn
much, that something far beyond the power of mere
schooling, a power which in India cannot be strong,
is required to work any beneficial change in the
character of the people committed to its charge.
“ The vices and the crimes of the people,” says Sir
Henry Strachey, ‘"proceed from their poverty and
ignorance ; and I do not conceive they are likely to
grow much richer or wiser, while the present state of
things exists.” 1 By the present state of things he
undoubtedly means, the present state of the laws,
and the government; on which every thing else
depends. What he declares, therefore, is, that under
the present state of the laws and the government, the
improvement , either of the circumstances, or of the mo-
rals of the people is utterly hopeless ; and that a fun-
damental change must take place in these, the primary
sources of good and evil, before any change can take
place in the streams they send forth. Next to the direct
operation of ameliorated laws upon the intellectual
and moral character of the natives, would be that
diffusion of Englishmen in the society, by means of
colonization, from which we have already seen that
so many important consequences would flow.2

1 Fifth Report, p. 71 .

2 Beside the official documents, which I have quoted as I went on, there

RESULT OF CORNWALLIS S JUDICIAL REFORMS.

637

After the voyage of Lord Cornwallis to Madras,
in 1793, he did not return to Bengal ; but sailed for — — —

is information of infinite importance, on the state of delinquency in India,
on its causes, and on its remedies, in the work of a young Indian judge,
lost to the world too soon, the work formerly quoted, on the “ Political
State of India,” by Alexander F. Tytler, Esq. — -M. There is, no doubt,

much that is commendable in these projected reformations ; but, as is the
case in all closet legislation, difficulties are disregarded — the relative im-
portance of objects is miscalculated, and the efficacy of favourite remedies
ludicrously overrated. That the laws should be comprehensive and
precise, that tribunals should be in proportion to the wants of the people,
and that justice should be administered without avoidable delay, are
truisms which no person will dispute. But to enact a code of laws prema-
turely for a society, which, like that of British India, is in a course of
constant and fundamental change, must leave very much to be done, very
much to be undone. To multiply inefficient tribunals would be to multiply
the chances of wrong, and justice administered without form or delibera-
tion will often turn out to be injustice. The prevalence of perjury is
exaggerated as has been before shown, and it may be doubted if sentences
explanatory of its criminality on the back of a tax-gatherer’s receipt will
be more efficacious in suppressing it, than the stanzas to the same effect
which are to be found even in Menu, or that a ticket granted as a certifi-
cate of veracious testimony by a court of justice would be very highly
prized. That the judge should be qualified to interpret evidence by the
innumerable indications which are given by peculiar modes of expression
and deportment is, no doubt, highly desirable, and that he should be
carefully disciplined in a knowledge of human nature and of the principles
and practice of jurisprudence, is undoubtedly of equal importance, but a
complete course of forensic education in England would delay the season
of exhibiting its benefits in India until the faculty of adaptation to climate
and circumstances had passed away, and time and inclination would be
wanting to acquire that intimate acquaintance with the people which it is
admitted is equally essential to the formation of a perfect judge. That
persons thus doubly qualified will be abundant and cheap in India, now that
some half dozen indigo-planters, and sugar-growers rear their produce on
their own lands, would scarcely be anticipated by our author, were he able
to observe the effects of this universal panacea for all the defects of Anglo-
Indian government. The conversion of the whole army into a military
police, is a project not very likely to meet the concurrence of military men,
and those who know how the troops in India are disposed of, will laugh
outright at the notion of distributing the men with their officers all over the
country, according to a skilful organization, which should combine their
operations in the smallest parties with their operations in a body. It may
be also doubted, if the government will be in a hurry to organize the whole
of the population as gens-d’armes. And here, again, an importance is

638

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

BOOK VI

CHAP. 6.

1793.

England in the month of August. To complete the
view of his administration, the financial situation in
which he left the Company is all that remains to be
described.

In the year ending April 1793, the whole of the
receipts of the Company in India amounted to
8,225,6287 ; and the whole of the expenses amounted
to, 7,007,050/.; the difference is 1,218,578/.; the
profit or, gain, which accrued to the Company upon
the transactions of that year. In the receipts were

attached to the admirable effects of ‘ colonization,’ which it is safe prophecy
to foretell, will never be realized, for colonization never will — never can,
take place. With regard to the proposed mode of punishing crime, we
much doubt the expedience of a Panopticon Penitentiary in Bengal,
although it be the invention of Mr. Bentham. The conclusion of the
inefficacy of the existing means of preventing or punishing guilt drawn
from the assertion of the judges of Moorshedabad, that deceits had
not decreased in the district under their jurisdiction in 1803, shows how
dangerous it is to draw conclusions in a hurry, as the crime of decoity has,
since 1803, infinitely decreased in the division of Moorshedabad. The
remarks which are made upon the relation of poverty and crime are
unquestionably perfectly just and sound, but it may be doubted, if it is
quite so easy as it is assumed to be, to enrich the body of the people. If
the discovery be as palpable as is represented, it is marvellous that the old
established governments of Europe have not found it out, and it is scarcely
fair to the newly and anomalously-constituted government of India to
expect that it should set the example. At the same time the novelty and
peculiarity of our condition are favourable to progressive improvement,
and in nothing is the text more to be reprehended than in the impression it
tends to produce, that that which was the * present state of things’ in 1808,
was never to receive amelioration. The view which is taken of it is an
extreme exaggeration of its defects, but it is the spirit of the British Indian
Government to be perpetually reforming. The reforms are not always
judicious — and they are often mischievous by being precipitate — by being
premature — time is not allowed to consolidate one project, before, on
account of some unessential imperfections which would correct themselves,
it is swept away by an equally short-lived successor. Still, however, the
tendency is praiseworthy and beneficial — and many changes have been
made, and many more are in progress, which are much more likely than
colonization to ameliorate the condition of the native population.- It is
only necessary not to be impatient — nor to force on exotic reforms out of
season, if we would wish them to take root and live. — W.

result of Cornwallis’s judicial reforms.

639

included the subsidies from Indian Princes, and col- book vi

CHAP. 6.

lections from the ceded and conquered countries, to

the amount of 1,911,492?. ; and in the expenses were 1793-
included the interest of debts in India, and the
money supplied to Bencoolen and the other distant
settlements, amounting to 702,443?. The debts in
India were 7,971,665?. The debts in England, ex-
clusive of the capital stock, were 10,983,518?. To the
capital stock, another million had been added in
1789, which, subscribed at 174 per cent., yielded
1,740,000?. The capital stock, on which was now
paid a dividend of ten and a half per cent., amounted
to 5,000,0002 The financial results of this adminis-
tration, when compared with the financial results of
that of Mr. Hastings,1 2 exhibit a decrease of the net
surplus, but to compensate for this, the extinction of
a small portion of debt. The financial state of
the Company, as it appeared on the face of the
accounts, is thus a little better in one respect, but
worse in another; and the point of deterioration
more material, doubtless, than that of improvement.

As the government of India was, however, now the
government of the ministry, it was the interest of the
ministry to praise it. In this particular, they were,
accordingly, by no means wanting to themselves.

The influence of the ministry in parliament has been
almost always sufficient to make the praises bestowed
by the ministry be accepted in parliament as prin-
ciples of belief ; and the influence of ministry and par-

1 See tlie accounts of the E. I. C. for 1793, presented to parliament in
1794. See also the Third and Fourth Reports of the Select Committee on
India affairs, in 1810, with the accounts in the Appendixes.

2 Vide supra, ii. 675.

640

BOOK V

CHAP. 6.

1793.

I

HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

i liament was combined, to give them an ascendency

. over the belief of the nation at large. Mr. Dundas,
no ordinary master in the oblique arts of ruling the
minds of men, represented these financial results, as an
object not only of rejoicing and triumph, but even of
astonishment. He endeavoured to persuade, and suc-
ceeded in persuading, the parliament and the nation,
that India had fairly begun to be, what India would con-
tinue to be, a vast source of wealth to the nation, af-
fording a surplus revenue, sufficient to enrich the East
India Company, and contribute largely toward the
maintenance of the British government itself. Such
were the strains wThich year after year were sung in
the ears of the nation ; and dictated the legislative
proceedings. In fact, however, the favourable
symptoms, inferior as they were to those exhibited
in 1786, lasted for only a year or two. In 1797, a
permanent deficit began, and the rapid accumulation
of debt exceeded all former example. The joy,
indeed, which was expressed upon the financial
prospects of India, wherever it was real and not
pretended, was founded from the beginning upon
ignorance. Large sums had been obtained from
new-made conquests, and the charge to be incurred
for their government was not yet ascertained.
As soon as that charge had time to swell to its
natural, that is, its utmost limits, the disbursements
of the Indian government outran its receipts.

END OF VOL. V.

E. Varty, Printer, 27, Camomile Street, Bisliopsgate.