XVIth. That no part of the money due for the Robella war was recovered till after the establishment of the new Goveriment in Bengal, and that the whole remains in effect and fubftance unpaid to this day. deavours, both to obtain a true knowledge of the facts, and to redrefs them in what. ever degree they might be found to exist ; and the answers to both are, in my opinion, a refutation of the charge as it ftands against the Vizier. With refpect to the first, Colonel Champion, in anfwer to the defire exprcfled by the Board, "To be im❤ "mediately advised of the particulars of The meaning of this charge feems to be that fo long as any balance remained due from the Nabob of Owd, in the running account between him and the Company," the treatment to which he had alluded;" that balance arofe exclufively out of the ftipulation for the Rohella war, whatever debts may have been incurred, or payiments made, though of millions on both Audes of the account, fince that debt was originally contracted. This is contrary to the general commerce of mankind; every debt, in the arder in which it was contracted, being univerfully underfood to be difcharged by the fums received, if equivalent in their correfpondent order of payment; but let it be as it will, it is now paid beyond all poffibility of question; for even while thefe charges are forming, advices are received from the Government of Bengal, which declare that the Nabob of Oude had paid up the whole of his debt to the Company of every kind, without an anna remaining. XVIIth. That the Nabob Shuja Dowla committed great acts of cruelty and inhumanity in the prefecution of the war and in the abufe made of his victory; that he violated a Princefs of grea: ránk, and other women and that I abetted him therein; that eminent families were either cut off or banifhed, the wives and children ruined, and the country laid wafte and depopulated. This part of the general charge, if it were true, could only affect me as the abet tor of it. That I was not the abettor of it I certainly know, but cannot difprove it, otherwife than by an appeal to my general character, which is in the ftrong features of it well known, and to the evidences themselves, which are quoted in fupport of the allegation. I deny that there is a fyllable in thefe that proves it, or that, without a violence on the conftruction which could convert white into black, even tend to caft the moft diftant fufpicion of it. The letter written by the Board to Colonel Champion, dated the 23d of May, 1773, and mine to Mr. Middleton, dated the 27th of the fame Month, which I fall crave leave to read at the clofe of this article, are evidences of my anxiety and en that is, the Nabob's treatment of the Ro hella prifoners, begins the fubject with a fentence that feems to promife the information required; but no fuch informa tion follows. Mr. Middleton's anfwer is in point, and affords a very temperate, and, I do believe, a moft faithful report upon the question. It is long, and worth the perufal of thofe who may with for more information upon the subect. It no farther concerns me.-I am unwilling to quit this fubject without adding, that the fons of Hafiz Rahmut Cawn were living at Lucknow when I was at that capital; that they enjoyed a penfion from the prefent Nabob, which afforded them a decent maintenance, with a promife of more af er payment of the Nabob's debt to the Company, under the engagements which he had contracted with me. They were under no other reftraint than a prohibition to re-vifit their own country, and were my daily vifitors; for which they, no doubt, had the exprefs permission of the Nabob, and that optionally given, for I never intimated the moft diftant with fee them; and indeed they frequently attended him in the vifits which he himfelf made to him. Fvzoolla Cawn, the only furviving fon of Ally Mahmud, the founder of this little dominion, ftill remains in peaceable poffeffion of as much of his inheritance as be held before the war, which closed with the death of Hafiz Rahmut, the ufurper of the rights of his patron and mafter, who had entrusted them to his guardianfhip, and with the deprivation of the children of his accomplices, as the punishment allotted, according to their feveral degrees of guilt, to the perpetrators of fo complicated a treachery. My letter to Mr. Middleton, to which I have above alluded, I now intreat permiffion to read. I was not aware of the ftrength of this evidence, when on a curfory infpection I marked it for reference. I am pleafed to find it, on a more attentive perufal, not only a clear refulation of 3 H the the charge, fo far as I myself am affected Extract of a letter from the Prefident to Colonel Champion complains of the XXth. That the Court of Directors, and afterwards the General Court of Proprietors, did unanimously condemn (along with my conduct relative to the Rohella treaty and war) my refufal to communicate my whole correfpondence with Mr. Middlet n to the Council; yet that I have never yet communicated the whole of my cofietpondence either to the Governor General and Council or to the Court of Directors. Neither my refpect for the Court of Directors, nor my gratitude and devoted attachment to the Court of Proprietors, fhall reftrain me from faying, that the firft were partial judges, and that the laft were incompetent, as wanting the means of information. The latter part of this ar ticle is true, namely, that I have never yet communicated the whole of my correfpondence either to the Governor General and Council, or to the Court of Dire&ors: but it is equally true, that the Court of Directors have never demanded it of me; and that I have uniformly opposed the right of the Council to exact it, which, should be firft eftablished before the refufal to them can be made a crime. However, the whole of this charge I should prefume cannot properly come under the difcuffion of this honourable Houfe; for in the very terms of it is ftated, that my conduct was inquired into both by the Directors and Proprietors, my legal and ultimate judges, who both paffed their cenfure upon it; and in that cenfure I received my punishment. Having now finished my examination of the charge in my reply to the material points which compofe it, I fhall proceed to recite the particulars of the transaction to which they all bear a common relation, viz. the origin, defign, progrefs, conclufion, and effects of the Rohella war. In May 1771, the King quitted Illahabad, and threw himself into the arms of the Marattas. In a few months afterwards he granted them funnuds, or char ters, for the provinces of Corah, Currah, and Ilahabad, or the lands immediately fituated above the conflux of the rivers Ganges and Jumma, which we had before given to him. In January 1772, General Sir Robert Barker met the Nabob Shuja Dowla, at Fyzabad, who proposed various plans to counteract the ambitious defigns of the Marattas, who were then preparing to invade Rohelcund. The General by his own authority, ordered a battalion of Sepoys for the defence of the lines at Cawnpoor. The Governor (Mr. Cartier) and the Select Committee, on the 12th of February 1772, approved of the General's conduct, and authorized him to enter enter into negociations on the part of the Company in fupport of the Nabob's views. "the Rohellas, or bring on a compromife "between those powers; for the alterna❝tive was an attack on his dominions af66 ter the reduction of the Rohellas," unlefs (for fo the fenfe follows in the conftruction) "the English forces would join to fupport him in the undertaking," "preferably recommended by the Gene"ral; and that he had therefore fent Captain Gabriel Harper to Hafez Rahmet, and would do his endeavours to pro"craftinate this treaty until he received "the Committee's inftructions. On the 28th of January 1772, the General wrote to the Select Committee, that the Nabob wifhed to protect the Rohellas, and to treat with them, "which could not "be done, he faid, without the confent "of the English;" for their letters "were " written to him in a ftyle as if he was "one and the fame as the English; and he" " doubted that, without fuch a concur"rence they meant to do nothing with "him alone." The dangerous confequences portended from thefe alarming fymptoms are ftrongly defcribed in the following extract from a letter of the General to the Select Commi tee, dated the 25th of February 1772. "I fhould imagine that if the Marattas fucceed in their attempts of croffing the "river, and make a rapid progrefs "through the Rohella country towards ** the Vizier's territories, as they have al "ready given out that they intend can toning at Lucknow, you will judge it "neceflary to advance a brigade nearer to his Excellency's dominions; for in "this cafe the approach of the Marattas will be very quick." On the 13th of April 1772, I fucceeded to the office of Prefident, of the Council of Port William; and from that day only I date my fhare of refponfibility in the acts of the Government of Bengal." On the 30th of the fame month, the Select Committee for the first time entered into a confideration of the General's repeated references! and the fentiments recorded by them on that occafion most decidedly mark their-may I be allowed to change the perfon, and fay my? ftrenuous adherence to the cautious and defenfive fyftem enjoyned by the Com pany." - We approved the General's "ender"vours to diffuade the Vizier from enter"ing into any negociations which might "lead to an alliance with the Maratras ; "fince we might by this means be pre"cluded from taking fuch measures as the "Company's exact orders might render "necellary. But we could not approve On the 28th of February the General wrote that the Marattas had made good their paffage of the river, and given a total defeat to the Rohellas posted at the fords to oppose them; that he had therefore ordered the brigade at Dinapore to march immediately towards the Vizier's domini-" ons, excufing his taking fuch a step without the authority of the Board, by “the exigency of the fervice." In this part of the 5th report of the Se. cret Committee, from which I draw this recital, I mifs the reply which was written to Sir Robert Barker's letter, but I recollect that the Committee disapproved of the march of the brigade, and counter. manded it. of a promife being made to him of the "junction of our forces in the profecution "of an offenfive war; the more efpeci"ally, as the Court of Directors, in their "letters by the Lapwing, had promised "to furnish us with clear and precife in"ftructions refpecting our carrying on hof"tilities against the Marattas at a distance "from our own borders; which,” we added, "might be foon expected,” but which never came. We expreffed fome On the 9th of April the General wrote uneasiness at Captain Harper's deputation, that "the Marattas had applied to the and defired that he might be recalled as "Nabob Shuja Dowla to be the mediator foon as he conveniently could be, as we "of their differences with the Rohellas, did not chufe to appear as principals in "to which he was much inclined," and thefe negociations." In the mean was not to he diverted from this time, the meafures purfued by Sir Robert "fcheme," though the General had fre- Barker had taken their courte; and while nuously oppofed it, and preffed him "ra- I difavow any concern in them, I may "ther to form an alliance with the Ro- add, that they proved fortunate in their "hellas;" the Nabob infifting "that he event. Captain Harper returned on the "had no choice; for he muft either join 21ft of May, after having prevailed on "the Marattas in the total reduction of Hafiz Ramut to agree to a perfonal meet3 H 2 1 ing ing with the Vizier; the confequence of which was, that on the 17th of June a treaty of alliance was concluded and reciprocally interchanged between the Rohella chiefs and the Nabob Shuja Dowla; and a feparate agreement on the part of the Rohellas, to pay forty lacks of rupees to the Nabob Vizier for the expulfion of the Marattas," whether effected by peace "or war;" ten lacks to be paid on the immediate effect of his match," enabling "the families of the Rohellas to leave the "woods, and return to their habitations;" the reft in three years. Both deeds were executed in the prefence of General Sir Robert Barker, and his fignature affixed to both as a witness to them. But the fame act made him the guarantee of both; and virtually, by his reprefentation, extended the fame obligation to the Company; for it has been fhewn, that he was the inflrument of the negociation, and that the Rohellas themfelves had refused to treat with the Nabob alone, that is, without the junction of the English name and faith with his. Thus it appears, that, by a regular and natural gradation of events, the Government of Bengal found itfelf entangled in the first movements of a war which it had fought to avoid, but which was in its principle and object defenfive; and though extending beyond the line of its prefcribed operations, had been recently marked out as an exception to it by the Court of Directors in their general letter of the 28th of Auguft, 1772, which is that to which the Select Committee alluded in (To be their inftructions to General Sir Robert Barker of the 30th of April; and that whether the measures which led to this crifis of affairs were right or wrong, or whether the events which produced it might or ought to have been diverted into another direction, I myself have no concern in either queftion. The movements of the machine (if I may be allowed the figure) had received their firft impulfe from other hands, before the charge of it could be affirmed in any fenfe to have devolved to mine, and were independent of me. In this ftate progrefs, and direction, I received the fhare allotted to me in its management; and to thefe, even in the fubfequent conduct of it, my judgement was neceffarily compelled to bend itfelf, whether I approved of the paft, or difap. proved it. I entreat the permiffion of this honourable Houfe to proceed in my narrative in the words of my letters, written on the fame fubj.ct, and for a fimilar purpose, to the Court of Directors, on the 3d of December, 1774. Some claim I may be allowed to an indulgence of time for my reply to the other multiplied and voluminous charges exifting against me; the laboured production of years requiring days for their refutation: I fhall hereby avoid the delays of reference and compilation, and can with confidence offer this recital as genuine, fince it was written with the fresh impreffion of the facts and events which appertain to it; and with it I fhall clofe my defence against the fift charge exhibited against me. continued.). Extracts from the Evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Commons, being a Committee of the whole Houfe, appointed to confider of the feveral Articles of Charge of high Crimes and Misdemeanors, prefented to the Houfe against Warren Haftings, Efq. late GovernorGeneral of Bengal. [Continued from our laft, p. 340.] Continuation of COLONEL CHAMPION'S DID you reprefent that want of fuccefs I think I did. Did he give you further instructions to interfere ? To the best of my recollection, Mr. Haftings acquainted me, that he had written to the agent, Mr. Middleton, to use Do you know whether the agent fucceaded better than you did? I never understood he did. Whether the Rohillas had ever been engaged in hoftilities of any kind against the English, before their country was invaded by us? I do not recolle&t they had. Do you know, or have you heard, that the Rohillas ever offered an injury of any kind, direct or indirect, to the English? It never came to my knowledge that they did. Whether, if you had been authorised by Mr. Hattings to ufe that power which you poffeffed as commander of the British troops, you could not have prevented those proceedings of the Nabob which you fo much di'approved? I think I could. Do you know of any charge preferred by Suiah Dowla to the Council againft the Rohilla chiefs, as the ground for the invafion of the Rohilla territories? No. Do you know of any official notification given, ether by the Council, or by Mr. Haftings, to the Rohilla chiefs, concerning any complaints against them, previous to the orders for commencing hoftilities against them? In answer to that queftion I can only obferve, that I was not in the adminiftratien at that time. [Then the following extract of a letter to the witnefs, dated Fort William, 1ft July, 174, figned Warren Haftings, W. Alderley, P. M. Dacres, and entered in No. 27 of the Apppendix to the faid Report, was read to the witnefs; viz.] • THE intemperate and tyrannical conduct of the Vizier after his conquefts, as you have reprefented, cannot fail to prove highly diffatisfactory to us, and although we do not regard ourfelves either as answerable for his actions, or obliged abfolutely to interfere for reftraining them, yet we fhould have • been glad to have been furnished with fuch materials as would enable us, upon good grounds, to expoftulate with him on the injuftice and impropriety of ⚫ fuch a condu&. It was in this view ⚫that we requested you to acquaint us with the inftances of his cruelties: but we confefs ourselves exceedingly difappointed,in receiving, instead of a precife account of facts, only three letters of loofe declamation, which, however pathetically written, contain not one fingle infance of the Vizier's particular cruelty to the ⚫ family of Hafez; and indeed exprefs only fuch fentiments as we can eafily • conceive to exift in the breasts of that unfortunate family, from reflecting on the fad reverse of their fortune alone, without fuppofing any peculiar hardship in their cafe, or uncommon a&t of oppreffion in the Vizier: For this reafon, we repeat our defire to be furnified with a particular account of the treatment which the family of Hafez Rhamet has ' received, and we fhall then take fuch. feps for their relief as the circumdances fhall require. In the mean time, we hope that the remonftrances which the • Prefident informs us he has directed the Rodent to make to the Vizier on this • fubject, will be fufficient to render any ⚫ more direct in erpofition needleis.* Then the witnefs was afked Did you receive a letter from the Governor and Select Committee, of the ift of July, 1774, containing that paragraph ? I believe I did. Whether you, in anfwer to that letter, fent any fuch particular account, as was defined by the Governor and Select Committee, of the treatment which the family of Hafez Rhamet had received. In anfer to that queflion I muft ebferve, that repeatedly before the dite of that letter, and afterwards, I thought the remonttrances I made were fufficient, and therefore did not comply with the orders I received. Whether the Rohilla nation confifts of Mahometans or Hindoos > I believe they are Hindoos. Were they who cultivated the lands driven out of the country, or allowed to remain in it? To the best of my remembrance, they were allowed to remain in it. Were the military part of the nation, excepting those who fell in battle, put to death, or only required to crofs the Ganges ? To the best of my remembrance, they were required only to cross the Ganges, [Then the following letter from the wit nefs to the President and Select Committee, entered in the Appendix, No. 28, to the fame Report, was read to the witnefs; viz.] To the Hon. Warren Haftings, Efq. Prefident, &c. Members of the Select Committee. |