Читать книгу: «The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12)», страница 27

Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar and Behar Ali Khân.

Khân Saib, my indulgent friends, remain under the protection of God!

Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, accompanied by an honorary letter from the Begum Saib, of exalted dignity, and inclosing a letter from Mr. Gordon, sent through your hircarrahs, obliged and rejoiced me.

With respect to what you communicate regarding your not having received an answer to your friendly epistle, I became perfectly astonished, as a reply was written from Mohadree. It may be owing to the danger of the road that it never arrived,—not to the smallest neglect on my side [or of mine].

I now send two letters to you,—one by the Dawk people, and the second by one of my hircarrahs, (who will present them to you,) which you certainly will receive.

I am extremely well contented and pleased with the friendship you have shown.

You wrote me to remain perfectly easy concerning Mr. Gordon. Verily, from the kindness of you, my indulgent friends, my heart is quite easy. You also observed and mentioned, that, as Mr. Gordon's coming with those attached to him [probably his sepoys and others] might be attended with difficulty, if I approved, he should be invited alone to Fyzabad. My friends, I place my expectation entirely upon your friendships, and leave it to you to adopt the manner in which the said gentleman may arrive in security, without molestation, at Fyzabad; but at the same time let the plan be so managed that it may not come to the knowledge of any zemindars: in this case you are men of discernment. However, he is to come to Fyzabad: extend your assistance and endeavors.

It is probable that the Begum Saib, of high dignity, has received authentic intelligence from the camp at Benares. Favor me with the contents or purport.

From Mr. Gordon's letter I understand that Mirza Imaum Buksh, whom you dispatched thither [Taunda], has and still continues to pay great attention to that gentleman, which affords me great pleasure.

An answer to the Begum's letter is to be presented. I also send a letter for Mr. Gordon, which please to forward.

An Address from Colonel Hannay to the Begum.

Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, &c., whom God preserve!

Your exalting letter, fraught with grace and benevolence, that through your unbounded generosity and goodness was sent through grace and favor, I had the honor to receive in a fortunate moment, and whatever you were pleased to write respecting Mr. Gordon,—"that, as at this time the short-sighted and deluded ryots had carried their disturbances and ravages beyond all bounds, Mr. Gordon's coming with his whole people [or adherents] might be attended with difficulty, and therefore, if I chose, he should be invited to come alone." Now, as your Highness is the best judge, your faithful servant reposeth his most unbounded hopes and expectation upon your Highness, that the aforesaid Mr. Gordon may arrive at Fyzabad without any apprehension or danger. I shall be then extremely honored and obliged.

Considering me in the light of a firm and faithful servant, continue to honor and exalt me by your letters.

What further can I say?

A Copy of an Address from Mr. Gordon to the Begum.

Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and generosity, whom God preserve!

After presenting the usual professions of servitude, &c., in the customary manner, my address is presented.

Your gracious letter, in answer to the petition of your servant from Goondah, exalted me. From the contents I became unspeakably impressed with the honor it conferred. May the Almighty protect that royal purity, and bestow happiness, increase of wealth, and prosperity!

The welfare of your servant is entirely owing to your favor and benevolence. A few days have elapsed since I arrived at Goondah with the Colonel Saib.

This is presented for your Highness's information. I cherish hopes from your generosity, that, considering me in the light of one of your servants, you will always continue to exalt and honor me with your gracious letters.

May the sun of prosperity continually shine!

Copy of a Letter to Mahomed Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, from Mr. Gordon.

Sirs, my indulgent friends,

Remain under, &c., &c.

After compliments. I have the pleasure to acquaint you that yesterday having taken leave of you, I passed the night at Noorgunge, and next morning, about ten or eleven o'clock, through your favor and benevolence, arrived safe at Goondah. Mir Aboo Buksh, zemindar, and Mir Rustum Ali, accompanied me.

To what extent can I prolong the praises of you, my beneficent friends? May the Supreme Being, for this benign, compassionate, humane action, have you in His keeping, and increase your prosperity, and speedily grant me the pleasure of an interview! Until which time continue to favor me with friendly letters, and oblige me by any commands in my power to execute.

May your wishes be ever crowned with success!

My compliments, &c., &c., &c.

Copy of a Letter from Colonel Hannay to Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân.

Khân Saib, my indulgent friends,

Remain under the protection of the Supreme Being!

After compliments, and signifying my earnest desire of an interview, I address you.

Your friendly letter, fraught with kindness, I had the pleasure to receive in a propitious hour, and your inexpressible kindness in sending for Mir Nassar Ali with a force to Taunda, for the purpose of conducting Mr. Gordon, with all his baggage, who is now arrived at Fyzabad.

This event has afforded me the most excessive pleasure and satisfaction. May the Omnipotence preserve you, my steadfast, firm friends! The pen of friendship itself cannot sufficiently express your generosity and benevolence, and that of the Begum of high dignity, who so graciously has interested herself in this matter. Inclosed is an address for her, which please to forward. I hope from your friendship, until we meet, you will continue to honor me with an account of your health and welfare. What further can I write?

V.—REVOLUTIONS IN FURRUCKABAD

I. That a prince called Ahmed Khân was of a family amongst the most distinguished in Hindostan, and of a nation famous through that empire for its valor in acquiring, and its policy and prudence in well governing the territories it had acquired, called the Patans, or Afghans, of which the Rohillas were a branch. The said Ahmed Khân had fixed his residence in the city of Furruckabad, and in the first wars of this nation in India the said Ahmed Khân attached himself to the Company against Sujah Dowlah, then an enemy, now a dependant on that Company. Ahmed Khân, towards the close of his life, was dispossessed of a large part of his dominions by the prevalence of the Mahratta power; but his son, a minor, succeeded to his pretensions, and to the remainder of his dominions. The Mahrattas were expelled by Sujah ul Dowlah, the late Vizier, who, finding a want of the services of the son and successor of Ahmed Khân, called Muzuffer Jung, did not only guaranty him in the possession of what he then actually held, but engaged to restore all the other territories which had been occupied by the Mahrattas; and this was confirmed by repeated treaties and solemn oaths, by the late Vizier and by the present. But neither the late nor the present Vizier fulfilled their engagements, or observed their oaths: the former having withheld what he had stipulated to restore; and the latter not only subjecting him to a tribute, instead of restoring him to what his father had unjustly withheld, but having made a further invasion by depriving him of fifteen of his districts, levying the tribute of the whole on the little that remained, and putting the small remains of his territory under a sequestrator or collector appointed by Almas Ali Khân, who did grievously afflict and oppress the prince and territory aforesaid.

That the hardships of his case being frequently represented to Warren Hastings, Esquire, he did suggest a doubt whether "that little ought to be still subject to tribute," indicating that the said tribute might be hard and inequitable,—but, whatever its justice might have been, that, "from the earliest period of our connection with the present Nabob of Oude, it had invariably continued a part of the funds assigned by his Excellency as a provision for the liquidation of the several public demands of this government [Calcutta] upon him; and in consequence of the powers the board deemed it expedient to vest in the Resident at his court for the collection of the Company's assignments, a sezauwil [a sequestrator] has always been stationed to enforce by every means in his power the payment of the tribute." And the said tribute was, in consequence of this arrangement, not paid to the Nabob, but to the British Resident at Oude; and the same being therefore under the direction and for the sole use of the Company, and indeed the prince himself wholly dependent, the representatives of the said Company were responsible for the protection of the prince, and for the good government of the country.

II. That the said "Warren Hastings did, on the 22d of May, 1780, represent to the board of Calcutta the condition of the said country in the following manner.

"To the total want of all order, regularity, or authority in his government [the Furruckabad government], among other obvious causes, it may, no doubt, be owing, that the country of Furruckabad is become an almost entire waste, without cultivation or inhabitants; that the capital, which but a very short time ago was distinguished as one of the most populous and opulent commercial cities in Hindostan, at present exhibits nothing but scenes of the most wretched poverty, desolation, and misery; and the Nabob himself, though in possession of a tract of country which with only common care is notoriously capable of yielding an annual revenue of between thirty and forty lacs [three or four hundred thousand pounds], with no military establishment to maintain, scarcely commanding the means of bare subsistence." And the said Warren Hastings, taking into consideration the said state of the country and its prince, and that the latter had "preferred frequent complaints" (which complaints the said Hastings to that time did not lay before the board, as his duty required) "of the hardships and indignities to which he is subjected by the conduct of the sezauwil [sequestrator] stationed in the country for the purpose of levying the annual tribute which he is bound by treaty to pay to the Subah of Oude," he, the said Warren Hastings, did declare himself "extremely desirous, as well from motives of common justice as due regard to the rank which that chief holds among the princes of Hindostan, of affording him relief." And he, the said Warren Hastings, as the means of the said relief, did, with the consent of the board, order the said native sequestrator to be removed, and an English Resident, a servant of the Company, to be appointed in his room, declaring "he understood a local interference to be indispensably necessary for realizing the Vizier's just demands."

III. That the said native sequestrator being withdrawn, and a Resident appointed, no complaint whatever concerning the collection of the revenue, or of any indignities offered to the prince of the country or oppression of his subjects by the said Resident, was made to the Superior Council at Calcutta; yet the said Warren Hastings did, nevertheless, in a certain paper, purporting to be a treaty made at Chunar with the Nabob of Oude, on the 19th September, 1781, at the request of the said Nabob, consent to an article therein, "That no English Resident be appointed to Furruckabad, and that the present be recalled." And the said Warren Hastings, knowing that the Nabob of Oude was ill-affected towards the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and that he was already supposed to have oppressed him, did justify his conduct on the principles and in the words following: "That, if the Nabob Muzuffer Jung must endure oppression, (and I dare not at this time propose his total relief,) it concerns the reputation of our government to remove our participation in it." And the said Warren Hastings making, recording, and acting upon the first of the said false and inhuman suppositions, most scandalous to this nation, namely, that princes paying money wholly for the use of the Company, and directly to its agent, for the maintenance of British troops, by whose force and power the said revenue was in effect collected, must of necessity endure oppression, and that our government at any time dare not propose their total relief, was an high offence and misdemeanor in the said Warren Hastings, and the rather, because in the said treaty, as well as before and after, the said Hastings, who pretended not to dare to relieve those oppressed by the Nabob of Oude, did assume a complete authority over the said Nabob himself, and did dare to oppress him.

IV. That the second principle assumed by the said Warren Hastings, as ground for voluntarily abandoning the protection of those whom he had before undertaken to relieve, on the sole strength of his own authority, and in full confidence of the lawful foundation thereof, and for delivering over the persons so taken into protection, under false names and pretended descriptions, to known oppression, asserting that the reputation of the Company was saved by removing this apparent participation, when the new as well as the old arrangements were truly and substantially acts of the British government, was disingenuous, deceitful, and used to cover unjustifiable designs: since the said Warren Hastings well knew that all oppressions exercised by the Nabob of Oude were solely, and in this instance particularly, upheld by British force, and were imputed to this nation; and because he himself, in not more than three days after the execution of this treaty, and in virtue thereof, did direct the British Resident at Oude, in orders to which he required his most implicit obedience, "that the ministers [the Nabob of Oude's ministers] are to choose all aumils and collectors of revenue with your concurrence." And the dishonor to the Company, in thus deceitfully concurring in oppression, which they were able and were bound to prevent, is much aggravated by the said Warren Hastings's receiving from the person to whose oppression he had delivered the said prince, as a private gift or donation to himself and for his own use, a sum of money amounting to one hundred thousand pounds and upwards, which might give just ground of suspicion that the said gift from the oppressor to the person surrendering the person injured to his mercy might have had some share in the said criminal transaction.

V. That the said Warren Hastings did (in the paper justifying the said surrender of the prince put by himself under the protection of the East India Company) assert, "that it was a fact, that the Nabob Muzuffer Jung [the Nabob of Furruckabad] is equally urgent with the Nabob Vizier for the removal of a Resident," without producing, as he ought to have done, any document to prove his improbable assertion, namely, his assertion that the oppressed prince did apply to his known enemy and oppressor, the Nabob of Oude, (who, if he would, was not able to relieve him against the will of the English government,) rather than to that English government, which he must have conceived to be more impartial, to which he had made his former complaint, and which was alone able to relieve him.

VI. That the said Warren Hastings, in the said writing, did further convey an insinuation of an ambiguous, but, on any construction, of a suspicious and dangerous import, viz.: "It is a fact, that Mr. Shee's [the Resident's] authority over the territory of Furruckabad is in itself as much subversive of that [of the lawful rulers] as that of the Vizier's aumil [collector] ever was, and is the more oppressive as the power from whence it is derived is greater." The said assertion proceeds upon a supposition of the illegality both of the Nabob's and the Company's government; all consideration of the title to authority being, therefore, on that supposition, put out of the question, and the whole turning only upon the exercise of authority, the said Hastings's suggestion, that the oppression of government must be in proportion to its power, is the result of a false and dangerous principle, and such as it is criminal for any person intrusted with the lives and fortunes of men to entertain, much more, publicly to profess as a rule of action, as the same hath a direct tendency to make the new and powerful government of this kingdom in India dreadful to the natives and odious to the world. But if the said Warren Hastings did mean thereby indirectly to insinuate that oppressions had been actually exercised under the British authority, he was bound to inquire into these oppressions, and to animadvert on the person guilty of the same, if proof thereof could be had,—and the more, as the authority was given by himself, and the person exercising it was by himself also named. And the said Warren Hastings did on another occasion assert that "whether they were well or ill-founded he never had an opportunity to ascertain." But it is not true that the said Hastings did or could want such opportunity: the fact being, that the said Warren Hastings did never cause any inquiry to be made into any supposed abuses during the said Residency, but did give a pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year to the said late Resident as a compensation to him for an injury received, and did afterwards promote the Resident, as a faithful servant of the Company, (and nothing appears to show him otherwise,) to a judicial office of high trust,—thereby taking away all credit from any grounds asserted or insinuated by the said Hastings for delivering the said Nabob of Furruckabad to the hand of a known enemy and oppressor, who had already, contrary to repeated treaties, deprived him of a large part of his territories.

VII. That, on the said Warren Hastings's representation of the transaction aforesaid to the Court of Directors, they did heavily and justly censure the said Warren Hastings for the same, and did convey their censure to him, recommending relief to the suffering prince, but without any order for sending a new Resident: being, as it may be supposed, prevented from taking that step by the faith of the treaty made at Chunar.

VIII. That all the oppressions foreseen by him, the said Warren Hastings, when he made the article aforesaid in the treaty of Chunar, did actually happen: for, immediately on the removal of the British Resident, the country of Furruckabad was subjected to the discretion of a certain native manager of revenue, called Almas Ali Khân, who did impoverish and oppress the country and insult the prince, and did deprive him of all subsistence from his own estates,—taking from him even his gardens and the tombs of his ancestors, and the funds for maintaining the same.

IX. That, on complaint of those proceedings, the said Hastings did of his own authority, and without communicating with his Council, direct the native collector aforesaid to be removed, and the territory of Furruckabad to be left to the sole management of its natural prince. But in a short time the said Hastings, pretending to receive many complaints purporting that the tribute to the Nabob remained wholly unpaid, and the agent to the prince of Furruckabad at the Presidency, and afterwards chief manager to the prince aforesaid, having, as the said Warren Hastings saith, "had the insolence to propagate a report that the interference to which his master owed the power he then enjoyed was purchased through him," he, the said Hastings, did again (but, as before, without the Council) "withdraw his protection and interference altogether," on or about the month of August, 1782, and did signify his resolution, through the Resident, Middleton, to the Nabob Vizier. But the said Hastings asserts that "the consequence of this his own second dereliction of the prince of Furruckabad was an aggravated renewal of the severities exercised against his government, and the reappointment of a sezauwil, with powers delegated or assumed, to the utter extinction of the rights of Muzuffer Jung, and actually depriving him of the means of subsistence." And the said Hastings did receive, on the 16th of February, 1783, from the prince aforesaid, a bitter complaint of the same to the following tenor.

"The miseries which have fallen upon my country, and the poverty and distress which have been heaped upon me by the reappointment of the sezauwil, are such, that a relation of them would, I am convinced, excite the strongest feelings of compassion in your breast. But it is impossible to relate them: on one side, my country ruined and uncultivated to a degree of desolation which exceeds all description; on the other, my domestic concerns and connections involved in such a state of distress and horror, that even the relations, the children, and the wives of my father are starving in want of daily bread, and are on the point of flying voluntary exiles from their country and from each other."

But although the said Hastings did, on the 16th of February, receive and admit the justice of the said complaint, and did not deny the urgent necessity of redress, the said letter containing the following sentence, "If there should be any delay in your acceptance of this proposal, my existence and the existence of my family will become difficult and doubtful,"—and although he did admit the interference to be the more urgently demanded, "as the services of the English troops have been added to enforce the authority of the sezauwil,"—and although he admits also, that, even before that time, similar complaints and applications had been made,—yet he did withhold the said letter of complaint, a minute of which he asserts he had, at or about that time, prepared for the relief of the sufferer, from the Board of Council, and did not so much as propose anything relative to the same for seven months after, viz., until the 6th of October, 1783: the said letter and minute being, as he asserts, "withheld, from causes not necessary to mention, from presentation." By which means the said country and prince did suffer a long continuance of unnecessary hardship, from which the said Hastings confessed it was his duty to relieve them, and that a British Resident was necessary at Furruckabad, "from a sense of submission to the implied orders of the Court of Directors in their letter of 1783, lately received, added to the conviction I have LONG SINCE entertained of the necessity of such an appointment for the preservation of our national credit, and the means of rescuing an ancient and respectable family from ruin."

And the said Warren Hastings did at length perform what he thought had long since been necessary; and in contradiction to his engagements with the Nabob in the treaty of Chunar, and against his strong remonstrances, urging his humiliation from this measure, and the faith of the agreement, and against his own former declaration that it concerned the reputation of our government to remove our participation in the oppressions which he, the said Hastings, supposed the prince of Furruckabad must undergo, did once more recommend to the Council a British Resident at Furruckabad, and the withdrawing the native sezauwil: no course being left to the said Hastings to take which was not a violation of some engagement, and a contradiction to some principle of justice and policy by him deliberately advanced and entered on record.

That Mr. Willes being appointed Resident, and having arrived at Furruckabad on the 25th of February, 1784, with instructions to inquire minutely into the state of the country and the ruling family, he, the said Resident, Willes, in obedience thereto, did fully explain to him, the Governor-General, the said Warren Hastings, (he being then out of the Company's provinces, at Lucknow, on a delegation which respected this very country, as part of the dependencies of Oude,) the situation of the province of Furruckabad; but the said Warren Hastings did not take or recommend any measure whatsoever for the relief thereof in consequence of the said representation, nor even communicate to the Council-General the said representation; and it was not until the 28th of June, 1783 [1785?], that is, sixteen months from the arrival of the Resident at his station, that anything was laid before the board relative to the regulation or relief of the distressed country aforesaid, and that not from the said Warren Hastings, but from other members of the Council: which purposed neglect of duty, joined to the preceding wilful delay of seven months in proposing the said relief originally, caused near two years' delay. And the said Warren Hastings is further culpable in not communicating to the Council Board the order which he had, of his own authority, and without any powers from them, given to the said Resident, Willes, and did thereby prevent them from taking such steps as might counteract the ill effects of the said order; which order purported, that the said Willes was not to interfere with the Nabob of Furruckabad's government, for the regulation of which he was in effect appointed to the Residency,—declaring as follows: "I rely much on your moderation and good judgment, which I hope will enable you to regulate your conduct towards the Nabob and his servants in such a manner, that, without interfering in the executive part of his government, you may render him essential service by your council and advice." And this restriction the said Hastings did impose, which totally frustrated the purpose of the Resident's mission, though he well knew, and had frequently stated, the extreme imbecility and weakness of the said Nabob of Furruckabad, and his subjection to unworthy servants; and in the Minute of Consultation upon which he founded the appointment did state the Nabob of Furruckabad "as a weak and unexperienced young man, who had abandoned himself entirely to the discretion of his servants, and the restoration of his independence was followed by a total breach of the engagements he had promised to fulfil, attended by pointed instances of contumacy and disrespect"; and in the said minute the said Hastings adds, (as before mentioned,) his principal servant and manager had propagated a report that the "interference" (namely, his, the said Hastings's, interference) "to which his master owed the power he then enjoyed was purchased by him," the principal servant aforesaid: yet he, the said Hastings, who had assigned on record the character of the said Nabob, and the conduct of his servants, and the aforesaid report of his principal servant, so highly dishonorable to him, the said Hastings, as reasons for taking away the independency of the Nabob of Furruckabad, and the subjecting him to the oppression of the Nabob of Oude's officer, Almas Ali, did again himself establish the pretended independence of the said prince of Furruckabad, and the real independence of his corrupt and perfidious servants, not against the Nabob of Oude, but against a British Resident appointed by himself ("as a character eminently qualified for such a charge") for the correction of those evils, and for rendering the prince aforesaid an useful ally to the Company, and restoring his dominions to order and plenty.

That the said Hastings did not only disable the Resident at Furruckabad by his said prohibitory letter, but did render his very remaining at all in that station perfectly precarious by a subsequent letter, rendering him liable to dismission by the Vizier,—thereby changing the tenure of the Resident's office, and changing him from a minister of the Company, dependent on the Governor-General and Council, to a dependant upon an unresponsible power,—in this also acting without the Council, and by his own usurped authority: and accordingly the said Resident did declare, in his letter of the 24th of April, 1785, "that the situation of the country was more distressful than when he [the prince of Furruckabad] addressed himself for relief in 1783, and that he was sorry to say that his appointment at Furruckabad was of no use"; that, though the old tribute could not be paid, owing to famine and other causes, it was increased by a new imposition, making the whole equal the entire gross produce of the revenue; that therefore there will not be "anything for the subsistence of the Nabob and family." And the uncles of the said Nabob of Furruckabad, the brethren of the late Ahmed Khân, (who had rendered important services to the Company,) and their children, in a petition to the Resident, represented that soon after the succession of Muzuffer Jung "their misery commenced. The jaghires [lands and estates] on which they subsisted were disallowed. Our distress is great: we have neither clothes nor food. Though we felt hurt at the idea of explaining our situation, yet, could we have found a mode of conveyance, we would have proceeded to Calcutta for redress. The scarcity of grain this season is an additional misfortune. With difficulty we support life. From your presence without the provinces we expect relief. It is not the custom of the Company to deprive the zemindars and jaghiredars of the means of subsistence. To your justice we look up."

This being the situation of the person and family of the Nabob of Furruckabad and his nearest relations, the state of the country and its capital, prevented from all relief by the said Warren Hastings, is described in the following words by the Resident, Willes.

"Almas Ali has taken the purgunnah of Marara at a very inadequate rent, and his aumils have seized many adjacent villages: the purgunnahs of Cocutmow and Souje are constantly plundered by his people. The collection of the ghauts near Futtyghur has been seized by the Vizier's cutwal, and the zemindars in four purgunnahs are so refractory as to have fortified themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments of revenue. This is the state of the purgunnahs. And Furruckabad, which was once the seat of great opulence and trade, is now daily deserted by its inhabitants, its walls mouldering away, without police, without protection, exposed to the depredations of a banditti of two or three hundred robbers, who, night after night, enter it for plunder, murdering all who oppose them. The ruin that has overtaken this country is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that there has been no state, no stable government, for many years. There has been the Nabob Vizier's authority, his ministers', the Residents' at Lucknow, the sezauwils', the camp authority, the Nabob Muzuffer Jung's, and that of twenty duans or advisers: no authority sufficiently predominant to establish any regulations for the benefit of the country, whilst each authority has been exerted, as opportunity offered, for temporary purposes.