The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 12 (of 12)

"Third, That the festivals (shadee) and marriages of the children of the late Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah shall be at the disposal of the Begum: whenever she thinks proper, she shall marry them; and whatever money shall be necessary for these expenses shall be paid by the Nabob.

"Fourth, That the syer of Coda Gunge and Ali Gunge shall be retained by the Begum as heretofore.

"Fifth, That I [Mr. Middleton] will, upon the arrival of the Nabob, procure Vizier Gunge and the garden of Sepoy Dand Khân, or their equivalent, for the Begum.

"Sixth, That I [Mr. Middleton] will endeavor to obtain from the Nabob the sum of 1,150,000 rupees on account of the purchase of Metchee Bohaun, and the house of Sahebjee, and the fort of the Gossim, with the land and garden and the barraderry on the banks of Goomply [Goomty?], and bazaar and garden of the house of Mahnarain and the house of Beng Peofand at Lucknow: all of which the Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah has assumed possession of.

"Seventh, That I will settle with the Nabob the allowances to be made in ready money to the ladies of the zenanah and others specified, in the following amount: Total, 17 lacs 250 rupees per month.

"Eighth, Upon the arrival of the Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah Bahadur, I will endeavor with all my influence to settle the monthly allowances of Mohrum Ali Khân and Mahmud Eltifant Khân, &c., the attendants of the Begums.

"Ninth, That, if the Begum shall go to Mecca, she shall leave her mahals and jaghires to the Begum, the mother of Asoph ul Dowlah, who shall remit the revenues thereof to the Burree Begum: no one shall prevent her enjoying her jaghires."

Now, my Lords, we will read the copy of an engagement under the seal of the Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah, and under the seal and signature, in English, of Mr. Middleton, as follows.

"First, I, who am the Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah Bahadur, do agree that the jaghires and the gunges and monthly allowance of the officers and servants, and of the ladies of the zenanah, and of those specified in the accounts annexed, shall be at the disposal and under the management and authority of the Begum, and no one shall oppose or prevent it: this I will punctually observe. In this agreement Mr. Middleton and the English are engaged.

"Second, Whenever the Begum may choose to go to Mecca, I will not oppose it.

"Third, Whenever the Begum should go to Mecca, she shall leave her lands, jaghires, &c., either in the care of my mother or of me; and I will procure bills for the amount of their revenues, and send them to her: no one shall oppose this.

"Fourth, The Begum shall have authority over all the ladies of her zenanah; she shall let them remain with me, and not let them go anywhere without my permission, or keep them with her.

"Fifth, The jaghires Coda Gunge and Ali Gunge, &c., with the mahal and syer belonging to the Begum and made over, shall remain as heretofore in her possession: Total, 14,460 rupees per month.

"Eighth, The Begum has authority over the ladies and attendants of the zenanah; neither myself nor any one else will oppose it.

"Ninth, The Begum, my grandmother, shall have the authority in all festivals, and in the marriage of the children of the late Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah, and, with the consent of my mother and myself, shall regulate them: excepting in the festivals (shadee), the authority is mine.

"The English are guaranties to the above engagements, so long as the Begum shall exist."

Your Lordships will observe something here worthy of your notice. You will first perceive, that the very treaty in which Mr. Hastings, by his representative, Mr. Middleton, was a party concerned, supposes that the Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah had other children besides the reigning prince by his sole legitimate wife; and yet Mr. Hastings, in his defence, has thought proper, with a full knowledge of that circumstance, to doubt whether there were any other children. You next see that these women have Mr. Middleton's (that is, Mr. Hastings's) guaranty for the allowances which are made and settled upon them, and for the maintenance of their attendants, for the security and enjoyment of their own possessions, for their having a law officer of high rank, a moulavy, of their own. In short, there is a regular establishment formed for all these women: they are not separated as a part distinct from the Begums, but they are put by this very guaranty entirely under their management; the maintenance of the children is secured; the whole order and economy of their establishment is delivered entirely to the Begum, the grandmother, and the Begum, the mother, of the Nabob.

My Lords, you see that all these arrangements have the solemn guaranty of the Company, and that these women form a very considerable part of that guaranty; and therefore your Lordships will not treat their sufferings, inflicted in violation of the Company's own settlement and guaranty, as a matter of no consideration for you.

But to proceed.—We have proved to your Lordships that the Nabob was reduced to a state of the greatest possible misery and distress; that his whole revenue was sequestered into the hands of Mr. Hastings's agents; that by the treaty of Chunar he was to be relieved from the expense of a body of troops with which he had been burdened without his own voluntary consent,—nay, more, the temporary brigade, which Mr. Hastings proposed to take off, but kept on, which he considers not only as a great distress to his finances, but a dreadful scourge and calamity to his country,—there was a whole pension-list upon it, with such enormous pensions as 18,000l. a year to Sir Eyre Coote, and other pensions, that Mr. Hastings proposed to take off, but did not; that, in proportion as the Nabob's distress increased, Mr. Hastings's demands increased too; he was not satisfied, with taking from him for the Company, but he took from him for himself; he demanded six hundred thousand pounds as a loan, when he knew he had neither money nor credit.

The consequence of these acts of violence was, that these people, besieged by the English troops, and deprived of every resource, even of the funds of charity, by which the protectors of the family, male and female, might have relieved them, but which the cruel rapacity of Mr. Hastings had either entirely taken away or greatly diminished, were reduced to the last extremity of distress.

After the length of time which has elapsed since we first brought these matters with their proofs, I shall beg leave, before you go to judgment, to refresh your memory with a recital of a part of that evidence, in order that your Lordships may again fully and distinctly comprehend the nature and extent of the oppression, cruelty, and injustice committed by Mr. Hastings, and by which you may estimate the punishment you will inflict upon him.

Letter from Captain Leonard Jaques to Richard Johnson, Esq., Resident at the Vizier's Court; March 6th, 1782.

"Sir,—The women belonging to the Khord Mohul complain of their being in want of every necessary of life, and are at last drove to that desperation, that they at night get on the top of the zenanah, make a great disturbance, and last night not only abused the sentinels posted in the gardens, but threw dirt at them; they threatened to throw themselves from the walls of the zenanah, and also to break out of it. Humanity obliges me to acquaint you of this matter, and to request to know if you have any direction to give me concerning it. I also beg leave to acquaint you, I sent for Letafit Ali Khân, the cojah who has the charge of them, who informs me their complaint is well grounded,—that they have sold everything they had, even to the clothes from their backs, and now have no means of existing. Inclosed, I transmit you a letter from Mandall on the subject."

Letter from Captain Jaques to Richard Johnson, Esq., March 7th, 1782.

"Sir,—I beg leave to address you again concerning the women in the Khord Mohul. Their behavior last night was so furious that there seemed the greatest probability of their proceeding to the utmost extremities, and that they would either throw themselves from the walls or force the doors of the zenanah. I have made every inquiry concerning the cause of their complaints, and find from Letafit Ali Khân that they are in a starving condition, having sold all their clothes and necessaries, and now have not wherewithal to support nature. And as my instructions are quite silent upon this head, should be glad to know how to proceed in case they were to force the doors of the zenanah; as I suspect it will happen, should no subsistence be very quickly sent to them."

Letter from Major Gilpin to John Bristow, Esq., Resident at the Court of Lucknow; 30th October, 1782.

"Last night, about eight o'clock, the women in the Khord Mohul Zenanah, under the charge of Letafit Ali Khân, assembled on the tops of the buildings, crying in a most lamentable manner for food,—that for the last four days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they had got none. The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than described; and from their representations, I fear that the Nabob's agents for that business are very inattentive. I therefore think it requisite to make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency the Nabob may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct to these poor, unhappy women."

Letter from Mr. Bristow to Major Gilpin; Fyzabad, 4th November, 1782.

"Sir,—I have received your letters of the 12th, 19th, 27th, and 30th ultimo. I communicated the contents of that of the 30th to the minister, who promised me to issue orders for the payment of a sum of money to relieve the distress of the Khord Mohul. I shall also forward a bill for 10,000 rupees to you in the course of three or four days; and if in the mean time you may find means to supply to the amount of that sum, I will become personally responsible to you for the repayment."

Letter from Major Gilpin to John Bristow, Esq., at the Court of Lucknow; Fyzabad, 15th November, 1782.

"Sir,—The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy. They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their daily bread by laborious servitude, or be relieved from their misery by immediate death. In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain at ten days' sight, for twenty son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah Letafit Ali Khân, under whose charge that zenanah is."

These, my Lords, are the state of the distresses in the year 1782, and your Lordships will see that they continued almost, with only occasional reliefs, during the period of that whole year. Now we enter into the year 1783, to show you that it continued during the whole time; and then I shall make a very few remarks upon it.

I will now read to your Lordships a part of Mr. Holt's evidence, by which it is proved that Mr. Hastings was duly advertised of all these miserable and calamitous circumstances.

"Q. Whether you saw a letter of intelligence from Fyzabad containing a relation of the treatment of the women in the Khord Mohul?—A. Yes, I did, and translated it.—Q. From whom did it come?—A. Hoolas Roy.—Q. Who was he?—A. An agent of the Resident at Fyzabad, employed for the purpose of transmitting information to the Resident.—Q. Was that paper transmitted to Mr. Hastings?—A. To the best of my recollection, it was transmitted to the Board, after I had attested it.—Q. Do you remember at what distance of time after the receipt of the intelligence respecting the distresses of the Khord Mohul that paper was transmitted to Calcutta?—A. I cannot say.—Q. Do you believe it was transmitted within ten months after the time it was received?—A. I understood it to be a letter received just before it was transmitted.—Q. Then you understand it was transmitted as soon as received?—A. Yes, in the course of three days.—Q. Can you bring to your mind the time at which the translation was made?—A. To the best of my recollection, it was in January, 1784.—Q. Whether the distresses that had been complained of had ceased for above a twelvemonth before the distresses of the Khord Mohul?—A. I understood they were new distresses.—Q. Then you state that that account transmitted in 1784 was, as you understand, an account of new distresses?—A. Yes."

I shall now refer your Lordships to page 899 of your printed Minutes.

[The Managers for the Commons acquainted the House, that they would next read the paper of intelligence which had been authenticated by Mr. Holt, in his evidence at the bar, relative to the miserable situation of these women, which they meant to bring home to Mr. Hastings.]

An Extract of a Consultation of the 17th February, 1784.

"At a Council: present, the Honorable Warren Hastings, Esq., Governor-General, President, Edward Wheler and John Stables, Esqrs.; Mr. Macpherson absent from the Presidency for the benefit of his health: the following letter and its inclosures were received from Mr. Bristow on the 8th instant, and circulated.

"'Honorable Sir, and Gentlemen,—I have the honor to forward, for your further information, the inclosure No. 3; it contains a relation of the hardships endured by the ladies of the late Vizier's zenanah.'

    (Signed) 'JOHN BRISTOW.'

"Translation of a Paper of Intelligence from Fyzabad.

"'The ladies, their attendants, and servants were still as clamorous as last night. Letafit, the darogah, went to them, and remonstrated with them on the impropriety of their conduct, at the same time assuring them that in a few days all their allowances would be paid, and should that not be the case, he would advance them ten days' subsistence, upon condition that they returned to their habitations. None of them, however, consented to his proposal, but were still intent upon making their escape through the bazaar, and in consequence formed themselves in the following order,—the children in the front, behind them the ladies of the seraglio, and behind them again their attendants; but their intentions were frustrated by the opposition which they met with from Letafit's sepoys. The next day Letafit went twice to the women, and used his endeavors to make them return into the zenanah, promising to advance them ten thousand rupees, which, upon the money being paid down, they agreed to comply with; but night coming on, nothing transpired.

"'On the day following, their clamors were more violent than usual. Letafit went to confer with them on the business of yesterday, offering the same terms. Depending upon the fidelity of his promises, they consented to return to their apartments, which they accordingly did, except two or three of the ladies, and most of their attendants. Letafit went then to Hossmund Ali Khân, to consult with him about what means they should take. They came to a resolution of driving them in by force, and gave orders to their sepoys to beat any one of the women who should attempt to move forward; the sepoys accordingly assembled, and each one being provided with a bludgeon, they drove them, by dint of beating, into the zenanah. The women, seeing the treachery of Letafit, proceeded to throw stones and bricks at the sepoys, and again attempted to get out; but finding that impossible, from the gates being shut, they kept up a continual discharge till about twelve o'clock, when, finding their situation desperate, they returned into the Rung Mohul, and forced their way from thence into the palace, and dispersed themselves about the house and gardens. After this they were desirous of getting into the Begum's apartments; but she, being apprised of their intentions, ordered the doors to be shut. In the mean time Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khân posted sentries to secure the gates of the Lesser Mohul. During the whole of this conflict, the ladies and women remained exposed to the view of the sepoys.

"'The Begum then sent for Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khân, whom she severely reprimanded, and insisted upon knowing the cause of this infamous behavior. They pleaded in their defence the impossibility of helping it, as the treatment the women had met with had only been conformable to his Excellency the Vizier's orders. The Begum alleged, that, even admitting that the Nabob had given these orders, they were by no means authorized in this manner to disgrace the family of Sujah Dowlah, and should they not receive their allowances for a day or two, it could be of no great moment; what had passed was now at an end, but that the Vizier should certainly be acquainted with the whole of the affair, and that whatever he directed she should implicitly comply with. The Begum then sent for two of the children who were wounded in the affray of last night, and after endeavoring to soothe them, she again sent to Letafit and Hossmund Ali Khân, and in the presence of the children again expressed her disapprobation of their conduct, and the improbability of Asoph ul Dowlah's suffering the ladies and children of Sujah Dowlah to be disgraced by being exposed to the view of the sepoys. Upon which Letafit produced the letter from the Nabob, representing that he was amenable only to the order of his Excellency, and that whatever he ordered it was his duty to obey; and that, had the ladies thought proper to have retired quietly to their apartments, he would not have used the means he had taken to compel them. The Begum again observed, that what had passed was now over. She then gave the children four hundred rupees and dismissed them, and sent word by Sumrud and the other eunuchs, that, if the ladies would peaceably retire to their apartments, Letafit would supply them with three or four thousand rupees for their present expenses, and recommended them not to incur any further disgrace, and that, if they did not think proper to act agreeably to her directions, they would do wrong. The ladies followed her advice, and about ten at night went back to the zenanah. The next morning the Begum waited upon the mother of Sujah Dowlah, and related to her all the circumstances of the disturbance. The mother of Sujah Dowlah returned for answer, that, after there being no accounts kept by crores of revenue, she was not surprised that the family of Sujah Dowlah, in their endeavors to procure subsistence, should be obliged to expose themselves to the meanest of the people. After bewailing their misfortunes and shedding many tears, the Begum took her leave and returned home.'"

As a proof of the extremity of the distress which reigned in the Khord Mohul, your Lordships have been told that these women must have perished through famine, if their gaolers, Captain Jaques and Major Gilpin, had not raised money upon their own credit, and supplied them with an occasional relief. And therefore, when they talk of his peculation, of his taking but a bribe here and a bribe there, see the consequences of his system of peculation, see the consequences of a usurpation which extinguishes the natural authority of the country, see the consequences of a clandestine correspondence that does not let the injuries of the country come regularly before the authorities in Oude to relieve it, consider the whole mass of crimes, and then consider the sufferings that have arisen in consequence of it.

My Lords, it was not corporal pain alone that these miserable women suffered. The unsatisfied cravings of hunger and the blows of the sepoys' bludgeons could touch only the physical part of their nature. But, my Lords, men are made of two parts,—the physical part, and the moral. The former he has in common with the brute creation. Like theirs, our corporeal pains are very limited and temporary. But the sufferings which touch our moral nature have a wider range, and are infinitely more acute, driving the sufferer sometimes to the extremities of despair and distraction. Man, in his moral nature, becomes, in his progress through life, a creature of prejudice, a creature of opinions, a creature of habits, and of sentiments growing out of them. These form our second nature, as inhabitants of the country and members of the society in which Providence has placed us. This sensibility of our moral nature is far more acute in that sex which, I may say without any compliment, forms the better and more virtuous part of mankind, and which is at the same time the least protected from the insults and outrages to which this sensibility exposes them. This is a new source of feelings, that often make corporal distress doubly felt; and it has a whole class of distresses of its own. These are the things that have gone to the heart of the Commons.

We have stated, first, the sufferings of the Begum, and, secondly, the sufferings of the two thousand women (I believe they are not fewer in number) that belong to them, and are dependent upon them, and dependent upon their well-being. We have stated to you that the Court of Directors were shocked and astonished, when they received the account of the first, before they had heard the second. We have proved they desired him to redress the former, if, upon inquiry, he found that his original suspicions concerning their conduct were ill-founded. He has declared here that he did not consider these as orders. Whether they were orders or not, could anything have been more pressing upon all the duties and all the sentiments of man than at least to do what was just,—that is, to make such an inquiry as in the result might justify his acts, or have entitled them to redress? Not one trace of inquiry or redress do we find, except we suppose, as we hear nothing after this of the famine, that Mr. Bristow, who seems to be a man of humanity, did so effectually interpose, that they should no longer depend for the safety of their honor on the bludgeons of the sepoys, by which alone it seems they were defended from the profane view of the vulgar, and which we must state as a matter of great aggravation in this case.

The counsel on the other side say that all this intelligence comes in an anonymous paper without date, transmitted from a newspaper-writer at Fyzabad. This is the contempt with which they treat this serious paper, sent to Mr. Hastings himself by official authority,—by Hoolas Roy, who was the news-writer at Fyzabad,—the person appointed to convey authentic intelligence concerning the state of it to the Resident at Lucknow. The Resident received it as such; he transmitted it to Mr. Hastings; and it was not till this hour, till the counsel were instructed (God forgive them for obeying such instructions!) to treat these things with ridicule, that we have heard this Hoolas Roy called a common news-writer of anonymous information, and the like. If the information had come in any way the least authentic, instead of coming in a manner the most authentic in which it was possible to come to Mr. Hastings, he was bound by every feeling of humanity, every principle of regard to his own honor and his employers', to see whether it was true or false; if false, to refute it; if true, to afford redress: he has done neither. Therefore we charge him with being the cause; we charge upon him the consequences, with all the aggravations attending them; and we call both upon justice and humanity for redress, as far as it can be afforded to these people, and for the severest punishments which your Lordships can inflict upon the author of these evils. If, instead of the mass of crimes that we have brought before you, this singly had been charged upon the prisoner, I will say that it is a greater crime than any man has ever been impeached for before the House of Lords, from the first records of Parliament to this hour.

I need not remind your Lordships of one particular circumstance in this cruel outrage. No excuse or pretence whatever is brought forward in its justification. With respect to the Begums, they have been charged with rebellion; but who has accused the miserable inhabitants of the Khord Mohul of rebellion, or rebellious designs? What hearsay is there, even, against them of it? No: even the persons permitted by Mr. Hastings to rob and destroy the country, and who are stated by him to have been so employed,—not one of that legion of locusts which he had sent into the country to eat up and devour the bread of its inhabitants, and who had been the cause both of the famine itself and of the inability of the Begums to struggle with it,—none of these people, I say, ventured even a hearsay about these women.

Were the sufferers few? There were eight hundred of them, besides children. Were they persons of any rank and consequence? We are told that they were persons of considerable rank and distinction, connected with and living under the protection of women of the first rank in Asia. Were they persons not deserving pity? We know that they were innocent women and children, not accused, and unsuspected, of any crime. He has taken into his head to speak contemptuously of these women of the Khord Mohul: but your Lordships will consider both descriptions generally with some respect; and where they are not objects of the highest respect, they will be objects of your compassion. Your Lordships, by your avenging justice, will rescue the name of the British government from the foulest disgrace which this man has brought upon it.