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The English functionaries at Fort William had as yet paid little or no attention
to the internal government of Bengal. The only branch of politics about which
they much busied themselves was negotiation with the native princes. The police,
the administration of justice, the details of the collection of revenue, were
almost entirely neglected. We may remark that the phraseology of the Company's
servants still bears the traces of this state of things. To this day they always
use the word "political," as synonymous with "diplomatic." We could name a
gentleman still living, who was described by the highest authority as an
invaluable public servant, eminently fit to be at the head of the internal
administration of a whole presidency, but unfortunately quite ignorant of all
political business.
The internal government of Bengal the English rulers delegated to a great native
minister, who was stationed at Moorshedabad. All military affairs, and, with the
exception of what pertains to mere ceremonial, all foreign affairs, were
withdrawn from his control; but the other departments of the administration were
entirely confided to him. His own stipend amounted to near a hundred thousand
pounds sterling a year. The personal allowance of the nabob, amounting to more
than three hundred thousand pounds a year, passed through the minister's hands,
and was, to a great extent, at his disposal. The collection of the revenue, the
administration of justice, the maintenance of order, were left to this high
functionary; and for the exercise of his immense power he was responsible to
none but the British masters of the country.
A situation so important, lucrative, and splendid, was naturally an object of
ambition to the ablest and most powerful natives. Clive had found it difficult
to decide between conflicting pretensions. Two candidates stood out prominently
from the crowd, each of them the representative of a race and of a religion.
One of these was Mahommed Reza Khan, a Muscleman of Persian extraction, able,
active, religious after the fashion of his people, and highly esteemed by them.
In England he might perhaps have been regarded as a corrupt and greedy
politician. But, tried by the lower standard of Indian morality, he might be
considered as a man of integrity and honor.
His competitor was a Hindoo Brahmin whose name has by a terrible and melancholy
event, been inseparably associated with that of Warren Hastings, the Maharajah
Nuncomar. This man had played an important part in all the revolutions which,
since the time of Surajah Dowlah, had taken place in Bengal. To the
consideration which in that country belongs to high and pure caste, he added the
weight which is derived from wealth, talents, and experience. Of his moral
character it is difficult to give a notion to those who are acquainted with
human nature only as it appears in our island. What the Italian is to the
Englishman, what the Hindoo is to the Italian, what the Bengalee is to other
Hindus, that was Nuncomar to other Bengalees. The physical organization of the
Bengalee is feeble even to effeminacy. He lives in a constant vapor bath. His
pursuits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his movements languid. During many
ages he has been trampled upon by men of bolder and more hardy breeds. Courage,
independence, veracity, are qualities to which his constitution and his
situation are equally unfavorable. His mind bears a singular analogy to his
body. It is weak even to helplessness for purposes of manly resistance; but its
suppleness and its tact move the children of sterner climates to admiration not
unmingled with contempt. All those arts which are the natural defense of the
weak are more familiar to this subtle race than to the Ionian of the time of
Juvenal, or to the Jew of the dark ages. What the horns are to the buffalo, what
the paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, what beauty, according to
the old Greek song, is to woman, deceit is to the Bengalee. Large promises,
smooth excuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial falsehood, chicanery,
perjury, forgery, are the weapons, offensive and defensive, of the people of the
Lower Ganges. All those millions do not furnish one sepoy to the armies of the
Company. But as userers, as money-changers, as sharp legal practitioners, no
class of human beings can bear a comparison with them. With all his softness,
the Bengalee is by no means placable in his enmities or prone to pity. The
pertinacity with which he adheres to his purposes yields only to the immediate
pressure of fear. Nor does he lack a certain kind of courage which is often
wanting to his masters. To inevitable evils he is sometimes found to oppose a
passive fortitude, such as the Stoics attributed to their ideal sage. An
European warrior who rushes on a battery of cannon with a loud hurrah, will
sometimes shriek under the surgeon's knife, and fall in an agony of despair at
the sentence of death. But the Bengalee, who would see his country overrun, his
house laid in ashes, his children murdered or dishonored, without having the
spirit to strike one blow, has yet been known to endure torture with the
firmness of Mucius, and to mount the scaffold with the steady step and even
pulse of Algernon Sydney.
In Nuncomar, the national character was strongly and with exaggeration
personified. The Company's servants had repeatedly detected him in the most
criminal intrigues. On one occasion he brought a false charge against another
Hindoo, and tried to substantiate it by producing forged documents. On another
occasion it was discovered that, while professing the strongest attachment to
the English, he was engaged in several conspiracies against them, and in
particular that he was the medium of a correspondence between the court of Delhi
and the French authorities in the Carnatic. For these and similar practices he
had been long detained in confinement. But his talents and influence had not
only procured his liberation, but had obtained for him a certain degree of
consideration even among the British rulers of his country.
Clive was extremely unwilling to place a Muscleman at the head of the
administration of Bengal. On the other hand, he could not bring himself to
confer immense power on a man to whom every sort of villainy had repeatedly been
brought home. Therefore, though the nabob, over whom Nuncomar had by intrigue
acquired great influence, begged that the artful Hindoo might be entrusted with
the government, Clive, after some hesitation, decided honestly and wisely in
favor of Mahommed Reza Khan. When Hastings became Governor, Mahommed Reza Khan
had held power seven years. An infant son of Meer Jaffier was now nabob; and the
guardianship of the young prince's person had been confided to the minister.
Nuncomar, stimulated at once by cupidity and malice, had been constantly
attempting to hurt the reputation of his successful rival. This was not
difficult. The revenues of Bengal, under the administration established by
Clive, did not yield such a surplus as had been anticipated by the Company; for,
at that time, the most absurd notions were entertained in England respecting the
wealth of India. Palaces of porphyry, hung with the richest brocade, heaps of
pearls and diamonds, vaults from which pagodas and gold mohurs were measured out
by the bushel, filled the imagination even of men of business. Nobody seemed to
be aware of what nevertheless was most undoubtedly the truth, that India was a
poorer country than countries which in Europe are reckoned poor, than Ireland,
for example, or than Portugal. It was confidently believed by Lords of the
Treasury and members for the city that Bengal would not only defray its own
charges, but would afford an increased dividend to the proprietors of India
stock, and large relief to the English finances. These absurd expectations were
disappointed; and the Directors, naturally enough, chose to attribute the
disappointment rather to the mismanagement of Mahommed Reza Khan than to their
own ignorance of the country entrusted to their care. They were confirmed in
their error by the agents of Nuncomar; for Nuncomar had agents even in
Leadenhall Street. Soon after Hastings reached Calcutta, he received a letter
addressed by the Court of Directors, not to the Council generally, but to
himself in particular. He was directed to remove Mahommed Reza Khan, to arrest
him together with all his family and all his partisans, and to institute a
strict inquiry into the whole administration of the province. It was added that
the Governor would do well to avail himself of the assistance of Nuncomar in the
investigation. The vices of Nuncomar were acknowledged. But even from his vices,
it was said, much advantage might at such a conjuncture be derived; and, though
he could not safely be trusted, it might still be proper to encourage him by
hopes of reward.
The Governor bore no goodwill to Nuncomar. Many years before, they had known
each other at Moorshedabad; and then a quarrel had arisen between them which all
the authority of their superiors could hardly compose. Widely as they differed
in most points, they resembled each other in this, that both were men of
unforgiving natures. To Mahommed Reza Khan, on the other hand, Hastings had no
feelings of hostility. Nevertheless he proceeded to execute the instructions of
the Company with an alacrity which he never showed, except when instructions
were in perfect conformity with his own views. He had, wisely as we think,
determined to get rid of the system of double government in Bengal. The orders
of the Directors furnished him with the means of effecting his purpose, and
dispensed him from the necessity of discussing the matter with his Council. He
took his measures with his usual vigor and dexterity. At midnight, the palace of
Mahommed Reza Khan at Moorshedabad was surrounded by a battalion of sepoys. The
Minister was roused from his slumbers and informed that he was a prisoner. With
the Muscleman gravity, he bent his head and submitted himself to the will of
God. He fell not alone. A chief named Schitab Roy had been entrusted with the
government of Bahar. His valor and his attachment to the English had more than
once been signally proved. On that memorable day on which the people of Patna
saw from their walls the whole army of the Mogul scattered by the little band of
Captain Knox, the voice of the British conquerors assigned the palm of gallantry
to the brave Asiatic. "I never," said Knox, when he introduced Schitab Roy,
covered with blood and dust, to the English functionaries assembled in the
factory, "I never saw a native fight so before." Schitab Roy was involved in the
ruin of Mahommed Reza Khan, was removed from office, and was placed under
arrest. The members of the Council received no intimation of these measures till
the prisoners were on their road to Calcutta.
The inquiry into the conduct of the minister was postponed on different
pretences. He was detained in an easy confinement during many months. In the
meantime, the great revolution which Hastings had planned was carried into
effect. The office of minister was abolished. The internal administration was
transferred to the servants of the Company. A system, a very imperfect system,
it is true, of civil and criminal justice, under English superintendence, was
established. The nabob was no longer to have even an ostensible share in the
government; but he was still to receive a considerable annual allowance, and to
be surrounded with the state of sovereignty. As he was an infant, it was
necessary to provide guardians for his person and property. His person was
entrusted to a lady of his father's harem, known by the name of the Munny Begum.
The office of treasurer of the household was bestowed on a son of Nuncomar,
named Goordas. Nuncomar's services were wanted; yet he could not safely be
trusted with power; and Hastings thought it a masterstroke of policy to reward
the able and unprincipled parent by promoting the inoffensive child.
The revolution completed, the double government dissolved, the Company installed
in the full sovereignty of Bengal, Hastings had no motive to treat the late
ministers with rigor. Their trial had been put off on various pleas till the new
organization was complete. They were then brought before a committee, over which
the Governor presided. Schitab Roy was speedily acquitted with honor. A formal
apology was made to him for the restraint to which he had been subjected. All
the Eastern marks of respect were bestowed on him. He was clothed in a robe of
state, presented with jewels and with a richly harnessed elephant, and sent back
to his government at Patna. But his health had suffered from confinement; his
high spirit had been cruelly wounded; and soon after his liberation he died of a
broken heart.
The innocence of Mahommed Reza Khan was not so clearly established. But the
Governor was not disposed to deal harshly. After a long hearing, in which
Nuncomar appeared as the accuser, and displayed both the art and the inveterate
rancor which distinguished him, Hastings pronounced that the charge had not been
made out, and ordered the fallen minister to be set at liberty.
Nuncomar had purposed to destroy the Muscleman administration, and to rise on
its ruin. Both his malevolence and his cupidity had been disappointed. Hastings
had made him a tool, had used him for the purpose of accomplishing the transfer
of the government from Moorshedabad to Calcutta, from native to European hands.
The rival, the enemy, so long envied, so implacably persecuted, had been
dismissed unhurt. The situation so long and ardently desired had been abolished.
It was natural that the Governor should be from that time an object of the most
intense hatred to the vindictive Brahmin. As yet, however, it was necessary to
suppress such feelings. The time was coming when that long animosity was to end
in a desperate and deadly struggle.
In the meantime, Hastings was compelled to turn his attention to foreign
affairs. The object of his diplomacy was at this time simply to get money. The
finances of his government were in an embarrassed state, and this embarrassment
he was determined to relieve by some means, fair or foul. The principle which
directed all his dealings with his neighbors is fully expressed by the old motto
of one of the great predatory families of Teviotdale, "Thou shalt want ere I
want." He seems to have laid it down, as a fundamental proposition which could
not be disputed, that, when he had not as many lacs of rupees as the public
service required, he was to take them from anybody who had. One thing, indeed,
is to be said in excuse for him. The pressure applied to him by his employers at
home, was such as only the highest virtue could have withstood, such as left him
no choice except to commit great wrongs, or to resign his high post, and with
that post all his hopes of fortune and distinction. The Directors, it is true,
never enjoined or applauded any crime. Far from it. Whoever examines their
letters written at that time, will find there many just and humane sentiments,
many excellent precepts, in short, an admirable code of political ethics. But
every exhortation is modified or nullified by a demand for money. "Govern
leniently, and send more money; practice strict justice and moderation towards
neighboring powers, and send more money"--this is, in truth, the sum of almost
all the instructions that Hastings ever received from home. Now these
instructions, being interpreted, mean simply, "Be the father and the oppressor
of the people; be just and unjust, moderate and rapacious." The Directors dealt
with India, as the Church, in the good old times, dealt with a heretic. They
delivered the victim over to the executioners, with an earnest request that all
possible tenderness might be shown. We by no means accuse or suspect those who
framed these dispatches of hypocrisy. It is probable that, writing fifteen
thousand miles from the place where their orders were to be carried into effect,
they never perceived the gross inconsistency of which they were guilty. But the
inconsistency was at once manifest to their vicegerent at Calcutta, who, with an
empty treasury, with an unpaid army, with his own salary often in arrear, with
deficient crops, with government tenants daily running away, was called upon to
remit home another half million without fail. Hastings saw that it was
absolutely necessary for him to disregard either the moral discourses or the
pecuniary requisitions of his employers. Being forced to disobey them in
something, he had to consider what kind of disobedience they would most readily
pardon; and he correctly judged that the safest course would be to neglect the
sermons and to find the rupees.
A mind so fertile as his, and so little restrained by conscientious scruples,
speedily discovered several modes of relieving the financial embarrassments of
the Government. The allowance of the Nabob of Bengal was reduced at a stroke
from three hundred and twenty thousand pounds a year to half that sum. The
Company had bound itself to pay near three hundred thousand pounds a year to the
Great Mogul, as a mark of homage for the provinces which he had entrusted to
their care; and they had ceded to him the districts of Corah and Allahabad. On
the plea that the Mogul was not really independent, but merely a tool in the
hands of others, Hastings determined to retract these concessions. He
accordingly declared that the English would pay no more tribute, and sent troops
to occupy Allahabad and Corah. The situation of these places was such, that
there would be little advantage and great expense in retaining them. Hastings,
who wanted money and not territory, determined to sell them. A purchaser was not
wanting. The rich province of Oude had, in the general dissolution of the Mogul
Empire, fallen to the share of the great Muscleman house by which it is still
governed. About twenty years ago, this house, by the permission of the British
Government, assumed the royal title; but in the time of Warren Hastings such an
assumption would have been considered by the Mohammedans of India as a monstrous
impiety. The Prince of Oude, though he held the power, did not venture to use
the style of sovereignty. To the appellation of Nabob or Viceroy, he added that
of Vizier of the monarchy of Hindostan, just as in the last century the Electors
of Saxony and Brandenburg, though independent of the Emperor, and often in arms
against him, were proud to style themselves his Grand Chamberlain and Grand
Marshal. Sujah Dowlah, then Nabob Vizier, was on excellent terms with the
English. He had a large treasure. Allahabad and Corah were so situated that they
might be of use to him and could be of none to the Company. The buyer and seller
soon came to an understanding; and the provinces which had been torn from the
Mogul were made over to the Government of Oude for about half a million
sterling.
But there was another matter still more important to be settled by the Vizier
and the Governor. The fate of a brave people was to be decided. It was decided
in a manner which has left a lasting stain on the fame of Hastings and of
England.
The people of Central Asia had always been to the inhabitants of India what the
warriors of the German forests were to the subjects of the decaying monarchy of
Rome. The dark, slender, and timid Hindoo shrank from a conflict with the strong
muscle and resolute spirit of the fair race which dwelt beyond the passes. There
is reason to believe that, at a period anterior to the dawn of regular history,
the people who spoke the rich and flexible Sanskrit came from regions lying far
beyond the Hyphasis and the Hystaspes, and imposed their yoke on the children of
the soil. It is certain that, during the last ten centuries, a succession of
invaders descended from the west on Hindostan; nor was the course of conquest
ever turned back towards the setting sun, till that memorable campaign in which
the cross of Saint George was planted on the walls of Ghizni.
The Emperors of Hindostan themselves came from the other side of the great
mountain ridge; and it had always been their practice to recruit their army from
the hardy and valiant race from which their own illustrious house sprang. Among
the military adventurers who were allured to the Mogul standards from the
neighborhood of Cabul and Candahar, were conspicuous several gallant bands,
known by the name of the Rohillas. Their services had been rewarded with large
tracts of land, fiefs of the spear, if we may use an expression drawn from an
analogous state of things, in that fertile plain through which the Ramgunga
flows from the snowy heights of Kumaon to join the Ganges. In the general
confusion which followed the death of Aurungzebe, the warlike colony became
virtually independent. The Rohillas were distinguished from the other
inhabitants of India by a peculiarly fair complexion. They were more honorably
distinguished by courage in war, and by skill in the arts of peace. While
anarchy raged from Lahore to Cape Comorin, their little territory enjoyed the
blessings of repose under the guardianship of valor. Agriculture and commerce
flourished among them; nor were they negligent of rhetoric and poetry. Many
persons now living have heard aged men talk with regret of the golden days when
the Afghan princes ruled in the vale of Rohilcund.
Sujah Dowlah had set his heart on adding this rich district to his own
principality. Right, or show of right, he had absolutely none. His claim was in
no respect better founded than that of Catherine to Poland, or that of the
Bonaparte family to Spain. The Rohillas held their country by exactly the same
title by which he held his, and had governed their country far better than his
had ever been governed. Nor were they a people whom it was perfectly safe to
attack. Their land was indeed an open plain destitute of natural defenses; but
their veins were full of the high blood of Afghanistan. As soldiers, they had
not the steadiness which is seldom found except in company with strict
discipline; but their impetuous valor had been proved on many fields of battle.
It was said that their chiefs, when united by common peril, could bring eighty
thousand men into the field. Sujah Dowlah had himself seen them fight, and
wisely shrank from a conflict with them. There was in India one army, and only
one, against which even those proud Caucasian tribes could not stand. It had
been abundantly proved that neither tenfold odds, nor the martial ardor of the
boldest Asiatic nations, could avail ought against English science and
resolution. Was it possible to induce the Governor of Bengal to let out to hire
the irresistible energies of the imperial people, the skill against which the
ablest chiefs of Hindostan were helpless as infants, the discipline which had so
often triumphed over the frantic struggles of fanaticism and despair, the
unconquerable British courage which is never so sedate and stubborn as towards
the close of a doubtful and murderous day?
This was what the Nabob Vizier asked, and what Hastings granted. A bargain was
soon struck. Each of the negotiators had what the other wanted. Hastings was in
need of funds to carry on the government of Bengal, and to send remittances to
London; and Sujah Dowlah had an ample revenue. Sujah Dowlah was bent on
subjugating the Rohillas; and Hastings had at his disposal the only force by
which the Rohillas could be subjugated. It was agreed that an English army
should be lent to the Nabob Vizier, and that, for the loan, he should pay four
hundred thousand pounds sterling, besides defraying all the charge of the troops
while employed in his service.
"I really cannot see," says Mr. Gleig, "upon what grounds, either of political
or moral justice, this proposition deserves to be stigmatized as infamous." If
we understand the meaning of words, it is infamous to commit a wicked action for
hire, and it is wicked to engage in war without provocation. In this particular
war, scarcely one aggravating circumstance was wanting. The object of the
Rohilla war was this, to deprive a large population, who had never done us the
least harm, of a good government, and to place them, against their will, under
an execrably bad one. Nay, even this is not all. England now descended far below
the level even of those petty German princes who, about the same time, sold us
troops to fight the Americans. The hussar-mongers of Hesse and Anspach had at
least the assurance that the expeditions on which their soldiers were to be
employed would be conducted in conformity with the humane rules of civilized
warfare. Was the Rohilla war likely to be so conducted? Did the Governor
stipulate that it should be so conducted? He well knew what Indian warfare was.
He well knew that the power which he covenanted to put into Sujah Dowlah's hands
would, in all probability, be atrociously abused; and he required no guarantee,
no promise, that it should not be so abused. He did not even reserve to himself
the right of withdrawing his aid in case of abuse, however gross. We are almost
ashamed to notice Major Scott's plea, that Hastings was justified in letting out
English troops to slaughter the Rohillas, because the Rohillas were not of
Indian race, but a colony from a distant country. What were the English
themselves? Was it for them to proclaim a crusade for the expulsion of all
intruders from the countries watered by the Ganges? Did it lie in their mouths
to contend that a foreign settler who establishes an empire in India is a caput
lupinum? What would they have said if any other power had, on such a ground,
attacked Madras or Calcutta, without the slightest provocation? Such a defense
was wanting to make the infamy of the transaction complete. The atrocity of the
crime, and the hypocrisy of the apology, are worthy of each other.
One of the three brigades of which the Bengal army consisted was sent under
Colonel Champion to join Sujah Dowlah's forces. The Rohillas expostulated,
entreated, offered a large ransom, but in Vain. They then resolved to defend
themselves to the last. A bloody battle was fought. "The enemy," says Colonel
Champion, "gave proof of a good share of military knowledge; and it is
impossible to describe a more obstinate firmness of resolution than they
displayed." The dastardly sovereign of Oude fled from the field. The English
were left unsupported; but their fire and their charge were irresistible. It was
not, however, till the most distinguished chiefs had fallen, fighting bravely at
the head of their troops, that the Rohilla ranks gave way. Then the Nabob Vizier
and his rabble made their appearance, and hastened to plunder the camp of the
valiant enemies whom they had never dared to look in the face. The soldiers of
the Company, trained in an exact discipline, kept unbroken order, while the
tents were pillaged by these worthless allies. But many voices were heard to
exclaim, "We have had all the fighting, and those rogues are to have all the
profit."
Then the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the fair valleys and cities of
Rohilcund. The whole country was in a blaze. More than a hundred thousand people
fled from their homes to pestilential jungles, preferring famine, and fever, and
the haunts of tigers, to the tyranny of him, to whom an English and a Christian
government had, for shameful lucre, sold their substance, and their blood, and
the honor of their wives and daughters. Colonel Champion remonstrated with the
Nabob Vizier, and sent strong representations to Fort William; but the Governor
had made no conditions as to the mode in which the war was to be carried on. He
had troubled himself about nothing, but his forty lacs; and, though he might
disapprove of Sujah Dowlah's wanton barbarity, he did not think himself entitled
to interfere, except by offering advice. This delicacy excites the admiration of
the biographer. "Mr. Hastings," he says, "could not himself dictate to the
Nabob, nor permit the commander of the Company's troops to dictate how the war
was to be carried on." No, to be sure. Mr. Hastings had only to put down by main
force the brave struggles of innocent men fighting for their liberty. Their
military resistance crushed his duties ended; and he had then only to fold his
arms and look on, while their villages were burned, their children butchered,
and their women violated. Will Mr. Gleig seriously maintain this opinion? Is any
rule more plain than this, that whoever voluntarily gives to another
irresistible power over human beings is bound to take order that such power
shall not be barbarously abused? But we beg pardon of our readers for arguing a
point so clear.
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