Delphi Complete Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan

by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Mr. Sheridan, in order to prove the oppression of the Princesses in 1775, which was much aggravated in 1781, read an extract of a letter from the Bhow Begum, mother of the Nabob, to Mr. Hastings, received at Calcutta December 22, 1775, wherein she says,

  If it is your pleasure that the mother of the late Nabob, myself, and his other women, and infant children, should be reduced to a state of dishonour and distress, we must submit; but if, on the contrary, you call to mind the friendship of the late blessed Nabob, you will exert yourself effectually in favour of us, who are helpless.

  And again,

  If you do not approve of my remaining at Fyzyabad, send a person here, in your name, to remove the mother of the late Nabob, myself, and about 2000 women and children, that we may reside with honour and reputation in some other place.

  This letter and several others were read, to prove the controuling power of Mr. Hastings in Oude, at so late a period as before mentioned; and to prove that every circumstance of oppression and exaction, practised on these Princesses, was done by the orders, consent, and approbation, of the Governor, who was supposed to be paramount in Oude.

  Treasure, which was the true source of all the cruelties, was the original pretence which Mr. Hastings made to the Company for the measure; and through the whole of his conduct he makes Mahomedanism an excuse; as if he meant to insinuate, that there was something in Mahomedanism which made it impious in a son, not to plunder his mother. But, to shew how the question precisely stood when Mr. Hastings begun the attack, Mr. Sheridan read the Minutes of General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, who severally spoke of a claim which had been made by the Nabob on the Bhow Begum, in the year 1775, amounting to two and a half lacks. The opinion contained in those minutes was, that women were, on the death of their husbands, entitled by the Mahomedan law, only to the property within the Zenana where they lived. This opinion was decisive. Mr. Bristow used no threats; no military execution or rigor was even menaced the Begums complied with the requisition then made, and the disputed property then claimed was given up.

  After this, the farther treasure that was within the Zenana, was confessedly her own. No farther right was set up, no pretence of any kind was advanced, to claim the residue. Nay, a treaty was signed by the Nabob, and ratified, by the Resident, Mr. Bristow that, on her paying thirty lacks, she should be freed from all farther applications; and the Company were bound, by Mr. Bristow, to guarantee this treaty. Here then was the issue. After this treaty thus ratified, could there be an argument as to the right of the treasures of the Begums? If the Mahomedan law had given a right, was not that right concluded?

  Mr. Sheridan averred, that the Mahomedan law did not authorize the seizure of the Princesses property; that several jaghires were left them by the late Nabob Sujah Doulah for their own maintenance, and the education of their children; that the plunder was never authorised by the Board; and that military execution being used for the recovery of the exactions, was contrary to every principle of justice; and that the Nabob complied reluctantly in many instances: that Mr. Bristow acted under the orders of his immediate superior: that, when the whole transaction was censured, Mr. Hastings then threw off all responsibility, and appealed pealed to the orders of the Board, at a time, when he knew the authority of the Board was vested in himself alone, there being only one other member; and the Governor having the casting voice, every act must become his own. This, said Mr. Sheridan, is somewhat similar to the following case. — If, some five years hence, I was to become a warm admirer of Mr. Hastings’s late administration, and from friendship, become his panegyrist; would not some person who hears me now, remind me of my accusations against him, and say to me, Why this sudden change of opinion? I could only answer, that I thought so then; but since that time I had changed my opinion, and that I was not answerable now for what I then did in my official capacity. What must the world think of such tergiversation, of such meanness? Is there any man in this House that would countenance such a nefarious procedure? After a solemn guarantee and assignment is entered into, thus to break the public faith, which was pledged to preserve their property, is a transaction that honor shrinks from. The Begums were said to be in the habits of disturbing the public peace; but there is no instance on record of any such attempt, until the revolution of Benares; and then all India seemed to be hostile to England.

  I would here sit down, and rest my question of censure, on the issue of what has been produced; as it must be clear to every member, that the princesses were entitled to our protection; and that every hostile attempt, to wrest their property from them, was unjust and disgraceful. I require no other proof for this than Mr. Hastings’s own words, wherein he says,

  That our officious interference made us many foes.

  In 1778, we entered into another treaty with the Nabob, which was negotiated by Mr. Middleton, wherein it was stipulated, that the Bhow Begum was not to be molested; and, not long after, Mr. Hastings transmits to the Court of Directors a distressful picture of the situation of the Nabob, of the horrors and famine which triumphed over his country.

  If it were possible for a country to be still more distressed, the Nabob’s territories were so in the year 1780; but, at that period, there was a majority in council, whose sentiments were by no means favourable to the persecuting schemes of the Governor; and, for this reason, there was then no offer to molest the property of the Begums.

  In the subsequent year, however, the Governor took especial care to furnish himself with power. The treaty of Chunar was executed; and surely a treaty, so marked with dissimulation, was never before entered into: the Governor made himself responsible for every political transaction in that ravaged and oppressed country.

  Mr. Sheridan said he had now reached the period, when Mr. Hastings’s first intentions appeared, to enforce the execution of his projects at all events; when, by Mr. Middleton, his private agent, he urged the Nabob Asoph ul Dowla, to break this solemn engagement, sanctioned by the guarantee of the Company, to deprive his mother, and the elder Begum, his grandmother, of the jaghires which were assigned for their support; and proceeding still farther to plunder them of their treasures, which he had avowed to be their sole property, and which he had solemnly pledged himself should remain inviolate. It was a little difficult, however, here to say, what was the question at issue. It had sometimes been said, that the Nabob had an inherent right to this wealth, as the wealth of the state; but when it was recollected that it was not made up of the produce of taxes, but collected by the conquests of his father, Sujah Dowla, by him bequeathed as a personal acquisition, (prudently for his son,) whom it would only make the object of rapacious attack, and to whom he, with more wisdom, bequeathed necessity as his sword, and poverty as his shield; and when it was considered in what manner, and on what condition, it was relinquished by the Nabob, and that dereliction guaranteed by the Company, he thought that ground of defence would scarcely be occupied on the present day. Mr. Hastings in his defence had taken a more extended field, where there was more scope for his delusion, more amplitude for his equivocation. He had admitted the right to have rested in the Begums, but contended that it had been forfeited by their frequent acts of contumacy and rebellion. This allegation against them had been divided into four parts: — The charges were the following.

  1. That they had given disturbances at all times to the Nabob, and that they had long manifested a spirit, hostile to his and to the English government:

  2. That they excited the Zemindars to revolt, at the time of the insurrection at Benares, and of the resumption of the Jaghires:

  3. That they resisted by armed force the resumption of their own Jaghires: and

  4. That they excited and were accessary to the insurrection at Benares.

  To each of these charges Mr. Sheridan made distinct and separate answers, by a variety of extracts which he read; some of them written by Mr. Hastings himself, to prove that they had particularly distinguished themselves by their friendship for the English, a
nd the various good offices they had rendered Government. Against the first charge Mr. Sheridan adduced proofs, in the most pointed terms, from the several letters which passed between Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton, Colonel Hannay and the Nabob. By this correspondence it was very evident, that their conduct during the period from 1775 to 1781, so far from being what it was represented, had been mild and inoffensive. Not a single symptom of inveteracy, not one solid proof of disaffection, was mentioned in these letters, but in all, their conduct appeared as much the reverse, as it was in the nature of things to expect. The second charge fell to the ground the instant it was examined; for, so far from any undue influence being used on the part of the Begums, to stimulate the Jaghirdars to resistance, it did not even appear that the smallest resistance was made by the jaghirdars, against the violences which they sustained. The third charge was equally false. Did they resist the resumption of their own jaghires? Though, if they had actually resisted, it could not be deemed criminal; for those jaghires were their own property, vested in them and confirmed to them by a solemn treaty. But is there, in fact, one syllable of charge alledged against them? With all the load of obloquy which the Nabob incurred, had he ever accused them of the crime of resisting his authority? No; he had not.

  To prove the falsehood of the whole of this charge, and to shew that Mr. Hastings originally projected the plunder; that he threw the Odium in the first instance on the Nabob; that he imputed the crimes to them, before he had received one of the rumours which he afterwards manufactured into affidavits; he recommended a particular attention to dates; and he deduced from the papers these clear facts — that the first idea sprung from Mr. Hastings, on the 25th of November, 1781; that Mr. Middleton communicated it to the Nabob, and procured from him a formal proposition on the 2d of December; That on the 1st of December Mr. Hastings wrote a letter to Mr. Middleton, confirming the first suggestion made through Sir Elijah, which letter came into the hands of Mr. Middleton on the 6th of December. He stated all the circumstances of the pains taken by Mr. Middleton, who was empowered by Mr. Hastings to force the Nabob, on whom all the blame is laid, and whose act it was, to seize on his mother’s jaghires; and coupled this with the extraordinary minute written by Mr. Hastings on his return to Calcutta, where he stated the resistance of the Begums to the execution of the resumption on the 7th of January, 1782, as the cause of the measure in November, 1781. Mr. Middleton had proved that the Nabob had no such intention, for, in writing to Mr. Hastings, he says,

  finding the Nabob wavering in his determination of the resumption of the Jaghires, I this day, (6th Dec. 1781,) in the presence of his Minister informed him, that unless he would issue his perwannahs for that purpose, I would issue my perwannahs.

  Mr. Sheridan then took pains to shew, that the Begums were, by their condition, their age, their infirmities, &c. almost the only two souls in India, who could not in some measure have hurt the Government. He did not, he said, take pains to do this from any idea, that, because there was no motive for plundering the women, it might be asserted that it was an improbable falsehood: he was not to learn that there was such a thing as wantonness of wickedness. Those, who had doubts on this point, had only to read the history of the administration of Mr. Hastings. He proved by the documents, on the table, that there was, and had always been, insurrection and disorder in Oude. To ascribe it to the Begums was the most improbable fiction: they might as well say, that famine would not have pinched, that thirst would not have parched, that extermination would not have depopulated, but for the interference of these old women. To use a strong expression of Mr. Hastings, on another occasion,

  The good that those women did was certain; the ill was precarious.

  He, on the contrary, took the converse of the proposition; wanting a motive for his rapacity, he could find it only in fiction. The simple fact was, their treasure was their treason. They complained of injustice: God of heaven! had they not a right to complain? After a solemn treaty violated, plundered of all their property, and on the eve of the last extremity of wretchedness, were they to be deprived of the last resource of impotent wretchedness, complaint and lamentation? Was it a crime that they should crowd together in fluttering trepidation, like a flock of resistless birds in the air, on seeing the felon kite, who, having darted at one devoted bird and missed his aim, singled out a new object, and was springing on his prey with more vigour in his wing, and keener lightning in his eye. The fact with Mr. Hastings was precisely this: having failed in the cause of Cheyt Sing, he saw his fate; he felt the necessity of procuring a sum of money somewhere, for he knew that to be the never-failing receipt to make his peace with the Directors at home.

  Such, Mr. Sheridan added, were the true, substantial motives of the horrid excesses perpetrated against the Begums! Excesses, in every part of the description of which, he felt himself supported by the most indisputable evidence. Here he would rest his cause. Let gentlemen lay their hands upon their hearts, and with truth issuing in all its purity from their lips, solemnly declare, whether they were, or were not convinced, that the real spring of the conduct of Mr. H. far from being a desire to crush rebellion, an ideal fabulous rebellion! was a malignantly rapacious determination to seize, with lawless hands, upon the treasures of devoted, miserable, yet unoffending victims.

  Amongst other proofs which Mr. Sheridan brought against the second and fourth charges, was a minute of what Mr. Stables proposed at the Board,

  Whether any disaffection to the English Government appeared before the troubles of Benares?

  Mr. Hastings remained silent.

  In the farther discussion of the charges, Mr. Sheridan said, it would be necessary for him to follow the Governor General in his tour from Calcutta to Chunar, which commenced the 8th of July, 1781, a journey he thought necessary to take, finding the Nabob unwilling to seize on his mother’s jaghires. Mr. Hastings had himself said, That he left Calcutta with the strongest idea of the reduced state of the Company’s possessions, which the event proved he went to recruit in the most expeditious manner possible. Sir Elijah Impey had said, when under examination, that Mr. Hastings went out with only two resources to retrieve the circumstances of the Company; namely, Benares and Oude; Countries already oppressed by the hand of Providence, but more so by the wicked and arbitrary machinations of man. What a horrid idea! No other resource but the plunder of a famished country! Can any simile equal it? unless I suppose, a person determined on a robbery, and having failed at Bagshot, resolves to try his fortune at Hounslow.

  In Benares it was sufficiently known that Mr. Hastings had failed. There his prodigal revenge had disappointed his rapacity; whence the unfortunate victim of malicious insolence had been compelled to wander from his kingdom, a melancholy example of the vicissitude of human affairs. The hopes of plunder at Oude, promised to compensate for his miscarriage at Benares. Then, and not till then, not thro’ any former enmities shewn by the Begums, not thro’ any old disturbances, but because he had failed in one place, and that he had but two in his prospect, did he contrive the expedient of plundering these aged women: he had no pretence, he had no excuse for his conduct, but the arrogant and obstinate determination to govern India by his corrupt will. His disappointment at Benares urged him with rapid steps to Oude, where indeed he was but too successful.

  Inflamed by disappointment in his first project, he hastened to the fortress of Chunar, to meditate the more atrocious design of instigating a son against his mother; of sacrificing female dignity and distress to parricide and plunder.

  The treaty of Chunar, that nefarious foundation of his future views, being planned, Mr. Hastings thought it necessary, whilst he was invading the substance of justice, to avail himself of her judicial forms, and accordingly sent for Sir Elijah Impey, the Chief Justice of India, to assist him.

  Sir Elijah being arrived, Mr. Hastings, with much art, proposed a question of opinion, involving an unsubstantiated fact, in order to obtain even a surreptitious approbation of the measures he had predetermine
d to adopt.

  With regard to the mode of submitting questions to Sir Elijah Impey, it was, he observed, singular and curious. In respect to the affairs of Cheit Sing, Mr. Hastings had stated the question, not in the abstract merely, but accompanied with the fact. To that question Sir Elijah demurred, not caring to commit himself. With regard to the Begums, Mr. Hastings profits by his experience, and states the question in the abstract, saying, “The Begums being in rebellion, is it not warrantable to seize their treasures?” To this, (which like one of the Duke of Richmond’s data, carries with it its own answer, because being in rebellion, the seizure might have been made,) Sir Elijah answers directly and explicitly in the affirmative, thereby not risking any thing.

  Not a syllable of enquiry intervened as to the existence of the imputed rebellion; nor a moment’s pause, as to the ill purposes to which the decision of a Chief Justice might be perverted. It was not the office of a friend to mix the grave caution and cold circumspection of a judge with an opinion taken in such circumstances; and Sir Elijah had previously declared, that he gave his advice not as a judge, but as a friend; a character he equally preferred in the strange office which he undertook of collecting defensive affidavits on the subject of Benares.

  It was curious, Mr. Sheridan said, to reflect on the whole of Sir Elijah’s circuit at that perilous time. Sir Elijah had stated his desire of relaxing from the fatigues of office, and unbending his mind in a party of health and pleasure; yet, wisely apprehending that very sudden relaxation might defeat its purpose, he contrived to mix some objects of business with his amusements. He had therefore in his little airing of 900 miles, great part of which he went post, escorted by an army, selected those very situations where insurrections subsisted, and rebellion was threatened, and had not only delivered his deep and curious researches into the laws and rights of nations, and of treaties, in the capacity of the oriental Grotius, whom Warren Hastings was to study, but likewise in the humbler and more practical situation of a collector of ex parte evidence. In the former quality his opinion was the premature sanction for plundering the Begums. In the latter character he became the posthumous supporter of the expulsion and pillage of the Rajah Cheyt Sing.