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319
W. Pulteney.
Few persons did understand his conduct, and sensitive pride kept
his lips sealed. Nevertheless to all unprejudiced minds his conduct
needed no defence. On that higher plane where truth and justice are
alone considered (for justice is applied truth), Pitt did not swerve from
the principles which he at first laid down. From the beginning of the
Hastings case he had sought to hold the balances even. He left it open
to his colleagues to differ from him. He refused the publication of
papers favourable to Hastings where they compromised the welfare of
the State or the characters of our Indian feudatories. He insisted that
the charges against Hastings should be clearly drawn up, and that he
should be allowed to answer those charges in person. On the topic of
the Rohilla War he did not speak, doubtless because his mind was not
made up. The fact that Parliament had three times re-appointed
Hastings after that very censurable event, did in a technical sense
screen him from prosecution now. But on the Benares affair, no such
plea could be urged. It was a question on which the present Parliament
alone had to decide.
The enormous vogue enjoyed by Macaulay’s Essays compels me
once more to notice his treatment of Pitt respecting the Benares
charge. A man of philosophic temperament once expressed a wish
that he was as sure about anything, as the great Whig historian was
about everything. This assertiveness peeps through the veil of
diffidence which Macaulay donned before delivering the verdict, that
any man with a tenth part of Pitt’s abilities ought to have convicted
Hastings on the Rohilla charge and acquitted him on the Benares
320
charge. In order to establish this assertion Macaulay passed by the
technical plea above named, which must have weighed with Pitt, and
then used his powers of special pleading to whittle down Pitt’s
arguments on the Benares case, so that they seem to turn ultimately
on the trumpery question whether the fine inflicted on the Zamindar
was rather too large or not. But we may ask, firstly, was it a small affair
to exact half a million sterling from a prince who during three years had
been hard pressed, and as a matter of fact had paid up the arrears for
which that fine was imposed? Did it concern the Zamindar alone? Did
it not concern all the subjects from whom that half million must
ultimately be wrung?
Not only did the conduct of Hastings far exceed the limits required
by justice; it was also bound up with a question on which the stability of
our Indian Empire has ever rested. So long as the feudatories of the
British Raj feel confidence in his sense of justice, India is safe.
Whenever they have cause to believe that injustice and oppression are
the characteristics of his rule, the foundations of the Indian Empire are
shaken to their base. Not without reason did Fox declare that the
decision on the Benares affair was vital to the preservation of our
ascendancy in Bengal. The statesmanlike eye of Pitt, we may be sure,
discerned the same truth. Besides, there was an additional reason why
he should now more than ever resolve to engrave the names of Justice
and Mercy on the newly formed arch of the Indian Government. As has
been shown, the recent India Bill placed greatly increased powers in
the hands of the Governor-General. Burke and Fox had taunted Pitt
with setting up a despotism from which endless suffering must flow.
The charge was hollow; but, adorned as it was by splendid rhetoric, it
created a deep impression. Was it not well, then, to show by a
concrete example that any Viceroy who violated the principles of
justice would meet with condign punishment at Westminster? A
statesman has to consider, not merely the principles of justice, as
applied to an individual; he must also think of the results of his actions
on the millions whom they will affect; and we may reasonably infer that
among the motives which led Pitt to break with many of his friends not
the least was a heartfelt desire to safeguard the relations of the
feudatories to the Suzerain Power, and to protect the myriads of
Hindoos who had no protection save in the dimly known court of
appeal at Westminster.
On the charge respecting the spoliation of the Begums of Oude,
Pitt also cast his vote against Hastings; and again a majority followed
him. It is questionable whether even the sensationally brilliant oration
of Sheridan on this affecting topic moved the House so much as the
321
silent but scornful disapproval expressed in Pitt’s vote. The
impeachment was thenceforth inevitable.
With the forensic pageant that ensued we are not here concerned.
Thenceforth the case belonged strictly to the legal domain. Its duration
throughout the years 1788–95 was certainly discreditable to British
law. Hastings out of his never affluent fortunes spent some £71,000 in
322
the vindication of his actions, and at last secured an acquittal. But
though men in Europe forgot the case amidst the potent distractions of
the French Revolution, the effect of it was not lost upon the Orient. The
comparative calm which settled benignly on India for twelve years may
be attributed largely to a renewal of confidence in the sense of justice
of our people. After the events of the year 1786 princes and peasants
alike felt assured that the most transcendent services, if smirched with
acts of injustice, would never screen a Viceroy from the censure of the
British Parliament.
CHAPTER XI
THE IRISH PROBLEM
(1785)
[Secret.]
340
Sunday, February 20, 1785.
... I am able to tell you confidentially that we shall certainly
suspend the final approbation of the commercial system, and
declare the impossibility of completing it till more satisfaction and
explicit provision is made in Ireland respecting the object of
contribution.
Yours ever,
W. Pitt.