by Edmund Burke
My Lords, I have only to add, that, from the best inquiries I have been able to make, those who speak highest of his wealth are those who obtain the greatest credit. The estimate of any man’s wealth is uncertain; but the enormity of his wealth is universally believed. Yet Mr. Hastings seemed to act as if he needed a reward; and it is therefore necessary to inquire what recommended him particularly to Mr. Hastings. Your Lordships have seen that he was on the point of being dismissed for misbehavior and oppression by that Calcutta Committee his services to which Mr. Hastings gives as one proof of his constant and uniform good behavior. “He had executed,” he says, “the duties of his office with fidelity, diligence, and ability.” These are his public merits; but he has private merits. “To myself,” says he, “he has given proofs of constancy and attachment.”
Now we, who have been used to look very diligently over the Company’s records, and to compare one part with another, ask what those services were, which have so strongly recommended him to Mr. Hastings, and induced him to speak so favorably of his public services. What those services are does not appear; we have searched the records for them, (and those records are very busy and loquacious,) about that period of time during which Mr. Hastings was laboring under an eclipse, and near the dragon’s mouth, and all the drums of Bengal beating to free him from this dangerous eclipse. During this time there is nothing publicly done, there is nothing publicly said, by Gunga Govind Sing. There were, then, some services of Gunga Govind Sing that lie undiscovered, which he takes as proofs of attachment. What could they be? They were not public; nobody knows anything of them; they must, by reference to the time, as far as we can judge of them, be services of concealment: otherwise, in the course of this business, it will be necessary, and Mr. Hastings will find occasion, to show what those personal services of Gunga Govind Sing to him were. His services to Gunga Govind Sing were pretty conspicuous: for, after he was turned out for peculation, Mr. Hastings restored him to his office; and when he had imprisoned fifteen persons illegally and oppressively, and when the Council were about to set them at liberty, they were set at liberty themselves, they were dismissed their offices. Your Lordships see, then, what his public services were. His private services are unknown: they must be, as we conceive from their being unknown, of a suspicious nature; and I do not go further than suspicion, because I never heard, and I have not been without attempts to make the discovery, what those services were that recommended him to Mr. Hastings.
Having looked at his public services, which are well-known scenes of wickedness, barbarity, and corruption, we next come to see what his reward is. Your Lordships hear what reward he thought proper to secure for himself; and I believe a man who has power like Gunga Govind Sing, and a disposition like Gunga Govind Sing, can hardly want the means of rewarding himself; and if every virtue rewards itself, and virtue is said to be its own reward, the virtue of Gunga Govind Sing was in a good way of seeking its own reward. Mr. Hastings, however, thought it was not right that such a man should reward himself, but that it was necessary for the honor and justice of government to find him a reward. Then the next thing is, what that reward shall be. It is a grant of lands. Your Lordships will observe, that Mr. Hastings declares some of these lands to be unoccupied, others occupied, but not by the just owners. Now these were the very lands of the Rajah of Dinagepore from whence he had taken the bribe of 40,000l. My Lords, this was a monstrous thing. Mr. Hastings had the audacity, as his parting act, when he was coming to England, and ought to have expected (whatever he did expect) the responsibility of this day, — he was, I say, shameless enough not only to give this recommendation, but to perpetuate the mischiefs of his reign, as he has done, to his successors: for he has really done so, by making it impossible, almost, to know anything of the true state of that country; and he has thereby made them much less responsible and criminal than before in any ill acts they may have done since his time. But Mr. Hastings not only recommends and backs the petition of Gunga Govind Sing with his parting authority, which authority he made the people there believe would be greater in England than it was in India, but he is an evidence; he declares, that, “to his own knowledge, these lands are vacant, and confessedly, therefore, by the laws of this as well as of most other countries, in the absolute gift of government.”
My Lords, as I said, Mr. Hastings becomes a witness, and I believe in the course of the proceedings you will find a false witness, for Gunga Govind Sing. “To my own knowledge,” says he, “they are vacant.” Why, I cannot find that Mr. Hastings had ever been in Dinagepore; or if he had, it must have been only as a passenger. He had not the supervision of the district, in any other sense than with that kind of eagle eye which he must have had over all Bengal, and which he had for no other purposes than those for which eagles’ eyes are commonly used. He becomes, you see, a witness for Gunga Govind Sing, and orders to be given him, as a recompense for all the iniquitous acts this man committed, the lands of that very Rajah who through the hands of Gunga Govind Sing had given an enormous bribe to Mr. Hastings. These lands were not without an ownership, but were lands in the hands of the Rajah, and were to be severed from the zemindary, and given to Gunga Govind Sing. The manner of obtaining them is something so shocking, and contains such a number of enormities completed in one act, that one can scarce imagine how such a compound could exist.
This man, besides his office of dewan to the Calcutta Committee, which gave him the whole management and power of the revenue, was, as I have stated, at the head of all the registers in the kingdom, whose duty it was to be a control upon him as dewan. As Mr. Hastings destroyed every other constitutional settlement of the country, so the office which was to be a check upon Gunga Govind Sing, namely, the register of the country, had been superseded, and revived in another shape, and given to the own son of this very man. God forbid that a son should not be under a certain and reasonable subordination! But though in this country we know a son may possibly be free from the control of his father, yet the meanest slave is not in a more abject condition of slavery than a son is in that country to his father; for it extends to the power of a Roman parent. The office of register is to take care that a full and fair rent is secured to government; and above all, it is his business to take care of the body of laws, the Rawaj-ul-Mulk, or custom of the country, of which he is the guardian as the head of the law. It was his business to secure that fundamental law of the government, and fundamental law of the country, that a zemindary cannot be split, or any portion of it separated, without the consent of the government. This man betrayed his trust, and did privately, contrary to the duty of his office, get this minor Rajah, who was but an infant, who was but nine years old at the time, to make over to him a part of his zemindary, to a large amount, under color of a fraudulent and fictitious sale. By the laws of that country, by the common laws of Nature, the act of this child was void. The act was void as against the government, by giving a zemindary without the consent of the government to the very man who ought to have prevented such an act. He has the same sacred guardianship of minors that the Chancellor of England has. This man got to himself those lands by a fraudulent, and probably forged deed, — for that is charged too; but whether it was forged or not, this miserable minor was obliged to give the lands to him: he did not dare to quarrel with him upon such an article; because he who would purchase could take. The next step was to get one of his nearest relations to seem to give a consent; because taking it of the minor was too gross. The relation, who could no more consent by the law of that country than the law of this, gave apparently his consent. And these were the very lands that Mr. Hastings speaks of as “lands entirely at the disposal of government.”
All this came before the Council. The moment Mr. Hastings was gone, India seemed a little to respire; there was a vast, oppressive weight taken off it, there was a mountain removed from its breast; and persons did dare then, for the first time, to breathe their complaints. And accordingly, this minor Rajah got some person kind enough to tell him th
at he was a minor, that he could not part with his estate; and this, with the other shocking and illegal parts of the process, was stated by him to the Council, who had Mr. Hastings’s recommendation of Gunga Govind Sing before them. The Council, shocked to see a minor attempted to be dispossessed in such a manner by him who was the natural guardian of all minors, shocked at such an enormous, daring piece of iniquity, began to inquire further, and to ask, “How came this his near relation to consent?” He was apparently partner in the fraud. Partner in the fraud he was, but not partner in the profit; for he was to do it without getting anything for it: the wickedness was in him, and the profit in Gunga Govind Sing. In consequence of this inquiry, the man comes down to account for his conduct, and declares another atrocious iniquity, that shows you the powers which Gunga Govind Sing possessed. “Gunga Govind Sing,” says he, “is master of the country; he had made a great festival for the burial of his mother; all those of that caste ought to be invited to the funeral festival; he would have disgraced me forever, if I had not been invited to that funeral festival.” These funeral festivals, you should know, are great things in that country, and celebrated in this manner, and, you may depend upon it, in a royal manner by him, upon burying his mother: any person left out was marked, despised, and disgraced. “But he had it in his power, and I was threatened to be deprived of my caste by his register, who had the caste in his absolute disposition.” Says he, “I was under terror, I was under duress, and I did it.”
Gunga Govind Sing was fortified by the opinion, that the Governor, though departed, virtually resided in that country. God grant that his power may be extirpated out of it now! I doubt it; but, most assuredly, it was residing in its plenitude when he departed from thence; and there was not a man in India who was not of opinion, either that he was actually to return to govern India again, or that his power is such in England as that he might govern it here. And such were the hopes of those who had intentions against the estates of others. Gunga Govind Sing, therefore, being pressed to the wall by this declaration of the Rajah’s relation, when he could say nothing against it, when it was clear and manifest, and there were only impudent barefaced denials, and asseverations against facts which carried truth with themselves, did not in his answer pretend to say that a zemindary might be parted without the consent of the government, that a minor might be deprived of it, that the next relation had a power of disposing of it. He did indeed say, but nobody believed him, that he had used no force upon this relation; but as every one knew the act would be void, he was driven to Mr. Hastings’s great refuge, — he was driven to say, “The government in this country has arbitrary power; the power of government is everything, the right of the subject nothing; they have at all times separated zemindaries from their lawful proprietors. Give me what Mr. Hastings has constantly given to other people without any right, or shadow or semblance of right at all.” God knows, it is well that I walk with my authority in my hand; for there are such crimes, such portentous, incredible crimes, to be brought before your Lordships, that it would hardly be believed, were it not that I am constantly, as I hope I shall constantly be, guarded with evidence, and that the strongest that can be, even the evidence of the parties themselves.
“From your inquiry,” Gunga Govind Sing says to the Council, “every circumstance will appear in its true colors. With respect to the alienation of parts of zemindaries, the extent and consequence of the great zemindars depend in a great measure on the favor and countenance of the ruling powers. By what means did this zemindar of Dinagepore get possession of Purgunnah Buttassim after the death of Rycobad Chowdry in 1158, of Purgunnah Coolygong after the death of Sahebrance Chowderanne in the same year, notwithstanding his heirs existed, and of Purgunnah Suntoe, &c., during the lifetime of Sumboonant, the zemindar, in 1167, all without right, title, or pecuniary consideration? This has been the case with many purgunnahs in his zemindary, and indeed exists in many other zemindaries besides since the Company’s accession. Ramkissen, in 1172, got possession of Nurrulloor, the zemindary of Mahomed Ali. The purgunnah of Ichanguipore, &c., was in three divisions in 1173. The petition of Govind Deo Sheopersaud was made over to the son of Bousser Chowdry, possessor of the third share. Purgunnah Baharbund belonged to the zemindary of Ranny Bhowanny, and in 1180 was made over to Lucknaut Nundy. All these changes took place in the lifetime of the rightful possessors, without right, title, or purchase.”
Your Lordships have not heard before of Lucknaut Nundy. He was the son of a person of whom your Lordships have heard before, called Cantoo Baboo, the banian of Mr. Hastings. Mr. Hastings has proved in abundance of other cases that a grant to father and son is the same thing. The fathers generally take out grants in the names of their sons: and the Ranny Bhowanny, possessing the zemindary of Radshi, an old lady of the first rank and family in India, was stripped of part of her zemindary, and it was given to Lucknaut Nundy, the son of Mr. Hastings’s banian; and then (you see the consequence of good examples) comes Gunga Govind Sing, and says, “I am as good a man as he; there is a zemindary given; then do as much for Gunga Govind Sing as you have done for Cantoo Baboo.” Here is an argument drawn from the practice of Mr. Hastings. And this shows your Lordships the necessity of suppressing such iniquities by punishing the author of them. You will punish Mr. Hastings, and no man will hereafter dare to rob minors, no man will hereafter dare to rob widows, to give to the vilest of mankind, their own base instruments for their own nefarious purposes, the lands of others, without right, title, or purchase.
My Lords, I will not after this state to you the false representation of the value of these lands which this man gave in to government. He represented it to be much less than it was, when he desired the grant of them, — as shall be stated, when it comes before your Lordships, at the proper time. But at present I am only touching upon principles, and bringing examples so far as they illustrate principles, and to show how precedents spread.
I believe your Lordships will conceive better of the spirit of these transactions by my intermixing with them, as I shall endeavor to do, as much as possible of the grounds of them. I will venture to say, that no description that I can give, no painting, if I was either able or willing to paint, could make these transactions appear to your Lordships with the strength which they have in themselves; and your Lordships will be convinced of this, when you see, what nobody could hardly believe, that a man can say, “It was given to others without right, title, or purchase, — give it to me without right, title, or purchase; give me the estates of minors without right, title, or purchase, because Mr. Hastings gave the estates of widows without right, title, or purchase.”
Of this exemplary grant, of this pattern for future proceedings, I will show your Lordships the consequence. I will read to your Lordships part of the examination of a witness, taken from a report of a committee of the House of Commons.
“Are you acquainted with the situation of the zemindary of Baharbund? — It lies to the eastward of Dinagepore and Rungpore. I was stationed in that neighborhood. — To whom did it originally belong? — I believe, to the zemindary of Radshi, belonging to Ranny Bhowanny. — For what reason was it taken from the Ranny of Radshi and given to Cantoo Baboo? — I do not exactly recollect: I believe, on some plea of incapacity or insufficiency in her to manage it, or some pretended decline in the revenue, owing to mismanagement. — On what terms was it granted to Cantoo Baboo or his son? — I believe it was a grant in perpetuity, at the revenue of Rupees 82,000 or 83,000 per annum. — What amount did he collect from the country? — I cannot tell. The year I was in that neighborhood, the settlement with his under-tenants was something above 3,53,000 rupees. The inhabitants of the country objected to it. They assembled in a body of about five thousand, and were proceeding to Calcutta to make known their grievances to the Committee of Revenue. They were stopped at Cossimbazar by Noor Sing Baboo, the brother of Cantoo Baboo, and there the matter was compromised, — in what manner I cannot say.”
Your Lordships see, Mr. Hastings’
s banian got this zemindary belonging to this venerable lady; unable to protect herself; that it was granted to him without right, title, or purchase. To show you that Mr. Hastings had been in a constant course of such proceeding, here is a petition from a person called —— for some favor from government which it is not necessary now to state. In order to make good his claim, he states what nobody denied, but which is universally known in fact. Says he, “I have never entertained any such intention or idea,” that is, of seizing upon other people’s zemindaries; “neither am I at all desirous of acquiring any other person’s zemindary in this country,” &c....
[The document read here is wanting, ending] “as several Calcutta banians have done,” &c.
He states it as a kind of constant practice, by which the country had been robbed under Mr. Hastings, known and acknowledged to be so, to seize upon the inheritance of the widow and the fatherless. In this manner did Gunga Govind Sing govern himself, upon the direct precedent of Cantoo Baboo, the banian of Mr. Hastings; and this other instrument of his in like manner calls upon government for favor of some kind or other, upon the same principle and the same precedent.
