the melancholy task.

1781.

The words of the resident to the Governor-General are CHAP. VIII. instructive: "I had the honour to address you on the 7th instant, informing you of the conversation which had passed between the Nabob and me on the subject of resuming the jaghires; and the step I had taken in consequence." The step was the issuing of perwannahs or warrants to the Aumils or agents on the jaghires, to desist from acting in behalf of the Begums. "His Excellency appeared to be very much hurt and incensed at the measure: And loudly complains of the treachery of his ministers, first, in giving you any hopes that such a measure would be adopted; and, secondly, in promising me their whole support in carrying it through. But, as I apprehended" (he means, expected) " rather than suffer it to appear that the point had been carried in opposition to his will, he at length yielded a nominal acquiescence, and has this day issued his own perwannahs to that effect-declaring, however, at the same time, both to me and his ministers, that it is an act of compulsion." †

The resumption of the jaghires was not the only measure which had been The treasures of the Begums conceived and resolved against the Begums. Their treasures were to be seized. †

* According to Mr. Hastings, the Nabob had no objection to plunder the Begums. But he had given jaghires to certain persons, whom Mr. Hastings calls his "Orderlies, and others of that stamp ; "... ..." the companions of his looser hours." These he wished not to resume; and therefore endeavoured to depart from his engagement of resumption altogether. But the cause appears not sufficient to account for the effect. If he had resumed the jaghires of his orderlies, which were of trifling amount, what would have hindered him from giving them something of equal or greater amount?

+ Letter to Mr. Hastings, dated 9th of Dec. 1781. Notwithstanding these, and the numerous other proofs, that Hastings was well aware of the reluctance of the Nabob, to proceed to the acts by which his parents were plundered, Hastings, when it suited his purpose to put on the show of a wonderful tenderness for the Nabob, wrote to his private agent, Major Palmer, viz. on the 6th of May, 1783," that it had been a matter of equal surprise and concern to him, to learn from the letters of the resident, that the Nabob Vizir was with difficulty, and almost unconquerable reluctance, induced to give his consent to the attachment of the treasure deposited by his father under the charge of the Begum his mother, and to the resumption of her jaghire, and the other jaghires of the individuals of his family:" As if he had never heard of these facts before! Such specimens of Mr. Hastings, as this, meet us often in the records of his government.

As some confusion took place, though much less than what was expected, and the servants and agents of the princesses withheld not some demonstrations of opposition, when the jaghires were taken away; this was called resistance: and Mr. Hastings was willing it should appear, that this was heinous guilt, and that only in punishment of this guilt the resolution of seizing their money was adopted. (See Letter of Governor-General and Council to the Court of Directors, 11th of February, 1782; Tenth Report, ut supra, Appendix No. 5.) He himself, however, has furnished sufficient proof, that the resolution was adopted before the resumption of the jaghires was begun.

are seized.

1782.

BOOK V. The Nabob and the resident, with a body of English troops, proceeded towards the abode of the princesses of Fyzabad, where they arrived on the 8th of January. The first days were spent in demands and negotiations. On the 12th the troops were ordered to storm the town and the castle, but little or no opposition was made; for no blood was shed on either side: and the troops took possession of all the outer enclosure of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.

The head eunuchs of the Begums are

tortured.

Still, however, the female apartments were unviolated, and the treasure was not obtained. The difficulty was to lay hands on it without the disgrace of profaning and polluting the sacred precinct. The principal agents of the princesses were two aged personages, of great rank and distinction, who had been in high trust and favour with the late Nabob; the eunuchs, Jewar Ali Khan and Behar Ali Khan. It was resolved to put those personages in confinement, and apply to them other severities, in order that the Begums might, by their compassion,

.....

"It may be necessary," he says, in his letter dated at Sunagegunah on the Ganges, 23d of January, 1782, "in this place to inform you, that in addition to the resolution of resuming the Begums' jaghires the Nabob had declared his resolution of reclaiming all the treasures of his family which were in their possession, and to which by the Mahomedan laws he was entitled. This resolution I have strenuously encouraged and supported. . . . . . I have required and received the Nabob's promise, that whatever acquisitions shall be obtained from the issue of these proceedings, it shall be primarily applied to the discharge of the balance actually due from him to the Company." (Tenth Report, ut supra, Appendix No. 6; and Minutes of Evidence, ut supra, p. 2078.) Before the acquiescence of the Nabob could be procured to the execution of the plan for resuming the jaghires, viz. on the 6th of December, 1781, the resident writes to Mr. Hastings as follows, "Your pleasure respecting the Begums, I have learnt from Sir Elijah ; and the measure heretofore proposed will soon follow the resumption of the jaghires. From both, or indeed from the former alone, I have no doubt of the complete liquidation of the Company's balance." These expressions apply so necessarily to the seizure of the treasures, that they can be applied to nothing else. In another letter to the Governor-General on the following day, the resident alludes to the same measure in the following terms. "His Excellency talks of going to Fyzabad, for the purpose heretofore mentioned, in three or four days; I wish he may be serious in his intention; and you may rest assured I shall spare no pains to keep him to it." The representation which was made, both in this letter to the Directors, and in the defence which Mr. Hastings first presented to the House of Commons, that the opposition of the Begums to the seizure of their jaghires was the cause on account of which the treasure was forcibly taken away from them, Mr. Hastings in a second defence retracted, affirming that the assertion was a blunder. See this defence, Minutes of Evidence at the Trial, p. 366. It was attempted to account for the blunder, by stating that the first defence was not written, and hardly examined, by Mr. Hastings. According to this account, his blood was very cool upon the subject of his accusation, notwithstanding the loud complaints he so frequently preferred of the mental torture which it inflicted upon him.

1782.

be moved to give up the treasure; or that the eunuchs themselves should be CHAP. VIII. compelled, by their sufferings, to give up what was in their own custody, and use their influence with the princesses to resign what they possessed. By the torture of one party, money was to be extorted from another. The cruel lessons of Eastern despotism were well acquired by Englishmen.

The expedient was attended with success. The Begums, or rather the elder of the two, in whose possession, as head of the female department, the treasure was placed, was wrought upon by these proceedings to make a surrender; and money was paid to the English resident to the amount of the bond given to the Company by the Nabob for his balance of the year 1779-80.

The eunuchs were not yet released. Another balance remained, for the year 1780-81. Money for the discharge of this remaining debt was also demanded of the Princesses. "She declared, with apparent truth," says the Resident, "that she had delivered up the whole of the property in her hands; excepting goods; which, from the experience," he adds, " of the small produce of the sale of a former payment made by her in that mode, I refused, as likely to amount, in my opinion, to little or nothing." Money, however, was absolutely required; and new severities were employed. To the officer guarding the eunuchs, the following letter was addressed by the resident, dated the 20th of January, 1782. "Sir, when this note is delivered to you, I have to desire, that you order the two prisoners to be put in irons, keeping them from all food, &c. agreeable to my instructions of yesterday. (Signed) Nath. Middleton."

The sufferings to which they were thus exposed drew from the eunuchs the offer of an engagement for the payment of the demanded sum, which they undertook to complete, within the period of one month, from their own credit and effects. The engagement was taken, but the confinement of the eunuchs was not relaxed; the mother and grandmother of the Nabob remained under a guard; and by Mr. Hastings, the resident was commanded to make with them no settlement whatsoever. In the mean time, the payment, upon the bond extorted from the eunuchs, was begun; the Begums delivered what they declared was the last remaining portion of their effects, including down to their table utensils; and the resident himself reported " that no proof had yet been obtained of their having more." Before the 23d of February, 1782, upwards of 500,000/1. had been received by the resident for the use of the Company; and there remained on the extorted bond a balance; according to the eunuchs, of 25,000l.; and of no more than 50,000l. according to the resident. The prisoners entreated for their release; declaring their inability to procure any further sums of money

1782.

BOOK V. while they remained in confinement; but expressing a confident hope of being able to raise the balance required, if they were allowed to go abroad among their friends, and solicit their assistance. So far from any relaxation of their sufferings, higher measures of severity were enjoined. On the 18th of May, after they had lain two months in irons, the officer who commanded the guard under which they were confined, wrote to the resident in the following words; "The prisoners Behar Ali Khan, and Jewar Ali Khan, who seem to be very sickly, have requested their irons might be taken off for a few days, that they might take medicine, and walk about the garden of the place where they are confined. Now, as I am sure that they will be equally secure without their irons as with them, I think it my duty to inform you of this request. I desire to know your pleasure concerning it." The nature of the orders under which the resident acted, rendered it necessary for him to refuse the smallest mitigation of their torture. Nay, within a few days, that is, on the 1st of June, other terrors were held up to them. They were threatened to be removed to Lucknow, where, unless they performed without delay what they averred themselves unable to perform, they would not only be subjected to still severer coercion, but called upon to atone for other crimes. As these crimes were not specified, the threat was well calculated to act upon their fears. It involved the prospect of unbounded punishment; any infliction, in short, for which persons with arbitrary power in their hands could find or feign a pretence. Several expedients were offered, both by the prisoners, and the Begums, who were alarmed at the prospect of losing by removal their confidential servants. These expedients were not treated as objectionable, on any other score except that of time. They were rejected. The prisoners were removed to Lucknow, and cruelties inflicted upon them, of which the nature is not disclosed, but of which the following letter, addressed by the assistant resident to the commanding officer of the English guard, is a disgraceful proof. "Sir, the Nabob having determined to inflict corporal punishment, upon the prisoners under your guard, this is to desire that his officers, when they shall come, may have free access to the prisoners, and be permitted to do with them as they shall see proper."

All the measures, however, of severity which could be devised, proved unavailing, though the women of the Zenana were at various times deprived of food till they were on the point of perishing for want. The rigours went on increasing till the month of December; when the Resident, convinced both by his own experience, and the representation of the officer commanding the guard by which the princesses were coerced, that every thing which force could accom

1782.

plish was already performed, and that if any hope remained of further payments it CHAP. VIII. was by lenient methods alone they could be obtained, removed of his own authority the guard from the palaces of the Begums, and set at liberty their ministers.' As endeavours had been used to make the severities appear the act of the Nabob, so the resident strove to make the favour appear the bounty of the man by whom the English sceptre was swayed; declaring to the Begums that it was the Governor-General from whom the relief had been derived, and that he "was the spring from whence they were restored to their dignity and consequence." The letter in which the commanding officer reported the execution of the order of release, exhibits what no other words can express. "I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d instant; and, in consequence, immediately enlarged the prisoners, Behar Ali Khan, and Jewar Ali Khan, from their confinement, a circumstance that gave the Begums, and the city of Fyzabad, in general, the greatest satisfaction. In tears of joy, Behar, and Jewar Ali Khan, expressed their sincere acknowledgments to the Governor-General, his Excellency the Nabob Vizir, and to you, Sir, for restoring them to that invaluable blessing, liberty; for which they would ever retain the most grateful remembrance; and at their request I transmit you the enclosed letters. I wish I wish you had been present at the enlargement of the prisoners. The quivering lips, with the tears of joy stealing down the poor men's cheeks, was a scene truly affecting. If the prayers of these poor men will avail, you will at the last trump be translated to the happiest regions in heaven.”*

Of the transactions of Mr. Hastings with the Nabob at Chunar, another A present of ten lacs given feature still remains. A present was offered; a present of a sum of no less to Mr. Hasthan ten lacs, or 100,000l. sterling; and notwithstanding the Company's by the tings laws against presents, notwithstanding the acknowledged distress of the Nabob, and his inability to pay the debt which he owed to the Company, it was accepted. The Nabob was totally unprovided with the money; the gift could be tendered only in bills, which were drawn upon one of the great bankers of the country. As the intention of concealing the transaction should not be imputed to Mr. Hastings, unless as far as evidence appears,t so in this case the disclosure cannot be imputed to him as virtue, since no prudent * Letter to the Resident, dated Fyzabad, 5th of December, 1782. See Tenth Report, ut supra, and Minutes of Evidence, ut supra, p. 848, 725; Appendix to 2d Art. of Charge, p. 78, 97, 43, 172.

+ The removal just before of the Company's agent Mr. Bristow, and the appointment of a private agent of his own, ought constantly to be treated as a ground of suspicion; because it is exactly what a man with rapacious intentions would have performed.