original designations of Providence, spurns at the arrogant distinctions of man, and indicates the independent quality of his race. Mr. Hastings never believed the Begums to be guilty. I trust, now, that your Lordships can feel no hesitation in acquitting the unfortunate princesses of this allegation. But though the innocence of the Begums may be confessed, it does not necessarily follow, I am ready to allow, that the prisoner must be guilty. There is a possibility that he might have been deluded by others, and incautiously led into a false conclusion. If this be proved, my Lords, I will cheerfully abandon the present charge. But if, on the other hand, it shall appear, as I am confident it will, that in his subsequent conduct there was a mysterious concealment denoting conscious guilt; if all his narrations of the business be found marked with inconsistency and contradiction, there can be, I think, a doubt no longer entertained of his criminality. and false pre texts. It will be easy, my Lords, to prove that such Proved by his concealment was actually practiced. concealment From the month of September, in which the seizure of the treasures took place, till the succeeding January, no intimation whatever was given of it by Mr. Hastings to the council at Calcutta. But, my Lords, look at the mode in which this concealment is attempted to be evaded. The first pretext is, the want of leisure! Contemptible falsehood! He could amuse his fancy at this juncture with the composition of Eastern tales, but to give an account of a rebellion which convulsed an empire, or of his acquiring so large an amount of treasure, he had no time! proceedings. He was here only repeating the experiment which he so successfully performed in the case of Cheyte Sing. Even when disappointed in those views by the natural meekness and submission of the princesses, he could not relinquish the scheme; and hence, in his letter to the court of Directors January 5th, 1782, he represents the subsequent disturbances in Oude as the cause of the violent measures he had adopted two months previous to the existence of these disturbances ! He there congratulates his masters on the seizure of the treasures which he declares, by the law of Mohammed, were the property of Asoph ul Dowlah. favor. My Lords, the prisoner more than once assured the House of Commons that the Mr. Hastings inhabitants of Asia believed him to pretese of a special provi be a preternatural being, gifted with dence in his good fortune or the peculiar favorite of Heaven; and that Providence never failed to take up and carry, by wise, but hidden means, every project of his to its destined end. Thus, in his blasphemous and vulgar puritanical jargon, did Mr. Hastings libel the course of Providence. Thus, according to him, when his corruptions and briberies were on the eve of expos ure, Providence inspired the heart of Nuncomar to commit a low, base crime, in order to save him from ruin.24 Thus, also, in his attempts on Cheyte Sing, and his plunder of the Begums, Providence stepped forth, and inspired the one with resistance and the other with rebellion, to forward his purposes! Thus, my Lords, did he arrogantly represent himself as a man not only the favorite of Providence, but as one for whose The second pretext is, that all communication sake Providence departed from the eternal course between Calcutta and Fyzabad was cut off. This of its own wise dispensations, to assist his adis no less untrue. By comparing dates, it will ministration by the elaboration of all that is delbe seen that letters, now in our possession, pass-eterious and ill; heaven-born forgeries—inspired ed at this period between Mr. Middleton and the treasons--Providential rebellions! arraigning that prisoner. Even Sir Elijah Impey has unguard- Providence edly declared that the road leading from the one city to the other was as clear from interruption as that between London and any of the neighboring villages. So satisfied am I, indeed, on this point, that I am willing to lay aside every other topic of criminality against the prisoner, and to rest this prosecution alone on the question of the validity of the reasons assigned for the concealment we have alleged. Let those, my Lords, who still retain any doubts on the subject, turn to the prisoner's narrative of his journey to Benares. They will there detect, amid a motley mixture of cant and mystery, of rhapsody and enigma, the most studious concealment. These ar It may, perhaps, be asked, why did Mr. Hastings use all these efforts to vail this counted for. business? Though it is not strictly incumbent on me to give an answer to the question, yet I will say that he had obviously a reason for it. Looking to the natural effect of deep injuries on the human mind, he thought that oppression must beget resistance. The attempt which the Begums might be driven to make in their own defense, though really the effect, he was determined to represent as the cause of his "Whose works are goodness, and whose ways are right." 24 Nuncomar, as stated on a preceding page, was a Hindoo of high rank, who accused Hastings to the Council at Calcutta of having put up offices to sale, and of receiving bribes for allowing offenders to escape punishment. The accusation was malicious, and possibly false; but a majority of the Council, who were unfriendly to Hastings, declared it to be fully sustained. At this moment, Nuncomar was charged, through Hastings' instrumentality, with having forged a bond. For this offense, which, among the natives of India, would hardly be con sidered criminal, Hastings had him arraigned, not before a Hindoo court, but before the Supreme Court of Bengal, over which Impey presided as Chief Justice. Here, to the astonishment of all, Nuncomar was sentenced to die, under the laws of England, and not of his own country. Every one expected that Impey would have respited Nuncomar, and conviction, without demanding his blood. The Counthat Hastings would have been satisfied with his cil interposed for the deliverance of Nuncomar in the most energetic manner, but Hastings was inflexible. Impey, the instrument of his vengeance, refused all delay, and Nuncomar was hung like a felon, to the horror of all India. sistency in his crimes. It does undoubtedly, my Lords, bear a strange | prudence be the successful management and conWant of con appearance, that a man of reputed duct of a purpose to its end, I can at once bring falsehood and ability, like the prisoner, even when instances into view where this species of prudence acting wrongly, should have recourse belonged to minds distinguished by the atrocity to so many bungling artifices, and spread so thin of their actions. When I survey the history of a vail over his deceptions. But those who are a Philip of Macedon, of a Cesar, of a Cromwell, really surprised at this circumstance must have I perceive great guilt successfully conducted, if attended very little to the demeanor of Mr. Hast- not by legitimate discretion, at least by a consumings. Through the whole of his defense upon mate craft, or by an all-commanding sagacity, this charge, sensible that truth would undo him, productive of precisely the same effects. These, he rests his hopes on falsehood. Observing this however, I confess, were isolated characters, who rule, he has drawn together a set of falsehoods left the vice they dared to follow either in the state without consistency, and without connection; not of dependent vassalage, or involved it in destrucknowing, or not remembering, that there is noth- tion. Such is the perpetual law of nature, that ing which requires so much care in the fabrica- virtue, whether placed in a circle more contracted tion, as a system of lies. The series must be or enlarged, moves with sweet concert. There regular and unbroken; but his falsehoods are is no dissonance to jar; no asperity to divide; eternally at variance, and demolish one another. and that harmony which makes its felicity at the Indeed, in all his conduct, he seems to be actu- same time constitutes its protection. Of vice, on ated but by one principle, to do things contrary the contrary, the parts are disunited, and each in to the established form. This architect militates, barbarous language clamors for its pre-eminence. against the first principles of the art. He be- It is a scene where, though one domineering pasgins with the frieze and the capital, and lays the sion may have sway, the others still press forbase of the column at the top. Thus turning ward with their dissonant claims; and, in the his edifice upside down, he plumes himself upon moral world, effects waiting on their causes, the the novelty of his idea, till it comes tumbling discord which results, of course, insures defeat. about his ears. Rising from these ruins, he is soon found rearing a similar structure. He delights in difficulties, and disdains a plain and secure foundation. He loves, on the contrary, to build on a precipice, and to encamp on a mine. Inured to falls, he fears not danger. Frequent defeats have given him a hardihood, without impressing a sense of disgrace. Some men may and crime. In this way, my Lords, I believe the failure of Mr. Hastings is to be explained, and Not so with such, I trust, will be the fate of all who Mr. Hastings shall emulate his character or his conduct. The doctrine of my friend, from what I have said, can, therefore, hold only in those minds which can not be satisfied with the indulgence of a single crime; where, instead of one base master passion having It was once, my Lords, a maxim, as much ad- the complete sway, to which all the faculties are mitted in the practice of common life subject, and on which alone the mind is bent, there unite prudence as in the schools of philosophy, that is a combustion and rivalry among a number of where Heaven is inclined to destroy, passions yet baser, when pride, vanity, avarice, it begins with frenzying the intellect. "Quem lust of power, cruelty, all at once actuate the huDeus vult perdere prius dementat." This doc-man soul and distract its functions; all of them trine the right honorable manager (Mr. Burke), who opened generally to your Lordships the articles of impeachment, still farther extended. He declared that the co-existence of vice and prudence was incompatible; that the vicious man, being deprived of his best energies, and curtailed in his proportion of understanding, was left with such a short-sighted penetration as could lay no claim to prudence. This is the sentiment of my noble and exalted friend, whose name I can never mention but with respect and admiration due to his virtue and talents; whose proud disdain of vice can only be equaled by the ability with which he exposes and controls it; to whom I look up with homage; whose genius is commensurate with philanthropy; whose memory will stretch itself beyond the fleeting objects of any little partial shuffling-through the whole wide range of human knowledge and honorable aspiration after good-as large as the system which forms lifeas lasting as those objects which adorn it; but in this sentiment, so honorable to my friend, I can not implicitly agree. If the true definition of 25 The reader will at once see the object of Mr. Sheridan in thus apparently differing from Mr. Burke. It was to arrest attention, by an ingenious 25 at once filling their several spaces, some in their larger, some in their more contracted orbits; all of them struggling for pre-eminence, and each counteracting the other. In such a mind, undoubtedly, great crimes can never be accompanied by prudence. There is a fortunate disability, occasioned by the contention, that rescues the human species from the villainy of the intention. Such is the original denunciation of nature. Not so with the nobler passions. In the breast where they reside, the harmony is never interrupted by the number. A perfect and substantial agreement gives an accession of vigor to each, and, spreading their influence in every direction, like the divine intelligence and benignity from which they flow, they ascertain it to the individual by which they are possessed, and communicate it to the society of which he is a member. My Lords, I shall now revert again to the claims made on the princesses of The Nabob his Oude. The counsel for the prisoner mere vassal. have labored to impress on the court the idea that the Nabob was a prince sovereignly independent, turn of thought, and thus to set forth his views in stronger relief. The seizure of the treasure not first proposed by the Nabob. and in no degree subject to the control of Mr. | the affidavits. He replied, "that he knew nothHastings; but, after the numberless proofs we have adduced of his being, on the contrary, a mere cipher in the hands of the Governor General, your Lordships will require of them, to create such a conviction on your minds, much more conclusive evidence than any which they have hitherto presented. I believe, both as regards the resumption of the jaghires, and especially the seizure of the treasures, they will find it very difficult to show the independence of the prince.26 It has, my Lords, been strenuously contended on our parts, that the measure of seizing the treasures originated with the prisoner, and in maintenance of the position we have brought forward a chain of testimony clear, and, we think, satisfactory; but the counsel for the prisoner, on the other hand, assert with equal earnestness, that the proposition for seizing the treasures came originally from the Nabob. It is therefore incumbent on them to support their assertion by proof, as we have done. Certainly the best evidence of the fact would be the exhibition of the letter of the Nabob to Mr. Hastings, in which they allege the proposition was made. Why, then, is not this document, which must at once settle all disputation on the subject, produced? The truth is, there is no such letter. I peremptorily deny it, and challenge the prisoner and his counsel to produce a letter or paper containing any proposition of the Kind coming immediately from the prince. ing at all of their having been translated, and that he had no conversation whatever with Mr. Hastings on the subject of the affidavits after he had delivered them to him." He was next asked whether he did not think it a little singular that he should not have held any conversation with the Governor General on a subject of so much moment as that of the affidavits which he had taken. His answer was, that he did not think it singular, because he left Chunar the very day after he delivered the affidavits to Mr. Hastings. By this answer the witness certainly meant it should be understood that when he quitted Chunar he left the Governor General behind him; but it appears, from letters written by the witness himself, and which we have already laid before the court, that he arrived at Chunar on the 1st of December, 1781; that he then began to take the affidavits, and, when completed, he and Mr. Hastings left Chunar in company, and set out on the road to Benares; and that, after being together from the first to the sixth of the month, the former took leave of the latter, and proceeded on his journey to Calcutta. Here, then, my Lords, we detect a subterfuge artfully contrived to draw you into a false conclusion! There is also another part of the witness's evidence which is entitled to as little credit. He has sworn that he knew nothing of the Persian affidavits having been translated. Now, my Lords, we formerly produced a letter from Major William Davy, the confidential secMy Lords, the seizure of the treasures and the retary and Persian translator to the Governor jaghires was the effect of a dark con- General, in which he states that he made an spiracy, in which six persons were affidavit before Sir Elijah Impey at Buxar, on concerned. Three of the conspira- the 12th of December, just six days after Sir tors were of a higher order. These Elijah parted from Mr. Hastings, swearing that were Mr. Hastings, who may be considered as the papers annexed to the affidavits were faiththe principal and leader in this black affair; Mr. ful translations of the Persian affidavits! What Middleton, the English resident at Lucknow; and shall we say, my Lords, of such testimony? I Sir Elijah Impey. The three inferior or subor-will make only one remark upon it, which I shall dinate conspirators were, Hyder Beg Khan, the borrow from an illustrious man; "that no one nominal minister of the Nabob, but in reality the could tell where to look for truth, if it could not creature of Mr. Hastings, Colonel Hannay, and be found on the judgment seat, or know what to Ali Ibrahim Khan. credit, if the affirmation of a judge was not to be trusted." It was the re- spiracy set on Sir Elijah Impey was intrusted by Mr. Hastings to carry his orders to Mr. Middleton, and to concert with him the means of carrying them into execution. The Chief Justice, my Lords, being a principal actor in the whole of this iniquitous business, it will be necessary to take notice of some parts of the evidence which he has delivered upon oath at your Lordships' bar. Impey sent as an agent to into propose, as seize the treas duce the Nabob from himself, to ures. I have, my Lords, before observed, that the Chief Justice was intrusted by the prisoner to concert with Mr. Middleton the means of carrying into execution the order of which he was the bearer from the Governor General to the resident. These orders do not apWhen asked, what became of the Persian affi- pear any where in writing, but your Lordships Exposure, in davit, sworn before him, after he had are acquainted with their purport. The court passing, of Impey's subdelivered them to Mr. Hastings, he must recollect that Mr. Middleton was instructterfuges. replied that he really did not know!ed by them to persuade the Nabob to propose, as He was also asked, if he had them translated, or from himself to Mr. Hastings, the seizure of the knew of their having been translated, or had any Begum's treasures. That this was really so, apconversation with Mr. Hastings on the subject of pears undeniably as well from the tenor of Mr. 26 This claim is directly in the face of Mr. Hast-Middleton's letter on the subject, as from the ings' own statement, in the Minutes of Consultation, where he says that Asoph ul Dowlah, by the treaty made upon the death of his father," became eventually and necessarily the vassal of the Company." See quotation in Mill, vol. iv., 268. prisoner's account of the business in his defense. Evidently, Mr. Hastings was on this occasion hobbled by difficulties which put all his ingenuity into requisition. He was aware that it must seem extraordinary, that at the very moment he was confiscating the property of the Begums, on the plea of their treasonable machinations, he should stipulate that an annual allowance equal almost to the produce of that property should be secured to them. Though he had accused the princesses of rebellion, by which, of course, their treasures were forfeited to the state, yet he was reluctant to appear as the principal in seizing them. Do not, my Lords, these embarrassments prove This shows Mr. that the prisoner was sensible of the Hastings knew the seizure to injustice of his proceedings? If the be unjust. princesses were in rebellion, there could be no ground for his demurring to seize their property. The consciousness of their innocence could alone, therefore, make him timid and irresolute. To get rid at once of his difficulties, he resorts to the expedient which I have before stated, namely, of giving directions to Sir Elijah Impey that Mr. Middleton should urge the Nabob to propose, as from himself, the seizure of the treasures. My Lords, the unhappy prince, without a will of his own, consented to make the proposal, as an alternative for the resumption of the jaghires; a measure to which he had the most unconquerable reluctance. Mr. Hastings, as it were to indulge the Nabob, agreed to the proposal; rejoicing, at the same time, that his scheme had proved so far successful; for he thought this proposal, coming from the Nabob, would free him from the odium of so unpopular a plundering. But the artifice was too shallow; and your Lordships are now able to trace the measure to its source. The court will see from the evidence that Mr. Hastings suggested it to Sir Elijah Impey, that Sir Elijah Impey might suggest it to Middleton, that Middleton might suggest it to the Nabob, that his Highness might suggest it to Mr. Hastings; and thus the suggestion returned to the place from which it had originally set out! Confirmation One single passage of a letter, written by Middleton to Mr. Hastings on the 2d from a letter of December, 1781, will make this of Middleton. point as clear as day. He informs the Governor General that "the Nabob, wishing to evade the measure of resuming the jaghires, had sent him a message to the following purport: that if the measure proposed was intended to procure the payment of the balance due to the Company, he could better and more expeditiously effect that object by taking from his mother the treasures of his father, which he asserted to be in her hands, and to which he claimed a right, founded on the laws of the Koran; and that it would be sufficient that he [Mr. Hastings] would hint his opinion upon it, without giving a formal sanction to the measure proposed." Mr. Middleton added, "the resumption of the jaghires it is necessary to suspend till I have your answer to this letter." In the first place, it is clear from this letter that, though the Nabob consented to make the desired proposal for seizing the treasures, it was only as an alternative; for it never entered into his head both to seize the treasures and resume the jaghires. The former measure he wished to substitute in the room of the latter, and by no means to couple them together. But Mr. Hastings was too nice a reasoner for the prince. He insisted that one measure should be carried into execution, because the Nabob had proposed it; and the other, because he himself determined upon it. It also appears that the Nabob was taught to plead his right to the treasures, as founded upon the laws of the Koran. Not a word was said about the guarantee and treaty which had barred that right, whatever it might have been! But, my Lords, if all Mr. Hastings would have the world believe is true, he [the Nabob] had still a much better title-one against which the treaty and guarantee could not be raised, and this was the treason of the Begums, by which they forfeited all their property to the state, and every claim upon English protection. On this right by forfeiture, the Nabob, however, was silent. ing a stranger to the rebellion, and to the treason of his parents, he was reduced to the necessity of reviving a right under the laws of the Koran, which the treaty and guarantee had forever extinguished. Be This letter, moreover, contains this remarkable expression, namely, "that it would be sufficient to hint his [Mr. Hastings'] opinion upon it, without giving a formal sanction to the measure proposed." Why this caution? If the Begums were guilty of treason, why should he be fearful of declaring to the world that it was not the practice of the English to protect rebellious subjects, and prevent their injured sovereigns from proceeding against them according to law?— that he considered the treaty and guarantee, by which the Begums held their property, as no longer binding upon the English government, who consequently could have no farther right to interfere between the Nabob and his rebellious parents, but must leave him at liberty to punish or forgive them as he should think fit? But, my Lords, instead of holding this language, which manliness and conscious integrity would have dictated, had he been convinced of the guilt of the Begums, Mr. Hastings wished to derive ali possible advantage from active measures against them, and at the same time so far to save appearances, as that he might be thought to be passive in the affair. My Lords, in another part of the same letter, Mr. Middleton informs the Governor Letters and paGeneral "that he sent him, at the d which might af same time, a letter from the Nabob ford other proof on the subject of seizing the treasures." This letter has been suppressed. I challenge the counsel for the prisoner to produce it, or to account satisfactorily to your Lordships for its not having been entered upon the Company's records. Nor is this, my Lords, the only suppression of which we have reason to complain. affidavit of Goulass Roy, who lived at Fyzabad, the residence of the Begums, and who was known to be their enemy, is also suppressed. No person could be so well informed of their The guilt, if they had been guilty, as Goulass Roy, who resided upon the spot where levies were said to have been made for Cheyte Sing by their order. If, therefore, his testimony had not destroyed the charge of a rebellion on the part of the Begums, there is no doubt but it would have been carefully preserved. The information of Mr. Scott has, moreover, been withheld from us. This gentleman lived unmolested at Taunda, where Sumshire Khan commanded for the Begums, and where he carried on an extensive manufacture without the least hinderance from this supposed disaffected governor. Mr. Scott was at Taunda too when it was said that the Governor pointed the guns of the fort upon Captain Gordan's party. If this circumstance, my Lords, did really happen, Mr. Scott must have heard of it, as he was himself at the time under the protection of those very guns. Why, then, is not the examination of this gentleman produced? I believe your Lordships are satisfied that, if it had supported the allegations against Sumshire Khan, it would have been canceled. Middleton fully confid It is not clear to me, my Lords, that, as servile a tool as Mr. Middleton was, the hot perhaps prisoner intrusted him with every part ed in by Mr. of his intentions throughout the busiHastings. ness of the Begums. He certainly mistrusted, or pretended to mistrust him, in his proceedings relative to the resumption of the jaghires. When it began to be rumored abroad that terms so favorable to the Nabob as he obtained in the treaty of Chunar-by which Mr. Hastings consented to withdraw the temporary brigade, and to remove the English gentlemen from Oude-would never have been granted, if the Nabob had not bribed the parties concerned in the negotiation to betray the interests of the Company, Mr. Hastings confirmed the report by actually charging Mr. Middleton and his assistant resident, Mr. Johnson, with having accepted of bribes. They both joined in the most solemn assurances of their innocence, and called God to witness the truth of their declarations. Mr. Hastings, after this, appeared satisfied; possibly the consciousness that he had in his own pocket the only bribe which was given on the occasion, the £100,000, might have made him the less earnest in prosecuting any farther inquiry into the business. The instructions given him not al A passage in a letter from Mr. Hastings shows that he did not think proper to commit to writing all the orders which ways commit he wished Mr. Middleton to execute; ted to writing for there Mr. Hastings expresses his doubts of the resident's “firmness and activity; and, above all, of his recollection of his instructions and their importance; and said, that if he, Mr. Middleton, could not rely on his own power, and the means he possessed for performing those services, he would free him from the charge, and proceed to Lucknow and undertake it himself." My Lords, you must presume that the instructions here alluded to were verbal; for had they been written, there could be no darger of their being forgot. I call upon the counsel to state the nature of those instructions, which were deemed of so much importance, that the Governor was so greatly afraid Mr. Middleton would not recollect them, and which, nevertheless, he did not dare to commit to writing. for by the fact sume the jag. To make your Lordships understand some other expressions in the above passage, This accounted I must recall to your memory, that that Middleton it has appeared in evidence that Mr. dreaded to reMiddleton had a strong objection to hires. the resumption of the jaghires; which he thought a service of so much danger, that he removed Mrs. Middleton and his family when he was about to enter upon it; for he expected resistance not only from the Begums, but from the Nabob's own aumeels [agents]; who, knowing that the prince was a reluctant instrument in the hands of the English, thought they would please him by opposing a measure to which he had given his authority against his will. Middleton undoubtedly expected the whole country would unanimously rise against him; and therefore it was, my Lords, that he suspended the execution of the order of resumption, until he should find whether the seizure of the treasures, proposed as an alternative, would be accepted as such. The prisoner pressed him to execute the order for resuming the jaghires, and offered to go himself upon that service if he should decline it. Middleton at last, having received a thundering letter from Mr. Hastings, by which he left him to act under " a dreadful responsibility," set out for Fyzabad. My Lords, for all the cruelties and barbarities that were executed there, the Governor General in his narrative says, he does not hold himself answerable, because he commanded Middleton to be personally present during the whole of the transaction, until he should complete the seizing of the treasures and resuming the jaghires. But for what purpose did he order Middleton to be present? I will show, by quoting the orders verbatim : "You yourself must be personally present; you must not allow any negotiation or forbearance, but must prosecute both services, until the Begums are at the entire mercy of the Nabob." These peremptory orders, given under "a dreadful responsibility," were not issued, my Lords, as you see, for purposes of humanity ; not that the presence of the resident might restrain the violence of the soldier; but that he might be a watch upon the Nabob, to steel his heart against the feelings of returning nature in his breast, and prevent the possibility of his relenting, or granting any terms to his mother and grandmother. This, truly, was the abominable motive which induced the prisoner to command the personal attendance of Middleton, and yet, my Lords, he dares to say that he is not responsible for the horrid scene which ensued. [Here Mr. Sheridan was taken ill, and retired for a while to try if in the fresh air he could recover, so as that he might conclude all he had to say upon the evidence on the second charge. Some time after, Mr. Fox informed their Lordships that Mr. |