"that they are the proprietors; that the lands | are their estates, and their inheritance; that, "from a long continuance of the lands in their "families, it is to be concluded they have rivetted an authority in the district, acquired an ascendency over the minds of the ryots, and ingra"tiated their affections. That, from continuing "the lands under the management of those, who "have a natural and perpetual interest in their "prosperity, solid advantages might be expected "to accrue that the zemindar would be less "liable to failure or deficiencies than the farmer, "from the perpetual interest which the former "hath in the country, and because his inheritance "cannot be removed; and it would be improba"ble, that he should risk the loss of it by eloping "from his district, which is too frequently prac"tised by a farmer when he is hard pressed for "the payment of his balances, and as frequently "predetermined when he receives his farm:"that notwithstanding all the preceding declarations made by the said Warren Hastings of the loss of one third of the inhabitants, and general decline of the country, he did, immediately after his appointment to the government, in the year 1772, make an arbitrary settlement of the revenues for five years, at a higher rate than had ever been received before, and with a progressive and accumulating encrease on each of the four last years of the said settlement. That notwithstanding the right of property and inheritance, repeatedly acknowledged by the said Warren Hastings to be in the zemindars, and other native landholders; and notwithstanding he had declared," that the security of private property "is the greatest encouragement to industry, on "which the wealth of every state depends;" the said Warren Hastings, nevertheless, in direct violation of those acknowledged rights and principles, did universally let the lands of Bengal in farm for five years; thereby destroying all the rights of private property of the zemindars; thereby delivering the management of their estates to farmers, and transferring by a most arbitrary and unjust act of power the whole landed property of Bengal from the owners to strangers :-that, to accomplish this iniquitous purpose, he, the said Warren Hastings, did put the lands of Bengal up to a pretended publick auction, and invited all persons to make proposals for farming the same, thereby encouraging strangers to bid against the proprietors; in consequence of which not only the said proprietors were ousted of the possession and management of their estates, but a great part of the lands fell into the hands of the banyans, or principal black servants of British subjects, connected with and protected by the government : and that the said Warren Hastings himself has since declared, that by this way the sult, 28th Jan. lands too generally fell into the hands of desperate or knavish adventurers-that, before the measure herein before described was carried into execution, the said Warren Hastings did establish certain fundamental | Revenue Con 1775. 66 Revenue board, 14th May 1772. regulations in council, to be observed in executing the same:-that among these regulations it was specially and strictly ordered, that no farm should exceed the anuual amount of one lack of rupees; and "that no peshcar, banyan, or other servant, of whatever denomination, of the collector, or relation or dependant of any such servant, should be "allowed to farm lands, nor directly or indirectly "to hold a concern in any farm, nor to be security "for any farmer :"-that, in direct violation of these his own regulations, and in breach of the publick trust reposed in him, and sufficiently declared by the manifest duty of his station, if it had not been expressed and enforced by any positive institution, he, the said Warren Hastings, did permit and suffer his own banyan, or principal black steward, named Cantoo Baboo, to hold farms in different pergunnas, or districts, or to be security for farms, to the amount of thirteen lacks of rupees [£130,000, or upwards] per annum ; and that, after enjoying the whole of those farms for two years, he was permitted by the said Warren Hastings to relinquish two of them :-that on the subject of the farms held by Cantoo Baboo, the said Warren Hastings made the following declaration : many of his farms were "taken without my knowledge, and "almost all against my advice. "had no right to use compulsion, or "authority; nor could I with justice exclude him, "because he was my servant, from a liberty al"lowed to all other persons in the country.-The "farms, which he quitted, he quitted by my ad 66 66 I Address to the court of di rectors, 25th March 1775. vice, because I thought, that he might engage "himself beyond his abilities, and be involved in disputes, which I did not choose to have come "before me as judge of them."-That the said declaration contains sundry false and contradictory assertions :-that, if almost all the said farms were taken against his advice, it cannot be true, that many of them were taken without his knowledge :-that, whether Cantoo Baboo had been his servant or not, the said Warren Hastings was bound by his own regulations to prevent his holding any farms to a greater amount than one lack of rupees per annum; and that the said Cantoo Baboo, being the servant of the governour-general, was excluded by the said regulations from holding any farms whatever :-that if (as the directors observe) it was thought dangerous to permit the banyan of a collector to be concerned in farms, the same or stronger objections would always lie against the governour's banyan being so concerned that the said Warren Hastings had a right, and was bound by his duty, to prevent his servant from holding the same;-that, in advising the said Cantoo Baboo to relinquish some of the said farms, for which he was actually engaged, he has acknowledged an influence over his servant, and has used that influence for a purpose inconsistent with his duty to the India company, namely, to deprive them of the security of the said Cantoo Baboo's engagement for farms, which on 66 66 66 66 India company was grossly imposed on, in the first instance, by a promised encrease of revenue; and defrauded, in the second, not only by the failure of that encrease, but by the revenues falling short of what they were in the two years preceding the said settlement to a great amount. That the said Warren Hastings, being then at the head of the government of Bengal, was a party to all the said imposition, fraud, peculation, and embezzlement, and is principally and specially answerable for the same; and that whereas sundry proofs of the said peculation and embezzlement were brought before the court of directors, the said directors (in a letter dated 4th of March 1778, and signed by William Devaynes and Nathaniel Smith, Esquires, now chairman and deputy chairman of the said court, and members of this house) did declare, that, although it was rather their wish "to prevent future evils, than to enter into a severe retrospection of past abuses, yet, as in some of the cases then before them they con"ceived there had been flagrant corruption, and "in others great oppressions committed on the "native inhabitants, they thought it unjust to "suffer the delinquents to pass wholly unpunish"ed; and therefore they directed the governourgeneral and council forthwith to commence a "prosecution against the persons, who composed "the committee of circuit, and their representa"tives, and against all other proper parties;"but that the prosecutions, so ordered by the court of directors in the year 1778, have never been brought to trial; and that the said Warren Hast 66 66 trial he had found not beneficial, or not likely to continue beneficial, to himself; and that if it was improper that he, the said Warren Hastings, should be the judge of any disputes, in which his servant might be involved on account of his farms, that reason ought to have obliged him to prevent his servant from being engaged in any farms whatever, or to have advised his said servant to relinquish the remainder of his farms, as well as those which the said Warren Hastings affirms he quitted by his advice :—that on the subject of the said charge, the court of directors of the East India company have come to the following resolutions: "Resolved, that it appears, that the conduct of the late president and council of Fort William in Bengal, "in suffering Cantoo Baboo, the present governour-general's banyan, to hold farms in differ"ent pergunnas to a large amount, or to be security for such farms, contrary to the tenour and spirit of the 17th regulation of the committee of revenue at Fort William, of the 14th May 1772, "and afterwards relinquishing that security with"out satisfaction made to the company, was highly improper, and has been attended with consider"able loss to the company :"-and that, in the whole of this transaction, the said Warren Hastings has been guilty of gross collusion with his servant, and manifest breach of trust to his employers-that, whereas it was acknowledged by the said Warren Hastings, that the country, in the years 1770 and 1771, had suffered great depopulation and decay;-and, that the collections of those years, having been violently kept up to their former standard, had added to the distressings did, on the 23d of December 1783, propose of the country,-the settlement of the revenues made by him for five years, commencing the 1st of May 1772, instead of offering any abatement or relief to the inhabitants, who had survived the famine, held out to the East India company a promise of great encrease of revenue, to be exacted from the country by the means herein before described that this settlement was not realized, but fell considerably short, even in the first of the five years, when the demand was the lightest ; and that, on the whole of the five years, the real collections fell short of the settlement to the enormous amount of two millions and a half ster- THAT the said Warren Hastings has, on sundry ling and upwards ;-that such a settlement, occasions, declared his deliberate opinion generally if it had been, or could have been, rigorously against all innovations, and particu- 34 Nov. 1772. exacted from a country already so distressed, larly in the collection and manage- 24th Oct. 1774. and from a population so impaired, that in the ment of the revenues of Bengal; that "he was belief of the said Warren Hastings it was impos-"well aware of the expence and inconvenience, sible such loss could be recruited in four or five "which ever attends innovations of all kinds on years, would have been in fact, what it appeared "their first institution.—That inno- 22d April to be in form, an act of the most cruel and tyran- "vations are always attended with nical oppression; but that the real use made of "difficulties and inconveniencies, and innovathat unjust demand upon the natives of Bengal" tions in the revenue with a suspension of the was, to oblige them to compound privately with " collections:-that the continual variations in the persons, who formed the settlement, and who "the mode of collecting the revenue, and the threatened to enforce it :-that the enormous ba- "continual usurpation of the rights of the people, lances and remissions on that settlement arose "have fixed in the minds of the ryots a rooted from a general collusion between the farmers and "distrust of the ordinances of government:" collectors, and from a general peculation and em--that the court of directors have rebezzlement of the revenues, by which the East peatedly declared their apprehensions, 4th July 1777. and carry it in council, that orders should be given for withdrawing the said prosecutions; declaring, that he was clearly of opinion, that there was no ground to maintain them, and that they would only be productive of expence to the company, and unmerited vexation to the parties. PART II. 1775. 5th Feb. 1777. 66 3d Nov. "that a sudden transition from one mode to another, in the investigation and collection of their revenue, might have alarmed the inhabitants, "lessened their confidence in the company's "proceedings, and been attended with other "evils:"-that the said Warren Hastings, immediately after his appointment to the government of Fort William in April 1772, did abolish the office of naib duan, or native collector of the revenues, then existing :--that he did at the same time appoint a committee of the board to go on a circuit through the provinces, and to form a settlement of the revenues for five years:—that he did then appoint sundry of the company's servants to have the management of the collections, viz. one in each district, under the title of collector: -that he did then abolish the general board of revenue or council at Muxadavad 1772. for the following reasons: "that "while the controuling and executive part of "the revenue, and the correspondence with the "collectors, was carried on by a council at Muxadavad, the members of the administration "at Calcutta had no opportunity of acquiring that "thorough and comprehensive knowledge, which "could only result from practical experience: that "the orders of the court of directors, which "established a new system, which enjoined many new regulations and enquiries, could not properly be delegated to a subordinate council; "and it became absolutely necessary, that the "business of the revenue should be conducted "under the immediate observation and direction of the board:"-that, in November 1773, the said Warren Hastings abolished the office of collector, and transferred the collection and management of the revenues to several councils of revenue, commonly called provincial councils-that on the 24th of October 1774, the said Warren Hastings earnestly offered his advice (to the governour-general and council then newly appointed by act of parliament) for the continuation of the said system of provincial councils in all its parts: -that the said Warren Hastings did, on the 22d of April 1775, transmit to the directors a formal plan for the future settlement of the revenues, and did therein declare, that, "with respect to the "mode of managing the collection of the revenue, "and the administration of justice, none occurred "to him so good as the system, which was already established, of provincial councils :"-that on the 18th of January 1776 the said Warren Hastings did transmit to the court of directors a plan for the better administration of justice that in this plan the establishment of the said provincial councils was specially provided for, and confirmed; and that Warren Hastings did recommend it to the directors to obtain the sanction of parliament for a confirmation of the said plan: that on the 30th of April 1776, the said Warren Hastings did transmit to the court of directors the draught or scheme of an act of parliament for the better administration of justice in the provinces, in which the said establishment of provincial councils is 66 again specially included, and special jurisdiction assigned to the said councils. That the court of directors, in a letter dated 5th of February 1777, did give the following instruction to the governour-general and council, a majority of whom, viz. Sir John Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, had disapproved of the plan of provincial councils." If you are fully convinced, that the "establishment of provincial councils has not answered, nor is not capable of answering, the 66 purposes intended by such institutions, we hereby "direct you to form a new plan for the collection "of the revenues, and to transmit the same to us for our consideration."-That the said Warren Hastings, in contradiction to his own sentiments repeatedly declared, and to his own advice repeatedly and deliberately given, and in defiance of the orders of the directors, to whom he transmitted no previous communication whatever of his intention to abolish the said provincial councils, did, in the beginning of the year 1781, again change the whole system of the collections of the publick revenue of Bengal, as also the administration of civil and criminal justice throughout the provinces.-That the said Warren Hastings, in a letter dated 5th of May 1781, advising the court of directors of the said changes, has falsely affirmed, "that the plan of superintending and col"lecting the publick revenue of the provinces, "through the agency of provincial councils, had "been instituted for the temporary and declared purpose of introducing another more permanent "mode by an easy and gradual change:"-that, on the contrary, the said Warren Hastings, from the year 1773 to the year 1781, has constantly and uniformly insisted on the wisdom of that institution, and on the necessity of never departing from it-that he has in that time repeatedly advised, that the said institution should be confirmed in perpetuity by an act of parliament:— that the said total dissolution of the provincial councils was not introduced by any easy and gradual change, nor by any gradations whatever; but was sudden and unprepared, and instantly accomplished by a single act of power: and that the said Warren Hastings, in the place of the said councils, has substituted a committee of revenue, consisting of four covenanted servants, on principles opposite to those, which he had himself professed; and with exclusive powers, tending to deprive the members of the supreme council of a due knowledge of, and inspection into, the management of the territorial revenues, specially and unalienably vested by the legislature in the governour-general and council, and to vest the same solely and entirely in the said Warren Hastings.That the reasons assigned by the said Warren Hastings for constituting the said committee of revenue are incompatible with those, which he professed when he abolished the subordinate council of revenue at Muxadavad :-that he has invested the said committee, in the fullest manner, with all the powers and authority of the governour-general and council:—that he has there the committee, that to limit them to one year would be the best period, he, the said Warren Hastings, approved of that limitation, in manifest contradiction to all his own arguments, professions, and declarations, concerning the fatal consequences of annual leases of the lands :--that, in so doing, the said Warren Hastings did not hold himself bound or restrained by the orders of the court of directors, but acted upon his own discretion; and that he has, for partial and interested purposes, exercised that discretion in particular instances against his own general settlement for one year, by granting perpetual leases of farms and zemindaries to persons specially favoured by him; and particularly by granting a perpetual lease of the zemindary of Baharbund to his servant Cantoo Baboo on very low terms :-that, in all the preceding transactions, the said Warren Hastings did act contrary to his duty, as governour of Fort William, contrary to the orders of his employers, and contrary to his own declared sense of expediency, consistency, and justice; and thereby did harass and afflict the inhabitants of the provinces with perpetual changes in the system and execution of the government placed over them, and with continued innovations and exactions against the rights of the said inhabitants; thereby destroying all security to private property, and all confidence in the good faith, principles, and justice of the British government; and that the said Warren Hastings, having substituted his own instruments to be the managers and collectors of the publick revenue, in the manner herein before mentioned, did act in manifest breach and defiance of an act of the 13th of His present Majesty, by which the ordering and management and government of all the territorial revenues in the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, were by contracted the whole power and office of the provincial councils into a small compass, and vested the same in four persons appointed by himself:that he has thereby taken the general transaction and cognizance of revenue business out of the supreme council:-that the said committee are empowered to conduct the current business of the revenue department without reference to the supreme council, and only report to the board such extraordinary occurrences, claims, and proposals, as may require the special orders of the board: that even the instruction to report to the board, in extraordinary cases, is nugatory and fallacious, being accompanied with limitations, which make it impossible for the said board to decide on any questions whatsoever; since it is expressly provided by the said Warren Hastings, that, if the members of the committee differ in opinion, it is not expected, that every dissentient opinion should be recorded; consequently the supreme council, on any reference to their board, can see nothing but the resolutions or reasons of the majority of the committee, without the arguments, on which the dissentient opinions might be founded; and since it is also expressly provided by the said Warren Hastings, that the determination of the majority of the committee should not therefore be stayed, unless it should be so agreed by the majority; that is, that notwithstanding the reference to the supreme council, the measure shall be executed without waiting for their decision. That the said Warren Hastings has delivered his opinion, with many arguments to support the same, in favour of long leases of the lands, in preference to annual settlements; that he has particularly declared, "that "the farmer, who holds his farm for one year "only, having no interest in the next, takes what "he can with the hand of rigour, which, even invested in the governour-general and council, "the execution of legal claims, is often equivalent without any power of delegating the said trust and "to violence. He is under the necessity of being duty to any other persons; and that by such "rigid, and even cruel; for what is left in arrear unlawful delegation of the powers of the council "after the expiration of his power, is at best a to a subordinate board appointed by himself, he, " doubtful debt, if ever recoverable. He will be the said Warren Hastings, did in effect unite and tempted to exceed the bounds of right, and to vest in his own person the ordering, government, 66 augment his income by irregular exactions, and and management of all the said territorial reve"by racking the tenants, for which pretences will nues—and that, for the said illegal act, he, the "not be wanting, where the farms pass annually said Warren Hastings, is solely answerable, the "from one hand to another. That the discou- same having been proposed and resolved in council, ragements, which the tenants feel from being when the governour-general and council consisted "transferred every year to new landlords, are a but of two persons present; namely, the said great objection to such short leases; that they Warren Hastings, and the late Edward Wheler, "contribute to injure the cultivation, and dis- Esquire; and when consequently the governour"people the lands. That, on the contrary, from general, by virtue of the casting voice, possessed "long farms the farmer acquires a permanent the whole power of the government.-That in all "interest in his lands: he will, for his own sake, the changes and innovations herein before describ"lay out money in assisting his tenants in im-ed, the pretence used by the said Warren Hastings proving lands already cultivated, and in clearing "and cultivating waste lands." That nevertheless the said Warren Hastings, having left it to the discretion of the committee of revenue, appointed by him in 1781, to fix the time, for which the ensuing settlement should be made; and the said committee having declared, that, with respect to the period of the leases in general, it appeared to 66 | to recommend and justify the same to the court of directors has been, that such changes and innovations would be attended with encrease of revenue, or diminution of expence to the East India company :-that such pretence, if true, would not have been a justification of such acts; but that such pretence is false and groundless.-That, during the administration of the said Warren Hastings, the territory revenues have declined; that the charges of collecting the same have greatly encreased; and that the said Warren Hastings by his neglect, mismanagement, and by a direct and intended waste of the company's property, is charged with, and answerable for, all the said decline of revenue, and all the said increase of expence. XVI. MISDEMEANOURS IN OUDE. I. IV. That the expence of the company's temporary brigade encreased in the same year (the year of 1779) upwards of £.80,000 sterling above the estimate; and the expence of the country troops under British officers, in the same period, encreased upwards of £.40,000 sterling; and in addition to the aforesaid ruinous expences a large civil establishment was gradually, secretly, and without any THAT the province of Oude and its dependencies were, before their connexion with and subordination to the company, in a flourishing condition with regard to culture, commerce, and population, and their rulers and principal nobility maintained themselves in a state of affluence and splendour; but very shortly after the period aforesaid, the prosperity both of the country and its chiefs began sensibly and rapidly to decline; in-authority from the court of directors, or record in somuch that the revenue of the said province, which on the lowest estimation had been found, in the commencement of the British influence, at upwards of three millions sterling annually, (and that ample revenue raised without detriment to the country,) did not, in the year 1779, exceed the sum of £.1,500,000, and in the subsequent years did fall much short of that sum, although the rents were generally advanced, and the country grievously oppressed in order to raise it II. the books of the council general concerning the same, formed for the resident, and another under Mr. Wombwell, an agent for the company; as also several pensions and allowances, in the same secret and clandestine manner, were charged on the revenues of the said nabob for the benefit of British subjects, besides large occasional gifts to persons in the company's service. V. 66 That in the month of November 1779 the said nabob did represent to Mr. Purling, the company's That in the aforesaid year 1779 the demands of resident aforesaid, the distressed state of his revethe East India company on the nabob of Oude nues in the following terms: during three years are stated by Mr. Purling, their resident at the " past, the expence occasioned by the troops in court of Oude, to amount to the sum of £.1,360,000" brigade, and others commanded by European sterling and upwards, leaving (upon the suppo"officers, has much distressed the support of my sition, that the whole revenue should amount to "household, insomuch that the allowances made the sum of £.1,500,000 sterling, to which it did "to the seraglio and children of the deceased nanot amount) no more than £.140,000 sterling for "bob have been reduced to one fourth of what it the support of the dignity of the household and "had been, upon which they have subsisted in a family of the nabob, and for the maintenance of " very distressed manner for two years past. The his government, as well as for the payment of the" attendants, writers, and servants, &c. of my publick debts due within the province. III. "court, have received no pay for two years past; "and there is at present no part of the country, "that can be allotted to the payment of my fa"ther's private creditors, whose applications are "have for these three years past struggled through, "and found this consolation therein, that it was "complying with the pleasure of the honourable 66 That by the treaty of Fyzabad a regular brigade" daily pressing upon me. All these difficulties I of the company's troops, to be stationed in the dominions of the nabob of Oude, was kept up at the expence of the said nabob; in addition to which a temporary brigade of the same troops was added to his establishment, together with several detached corps in the company's service, and a great part of his own native troops were put under the command of British officers. company, and in the hope, that the supreme "council would make enquiry from impartial persons into my distressed situation; but I am now forced to a representation. From the great encrease of expence the revenues were neces |