The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12)

The first person that occurred to Mr. Hastings was Munny Begum; and he gave her, not out of that part of the Nabob's allowance which was to support the seraglio, but out of the allowance of this very magistrate, just as if such a thing had been done here out of the salary of a Lord Chancellor or a Lord Chief-Justice,—out of these two lacs and a half of rupees, that is, about twenty-four or twenty-five thousand pounds a year, he ordered an allowance to be made to Munny Begum of 72,000 rupees per annum, or 7,200l. a year; for the Nabob's own mother, whom he thrust, as usual, into a subordinate situation, he made an allowance of 3,000l.; to the Sudder ul Huk Khân, which is, translated into English, the Lord Chief-Justice, he allowed the same sum that he did to the dancing-girl, (which was very liberal in him, and I am rather astonished to find it,) namely, 7,200l. a year. And who do you think was the next public officer he appointed? It was the Rajah Gourdas, the son of Nundcomar, and whose testimony he has attempted both before and since this occasion to weaken. To him, however, he gave an employment of 6,000l. a year, as if to make through the son some compensation to the manes of the father. And in this manner he distributes, with a wild and liberal profusion, between magistrates and dancing-girls, the whole spoil of Mahomed Reza Khân, notwithstanding the Company's direct and positive assurance given to him. Everything was done, at the same time, to put, as it was before, into the hands of this dancing-girl the miserable Nabob's whole family; and that the fund for corruption might be large enough, he did not take the money for this dancing-girl out of the Nabob's separate revenue, of which he and the dancing-girl had the private disposal between them.

Now upon what pretence did he do all this? The Nabob had represented to Mr. Hastings that he was now of age,—that he was an independent, sovereign prince,—that, being independent and sovereign in his situation, and being of full age, he had a right to manage his own concerns himself; and therefore he desired to be admitted to that management. And, indeed, my Lords, ostensibly, and supposing him to have been this independent prince, and that the Company had no authority or had never exercised any authority over him through Mr. Hastings, there might be a good deal said in favor of this request. But what was the real state of the case? The Nabob was a puppet in the hands of Mr. Hastings and Munny Begum; and you will find, upon producing the correspondence, that he confesses that she was the ultimate object and end of this request.

I think this correspondence, wherein a son is made to petition, in his own name, for the elevation of a dancing-girl, his step-mother, above himself and everybody else, will appear to your Lordships such a curiosity as, I believe, is not to be found in the state correspondence of the whole world. The Nabob begins thus:—"The excellency of that policy by which her Highness the Begum" (meaning Munny Begum) "(may her shadow be far extended!) formerly, during the time of her administration, transacted the affairs of the nizamut in the very best and most advantageous manner, was, by means of the delusions of enemies disguised under the appearance of friends, hidden from me. Having lately seriously reflected on my own affairs, I am convinced that it was the effect of maternal affection, was highly proper, and for my interest,—and that, except the said Begum is again invested with the administration, the regulation and prosperity of this family, which is in fact her own, cannot be effected. For this cause, from the time of her suspension until now, I have passed my time, and do so still, in great trouble and uneasiness. As all affairs, and particularly the happiness and prosperity of this family, depend on your pleasure, I now trouble you, in hopes that you, likewise concurring in this point, will be so kind as to write in fit and proper terms to her Highness the Begum, that she will always, as formerly, employ her authority in the administration of the nizamut and the affairs of this family."

This letter, my Lords, was received upon the 23d of August; and your Lordships may observe two things in it: first, that, some way or other, this Nabob had been (as the fact was) made to express his desire of being released from his subjection to the Munny Begum, but that now he has got new lights, all the mists are gone, and he now finds that Munny Begum is not only the fittest person to govern him, but the whole country. This young man, whose incapacity is stated, and never denied, by Mr. Hastings, and by Lord Cornwallis, and by all the rest of the world who know him, begins to be charmed with the excellency of the policy of Munny Begum. Such is his violent impatience, such the impossibility of his existing an hour but under the government of Munny Begum, that he writes again on the 25th of August, (he had really the impatience of a lover,) and within five days afterwards writes again,—so impatient, so anxious and jealous is this young man to be put under the government of an old dancing-woman. He is afraid lest Mr. Hastings should imagine that some sinister influence had prevailed upon him in so natural and proper a request. He says, "Knowing it for my interest and advantage that the administration of the affairs of the nizamut should be restored to her Highness the Munny Begum, I have already troubled you with my request, that, regarding my situation with an eye of favor, you will approve of this measure. I am credibly informed that some one of my enemies, from selfish views, has, for the purpose of oversetting this measure, written you that the said Begum procured from me by artifice the letter I wrote you on this subject. This causes me the greatest astonishment. Please to consider, that artifice and delusion are confined to cheats and impostors, and can never proceed from a person of such exalted rank, who is the head and patron of all the family of the deceased Nabob, my father,—and that to be deluded, being a proof of weakness and folly, can have no relation to me, except the inventor of this report considers me as void of understanding, and has represented me to the gentlemen as a blockhead and an idiot. God knows how harshly such expressions appear to me; but, as the truth or falsehood has not yet been fully ascertained, I have therefore suspended my demand of satisfaction. Should it be true, be so kind as to inform me of it, that the person may be made to answer for it."

My Lords, here is a very proper demand. The Nabob is astonished at the suspicion, that such a woman as Munny Begum, whose trade in youth had been delusion, should be capable of deluding anybody. Astonishing it certainly was, that a woman who had been a deluder in youth should be suspected to be the same in old age, and that he, a young man, should be subject to her artifices. "They must suspect me to be a great blockhead," he says, "if a man of my rank is to be deluded." There he forgot that it is the unhappy privilege of great men to be cheated, to be deluded, much more than other persons; but he thought it so impossible in the case of Munny Begum, that he says, "Produce me the traitor that could suppose it possible for me to be deluded, when I call for this woman as the governor of the country. I demand satisfaction." I rather wonder that Mr. Hastings did not inform him who it was that had reported so gross and improbable a tale, and deliver him up to the fury of the Nabob.

Mr. Hastings is absolutely besieged by him; for he receives another letter upon the 3d of September. Here are four letters following one another quick as post expresses with horns sounding before them. "Oh, I die, I perish, I sink, if Munny Begum is not put into the government of the country!—I therefore desire to have her put into the government of the country, and that you will not keep me longer in this painful suspense, but will be kindly pleased to write immediately to the Munny Begum, that she take on herself the administration of the affairs of the nizamut, which is, in fact, her own family, without the interference of any other person whatever: by this you will give me complete satisfaction." Here is a correspondence more like an amorous than a state correspondence. What is this man so eager about, what in such a rage about, that he cannot endure the smallest delay of the post with common patience? Why, lest this old woman (who is not his mother, and with whom he had no other tie of blood) should not be made mistress of himself and the whole country! However, in a very few months afterwards he himself is appointed by Mr. Hastings to the government; and you may easily judge by the preceding letters who was to govern. It would be an affront to your Lordships' judgment to attempt to prove who was to govern, after he had desired to put the whole government of affairs into the hands of Munny Begum.

Now, Munny Begum having obtained this salary, and being invested with this authority, and made in effect the total and entire governor of the country, as I have proved by the Nabob's letters, let us see the consequences of it; and then I desire to know whether your Lordships can believe that in all this haste, which, in fact, is Mr. Hastings's haste and impatience, (for we shall prove that the Nabob never did or could take a step but by his immediate orders and directions,)—whether your Lordships can believe that Mr. Hastings would incur all the odium attending such transactions, unless he had some corrupt consideration.

My Lords, very soon after these appointments were made, consisting of Munny Begum at the head of the affairs, the Lord Chief-Justice under her, and under her direction, and Rajah Gourdas as steward of the household, the first thing we hear is, just what your Lordships expect to hear upon such a case, that this unfortunate chief-justice, who was a man undoubtedly of but a poor, low disposition, but, I believe, a perfectly honest, perfectly well-intentioned man, found it absolutely impossible for him to execute his office under the direction of Munny Begum; and accordingly, in the month of September following, he sends a complaint to Mr. Hastings, "that certain bad men had gained an ascendency over the Nabob's temper, by whose instigation he acts." After complaining of the slights he receives from the Nabob, he adds, "Thus they cause the Nabob to treat me, sometimes with indignity, at others with kindness, just as they think proper to advise him: their view is, that, by compelling me to displeasure at such unworthy treatment, they may force me either to relinquish my station, or to join with them, and act by their advice, and appoint creatures of their recommendation to the different offices, from which they might draw profit to themselves." This is followed by another letter, in which he shows who those corrupt men were that had gained the ascendency over the Nabob's temper,—namely, the eunuchs of Munny Begum: one of them her direct instrument in bribery with Mr. Hastings. What you would expect from such a state of things accordingly happened. Everything in the course of justice was confounded; all official responsibility destroyed; and nothing but a scene of forgery, peculation, and knavery of every kind and description prevailed through the country, and totally disturbed all order and justice in it. He says, "The Begum's ministers, before my arrival, with the advice of their counsellors, caused the Nabob to sign a receipt, in consequence of which they received at two different times near fifty thousand rupees, in the name of the officers of the Adawlut, Foujdarry, &c., from the Company's circar; and having drawn up an account-current in the manner they wished, they got the Nabob to sign it, and then sent it to me." In the same letter he asserts "that these people have the Nabob entirely in their power."

My Lords, you see here Mr. Hastings enabling the corrupt eunuchs of this wicked old woman to draw upon the Company's treasury at their pleasure, under forged papers of the Nabob, for just such moneys as they please, under the name and pretence of giving it to the officers of justice, but which they distribute among themselves as they think fit. This complaint was soon followed by another, and they furnish, first, the strongest presumptive proof of the corrupt motives of Mr. Hastings; and, secondly, they show the horrible mischievous effects of his conduct upon the country.

In consequence of the first complaint, Mr. Hastings directs this independent Nabob not to concern himself any longer with the Foujdarry. The Nabob, who had before declared that the superintendence of all the offices belonged to him, and was to be executed by himself, or under his orders, instantly obeys Mr. Hastings, and declares he will not interfere in the business of the courts any more. Your Lordships will observe further that the complaint is not against the Nabob, but against the creatures and the menial servants of Munny Begum: and yet it is the Nabob he forbids to interfere in this business; of the others he takes no notice; and this is a strong proof of the corrupt dealings of Mr. Hastings with this woman. When the whole country was fallen into confusion under the administration of this woman, and under her corrupt ministers, men base-born and employed in the basest offices, (the men of the household train of the women of rank in that country are of that description,) he writes to the Nabob again, and himself confesses the mischiefs that had arisen from his corrupt arrangements.

"At your Excellency's request, I sent Sudder ul Huk Khân to take on him the administration of the affairs of the Adawlut and Foujdarry, and hoped by that means not only to have given satisfaction to your Excellency, but that through his abilities and experience these affairs would have been conducted in such manner as to have secured the peace of the country and the happiness of the people; and it is with the greatest concern I learn that this measure is so far from being attended with the expected advantages, that the affairs both of the Foujdarry and Adawlut are in the greatest confusion imaginable, and daily robberies and murders are perpetrated throughout the country. This is evidently owing to the want of a proper authority in the person appointed to superintend them. I therefore addressed your Excellency on the importance and delicacy of the affairs in question, and of the necessity of lodging full power in the hands of the person chosen to administer them. In reply to which your Excellency expressed sentiments coincident with mine. Notwithstanding which, your dependants and people, actuated by selfish and avaricious views, have by their interference so impeded the business as to throw the whole country into a state of confusion, from which nothing can retrieve it but an unlimited power lodged in the hands of the superintendent. I therefore request that your Excellency will give the strictest injunctions to all your dependants not to interfere in any manner with any matter relative to the affairs of the Adawlut and Foujdarry, and that you will yourself relinquish all interference therein, and leave them entirely to the management of Sudder ul Huk Khân. This is absolutely necessary to restore the country to a state of tranquillity."

My Lords, what evidence do we produce to your Lordships of the consequences of Mr. Hastings's corrupt measures? His own. He here gives you the state into which the country was thrown by the criminal interference of the wicked woman whom he had established in power, totally superseding the regular judicial authority of the country, and throwing everything into confusion. As usual, there is such irregularity in his conduct, and his crimes are so multiplied, that all the contrivances of ingenuity are unable to cover them. Now and then he comes and betrays himself; and here he confesses you his own weakness, and the effects of his own corruption: he had appointed Munny Begum to this office of power, he dare not say a word to her upon her abuse of it, but he lays the whole upon the Nabob. When the Chief-Justice complains that these crimes were the consequence of Munny Begum's interference, and were committed by her creatures, why did he not say to the Nabob, "The Begum must not interfere; the Begum's eunuchs must not interfere"? He dared not: because that woman had concealed all the bribes but one from public notice to gratify him; she and Yatibar Ali Khân, her minister, who had the principal share in this destruction of justice and perversion of all the principal functions of government, had it in their power to discover the whole. Mr. Hastings was obliged, in consequence of that concealment, to support her and to support him. Every evil principle was at work. He bought a mercenary silence to pay the same back to them. It was a wicked silence, the concealment of their common guilt. There was at once a corrupt gratitude operating mutually by a corrupt influence on both, and a corrupt fear influencing the mind of Mr. Hastings, which did not permit him to put an end to this scene of disorder and confusion, bought at the expense of twenty-four thousand pounds a year to the Company. You will hereafter see what use he makes of the evidence of Yatibar Ali Khân, and of this woman, for concealing their guilt.

Your Lordships will observe that the virtuous majority, whose reign was but short, and two of whom died of grief and vexation under the impediments which they met with from the corruptions and oppositions of Mr. Hastings, (their indirect murderer,—for it is well known to the world that their hearts were thus broken,) put their conduct out of all suspicion. For they ordered an exact account to be kept by Mahomed Reza Khân,—though, certainly, if any person in the country could be trusted, he, upon his character, might; but they did not trust him, because they knew the Company did not suffer them to trust any man: they ordered an exact account to be kept by him of the Nabob's expenses, which finally must be the Company's expenses; they ordered the account to be sent down yearly, to be controlled, if necessary, whilst the means of control existed.—What was Mr. Hastings's conduct? He did not give the persons whom he appointed any order to produce any account, though their character and circumstances were such as made an account ten thousand times more necessary from them than from those from whom it had been in former times by the Company strictly exacted. So that his not ordering any account to be given of the money that was to be expended leaves no doubt that the appointment of Munny Begum was in pursuance of his old system of bribery, and that he maintained her in office, to the subversion of public justice, for the purpose of robbing, and of continuing in the practice of robbing, the country.

But though this continued longer than was for the good of the country, yet it did not continue absolutely and relatively long; because the Court of Directors, as soon as they heard of this iniquitous appointment, which glared upon them in all the light of its infamy, immediately wrote the strongest, the most decided, and the most peremptory censure upon him, attributing his acts, every one of them, to the same causes to which I attribute them. As a proof that the Court of Directors saw the thing in the very light in which I represent it to your Lordships, and indeed in which every one must see it, you will find that they reprobate all his idle excuses,—that they reprobate all the actors in the scene,—that they consider everything to have been done, not by the Nabob, but by himself,—that the object of the appointment of Munny Begum was money, and that the consequence of that appointment was the robbery of the Nabob's treasury. "We by no means approve your late proceedings, on the application of the Nabob Mobarek ul Dowlah for the removal of the Naib Subahdar. The requisition of Mobarek ul Dowlah was improper and unfriendly; because he must have known that the late appointment of Mahomed Reza Khân to the office of Naib Subahdar had been marked with the Company's special approbation, and that the Court of Directors had assured him of their favor so long as a firm attachment to the Company's interest and a proper discharge of the duties of his station should render him worthy of their protection. We therefore repeat our declaration, that to require the dismission of a prime-minister thus circumstanced, without producing the smallest proof of his infidelity to the Company, or venturing to charge him with one instance of maladministration in the discharge of his public duty, was improper and inconsistent with the friendship subsisting between the Nabob of Bengal and the Company." And further on they say,—"The Nabob having intimated that he had repeatedly stated the trouble and uneasiness which he had suffered from the naibship of the nizamut being vested in Mahomed Reza Khân, we observe one of the members of your board desired the Nabob's repeated letters on the subject might be read, but this reasonable request was overruled, on a plea of saving the board's time, which we can by no means admit as a sufficient objection. The Nabob's letters of the 25th and 30th August, of the 3d September and 17th November, leave us no doubt of the true design of this extraordinary business being to bring forward Munny Begum, and again to invest her with improper power and influence, notwithstanding our former declaration, that so great a part of the Nabob's allowance had been embezzled or misapplied under her superintendence."

At present I do not think it necessary, because it would be doing more than enough, it would be slaying the slain, to show your Lordships what Mr. Hastings's motives were in acting against the sense of the East India Company, appointed by an act of Parliament to control him,—that he did it for a corrupt purpose, that all his pretences were false and fraudulent, and that he had his own corrupt views in the whole of the proceeding. But in the statement which I have given of this matter, I beg your Lordships to observe the instruments with which Mr. Hastings acts. The great men of that country, and particularly the Subahdar himself, the Nabob, are and is in so equivocal a situation, that it afforded him two bolting-holes, by which he is enabled to resist the authority of the Company, and exercise an arbitrary authority of his own: for, though the Nabob has the titles of high sovereignty, he is the lowest of all dependants; he appears to be the master of the country,—he is a pensioner of the Company's government.

When Mr. Hastings wants him to obey and answer his corrupt purposes, he finds him in the character of a pensioner: when he wants his authority to support him in opposition to the authority of the Company, immediately he invests him with high sovereign powers, and he dare not execute the orders of the Company for fear of doing some act that will make him odious in the eyes of God and man. We see how he appointed all officers for him, and forbade his interference in all affairs. When the Company see the impropriety and the guilt of these acts, and order him to rescind them, and appoint again Mahomed Reza Khân, he declares he will not, that he cannot do it in justice, but that he will consent to send him the order of the Company, but without backing it with any order of the board: which, supposing even there had been no private communication, was, in other words, commanding him to disobey it. So this poor man, who a short time before was at the feet of Mr. Hastings, whom Mr. Hastings declared to be a pageant, and swore in a court of justice that he was but a pageant, and followed that affidavit with long declarations in Council that he was a pageant in sovereignty, and ought in policy ever to be held out as such,—this man he sets up in opposition to the Company, and refuses to appoint Mahomed Reza Khân to the office which was guarantied to him by the express faith of the Company, pledged to his support. Will any man tell me that this resistance, under such base, though plausible pretences, could spring from any other cause than a resolution of persisting systematically in his course of corruption and bribery through Munny Begum?

But there is another circumstance that puts this in a stronger light. He opposes the Nabob's mock authority to the authority of the Company, and leaves Mahomed Reza Khân unemployed, because, as he says, he cannot in justice execute orders from the Company (though they are his undoubted masters) contrary to the rights of the Nabob. You see what the rights of the Nabob were: the rights of the Nabob were, to be governed by Munny Begum and her scandalous ministers. But, however, we now see him exalted to be an independent sovereign; he defies the Company at the head of their armies and their treasury; that name that makes all India shake was defied by one of its pensioners. My Lords, human greatness is an unstable thing. This man, so suddenly exalted, was as soon depressed; and the manner of his depression is as curious as that of his exaltation by Mr. Hastings, and will tend to show you the man most clearly.

Mr. Francis, whose conduct all along was directed by no other principles than those which were in conformity with the plan adopted by himself and his virtuous colleagues, namely, an entire obedience to the laws of his country, and who constantly had opposed Mr. Hastings, upon principles of honor, and principles of obedience to the authority of the Company under which he acted, had never contended for any one thing, in any way, or in any instance, but obedience to them, and had constantly asserted that Mahomed Reza Khân ought to be put into employment. Mr. Hastings as constantly opposed him; and the reason he gave for it was, that it was against the direct rights of the Nabob, and that they were rights so sacred that they could not be infringed even by the sovereign authority of the Company ordering him to do it. He had so great an aversion to the least subtraction of the Nabob's right, that, though expressly commanded by the Court of Directors, he would not suffer Mahomed Reza Khân to be invested with his office under the Company's authority. The Nabob was too sovereign, too supreme, for him to do it. But such is the fate of human grandeur, that a whimsical event reduced the Nabob to his state of pageant again, and made him the mere subject of—you will see whom. Mr. Hastings found he was so embarrassed by his disobedience to the spirit of the orders of the Company, and by the various wild projects he had formed, as to make it necessary for him, even though he had a majority in the Council, to gain over at any price Mr. Francis. Mr. Francis, frightened by the same miserable situation of affairs, (for this happened at a most dangerous period,—the height of the Mahratta war,) was willing likewise to give up his opposition to Mr. Hastings, to suspend the execution of many rightful things, and to concede them to the public necessity. Accordingly he agreed to terms with Mr. Hastings. But what was the price of that concession? Any base purpose, any desertion of public duty? No: all that he desired of Mr. Hastings was, that he should obey the orders of the Company; and among other acts of the obedience required was this, that Mahomed Reza Khân should be put into his office.

You have heard how Mr. Hastings opposed the order of the Company, and on what account he opposed it. On the 1st of September he sent an order to the Nabob, now become his subject, to give up this office to Mahomed Reza Khân: an act which he had before represented as a dethroning of the Nabob. The order went on the 1st of September, and on the 3d this great and mighty prince, whom all earth could not move from the assertion of his rights, gives them all up, and Mahomed Reza Khân is invested with them. So there all his pretences were gone. It is plain that what had been done before was for Munny Begum, and that what he now gave up was from necessity: and it shows that the Nabob was the meanest of his servants; for in truth he ate his daily bread out of the hands of Mr. Hastings, through Munny Begum.

Mahomed Reza Khân was now invested again with his office; but such was the treachery of Mr. Hastings, that, though he wrote to the Nabob that this was done in consequence of the orders of the Company, he did clandestinely, according to his usual mode, assure the Nabob that Mahomed Reza Khân should not hold the place longer than till he heard from England. He then wrote him another letter, that he should hold it no longer than while he submitted to his present necessity, (thus giving up to his colleague what he refused to the Company,) and engaged, privately, that he would dismiss Mahomed Reza Khân again. And accordingly, the moment he thought Mr. Francis was not in a condition to give him trouble any longer, that moment he again turned out Mahomed Reza Khân from that general superintendence of affairs which the Company gave him, and deposed him as a minister, leaving him only a very confined authority as a magistrate.

All these changes, no less than four great revolutions, if I may so call them, were made by Mr. Hastings for his own corrupt purposes. This is the manner in which Mr. Hastings has played with the most sacred objects that man ever had a dealing with: with the government, with the justice, with the order, with the dignity, with the nobility of a great country: he played with them to satisfy his own wicked and corrupt purposes through the basest instrument.

Now, my Lords, I have done with these presumptions of corruption with Munny Begum, and have shown that it is not a slight crime, but that it is attended with a breach of public faith, with a breach of his orders, with a breach of the whole English government, and the destruction of the native government, of the police, the order, the safety, the security, and the justice of the country,—and that all these are much concerned in this cause. Therefore the Commons stand before the face of the world, and say, We have brought a cause, a great cause, a cause worthy the Commons of England to prosecute, and worthy the Lords to judge and determine upon.