1795. BOOK VI. shuffled in, under the same garb, is spoken of as bad also. And then comes the doctrine, delightful to the lawyer, that to speak with censure of the dignitaries of the law, on any occasion, or in any shape, is the height of criminality; and that "to reflect," as they call it, upon the Judges, that is, to make just remarks upon ill behaviour," ought never to pass unpunished." It is very natural for Judges to preach punishment for all "reflection" upon Judges. But what is the consequence with respect to the unhappy community? To ensure to the Judges a power of gratifying and aggrandizing themselves at their expense: the power, in short, of making and keeping the law, an instrument, to any extent which they please, not of justice, but oppression. Hear the plea of the lawyer, in behalf of his mischievous claim. To make known, says he, the offences of great men of the law would "diminish respect for, and obedience to the laws." That is to say: When laws and the administration of them are made good, they will not be respected: When they are bad, if you only say nothing about their badness, and allow the lawyers to praise the badness as if it were goodness, you shall then have perfect respect and obedience. Who but those who have rendered up their understandings to the fetters of the deceivers, can believe this wretched misrepresentation of the human mind? It requires pains and trouble, cunningly and perseveringly applied, to make people in love with that which hurts them; leave them only to the operation of nature, and that which does them good, will of itself engage their affections. If half the pains were taken to make the people see the excellence of good laws, that have been always taken to prevent them from seeing the wickedness of bad laws, an obedience such as the world has never yet beheld, and never can behold, till that righteous course is adopted, would be the consequence, ensured, with the certainty of the laws of nature.* * What Mr. Burke said upon the subject of this attack deserves attention; though his strictures fall greatly short of the mark, because his mind was deluded by the fallacy-of respect for bad Judges, and bad laws. On the day after the speech of Lord Thurlow was delivered in the House of Lords, he thus addressed the House of Commons: "The license of the present times makes it very difficult to talk upon certain subjects in which Parliamentary Order is involved. It is difficult to speak of them with regularity, or to be silent with dignity or wisdom. All our proceedings have been constantly published, according to the discretion and ability of individuals, with impunity, almost ever since I came into Parliament. By prescription people had obtained something like a right to this abuse. I do not justify it. The abuse is now grown so inveterate, that to punish it without a previous notice would have an appearance of hardship, if not injustice. These publications are frequently erroneous as well as irregular, but not always so: what they give as Reports and Resolutions of this House, have sometimes been fairly given. 1795. "It has not been uncommon to attack the proceedings of the House itself, under colour of at- CHAP. II. tacking these irregular publications; and the House, notwithstanding this colourable plea, has, in some instances, proceeded to punish the persons who have thus insulted it. When a complaint is made of a piratical edition of a work, the author admits that it is his work that is thus piratically published; and whoever attacks the work itself in these unauthorised publications, does not attack it less than if he had attacked it in an edition authorised by the writer. "I understand, that in a place which I greatly respect, and by a person for whom I have likewise great respect, a pamphlet published by a Mr. Debrett has been very heavily censured. That pamphlet, I hear (for I have not read it) purports to be a Report made by one of your committees to this House. It has been censured (as I am told) by the person and in the place I have mentioned, in very harsh and very unqualified terms. It has been said, and so far very truly, that at all times, and particularly at this time, it is necessary for the preservation of order and the execution of the law, that the characters and reputation of the Judges of the Courts in Westminster Hall should be kept in the highest degree of respect and reverence; and that in this pamphlet, described by the name of a Libel, the characters and conduct of those Judges upon a late occasion had been aspersed, as arising from ignorance or corruption. "I think it impossible, combining all the circumstances, not to suppose that this Speech does reflect upon a Report which, by an order of the committee on which I served, I had the honour of presenting to this House. For any thing improper in that Report I am responsible, as well as the other members of the committee, to this House, and to this House only. The matters contained in it, and the observations upon them, are submitted to the wisdom of the House, that it may act upon both in the time and manner that to your judgment may seem most expedient, or that you may not act upon them at all, if you should think it most useful to the public good. Your committee has obeyed your orders; it has done its duty in making that Report. I am of opinion with the eminent person by whom that Report is censured, that it is necessary, at this time very particularly, to preserve the authority of the Judges. This, however, does not depend upon us, but upon themselves. It is necessary to preserve the dignity and respect of all the constitutional authorities. This, too, depends upon ourselves. It is necessary to preserve the respect due to the House of Lords: it is full as necessary to preserve the respect due to the House of Commons; upon which (whatever may be thought of us by some persons) the weight and force of all other authorities within this kingdom essentially depend. If the power of the House of Commons is degraded or enervated, no other can stand. We must be true to ourselves; we ought to animadvert upon any of our members who abuse the trust we place in them: we must support those who, without regard to consequences, perform their duty. "For your committee of managers, and for myself, I must say, that the Report was deliberately made, and does not, as I conceive, contain any very material error, or any undue or indecent reflection upon any person. It does not accuse the Judges of ignorance or corruption. Whatever it says, it does not say calumniously. This kind of language belongs to persons whose eloquence entitles them to a free use of epithets. The Report states, that the Judges had given their opinions secretly, contrary to the almost uninterrupted tenor of Parliamentary usage on such occasions. It states, that the opinions were given, not upon the Law, but upon the Case. It states, that the mode of giving the opinions were unprecedented, and contrary to the privileges of the House of Commons. It states, that the committee did not know upon what rules and principles the Judges had decided upon those cases, as they neither heard them, nor are they entered upon the 1795. Book VI. Journals. It is very true, that we were and are extremely dissatisfied with those opinions, and thé consequent determinations of the Lords; and we do not think such a mode of proceeding at all justified by the most numerous and the best precedents. None of these sentiments are the committee, as I conceive (and I full as little as any of them) disposed to retract or to soften in the smallest degree. "The Report speaks for itself. Whenever an occasion shall be regularly given to maintain every thing of substance in that Paper, I shall be ready to meet the proudest name for ability, learning, or rank, that this kingdom contains, upon that subject. Do I say this from any confidence in myself? Far from it! It is from my confidence in our cause, and in the ability, the learning, and the constitutional principles, which this House contains within itself, and which, I hope, it will ever contain; and in the assistance which it will not fail to afford to those who, with good intention, do their best to maintain the essential Privileges of the House, the ancient Law of Parliament, and the public Justice of the Kingdom." Hist. of Trial, part vii. p. 117, 118. No reply or observation was made on the subject by any other member. CHAP. III. Arrangement about troops and money with the Nabob of Oude-The Guntoor Circar obtained from the Nizam, and a new arrangement made with that Prince-Aspect which that arrangement bore to Tippoo Saib-Dispute of Tippoo with the Rajah of Travancore-Tippoo attacks the lines of Travancore-The English prepare for war-Form an alliance with the Nizam, and with the Mahrattas-Plan of the campaign-General Meadows takes possession of Coimbetore, and establishes a chain of depots to the bottom of the Gujelhutty Pass-Tippoo descends by the Gujelhutty PassAnd compels the English General to return for the Defence of CarnaticEnd of the campaign, and arrival of Lord Cornwallis at Madras-Operations in Malabar-A new arrangement with Mahomed Ali, respecting the revenues of Carnatic. LORD CORNWALLIS took in his hand the reins of the Indian government in CHAP. III. the month of September, 1786. And was guided by a pretty extensive code of 1786. instructions, carried out from the joint manufacture of the Board of Control and the Court of Directors. tion of Lord measures of transaction, of internal Of the two grand divisions into which the measures of this Governor-General Administra are distinguished; those which regarded the interior management of the empire, Cornwallis, and those which regarded its external relations; the one constitutes a subject dis- divided into tinct from the other; and we shall consult utility, by reserving the attempts which international he made to improve the state of the government, till after the narrative is presented and measures of the transactions which took place between him and the neighbouring powers. reform. The state of the connection with the Nabob of Oude was the object which The Nabob of Oude prays first solicited the attention of Lord Cornwallis. The preceding Governor-Ge- that his pecuniary burthen neral and Council had pledged themselves to Mr. Hastings for the support of should not be that arrangement which was one of the last measures of his administration. kept, as it always had But no sooner had Lord Cornwallis arrived in India, than the Nabob proposed been, higher to come even in person to Calcutta, and pressed in the most earnest manner for terms of the treaty last leave to send Hyder Beg Khan his minister. The object was, to represent as concluded with Hastings. insupportable the weight of the burthen which was still imposed upon his country : than the Book VI. and to entreat that the temporary brigade, now called the Futty Gur brigade, should, agreeably to the contract which Mr. Hastings had formed, but which had never been observed, now be withdrawn. 1787. Gov. Gen. thinks one brigade of Company's troops insuf ficient. His tribute established at fifty lacs. The Guntoor circar de manded from the Nizam. To Lord Cornwallis, it appeared, however, by no means safe, to entrust the defence of the Nabob's dominions to the stipulated amount of the Company's troops, a single brigade at Cawnpore. In the minute which he recorded upon this occasion, he represented the discipline of the Nabob's own troops as too imperfect to be depended upon, even for the obedience of his subjects; who were retained in submission solely by their dread of the Company's arms: He described the character of the Nabob as a pure compound of negligence and profusion: And though, at that time, Oude was threatened with no particular danger; and the expense attending the continuance of the brigade at Futty Ghur exceeded the sum which he was entitled to exact of the Nabob; he adhered to the resolution that the troops should not be removed. In the pecuniary burthen, however, he admitted some alteration. It appeared, that during the nine preceding years, the Nabob had paid to the Company, under different titles, at the rate of eighty four lacs of rupees per annum ; though by the treaty of 1775, he had bound himself to the annual payment of only 31,21,000, and by the treaty of 1781, to that of 34,20,000 rupees. It was agreed that fifty lacs should be the annual payment of the Nabob; and that this should embrace every possible claim. The Governor-General declared that this was sufficient to indemnify the Company for all the expense which it was necessary for them to incur in consequence of their connection with the Vizir. In other words, he declared that, for the nine preceding years, unjustifiable extortion, to the amount of thirty four lacs per annum, had been practised on that dependant prince. The relation now established between the Nabob of Oude and the Honourable Company was described by the Governor-General in the following words: "We undertake the defence of his country: In return, he agrees to defray the real expenses incurred by an engagement of so much value to himself: and the internal administration of his affairs is left to his exclusive management." * Among the instructions with which Lord Cornwallis was furnished for his government in India, he carried out with him explicit orders to demand from the Nizam the surrender of the circar of Guntoor. Bazalut Jung had died in * See Papers relating to the East Indies, printed by order of the House of Commons in 1806, No. 2, p. 1-14. |