conjectured, and ought to have provided against. | And if the said Hastings had received any credible information of such design, it was his duty to lay the same before the council board, and to state the same to the rajah when he was in a condition to have given an answer thereto, or to observe thereon; and not, after he had proscribed and driven him from his dominions, to have enquired into offences to justify the previous infliction of punishment.

XXVI.

as to make it necessary to take extraordinary methods for coercing him, it would not have been proper for him to settle upon such a traitor and criminal the zemindary of Benares, or any other territory, upon the most eligible, or upon any other footing whatever; whereby the said Hastings has by his own stating demonstrated, that the money intended to have been exacted was not as a punishment for crimes, but that the crimes were pretended for the purpose of exacting money.

XXVIII.

That the said Warren Hastings, in order to justify the acts of violence aforesaid to the court of directors, did assert certain false facts, known by him to be such, and did draw from them certain false and dangerous inferences, utterly subversive of the rights of the princes and subjects dependent on the British nation in India, contrary to the principles of all just government, and highly dishonourable to that of Great Britain; namely, that the " rajah of Benares was not a vassal or tribu

That it does not appear, that in taking the said depositions there was any person present on the part of the rajah to object to the competence, or credibility, or relevancy of any of the said affidavits, or other attestations, or to account, otherwise than as the said deponents did account, for any of the facts therein stated; nor were any copies thereof sent to the said rajah, although the company had a minister at the place of his residence, namely, in the camp of the Mahratta chief Scindia, so as to enable him to transmit to the company tary prince; and that the deeds, which passed any matters, which might induce or enable them to "between him and the board upon the transfer do justice to the injured prince aforesaid. And it "of the zemindary in 1775, were not to be undoes not appear, that the said Hastings has ever "derstood to bear the quality and force of a treaty produced any witness, letter, or other document," upon optional conditions between equal states; tending to prove, that the said rajah ever did carry "that the payments to be made by him were not on any hostile negociation whatever with any of a tribute, but a rent; and that the instruments, those powers, with whom he was charged with a by which his territories were conveyed to him, conspiracy against the company, previous to the "did not differ from common grants to zemindars, period of the said Hastings's having arrested him "who were merely subjects; but that being noin his palace, although he the said Hastings had "thing more than a common zemindar, and mere various agents at the courts of all those princes; "subject, the company, holding the acknowledged and that a late principal agent and near relation of rights of his former sovereign, held an absolute a minister of one of them, the rajah of Berar, authority over him; that in the known relations called Benaram Pundit, was, at the time of the "of zemindar to the sovereign authority, or power tumult at Benares, actually with the said Hastings, delegated by it, he owed a personal allegiance, and the said Benaram Pundit was by him highly "and an implicit and unreserved obedience to applauded for his zeal and fidelity, and was there- "that authority, at the forfeiture of his zemindary, fore by him rewarded with a large pension on those "and even of his life and property." Whereas very revenues, which he had taken from the rajah the said Hastings did well know, that whether the Cheyt Sing and if such a conspiracy had pre-payments from the rajah were called rent or triviously existed, the Mahratta minister aforesaid must have known, and would have attested it.

XXVII.

That it appears, that the said Warren Hastings at the time, that he formed his design of seizing upon the treasures of the rajah of Benares, and of deposing him, did not believe him guilty of that premeditated project for driving the English out of India, with which he afterwards thought fit to charge him, or that he was really guilty of any other great offence; because he has caused it to be deposed, that if the said rajah should pay the sum of money by him exacted," he would settle his "zemindary upon him on the most eligible foot"ing." Whereas if he had conceived him to have entertained traitorous designs against the company, from whom he held his tributary estate, or had been otherwise guilty of such enormous offences

66

66

66

bute, having been frequently by himself called the one and the other, and that of whatever nature the instruments, by which he held, might have been, he did not consider him as a common zemindar or landholder, but as far independent as a tributary prince could be; for he did assign as a reason for receiving his rent rather within the company's province than in his own capital, that it would not "frustrate the intention of rendering "the rajah independent; that if a resident was appointed to receive the money as it became "due at Benares, such a resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over the rajah, and

over his country, which would in effect render "him the master of both; that this consequence "might not perhaps be brought completely to pass "without a struggle, and many appeals to the "council, which, in a government constituted like "this, cannot fail to terminate against the rajah, "and by the construction, to which this oppo

feiture of the privileges of the people to be governed | by magistrates of their own, and according to their natural laws, customs, and usages, did, contrary to the said agreement, separate the mint and the criminal justice from the said government, and did vest the mint in the British resident, and the criminal justice in a Mahomedan native of his own appointment; and did enhance the tribute to be paid from the province, from £.250,000 annually, limited by treaty, or thereabouts, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the first year, and to four hundred thousand for every year after; and did compel the administrator aforesaid (father to the rajah) to agree to the same; and did, by the same usurped authority, illegally impose, and cause to be levied, sundry injudicious and oppressive duties on goods and merchandise, which did greatly impair the trade of the province, and threaten the utter ruin thereof; and did charge several pensions on the said revenues, of his own mere authority; and did send and keep up various bodies of the company's troops in the said country; and did perform sundry other acts, with regard to the said territory, in total subversion of the rights of the sovereign and the people, and in violation of the treaties and agreements aforesaid.

correspondence concerning which had not been before communicated; he pleading his illness for not communicating the same, though that illness did not prevent him from carrying on correspondence concerning the deposition of the said administrator, and other important affairs in various places.

That in the letter to the council requiring the confirmation of his acts aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did not only propose the confinement of the said administrator at Benares, although by his imprisonment he must have been in a great measure disabled from recovering the balances due to him, and for the non-payment of which he was thus imprisoned, but did propose, as an alternative, his imprisonment at a remote fortress, out of the said territory, and in the company's provinces, called Chunar; desiring them to direct the resident at Benares" to exact from Baboo Dubbitzee "Sing every rupee of the collections, which it "shall appear that he has made, and not brought "to account; and either to confine him at Benares, or to send him a prisoner to Chunar, and "to keep him in confinement until he shall have discharged the whole of the amount due from "him." And the said Warren Hastings did assign motives of passion and personal resentment for the said unjust and rigorous proceedings, as follows: "I feel myself, and may be allowed on "such an occasion to acknowledge it, personally "hurt at the ingratitude of this man, and at the "discredit, which his ill conduct has thrown on

66

my appointment of him. He has deceived me; "he has offended against the government, which "I then represented." And, as a further reason for depriving him of his jaghire (or salary out of land) he did insinuate in the said letter, but without giving or offering any proof, "that the said rajah had been guilty of little and mean peculations, although the appointments assigned to "him had been sufficient to free him from the "temptations thereto."

66

That the said Warren Hastings being absent, on account of ill health, from the presidency of Calcutta at a place called Nia Serai, about forty miles distant therefrom, did carry on a secret correspondence with the resident at Benares, and under colour, that the instalments for the new rent or tribute were in arrear, did of his own authority make, in about one year, a second revolution in the government of the territory aforesaid ; and did order and direct, that Durbege Sing aforesaid, father of the rajah, and administrator of his authority, should be deprived of his office and of his lands, and thrown into prison; and did threaten him with death, although he, the said Warren Hastings, had, at the time of the making his new arrangement, declared himself sensible, that the rent aforesaid might require abatement; although That it appears, as it might naturally have been he was well apprized, that the administrator had expected, that the wife of the said administrator, been for two months of his administration in a the daughter of Bulwant Sing, the late rajah of weak and languid state of body, and wholly inca- Benares, and her son the reigning rajah, did pable of attending to the business of the collec- oppose to the best of their power, but by what tions; though a considerable drought had pre- remonstrances, or upon what plea, the said Warvailed in the said province, and did consequently ren Hastings did never inform the court of directaffect the regularity and produce of the collec-ors, the deposition, imprisonment, and confiscations; and though he had other sufficient rea- tion of the estates of the husband of the one, and son to believe, that the said administrator had not the father of the other; but that the said Hastings, himself received from the collectors of government, persisting in his malice, did declare to the said and the cultivators of the soil, the rent in arrear; council as follows; "the opposition made by the yet he, the said Warren Hastings, without any "rajah and the old rannee, both equally incapaknown process, or recording any answer, defence, "ble of judging for themselves, does certainly plea, exculpation, or apology from the party, or re- "originate from some secret influence, which cording any other grounds of rigour against him," ought to be checked by a decided and perempexcept the following paragraph of a letter from the resident, not only gave the order as aforesaid, but did afterwards, without laying any other or better ground before the council general, persuade them to, and did procure from them, a confirmation of the aforesaid cruel and illegal proceedings, the

"tory declaration of the authority of the board, " and a denunciation of their displeasure at their "presumption."

That the said Warren Hastings, not satisfied with the injuries done, and the insults and disgraces offered, to the family aforesaid, did in a manner

That the resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent, that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult; and, besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty the following:

66

66

66

66

"That there is also one fund, which in former "years was applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This "was the private fortunes of merchants and "shroffs (bankers) resident in Benares, from whom "aumils (collectors) of credit could obtain tem"porary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of" "the rajah. These sums, which used to circulate "between the aumil and the merchant, have been "turned into a different channel, by bills of "exchange to defray the expences of government 'both on the west coast of India, and also at "Madras." To which representation it does not appear that any answer was given, or that any mode of redress was adopted in consequence thereof.

46

66

a

a large proportion of it by a false measurement, or other pretexts; and from those, whose engagements are for a fixed rent in money, the "half, or a greater proportion, is taken in kind. "This is in effect a tax upon the industry of the "inhabitants; since there is scarce a field of grain "in the province, I might say not one, which has "not been preserved by the incessant labour of "the cultivator, by digging wells for their supply, or watering them from the wells of masonry, "with which their country abounds, or from the neighbouring tanks, rivers, and nullahs. The people, who imposed on themselves this voluntary and extraordinary labour, and not uuat"tended with expence, did it on the expectation "of reaping the profits of it; and it is certain they "would not have done it, if they had known, that "their rulers, from whom they were entitled to an indemnification, would take from them what they so hardly earned. If the same administra"tion continues, and the country shall again "labour under want of rain, every field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands 'perish through want of subsistence; for who "will labour for the sole benefit of others, and to "make himself the subject of exaction? These practices are to be imputed to the naib himself [the administrator forced by the said Warren Hastings on the present rajah of Benares]. The "avowed principle on which he acts, and which "he acknowledged to myself, is, that the whole sum fixed for the revenue of the province must "be collected; and that, for this purpose, the deficiency arising in places where the crops have "failed, or which have been left uncultivated, "must be supplied from the resources of others, "where the soil has been better suited to the season, or the industry of the cultivators hath "been more successfully exerted: a principle, "which, however specious and plausible it may at "first appear, certainly tends to the most perni"cious and destructive consequences. If this de"claration of the naib had been made only to

66

66

66

66

66

That the said Warren Hastings, having passed through the province of Benares (Gauzipore) in his progress towards Oude, did, in a letter dated from the city of Lucknow, the 2d of April 1784, give to the council board at Calcutta an account (highly dishonourable to the British government) of the effect of the arrangements made by himself in the years 1781 and 1782, in the words following: "Having contrived, by making forced stages, "while the troops of my escort marched at the "ordinary rate, to make a stay of five days at "Benares, I was thereby furnished with the means "of acquiring some knowledge of the state of the province, which I am anxious to communicate "to you. Indeed the enquiry, which was in great degree obtruded upon me, affected "me with very mortifying reflections on my "inability to apply it to any useful purpose. "From the confines of Buxar to Benares I was "followed and fatigued by the clamours of the "discontented inhabitants. It was what I ex“pected in a degree, because it is rare, that the myself, I might have doubted my construction "exercise of authority should prove satisfactory "of it; but it was repeated by him to Mr. Ander"to all who are the objects of it. The distresses son, who understood it exactly in the same sense. "which were produced by the long continued "In the management of the customs, the condrought, unavoidably tended to heighten the" duct of the naib, or of the officer under him, general discontent; yet I have reason to fear, was forced also upon my attention. The exor"that the cause existed principally in a defective, "bitant rates exacted by an arbitrary valuation "if not a corrupt and oppressive, administration.' "of the goods; the practice of exacting duties "Of a multitude of petitions, which were pre- "twice on the same goods, first from the seller, "sented to me, and of which I took minutes, "and afterwards from the buyer; and the vexaevery one, that did not relate to a personal "tions, disputes, and delays, drawn on the mergrievance, contained the representation of one "chants by these oppressions, were loudly com" and the same species of oppression, which is in plained of; and some instances of this kind "its nature of an influence most fatal to the future "were said to exist at the very time I was at "cultivation. The practice, to which I allude, is "Benares. Under such circumstances we are "this: it is affirmed, that the aumils and renters "not to wonder if the merchants of foreign "exact from the proprietors of the actual harvest" countries are discouraged from resorting to "Benares, and if the commerce of that province "should annually decay. Other evils, or imputed

46

a large encrease in kind on their stipulated rent; "that is, from those who hold their potta by the

44

tenure of paying one half of the produce of their" evils, have accidentally come to my knowledge,

crops, either the whole, without subterfuge, or

"which I will not now particularize; as I hope,