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

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 that 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.

Your Lordships now see how necessary it was to say something about arbitrary power. For, first, the wicked people of that country (Mr. Hastings's instruments, I mean) pretend right, title, purchase, grant; and when their frauds in all these legal means are discovered, then they fly off, and have recourse to arbitrary power, and say, "It is true I can make out no right, title, grant, or purchase; the parties are minors; I am bound to take care of their right: but you have arbitrary power; you have exercised it upon other occasions; exercise it upon this; give me the rights of other people." This was the last act, and I hope will be the last act, of Mr. Hastings's wicked power, done by the wickedest man in favor of the wickedest man, and by the wickedest means, which failed upon his own testimony.

To bring your Lordships to the end of this business, which I hope will lead me very near to the end of what I have to trouble your Lordships with, I will now state the conduct of the Council, and the resolution about Gunga Govind Sing. I am to inform your Lordships that there was a reference made by the Council to the Committee of Revenue, namely, to Gunga Govind Sing himself,—a reference with regard to the right, title, mode, and proceeding, and many other circumstances; upon which the Committee, being such as I have described, very naturally were silent. Gunga Govind Sing loquitur solus,—in the manner you have just heard; the Committee were the chorus,—they sometimes talk, fill up a vacant part,—but Gunga Govind Sing was the great actor, the sole one. The report of this Committee being laid before the Council, Mr. Stables, one of the board, entered the following minute on the 15th of May, 1785.

"I have perused the several papers upon this subject, and am sorry to observe that the Committee of Revenue are totally silent on the most material points therein, and sending the petition to them has only been so much time thrown away: I mean, on the actual value of the lands in question, what the amount derived from them has been in the last year, and what advantages or disadvantages to government by the sale, and whether, in their opinion, the supposed sale was compulsive or not. But it is not necessary for the discussion of the question respecting the regularity or irregularity of the pretended sale of Salbarry to Gunga Govind Sing, the dewan, to enter into the particular assertions of each party.

"The representations of the Rajah's agent, confirmed by the petitions of his principal, positively assert the sale to have been compulsive and violent; and the dewan as positively denies it, though the fears he expresses, 'that their common enemies would set aside the act before it was complete,' show clearly that they were sensible the act was unjustifiable, if they do not tend to falsify his denial.

"But it is clearly established and admitted by the language and writings of both parties, that there has been a most unwarrantable collusion in endeavoring to alienate the rights of government, contrary to the most positive original laws of the constitution of these provinces, 'that no zemindar and other landholder, paying revenue to government, shall be permitted to alienate his lands without the express authority of that government.'

"The defence set up by Gunga Govind Sing does not go to disavow the transaction; for, if it did, the deed of sale, &c., produced by himself, and the petition to the board for its confirmation, would detect him: on the contrary, he openly admits its existence, and only strives to show that it was a voluntary one on the part of the Ranny and the servants of the Rajah. Whether voluntary or not, it was equally criminal in Gunga Govind Sing, as the public officer of government: because diametrically opposite to the positive and repeated standing orders of that government for the rule of his conduct, as dewan, and native guardian of the public rights intrusted especially to his care; because it was his duty, not only not to be guilty of a breach of those rules himself, but, as dewan, and exercising the efficient office of kanungo, to prevent, detect, expose, and apprise his employers of every instance attempted to the contrary; because it was his duty to prevent the government being defrauded, and the Rajah, a child of nine years old, robbed of his hereditary possessions, as he would have been, if this transaction had not been detected: whereas, on the contrary, the dewan is himself the principal mover and sole instrument in that fraud and robbery, if I am rightly informed, to the amount of 42,474 rupees1 in perpetuity, by which he alone was to benefit; and because he has even dared to stand forward in an attempt to obtain our sanction, and thereby make us parties to (in my opinion) a false deed and fraudulent transaction, as his own defence now shows the bill of sale and all its collateral papers to be.

"If offences of this dark tendency and magnitude were not to be punished in a public manner, the high example here set the natives employed under the government by their first native officer would very soon render our authority contemptible, and operate to the destruction of the public revenues. I will not dwell further on the contradictions in these papers before us on this subject.

"But I beg leave to point out how tenacious the government have been of insuring implicit obedience to their rules on this subject in particular, and in prohibiting conduct like that here exhibited against their public officer, and how sacredly they have viewed the public institutes on this subject, which have been violated and trampled on; and it will suffice to show their public orders on a similar instance which happened some time ago, and which the dewan, from his official situation, must have been a party in detecting.

"I desire the board's letter to the Committee on this subject, dated the 31st May, 1782, may be read, and a copy be annexed to this minute.

"I therefore move the board that Gunga Govind Sing may be forthwith required to surrender the original deeds produced by him as a title to the grant of Salbarry, in order that they may be returned to the Rajah's agents, to be made null and void.

"I further move the board, that the dewan, Gunga Govind Sing, together with his naib, Prawn Kishin Sing, his son, and all his dependants, be removed from their offices, and that the Roy Royan, Rajah Rajebullub, whose duty only Gunga Govind Sing virtually is to perform, be reinstated in the exercise of the duties of his department; and that Gunga Govind Sing be ordered to deliver up all official papers of the circar to the Committee of Revenue and the Roy Royan, and that they be ordered accordingly to take charge of them, and finally settle all accounts."

This motion was overruled, and no final proceeding appears.

My Lords, you have heard the proceedings of the court before which Gunga Govind Sing thought proper to appeal, in consequence of the power and protection of Mr. Hastings being understood to exist after he left India, and authenticated by his last parting deed. Your Lordships will judge by that last act of Mr. Hastings what the rest of his whole life was.

My Lords, I do not mean now to go further than just to remind your Lordships of this, that Mr. Hastings's government was one whole system of oppression, of robbery of individuals, of destruction of the public, and of suppression of the whole system of the English government, in order to vest in the worst of the natives all the powers that could possibly exist in any government,—in order to defeat the ends which all governments ought in common to have in view. Thus, my Lords, I show you at one point of view what you are to expect from him in all the rest. I have, I think, made out as clear as can be to your Lordships, so far as it was necessary to go, that his bribery and peculation was not occasional, but habitual,—that it was not urged upon him at the moment, but was regular and systematic. I have shown to your Lordships the operation of such a system on the revenues.

My Lords, Mr. Hastings pleads one constant merit to justify those acts,—namely, that they produce an increase of the public revenue; and accordingly he never sells to any of those wicked agents any trusts whatever in the country, that you do not hear that it will considerably tend to the increase of the revenue. Your Lordships will see, when he sold to wicked men the province of Bahar in the same way in which Debi Sing had this province of Dinagepore, that consequences of a horrid and atrocious nature, though not to so great an extent, followed from it. I will just beg leave to state to your Lordships, that the kingdom of Bahar is annexed to the kingdom of Bengal; that this kingdom was governed by another Provincial Council; that he turned out that Provincial Council, and sold that government to two wicked men: one of no fortune at all, and the other of a very suspicious fortune; one a total bankrupt, the other justly excommunicated for his wickedness in his country, and then in prison for misdemeanors in a subordinate situation of government. Mr. Hastings destroyed the Council that imprisoned him; and, instead of putting one of the best and most reputable of the natives to govern it, he takes out of prison this excommunicated wretch, hated by God and man,—this bankrupt, this man of evil and desperate character, this mismanager of the public revenue in an inferior station; and, as he had given Bengal to Gunga Govind Sing, he gave this province to Rajahs Kelleram and Cullian Sing. It was done upon this principle, that they would increase and very much better the revenue. These men seemed to be as strange instruments for improving a revenue as ever were chosen, I suppose, since the world began. Perhaps their merit was giving a bribe of 40,000l. to Mr. Hastings. How he disposed of it I don't know. He says, "I disposed of it to the public, and it was in a case of emergency." You will see in the course of this business the falsehood of that pretence; for you will see, though the obligation is given for it as a round sum of money, that the payment was not accomplished till a year after; that therefore it could not answer any immediate exigence of the Company. Did it answer in an increase of the revenue? The very reverse. Those persons who had given this bribe of 40,000l. at the end of that year were found 80,000l. in debt to the Company. The Company always loses, when Mr. Hastings takes a bribe; and when he proposes an increase of the revenue, the Company loses often double. But I hope and trust your Lordships will consider this idea of a monstrous rise of rent, given by men of desperate fortunes and characters, to be one of the grievances instead of one of the advantages of this system.