A2P2 
 1782 
 
 ' 
 
 '..etors of Hast-I- 
 Stc
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 LETTERS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 DIRECTORS AND PROPRIETORS 
 
 O P 
 
 E A S T-IN D I A STOCK 
 
 AND 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 EDMUND BURKE, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for J, FIELDING, No. a 3l Pater-aoftcr 
 M.DCC.LXXXII.
 
 O O T 2 A I aw I-T 
 
 r o : 
 

 
 70 the DireElors and the Proprietors of 
 Eajl-Indla Stock. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, 
 
 p2 AEARNESTLY recommend the following 
 ; letters to yo*ur candid and difpaffionate perufal. 
 They are written with no view to party. The 
 :3 queftion foon to be determined is, Whether you 
 fhall tacitly eftablifli a precedent of the moft 
 dangerous tendency, or refift it effectually in the 
 firft inftance. A right honourable Member of 
 the Houfe of Commons, from whom I fhould 
 have expected more attention to the rights of 
 ^ Englifhmen, has told us, that the Court of Pro- 
 ^ prietors have nothing to do in the removal of 
 Mr. Haftings. Before we confider the very ex- 
 traordinary merits of our Governor-General, be- 
 fore we know any thing of the man intended 
 to fucceed him ; let us determine how far a Vote 
 of the Houfe of Commons is to bind us. Every 
 lawyer in the kingdom, every honeft man, will 
 tell us, that a Vote of the Houfe of Commons 
 is not binding upon any chartered Company in 
 
 this 

 
 this kingdom, 5r indeed upon any individual, 
 their own members excepted. If the Legiflature 
 fliould think proper to deprive us of the fervices 
 of Mr. Haftings, we muft of courfe fubmit ; 
 but let us not remove fuch a man ourfelves 
 without the cleared conviction of the wifdom 
 and expediency of the meafure. The Swallow 
 packet is fortunately arrived : me will bring in 
 a complete relation of the affair of Benares : flte 
 will bring down the tranfa&ions in Bengal to 
 the commencement of the prefent year. Let 
 the difpatches be coolly and confiderately read: 
 let Mr. Haftings's merits be impartially coniide- 
 red let the character of his intended fuccsflbr 
 ;J>e fairly canvafled ; and then let us come to a 
 determination upon a point, in which not only 
 pur future welfare, but our very exigence will 
 
 depend. 
 
 I am, 
 
 GENTLEMEN, 
 Your nioft obedient humble fervant, 
 
 An- Independent Proprietor. 
 
 - 
 
 LETTERS
 
 LETTERS 
 
 PROPRIETORS of EAST-INDIA STOCK. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 X H E prefent critical and interefting fituation of your 
 affairs, renders it particularly incumbent on every Propri- 
 etor of India-flock to attend to the proceedings of Parlia- 
 ment on this important occafion. On the refolutions they 
 are about to take, the profperity of your affairs abroad, and 
 your exiftence as a Company, materially depend. In your 
 capacity of Englifh fubjets, you have a right to watch the 
 conduct of Parliament, and in that of Proprietors it is your 
 intereft to be peculiarly attentive to it. Whilft this right 
 is exercifed, and this intereft aflerted with decency and re- 
 fpedV, I have not a doubt of your rep re fen tat ions being 
 liftened to with attention. The fentiments of fome of his 
 Majefty's prefent minifters, regarding the Company, have 
 been Warm in fupport of their chartered rights, and liberal 
 in profeffing a defire to free them frpm the fhackles of go- 
 vernment : with thefe aflurances, we have every reafon to 
 hope they will not adopt any meafures that are an invalid! 
 of the rights they profefs to defend, or an infringement of 
 the freedom they profefs to encourage. 
 
 B From
 
 2 LETTER I. 
 
 From the refolutions which have been propofed to Par- 
 liament by the Chairman of the Select Committee, and from 
 opinions which have been very freely given, it is generally 
 underftood that Governor Raftings and the-prefent Supreme 
 Council will be removed. This removal may be effected, 
 according to the aft of 1774, by petition to the King from 
 the Court of Directors, or by a new act of Parliament for 
 the reafons to be affigned therein." In either cafe, the peti- 
 tion or the act will go to the eftablifhing of fome delin- 
 quency in the parties, or fome iafufficiency in the appoint- 
 ments. The refolutions of the Secret Committee fpeak 
 plainly in terms of difapprobation of Mr. Haftings's politi- 
 cal conduct ; and they revert to matters fo far back as the 
 year 1772. What Mr. Haftings's conduct hath been, how 
 much it was at firft commended, what attempts were after- 
 wards made to retnove him, how they failed, and what ho- 
 nourable fupport tire Proprietors gave him, it is not my pre- 
 fent intention to enquire, neither (hall I enter into a difcuf- 
 fion of his merits, abilities, and experience. What I mean 
 and wifh is, to draw the attention of the Proprietors to a pre- 
 fervation of their own rights. When Parliament affert 
 their power of removing the Supreme Council, for reafons 
 which they in their wifdom declare to be inefficient, I 
 liften with profound refpect, but not with entire conviction ; 
 and fmce the wifdom, even of Parliament, is fallible, I 
 may be permitted to doubt ; but when I am told, they have 
 a right to go a ftep farther, and appoint what perfons they 
 pleafe to fill the Nations of the Supreme Council, I hope I 
 may be permitted to alfc where is. the freedom of the Com- 
 pany, where are its chartered rights, and above all, where is 
 the emancipation from Government ? 
 
 If Parliament can remove any fet of men, and appoint 
 any other, as often as they pleafe, without confulting the 
 
 Proprietors,
 
 LETTER!. 3 
 
 Proprietors, the power of the latter muft be annihilated j 
 and when they have loft the power, I would advife them to 
 relinquifh the refponfibility ; but if the right of nominating 
 their own fcrvants be yet allowed them, I would then moft 
 earheftly eittreat them to be very circumfpeft in the exercife 
 of it. I entreat them to confider the hazardous ftep, in the 
 iirfl inftance, of recalling, at this juncture, fo old and able a 
 fcrvant as Mr. Haftings ; anJ in the fecond, offending out 
 a fet of men who are ftrangers to the country, its laws, its 
 manners, its cuftoms, language, and politics. Admitting 
 that fome parts of Mr. Haftings's conduct may be exception- 
 able, are there not many which have received and deferve 
 ppplaufe? His abilities are confefied, even by his enemies, 
 and his integrity they cannot accufe. Will the Proprietors 
 remove fuch a man ? And is there no medium between cen- 
 fure nnd difmiffion ? 
 
 If Parliament were to pafs an aft, as they feem to intend, 
 for the guidance of the Company's government in India, 
 I think one may venture to pronounce, from Mr. Haftings's 
 conduct, in the two firft years of his government, that no 
 man would adhere more ftriclly t.o their orders. Whilft 
 he enjoyed the confidence of his mailers, they never found a 
 more obedient or a more capable fervant. When- Govern- 
 ment interfered, and introduced the unfortunate contefts in 
 the Supreme Council, which involved the Directors tbem- 
 ielvcs in party feuds, and when the invifible agency of Mi- 
 niilers fcrved to increafc them, intemperate acts and heats 
 were the conferences both at home and abroad ; and in 
 this interval no permanent plan or fyftem was purfued : but 
 fince it is the benevolent intention of Parliament to guard 
 againft future error from pad experience, and to prefcribe 
 the mode of governing thefe diftant provinces with the 
 greatefc poflible advantage to the Hate, I would fubmit it to 
 B 2 their
 
 4 L E T T E R II. 
 
 their confideration, and that of the Proprietors, whether 
 thefe ends are likely to be anfwered by fending utter flran- 
 gers into that country. If the Proprietors fhould be of opi- 
 nion, that there are no fervants in that country, nor in this, 
 who are worthy of a place in the Supreme Council, and if 
 they think that no fet of men can have refided in India 
 without being rendered unfit for fuch a ftation, or that the 
 Legifiature, with the power to appoint, hath alfo the power 
 to endue others with knowledge, integrity, abilities, and 
 experience, then let them join in the prefent meafures, and 
 try the fatal experiment of recalling Mr. Haftings. 
 
 An INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR. 
 April 1 8, 1784. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Jl N a letter I addrefled to you a few days ago, I gave my 
 reafons for calling your attention to the prefent fituation of 
 your affairs ; and in the hope that my humble labours may 
 not be unacceptable, I fhall venture to dedicate them a 
 little longer to your fervice. . 
 
 The fubjeft which is now the objeft of enquiry and de- 
 liberation, hath, under different circumftances, engaged 
 the ferious confideration of the Proprietors and Parliament 
 near twenty years. It is a fubjeft, however, fo difficult to 
 be underftood, it hath given rife to fo much controverfy, 
 and it hath fo excited the paffions and prejudices of all or- 
 ders
 
 L E T T E R II. 5 
 
 ders of men, that it is not to be wondered at if many erro- 
 neous opinions have been entertained, and fome falfe fyftems 
 adopted. But iince fo much argument hath already been 
 urged, and fo much reafoning hath already been employed, 
 that the cleareft underftanding is puzzled, a few fails may, 
 perhaps, imprefs the mind more forcibly than many argu- 
 ments. If, alfo, experience is more fure than theory, and 
 that future effects may be judged of from iimilar caufes 
 which have already occurred, a plain recital of fome paft 
 occurrences, may, perhaps, lead us to a truer judgment of 
 the fubjedt, than any other mode of investigation. 
 
 In the year 1763, your Government of Bengal was en- 
 gaged in a war with Cofiim Ally Khan, and Sujah Dowlah, 
 that threatened the exiftence of the Company in as great a 
 degree as the prefent war with Hyder Al'y and the Mah- 
 rattas. The politics of the late Mr. Henry Vanfittart, 
 were, at that period, as much defcried as thofe of Mr. 
 Haftings are now; and he, who hath fince been acknow- 
 ledged to have borne a moft excellent character, was then 
 traduced, afperfed, and reviled with all the rage of party. 
 In 1764, you judged it expedient, for the fafety of ths 
 Company's pofleflions, and the reformation of the greateft 
 enormities (as they were then called,) to fend out the late 
 Lord Clive, at the head of a Select Committee, with fpecial 
 powers to reftore peace, and correct abufes. Upon their 
 arrival in 1765, they found the enemy vanquifhed, and 
 peace reftored ; but the work of reformation they repre- 
 iented as one of the labours of Hercules, and compared the 
 fettlement of Calcutta to the Augaean ftable. There was 
 hardly a term of abufe in the Englifh language, which they 
 did not apply to the fervants of that time. At the begin- 
 ning of ^767, his Lordlhip had finilhed the great work of 
 
 re for-
 
 6 LETTER II. 
 
 reformation, and eftablifhed the pacific fyftem To much ap- 
 plauded fmce. 
 
 In a very few years after his arrival in England, this 
 truly great man and. his colleagues were arraigned by Par- 
 liament : and fuch was the violence of the proceedings, and 
 the temper of ihofe times, that the very man who a fe\y 
 years before had received rewards and praifes of the Com- 
 pany, honours from his King, and was fiiled the " heaven 
 born General," was on the point of being {tripped of all his 
 laurels, and was reviled as a plunderer and a murderer. 
 The language he had held to the Court of Directors againft 
 their fervants, was retorted upon him, and he {"aw, and con- 
 felled the injuftice he had dona thejn. In the end he was 
 acquitted ; and we have feen men, in the very fame Parlia- 
 ment, who then perfecuted him with rigour, and were car- 
 ncft for his condemnation, now eager to do juflice.to his 
 memory, and retract their former opinions. 
 
 The pacific fyflem, which hath been lately celebrated as 
 the only true one for the intereil of the Company, and 
 under which we have been faid to profper, and be affluent, 
 had ot been eftablilhed above four years, when it was 
 found to be fo very defective, that an extraordinary and 
 new commiffion was granted to three Supervifors, with con-> 
 trouling powers over all the fettiements. The unfortunate 
 fate of the Aurora prevented our knowing the confequence 
 of this-fcheme. 
 
 In two years after this event, it appeared, the Company 
 were upwards of two millions in debt, and obliged to throw 
 themfelves into the hands of government, to prevent a 
 bankruptcy. At this alarming period, Mr. Cartier, one 
 of the beft, and moft amiable men in the world, was fe- 
 verely cenfured for drawing bills on the Company, and he 
 and fome members of the Council were harfhly difmiffcd. 
 
 Mr.
 
 L E T T E R II. 7 
 
 Mr. Haftings was then looked up to as die only man who 
 could retrieve your affairs ; and for this purpofe was fcnt 
 from your Prefidency of Madras to Bengal. He juflified 
 your choice ; and by a moft diligent exertion of his uncom- 
 mon abilities, he found refources to pay off your enor- 
 mous debt of two millions and an half, and to reftore you 
 from bankruptcy to affluence. He received the warmeft 
 thanks of your Directors, and for two years they were la- 
 vifh in his praife. 
 
 In the year 1774 your affairs were again canvaffed by- 
 Parliament, and an aft paffed, which put the government 
 of Bengal, and all your fettlements on an entire new foot- 
 ing. What the effects of this plan have been, I need not 
 relate! Suffice it to fay, that in the p relent year, 1782, you 
 are again brought before the tribunal of Parliament ; and 
 if, as it is faid, the prefent government of Bengal, like all 
 former adminifcrations, are to be reviled and dif miffed, you 
 may expect to have three, or five gentlemen fent out, who 
 may have a political exiftence of as many years : and how 
 long this circulation and change of men and meafures may 
 laft, or rather, how foon it may put an end to your own 
 exiftence, is a problem that may, perhaps, be fhortly re- 
 folved. 
 
 I fhall take another opportunity to remark upon the facts 
 I have recited, and for the prefent I fhall only obferve, 
 that they plainly (hew the great difficulty of directing the 
 affairs of a country fo very remote, how very fluctuating 
 and uncertain the opinions of men muft be on fuch diftant 
 tranfactions, and that the miniflerial plan of 1774 hath been 
 the moft pernicious of any which hath yet been tried. 
 
 An INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR, 
 
 April 20, 1752. 
 
 L y ET-
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 JLN my laft Letter I gave you a fummary detail of your 
 affairs, and the various plans which had been tried for 
 the laft twenty years : I therein (hewed you, what dif- 
 ferent opinions had prevailed of the fame fhen at different 
 times, what a variety of means had been purfued for the 
 fame end, and how inadequate they had all proved : I then 
 drew one general conclusion, which was, the difficulty of 
 judging of the moft proper meafures to be adopted for the 
 government of fo remote a country ; and I fliall now take 
 leave to be more particular in my inference, and endeavour 
 to apply the paft examples to the prefentoccafion. 
 
 I think the prefent ikuation of Bengal may be aptly 
 compared to what it was in the year 1764, when the late 
 Lord Clive and his Select Committee were fent out to re- 
 itore peace and correft abufes. A dangerous and expenfivc 
 war was juft concluded at that time, and the peace they 
 went but to make, they found eftablifhed on their arrival. 
 From the laft advices by the way of BuiTorah we are in- 
 formed, hoftilities had virtually ceafed between the Mah- 
 rattas and General Goddard ; that Mhadajee Scinda had con- 
 cluded a treaty, and was going with Mr. Anderfon to ne- 
 gotiate a general peace at Poonah ; that the Nizam and 
 Mhoodajee Bhooilah had alfo become mediators ; and that 
 Sir Eyre Coote had obliged Hyder to retire from the Car- 
 natic. If, to this account, we add the arrival of the rein- 
 forcement from Europe, I hope I (hall not be thought too 
 ianguine, or to force the comparifon I mean to make, if I 
 fay, it is more than probable that the perfons^ who are to 
 
 be
 
 LETTER III. 9 
 
 Wfcnt into the Supreme Council at Bengal, will, as Lord 
 Clive did, find it in perfect tranquillity. In this cafe, they 
 will, like their predeceifors, turn their thoughts to the 
 more arduous talk of reformation ; and, like them, they 
 will paint a gloomy picture of your diftrefs. They will 
 tell you, they found the country drained of all its wealth, 
 its revenues ruined by the iron hand of rapacious collec- 
 tors, the mode of collections defective in all its parts, the 
 adminiftration of juftice totally corrupt, the fervants of the 
 Company funk into luxury and diffipation, and that hydra, 
 corruption, rearing his feven, or fifty heads, as they may- 
 be in the humour to paint him. 
 
 To reftore a country from fo deplorable a ftate as this 
 requires no common talents, and you may again be told, 
 as you have already been informed, with a very becoming 
 modefty in the men who drew their own characters, " that 
 a degree of virtue and ability, not to be found in common 
 men, muft be exerted in this arduous talk." The next 
 confederation is, where are men to be found of this defcrip- 
 tion, and by whom are they to be chofen ? Parliament wilt 
 tell you, not in your fervice ; they are all too much 
 tainted with the principles of their education therej and 
 too much concerned in the abufes which are to be corrected, 
 to be trufted with fuch power. No 1 Men of thefe rare 
 virtues are to be found only in the incorrupt legiflature of 
 this kingdom ; and, after they have been duly qualified, 
 by being members of a Select or Secret Committee on India 
 affairs for a feftion or two, they will then have put on the 
 whole armour of knowledge and virtue, and will be com- 
 pletely equipped for the combat of reformation. They 
 will tell you alfo, the wild fchernes of conqueft and ambi- 
 tion are as repugnant to your true interefts as the corrupt 
 plans cf peculation ; thefe, therefore, muft be carefully 
 C provided
 
 10 .LETTER III. 
 
 provided againft, and the illuftrious characters of Ruftam 
 and Effencli muft now be held up as objects of horror, not 
 as examples of imitation ; and, if there beany foundation 
 for the rumour which is gone abroad, we fhall have reafon 
 to acknowledge the paternal care of Parliament, in this ref- 
 pcct at leaft, by the perfons who are fuppofed to be the ob- 
 jects of its choice, except indeed, in the initance of the 
 noble General, who has acquired a fame as immortal as 
 thofe celebrated warriors by his indefatigable labours. 
 After rhefe gentlemen have reiided as long as is requifite 
 for the great bufinefs of the public and themfelves, and have 
 rung the fame changes upon abufes, reformation, corrup- 
 tion, and depravity, with their innumerable train of evils, 
 and when they can with truth aflure you, that, by their 
 unremitted endeavours, the very reverfe of this deftructive 
 fyftcm hath been eftablifhed ; they will return to their na- 
 tive land full of honours, though not of riches, in expec- 
 tation of a peaceable enjoyment of the moderate income 
 they have hardly earned by a painful induftry. But behold 
 the ingratitude and ficklenefs of a nation they have fo ho- 
 nourably and faithfully ferved ! They find committees of 
 the Houfe, both fecret and felect, fitting in judgement upon, 
 and condemning that conduct which, in their own ideas, 
 merited fo much applaufc ; and if Mr. Haftings doth not 
 carry his notions of integrity too far, and will not fcruple 
 to obtain a feat in that Houfe at the expence of a moral and 
 political obligation, they may, perhaps, find him in one of 
 the places they had left. 
 
 From the facts I have already ftatcd of the former con- 
 duct of gentlemen upon precifely fimilar occafions, I do 
 hot think that this is an unnatural picture, or a forced con- 
 clufion. But let us turn from this to another ol.ject, per- 
 haps more worthy of your confederation, namely, your 
 
 right
 
 LETTER III. n 
 
 right to make a choice of your own fervants, and that 
 emancipation which is to form a part of the general refor- 
 mation, the prefent minifters have fo generoufly promiftfd, 
 and fo honourably begun. If Parliament will both difmifs 
 and appoint the fervants who are to govern your affairs, 
 and the Lords of the Treafury are to regulate the orders of 
 your Directors to thofc fervants, in what does your freedom 
 confift ? If you are told that your interefts are infeparable 
 from the nation's, and that it is their duty to watch over 
 this valuable part of the empire in this manner. I have on- 
 ly to reply, that "this argument proves the Company are 
 not free in the fenfe they ought to be. But if the prefent 
 minifters mean fairly, meet them fairly upon liberal grounds. 
 Let there be no clandeftine negotiations with Lords of the 
 Treafury and their Secretaries, but afiert to the Legislature 
 what you deem to be your rights. Bring it to this fhort 
 iffue, that you think you ought to have the power of ap- 
 pointing and difmiffing your own fervants, and that their 
 proper line of duty to the nation, is, their own excellent 
 idea of giving a general outline for the plan of govern- 
 ment, and cf controuling the conduct of the Court of Di- 
 rectors by Committees of Parliament. Let the Proprie- 
 tors treat with Parliament upon enlarged ideas, and on terms 
 worthy of men, who have one common good in view. On 
 thefe principles let them afk whether they are to have the 
 actual appointment of their own fervants, and the real con- 
 duct of their own affairs, without any" other interference 
 of Parliament than the general fuper-intendingcontroul of 
 their Committees. If the anfwer be as candid as the quef- 
 tion is fair, you can have no doubt of what is then your 
 duty. If the right be granted, a proper exercife of it is 
 your firft object ; if it be denied, your next is, to reject the 
 
 refponlibility. 
 
 AN INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR-. 
 
 C 2 LET-
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 IjPON the idea that Parliament mean not {o reftrift 
 their enquiries merely to what they may think wrong in 
 the conduct of Mr. flattings, and from any paft errors to 
 prefcribe fuch rules for a future Governor as they may 
 think right, but that they will accompany their cenfure 
 with difroiffion, and proceed even to new appointments, I 
 have prefumed to hint an opinion that fuch refolutions will 
 affel your chartered rights, Purfuing the fame idea, I 
 .will venture a little farther into the fubject. 
 
 Some of the prefent minifters have been free to declare, 
 that the aft of 1774 infringed your ancient conftitution, 
 and all agree, that your affairs have not been better con- 
 ducted fince the interference of Parliament. I have already 
 faid, that Parliament al confidently with their profef- 
 fions, and take the true line of power and duty, when they 
 infpect the cqnduft of your Directors, and regulate the 
 political rules by which they would have your fervants 
 guided ; but that, when they ftcp beyond this line, and 
 deprive you of the right of appointing your own fervants, 
 they fcireak in upon the regularity of the fyftem, and de- 
 ftroy the harmony. of its parts. If Parliament fhould fay- 
 that they dp this, becaufe you are not capable of conduct- 
 ing your own affairs, that you have no fervants worthy of 
 fuch a truft, and that therefore they make thefe appoint- 
 ments to preferve this valuable part of the empire to the 
 nation ; we fhould, in this inftance, applaud their wifdom, 
 as in all, we obey their power ; but on a review of the paft 
 3ppointn}ents, we cannot fuppofe thefe to have been their 
 
 motives
 
 L E T T E R IV. i 3 
 
 .motives. In 1774, they appointed two of your old fer- 
 vants ; to thefe they added two general officers and a clerk 
 in the War-office. In 1776, they gave you a linen-draper, 
 and in 1781, you were furnifhed with a purfer's clerk, and 
 a director. Hath your intereft been confulted in thefe ap- 
 pointments ? Or hath your affairs been entrufted to better 
 hands than you could have found in the line of your fer- 
 vice ? I think I may fafely anfwer in the negative. 
 
 Amongft the exclufive rights and privileges of your char- 
 ter, none, in my humble opinion, is more effential to the 
 good government of your affairs than the appointment of 
 your own fervants. It is on a proper choice of them that 
 your welfare materially depends ; for on their conduct you 
 muft rely, and to them much muft be trufted. The ap^ 
 pointments in the Supreme Council ought to be looked up 
 to by your fervants,, as the greateft reward, as difmiffipn is 
 certainly the greateft punifhment ; and fince rewards and 
 punifhments are the two great hinges on which all govern- 
 ments turn, that fyftem muft be radically defective which is 
 deprived of them. It is to the power, who confers the 
 honour and can inflict the difgrace to which men naturally 
 lock in the firft inftance, confequently the intermediate 
 body is confidered only in an inferior or fecondary degree ; 
 and whether this may not induce the Directors to think 
 more lightly of their refponfibility, and the fervants lefs 
 refpectfuily of the Directors authority, is a matter worthy 
 your ferious confederation. At all events it is an irregular 
 and unnatural fyftem that you flioulcl have an cxclulive 
 right to the management and trade of thofe countries, and 
 that the firft officers in them Ihould be independent of your 
 choice or cenfure. The pernicious effects of this fyftem 
 you are labouring under at this inftant, and yet it is faid, 
 it is ftill to be continued. 
 
 If
 
 ,4 L E T T E R IV. 
 
 If we are to believe an opinion which is very prevalent, 
 and I confcls my humble connexions do not admit of my 
 obtaining better authority than public report ; the candi- 
 dates for the ftation of Governor-General are General 
 Smith and Mr. Francis. As you muft in this cafe be de- 
 prived of Mr. Haftings's fervice for one of thefe gentlemen, 
 it will be very proper for you to confider their different 
 merits and qualifications, as they appear either on your re- 
 cords, or in thofe fituations of life in which they have come 
 under your obfervation, in order that you may judge where- 
 in you are likely to be benefited by the change. 
 
 General Smith was originally an officer in your fervice 
 on the coaft of Coromandel, where he fervedwith reputation, 
 tinder thofe able Generals, Laurence, Clive, Goote, Mon- 
 fon, and Caillaud ; he returned to England in 1762, with 
 the rank of Major. Many of us recollect thofe circum- 
 ftances, when party ran high in Lcadenhall-ftreet in 1763 
 and 1764, which induced the late Lord Clive to procure 
 him the rank of Colonel in the King's fervice, and the poft 
 of fecond in command in Bengal. He arrived there in 
 May, 1765. He commanded an army of obfervation in 
 1766. In 1767, he was promoted to the command of the 
 army agd third member of the Council and Select Commit- 
 tee ; until the latterend of 1769, he refided chiefly out of 
 your provinces -at Allahabad. In the month of December, 
 that year, he returned to England, and if report be true, 
 with treble the fortune that Mr. Haftings now has, after 
 more than thirty years fervice, and ten of thefe, Governor 
 of Bengal. 
 
 . Mr. Francis was forced upon you, and taken from a very 
 humble line of life to be placed in the confpicuous ftation 
 of a Supreme Counfellor ; and from the peculiar circum- 
 ^tances of the times, and the bent of his talents, he was 
 
 more
 
 L E T T E R IV. 15 
 
 more than a " filent fenator." His pen was not of lefs 
 ufe than his cafting voice to the gentlemen whofe plans he 
 defended by the former, and whofe meafures were carried 
 by the latter. Endued with a quick apprehenfion, and 
 abilities rather fprightly than folid, affifted by the know- 
 ledge of others in the revenues, and happy in his manner 
 of drefling the materials with which he was furnifhed, he 
 hath gained a reputation for knowledge more fpecious than 
 real. 
 
 Mr. Haftingshath been bred from a very early period of 
 life in your fervicc. To great abilities and a perfect know- 
 ledge of the language, laws, cuftoms and manners of the 
 people of India, is joined an experience of upwards of thir- 
 ty years. He hath been tried in every rank and ftation in 
 your fervice, and in all he hath given undoubted proofs of 
 an unfhaken integrity. He reftored your affairs from the 
 loweft ebb to their higheft grandeur. He hath raifed larger 
 revenues, found more refources, opened more channels of 
 trade, and fent home larger inveftments than any of his 
 predeceflbrs. To his great exertion, -and fhat decifive 
 conduct which marks the man of genius, are you greatly 
 indebted for the fafety of the Carnatic. The plan of relief, 
 fo ably executed by that camplete General, Sir Eyre Coote, 
 was propofed by Mr. Haftings, and Carried into effecl: by his 
 cafting voice. 
 
 This is a very fummary, perhaps imperfect iketch of 
 the public characters of thefe gentlemen, and I may not 
 probably have done juftice to the merits of any of them; 
 indeed my only aim, in what I have faid, is to induce you 
 to examine more thoroughly into the pretenfions of each, 
 that if the decifionbe left to you, you may make it with 
 propriety. 
 
 AN INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 JL HERE are fome material points I have only hinted at 
 in my former Letters, which, as they deferve your moft par- 
 ticular attention, may not be unworthy of a farther difcuf- 
 fion. The firft is, that you fhould endeavour, by every 
 poffible means, to re-eftablifh yourfelves and your fervice, 
 upon that independent footing, to which your charters give 
 you the faireft claim. The next is, that you fhould revert 
 to your true conftitutional plan, of promoting your own 
 fervants to thofe honours, which ought to be the reward of 
 faithful fervices. 
 
 I have explained myfelf fo freely, in regard to the con- 
 trouling power of Parliament, and to what line that power 
 fhould limit itfelf, that I hope my meaning cannot be mif- 
 taken in the expreffion of independent footing; but left 
 any doubt fliould remain, I will be ftill more explicit, and 
 fay, that footing on which you condufted your affairs, be- 
 fore Parliament appointed a Supreme Council and a Supreme 
 Court of Judicature, and before Minifters made patronage 
 in the eaft a fupplement to that of the weft. If we may 
 be allowed to judge from experience, your original plan 
 was certainly the beft ; for fince the interference of the one, 
 and the influence of the other, your councils have been 
 diftra&ed abroad, your Directors divided at home, and 
 your whole fervice falling to decay. 
 
 In coiifidering the next point of promoting your own fer- 
 vants, I am naturally led to the fubjeft I touched upon in 
 my laft Letter, regarding a proper choice of perfons to fill 
 the important ftations in your Supreme Council ; and con- 
 formably
 
 L E T T E R V. 17 
 
 formably to thofe principles on which I ground my own 
 opinion, and prefume to offer it to you, I would reject Mr. 
 Francis's offers to return to Bengal, becaufe he was not bred 
 in your fervice. I hope both Parliament and ourfelves will 
 have too much liberality to make invidious comparifons of 
 talents or of principles ; but giving Mr. Francis full credit 
 for his fhare of both, I am fure he will not fuffer in either, 
 if I declare my opinion, that you have fervants not at all 
 inferior to him in thefe refpe&s; and his having been once 
 forced into your fervice, can furely never be made a plea 
 for the fame injuftice. 
 
 The removal of Mr. Mailings, and particularly at this 
 juncture, is another point at which I have hinted; but it is 
 in my humble opinion, a fubject of fo much importance, 
 and involves fo many confequences, that I do ferioufly 
 hope, when Parliament confider the fervices he hath per- 
 formed, the abilities be hath difplayed, and the proofs he bath 
 given of uncorrupt conduct and fpotlefs integrity, they will 
 not deprive the Company of the benefit of thefe abilities, 
 and this integrity, for what they may deem errors in judg- 
 ment, or becaufe his politics have proved rather unfortu- 
 nate in the event than unwife in the plan. 
 
 But if political errors arc to be aliedged as reafons for the 
 removal of Mr. Haftings, they ought, in fairnefs of argu- 
 ment, to be equally cogent againft the appointment of any 
 other perfon who may have fallen into them ; and by the 
 fame parity of reafoning, it may be alked, whether Gene- 
 ral Smith adopted a wife policy, in keeping a brigade at AU 
 lahabad, and depriving the provinces, by its being paid out 
 of them, of 300,000!. of circulating fpecie annually ? Whe- 
 ther it was a prudent meafure to have advifed a deputation 
 in 1768, to the Vizier, which was expenfive and ufelefs, 
 and whether it was judicious to have propofed a plan for 
 D ' opening
 
 ,g L- E T T E R V. 
 
 opening die Company's Treafury, which reduced them to 
 bankruptcy, and for only confenting to which, the virtuous 
 Mr. Cartier was difm-iiTed your fervice. 
 
 The peculiar hardlhip of Mr. Haftings's fituation, call* 
 for more than common candour from Parliament and the 
 Proprietors. He is tried by the fevereft teft which can be 
 applied, and under fu.ch circumftances as hardly any con- 
 duit can efcape from cenfure. Judgment hath been pafled 
 on the fuccefs of his meafures, not on the wiklom of their 
 d.efign. Plans, which, were ably formed, have been con- 
 demned, becaufe they were weakly executed. He is ar- 
 raigned at a tribunal, where he cannot plead his own caufe, 
 and to w.hich his moil inveterate enemy hath been admitted 
 as a principal wU-nefs. 
 
 When the. mind hath been long intent upon one fubjefr, 
 it is liable to be heated by its.xxwn xeafonings, and a falfe 
 glare will fometimes dazzle the cleaxeft underftariding ; one 
 train of ideas is often purfued with an eagernefs that ex- 
 cludes, any other., and our utraoft cautioa will not always. 
 guard us againft prejudice. Tofome fuch caule, or to.fome 
 imperfe&ipn of; our nature, muft we attribnte an inference 
 in the laft Report of the Seleft Committee, that imputes to- 
 Mr. Haftings. his being accefiary to the profecution of Nund- 
 comar, at a, time, when he had brought an accufation 
 againft him. I will be bold to fay, that if the gentlemen 
 of the Committee will take the pains to fift that matter tho- 
 roughly,, they will be, convinced Mr. Haftings was not only- 
 ignorant of the apprehending of Nundcomar, but that his 
 conduft would then, as it.will now, ftand the fevereft exa- 
 mination; and, as a proof that Mr. Haftings had nothing 
 tp fear from that accufation, wWch it is infinuated he fhrunk 
 from, the very fame, charge was afterwards renewed to -the 
 very fame Council, and a particular committee appointed by 
 
 them,
 
 L E T T E R VI. 1$ 
 
 them, confifting of Meffrs. Maxwell, Anderfon, and Grant^ 
 to examine into this affair. Their commiffion lafted fome 
 months, and, after the moft minute inveftigation, it ap- 
 peared, there was not the lead foundation for the charge. 
 This is a matter of faft, capable of inftant proof, for the 
 Diary of their proceedings is, or ought to be, amongft the 
 records of the India Houfe. It is much to be lamented, 
 that, where fails were to be eftablifhed, infinuations fhould 
 have been reforted to, and the gentlemen would have done 
 well to conlider, that if any of them fhould apply to fill 
 thofe ftations their reports tend to vacate, how forcibly the 
 argument of inference may be retorted upon them. 
 
 1 have been led to make this remark on a paragraph of 
 the Report of the Seleft Committee, becaufe, when I am 
 contending for the character of Mr. Haftings, and recom- 
 mending him to your protection, I am unwilling that an, 
 irnpreffion fhould remain on your minds to his prejudice, 
 which it is in my power to remove ; and I am confident, 
 from the characters of the gentlemen of the Committee, 
 that they will be equally glad with yourfelves to have any 
 point cleared up, which may affecl: the character of an in- 
 dividual, whole conduct may be the objet of their en- 
 quiry. 
 
 An INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 I N the" letters I have hitherto troubled you with, I have 
 
 endeavoured to draw your attention to the prefervation of 
 
 your own rights, and to induce you to turn your thoughts 
 
 D2 to
 
 ae L E T T E R VI. 
 
 to the appointment of a proper perfon to be your Governor 
 Genera' If I fhould have been fortunate enough to have 
 fuggefted any hint that may be ufeful, or flatted any idea 
 that may be improved by your better judgment, I (hall 
 have anfvvered every purpofe that the principles on which I 
 have written, prompted me to hope for. But the temper 
 of the prefent times, is, perhaps, too violent for an appeal 
 to calm reafon. I fee, and dread the powerful effects of 
 eloquence urged to its utmoft exertions, by a heated imagi- 
 nation. The paffions are again roufed, and the ftream of 
 prejudice, which had either flackened or been diverted into 
 other channels, now returns with redoubled force. Your 
 fervants in India can do nothing right. Their wars are 
 plans of thunder ; their treaties are compacts of injuftice ; 
 and theirfelves monfters of iniquity. Thefe are the topics 
 on which declamation delights to indulge; a thoufand 
 caufes contribute to their being liftened to with applaufe ; 
 and if one inftance be found to juftify a particular ftigma, 
 the principle becomes general, and the conclufion is applied 
 to all. To fuch lengths hath this indifcriminating ipirit 
 proceeded, that political conduct hath been tried by tht teft 
 of moral re&itude, and claims, which originated in con- 
 gueft, are to be reconciled to equity. If fyftems like thefe 
 were adopted by the fpeculative moralift, and fupported by- 
 ingenious reafoning, the novelty would not be much to be 
 wondered at ; and the arguments might ferve to amufe, 
 though they did not convince : But when thefe fentiments 
 are carried into praftical life, I fear the world is not refined 
 enough to adept them ; and however right we might be in 
 our principles, it is much to be apprehended the confe- 
 quences would be fatal. Let us only fuppofe the moral 
 plan to be put into execution, and orders to 'be given that 
 as it was the greateft degree of injuftice to withhold the 
 
 Mogul's
 
 L E T T E R VI. 2t 
 
 Mogul's tribute, the arrears fhall be paid him to the pre- 
 fent time; that, as it was equally wrong to deprive him of 
 the provinces of Corah and Allahabad, they Ihall be imme- 
 diately made over to the Mahratta Chief, to whom his 
 Majefty granted a phirmaun for their poffeffion ; that the 
 arrears, of Chout, which have been unjuftly with-held from 
 the Mahrattas, be paid as foon as poflible the ftate of the 
 treafury will admit, and that in the mean time, the provi- 
 fion 6f goods for Europe be prohibited, in order to afford 
 a larger proportion of the revenues to liquidate this juft 
 claim. 
 
 There are feveral other demands, which, according to 
 this moral reformation, would require a fimilar adjuftment; 
 but thefe inftances may, perhaps, be fufficient to evince 
 that, as moral virtue neither is, nor can be always pra&ifed 
 in affairs of government, fo it is unreafonable to make it 
 the ftandard for political tranfa&ions. Without fuffering 
 ourfelves to be deceived by the fpeculative arguments of in- 
 genious men, and without mifleading ourfelves by a vain 
 expectation of more virtue than is pra&ifed in human af- 
 fairs, let us endeavour to feek that good which is attainable, 
 and to eftablifh that re&itude which is practicable. Let 
 fome confiftent plan be formed, applicable to the manners, 
 cuftoms, and religion of the people, for whom it is intended ; 
 commit the execution of that plan to your fervants, and 
 punifh them if they difobey it. But if you are neither to 
 form your own plans, nor have the controul of your own 
 fervants ; if laws are to be forced upon you, that annihilate 
 the powers of your government, and alienate the minds of 
 the people you are to govern ; if a iyftem, compofed of 
 jarring elements, is intruded upon you, how is it poffible 
 your fervants fhould aft without offending the law or be- 
 traying your intereft ? A more diftrelsful dilemma cannot 
 
 be
 
 X2 L E T T E R VI. 
 
 be conceived, and we have a ftriking proof, that a laudable 
 endeavour to compofe the inevitable flrife of oppofite con- 
 tentions, is likely to be punifhed as a criminal aftion. 
 
 With all thefe proofs of hypothetical reafoning, let u 
 nc* recur to it again. Let us endeavour to avail ourfelves 
 <>l the aid of common fenfe and the benefit of experience. 
 Let us try whether the abilities which have proved ufeful 
 to us in time of need, may not be fo again. Let us appeal 
 to fab, and not to theory. Whether the Mahratta war 
 was juftifiable or not, and whether the Court of Directors, 
 or the Council of Bombay were right in their politic-!, is 
 now a matter of fpeculation ; and the fact I would appeal to 
 is, whether in the prefent fituation, you can find a man fo 
 capable of fupporting your drooping interefts as Mr. 
 Haftinc;s ? I believe it is a fact, which will not be difputed, 
 that he hath found more refources to affift your armies than 
 any other man, and that he is now looked up to by the 
 Pretklency of Madras and Sir Eyre Coote, as the moft 
 capable perfon of preferving your power in India. It will 
 be very difficult to tranfufe the ideas of a Britiih Houfeof 
 Commons into the natives of Alia; and an act, that feems 
 wife to the enlightened underftanding of the former, may 
 have a contrary effect on the contracted minds of the latter ; 
 hence, however proper the legillature may think it to re- 
 move Mr. Haftings, be allured the confequence will be the 
 very reverfe of what they intend ; for in whatever light his 
 conduct may be feen here, it is very certain the Indian 
 powers behold it with admiration and refpect ; and however 
 ludicrous the names of Ruftum and Plffendi, may found in 
 Kngland, moft afTureclly the companion does not convey a 
 ridiculous idea to a native of Indoftan. 
 
 Ambition and conqueft, rapacity and injuftice, are inex- 
 hauftiblc themes for oratorial powers ; and, in the prefent 
 
 difpofition
 
 LETTER VII. 23 
 
 difpofition of men's minds, fuch charges are admitted on 
 the bare authority of an eloquent fpeaker ; but we, who 
 ought; to look to conferences, and carefully to examine the 
 truth of premifes, fhould not be feduced by the charms of 
 eloquence, or biaffed by the influence of prejudice. Our 
 fureft guide is experience, and vvhilft we have facts to appeal 
 to, let us not have recourfe to fuppofition. Is your prefent 
 Governor-General a rapacious man ? his moderate fortune 
 acquits him of fuch an imputation. Hath any corrupt mo- 
 tive ever been attributed to him, which hath not been fully 
 confuted when it was fairly brought forward ? Witnefs ther 
 accufation of Nundcomar, of which I fpoke in my laft let- 
 ter. Have not his abilities been proved to you in various 
 inftances, and hath not he, on fome important occafions, 
 refcued you from diftrefs ? Witnefs the affluence he reftored 
 you to, when he firft became your Governor, and his late 
 exertions on the invafion of the Carnatic. Is there a poten- 
 tate in India who doth not reverence Mr. Haftings ? And 
 did not the Nizam profefs an implicit confidence in him, at 
 a time that he had none in any of your other Prefidencies ? 
 In Ihort, there are fo many proofs of Mr. Haftings being 
 pofTefled of fuch rare virtues, and fuch extraordinary abi- 
 lities, and of his being fo univerfally refpedted by all the 
 powers in India, that the confequence of recalling him, at 
 this time, may be fatal to your affairs. 
 
 Au INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR. 
 
 I 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Can eafily conceive that Mr. Haftings's late miraculous 
 efcape from aflaffination fliould be an unpardonable crime 
 ia the eyes of his thwarted competitors; but wherein he 
 
 fhouM
 
 24 LETTER VII. 
 
 fhould be liable to cenfure for bis part in thofe refolutions 
 of the Supreme Council, which are fuppofed to have pro- 
 voked the diabolical attack, is, I muft own, far beyond 
 the ftretch of my fagacity. 
 
 The motives which led this deed of horror, as far at leaft 
 as conjecture can trace them, are undifputed to have arifen 
 from a demand made by the Governor General and Su- 
 preme Council, on Raja Cheyt Sing, a dependant and tri- 
 butary Zemindar, for a trifling addition to his annual rent, 
 in fupport of three battalions of feapoys, during the con- 
 tinuance of the war with France. The feveral opinions 
 and unanimous votes of the Supreme Council on this fub- 
 ject may be found in the Appendix to the Sixth Report of 
 the Committee of Secrecy ; and to thofe authentic docu- 
 ments 1 refer, in proof of fomuch of the following concife 
 narrative as relates to the right, the caufe, and the extent 
 of the demand in queflion. The publication of that Ap- 
 pendix will, I hope, iilence. thofe malicious mifreprefenta- 
 tions which have hitherto defignedly milled the public. 
 
 The diftrifts of Gazypore and Benares are a portion of 
 the Subah of Illahabad, and border on our province of 
 Bahar. They produce an annual retenue of more than 
 leventy lacks of rupees, from very low rents, and paid a 
 tribute of twenty-four lacks yearly to the late Nabob, 
 Vizier of Oud, Sujahud Doula ; and it alfo appears from 
 the evidence given by Captain Harper to the Seleft Com- 
 mittee, that they furnifhed a body of troops whenever the 
 Vizier took the field, according to the eftablifhed confti- 
 tution of the Mogul empire. The fovereignty of thofe 
 diftri&s, with all its rights and revenues, was ceded to our 
 Company in 1775, by theprefent Nabob Vizier, Afof-.ud- 
 Doula. A funnud and cabooliet were executed in the 
 form, between the Supreme Council and Raja Cheyt 
 
 Sing, 

 
 LETTER VII. 25 
 
 Sing, the Zemindar, by which he was bound to pay the 
 fame tribute he had hitherto furnifhed to the Nabob Vizier. 
 
 As from that moment the diftri&s of Gazypore, &c. be- 
 came united and incorporated with the reft of the Britifh 
 dominions in that part of India, the Governor- General 
 produced in Council a proportion for reducing Cheyt Sing's 
 irregular, undifciplined and unneceffary troops, by adding 
 a certain portion of them to our own army, to be paid, 
 however, by him. It has always been a point of policy 
 with the Company to difcourage, and to prohibit, if pof- 
 lible, the maintenance of independent forces by any of the 
 Indian powers under our protection. The Nabob of Ben- 
 gal has none ; the Nabob of Arcot has been frequently in- 
 treated, and at laft with effer, to diminifh his military ef- 
 tablifhment; and the connivance to ufelefs and dangerous 
 bodies of troops, kept up by the Rajahs of fome of the 
 northern circars, forms a ftrong article amongft the ob- 
 jeflions made by the Court of Directors to the late Gover- 
 nor and Council of Madras. No political neccffity, no 
 ftipulated exception, entitled Rajah Cheyt Sing to the pe- 
 culiar privilege of a feparate army ; nor was there any 
 doubt of our right as well as power ; as fovereigns, to en- 
 force the meafure recommended by the Governor Gene- 
 ral, and it was over-ruled by the majority, .merely on the 
 plea of a compliment to the Rajah's defir-es. 
 
 In 1778, in confequence of the French war, our military 
 eftablilhment in Bengal being greatly increated, it was pro- 
 pofed in Council (and unanimoufly carried) to call. on 
 Cheyt Sing for fome additional aid towards the fupport of 
 the very extraordinary expenccs of the ftatc ; and it was 
 expreffly fignificcl to him, that it was to continue during 
 the war only. This, in fac>, was nothing more than a 
 modification of the Governor-General's original proportion 
 on our firft accefiion to the fovereignty of Cheyt Sing's 
 E provinces,
 
 2 6 LET T E R VII. 
 
 provinces, and which in time of profound peace it had not 
 been thought neceffary to enforce. The required addition 
 was now very fmall ; five lacks of rupees, and was appro- 
 priated to the payment of three battalions of Teapoys, with 
 European officers. The propriety and juftice, as well as 
 neceffity of this meafure, immediately fecured it the fan&ion 
 of the Court of Directors. 
 
 Hindoos are known to have a natural propenfity to hoard- 
 ing, and Cheyt Sing polTeffes ample means for the gratifi- 
 cation of this darling paffion. It is notorious that he has 
 faved at leaft thirty lacks every year fince he fucceeded to 
 the Zemindary, and including his father's treafure, is fup- 
 pofed to keep locked up from circulation upwards of four 
 millions fterling in fpecie. 
 
 Benares is now the richeft city in India ; a holy afylum, 
 fan&ified by the ftrongeft religious prejudices, and a crouded 
 feminary of Indian literature. An almoft imperceptible 
 tax on its inhabitants, or the moft trivial increaie in the 
 very low rents of the province, would have doubled our 
 new demand : a proportionate reduction of the Rajah's ufe- 
 lefs troops would have anfwered the end, without any inno- 
 vation whatever. Yet this avaricious wretch had the aflu- 
 rance to plead abfolute inability, and to pretend a neceflity 
 of felling his very furniture to pay the firft year's quota ; 
 that of ^the fecond year he rofolutely withheld, till extorted 
 by threats of inftant compulfion. Pretexts of poverty are 
 feldom attended to by Indian governments, unlefs on mani- 
 feft grounds : as thcfe are become the ordinary and univer- 
 fal preliminaries to every payment from every debtor ; and 
 hence it is that no revenues are ever re.i'.iy.cd without the 
 aififtance of an armed force. But thofe pretexts were pe- 
 culiarly fcandalous in the mouth of the richeft inhabitant 
 of Hindoftan. The war has now continued four years, 
 
 and
 
 LETTER VII. 1 7 
 
 and Cheyt Sing has probably paid twenty lacks of rupees 
 on the whole (cxclufive of his tribute) that is to fay, two 
 thirds of the favings of one year's rent ; while the whole 
 revenues of Bengal have been- unavoidably mortgaged for 
 the fame ftate-necefiity. 
 
 'If this tranfaction be not within the line of reafon, of 
 juftice, and of right : if any criminality whatever can be 
 afcribed to the firft propofers of it, there is no poffible fyf- 
 tem of politics, no one aft of any government, that can 
 efcape the ordeal. If neither the unanimity of a Council, 
 which was hardly ever unanimous on any other point ; if 
 the full approbation of the Court of Directors, whofe im-- 
 mediate province it was to decide ; if the certainty of an 
 inherent right exifting in the Mogul Government, and 
 proof pofitive from Captain Harper, of the actual exercifc 
 of that right ; if the folemn ceffion of the fovereignty, 
 with all its appendages, and the ftrong urgency of political 
 necelfity, will not altogether authorize the Company and 
 the Company's fervants to enforce fo inconfiderable a de- 
 mand on one of their acknowledged fubjects, what will ? 
 
 Good God I fliall the commoneft of all the common 
 acts of government, the neceflary proviiion of ways and 
 means be termed a r tilery f Shall the ruling power over 
 twelve millions of people be arraigned in public, or calum- 
 niated in private, for impartially fharing among the feveral 
 members of the ilate, that burthen which muft unavoida- 
 bly be borne fomc how by the whole ? Thefe are canons of 
 juftice, under which an angel could not be fafe. But it 
 fliould feem, that this new doctrine of robbery has already 
 reached Benares ; and that Cheyt Sing has, in conlequence, 
 conceived he might refill, or deftroy the Governor-General 
 of Bengal, with as little ceremony as he would a highway- 
 man or a mad dog. Pardon the exprcflion, I meant not to 
 Ea l>e
 
 o3 LETTER VII. 
 
 be jocular. The fubjet is much too ferious and too alarm- 
 jn"-. Such a deliberate confpiracy for affaflin:\ting a Go- 
 vernor and all his luite, while pafiing on affairs of political 
 importance, through provinces immediately fubjeftcd to his 
 authority ! and that for fo trifling a confideration as fifty 
 thoufand pounds to a man worth near five millions ? It is 
 impoffible. Human nature revolts at the idea. 
 
 There muft have been fome concealed purpofes of ini- 
 qaity to be ferved ; fome pernicious damned fuggeftions 
 muft have poilbned his mind, and urg-d him to this tem- 
 porary frenzy. Some deep complotting lago has, by exag- 
 gerated powers of lies, laid the foundation for this defperate 
 aft, and hood-winked the miferable perpetrator, or he never 
 could have been fo blind to his own intereft, to the little 
 chance of fuccefs, and the impoffible of impunity. He 
 never could otherwife have forgotten the confequences of the 
 unhappy maffacre in his very neighbourhood at Patna. 
 
 He has probably, by this time, feen his folly as well as 
 his guilt : I wifh he may have found his tongue. 
 
 In the mean while, I muft intrcat the favour of thofe gen- 
 tlemen, who can ftile the temporary and neceffary increafe 
 of Cheyt Sing's tribute a robbery, to furnifh me with a term 
 for this horrid attempt. I cannot trace even in idea, its 
 enormous advance of criminality. I Ihould be glad too, 
 that they would fuggeft a proportionate punifhment, for I 
 know not to what criminal jurifdiclion Cheyt Sing may be 
 amenable. I can only guefs what procefs his late Sovereign 
 Shujnh-ud-Doula would have followed on the occafion ; and, 
 I fear, that may feem too fevere to many Britilh inquifitors. 
 AN INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR, 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 AT fcarcely ever happens that, in any fubject of contro- 
 vcrfy, the original argument is ftrictly adhered to. Plain 
 queftions of right and wrong are often puzzled by fubtlety 
 and fophiftry, till the mind knows not on which to decide. 
 Art, prompted by intereft, frequently conceals a fimplq 
 truth, which common fenfe and common honefty would 
 eafily difcover; and, in almoft every debate, fome artifice 
 is practifed by the contending parties. On fubjedts which 
 affect the paffions and interefts of mankind, it is hardly 
 poffible to guard the mind from error and prejudice, or to 
 prevent thefe difangenuous methods of difpute. Perhaps 
 no fubjcct was ever agitated in which the paffions, prejudices, 
 and interests of men were more excited, or concerned, than 
 that of your government, and the conduct of your fervants 
 in India. It was not, therefore, to be expected that a 
 committee of the Houfe of Commons fliould be compofe4 
 of men of fuch equal tempers, as to be exempted from the 
 common failings of their nature, or that fome of thefe ef- 
 fects fhoulcl not be felt, in the courfe of a long enquiry. 
 
 From fome late proceedings of the Select Committee, i| 
 appears, the great original defign of their inftitution hath 
 been departed from, and that their enquiry hath becoire 
 more perfonal than was intended by the Houfe, or even by 
 themfelves; and it is much to be apprehended, that if they 
 recede from general principles to particular inftances, they 
 may at laft deicend to party fpirit, and peribnal confidera-, 
 tions. To warn them of the danger of partiality might, 
 perhaps, be deemed preemption ; but it is certainly my 
 
 duty
 
 , 
 
 * v *- > w ^ c a 
 a large 
 
 3 o LETTER VIII. 
 
 duty to guard you againft the confequences of prepofief- 
 
 fion. 
 
 In the firft report, an inference is drawn from the evi- 
 dence of fome witnefs, which wounds the honour of Mr. 
 Bailings in the niceft part, and which, however warrant- 
 able from the evidence before them, is certainly unjuft in 
 point offaft. It halh already been very plainly proved, 
 that Mr. Raftings was neither privy, nor acceffary to the 
 profecution of Nundcomar ; and I again repeat, that the 
 very fame charge, which he exhibits, was produced before 
 the very fame Council, that it was examined into by a fpecial 
 commiffion of their own appointment, that it was found to 
 be falfe, and that the diary of thefe proceedings are amongft 
 the records of the India Houfc. This report was made two 
 months ago, and it was the evidence, which had then, 
 that the inference was drawn : the Committee are now ex- 
 amining witneffes, to prove the truth of this infinuation ; 
 but I fhould apprehend, you and all the world will agree, 
 that the juftice of this inference muft ftand, or fall, upon 
 the evidence which was given at that time, and that an af- 
 fertion, which is founded on the proof of a prior afl, can- 
 not be juftified by a fubfequent declaration. But fince Mr. 
 Haftings's character is again to appear at your tribunal, for 
 afts which have been examined into, and of which he hath 
 been mod honourably acquitted, it is ncceflary you fhould 
 be reminded of what has pnllcd, as well as be informed by 
 whom he is now accufed. 
 
 The perfon whom the Committee have lately examined 
 relative to this affair of Nundcomar, is a Mr. C -- G. 
 
 c ame a writer into your fervice in 1763, left it with a 
 fortune in 1767, and returned to it in 1774. This 
 gentleman was the very man, who was appointed by Gene- 
 ral Ciavering, Colonel Monibn, and Mr. Francis, to fei/e
 
 LETTER VIII. 31 
 
 en all the houfehold papers and accounts of the Nabob from 
 the year 176410 1772, in order that they might be deli- 
 vered to Meflrs. Maxwell, Anderfon, ^ ^rant, for exa- 
 mination ; as, from thefe papers, the identical charge now 
 alluded to, and brought againft Mr. Raftings by Nundco- 
 mar, was to be eftablifhed. He was directed to difmifs the 
 Nabob's mother from the office of regent, which file held 
 under the fanction of the orders of the Court of Directors ; 
 he was empowered to remove her houfe and family, in grofs 
 violation of the Oriental manners and cuftoms ; he was fur- 
 nifhed with a military force to compel obedience to his or- 
 ders ; and he was authorized to feize, and confine any of 
 the houfehold, who might require fuch treatment. Armed 
 with thefe extraordinary powers, he proceeded to the Na- 
 bob's palace, furrounded it with guards, and feized and con- 
 fined the Begum's* principal eunuch, her confidential fer- 
 vant and chief advifer. After having executed his orders 
 in the moft rigorous manner, after having tried every art to 
 induce the Begum to accufe Mr. Haftings, and after every 
 exertion of power and influence to criminate the Governor- 
 General, nothing could be proved to his difhonour, nor was 
 his integrity in the fmalleft degree impeached. 
 
 Notwithftanding the notoriety of thefe facts, the length 
 of time which hath elapfcd, and that both you and your Di- 
 rectors have honourably acquitted the Governor-General of 
 
 thefe very charges, yet hath Mr. G intruded upon 
 
 the public a renewal of that unjuftifiable abufe, which was 
 a dilgrace to the men who firft beftowed it on the character 
 of Mr. Haftings : a character, fortunately for himfelf, free 
 from every ftain of corruption, and, happily for his friends, 
 fuch as they can ftand forth to juftify with credit and fatis- 
 
 faction, 
 
 * Title of the Nabob's mother.
 
 3Z LETTER Vnf. 
 
 faction. At fuch a time as this, when the flream of preju- 
 dice runs ftrong againft all orders of men who have been in 
 India, the evidence of Mr. Gv might have been be- 
 
 lieved, if he had not luckily difcovered a trait of his cha- 
 racter, which muft difcredit it, even with partiality itfelf. 
 He produced feveral fealed papers to the Committee, which, 
 he affured them, had never been opened, and which, he in- 
 formed them, he had not delivered to the Council, becaufe 
 he ftiould have incurred the general odium of the fettlement 
 by fuch a difcovery. He got pofleffion of this paper by 
 virtue of the power which the Council had given him to 
 feize on all the Nabob's accounts ; confequently, it was his 
 duty to have delivered it to them. As to incurring the ge- 
 neral odium of the fettlement by fuch a difcovery, this can- 
 not be the true motive of concealment, for he had done this 
 long before by his conduct. 
 
 An INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 J. HE refult of the enquiry of the Secret Committee hath 
 been an object of anxious expectation ; and as the refoluti- 
 ons to be formed on their report were likely to affect your 
 rights at home and your affairs abroad, I have endeavoured 
 to draw your attention to a lubject, in which your interefts 
 are To eflentially concerned. 
 
 Hitherto, we could only reafon on circumftances, as they 
 occafionally happened \ and in their progreffive courfc, we 
 
 could;
 
 L E T T E R IX. 33 
 
 could only judge of their probable event. The enquiry 
 hath now ended, the confequence is known, and the whole 
 fubject is fully before us. Let us confider it, for it greatly 
 behoves us fo to do, with ftrift attention and calm delibe- 
 ration : let us diveft ourfelves, if poflible, of prejudice, of 
 paffion, and partiality ; let us not pin our faith upon the 
 opinion of others, but form a judgment of our own ; and 
 let us convince the legiflature, that we are capable both of 
 underftanding, and conducting our own affairs. 
 
 . It hath already been made very clear, that the Secret and 
 Seleft Committees have been inclined to coalefce in their 
 votes of perfonal cenfure, and the nature of their appoint- 
 ments ; and, notvvithftanding the fubjecls of enquiry were 
 fo totally oppolite, that it was not to be imagined their re- 
 folutions could poffibly tend to the fame point, yet it is now 
 pretty plain, a fimilar end hath been purfued, although the 
 means were apparently different; and this end feems to be 
 the removal of Mr. HajYingi ; at leaft he is the principal 
 figure in the piece, and therefore I fhall take leave to con- 
 fider him as the chief object in what relates to Bengal. 
 
 I do not believe that more pains were ever taken to de- 
 preciate a character, than have been ufed againft Mr. 
 Haftings, from the arrival in Bengal of General Clavering, 
 Colonel Monibn, and Mr. Francis, in the year 1774, until 
 the prefent month of May, 1782, when Mr. Goring again 
 appeared as his accufer, and was intruded on the Seleft Com- 
 mittee to bring forward a charge which hath been refuted 
 thefe five years. The three gentlemen above-mentioned 
 declared, " there was no fpecies of peculation, of which the 
 " Governor-General had not been guilty ;" and they ex- 
 erted all the influence of power to fix fome charge upon 
 him. He hath lately been reprefented as the abettor of what 
 hath been called, a legal murder ; and he hath been charged 
 F with.
 
 34 L E T T E R IX. 
 
 with having corrupted the integrity of a Judge. Thefe are 
 accufations of fo heinous a nature, that could they have 
 been juftified, in any degree, Mr. Haftings would not have 
 been the object of envy he now is. But happily for him- 
 felf, his conduct hath been fo free from all corruption, 
 " he hath been fo clear in his great office," that his merits 
 plead for him in the ftrongeft manner, and he now appears 
 af your tribunal with an unblemifhed character ; nor has all 
 the influence of power, the rage of party, or the malice of 
 his enemies, been able to bring the fhadow of a proof to 
 impeach his integrity. 
 
 The Secret Committee were fo far from thinking his 
 conduct had been influenced by interefted views, that they 
 expunged the term which conveyed fo unjuft an idea ; and 
 fo far from being cenfured for difhonourable motives, that 
 the refolutions of the Houfe, which condemn his meafures, 
 apply only to what they deem political errors. With fuch 
 inconteftible proofs of an honeft ani able fervant, as we 
 have experienced in Mr. Haftings, let us not deprive our- 
 felves of the fervices of fuch a man, for errors of judgment, 
 or maxims of policy. His great abilities, his long expe- 
 rience, his refpeVable character amongft the natives, his 
 profound knowledge of their government, language, and 
 policy, his tried integrity, and his acknowledged fervices, 
 are tefts of merit, which we may fafely appeal to, and 
 by which we ought to be guided. In thefe we have a ftan- 
 dard for our judgment, which is certain, and, therefore, as 
 much fuperior to the fluctuating opinions of politicians, .as 
 experience is to (peculation. I have the higheft refpect for 
 the wifdom of many Members of the Houfe of Commons, 
 arid particularly ior that of the learned Lord, who brought 
 forward the refolutions regarding your Government of Ben- 
 gal ; but they contain fome pofitions which are as erroneous 
 
 as
 
 L E T T E R. IX. 35 
 
 as the meafures they condemn, and they afford an additional 
 proof to the many we had before, that all the knowledge which 
 can be acquired by the moil enlarged mind, in the courfe 
 of a Seffion of Parliament, is not fufficient to eftablifh an 
 infallible authority. On thefe refolutions, however, the 
 Houfe of Commons have come to on?, which confirms th e 
 truth of an obfervation made by a member cf that refpe- 
 able body on another occafion, viz. " that our natural 
 " difpofidon leads all our enquiries rather to perfqns than 
 " things ;" * for the only object that I can find out in this 
 vote, is to defire the Court of Directors to petition his Ma- 
 jefty to remove Mr. Haftings. This, I own, has a novel 
 appearance, for your Court of Directors are competent to 
 prefer fuch a petition, without fuch a recommendation. If 
 it be a mere intimation from the Houfe of Commons of their 
 defire to your Directors, I humbly apprehend they can take 
 no more notice of it than of a requeft from the Treafury 
 Bench ; and, I truft, they are fufficiently informed of their 
 duty, to know, that whilft they are bound by an aft of the 
 whole legislature, they cannot be controuled by only one 
 branch of it. I do alfo conceive, that the Houfe have dc- 
 fcended from their own dignity, by fuch a recommendation. 
 If Mr. Haftings hath deferved the cenfure of Parliament, 
 the true conftitutional mode of proceeding againft him is by 
 a bill. If he hath not done any thing to incur fuch a punifh- 
 menf, it furely was beneath the dignity of that auguft aflem- 
 bly, to vote a refolution which was little better than a. re- 
 queft to thp Court of Directors, and which they alone can- 
 not enforce, if it fliould be refufecl. If the legiflature at 
 large think proper to remove Mr. Haftings, we muft obey 
 their power; but I hope we have fpirit enough not to iub- 
 mit either to threats or tricks. 
 
 AN INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR. 
 
 * Vide Mr. Bnrke's fpeech, on preferring a plan for the better fecurity Of the 
 independence of Parliament, &c. page 40, printed for Doufiey.
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 JL HE important fubjecl which hath To long excited our 
 attention," is now upon the eve of determination ; and 
 Parliament will foon decide a queftion, in regard to the 
 government of Bengal, with which our rights and interefts 
 are fo intimately connected, that it would be treachery to 
 ourfelves to remain inactive. The avowed principles of 
 the Miniilry are favourable to the claims of our charter; 
 and if (as we have every reafon to hope) they mean to 
 guide their prefent conduct by their former fentiments, we 
 may allure ourfelves they will not at inconfiftently with 
 their profeilions. They will not fay we have a right to 
 manage our own affairs, and yet deny us the exercile of 
 that right ; they will not fay we ought to appoint and re- 
 move our own fervants, and yet do both themfelves ; in 
 fhort, they will not invade our privileges and infult our 
 underftanding. But as we have had a recent inftance, in 
 the recall of a gallant Admiral in their own department, 
 of the effects of prejudice and paffion, we ought to be 
 doubly fearful of the fame confequences in our affairs ; 
 and as the example is fo clearly connected with our fitua^ 
 tion, as to make us apprehenfiye of its influence, it ough t 
 to warn us of our danger, and make us vigilant to avert it. 
 When we fee that a warm imagination is foon heated in- 
 to intemperance by interelted tales and partial information, 
 and that great talents are exerted to juftify a mifconceived 
 opinion ; it fhould teach us to guard againft the fallacious 
 
 reaibning
 
 L E T T E R X. 37 
 
 reafoning of the one, and the fpecious pretences of the 
 other. 
 
 On thefe .principles let us examine the conduct of the 
 Secret Committee, and if we find that they have been 
 mifled in their own judgment, or are likely to miflead the 
 judgment of others, it is a duty incumbent upon us to c!c- 
 inand a hearing of the Legislature, and to aflert our opi- 
 nions in oppofition to theirs. The firft idea which was 
 entertained and propagated, was, that Mr. Haftings was 
 the author of the Mahratta war ; and for this caufe he was 
 to be removed. This opinion the becret Couimittee loon 
 deftroyed by their report ; and another was taken up, that 
 he fhould be removed for appointing the Chief Juftice to 
 the fuperintendency of the Dewanny Addaulct. 1 his 
 hath been laid afide ; and his conduct with the Vizir Sujah 
 ud Dowlah, in tranfactions that happened eight years ago, 
 and on which judgment hath been parted, was made the 
 fubjedt of cenfure. In what manner, and how unworthy 
 the dignity of Parliament, this attempt to remove him was 
 made, 1 have already hinted at, and therefore will not re- 
 peat the difgraceful circumftance. After all thefe various 
 expedients, another is going to be tried, the effect of 
 which we {hall ibon know. But let the event of this mea- 
 fure be what it may, it ought not to alter our conduct. 
 We have one decided rule to guide us, let Parliament act as 
 it pleafes ; and that is, to contend for the right of ap- 
 pointment and difmiffion of our own fervants, or to relin- 
 quifh the truft altogether. As an individual of the focicty, 
 I can have no doubt of what I muft lofe ; and I am clear, 
 that my firft lofs in felling out will be lefs than what I muft 
 fuffer, if the appointments which are talked of fiiould take 
 place. 
 
 If there be any part of the conduct of Mr. Haftings 
 which the Legiflalure think fo wrong, that he ought to be 
 
 removed,
 
 3 S L E T T E R X. 
 
 removed, and the three Eftates concur in fuch a refolution, 
 we inuft, as in duty bound, fubmit. If the charge be 
 fairly brought, and impartially debated, as in fuch a cafe 
 we doubt not it will, the warmeft advocates of Mr. Haf- 
 tings will not remonftrate. And therefore as fuch a refo- 
 lution mufl be the aft of the united wifdom of this nation, in 
 which no interefted views or paffionate prejudices can have 
 a fhare ; we may hope, that if the fame wifdom is exerted 
 in appointments as well as difmiffion, the fame care will be 
 taken of your interefts in the one as in the other. Report, 
 however, gives us reafon to entertain a different opinion ; 
 and as the report is currently circulated, and generally cre- 
 dited, we ought not to be regardlefs of it. 
 
 It hath been aflerted very publicly, that Mr. Haftings 
 and the whole Council are to be recalled, and the perfons 
 to be appointed in their room are to be Sir George Young, 
 General Smith, Mr. D. Long, and Mr. William Burke. 
 If this aflertion fhould be founded in truth, what are we 
 to think of the motives of recalling Mr. Haftings ? and 
 what recompenfe are we likely to find for the lofs of ap- 
 proved merit and tried integrity ? I feel a repugnance to 
 enter into invidious comparifons of perfonal merit ; nor 
 will I follow the unworthy example of drawing forced infe- 
 rences from affumed principles ; but I will not hefitate to 
 declare, we deferve to lole our rights if we tacitly fubmit 
 to any fet of men being forced upon us without our con- 
 fent : and I do alfo declare, that unlefs I fee the mod 
 candid conduft purfued in the removal of Mr. Haftings, 
 and the moft difmterefted choice in a fucceffor, I never will 
 believe that either the national intereft or your's is confulted 
 by fuch a change. 
 
 An INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR. 
 
 LET-
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 OO many motives corifpire to fix your attention on the 
 proceedings of the Houfe of Commons relative to your af- 
 fairs, that I cannot fuppofe the moft indifferent perfon hath 
 not maturely confidered the confequences of the refolution, 
 which paffed on Tuefday laft, on the motion of the Lord 
 Advocate, and furely no perfon can have reflected on thefe 
 confequences, without being ferioufly alarmed the quef- 
 tion is now no longer whether you lhall have the appoint- 
 ment of your own fervants, but whether one branch of the 
 Legifldture, fhall do what belongs to the whole, and whe- 
 ther you fhall interfere in the management of your own 
 concerns ? It is now no longer a point, that affects merely 
 the character and conduct of individuals in your fervice ; it 
 is become an argument of conftitutional power, and of 
 public concern, in which though your rights are imme- 
 diately ftruck at, yet thofe of the whole community are 
 remotely affected. 
 
 It was afferted in the Houfe of Commons that the Pro- 
 prietors had nothing to do with the recal of Mr. Haftings, 
 but that it was a duty which appertained folely to the Court 
 of Directors. The petition as an abfolute one, is not 
 ftrictly true ; for though the law v t efts this power in the 
 Directors, yet they have never exercifed the unconditional 
 Letter of it, but always fuppoied the fpirit of it meant to 
 include the will of their conftituents : conformably to this 
 idea of its intention, they appealed to them, on a former 
 occafion, regarding Mr. Haftings, on another regarding 
 Lord Macartney and fo they do on every important event. 
 
 The
 
 40 L E T T E R XI. 
 
 The afiertion therefore of the Court of Proprietors having 
 nothing to do with this bufinefs, {landing in oppofition to 
 the remark of one of the members, is not juftifiable in the 
 unlimited fenfe it was ufed, but, intending to convey the 
 idea, that they ought not to be confulted, it is a dangerous 
 and improper do&rine. 
 
 If the Houfe of Commons mean to aflert by their vote 
 of Tuefday, that the Dire&ors ought to recal Mr. Haftings, 
 that they have a right to expect: obedience to fuch a vote, 
 and have a power to compel it, if it be refufed ; I humbly 
 apprehend that fuch an argument cannot be fupported on 
 conftitutional principles ; for if this be granted, they may 
 pafs a vote to-morrow that we ought to divide only four per 
 cent on our ftock, which the Legiflature limits at eight, 
 and by the fame parity of reafoning, they may go on to 
 vote, that we ought to have no exclufive privileges al all. 
 I therefore repeat, that if the vote has this meaning, it is 
 nnconftitutional, and not only the Proprietors, but every 
 good fubject ought to reiift it, for the increafe of privilege 
 is as dangerous as the increafe of prerogative, and a juft 
 exercife of the three eftates is, the true conftitutional bal- 
 lance of the Englifh Government. 
 
 .If the Houfe of Commons mean to aflert that the con- 
 duct of the Governor General hath been fo improper that 
 he ought to be removed, they fhould haveftated the charge, 
 and proceeded in a regular, conftitutional manner by bill 
 but if they only mean to convey their fenfe of what is the 
 duty of the Direftors, I muft agree with an honourable 
 member of their own, that they have brought themfelves 
 into afituation, from which they cannot get out with cre- 
 dit, for I hope we have fpirit enough, not to be dictated to 
 on a matter, in which we have the fole right of judging, a 
 right that every mafter of a family in England enjoys, 
 
 a right
 
 L E T T E R XT. 4 , 
 
 a right which is as facred as our property, and which, if we 
 fuffer to be invaded, we deferve to lofe. The right of Par- 
 liament, even to the territorial revenue is doubtful, but it 
 is the only one in which the three eftates have any pretence 
 to interfere Shall we theu fubmit to the mandate of only 
 one of thefe eftates, and that too on a point in which they 
 have clearly no power ? Much, as hath been faid of the 
 omnipotence of Parliament, I do not believe that the warm- 
 eft advocates for the republican part of our conftitution 
 will venture to affert, that the Houfe of Commons alone 
 have a power to vote any refolution which may affect the 
 right of the fubject Shall their votes controul my houfe- 
 hold ? Shall they difmifs my fervants, becaufe they difap- 
 prove my conduct ? Shall I, as an individual, refift fuch a 
 vote, and will you in your corporate capacity tamely fub- 
 mit to it ? Shall every drunken porter in Weftminfter make 
 the walls of St. Stephen ring with his cries for right, till 
 the licentious found is hailed the voice of God ? And will 
 fo refpectable a body as the Eaft-India Company remain 
 quiet fpectators of an invafion of thofe privileges which 
 it is the boaft of an Englifhman to preferve from the at- 
 tack of either King, Lords, and Commons, whilft we 
 have the exclufive right of trading to the Eaft-Indies, and 
 of ordering and managing the governments in that country? 
 Let us exert that right, and fuffer no interference. If the 
 Legiflature think proper to take away that right, let them 
 do it, and take the refponfibility and the rifk along with 
 it, but let us not have our fervants garbled, and be made 
 cyphers ourfelves, to gratify the paffions, the prejudices, 
 or the imerefts of any fet of men. 
 
 AN INDEPENDENT PROPRIETOR, 
 June 3, 1782. 
 
 G LET-
 
 ( 4* ) 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Right Honourable EDMUND BURKE, 
 
 .LETTER I. 
 SIR, 
 
 AN the following letters, I t!o not mean intentionally to 
 give you offence ; and as you are generally acknowledged 
 to be a man of great urbanity, I hope my freedom will not 
 difpleafe you. 
 
 I was a witnefs on Wednefday evening, of the very un- 
 fortunate dilemma to which his Majefly's minifters were 
 reduced, when Mr. Secretary Fox propofed a vote of 
 thanks to that gallant veteran, Sir George Rodney It was 
 but a few days before, Sir, I faw you fo remarkably active 
 in bringing forward the St. Euflatia bufinefs, that you even 
 quitted your favourite employment in the Eaft-India Select 
 CommitiLee, to attend to it. You beft know, what mo- 
 tions would have been brought forward againft Sir George 
 Rodney if this glorious news had not arrived fo oppor- 
 tunely. I think, with Commodore johnftone, that the 
 brave Admiral's former fervices fhould have ikreened him 
 againft fuch an attack, and againft an abrupt recall, or rather 
 removal from his command ; for-, Sir, not all the ingenu- 
 ity of your friend, Mr. Fox, will be able to perfuade a fenfr- 
 We public, that a recall, however qualified, is not adifgrace
 
 L E T T E R II. 43 
 
 in time of war as fuch, it was moil affuredly, as you well 
 know, intended. I wifh this, Sir, may induce you, and 
 the reft of his Majefty's m 'millers, to be a little more cautious 
 how you remove men in high and important commands 
 from their ftations. How the attempt, which was made on 
 Thurfday laft, to remove Mr. Haftings, Sir Eyre Coote, 
 and many others from their ftations in India happened to 
 fail, you perhaps can by this time account for. Be affu- 
 red, Sir, the Eaft-India Company will not willingly part 
 with the icrvices of fuch men at this moft critical time, 
 even though it fhould be intended to fupply their places 
 with Sir George Yonge, General Richard Smith, Mr. 
 Dudley Long, and your relation, Mr. William Burke, the 
 Agent to the Raja of Tanjore. In various refolutions of 
 the Secret Committee the conduct 'of Mr. Haftings has 
 been mentioned in the warmeft terms of approbation. 
 The epithets, feafonahle, wile, juft, prudent, fpirited, and 
 proper, have been applied to various acts of the Supreme 
 Council, which were proposed and carried by the cafting 
 voice of the Governor-General ; and when the late refolu- 
 tiuns were voted, upon which it was meant to effect his 
 removal, had the Court of Directors obeyed the mandate, 
 the c.nly word which implied a doubt of Mr. Haftings's 
 honour was agreed to be expunged. 
 
 ASIATICUS.' 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 1. H E very active part which you have taken againft 
 
 Mr. Haftings, fince the commencement of the prefent 
 
 Mion, and the ardour with which you ftill purfue the 
 
 inveftigation of his conduct, induces me to offer a few more 
 
 G 2 obfcrva-
 
 44 L E T T E R IT. 
 
 obfervations to your confederation. I do this, Sir, from a 
 fincere belief that you arc a man of honour and integrity ; 
 and that in the profecution of this important object, you 
 are biafled by no private views whatever. You have moft 
 unaccountably miftaken the real character of Mr. Haftings, 
 and you deem it a point of duty, to procure his difmiffion 
 from the government of Bengal. It has been proved, that 
 the Mahratta war did not originate in Bengal. Mr. Haf- 
 tings has been, it is true, cenfured for his conduct in the 
 Rohilla war ; but in commencing it, he was not biaffcd by 
 any interefted views, except for his conftituents, who were 
 relieved by it, from that ftate of bankruptcy, to which the 
 politics of your friend, General Smith, had reduced them 
 but a few years before. During the courfe of the war in 
 the Carnatic, and tne negociations with the Nizam, the 
 conduct of Mr. Haftings is faid to have been wife, feafo- 
 nable, juft, prudent, and fpirited ; taking, therefore, the 
 whole of the fubject into confideration, and ferioufly re- 
 flecting upon the confequenccs of removing fuch men as 
 Mr. Haftings and Sir Eyre Coote, the Court of Directors 
 certainly afted in conformity to the duty which they owe 
 their conftituents, when they refufed to carry into effect 
 that refolution, which you fo ftrehuoufly, and|I dare fay, 
 confcientioufly fupported. I own, Sir, I tread upon tender 
 ground, when I prefume to hazard opinions upon parlia- 
 mentary queftions. I wifh not to give offence, and per- 
 haps one branch of the Legiflature may be competent to 
 dictate to the Eaft-India Company. If indeed your affer- 
 tion was admitted, that the Directors wifh to remove Mr. 
 Haftings, all difficulties would ceafe ; but I have every 
 reafon to believe, that a very great majority, both of the 
 Directors and the Proprietors, would deem Mr. Haftings's 
 recall at the prefent juncture to be the moft unfortunate 
 
 event
 
 L E T T E R II. 45 
 
 event that could befall them ; and they have great confi- 
 dence in Mr. Fox's declaration, to preferve them in the 
 cxercife of their chartered rights. 
 
 Should the Governor-General be preferved from the pre- 
 fent attack, by the firmnefs of his conftituents, who have 
 repeatedly and honourably fupported him againil the whole 
 force of government : you are, I am told, going to bring 
 forward a charge, which muft, as you think, moft effec- 
 tually crufh him ; I mean the bufinefs of Benares, which 
 you reprefent to be ftill more difhonourab'e than Sir 
 George Rodney's at St. Euftatia. Your fentiments upon 
 Mr. Haftings's conduct at Benares, you have explicitly 
 declared in allplaces. The demand of money, which the 
 Governor* General made upon the Raja, for the public fer- 
 vice, although it had the previous concurrence of every 
 member of the Supreme Council, and was afterwards ap- 
 proved of by the Court of Directors, with the knowledge } 
 as I prefume, of his Majcfty's late Miniflers, you term? 
 upon all occaiioas, a fhameful robbery. The requisition 
 for cavalry, propofed by Sir Eyre Coote, and aflented to 
 by the Council General, at a time of real danger, you 
 aiFert to be a grofs violation of a folemn treaty ; with what 
 degree of juftice, I fhall take leave to explain in my next 
 letter. 
 
 A S I A T I C U S. 
 
 LET-
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 J.N my laft letter I prefumecl to point out to the Public 
 the intemperate and unjustifiable heat with which your had 
 invariably mentioned the unhappy aiTair at Benares. His 
 Majefty's lefs prejudiced fervants may perhaps entertain a 
 very different opinion of it, when all the circumftances are 
 fairly and candidly related to them. I know Mr. Haf- 
 tings intimately, and I have feen a great deal of Mr. Burke 
 in the laft fix months j nor will I allow, Sir, that your at- 
 tention to thofe amiable qualities, juftice and humanity, can 
 exceed the Governor-General's. 
 
 By the treaty of Fyzabad in May 1775, the provinces 
 of Benares and Gazypore were ceded to the Eaft-lndia Com- 
 pany, by the prefentVi/ier, AiToph ul Dowlah ; they were 
 at that time under the government of Cheyt Sing, a baf- 
 tard fon of the late Raja, Bulwant Sing, who had himielf 
 been confirmed and kept in the poffefiion of thefe /emin- 
 tlaries by our influence. It was agreed that Cheyt Sing 
 fhould hold them as a vaffal of the Eaft-lndia Company, 
 precifely in the fame manner as he had held them from his 
 late fovereign the Vizier, to whom he had paid twen'y- 
 four lacks of rupees annually, and extra fums, in lieu of his 
 quota 'of troops in time of war, agreeable to the conftitu- 
 tion of the Empire. In my poor opinion, Sir, the queftion 
 is fimply this : Did we enter into an engagement with 
 Cheyt Sing not to demand more than twenty -four lacks 
 annually from him, let our exigencies be ever fo great? 
 If we did not, where was the injuftice in our government, 
 
 ;"'':' of
 
 LETTER III. 47 
 
 of demanding from Cheyt Sing lefs than a moiety of the 
 fums he had paid to Sujah Dovvlah ? That fuch requiti- 
 tions were made by the fuperior power in Bengal, appears 
 from an authority which, I am fure, you will not difpute. 
 Your friend, Mr. Francis, has informed us, that Alliverdy 
 Cawn, during the Mahra-tta invafion, applied to the Raja 
 of Purnea for money on account of the extra expence of 
 the war, who immediately gave him an order upon his 
 banker for twelve lacks of rupees. The Raja flood pre- 
 cifely in the fame fituation with refpeft to Alliverdy Cawn, 
 as Cheyt Sing did to our government when the demand wa 
 made upon him. 
 
 Our army continued upon a peace eftablifhment from 
 May 1775 to July 1778 : the Raja, of courfe, paid his 
 annual tribute, and no more. When we received advice 
 *>f a rupture with France, it was thought neccffary to raife 
 feveral new corps, in all twelve battalions ; and Cheyt 
 Sing was very equitably called upon by the unanimous 
 voice of the Supreme Council to contribute his proportion 
 towards this additional expence. The annual fum was 
 fixed at five lacks of rupees. Mr. Mailings was directed 
 to write to the Raja, and to affure him he fhould not be 
 fubjefted to this extra payment after the conclufion of the 
 war. Cheyt Sing reluctantly complied with the requifition. 
 The tranfaction was related tc the Court of Directors, who 
 warmly approved of it. The fecond year, when there was a 
 great probability of a change in adminiftratiori in Bengal, 
 Cheyt Sing pofitively refufed to pay the money ; but Sir 
 Eyre Coote joining heartily with the Governor-General 
 in fupport of the Company's authority, two battalions of 
 feapoys were marched to his capital, and he then com- 
 plied. The third year he again refufed, and be accom- 
 panied the refuful by a declaration of his utter inability to 
 
 pay 

 
 4 8 LETTER HI. 
 
 pay this fum any longer. Whatever impreffion the plea of 
 inability may make in England, every man who has ferved 
 in Bengal muft know the falfity of it. By the inoft mo- 
 derate accounts, Cheyt Sing became poffelled of two mil- 
 lions llerling in fpecie upon the death of his father. The 
 annual revenues of Benares, &c. are 75 lacks of rupees ; 
 and the Raja paid us 24 lacks annually the firft three years, 
 and 29 lacks from 1778 to 1781. If, therefore, the de- 
 mand is founded upon juftice and precedent, the plea o 
 inability will at once appear falfe and evafive. The Raja 
 had fubmitted to demands infinitely more oppreffive when 
 he was a vaffal to Sujah Dovvlah. Captain Harper has told 
 your Select Committee laft year, that the Zemindar of 
 Bernares furnifhed afiiftance to the Vizier in time of war, 
 as a matter of courfe. In fhort, I never heard the juftice 
 or the propriety of the demand called in queftion by any 
 man, at all converfant in the conftitution of the Mogul 
 empire : yet you, Sir, are pleafed at all times, and in all 
 places, to term it a fhameful robbery. I believe you are 
 candid enough to allow, that Mr. Haftings or his friends 
 have not profited by it. Sir, I applaud the goodnefs of 
 your heart, but " you have paffions that outftrip the 
 " wind." I hope, however, that the good fenfe and mo- 
 deration of the Englifh nation, already roufed by the vio- 
 lent perfecution of Sir George Rodney, (whofe crime, I 
 think, was robbery too in your idea) will prevent the Bri- 
 tifh interefts in India from falling a facrifice to them. 
 Every reafonable man, connected with the Company, is, 
 I allure you, Sir, alarmed at your violence. To overfet, 
 in one moment, all our eftablifhments in the Eaft ; to re- 
 call men who have retrieved our affairs, when reduced ta 
 .the laft diftrefs, and when they were deemed defperate both 
 at home and abroad ; appears, at the firft view of it, to be 
 
 abfolute
 
 L E T T E R IV. 4g 
 
 abfolute inadnefs. Yet fuch would have been the confe- 
 quences, if the motion which you fo warmly fupported on 
 the 1 6th had been cordially received at the India-Houfe, 
 It ran as follws : " That it is the duty of the Court of Di- 
 reftors to remove thofe men, in whateuer degree employed, 
 &c." including Mr. Haftings, Sir Eyre Coote, Mr. Whee- 
 ler, and almoft every civil and military fervant of rank in 
 India. 
 
 In my next letter I (hall take leave to relate the unhappy 
 confequences of Cheyt Sing's intemperate and unconftitu- 
 tional refiftance. 
 
 ASIATICUS. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 XxS the unfortunate events which followed the refufal of 
 Cheyt Sing to comply with the demands of the Supreme 
 Council, areas yet but imperfectly related, I fhall forbear 
 any farther comments upon them for the prefenr, except to 
 obferve that the letter which Cheyt Sing wrote to Mr. 
 Haftings, was not a fubmiffive one, and that if it is com- 
 pared with the former letters of that Rajah, or of Bulwaut 
 Sing to former Governors, it will be found that Mr. 
 Haftings is juftified in faying that it was offenfive both in 
 ftyle and fubftance. The feverity which Mr. Haftings 
 cxercifed to the Rajah, a Zemindar dependent upon our go- 
 vernment, was not greater than that which the Supreme 
 Council authorifed Mr. Goring to exercife in 1775, to a 
 perfon of infinitely fuperior rank I mean the Begum, the 
 widow of Meer Jaffier, and the guardian of the Nabob o 
 Bengal. 
 
 H Mr.
 
 50 LETTER IV. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Pitt has wifely faid, that fpeculative opi- 
 nions would ruin England. If we carry your fpeculative 
 opinions into practice, I am fure we have no claim to do- 
 minion in Alia ; all or-r poffeffions there are usurpations 
 undoubtedly ; we gained India by the fword, and by the 
 fword we muft preferve it to this country. Not, Sir, that 
 I am lefs inclined than yourfelf to juftice, moderation, and 
 good faith, but we muft fometimes fubmit to political ex- 
 pediency. The gentlemen of the Houfe of Commons, who 
 ately voted againft Mr. Haftings, have borne ample teftimony 
 to his integrity and fplendid talents, yer, inftead of laying 
 down a precife line for his conduct .in future, they come 
 to a refolution, that it is the duty of the Court of Direc- 
 tors to remove him, in order to deprive his conftituents of 
 the benefit of his talents hereafter. The unanfwerable ar- 
 guments of Commodore Johnftone had no weight with 
 them, unlefs it were to draw from you that violent and 
 unjuftifiable declaration, that the Court of Proprietors had 
 no voice in the removal of Mr. Haftings fiom the go- 
 vernment of Bengal. I am a Proprietor, Sir, and no in- 
 coniiblerable part of the fmall fortune I acquired abroad, is 
 vefted in Eaft-India Stock. This declaration of your's, 
 would, I confefs, give me great alarm, were I not well af- 
 fured that our prefent Di.re&ors will not attempt to move, in 
 a matter of this importance, without confulting their con- 
 ftituents. You have obferved, Sir, that until Directors, 
 Proprietors, and in fliort the whole nation fhall get the 
 better of avarice, we cannot hope for amendment. I con- 
 fefs this was an excellent fally, and the language is admirable 
 from a man who has juft jumped into the receipt of 4000!. a 
 year, belldes douceurs for the various branches of his fa- 
 mily. But if we, who depend upon the receipt or our di- 
 vidends for a fubfiftence, are to be deprived of ir^ in order to 
 
 carry
 
 LETTER IV. 51 
 
 carry your fpeculative opinions into pra&ice, what is to be- 
 come of us ? I was., I confefs, very well pleafed with one 
 declaration of your's, that no man who had been fufpefted 
 of peculation abroad, or convifled of bribery c(t bome t fhould 
 fill a flation of importance in India ; I am now therefore 
 perfectly convinced, that fome gentlemen who have been 
 publicly talked offer the government of Bengal, or as mem- 
 bers of that adminiflration, may give up all hopes of fuc- 
 ccfs fmce they certainly come within that defcription of 
 men, whom you have fo juflly pronounced to be improper 
 perfons to fill iuch honourable and refpe&able ftations. 
 
 ASIATICUS. 
 
 Ha GEN-
 
 To the PROPRIETORS of EAST-INDIA STOCK. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, 
 
 J.T cannot but be matter of furprize to every 'impartial 
 obferyer of public affairs, that the labours of two moft re- 
 fpe&able Committees of the Houfe of Commons, exerted 
 through many months with unabated ardour, fhould appear 
 at laft to have hardly any other object, than the removal of 
 a Governor, or Governors, from fome of the Eaft-India 
 Company's fettlements. The aftonifhment muft be greatly 
 increafed, when it is remarked, that fo much energy and 
 fiich powerful eqgines, have not yet proved equal to the 
 attempt. The talk of affixing the ftigma of culpability on 
 an unblemlfhed character becomes every day more diffi- 
 cult. Brilliancy of imagination, and fertility of argument, 
 have rufhed like p. torrent through the Houfe : fhift, fub- 
 terfuge, mifreprefentation, and quibble, have almoft car- 
 ried our underftandings by ftorm without doors ; and yet 
 the grand affair is ftill incomplete. The delay of a week, 
 of a day, of an hour, is felt on both fides but with very 
 different fenfations. The friends of the Governor-General 
 are convinced that the integrity, thewifdom, the humanity 
 of that great man will, and muft, fooner or later, be uni- 
 verfally acknowledged, and they flatter themfelves, that 
 every day gains them a new profelyte ; hence their wifh to 
 procraiiinate. Internal conviction is no lefs powerful on, 
 the oppofite party, and actuates on their fears in a more 
 than equal proportion. As the eyes of people gradually open, 
 the private or partial, or unworthy views of certain inte- 
 rcfted men may at length glare out in their true colours ; 
 and the moft complying fpirits may in time grow tired of 
 
 bowing
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 bowing to the gauze of patriotifm, whenever it fails to 
 conceal the deformity of perfonal ambition. Hence their 
 almoft indecent urgency of difpatch. 
 
 The two Committees, which for a longtime were thought 
 hoflile to each other, have now joined iffue, and feemed 
 determined to keep up the ball of cenfure, by a perpetual 
 repercuflion of attack. The Seleft Committee, in examin- 
 ing the proceedings of the Court of Judicature in Benga 1 , 
 difcovers Mr. Haftings to have tampered with the Indepen- 
 dence and integrity of a Judge. Scarce has the accufation 
 gone forth, when the neceffity and policy of the meafure in 
 queftion is fo accurately difplayed, as to convert it to a moft 
 laudable effort for the public tranquillity. The learned 
 Chairman from the Secret Committee brings up forty-four 
 refolutions, fome of faft, and many otherwife ; but with 
 no other oftenfible objel than that of criminating Mr. 
 Haftings in his political department. Before he can get 
 them through the Houle, their purport is canvafled without 
 doors, and the principle of moft of them refuted, from the 
 very text whence they were drawn. The Seleft Committee 
 then endeavour to mould into fome fhape an ill-digcftcd 
 mafs of old and long-refuted charges, fifhed up afrefh from 
 one Mr. Goring. This ftubborn embryo has not yet ac- 
 quired the form or confiftency of a Report ; but whenever 
 it fhall appear, it will certainly undergo fome difcuflions, 
 not quite palatable to its parents and god-fathers. In the 
 mean time, the game is held out by an artificial difpofition 
 of the imperfeft fragments of a mutilated (lory from Be- 
 nares. This arrived too late to conftitute a component fcc- 
 tion of the fixth Report from the Secret Committee ; but 
 too opportunely, not to become a moft valuable rider ^ or 
 after-piece. The grand battery of forty-four refolutions 
 was already opened, but the laft piece was now to be new 
 
 charged,
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 'charged, and levelled, like that of a rifleman, point blank 
 at the enemy's General : great part of its force lay in its 
 precipitancy. On Monday, a new report and motion re- 
 fpccYing the Benares builnefs is promifed in the Houfe of 
 Commons for the next Tuefday; the publi (her takes up 
 the whole of Monday night to print it; on Tuefday, out 
 it comes, as a frefh Report, (being nothing but an abridged 
 and avowedly imperfect ftatement of the behaviour of Ra- 
 iah Cheyt Sing, Zemindar of Benares, in a fhort letter 
 fromMr.Haftings,and another fhort letter from the Council- 
 General of Bengal) and this phantom of intelligence (as if 
 it were a full proof of delinquency) is followed up with a 
 <!irec~l propofal for the recall of Governor-General Haftings, 
 by a modification of the forty-fourth refolution. Thus is 
 the Benares bufmefs, which every builder, who knew any 
 thing of Afiatic architecture, would reject as a worthlefs 
 pebble, become the corner- ftone in the edifice of accufation. 
 In plain terms, of all the various charges which have been 
 exhibited againft Mr. Haftings, his difpute with Cheyt 
 Singmuft fecm to every man, acquainted with the princi- 
 ples and politics of Indian governments, by much the moft 
 frivolous. All the pains which have been taken by a great 
 Patriot both in public and in private, to brand it with the 
 ftigma of a robbery, have been thrown away, no lefs than 
 another great Patriot's ridiculous renunciation of his fhare 
 in the Company's dividend. Not a man who heard this 
 imperious and difappointed bafhaw in his oftentatious pre- 
 tences to felf-dcnial, and pecuniary fclf-denial, but laughed 
 at him : none who knew any thing of his practices in India, 
 or who have obferved his egregious vanity and profufion, 
 iince his laft return, (and which of us has not obferved it ?) 
 but were difgufied at the naufeous improbability. The fpot 
 for the frefh attack was therefore very wifely fhifted. The 
 
 ftation
 
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 ftation of ' robbery,' beiides being untenable, belonged to 
 the other Committee ; and appearances were much better 
 prefcrved, -by breaking ground on the fubjeft of Cheyt 
 Sing's letter, by Mr. Haftings termed * difrefpe&ful and 
 unfatisfaftory,' by the learned Lord f an acknowledgment 
 of llavery.' Mr. Haftings has been upwards of thirty years 
 in India ; he has on many important occafions ahd as 
 Perfian interpreter, while refident at ^ the Durbar, under 
 that great and good man, Governor Plenry Vanlittart: he is 
 an equal proficient, and an experienced mailer in the dia- 
 Ieb of poetical competition, and of political negotiation in 
 India. Shall he go to fchool to the Lord Advocate to be 
 taught the ftyle and implication of a Perfian letter ? Does 
 the learned Lord underftand an iota of its phraieology, or 
 even of its character ? Or does he pretend to the fame in- 
 tuitive knowledge and literary fecond.-fight as haih enabled 
 another areat genius to diicern at a glance, and to decide 
 ex cathedra, whether a tranflated letter were originally 
 written in Englifh or in Perfian? Such gigantic icholars 
 carry before them the whole Encyclopedia of learning as 
 eafily as they carry the Houfe of Commons ! After a!!, it 
 is more than probable, that if all the perfons now in Lon- 
 don, who have ever been in India, and who are converfant 
 in the politics of that country, were called to the bar of 
 that Houfe, they would teftify their cleared feme of the 
 improper ftyle and difrcfpohfui infinuations applied if. Cheyt 
 Sing's letter ; at lead it would be worth waile to examine 
 them. The acknowledgment of avery. implies about as 
 much as if I fhould fubfcnbe myfeif, * your moil obedient 
 humble fervaut,' to the Lord Advocate. 
 
 Granting, however, for a moment,that the learned Lord's 
 pofition with refpeft to the ftvle of Cheyt Sing's letter, be 
 aumiflible, he hath introduced a circutnftance (if Mr. 
 
 Woodfall
 
 ( 56 ) 
 
 Woodfall has clone juftice to his fpeech of Tuefday) which, 
 when rightly flated, would totally change the nature of the 
 queftion. " This letter," (fays the noble Lord) " ftated 
 " the payment of a tribute which the Governor had no 
 " right to demand, the impaling of feveral perfom; and 
 " concluded with an acknowledgment of flavery ; yet this 
 " letter was termed infolent by the Governo^ and accounted 
 " a caufe for war." . Under an idea that the Morning Chro- 
 nicle muft have imperfectly ftated the learned Lord's fpeech, 
 I cannot hefitate to pronounce poiitivcly, that nofuch caufe 
 for war was ever accounted to exift. The letter was termed 
 difrefpe&ful, and fo it undoubtedly is, and more dilre- 
 Ipe&ful, from the taunting, ironical acknowledgment of 
 flavery. It is alib extremely prevaricating and unfatisfac- 
 tory, (which furely the learned Lord will not deny) and 
 was therefore deemed by the Governor a caufe for putting 
 the Rajah under an arreft. The fubfequent maffacre of two 
 companies of feapoys, and three European officers, by the 
 contrivance and orders of Cheyt.Sing, was deemed by the 
 Governor, and moft be deemed by all the world, a very 
 fufficient cau r e for war ; if the learned Lord fhall choofe to 
 ftileby the denomination of war, a fpecies of hoftilities which 
 btgan in treafon, and ended in rebellion. Cheyt Sing was 
 not an independent Prince ; he owed the fealty of military 
 fervice, or pecuniary commutation, to his paramount, the 
 Company, or the Company's reprefentative. His refif- 
 tance was rebellion, his downfal a judicial punifhment, not 
 a hoftile overthrow. It appears in evidence from Captain 
 Harper, that he was forced, under the exigencies of ftate, 
 to furnifh troops to his late fovereign, Sujah ud Dovvla. 
 Immediate lofs of fortune and life would then have followed 
 the prefumption of a refufal ; and the conftitution of the 
 Mogul Empire would have juftified the execution. The 
 
 Company
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 Company is now in the place of Sujah Dowla ; the Com- 
 pany's general lenity is an aggravation to the Rajah's info- 
 lence. Should he now be rcftored to power, it will be an 
 encouragement, a commiffion to every native of Hindoftan 
 to revolt from our dominion, and a pledge for his fecurity 
 tinder a defeat ; on this plea the whole affair turns. Had 
 Cheyt Sing obeyed his arreft quietly, or rather had he given 
 orders for the payment of what the Governor-General (by 
 the feudal tenure of Cheyt Sing's Zemindary, and under 
 fan&ion of the Company's affent) had a ftrid and clear 
 right to demand ; had he conformed with fmccrity to the 
 neceffary regulations propofed for his conduct, the matter 
 would have been fully fettled in three days, to the fatisfac- 
 lion of all parties. What conftruclion fhall we now put on 
 Cheyt Sing's inexhauftible pleas of inability, when we 
 find, (as advices received two days ago fpecify) that 120 
 lacks from his treafures have been* already remitted to Cal- 
 cutta ? 
 
 But it is now time to clofe my letter ; I cannot do it 
 without congratulating our felf-infpired fcholars on their 
 knowledge of Perfian, as well as on fome more of their tri- 
 umphs. But I muft beg leave to obferve, that it will re- 
 quire an additional degree of dexterity, to convince an in- 
 dependent Court of Proprietors of the neceffity of Mr- 
 Hafting's recall. The gentlemen know that I, as a mere 
 private gentleman, fhould laugh at them, if they were to 
 pretend, by a vote of the Houfe of Commons, to urge the 4 
 expediency of merely removing my footman from one gar- 
 ret to the next : much more, that the moft powerful and 
 moft extenfive corporate body in this kingdom, may, and 
 can, and ought to fet at defiance every attempt of this 
 fingle branch of the Legiflature, to domineer over their re- 
 folutions, or to interfere in th^ internal management of 
 i their
 
 C s* ) 
 
 their domeftic concerns. The very idea is an innovation on 
 the principles of the Britifh Conftitution. If the Houfe of 
 Commons choofe to recall Mr. Haftings, or any other man, 
 let it be done fairly and with effect by bill, and confent of ail- 
 the branches of the Legiflature. I never heard that the 
 Houfe of Commons had any exclufive power or privilege of 
 this kind. If the Eaft-India Company be diflatisfied with 
 the conduct of a Governor of their own, they need not fo- 
 licit the affiftance of the Commons ; they are competent to 
 do it in a legal and constitutional mode, nor do they want 
 advice. The Court of Proprietors will feel collectively, 
 what each member feels as an individual, that the value of 
 their flock depends on the abilities and integrity of their de- 
 kgated fervants. If there exifts a man more fit for the high 
 truft of Governor-General than Mr. Haftings is, their own 
 intereft will make them quick-fighted to the difcovery. But 
 that man is yet to feek, and will, I fear, be long unfound, 
 to the unfpeakable mortification of 
 
 A PROPIETOR. 
 
 THE END.
 
 ( 6? ) 
 
 THOUGHTS. 
 
 CHEYT SING's preparations for revolt from the government of 
 Bengal, will be found to have anticipated the time of the 
 Governor General's departure from Calcutta. Acknowledgments 
 of llavery in his mouth, but treafon and rebellion in his heart. His 
 cxprelfions were never k> fervile and iubmiilive, as after his arrefr, 
 at the very moment when twd companies of Scapoys, with threa 
 European officers, were going to be butchered under his. eye, anc\ 
 by his immediate orders. 
 
 What opnion had ChpytSing entertained of the Company^ right, 
 to demand additional tribute or auxiliary troops on the event of a 
 war? Read his letters Do thev indicate a doubt of the legality, or 
 propriety, or even moderation of the demand 5 No, they teem with 
 pleas of inability only fach as the cuftom of all the foedal tenants, 
 or tributary Zemindars, throughout Flindoftan, renders fully war- 
 rantable. But he well knew the obligation, and hoped, perhaps, 
 by his perpetual cxcufes, to tire out the patience of his matters, or 
 to extort r'rom their companion Ibmc abatement of the aflefTment. 
 The conftant example of Shuja ud Dawlah's valid and enforced, 
 claims on his father, and the cftablimcd practice of all Jndia, cou!4 
 not leave a fliadow of doubt on his mind reflecting the full cpmpe-i 
 tency of the Council-General's powers. 
 
 The.Houfu of Commons comes to refolutions for the neceffity of 
 political forbearance in India, and for eltabliihing the character of 
 Britifh moderation, good faith, &c. on a renunciation of all con- 
 quefts, at the very moment that the members and the public arc 
 warmly congratulating each other on the repeated fuccefs of our 
 arms over Hyder Ally and the Mahrauas. 
 
 What will the natives of India think of Britifli moderation, 
 when they fee us thruu 1 ing out every European nation bv turns from, 
 the Afiatic cbntincnt. They have been accuftomed, indeed, tq 
 fee us quarrel with the French, and rove been frequent wirnelTes to 
 our fuperiority-r-but how will they digclt our treatment of the 
 Dutch, who have proceeded on the uniform fyftem of neutrality for 
 more than 150 years, and have coii:hmtly aflo:x|ed an alylum for all 
 parties, natives or Europeans, in ail the !h"u!_ rc ."U'S and revolutions 
 which have happened finte tlvat peri'o,d? All India can bear ft rung 
 teftimony to the peaceable behaviour ?ul IHjfufuec^ing tranquillity of 
 the Dutch in dm quaitcr; vet %vc J'eiic their towns, plunder their 
 property, and iniiii-if'm rhur ntr!'- :>., without Ib mvch as a decKtra- 
 ration of war Such vigorous meafures will probably iufurc the 
 fubmiflion of our Indian fubjetts, but will hardlv imp; re tliem with 
 a lofty opinion of (/ur moderation. Afia has" been ever ruled by the 
 i'word, and is now too far advanced in years to taile aay other prin- 
 ciples of govcrni^cnt.
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
 Rodney's recall %vas conftitutional j it originated with the minif- 
 trv, in whom lodged the executive power. Their right was never 
 <jueftioned. but the expediency of the meafure has been much dii- 
 puted. See how Mr. Fox reprobates the- idea of an interference on 
 
 the part of the Houfe of Commons The Court of Directors holds 
 
 the fame relation to Mr. Hailing 1 ;, with that of adimiiiftration to 
 i/ord Rodney nay more, a precife mode for removing the Gover- 
 nor-General is exprefsly provided by law, and the power vetted in 
 the Court of Directors by act of Parliament ; where then is there 
 room for the interference of the Koufe of Commons ? The line is 
 at leaft as accurately drawn in the one cafe as in the other. 
 
 Many are Mr. Hailings's friends, and- his enemies are many j 
 but they botl> join in admitting his finglar integrity, and all ac- 
 knowledge the difficulty of finding an adequate fubflitute for him in 
 the government of Bengal. Not one of them but is free to declare 
 the infufficiency of each of thofe gentlemen, whofc names arc 
 whifpered as candidates for the fucceiHon. Nothing is fo cafy as to 
 point out what men are unfit for the office and why. The doctrine 
 of the day is, that the Court of Direftors is competent to remove 
 Mr. Mailings without any communication with the Court of Pro- 
 prietors. The formal letter of the law, indeed, docs thus word the 
 pofition >but yet does not warrant the conclufion : For by the fame 
 Jaw, a general controuling power over the Court of Directors, is 
 lodged in that of the Proprietors ; and the reafon of the thing make* 
 it evident, if law be the perfection of reafon, as I have heard. For the 
 Court of Directors is, in fact, nothing but a committee of Pro- 
 prietors, a quorum for the difpatch of bufmefs. They are the firft 
 delegated fervants of the Company, and as fuch, are accountable to 
 the. whole body for their conduct. Do not the Proprietors frequently 
 exert _the right of refcinding the relblutions of the Directors, and 
 do they not after all poffefs that right. 
 
 The miniftry now contend that to them belong the political mea- 
 ftiresof the Company ; they claim all the power, and all the refponfi- 
 Jjility. The Chairman of the Court of Directors on Tuefday the- 
 .aSth of May lall, {landing up in his place in the Houfe of Com- 
 mons, acknowledged the juilicc of the claim, and renounced as the 
 head official fcrvant of the Company ;;H pslitical ixiponfibility what- 
 .Ibevcr. Where is now the Company's independence ? 
 
 No books, no theory, ho reclufe fpeculation will ever fit a man for 
 ihe office of Governor General of Bengal ; he muft have abilities 
 political and commercial, knowledge, local and experimental, acquired 
 hy long refidcnce on the fpot ; he muft not be inflexibly wedded to 
 one uud-.viating mode of act ion, nor bigotted to any particular fyilem 
 of filiation He ihould have judgment to ducern where to tem- 
 porize, and rcfolution to dare the invidious confequenccs of a great 
 action. In ihm-t, he ihould know how to relax in every thing but 
 integrity. The duty is of fo mixed a nature, and comprehends fo 
 
 many
 
 manv different relations with refpecl: to Europe and India, it is fo dif- 
 ficult to hold the balance in fuch a manner between them, as that 
 what is ferviceable to the one may not injure the other, that it is rather 
 more extraordinary a man mould ever have been found to hold the 
 office with fuccefs during feven years, and more critical than the hft, 
 than that the difficulty of removing aim mould now be the caufe of 
 a thoufand intrigues and machination) within and without doors. 
 Were not the experiment top ferioufly dangerous for the Company 
 and the nation, I mould be happy to fee one of thefe Governors-by- 
 intuition put preciiely into Mr. Haftings's phcc for a few years. L 
 would only requeft to infcrt one article in the treaty ; that Mr. llaf-' 
 tings fhould previoufly ftipulate, that he will not refufe after three or 
 four years, to return once more and be the falvation of India. 
 
 Every man prefumes tn demand the government, particularly if 
 he has ever been in India ; if he have but birth, or impudence, or 
 a mattered fortune, he thinks himfelf entitled and well qualified for 
 the poft 5 the Courts of Directors and Proprietors may, if they choofe 
 it, place the alternative of the Company's profperity and perdition 
 in fuch hands. But they would not employ a moemaker who had not 
 ferved a feven years apprenticefliip. The time may come, when In- 
 dian affairs {hall be fo methodically and fyftematically arranged (prin- 
 cipally by Mr. Haftings's long and fucceisful labours) that any maa 
 of common underftanding and common honefty may manage them : 
 at prefcnt nothing lefs than uncommon talents and uncommon integri- 
 ty will do the bufmcfs. India is not yet ripe- for your S s and 
 F s. We muft now have a man who can rcfift ftrong temptations, 
 and who has other modes of mewing his contempt of money, than 
 by fquandering in every vain and profligate extravagance immenfc 
 fums acquired with a very fufpicious rapidity. 
 
 No man is blamed as a public character, for dedicating fome por- 
 tion of his time to his private affairs : It is even allowable for him 
 to find the means of connecting his own pcrfonal intereft with his of- 
 ficial duty. But he only is truly great who has no time for himfelf, 
 and who never admits felf-conjideralion to go hand in hand with the 
 bufinefs of the State. The illuftrious Vafco de Gama, who firft 
 planted the Portuguefe power in India, brought no acquired wealth, 
 from thence, but the firft China orange-tree, a noble inheritance 
 which he bequeathed to the European world. Mr. Haftings, after 
 having ferved thirty years in India, without a vice to gratify, or an 
 extravagance to feed, is not now worth half the falary he has received 
 by aft of parliament for the laft feven years. Mr. Francis, who has 
 ferved fomewhat lefs than thofe feven years, and with two-fifths of the 
 appointment, is probably the richer man. 
 
 Mr. Haftings has acquired friends among thofe who know him by 
 his great perfonal affability ; among thofe who know him not, by im- 
 portant actions. His character and his conduct only prefervc their 
 f^iendihip, for he has never gratified any of them at the public ex 
 
 pence;
 
 (' 66 ) 
 
 pence. Even the regular road of promotion in the routine of the ftr* 
 vice hardly avails them ; fo cautious is he of furni filing matter for ac-, 
 cuiations, that he is unbiafled by private partiality in the line of his 
 public conduct : for the fame reafon thofe who have acted with the 
 moft declared enmity towards him, have been permitted to enjoy 
 pvcry advantage procured for them by th,eir lefs fcrupulous patrons, 
 that he might not feem actuated by a fpirit of revenge. Look round, 
 among the Company's fervants now at home. Thofc who exclaim 
 the loudeft againft Mr. Haftings's politics, and are mingling fas 
 atque nffas \o fupplant him, walloW in wealth obtained under his 
 very nofe. They arc, indeed, at once the accufers and the proofs of 
 his mifconduct. Thejr acquisitions afie a reproach to Mr. Hayings. 
 The few who are called his friends cannot at bcft rife above an hum- 
 ble mediocrity, and the greater part aVe now ibliciting to return to 
 India for bread, 
 
 Lord Cljve, with all his merit, had not the effenml qualifications 
 <jf a civil- governor. Military habits never fiKwell upon commercial 
 principles. His own glory and the Company's" advantages were the 
 refult of the well exercifed talents of a foldier. With a wai mth of 
 genius, a promptitude of decifion,and a vigour of execution unknown 
 in the annals of India, he was unfit for the tormenting details and 
 formal minutiae of a peaceful adminiftration, founded on a commer- 
 cial bafis. Mr. Haftings makes no pretenfions to military merit, and 
 yet he has never embarked in war but with a decifive fticcefs. Our 
 armies have fought and conquered as often under his aufpices as un- 
 der Clive's command, and that with the difa.dvantagc of a frequent 
 change of generals. In the mean time civil arrangements have oc- 
 cupied much the greater portion of his time, and arc infinitely the 
 moft valuable part of his adminiftration. His ceconomical plans 
 have faved the Company imrnenfe fums. His political negotiations 
 have procured them tie aovo much more. His encouragements 
 have added to the mercantile gains of his employers, and his regu- 
 lations to thu profperity of the ftate. In his time new manufactures 
 have been brought to nm'.irity, and the old to perfection : Mines of 
 coal, iron, &c. have bcrn worked to advantage ; commerce and in- 
 ternal intcrcourfe have been promoted, by rendering navigable many 
 canal: that were obftructedby fands and by new cuts where none before 
 exifttd. The native languages of India have been printed on the 
 ipot, and the door thus fhut on the general profperity of the native 
 to forgery, without the necefilty of a fanguinary penal law. Trant- 
 lations have been procured of all the moft refpeftable and funda- 
 mental law treat! fes either in the Mahometan or Hindoo lyftem, for 
 the general direction of all judges in the country courts, and to the 
 exceeding fatisfaclion of all the inhabitants. !n fhort, induftry h^s 
 been infinitely encouraged, internal tranquillity effectually fecured, 
 and thp commerce, the politics, the legislature, and the finances of 
 Bengal improved within the laft feven years, to fo wonderful a pitch, 
 that at prelent the very exiftence of the Britilh empire fsems on all 
 hands to be allowed to depend on the prefervation of her Aati<- 
 Influence,
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 the Right Hon. EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 S IR, 
 
 THE Swallow's packets being in part arrived, I fhall take 
 leave to renew my correfpondence with you, You will 
 foon receive the moft ample and convincing proofs, thatCheyt 
 Sirtg had entered into an engagement with the mother of the 
 Vizier, and the Raja of Goorucpoor, to excite commotions 
 in Oude, that he had promifed a confiderable fum of money 
 to Futty Shaw, to invade the province of Bahar ; and that he 
 had taken meafures to afTert his own independence, by col- 
 lecting a very confiderable army, and a train of artillery, 
 with ammunition and military ftores of every kind, and in 
 great quantities, in the neighbourhood of Benares, previous 
 
 to the Governor General's departure from Calcutta.- Mr. 
 
 Haftings has indeed been culpable, not for feverity to Cheyt 
 Sing, but for a negle<5l of the repeated intelligence which 
 had been fent him, of the preparation and hoftile defigns of 
 the Raja. 
 
 The Chairman of the Court of Directors, Mr. Gregory, 
 came forward at the laft general Court of Proprietors, and ac- 
 knowledged that Mr. Haib'ngs had not wilfully detained in Ben- 
 gal, thoie difpatches which ought to have been received by 
 the Belmont. It appears by a note from the Secretary at Cal- 
 cutta, that the direction of that packet having been acciden- 
 tally torn of, it was returned to Fort William. With what 
 violence did both Mr. Gregory and yourfelf dwell upon this 
 
 fubjecl in the Houfe of Commons, a few days ago ! with 
 
 what contemptuous indifference did you treat Mr. Barwell's 
 honeft attempts to explain this matter to the Houfe ! How 
 did you in your Select Committee reject the aflurances which 
 Major Scott ventured to give you, that Mr. Haftings was fu- 
 perior to the low, paltry trick of with-holding any public 
 A acl
 
 aft of his government, from the knowledge of the Dire&ors ? 
 Betides, in the inftance alluded to, it would argue folly as 
 well as indifcretion". Mr. Haftings had made a reform in the 
 mode of collecting the revenues of Bengal, which would natu- 
 rally fubjeft him to much perfonal odium; was it to be fup- 
 pofed, therefore, that he would intentionally with-hold his rea- 
 fons for adopting a meafure which, however beneficial to the 
 Company, was deftru&ive to the intereft of feveral individu- 
 als ? Neither this reafoning, nor the readinefs of Major 
 Scott, to furnifh your Committee with copies of every paper 
 in his pofTeflion, could conquer your prejudices : but I flatter 
 myfelf, Sir, as the matter is now fully explained, you will 
 join with Mr. Gregory, in procuring the Forty-Second refo- 
 .lution to be refcindcd from the votes of the Houfe-of Com- 
 mons ; and if your report on the revenues of Bengal, con* 
 fefiedly drawn up from imperfect materials, is not yet com- 
 pleted, let me advife you now to compare Mr. Haftings's plan 
 with its effects. 
 
 Mr. Wheler and Mr. Macpherfon have fpoke warmly of 
 it in their public letter. 
 
 I have, I confefs, Sir, been much at a lofs to account for 
 that more than common induftry, which you have employed 
 in your inveftigation of Mr. Hafungs's conduct. Pardon me, 
 Sir, forprefuming to obferve to you, that I think you rather 
 ftepped beyond the bounds of moderation, when you brought 
 forward Mr. Goring to the Select Committee, to give evi- 
 dence upon a tranfadtion, which happened in Bengal in the 
 year 17/5, and had been finally determined upon by the Di- 
 rectors, and the Court of Proprietors, in 1776. Perhaps I 
 may have formed an erroneous judgment of your motives, 
 but I cannot help thinking Mr. Haftings has offended you by 
 an opinion, whieh he has freely given, refpe&ing the Raja of 
 T anjore, to whom, if I am rightly informed, your coufin, 
 Mr. William Burke, is an avowed agent, with a fixed falary 
 of eight thoufand pounds per annum. Let me, Sir, take this 
 opportunity of congratulating you upo'n his fafe arrival at the 
 capital, of the Raja, and upon the gracious reception he met 
 with. I prefume Mr. William Burke did not take two trips 
 over land to India, merely for the purpofe of fuccouring 
 " Virtue in Diftrefs." What Mr Haftings's opinion, re- 
 fpe&ing the claims of the Raja of Tanjore, and the Nabob 
 of the Carnatic, has invariably been, (hall be the lubj^ct of 
 my next letter. 
 
 June 10, 1782. ASIATIC US. 
 
 LETTER'
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 To the Right Hon. EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 SIR, June 12, 1782. 
 
 I HAVE prefumed to hint that the principal caufeofyour 
 perfecution of Mr. Haftings, is the opinion which that 
 gentleman has unfortunately entertained refpecling the righ-ts 
 of the Rajah of Tanjore. The Governor General has unre- 
 fervedly declared, that Tanjore being a dependency of the 
 Carnatic, the Nabob, or the reprefentatives of the Eaft.India 
 Company at Fort St. George, with his confent, have an un- 
 doubted right, in the prefent diftrefled ftate of the Carnatic, 
 to infift upon the Rajah contributing the amount of his reve- 
 nues to the public fervice, after reierving the neceffary fums 
 for his private expences. This opinion is furely founded upon 
 reafon, juftice, and common fenie. I fhall not quote all the 
 unanfwerable arguments which Mr. Haftings has urged in fup- 
 port of his opinion ; let it fuffice in this place to obferve, that 
 the Governor General could have no private views to gratify,, 
 when he afiented to the propofal of the felet committee of Fort 
 St. George, to compel the Rajah of Tanjore to contribute as 
 far as he could to the fupportofthe prefent arduous conteft. 
 
 You will pardon me, 1 hope, Sir, for obferving, that where 
 the interefts of the Nabob of the Carnatic, and the Rajah of 
 Tanjore are in queition, you cannot, nay, you ought not to 
 be confidered as an unbiaiied, and an impartial judge. 
 
 In the year 1777, your .coulin, Mr. William Burke, ac- 
 cepted the appointment of agent to the Rajah of Tanjore, with 
 a ialary annexed to it, as 1 am told, of Soool. per annum. 
 He arrived at Madras in September 1777, made a fhort flay 
 tfiere, returned to England, and laft year made a feconu over 
 land trip to Tanjore, where he has met with a moft diftin- 
 guifhed reception. Whether the Nabob has been ill ufed by 
 tne Rajah, or the Rajah by the Nabob, or (which I believe to 
 A 2 be
 
 be the true ftateof the cafe) that both have been extremely ill 
 ufed by the Court of Directors, it is not my bufmefs to en- 
 quire ; let impartial men determine the point in difpute. You 
 certainly are a party in the bufmefs, in as much as you muft 
 naturally be anxious for the fuccefs of your coufin, the agent. 
 
 Let me intreat you, Sir, to be extremely cautious how you 
 prefs the chairman of the Court of Directors, to fend orders 
 to Fort St. George, for overturning any regulations, which 
 may have been formed for bringing a part of the revenues of 
 Tanjore into our treafury, or a proportion of its grain into 
 our magazines. That gallant officer, Sir Eyre Coote, has 
 been prevented, by a want of provifions, from purfuing his 
 victories. This is not a time for weakening the hands of our 
 governments in India : It would fuiely be better at once to 
 give up the contcft, and to quit the Carnatic, if when that 
 country is totally exhaufted, the Nabob and the Company are 
 not allowed to call upon a dependent Zemindar for affiftance, 
 without a violation of our national charadter for juftice, mo- 
 deration j and good faith. 
 
 May 1, Sir, prefume juft to touch upon a fubject nearer 
 home. It is confidently aflerted, but 1 profefs I can hardly 
 give credit to the aflertion, that your relation Mr. William 
 Burke has lately been appointed pay mafter or commifiary to 
 hisMajefty's forces in India, with a falary of 1900!. per an- 
 num. This poft, I can aflure you, Sir, is as completely ufe- 
 lefs as any one of thofe which, in your oeconomical bill, you 
 propofe to reform ; nay, were it necelTary at all, I humbly 
 conceive, Mr. William Burke's Tanjore agency would inca- 
 pacitate him, from performing the duties of it. As a proprie- 
 tor of the Eaft-India ftock, i do hope the Company will not 
 be faddled with the payment of this ufelefs office ; and as a 
 Britifh fubject, anxious to fee that plan of reform take place, 
 which has been fo faithfully promifed, I cannot but lament, 
 that a new poft fhould be created, to add another two thoufand 
 pounds to the annual income of your family. I muft do you 
 the juftice to fay, Sir, that confidering the fhort time you have 
 been a minifter, you have not been inattentive to your own, 
 ns well as to the national concerns. 
 
 ASIAT1CUS, 
 
 LETTER
 
 ( 5 ) 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 To the Right Hon. EDMUND BURKE, and 
 Brigadier-General RICHARD SMITH. 
 
 I IMAGINE your fpeeches upon Mr. Dempfter's motion, 
 on Thurfday, mull have been grofsly mifreprefented in 
 the public papers. Did you realiy lay, Gentlemen, that Sir 
 Elijah Impey's refufal to accept a falary to the appointment 
 of the Adaulet, did not tend at all to his exculpation ? and 
 fhat probably his refufal was owing to his knowledge of your 
 Committee having; been ifliUtutod ? To the laft I can only 
 declare, that when the faiary v/as offered to Sir Elijah Impey, 
 no intelligence whatever, reipecting your Committee, had ar- 
 rived in India. If 1 were to judge, Gentlemen, from the pains 
 which both of you took to draw from Major Scott a declara- 
 tion, that Sir Elijah Impey had accepted a falary, I fliould 
 fuppofe, you deemed it of fome confequence to eftablifh that 
 fait. Mr. Burke examined him clofely for above three hours, 
 upon that fingle point. I confefs, when I confider the very 
 candid manner in which Major Scott anfwered every queftion 
 that was put to him, and the eager inclination he mewed to 
 give your Committee every information in his power, I could 
 not help being furpriied that you fhould examine him fo much 
 in the ftyle of an Old Bailey witnefs ; but when i law a flip 
 of paper upon the table of your Committee, with words to the 
 following purport upon it, and in a hand I well knew, my 
 aflonifhment vanifiied : " By a private letter from Calcutta, 
 " of the gth of January 1781, it appears, that the bufinefs 
 " of the falary was done." Conficlering the very refyefialle 
 quarter from which this information came, 1 no longer won- 
 dered that you queftioned Major Scott fo clofeiy. From that 
 time to the prefent, however, 1 under/rood, and I am fure the 
 report (which by Generel Smith's account is to immortalize 
 Mr. Burke) tends to prove it, that the acceptance of the fala- 
 ry, which is taken for granted, was the criminal part of Sir 
 Elijah's conduct. I do molf firmly believe, that when the 
 Houfe voted an addrefs to the King, to recal Sir Elijah Impey, 
 they conceived he had accepted a falary, and that if the evi- 
 dence which has now been produced, had then appeared, no 
 fuch vote would have parted j but I may be miftaken Gover-
 
 '( 6 } 
 
 hor Johnftone is faid, by the papers, to have accufed you of 
 fhameful partiality, and to have added, that when you wanted 
 evidence to criminate a man, you were ready enough to fearch 
 records, letters, &c. Far be it from me to take fuch a liberty 
 with men of your exalted ftations - a but allow me to relate a 
 plain fa<5t, in plain language. 
 
 Three days after the arrival of General Clavering, Colonel 
 Monfon, and Mr. Francis, in Calcutta, they attacked the 
 public meafures of Mr. Haftings. In three months they told 
 the Directors, that there was no fpecies of peculation of which 
 the Governor General, had not been guilty, and that, in lefs 
 than thirty months, he had amaffed a fortune of 400,000!. 
 Mr. Goring was deputed to Moorfhedabad to procure fuch 
 proofs as might juftify thefe afiertions. None, however, were 
 obtained. The matter was fully examined by the Court of 
 Directors and Proprietors in 1776, when the whole force of 
 government was exerted to remove Mr. Haftings. At that 
 time he was fupported by the late Marquis of Rockingham 
 and' Mr. Burke's particular friends, but he owed his preferva- 
 tion to the weight of his own perfonal character. All good 
 men lamented the violence to which two moft refpeclable per- 
 fons, General Clavering and Colonel Monfon, had been 
 drawn, and this bufmefs lay dormant from 1776 until the other 
 day, when Mr. Burke thought proper to bring Mr. Goring 
 before the Select Committee. I hope the world, will one time 
 or other, be favored with an account of his examination, and 
 Major Scott's remarks upon it ; but if it does not appear in the 
 next Report, I (hall take leave to relate it as accurately as I can 
 from memory, for I attended to the whole examination very 
 clofely. Perhaps Governor Johnftone might have alluded to 
 this tranfation ; I {hall not however, prefume to determine, 
 whether bringing Mr. Goring before a committee of the Houfe 
 of Commons in 1782, to examine him upon points that the 
 Eaft India Company had pronounced judgment upon in 1776, 
 did net look very like perfonal perfecutiort. I muft do Gene- 
 ral Smith the juftice to fay, that he was indifpofed when Mr. 
 Goring firft appeared before the Committee, and that 1 believe 
 he difapproved of it. 
 
 Let it be remembered that on that remarkable day, when 
 the Houfe of Commons refolved " that it was the duty of 
 " the Court of Diretors to remove Mr. Haftings, &c." 'not 
 a member fpoke to the refolution, without declaring that the 
 abilities of the Governor General were of the moil fplendid 
 kind, and his integrity unqueftionable. 
 
 July is, 1782. ASIATICUS.
 
 ihc MORNING HERALD. 
 
 LETTER vin. 
 
 . 
 
 Mr. EDITOR, Auguft 9, 1782. 
 
 . 
 
 ,TN a late paper it was afTerteo, that the idea of removing 
 X Mr. Railings, and of punifhing Eaft-India delinquents, 
 was given up by Lord Shtlburne. Upon reading this para- 
 graph, I could not reftrain my inclination to fend you a con- 
 nected narrative of the treatment which Mr Haftings has met 
 with from theHoufe of Commons, and an infatuated majority 
 of the Court of Directors.. His conduct has been arraigned by- 
 two Committees, who certainly were formed for purpofes far 
 different. The firft, the Select Committee, met laft year, to 
 take the ftate of the judicature in Bengal under their confi- 
 deration ; at the commencement of the late feiiion, their pow- 
 ers were extended, and they were directed to enquire, by what 
 means our valuable pofieffions in Bengal, &c. could be beft 
 governed. Far be it from me, Sir, to arraign their proceed- 
 ings: I, do afTert, that no man living can be more anxious 
 than Mr. Haftings is, to have his conduct fairly and fully in- 
 veftigated : whether the in veftigation which the Select Com- 
 mittee entered into was a candid one, let their reports deter- 
 mine : Commodore Johnflone has publicly accufed the Com- 
 mittee of grofs and fcandalous partiality the charge was 
 
 denied, was it refuted ? The Secret Committee was ap- 
 pointed to enquire into the caufe of the invafion of the Car- 
 natic ; but when the Lord Advocate firir came forward in the 
 Houfe of Commons, the major part of his refolutions were 
 pointed againft Mr. Haftings, for acts done many years ago, moft 
 of them approved, fome condemned, but himfelf acquitted by 
 his conftituents from every fufpicion, of being actuated by a 
 corrupt motive, in any one t ran faction of his government. 
 The two Committees cordially co-operated with each other ; 
 the grand object with each appeared, to be the removal of Mr 
 Haftings. The Secret committee, in an early ftage of their 
 enquiry, had difcoverexl the abfolute neceffity of fending Partia- 
 mentary Supervifors to India ; the Select Committee, that three 
 of their own body, General Smith, Mr. Roulc, and Mr. 
 
 Dudley
 
 Dudley Long, were admirably calculated to fuccecd Mr. Haf- 
 tings, Mr. Macpherfon, and Mr. Stables. The Lord Advo- 
 cate, after laying the refolutions of the Secret Committee 
 upon the table of the Houfe, moved for a day for voting or 
 rejecting them ; but Major Scott, the Agent of Mr. Haftings, 
 having humbly reprefented to him the impropriety of voting 
 thefe refolutions, before the reports on which they were fup- 
 pofed to be grounded had been printed, the Advocate was 
 pleafcd to put off the confideration of them for a fortnight, 
 in the mean time, General Smith moved the recal of Sir Eli- 
 jah Impey, anci declared he fhould have moved the recal of 
 Mr. Haftinrrs alfo, had he not underftood that a motion to 
 that effecr. was to be made by the Lord Advocate from the 
 Secret Committee. At laft, Sir, the important moment ar- 
 rived the Lord Advocate was ill, and abfent ; after 
 fome private conversation between Mr. Burke, General Smith, 
 and Sir Adam Fergufon, the latter brought up the famous 
 forty-four refolutions of the Secret Committee : from the gal- 
 lery I could count but twenty-fix Members in the Houfe, moft 
 of them belonging to the two Committees : the refolutions 
 were read and voted, with this remarkable circumftance, that 
 the only word which could be fuppofed, even by a forced con- 
 ftruclion, to convey a perfonal refle6lion upon Mr. Haftings, 
 was expunged. Sir Adam then propofed, as a 45th refolu- 
 tion, " that it was the duty of the Court of Directors, to re- 
 cal thoie perfons whofe conduct had been cenfured." This 
 was alfo carried, although Mr. Robinfon, Member for Can- 
 terbury, remarked, with peculiar emphafis, that the Houfe -was 
 rather empty, conjidenng the importance of the refolutton they were 
 about to come to. It palTed, however ; and was carried on the 
 following day to the Directors by General Smith and Sir 
 Henry Fletcher. On that day there was a Court of Propri- 
 etors, who received the refolution for Mr. Haftings's recal 
 with fuch evident marks of furprize and difcontent, that al- 
 though it had pafled in a Committee of the whole Houfe, it 
 never was reported to the Honfe. On the 28th of May this 
 refolution, under a new form, was again brought forward by 
 the Lord Advocate, who declared, when he propofed it, that 
 the abilities of Mr. Haftings were of the moft fplendid kind, 
 and his integrity undoubted. Mr. Fox made a fimilar decla- 
 ration. Mr. Powys, Mr. Huflcy, and, in fhort, every Mem- 
 ber who fpoke on that remarkable day, Mr. Burke and Ge- 
 neral Smith excepted, acknowledged the abilities and the in- 
 tegrity of Mr. Haftings, in the moft expreflive terms : but, 
 upon the miftaken idea that his ambition was boundlefs, it 
 
 was
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 was refolved, " that it was the duty of the Court of Directors 
 to remove him." Mr. Burke was then in office, and he ap- 
 peared bent upon procuring Mr. Haftings's removal, with a 
 folicitude as earneft, and a vengeance as unrelenting, as he 
 had fo recently difplayed in the perfecution of the gallant 
 Lor.d Rodney, on the evidence of two Jews$ and a Swifs. All 
 oppofition Was therefore vain ; the friends of Mr. Haftings 
 did not divide the Houfe, which confifted of 43 A'lembers ; 
 but Commodore Johnftone plainly told the Ministers of that 
 day> if they were determined to remove Mr. Haftings, that 
 was not the way to do it the Directors would not obey a re- 
 folution of one branch of the legiflature. Mr. Fox forgot 
 himfelf fo far on that oceafion, from a defire to oblige his 
 friend Mr. Burke, as to declare, that if the Directors fhou Id 
 refufe to obey a refolution of the Houfe of Commons, they 
 ought to be impeached : yet did I hear this fame Mr. Fox, 
 ibis conjiftent Statefman^ aflert, a few days afterwards in the 
 debate upon Mr. Rigby's balances, that all the world knew 
 a refolution of the Houfe of Commons was of no effect that 
 .no man, or body of men$ was bound to pay obedience to it I 
 How {hall we reconcile this declaration to Mr. Fox's pro- 
 pofed impeachment of the Directors ? 
 
 The refolution thus pafied, was fent to the Court of Di- 
 rectors ; but they were prevented from proceeding upon it, 
 by the interference of the Court of Proprietors* who have de- 
 clared that they will give up their charter, rather than co.-ifent 
 to the removal of Mr, Haftings until fome ground of de- 
 linquency can be proved againft him. An enquiry into his 
 conduct has commenced at the India-Home. Under this en- 
 quiry, his friends are perfectly eafy ; they with to promote ii 
 to the utmoft of their power, beihg fully convinced that an 
 unprejudiced Court of Proprietors will find it to have been, 
 what the Secret Committee of the Houfe of Commons de- 
 clared it was upon feveral very critical occafions, wife, fpi- 
 rited, prudent^ juft, and proper. 
 
 Mr. Fox, in his famous ipcech in the Houfe of Commons, 
 has faid, that there were other caufes of difference between 
 Lord Shelburne and himfelf, l< that Lord Shelimrne \vanted 
 to fcreen fome Eaft-India culprits." Ir Lord Shelburne was 
 averfe to the removal of Mr. Haftings in the prsfent moft en- 
 tical ftate of the Company's affairs, 1 ayoWj that he icisd 
 the part of a wife minifter, and an honcft man ! 
 
 ASIATICUS. 
 B tot
 
 For the M O R N I N G HERALD, 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 MR. EDITOR. 
 
 IN the letter which I addrefled to you a few days ago, I con- 
 cifely, and I hope impartially, related the fteps taken by 
 the two Committees of the Houfe of Commons, to remove 
 Mr. Haftings from the government of Bengal : I fhall now 
 trouble you with a few remarks on the conduct of the Gentle- 
 men in Leadenhall-ftreet, firft however obferving, that all 
 men who are converfant in the affairs of the Eaft- India Com- 
 pany, or interefted in its profperity, muft recollect, that dur- 
 ing the time the Secret Committee was fitting, it was repeat- 
 edly aflerted, by many anonymous writers, " that Mr. Haftings 
 " was the author of the Maratta war." Mr. Francis has faui 
 in his pamphlet, that Mr. Haftings's denial of this fact, would 
 be received with univerfal aftonimment. In reply to this af- 
 fertion, Major Scott publicly avowed, that Mr. Haftings 
 would be warranted in having made that declaration, by the 
 reports of the Secret Committee. Thofe, with the appendix 
 to each, make two very large volumes in folio; I mean thole 
 reports only which contain the rife and progrefs of the Maratta 
 war ; but as I fear, Mr. Editor, few men will fearch for truth 
 amidft fuch a mais of matter, I mail reft the propriety of Major 
 Scott's aflertion, upon a declaration which fell from' the Lord 
 Advocate himfelf: " that the Maratta war originated in 
 " Bombay, and was encouraged and approved of by the Court 
 " of Directors." The Lord Advocate was induced to make 
 thisconfe/Tion, by Mr. Powys having declared it to be his opi- 
 nion, " that Mr. Haftings was not the author of the Maratta 
 " war." Although he was freed from this burthen, there were 
 other parts of his conduct which induced the Houfe to deter- 
 mine,
 
 C ii ) 
 
 mine, tc that it was the duty of the Court of Directors to re- 
 " move him." 
 
 It was thought proper, on the 2Oth of June, to call a Gene- 
 ral Court of Proprietors, for the exprefs purpofe of taking this 
 vote into consideration ; fo refpeclable a meeting had not ap- 
 peared at the India Houfe for many years : the fubject was 
 fairly and ably argued, notwithstanding the attempt of an il- 
 luftrious lawyer to divert the attention of the Proprietors from 
 the important object of their deliberation. The concluiion 
 which the Court came to was decent, juft, and proper : 
 " that to remove Mr. Haftings, merely in compliance with a 
 *' vote of one branch of the I/egiflature, without being firft 
 " convinced of his delinquency, would be to give up the in- 
 " dependency of the Company/' It was further refolved, 
 " that no fteps were to betaken refpedting his removal, with- 
 *' out a previous communication to the Proprietors." 
 
 I fpeak with tendernefs, and without refentment, of the ref- 
 pelable Gentleman who lately filled the Chair of the Direc- 
 tion ; but furely, Sir, there was a ftrange abfurdity in the 
 condudt of this bufmefs from the firft to the laft. That Gen- 
 tleman had been an active Member of the Secret Committee j 
 he confented to, he fupported the mode adopted for effecting 
 Mr. Haftings's removal j but when he fpoke behind the bar at 
 the India Houfe, he faid, " To be fure a vote of one branch 
 of the Legiflature is not to influence the Directors ;" yet he 
 was in the Houfe of Commons, Sir Henry Fletcher was there, 
 and I believe Mr. Wilkinfon too, when Mr. Fox made that un- 
 conftitutional declaration, that if the Directors did not con- 
 form to the vote of the Houfe, they ought to be impeached. 
 
 I think, Sir, if I had had the honor of fitting in Parliament, 
 of being a Member of the Secret Committee, and a Director 
 of the aft-India Company, and had been conf^ientioufly of 
 opinion, that Mr. Haftings ought to be removed, I would have 
 reforted to the true conftitutional mode of effecting it ; I would 
 have aflifted in bringing in a bill for his removal ; but I never 
 could have joined in voting that it was my duty, and the duty 
 of my brother Directors, to remove him for als, on which we 
 had already palled either cenfure or approbation. A moment's 
 reflection will convince any reafonable man upon what ciifrcr- 
 ent principles an enquiry at the India Houfe, and in Parlia- 
 ment, muft be carried on : the latter may commence their en- 
 quify at any period they think proper ; but can the former, 
 with propriety, do fo? The limits of this letter will not al- 
 low me to enter fo fully into this fubject as I could wifh ; but 
 I will endeavour to e>xplain myfelf in a few words : the Secret 
 B 2 Committee
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 Committee ceniure Mr. Haftings fof with-holding the King's 
 tribute, and for his concern in the Rohilla war. For the laft 
 tranfaction, Mr. Powys was of opinion Mr. Haftings ftiould 
 be recalled. It, was, however, commenced and ended in fix 
 months of the year 1774, and the Proprietors pronounced judg- 
 ment upon it in 1775. The ftoppage of the King's tribute, 
 Under all the circumliances which attended it, was highly ap- 
 proved of : vet the Houfe of Commons ftate thefe acts, amongft 
 others, as grounds for refnlving* " that it is the duty of the 
 *' Court of Director's to remove Mr. Haftings." If any new- 
 lights can be thrown upon the former transactions in Bengal, 
 it'is undoubtedly the duty of the Court of Directors to recon- 
 fjder them, other wife their decifion has already gone forth, or 
 they have been grofcly negligent of their duty. They con- 
 ftantly receive advices from Bengal, and of courfe anfwer the 
 letters they receive : the Directors can therefore finifh their 
 enquiry very fhortly, iince they have only to cpnfider thole 
 advices which have arrived fubfequent to the clofe of their laft 
 difpatcheSi Had they thought Mr. Haftings unworthy to. re- 
 main in their fervice, they might have removed him by an 
 addrefs lo the Crown, nor would he have been favoured by his 
 Majefty's late Minifters. But fo far was his conduct from 
 fubjecting him to fuch a difgrace, that in looking over fuch 
 cf the Company's general letters as are printed in the fixth re- 
 port of the Secret Committee, 1 find great commendations 
 beftowed upon him, for his negociations with the Nizam, and 
 for the manly, decided, and fpirited exertions, by which he 
 preferved the Carnatic. 
 
 I cannot conclude this letter without obferving, that integ- 
 rity and abilities may be ferviceable to a man, even in thefe 
 degenerate .days. Mr. Haftings, an unconnected individual, 
 without borough influence, or an overgrown fortune, but 
 merely by the weight of his psrfonal character, hath been able 
 to defeat the attempts of one branch of theLegiilature, and of a 
 popular Adminiilration to remove him frofn his government. 
 Let it be remembered, that Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox ftrained 
 every nerve to carry this point when they were Minifters of 
 this country ; when they poiTefTed a great {hare of popularity, 
 the. former by his reputation for difmtereftcdneis, and the latter 
 acquired by hispofitive and unequivocal declaration thathecould 
 make peace with America, and would engage to do it, even 
 though Lord North was the Minifter, provided the negociation 
 was committed to him. If others of his Majeily'sminifters were 
 inclined to think more favourably of Mr. Haftings, as Mr. Fox 
 has ihfsnuated, they certainly lacrifkcd their inclinations to 
 
 preferve
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 preferve unanimity in the national councils, for Mr. Kaftings 
 was preferved by the virtuous efforts of a great majority of his 
 moft refpectable constituents, by men who could have no private 
 views to gratify^ who had never been in habits of intimacy with 
 him, and to moft of them, he was not even perfonally known. 
 Xo their everlafting honor let it be obferved, that they would 
 not confent to give up a man, who had faithfully and fuccefs- 
 fully ferved them two-and-thirty years, becaufe Mr. Burke, 
 in the hour of his greatnefs, had determined it fhould be fo. 
 Of that gentleman's knowledge in India politics, they had 
 fome experience. He obtained a qualification in 1781, and 
 attended upon party queftions for a month or two. We can all 
 of u<s recoiled, how he confounded the Kriftna, the Coleroon, 
 and the Ganges, and what grofs ignorance he betrayed of the 
 common rules of the fervice. The knowledge which he has 
 fince acquired, has enabled him to difcover, that, to fave the 
 Company, we muft difmifs the ableft Britifh fubjedt in India 
 from our fervice. 
 
 Much hath been faid, and great ufe was artfully made, of 
 the firft imperfect accounts which were received of the late 
 revolution at Benares j a compleat narrative of that affair, 
 written by Mr. Haftings himlelf, has lately been received at 
 the India-houfe. I truft, that narrative will be laid before 
 the Proprietors, and to the judgment of his conftituents, and 
 the public at large, Mr. Hattings contentedly, and with pica- 
 lure, fubmits his conduct throughout that critical tranla&ion. 
 
 13,1782. ASIATICUS. 
 
 For
 
 For the MORNING H E R A I, U. 
 
 Mr. EDITOR, 
 
 A WRITER who calls himfclf Aftati&n feems a violent 
 JL \ panegyrift of the prefent Governors of Bengal ; he pro- 
 bably finds it convenient to be fo j if he confined himfelf to 
 his idol, his worfhip fhould be never difturbed by me, but 
 when he reflects on others, who to my certain knowledge are 
 as far fuperior to that fortunate monarch of Bengal as a learned 
 parfon is to an illiterate parifli-clerk : I can't forbear animad- 
 verting on it. 
 
 Mr. Haftings, like many others employed in that great Mo- 
 nopoly ^ was luckily in the way to preferment when fortune 
 prefented two Minifters, who by dint of found and iblid rea- 
 fons have procured him the ftrongeft patronage he could wifh, 
 whereby, and by means of the diftracled {late of this unfor- 
 tunate country, he has ruled the roaft near twelve years in 
 Bengal ; his fortune, fo far from not being overgrown, is known 
 (though perhaps not to this efiayift) to be immenfe ; as to his 
 negociation, refer to his conceffions to the King of Cultac, 
 his appointment of a crack-brain'd European (moorifhly mad) 
 to the command of Bengal reinforcement fent to the Carna- 
 tic after the brave Bailey's defeat, which took ten months to 
 march one thoufand miles ; and to his laft affair with Cheyk 
 Sing at Benares, the moft bungling affair that ever was con- 
 certed. In India, the Black Hole, and Patna maffacres fink 
 to nothing when compared with it, and let Mr. H. and his 
 abettors do their uttnoft to conceal that, and the dreadful fa- 
 mine at Madrafs, occafioned by Salt Agencies, and other fel- 
 fiih unfeeling motives : there are thofe, who difdaining falf- 
 hood and flattery, will give the truth to the public, which 
 i'ure no honeft man, or friend to his country, can take amifs. 
 
 If you think proper to publifh this, you may hear more from 
 
 Augujl 17, 1782. A CONSTANT READER. 
 
 LETTER
 
 For the MORNING H E R A L D. 
 
 LETTER X; 
 
 Mr. EDITOR, 
 
 IN Reply to a Letter figned A Conftant Reader., I beg leave 
 to obfervc, that as the writer has not attempted to comro- 
 vert a fmgle fact contained in my former Letters, a very few- 
 words from me will fuffice. 
 
 I do not know, Mr. Editor, that I have reflected upon a 
 fmgle individual. It is true, indeed, I have been under the 
 neceffity of mentioning the names of Mr. Fox, Mr. Gregory, 
 Mr. Burke, General Smith, Sir Henry Fletcher, and the 
 lately elected Director, Mr. Wilkinfon. Does he mean that 
 thefe Gentlemen, or. any of them, are fuperior characters to 
 Mr. Haftings ? It is well known they endeavoured to the ut- 
 moft of their power to remove him from the Government of 
 Bengal ; but can he tell me, why they did not purfue the only 
 constitutional mode of effecting it. after Commodore John- 
 ftone had candidly allured them, that the refolution which 
 they had forced through a very thin Hotife would be oppofed in 
 Leadenhall-ftreet ? I beg leave to afk this writer what pa- 
 tronage has been procured for Mr. Haftings, or by whom ? 
 Was he not fupported by his conftituents the Indpendent Pro- 
 prietors of Eaft-India ftock ? Could this fupport have been 
 purchafed by money ? The writer fays, Mr. Haftings's for- 
 tune is known to be immenfe, yet adds in the fame line, that 
 he knows nothing of the matter. The fevereft enemies of 
 Mr. Haftings in Parliament, and at the India-houfe, have 
 borne ample teftimony to his integrity and abilities. Here, 
 then, 1 {hall reft this point until ibme proof fhall be pro- 
 duced, that his fortune is enormous. I fhall barely ob- 
 ferve in reply to the facts which are flated, that Colonel 
 Pearfe was fix months, not ten, in marching to Madras j 
 that he would have been there in four, if he had not halted by 
 orders from Sir Eyre Coote; that fo far from Mr, plaiHngs 
 
 caufjng
 
 ifl 
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 caufing a famine at Madras, Lord Macartney, and his Coun- 
 cil, acknowledge in the warmeft terms in their letter to the 
 Court of Directors, that they had received the moft effectual 
 affiftance and fupport from Bengal ; that they had been amply 
 fupplied with men, money, and provifions, by the Supreme 
 Council. The narrative of the late tranfa&ions at Benares is 
 at the India-houfe ; it is, or ought to be open for the infpec- 
 tion of the Proprietors, who will form their own judgment 
 upon it. 
 
 1782. ASIATIC US.
 
 27 35
 
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