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

E >> Edmund Burke >> The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12)




My next inquiry to that of the number is the quality and description of
the inhabitants. This multitude of men does not consist of an abject and
barbarous populace; much less of gangs of savages, like the Guaranies
and Chiquitos, who wander on the waste borders of the River of Amazons
or the Plate; but a people for ages civilized and
cultivated,--cultivated by all the arts of polished life, whilst we
were yet in the woods. There have been (and still the skeletons remain)
princes once of great dignity, authority, and opulence. There are to be
found the chiefs of tribes and nations. There is to be found an ancient
and venerable priesthood, the depository of their laws, learning, and
history, the guides of the people whilst living and their consolation in
death; a nobility of great antiquity and renown; a multitude of cities,
not exceeded in population and trade by those of the first class in
Europe; merchants and bankers, individual houses of whom have once vied
in capital with the Bank of England, whose credit had often supported a
tottering state, and preserved their governments in the midst of war and
desolation; millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanics; millions
of the most diligent, and not the least intelligent, tillers of the
earth. Here are to be found almost all the religions professed by
men,--the Braminical, the Mussulman, the Eastern and the Western
Christian.

If I were to take the whole aggregate of our possessions there, I should
compare it, as the nearest parallel I can find, with the Empire of
Germany. Our immediate possessions I should compare with the Austrian
dominions: and they would not suffer in the comparison. The Nabob of
Oude might stand for the King of Prussia; the Nabob of Arcot I would
compare, as superior in territory, and equal in revenue, to the Elector
of Saxony. Cheit Sing, the Rajah of Benares, might well rank with the
Prince of Hesse, at least; and the Rajah of Tanjore (though hardly equal
in extent of dominion, superior in revenue) to the Elector of Bavaria.
The polygars and the Northern zemindars, and other great chiefs, might
well class with the rest of the princes, dukes, counts, marquises, and
bishops in the Empire; all of whom I mention to honor, and surely
without disparagement to any or all of those most respectable princes
and grandees.

All this vast mass, composed of so many orders and classes of men, is
again infinitely diversified by manners, by religion, by hereditary
employment, through all their possible combinations. This renders the
handling of India a matter in an high degree critical and delicate. But,
oh, it has been handled rudely indeed! Even some of the reformers seem
to have forgot that they had anything to do but to regulate the tenants
of a manor, or the shopkeepers of the next county town.

It is an empire of this extent, of this complicated nature, of this
dignity and importance, that I have compared to Germany and the German
government,--not for an exact resemblance, but as a sort of a middle
term, by which India might be approximated to our understandings, and,
if possible, to our feelings, in order to awaken something of sympathy
for the unfortunate natives, of which I am afraid we are not perfectly
susceptible, whilst we look at this very remote object through a false
and cloudy medium.

My second condition necessary to justify me in touching the charter is,
whether the Company's abuse of their trust with regard to this great
object be an abuse of great atrocity. I shall beg your permission to
consider their conduct in two lights: first the political, and then the
commercial. Their political conduct (for distinctness) I divide again
into two heads: the external, in which I mean to comprehend their
conduct in their federal capacity, as it relates to powers and states
independent, or that not long since were such; the other
internal,--namely, their conduct to the countries, either immediately
subject to the Company, or to those who, under the apparent government
of native sovereigns, are in a state much lower and much more miserable
than common subjection.

The attention, Sir, which I wish to preserve to method will not be
considered as unnecessary or affected. Nothing else can help me to
selection out of the infinite mass of materials which have passed under
my eye, or can keep my mind steady to the great leading points I have in
view.

With regard, therefore, to the abuse of the external federal trust, I
engage myself to you to make good these three positions. First, I say,
that from Mount Imaus, (or whatever else you call that large range of
mountains that walls the northern frontier of India,) where it touches
us in the latitude of twenty-nine, to Cape Comorin, in the latitude of
eight, that there is not a _single_ prince, state, or potentate, great
or small, in India, with whom they have come into contact, whom they
have not sold: I say _sold_, though sometimes they have not been able to
deliver according to their bargain. Secondly, I say, that there is not a
_single treaty_ they have ever made which they have not broken. Thirdly,
I say, that there is not a single prince or state, who ever put any
trust in the Company, who is not utterly ruined; and that none are in
any degree secure or flourishing, but in the exact proportion to their
settled distrust and irreconcilable enmity to this nation.

These assertions are universal: I say, in the full sense, _universal_.
They regard the external and political trust only; but I shall produce
others fully equivalent in the internal. For the present, I shall
content myself with explaining my meaning; and if I am called on for
proof, whilst these bills are depending, (which I believe I shall not,)
I will put my finger on the appendixes to the Reports, or on papers of
record in the House or the Committees, which I have distinctly present
to my memory, and which I think I can lay before you at half an hour's
warning.

The first potentate sold by the Company for money was the Great
Mogul,--the descendant of Tamerlane. This high personage, as high as
human veneration can look at, is by every account amiable in his
manners, respectable for his piety, according to his mode, and
accomplished in all the Oriental literature. All this, and the title
derived under his _charter_ to all that we hold in India, could not save
him from the general _sale_. Money is coined in his name; in his name
justice is administered; he is prayed for in every temple through the
countries we possess;--but he was sold.

It is impossible, Mr. Speaker, not to pause here for a moment, to
reflect on the inconstancy of human greatness, and the stupendous
revolutions that have happened in our age of wonders. Could it be
believed, when I entered into existence, or when you, a younger man,
were born, that on this day, in this House, we should be employed in
discussing the conduct of those British subjects who had disposed of the
power and person of the Grand Mogul? This is no idle speculation. Awful
lessons are taught by it, and by other events, of which it is not yet
too late to profit.

This is hardly a digression: but I return to the sale of the Mogul. Two
districts, Corah and Allahabad, out of his immense grants, were reserved
as a royal demesne to the donor of a kingdom, and the rightful sovereign
of so many nations.--After withholding the tribute of 260,000_l._ a
year, which the Company was, by the _charter_ they had received from
this prince, under the most solemn obligation to pay, these districts
were sold to his chief minister, Sujah ul Dowlah; and what may appear to
some the worst part of the transaction, these two districts were sold
for scarcely two years' purchase. The descendant of Tamerlane now stands
in need almost of the common necessaries of life; and in this situation
we do not even allow him, as bounty, the smallest portion of what we owe
him in justice.

The next sale was that of the whole nation of the Rohillas, which the
grand salesman, without a pretence of quarrel, and contrary to his own
declared sense Of duty and rectitude, sold to the same Sujah ul Dowlah.
He sold the people to utter _extirpation_, for the sum of four hundred
thousand pounds. Faithfully was the bargain performed on our side. Hafiz
Rhamet, the most eminent of their chiefs, one of the bravest men of his
time, and as famous throughout the East for the elegance of his
literature and the spirit of his poetical compositions (by which he
supported the name of Hafiz) as for his courage, was invaded with an
army of an hundred thousand men, and an English brigade. This man, at
the head of inferior forces, was slain valiantly fighting for his
country. His head was cut off, and delivered for money to a barbarian.
His wife and children, persons of that rank, were seen begging an
handful of rice through the English camp. The whole nation, with
inconsiderable exceptions, was slaughtered or banished. The country was
laid waste with fire and sword; and that land, distinguished above most
others by the cheerful face of paternal government and protected labor,
the chosen seat of cultivation and plenty, is now almost throughout a
dreary desert, covered with rushes, and briers, and jungles full of wild
beasts.

The British officer who commanded in the delivery of the people thus
sold felt some compunction at his employment. He represented these
enormous excesses to the President of Bengal, for which he received a
severe reprimand from the civil governor; and I much doubt whether the
breach caused by the conflict between the compassion of the military and
the firmness of the civil governor be closed at this hour.

In Bengal, Surajah Dowlah was sold to Mir Jaffier; Mir Jaffier was sold
to Mir Cossim; and Mir Cossim was sold to Mir Jaffier again. The
succession to Mir Jaffier was sold to his eldest son;--another son of
Mir Jaffier, Mobarech ul Dowlah, was sold to his step-mother. The
Mahratta Empire was sold to Ragobah; and Ragobah was sold and delivered
to the Peishwa of the Mahrattas. Both Ragobah and the Peishwa of the
Mahrattas were offered to sale to the Rajah of Berar. Scindia, the chief
of Malwa, was offered to sale to the same Rajah; and the Subah of the
Deccan was sold to the great trader, Mahomet Ali, Nabob of Arcot. To the
same Nabob of Arcot they sold Hyder Ali and the kingdom of Mysore. To
Mahomet Ali they twice sold the kingdom of Tanjore. To the same Mahomet
Ali they sold at least twelve sovereign princes, called the Polygars.
But to keep things even, the territory of Tinnevelly, belonging to their
nabob, they would have sold to the Dutch; and to conclude the account of
sales, their great customer, the Nabob of Arcot himself, and his lawful
succession, has been sold to his second son, Amir ul Omrah, whose
character, views, and conduct are in the accounts upon your table. It
remains with you whether they shall finally perfect this last bargain.

All these bargains and sales were regularly attended with the waste and
havoc of the country,--always by the buyer, and sometimes by the object
of the sale. This was explained to you by the honorable mover, when he
stated the mode of paying debts due from the country powers to the
Company. An honorable gentleman, who is not now in his place, objected
to his jumping near two thousand miles for an example. But the southern
example is perfectly applicable to the northern claim, as the northern
is to the southern; for, throughout the whole space of these two
thousand miles, take your stand where you will, the proceeding is
perfectly uniform, and what is done in one part will apply exactly to
the other.

My second assertion is, that the Company never has made a treaty which
they have not broken. This position is so connected with that of the
sales of provinces and kingdoms, with the negotiation of universal
distraction in every part of India, that a very minute detail may well
be spared on this point. It has not yet been contended, by any enemy to
the reform, that they have observed any public agreement. When I hear
that they have done so in any one instance, (which hitherto, I confess,
I never heard alleged,) I shall speak to the particular treaty. The
Governor General has even amused himself and the Court of Directors in
a very singular letter to that board, in which he admits he has not been
very delicate with regard to public faith; and he goes so far as to
state a regular estimate of the sums which the Company would have lost,
or never acquired, if the rigid ideas of public faith entertained by his
colleagues had been observed. The learned gentleman[55] over against me
has, indeed, saved me much trouble. On a former occasion, he obtained no
small credit for the clear and forcible manner in which he stated, what
we have not forgot, and I hope he has not forgot, that universal,
systematic breach of treaties which had made the British faith
proverbial in the East.

It only remains, Sir, for me just to recapitulate some heads.--The
treaty with the Mogul, by which we stipulated to pay him 260,000_l._
annually, was broken. This treaty they have broken, and not paid him a
shilling. They broke their treaty with him, in which they stipulated to
pay 400,000_l._ a year to the Subah of Bengal. They agreed with the
Mogul, for services admitted to have been performed, to pay Nudjif Cawn
a pension. They broke this article with the rest, and stopped also this
small pension. They broke their treaties with the Nizam, and with Hyder
Ali. As to the Mahrattas, they had so many cross treaties with the
states-general of that nation, and with each of the chiefs, that it was
notorious that no one of these agreements could be kept without grossly
violating the rest. It was observed, that, if the terms of these several
treaties had been kept, two British armies would at one and the same
time have met in the field to cut each other's throats. The wars which
desolate India originated from a most atrocious violation of public
faith on our part. In the midst of profound peace, the Company's troops
invaded the Mahratta territories, and surprised the island and fortress
of Salsette. The Mahrattas nevertheless yielded to a treaty of peace by
which solid advantages were procured to the Company. But this treaty,
like every other treaty, was soon violated by the Company. Again the
Company invaded the Mahratta dominions. The disaster that ensued gave
occasion to a new treaty. The whole army of the Company was obliged in
effect to surrender to this injured, betrayed, and insulted people.
Justly irritated, however, as they were, the terms which they prescribed
were reasonable and moderate, and their treatment of their captive
invaders of the most distinguished humanity. But the humanity of the
Mahrattas was of no power whatsoever to prevail on the Company to attend
to the observance of the terms dictated by their moderation. The war was
renewed with greater vigor than ever; and such was their insatiable lust
of plunder, that they never would have given ear to any terms of peace,
if Hyder Ali had not broke through the Ghauts, and, rushing like a
torrent into the Carnatic, swept away everything in his career. This was
in consequence of that confederacy which by a sort of miracle united the
most discordant powers for our destruction, as a nation in which no
other could put any trust, and who were the declared enemies of the
human species.

It is very remarkable that the late controversy between the several
presidencies, and between them and the Court of Directors, with relation
to these wars and treaties, has not been, which of the parties might be
defended for his share in them, but on which of the parties the guilt
of all this load of perfidy should be fixed. But I am content to admit
all these proceedings to be perfectly regular, to be full of honor and
good faith; and wish to fix your attention solely to that single
transaction which the advocates of this system select for so
transcendent a merit as to cancel the guilt of all the rest of their
proceedings: I mean the late treaties with the Mahrattas.

I make no observation on the total cession of territory, by which they
surrendered all they had obtained by their unhappy successes in war, and
almost all they had obtained under the treaty of Poorunder. The
restitution was proper, if it had been voluntary and seasonable. I
attach on the spirit of the treaty, the dispositions it showed, the
provisions it made for a general peace, and the faith kept with allies
and confederates,--in order that the House may form a judgment, from
this chosen piece, of the use which has been made (and is likely to be
made, if things continue in the same hands) of the trust of the federal
powers of this country.

It was the wish of almost every Englishman that the Mahratta peace might
lead to a general one; because the Mahratta war was only a part of a
general confederacy formed against us, on account of the universal
abhorrence of our conduct which prevailed in every state, and almost in
every house in India. Mr. Hastings was obliged to pretend some sort of
acquiescence in this general and rational desire. He therefore
consented, in order to satisfy the point of honor of the Mahrattas, that
an article should be inserted to admit Hyder Ali to accede to the
pacification. But observe, Sir, the spirit of this man,--which, if it
were not made manifest by a thousand things, and particularly by his
proceedings with regard to Lord Macartney, would be sufficiently
manifest by this. What sort of article, think you, does he require this
essential head of a solemn treaty of general pacification to be? In his
instruction to Mr. Anderson, he desires him to admit "a _vague_ article"
in favor of Hyder. Evasion and fraud were the declared basis of the
treaty. These _vague_ articles, intended for a more vague performance,
are the things which have damned our reputation in India.

Hardly was this vague article inserted, than, without waiting for any
act on the part of Hyder, Mr. Hastings enters into a negotiation with
the Mahratta chief, Scindia, for a partition of the territories of the
prince who was one of the objects to be secured by the treaty. He was to
be parcelled out in three parts: one to Scindia; one to the Peishwa of
the Mahrattas; and the third to the East India Company, or to (the old
dealer and chapman) Mahomet Ali.

During the formation of this project, Hyder dies; and before his son
could take any one step, either to conform to the tenor of the article
or to contravene it, the treaty of partition is renewed on the old
footing, and an instruction is sent to Mr. Anderson to conclude it in
form.

A circumstance intervened, during the pendency of this negotiation, to
set off the good faith of the Company with an additional brilliancy, and
to make it sparkle and glow with a variety of splendid faces. General
Matthews had reduced that most valuable part of Hyder's dominions called
the country of Biddanore. When the news reached Mr. Hastings, he
instructed Mr. Anderson to contend for an alteration in the treaty of
partition, and to take the Biddanore country out of the common stock
which was to be divided, and to keep it for the Company.

The first ground for this variation was its being a separate conquest
made before the treaty had actually taken place. Here was a new proof
given of the fairness, equity, and moderation of the Company. But the
second of Mr. Hastings's reasons for retaining the Biddanore as a
separate portion, and his conduct on that second ground, is still more
remarkable. He asserted that that country could not be put into the
partition stock, because General Matthews had received it on the terms
of some convention which might be incompatible with the partition
proposed. This was a reason in itself both honorable and solid; and it
showed a regard to faith somewhere, and with some persons. But in order
to demonstrate his utter contempt of the plighted faith which was
alleged on one part as a reason for departing from it on another, and to
prove his impetuous desire for sowing a new war even in the prepared
soil of a general pacification, he directs Mr. Anderson, if he should
find strong difficulties impeding the partition on the score of the
subtraction of Biddanore, wholly to abandon that claim, and to conclude
the treaty on the original terms. General Matthews's convention was just
brought forward sufficiently to demonstrate to the Mahrattas the
slippery hold which they had on their new confederate; on the other
hand, that convention being instantly abandoned, the people of India
were taught that no terms on which they can surrender to the Company are
to be regarded, when farther conquests are in view.

Next, Sir, let me bring before you the pious care that was taken of our
allies under that treaty which is the subject of the Company's
applauses. These allies were Ragonaut Row, for whom we had engaged to
find a throne; the Guickwar, (one of the Guzerat princes,) who was to be
emancipated from the Mahratta authority, and to grow great by several
accessions of dominion; and, lastly, the Rana of Gohud, with whom we had
entered into a treaty of partition for eleven sixteenths of our joint
conquests. Some of these inestimable securities called _vague_ articles
were inserted in favor of them all.

As to the first, the unhappy abdicated Peishwa, and pretender to the
Mahratta throne, Ragonaut Row, was delivered up to his people, with an
article for safety, and some provision. This man, knowing how little
vague the hatred of his countrymen was towards him, and well apprised of
what black crimes he stood accused, (among which our invasion of his
country would not appear the least,) took a mortal alarm at the security
we had provided for him. He was thunderstruck at the article in his
favor, by which he was surrendered to his enemies. He never had the
least notice of the treaty; and it was apprehended that he would fly to
the protection of Hyder Ali, or some other, disposed or able to protect
him. He was therefore not left without comfort; for Mr. Anderson did him
the favor to send a special messenger, desiring him to be of good cheer
and to fear nothing. And his old enemy, Scindia, at our request, sent
him a message equally well calculated to quiet his apprehensions.

By the same treaty the Guickwar was to come again, with no better
security, under the dominion of the Mahratta state. As to the Rana of
Gohud, a long negotiation depended for giving him up. At first this was
refused by Mr. Hastings with great indignation; at another stage it was
admitted as proper, because he had shown himself a most perfidious
person. But at length a method of reconciling these extremes was found
out, by contriving one of the usual articles in his favor. What I
believe will appear beyond all belief, Mr. Anderson exchanged the final
ratifications of that treaty by which the Rana was nominally secured in
his possessions, in the camp of the Mahratta chief, Scindia, whilst he
was (really, and not nominally) battering the castle of Gwalior, which
we had given, agreeably to treaty, to this deluded ally. Scindia had
already reduced the town, and was at the very time, by various
detachments, reducing, one after another, the fortresses of our
protected ally, as well as in the act of chastising all the rajahs who
had assisted Colonel Camac in his invasion. I have seen in a letter from
Calcutta, that the Rana of Gohud's agent would have represented these
hostilities (which went hand in hand with the protecting treaty) to Mr.
Hastings, but he was not admitted to his presence.

In this manner the Company has acted with their allies in the Mahratta
war. But they did not rest here. The Mahrattas were fearful lest the
persons delivered to them by that treaty should attempt to escape into
the British territories, and thus might elude the punishment intended
for them, and, by reclaiming the treaty, might stir up new disturbances.
To prevent this, they desired an article to be inserted in the
supplemental treaty, to which they had the ready consent of Mr.
Hastings, and the rest of the Company's representatives in Bengal. It
was this: "That the English and Mahratta governments mutually agree not
to afford refuge to any _chiefs, merchants, or other persons_, flying
for protection to the territories of the other." This was readily
assented to, and assented to without any exception whatever in favor of
our surrendered allies. On their part a reciprocity was stipulated which
was not unnatural for a government like the Company's to ask,--a
government conscious that many subjects had been, and would in future
be, driven to fly from its jurisdiction.

To complete the system of pacific intention and public faith which
predominate in those treaties, Mr. Hastings fairly resolved to put all
peace, except on the terms of absolute conquest, wholly out of his own
power. For, by an article in this second treaty with Scindia, he binds
the Company not to make any peace with Tippoo Sahib without the consent
of the Peishwa of the Mahrattas, and binds Scindia to him by a
reciprocal engagement. The treaty between France and England obliges us
mutually to withdraw our forces, if our allies in India do not accede to
the peace within four months; Mr. Hastings's treaty obliges us to
continue the war as long as the Peishwa thinks fit. We are now in that
happy situation, that the breach of the treaty with France, or the
violation of that with the Mahrattas, is inevitable; and we have only to
take our choice.

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