saw the inhuman and immoral conduct Of Hastings as an affront to the moral prestige of the British nation and made him stand trial at the bar of the House of Lords for long seven years, yet strictly from the national and imperial interests of Britain, there was a feeling that Hastings had been betrayed. The frontier policy had no direction. In 1782 Lord Malville Dundas moved a resolution in the Parliament for the recall of Warren Hastings, Sir Elijah Impey, Lawrence Sullivan etc. Meanwhile, Hastings appealed to the British government for financial assistance and was eventually compensated by the East India Company with a loan of £50,000 and a pension of £4,000 a year. Prosecutors seeking to impeach Donald Trump for a historic second time on Tuesday invoked the trial of Warren Hastings, the first British Governor-General of … “It was the impeachment of Warren Hastings, the former governor-general of the British colony of Bengal, and a corrupt guy. Introduction. In defining the scope of impeachment, they had in mind the alleged crimes of Warren Hastings. [23], A further blow for the prosecution came with the evidence of William Larkins the former Accountant General of Bengal. While the Framers were aware of the British Abstract. ", Brian Smith. [9] During the voyage he wrote a defence of his conduct The State of Bengal and presented it to Henry Dundas. We have to examine the policy and achievements of Warren Hastings from two different points of view. Hastings' trial began on 13 February 1788 and took place in Westminster Hall with members of the House of Commons seated to his right and the Lords to his left and a large audience of spectators, including royalty, in the boxes and public galleries. Indian History, Governor-Generals, Warren Hastings. Not that all his work was success­ful or faultless but his failures in revenue matters were the failures of pioneers and partly due to inexperienced, corrupt officers of the Company. But, interest started to drop as figures once keyed up about Hastings retreated. [7] He suggested that recent wars in India had been ruinous and unnecessary. Hastings developed a reputation as an "Indian" who sought to use traditional Indian methods of governance to run British India rather than the policy of importing European-style law, government and culture favoured by many of his colleagues and representatives of other colonial powers in India. We have created a browser extension. By Thomas Babington Macaulay. His settings up Sadr Diwani Adalat in Calcutta and Sadr Nizamat Adalat for hearing appeals from the lower Courts were certainly measures consequential upon the reforms of the judicial system. Read this article to learn about the impeachment and estimate of Warren Hastings. [29] [20] As the trial progressed, public attitudes about Hastings also began to shift. Hyder was unable to secure victory and the war ended in a stalemate. TOS4. Now Hastings is back as a historical precedent for the impeachment of former officials. "Justice, War, and the Imperium: India and Britain in Edmund Burke's Prosecutorial Speeches in the Impeachment Trial of Warren Hastings. The lower house of Parliament, the House of Commons, impeached Warren Hastings, who had retired as governor-general of British India and was back in England, for corruption and mismanagement. You could also do it yourself at any point in time. In the mean-time a series of letters under the caption Let­ters of Junius appeared in London, which contained scathing criticism of Warren Hastings’ administration in India. Various other figures came forwards as character witnesses to support Hastings. It was due to his patronage that the Calcutta Madrasa and the Royal Asiatic Society had been founded. "Edmund Burke, the Warren Hastings trial, and the moral dimension of corruption. Hastings had initially been overwhelmingly portrayed as guilty in the popular press, but doubts were increasingly raised. Before sharing your knowledge on this site, please read the following pages: 1. The impeachment occurred during the Convention debates and was noted expressly by the delegates without expressing disapproval of the timing. In 1780 Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore, went to war with the company after British forces captured the French-controlled port of Mahé. At the Trial of Warren Hastings" Edmund Burke (1729–97), archive.org: "The speeches of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke on the impeachment of Warren Hastings : to which is added a selection of Burke's epistolary correspondence" (1890 ed. [26] Unlike many other Indian officials he had not amassed a large fortune while in India and he had to fund his legal defence, which had cost an estimated £71,000, out of his own funds. [5] The following year the new government of William Pitt passed an India Act of 1784 which established a Board of Control and which finally stabilised the governance of India. Previously, I wrote about Hastings in addressing the bribery theories being voiced by Democratic leaders and legal experts in the first Trump impeachment. Hastings soon ran into opposition on the Council. Our mission is to provide an online platform to help students to discuss anything and everything about history. It has been described as "probably the British Isles' most famous, certainly the longest, political trial". The Company had already gone through scandals in the 1760s and 1770s and the wealthy nabobs who returned to Britain from India were widely unpopular. Kalt and other proponents of late impeachment point out that the delegates referenced the ongoing English impeachment trial of Warren Hastings (a late impeachment… The Court of Direc­tors in the circumstances offered to grant him an allowance which could not be done due to the opposition of Pitt and Dundas. September 25, 2019 Justice had become a by­word. It will enhance any encyclopedic page you visit with the magic of the WIKI 2 technology. accords with the British impeachment of Warren Hastings two years after his resignation as the governor-general of Bengal. The Impeachment of Warren Hastings. The great famine of 1770 had left the ryots who survived the scourge extremely impoverished. s Speech On The Impeachment of Warren Hastings (15/2/1788) From Impeachment Of Hastings part of Prose Of Edmund Burke edited by Sir Philp Magnus (1948). [16] On 21 May 1787 Hastings was arrested by the Serjeant-at-Arms and taken to the House of Lords to hear the charges against him.[17]. Other major events dom­i­nated the news par­tic­u­larly once the French Rev­o­lu­tion began in 1789. Francis developed a strong dislike of Hastings and was convinced that the Governor General's policies were self-serving and destructive. Hastings held no further public office, but was regarded as an expert on Indian matters and was asked to give evidence to parliament on the subject in 1812. Warren Hastings had to effect change in the civil jus­tice as it was a part of the responsibilities of the Diwani. He is credited along with Robert Clive for laying the foundation of the British Empire in India. Warren Hastings FRS (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818), an English statesman, was the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thereby the first de facto Governor-General of Bengal from 1772 to 1785. The attacks on Hastings were largely made by opposition Whigs hoping to embarrass the government of William Pitt. There has been particular focus on the role played by Pitt—particularly his sudden withdrawal of outright support for Hastings in 1786 which galvanised the opposition into pursuing the case. The next three years (1785-88) papers for impeaching Hastings were made ready at the instance of Prime Minister Pitt and Dundas and from February 13, 1788 till April 23, 1795, the impeachment proceedings went on before the bar of the House of Lords, the prosecutors being the House of Commons. Against this backdrop the criticisms circulated by Francis and others provoked a general consensus that the 1773 India Act hadn't been sufficient to rein in the alleged excesses. In total there were nineteen members of the Impeachment Committee. He also reformed the criminal justice which was strictly speaking not with­in the purview of the Company’s authority, criminal jurisdiction having been under the Nawab. Truly speaking, Warren Hastings was the real founder of the British Empire in India. In the wake of this an anti-Hastings motion was passed in the Commons 119–79. Pitt broadly defended Hastings, but declared his punishment of the Rajah had been excessive. [10] Hastings anticipated he would face attacks in Parliament and the press but expected them to be short-lived and to fall away once he was there in person to defend himself. But he fought against I hostile majority in his own Council, safeguarded the Company’s interests in Bengal, Madras and Bombay Presidencies and met the challenges of the Marathas and the Mysoreans with success. ". In spite of the early ex­cite­ment about the trial pub­lic in­ter­est in it began to wane as it dragged on over months and years. A third of the Lords who had attended the trial's opening had since died[20] and only twenty-nine of the others had sat through enough of the evidence to be permitted to pronounce judgement. [12] Hastings even hoped to be awarded an Irish peerage. It soon became clear that he was heading towards an impeachment. His image and reputation were tarnished in England. harv error: no target: CITEREFJames_L._Newell2006 (, harv error: no target: CITEREFMary_Wickwire1980 (, "Justice, War, and the Imperium: India and Britain in Edmund Burke's Prosecutorial Speeches in the Impeachment Trial of Warren Hastings", The World’s Famous Orations. Its decline coincided with the rise of another, more effective process by which high officials could be held accountable, writes Eliga Gould. [22] When asked if he had "found any just cause to impeach the character of Mr Hastings?" He made attempts to expand the Company’s trade into Nepal through Tibet by finding markets for the increased production of the textile industry in England, due to the Industrial revolution. Hastings was personally attacked by Charles James Fox during the presentation of his India Bill. He had warned the Lords that it would be "to the perpetual infamy" of the House if they voted to acquit and remained convinced of Hastings' guilt until his death in 1797.[28]. Edmund Burke, the English Demosthenes, charged Hastings at the bar of the House of Lords on the tyranny and misdemeanour and also in the name of humanity, the English nation and the Indians and called him an enemy of humanity. With Company’s servants lacking the knowledge of intricate revenue system of Bengal, Hastings had to take certain experimen­tal measures like quinquennial revenue settlement with the highest bidders, appointment of a Board of revenue and substitution of for­mer supervisors by Collectors. Back in England, there was intense interest in the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings. "III. 1 It also illustrated — in terms that, for Burke, were nothing less than tragic — the aesthetic difficulties inherent in constructing a sentimental depiction of India. [27] This overwhelming verdict had been expected for some time and caused little surprise. Pitt and other government ministers such as Dundas defended Hastings and suggested that he had saved the British Empire in Asia. [21], A major lift for the defence came with the testimony on 9 April 1794 of Lord Cornwallis who had recently returned from India, where he succeeded Hastings as Governor General. It had also brought about a change in the treatment of the Indians by the British Officers and made them recognise the need for dignity in dealing with the Indians. Disclaimer Copyright, History Discussion - Discuss Anything About History, Role of Warren Hastings as the Governor of Bengal, Top 5 Wars during the Governance of Hastings, Complaints to the Council for High-Handedness of Hastings, Economic Impact of Early British Rule on Indian Trade, Forts in India: 5 Magnificent Ancient Forts in India, Mosques in India: 15 Ancient Mosques in India. True, Hastings had extorted money from Raja Chait Singh, Begums of Oudh, took bribes from Muni Begum, got Nanda Kumar hanged with the help of Sir Elijah Impey, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court which tainted his character as also of the British nation. Other major events dominated the news particularly once the French Revolution began in 1789. [15], Encouraged by Pitt's failure to adequately support Hastings, his opponents pressed on with their campaign. Burke, who had invested a large amount of time and energy into the prosecution, was frustrated by the ultimate failure of the impeachment. Sheridan now complained he was "heartily tired of the Hastings trial" despite being one of its instigators. In a cartoon James Gillray portrayed Hastings as the "Saviour of India" being assaulted by bandits resembling Burke and Fox. But the impeachment of Warren Hastings has more to teach us: Even when the defendant’s acquittal is a foregone conclusions, impeachment can tar misconduct and serve as a … Lastly, I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank. Content Guidelines 2. [6] When Pitt introduced his Bill he failed to mention Hastings at all, seen as expressing a lack of confidence, and made wide-ranging criticisms of the Company. The old structure of rule had come under strain as the Company's holdings had expanded in recent decades from isolated trading posts to large swathes of territory and population.[3]. [18] The proceedings began with a lengthy address by Edmund Burke, who took four days to cover all the charges against Hastings. [2], Born in 1732, Warren Hastings spent much of his adult life in India after first travelling out as a clerk of the East India Company in 1750. Donald Trump’s impeachment trial started in the US Senate on Tuesday (January 21). Roads and highways were infested with marauders and robbers. Warren Hastings, who was the former British governor general of Bengal, was undergoing his impeachment even as the Framers met in Philadelphia. Em­peror Shah Alam was then a puppet in the hands of the Marathas, the latter were about to pounce upon the Company’s territories. Yet it will be unfair not to praise what he had done to bring discipline in the Company’s administration, to lay down the founda­tion of the Indian judicial system, to expand the trade and com­merce, and to save the Company’s interests at a time when these were at the verge of ruin. His principal enemy was the Irish-born politician Philip Francis. Taking advantage of Britain's involvement in the American War of Independence and the support of French forces Hyder went on the offensive and enjoyed success during the opening stages of the war, inflicting a serious defeat at the Battle of Pollilur and at one point threatening Madras itself with capture. I use WIKI 2 every day and almost forgot how the original Wikipedia looks like. There is a sacred veil to be drawn over the beginning of all governments. Hastings was to be prosecuted in the House of Lords by an Impeachment Committee. The Fox–North Coalition fell from power after it attempted to bring in a radical East India Bill in 1783. George Mason referred to Hastings … Hastings' successors as Governor General, beginning with Lord Cornwallis, were granted the much wider powers that Hastings had sought while in Calcutta. But for a dispassionate consideration of Has­tings’ policy and work, it is imperative that we remember the internal disorder in the Company’s administration, financial straits of the Company as well as the undefined hence confused nature of the frontier policy of the Company when he had come as the Governor of Bengal.