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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)




Thus they executed an exemplary punishment on Fizulla Khan for the
culture of his country. But, conscious that the prevention of evils is
the great object of all good regulation, they deprived him of the means
of increasing that criminal cultivation in future, by exhausting his
coffers; and that the population of his country should no more be a
standing reproach and libel on the Company's government, they bound him
by a positive engagement not to afford any shelter whatsoever to the
farmers and laborers who should seek refuge in his territories from the
exactions of the British residents in Oude. When they had done all this
effectually, they gave him a full and complete acquittance from all
charges of rebellion, or of any intention to rebel, or of his having
originally had any interest in, or any means of, rebellion.

These intended rebellions are one of the Company's standing resources.
When money has been thought to be heaped up anywhere, its owners are
universally accused of rebellion, until they are acquitted of their
money and their treasons at once. The money once taken, all accusation,
trial, and punishment ends. It is so settled a resource, that I rather
wonder how it comes to be omitted in the Directors' account; but I take
it for granted this omission will be supplied in their next edition.

The Company stretched this resource to the full extent, when they
accused two old women, in the remotest corner of India, (who could have
no possible view or motive to raise disturbances,) of being engaged in
rebellion, with an intent to drive out the English nation, in whose
protection, purchased by money and secured by treaty, rested the sole
hope of their existence. But the Company wanted money, and the old women
_must_ be guilty of a plot. They were accused of rebellion, and they
were convicted of wealth. Twice had great sums been extorted from them,
and as often had the British faith guarantied the remainder. A body of
British troops, with one of the military farmers-general at their head,
was sent to seize upon the castle in which these helpless women resided.
Their chief eunuchs, who were their agents, their guardians, protectors,
persons of high rank according to the Eastern manners, and of great
trust, were thrown into dungeons, to make them discover their hidden
treasures; and there they lie at present. The lands assigned for the
maintenance of the women were seized and confiscated. Their jewels and
effects were taken, and set up to a pretended auction in an obscure
place, and bought at such a price as the gentlemen thought proper to
give. No account has ever been transmitted of the articles or produce of
this sale. What money was obtained is unknown, or what terms were
stipulated for the maintenance of these despoiled and forlorn
creatures: for by some particulars it appears as if an engagement of the
kind was made.

Let me here remark, once for all, that though the act of 1773 requires
that an account of all proceedings should be diligently transmitted,
that this, like all the other injunctions of the law, is totally
despised, and that half at least of the most important papers are
intentionally withheld.

I wish you, Sir, to advert particularly, in this transaction, to the
quality and the numbers of the persons spoiled, and the instrument by
whom that spoil was made. These ancient matrons, called the Begums, or
Princesses, were of the first birth and quality in India: the one
mother, the other wife, of the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah Dowlah, a
prince possessed of extensive and flourishing dominions, and the second
man in the Mogul Empire. This prince (suspicious, and not unjustly
suspicious, of his son and successor) at his death committed his
treasures and his family to the British faith. That family and household
consisted of _two thousand women_, to which were added two other
seraglios of near kindred, and said to be extremely numerous, and (as I
am well informed) of about fourscore of the Nabob's children, with all
the eunuchs, the ancient servants, and a multitude of the dependants of
his splendid court. These were all to be provided, for present
maintenance and future establishment, from the lands assigned as dower,
and from the treasures which he left to these matrons, in trust for the
whole family.

So far as to the objects of the spoil. The _instrument_ chosen by Mr.
Hastings to despoil the relict of Sujah Dowlah was _her own son_, the
reigning Nabob of Oude. It was the pious hand of a son that was selected
to tear from his mother and grandmother the provision of their age, the
maintenance of his brethren, and of all the ancient household of his
father. [_Here a laugh, from some young members_.] The laugh is
_seasonable_, and the occasion decent and proper.

By the last advices, something of the sum extorted remained unpaid. The
women, in despair, refuse to deliver more, unless their lands are
restored, and their ministers released from prison; but Mr. Hastings and
his council, steady to their point, and consistent to the last in their
conduct, write to the resident to stimulate the son to accomplish the
filial acts he had brought so near to their perfection. "We desire," say
they in their letter to the resident, (written so late as March last,)
"that you will inform us if any, and what means, have been taken for
recovering the balance due from the Begum [Princess] at Fyzabad; and
that, if necessary, you _recommend_ it to the vizier to enforce _the
most effectual means_ for that purpose."

What their effectual means of enforcing demands on women of high rank
and condition are I shall show you, Sir, in a few minutes, when I
represent to you another of these plots and rebellions, which _always_
in India, though so _rarely_ anywhere else, are the offspring of an easy
condition and hoarded riches.

Benares is the capital city of the Indian religion. It is regarded as
holy by a particular and distinguished sanctity; and the Gentoos in
general think themselves as much obliged to visit it once in their lives
as the Mahometans to perform their pilgrimage to Mecca. By this means
that city grew great in commerce and opulence; and so effectually was it
secured by the pious veneration of that people, that in all wars and in
all violences of power there was so sure an asylum both for poverty and
wealth, (as it were under a divine protection,) that the wisest laws and
best assured free constitution could not better provide for the relief
of the one or the safety of the other; and this tranquillity influenced
to the greatest degree the prosperity of all the country, and the
territory of which it was the capital. The interest of money there was
not more than half the usual rate in which it stood in all other places.
The reports have fully informed you of the means and of the terms in
which this city and the territory called Ghazipoor, of which it was the
head, came under the sovereignty of the East India Company.

If ever there was a subordinate dominion pleasantly circumstanced to the
superior power, it was this. A large rent or tribute, to the amount of
two hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year, was paid in monthly
instalments with the punctuality of a dividend at the Bank. If ever
there was a prince who could not have an interest in disturbances, it
was its sovereign, the Rajah Cheit Sing. He was in possession of the
capital of his religion, and a willing revenue was paid by the devout
people who resorted to him from all parts. His sovereignty and his
independence, except his tribute, was secured by every tie. His
territory was not much less than half of Ireland, and displayed in all
parts a degree of cultivation, ease, and plenty, under his frugal and
paternal management, which left him nothing to desire, either for honor
or satisfaction.

This was the light in which this country appeared to almost every eye.
But Mr. Hastings beheld it askance. Mr. Hastings tells us that it was
_reported_ of this Cheit Sing, that his father left him a million
sterling, and that he made annual accessions to the hoard. Nothing could
be so obnoxious to indigent power. So much wealth could not be innocent.
The House is fully acquainted with the unfounded and unjust requisitions
which were made upon this prince. The question has been most ably and
conclusively cleared up in one of the reports of the select committee,
and in an answer of the Court of Directors to an extraordinary
publication against them by their servant, Mr. Hastings. But I mean to
pass by these exactions as if they were perfectly just and regular; and
having admitted them, I take what I shall now trouble you with only as
it serves to show the spirit of the Company's government, the mode in
which it is carried on, and the maxims on which it proceeds.

Mr. Hastings, from whom I take the doctrine, endeavors to prove that
Cheit Sing was no sovereign prince, but a mere zemindar, or common
subject, holding land by rent. If this be granted to him, it is next to
be seen under what terms he is of opinion such a landholder, that is a
British subject, holds his life and property under the Company's
government. It is proper to understand well the doctrines of the person
whose administration has lately received such distinguished approbation
from the Company. His doctrine is,--"That the Company, or the _person
delegated by it_, holds _an absolute_ authority over such
zemindars;--that he [such a subject] owes _an implicit_ and _unreserved_
obedience to its authority, at the _forfeiture_ even of his _life_ and
_property_, at the DISCRETION of those who held _or fully represented_
the sovereign authority;--and that _these_ rights are _fully_ delegated
_to him_, Mr. Hastings."

Such is a British governor's idea of the condition of a great zemindar
holding under a British authority; and this kind of authority he
supposes fully delegated to _him_,--though no such delegation appears in
any commission, instruction, or act of Parliament. At his _discretion_
he may demand of the substance of any zemindar, over and above his rent
or tribute, even, what he pleases, with a sovereign authority; and if he
does not yield an _implicit, unreserved_ obedience to all his commands,
he forfeits his lands, his life, and his property, at Mr. Hastings's
_discretion_. But, extravagant, and even frantic, as these positions
appear, they are less so than what I shall now read to you; for he
asserts, that, if any one should urge an exemption from more than a
stated payment, or should consider the deeds which passed between him
and the Board "as bearing _the quality and force_ of a treaty between
equal states," he says, "that such an opinion is itself criminal to the
state of which he is a subject; and that he was himself amenable to its
justice, if he gave _countenance_ to such a _belief_." Here is a new
species of crime invented, that of countenancing a belief,--but a belief
of what? A belief of that which the Court of Directors, Hastings's
masters, and a committee of this House, have decided as this prince's
indisputable right.

But supposing the Rajah of Benares to be a mere subject, and that
subject a criminal of the highest form; let us see what course was taken
by an upright English magistrate. Did he cite this culprit before his
tribunal? Did he make a charge? Did he produce witnesses? These are not
forms; they are parts of substantial and eternal justice. No, not a word
of all this. Mr. Hastings concludes him, _in his own mind_, to be
guilty: he makes this conclusion on reports, on hearsays, on
appearances, on rumors, on conjectures, on presumptions; and even these
never once hinted to the party, nor publicly to any human being, till
the whole business was done.

But the Governor tells you his motive for this extraordinary proceeding,
so contrary to every mode of justice towards either a prince or a
subject, fairly and without disguise; and he puts into your hands the
key of his whole conduct:--"I will suppose, for a moment, that I have
acted with unwarrantable rigor towards Cheit Sing, and even with
injustice.--Let my MOTIVE be consulted. I left Calcutta, impressed with
a belief that _extraordinary means_ were necessary, and those exerted
with a _steady hand_, to preserve the Company's _interests from sinking
under the accumulated weight which oppressed them_. I saw a _political
necessity_ for curbing the _overgrown_ power of a great member of their
dominion, and _for making it contribute to the relief of their pressing
exigencies_." This is plain speaking; after this, it is no wonder that
the Rajah's wealth and his offence, the necessities of the judge and the
opulence of the delinquent, are never separated, through the whole of
Mr. Hastings's apology. "The justice and _policy_ of exacting _a large
pecuniary mulct_." The resolution "_to draw from his guilt the means of
relief to the Company's distresses."_ His determination "to make him
_pay largely_ for his pardon, or to execute a severe vengeance for past
delinquency." That "as his _wealth was great_, and the _Company's
exigencies_ pressing, he thought it a measure of justice and policy to
exact from him a large pecuniary mulct _for their relief_."--"The sum"
(says Mr. Wheler, bearing evidence, at his desire, to his intentions)
"to which the Governor declared his resolution to extend his fine was
forty or fifty lacs, _that is, four or five hundred thousand pounds_;
and that, if he refused, he was to be removed from his zemindary
entirely; or by taking possession of his forts, to obtain, _out of the
treasure deposited in them_, the above sum for the Company."

Crimes so convenient, crimes so politic, crimes so necessary, crimes so
alleviating of distress, can never be wanting to those who use no
process, and who produce no proofs.

But there is another serious part (what is not so?) in this affair. Let
us suppose that the power for which Mr. Hastings contends, a power which
no sovereign ever did or ever can vest in any of his subjects, namely,
his own sovereign authority, to be conveyed by the act of Parliament to
any man or body of men whatsoever; it certainly was never given to Mr.
Hastings. The powers given by the act of 1773 were formal and official;
they were given, not to the Governor-General, but to the major vote of
the board, as a board, on discussion amongst themselves, in their public
character and capacity; and their acts in that character and capacity
were to be ascertained by records and minutes of council. The despotic
acts exercised by Mr. Hastings were done merely in his _private_
character; and, if they had been moderate and just, would still be the
acts of an usurped authority, and without any one of the legal modes of
proceeding which could give him competence for the most trivial exertion
of power. There was no proposition or deliberation whatsoever in
council, no minute on record, by circulation or otherwise, to authorize
his proceedings; no delegation of power to impose a fine, or to take
any step to deprive the Rajah of Benares of his government, his
property, or his liberty. The minutes of consultation assign to his
journey a totally different object, duty, and destination. Mr. Wheler,
at his desire, tells us long after, that he had a confidential
conversation with him on various subjects, of which this was the
principal, in which Mr. Hastings notified to him his secret intentions;
"and that he _bespoke_ his support of the measures which he intended to
pursue towards him (the Rajah)." This confidential discourse, and
_bespeaking_ of support, could give him no power, in opposition to an
express act of Parliament, and the whole tenor of the orders of the
Court of Directors.

In what manner the powers thus usurped were employed is known to the
whole world. All the House knows that the design on the Rajah proved as
unfruitful as it was violent. The unhappy prince was expelled, and his
more unhappy country was enslaved and ruined; but not a rupee was
acquired. Instead of treasure to recruit the Company's finances, wasted
by their wanton wars and corrupt jobs, they were plunged into a new war,
which shook their power in India to its foundation, and, to use the
Governor's own happy simile, might have dissolved it like a magic
structure, if the talisman had been broken.

But the success is no part of my consideration, who should think just
the same of this business, if the spoil of one rajah had been fully
acquired, and faithfully applied to the destruction of twenty other
rajahs. Not only the arrest of the Rajah in his palace was unnecessary
and unwarrantable, and calculated to stir up any manly blood which
remained in his subjects, but the despotic style and the extreme
insolence of language and demeanor, used to a person of great condition
among the politest people in the world, was intolerable. Nothing
aggravates tyranny so much as contumely. _Quicquid superbia in
contumeliis_ was charged by a great man of antiquity, as a principal
head of offence against the Governor-General of that day. The unhappy
people were still more insulted. A relation, but an _enemy_ to the
family, a notorious robber and villain, called Ussaun Sing, kept as a
hawk in a mew, to fly upon this nation, was set up to govern there,
instead of a prince honored and beloved. But when the business of insult
was accomplished, the revenue was too serious a concern to be intrusted
to such hands. Another was set up in his place, as guardian to an
infant.

But here, Sir, mark the effect of all these _extraordinary_ means, of
all this policy and justice. The revenues, which had been hitherto paid
with such astonishing punctuality, fell into arrear. The new prince
guardian was deposed without ceremony,--and with as little, cast into
prison. The government of that once happy country has been in the utmost
confusion ever since such good order was taken about it. But, to
complete the contumely offered to this undone people, and to make them
feel their servitude in all its degradation and all its bitterness, the
government of their sacred city, the government of that Benares which
had been so respected by Persian and Tartar conquerors, though of the
Mussulman persuasion, that, even in the plenitude of their pride, power,
and bigotry, no magistrate of that sect entered the place, was now
delivered over by English hands to a Mahometan; and an Ali Ibrahim Khan
was introduced, under the Company's authority, with power of life and
death, into the sanctuary of the Gentoo religion. After this, the taking
off a slight payment, cheerfully made by pilgrims to a chief of their
own rites, was represented as a mighty benefit.

It remains only to show, through the conduct in this business, the
spirit of the Company's government, and the respect they pay towards
other prejudices, not less regarded in the East than those of religion:
I mean the reverence paid to the female sex in general, and particularly
to women of high rank and condition. During the general confusion of the
country of Ghazipoor, Panna, the mother of Cheit Sing, was lodged with
her train in a castle called Bidge Gur, in which were likewise deposited
a large portion of the treasures of her son, or more probably her own.
To whomsoever they belonged was indifferent: for, though no charge of
rebellion was made on this woman, (which was rather singular, as it
would have cost nothing,) they were resolved to secure her with her
fortune. The castle was besieged by Major Popham.

There was no great reason to apprehend that soldiers ill paid, that
soldiers who thought they had been defrauded of their plunder on former
services of the same kind, would not have been sufficiently attentive to
the spoil they were expressly come for; but the gallantry and generosity
of the profession was justly suspected, as being likely to set bounds to
military rapaciousness. The Company's first civil magistrate discovered
the greatest uneasiness lest the women should have anything preserved to
them. Terms tending to put some restraint on military violence were
granted. He writes a letter to Mr. Popham, referring to some letter
written before to the same effect, which I do not remember to have seen;
but it shows his anxiety on this subject. Hear himself:--"I think
_every_ demand she has made on you, except that of safety and respect to
her person, is unreasonable. If the reports brought to me are true, your
rejecting her offers, or _any negotiation,_ would soon obtain you the
fort upon your own terms. I apprehend she will attempt to _defraud the
captors of a considerable part of their booty, by being suffered to
retire without examination_. But this is your concern, not mine. I
should _be very sorry_ that your officers and soldiers lost _any_ part
of the reward to which they are so well entitled; but you must be the
best judge of the _promised_ indulgence to the Ranny: what you have
engaged for I will certainly ratify; but as to suffering the Ranny to
hold the purgunna of Hurlich, or any other zemindary, without being
subject to the authority of the zemindar, _or any lands whatsoever_, or
indeed making _any_ condition with her for a _provision_, I will _never
consent_."

Here your Governor stimulates a rapacious and licentious soldiery to the
personal search of women, lest these unhappy creatures should avail
themselves of the protection of their sex to secure any supply for their
necessities; and he positively orders that no stipulation should be made
for any provision for them. The widow and mother of a prince, well
informed of her miserable situation, and the cause of it, a woman of
this rank became a suppliant to the domestic servant of Mr. Hastings,
(they are his own words that I read,) "imploring his intercession that
she may be relieved _from the hardships and dangers of her present
situation_, and offering to surrender the fort, and the _treasure and
valuable effects_ contained in it, provided she can be assured _of
safety and protection to her person and honor_, and to that of her
family and attendants." He is so good as to consent to this, "provided
she surrenders everything of value, with the reserve _only_ of such
articles as _you_ shall think _necessary_ to her condition, or as you
_yourself_ shall be disposed to indulge her with.--But should she refuse
to execute the promise she has made, or delay it beyond the term of
twenty-four hours, it is _my positive_ injunction that you immediately
put a stop to any further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on no
pretext renew it. If she disappoints or _trifles_ with me, after I have
subjected _my duan_ to the disgrace of returning ineffectually, and of
course myself to discredit, I shall consider it as a _wanton_ affront
and indignity _which I can never forgive_; nor will I grant her _any_
conditions whatever, but leave her exposed _to those_ dangers which she
has chosen to risk, rather than trust to the clemency and generosity of
our government. I think she cannot be ignorant of these consequences,
and will not venture to incur them; and it is for this reason I place a
dependence on her offers, and have consented to send my duan to her."
The dreadful secret hinted at by the merciful Governor in the latter
part of the letter is well understood in India, where those who suffer
corporeal indignities generally expiate the offences of others with
their own blood. However, in spite of all these, the temper of the
military did, some way or other, operate. They came to terms which have
never been transmitted. It appears that a fifteenth per cent of the
plunder was reserved to the captives, of which the unhappy mother of
the Prince of Benares was to have a share. This ancient matron, born to
better things [_A laugh from certain young gentlemen]_--I see no cause
for this mirth. A good author of antiquity reckons among the calamities
of his time "_nobilissimarum faeminarum exilia et fugas_." I say, Sir,
this ancient lady was compelled to quit her house, with three hundred
helpless women and a multitude of children in her train. But the lower
sort in the camp, it seems, could not be restrained. They did not forget
the good lessons of the Governor-General. They were unwilling "to be
defrauded of a considerable part of their booty by suffering them to
pass without examination."--They examined them, Sir, with a vengeance;
and the sacred protection of that awful character, Mr. Hastings's
_maitre d'hotel,_ could not secure them from insult and plunder. Here is
Popham's narrative of the affair:--

"The Ranny came out of the fort, with her family and dependants, the
tenth, at night, owing to which such attention was not paid to her as I
wished; and I am exceedingly sorry to inform you that _the
licentiousness of our followers was beyond the bounds of control; for,
notwithstanding all I could do, her people were plundered on the road of
most of the things which they brought out of the fort, by which means
one of the articles of surrender has been much infringed_. The distress
I have felt upon this occasion cannot be expressed, and can only be
allayed by a firm performance of the other articles of the treaty, which
I shall make it my business to enforce.--The suspicions which the
officers had of treachery, and the delay made to our getting possession,
had enraged them, as well as the troops, so much, that the treaty was at
first regarded as void; but this determination was soon succeeded by
pity and compassion for the unfortunate besieged."--After this comes, in
his due order, Mr. Hastings; who is full of sorrow and indignation, &c.,
&c., &c., according to the best and most authentic precedents
established upon such occasions.

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